Monday Night Raw 6-20-94 Review

Monday, June 20th, 1994
Westchester County Civic Center
White Plains, New York

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Apparently tonight marks the first time that Raw has a Spanish simulcast. Gorilla Monsoon and Randy Savage are the announce team here tonight. 

Diesel vs. Mark Thomas

Diesel is hot off not winning the WWF Championship due to the Jim Neidhart involvement. You would think that this would be a 60 second squash, but instead we are getting a plotting match. Thomas tries to mount some offense, but eats a boot to the face instead. Diesel signals for the Jackknife and that's the end. In a funny moment, Diesel looks for a high five, but then tries to no sell it when Michaels doesn't see it.

Match Rating: 1/4*

Todd Pettengill is here for a King Of The Ring Report. We get lots of still photos and Todd proclaiming that the tag match was one of the greatest of all time. 

1-2-3 Kid vs. Nikolai Volkoff

So apparently the winner of this match will face Bret Hart on Raw on 7/11. I'm not really sure what either guy did to deserve the opportunity, but I know I'm looking forward to what happens next. Savage hypes up how great the match between Owen Hart and Kid was. Meanwhile, Volkoff is mostly dominating Kid here. Volkoff hits a weird looking backbreaker twice and pulls him up during the pinfall attempt. Kid sells a knee injury, but then gets a roll up out of nowhere and steals the victory. Volkoff is shocked and attacks Kid from behind. Out comes Virgil (?) to make the save. He goes after DiBiase next and Volkoff attacks him too. Now Luger is out and that clears the ring. This was all just so random. 

Match Rating: 1/2*

Next week we are getting Bam Bam Bigelow/Mabel. 

Yokozuna vs. Nick Barbarry

Hot off his loss last night in one of the greatest tag team matches ever according to the Toddster, here is Yokozuna, back to not being a tag team wrestler. Yoko hits the big leg drop, gets the big reaction from the crowd and calls it a night. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

Typhoon vs. Black Phantom

Gorilla comments on how huge Typhoon is and calls him one half of the Natural Disasters. Typhoon and Yokozuna meet in the aisle and Typhoon gets a right hand in on him. Gorilla continues to sell that Typhoon is the biggest he has ever seen him. Ottman is pretty fresh off his failed run as the Shockmaster over in WCW, but this won't last long either. Typhoon hits a splash in the corner and then the big splash for the victory. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

Jerry Lawler is out wearing shades for another King's Court. His guest is Duke Droese because 4 weeks ago he dumped garbage on him on Superstars. Lawler says that since he stinks so much, he left a microphone outside the ring for Duke. Lawler then references Ace Ventura to make fun of Duke. He then makes fun of Helen Hart for good measure. Duke walks out, so Lawler attacks him from behind and hits him in the head with the garbage can. 

Heavenly Bodies vs. Jim Powers & Russ Greenberg

Cornette joins the announce table to let everyone know that the Bodies are going to be the next WWF Tag Team Champions. Powers gets in some offense on Del Ray and then on Prichard. He seems like a pretty impressive young up and comer. Greenberg gets hit with a kick by Del Ray and then a belly-to-belly suplex. They hit their variation of a double DDT and a moonsault from Del Ray for the victory. ot quite as good as the usual Bodies squash, but they are always fun. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

Gorilla Monsoon then apologizes for Lawler using the garbage can for something other than what it was intended for. He then says that it will never, ever happen again on Raw. This leads to a SummerSlam commercial coming up August 29th in Chicago. They go to an interview with DiBiase backstage and says that he has his eye on Lex Luger. 

Well, if you hate 1994 WWF wrestling, you probably won't like this episode much. However, in some weird way I didn't mind it. It wasn't very good in terms of matches, but the 45 minute episodes are just so easy to digest that it rarely feels like a chore. I'm not giving it any sort of recommendation, but I also have sat through much worse.

Overall Rating: 43%

Off The Grid, Volume 17: Starrcade 1992 Review

Monday, December 28, 1992
The Omni
Atlanta, Georgia

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Off The Grid, Volume 17:

Jim Ross and Jesse Ventura are here to hype up the show. We go to Eric Bischoff for a Special Report and he lets us know that Rick Rude is injured. Ron Simmons will instead wrestle Steve Williams. 

Tony Schiavone is now in the ring with Bill Watts and Hank Aaron. They bring out Sting and present him with the ring for Sting winning BattleBowl last year. 

We now go to Larry Zbysczko and Missy Hyatt to draw the Lethal Lottery again. 

Lethal Lottery Tag Team Match
Van Hammer & Dan Spivey vs. Cactus Jack & Johnny B. Badd

I'll give them credit on this one, this is about as random of a group of wrestlers here. Hammer starts off hot, taking care of both Jack and Badd. Badd comes back with some arm drags and a hurricanrana for a 2 count. He tags in Jack and he misses an elbow drop, so in comes Spivey. Spivey nails Jack with a clothesline. Spivey legit looks unhinged here. Spivey hits Badd with a knee to the back when he's running the ropes and Hammer doesn't like it. Badd and Spivey collide, but Badd is able to tag Jack. He comes in and hits a modified bulldog and an elbow drop for a 2 count. Spivey throws Jack out of the ring, but Jack is back in and hits a clothesline. Badd is knocked out, so Jack can't get a tag. Hammer hits a flying shoulder block and Badd accidentally hits Jack with an elbow drop. Badd and Jack aren't happy and Hammer is able to pick up the win. This one was a little disjointed and just felt like a bunch of moves. 

Match Rating: *1/2

Lethal Lottery Tag Team Match
Dustin Rhodes & Big Van Vader vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Barbarian

Vader and Barbarian give us some hard hitting big man stuff to start. Barbarian body slams Vader. Vader returns the favor after a couple of headbutts. Rhodes gets tagged in and hits a clothesline while Vader held Barbarian up. Barbarian comes right back with a back suplex and then Rhodes hits one of his own. Sasaki is tagged in and the pace picks up. Sasaki goes off the second rope and Rhodes counters with a dropkick. Vader is tagged in and he nails him off the second rope. Sasaki eats a big boot to the face, but he blocks Vader's suplex and hits one of his own. Both men make tags and Rhodes hits a knee lift and a dropkick. Barbarian accidentally runs into Sasaki, Rhodes rolls him up and gets the victory. After the match, Vader nails Rhodes with a clothesline. This was pretty similar to the first, where it felt like they were a little off overall. 

Match Rating: **

Lethal Lottery Tag Team Match
Barry Windham & Great Muta vs. 2 Cold Scorpio & Brian Pillman

All four men get a little bit to show off their skills. Windham and Pillman are tagging later tonight for the tag titles, but even they go at it for a little bit. Muta hits a big kick on Pillman, but Pillman is able to trip him up into the second turnbuckle. Scorpio is in there and hits a leaping clothesline. Scorpio goes for a splash, but Muta gets the knees up. In comes Windham and he nails Scorpio with a clothesline. Windham and Muta hit a double dropkick . Scorpio hits a nice leg drop for a 2 count. He then hits a slingshot somersault dive that looks like that ma have hurt Muta. Windham comes in and knocks out Scorpio. Muta hits a moonsault for the victory, even though it looked like maybe Pillman broke up the pin attempt. Watching these old WCW shows just makes you realize just how valuable Pat Patterson was. 

Match Rating: **1/2

Lethal Lottery Tag Team Match
Steve Williams & Sting vs. Erik Watts & Jushin Liger

One of these men is not like the others. Liger tries to hit one of his flashy moves, but Williams just nails him with a clothesline. In comes Sting and he throws him stomach first into the top turnbuckle. Liger hits a sunset flip for a 2 count. Sting and Williams dominate Liger until he's able to hit a tag to Watts, who the crowd seems to hate. Watts whiffs on a dropkick and then hits another. Watts goes for the STF, but Williams has the bottom rope. Williams dumps Watts through the ropes. When he's back in the ring, he hits a Stun Gun and gets the victory. This was the longest match of the four, but wasn't any more notable. 

Match Rating: **1/4

NWA World Championship Match
Great Muta vs. Masahiro Chono

We get some slowwwww wrestling to start things off. What a terrible start to a wrestling match. Chono eventually goes up to the top rope, but Muta grabs him and hits a superplex. The 15 people in the crowd who are into this cheered. Muta hits the handspring elbow in the corner. He goes up for a moonsault, but Chono moves and Muta lands on his feet, but sells the knee injury. Chono locks in the STF and after a good effort, Muta submits. This match was torture. 

Match Rating: 1/2*

JR and Ventura go over the Rick Rude situation and out comes Rude. He cuts a good promo about it being a conspiracy and that it isn't going to work. I liked the fire from Rude here.

WCW Championship Match
Steve Williams vs. Ron Simmons

We get lots of stalling to start, followed by some cheesy football stuff. Simmons goes up to the top and you'll never guess it, but he misses. Williams drags him by the leg and slams it on the apron. Apparently these two watched the last match and said "Hold my beer". After a seemingly endless heat sequence, Simmons makes his comeback with a spinebuster. He takes out the knees of Williams, but then they spill outside the ring and brawl. They keep brawling and the bell rings. They announce a double countout. The brawl continues and somehow they reverse the decision and say that Williams is disqualified. Are you kidding me? We get a garbage match and then an almost worse finish? Absolutely terrible. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

NWA & WCW Tag Team Championship Match
Shane Douglas & Ricky Steamboat vs. Brian Pillman & Barry Windham

Now we're talking. Douglas and Steamboat use some double teaming to gain an early advantage on Windham. The action spills outside and Windham gets body slammed on both the particle board on the floor and the elevated entrance ramp. Windham is finally able to make a tag to Pillman and he goes to work on Douglas. Douglas is able to hit a dropkick on Pillman and he goes flying into the guardrail on the outside. Windham stalls Douglas a little and Pillman dropkicks Douglas off the top rope and to the floor. I can't believe that in 1992, WCW thought it was a good idea to just have pieces of wood on the floor. The action again goes outside and Steamboat hits Windham in the back with a chair. Douglas is still unable to make a tag and continues to take a beating. Douglas hits a suplex on Windham and finally makes the hot tag to Steamboat. The action is picking up quite nicely now after a little bit of an uninspired first half. The match breaks down and all four men are in the ring. Steamboat clotheslines Windham over the top rope onto the ramp. Douglas hits a belly-to-belly suplex and Steamboat holds Windham back to pick up the victory. I remember loving this match, but I would say I merely liked it this time around. Good match though.

Match Rating: ***1/2

King Of Cable Tournament Final
Vader vs. Sting

The King Of Cable Tournament is the most WCW thing I can think of. Vader manhandles Sting early on. Sting battles back quickly though and clotheslines him out of the ring. These two have such great chemistry together. Back in the ring, Sting hits an arm drag, but Vader gives him a boot to the face. Sting comes back with a DDT and the crowd is loving it. Sting hits a superplex/DDT off the second rope. Sting puts Vader into the Scorpion Death Lock, but Vader grabs the bottom rope. Outside the ring, Sting goes for a splash, but Vader moves and Sting hits the rails. Vader dominates the next few minutes before missing a splash off of Sting's sunset flip attempt. Sting is able to hit a back suplex, but Vader is quick to recover. Vader may have my favorite punches in wrestling. Vader goes for a superplex, but Sting knocks him off, but is unable to follow up. Sting is now telling Vader to bring it and Vader continues to, throwing clubbing blow after clubbing blow. They are telling the story of Vader fatiguing, as Sting is able to withstand the beating. Sting fights back and knocks the big man down. Sting goes up top and hits a splash. Vader is able to come back and hit a splash off the second rope. He goes off the top rope, but Sting catches him and hits a powerslam to pick up the victory. This was an excellent match with a great pace for being a heavyweight match. It may have been for something stupid, but they made it seem important. 

