WWE Network Conversation

[hammerva]

9 hours ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

So they will never do a Smackdown Six episode? 

They kind of mentions them in the new one about the Brand Split without actually using the name.  they talked about how Smackdown was the better wrestling program and showed clips of Angle, Edge, Mysterio, Eddy, and Benoit if you paid attention.  

The two funny parts of the one I saw:

1.  The fan at an Eric Bischoff autograph signing I guess around 2003 telling him that RAW should show retro Nitro's because the product sucked

2.  The idea that RAW getting the Un-Americans in a "trade" for Eddy was this huge deal is something.  Probably the most time that team has been talked about in decades.

[RIPPA]

This extra came out last week and I missed it

 

[DJ Hero Morganti]

Three ain't enough i need 5

[Gorman]

Thoughts on SummerSlam 2001

The WWF took a commanding lead in its war with the Alliance. Edge won the IC title from Lance Storm. The Rock won the WCW title from Booker T. Undertaker and Kane destroyed DDP and Kanyon to walk off with the WWF and WCW tag belts. 

Austin hung onto the WWF title, but only after throwing everything at Kurt Angle and failing to beat him. Austin finally started beating up referees until he was disqualified. 

Shane McMahon backed up Booker T in the same way he seconded Chris Benoit 13 months earlier. After Rock put away Booker T, he looked at the belt like ... "Really...I'm the WCW champion?"

Edge finally looked like a singles star with his title win, as they built toward Christian getting jealous and turning on him. 

I like how Tajiri was loyal to the WWF side throughout the Invasion, even though he was a longtime ECW star. It gave him a lot more personality.

Jericho and Rhyno had a great match, and Stephanie threw a huge tantrum after Rhyno failed to avenge all of Y2J's insults.

Rob Van Dam wins the MVP award for winning the Hardcore title from Jeff Hardy again, this time in a ladder match. RVD was so fun to watch and different, much like The Great Muta and 2 Cold Scorpio blew everyone's minds when he arrived in WCW.

Worst fan sign: "EXTREME CRAPY WRESTLERS"

Edited March 15, 2020 by Gorman

[Brian Fowler]

I really liked when Christian turned on Edge but was still WWF. Then they just had to go and fuck that up a few weeks in and have him join The Alliance.

[The Natural]

https://www.wwe.com/article/bret-hart-on-stone-cold-steve-austin-broken-skull-sessions-march-16

HELL! FUCKING! YEAH! @NikoBaltimore, @olythegreat89.

Edited March 11, 2020 by The Natural

[NikoBaltimore]

23 minutes ago, The Natural said:

https://www.wwe.com/article/bret-hart-on-stone-cold-steve-austin-broken-skull-sessions-march-16

HELL! FUCKING! YEAH! @NikoBaltimore, @olythegreat89.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.  I plan to watch it Tuesday due to working early but then realized that day was St. Pattys.  But either way I can't wait to watch this.

[olythegreat89]

The thing I like about Austin's podcast is that he has EVERYONE's respect and he makes his guest feel comfortable and at ease. Should be a really good interview. Hopefully we can get some good stories we haven't heard already.

[RazorbladeKiss87]

The first episode of the Ruthless Aggression doc was kind of "eh" but I'm liking the second one, if only because I was a giant Cena fan at the time, to the point where my AIM screen name was something about Thuganomics. Hopefully the next few episodes are as fun. As with all WWE docs, I take everything with a grain of salt but they are produced well and fun to watch. Love seeing the OVW footage, especially Orton doing that dropkick into a backflip. 

[paintedbynumbers]

Classic content for March is May 1993 WCW Saturday Night. Not known currently how many episodes to be added but they are starting with May 93.  Not bad, We will get some classic Hollywood Blonde matches and the Vader-Cactus feud. 

[Matt D]

I was going to say that there's a Big Sky vs Van Hammer miracle match (As in more than 2.5 *s) but that's in March so I guess it's already posted. I feel like most of the really good 93 WCW stuff is on the C shows. 

