Jump to content
DVDVR Message Board

[WWE NETWORK] What Are You Watching?


RIPPA

Recommended Posts

Yeah, I don't know how I feel about the match finishes having chapter markers.  What's the point?  That would have been an interesting meeting to sit in on.

 

I just fired up Wrestle War 90 (I've really enjoyed punching up random WCW PPVs from 95 and before).  The opening rap video is the most amazingly awful thing possible.  Well, only slightly more awful than Teddy Long's shadowboxing moments later.  You guys gotta see this shit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Watching some '94 ECW back when it was still REAL raw. The segments are hilarious in their terribleness. Jay Sulli... oh man.

Sabu coming out in the Hannibal get-up is still so friggin' great, though. Dude will forever be my favorite wrestler.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love the chapter markers for match finishes on all the Old School house shows because 95% of them are "Wrestler X executes a roll up for the win".

 

I don't know. To me, it's more like 65% flying bodypress, 25% roll-up, 10% time limit draw/lame DQ.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sabu vs. Pat Tanaka. Tanaka looks like he as at a nearby Bally's Fitness getting ready to go home after pilates and Paul E. ran into him and asked if he wanted to wrestle immediately.

 

911's multi-colored fringe leather jacket is awesome.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Watched Austin vs. Bret from WM 13, and it's still the leader of WM matches as far as I'm concerned.

 

Both guys enter to mixed reactions, and they both do great work with their characters to tilt the crowd almost all the way to Austin by the end, and Bret lands some cheap shots in the post match to seal it. Bret was just in top form here, showing off his underrated brawling and being absolutely vicious during the technical portions of the match. He also nailed the "on tilt" aspect of his character from this time, getting more and more frustrated as the match wore on. Austin played the underdog role and did a lot of fighting spirit kind of stuff without betraying his asshole character too much. Bret was being such whiny jerk, you kinda wanted someone to tell him fuck off anyways. Of course, the visual of a bloody Austin trying to fight out of the sharpshooter is one of the true iconic visuals in WWE history. The blood was a great touch here because it added a lot more urgency to Austin's comeback and you really felt like he only a limited amount of time to put Bret away before he passed out. 

 

And since I watched that, I decided I was in the mood for double turns and hit up Del Rio vs. Ziggler at Payback last year.

 

I put this as my #2 match last year (maybe should've been #1), and it's definitely an underrated gem from WWE last year, and a MOTDC for my money. Probably gets forgotten because both guys have been stale as shit for large portions of the last 3+ years, but this is easily a career effort from both of them. They both start with mixed reactions, but Dolph's selling and previously unseen fighting spirit gets just about everyone on his side by the end. Del Rio's offense has never looked better as he relentlessly targeted Dolph's head coming off a concussion. Those kicks were straight nasty and Dolph took some crazy bumps for the high spots as usual. Ziggler does a great job coming across as tough, yet hopeless. Del Rio controls most of the match but can't put Dolph away and ups the dickishness as the match progresses. The seconds in this match (AJ and Ricardo) also deserve a lot of credit for their work to advance the story. AJ shows a lot of concern and does a lot of Woman-like shrieks when Dolph takes blows to the head. Ricardo doesn't care about Dolph's health in the slightest and is constantly telling Del Rio to stay on him. The finishing stretch is almost total perfection. Dolph spills to the floor, tries to do the heroic "beat the count" out move, only to get blasted by running apron kick from Del Rio. Doctor comes out to try stop Dolph from continuing, Dolph blows him off, only to take a vicious baseball slide square in the back of the head. Dolph still won't give up. In the ring he tries to pull himself up while Del Rio mocks him in disbelief. He hits a flash zig zag, but due to slamming his own head into the mat, can't make the pin. In fact, ADR is up first, and nails the kneeling superkick for the win.

 

Tremendous performance from both guys, and Ziggler has to be the unluckiest guy in wrestling to deliver this once-in-a-lifetime amazing babyface performance people had been waiting for from him for 4 years right in the middle of Daniel Bryan's meteoric rise. Talk about unfortunate timing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Turned it on this morning to see Shawn vs Marty on RAW for the IC belt.

 

Good Lord, Marty lacks charisma. He tries, but it just isn't there.