Match Rating: ****1/4

After the match, Ventura presents the trophy to Sting. Speaking of pointless things, Schiavone and Zbyszko hype up the BattleBowl ring. They then go to a pre-taped interview with Paul Hornung and he tries to tell me that this stupid ring means something. 

BattleBowl

Vader attacks Sting on his way down to the ring before the match starts. With only 8 men in the match, we skip the chaotic beginning of a normal battle royal and skip right to the meaningless middle portion of the match. Van Hammer is the first one to be eliminated, which was the obvious choice here. Sting then hits a back body drop on Spivey over the ropes and he's gone. Vader charges at Sting and clotheslines both Sting and himself over the top rope to eliminate both men. We are down to Windham, Rhodes, Muta and Williams. Windham and Rhodes are battling by the ropes. Williams charges at them and Windham is able to dump both of them. The crowd is really into Muta. Windham throws Muta over, but he hangs on and skins the cat. Muta hits two dropkicks and sends Windham over the top for a big pop. That was an extremely uneventful match that just didn't feel like a big deal. WCW continues to try and search for their Royal Rumble, but they never found it. 

Match Rating: *3/4

There really isn't much to stay about this show. Sting/Vader is awesome, the tag match is good and the rest was pretty brutally bad. The back-to-back title matches in the middle was some of the worst stuff I have seen by talented wrestlers on any show. I would do anything to get that part of my life back. It's hard to give this any type of recommendation, but I think any 90s wrestling fan should see the Sting/Vader match.

Overall Rating: 41%

King Of The Ring 1994 Review

Sunday, June, 19th 1994
Baltimore Arena
Baltimore, Maryland

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Hey, Gorilla! How much does this blog weigh? 500 posts. That's right, what better way to hit the 500 mark than with King Of The Ring 1994. Meanwhile, the heels argue over who's going to win the tournament and Todd Pettengill runs down the card.

Ricky Medlocke is here to sing the National Anthem and it isn't very good. But man, it's so great to hear Gorilla Monsoon here. He's joined by Randy Savage and of course, Art Donovan. Art picks Razor Ramon to win the crown and Savage picks Diesel will be the new WWF Champion. 

King Of The Ring 1st Round Match
Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Razor Ramon

Bam Bam starts off hot early on, but then misses a top rope headbutt. Razor slides under Bam Bam in the corner and trips him up and crotches him on the ring post. Razor hits a second rope bulldog, but doesn't get all of it. Bam Bam sidesteps a charging Razor and sends him over the top rope. Bam Bam gets Razor up in the Torture Rack, which is pretty impressive. They do the arm drop and naturally Razor keeps it up on the third attempt. Bam Bam lets him down and Razor is able to hit him with a back suplex and both men are down. Art wants to know what happens now? Razor is able to hit a body slam and tries to set up him up on the ropes, but Bam Bam nails him with an elbow to the face. Bam Bam goes up top, but Razor counters with a one-armed powerbomb and gets the victory. This was a pretty good match, but a little uneventful overall. 

Match Rating: **1/2

Todd Pettengill is with Mabel and IRS. IRS says he's going to take him out and he's hoping he gets to face IRS in the finals. Mabel says he better not be worried about Razor, he should be worried about him. 

King Of The Ring 1st Round Match
IRS vs. Mabel

This is a main event in any carnival across the country. Mabel attacks IRS from behind and hits him with a body slam. How much does that guy weigh? Art threatens to get out of here, but don't worry fans, he sticks around. IRS is able to knock Mabel out of the ring and then hits him with a clothesline once he comes back. IRS tries to body slam him, but Mabel counters with a small package for a 2 count. Mabel goes up to the second rope, but IRS shakes him off and gets the victory. It clearly looked like Mabel's shoulders were up there. That's two matches in a row with essentially the exact same finish. That's not something you usually saw in this era of WWF. The match stunk, as you would have expected. 

Match Rating: 1/2*

We get to see Jim Cornette and Mr. Fuji getting their tag team of Yokozuna and Crush getting ready for their match tonight. 

King Of The Ring 1st Round Match
Tatanka vs. Owen Hart

Tatanka attacks Owen before the lights even turn on from Owen's entrance and hits a big backdrop. How much does he weigh? This is probably peak Mike Chioda mullet here. The action spills to the outside and Owen throws Tatanka into the ring post. Owen hits a nice suplex and then hits a missile dropkick. I love that move. Tatanka is able to kick out at 2. Tatanka starts his comeback and hits the chops. The crowd is very into this match. Owen eats a boot to the face and then a DDT for a 2 count. Tatanka goes to the top rope and hits a chop for another 2 count. Tatanka hits a running powerslam and is in shock that Owen kicked out again. Tatanka goes for a sunset flip, but Owen hooks the legs and steals the victory. That was actually a much better match than I remembered. Good stuff.

Match Rating: ***1/4

Todd is backstage with Diesel and Shawn Michaels. Diesel says that he has two words for Bret Hart, jackknife. Still waiting on the second word. 

King Of The Ring 1st Round Match
Jeff Jarrett vs. 1-2-3 Kid

We're at the point now where Savage and Gorilla are just ignoring Donovan. Jarrett throws Kid into the turnbuckles with authority to give him the early advantage. Kid sneaks in a few pin attempts, but Jarrett continues to dominate. Kid lands a roundhouse kick, but misses with the somersault dive off the top rope. Jarrett goes for a superplex, but Kid blocks it and hits him with a flying crossbody for a 2 count. Jarrett sidesteps him in the corner and it ends badly for Kid. Kid is able to roll him up and gets the surprising victory. Jarrett quickly gets up and hits him with a series of piledrivers until the officials come out. He then switches to second rope fists. The refs help carry Kid to the back. This was a good match, even if it was short. 

Match Rating: ***

It's time for them to push the New Generation. Bret Hart is with Todd and he said that he's not going to let Diesel Jackknife him again. 

WWF Championship Match
Diesel vs. Bret Hart

Jim Neidhart is out with Bret Hart as his surprise family member. We get a little bit of back-and-forth to start until Bret is able to get Diesel down on the mat and starts working on his leg. Bret locks in the Figure Four in the middle of the ring. Bret slides him out to the corner and slams his leg into the ring post. Shawn then blindsides Bret and it leads to Neidhart chasing after him. Diesel gets Bret into a bear hug. Bret bites him to get out of it and hits a dropkick to send Diesel out of the ring. Bret goes for the slingshot dive to the floor, but Diesel moves out of the way and Bret falls to the floor. Even with Diesel being nowhere near the performer he would go on to be, these two just had great chemistry. Back in the ring, Diesel goes to work on the back of Bret. We get a semi-ref bump, that allows Diesel to rip off one of the turnbuckles, but Bret starts fighting back. Bret hits three clotheslines and the last one is finally able to knock him down. Bret is able to knock Diesel out of the ring and Neidhart contemplates attacking him. The ref sees him inching closer and checks in on it. Shawn Michaels sneaks in from behind and hits Bret with the title belt. Bret's able to kick out and Diesel hits the Jackknife. Neidhart runs in the ring and attacks Diesel and the bell rings. Neidhart argues with the ref and storms to the back. After the match, Shawn and Diesel attacks Bret until the officials are finally able to break it up. Obviously we didn't get the finish we want to see on a pay per view, but we still got a good match. 

Match Rating: ***1/2

Todd is with Jerry Lawler and he takes a shot at Art Donovan. 

King Of The Ring Semi-Final Match
Razor Ramon vs. IRS

Razor attacks IRS before he even gets into the ring, but once they get into the ring, he eats a knee to the gut. IRS hits a sloppy backbreaker and Gorilla calls him out on it. IRS goes for a crossbody, but Razor moves out of the way and IRS ends up out flying out of the ring. We get some IRS rest holds that lead to nothing. Razor makes his comeback, hits the Razor's Edge and that's all. That was about as uneventful as it gets here. Sort of like IRS's career. 

Match Rating: *3/4

We go to Bret backstage looking for Neidhart and he isn't happy. 

King Of The Ring Semi-Final Match
Owen Hart vs. 1-2-3 Kid

I actually will say that the booking here wasn't bad. Owen was pretty obvious to make the finals, but you could see the possibility of them doing a Razor/Kid final due to their history. After a delay, Kid comes out limping from his attack earlier. Owen hits him with a baseball slide dropkick on his way in and then hits a dive over the top. Owen hits a splash off the top rope for a 2 count. Kid is able to throw Owen into the turnbuckle sternum-first. Kid hits a reverse crossbody off the top rope, but Owen kicks out. Kid hits a Northern Lights suplex with a bridge, but Owen barely gets his foot on the bottom rope in time. Kid hits a somersault dive over the top rope. They trade some pinfall attempts, but can't get the job done. Owen catches Kid in midair and hits a powerbomb. He locks in the Sharpshooter and that is all. 27 years later, this is still the gold standard for 4 minute matches in terms of just going pedal to the metal to make the most of your time. Excellent stuff. 

Match Rating: ***3/4

We go backstage to Roddy Piper and he cuts another promo that makes no sense. 

WWF Tag Team Championship Match
Yokozuna & Crush vs. Headshrinkers

You better believe Art is dying to know how much Yokozuna weighs. The Headshrinkers are able to knock both opponents out of the ring to start off the match. Fatu gets hit with Mr. Fuji's flag while running the ropes and Crush takes advantage with a clothesline. A Yokozuna leg drop finds the mark, but Samu is able to break up the pin attempt. Yokozuna goes to squash Fatu in the corner, but Fatu is able to move out of the way and makes the hot tag to Samu. Crush hits a superplex on Samu and then Yokozuna hits a leg drop on him behind the referee's back. Out comes Lex Luger and distracts Crush. Samu rolls him up, but Crush is able to kick out. Fatu hits Crush with a superkick and gets the victory. That was a pretty weak finish to an otherwise decent big man tag match. Crush and Luger begin to go at it. The Headshrinkers help Luger out and and Yokozuna pulls Crush out of the ring. Luger's gear here is extremely dorky. 

Match Rating: **1/4

Todd is with Owen Hart and calls Bret a loser. Shoutout to the guy in the crowd wearing a Fred Flintstone t-shirt. 

King Of The Ring Finals
Razor Ramon vs. Owen Hart

This was the best possible match out of the brackets we were given and is a good example of sometimes the obvious choice is the right choice. Art tells us that he's changed his mind and Owen is now his pick to become King. Owen pulls out a move out of Razor's playbook with the abdominal stretch. Razor fights back with a fall away slam and a 2 count. Owen is able to hit the side Russian leg sweep and heads up top. Razor crotches him and hits the back suplex off the second rope. Razor goes for the Razor's Edge, but Owen hits the back body drop and it sends Razor to the floor. Out comes Jim Neidhart and he's pretending to check on Razor. He clotheslines Razor and throws him into the ring post. Owen hits a top rope elbow drop and becomes the King Of The Ring. That was too short to be anything great, but it was well executed and built on the story of Owen and Bret. After the match, Owen and Neidhart hit the Hart Attack on Razor. 

