[WWE NETWORK] What Are You Watching?

[odessasteps]

Man I completely forgot about the Magnum TA tribute video they did before the Flair vs Nikita title match.  Man if that was shown live to the crowd, you would have to think Nikita was winning the belt being there.    Although I can't tell if that was his mom or wife on the beach.      I assume that was WWE canned music although it was really good

If it's the video i remember, it's his mother (who was also involved in an angle with Magnum during the Koloff feud).

Plus, It would be bad kayfabe for a heartthrob baby face to admit to be married.

[hammerva]

I am not sure what was more overrdone in Crockett days:  blood in 1985 Starcade or ref bumps in 1986 Starcade.    That was a really bad ending to the main event and especially bad since I don't remember any follow up.

[supremebve]

No Way Out 2001

 

Raven v. Big Show for the "We Need Something for These Guys to Do Championship" a.k.a. the Hardcore Title.  A shapely ninja attacks Show as he's entering, but he fends her off and beats Raven over the head repeatedly with a stopsign.  There are 375 run-ins and three title changes in about 6 minutes and Billy Gun, Steve Blackman, Crash, Hardcore, and Molly Holly get PPV checks.  The Hardcore Championship probably got a lot of guys an extra couple bucks, but this was a pretty big waste of time. 

 

Chris Jericho v. Xpac v. Eddy Guerrero v. Chris Benoit for Chris Jericho's Intercontinental Championship.  Benoit and Guerroro are still Radicalz at this point, and they team up early to kick Jericho's ass.  I don't know if anyone has ever thrown a better German Suplex than Benoit, or a better Backdrop Suplex than Eddy.  Benoit breaks out a Dragon Suplex here too, which is surprising.  There can't be 10 Dragon Suplexes in WWE history right?  These guys are breaking out all the good shit here.  Xpac kicks Benoit's head into the third row, followed by a Jericho roll-up to retain his title.  The WWE realized what they had in these guys, and they could have put any combination of these guys in the ring and they would get something good.  I wish they would have had another 5 minutes, but that is just me being greedy.

 

Stephanie McMahon v. Trish Stratus.  Trish's wrestling gear is basically a bustier and booty shorts, and there are very few women bustier and bootier than Trish Stratus.  Steph in some workout pants and a t-shirt and Steph is here to fight.  Steph goes for a suplex on Trish and Trish has a wedgie that is making it very hard to concentrate on typing.  I don't know if my hormones are kicking in or what, but has been a pretty good match.  Trish goes for a hurricurana and Stephanie counters it into a powerbomb for two.  Steph pulls Trish's pants down and spanks that rounded, oh so soft, but yet so firm ass and then goes for her top.  Regal hits Trish with that sweet arm wrap neckbreaker thing he used to do, and Stephanie covers her for the win.  Trish and Stephanie McMahon just put on probably a top 5 divas match that I've ever seen.  I was not expecting that.

 

In the words of Good Ol' J.R. business is about to pick up…

 

Steve Austin v. Triple H in a Three Stages of Hell match.  The first fall is a straight wrestling match, and Steve Austin and Triple H actually stop brawling every once in a while to work over a couple body parts.  Austin goes after HHH's arm, and Triple H starts off going after Austin's surgically repaired neck.  Eventually Triple H switches and is viscously going after Austin's knee, and locks in a Figure Four and Austin is really selling his ass off here.  Austin counters a series of elbows to the knee with about 127 nasty looking stomps to the face.  Austin takes over and goes for the Stone Cold Stunner, but HHH counters into a neckbreaker.  After a couple of roll-ups and reversals Austin catches Triple H slipping and it's kick, wham, Stunner for the first fall. 

