SmackDown 6-1-07 Review

Original Airdate: Friday, June 1st, 2007
John Labatt Centre
London, Ontario, Canada

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MVP & Miz vs. Chris Benoit & Matt Hardy

Well, Matt Hardy is in the match, so you know it will get some time. We continue to get closer to the Miz actually meaning something in WWE with the draft coming up. Sometimes I don't really feel like recapping the action and this is one of those times. Sometimes it's just kind of nice to watch the match and take it in. They do a nice little ending segment that features a dive from Hardy onto MVP to the outside and Benoit putting on the Crossface on Miz. After losing cleanly to MVP at Judgment Day, it's only natural that they would give him a win here over the weak link of the match. This was solid tag team action. 

Match Rating: **1/2

Hornswoggle is shown backstage with Finlay getting ready for his match against Little Boogeyman. 

Jillian vs. Michelle McCool

What a treat. I am a big supporter of women's wrestling and it's good that they are giving the ladies television time here. However, McCool was not ready to be in the ring and this really served no purpose. They are basically being set up to fail here. Don't get me wrong, they have trotted out much worse than McCool is here, but why not have here train a little longer? Jillian hits a leg drop out of a cartwheel and loses it when she doesn't win. Out comes Ashley and that distracts her so that McCool can hit a spinning backbreaker for the victory. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

Boogeyman is now with Little Boogeyman. 

Little Boogeyman vs. Hornswoggle

Little Boogeyman puts a worm in Hornswoggle's hat and puts it on his head. This is what we're dealing with here. Boogeyman hands Little Boogeyman a huge handful of worms and throws them in Hornswoggle's face. Hornswoggle comes back with some green mist to the face. Hornswoggle then kicks Little Boogeyman out of the ring. Finlay then comes from under the ring and levels him with a right hand. He throws him back in the ring and Boogeyman comes to make the save. Hornswoggle then hits a leap off the apron onto Boogeyman. This allows Finlay to hit Little Boogeyman with the shillelagh and Hornswoggle hits the Tadpole Splash for the victory. I can't stand Boogeyman, but Finlay in this role is so good. 

Match Rating: 1/2*

We get a Mark Henry hype video for his match with Kane. God help me. 

More Randy Orton/Rob Van Dam hype. I guess that's what happens when you have two pay per views just two weeks apart.

Kane vs. Mark Henry

Kane is a moron. I don't know how else to convey how little I care about this match. Watching Kane wrestle just makes me miserable. Just to make this worse, they don't even let Mark Henry beat him clean. They have to do a countout victory. Henry caught Kane off the apron and then drove him into the ring post. 

Match Rating: 0 Stars

Kristal is with Edge to ask about The Cutting Edge with Batista later on. He says that he's the champion and he's not intimidated by Batista.

Deuce, Domino and Cherry are with some random interview guy that I don't remember. He asks about the draft and I have to say I smiled when he made a joke about the draft for the war. They try to hype up that anyone can be split up with the draft. 

Triple Threat Match For The WWE Tag Team Championships
London & Kendrick vs. William Regal & Dave Taylor vs. Deuce 'n Domino 

We actually get a commercial break for this match, so that's a big win. I wonder if this match was cut from One Night Stand so they just threw it on here? This is a good combination of a mat wrestling team, a high flying team and a character team. They are slowly winning over the crowd because of it too. I honestly can't believe that Dave Taylor lasted this long. They naturally isolate London and Kendrick since they are your bumpers. London finally gets a hot tag, which is always fun. London goes up top, but Deuce distracts the referee and Cherry shoves him off the top rope for the victory. This was a nice little match that slowly built to that finish. I'm a little surprised that the champs retained here, but I honestly can't remember what happened to these titles after they won them. 

Match Rating: **3/4

Great, they just announced Mark Henry vs. Kane in a lumberjack match at One Night Stand. I think I remember that one and it sucked. I may be half assuming. Have they even mentioned Saturday Night's Main Event tomorrow? Maybe I just didn't catch it. The card for One Night Stand sucks big time. 

We go back to Teddy Long, Vickie Guerrero and Kristal. Kristal is all worried that she might be separated in the draft. Kristal asks if Teddy would be willing to leave his job as SmackDown GM in order to be with her? He says that he loves her so much that he would. Vickie then says that she would run the show to the best of her abilities and tells Teddy and Kristal to head out early tonight. They then show Edge heading to the ring for The Cutting Edge. 

Edge brings out his guest, Batista and asks him to have a seat. Edge doubles down on not being intimidated since he beat Batista already. Batista takes off his jacket after Edge implies that he's intimidated of him. Things get pretty cheesy from there and then Edge shoves Batista. Batista then hits him with a right hand and tells him he should be afraid of him. And that's it...? That was a lame segment. 

This show featured two matches worth your time and just about everything else was worthless. I mean, I guess that's par for the course, but it felt very apparent on this show. One Night Stand is one of the worst builds for a show that you will ever see and the card is trash to match. There isn't a whole lot to be excited about these days.