Match Rating: **3/4

Bret has no comment for Ray Rougeau backstage. 

We get the coronation ceremony and Owen says that he doesn't want Jack Tunney and has Neidhart do it. 

Jerry Lawler vs. Roddy Piper

I still can't believe that they let this main event the show. "The New Generation is alive and well here in the WWF" as Roddy Piper is about to come out. Piper is out with the impersonator from Raw, if this couldn't get any worse. Piper definitely is in good shape, possibly the best he ever looked. Roddy takes it to Lawler early on and sends Lawler to the floor with an atomic drop. Lawler naturally takes over and slows things down. He puts a sleeper hold on Piper in the middle of the ring for what feels like forever. Lawler hits the piledriver, but stalls for the pin and only gets a 2. Piper starts to fight back and hits a bulldog. Lawler throws Piper into the ref and then hits Piper with a foreign object. Lawler goes for the pin with his feet on the rope, but the impersonator shoves him off. Piper rolls Lawler up and we get a slow count for the victory. That was another weak finish here tonight. The match wasn't terrible, but the story was and this just didn't deserve to be a main event match. The involvement of the impersonator was also just a bad choice. 

Match Rating: *3/4

They show Shawn talking up a disappointed Diesel. 

I don't know what it is about this show, but overall I like it. There are some good matches, Owen getting his big moment, Gorilla on commentary and honestly the annoyance of Art Donovan. I have no nostalgic attachment to this show, as I didn't see it at least 10 years after it happened. I just thought it had enough memorability (both good and bad) to make this a recommendation from me. 

Overall Rating: 75%

Superstars 6-18-94 Review

Original Airdate: Saturday, June 18th, 1994
Erie Civic Center
Erie, Pennsylvania

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Vince runs down the King Of The Ring tournament bracket to kick off the show. 

Tatanka vs. Dave Cryner

Cryner has some epic jobber hair. Cryner hits Tatanka with a hard chop, so Tatanka starts chopping back. Out comes Owen Hart to scout Tatanka. Cryner gets in a little bit more offense until Tatanka is doing the war dance. Tatanka hits a top rope chop and gets the victory. This felt pretty uninspired. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

They show highlights of the Hall Of Fame inductions. Alundra Blayze, who apparently still wrestles here, was in attendance. They show clips of Gorilla and Regis. It doesn't get any better than that. 

Koko B. Ware vs. Owen Hart

High Energy explodes!!! My Superstars re-watch comes full circle. Koko is still rocking the taxi cab gear. Koko hits a clothesline and then out comes Tatanka. Koko hits a couple of body slams and arm drags. Owen misses an elbow drop and Koko goes back to work on the arm. Koko sells a knee injury after a leap frog and Owen slams his knee into the ring post. Owen locks in the Sharpshooter and gets the victory. I was hoping they were going to get a little bit more time, but it wasn't meant to be.

Match Rating: 3/4*

They show the highlights of the Quebecers/Headshrinkers match that isn't up on Peacock.

They show a recap of the Underfaker segment from last week.

Headshrinkers vs. Curtis Harrison & Larry Marconi

The jobbers don't get their names announced, I'm just going off of Vince. I still don't really understand why Captain Lou is with the Headshrinkers. Samu hits a gutwrench powerbomb and then they hit a double Skull Crushing Finale. Fatu hits the splash off the top and that is all. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

It's time for the Heartbreak Hotel and the guest today is Diesel. He talks about having Shawn in his corner and tells Bret to bring the whole Hart clan with him to witness his last title defense. He wants to look into Bret's fathers eyes on Father's Day and tell him that Bret didn't measure up. This was a good 60 second promo that went on for 5 minutes. 

Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Emilio Ulcia

Bam Bam is easily dominating Emilio and out comes Razor Ramon. I'm sensing a theme here. Bam Bam wants to go right now. Bam Bam goes up top and hits his spinning semi-moonsault for the victory. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

We get our final King Of The Ring Report. Bret Hart says it's time to stop talking because it's time right now. Well, at least in like 32 hours or so. We then get a Roddy Piper in a bathing suit promo. Todd Pettengill gives us his predictions and he thinks Razor Ramon winning it all against Tatanka. 

Razor Ramon vs. Tracy Padell

You'll never guess what happens here? How did you know Bam Bam was going to come out? Razor hits the back suplex off the second rope and the Razor's Edge for the victory. Razor looked disinterested here. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

They show highlights of the D-Day Challenge and the WWF Superstars defeating the servicemen. 

Mabel vs. Nikolai Volkoff

Mabel gets no entrance here. Volkoff attacks Mabel from behind and DiBiase likes it. Volkoff hits a kick to the chest and a knee drop for a 2 count. Mabel hits a drop toe hold and cranks back on the leg of Volkoff. Out comes IRS and he attacks Mabel to cause the DQ. Now Tatanka joins in and attacks IRS. Owen Hart, Razor Ramon and Bam Bam follow and we have a brawl. Volkoff walks on out with DiBiase. This wasn't really a match, just a reason to have a brawl. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

This was all about the King Of The Ring tournament and honestly the show suffered because of it. Nothing interesting happened and it didn't necessarily make me want to see the pay-per-view more. I know I'm in the minority, but I've been enjoying my rewind back in 1994 WWF, but this wasn't a highlight. 

Overall Rating: 34%

ECW One Night Stand 2006 Review

Sunday, June, 11th 2006
Hammerstein Ballroom
New York City, New York

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This one gets the TV-MA warning before the show. Paul Heyman is out to kick off the show. The crowd reaction really is something. He hypes up the new ECW and is greeted with lots of chants. 

Tazz vs. Jerry Lawler

Lawler on his way to the ring confronts Joey Styles and slaps him. Styles jumps on his back in the ring. Lawler fights him off and goes for a piledriver. Tazz grabs him and puts him in the Tazzmission and that's all. This was obviously just fan service to kick off the show. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

They show clips of the WWE vs. ECW special and how Big Show joined ECW. There are no TV screens in the arena or I'm guessing this would have gotten booed. 

Randy Orton vs. Kurt Angle

I'm not a huge Orton fan, but he is the perfect guy to throw in this environment. On the other hand, Angle was also probably the perfect guy to give to ECW because it's impossible not to appreciate his talent. We get a lot of mat wrestling to start with Orton escaping out of the ring and the crowd cursing at him. Angle hits his shoulder in the ring post to shift the momentum in Orton's favor. It's pretty hilarious when they start chanting "You can't wrestle" at Orton. Got it, guys. After a lot of rest holds, Angle comes back with the trio of German suplexes. Orton hits his inverted neckbreaker and gets a 2 count. Angle runs into a back elbow and Orton goes up to the top rope. Angle meets him up there, but gets knocked off. Orton hits a flying crossbody, but Angle rolls through for a 2 count. Orton gets up and nails him with a clothesline. Angle goes for an Ankle Lock out of Orton's RKO attempt, but Orton turns it into a pin for a 2 count. This time Angle gets the Ankle Lock on and Orton taps. Well, there was no way Orton was winning here, so it was hard to buy any of his attempts here. I thought they went too heavy on the mat wrestling and it hurt the match overall. Orton sells the ankle injury after the match and asks for help walking to the back. 

Match Rating: **

FBI vs. Super Crazy & Tajiri

Super Crazy and Tajiri will forever be two of the most underused WWE talents. They try their best to portray the FBI on the same level as Tajiri and Crazy, but it really just doesn't make much sense. Crazy drills Mamaluke with a dropkick and they have both of them in a tree of woe right now. They do a double dropkick and Tajiri gets a 2 count. Crazy goes for a moonsault, but Mamaluke pulls his partner out of the way, so Crazy hits one to the outside on both of them. Big Guido trips up Super Crazy behind the referee's back, as if that matters in ECW. Proof of that is just second later he attacks Crazy and the ref sees it. Mamaluke holds Crazy in a Camel Clutch and Little Guido hits him with a dropkick. Crazy makes a tag to Tajiri and he hits a spin kick on Little Guido. Tajiri hits the handspring elbow on both opponents and I am shocked this match is still going on. He and Crazy hit double Tarantulas and then in comes Big Guido. They hit him with a series of kicks and then a double dropkick knocks them down. The FBI knocks Crazy into the crowd and then hits a double fisherman buster on Tajiri for the victory. Yeah, it's safe to say the wrong team won here. As soon as the match is over, Big Show is on his way out. He kicks Big Guido in the crotch and then slowly attacks everyone in the ring. The crowd surprisingly cheers for this, which makes no sense. The match was pretty good, but I'm not sure why it got so much time, nor do I understand the FBI winning. 

Match Rating: **1/2

JBL comes out from the balcony and starts insulting ECW, with a good amount of truth involved here.

Extreme Rules Match For The World Heavyweight Championship
Sabu vs. Rey Mysterio

Both men have chairs to start things off, but set them down after the bell starts. After a little bit of wrestling, they start hitting chairs, which leads to Sabu hitting a leg lariat in the corner off the chair. Mysterio hits a drop toe hold on Sabu into the chair. Rey hits a hurricanrana off the chair to boos. Mysterio misses the 619 and Sabu chucks the chair at his head. Nothing better than having your champ having chairs thrown at their heads. Sabu sets up a table on the ring and guardrail. He sets Rey up on it. Rey is able to move out of the way and Sabu legit slips and sells it. Mysterio hits a moonsault for a 2 count. Sabu fights back and hits a guillotine leg drop for a 2 count. Sabu sets up another table, but gets hit with a dropkick on his way back in. Mysterio hits a Lou Thesz Press through the table on Sabu. Back in the ring, Rey hits a springboard leg drop and gets another 2 count. Sabu hits the triple jump moonsault and that gets a nearfall. He landed right on Rey's face there. Mysterio sets up Sabu on a chair, but Sabu moves and Mysterio lands on the chair. Sabu then throws another chair at Rey's head. Sabu sets up Rey on the table and hits a springboard into a DDT through the table. The crowd goes nuts, but this leads to a no contest, which never happens so it makes no sense. The crowd is all over it, as they show the replay and the table definitely didn't break the way they probably had hoped. I really enjoyed this match minus the chairs to the head and the finish though. Sabu hit most of his moves here, which is always a plus. 

Match Rating: ***1/2

Mick Foley cuts another promo about how he used to respect ECW and brings up the invasion angle. Edge and Lita join in on the fun, but aren't as effective. Beulah comes out and challenges to make this a 3-on-3 match. 

