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[WWE NETWORK] What Are You Watching?

RIPPA

By RIPPA
in WWE PROGRAMMING

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Gorman

Gorman

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Thoughts on SummerSlam 88

 

Rougeaus vs. Bulldogs was a fantastic, underrated opener. All it needed was a finish.

 

This was a good show to build up main-event heels, with Bravo, Bad News and Bossman all getting convincing wins.

 

It was strange to see Jake Roberts apologizing to Junkyard Dog for getting JYD disqualified against Rick Rude. These days, nobody would care, but Jake was basically saying "Sorry I cost you the win."

 

The Baron must not have gone to manager school. He just stood in the Powers of Pain's corner and did nothing until Slick finally baited him into a confrontation.

 

I can't remember Hulk Hogan ever coming out to someone else's music except here, when he came out to Savage's music. Of course, Hogan's music was playing for the Megapowers' victory celebration.

 

Speaking of that, I love how we got the first subtle taste of the Megapowers breakup with the look on Savage's face when he saw Hogan and Elizabeth celebrating together. It's always cool when the fans can notice something that the announcers are not saying.

 

Elizabeth came close to winning the MVP award, but the Ultimate Warrior takes the prize for his destruction of the Honky Tonk Man. I still remember jumping up and down in the living room with my brother in jubilation.

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HumanChessgame

HumanChessgame

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I watched the 92 Royal Rumble last night and decided to go through and watch all the other rumbles as well.   Mainly I'm just watching the rumble matches themselves, but taking in a few other matches that seem interesting.

I'm struck by how inconsistent the elimination rules are.  In the 92 match, Randy Savage goes over the top rope to go after someone, but isn't eliminated because according to Gorilla "Someone else has to be involved in sending you out of the ring" or something along those lines.  In 97, Mil Mascaras gets eliminated by jumping off the top rope onto Peirroth, whom he had just eliminated and was on the floor.  

The rules about being eliminated by someone not in the match/already eliminated also change based on what angles they're trying to run.  Giant Gonzales comes in and throws out The Undertaker, even though Gonzales wasn't even in the match.  In 96, Vader gets eliminated then comes back in and clears everyone out of the ring, but none of them are counted as eliminated.  Right now I'm watching the 97 match and Farooq just got eliminated when Ahmed Johnson came back out and attacked him.  Of course there was Punk being eliminated by Kane this year.

1996 and 1997 had a lot of wtf random guys in there.  The Headhunters were in there as "The Squat Team" in 96, as well as Dory Funk and Doug Gilbert, the latter it seemed like Vince and Hennig almost didn't recognize when he came out.  I'm guessing the WWF was trying to get a working relationship with AAA in 97, given all the lucha guys that were on the card that year.  The San Antonio venue (which sounded completely dead btw) being in close proximity to the lucha audience was probably a good location for trying to capitalize on it.

The RUmble itself not being the main event really didn't make it seem as big a deal, especially considering they were doing the 90 minute intervals.  The Bret/Taker match in 96 was fantastic though.

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Matt D

Matt D

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Knowing what we know about Mil, he probably wouldn't put anyone over by letting himself get tossed out so he did it himself.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utpghisMA0M

 

This match is amazing because Brody and Mil are probably the two most terribly selfish wrestlers in history and it's hilarious when they pair off and refuse to give each other anything.

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DreamBroken

DreamBroken

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Watching Survivor Series 2009

 

The opener is Team Miz vs. Team Morrison. All of Team Morrison  is no longer active in WWE (Morrison/Shelton/Bourne/Hardy/Finlay) while 4/5 of Team Miz remains and went on to become either WWE or World Champ.. (Miz/Swagger/Sheamus/Ziggler) with the exception of Drew McIntyre, who certainly should've lasted.

 

Team Kofi vs Team Orton was another of those star making moments for Kofi that happened around this time. Awesome finishing sequence as Kofi rolls up Punk then pops up to nail Orton with Trouble in Paradise for the win.

 

Of the 10 diva tag, only Layla & Alicia Fox remain. Always enjoyed the main event of this show, Cena/HHH/HBK, as an exciting triple threat match.

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Technico Support

Technico Support

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Just out of morbid curiosity's sake, I watched HHH/Steiner from Rumble '03 last night.  It's not nearly as bad as I'd heard.  They only blew two spots and Steiner didn't seem that blown up, either.  The knock on this match was always, "oh man they were fucking up left and right and Steiner was gasping!" and that just wasn't the case.

 

Looking it up on prowrestlinghistory.com. I see it went about 18 minutes.  It felt shorter than that actually and they should have maybe trimmed 5 minutes from it, not because anybody was blown up or anything, but because Steiner's offense was just so limited.  I can only take so many overhead belly to bellies.  If nothing else, HHH should have taken more of the match so as to cover up Steiner's lack of variety.

 

I'd say the match was average, maybe slightly below average for the DQ finish.  It was an easy target for the smart fans of the day because this was HHH in his Cosplay Flair period, and he was looking to do a Flair vs lumbering musclehead carry job.  So it was fun to have a narrative this where wannabe Flair failed, fell on his face and got taken down a peg, but that's not really accurate.  He didn't carry Steiner to a classic but they didn't shit the bed, either.  More like he fell short of Flair/Luger but was better than Flair/Gulas or Flair/Kerry on Quaaludes.  It wasn't awful, just not as smartly worked as it should have been.

