WWE NETWORK GENERAL DISCUSSION THREAD

[The Green Meanie]

41 minutes ago, RIShane said:

The Ric/Charlotte Photo Shoot is in part promotion for the collectors' edition of WWE2K19, but there's enough unique material and interesting stories to make it work. Highlights include unreleased behind-the-scenes footage from that old NXT bikini shoot with Charlotte/Sasha/Bayley, some audio and footage from last year's Starcade, and Ric telling a story about messing up the corner flip at Wrestlemania X8.

Seeing Ric cry in that episode was pretty difficult.

[PetrolCB]

It’s already out? I thought it’d be later on. 

[The Green Meanie]

1 hour ago, PetrolCB said:

It’s already out? I thought it’d be later on. 

Yeah, they advertised it during Raw that it would be on after.

[Pete]

On 8/7/2018 at 11:34 AM, hammerva said:

Watching the Hulkamania 1985 (probably 1986) Coliseum Video and man I would love to see what Muraco did to get so much heat on Hogan for that cage match.  I swear it looks like someone threw a whole pineapple or massive sized fruit into the ring.  Even Hogan was getting pelted at times.  

Also loved how the belt was just used as a weapon early with no regard what so ever.  Like they were going to replace it anyway.  

That Muraco series was the best thing about Hogan's early years with the title. Way more violent and bloody than most of his feuds at the time. Muraco was motivated and made a fantastic opponent for Hogan to the point where you could totally see why they considered him for a title run.

[hammerva]

13 hours ago, RIPPA said:

Reby Hardy, Kim Orton, and Giovanna Angle filmed an episode of the WWE Network’s Table for Three series this weekend, with the theme being that the episode features the wives of WWE wrestlers.

Somewhere Karen Jarrett is on her 10th Jack and Coke really pissed off at this news

Hopefully someone tells Kim to tell her husband to stop playing with his dick before shaking hands.  

[Eivion]

3 hours ago, Pete said:

That Muraco series was the best thing about Hogan's early years with the title. Way more violent and bloody than most of his feuds at the time. Muraco was motivated and made a fantastic opponent for Hogan to the point where you could totally see why they considered him for a title run.

Any noteworthy matches worth seeking?

[The Green Meanie]

The one where Muraco and Bundy injure Hulks rib's comes to mind, as it sets up WM 2.

[hammerva]

Watching the Piper Greatest Hits show and was curious about the timeline in Piper WWF career at the time of the Andre the Giant Pipers Pit and then the Piper & Schultz vs Andre & Snuka match.  I know the Snuka thing was months later but was Piper already a huge heat magnet in MSG before this?   I mean nothing would put you over more than knocking Andre out with brass knucks, busting him open huge, and leaving him laying to the point you had to leave the ring and get medical assistance.    He wasn't even doing that with Studd until Bundy started teaming with him

[Hamhock]

10 hours ago, hammerva said:

Watching the Piper Greatest Hits show and was curious about the timeline in Piper WWF career at the time of the Andre the Giant Pipers Pit and then the Piper & Schultz vs Andre & Snuka match.  I know the Snuka thing was months later but was Piper already a huge heat magnet in MSG before this?

Piper was an instant heat magnet at MSG on his debut as Orndorff’s manager on the 1/23/84 show.

[Pete]

Speaking of heat magnets, I watched some of the Nikolai Volkoff collection this morning. He may not have been a great or even particularly good wrestler, but he was REALLY fucking great at pro wrestling if that makes any sense. The dude clearly loved his job, and it showed.

[Josh Mann]

WWEN just dropped World Class's 1981 Star Wars, which is worth the watch for no other reason than to see that Harley Race was doing the missed diving head butt table spot (re: vs. Hogan in 88) as early as 1981. Insane. 

[Matt D]

6 minutes ago, Josh Mann said:

WWEN just dropped World Class's 1981 Star Wars, which is worth the watch for no other reason than to see that Harley Race was doing the missed diving head butt table spot (re: vs. Hogan in 88) as early as 1981. Insane. 

The Harley match we had before, but the rest of the card seems new to us. 

[clintthecrippler]

34 minutes ago, Josh Mann said:

WWEN just dropped World Class's 1981 Star Wars, which is worth the watch for no other reason than to see that Harley Race was doing the missed diving head butt table spot (re: vs. Hogan in 88) as early as 1981. Insane. 

That and Bruno doing a table bump in frigging 1970 in the match that got posted in the Volkoff collection. 

[Curt McGirt]

What's that Star Wars card? There's like three of them from that year, one is incomplete and none of them feature Harley from what I've found.