Mixed Extreme Rules Tag Team Match
Mick Foley, Edge & Lita vs. Tommy Dreamer, Terry Funk & Beulah McGillicutty

Unsurprisingly, this quickly turns into a brawl between the men. Dreamer kicks a trash can into the face of Foley and then Edge hits Dreamer with a cookie sheet outside the ring. Funk and Foley begin to brawl down the entrance ramp and Edge hits Dreamer in the face with a ladder. Edge goes for a Spear into the ladder, but Dreamer counters it into a hip toss. Funk grabs the ladder and does the airplane spin with it. Funk starts climbing the ladder, but Edge tips it over and Funk falls on his back. Keep in mind that the ladies are just standing on the apron here. As I say that, Lita runs in and kicks Dreamer in the crotch. Beulah just stands there. Edge and Foley go under the ring and pull out a piece of plywood with barbed wire and slam it on Dreamer. They then go to suplex it on him, but Foley grabs them by the ankles and it falls on them instead. Foley gets thrown into the board and we get the dreaded "This is awesome" chant. Funk gets his turn into the board and Foley takes some barbed wire from Lita and starts shredding Funk with it. The medical staff and Skinner come out to take Funk to the back while Foley and Edge attack Dreamer with a barbed wire baseball bat. Foley then puts the Socko variation of the Mandible Claw. Dreamer comes to her aid, but then he gets the Claw as well. Edge hits him with the Spear and then turns his attention to Beulah. Out comes Terry Funk with his head bandaged up and a 2x4 with barbed wire on it. The distraction allows Dreamer to hit a double low blow. Funk has some issues, but eventually gets the weapon on fire and starts hitting Foley with it. Foley ends up falling off the ring and into the barbed wire plywood. Dreamer hits Edge with a DDT and then chokes him with barbed wire. Lita kicks him off and then Beulah attacks Lita. Dreamer pulls Lita off of her and hits a Dreamer Driver on her. Edge attacks Dreamer with the barbed wire. He hits the Spear on Beulah and pins her for the victory. Man, 2006 me loved this match. 2021 me, not nearly as much. This was really disappointing. There was some fun, but it mostly came off as them trying way too hard. I like all of these guys, but this just felt a little too much like garbage wrestling. 

Match Rating: **1/2

They show Cena hanging out in the hallway and then RVD warming up. 

Balls Mahoney vs. Masato Tanaka

We get some pretty standard wrestling to start. Tanaka hits a running fist in the corner and Balls comes back with a powerslam. We then get the Balls punch chant thingy. Balls charges at Tanaka, but he ducks and Balls falls to the floor. Tanaka leaped over the top to try and hit a DDT on the way down, but Balls for whatever reason didn't go along with it. Balls hits Tanaka with cups of beer because that makes sense. Tanaka tries to hit him with a chair, but Balls avoids it and throws them in the ring. They both climb up top and Tanaka hits a superplex. They climb again and this time Balls hits the superplex. They both grab chairs and start dueling. Tanaka loses his and Balls drills him in the head for the victory. I like Tanaka, but Ball is not Mike Awesome and this match was pretty weak overall. Plus, I don't need to see a guy get hit that hard in the head with a chair. 

Match Rating: *1/2

After a lengthy hype video, the ring announcer is about to announce the competitors and out comes Eugene. I think we all know where this is going. He reads a poem to rile up the crowd and out comes Sandman. After a 20 minute entrance, he finally gets to the ring and hits him with the cane. This was flat. 

Extreme Rules Match For The WWE Championship
Rob Van Dam vs. John Cena

Cena keeps trying to throw his shirt into the crowd and they throw it back. They go for a slow start while the crowd shouts obscenities. Cena is able to clothesline RVD over the top rope and Cena hits a top rope ax handle to the floor. They start brawling into the crowd for a little until Cena throws RVD back over the guardrail. They get back into the ring and RVD is able to hit the guillotine leg drop. RVD uses a chair to hit the skateboard dropkick into the corner. RVD then hits a Rolling Thunder with a chair on the chest of Cena. RVD goes for the split legged moonsault, but Cena gets his knees and chair up to counter it. Cena catapults RVD into a chair in the corner. RVD did a nice job on that. Cena hits the Five Knuckle Shuffle and then goes for the FU. RVD counters and hits a kick to the face. RVD leaps up top, but Cena grabs him and hits a one armed powerbomb for a 2 count. RVD goes for some sort of suplex off the ropes, but they have a messed up spot. RVD ends up dropkicking Cena off the apron into the guardrail. RVD sets up a table in the corner, but Cena is able to put him in the STFU. RVD gets to the ropes and the ref forces him off, which makes no sense because there are no rules. Cena and the ref start getting into it and Cena levels him. RVD goes up top, but Cena crotches him and hits a superplex. Cena brings in the ring steps and smashes them into RVD. Nick Patrick comes in and counts to 2 before RVD gets his shoulder up. Cena hits a FU over the top rope and to the floor. In comes a guy dressed up in a motorcycle helmet and Spears Cena through the table. He takes off the helmet and it's Edge. RVD comes back into the ring and hits the Five Star Frog Splash. He tries to wake up Nick Patrick, but has no luck. Out comes Paul Heyman and he counts to 3. RVD gets announced as the new ECW Champion and that is all. RVD celebrates into the crowd, including up in the balconies. The ECW wrestlers then celebrate with him in the ring. The match was pretty good, but it was more about the moment. RVD was long overdue for this and it's kind of a shame that it took Edge and Paul Heyman for him to win it here. 

Match Rating: ***

If you would have asked me where this show ranked for me prior to re-watching it, I would have said it would easily be in my top 25 WWE shows. Here I am a couple of hours later and I'm not sure it would make my top 100. It wasn't bad, but it just doesn't hold up that well. I am probably the only person who liked the Mysterio/Sabu match the best, but to me it was the one match that hit the high notes more than anything else. Anyway, this wasn't a bad show at all, it just feels completely out of date. 

Overall Rating: 70%

NXT 6-5-14 Review

Original Airdate: Thursday, June, 5th 2014
Full Sail University
Winter Park, Florida

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After a recap of TakeOver, we are informed that the #1 contender, Tyler Breeze, has entered the building. 

Mojo Rawley vs. Aiden English

English hits an aggressive clothesline and a swinging neckbreaker to start things off. It doesn't last long and Mojo makes a quick comeback. He hits Hyperdrive and wins. Why? Seven years later and we're still waiting for the payoff on Mojo. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

They show Tyson Kidd and Natalya having some issues leading into a backstage interview with Natalya. She says she will always have his back. 

Bayley vs. Charlotte

We have a seesaw match to start things off, with the women trying to one up another. Out comes Summer Rae for the first time in weeks. This distracts Bayley and Charlotte picks up the victory. After the match, they attack Bayley. Out comes Paige and Emma to make the save. This was all more for the angle rather than the match, but what we got was pretty good. 

Match Rating: *3/4

Jason Jordan and Tye Dillinger are talking about their names. 

Tye Dillinger & Jason Jordan vs. Phillip Gooljar & Stewart Cumberland

Cumberland is Aaron Solo. Desperate for tag teams in NXT, so I guess we are getting Dillinger and Jordan as their next project. They dominate just about the entire match, but don't use much in the way of double teams. I have no idea why this match is as long as it is. This should have been two minutes top. Jordan hits a shoulder in the corner and then hits the Jordan Slam, which is the Angle Slam. They didn't show much chemistry as a tag team here. 

Match Rating: 1/2*

CJ Parker is out in the crowd with a sign that says "May the forest be with you". 

Charlotte, Sasha and Summer are backstage and there is tension. 

Tyler Breeze is here and he says that he gets to pick when he gets to use his opportunity, so he's going to keep Neville on his toes. He then introduces the premiere to his music video. It's dedicated to all of his fans, even the uggos. The crowd cheers for it, which probably isn't the reaction they were hoping for. 

We get some Bo Dallas video package for some reason. 

Justin Gabriel vs. Adrian Neville

Neville hits a headscissor, sending Gabriel out to the floor. Neville goes for a dive, but Gabriel is in and hits a clothesline. Gabriel then goes for a dive, but Neville moves and pulls down the rope. Neville then follows that with a somersault dive off the apron. Gabriel is in control when we come back from commercial and hits a kick to the back of Neville. It doesn't last long, as Neville makes a comeback full of kicks and a second rope missile dropkick. Neville goes for a springboard move, but Gabriel hits him with a dropkick. Gabriel goes for the 450 splash, Neville moves and Gabriel lands on his feet. Neville hits him with a dropkick in the corner and then finishes him with the Red Arrow. This was a good way to end the show that kept Neville hot coming off his big TakeOver main event. 

Match Rating: **3/4

Out comes Tyson Kidd. He apologizes for not shaking his hand after the match. Kidd says that he wants one more chance for the NXT Championship and then reaches out his hand. Neville accepts and shakes. Kidd heads to the back and we're all set here. 

This episode was a mixed bag. The main event was good and the crowd loved the Tyler Breeze music video. The tag team match was too long for a squash and Mojo continues to be a dud. I'm surprised we didn't get Sami Zayn here, as he always brings life to the show. The roster isn't very strong yet, but it's coming. 

Overall Rating: 53%

Superstars 6-11-94 Review

Original Airdate: Saturday, June 11th, 1994
Erie Civic Center
Erie, Pennsylvania

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Vince and Lawler kick off the show and Vince is really creepy here. 

Yokozuna & Crush vs. Smoking Gunns

Well I guess if you're a team getting a title shot, you probably should at least have one match under your belt. The Gunns attack their large opponents as soon as they enter the ring and we're underway. They hit two double dropkicks to knock them both out of the ring and the crowd is loving it. Again, I am going to re-emphasize that the Gunns were super underused here in '94. Back in the ring after some counseling, Crush eats a boot to the face and a bulldog for a 2 count. Yokozuna grabs the top rope and Bart goes flying to the floor. Crush hits a backbreaker and in comes Yoko and they hit a double clothesline. We actually get a commercial break in a Superstars match, which is a rarity. Bart is finally able to hit a hot tag to Billy and he hits a bulldog on Yoko and an inverted atomic drop on Crush. The Gunns are hitting double fists in the corner, but Yoko dumps Bart to the floor. Billy sees it and jumps off and hits Yoko for a nearfall. Crush hits a press slam and Yoko follows up with a leg drop for the victory. That was a really good time for a Superstars match. More of this please. 

Match Rating: **3/4

We then go to Stan Lane bragging about winning some award for their "Unbelievable" ads. 

Doink vs. Derek Stone

Stone reminds me of a less toned William Regal. Doink hits a few Irish whips and a belly-to-belly suplex. We get the Whoopee Cushion and the fart sound for the victory. They then show the one guy in the crowd with the Doink shirt. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

We go back to Raw to see the King's Court with the Roddy Piper impersonator. This leads to Roddy Piper with pre-recorded comments. Thankfully this feud is almost over. 

Kenny Hendrix vs. IRS

The guest ring announcer is wearing a tie dye Tatanka shirt. IRS interrupts on his way down and make fun of a guy in the crowd and says Mabel is going to pay at King Of The Ring. We get a pre-recorded interview from Oscar and Mabel. Hendrix gets a body press for a 1 count, but IRS slaps on the Penalty and that's it. That was about as quick as an IRS squash gets. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

It's time for the King Of The Ring Report. Bret Hart talks about how disappointed he is in Diesel and that he's going to have some back up. Todd wonders if it's Stu, but then decides he doesn't think he'd be able to help physically. 

