Gorman

When I covered Bash at the Beach 2000 in my new WCW book, "King of Atlanta," I discussed how the Montreal Screwjob would have worked if they did it like Russo did with the Daytona Beach Screwjob.

My Cleveland baseballers have the longest drought since pitching a no-hitter (1981) and have been no-hit five times since the beginning of 2021.

Strange to see Cleveland trade its only healthy veteran pitcher, despite being a .500 team, because they are just a smidgen behind Minnesota. Maybe they figure: we can make this trade for a prospect and still win this lousy division!

You've gotta have Hart.

Thoughts on November to Remember 1997 This is the only ECW show I ever attended. Pittsburgh was a hot market for ECW, as my brother and I were part of the largest crowd in ECW history. In fact, the Pittsburgh fans loved ECW so much, that when I would announce for Steel City Wrestling, I would get chants of "You're not Joey!" That only lasted for a couple of YEARS. Speaking of Joey, before the Dreamer-RVD flag match, Styles said he would never work for the WWF. Never say never, Jojo. Even though I was there, I totally forgot that Bam Bam Bigelow was the ECW champion. Good for Bammer winning a World title. Shane Douglas got the big hometown win, capturing the ECW title on PPV for the second time in a row, so he's the MVP. This match reminded me of Flair-Vader at Starrcade 93, only without the retirement stipulation. When I was in the crowd watching the Sabu-Sandman match, I was asking myself, "Is this a good match?" Nearly every move was a crazy dive involving a ladder or table, and only half of the moves landed properly. It was like eating a six-course meal, with every course being cake, and only three of the cakes were good. The best part of the match was the instant replay package at the end, where they showed all of the big moves that worked.

My brother and I marked out for the jobber (Chris Curtis!) actually winning a match.

Speaking as a babyface play-by-play announcer, I would say that you're not really pulling for individual wrestlers, but you're basically being an advocate for the promotion and its rules.

Thoughts on Hardcore Heaven 97 Bam Bam Bigelow gained revenge for his televised loss to Spike Dudley. Bammer threw Spike into the crowd before beating him with the top-rope headbutt. RVD's match with Al Snow was supposed to be contested under "Monday Night Rules," but it still featured a lot of chairshots. WORST FAN SIGN: "CubanGF Will You Marry Me" (held up throughout the show) The Gangstas forfeited the tag team belts to the Dudleys, who fought PG-13 instead. With the big tag team match out the window, the Dreamer-Lawler brawl saved the pay-per-view. For defending ECW from The King's insults and surviving "lights out" surprise attacks from Rick Rude, Jake Roberts, and Sunny, Dreamer is the MVP. Sandman was injured by RVD and Sabu at the beginning of the show and was taken to the hospital. Fortunately, ECW had rented an EXTREME CHOPPER for just such an emergency. Terrified announcer Lance Wright reported that Sandman had taken control of the ambulance but was wandering around town, looking for the arena in the pre-GPS era. When he finally found the arena, he attacked Sabu and cost him the title, setting up their very good/bad match at November to Remember. Shane Douglas pinned Terry Funk in the rematch from the first three-way dance at The Night the Line Was Crossed to regain the ECW title.

Thoughts on Barely Legal When John Kronus came back to the locker room after the opener, I'm sure The Great Sasuke thanked him for performing the Space Flying Tiger Drop. Sasuke did pin Taka in the Michinoku Pro 6-man, and he beat Taka on a WWF PPV later in the year, but Taka got the last laugh by becoming a bigger star in the US. Lance Storm's chairshots were not "extreme," and the fans let him know it. Rob Van Dam was a sub for Chris Candido, but he beat Storm and launched his career as "Mr. Monday Night" in the WWF. Taz vs. Sabu was built up for a year and billed as the "Grudge Match of the Century," but it went on third from the top. Bill Alfonzo was openly cheering for Sabu because after betting on Taz for all of his wins, this time, Fonzie put his money on Sabu. Taz said he was going to bust Sabu up and choke him out, and that's just what he did. Announcing your first pay-per-view is a nerve-wracking experience, especially when the promoter tells you "don't F this up" before the show starts. At least I had two partners, one of whom was Bas Rutten. Joey Styles called the whole show by himself and did several on-camera spots to boot. Terry Funk is the MVP for winning another World title at the age of 53. Kudos to Tommy Dreamer for stepping aside and giving Funk the chance. Bob Backlund had pulled off the same feat in the WWF in 1994, but Funk was eight years older.