Overall Rating: 43%

ECW 5-29-07 Review

Tuesday, May 29th, 2007
John Labatt Centre
London, Ontario, Canada

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Randy Orton is out to start the show because this is ECW. He shows the footage of what he did to Rob Van Dam on Raw. He announces that he'll be taking on RVD in a stretcher match at One Night Stand. Out comes Tommy Dreamer to stand up for his friend. He tells him that he's not welcome here, but he wants him in a match tonight and Orton accepts. He claims he will kill the legend of ECW. 

No Disqualification Match
CM Punk vs. Elijah Burke

Let's see if they can improve upon their Judgment Day match here. It feels like I watched that forever ago and that's probably because it was. NFL has definitely cut into my retro wrestling time. It doesn't help that this stretch of 2007 is not very good. We get an early commercial break and then see that Punk missed with a leap and then was driven into the ring post. Burke hits his nice looking running top rope handstand elbow drop thingy, as he continues to work on Punk's ribs. Burke sets up a table in the corner and that allows Punk to fight back. Punk hits the running knee in the corner, but Burke counters the bulldog into a back suplex. Punk snaps Burke's neck on the top rope and goes for the springboard clothesline, but Punk legit slips. Punk goes for Go To Sleep but out comes Marcus Cor Von with a chair. Punk fights him off and rolls down his knee pads. He goes for an Elijah Express, but Burke blocks it. Punk is able to throw Burke out of the way and Cor Von hits Punk with the Pounce through the table. Burke covers him and picks up the victory. I was hoping for a little bit better between the two and the finish was a foregone conclusion given the stipulation. 

Match Rating: **

We go to Vince McMahon live in a studio. He makes fun of Joey and Tazz's names. He brings up Lashley and he is also live in another studio. Lashley laughs when Vince says he was brought up in the streets and tells him he had a silver spoon in his mouth. Ironically, neither are true. This is terrible. Lashley wasn't good in these situations yet at this point of his career and Vince is just so stale as a character. This feud can't end soon enough. 

We get more of the Rob Van Dam/Randy Orton feud. 

It's time for Extreme Exposé. They dance. 

Kevin Thorn vs. Balls Mahoney

Great. Thorn is without Ariel. Thorn throws Balls into the ring post because he's so serious now. He hits his sit down spinebuster and Original Sin for the easy victory. Whatever.

Match Rating: 1/4*

The Major Brothers are talking about RVD and in walks Matt Striker. Striker says that if RVD was smart, he wouldn't show up at One Night Stand. Striker then hypes up the draft and hints at splitting them up. Striker challenges one of the Major Brothers for next week. This was pretty poor television. 

Randy Orton vs. Tommy Dreamer

This match should be a 5 minute spring of a brawl. Instead, it's at a crawl almost instantly. Orton dropkicks Dreamer off the apron and to the floor. Dreamer is able to hit a superplex and then some right hands. Dreamer avoids a dropkick and gets a 2 count. Dreamer hits a bulldog and a sit down spinebuster. He sets up Orton in the tree of woe and hits the running dropkick. Dreamer hits an inverted DDT and gets another 2 count. Dreamer goes for the DDT, but Orton is able to hit the RKO and pick up the win. I'm surprised Dreamer got in as much offense as he did given that Orton is getting a big push right now, but in the end no one will remember that this match existed. After the match, Orton hits Dreamer with another RKO. Orton hits the punt for good measure. Out comes RVD and Orton takes care of him quickly and RVD is selling the concussion again. 

Match Rating: *

This was another ho hum episode. I suppose that's better than why does this exist ECW, which is a lot of weeks also. Nothing important happened here and they just continue to rush into too many things like Saturday Night's Main Event, One Night Stand and the draft. 

Overall Rating: 38%

Monday Night Raw 5-28-07

Monday, May 28th, 2007 
Air Canada Centre
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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We get a Memorial Day tribute before we start our show that is starting in Toronto, which makes sense. 

Memorial Day Bikini Beach Blast Battle Royal

Your contestants here are Candice Michelle, Mickie James, Maria, Jillian, Kelly Kelly, Brooke, Layla, Michelle McCool, Kristal and Melina. There are squirt guns, water balloons and noodles in the ring. So obviously this is really good. For some reason Layla is wearing high heels. Kelly Kelly gets thrown out between the first and second rope and I guess that doesn't matter. Melina and Michelle McCool are the last two remaining. McCool wins. I couldn't have cared any less about this if I tried.

Match Rating: 0 Stars

Shane McMahon is on his way to the ring and Jerry Lawler hypes up a major announcement. 

Shane is out after the commercial break and in 2 weeks we are going to have the first ever tri-branded draft. He also says that he's going to pin Lashley in the main event tonight. 

The Hardy's, Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch vs. The World's Greatest Tag Team, Johnny Nitro & Kenny Dykstra

We get pretty standard action to start and we get a random top rope dive to the floor from...Trevor Murdoch. That naturally leads us to our commercial break. Didn't expect that though. When we come back, the heels take control. Nitro hits his nice double team move when Jeff is on Dykstra's knees and Nitro hits an slingshot elbow. Shelton hits a nice kid to the head, but it's not enough to get Jeff out. After a heel beatdown segment, the Hardy's do their thing and hit the Twist Of Fate/Swanton combo for the victory. They celebrate together until Shelton grabs a mic and tells everyone not to go anywhere. He says that they won, but they didn't beat them. He challenges the Hardy's for the titles at One Night Stand. Matt says they'll give them a match, but it will be a ladder match. This made no sense back in 2007 other than to have Shelton and Jeff in the same ladder match. Since they don't really care about the tag team division (although they have been putting in a better effort lately), this is kind of a why not? moment. This match was not bad and got more time than I expected. 