Duke Droese vs. Reno Riggins

"Better known as...THE DUMPSTERRRR!" declared Vince McMahon. Just in case you can't tell that he's a garbage man, he brings a trash can with him. It's good to see Reno again. We've got the fake crowd noise pumping for this one. There is no better way to impress in a squash match than to slap on a bear hug. Reno gets out with some fists, while Vince pleads for the ref to get him to open up his hands. Duke hits his variation of a powerslam for the victory. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

It's time for the Heartbreak Hotel and Shawn is talking about the WWF ratings soaring. He brings out Ted DiBiase and he said everyone doubted him with getting the Undertaker. No one has the resources like DiBiase does and he introduces him. Out "he" comes. I really had no idea that he made his debut this early on in the summer. He then moves his mouth to a pre-recorded Undertaker interview. This was bad, but the crowd had no clue just how bad this would be. 

Jeff Jarrett vs. Marty Garner

This was one of the famous Garner dives where he lands face-first after a dive over the top rope. This one is still getting shown on Twitter 27 years later. Jarrett slaps on the Figure Four and that's all. That's a rough way to make a few bucks. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

The WrestleMania Revenge Tour continued in Anaheim and so was Rhonda Sheer and Jonathan Taylor Thomas. They claim that it was the best attended tour in history. Yeah, sure. 

Next week, we get Razor Ramon, Owen Hart, Headshrinkers, Diesel at the Heartbreak Hotel and Mabel vs. Nikolai Volkoff. 

There's a little more to unpack here than normal on an episode of Superstars. We had a really fun opening match, which is an absolute rarity for anything involving Crush. We had the debut of the Underfaker, kicking off one of the worst angles in company history. Then we also had the crash landing of Marty Garner. Overall, this was not a bad way to spend 45 minutes if you like this era of wrestling. 

Overall Rating: 58%

SmackDown 6-9-06 Review

Original Airdate: Friday, June 4th, 2006
WesBanco Arena
Wheeling, West Virginia

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In memory of John Tenta, 1963-2006. Ugh, this is still so sad. 

The Miz then kicks off the show announcing Finlay vs. Rey Mysterio tonight. 

William Regal is out now to show what happens when you don't hail King Booker. Regal announces Booker, but Lashley comes from behind and attacks Regal. Out comes Teddy Long and announces that Lashley will face Regal tonight and if Lashley wins, he gets a match with Booker.

Batista returns in 28 days. 

Super Crazy vs. Brian Kendrick

Here's your reminder that the Mexicools still exist. As much as I really liked London and Kendrick as a team, I never really liked the masks or ring gear. It should be noted that Tazz is still the announcer here at SmackDown. I believe JBL will take over next week. We get some nice wrestling to start things off here. Crazy hits a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker to take control. Kendrick fights back with a kick to the face and a 2 count. Crazy hits a tornado sit down powerbomb and he gets a 2 count. Crazy works on the back of Kendrick, pulling out a surfboard. Kendrick is able to pull off a tornado DDT to shift the momentum. They battle up on the second rope and move up to the top rope. Super Crazy hits a Spanish Fly from the top rope and gets the victory. That was a pretty dominating performance by Crazy. Out comes Great Khali and he grabs Kendrick by the head. London hits him in the back with a chair, but Khali no sells it. He tosses out London and throws Kendrick onto him. Khali moves onto Super Crazy and destroys him, with Psicosis escaping the situation. This was a solid match that got more time than expected and Khali looked like a monster after. 

Match Rating: **3/4

Finlay is with Kristal and she wants to know about about what's been happening in his matches lately, but Finlay grabs her by the mouth before she can get it out. Finlay wonders if Mysterio will go to ECW, but he doesn't care. 

A bunch of the jobbers are all talking to Nunzio and in walks Vito wearing a dress. They all leave and Nunzio tells him not to dress like this. Vito says he doesn't care what people say because he's the toughest guy in the locker room. He says tonight he's going to show what kind of man he is. 

Vito vs. Nunzio

I'm surprised they didn't save this for pay-per-view. Vito attacks Nunzio, trying to show off his aggressive side. Tazz tries to figure out the logic of Nunzio being Little Guido on Wednesday and back to Nunzio tonight. Nunzio catches Vito with an elbow, but then Vito catches Nunzio and drives him into the corner. Nunzio is able to hit a dropkick, but then gets drilled by a right hand. Vito hits a spinning DDT and that's all. It was pretty obvious that this wasn't going to get over, but Vito looked pretty decent here. 

Match Rating: 1/2*

Queen Sharmell is here to introduce King Booker so that he can sit up on the ramp in his throne. 

Bobby Lashley vs. William Regal

Regal attacks Lashley on his way to the ring and throws him into the guardrail. Regal continues the attack in the ring and we are officially underway. Lashley is hung up by the leg on the second rope with his body hanging over the apron and Regal takes advantage. Lashley fights back with a back body drop, but Regal hits him with some left forearms. Lashley's comeback attempts keep getting thwarted by Regal. Regal grabs a chair, but Lashley hits him with a Spear before he can use it. Regal is getting counted out and Booker tries to help Regal get back in the ring. He's unable to do so and Lashley earns his match with Booker next week. This was fine, but I'm really surprised that Lashley got dominated by Regal, who has been a jobber all year. 

Match Rating: *1/2

The Miz is out and it's time for some Diva thing. It's a bikini contest between Ashley, Jillian, Kristal and Michelle McCool. Michelle cuts a heel promo about teachers or something. Ashley wins. It's not 1999 any more. 

Mark Henry vs. Raymond Rowe

Raymond decides it's a good strategy to run right into a clothesline. He hits the World's Strongest Slam, but picks him up during the pin attempt and hits another for the victory. He gets on the mic and talks about Batista coming back being his biggest mistake. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

Mr. Kennedy vs. Scotty 2 Hotty

Kennedy attacks him on his way back to the ring, but Scotty hits a hip toss. Kennedy dominates most of the match though, mostly with a couple of clotheslines. He then hits the Kenton Bomb for the victory. It seems like he is still over with the crowd after a long time off, which is always a plus for a newer star. 

Match Rating: 1/2*

Chavo Guerrero and Rey Mysterio are backstage and Rey thanks him for getting his back at Judgment Day. Rey asks Chavo about coming back to the ring. Rey tells Chavo to never say never about coming back. They are also hinting at Mysterio possibly joining ECW. 

Michael Cole is in the ring now to talk to Rey about the ECW situation and before he comes down, Tazz is in the ring. Tazz says that Rey hasn't probably made his decision, but Tazz has. He then says that he's going to choke Lawler out at One Night Stand. It's really interesting looking back at how hard Tazz and Lawler were pushing this mini feud. He then announces he's going to ECW and leaves. Out comes Paul Heyman and they embrace. It's amazing how long Heyman got a pass at having that ponytail and trench coat look. Heyman then comes to the ring and asks Cole to head out. Heyman talks about RVD, Angle and Tazz joining the brand. He talks about the offer he extended to Rey and he finally comes out. Rey respectfully declines, saying that these are his people. Heyman wishes him good luck against Sabu and also tonight against Finlay. Heyman joins Cole in the announce booth as Finlay comes out. 

Rey Mysterio vs. Finlay

This is a non-title match. Finlay dominates the early going until Mysterio hits a spinning headscissors. They head out of the ring until Mysterio gets taken under the ring. Finlay drags him out with Hornswoggle hanging on his legs. Finlay wears down Mysterio with some submission holds until Rey makes his comeback and hits Finlay with a kick to the head. Sabu is in the to distract Rey and it allows Finlay to hit Rey with the shillelagh and picks up the surprising pinfall victory over the champ. These two would have much better matches down the line than this one. After the match, Sabu is in the ring and hits Rey with a chair. Sabu sets up Rey on a table out of the ring and hits a top rope leg drop. 

Match Rating: *3/4

While this was much better than Raw this week, it was still kind of a ho hum show. The opening match was good and actually got some time and it was nice to see Mr. Kennedy back. The ECW stuff is interesting, even if it never really hit it's potential. 

Overall Rating: 52%

WWE vs. ECW: Head-To-Head 6-7-06 Review

Wednesday, June 7th, 2006
Nutter Center
Dayton, Ohio

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Mick Foley pumps up the WWE locker room and Rey Mysterio agrees? Paul Heyman is now getting the ECW locker room ready. 

Jerry Lawler and JR are here, as are Joey Styles and Tazz. Tazz talks trash to Lawler and they almost get into it. 

Rey Mysterio vs. Rob Van Dam

Yes, please. RVD hits a military press into a standing moonsault and the crowd loves that. RVD avoids a 619, but then gets dropkicked off the apron. On the outside, RVD goes for a guillotine leg drop on the barricade, but Mysterio avoids it. Mysterio climbs up to the ring and hits a leap into the crowd. When we come back from commercial, Mysterio goes for his variation of the bulldog, but RVD crotches him on the top rope. RVD climbs to the top and hits a single leg kick, knocking Rey to the floor. RVD this time hits the guillotine leg drop and gets a 2 count. RVD hits a skateboard kick with a steel chair in Rey's face and gets another nearfall. RVD misses a monkey flip attempt and Rey hits a second rope bulldog onto a steel chair for a 2 count. Rey goes for a springboard leg drop and RVD moves out of the way. RVD sets the chair on top of Rey, but he moves that out of the way just before RVD hits the 5 Star Frog Splash and RVD gets the victory. That was a weak finish to an otherwise good match. 

Match Rating: ***

Kurt Angle is here and he says that he wasn't upset that Randy Orton RKO'd him in his hometown on Monday. He loved when he got to snap Orton's ankle in two. He's glad that Orton accepted his challenge for One Night Stand and out comes Orton. Orton says he feels sorry for Angle, who went from headlining WrestleMania to ECW. Orton then says that his contract has expired and that ECW's Angle will be facing Monday Night Raw's Randy Orton. They go back and forth and end with Orton saying he's going to kill the legend of ECW. 

Mickie James vs. Jazz

I never liked Jazz's entrance music. Jazz hits a dropkick and Mickie rolls out of the ring. Jazz hits a running dive from the apron onto Mickie. Jazz hits a X-Factor, but Mickie grabs the bottom rope. Mickie hits the spike DDT and gets the victory. Did Jazz make another appearance after this? I feel like this was it. This match had about 5 moves, making it hard to rate. 

Match Rating: 1/2*

We get a Sabu hype video. 

John Cena is backstage with Todd Grisham. Cena tries to hype up that the WWE Championship will be defended for the first time ever at an ECW show. Cena talks about how the crowd will be as hostile as ever at One Night Stand. He says he could be worried, but he will fight like a man instead. 

Paul Heyman is in the ring and talks about Tuesday being the debut of ECW on SyFy. I guess it was still Sci Fi at this time. He then runs down the card for One Night Stand. We then get highlights of last year's One Night Stand. 

Angle gives a speech in the locker room before the battle royal. Big Show gives a calmer speech about WWE showing ECW who they are.

