WWE Network Conversation

[Cobra Commander]

Quote

In 1993, Sato made an appearance at SummerSlam as Yokozuna's flag bearer prior to his match against Lex Luger. Sato did return to the WWF in late 1994 as the white faced manager "Shinja" who advised Hakushi during his heel run with the company.

so, Akio Sato was Yokozuna’s Johnny Ace for one night.

[Cobra Commander]

Let's watch some more wrestling based purely off of the Network description of the episode...

World Class Championship Wrestling (11/30/1985)

Kinda tempted to just watch more random later World Class episodes to get an idea of how long they keep displaying the TV show card going into the first commercial break. It's an interesting format for the TV and makes sense too.

Match 1: Tommy Montana vs Mark Youngblood. Fans are getting autographs before the match. Tommy Montana has a bushy mustache. Kinda interesting to have a Romero family member working as Youngblood instead of Romero in Texas. Man, they stuck to the camera angle showing a thin left side of the Sportatorium for awhile. Tommy Montana shows barbers photos of Stan Hansen. He is not as large as Stan. Tommy Montana getting some leg work in on Youngblood. Nice khakis on the ref. Youngblood eventually gets his stereotype offense going and wins with a neat looking running elbow drop/splash.

Match 2: Jack Victory vs David Peterson. Jack Victory's hair is magnificent. David Peterson looks like he works dates as Magnum DP. Jack Victory with the least hangtime possible on a leapfrog by anybody not running their groin into the other guy's head. Peterson working an interesting looking hammerlock where he falls back like an Indian deathlock. Nice powerslam by Victory. Jack Victory with a magnificent well of a back elbow. This match ends in a time limit draw. Well, you can't pick a winner between these two.

Match 3: The Missing Link and Rick Rude (w/ Percy Pringle) vs Johnny Mantell and Brian Adias. Johnny Mantell just never leaves this place, does he? As noted before, Brian Adias has Meltzer's 80s hair. Rick Rude is the American Champion right now. Percy is furious before this one really starts. Kinda amusing that Paul Bearer had to hold this sort of stuff in for at least 6 years before he could start hamming it up more again. Nice to see that the Link is well-adjusted enough to work tag team matches. And Link quickly collides with Rude once the babyface moves out of the way. Also Link is being tagged on the top of his head. Brian Adias is a house of fire on a tag. Uh... a double kick to the midsection with Mantell coming off the ropes at Rude? Rick Rude beats Mantell with the DDT as Adias is busy with the Link. Well, that was sorta awkward.

Match 4: Gino Hernandez vs Lance Von Erich. Lance Von Erich is one of those people who I know the reputation of the gimmick but I'm pretty sure i've never seen him in action. Gino Hernandez is wearing a mask, which is what one does after losing a hair match. Lance looks like Rod Blagojevich with lighter hair. Maybe with a different hair cut, he could be a fake Paul Orndorff relative. Lance goes for the mask immediately after putting Gino in a chinlock but doesn't quite get it done. Lance does the same hammerlock move that David Peterson used. Lance's elbowdrop is a bit windmilly. Lance tries to get the mask off again. Lance ties Gino in the ropes and tries to get the mask off but doesn't do it. Lance turns the mask around and rolls up a blinded Gino to win the match. Well, Lance wasn't terrible. But, I guess in the context, I could see how his gimmick would rub people the wrong way.

And our main event for next week is from Reunion Arena!

and let's do one more show...

ECW Hardcore TV (2/12/2000)

We start with the late breaking news that Rob Van Dam has a broken leg. Well, that is literally breaking news.

"Tonight, Jacksonville goes extreme" - for the only time, I'm sure.

well, there is a lot in the Hardcore TV intro around this time. Like, they have 20 different clips.

The only time I got ECW was when it was on TNN. Would it be fair to guess that Hardcore TV was the stuff they couldn't get on TNN around this time?

We start off with Da Baldies vs Balls Mahoney and ???. Balls Mahoney talks on the mic and beats on both of them for a moment. Then he gets cut open by a pizza slicer. Aww, 2000 Wrestling. Masato Tanaka shows up to help out. Balls almost flings the fat Baldie into the front row. Masato/Thin Baldie exit the ring so that Balls/Fat Baldie can work in the ring a little. New Jack shows up to help out our heroes and Masato/Balls get the win. Masato, Balls, and New Jack celebrate postmatch. What a trio.