Match Rating: **1/4

We get a WrestleMania 24 is coming to Orlando commercial. 

John Cena is with Todd Grisham and is asked if he is scared of Great Khali. He then mocks Khali's speaking and says that it translates to that he isn't afraid. 

Maria is with Santino Marella. We get a lame joke about his accent and then Randy Orton comes out to interrupt. He has no respect for Rob Van Dam and he will truly enjoy what he does to him tonight. 

Rob Van Dam vs. Randy Orton

We get a little bit of a slow start, which means they are likely getting some time. RVD starts to get the best of Orton, but Orton is able to roll out of the ring when he goes for Rolling Thunder. Orton is able to turn that into some offense of his own. RVD leaps up on the top rope and Orton is able to dropkick him to the floor and into the commercial break. It then turns into your usual slow paced Orton match. Orton misses with a dropkick and RVD hits Rolling Thunder. RVD gets a nearfall and then tries to leap up top and slips a little bit. He shows some signs of a head injury, but then hits Orton with a single leg kick off the top and to the floor. Orton comes back with the DDT on the ropes, but RVD kicks out at 2. The ref checks in on RVD and he's selling a concussion. The referee stops the match and calls for help. Orton hits an RKO on him while he's doing so. I get they were going for drama, but this was so dull. They had a big arena full of people and they went with the slow kill here and it just didn't work for me. 

Match Rating: 3/4*

Ric Flair & Torrie Wilson vs. Carlito & Victoria

This is an intergender tag match, so the men can wrestle the women. Pretty quickly into the match, you have Victoria giving Flair chops and then him putting on the Figure Four. She reverses it and tags in Carlito. Torrie gets a hot tag and hits a series of clotheslines on Victoria. Carlito hits Flair with a chop block outside the ring. Torrie hits a facebuster, but Carlito breaks up the pin attempt. Carlito gets tagged in and kisses Torrie. She hits him with a slap, but then he hits the Backstabber for the victory. Obviously this was an intergender match for a reason. This was short and only existed to get Carlito over as a heel. 

Match Rating: 1/2*

Umaga and Great Khali are yelling nonsense to each other. Shane comes in and talks strategy before more yelling. 

We come back and Maria is still doing the Kiss Cam. Obviously that means an angle is going to happen and it's Chris Masters coming down. Yes, he still works here. He took notice of Maria flirting with Santino. He calls out Santino and wants to see if he can get out of the Master Lock. He doesn't show, but then Masters hints at putting it on Maria instead and out comes Santino. They start brawling and it leads to the Master Lock being put on. The crowd actually starts chanting for Santino, but Masters throws him to the mat and Santino sells the effects. 

Umaga, Great Khali & Shane McMahon vs. John Cena & Bobby Lashley

Apparently there is a Saturday Night's Main Event this week. They taped it at this show, so that kind of explains the smaller pop than usual for these guys. We get a quick heat segment on Cena, so I guess Lashley gets to be the hero tonight. It's probably going to happen soon, since we are under 5 minutes left in the show. Cena is able to get his chance with Shane and then tags in Lashley. The match breaks down and the heels once again regain control. Khali hits his double handed chokeslam. Shane tags in and hits a top rope elbow for the victory over Lashley. That was decisive. Vince then comes out to congratulate Shane and team when we go off the air. This was nothing other than to remind you that Khali is a beast. 

Match Rating: 3/4*

This wasn't particularly good, but I guess it wasn't terrible either. That's a win for this era. There isn't anything that really stood out for me on this episode, but I've seen much worse than this. I do think they missed an opportunity for Orton and RVD to have a really good match before the angle, but that's me. 

Overall Rating: 44%

Off The Grid, Volume 52: Survivor Series 1988 Review

Thursday, November 24th, 1988
Richfield Coliseum
Richfield Township, Ohio

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Off The Grid, Volume 52:

I still am kind of surprised I haven't done this show yet, but there were a lot of Survivor Series to go through. Of all the arenas they ran for multiple pay per views, Richfield Coliseum is one of the more random ones. Jesse Ventura in a pilgrim hat and Gorilla Monsoon are our hosts tonight.

