Gorman

I am announcing on Saturday night for Cleveland Knights Championship Wrestling. Bell time is 7:05 at St. John the Baptist Cathedral in Parma, OH (1900 Carlton Road). Shane Douglas was set to challenge J-Rocc for the title in an extreme rules match. J-Rocc has had some medical issues, so I'm not sure what's going to happen there. Taya from Lucha Underground will be there to challenge Vanilla Vargas for the CKCW women's title. We also have Kongo Kong and Laredo Kid from Impact Wrestling, as well as Ricky Reyes. I think there will be a "Puerto Rico vs. Mexico" theme going on. Come on out, Cleveland peeps!

JR tweeted a photo of the US title bracket in the days before the show, and he said he was doing research.

No pun intended

Thoughts on King of the Ring 98 When I walked into the arena in Pittsburgh and saw the gas cans on the announcers' table, I knew something big was going to happen. I had no idea. Ken Shamrock put Jeff Jarrett in the anklelock, and he tapped out immediately. That's how you sell an MMA submission hold. The announcers were looking forward to a Shamrock-Severn final, so they must not have seen their fight at UFC 9. Check out my UFC History Project to learn how unfathomably bad that fight was. When Severn lost to the Rock due to a top-rope splash by a chest-protector-clad D-Lo Brown, he must have thought, "I never had to worry about that in the UFC." I'm glad I got to see the first match featuring an inanimate object as a participant. It seemed like Al Snow was in a handicap match against Too Much, but when he tagged in Head, he had a weapon that he could use legally. Owen Hart and X-Pac started their match with the same spot from their King of the Ring bout four years earlier. This time, it was X-Pac delivering the baseball slide dropkick before the opening bell. A match between the WWF and NWA tag team champions would have been mind-blowing 10 years earlier. Chyna proved to be a better equalizer than Jim Cornette, whose tennis-racket smash did not lead the Midnight Express to victory. Ken Shamrock won King of the Ring by continuing his dominance of the Rock, which somehow didn't result in winning the IC title from him. Rock and HHH got into a scuffle to kick off their feud. Mankind is the obvious MVP, as he cemented his legendary status with his falls off and through the Hell in a Cell. Nobody expected the match to continue after the fall off the cell. When it did, the match moved into a category all its own. The Violence Meter was broken, and we were in uncharted territory. After Stone Cold Steve Austin lost the WWF title to Kane, the fans silently filed out of the building as if the Steelers had just lost on a last-second field goal.

Thoughts on In Your House 22: Over the Edge Droz helped the Road Warriors beat DOA in the opener, but he looked out of place as their understudy. Face paint would have helped. Dick Togo looked fantastic in Kaientai's win over the "odd couple" of Bradshaw and Taka Michinoku. Marvelous Marc Mero is the MVP thanks to his swerve that knocked Sable out of the WWF "forever." This really should have made Mero a big star. He could have bragged for months about Sable being gone and gotten huge heat. Of course, Sable was so valuable that they couldn't keep her away too long. Faarooq wins the rare Least Valuable Player award. First, he piledrove The Rock, almost costing himself a shot at the IC title later in the show. When Rock was forced to wrestle anyway, and with the Nation banned from ringside, Faarooq still couldn't beat him. Jerry Lawler's segment with Crusher and Mad Dog Vachon went on way too long. The use of Vachon's artificial leg would have been much more effective if we hadn't seen it two years earlier in the Shawn-Diesel match. The WWF dropped the ball twice with Vader. First, they should have put him over Shawn Michaels at SummerSlam 96. Here, he was over huge as a babyface, but he lost his mask and cursed at himself after the match. Owen Hart got a big win in the DX-Nation match after hitting the Pedigree on HHH onto the European title belt. Owen also pinned Austin in the 10-man tag at Canadian Stampede one year earlier. So in a multi-man match, Owen could beat anybody. Austin's win over Dude Love was the perfect encapsulation of his feud with Vince McMahon. In this match, Vince was the Donkey Kong to Austin's Mario, throwing a nearly endless supply of obstacles at him. At King of the Ring, Vince would finally succeed at getting the belt away from Austin.

