WWE Network Conversation

[Technico Support]

But as always to paraphrase the Deadlock boys in their incredible Slammys episode, which I always think of when I see Rude, "Rick Rude was the most attractive person in existence at that time.  If your wife went to a show and Rick Rude was on it, Rick Rude was fucking your wife."

[GuerrillaMonsoon]

S4 of WWE A&E Biographies...

Scott Hall ep was a total cryfest. Sad.
Orton's was interesting, it was new information and helped me see him in a new light
DDP's was nice, a bit of a rehash of what was already WWE compilation fodder, but the 80s nightclub stuff was cool

Slaughter's was........ehh. Just seemed somewhat unrepentant for his marriage breakdown and how little he saw his kids, and it was weirdly portrayed in an ep that didn't really have a selling point, other than just the usual WWE talking heads all unanimously agreeing that he was totally doing an interview as Sgt Slaughter and absolutely not stealing valor.

[odessasteps]

I know some people were critical of how Sarge’s wife off, disliking the business and not allowing Sarge to put up his memorabilia in the house. 

[Curt McGirt]

11 hours ago, GuerrillaMonsoon said:

Scott Hall ep was a total cryfest. Sad.

Yeah guess which was the only part of that entire thing I caught...  The worst part was the (I think) HOF night where he was at the bar. The man's all pilled out, takes a header onto the floor, and all you bodybuilders just swear he was dead weight that you couldn't pick up, so you left him there to be stepped over all night? What the fuck is wrong with you?

Recorded the Slaughter one but just got rid of it. I thought "what could they have actually talked about?"

[Cobra Commander]

Things I Remember From Summerslam 1990:

It's a Tuesday. Spring Training is almost over. I didn't feel like watching more baseball with real baseball in 2 days. Dark Side is tonight and I decided to watch the pinnacle of John Tenta instead of the pinnacle of Brutus Beefcake (Starrcade 1994?). Also it's a card i've never seen.

Oh man, this is when they start putting Vince on PPVs. I know Jesse had just been fired.

We kick off with Power and Glory kicking the shit out of Marty Jannetty for a bit as Shawn Michaels is hurt on the outside. Goodness the Powerplex ruled.

Bobby Heenan with a good unintentional shoot commit about Kerry Von Erich's head being in the clouds.

Texas Tornado (or as Vince said a few times "Kerry Von Erich") didn't work like someone with just one foot. If you didn't know, you might not be able to tell. That finishing combo of the Claw and then the Tornado Punch looked neat. Curt Hennig was made to take a finish like the Tornado Punch. Also love Hennig just falling to the floor during the Kerry celebration.

Sherri was wearing a Psicosis mask. Makes me consider the idea of 1990s Sherri managing Luchadors and taking dives from the tecnicos. Sherri wins by forfeit because Sapphire has disappeared (more on that later)

Good luck getting any productive help from Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Dusty.

Didn't really pay much attention to Warlord vs Tito Santana.

As also sorta busy during Harts/Demolition. But the was chaos with 3 Demolition members. Then the LOD showed up. Also it was 2 out of 3 falls which was a WWF quirk that they did a few times. It was probably a really good match that I should have paid more attention to. The finish was a bit of the "shove someone over your buddy" finish.

There's an intermission on this show? in 1990?

Bad News is afraid of snakes. It's only sorta racist since they booked all Jake opponents to be suddenly afraid of snakes. Bossman is the guest referee. There's a DQ. Bad News almost legdrops a snake. Okay.

Sgt. Slaughter isn't quite a traitor yet.

Duggan and Volkoff win in a few minutes. They namedrop Kate Smith like this is a Yankees game.

Before Dusty faces Randy Savage, it turns out that Ted DiBiase bought a black woman (Sapphire). Then Dusty loses in a few minutes after getting hit by a purse. Then Ted/Sapphire drive off as Dusty chases the car. And we never see Sapphire again, except in Memphis. Sherri's makeup made it look like she was performing in CATS on the side.

Hogan vs Quake was fun. Gotta love a big fat guy who decides "i'm gonna stomp on my opponents fingers". Also, Hulk Hogan ripping Earl Hebner's shirt, which is a weird move for a face. You'd think Ric Flair was watching this and wondering "why didn't I rip Tommy Young's shirt off" (Ric would want Tommy to rip Ric's pants off). Screwjob-a-riffic finish. Quake is slammed on a table but not through it. His back looked gnarly post match. Not sure if I went around the horn to blow off this feud. Hot crowd for the occasion.

We have to eat up some time to set up the cage. Dusty has a good vintage-ish Dusty promo. More promos from various people to kill time.