 

Second fall is a street fight, and Austin is in control early suplexing HHH twice on the entrance ramp.  They brawl to the other side of the ring and Austin breaks a monitor on HHH's face.  Austin starts throwing chairs into the ring and Triple H tries to get away through the crowd where Autin follows him and beats his ass some more.  Austin throws him back in and beats the living shit out of him with chairs before going out to get the ring bell.  Austin slams Triple H's head off of the time keeper's table knocking it over…there just happens to be a barb wire 2x4 under there and shit is about to get real.  Triple H counters the 2x4 with a kick to the gut and busts Austin wide open with a 2x4 shot to the face.  Triple H tries to Pedigree Austin on the announce table, but his arm is still injured from the first fall and he can't lock it in before Austin back body drops him onto the Spanish announce table.  HHH barely hits the announce table and takes the bump mostly on the concrete floor.  Austin finds a cooler full of beer and takes a swig before hitting Triple H in the face with it.  Austin sends him back in the ring, which was a mistake because Trips hits him with the ring bell.  Triple H hits him with a neckbreaker on a chair, and is firmly in control here.  He hits a backdrop on a chair and Austin's neck has taken some serious damage.  HHH sets up a Pedigree, but Austin counters once more and back body drops him over the top rope.  These guys are pulling out all the stops, that was a pretty nasty bump.  Austin hits HHH with a chair and now both guys are bleeding like stuck pigs.  HHH finds a sledgehammer under the announce table and tries to kill Austin by using the steps as an anvil.  HHH counters a Stunner and hits Austin in the face with a sledgehammer to the skull.  He hits austin with a Pedigree for the second fall, and down comes the cage. 

 

Austin is beat to hell, and HHH has the barbwire 2x4.  He is just grinding the barb wire into his face until Austin finds a chair and counters.  Austin is now grinding the barbwire over HHH's face, and I guess if you are going to rest, which they haven't done this entire time, that is the way to do it.  Both guys are struggling to stand but Austin is first to get a second wind.  He beats HHH into the corner, but HHH counters and he's had enough.  He tries to climb out of the cage, but Austin cuts him off.  HHH counters an attempted Stunner with a Pedigree, but Austin kicks out at 2.  Steel chair to the face of Austin and Triple H is a little too slow with the Pedigree and Austin counters and slingshots him into the cage.  Stunner from Austin only gets two and J.R. aptly calls this match a marathon of brutality.  Austin has the 2x4 and HHH has the sledgehammer, and they hit each other simultaneously.  Triple H falls on top of Austin and gets the 3 count and both guys are obviously knocked out. 

 

This was all types of awesome.  Both of these guys worked their asses off, and put on a forty minute match that was mostly nonstop action.  This was probably HHH's best match of all time, he was at his absolute peak here and Austin was still one of the best workers in the world.  Austin's moveset seemed to be right hands, Thesz presses, Fuck You Elbows, and Stone Cold Stunners, and yet he was absolutely mesmerizing to watch.  He was just so good at knowing how to keep the viewer involved despite the fact that he was essentially doing nothing but throwing right hands.  If you compare this to the Intercontinental title match, which was 12:17, but featured multiple German Suplexes, a Dragon Suplex, a Brainbuster, and probably about 10 other Movez I already forgot about it is amazing what Austin and HHH were able to do in 40 minutes without really hitting any moves that would have looked too out of place in 1980, let alone 2001.  Wrestling is a lot like basketball in that way, it is great if you can do 360 dunks and alley-oops off of the back board, but Tim Duncan is probably a top 10 player of all time doing nothing but jab steps and bank shots.  This was basically 40 minutes of brawling, that had enough psychology worked in with the arm and neck work that made a lot of the later spots in the match make sense.  If Austin wouldn't have worked over the arm early, HHH would have hit the Pedigree on the table.  HHH worked Austin's neck early, and every time he needed to cut Austin off, he always seemed to have a neckbreaker in his back pocket to pull out and stop his momentum.  This is a great match and the new #1 match so far in the countdown. 

 

Steven Richards v. Jerry "The King" Lawler for the right to see Kat naked.  The best thing I can say about this was that the crowd needed to get some beer and hot dogs after three pretty damn good matches, and they had a chance to get refreshed in time for the last two matches.

