[WWE NETWORK] What Are You Watching?

[Greggulator]

The main thing that jumps out to me in this War Games match was how insanely gross Rick Rude's tan/baby oil combination was during this.

[JRGoldman]

Any time I have watched any Rick Rude on the network thus far it has just served to reinforce how much better at the schtick he is than Dolph Ziggler. It's like living off of hot dogs for the past five years and then getting served a nice steak.

[Niners Fan in CT]

Rude obliterates Ziggler in every way.

 

Here's a question:  How was WWE able to use "Enter Sandman" on the PPV to begin with? It's still something they were making money from. I don't understand how this works. Did they pay to use it one time?

[SirSmUgly]

Any time I have watched Rick Rude on the network, it has just served to reinforce how insanely awesome Rick Rude is in every way. 

 

Watching Fall Brawl '98 because I'm just watching random PPVs from '97 and '98, and Kanyon, in the middle of giving a good jackass promo in an attempt to get to Saturn, just paraphrased and referenced A Few Good Men. I miss ya, Kanyon. 

 

EDIT: ...and the crowd LOVES Saturn/Raven. This is another match that actually books copious amounts of interference quite effectively, with Raven sending each member of the Flock to do Saturn in, with Saturn taking each of them out, getting dropped by Raven due to the interference, and then juuuuuuuust kicking out as the fans pop harder each time. Good match!

[Valcourt]

I love how Sabu sells every offensive move he does just as much (maybe more) than selling his damage received.

 

Sandman v. Sabu - Tables and Ladders match is mean.

[pipGofern]

Here's a question: How was WWE able to use "Enter Sandman" on the PPV to begin with? It's still something they were making money from. I don't understand how this works. Did they pay to use it one time?

Same way they were able to use American Badass for Bikertaker or that Rob Zombie song for Edge (he used "Never Gonna Stop" for awhile until moving back to his original music). They bought the rights to use the song on a limited basis.

In Sandman's case, they evidently took out a one night license because even when he was part of ECW on Syfy they switched to a shitty WWE ripoff track.

Not to derail the thread but this music rights thing just utterly baffles me. I get artists should be paid for their work but how/why the rates became so expensive that it's a huge cost to use proper music makes no sense at all. To me, it's like playing a song on the radio - basically a symbiotic deal where the station/wrestler benefit from using the song and the artist benefits by increasing exposure to their work. Making the usage fees so exorbitant they'd rather dub over it just costs you potential new listeners IMO.

Anyway, I can't watch the dvd release of One Night Stand. Sandman's entrance with the entire crowd singing along and then them cutting to Angle and JBL just looking up at the crowd eyes bugged out like "What the fuck have I walked into" was one of my favorite moments in wrestling.

[DreamBroken]

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

 

Watch Unforgiven 2005

[Josh Mann]

Man, that Bret/Shawn documentary they have up is fucking incredible. It's funny how they talk about how they "worked themselves into a shoot", then a few minutes later after airing out more of the issues they had with each other they basically do it again when Bret takes a dig at Shawn doing a "striptease" with kids in the ring. As Tony Schiavone would say, you could have cut the tension with a knife right there.

 

Shawn is really interesting to watch in this one. Whenever they bring up losing his smile, forfeiting titles, backstage shit he said to Bret he basically goes full retard with the hemming and hawing. "AHH..UGH....AW...EGHHH...WELL, I MEAN..AGH..UGH...YA KNOW, EH, LOOK, I MEAN.. I CANT REMEMBER..YOU KNOW... HEY, IF HE SAID IT HAPPENED, IT HAPPENED, YA KNOW."

 

I can understand any of them not wanting to say outright that Shawn was so zonked out on Somas at the time that he doesn't recall specific conversations and pussyfooting around that point. 

[nofuture]

 

Here's a question: How was WWE able to use "Enter Sandman" on the PPV to begin with? It's still something they were making money from. I don't understand how this works. Did they pay to use it one time?

Same way they were able to use American Badass for Bikertaker or that Rob Zombie song for Edge (he used "Never Gonna Stop" for awhile until moving back to his original music). They bought the rights to use the song on a limited basis.

In Sandman's case, they evidently took out a one night license because even when he was part of ECW on Syfy they switched to a shitty WWE ripoff track.

Not to derail the thread but this music rights thing just utterly baffles me. I get artists should be paid for their work but how/why the rates became so expensive that it's a huge cost to use proper music makes no sense at all. To me, it's like playing a song on the radio - basically a symbiotic deal where the station/wrestler benefit from using the song and the artist benefits by increasing exposure to their work. Making the usage fees so exorbitant they'd rather dub over it just costs you potential new listeners IMO.