Ultimate Warrior, Brutus Beefcake, Blue Blazer, Sam Houston & Jim Brunzell vs. Honky Tonk Man, Danny Davis, Greg Valentine, Ron Bass & Bad News Brown

They sure did not stack Warrior's team here. I like the blue tights with the yellow boots here for Valentine. Beefcake slaps on the sleeper hold on Davis and that's all that takes. Per Wikipedia, he lasted all of 78 seconds. They wisely keep things quick here, with lots of tags and no dull spots. Brown hits the Ghetto Blaster and Brunzell is eliminated. That seemed like a foregone conclusion. Sam Houston seems like the next foregone conclusion and he runs into a big boot from Brown. Brown holds Houston up, but Houston ducks and Valentine accidentally hits Brown. Brown doesn't like it and decides to walk away and is counted out. They all beat up on Houston and Bass finally hits a powerslam to eliminate him. Warrior is finally in the match and destroying everyone. He hits the shoulder tackle on Honky and then launches Blue Blazer off the top rope onto Bass, who kicks out at 2. We get a mess up on a leap from Blazer onto Valentine's head. Blazer goes up top, but Honky shoves him off and Valentine gets the shin guard flipped around. He slaps on the Figure Four and Blazer is gone. Honky goes off the top and gets hit in the midsection by Beefcake on the way down. Beefcake slaps on the sleeper and they roll out of the ring. They start brawling and Beefcake slaps on the sleeper again. Both men are counted out, leaving it as a two on one for Warrior. As you would expect, Warrior overcomes the double team and eliminates Bass. He hits a double ax handle and that's enough to get rid of Valentine and making Warrior your sole survivor. This started off really strong and lost a little bit of momentum as it went on. It was still a pretty enjoyable match overall though. 

Match Rating: **3/4

Demolition, Brain Busters, Bolsheviks, Conquistadores & Fabulous Rougeaus vs. Powers Of Pain, Young Stallions, Hart Foundation, British Bulldogs & Rockers

The ring has been specially reinforced. I am shocked that Vince would ever agree to pay this many people for one match. The only thing that doesn't make sense about this match is how far around the ring each team member is. You can basically make a tag from just about anywhere. I'm not even going to try and bother to recap this one. We get a fairly quick elimination when Bret gets a small package on Raymond Rougeau. Apparently they were eliminated early because of the heat with Dynamite Kid and this gave them a chance to leave the arena. Dynamite seemed like a great guy. Things are pretty sloppy for the most part here. It doesn't help that they can barely run the ropes. Jim Powers gets eliminated by Boris Zhukov, which is a pretty good sign that you're going nowhere. The Rockers use a blind tag on Zhukov and eliminate him with a sunset flip. The managers have not played a role in this match so far. We get a pretty lengthy stretch with no eliminations until Bret hits a German suplex into a pin and Blanchard gets his shoulder up, but Bret doesn't. I'm surprised Bret was fine with that finish. We get another double elimination with the Rockers and Brain Busters, this time as a disqualification. Having that happen two matches in a row seems a little repetitive. I have never really figured out why the Conquistadores made it as long as they did in this match. Just as I type that, Gorilla and Jesse say the same thing. Gorilla puts it at 100 to 1 that they are the last team standing. Dynamite misses with a top rope headbutt and Smash hits him with a clothesline to eliminate him. Mr. Fuji just randomly gets on the apron and just keeps swinging his cane at nothing. Smash runs the ropes and Fuji lowers the middle rope and he falls through it. He is counted out and Ax is out to confront him. They get into an argument and they slam Fuji to the floor. Powers of Pain then go outside to check on Fuji and help him up. Gorilla and Jesse are onto it and Fuji is now in their corner. Fuji trips up one of the Conquistadores and Barbarian hits a headbutt for the victory. The crowd cheers out of habit, but they immediately celebrate with Fuji. Out comes Demolition and they attack the victors. The crowd isn't quite sure how to react here. This was a looonnng match. A lot of the action was pretty good, but it just took forever and I'm not really sure Fuji executed that finish as good as he should have. 

Match Rating: ***

Sean Mooney is with Bad News Brown and he lets us know that he smelled a conspiracy because everyone wants to be the first to beat him. He wants a shot at Randy Savage's WWF Championship. 

Mean Gene is with Mr. Fuji and Powers of Pain. Mr. Fuji says that he made Demolition. 

Mean Gene is now with Bobby Heenan's team. After two lackluster interviews, this was more the style we are used to. 

Sean Mooney is now with the Mega Powers team. It's kind of odd to see Koko B. Ware and Hercules mixed in with the main event level. 

Jake Roberts, Jim Duggan, Scott Casey, Ken Patera & Tito Santana vs. Andre The Giant, Dino Bravo, Mr. Perfect, Harley Race & Rick Rude

Lots of punching and kicking in this one. This really is the prefect type of match for a guy like Duggan. He brings good energy in his spots and doesn't have to do too much. On the other hand, did anyone care about Scott Casey? Ken Patera is eliminated by Rude and no one cares. Patera is about as dull of a wrestler as they ever had in the Hogan era. Bravo then eliminates Casey and no one cares about that either. Tito hits the flying forearm on Race and gets him out of there. Andre finally gets in there and surprisingly shows some pretty good intensity here. He just sits on Tito and that's enough to eliminate my guy. Duggan charges in and we get the tied in the ropes spot. The crowd loves this and then Jake gets his chance to get some right hands in. After taking a beating, Jake finally tags in Duggan and sends Dino soaring with a back body drop. Jim Duggan then does what he does best, which is lose by DQ, leaving Jake all by himself against four opponents. Bravo and Rude take advantage of the situation, but all it takes for Jake is to pull down Rude's pants and he then hits the DDT to eliminate him. Andre comes in with a vengeance and starts choking the life out of Jake. He refuses to break the hold and gets disqualified. He hits him with a headbutt on the way out and Mr. Perfect runs in and pins him to score the victory for him and Bravo. Jake goes and grabs the bag with Damian and throws it in the ring. No one is in there, so he carries it towards Andre and he heads to the back. Once they got rid of the no namers, things picked up, but not enough to make this anything really special. This may have been Andre's last good performance though. 