[paintedbynumbers]

I think you are right, the Flair-Regal stuff was on Worldwide.  Regal does have some decent Saturday night matches though, I think Rude does too

[Matt D]

You get a couple of Windham NWA title defenses too, but a lot of the good Blonds tags are on the C shows for instance.

[JonnyLaw]

I was thinking about Regal earlier today. Is it possible he’s one of the most underrated mic/promo guys out there? It’s not that people don’t think he’s good/very good, but it’s possible he’s one of the best and most versatile, and largely consistent guys on the mic.

[odessasteps]

Speaking of 

 

[The Natural]

On 3/11/2020 at 1:09 PM, The Natural said:

https://www.wwe.com/article/bret-hart-on-stone-cold-steve-austin-broken-skull-sessions-march-16

HELL! FUCKING! YEAH! @NikoBaltimore, @olythegreat89.

  

Promo for this Broken Skull Sessions with Bret Hart was added on YouTube two hours ago. This will be a must see.

[Brian Fowler]

8 hours ago, JonnyLaw said:

I was thinking about Regal earlier today. Is it possible he’s one of the most underrated mic/promo guys out there? It’s not that people don’t think he’s good/very good, but it’s possible he’s one of the best and most versatile, and largely consistent guys on the mic.

I've said it before, but he was the perfect midcard guy. Could work with anyone, could play any role, could act the fool and immediately get his heat back in one segment. Absolutely hilarious when that's what was needed, deadly serious when that was called for. Every company ever needs a Regal. Which makes it too bad there aren't a lot of other guys that could be that.

[(BP)]

Since it was briefly mentioned and we’re talking Regal: What was the deal with the Marquis Of Queensbury Cup? I watched the series a long time ago, but I never knew the context. Was this a Bischoff thing? Was the initial idea to do more WoS style matches and have Regal as the top guy in a division? Is this one of those things that got scrapped when the creative direction changed when Hogan got signed?

 

[Gorman]

Thoughts on Unforgiven 2001

Lance Storm opened his third PPV in a row, teaming with the Hurricane. The Dudleys kept the WWF tag team titles in this four way elimination, also beating the Hardys and Spike & Big Show. Spike kept teaming with bigger partners, but he couldn't beat his brothers.

Saturn beat Raven to get revenge for the destruction of Moppy. Didn't Raven also destroy Chavo's stick-horse Pepe in WCW? Did he use the same wood chipper?

Edge and Christian played out a mini version of the Bret-Owen feud, and the little brother won the first match again. This time, Christian became IC champion.

Undertaker & Kane continued to destroy WCW's tag teams, this time dispatching Kronik with one chokeslam. I didn't remember that Steven Richards recruited Kronik to gain revenge because he blamed Taker for the dissolution of Right To Censor. 

RVD did what Rhyno couldn't do: please Stephanie McMahon by scoring a convincing win over Chris Jericho. RVD's rise to the main event would be very quick.

WCW's ineptitude was summarized by the next match. The Rock hung onto the WCW title by beating Booker T and Shane McMahon in a handicap match. Even with WCW referee Nick Patrick on their side, Booker and Shane were unable to dethrone The Great One.

JR wondered aloud what the great WCW champions of the past would think about Shane winning the title. If they could survive the title reigns of David Arquette and Vince Russo, they could deal with Shane-O-Mac as champion with no problem.

I really expected Torrie Wilson to turn on Tajiri and cost him the US title against Rhyno, especially since she was still part of the Alliance.  Instead, Rhino won the title clean with the Gore.

Kurt Angle wins the MVP for overcoming the hometown pressure twice in less than two months to beat Stone Cold Steve Austin for the WWF title. On the previous Pittsburgh show, Angle beat Booker T for the WCW title. Although that reign lasted less than a week, Austin thrilled an arena full of Yinzers again to bring the title back to the WWF.

 

Edited March 15, 2020 by Gorman

[Brian Fowler]

Is the Kronik/Brothers of Destruction match as bad as we all remember it being?