[The Great ML]

February 22, 1981 in Dallas

Killer Tim Brooks vs. Mil Mascaras

Fritz vs. Kabuki

NWA World Title: Harley Race vs. Kerry Von Erich

NWA American Tag Titles: David & Kevin Von Erich vs. Hercules Ayala & Ali Mustafa

Bruiser Brody won a Battle Royal

[PetrolCB]

Did Tim Brooks look strong?

[The Great ML]

No yob.

[paintedbynumbers]

huge drop of 1981 and 82 all star wrestling shows hit.

[Gorman]

Thoughts on SummerSlam 99

The show started with a double title match and a double Vince Russo swerve! Not only did Mark Henry clobber his buddy D-Lo Brown with a guitar to give the IC and European titles to Jeff Jarrett, but the tension between Jarrett and Debra was fake! Russo loved to make heel groups argue throughout the show, only to reunite at the end.

Edge & Christian were the stars of the Tag Team Turmoil match, even though The Acolytes won. E&C earned the crowd’s respect and the MVP award by defeating The “New Brood” Hardy Boyz, Mideon & Viscera, and Prince Albert & Droz.

Chris Jericho and Road Dogg should have had a match instead of a verbal sparring session. Road Dogg tried to do live commentary while following Al Snow and Big Bossman around during their hardcore title match, and that didn’t work, either.

Something strange was going on in that match with Snow’s dog, Pepper. Snow talked to the dog in his carrier right before going to the ring for the match. Later, Bossman used the dog carrier as a weapon and said “How do you like that, boy?” to Pepper, who we didn’t see on camera. After the match, the announcers said Pepper was fine and wasn’t even in the carrier during the match. Sounds like a lot of angry dog lovers blew up the phone lines after Bossman’s attack.

Ivory beat Tori to retain the women’s title after a horribly botched sunset flip. Before you could say, “Well, at least they were trying to wrestle instead of just offering T&A, “ Ivory tried to rip off Tori’s top.

Ken Shamrock and Steve Blackman had another cool gimmick match with their Lion’s Den Weapons match, a rare combination of specialty matches. Blackman really came off as a master of weapons, but Shamrock ironically knocked him out with a kendo stick.

Undertaker and Big Show won the tag team titles with another Russo trope: partners who don’t get along. Big Show didn’t pin X-Pac because he made an arrogant cover. Undertaker angrily tagged in and put X-Pac away with the tombstone piledriver. The new champs weren’t even the only feuding partners on this show, as Crash and Hardcore Holly beat each other up during the tag team turmoil match.

Everyone bags on Billy Gunn for his failed singles push, but he had a very good match against The Rock. The problem was, he was portrayed so much as a tag team wrestler throughout his career – even while winning the King of the Ring tournament – that nobody gave him a chance of beating The Rock.

Mankind won the WWF title in the main event, but he was overshadowed by the feud between Steve Austin and Triple H. Jim Ross said we would get an interview with the new champ, but the show went off the air while Stone Cold was brawling with HHH.

[Web Conn]

Still watching Thunder cuz I like the show. The July 16th 98 show was a special 3 hour show. I won't get into the whole show but Marty Jannetty shows up after months of inactivity, Arn Anderson cuts an insane promo on what being a Horsemen really means and in the most surprising turn of events the main event between Curt Hennig and Scott Hall vs DDP and Konnan of all people had a really fun main event that got a really good amount of time going about 15 minutes which was almost unheard of in 98 especially in 98 WCW. Two things that strike me about this match is 1 is Hall (who I don't know if he was shoot drunk or Dean Martin  drunk) and Konnan both of whom have the reputation of phoney it in really busted their asses in this one. It goes without saying that Curt and Dallas wen full bore as they tend to do and 2 although their was some outside interference from Virgil and Rick Rude the finish for all intents and purposes was as clean as you are gonna get on a Thunder in 98. I've watch 7 months of Thunder at this point and There's only like I don't know 5 main events that end in clean finishes and that's being generous it's maybe closer to 3. 2 Goldberg squashes and this one. The crowd was super hot and all four men busted their asses to put on a really good match.

[cwoy2j]

Just watched an Italian Stallion squash match. He actually pulled out a proto Last Ride powerbomb. Gene Ligon tried a leapfrog and Stallion caught him and gave him a high powerbomb then finished with a pretty nice looking powerslam. Always cool to see stuff like that. Although you can see why that guy never got past the lower card. That match was designed to show him off and he spent a lot of the time just putting Ligon in an armbar. He was a good, solid worker but just didn't have that 2nd gear.

[Gorman]

Thoughts on Unforgiven 99

After Steve Blackman clobbered Val Venis with a kendo stick, security chief Jim Dotson cleared Blackman out of the ring and looked like a super tough guy. This never went anywhere, but Dotson certainly looked like a wrestler. 