Match Rating: **1/4

Mean Gene is with the heel team of your main event. Akeem isn't wearing his hat and looks like he just left a wedding. Who in the world thought it would be a good idea for the Red Rooster to be on this team? 

Akeem, Big Boss Man, Ted DiBiase, King Haku & Red Rooster vs. Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Koko B. Ware, Hillbilly Jim & Hercules

As you would expect, the crowd is crazy into this, so that automatically scores some points. Koko hits a missile dropkick on Rooster, but he surprisingly kicks out. So Hogan comes in and hits him with a big boot. He tags in Savage and he hits a top rope elbow drop for the easy elimination. Hillbilly gets in some offense on Akeem, but the momentum quickly changes after Akeem hits a clothesline. He hits the 747 and eliminates Hillbilly. The Twin Towers move onto Koko and Boss Man hits the Boss Man Slam to eliminate him. Hogan and Boss Man are in there now. Hogan gets him up for the slam, but Boss Man comes back with a spinebuster. We get some more tags, leading to Hercules and DiBiase in there. Virgil trips up Hercules and that's enough of a distraction for DiBiase to roll him up and eliminate him. Savage then does the same to DiBiase and now he's gone too. We get a Hogan arm drop scenario with Haku's dreaded nerve hold. After that fails, Boss Man hits the Boss Man Slam. Being the intelligent heel that he is, he decides to celebrate instead of pinning him. He goes for a top rope splash and Hogan is able to move out of the way. Hogan gets the hot tag to Savage, but it doesn't last long thanks to Slick. Slick then goes after Elizabeth. Hogan chases after Slick, but it backfires when Boss Man handcuffs Hogan to the bottom rope. Boss Man is counted out in the process and then hits Hogan with the nightstick. Boss Man then goes and helps with Savage and that gets Akeem disqualified. Hogan is still handcuffed and Haku was taking care of him. Regardless it's Savage and Hogan against Haku, so even though they tried for drama, no one in the arena thinks Hogan is losing. Slick and Heenan get knocked out and Elizabeth is able to retrieve the keys for the handcuffs. Savage is getting beat down by Haku and hits a top rope splash for a 2 count. Savage is able to make a tag to Hogan and he does his usual for the easy victory. Despite the predictability, the overall pacing of the action was well done in this one and the crowd was into just about everything. After the match, Hogan picks up Elizabeth and Savage isn't digging it. The announcers don't make any mention of it and we go off the air. 

Match Rating: ***

This was about what you would expect from a Survivor Series during this era. None of the matches were bad, but nothing really stands out as a must watch either. There were a few odd wrestlers on here, which kind of makes it more of rewarding watch if you are a diehard fan of the era. I can't really go out of my way to recommend the show, but I also can't say anything really bad about the show. It's significantly better than a lot of the Survivor Series shows that you'll get after this one. 

Overall Rating: 54%

Monday Night Raw 9-21-95 Review

Original Airdate: Thursday, September 21st, 1995
Canton Civic Center
Canton, Ohio

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We get a fairly lengthy "Last week on Raw" intro to kick it off. 

1-2-3 Kid vs. Razor Ramon

Kid attacks Razor on his way into the ring and we are underway. Razor hits the second rope fall away slam and gets an early 2. Razor is all over Kid here and is wondering if this is all he has. Kid is able to sidestep Razor and he falls to the floor. Kid hits a slingshot dropkick over the top and throws Razor back in the ring. He hits him with a kick, but Razor has his foot on the bottom rope. He slaps on a sleeper hold and we get a commercial break. When we come back, the sleeper is still on. Razor battles out of it and hits a back suplex. Razor hits a big clothesline in the corner. We then get a collision spot, with the referee also being knocked out. They show the replay for some reason, even though it makes it look like Hebner flopped. Out comes Dean Douglas and he hits a top rope splash on Razor before running away. Kid and the ref crawl back in the ring and we get the slow count for the victory. That was a fun match with a dorky finish. Obviously, we were going to get a finish like that, but you would have thought it was one that would have made Razor look a little better than that. 

Match Rating: **1/4

We then get a Report Card with Dean Douglas and he gives another boring promo with the same formula. 

