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Rewatched the 4-team ladder match from Armageddon 2006 (Hardys, MNM, Blue Bloods, London/Kendrick).

 

For my money, this is the best ladder match WWE has ever put on. Most famous for Joey Mercury being on the receiving end of the most brutal spot in ladder match history, it has a forgotten element of storytelling and unique characterization of every team that is far and above anything seen in a ladder match before or since. You have the Hardys in there as the reigning kings of the ladder match, London and Kendrick as the young guns who are unproven but possess as much talent and courage as the Hardys, MNM as equally talented athletically as the first two but inexperienced and not very bright, and Regal and Taylor as two rugged old timers who are way out of their depth.

 

The Hardys and L/K rule the ring early and often and the story of L/K (who have had a lengthy run with the belts at this point) needing to supplant the Hardys in this type of match to cement their legacy begins to emerge. MNM and the Blue Bloods persist as minor annoyances to the quest of the flyers trying to prove who is the king of the ladder match. Regal and Taylor manage to out-slug the flyers after they've worn each other down and desperately try to keep the ladders from becoming a factor. Eventually the other three teams realize the best way to get those two out of the picture and all unite to swamp the ring with ladders. The big spots come in rapid succession as they are wont to do in this environment, but the story is not lost. The Hardys and L/K are the ones dishing out almost all the punishment with the ladders, while MNM makes careless mistakes that land themselves in a lot of trouble. There's some quality stooge spots by MNM that keep up the visual aesthetic while putting over the prowess of the Hardys and L/K in this match. The infamous ladder catapult would've continued this aspect of the story just fine without destroying Mercury's face, but instead added a layer of brutality rarely seen in this kind of match. There's no doubt this match would still be the best without the visual of Mercury's swollen face dripping blood like a sieve on the floor, but that spot just puts it that much farther out of reach. 

 

Following that spot, the Hardys and L/K continue to focus on one another. Regal and Taylor are able to gain control for a couple minutes, but their momentum quickly falters when they try to climb for the titles. They look like the best fighters in the match at points and even adapt to the ladders as weapons (Regal kills London with a half nelson suplex into an angled ladder in the corner), but they clearly have no chance to win as both appear to be afraid of heights and have no sense of balance climbing more than 2 rungs. Despite missing his partner, Nitro makes an incredible one-man effort, nearly babyface-like, to try to capture the belts. Despite being careless early, he shows his talent here hitting a series of good moves to take multiple guys, including tearing Regal's arm up by splashing him with a ladder. Still, the numbers and talent catch him, and he becomes a non-factor. Regal is able to make one last gasp for his team, scaling the ladder as high as he can before eating sliced bread 2 off the top. He sells this by appearing to break his neck on the apron, looking eerily lifeless. The match ends as it began, and as it had to with the Matt Hardy and Paul London atop a ladder for the gold and total tag team supremacy. London decisively out-slugs Matt and secures the titles.

 

This match really has it all. The storytelling of the Michaels/Razor matches combined with the frantic pace and assortment of brutal spots from the early TLCs. This is a match where there is truly something for everyone. Highly recommend everyone give this a re-visit. 

 

Also, JBL was an infinitely better announcer in 2006 than he is in 2014.

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Kabuki is still one of the coolest mofos in wrestling history. Muta was a bit cooler in terms of Japanese foreign menace because of his variety of misting techniques and smeared facepaint.

 

I sorta hate that the last great US-based Japanese wrestler is Tajiri. Tajiri absolutely ruled, especially when he did his satanic crazy person deal in ECW. But I miss the days of some manager bringing in a secret of the orient to wreak havoc on the poor Americans.

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I'm rocking a little Bash '89 before work. 

 

Cornette's promo on Paul E. Dangerously is SO PISSED. 

 

I was gonna fast forward to the Sting/Muta match, but I'm gonna hafta watch this match now. 

 

I watched GAB 89 thru the Sting match yesterday. I just turned it back on, and since my browser version apparently doesn't offer a RESUME option the way my Roku does, I decided to fast forward to this point and rewatch Sting/Muta.

 

Sting's dive from ring-to-ring to start the match is freaking great (even if Muta is kind of standing around like an imbecile when the bell rings).

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Checking out DVDVR hero CHECKMATE for the first time. He's tagging with The Magic Dragon, the protege of childhood hero The Great Kabuke. Taking on Bugsy McGraw and someone else.

I'm guessing The Magic Dragon name is a wink-wink at the dude's outside-the-ring interests. It's a cool nickname either way.

 

I watched the oldest World Class Show the other day. That Lothario tag that went to a Draw was really fun stuff. The production values for an '80s territory were top notch with World Class at the time too.

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Back to the 88 bash, that was same athletic commission who let 2 guys battle all the way to the bathroom like 10 years later...dummies lol

 

Speaking of Bash, is there any reason why Bash 87 wasn't included?

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so that two-ring battle royale that opens the Great American Bash 1989 makes TNA's reverse battle royale(s) look like the '92 Rumble. Ranger Ross eliminating Ron Simmons made me sick a little bit. The next 3 matches helped my decision to turn off the show early.

And the final two-ish hours, starting with Steiners/Rotunda-Sullivan, is as good as wrestling gets. Sting-Muta, Luger-Steamboat, War Games, and Flair-Funk are all awesome matches with great builds. The first hour did drag a bit, but it's still an unbelievably good show on the whole.