Okay, that's a bad overdub for Rude's music. Didn't they use this music for years.  Would think that they could have had Rude come out to do his schtick while they set the cage up to have a little less down-time. Warrior shaking the cage like a moron doing a structural soundness test. Starting at the top of the cage is one thing this Rude/Warrior match has in common with Mankind/Undertaker HIAC.  Warrior jumping directly into the cage feels like something the Warrior would have done. I think Rude might be able to fit most of his leg through the gaps in this cage. Kinda feels like a political powerplay for Hogan to give the Warrior the main event but also make it seem anticlimatic compared to Hogan's match. An axehandle off the top of the cage feels like a good way to fuck up your knees/ankles. They did the Von Erich/Flair cage door slam spot as a throwaway spot in this match. Speaking of Flair, here's Rick Rude's bare ass. Would have been a funny finish if Rude just escaped the cage as Warrior was beating up Heenan. Warrior taunting Rude with a hip swivel before dropping to the floor. Well, that's a finish. This is also the event that brings about the end of Rude in the WWF as a competitor

Maybe there was more going on at Starrcade 1994?

edit: forgot to mention the whole "Bossman is working twice because Tugboat mysteriously got unbooked from the main event" thing

Edited March 27 by Cobra Commander

[Technico Support]

Wrestling Challenge s1e6 kicks off with a murderer vs a domestic abuser, introduced by a sexual predator and referred by a…checks notes…t-shirt bootlegger.  Old wrestling is tough to watch sometimes.

Edited March 29 by Technico Support

[Technico Support]

Looooool the Islanders’ dubbed theme sounds like some Neon Indian chillwave shit.

[Cobra Commander]

Let's go to Peacock and watch some wrestling in preparation for tomorrow/Tuesday night's Dark Side of the Ring

World Class Championship Wrestling (5/14/1988)

Match 1: Black Bart vs Sweet Brown Sugar Skip Young. Gotta admire the batshit insanity of diving to the floor at the Sportatorium. A Headscissors allows Mark Lowrance to remind us of the promotion's main feud where Michael Hayes is teaming with the Von Erichs. I understand why they mentioned Black Bart is a former World champion but man, that was a bleak period. They also mention that they've moved the hard camera. Black Bart wins with a legdrop off of the second rope.

Let's go back to Texas Stadium for the Parade of Champions and boy that place does not look all that full. Black Bart tries to hang Bill Irwin. Kerry beats Iceman King Parsons for the title. They find a large group of fans to film.

Jack Victory and John Tatum have some words for the Simpsons. John Tatum looks like he's going through a midlife crisis. I guess Jimmy Garvin has been gone long enough for John Tatum to use "It wasn't our fault"

We go back to Texas Stadium for more clips from Parade of Champions. This time it's the triple cage match. Meanwhile Steve Simpson just took some Freebird Hair Cream in the eyes. Hey, an ad for Starburst. 

Michael Hayes brings it on promos at least.

Match 2: Hollywood John Tatum and Jack Victory vs The Missing Link and Jason Sterling. I have no idea who the fuck Jason Sterling is. Jason Sterling looks like a tiny Peter Brady with Mike Brady's curly hair. He's also in jungle trunks. Missing Link and Jason Sterling have a lady friend. Sterling hitting dropkicks and getting fired up. Jack Victory towers over Jason Sterling and Jack Victory is billed at 6'3. Holy hell Tatum and Victory just tossed Sterling over the top rope like they were throwing a bag of trash into a trash truck in a spot that nobody should show Darby Allin. Going to CageMatch and Jason Sterling worked as Dewey Robertson Jr, so basically he's Mark Ragin to Link's The Destroyer. Heels win with a doubleteam hot shot on Sterling.

And it's time for our main event.. Chris Adams vs Terry Taylor. Chris Adams has a facemask. Amazing Terry selling of a superkick to the gut. Adams no sells a headsmash on the table and then headbutt's Terry which he sells like he's being faith-healed by Benny Hinn. Mark Lowrance trying to find ways to justify why Bronko didn't count them out. The Mask comes off for a moment which means it's time for Terry to get hit by the mask. Lots of crowdshots because if you've stuck with this promotion into 1988, you deserve TV time. Commercial break and we return on the outside. Terry Taylor counters an piledriver attempt by finding the nearest stairs and sitting on them. Lowrance will keep mentioning how Bronko won't count these guys out like we don't know Bronko counts slow. Taylor starts working on Adams' injured hand, so he has multiple on-screen injuries. Nice taunting by Terry during a wristlock. That chinlock really shows us that Chris Adams is wearing a catchers mask. I think Terry just did a version of the Ric Flair/Tommy Young spot with Bronko. Mike George and Masa Chono run in for the DQ. Mike George is a Central States guy who has the physique of Meat Loaf. Chono accidentally hits Mike George with a leg lariat and eats a Superkick from Chris Adams. Terry Taylor flees with Chris Adams following.

Well that was an hour of wrestling alright. Terry Taylor putting the work in for that one.

[SirSmUgly]

I just started my World Class re-watch again after re-reading a huge chunk of Gary Hart's book a couple weeks back, and I am consistently tempted to turn on some Mid-Atlantic or re-watch some Mid-South instead. 

As someone who doesn't jibe with either the Von Erich boys or the Freebirds, I'm wondering if maybe the Eric Embry era of Dallas wrestling is going to remain my favorite. 