We got an ad for the video game! Over 50 extreme wrestlers (ECW didn't have 50 wrestlers, who the hell else did they include). Three all new arenas! Over 20 intense game modes. Grueling career mode. Will your wrestler get paid on time? Buy the video game and find out. Weird how this didn't save the company.

Amused at how uber-heel Dominik Mysterio is the guy they put in the Hispanic Heritage Month PSAs.

Our next matchup is Tajiri vs Super Crazy. As is tradition in 2000 ECW. Crazy gets flinged into the second row quickly. Lots of moves of Tajiri kicking chairs at Crazy. I wonder if kicking 3 chairs towards your face helps your luck with concussions any. Tajiri gets some chairs handed to him so he can throw them in the ring. Crazy's bleeding. This match, like pretty much all of their matches, rules. Super Crazy legdrops Tajiri through a table onto the floor. Crazy gets chairs handed to him to throw in the ring. Handspring Elbow, Mist, Brainbuster. Then Tajiri rolls out of the ring and brings a table into the ring. We get a few moves around the table before Crazy moonsaults Tajiri through the table. Tajiri is also bleeding. And we got another table. Which immediately falls over. Tajiri DDTs Crazy on a pile of chairs. Tajiri starts piling chairs on Crazy and puts the table over Crazy/chairs. Then Tajiri hits a top rope double stomp for the win. Yep, this was 2000 ECW.

In case you didn't see the beginning of the show, Rob Van Dam has suffered a broken leg.

Call the ECW Hardcore Hotline at NUMBER PIXELIZED

Here comes Joel Gertner for Joel Gertner things.

Our main event is a Jacksonville Street Fight (whatever that is) pitting Jack Victory and Steve Corino against Tommy Dreamer and Dusty Rhodes. Dusty was looking/built like Curly Joe DeRita around this time. Dreamer and Corino go through the crowd as I wonder what the hell this building was regularly used for. HistoryOfWWE just calls this place "convention center". Conventions of what. Dusty is over in this convention center, nonetheless. SInce fucking when did the refs stop illegal men from entering the ring for a Jacksonville street fight. Dreamer is in peril. Dusty finally gets the hot tag. Dusty and Dreamer do stereo DDTs and elbowdrops for the pin. Then Rhino runs in to attack Dreamer/Dusty. Corino puts Dusty in the figure four just in time for the Sandman to slowly make the save. And that's our show!

[Cobra Commander]

How about I watch some more wrestling on the network.

ECW on TNN (3/31/2000)

This show is from the Uptown Theater in Kansas City, MO. Which is a concert venue. I've been in this building a few times. I'm pretty confident I spent Election Night 2016 in the part of the Uptown that this episode was filmed in (the part with the balcony and the most seats)

We open with Joey Styles and Joel Gertner in the ring. Cyrus comes out speaking some Spanish with Tajiri. Cyrus says he'll wrestle Super Crazy for the TV title because the Network, before insulting Tajiri. Cyrus says he'll get Tajiri's work visa revoked if Tajiri touches him. Hard to believe that having your lead heel be a representative of the network you were televised on didn't help ECW stay on TNN. I'm not sure if Callis looks sleazier with or without hair.

Danny Doring and Roadkill are backstage, and then get beat down by i'm guessing Da Baldies, who want to get Tommy Dreamer. Unless 2000 ECW had multiple bald heel groups by this time. But probably Da Baldies.

We open with Tajiri vs Little Guido: The hard cam is in the entrance so you get to see the crowd and not really see that the ring is next to a concert stage until the action quickly goes out of the ring. Like it's not an AEW ramp. The concert stage is wider than the ring and you go from the stage to the ring. Hey, if you're gonna run a bunch of places, you gotta find venues. We come out of the break with Guido on Big Sal's shoulders and Tajiri on a table. Tajiri mists Sal, Guido drops face first off the table, Tajiri suplexex Guido onto the table, it doesn't break. Countering a handspring elbow with a neckbreaker is creative. Tajiri wins with a brainbuster off the top. This was a good match.

Mike Awesome (just weeks away from fleeing the promotion) and Judge Jeff Jones have some words.

The Sinister Minister is near an elevator. He has cards. Laughter was had.