 

 

Rotunda-Scotty having a more-or-less standard rasslin match in the ring while Rick-Sullivan beat the shit out of each other on the floor is absolute gold.

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Back to the 88 bash, that was same athletic commission who let 2 guys battle all the way to the bathroom like 10 years later...dummies lol

 

Speaking of Bash, is there any reason why Bash 87 wasn't included?

I just watched it, its there

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Back to the 88 bash, that was same athletic commission who let 2 guys battle all the way to the bathroom like 10 years later...dummies lol

 

Speaking of Bash, is there any reason why Bash 87 wasn't included?

I just watched it, its there

Oh nevermind I don't know what I was thinking about lol

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Halloween Havoc '89.

Goofy names of the main event aside, pretty good show. However, who thought it was a good idea to put Tommy Rich and The Cuban Assassin on PPV in Philly and give them 10 plus minutes ?

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Watching KotR 1995 because I want to see if PPVs regarded as historically bad are just that way because they are or because people have pushed that idea so much that it just becomes true.

 

Thought: Has WWF ever had a more unbalanced roster than in 1995? They have a ton of credible top faces (HBK, Taker, Razor, Diesel, Bret) and their three top heels are probably Sid, who is just fine in a top role, Yoko, on the downside of his career as his weight gets more out of control, and Owen Hart, a guy who is a good upper-midcard guy but not really credible to me at a sustained main event level. Maybe as an occasional main eventer, and he probably should have had at least one short run with the title in a top program, but not what WWE needs right at this point to anchor the heel side. No wonder they turned Mabel and Bulldog within a few weeks of one another. 

 

I know that Nash isn't the type of guy you want to build your show around, but he also had pretty much no one to work with outside of Bret and HBK for that year-long title reign. I love Sid, but Sid's best when he's trying to throw bombs at dudes smaller than him while they out-quick and out-smart him. 

 

This also hurt the tournament because the faces were generally good workers (HBK, 'Taker, Vega, Holly being the weak but serviceable link) and the guys on the other side were tough to watch and didn't present a good representation of style for their opponents (Kama, overweight Yoko, Roadie, and Mabel being the best of the bunch). Actually, 'Taker/Mabel was solid for what it was, but no one at all wanted to see Mabel go over especially after HBK went out.  

 

Bret Hart bitches in his book about being stuck in feuds with Backlund and Lawler in the middle of the card, but frankly, there weren't many guys for him to work in the upper-mid card anyway since they were turbo-pushing Diesel...and he did get two matches against Diesel on PPV. I mean, is it any better working Jarrett or some scrub like that in the upper mid-card? The Owen thing had run its course. Also, Backlund and Lawler are awesome, dammit. 

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Just watched "This is NXT" -- a terrific overview of the program's last year, including the Claudio-Generico 2/3 Falls match.

 

It gives an intro to a few of the guys who went on to be rising stars in WWE and a few of the newcomers now, highlights of some title changes, and clips of the WWE stars visiting the program. All hosted by that pretty Ms. Young.

 

As someone who enjoyed FCW but has seen no NXT (or any WWE 2013 at all), I found it really helpful. And it looks like basically a slightly higher-budget FCW. I look forward to watching it regularly.

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Watched Beyond the Ring: The Rock, thought it was an excellent viewing. Well done documentary and lots of great classic clips throughout.

 

 

 

Back to the 88 bash, that was same athletic commission who let 2 guys battle all the way to the bathroom like 10 years later...dummies lol

 

Speaking of Bash, is there any reason why Bash 87 wasn't included?

 

 

I think it's because 87 wasn't a PPV as it was still the Great American Bash Tour and they only put up all PPVs.

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I saw a bunch of those Legends roundtables on youtube but the "Renegades and Outlaws" ep was one I never saw so I caught it last night. Very enjoyable panel with everybody contributing and no real duds out there as is want to happen. DDP had my favorite moment when he talked up Bischoff as a Renegade while the rest of the panel (Piper, Hayes, Gene and JR) fell into an uncomfortable silence - well, except for Piper tossing out one quick line about taking Bischoff up on his offer to punch him.

Also, BRIAN PILLMAN WRESTLES A PENCIL! That might be the greatest thing I've seen on WWE Network to date.

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The best/worst example is when Foley is talking about his favorite wrestling memory (Snuka off the cage, obviously) and Flair chimes  in "Brother, Snuka came off the cage 140 times against me, I took it every time.  There's nothing special about that"

 

What an ass

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Yo when does my main man Skandar Akbar come into WCCW to take it from those scumbag Von Erichs?

Akbar doesn't show up with his stable until mid 83, but his first big feud is with Gary Hart and Hussein, h&h enterprises.

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StarrCade '90

 

Oh, that pesky Rey Misteric. Seriously though, what the heck happened to Norman Smiley? He seems pretty darn good here; nifty athleticism, brings a diversity to his mat work, and hits a few impressive suplexes. All I remember of Smiley is his joke run near the end of WCW's existence.

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I was watching Legend's Faction episode, man Flair hates Shane Douglas. Really surprised Foley didn't say anything, as Flair just buried him. 

Yeah, that was uncomfortable to watch, Flair seems like such a bitter old man.  I thought he had really good points about the NWO though.  They took the biggest angle in the history of the business and ran it into the ground because no one wanted to do a job. 

 

What do you mean Norman Smiley was a joke?  He was great towards the end of WCW, especially as the hardcore champion.

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