[WWE NETWORK] What Are You Watching?

[cwoy2j]

It's a wonder Foley never cracked his skull with any of the shots he's taken. In an X-ray, I imagine it's littered with stress fractures, resembling a busted windshield.

 

Homer Simpson Syndrome

[Go2Sleep]

So in my quest to watch every dying WCW ppv, I stumbled into an absolute gem of a show (for the wrong reasons): Halloween Havoc 99. The tagline is "what nightmares are made of," and it's Russo's first WCW ppv. Holy shit, it is an absolute must-watch if you are a fan of wrestlecrap or shows that are so bad they're good. Up there with Havoc 95 for best shows in that regard. Here's what happened.

 

- Disco works heel in his CW title defense against Lash Leroux. Disco wins clean after a hard-fought match. Lash turns on him afterwards with a fake handshake and beatdown.

 

- Backstage interview with Harlem Heat and Mike Tenay, featuring the following exchange:

Booker: Now can you dig that?!

Tenay (deadpan): Yes, I can relate to that.

 

- Goldberg attacks Sid backstage and busts him open. Sid refuses help from the trainers.

 

- Konnan and Kidman come out with the allegedly vacated tag titles for a falls count anywhere/anything goes match with two refs. Their opponents are the First Family and Harlem Heat. Stevie Ray delivers a world's strongest to slam to a mummy prop on Knobbs for the pin backstage, but with no tron or any way to communicate with the second ref, Kidman thinks he wins with a pinfall on Morrus in the ring. After some arguing, Harlem Heat walk out with the belts.

 

- DDP comes out and cuts a promo about "spanking it" to convey how mad he is at Ric Flair for spanking Kimberly (who was looking mighty fine here). Their match later is now a strap match, as DDP tried to explain while struggling to remove the concealed strap from his pants.

 

- Backstage segment from earlier in the day where Malenko and Benoit tell Saturn they're done with the Revolution.

 

- Eddie and Saturn have a passable back and forth match that ends when Flair runs in and hits both guys with a crowbar and retrieves his Rolex, which was stolen by Eddie.

 

- Buff Bagwell comes out for an "unscheduled" promo about how the "writers from up north" won't give him a chance, so he has to make his own opportunities. He calls out Jarrett. The two brawl until Luger comes out to "help" Bagwell, but ends up stiffing the shit out of him with a guitar handle on accident (Luger then hits the turnbuckle to break the guitar).

 

- Brad Armstrong gets a rare ppv win against the one-month-old Berlyn in a boring match. Berlyn attacks him after.

 

- Eddie is seen backstage in pain calling Rey and Konnan to take care of some Filthy Animal business.

 

- Goldberg cuts a semi-heelish promo about attacking Sid despite the video package suggesting Goldberg should be the face.

 

- Rick Steiner beat Benoit for the TV title in a somewhat sloppy match. Malenko hit Benoit with a chair and hugged Saturn in the entrance way.

 

- Luger and Bret had an ok match where Bret was supposed to be hurt. If you told me a match existed where Lex Luger beat Bret Hart with a half crab, I wouldn't have believed it, but then this happened. Highlight was Liz looking great at ringside.

 

- Madusa comes out in a bikini to shill WCW's new brand of cologne. Heenan buries the cologne for the entire segment. He then gets a little chirpy with Madusa, who says that it's "BULLSHIT" that the new writer from New York is making her shill this product in a skimpy outfit. She then dumps the cologne on Heenan, who continues to complain about how awful it smells.

 

- Sting vs. Hogan for the World title is scheduled 3rd from last. Hogan doesn't come out for his first entrance. Sting comes out, then Hogan comes out the second time in street clothes. Hogan lays down for Sting who takes the cover. This incident is only mentioned a couple more times in passing throughout the show.

 

Goldberg vs. Sid for the US title is next. Hall and Nash attack Goldberg before the match, but it's of little consequence. Actually not a bad match, almost has to be Sid's best in his second WCW run. Sid's cut gets re-opened and Goldberg focuses on it throughout. Sid makes some spirited comebacks but is overwhelmed by Goldberg and the ref eventually calls it off and awards Goldberg the title. It looked like a double turn, but I think it was just some classic "shades of grey" booking.

 

- Sting comes back out and says he wants to fight. Issues an open challenge for the apparently open main event slot.