[Gorman]

No. I was waiting for Kronik to be really bad, but it never happened. They held their own for a while, but one chokeslam just ended it.

[twiztor]

20 hours ago, Gorman said:

Didn't Raven also destroy Chavo's stick-horse Pepe in WCW? Did he use the same wood chipper?

i thought it was Norman Smiley, but i'm not 100% on that

[The Great ML]

Both went into the wood chipper, @twiztor. In WCW, Norman Smiley got rid of Pepe.

Raven got rid of Perry Saturn’s Moppy in WWF...and it took an awkward length of time for it to go through...so Scotty started pantomiming.

Edited March 15, 2020 by The Great ML

[Gorman]

Thoughts on No Mercy 2001

Lance Storm opened his fourth PPV in row, teaming with The Hurricane to lose to WCW tag team champions Matt and Jeff Hardy. Lita, Ivory and Mighty Molly all got involved. Lita often saved the Hardys from defeat and led them directly to victory, as she did here.

Test scored the biggest win over his career, pinning Kane after a boot to the face. He hit a low blow first and got some help earlier from Nick Patrick, but in this match, Test showed star potential.

Give Torrie Wilson and Stacy Keibler credit for actually trying to wrestle in their lingerie match. Neither had more than two years of wrestling experience. Torrie used Stacy's legs against her by pinning her with a reverse Alligator Clutch.

Joining the Alliance didn't help Christian. Nobody from the Alliance assisted him in his ladder match against Edge, even though that would have been perfectly legal. Edge destroyed his storyline brother with a Conchairto on top of the ladder before grabbing the IC title.

Undertaker continued his destruction of WCW stars by pinning Booker T after the Last Ride powerbomb. Maybe Undertaker should have fought off the entire Invasion by himself.

Austin won a three-way over RVD and Angle to retain the WWF title, just like he did four months earlier against Jericho and Benoit. Angle suplexed RVD all over the ring, but Shane took him out long enough for Austin to hit the Stunner for the win.

Chris Jericho is the MVP for finally "winning the big one" and capturing the WCW title from The Rock. It was strange that we saw two WWF guys fighting for the WCW title, totally apart from the war between the WWF and the Alliance. Stephanie McMahon accidentally helped her archrival Jericho win the title by bringing a chair to the ring, and Jericho gave Rock the Breakdown (Jeff Jarrett's "The Stroke") on the chair to win. Rock got right in Jericho's face with the chair as if to say "you needed this to beat The Rock."

Edited March 16, 2020 by Gorman

[Gorman]

Thoughts on Rebellion 2001

Edge won the MVP award right off the bat by retaining the IC title in a cage match against Christian. They continued to parallel the Bret-Owen feud, with the exception of nobody from the Alliance helping Christian. Edge escaped after using his wrist tape to hog-tie his brother to the cage.

Big Show destroyed DDP in just over three minutes. While that looks like a burial of someone who should have been one of the Alliance's leaders, booking Big Show as an unstoppable giant isn't a bad thing ... it's a good thing.

William Regal had turned on Kurt Angle and helped Steve Austin win back the WWF title. He traded his WWF commissioner spot for the role of Alliance Commissioner, a position that seemed to have no real power. Regal was impressive in beating his former buddy, Tajiri, with the Regal Stretch.

Angle also turned against the WWF and joined the Alliance. He quickly won the US title (which fit him perfectly), but he couldn't take the WCW title from Chris Jericho.

Hugh Morrus and Chavo Guerrero Jr. kept barging into the women's locker room to interview the divas. Mighty Molly screamed when they saw her not wearing her cape.

Usually, these UK pay-per-view main events were handicap matches, four-ways or bouts involving Shane McMahon. Here, they got a double WrestleMania rematch between Stone Cold and The Rock. Angle helped Austin retain the title, which seemed to solidify the Alliance team heading into the Survivor Series, while Rock and Jericho from the WWF team couldn't stop fighting each other.

Worst series of fan signs ever: “CURT ANGLE” “ITS FALSE” “ITS DAM FALSE”

Edited March 17, 2020 by Gorman