Next up is The Baldies vs Danny Doring, Roadkill, and Tommy Dreamer. Doring announces Dreamer as their surprise 3rd man. The camera furiously tries to keep track of this one. Roadkill with a bonkers looking springboard splash through a table (nobody was under him). "You could hear that collision on both side of the river, in Missouri and Kansas" (well, both of those things can be true, Joey). Lots of weapons stuff here. Vic Grimes somersaults onto a guardrail (that was placed in the ring) and eats a DDT and Doring leg drop and Roadkill splash. That's enough for the faces to win this one.

Next up Super Crazy vs Cyrus... Cyrus tells us that no, the match will be Super Crazy vs Rrrrrrrhino. We get to see somebody actually go through the entrance after a night of starting with guys in the ring. Corino and Victory are out there with Cyrus. "Joel, how do you say Powerbomb in Spanish?" "Powerbomb?". Joey is laying it the fuck on about how this match is about saving the World TV title from the Network. Man Rhino's Gore is so much better than a bunch of spears, partly for stuff like lifting Crazy up and running him through the table in the corner. Crazy retains by powerbombing Rhino sorta-through a table (the table was set up in a weird way). The Sandman slowly makes the save for Super Crazy. He canes Corino and Victory and then Rhino. The heels take back over in the beatdown and Rhino canes Sandman and Crazy as we fade to black. The match was good but if you've seen 2000 ECW, you're probably familiar with how the match went.

Now, ECW taped more than one TV show while they were in this venue, so let's go off to...

ECW Hardcore TV (4/1/2000)

We open with Nova and Chris Chetti vs Justin Credible and Lance Storm for the Tag Team Titles. Since I mentioned the Hardcore TV intro during my last post, for the record, the Hardcore TV intro video was only a little over 2 minutes long by this time in promotion history. Those striped pants on Chetti sure are a look, which says a bit since Jason's look around this time is also interesting. Would it surprise you to hear that the ECW fans were not fond of Dawn Marie in this venue? Nova superkicks Credible while he's in the position for a backslide. Dawn Marie runs in. Jazz runs in. Justin Credible tombstones Jazz. They keep a tavle up in the corner for minutes before finally breaking it. Impact Players win with a spike piledriver to retain.

Joey alerts us to the monstrous TV taping in Buffalo on April 8th with Rob Van Dam's best friend Scotty Riggs, Mike Awesome, The Impact Players, and Rob Van Dam's return to television. Then we get a Rob Van Dam music video. Mike Awesome didn't show up for this TV taping for reasons you might be able to figure out. Apparently the whole world will be logging onto the ECW website after that TV taping (I don't remember that happening).

Next up it's Steve Corino and Jack Victory. "Kansas City Missouri" (crowd pop) "Wow, surprised you're cheering so loud because if I lived here the last thing I'd do is cheer". The King of the Old School is just here to make a difference. Also he's mad at the ref from his recent match with Dusty Rhodes so we get Steve Corino vs HC Loc here tonight. We get a giantg black box so we don't see Steve Corino's bare ass. Nice looking frog splash from HC Loc. Dusty Rhodes walks out with two ladies and beats on Victory and Corino. Dusty hits the elbow and drags HC Loc onto Corino for the win. We fade to the break before we find out if Dusty could make the two ladies flash a theater crowd. On checking Cagematch, HC Loc is still working on the indies.

And our main event is Mike Awesome vs Kid Kash. Bonkers looking somersault plancha into the crowd by Kid Kash. This match rotated between Kash doing stuff to Awesome and Awesome splatting Kash into the mat. Kash kicks out of the frog splash but goes through the table a few minutes later and gets pinned. Surprised that Awesome bailed out before he got to squash Kid Kash a few more times.

And let's go back to the ECW on TNN episode episode I just watched as Super Crazy takes on Rhino. Kinda amusing how Joey sold "Rhino winning the TV title would be disastrous for ECW" considering what was about to happen in about a week.

Well, this was very much the 2000 ECW experience, wasn't it? You can make your own decisions on if TNN or Hardcore TV was the B-Show out of these tapings. I'm sure it was an even split after all. Kinda interesting to get a wrestling show where the hard cam was essentially over the shoulder at the entrance and showing the the deepest part of the audience. That was a good filming decision even if it's a little weird to see so many people's backs if they came out onto the stage. The Uptown is still going strong to this day with a variety of concerts scheduled in the upcoming weeks.