 

- DDP and Flair have a pretty fun, hate-filled strap match. Finish is a mess, though. DDP uses the strap around Flair's neck to pull him into the diamond cutter, which looked fine, but I think Flair was supposed to kick out. Charles Robinson quit counting after two, but awarded the match to Page anyway. David Flair ran out with the crowbar, which was easily confiscated by Kimberly. Page then used the crowbar, diamond cutters, and low blows to lay waste to Ric, David, and Lil Naitch.

 

- Flair gets stretchered out, but the Filthy Animals hijack the ambulance and drive off with Flair's corpse.

 

- Sting is back for his open challenge. Goldberg is the one who answers. There's no ref, and Schiavone says "Well, we know it won't be Charles Robinson." Out comes Charles Robinson. Schiavone also says this is a non-title match. Goldberg wins clean in a quick match, and Robinson gives him the belt. Penzer announcers that Goldberg is the new World champ. Sting yells at Robinson. When Robinson goes to leave, Sting grabs him for the scorpion death drop, while Heenan utters the most fitting words to close this show: "Why not?"

[TerjeRUN]

That cage door to the skull was pretty damn sickening, although not surprising because it's Foley. He was probably put off by the fact he wasn't knocked out completely by it.

 

He said in his first book that was the most painful shot of his career. Foley's brain must be in a shoddy state. 

[notoriusvig]

I'm slowly going through RAWs and I'm up to post-Mania 95.  I basically just skip the stuff I don't want to see.  Bam Bam and Diesel had a pretty solid match and Bammer even took a hip toss.  He also took two horrific powerbombs, one from Diesel and the other from Sid.  He was pretty over when he finally went after Dibiase, only to get beat down.  Diesel always seems to be late in saving people, in this this period.  First Shawn, now Bam Bam.  He waits until the main damage is done and then runs in.  What a jerk.

[MGFanJay]

Going through Clash of the Champions XI now. It's amazing to see Paul E with Taker given the streak-ending promo before. According to Caudle, he signs before matches because HIS PARENTS ARE DEAF AND DUMB! Well, that's definitely not politically-correct.

Screens -

 

http://jayreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2014/07/chronicling-clash-wcw-clash-of.html



This would be buys on a shirt.

[Brian Fowler]

I'm slowly going through RAWs and I'm up to post-Mania 95.  I basically just skip the stuff I don't want to see.  Bam Bam and Diesel had a pretty solid match and Bammer even took a hip toss.  He also took two horrific powerbombs, one from Diesel and the other from Sid.  He was pretty over when he finally went after Dibiase, only to get beat down.  Diesel always seems to be late in saving people, in this this period.  First Shawn, now Bam Bam.  He waits until the main damage is done and then runs in.  What a jerk.

 

 

He started making his way down as soon as the beating began, but he had to move slowly to protect his quads. 

[Vincey Greene]

Remind me to never stiff ADR on a back elbow spot. Justin Gabriel made this mistake on Superstars and - coincidentally? - Del Rio spiked the living crap out of him on an inverted superplex spot. Fun little match. 

[NikoBaltimore]

Go2Sleep, I'm out of likes today (damn you, TNA thread)  But I'm so going to watch this as I'm definitely in a Wrestlecrap-type mood.  Oh, I could so go for some kind of MST3K type panel for shows like this.

[Big Z]

Just watched Halloween Havoc '90 last night, and it was actually much better then I remember it being, The only bad/mediocre match was Freebirds-Renegade Warriors, which should have been about 10 minutes shorter (and that time given to Luger/Hansen). Still love the Steiners/Nasty Boys feud, as it is the best of two teams not giving a damn about each other and just throwing guys around recklessly. I would normally be pissed about the show being the edited home video version, but they are definitely doing a fans on favor on this one. The main matches are all aired in full, and the clipped matches all suck from past memory of the show (though you do miss the crowd chanting Rooster at poor Terry Taylor).

[Tromatagon]

Man, fuck the Renegade Warriors. Absolutely horrible

[Omega]

Chris Benoit vs. 2 Cold Scorpio from Superbrawl III

Jesse Ventura: I'm going with Benoit in this one..... He has a little bit more of a KILLER instinct in him.