[SirSmUgly]

Survivor Series ’98: Deadly Game notes:

• We’ve made it to the final show in the WWF’s Big Five PPVs of 1998 IN REVIEWWWWWWW series I've been working on. This Survivor Series isn’t a team tournament; rather, we have fourteen wrestlers trying to SURVIVE a SERIES of singles matches en route to the WWF Championship. See what I did there?

 

• This is one of my favorite PPVs of all time and the shining jewel in Vince Russo’s career as a creative talent, by the way, for whatever credit Russo should get for his input into this show.

 

• Right now, I have the Big Five of 1998 in this order in terms of quality: SummerSlam > Royal Rumble > WrestleMania > King of the Ring. Survivor Series won’t do any worse than second, but I suppose that SummerSlam was so good that there’s a chance it could replace Survivor Series at the top. A small chance, but a chance!

 

• The Undertaker and Kane get byes in this tournament, which is fine by me as that means one fewer Kane match to watch.

 

• Mr. McMahon is in a wheelchair and selling an ankle injury. Either he’s being indicted by the feds and needs to drum up sympathy, or Stone Cold Steve Austin beat the shit out of him recently. McMahon introduces his apparent protégé Mankind. Mankind stumbles out here in a tux and holding the Hardcore Championship. What a visual! Mankind hugs Vince, and Vince’s face screams disgust in a way that is hilarious. Mankind is facing a mystery opponent in this first round of the tournament, and as Vince takes out his note cards to introduce said opponent, the crowd chants HBK HBK HBK. Hahaha, you sweet summer children. McMahon gives a stirring ring introduction for a person who is “currently the coach of the Pasadena Chargers, the man, the myth” Duane Gill. Gill is thrilled by his Titantron, which is just clips of him getting his ass kicked. His pyro goes off. It terrifies him. This is so dumb in the best way possible. The crowd boos because they feel ripped off, but it works because they realize how dumb they are for thinking that Vince was going to give Mankind an opponent the caliber of Shawn Michaels. Mankind wins it with a half-nelson and a rollup in about thirty seconds and moves on to the quarters. The poor bastard shaved his face to make Vince happier, by the way.

 

• We see video of Jacqueline clobbering Sable in the head on Sunday Night Heat followed by Sable only semi-woodenly telling Kevin Kelly that Jacqueline pissed her off and that she will take Jacqueline’s Women’s Championship from her tonight. She flings an ice pack and storms out of the interview.

 

• Jeff Jarrett (w/Debra) faces Al Snow for a chance to meet Mankind in the quarterfinal of this tournament. Debra dresses down Tim White in advance, just in case. Then after Jarrett calms her down, she dresses down Howard Finkel instead. Man, Debra’s in ace form tonight. Snow stalks Debra, what with being a creepy dude and all, and then Snow hits Jarrett when Jarrett chases him down. Snow lands a senton off the stairs and a springboard guillotine before the bell even rings. This is a perfectly cromulent match. Snow whiffs on a top-rope guillotine legdrop and they trade flash pinfall attempts and counters for two counts. After Snow and Jarrett clash heads, Debra tries to give Head to Jarrett as a weapon. This draws Tim White over, and that allows Al Snow to grab Jarrett’s guitar. Snow swings the guitar at Jarrett but whiffs; Jarrett hits Snow in the back of the head with Head, but he doesn’t catch him entirely. Jarrett points the guitar out to White, who clears it from the ring. Jarrett tries to use White being distracted by the guitar to pop Snow another one with Head, but Snow boots Jarrett in the mush, picks Head up after Jarrett drops the poor disembodied mannequin piece, and clobbers Jarrett with it for three.

 

• Next up, the plot thickens. So, we’ve come into this show with the Rock seeming to have completed a face turn and Vince reluctantly backing Mankind as his corporate champion. Mankind has already been afforded a career jobber as his first opponent of the night, so the fix appears to be in, even considering how little Vince actually likes Mankind. Or can stand the sight of Mankind, for that matter.

 

• Now, we get the Big Boss Man heading to the ring to face Stone Cold Steve Austin, the latter of whom is of course McMahon’s biggest enemy. Get Austin out of the tournament, that’s the first thing McMahon cares about. Getting Rocky out of the tournament is ostensibly the second thing. Boss Man meets Austin in the aisle, throwing fists, and Austin wins that punch-up and kicks the hell out of the guy. This show is pretty Bowdlerized. The phrase “Piss[ed] off” is bleeped, for one, and for two, they blur Austin throwing up the middle fingers as he drops an elbow. It’s the Attitude Era, they do way worse than minor impolite words and middle fingers, come on now.

 

• Boss Man takes over with a low blow and picks right up where he left off in his failed crusade against the nWo earlier in the year. That is to say, he hits some shitty offense that ends up being broadly ineffective against his much more resilient opponent. Vinnie Mac and his stooges watch the match backstage on the split screen and are excited about this, um, Boss Man headlock that I’m sure is going to stop Steve Austin in his tracks. Austin makes a comeback and Boss Man has had quite enough of that shit, thank you very much, and grabs his truncheon so that he can beat the crap out of Austin with it. Austin wins the match and moves to the quarters, but he doesn’t look like much of a winner after that beatdown. Aw, Lawler just said the same thing right after I typed it; how unoriginal am I?