Kama & Tatanka vs. Savio Vega & Bob Holly

The phrase "dream match" gets thrown around a lot, but I don't think I'm stepping out of line in saying that this isn't one of them. Jerry Lawler says that Holly runs hot, which is maybe the first time I've heard them reference that. We all just think he's a dorky race car driver at this point. Both depictions are accurate. Tatanka pulls Holly's foot off the apron and Savio isn't able to make the tag as a result and Kama takes advantage. They then hit a double boot while Holly is still complaining. Holly again hurts his partner by trying to get in the ring and they isolate Savio in their corner. Tatanka and Savio hit a double clothesline. Both men tag in their partners and Holly is able to hit a missile dropkick. Tatanka breaks up the pin attempt. We get some chaos and then a sloppy finish when Holly goes off the top and Kama is supposed to catch him and hit a body slam. Instead it looks like he just reversed it into a pin and almost injured Holly's neck. This was entertaining enough for what it was. 

Match Rating: *1/4

We get a Razor Ramon interview and he tells Dean Douglas that he's going to carve him up. 

The WrestleMania XI special is on Fox on September 30th. 

Jean Pierre Lafitte vs. Brian Walsh

Walsh gets in a dropkick, but the second one misses. We get Bret Hart on the phone from the set of Lonesome Dove. Just in case you didn't know it was 1995. Bret's talking and Vince is still doing his "Oh!" over top of him for this competitive match. He hits running double knees with Walsh on the second rope. He hits the Canonnball and that's all. Squash.

Match Rating: 1/4*

In Your House is this Sunday.

Men On A Mission vs. Owen Hart & Yokozuna

We get the rare heel vs. heel match here. Owen gets to be the lucky one here and has to bump around for Mabel. Some blessed fan also likely got a big wad of spit on them when Mabel hit the turnbuckle. This one just has a weird dynamic, with Owen and Yoko kind of playing the babyface role. We're getting lots of high voice Vince, which means the crowd is dead. When we come back from commercial, Mabel plays the babyface role, throwing Owen into Yoko. Owen goes up top, but Mo crotches him and hits a superplex. Yoko comes in and knocks Mabel out of the ring. Owen hits a drop toe hold on Mo and Yoko hits the leg drop. Yoko holds Mabel's ankle while Owen picks up the victory. The dynamic was weird, but the action was fine enough considering who was in there. 

Match Rating: *

Shawn Michaels and Diesel cut a promo saying that they will win the Tag Team Championships at In Your House. 

We go back to the ring with the champs. Jim Cornette hypes up that it will be the first time that all three titles will be on the line in the same match. I know I mentioned it before, but I thought this was legitimately one of the coolest ideas. It wasn't enough for me to convince my parents to order the show though. Cornette cuts his usual solid promo before another commercial break. 

Next week, the winner of the triple header match will be here on Raw. Lawler gives his royal prediction and that Yokozuna will be the new WWF Champion. Next week, British Bulldog takes on Undertaker. 

This was a pretty good episode overall. I didn't think they did a great job building to In Your House, but provided an easy to watch episode. 

Overall Rating: 56%

Monday Nitro 9-18-95 Review

Monday, September 18th, 1995 
Freedom Hall
Johnson City, Tennessee

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Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan and Steve McMichael are here to kick it off. Bischoff says that there is an emergency in the back and we go to Mean Gene with an ambulance pulling in. Out comes Kevin Sullivan and Giant. Gene says that if Giant's father was alive, he'd be ashamed. Giant is in Waterboy mode here. 

WCW Tag Team Championship Match
American Males vs. Blue Bloods Harlem Heat

Bobby Eaton was on the way out and Harlem Heat attacks him. Heenan assumes that they already knocked out Steven Regal. Heat are the new champions, winning the title just last night at Fall Brawl. They say they are going to give these two punks a title shot tonight. Sure. They tell us that Nick Bockwinkle is not here, so they're not sure how it will be handled. The Males play the plucky underdogs, as you would expect. Booker is able to hit a big scissor kick and the Heat are dominating. Booker hits a big kick and gets a 2 count on Riggs. We then see a big sign in the crowd that says "We want it Raw!". Bagwell makes a hot tag that isn't so hot. Out comes Colonel Parker and he starts making out with Sherri. He carries her away and Bagwell reverses a body slam into a pin on Booker and they pull of the upset to become new champions. The Heat were clearly the over team, but there is storyline going on and obviously they wanted something at least remotely shocking every week to begin with. I can live with that booking. 

Match Rating: *

Mean Gene is in the ring and brings out Ric Flair. He says that Arn Anderson broke the code by bringing an outsider into their match. He's going to chop Brian Pillman so hard that Boomer Esiason is going to feel it in Long Island. Flair also drops the first curse word. 

This week on Saturday Night it's going to be the rematch everyone wants to see when Sgt. Craig Pittman takes on Cobra. Sometimes I'm glad I can't watch that show. 

Paul Orndorff vs. Johnny B. Badd

Orndorff comes out to new annoying heel music that I had no idea existed. Orndorff looks pretty old at this point. He was just about to turn 46 here, but he looks older than that. Badd apparently had 9 stitches put in after his match with Pillman at Fall Brawl. We get a commercial break before anything exciting happens. Basically nothing happens here and we then get a crap finish that takes forever to get to, where Orndorff counters and grabs the legs for the pin. It didn't seem like anyone was really happy with that. This stunk.