WWE vs. ECW Battle Royal

The WWE guys all get their own entrance and the ECW guys go the way of the Patriots and all come out together. Mark Henry for some reason is the first man eliminated from the match. I'm not sure why they even put him in this match to be honest. Tommy Dreamer eliminates Tatanka. Things you thought you'd never type in 2006. I'm not really sure why Dreamer and Edge are in this, considering they have a match tonight. Edge has sat out of the ring during the match, occasionally jumping on the apron. Terry Funk rushes at him and Edge dumps him over. Al Snow grabs Head, but misses with the swing and Shelton hits him with a kick to the head and sending him over the top. The two final ECW competitors are Angle and Sandman, while there is also Orton, Big Show, Finlay, Edge and Shelton. Orton dumps out Sandman and then Angle eliminates Shelton. Show goes for a chokeslam on Angle, but he counters and hits an Angle Slam on Show. Finlay attacks Angle from behind and hits a couple of clotheslines. Angle hits a catapult on Finlay and he's gone. Edge tries to sneak in, but Angle hits a belly-to-belly overhead throw to get rid of him. Orton gets rid of Angle and WWE is about to be announced the winner. Big Show rips off his Raw shirt and has a ECW shirt on. He tosses Orton over the top rope and ECW is announced as the winner. As far as TV battle royals go, this wasn't too bad. They got rid of guys pretty quickly and had the swerve finish to make it feel like it at least had a point. After the match, Angle and Show embrace. 

Match Rating: **1/4

Edge shows Foley a Cactus Jack promo on the video screen.

Edge vs. Tommy Dreamer

Edge has a chair and Dreamer has a barbed wire baseball bat. Dreamer knocks the chair out of his hand and Dreamer loses the weapon shortly after. Dreamer instead hits him with a road sign back in the ring. Lita grabs Dreamers leg and Edge hits him in the head with the sign. Edge hits a drop toe hold into a chair. Edge hits Edgecution into a trash can, but Dreamer kicks out at 2. Dreamer fights back with a kick to the crotch and then hangs Edge in a tree of woe. Dreamer stands on Edge's balls and hits him with a kick into a chair to the face. Dreamer goes under the ring and grabs a table. Dreamer sets it up and then sets Edge up on the top rope. Lita comes in and hits Dreamer with a kendo stick. Funk grabs Lita by the hair and in comes Foley and puts barbed wire around Funk's neck. Edge goes for a powerbomb, but Dreamer counters with a back body drop and Edge misses the table and his leg hits the table. Dreamer then hits the Dreamer Driver through the table, but Lita hits him with the kendo stick. Dreamer goes for a powerbomb, but Edge hits him with a Spear and gets the victory. Funk and Foley are brawling on the outside. Funk busts him open the hard way and that's all. This was a pretty good match that got better as it progressed. 

Match Rating: **1/2

We come back from commercial with Foley sitting in a chair for a promo. He talks about loving ECW, but ECW didn't love him back. This is your classic passionate Foley promo putting over his match at One Night Stand. This was very good and then it leads to Tazz and Lawler getting into it again. Tazz attacks Lawler and they start brawling on the announce table. This was surprisingly intense, considering Lawler's age. As they are breaking it up, Styles knocks off JR's hat and JR looks legit not happy. 

When we come back from commercial, they are back in their spots and JR is just trying to get through the show. This leads to a RVD/Cena hype video. 

John Cena vs. Sabu

Sabu goes down the wrong way to the ring and it exposes all the tarped off seats on the TV side. That pretty much sums up Sabu as a performer. Cena dominates the early portion of the match until Sabu dumps Cena out of the ring. Sabu hits a springboard somersault dive onto Cena and then throws a chair at Cena. Sabu uses the chair some more and throws him into the steps. Sabu hits a leg drop off the announce table and throws him back in the ring. Sabu jumps off a chair in the corner, but Cena catches him and hits the FU. He slaps on the STFU and in comes Big Show, causing a DQ finish. The battle royal wrestlers all run into the ring and we have a big brawl. The crowd doesn't seem into this at all, which is somewhat surprising. The match was decent enough, but was really just here to set up the brawl at the end of the show. 

Match Rating: *3/4

I really enjoyed this show. I thought it was very focused on the task at hand and delivered. Really the only thing that felt out of place was the women's match, which is a shame because they could have had a good match. Otherwise, this was one of the better TV episodes of the year up to this point in 2006. 

Overall Rating: 71%

Monday Night Raw 6-5-06 Review

Monday, June 5th, 2006
Mellon Arena
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Follow me on Twitter: @WorkTheNetwork2

Triple H is sitting backstage and in walks Shane McMahon. Shane advises Triple H to go reason him or else things will get worse. 

Paul Heyman introduces the man who will defeat John Cena on Sunday, Rob Van Dam. Coach then brings on John Cena. RVD and Heyman put over how much Cena is going to get booed out of the building. Cena says that he respects everything everything that ECW gave this business. Let's be honest, it isn't that much. They sign the contract and Cena wishes him luck. Before Cena leaves, Heyman tells him that Cena's first taste of ECW won't be Sunday, it will be Wednesday in a battle royal. He brings out a few of his ECW originals with Terry Funk, Sandman, Tommy Dreamer and Balls Mahoney. Cena starts a brawl and Cena gets pummeled. Out comes Sabu and he hits a botched splash that was supposed to be a leg drop with a chair on Cena. Out comes Big Show and a bunch of jobbers. This was a pretty good segment that kind of reminded me that the Cena/RVD build was pretty light overall. The other surprise was that the ECW performers really didn't get much of a reaction. 

Carlito vs. Shelton Benjamin

Carlito comes out hot and then hits a dropkick. Benjamin hits Carlito with a kick to the head and then hits Snake Eyes. Shelton's mama would be proud. They try to do a back-and-forth type of thing, but the crowd isn't really buying it. Carlito hits a springboard elbow for a 2 count, but then Shelton hits a Samoan Drop. He misses with the splash in the corner and then Carlito does a flip off the top rope over Shelton and hits the Backstabber for the victory in the non-title match. They just didn't know what to do with either of these guys and they somehow kept ending up fighting each other. Spoiler alert: This is the longest match of the night. 

Match Rating: *3/4

Triple H is at Mr. McMahon's office and walks in, but it's Coach instead. Vince comes in after the commercial break and honestly I start to instantly lose interest. It's amazing how little I care about his character any more. He says something about Triple H fighting Big Show next and if he wins, he doesn't have to join the club. 

Triple H vs. Big Show

These two actually did have a solid match at New Year's Revolution earlier in the year. Show goes after Triple H, but then Triple H ducks Show and he goes to the floor. Out come the Spirit Squad and they attack Show, causing Triple H to lose by disqualification. I did not see that coming. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

Triple H is back and screaming at Vince. Vince tells him that he now has no alternative.

Eugene vs. Matt Striker

Wow, they're bringing out the big guns tonight. Striker questions why Eugene would want another match after what he did to him last time. Eugene says he has a tutor and it's Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Striker attacks Eugene while he's talking to Duggan and he hits a draped DDT for a 2 count. Eugene quickly fights back and hits the airplane spin. He goes for the Rock Bottom, but it gets countered into a neckbreaker. Duggan distracts Striker with a "U-S-A" chant. Eugene hits him with the three point stance clothesline and steals the victory. After the match, Striker throws Eugene into the steps and Duggan sends him to the back after threatening to hit him with the 2x4. Then out of nowhere, out comes Umaga and he attacks Duggan. Armando Alejandro Estrada gives Umaga the sign and he hits the Samoan Spike. This was whatever.

Match Rating: 3/4*

Kurt Angle is here, as Vince continues to run him ragged. He only gets a few words in before he is interrupted by Mick Foley. They go back and forth and then Foley brings out Edge. Edge tells Angle that he's going from the penthouse to the outhouse by going to ECW. Angle says he's changing ECW forever and then takes Edge down. Foley stops him and gets an Angle Slam. Angle fights off Edge and out comes Randy Orton and hits a RKO out of nowhere on Angle. This is the first time Orton has appeared in weeks. 

During the commercial break, Randy Orton accepts Angle's challenge at One Night Stand. 

Cade and Murdoch are in the ring and Murdoch tells Kane that tonight he's facing his tag team partner tonight. 

Lance Cade vs. Kane

Kane destroys Cade for a few minutes and then the mask shows up on the screen again. This time Kane walks away and to the back. Cade gets the countout victory in an all time classic. Murdoch gets on the mic to celebrate the victory and they show Kane yelling backstage. The lights go out and they show the other Kane behind him. He attacks the real Kane and then throws a trash can at him. This really makes no sense. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

We get the first vignette for the Highlanders. 

Johnny Nitro vs. Charlie Haas

Haas with his beard here looks like a slim version of Steve Williams. The matches on this show are really random and the crowd hasn't been hot partly because of it. Nitro throws Haas out of the ring and gets a little help from Melina. Nitro goes for a springboard move, but it looks like maybe a miscommunication, so he just jumps in the ring that way. Haas battles back with a back suplex and I'm starting to feel bad for these guys. Haas hits a couple of clotheslines and a monkey flip that at least gets a reaction out of the crowd due to Nitro's landing. Melina comes in the ring and fakes an injury. It distracts the ref and Haas, Nitro rolls him up and gets the victory. So Nitro loses to Cena in a few minutes last week and this week needs a distraction roll up to beat Charlie Haas. Talk about confidence. The match was fine for what it was, but the crowd was dead silent. 

Match Rating: *

They show Lillian Garcia being helped to the back after being accidentally knocked off the ropes by Charlie Haas as she was getting out of the ring. 

Victoria vs. Beth Phoenix

Mickie James comes down separately after Victoria is already in the ring. They really thought it was a good idea to follow up that match with this one? I'm not going to pretend I am someone who has experience writing a wrestling show, but this one just seems like it wasn't very well thought out. Beth hits a dropkick and gets a 2 count. Beth hits a side suplex and Mickie gets on the apron. Trish pulls Mickie off the apron. Victoria rolls her up, but she has the tights, so no count there. Beth hits the Michinoku Driver and gets the victory. 

Match Rating: 1/2*

Vince and Shane are talking and Vince wants to make sure the job gets done tonight. Vince then offers to show Shane a preview. 

JR and Lawler hype up One Night Stand. Lawler then makes fun of Tazz some more and accepts his challenge. 

Shane approaches Triple H and Triple H isn't happy. Shane tells him there's nothing to worry about. Triple H swaps out his water bottle when Shane is on the phone. They then chug the waters together. 

Vince and Shane are out in the ring now. This show can't end soon enough. Triple H is pretending to be under the influence and Vince calls him out for it. He passes out and Vince pulls down his pants. Shane then passes out. Triple H sneaks back up as Vince realizes what has happened. Triple H gives him a Pedigree and this awful episode is finally over.

How did this show ever get approved by anyone? This was so bad and the worst part is that Raw has been solid over the past few weeks. This episode hardly had any wrestling, matches that no one cared about and a stupid storyline arch throughout the show. Big thumbs down here.

Overall Rating: 28%

NXT TakeOver (The Original) Review

Thursday, May 29th, 2014
Full Sail University
Winter Park, Florida

Follow me on Twitter: @WorkTheNetwork2

This is the original TakeOver event for NXT. After a preview package, we get the Adam Rose experience outside the building and heading in for his match.

Adam Rose vs. Camacho

After some goofing around from Rose, Camacho hits a double underhook suplex. The fans are ramped up for the live show and singing and chanting along for Rose. He makes a comeback and hits a spinebuster and then a bronco buster. Rose hits the Party Foul and that's it. Well, at least it was pretty short. I'm not really sure why this had to be on this show, but the crowd loved it, which means it did the job. 

Match Rating: 1/2*

We get a Sami Zayn promo video ahead of his match tonight. 