 

Three team Tables match for the Tag Team Championship between The Brothers of Destruction v. Edge and Christian v. The Dudley Boys.  Taker is in full American Bad Ass mode with Limp Bizkit theme and motorcycle.  The structure of the match is basically knock one team out, and let a team get their shit in, knock another team out let another team get their shit in, until everyone gets their shit in, and then put someone through a table.  It is pretty simple, but I can't lie, it is entertaining.  Rikishi and Haku, a tag team that I don't remember existing but could've be awesome, run in and save Taker and Kane's heat.  Dudley's hit 3D and get the win.

 

The Rock v. Kurt Angle for the WWE Championship…Kurt, the champion is out first, I hate when the champ comes out first.  I know Rock is the #1 face in the company at this point, but the champ is still the champ.    The Rock looks to be in really good shape, but looks like a tub of lard compared to what he looks like now.  Angle throws a couple beautiful over head belly-to-belly suplexes only for him to go the well once too often and get hit with a belly-to-belly suplex from Rocky.  The Rock puts Angle in a sharpshooter, but Angle gets to the ropes.  Big Show runs in and chokeslams the ref, Kurt Angle, and The Rock which seems like a huge waste of time.  Rock hits Angle with the belt while the ref is being attended to, but Angle kicks out at 2.  Angle hooks in the Ankle lock and screams, "TAP OUT YOU SON OF A BITCH, OR I'LL BREAK YOUR FUCKING ANKLE."  Rock gets to the ropes, so Angle just stomps the shit out of his ankle, Angle is showing a huge mean streak.  Angle comes off the ropes and Rock hits his spine buster fallowed, by "The Most Electrifying Move in Sports Entertainment" and Angle kicks out at 2.  Rock is stomping at Angle in the corner, but is still favoring the ankle.  Angle goes low and exposes the turnbuckle.  He sends Rock into the exposed turnbuckle and hits the Olympic Slam for the 1,2, but Rock kicks out at 2.999.  Rock makes a comback with right hands, but Angle stomps the ankle.  Rock recovers long enough to send Angle into the turnbuckle and hit The Rock Bottom and Angle supposedly kicks out at 2, despite not moving at all.  The Rock is pissed and hits another Rock Bottom for the win.  Not bad, but clearly the second best match on the show.  It didn't really pick up until Show's run-in, but probably would have been better if they would have let Rock and Angle build the match on their own instead of adding that worthless interference. 

 

This is a great show, and only ranked #9 all-time according to WWE.  If the rest of the shows are legitimately better than this, I'll be happier than Trish Stratus' thong. 

 

Top 5 matches so far…

1. Austin v. HHH
2. Austin/Goldust/Shamrock/LOD v. The Hart Foundation
3. Cena v. Lesnar
4. Hart v. Diesel
5. Mysterio v. Psycosis

Next up ECW One Night Stand 2005.

[The Iron Yuppie]

Watching SuperBrawl 1992. After the incredible Brian Pillman-Jushin Liger match, which ends with about 3 straight minutes of high-flying high spots before Pillman uses a cradle pin off a missed Liger diving headbutt.

 

They go to Schiavone and Bischoff as hosts and after Schiavone talks about the great aerial offense, Bischoff says, "Flyin' Brian won this on the mat!" Schiavone turns his head, looks directly into the camera with this half-smirk and deadpan-repeats "He won this...on the mat."

 

Low-key reasons to love WWE Network: rediscovering that Schiavone was good when the product around him wasn't a complete joke, and learning that Bischoff was always terrible.

[Cobra Commander]

Daniel Bryan is just great on this new Countdown show:

 

1.  "Sandman is all entrance.  He is a terrible wrestler" 

2.  He liked Golddust entrance because all of the sudden this women would come out with "really fake knockers"

3.  "Triple H makes water look cool"

getting myself pumped up for the Sandman to do a run-in at WM30. His music hits, then it takes him 15 minutes to get through the Superdome Crowd as Bryan/HHH stall for time

[Niners Fan in CT]

Yeah - the Trish/Steph match at No Way Out 2001 is some kind of miracle. I was too young to be bitching on the net back then so I wonder what the reaction was when that happened. It holds up very well. It's chaotic in a good way.