Anyway, I can't watch the dvd release of One Night Stand. Sandman's entrance with the entire crowd singing along and then them cutting to Angle and JBL just looking up at the crowd eyes bugged out like "What the fuck have I walked into" was one of my favorite moments in wrestling.

 

 

Music rights are pretty simple, if you're making money off something that contains someone's else's music, they're going to get a cut of that money.  The bigger the band, the more expensive it'll be.  

[hammerva]

Today's Raw has XFL commercials!

 

Always have a soft spot seeing Tommy Maddox in a XFL game as a Steelers fan.

[Hollywood Cibernetico]

Oh yeah, I watched Rey/Eddie from Hollywood Havoc '97. That match is still so, so, so, so great. I keep harping about what developmental means for the WWE -- where character work is as big as in-ring work. I think the shining examples they are showing guys of how they want them to perform as is Regal and Eddie. This match is just perfect. Rey looks SO small in that match, too. Eddie's gassed out of his mind. Rey's worked a WWE style so long that I completely forgot how revolutionary he was when he broke through in ECW and later WCW. He was just the most graceful, fun and insane workers of his era. Eddie was such a great foil.

I'm going to be watching the debut of DOOM from whenever that was later on. That's my favorite ring entrance debut ever -- "Her Strut" with stern ass Woman walking down as a skull drops with a ton of dry ice with two bad masked dudes. That was one of the highlights of my childhood.

 

Yeah HH 1997 is a good show. I've been popping around in my WCW watching but the majority of it has been the Halloween Havocs, especially the earlier ones because WCW was just SO GIMMICKY and corny that it made it 100% awesome. Do yourself a favor and watch the opening video package for Halloween Havoc 1993.

[offspring515]

Rumble '08

 

Edge versus Rey is okay, but I'm really glad I missed all the Vickie Guerrero stuff because it seems just awful. However, at one point they list all the titles Edge has held, and it's something like 2 time world champion, 5 time intercontinental champion, and 16 time tag team champion. It got me to thinking, as I've been out of things for a bit, but have they reigned in the title changes at all? It seems to me that longer title reigns would be better for the value of the titles, but maybe that doesn't fly in a world where the majority of people seem to have short attention spans.

I think the last few years have seen much longer title runs. Longest since the attitude era kicked in. It's not uncommon to see six month or longer runs.

[Johnny Sorrow]

 

Man, that Bret/Shawn documentary they have up is fucking incredible. It's funny how they talk about how they "worked themselves into a shoot", then a few minutes later after airing out more of the issues they had with each other they basically do it again when Bret takes a dig at Shawn doing a "striptease" with kids in the ring. As Tony Schiavone would say, you could have cut the tension with a knife right there.

 

Shawn is really interesting to watch in this one. Whenever they bring up losing his smile, forfeiting titles, backstage shit he said to Bret he basically goes full retard with the hemming and hawing. "AHH..UGH....AW...EGHHH...WELL, I MEAN..AGH..UGH...YA KNOW, EH, LOOK, I MEAN.. I CANT REMEMBER..YOU KNOW... HEY, IF HE SAID IT HAPPENED, IT HAPPENED, YA KNOW."

 

I can understand any of them not wanting to say outright that Shawn was so zonked out on Somas at the time that he doesn't recall specific conversations and pussyfooting around that point. 

 

Shawn himself says he was zonked out on pills and a giant pain in the ass at the time.

[MGFanJay]

Halloween Havoc '89

 

Wouldn't recommend this show very much. The Thunderdome is fine in highlight form, but drags on in full. The goofiness of THE ROAD WARRIORS LOSING VIA USING A GIANT GOLDEN KEY just killed things for me. Well, further killed, because the opener and the Tommy Rich-Cuban Assassin matches were dreadful. The Dudes-Freebirds match was easily the highlight of the show, with Pillman-Luger in second place. Terry Funk with abs doing the splits was something else.

 

http://jayreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2014/03/nwawcw-halloween-havoc-1989.html

 

Screens -

 

 

 

 

http://www.imagebam.com/gallery/srqxls5ygylrk4e1we3gjudk4lkpdcf5

[Pete]

Watched some more WCCW from October 1982 last night while waiting for Cindy to get off the phone with her mom so we could finish watching "Gravity" (awesome effects but kind of soulless). It's funny to see how empty the Sportatorium is here, a couple of months away from the territory absolutely catching fire with the Freebirds heel turn.