 

• Michael Cole interviews Vince backstage and asks whether or not Vince is worried about Austin advancing in the tournament. Vince is not worried at this point considering that whole “Boss Man beat the shit out of Austin with a nightstick” dealie that just happened.

 

• X-Pac – our current European Champion, might I add – comes to the ring for a shot at facing Stone Cold Steve Austin in the quarters. Now, Vince can control a whole lot of stuff in his company from a kayfabe standpoint, but he can’t control everything. There are just too many variables to consider. For example, he failed to consider the variable that is X-Pac and A REALLLLL MAN’S MANNNNNN Stephen (that’s how they spell it on the chyron!) Regal being so heated over whether or not an American should be able to hold the European championship that they spill out to ringside, lose all track of the ref’s count, and get counted out together. This result sends Steve Austin into the semifinals, which is great for the fans in the crowd and awful for Vinnie Mac and his mooks.

 

• Meanwhile, Stephen Regal/X-Pac would have worked better as Steven Regal/Syxx because WWF crowds don’t get excited for holds at this point. Even X-Pac and badly drugged-up Regal working a nothing match on PPV gives a glimmer of something that would be really good over fifteen minutes with a more definitive finish, and I wonder if they ever got that chance. Regal does a lot of neck work that X-Pac has to fight up from so that he can explode, and it’s solid stuff, but all the fans care about is a Bronco Buster. Waltman had a great cumulative showing on the three of the Big Five PPVs he showed up on, by the way. This was the least of his matches on those shows, and I still enjoyed it and wanted to see a longer rematch of this one. Anyway, Mr. McMahon demands that Commissioner Slaughter run out there and start a five minute overtime for the match after the count out, but X-Pac is like FUCK YOU REF, MY NECK HURTS and then Regal runs down the aisle and to the back to chase him anyway, so that overtime doesn’t end up happening/it results in another double count out anyway. McMahon yells AUSTIN GETS A BYE?!, but he’s got more tricks up the sleeve of his well-cut suit, don’t you worry.

 

• Ken Shamrock is now the Intercontinental Champion. At some point between SummerSlam and now, Triple H injured a knee and either lost or relinquished the title. Also at some point between SummerSlam and now, Goldust had kayfabe/also shoot (???) issues with Terri, though we don’t get much of that story now. Ross points out that Shamrock has won a major wrestling tournament already this year in the King of the Ring, but that was only two matches in one night, not four like tonight. So, these fellas go at about fifty miles an hour, and it’s great. Do you want to see big guys hit lariats and roundhouse kicks at pace? If you do, you’ll enjoy this bit of fun wrestling. Well, there’s a chinlock in here because Goldust’s conditioning isn’t that good, but still. I mean hell, Goldust reverses a vertical suplex attempt and hits one of his own, and Shamrock is first up, and that feels about right w/r/t conditioning. Shamrock hits a leaping Frankensteiner from the second rope, a belly-to-belly, and locks on an ankle lock for the victory in short order after Goldust tries to traumatize his testes.

 

• Now, Mr. McMahon’s got some machinations going on in the background if this event. He’s secretly cut a deal with the Rock to become his corporate champ, but he’s got to hide that deal from everyone else until the time is right to properly pull it off. Solution: Book the Rock against Triple H, and then when HHH doesn’t show up because he’s injured, just send the Big Boss Man out there to slip on a banana peel! The crowd in St. Louis tonight sucks, they’re just awful, but DO YOU SMELL WHAT THE ROCK IS COOKIN’ gets a big pop. As does ARE YOU READY?, but uh, bad news for y’all, it’s just Patterson and Brisco walking out and crotch chopping everyone. Brisco gets a mic and tells us that MISTER MACK-MAHAONNN decrees that Brisco should heavily fine Triple H for a no-show before Patterson grabs the mic and introduces the Boss Man as Trips’s replacement.

 

• Jim Ross has a very good night on commentary, and it picks up around now, with his despairing, “But the Big Boss Man’s already been eliminated!” So, Boss Man runs in and immediately gets small packaged for three. The crowd and Jim Ross both get a kick out of that, and IMO, this PPV is so good because the misdirection in the booking works exceptionally. I remember seeing this show the first time around and then after the finish of the show, remembering how this match went down and suddenly, retroactively registering that it was a fix because unlike normally, the WWF’s creative team didn’t feel the need to point it out at the end of the show in some sort of flashback video made just for the end of the PPV.