Thoughts on In Your House 21: Unforgiven Faarooq, Steve Blackman and Ken Shamrock may be the baddest six-man tag team of all time. They marched down to the ring and threw up the Nation fist, even though they were fighting the Nation. Who's going to argue with them? Sgt. Slaughter went to ridiculous lengths to keep Chyna from interfering in the HHH-Owen match by suspending her above ringside in a shark cage .... and she still escaped! She bent the bars like Superman and Road Dogg snuck into the control area and lowered her cage. Because he's a roadie, remember? Tennessee Lee was fantastic as Jeff Jarrett's Southern-fried hype man. Somehow, Jarrett became even more obnoxious when Tennessee was doing the bragging for him. This was a huge upgrade from Jarrett's affiliation with the NWA squad. Luna beat Sable very easily in the evening gown match. One year later, Sable would the lose the WWF women's title by winning an evening gown match over Debra. Let's not even try to figure that one out. The WWF hilariously presented the crowd in Greensboro with an NWA tag team title match between the Rock & Roll Express and the Midnight Express. Bob Holly and Bart Gunn comprised the Midnight Express (with "ME" on their tights). The Rock & Rolls still had "NWA" on their tights, even though they had broken away from Jim Cornette's faction. The inferno match looked great, even though someone was obviously pressing the "FLAMES~!" button on every spot. Vince McMahon is the MVP. His presence led to a shadow of a chance that Austin would lose the title after just one month. Plus, Vince got waffled with a chairshot to set up the "stacked deck" main event of the next pay-per-view.

Thoughts on WrestleMania XIV Marvelous Marc Mero must have marked out because boxing legend Marvelous Marvin Hagler was in attendance. Hagler legally changed his name to "Marvelous." The Road Warriors made a strong re-debut with cool new outfits and Sunny as their manager. This was a much-needed facelift and finally rescued Sunny from "guest ring announcer" duties. Chyna continued to emerge as a star. She managed to help HHH beat Owen Hart to retain the European title despite being handcuffed to Sgt. Slaughter. Sable's strong performance lifted the mixed tag match to "hidden gem" status and helped make WM 14 a surprisingly great show. Ken Shamrock again failed to win the IC title despite beating The Rock cleanly. This time, Shamrock's lengthy post-match attack resulted in a reverse decision. I would have rather seen Shamrock and the Road Warriors booked as dominant babyface champions rather than guys who constantly get screwed out of winning a title. Kane also helped WM 14 to become a better show than expected. Since he was a heel, nobody expected him to attack Pete Rose, who was heeling on the Boston fans. Kane gave Undertaker a tremendous fight, living up to the six-month buildup of the feud. Shawn Michaels is the MVP of the show, even though it served as Steve Austin's coronation. Halfway through the match, Michaels' back was in excruciating pain. He didn't cut the match short, but he gave the fans a full-length WrestleMania main event. HBK even got punched out by Mike Tyson after the match. He took more than four years off after leaving everything in the ring on this night.

Tonight at 7, I will be announcing for Cleveland Knights Championship Wrestling at Cathedral of St John the Baptist in Parma, OH (1900 Carlton Road). Shane Douglas, Robbie E and Krimson are on the show. Come on out!

No, not Sean Mooney.

Hey, that's me ring announcing. You can't see me because we didn't have a wireless microphone for that show.