NXT Tag Team Championship Match
The Ascension vs. El Local & Kalisto

The Ascension kind of feel forgotten as of late. The Ascension attack both opponents, which leads to them both being hit with headscissors. They roll outside and hit both men with uppercuts. After being beat down for a few minutes, Local makes a comeback and hits a sloppy springboard move and then a moonsault off the second rope. Kalisto comes in and hits a nice kick, but then gets tossed out of the ring. They hit the Fall Of Man and that is it. This was a more competitive version of the match we have been getting for months from the Ascension. 

Match Rating: *

We now get a Tyler Breeze promo video. 

#1 Contender Match
Sami Zayn vs. Tyler Breeze

I think this may be the debut of Zayn's now very well known entrance music. We start off slowly, with Breeze dominating most of the beginning. Zayn has Breeze out of the ring and he hits a springboard moonsault to the floor. Zayn hits a Blue Thunder Bomb, but Breeze kicks out at 2. Breeze hits a DDT and Zayn is able to kick out at 2. Breeze hits a nice sit down powerbomb after pulling Zayn out of the corner for another nearfall. Zayn hits an exploder suplex into the turnbuckle and both men are down. I love how over Zayn is despite being a true babyface. We get lots of counter spots and it leads to Zayn hitting a superkick, but Zayn kicks out. The one nice thing about the kick outs in this match, is that they have only kicked out of moves that others have kicked out of. As I type that, Zayn hits an insane version of a powerbomb, but somehow Breeze kicks out. Breeze is out of the ring again and Zayn hits a pretty stiff senton over the top rope. Zayn goes for the Helluva Kick, but Breeze ducks it and I think they tried to make it look like a low blow. Breeze hits the Beauty Shot and gets the victory. This was easily one of the best NXT matches at this point in time. There was some really nice work by both men here and Zayn continues to be the best thing going in NXT. 

Match Rating: ***3/4

Natalya is shown talking to Bret Hart and Tyson Kidd. 

Lana brings out Rusev to the ring. She gives her usual Russia speech, but this time we get Putin's face on the big screen. This brings out Mojo Rawley waiving an American flag. He talks about this being America and charges the ring. Rusev attacks him and slaps on the Accolade. This instantly makes Rusev one of my favorites. In all seriousness, I loved this version of Rusev and thought he should have beaten John Cena at WrestleMania. 

Charlotte is shown backstage with Ric Flair. After a nice promo package for the match, Paige is out to the ring. She gives a pretty generic speech thanking the fans. 

NXT Women's Championship Match
Charlotte vs. Natalya

We get some mat wrestling to start things off, with Natalya dominating. This is already longer than most of the other tournament matches. Charlotte battles back and hits a dropkick for a 2 count. Charlotte goes outside the ring and uses a leg whip to throw Natalya to the mat. Charlotte goes for a moonsault, but Natalya moves out of the way. Natalya gets the strength to put on the Sharpshooter, but Charlotte counters it and puts on the Figure Four. They roll through the ropes, with Charlotte's shoulders falling to the mat and Natalya holding onto the bottom rope. The referee breaks the hold and they are both down. Charlotte locks in the Sharpshooter and Bret smirks. Natalya gets out of it, but Charlotte hits Natural Selection and becomes the new NXT Women's Champion. I know a lot of people really love this match, but this for me was more just a very well executed match that never captured my imagination. After the match, Charlotte and Natalya embrace and so do their dads. 

Match Rating: ***1/4

We get a promo for Neville and see Christian and Cesaro in the crowd. Natalya and Tyson Kidd hug before his match.

NXT Championship Match
Tyson Kidd vs. Adrian Neville

This one starts off similarly to the previous one, just with a little bit more pizazz. After a nice sequence, we get a stare down until Kidd hits him with a forearm. Kidd sets up Neville in the tree of woe and hits a running dropkick to the jaw. Neville tries to come back, but Kidd dropkicks him out of the ring and quickly hits a somersault dive over the top rope. I love that he did that rather than playing to the crowd first. Back in the ring, both men go for a crossbody and both men are down. Neville returns the favor with a dropkick to the corner on Kidd and then hits a springboard forearm. Neville goes for a dive, but Kidd gets a leg up on the mat and hits him in the face. Kidd goes up to the top, but takes too long and Neville crotches him. Kidd goes for a sunset powerbomb, but Neville flips out of it and hits a sit down powerbomb for a 2 count. Kidd hits a second rope side Russian leg sweep. That was a cool move. The action picks up and we get a suplex over the top rope and that was perfectly executed. This has been a very cleanly wrestled match. Both men roll in the ring at the 9 count. Kidd goes for the Sharpshooter and Neville escapes, but turns it into a shoulder submission. Kidd goes up top and hits a somersault leg drop on Neville who was draped on the second rope. Kidd's facial expressions are a little on the weak side, but his performance here otherwise has been flawless. Neville tries twice to stop Kidd on the top rope, with no luck but on the third attempt, he hits a top rope hurricanrana. Neville goes back up top and hits the Red Arrow and retains his title. This was a really good match, with both men putting on very strong performances. After the match, Neville extends his hand, but Kidd gives him the cold shoulder and limps to the back. 

Match Rating: ****

This was a much stronger show overall compared to Arrival earlier in the year. The roster is a little bit stronger and there are only better days to come. This wasn't a classic like what we will get in the future, but this is a thumbs up show. 

Overall Rating: 74%

Monday Night Raw 6-6-94 Review

Original Airdate: Monday, June 6th, 1994
Struthers Fieldhouse
Youngstown, Ohio

Follow me on Twitter: @WorkTheNetwork

King Of The Ring Lumberjack Qualifying Match
Crush vs. Tatanka

These poor people had to see these two wrestle twice in the same night. We see some of the lumberjacks coming down to kick off the show and Razor Ramon hits IRS with a right hand. Crush takes the early advantage and it's about as boring as you would expect. Crush misses with a knee drop and Tatanka hits an arm drag. That may be the only move of Tatanka's that I really like. We get our first commercial break of the match after the face lumberjacks throw Crush back in the ring. Crush is back in control and gets a nearfall with a backbreaker. I have no idea why this match is still happening. I didn't watch wrestling in 1994, but even 11 year old me would have figured out that Tatanka was going to win since Crush already had a match on the card. Crush hits a kick to the jaw and then goes back to a rest hold when Tatanka kicks out at 2. As I wait for the commercial to end, I just realized that there is no Raw on 6/13. Don't you fear, there is an episode of Superstars though. The lumberjacks start getting into it outside the ring. We're getting to the point where they don't know what else to do other than just let the lumberjacks take cheap shots. Lex Luger comes down and hits Crush with the illegal forearm and throws him back in the ring. Both men are down, but Tatanka rolls over and picks up the victory. The faces all get in the ring with Tatanka. This wasn't as bad as I probably made it out to be, but it wasn't very interesting until the ending. 

Match Rating: *3/4

It's time for a King Of The Ring Report. We get the final tournament bracket with Tatanka in it. Bret Hart is fired up about Diesel attacking him. Oh great, more *ksssssh* Roddy Piper promos. 

Well apparently there is no Raw because there is a Countdown To The Crowning where the Headshrinkers take on the Quebecers. Of course that's not on Peacock. Based on a review I just read, maybe it's for the best that it's not on there. 

Bam Bam Bigelow vs. John Paul

John Paul avoids a splash and works on the shoulder of Bam Bam. It doesn't last long before Bam Bam goes to work on Paul. Vince brings up Alundra Blayze, just so we can remember that a women's division actually exists. Paul goes for a sunset flip and gets a 1 count. Bam Bam hits a clothesline and a spinning splash for the victory. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

It's time for the King's Court. He brings out a scrub dressed up as Roddy Piper and does a pretty poor Piper impersonation. This goes how you think it would. This has to be one of the worst feuds featuring top guys. 

Razor Ramon vs. Keith Davis

We return from commercial and the match is in progress. I guess that's one way to try to trick us into thinking this is live. This is a pretty quick one that of course ends with the Razor's Edge. Nothing to see here. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

They show the Paul Bearer promo of him saying that he hasn't made contact with Undertaker. Ted DiBiase says that he will produce the Undertaker on Superstars. 

This wasn't a very strong episode this week, as we are just treading water until King Of The Ring. It doesn't help that the Lawler/Piper story is so weak either. It would be nice if they devoted more of that time to Diesel/Bret. 

Overall Rating: 41%

Superstars 6-4-94 Review

Original Airdate: Saturday, June 4th, 1994
Knickerbocker Arena
Albany, New York

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After a recap of the Adam Bomb saga, we go right into a Live Event report to hype up the Hall Of Fame. 

Nikolai Volkoff vs. Derec Domino

Best I can tell, for some reason the Mabel vs. Iron Mike Sharpe match is not on the Peacock version of this episode. I can't imagine why they would have even spent the time to take that out. They continue the storyline of DiBiase trying to make Volkoff more aggressive and he unleashes on Domino at the end and puts on the Boston Crab for the victory. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

Paul Bearer says that DiBiase is a liar because he hasn't even had contact with Undertaker. 

Kwang vs. Adam Bomb

Kwang attacks Bomb on his way into the ring and hits him with a spin kick. Bomb basically no sells it and they start brawling on the mat. They roll out of the ring and Harvey Wippleman is on his way to the ring. Back in the ring, Kwang hits a clothesline in the corner. Bomb already looks like he's blown up. Kwang goes for a back body drop, but Bomb hits him with a boot and then a clothesline. A right hand sends Kwang out of the ring and Harvey directs him to leave the match, with Bomb winning by countout. Well, that was pointless. The match didn't really have a flow either. 

Match Rating: 1/2*

Tatanka vs. Reno Riggins

Tatanka hits some chops and some hip tosses. Lawler and Vince hype up the big Crush/Tatanka Lumberjack Match. Meanwhile, Riggins hits a reverse elbow and makes a racially insensitive joke in front of the camera. Tatanka battles back with some chops and hits the Samoan Drop for the victory. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

It's time for a King Of The Ring Report. Jim Cornette tries to convince us that Yokozuna and Crush need the Tag Team Championships. Roddy Piper does an interview from his house. It's all about the kids. 

Phil Apollo vs. Owen Hart

We get a smooth talking guest announcer who thinks he is the Fink. Owen hits a nice missile dropkick, as he warms up for the biggest night of his career. He slaps on the Sharpshooter and that is all. After the match, Owen puts Bret's sunglasses on Apollo and snaps them in his face. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

We get a recap of Bret Hart getting attacked by Diesel and Shawn Michaels on the King's Court. We get studio interviews from all three men after. Bret says that he is going to have a family member in his corner to watch his back at King Of The Ring. 

Quebecers vs. Tony Roy & Tim McNeany

There's actually a kid in the audience with a Quebecers shirt. NEED. The Quebecers drop their opponent on his neck on the top rope. The Quebecers are in a bad mood from losing their titles. It's too bad their time is almost done here. Jacques hits an Alabama Slam and puts him in a Boston Crab, while Pierre hits a top rope leg drop for the victory. God, I love this team. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

Stan Lane hypes up the D-Day Challenge tug of war competition. 

Don't forget, Tatanka will face Crush and we'll have footage of the D-Day Challenge. Lawler will have Piper as his guest on King's Court. We then go back to DiBiase and he says that next week he'll give us the Undertaker. He then tells McMahon to put that in his pipe and smoke it. Really?