[Big Z]

Finally ending the Black Scorpion saga at Starrcade 1990. Cluttered show with so many matches, but Luger-Hansen, Horsemen-Doom street fight, and Steiners-Muta/Saito are all really solid. Give Flair credit for getting away from his usual formula, but a hot St. Louis crowd did not give two shits about the match or the goofy ass angle. Instead of the stupid Black Scorpion angle, you could have easily kept the Horsemen-Sting feud going until Starrcade and had Flair as himself against Sting in the cage. The only thing the Black Scorpion's black magic did was wipe away Sting's credibility as a top draw (which honestly was never fully recovered until Crow Sting, though Sting had many good angles and matches from 1990-1997).

[lovchunky]

The Black Scorpion angle may be my least favorite WCW angle ever. Did they actually think they would be able to get the Ultimate Warrior under contract by Starrcade 1990? The Sting/Al Perez (as Scorpion) match at the Clash XII is just so ridiculous: the "Scorpion" gets in a ton of offense before losing quickly to a Stinger splash, only to reveal that the real Scorpion (played by Ole Anderson?) is standing on the entrance ramp. So it took Sting (the World's champ) ten minutes to defeat an impostor???

 

Clash XII is such an f'ed up show. Kevin Nash looked like Lou Thesz compared to the other Master Blaster, Bobby Fulton's little brother, and some team called Maximum Overdrive jobbing to the Steiners and the top rope DDT(!). Also, Ric Flair is on the card in Asheville and the place is half empty.

[Niners Fan in CT]

Years ago I had the Starrcade '90 VHS so I've probably watched the event more than a dozen times. I have a soft spot for it but it's really not too good. Horsemen/Doom is great though and I love Paul E. and JR on commentary.

[PetrolCB]

Chris Benoit vs. 2 Cold Scorpio from Superbrawl III

Jesse Ventura: I'm going with Benoit in this one..... He has a little bit more of a KILLER instinct in him.

Well, Jesse is a conspiracy theorist...

[offspring515]

I know it's a cliche to talk about the boner Vince had for HBK during the mid 90's but man...

The July 24, 95 Raw is a great example. Shawn is fresh off winning the IC title from double J and out for a match with Jimmy Del Ray. Vince doesn't even let the ring announcer get the intros out before he starts gushing.

Announcer "From San Antonio, Texas..."

Vince " OHHHHH YEAH SHAWWWWWWWN MICHAEEEEEEEELLLLLLLS! THE HEART....BREAK....KIIIIIIIIIDDDDDDDD.

Then after verbally blowing Shawn for 3 minutes straight we get this exchange

Vince "Jerry Lawler what's the matter? We haven't heard a word from you?"

Lawler "Are you kidding McMahon..."

(Camera switches to a shot of HBK)

Vince "OHHHHHHHH YEAH HOW ABOUT IT? SHHHHHHHHAWWWWWWWN MICHAEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLSSSSSS!"

[cwoy2j]

I watched that RAW and got the same vibe as well. Lawler even said something like, "man, you really love HBK, don't you McMahon?"

[Uncle Coaster]

I watched Starrcade '93 last night.  Probably the first time I've seen it since the original airing.

 

I had remembered it being one of my favorite pay-per-views of the era, mostly for the emotional Flair win, but man were there a lot of awkward finishes in that.  The not-so-entertaining stuff was kept short, which I liked, with the exception of the Nasty Boys vs. Sting/Hawk, which was brutal.  Favorite part was Shockmaster vs. Whichever Kong for all of the reasons you could imagine including Capetta's drawn out announcement of Awesome Kong only to have King Kong "wrestle" and then the great Awesome Kong splash on his own partner, which made me laugh for some time.

 

Austin/Dustin was not their best encounter and it seemed like Austin was ignoring Col. Parker for most of the match, but it was still okay.  Flair/Vader wasn't as dramatic as I remembered, but it was cool to see Flair's family and the crowd loved him, so there was that.  

 

Will probably be watching Shockmaster's match again tonight for kicks.

[Brian Fowler]

Starcade 93 is the launching pad to the greatest too follow, more than being a great show itself.

[SirSmUgly]

Summerslam 1992 is such a strange little card. It has a heel vs. heel match which has other heels cracking on the heel manager involved in the match in an interview after it's over. On top of that, it closes with two face vs. face matches. This show made me realize that 1992 WWF was really low on credible heel main eventers and upper-midcarders. 

 

The other thing I noticed about this card is that I think I liked Disasters/Beverlys and Warrior/Savage just a bit more than Hart/Bulldog. Not by that much, but Hart/Bulldog sort of needed to edit out about five minutes. It got a bit meandering there somewhere in the middle. The Flair/Perfect stuff bogged down what was a really good Savage/Warrior match, but not too badly in retrospect. 