 

• Aw shit, here comes the Undertaker. Wait, let me finish before you ask me why I'm bummed out. Here comes the Undertaker to wrestle Kane in the first quarterfinal match of the show. Apparently, the Brothers of Destruction both got byes because of some bullshit controversy surrounding the world title and their claim to it. Whatever, man, whatever. So, the Undertaker has turned heel and joined up with Paul Bearer again since we last saw the guy. I felt then, and feel now, that while Satanic Undertaker was an amazing iteration of this character, his matches and angles basically all sucked. If we could meld Satanic Undertaker’s character with Biker ‘Taker’s matches, that’d be cool. Alas, we’re going to watch Satanic Undertaker wrestle Kane.

 

• This match is the low point of the night, IMO, but I guess it’s an okay-enough plodding brawl. One of the big shockers for me on rewatch is how generally good the work is on these 1998 WWF PPVs. The prevailing narrative is that WCW had a much better undercard than the WWF in terms of work, and that’s just a complete falsity. The WWF’s undercard workers can go as much as WCW’s undercard. The big difference is that the WWF’s main event matches tend to be better. I might complain about Steve Austin and the Undertaker not having much chemistry, but it’s far better than watching Hogan, Warrior, or Piper in 1998. Sting is still pilled up enough that he’s inconsistent in his match quality. Savage has lost three or four steps by the time he destroys the rest of his mobility with a knee injury. The Hitman left the WWF and got jerked around in his booking before being turned heel for no reason, so his work is less than ideal because you can just tell the guy doesn't have the fire for his WCW run. Goldberg is still learning. Nash is inconsistent. The Giant's been de-pushed. In 1998, Diamond Dallas Page is the best main event worker in the company by a significant amount. I enjoy DDP a lot, but he is not the guy you want as your best main event worker.

 

• Anyway, honestly, this is fine. The Undertaker tries really hard and his control segment is active, specifically because he does the little things like work a legbar by laying in soupbones so that Kane can’t fight out of it. Eventually, we get a double-goozle. Kane wins that exchange with a chokeslam, but Paul Bearer distracts Kane, and the Undertaker sits up and grabs Kane in a Tombstone for three. Kane punches the ref in frustration on his way out of the ring.

 

• Mankind continues what he thinks is his night-long coronation as WWF World Champion by shuffling to the ring to face Al Snow. Someone stole Mr. Socko and planted the guy around Head’s temple, which is sure to piss off Mankind and drive him on to victory when he realizes it. Mick’s out here still wrestling in that tux because that’s his idea of being classy. What makes this work so well is that poor Mick is trying his best to be what Mr. McMahon wants him to be, but it’s just not who he is, man, I feel bad for him. He should love himself more.

 

• Snow swings a chair and doesn’t get DQ’d even though he connects with Mankind. Did Mr. McMahon give Jimmy Korderas his directions or not? No, I guess McMahon didn’t feel that he needed to because on the split-screen, he reveals that he's the one who had Mr. Socko kidnapped and plantedon Head. In fact, Snow grabs Head and swings for the fences; Mankind ducks it, drops Snow with an atomic drop, and then sees Head wearing his precious Socko. Mankind retrieves Socko and attacks Head with strikes – yes, that is exactly what happened – and this allows Snow to get the jump on Mankind. Snow gets maybe a 2.5 off a Sky High, but he shoots Mankind into the ropes shortly after, ducks down, and gets double-arm DDT’d. Mankind pops Mr. Socko on his arm and then pops the Mandible Claw on Al Snow for the win. That sets up a Mankind/Stone Cold semifinal clash.

 

• The Rock and Ken Shamrock face off on their fourth of the Big Five WWF PPVs this year. This match will be the least of those matches, but at this point, they’ve worked one another that they’ll do something entertaining through sheer experience. Do you think it burned Ken Shamrock up in kayfabe that after all that bullshit trying to get the IC title off the Rock, and then finally getting that title, the Rock just up and won the World title - and beat him to do it? If I were him, I’d be kayfabe perpetually AHHHH IN THE ZONE if things shook out that way.

 

• Shamrock and the Rock work this match at a quick pace. Shamrock gets two on a floatover vertical suplex, then hits a couple Irish whips before the Rock explodes out of the corner with a lariat. They end up outside, where they toss each other into stuff at ringside. Shamrock gets the best of that exchange and, back in the ring, stomps the Rock’s fingers and lands a leg lariat and a side Russian leg sweep for two. Shamrock locks on a chinlock and the Big Boss Man saunters back out. Boss Man brings his truncheon, which he eventually seems to toss toward Ken Shamrock. But darn it, wouldn’t you know it, his aim is juuuuuust off and actually he hits the Rock square in the hands with the dang thing.

 

• Before that, the Rock has to survive an ankle lock in the center of the ring, showing a lot of babyface fire by getting to the ropes. I mean, theoretically, he showed babyface fire, assuming he were actually a babyface. So, after that, the Rock makes a comeback, and the crowd creams their collective jeans for the People’s Elbow, which only gets 2.9. The Rock tries to hook a Rock Bottom next, but Shamrock reverses it into a belly-to-belly, which is when the Boss Man decides to intervene and help the Rock out a little bit. You know what? I lied. This was not the least of their matches on these shows. This was clearly better than the KotR match. I’ll put the Rock/Shamrock Big Five of ’98 Quadrilogy in this order, from best to not best: Royal Rumble > WM > Survivor Series > KotR.