• Frank Dusek's Pink Panther robe is FUCKING AWESOME. Seriously, I would wear that shit on the train to work, doing laundry, everywhere.
• Magic Dragon/Checkmate vs Big Al Madril/Jose Lothario had one of the most amazing Bill Mercer lines ever, and think of how much ground that covers. "Jose Lothario, the young man from Monterey Mexico!" By my math, Jose was 48 here.
• They have "Gran Markus 2" who doesn't look like the original Markus or Markus Jr. Anyone know this dude? He works The Samoan (Samu), who's wearing boots. Samoan wrestlers should never wear boots, ever. Interestingly, Jay Saldi (Mercer's color man) outs him as Afa's son.
• Your main event is the debut of THE FREEBIRD (Hayes) who does a long squash match against Roberto Renesto and does a fun promo afterwards. He's just coming off his Atlanta run and everyone knows his catchphrases. Makes you wonder how popular the Birds would've gotten if they didn't turn a few months later.

[MonteCarl]

Survivor Series '99. I was there live and don't think I've watched it since. Barely remember any of this. Memorable for the debut match of Kurt Angle as well as Stone Cold getting "run over" in the parking lot, taking him out of the WWF for over a year.

 

Also, is there a more random Survivor Series Team than Gangrel, Steve Blackman, Val Venis, and Mark Henry??

[Thomas Bugg]

Halloween Havoc '89

 

Wouldn't recommend this show very much. The Thunderdome is fine in highlight form, but drags on in full. The goofiness of THE ROAD WARRIORS LOSING VIA USING A GIANT GOLDEN KEY just killed things for me. Well, further killed, because the opener and the Tommy Rich-Cuban Assassin matches were dreadful. The Dudes-Freebirds match was easily the highlight of the show, with Pillman-Luger in second place. Terry Funk with abs doing the splits was something else.

 

http://jayreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2014/03/nwawcw-halloween-havoc-1989.html

 

Screens -

 

 

 

 

http://www.imagebam.com/gallery/srqxls5ygylrk4e1we3gjudk4lkpdcf5

 

I had a chance to go to this show when I was 9 and missed out on it. I love how my hometown turned on the Dynamic Dudes, they were all like, "Get this gay ass shit out of here!"

[Thomas Bugg]

I'm watching NXT Arrival and enjoying the Emma-Paige match for the NXT Women's title. Emma hit a sitout powerbomb and the crowd chants, "BETTER THAN BATISTA!"

[cwoy2j]

 

Oh yeah, I watched Rey/Eddie from Hollywood Havoc '97. That match is still so, so, so, so great. I keep harping about what developmental means for the WWE -- where character work is as big as in-ring work. I think the shining examples they are showing guys of how they want them to perform as is Regal and Eddie. This match is just perfect. Rey looks SO small in that match, too. Eddie's gassed out of his mind. Rey's worked a WWE style so long that I completely forgot how revolutionary he was when he broke through in ECW and later WCW. He was just the most graceful, fun and insane workers of his era. Eddie was such a great foil.

I'm going to be watching the debut of DOOM from whenever that was later on. That's my favorite ring entrance debut ever -- "Her Strut" with stern ass Woman walking down as a skull drops with a ton of dry ice with two bad masked dudes. That was one of the highlights of my childhood.

 

Yeah HH 1997 is a good show. I've been popping around in my WCW watching but the majority of it has been the Halloween Havocs, especially the earlier ones because WCW was just SO GIMMICKY and corny that it made it 100% awesome. Do yourself a favor and watch the opening video package for Halloween Havoc 1993.

 

 

Someone needs to screencap a bloodied Vader emerging from his grave at HH93. One of my favorite wrestling images ever.

[cwoy2j]

 

Watched some more WCCW from October 1982 last night while waiting for Cindy to get off the phone with her mom so we could finish watching "Gravity" (awesome effects but kind of soulless). It's funny to see how empty the Sportatorium is here, a couple of months away from the territory absolutely catching fire with the Freebirds heel turn.

• Frank Dusek's Pink Panther robe is FUCKING AWESOME. Seriously, I would wear that shit on the train to work, doing laundry, everywhere.
• Magic Dragon/Checkmate vs Big Al Madril/Jose Lothario had one of the most amazing Bill Mercer lines ever, and think of how much ground that covers. "Jose Lothario, the young man from Monterey Mexico!" By my math, Jose was 48 here.
• They have "Gran Markus 2" who doesn't look like the original Markus or Markus Jr. Anyone know this dude? He works The Samoan (Samu), who's wearing boots. Samoan wrestlers should never wear boots, ever. Interestingly, Jay Saldi (Mercer's color man) outs him as Afa's son.
• Your main event is the debut of THE FREEBIRD (Hayes) who does a long squash match against Roberto Renesto and does a fun promo afterwards. He's just coming off his Atlanta run and everyone knows his catchphrases. Makes you wonder how popular the Birds would've gotten if they didn't turn a few months later.