Mark Henry looked great in his European title loss to D-Lo Brown. He had come a long way in three years, was cutting good promos, and he had the Sexual Chocolate gimmick. They should have pushed him up the card, not down, and he is the MVP of the show.

Chaz got beaten up and kicked out of the WWF locker room for allegedly beating up his girlfriend, Marianna, who used to portray his mom. Then we immediately cut to Jeff Jarrett, who is doing a woman-beating gimmick but is not ostracized by the boys in the back.

I didn't understand why Jimmy Korderas crossed the picket line instead of showing solidarity with the striking referees. It was hilarious how they came to the ring to beat him up in the main event.

Luna and Ivory had a fun hardcore match, but when Tori tried to help Luna, Ivory wiped them both out. Then Ivory picked a fight with Fabulous Moolah and Mae Young and got clobbered.

Billy Gunn's singles push died at the age of three months. The King of the Ring, who fought The Rock at SummerSlam, was back teaming with Road Dogg as the tag team champions. 

Al Snow and Big Bossman tried to make the Kennel in a Cell match work, delivering a bloody, hate-filled brawl. Bossman was brilliant in cutting through the roof of the cell to avoid the dogs. The problem was that the dogs were a complete non-factor and only cared about barking at each other.

Curtis Hughes didn't work out as Triple H's bodyguard, but Chris Jericho gave him another chance at the same gig. Hughes interfered and got Y2J disqualified against X-Pac, so this didn't work out either.

Mankind tried to keep his Rock & Sock team going during the Six-Pack Challenge main event, but he did put Mr. Socko on Rocky at the end of the match. Triple H won the vacant WWF title, even though he should have been stretchered out of the building after Mankind piledrove him on the steps.

 

 

[RIShane]

The Mick Foley 20 Years of Hell special that aired after HIAC is excellent. Its basically a filmed version of one of his live shows, and he's candid, witty, self-deprecating (none of this is a surprise from reading Have A Nice Day all those years ago, but still), with the ending actually being a quite moving description of his own legacy, and what it means for him and other wrestlers to go that extra mile and to push oneself to the very limits to get to the finish.

It also adds to Something Else To Wrestle and Legends of Wrestling as another completely non-kayfabe show on the Network.

[Gorman]

Thoughts on WWF Rebellion 99 (UK-only PPV)

Jeff Jarrett has the distinction of being the first wrestler to win a match by hitting his opponent (D-Lo Brown) with a vacuum cleaner. 

Clean finishes? In 1999? I couldn't believe it when Godfather beat Gangrel and then Val Venis beat Mark Henry with their finishers. Henry should have been pushed a lot harder at this stage. Why sign an Olympic athlete and then wait 14 years to do anything with him?

Chris Jericho finally started to look like a big deal, with his bodyguard Curtis Hughes helping him beat Road Dogg. Jericho did a lot of impressive, flashy moves.

Edge & Christian actually defended their No. 1 contendership to the tag team title, outlasting the Hollys and Acolytes. E&C had just lost to the Outlaws at Unforgiven, but they bounced right back and were in the midst of their series with the Hardys as well.

Rock should have won the WWF title from Triple H because Rock escaped the cage first. Referee Earl Hebner had been knocked out, so the match kept going. There should have been two refs in case of an Orndorff-Hogan photo finish.

British Bulldog is the MVP of the show. He pinned X-Pac clean and beat up Chyna, Triple H and Rock during the course of the night. Of course, he broke the first rule of how to get a promotion (don't hit the boss's daughter with a trash can). His antics paid off when the English crowd actually began chanting "Bulldog sucks!" Like the best villain, Bulldog believed his actions were justified. He should have gotten a title shot on the UK PPV, especially since his previous title shot was ruined by The Rock as special referee ("It doesn't matter if The Rock counts to three!")

 

 

[clintthecrippler]

The Hidden Gems uploads today seem to be Latino Superstar themed, as there's a Rito Romero match from 1950's Dallas, the first MSG title defense from newly minted WWWF Champion Pedro Morales against Blackjack Mulligan, Tito and Mil Mascaras teaming against Demolition from the Paul Boesch retirement show, and a Rey Mysterio vs Super Calo dark match from prior to WCW Monday Nitro in September 1996.

I've only watched Rey vs Super Calo so far. It was a fun '96 TV match. I am guessing it was originally meant to air on Main Event since Mysterio takes a sunset flip bomb to the floor and there are slo-motion replays, but it ended up being scrapped when

Spoiler

Super Calo broke his arm during the finishing stretch and can't catch Rey at all on the rana.