 

• Paul Bearer cuts a quickie promo on the Rock after the match. It’s delightfully goofy.

 

• Sable heads to the ring to face Jacqueline (w/Marc Mero) for the WWF Women’s Championship. Mero helped Jacqueline win the gold a couple months back by giving Jacqueline some leverage when Sable tried to suplex her. Shane McMahon is your ref for this match. I always forget that he did some reffing as a part of a false “feuding with dad” angle. This match is nonsense. Sable is consistently booked like Goldberg, and tonight is no difference. She hits a TKO on Jacqueline thirty seconds in; Mero pulls her away from the cover from his spot at ringside, so she rolls under the ropes and then boots and powerbombs Mero. Are you kidding me? Eventually, she has to do some cursory (terrible) selling. Sable is actually a quite good athlete, but boy, does she come off as an unsympathetic character. There is zero reason to be invested in her success. Jacqueline tries a tornado DDT after a couple minutes of choke-focused offense, but Sable tosses her to the mat and then lands a Sable Bomb for the three and the gold. So based on the transitive property, how long would it take Sable to mow down Disco Inferno in a singles match, do you think?

 

• Mankind makes his third showing of the night to face off with Stone Cold Steve Austin for a shot at the finals. He’s relatively fresh, considering that his first match took about thirty seconds and his second match featured the completely hapless Al Snow as his opponent. Stone Cold has only wrestled once, but that nightstick beating has him selling a left arm injury…but only until he gets in the ring, as he immediately unloads on Mankind with both arms. Stone Cold goes to town on Mankind while Mr. McMahon is wheeled out by his toadies.

 

• I don’t have a lot of desire to watch the other seven WWF PPVs from 1998, but Austin’s ’98 in the main event has been somewhat underwhelming. The Over the Edge match against Foley is a masterpiece of main event overbooking, and the match against Michaels at WrestleMania is very good, but I’m not sure the guy has much else to hang his hat on when it comes to PPV. This match against Mankind is fine. Austin takes a backdrop in the aisle. It’s not like he’s not trying in these matches. They have a requisite ringside brawl, and then Mankind locks on what could be the worst chinlock/neck vise I’ve ever seen in my life for a minute before Austin works out of it. He'd damned well better work out of that loose-looking vise. The match does pick up after this, but I think part of the issue is that everyone’s attention is halfway on Mr. McMahon sitting there, directing his goons. What’s he going to do?

 

• After Mankind charges Austin with a chair and Austin kicks it into his face, it looks like Stone Cold is ascendant. Alas, he misses a splash against the ropes and gets double-arm DDT’d onto the chair by Mankind, but only for a 2.9. Mankind goes for a stump piledriver onto the chair, but Austin gets piledriven about as often as Kidman gets powerbombed at this point. Austin reverses it and hits a Stone Cold Stunner for one, two, thr—oops, what McMahon is going to do is attack the ref. OK, time for some gaga. Mankind is coming out of his tux pants, but he perseveres and sinks in a Mandible Claw. So, having Shane McMahon come out here to ref the previous match was genius, as it lulled everyone into a false sense of security, because he runs down to replace Tim White as Austin escapes the Mandible Claw with a Stone Cold Stunner. Shane counts the one, two thr—oops, Shane stops the count and hits Austin with the double birds. Austin is totally flustered at this point. He’s so flustered, in fact, that he quickly gets an Irish whip reversed and eats a Mankind clothesline. That disorients him enough that Gerry Brisco has time to hop in the ring and hit an incredibly weak chair shot that puts Austin down for a three count that Shane is there to make.

 

• If you are wondering why I hold a PPV in such high esteem when the match quality is probably the lowest of any of the other Big Five shows from this year, this is why. The gaga isn't just gaga, but it's well-designed gaga that is so essential to the story they’re telling. It’s a show where the big bad’s master plan gets pulled off perfectly. That they had Shane on TV as a ref and in fact had him show up to ref the previous match so that it wasn’t suspicious when he ran out to relieve Tim White is just perfection. There’s also the stuff where Vinnie Mac was feuding with Shane as a false front before this show. Then consider all the Boss Man “failures” in vanquishing the Rock that were retrospectively by design; those are just as good. This tournament is a booking masterpiece, I tell you. Anyway, Vince and company escape the scene of the conspiracy against Austin post-haste. Austin carjacks a dude in the back and takes off after Vince’s limo once the match is over.