Match Rating: 1/4*

We then go to Randy Savage doing bench presses on the beach until Kevin Sullivan attacks him by pushing the bar on his throat. Then a couple of lifeguards and Ric Flair gently lift him off and he just gladly goes away. That was awful. That brings Mean Gene out and he brings out Savage. Savage says "Thanks, but no thanks" to Flair helping him. He says that he'll take care of Taskmaster himself. He then says that Hulk Hogan is a terrible judge of character, which is obvious based on him being the mascot of the garbage man that just was voted President. He says that Lex Luger had a personal agenda and that he was hit with a cheap shot at Fall Brawl. Luger comes out and wonders if Savage is jealous of him. Luger says that the reason he's here is because he was sick of playing with kids, he wants the big boys. Out of context, that sounds pretty bad. Savage says right here, right now. That's code for we're going to commercial because it's not happening. This was the first positive of the episode so far. 

We go to a pre-tape interview with Mean Gene, Hulk Hogan and his motorcycle. This was from before Fall Brawl. We then get the absolute cheesiest video of the Giant smashing Hogans motorcycle. They then show Giant coming down to save Kevin Sullivan from Hogan. This was horrendous. 

Brian Pillman vs. Ric Flair

These two go right at it and Pillman misses with a dropkick. The announcers are shocked by Pillman's aggressive new attitude. I blame Flair's haircut. Pillman slams Flair off the top rope, but then misses with a splash. We get a collision spot and both men are down. Flair is able to hit a suplex and puts on the Figure Four and Pillman taps? Sure. He then says that he's waiting on Arn Anderson. This match was nothing. 

Match Rating: 1/2*

The announcers wrap up the show and we'll have Randy Savage vs. Kevin Sullivan next week and Alex Wright vs. Disco Inferno. Bobby Heenan tells us that something's going on in the back, Eric Bischoff agrees and we never see anything. Sounds about right. 

This episode was nowhere near as good as the last two by a mile. Outside of the Savage/Luger spot, this was extremely dull and even had a bad Pillman/Flair match. 

Overall Rating: 38%

Fall Brawl 1995 Review

Sunday, September 17th, 1995
Wells Fargo Arena
Des Moines, Iowa

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Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan are the hosts tonight and they tell us that the Giant ran over Hulk Hogan's motorcycle with a monster truck. Absolutely devastating. 

United States Championship #1 Contender Match
Brian Pillman vs. Johnny B. Badd

Two of my favorites from this era, despite the Badd gimmick being so lame. It's about time that I get to defend Marc Mero the wrestler. I don't care what people say, he was good in the ring. This is also the beginning of the Pillman loose cannon era or at least it should be shortly. It will be interesting to watch the pay per views after this, since I just jumped into this timeline and none of the stories really make sense out of the couple they have promoted on the first two Nitro episodes. We get mostly 50/50 wrestling here, with both being faces and they are obviously going to be getting some time here. Badd hits a nice slingshot leg drop and gets a 2 count out of it. Badd hits a suplex off the apron and sends to the floor. Badd then follows that up with a dive over the top. They go back in the ring and Badd goes up top. Pillman nails him with a dropkick in midair for a 2 count. We get an announcement that there are 3 minutes remaining in the time limit. Pillman goes for a tornado DDT, but Badd throws him away. Things kind of slow down again, which is a little surprising. Badd gets out of a submission around the 30 second mark and then hits him with the Tutti Frutti. He covers him and thinks he won, but Pillman's leg is under the ropes. Pillman gets a pin attempt, but the bell rings that the match is over. The referee tells Michael Buffer that they will go into overtime. They say that since this is to determine the #1 contender for the United States Championship, we have to have a winner. Pillman goes up top and both men throw dropkicks at the same time. Pillman locks in the sleeper hold in the middle of the ring. Badd gets out of it and hits a top rope sunset flip for another 2 count. Badd goes for a powerbomb, but Pillman counters it for a hurricanrana. After that's not enough, Badd hits a top rope hurricanrana and Pillman still gets his shoulder up. Pillman hits the tornado DDT and this time Badd gets his shoulder up. Badd sends Pillman into the guardrail and then goes for the Bad Mood, but Pillman gets his knees up. This is where WCW just wasn't as good as WWF during this era. There are just so many spots where the guys feet are under the ropes and just awkward pauses like that. They hit a double crossbody and even though it looks like Pillman got the better of it, Badd gets the pinfall and the victory here. The guys fought hard, but it's hard to ignore the little things that made it a little clunky at times. 

Match Rating: ***1/2

Ric Flair is with Mean Gene and he's talking about everything that he and Arn Anderson have gone through together. A pretty restrained interview and appropriately so. 

Cobra vs. Sgt. Craig Pittman

Some guy comes out instead of Pittman to distract Cobra. Pittman then comes down from the ceiling and then slithers in the ring. Pittman then chokes him out until the bell rings and then tosses the foreign object out of the ring. Cobra goes off the top rope, but Pittman counters it. He puts the Code Red on and that's all. This was terrible and had no reason to be on this show. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

They show Paul Orndorff snapping in his locker room because he's questioning if he's Mr. Wonderful anymore. Gary Spivey, who is apparently a psychic, comes in and talks to him. He tells him that he's Mr. Wonderful. This goes on forever and is as pointless as it sounds. 