Thoughts on In Your House 20: No Way Out of Texas The WWF added "of Texas" to the title, to avoid legal trouble with WCW over the "N.W.O." initials. Marvelous Marc Mero and Goldust lost to the Headbangers, and all four men were overshadowed by the fight between Sable and Luna. The fans really caught on to Sable's getting active rather than just cheering for her man at ringside. Pantera looked fantastic against Taka Michinoku, busting out a lot of high-flying offense. Too bad we didn't see more of him, like the situation when Taka stole the spotlight from Great Sasuke on his debut. I didn't remember that The Quebecers returned to the WWF to join the pile of midcard tag teams. They lost to the Godwinns, so they weren't getting close to another shot at the belts. Jeff Jarrett's NWA backup crew of Barry Windham, Jim Cornette and the Rock & Roll Express was trying to come off as old school, but they really just seemed old. It's almost as if the WWF allowed Cornette to run with this idea as a rib on him. Ken Shamrock continued to dominate his feud with The Rock by making him tap out in the eight-man War of Attrition match. Kane wins the MVP award for pinning Vader with the tombstone and clobbering him in the face with a wrench. He kept rolling toward his WrestleMania showdown with The Undertaker. The absence of Shawn Michaels created a very weird dynamic for the main event. DX said that nobody could fill Shawn's shoes, but the WWF forced them to accept Savio Vega as a substitute partner. This made sense because Los Boricuas helped out DX during the casket match at the Royal Rumble. Austin pinned Road Dogg and then got a huge pop for hitting the Stunner on Chyna to close the show.

Thoughts on Royal Rumble 1998 The Artist Formerly Known As Goldust had a fun opener with Vader. Luna riding on Vader’s back during the Vader Bomb looked great at the finish. Sunny was relegated to refereeing a six-man mini-luchador match, while Sable’s star was starting to rise. The Rock lost to Ken Shamrock but retained the IC title by planting a set of brass knuckles on him for a reverse decision disqualification. They would do a similar finish at WrestleMania, in which Shamrock clearly won the match but didn’t walk away with the title. The New Age Outlaws also hung onto the tag team belts by getting disqualified against the Road Warriors. Despite this chicanery, the Outlaws really looked strong in this feud by calling Hawk & Animal old and keeping the belts away from them. Stone Cold Steve Austin is the MVP for winning the Royal Rumble despite “everyone gunning for him.” The announcers hyped “Austin v. Everyone” all night, even more than the main event. The Rumble field was very weak, as Mick Foley was used three times, and there was even a “blank spot” teasing that Austin had been attacked backstage. I had forgotten about Undertaker’s mini-reunion with Kane before the Rumble. Kane saved Taker from the same fate that befell him against Yokozuna four years earlier. Alas, Kane then turned on Taker, gift-wrapping another win for Shawn Michaels. Kane setting the casket on fire was crazy and probably scared a lot of children.

In fact, he was hit with a Great Ball of Fire.

"The Curse of Greatness"

He worked the Pittsburgh indies, because I called some of his matches for IWC. I don't know where else he's wrestled, so that would be a good starting point.

I think the Hardys will be added to the Raw tag title match --- it is a ladder match -- and will win the belts, causing 70K fans to chant "DELETE"

Ambrose knows that US/IC title defenses involve a lot of paperwork.

Bate wrestled Oney Lorcan on the NXT TV episode that was taped before the San Antonio Takeover.

I expect The New Day to show up because Feb. 29, 2017 is a new day on the calendar.

The RAW tag title match on the preshow between The Bullet Club and Sheamus & Cesaro is going to have two referees.

Last year, Roman Reigns was the champ and he was forced to enter at No. 1 and defend the belt throughout the entire Rumble.

Yes -- I announced that match for IWC at "Accept No Limitations" on 11-13-2004. It was for Joe's ROH title as well.