[Gorman]

Thoughts on Hardcore Heaven 2000

Balls Mahoney and Masato Tanaka had a great opening match, trading finishers and weapons shots and coming back for more. The fans gave them a standing ovation before the match even ended.

New Jack took the "King of the Streets" title from Angel after wiping out DeVito with a balcony dive from the camera position and then walloping Angel with a guitar to win an impromptu match.

Steve Corino bled profusely again, this time in a losing effort against Tajiri. 

Rhino piledrove Sandman's wife through a table, and then when Sandman tried to help her, Rhino gored both of them through another table.

Jerry Lynn wins the MVP award for finally defeating Rob Van Dam. He kept his integrity, too, as he refused the help of The Network, and he did not realize that RVD's best friend, Scotty Anton, had turned against him.

Tommy Dreamer wanted to join Credible and Storm in a three-way dance for the ECW title, but he backed down when Justin threatened to throw away the ECW title. Dreamer should have realized that World titles weren't all that prestigious in 2000. He came out after Credible's win, and while he was too much of a gentleman to cane Francine, he wasn't above giving her a Spiccoli Driver. 

[SirSmUgly]

Some recent Mid-South observations:

• I range somewhere from mildly insulted as a black wrestling fan specifically to incredibly irritated as a wrestling fan in general that the Snowman got dumped randomly into the middle of the TV Title tournament, basically squashed Dr. Death, and then beat Jake Roberts for the medal (and saved Bill Dundee from a two-on-one beatdown post-match). Also, they have Snowman out here doing the Thump. He cuts a post-match promo after he wins the medal in which he talks about driving a Cadillac in a JYD-like vocal pattern. This is some Fake Razor/Diesel level stuff, is what it is. 

 

• Actually, it's now head-canon to me that this Snowman thing is where Jim Ross got the idea to troll Vince McMahon and WWF fans by bringing in Fake Razor and Fake Diesel, actually. At this point, I've got examples for most of the wrestlers who came through here and ended up in WWF that they learned something from their MSW days that they'd use in WWF eventually. 

 

• Terry Taylor and the Snowman as your two singles champs = just kill the promotion already, sweet fuck. 

 

• The tag division, on the other hand, is quite fun in mid-1985. 

 

• I don't know if this is sacrilege/even that crazy to type or not, but the Freebirds showed up and I see them as a complete zero when Terry Gordy is not around. I probably need to go do a deep dive into World Class. I think I've weirdly seen more late stage World Class stuff with Foley, Eric Embry, King Parsons, etc., than I have the prime World Class stuff with Kerry, Kevin, and the Freebirds. But yeah, Buddy Roberts and Michael Hayes being the ones to show up is a bummer. I want to see Gordy bully dudes, dammit.

 

• There are a few women in that crowd (and probably men, but the women are most demonstrative for obvious reasons) who are ready to risk it all for Brickhouse Brown and for Brad Armstrong separately, so imagine how steamy Irish McNeil's got when they showed up to tag together. Though you do get a lot of male voices chanting against them, trying to cut through the squeeing and chanting of the ladies in the crowd.

 

• Hacksaw is about as limited as anyone in the ring and kinda cuts shitty promos too, IMO, but he's being wasted in this feud with Akbar's charges and the fire attack angle. This company also desperately needed Butch Reed to come back from Minnesota ASAP. 

 

• I think I sort of miss Boyd Pierce being awful on color every week because he would at least shut the fuck up for large chunks of the show and let Bill Watts or Jim Ross talk over him. Joel Watts, on the other hand, is awful AND he won't shut the fuck up. This kid sounds like a total goof on every show.

 

• We're really going to push the Nightmare toward the NA title rather than the Barbarian, huh? 

 

• I need to give Ric Flair some credit because he got me mildly interested in a matchup against Terry Taylor. 

 

[Cobra Commander]

I really do think that Joel Watts and Jack McBrayer were on the same wavelength because you could see Joel Watts as the NBC page or Kenneth as the junior commentator for pro wrestling without much of a difference between the two. 

[SirSmUgly]

McBrayer has a folksy charm that Joel Watts wishes he had, but oh man, did I not think about how similar in build and looks those two are until you posted that. 

[worldcupfever]

On 10/10/2023 at 1:40 AM, Cobra Commander said:

We open up with Stone Cold arriving to open the show. Followed by his tag team partner Shawn Michaels. Shawn is in a Homer Simpson t-shirt this week for some reason. JR presides over this meeting. Can this tag team coexist? Can any man coexist with 1997 Shawn Michaels? The Legion of Doom arrive to stare down Michaels and Austin. Hawk being the same height as Shawn Michaels was not something I expected.