 

 

That reminds me of Gorilla Monsoon calling Carlos Colon a youngster at Royal Rumble 93 and Michael Cole labeling a 36 year old Steve Blackman as a "young superstar" in the 99 Rumble.

[Justin877]

Royal Rumble 93, just watched the build up to Shawn and Marty with the Barbershop Window turn.  Been said before, I will chime in as well.  Monsoon and Heenan were great together on the broadcasts

[Niners Fan in CT]

WrestleMania IX - I hadn't watched this in forever. Many have called this the worst WM and while there are a ton of shitty finishes the ring work is decent.

 

HBK was bumping all over the place for Tatanka. Fun little opener.

 

The Steiners and Headshrinkers had a fun tag as well. I thought it'd be stiffer but still some cool spots like Rick catching one of the shrinkers for a powerslam while he was on the shoulders of the other.. 

 

You expect more out of Perfect and Luger but it was okay for what it was. I actually liked the finish of Money Inc. vs. The Mega Maniacs because it showed just how dumb Hogan and Beefcake were to think they had won the belts after 1. cheating and 2. Jimmy fucking Hart counting the three... you know...their manager, not an official. Hello.

 

I've always liked heel Doink also. Two heel Doinks is awesome.

 

As a regular event, this is not too bad...  As a WM, yeah.. you expect more.

 

Also, Fuck Hogan for that finish but I'm happy he's back with WWE these days.

[SirSmUgly]

WrestleMania IX - I hadn't watched this in forever. Many have called this the worst WM and while there are a ton of shitty finishes the ring work is decent.

 

 

I totally agree! The finishes sucked, but HBK/Tatanka in particular was a nice opener and as a fan of Luger in any form excepting Lex Express Luger, I enjoyed his match with Perfect. Shrinkers/Steiners was a nice match as well. Also, Doink de-pantsing Crush yet AGAIN with some trickeration pretty much cemented me going from being a fan of Crush to rooting for Doink because Crush was too stupid to hang when I was ten. 

 

I was watching Matt Borne in Portland on YouTube a few months ago, and between this and his work as evil Doink, he's one of my favorite guys to watch right now. 

 

Over on the live stream, DX opening up a Smackdown in 1999 by being rapey as fuck and making a lot of penis jokes is a perfect example of why the WWF in 1999 is borderline unwatchable for me on review. 

[BillThompson]

Finished my Royal Rumble retrospective, and these would be my top 5 Rumble matches of all time,

 

1. Royal Rumble ’03 (01-19-2003) Chris Benoit vs. Kurt Angle
2. Royal Rumble ’00 (01-23-2000) Cactus Jack vs. Triple H
3. Royal Rumble ’92 (01-19-1992) Royal Rumble Match
4. Royal Rumble ’07 (01-28-2007) Umaga vs. John Cena
5. Royal Rumble ’90 (01-21-1990) Royal Rumble Match

The actual Rumble match itself has always been one of my favorite gimmick matches. It's really not meant to be watched so closely together though, I'll have to keep that in mind in the future. There were a lot of guys who impressed through the years, but by far the worst has to be Great Khali. It's not even that he's that horrible as he's never in the ring long enough to show how awful or decent he may be (although I get the suspicion he's pretty awful). He's been in something like 7 Rumble's and I think he's been in the ring for maybe 5 minutes total. They never play him as a joke either, which makes his treatment all the more odd.

[supremebve]

Finished my Royal Rumble retrospective, and these would be my top 5 Rumble matches of all time,

 

1. Royal Rumble ’03 (01-19-2003) Chris Benoit vs. Kurt Angle
2. Royal Rumble ’00 (01-23-2000) Cactus Jack vs. Triple H
3. Royal Rumble ’92 (01-19-1992) Royal Rumble Match
4. Royal Rumble ’07 (01-28-2007) Umaga vs. John Cena
5. Royal Rumble ’90 (01-21-1990) Royal Rumble Match

The actual Rumble match itself has always been one of my favorite gimmick matches. It's really not meant to be watched so closely together though, I'll have to keep that in mind in the future. There were a lot of guys who impressed through the years, but by far the worst has to be Great Khali. It's not even that he's that horrible as he's never in the ring long enough to show how awful or decent he may be (although I get the suspicion he's pretty awful). He's been in something like 7 Rumble's and I think he's been in the ring for maybe 5 minutes total. They never play him as a joke either, which makes his treatment all the more odd.

The Royal Rumble is the most fun show to watch year in and year out.  I've been out of the wrestling loop for the better part of the last decade, but anytime I had an opportunity to watch The Royal Rumble I did.  I've been in Royal Rumble pools, played Royal Rumble bingo, and played about 5-6 other Royal Rumble themed games that don't really have names.  In a sport that I'm in purely for the fun, Royal Rumble is the event I enjoy the most.