 

While I clearly remember both of these matches, I had no memory of this and the 1-2-3 upset of Razor Ramon being on the same night.  What a stacked hour that was.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Watching Kerry Von Erich speak about the cage match with Ric Flair. Is dude selling a concussion or is he just this dim? I don't remember any KVE interviews beyond that.

 

Remember, you never hear stories about the Von Erich boys being terribly bright.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Man, the rewind/fast forward option sucks.  Why can't I see what I'm skipping through like on Netflix?

 

Anyway, I typed in Bam Bam Bigelow and found Royal Rumble 93 against Big Boss Man, and this was an incredible match.  These guys worked their asses off for this.  Boss Man was bumping like crazy and Bammer went all out too.  Go see this match folks.

 

Also, I just caught Bob Backlund v. Papa Shango from one of the RAWs and it was shit.  Backlund worked underneath the whole time and didn't even get a comeback, not that it would have mattered.  I didn't expect much from this match, so all is good.  Rob Bartlett was unbearable for this, was he always terribly annoying?  He beats out 2010 Cole in this department, by a longshot.

 

Next up is Terry Taylor v. Mr. Perfect, hopefully it turns out well.  Then, I'm looking for more Bob Backlund stuff.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So according to Matt Striker on the WWE countdown Best Finishers show, the DDT by Jake Roberts was invented by accident because he had Len Denton in a front facelock and Denton slipped and it caused Jake to drop him face first.   Of course this is striker who is one of the best  in WWE history when it comes to complete bullshit history.

 

I thought it was funny that they would have Fernando talking about a finisher move unmasked.  Chances are it was when he was Primo and the gimmick wasn't invented yet but kind of weird to do that

 

When talking about Bret Hart's sharpshooter, then show Natalya putting it on Melina and holy crap I forget about Melina's flexibility.  Natalya put the sharpshooter on Melina and pull back so far that her butt was almost on the mat above Melina's head.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

StarrCade '91

 

The BattleBowl has to be one of the stupidest concepts ever. It's hell trying to keep track of who's where and who's doing what once both rings are being used. Although, I do get a kick out of Vader hanging out in a corner for five minutes or so with a total look of "screw this BS" on his face while everyone else fights around him.

 

Watching old WCW has reminded me of how much I do appreciate their approach of allowing foreign wrestlers to be themselves. Great Muta is the Great Muta, Masa Chono is Masa Chono, El Dandy is El Dandy, etc. I much prefer that to the WWF/E approach of having to repackage 99% of the foreign guys they bring over.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When talking about Bret Hart's sharpshooter, then show Natalya putting it on Melina and holy crap I forget about Melina's flexibility.  Natalya put the sharpshooter on Melina and pull back so far that her butt was almost on the mat above Melina's head.

 

Yeah, go back and watch some of those Melina/Beth matches -- Rumble 2009, I want to say. Beth folds her up into all kinds of craziness. It's kind of amazing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So according to Matt Striker on the WWE countdown Best Finishers show, the DDT by Jake Roberts was invented by accident because he had Len Denton in a front facelock and Denton slipped and it caused Jake to drop him face first.   Of course this is striker who is one of the best  in WWE history when it comes to complete bullshit history.

 

 

Striker is right.  Jake told this story on his DVD.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

MSG 10/1991

 

Excellent IRS-Davey Boy match that goes 20 min and includes a classic segment where Hayes and Heenan are arguing over whether bulldogs are dangerous or useless as pets.

 

Too bad it's followed by a total snoozer b/t Anvil and Mountie. Today's crowds would have chanted "Boring". Okay, so I didn't watch the whole thing. Maybe it gets better. But after Superstars, Main Event, and NXT, I think I am done for the night. Besides, Hogan-Flair is on this card, and it's supposed to be awesome. So I'll save it for tomorrow or Saturday.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So I went and watched Umaga vs John Cena from the Royal Rumble because I never saw it before. Goddamn what a violent match. Umaga's punches looked so stiff and the spot where Cena chucks the stairs at Umaga's head when Umaga's outside the ring was insane. My only complaint was the finish. That finish was...disturbing. At the same time, it wasn't that disturbing because on the first go round, Umaga did the shittiest sell of being choked to death. On the second try, he does a better job, but how quickly he got up between the two tries took me out of it a bit. Still, a great match. I don't think it's Cena's best, but it's in the top 10 for him for sure.