This wasn't as strong of an episode as they have been having here on Superstars, but it still flew by. We're at the point where there isn't anything new being announced for the pay-per-view and that's when I get to the point where I just want to see the show. 

Overall Rating: 43%

Smackdown 6-2-06 Review

Original Airdate: Friday, June 2nd, 2006
Rose Garden Arena
Portland, Oregon

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We kick off the show with the announcement of Miz being the new host of SmackDown. He announces that the main event is King Booker vs. Lashley and Great Khali will be a guest on Piper's Pit. He also announces that Kurt Angle will have his farewell match with Rey Mysterio. 

Kurt Angle vs. Rey Mysterio

Paul Heyman joins the announce team here to talk about his top draft pick. Angle continues to show off his more aggressive side as he heads over to the Extreme brand. Angle's shoulder runs into the ring post, but quickly recovers and we have a commercial break. Angle takes things to the mat and wears down Mysterio. Mysterio comes back and hits a dropkick, but Angle then hits him with a belly-to-belly suplex for a 2 count. Rey hits the sliding headscissors on the outside of the ring, which is always so smooth. Mysterio hits the springboard senton for a 2 count. Angle hits a release German suplex and it sends Rey flying. Angle is able to hit the Angle Slam, but Rey is able to get his foot on the bottom rope. He goes for the Angle Slam again, but Rey counters and hits the 619. Rey goes up top, but Angle runs up there to go for the suplex. Rey blocks it and goes for a sunset flip powerbomb. That gets blocked and Angle puts on the Ankle Lock. We get a bunch of counters and then it leads to Angle hitting a belly-to-belly suplex over the top and to the floor. That leads to Rey getting counted out, which sucks. There's no way Angle's character would want a countout. On the positive side, this was a really good TV match featuring two of the best in the company. 

Match Rating: ***1/2

Batista is returning in 35 days. 

Lashley talks about winning the US Championship and that he looks forward to earning respect. 

Nunzio is working out backstage and he tells a writer that he needs Nunzio in his corner for his match tonight. 

Matt Hardy vs. Nunzio

It really is crazy how little they had for Hardy during the prime years of his career. Hardy hits a cool version of a sit down powerbomb, when he pulls Nunzio up from the corner of the ring. Nunzio gets in a little bit of offense here and hits a seated dropkick for a 2 count. Hardy fights back with the clothesline and a bulldog. Hardy is still pretty over with the live crowds. Hardy hits the Twist Of Fate and that is all. Out comes Vito and he's wearing a dress. Nunzio freaks out and heads to the back. This match got more time than you would have expected. 

Match Rating: 3/4*

The Miz introduces Roddy Piper for Piper's Pit. Piper brings out Khali. Piper tries to be funny here, but is unsuccessful. He stands on the ropes to try to go eye to eye with Khali and he grabs him by the throat. Piper and Daivari start yelling at each other and Piper slaps him. Khali starts choking Piper and hits him with the chop. This was not good TV. 

Ashley is out to be a guest commentator. 

Jillian vs. Kristal 

Jillian starts off in control and hits a cartwheel elbow drop for a 2 count. Jillian messes up Kristals hair and gets her up for an electric chair. Kristal tries to counter it into a victory roll, but Jillian stops the roll through and gets the pinfall victory. Out comes Michelle McCool and she says that as a former teacher, she's here to teach them how to be a real lady. Yeah, the women's division sucked on SmackDown. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

Mark Henry vs. Paul Burchill

The Paul Burchill burial tour continues. He hits the World's Strongest Slam and that's about it. He then attacks Burchill after the match and drives him into the ring post 3 times in a row. Burchill is bleeding from the mouth, as Henry keeps attacking him. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

Mr. Kennedy returns to SmackDown next week. 

Finlay vs. Caden Matthews

Finlay hits a short armed clothesline and dumps Matthews out of the ring. He drives him into the apron and gets dragged under the ring. Finlay pulls him back out and throws him in the ring. Finlay hits the Celtic Cross and gets the quick victory. Finlay goes under the ring and brings out Hornswoggle and he attacks Matthews. the original variation of Hornswoggle really was great. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

We find out that Sabu will challenge Rey Mysterio for the World Heavyweight Championship. Tazz then addresses Jerry Lawler and challenges him to a match at the show. 

United States Championship Match
King Booker vs. Bobby Lashley

The number of times that William Regal shouts "All hail, King Booker" is so ridiculous. They are showing a lot more fan shots during this episode than I can remember. After like 10 minutes of entrances, things start off slowly. We get a lot of two moves from Lashley, two moves from Booker type of offense. Lashley goes for the Spear, but he runs into a knee. He picks up Booker and hits a running powerslam and picks up the victory. Seriously? After the match, Regal attacks Lashley. Out comes Finlay and he joins in. Booker hits the Book End. Lashley starts to fight back again, but Booker hits him with a Scissors Kick. Booker grabs a mic and tells Lashley to bow down to him and Finlay and Regal make it happen. They then make him kiss his feet and we go off the air. This wasn't much of a match and I'm not really sure I understand the logic there. 

Match Rating: *

There was a ton of filler on this episode after the really good opening match. There was just never anything that interesting on the show, as SmackDown waits for there to be something to build to. 

Overall Rating: 47%

Monday Night Raw 5-29-06 Review

Monday, May 29th, 2006
Tacoma Dome
Tacoma, Washinigton

Follow me on Twitter: @WorkTheNetwork2

We get a Memorial Day tribute to kick things off. 

Vince McMahon is down now and he shows us from 2 weeks ago when Shane was knocked out. He now claims that Shawn Michaels was taken out last week by the Spirit Squad and shows us the highlights from last week. He then turns to Triple H and says that he will face Kenny tonight. Vince announces that he hasn't been able to find a new GM, but announces he has a new executive assistant and it's Coach. Coach announces that John Cena will face someone he has never faced before. He also announces that there will be a #1 contender match between Edge and Big Show to face the WWE Champion at Vengeance. Plus, Shelton Benjamin will defend his Intercontinental Championship against Kane. 

Intercontinental Championship Match
Kane vs. Shelton Benjamin

We go to a quick commercial break and when we come back Shelton is in control thanks to shoving Kane into the ring post during the commercial break. It doesn't last long, as Kane hits him with a big boot. Kane hits a side suplex and heads up to the top rope. He hits the clothesline and signals for the chokeslam. Shelton counters out of it and almost steals a victory by using the ropes for leverage. Kane kicks out and tries to put him up for the Tombstone. Shelton counters into a DDT and hits the splash in the corner. He goes for a second time, but Kane catches him by the throat and he hits a chokeslam. The lights start flashing and the Kane mask is on the Titan Tron. His old music hits and out comes a guy who looks more like he's dressed up as him for Halloween than a lookalike. The new Kane hits the old Kane with a chokeslam and does the ringpost pyro. God, the old Kane music is so much better than the crappy version from this era. We get no ring announcement here and just go off the air. The match wasn't much, but at least they let Shelton look fairly strong here. 

Match Rating: *

Coach is looking for Triple H and Carlito is of no help. Armando Alejandro Estrrrrrrrrrrada said if he can be of any help, to let him know. Viscera then shoves him up against the wall and tells him that having Umaga getting into his business was a big mistake and he's seeking revenge. 

Vince is with Triple H and he says that he was just trying to do what he was told. Vince tells him that in his match Kenny will be a Spiritjack match with all 4 Spirit Squad members in each corner. Triple H says he'll destroy Kenny tonight and he might just need to bring a friend with him. 

Viscera vs. Umaga

Umaga attacks Viscera from behind on his way down to the ring and slams him face-first into the steel ramp. Umaga hits a top rope splash and a Samoan Spike and that is all. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

Torrie Wilson & Beth Phoenix vs. Victoria & Candice Michelle

After trading right hands, Beth hits a side suplex on Victoria. Torrie comes in and hits a clothesline in the corner and then a stinkface. Candice comes in and hits a Vader Bomb. Victoria misses with a leg drop and in comes Beth. Beth hits some clotheslines and a gutwrench suplex. Victoria gets knocked onto Mickie and Beth hits a Michinoku Driver for the victory. The crowd did not care about this at all. 

Match Rating: 1/2*

Jerry Lawler is on the live arena mic and starts making fun of Tazz until RVD's music hits and joins the announce table. He and Lawler go back and forth for a little bit until it's unveiled that Johnny Nitro and Melina are on Raw. 

Johnny Nitro vs. John Cena

This has nothing to do with anything, but apparently other than Stomping Grounds, WWE has not had a televised show at the Tacoma Dome since this show. File that under things that only I care about. Nitro avoids Cena in the corner and hits a nice springboard dropkick. I'm not sure the best way to debut Nitro was against Cena with Lawler and RVD completely ignoring the match. Cena makes his comeback and hits his spinning side powerbomb. Cena is more over here in Tacoma than most other spots. He hits the Five Knuckle Shuffle and the FU. He locks in the STFU and Nitro jobs on his Raw debut. Make sense?  Nope. The match was entertaining for a short match, but it made Nitro look like a jobber. 

Match Rating: *1/2

After the match, Cena and RVD are having words and Nitro tries to attack Cena. Cena moves out of the way and throws him into RVD and knocks him off the apron. 

We have Mick Foley and Paul Heyman in the ring for a debate. Foley is all fired up here and taking shots at the ECW roster. Heyman says that he doesn't resent Foley for what he has done, but he resents what Foley has become. Paul Heyman then announces that he has drafted Kurt Angle from SmackDown because he is what the new ECW is all about. Angle is here and attacks Foley. Apparently somewhere along the way they announced that ECW would be coming back. It must have been a WWE.com announcement? This was entertaining as you would expect from these two. The Angle announcement was surprising at the time, but obviously ended up being short-lived. 

#1 Contender Match
Big Show vs. Edge

Big Show destroys Edge with some slaps to the chest and a big boot. Edge bumps around for a bit before hitting a tornado DDT from the second rope. Edge brings in a chair, but Show punches it out of his hand. Lita comes in and hits a low blow from behind. Edge then jabs the chair into the jaw of Show and hits the Spear for the victory. I wouldn't say that having a 3 minute match is the best way to make a #1 contender spot feel important, but I'm not complaining that it wasn't some 20 minute epic either. 

Match Rating: *1/2

Vince confronts Triple H backstage and wishes him the best of luck and takes away his sledgehammer. 

Spiritjack Match
Kenny vs. Triple H

We get lots of shenanigans right off the bat and it leads to Triple H sending Kenny over the top rope as we head into a commercial break. Kenny gets in some offense after some distractions and interference until Triple H plants him with a DDT. It's short-lived because two of the Spiritjacks give Triple H a low blow on the ring post. Triple H overcomes more odds though and hits the Pedigree for the victory. As soon as the bell rings, they all jump him and taunt him outside the ring. Triple H pulls out a sledgehammer from by the timekeeper and chases them off. Out comes Vince and he invites him next week to join his favorite club as we go off the air. The Spirit Squad is getting really old, really fast. 

Match Rating: *3/4

Outside of the Foley/Heyman segment, there really wasn't a whole lot to write home about on this episode. For whatever reason, this was an entertaining show for the most part and I'm not really sure why. I still don't get why they introduced Nitro the way they did, but that was really the main negative. 

Overall Rating: 57%