 

• The Undertaker heads to the ring to await the Rock’s arrival. The Rock opens up with punches, but misses a lariat and gets his ass kicked. You might be shocked to hear this, but there’s a ringside brawl part in this match. There are also punches. A lot of punches. So many punches. Paul Bearer hits the Rock with his shoe behind the ref’s back. The Big Boss Man saunters back out to make sure that the Rock doesn’t have any slip-ups. The Rock punches Undertaker in the dick, slams him, and goes for a People’s Elbow. Boss Man has to sell that the Rock is his enemy, so he grabs the Rock’s foot on the rope run, but he also distracts the Undertaker, too, and besides, Kane has already been enlisted to get the Undertaker disqualified in revenge for the loss earlier tonight. In fact, here comes Kane to chokeslam the Rock, which gets 'Taker disqualified and ushers Rocky into the finals to face Mankind. The Undertaker takes a moment, has it dawn on him what Kane’s just done to his chance to become champion, and then – and you won’t believe this – punches Kane a lot. They fight back through the crowd.

 

• Michael Cole interviews Mankind backstage. Mankind wears an ugly jacket and says IF YOU SMELL WHAT THE SOCK IS COOKIN' while holding up Mr. Socko. This fucking guy.

 

• The New Age Outlaws come to the ring to defend the WWF Tag Team Championships in a triple threat tag match against the Headbangers and D’Lo Brown & Mark Henry. A whole damned row of the crowd holds up a giant banner with Road Dogg’s entire pre-match spiel on it. That’s kind of impressive. A woman in the crowd offers to trade oral sexual favors with everyone in DX on her sign. That’s less impressive, but okay. Billy Gunn spots the giant banner and gets a huge kick out of it. Apparently, there’s an ongoing angle where Mark Henry is suing Chyna for sexual harassment. THIS FUCKING COMPANY. Also, the edit of this show is so weird. We just cut from Henry and D’Lo coming to the ring to Gunn and D’Lo locking up. Anyway, it’s a triple threat tag match, so by its very nature, it's sub-optimal. This is the worst match type, non-physical gimmick division.

 

• This match in particular is an imminently watchable version of a bad match type. Part of the reason is that all three teams have a man in at the same time, which at least makes some logical sense (no team can get locked out of winning the belt) and keeps the action going. The biggest in-match pop is for Billy Gunn yelling GODDAMMIT, YOU SUCK at the ref, if you want an idea of what really lands in this whole deal. But I mean, this is the best possible version of this type of match and everyone works really hard, which makes it watchable. They also manage to have Road Dogg work as FIP who gets pinballed between the attacks of the other two teams before he can finally manage a tag to Billy Gunn. Actually, the logic of this match is surprisingly sound for the match type. They did the best they could with it, and I think that while this wasn’t a great match, it was as good as could be expected considering the limitations around it. Oh yeah, the New Age Outlaws retained the gold after Billy Gunn drilled Mosh with a piledriver and snuck a three count while his opponents were distracted with fighting one another.

 

• Jim Ross laments Mankind’s lack of a sense of self and his naïve manipulability as Foley enters the ring one final time to face the Rock for the WWF World Championship. Ross says the following in a sad tone that genuinely touches my soul: “Poor old Mick[…] he’s still wearing that damned bow tie. Bless his deranged heart. His brains have been scrambled by so many chair shots, you gotta wonder if he’s even aware of what’s goin’ on.” That is about as poignant as a wrestling commentator will ever get, folks.

 

• It’s pretty exciting that we’re getting a first-time world champ for sure, actually! I think that also imprinted itself on my memory as to why I was so high on this show. We cut from the Rock coming down the aisle to see Mr. McMahon in the back. He’s returned to the arena, and he tells the Big Boss Man that he and his stooges will see to the main event personally, heh heh heh. Ross one-ups WCW’s QVC deal by promoting a WWF/HSN deal. Meanwhile, the Rock and Mankind stand around in the ring for awhile. This is the most lukewarm of openings to a match. Everyone is tired, I think. Hell, the folks in Kiel have apparently been exhausted since they got here. There’s a weak ringside brawl. I remember this match picking up toward the end, but right now, I’m watching Mankind sink in a chinlock and wondering when the finish is going to happen.

 

• Thankfully, during said chinlock, Vince and Shane walk back out to ringside. Jim Ross: “Well, there’s Big John Wayne and Little John Wayne, and by God, we swagger when we walk just because we can.” Ross might be the MVP of this show, I have to say. He’s commentated with the palpable frustration of a man watching the owner of the company he works for slide into total despotism.

 

• The match itself goes out of the ring and back in the ring and out of the ring again. Mankind grabs a chair and uses it, then breaks the count. Uh, okay. The crowd finally wakes up when the Rock uses that same chair to hit the steps that Mankind is carrying toward him to use as a weapon, as well as for his follow-up chair shot. It only gets two, though. I find it odd in kayfabe that Vince didn’t make Earl Hebner, the ref for this match, yell RING THA BELL after Mankind used the chair in the first place. Maybe they should have avoided weapon shots in this match to avoid logical errors, but that’s a nitpick considering the overall high-quality booking of this tournament.