 

Without giving it much thought, I'd only rate two John Cena matches better than the Last Man Standing match with Umaga at the 2007 Royal Rumble.

 

Watched Austin vs. Bret from WM 13, and it's still the leader of WM matches as far as I'm concerned.

 

Both guys enter to mixed reactions, and they both do great work with their characters to tilt the crowd almost all the way to Austin by the end, and Bret lands some cheap shots in the post match to seal it. Bret was just in top form here, showing off his underrated brawling and being absolutely vicious during the technical portions of the match. He also nailed the "on tilt" aspect of his character from this time, getting more and more frustrated as the match wore on. Austin played the underdog role and did a lot of fighting spirit kind of stuff without betraying his asshole character too much. Bret was being such whiny jerk, you kinda wanted someone to tell him fuck off anyways. Of course, the visual of a bloody Austin trying to fight out of the sharpshooter is one of the true iconic visuals in WWE history. The blood was a great touch here because it added a lot more urgency to Austin's comeback and you really felt like he only a limited amount of time to put Bret away before he passed out. 

 

And since I watched that, I decided I was in the mood for double turns and hit up Del Rio vs. Ziggler at Payback last year.

 

I put this as my #2 match last year (maybe should've been #1), and it's definitely an underrated gem from WWE last year, and a MOTDC for my money. Probably gets forgotten because both guys have been stale as shit for large portions of the last 3+ years, but this is easily a career effort from both of them. They both start with mixed reactions, but Dolph's selling and previously unseen fighting spirit gets just about everyone on his side by the end. Del Rio's offense has never looked better as he relentlessly targeted Dolph's head coming off a concussion. Those kicks were straight nasty and Dolph took some crazy bumps for the high spots as usual. Ziggler does a great job coming across as tough, yet hopeless. Del Rio controls most of the match but can't put Dolph away and ups the dickishness as the match progresses. The seconds in this match (AJ and Ricardo) also deserve a lot of credit for their work to advance the story. AJ shows a lot of concern and does a lot of Woman-like shrieks when Dolph takes blows to the head. Ricardo doesn't care about Dolph's health in the slightest and is constantly telling Del Rio to stay on him. The finishing stretch is almost total perfection. Dolph spills to the floor, tries to do the heroic "beat the count" out move, only to get blasted by running apron kick from Del Rio. Doctor comes out to try stop Dolph from continuing, Dolph blows him off, only to take a vicious baseball slide square in the back of the head. Dolph still won't give up. In the ring he tries to pull himself up while Del Rio mocks him in disbelief. He hits a flash zig zag, but due to slamming his own head into the mat, can't make the pin. In fact, ADR is up first, and nails the kneeling superkick for the win.

 

Tremendous performance from both guys, and Ziggler has to be the unluckiest guy in wrestling to deliver this once-in-a-lifetime amazing babyface performance people had been waiting for from him for 4 years right in the middle of Daniel Bryan's meteoric rise. Talk about unfortunate timing.

 

Great post. Like you, Hart vs. Austin from WrestleMania 13 is the best match in the history of WrestleMania. Might be the best match I've ever watched. I'm with you on Del Rio vs. Ziggler from Payback last year as a MOTDC for the story it told.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2007 John Cena was tremendous. Dude's really always been a great "big match" wrestler, but he was at his absolute peak in 2007. Someone mentioned his match with Great Khali and that was evidence that Cena was becoming a guy who could work a quality match with anyone. He hasn't been at that level since getting injured in 2007, but he's still great in big time matches. His character is what it is, but God damn 2007 Cena was great.

 

EDIT:

 

I've been watching the ECW Hardcore TV's they've been putting up (I watched the ones from Classics on Demand but by the time I got CoD, they were already into 1995, so I missed a lot of the older ECW stuff) and it really makes me appreciate Sabu. Dude was just so freakin' fun to watch during this time. I don't know the exact year it was that injuries really started to catch up with him and slow him down, but 1993/1994 Sabu is just a joy to watch.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...