I had to pull this up on YouTube to verify the Homer Simpson thing.  Stupendous.

[worldcupfever]

46 minutes ago, SirSmUgly said:

• I don't know if this is sacrilege/even that crazy to type or not, but the Freebirds showed up and I see them as a complete zero when Terry Gordy is not around. I probably need to go do a deep dive into World Class. I think I've weirdly seen more late stage World Class stuff with Foley, Eric Embry, King Parsons, etc., than I have the prime World Class stuff with Kerry, Kevin, and the Freebirds. But yeah, Buddy Roberts and Michael Hayes being the ones to show up is a bummer. I want to see Gordy bully dudes, dammit.

 

I watched WCCW from about 1983 on and I actually prefer (and really have since it was contemporary) that Embry period to anything earlier, especially the battle for World Class.

[odessasteps]

I started watching in 85, so I prefer Dynamic Duo vs Von Erichs over Freebirds vs Von Erichs.

[Cobra Commander]

41 minutes ago, worldcupfever said:

I had to pull this up on YouTube to verify the Homer Simpson thing.  Stupendous.

Michaels wearing a shirt that looks like it was being sold at a Dollar General was actually a rare case of Michaels going rogue in 1997 that didn't make things overly dramatic

Now, in theory, Shawn Michaels could be referencing Bret Hart's Simpsons cameo... but that aired a month before this Raw.

[worldcupfever]

It reminded me of those big baller-style t-shirts where pop culture characters are stylized to look like a Tony Montana or Suge Knight level boss.

[Cobra Commander]

I'm working under the reasonable assumption that the Homer Simpson Scarface styled t-shirt wasn't endorsed by either the Simpsons or Scarface. But maybe it's a "Krusty puts his name on everything" concept with the Simpsons just okaying every non-vulgar t-shirt design and leaving the rest to bootleggers

[worldcupfever]

6 minutes ago, Cobra Commander said:

I'm working under the reasonable assumption that the Homer Simpson Scarface styled t-shirt wasn't endorsed by either the Simpsons or Scarface. But maybe it's a "Krusty puts his name on everything" concept with the Simpsons just okaying every non-vulgar t-shirt design and leaving the rest to bootleggers

it falls under parody or satire

[Cobra Commander]

2000 ECW is the sort of thing that is both very familiar to the sort of wrestling match structure that we've seen a lot of in the last few decades. Some of that probably involved this era of ECW trying to what the Northeast Indies did a few years later and those indy guys getting into the WWE/etc and working matches like that on big stages.

Of course one difference is that ECW had way more tables spots than all the places that were doing the "oh my god, how did he kick out at 2 from this death move" style. Also most places have figured out in the last 25 years that concussions are bad so don't hit dudes directly in the head with chairs.

I've heard that if ECW had managed to stick around for a little longer, they're the place that employs the sort of guys that ended up founding Ring of Honor. I've also heard that despite the whole "going out of business within a year" thing, 2000 ECW had better talent than they had a few years earlier.

But yeah, Hardcore TV had a 2 minute long intro. It was like a 70/80s sitcom theme song where they have to cut the intro down to air it in syndication. But hey, you gotta fill out that hour of TV somehow.

[clintthecrippler]

On 10/11/2023 at 1:12 PM, Cobra Commander said:

Wait, so they didn't even ask Eddie Haskell or Jason Hervey. Jason Hervey's 15 year old self got to talk to Patty Mullen for 45 minutes and they didn't even ask him to decide a winner? How did they not end up working Jason Hervey into more wrestling stuff because he's hustling like crazy.

I can absolutely buy that the scorecards of both Ken Osmond and Jason Hervey were disqualified because they each just spent 45 minutes crudely drawing doodles of themselves committing lewd acts with Patty Mullen (ala Dennis Reynolds in the Always Sunny episode where he is asked to draw his thoughts in a therapy session) and they were determined unsuitable to share with a 1988 basic cable television audience. 

[porksweats]

44 minutes ago, Cobra Commander said:

2000 ECW is the sort of thing that is both very familiar to the sort of wrestling match structure that we've seen a lot of in the last few decades. Some of that probably involved this era of ECW trying to what the Northeast Indies did a few years later and those indy guys getting into the WWE/etc and working matches like that on big stages.