[lovchunky]

Low-key reasons to love WWE Network: rediscovering that Schiavone was good when stuffing instead of potatoes around him wasn't a complete joke, and learning that Bischoff was always terrible.

Schiavone's call as Magnum jams the stake into Tully's forehead in their Starrcade '85 match gives me goosebumps. People tend to remember the late 90s WCW version of Schiavone, but when he actually cared about what he was doing, he was fantastic.

[lovchunky]

I am not sure what was more underdone in Crockett days:  blood in 1985 Starcade or ref bumps in 1986 Starcade.    That was a really bad ending to the main event and especially bad since I don't remember any follow up.

By my count, all but two matches on Starrcade 85 have blood. And by blood, I mean giant fucking puddles of blood. Black Bart takes the cake, with Abdullah and Manny Fernandez a close second.

[Hollywood Cibernetico]

I'm going to ask what "Trish Stratus Funny" is but admittedly I am afraid of the answer I will receive.

 

Trish Stratus, despite being insanely over and already in a top spot in WWE, tried her hand at comedy on more than one occasion during her WWE run. This was post T&A and Stephanie feud. This was around the time of Jericho/Christian. So what is "Trish Stratus Funny"? It's forced and  lame out-of-place jokes told by someone who thinks they are being funny and witty. It was one of the WORSE things of her promos because she was always meet with the John Morrison promo heat. Trish was never a lighting promo but on more than one occasion she would be doing pretty good and then  out-of-no-where cracks a 'joke' which is met with silence. It was a derailment of her promos and complete self-sabotage. It made NO SENSE for her to try and even attempt to be humorous in any way while guys like Angle, Austin, Christian, Jericho, Rock, etc. were on the active roster. There is a reason why WWE tells the big men not to do certain moves in their matches as it gives nothing for the smaller guys to do. Trish should take this note if she even returns to wrestling ( I hope she doesn't) and just still to the stuff that got you over which is  looking good in pedestrian wrestling matches filled with YMCA Rec Center kickboxing.

 

I am not sure who was worse at the Trish Humor? Trish herself or her protege Kaitlyn? Actually, after typing the question I would go with Trish because I feel like Kaitlyn would at-least laugh at herself and realize some of her stuff was super corny while Trish thought she was adding something special to her promos. You know, that little something that the guys chanting "Puppies" at her wanting to see and hear....more jokes from Trish Stratus.

 

I am watching Halloween Havoc 1997 and the first three matches are:

 

Yuji Nagata vs. Ultimo Dragon

Gado vs. Chris Jericho

Rey Mysterio vs. Eddie Guerrero

 

Mike Tenay is proving why he had a job in WCW and the show is such a surprising treat. I haven't seen the majority of these show in their entirety and I do not like to preview the card. It's like Christmas Day every-time I watch a PPV on the WWE Network!

[Fallacy!]

Watching No Way Out 2008. Smackdown chamber match with Undertaker/Batista/MVP/Finlay/Khali/Big Daddy V was a lot of fun. Forgot how good that match was, but definitely one of my favorite Chamber matches.

 

Really dumb spot I just saw as I'm watching the RAW match. Jericho has Umaga in the Walls of Jericho and HBK comes over and puts Umaga in the crippler crossface simultaneously. Just as Umaga is going to tap, JBL is released from his pod and comes and attacks Jericho. I guess they were feuding at the time. Really dumb though, like, it's supposed to be every man for himself. If he was really smart, he would sit back until Umaga tapped and then attack Jericho. Cool spot in theory, but made no sense in the context of this match.

 

Oh, and Randy Orton fought John Cena for the WWE Title on this PPV. Where have I seen that before??

[Big Fresh]

Still in the middle of my really strange "I must watch every PPV match that Little Guido ever had" phase.

[Big Fresh]

Man I completely forgot about the Magnum TA tribute video they did before the Flair vs Nikita title match. Man if that was shown live to the crowd, you would have to think Nikita was winning the belt being there. Although I can't tell if that was his mom or wife on the beach. I assume that was WWE canned music although it was really good

If it's the video i remember, it's his mother (who was also involved in an angle with Magnum during the Koloff feud).