Thoughts on In Your House 19: Degeneration X Taka Michinoku was a great choice for the first WWF light heavyweight champion, even though the title devolved into a joke. Not sure why Road Dogg and Billy Gunn didn't win the belts from LOD here at the pay-per-view rather than on Raw. Instead, we got a DQ finish. I had to skip The Artist Formerly Known As Goldust's segment because my kid was in the room. #AttitudeEraProblems Boxing matches on wrestling pay-per-views (Mero-Butterbean) should not go into the fourth round. Just get to the heel shenanigans and let's move on. Steve Austin and The Rock had a fun IC title match, and their perfect chemistry led to an all-time classic rivalry. Austin used his pickup truck as a prop to wipe out the other members of the Nation. Was Jeff Jarrett's gimmick of "delusional wanna-be main eventer" a rib on him? Shawn Michaels and Ken Shamrock's match had a lousy, predictable finish, but neither guy was ready for a loss. Owen Hart did a great "avenging brother" run-in, but he was shunted down to a European title feud with HHH while Michaels battled bigger stars. Sgt. Slaughter was the MVP of the show. The WWF was desperate for bodies after the disintegration of the Hart Foundation, and Sarge answered the call of duty. He bumped all over the ring at the age of 49 and put Hunter over in the middle of the ring. Considering how much that was not happening in WCW, Slaughter deserves a salute.

Thoughts on Survivor Series 97 Hey, why isn't Vince McMahon on commentary? Road Dogg and Billy Gunn got pushed over the rest of the established tag teams, which was a great idea. If only Rockabilly had been pushed like this, the Outlaws may never have formed. They even interfered later in the show against LOD, foreshadowing their title win. Hey, what's with that sign that says "Good luck in WCW Bret"? Interrogator also got a strong push as the sole survivor of the Truth Commission-DOA match. Jackyl stuck around after his elimination to explain his leadership role. Mankind did a great job putting on an entertaining match with the debuting Kane while still losing decisively. Doug Furnas and Phil LaFon were wisely added to Team Canada since they didn’t catch fire as babyfaces. Jim Ross was great on commentary scolding Goldust for abandoning his family and sulking in the corner with his “FU” facepaint. Hey, why is JR making mocking comments about Owen Hart being a “Canadian hero” that actually seem to be directed at Bret? I haven’t watched my former colleague Joe Dombrowski’s documentary on the Montreal Screwjob, where he explores whether it all could be a work. I think it was a shoot, because it would require tremendous acting on everyone’s part if it were a work. I think Shawn did a lousy job of “acting” confused and surprised as he was ushered out of the building, but the “you got me” look on Bret’s face was 100 percent genuine. So who’s the MVP? Vince McMahon. He orchestrated all of this, and somehow the loss of his champion to the competition led to his own business going through the roof. Vince’s tenure as WWF boss hasn’t been perfect, but Bret learned what all of Vince’s competition eventually learned: Vince is the house, and the house always wins.

Thoughts on In Your House 18: Badd Blood Rocky Maivia started getting re-pushed by pinning Road Warrior Hawk clean with the Rock Bottom. It happened again at Survivor Series. I watched this show on PPV with my friend Norm Connors, who was promoting Steel City Wrestling at the time. Our champion was a big biker dude named T. Rantula. As soon as the mini luchador "Tarantula" showed up on screen, the phone rang. "Norm, call me back!!" Let the record show that Uncle Cletus managed the Godwinns to the WWF tag team title. Less than a month later, they lost the belts to LOD and dumped Cletus. Steve Austin befuddled the announcers by helping Owen Hart win the IC title over Faarooq. They didn't realize that Austin wanted to regain the belt by beating the man who practically broke his neck. Brian Pillman was supposed to wrestle Dude Love and face Goldust if he lost. Vince McMahon somberly announced Pillman's passing and surprisingly mentioned that drugs may have been involved. Another surprise was Vader and Patriot losing the flag match in the United States to Bret and Bulldog, representing Canada. While it seemed to be the perfect time to give the win to the USA, Bret would have looked weak coming into Survivor Series off a loss. Shawn Michaels made the Hell in a Cell match, just like he made the ladder match against Razor Ramon. The crazy bumps and the gusher of a blade job made Shawn the clear MVP. When Undertaker was on the verge of victory, Norm said, "Lights out." The lights went out, and Kane made his debut.