Of course one difference is that ECW had way more tables spots than all the places that were doing the "oh my god, how did he kick out at 2 from this death move" style. Also most places have figured out in the last 25 years that concussions are bad so don't hit dudes directly in the head with chairs.

I've heard that if ECW had managed to stick around for a little longer, they're the place that employs the sort of guys that ended up founding Ring of Honor. I've also heard that despite the whole "going out of business within a year" thing, 2000 ECW had better talent than they had a few years earlier.

But yeah, Hardcore TV had a 2 minute long intro. It was like a 70/80s sitcom theme song where they have to cut the intro down to air it in syndication. But hey, you gotta fill out that hour of TV somehow.

2000 ECW to me is a much more exciting product to watch than any of the previous years before it (98/99). There's an energy there I can't explain.

[zendragon]

With very little understanding of backstage knowledge I remember thinking Cyrus and The Network was a very poor man's rip off of Mr. Macmahon and The Corporation 

[GuerrillaMonsoon]

I love how there's this run of WWF Superstars from late 95 to mid 96 where the opening credits change every two weeks because so many guys leave the promotion. Is Michael Hayes singing the lyrics to it? 

[GuerrillaMonsoon]

https://youtu.be/CPECdI0xDZQ?si=S0rSaRkWosWV93oI

[clintthecrippler]

I always love hearing your thoughts on your continued journey into Mid-South @SirSmUgly 

After I completed my 1985 Mid-South run, aside from one bad booking decision around the tag team championship in the second half of the year, that was one of my favorite years of tag team wrestling in a single promotion ever. 

And fuck, I never thought of the alternate timeline where he decides to strap a rocket to The Barbarian for the North American Title. It definitely would have been a much more interesting choice than The Nightmare, though the big x-factor with that would be if his broken leg still puts him out of action and the reign ends up being brief anyway.

One other thing I hadn't commented on earlier. Watching John Nord go fairly quickly from clumsy stiff to becoming a fairly awesome presence in the ring in just six months (aside from giving Steve Constance brain damage with the infamous elbowdrop botch that ended that man's career) really makes me wonder how much of a big man super-worker he becomes if (a) he doesn't get injured and (b) he doesn't head to the AWA where he works fairly basic matches against Sgt Slaughter and falls under the influence of Bruiser Brody. I know he seemed to finally get some appreciation in later years from the DVDVR crowd and it's wild watching WWF Berzerker squashes in hindsight and realizing how much of a freak athlete he actually was. Watching him develop in 1985, he really does come off like he should have been one of the biggest stars of the later half of the decade instead of having start-stop middling runs in AWA 86/87 and 89/90 with stopovers in Dallas and Portland, and fucking off from wrestling completely in 1988.

[Gorman]

3 hours ago, zendragon said:

With very little understanding of backstage knowledge I remember thinking Cyrus and The Network was a very poor man's rip off of Mr. Macmahon and The Corporation 

It took me a while to figure it out, but Cyrus is a very well-defined character. He's a soulless network stooge, but he's also a former wrestler who exclusively speaks in backstage jargon. I've always wondered what it would be like to have an announcer who says things like "that was stiff" or "he's blown up," and here's Cyrus doing it. 

[Curt McGirt]

You gotta love how Corino's gimmick as "King of Old School" basically just involves him bleeding a lot, which is exactly what the crowd wanted anyway, while ostensibly being a heel. It's like he's doing Right to Censor but doesn't understand the rules. 

When and how does Scotty Riggs have anything to do with ECW? 

[Cobra Commander]

1 hour ago, Curt McGirt said:

When and how does Scotty Riggs have anything to do with ECW? 

from Wikipedia

Quote

Extreme Championship Wrestling (2000–2001)

In 2000, Antol debuted in Extreme Championship Wrestling as Scotty Anton, aligning with his real-life friend Rob Van Dam. At Hardcore Heaven, Anton betrayed Van Dam, knocking him off the top rope to the floor, allowing Jerry Lynn to pin him and thus end Van Dam's two-year undefeated streak. From there, he joined The Network as a "hired gun". Van Dam gained revenge at Heat Wave, where he defeated Anton by using his new Van Terminator finisher.

 

[Curt McGirt]

Boy you know Paul was grasping at straws when he's bringing in Scotty Riggs to try and shore up the lineup.