Plus, It would be bad kayfabe for a heartthrob baby face to admit to be married.

I just browsed over this post quickly and at first glance I thought you were calling Nikita Koloff a heartthrob...

[Matt D]

Still in the middle of my really strange "I must watch every PPV match that Little Guido ever had" phase.

 

Is Guido the single best quasi-regular (original) ECW guy? Who else is even in that argument? Tajiri? Smothers? Old Man Funk?

[odessasteps]

Still in the middle of my really strange "I must watch every PPV match that Little Guido ever had" phase.

 

Is Guido the single best quasi-regular (original) ECW guy? Who else is even in that argument? Tajiri? Smothers? Old Man Funk?

I presume that excludes Eddy/Dean/name redacted?

[Big Fresh]

It's definitely Guido, Tajiri, or Tazz for me.

Does Guido still work indies anywhere?

[Matt D]

 

 

Still in the middle of my really strange "I must watch every PPV match that Little Guido ever had" phase.

 

Is Guido the single best quasi-regular (original) ECW guy? Who else is even in that argument? Tajiri? Smothers? Old Man Funk?

I presume that excludes Eddy/Dean/name redacted?

 

 

I wouldn't think there was enough content there. Also, if we only look at their ECW time, some of that stuff hasn't aged as well as it could have. I mean I don't Rey's a good answer either.

[odessasteps]

So, is your question

"Who has the best body of work while in ECW proper?"

If so, much as i hate him, i might say Douglas.

[Big Fresh]

Unacceptable answer!

[mco543]

I'd say it is Douglas. Everything he did holds up today, when I went back and watched the entire run of ECW through '97 Shane Douglas was one of the only guys who had his encompassing work still hold up in my eyes. Some of that old ECW stuff is absolutely painful to rewatch, clearly a lot of it was a case of "having to be there" but Douglas' work held up incredibly well compared to everything else around it.

[hammerva]

Wait a minute the Rock was a speaker at the 2000 Republican National Convention.  I know he was everywhere in 1999-2000 but that seems weird  

 

The Rock documentary from 2012 that was shown tonight was reall good as it feels it is showing almost every promo from around 1998-2002.  

[supremebve]

There is no way Guido or Shane Douglas were as good as Lance Storm, Tajiri, or Jerry Lynn during their ECW runs. 

[jchap82]

I was watching starrcade 87, dusty vs luger in a cage, they ave the key to johnny weaver on the outside, so the horsemen coulndt interfere...um then give the key to ref, since hes inside the ring lol, also loved the ending to the title match, you never see the cage come into play like that anymore, except for crazy ass bumps in HIAC

[The Damn Yeti]

I turned on the live stream and watched the Rewind for Mania 3. It struck me how short the match felt so I looked through the Wikipedia match times from old manias. Turns out there wasn't a 15 minute match until Rude and Roberts went to a 15 minute draw at 4, then over 15 at 5 with Hogan vs. Savage, and then over 20 at 6 with Hogan vs. Warrior.

I then flipped over to Wrestle War 92. First match: Freebirds vs. Taylor/Valentine 16:02.

These really were the most different promotions possible prior to 1996.

[offspring515]

IYH Final Four is the definition of a one match show.

The main event holds up as a brutal war between four stars, even if the eliminations are anticlimactic as fuck.

The undercard is pretty bad. Mero vs. Leif Cassidy in a match where 90% of the focus is Sable. The Nation vs. Goldust/Bart Gunn/Flash Funk is disjointed and sloppy. Rocky Maivia vs. Triple H about six months before the crowd gave a shit about either guy. Then Owen/Bulldog against noted French superstars Furnas/Lafon who wrestle the match like they're sleepwalking. I know those guys were pimped as being great wrestlers internationally, but they were garbage in the WWF.

This is an interesting show because it's right in the middle of the change from the cartoony, awe shucks it's family entertainment stuff to the softcore porn of the attitude era. At this point the camera focuses on Austin shooting the bird but they still have JR apologizing profusely for that"unacceptable act".

[jchap82]

Ric flair will never successfully complete a move off the top rope lol