[Brisco]

I was at WM4 when they released the first batch of SNME's, so I stopped to watch the Main Event's that preceded WM4. I had never seen any of these shows and they hold up as solid wrestling shows. Vince throws in some entertainment segments (especially in the early episodes) but ultimately the show is still about the wrestling.

Watching these has given me a better appreciation for Hulk Hogan and just how over he was with the fans. The match with Andre at the Main Event before WM4 might be the hottest crowd I have ever heard. This match was a big fucking deal for these people. I see where the argument of Hogan whines after losing the title to Andre but to be fair the man lost a title he held for four years on a pinfall where his shoulder was clearly up at one. He has a right to be upset.

Terry Funk was a breathe of fresh air on the early SNME's and every WWE match he is involved in is worth viewing. he turns the goofy up to 11 and it works well in cartoon land.

[ivpvideos]

Going through the SNME and saw the craziest thing.

Month before Wrestlemania 3, 20 man battle royale with Hogan and Andre. Andre is billed as being undefeated forever. Andre tosses Hogan out with ease. Announcers go crazy about it

THEN ANDRE GETS TOSSED OUT AND HERCULES WINS

Why would they do this??? It doesn't make any sense. It was nearly thirty years ago and I am still angry about it today. Then they do promos where they still hype Andre as undefeated.

[Matt D]

Summerslam 1992 is such a strange little card. It has a heel vs. heel match which has other heels cracking on the heel manager involved in the match in an interview after it's over. On top of that, it closes with two face vs. face matches. This show made me realize that 1992 WWF was really low on credible heel main eventers and upper-midcarders.

The other thing I noticed about this card is that I think I liked Disasters/Beverlys and Warrior/Savage just a bit more than Hart/Bulldog. Not by that much, but Hart/Bulldog sort of needed to edit out about five minutes. It got a bit meandering there somewhere in the middle. The Flair/Perfect stuff bogged down what was a really good Savage/Warrior match, but not too badly in retrospect.

Disasters/Beverlys is super underrated.

[SirSmUgly]

 

Summerslam 1992 is such a strange little card. It has a heel vs. heel match which has other heels cracking on the heel manager involved in the match in an interview after it's over. On top of that, it closes with two face vs. face matches. This show made me realize that 1992 WWF was really low on credible heel main eventers and upper-midcarders.

The other thing I noticed about this card is that I think I liked Disasters/Beverlys and Warrior/Savage just a bit more than Hart/Bulldog. Not by that much, but Hart/Bulldog sort of needed to edit out about five minutes. It got a bit meandering there somewhere in the middle. The Flair/Perfect stuff bogged down what was a really good Savage/Warrior match, but not too badly in retrospect.

Disasters/Beverlys is super underrated.

 

 

Quake is an awesome hot tag. That Typhoon FIP sequence is pretty dang awesome, something I never thought I'd write about Typhoon playing FIP. 

 

I went back to watching WWF in sequence today after watching Summerslam '92 yesterday. I made it through Summerslam '94, and Undertaker vs. Undertaker is still one of my biggest guilty pleasures in pro wrestling. I love everything about it - the goofy Leslie Nielsen-as-Frank Drebin skits, the Faker Taker being unveiled on Heartbreak Hotel, the terrible acting in the "Random Undertaker Sightings" skits, and the match itself. 

 

Also, Jeff Jarrett had a decent little match with Mabel and Alundra Blayze/Bull Nakano was really, really fun stuff. The crowd was hot for the latter, too. 

 

One thing that I notice about re-watching Bret Hart during this period is that sometimes, he needs an editor. I do think that he and Owen worked the best non-blood cage match they could, especially considering that this was supposed to be a hate feud between brothers. However, at one point, there were just way more than enough near-escapes by Owen trying to get out of the door. They could have lopped off five of the ten minutes before the finish. Also, the "Escape the Cage" stipulation is really terrible, even though Owen tries to work around it by just attempting to flee the cage at every turn. Still, this match needed to be built partially around Owen needing to prove that his win over Bret was no fluke. It really needed to end with a pinfall. 

[mco543]

SummerSlam '94 is one of my favorite shows ever. I love 1994 WWF in general but SummerSlam and Rumble that year were staples of my childhood and sum up the New Generation era more than anything to me.