That bugged me, too! I felt like I was starting my book with a giant typo.

I didn't know he was there.

In its earlier days, Bleacher Report used to be a sports website written by fans around the world (hence the name). My job was to edit the articles to make them sound professional. So to me, it's kinda crazy that you can now watch sports (including wrestling!) on Bleacher Report.

Thoughts on CyberSlam 97 Sabu opened and closed the show, teaming with RVD to lose to the Eliminators before beating Chris Candido in the main event. For a guy who barely talked, Sabu always seemed to be involved in "respect" conversations, including twice on this show. He showed respect to the Eliminators and encouraged RVD to do the same (nope), and Candido showed respect to Sabu at the end of the show. Tommy Rich revealed his ancient Mafia ties and joined the Full-Blooded Italians. Rich gave Little Guido bad advice, and "The Rookie" Chris Chetti upset him. Now there's a nickname with a limited shelf life. Axl Rotten vs. Spike Dudley started innocently enough, but then three ECW classics took place: Buh-Buh Ray and D-Von nailed their little brother with the 3D (Dudley Death Drop) New Jack did a crazy dive out of the balcony The Axl-Spike match led right into the Dudleys-Gangstas match The Dudleys won, establishing themselves as a top-level team. Tommy Dreamer turned in an all-time great babyface performance. First, he said no when Raven offered to lay down and let Dreamer finally pin him, because it would have cost Terry Funk a title shot at the first ECW pay-per-view. Later, he tried to save Funk from further damage after a devastating garbage-can attack by Brian Lee. Finally, he cemented Stevie Richards' babyface turn by shaking hands with him. For all these reasons, Dreamer is the MVP.

It’s here! My WCW history book, “King of Atlanta: Who Was the MVP of World Championship Wrestling?” is now available. This is the sequel to the WWF book, “King of New York,” and I am working on the ECW book now. Hope you enjoy it! Here is the link.

It’s here! My WCW history book, “King of Atlanta: Who Was the MVP of World Championship Wrestling?” is now available. This is the sequel to the WWF book, “King of New York,” and I am working on the ECW book now. Hope you enjoy it! Here is the link.

I can't believe I got to announce that match. Don Montoya called it with me, one month after his All Japan-inspired 35-minute bout with Quack.

I'm partial to the first one.

Things have come a long way. The only retake I had to do for ROH commentary was for Night of the Butcher when I was mentioning Punk and Cabana's work in IWA-MS. "Cut!"

(sheds a single tear)

The idea of televising a live party for the show we are currently watching is a great one.

I can't believe that I witnessed this insanity live in the arena. I was on the opposite side of where Foley flew off the Cell, but I remember yelling. "NOOOOOOOOOOO" as he was on the way down.

Boogalou had a falling-out with the company, so Gabe wrote him off like that. He was supposed to be in that Scramble match (my first one!) at Glory By Honor, which Homicide won by himself. ROH eventually invested in better lights and cameras, but unfortunately, they had to take me out of the budget to accomplish this goal.

I didn't mention this in my notes, but Stevie did commentary on Raven unsuccessfully challenging Sandman for the title.

Thoughts on Crossing the Line Again Lance Storm looked strange with a blond ponytail, as he defeated Balls Mahoney. It was hard to tell who was supposed to be the face and the heel. Dr. Death hadn't been defeated in the USA for a decade, according to Joey Styles. Raven scored this historic pin after three Stevie Kicks and a DDT. Stevie wasn't trying to help Raven; he was annoyed that Doc had declined his invitation to join the bWo. The Eliminators won the MVP award, retaining the belts over RVD & Sabu with Total Elimination. It's surprising that they didn't go together to WCW or the WWF like The Public Enemy. Terry Funk marched toward another World title by beating a fellow aging ex-champion in Tommy Rich. Pitbull 1 was already back in action, and he allowed himself to get superbombed onto Shane Douglas through a table as the Pitbulls and Tommy Dreamer won the main event over the Triple Threat. This match featured a masked guy on the microphone who was obviously Rick Rude. I also didn't remember Brian Lee being part of the Triple Threat (or being called "The Bulldozer" - I mean, "Prime Time" is a perfectly good nickname).

Happy now?