 

• Mankind even drops a Cactus Elbow out here, just doing whatever he can think of to make this match entertaining. It’s acceptable, but again, Mr. McMahon is out here and pretty much everyone wants to see what he’s going to do. Finally, we go into the finishing run. The Rock hits a People’s Elbow, but it only gets two. Mankind fights back with a double-arm DDT and then pulls out the ever-present Mr. Socko. Mankind sinks in a sock-assisted Mandible Claw, but the Rock’s hand only drops twice, and he fights back up and breaks the hold with a Rock Bottom. A delayed cover only gets two, but the Rock jumps right up, raises the People’s Eyebrow, and locks on a perfectly acceptable Sharpshooter that sparks Mr. McMahon to call for the bell. The slowpokes in the crowd are initially excited, but then it sinks in, especially when Rocky, Shane, and Vince have a big group hug. And that’s the last time we need to ever book a Montreal Screwjob finish ever again!

 

• Vince grabs a mic and says that he didn’t screw the people tonight because the people screwed the people. Poor confused Mankind; Vince calls him “gullible” as he stands there confusedly. Shane grabs the mic and says he’s just like his dad, so maybe the Feds should seize his phones, check his texts, and see if he's running a sex trafficking organization. Mankind is extremely confused by the end of this match and asks “dad” what’s happening, so Vince answers by having the Rock bean Mick in the head with the belt and hit the poor bastard with another Rock Bottom. But unlike WCW, which would have just ended the show on a heel victory, Stone Cold shows back up to the arena to confront the Rock and ends up hitting the new champ with a Stone Cold Stunner before tossing the Rock out of the ring. See, that’s how you give the fans hope, WCW booking committee! Austin hands a Stunner out to Mankind and middle fingers out to everybody while his music plays to end the show.

 

• OK, this was a fun show, but that’s mostly down to the booking of the tournament. It was far better than its WCW counterpart, World War 3, but that’s obvious. What’s less obvious is how to order the WWF’s Big Five PPVs of 1998. I have them like so:

 

• SummerSlam = Survivor Series > Royal Rumble > WrestleMania > King of the Ring

 

• If KotR is the worst show of the bunch, you know this company was hitting on most cylinders creatively in 1998.

[Cobra Commander]

Things I Remember from Clash of the Champions 6:

Lots of NWA Champions and Bigwigs are in town for the occasion, including Terry Funk, and Harley Race (who was just on the Royal Rumble 2 1/2 months before this)

Also here's a music video

And then the national anthem. Yes it takes a few minutes to get to the ring.

Midnight Express vs SST was a really good tag match. MX actually getting lots of offense in but SST taking over. Then a finish with the Rocket Launcher and shenanigans and a phone shot, and the SST wins. Probably a pretty dramatic change for a Cornette to return to the Superdome as the good guy manager

Steve "Steven" Casey tries to charge Muta and gets misted immediately. Not technically a DQ though. Then they go for several minutes and Muta beats him with the Moonsault. I believe that this was the match where Hayes mentioned he holds the attendance record at the Superdome but maybe that'll be challenged tonight (it wasn't, there were 5300 people in the Superdome and they filmed it in a way to hide that fact unless you realized how few rows were on the screen on the hard cam)

JYD with a Second Line. Pretty sure a Second Line has never turned down an opportunity to get paid. This being 1989 and not 1983, this JYD/Butch Reed match wasn't exactly good although i'm sure it's better than the average 1989 JYD match. JYD beats Butch Reed, which might have been a bit of a sign of "hey, maybe we need to do something else with Butch Reed" (and they did, and it was awesome)

Sullivan/Spivey vs Rick Steiner/Eddie went by really quickly.

For some reason, we don't get to see Bob Orton/Dick Murdoch, Varsity Club beating the Road Warriors for the tag team titles (!!!!), or Ranger Ross vs Iron Sheik on the Network. I guess having 2 title matches as standby matches looks worse if they were able to get Iron Sheik into a match.

And then the title match. First off gotta love how they had Terry Funk around for multiple Flair/Steamboat matches and none of us suspected a thing until it happened. This ruled. The layout was pretty logical where they were working multiple different matches between a first fall that was a free for all and where Flair won with a finish kinda like Chi-Town. Then a second fall where Ricky had to win and he eventually did. And then the third fall, with everything on the line, and a screwy enough finish to justify doing a third match in Nashville. I could see how the finish might be enough to rank Chicago ahead of New Orleans. Although there's probably not a lot of good finishes if you need to justify a match in Nashville. Of course, the two of three falls match being the 2nd match is it's own thing but you gotta whip Wrestlemania 5's ass somehow. Also love the spot in the 3rd fall where Flair does his turnbuckle flip and Ricky just nails him before he gets on the other turnbuckle. Then Flair actually hits a move off the top rope later. This is a match that expected to rule and it did. Plus George Scott's inability to get more tickets sold for this card got him fired and brought upon the real surge into 1989 NWA.

We close with Ricky Steamboat looking at the finish. It's the human element.

edit: just remembered that they misspelled "Ric" on the prematch graphic. Having "Rick" in newspaper ads is what it is.. but there's a real quality control question when the promotion is making that mistake (yes, I know "WCW everybody")

Edited Wednesday at 03:59 AM by Cobra Commander