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Hail Sabin

Hail Sabin

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Extreme Expose Part 2 Heyman saying if ECW continued it would have turned into ROH circa 2002 with the new style in direction I don't think that would have happened but it would have been interesting. Also after Heyman talked it about I think I will rewatch Wrestlepalooza 1997 since he named it as his favorite ECW TV episode ever.

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Greggulator

Greggulator

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BRET HART VS. RODDY PIPER, WRESTLEMANIA 8 --

This is one of my favorite matches. Such great storytelling.

It starts with a great promo segment between the two. Piper talks about how he loves Bret's family and remember Bret as a kid, but starts doing it in a smarmy manner. This ends up in a tense shoving match of sorts. Heenan and Monsoon also add to the story. Piper's the IC Champion -- the only time he's held a title in his WWF career. Bret's the number one contender, looking to regain his belt. Piper's a reformed heel with a streetfighting pedigree. Bret prides himself on his Excellence of Execution.

It starts with Piper wanting to get the better of Bret fairly. But he can't. Bret's younger, faster and just better. They do a great job with an extended arm-ringer spot, with Piper unable to get out. He goes to rake the eyes, but doesn't. Piper seemingly has a bit of control, but Bret counters and does a crossbody to send both guys to the floor (it's a bit sloppy). Piper's now furious and gets in. They shove each other and Piper spits in Bret's face. Bret at one point hurts his shoulder and sells it. Piper looks on concerned. Bret rolls him up for a nearfall. Piper's fuirous.

But Piper regains composure. And again they wrestle, but with a bit more intensity. Piper sends Bret to the floor. He holds the ropes open for Bret. Bret looks at him cautiously, and enters the ring. This bit of fairplay gets applause from the crowd. But then Bret goes to adjust his boots and isn't looking. Piper can't resist and cheapshots Bret.

So this is a great story here -- Piper wants to beat Bret fairly. He can't. But Bret's no angel himself, using a fake injury to nearly steal a win. It's iffy morally, but within the bounds of wrestling -- it's an attempt at a pinfall. But Piper? He has a darkside he wants to avoid. But he can't help it.

Now it's Piper's game -- kicks, punches, head ramming, etc. Bret starts bleeding after a bulldog. Piper continues with his viciousness. He ends up going to the top rope, but Bret's playing possum. He grabs Piper by the hair and rams him face-first into the mat (think something similar to Randy's in-rope DDT), a real vicious looking spot for the era. Bret now has the advantage and does the Five Moves of Doom. He goes for the Sharpshooter, but Piper blocks. Bret's to the ropes for the axehandle, but Piper's playing possum now and gets the feet up.

Piper at one point sends Bret to the floor, and uses the ring steps. He's resorting to what he once was.

They're at a stalemate, and they're both hurt punching each other. Piper sends Bret to the corner, and the ref gets knocked out accidentally. Piper's giving in. He grabs the ring bell as Bret's out cold. He's looking to hit Bret with it. Bret's struggling, and there's a great shot of a really hurt Bret on his hands and knees with Piper holding the bell over his head -- Bret's at his absolute most vulnerable. That's what makes a heel -- having absolutely no mercy when someone at their most vulnerable, and Piper's the biggest heel of them all. This is Piper's lone moment of individual glory. This is his only championship. This is something that a heel would no doubt use as his justification for giving in to his worst possible self.

But he can't do it. He can't hurt someone whose family he respects like this. He can't give in to those demons he's struggled against. So he throws the bell away and goes for The Sleeper. Bret, instead, uses the top corner to counter for the 1-2-3.

Bret's out cold and an upset looking Piper snatches the belt from the ref. But instead, he hands Bret the title and raises his hand.

This is such an awesome story. Great job.

You can see a lot of the Sami vs. Neville feud in this match. It's obviously different (neither is a reformed villain) but it's the same question -- what can you justify within yourself to obtain individual glory?

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cwoy2j

cwoy2j

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WCW Haloween Havoc 1992. Prior to that on this session 1996 Raw's. Arn Anderson always looked old, didn't he. 

 

I'm watching Survivor Series 1989. Arn was only 31 at the time but he looked like he was about 45. I remember when I first got the internet and looked up Arn's birthday and being shocked that he was only a couple of months older than guys like Sting, Luger, Hall and Nash. I thought for sure he was in his late 40's in the 90's.

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Josh Mann

Josh Mann

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Been on an early-years Starcade kick the last few days. I hadn't seen the Andersons-RnR match since renting the VHS clipped version when I was a kid, and OH MY GOD did I forget how fucking great it was, even though they completely ignored the prologue that put the match together in the first place (the Andersons breaking Gibson's ribs). Didn't matter. It was everything good about both teams.

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cwoy2j

cwoy2j

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Been on an early-years Starcade kick the last few days. I hadn't seen the Andersons-RnR match since renting the VHS clipped version when I was a kid, and OH MY GOD did I forget how fucking great it was, even though they completely ignored the prologue that put the match together in the first place (the Andersons breaking Gibson's ribs). Didn't matter. It was everything good about both teams.

 

That match was so awesome. That has to be the meanest booked match ever though. The fans were on the verge of a heart attack for damn near the entire time Ricky was in the ring. You gotta wonder if Morton did all that selling on purpose just to mess with the fans b/c he came oh so close to the hot tag so many times during that match. The Andersons were great at cutting off the ring.

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cwoy2j

cwoy2j

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I'm watching Austin in Ringmaster mode vs. Matt Hardy. Pretty good match and Austin gave Hardy a lot during that match. Probably a bit more than he should've seeing as how I believe it was his debut. He still looked great though. Hardy looked really goofy with his slicked back hair and light blue tights.

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