WCW World Television Championship Match
Diamond Dallas Page vs. Renegade

Page attacks Renegade as he's still showing off his title belt. It doesn't last long until we are forced to watch Renegade's offense. Page is able to sidestep a crossbody and then chokes him on the top rope. Page hits a swinging neckbreaker and the announcers are hyping this being Renegade's longest match to date. I can't imagine why. DDP goes for a Diamond Cutter, but Renegade pushes his way out of it. He rolls him up and gets a 2. Max Muscle gets on the apron and Renegade throws DDP into him. He hits a powerslam and then dives off the top rope onto Muscle. DDP hits a Diamond Cutter back in the ring and wins the title belt. I mean, Renegade sucked so bad that they had no choice here. DDP tried his best, but you can only do so much.

Match Rating: 1/2*

Heenan and Schiavone talk about how Col. Parker and Sister Sheri have gotten together finally. 

WCW Tag Team Championship Match
Harlem Heat vs. Bunkhouse Buck & Dick Slater

I like both teams, but this pairing feels odd to me. My instincts are right and this one is putting both myself and the crowd asleep. It's just a couple of moves, rest hold, repeat. Stevie Ray finally gets a tag in and hits a few power moves. Then in the second ring, we have Sheri and Parker making out. Out come the Nasty Boys and they interfere and it allows Harlem Heat to pick up the win and become new champions. This match felt like 100 minutes long and I don't think I even wrote 100 words on it. It stunk.

Match Rating: 1/2*

Mean Gene interviews the losing team and Bunkhouse Buck is confronting Col. Parker about what happened. Parker tells him that he'll get another match, so go away. When Parker goes on his monologue, for some reason Gene can't hide his smile. 

Halloween Havoc is coming back to Detroit. 

We go back to Gene and he's with Arn Anderson, but first we get a video package. WWF was a lot better at those during this era than WCW. Anderson gives a solid promo, but the feud still seems a little off. 

Arn Anderson vs. Ric Flair

Was this a match that fans wanted to see? I don't mean that sarcastically, just genuinely curious. They show a bunch of WCW wrestlers at ringside watching the match. We get the slow, important match beginning. Flair gets the first big break of the match, dumping Arn to the floor and then hitting a double ax handle off the top rope. They continue to go pretty standard here, mostly being 50/50. Arn gets Flair into the tree of woe and after goes for a DDT. Flair is able to hold onto the rope to counter and then goes up top. Naturally, Arn throws him off the top and drops a knee for a 2. Flair comes back and puts on the Figure Four in the center of the ring. Arn is able to eventually reverse it and Flair gets out of the hold. Flair goes for it again, but Arn counters into a small package and gets a 2 count. Now Pillman comes up on the apron while the referee is checking on Flair. He hits him with a right hand and a kick to the head. Arn hits a DDT and picks up the victory. The match was solid, but because of the finish they went with, it never got to that final act. 

Match Rating: ***

It's time for the hype video for WarGames and it's as horrible as you would expect. There is no way that anyone could have possibly thought this was good in 1995. 

Gene is with Hogan and team and they are all dressed in camo gear and face paint. If you thought Hogan couldn't look any dumber, you obviously didn't see him at Trump's rally. 

WarGames Match
Zodiac, Shark, Kamala & Meng vs. Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Sting & Lex Luger

If Hogan's team wins, Kevin Sullivan must face Hogan in the cage. Shark and Sting start things off. You would have thought Meng would have made more sense, but this is likely to stink no matter what. Not much happens outside of Sting failing at hitting a body slam. This will shock you, but the heel team gets the advantage with Zodiac. Even less happens here until Savage comes in as the fourth entrant. I take that back, nothing happens again. Let's see if Kamala can do anything. Yeah, I can't believe I typed that either. Luger comes in next for Hogan's team and he hits a double clothesline on Kamala and Shark. We get some infighting with Luger and Savage after a mistake is made and Sting has to break them up. Meng is in now and the Dungeon of Doom is in clear control. It's Hogan time and we naturally get a cheesy spot where Hogan hits Zodiac with right hands and he bounces off the ropes back and forth. All I know is that there are less than 10 minutes left in this show. Hogan puts on a pathetic camel clutch on Zodiac and that's enough for the win. This was a terrible WarGames, as you would expect. After the match, Kevin Sullivan tries to leave and allows for one person to hold him back with little to no attempt. Sting comes out and throws him back into the ring. Even more comically is that Meng and Zodiac walk right by them as it's happening. Hogan just throws Sullivan into the cage multiple times. They go out of the cage and he throws him into it a few more times. Hogan hits the big boot and then out comes the Giant. Giant "chokes" Hogan and of course Hogan gets out. Giant does get back and then does the fake breaking of the neck. Hogan's squad comes back out and check on him while Giant heads to the back. This was all just so bad. The crowd was semi into it, I guess. 

Match Rating: 3/4*

After some good episodes of Nitro, this was an absolutely terrible show. Yes, Pillman/Badd was good and Arn/Flair was solid, but the rest was pure trash. It felt like 6 hours instead of 3. No thank you.

Overall Rating: 34%