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Dolfan Watches Every Wrestlemania On Lockdown


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7 hours ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

This was a good TV match, but merely decent (and short) at Mania.   

How many times has this phrase been used in this thread? Because I have the feeling that it's quite a lot.

Mochizuki was part of the top heel group in Dragon Gate, wasn't he? M2K - Mochizuki, other Mochizuki and Kanda?

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2 hours ago, AxB said:

How many times has this phrase been used in this thread? Because I have the feeling that it's quite a lot.

Mochizuki was part of the top heel group in Dragon Gate, wasn't he? M2K - Mochizuki, other Mochizuki and Kanda?

There were three versions of M2K, the first two ("M2K" and "Shin M2K", 2000-2003) were still in Toryumon, the third one ("Final M2K", 2004-2007) was in Dragon Gate. The first one started as the two Mochizukis and Kanda, true (hence the name), though they added people over time (most notably K-ness and Genki Horiguchi in his first heel run). For further details, check https://dragonsystem.fandom.com/wiki/M2K

Edited by Robert s
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The first Money in the Bank was a huge success.  The match delivered in spades. The threat of a cash in became a fun thing to have around as more and more of the crowd seemingly grew sick of John Cena.  And the cash in came out of nowhere, and yet still made sense and satisfied. The only problem really was that it was limited to Raw.  This year they decided to change that and make it one match for any title the winner wanted to go for, so now both champs had to always watch their back. 

The lineup is: Rob Van Dam v. Shelton Benjamin v. Ric Flair(!) v. Matt Hardy v. Finlay v. Lashley.   I'd honestly completely forgotten that Flair was in a Money in the Bank.  

So, the match itself begins in the ring this time, and playing the role of Kane this year, is F. Roberto Lashley. And so the other 5 guys instantly go to beat his ass. Now the match instantly starts showing its differences from last year as the violence starts nearly immediately as Matt brings in the first ladder super quick.  It's less organic than the year before, because these guys clearly saw (or were in) last year's match and want to top the high spots and violence.  To wit, Shelton runs up a downed ladder and does a running senton to the floor.   Oh, and the reason I forgot Flair was in this was because he essentially took half the match off after an "injury" following a superplex off a ladder.  

They're all busting their asses in their and Lashley is frankly out of his element here.  Finlay plays the Kane role a lot better in this match.  So the match is good and all, but it's not connecting with me as much as it did on first viewing.  It's still good and all, and the spots are sufficiently banana... but I guess seeing them so close to each other takes away the insane factor from it.  

The end comes with RVD climbing and Shelton jumps out of nowhere to meet him near the top of the ladder.  Matt interjects himself, Shelton's trying to fight both guys, and well, that's not going to work. Van Dam kicks the Shelton-Matt ladder down and claims the briefcase.  

RVD would do the first face cash in,  successfully challenging John Cena to a phenomenal match at One (More) Night Stand.  (For the record, I'll still say no moment sold me more on the character of John Cena than going into that match head down defiantly holding up the title like Muhammad Ali.)

And though I bagged on it a little bit earlier, it's still great to see the MitB spectacle.  

--

The Hall of Fame introduction is next.  The class was Bret Hart, The Blackjacks, William 'Refrigerator' Perry, Tony Atlas, Verne Gagne, Sensational Sherri, Mean Gene Okerlund, and the late Eddie Guerrero. Bret is still (rightly) sore about his brother dying in a WWF ring 7 years prior, and chose not to participate.  Vickie (and Chavito) Guerrero accept on Eddie's behalf. 

I still say it's an absolutely amazing feat that Vickie went from this spot to the absolute most despised heel in WWE in less than a year.  I hope she made a lot of money and I hope the lessons learned from Eddie's life are still felt to this day.  

End of Day 66. 

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DAY 67

Chris Benoit definitely got demoted down the card after he'd lost his World title to Randy Orton, but was slowly making a little bit of a comeback by this point.  He'd won the Best of 7 series with Booker T and was the US Champion going into Mania. His reward, is facing JBL.  

Oh, and the difference between last year's JBL and this year's are night and fucking day.  He's literally dancing to the ring, huge smile on his face.  Benoit, less so... but he always looked grumpy going to the ring. 

The match was a standard big guy/little guy match, but both guys were very much doing their own tributes to Eddie. Both doing the Eddie shake and the rolling suplexes. The crowd loved it when Benoit did it... JBL... ooh that man drew some heat.  That being said, I don't know JBL's, the man's, heart and will just ascribe the best possible theory. 

End comes in a very Eddie way, as Benoit misses a charge, JBL misses the Clothesline from Hell, which Benoit counters into a Crossface. JBL has one more trick up his sleeve and rolls over and hooks the ropes for the pin and the title.  

Cheating to win, just the way Eddie would have wanted it. 

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On 8/21/2020 at 12:09 AM, Death From Above said:

Mochizuki was a fellow WAR guy so that explains why he drew the short straw of trying to get anything out of Kitao. Probably the thing most people first saw him for in the 1990's was doing the 1995 J Cup and doing a job to Ohtani when Mochizuki was still "Karate Outfit Kick Guy" as a gimmick. I know he was an undercard guy for NOAH by the early 2000's and he had some fun stuff, mostly there to be fed to the guys they were really pushing. I'm not sure what else I could add on him.

He's sort of like Cougar Jay, but with kicks. Howzat?

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So Edge started taking the final big step up the card when he cashed in his Money in the Bank on a prone John Cena to a massive pop.  It was so big frankly that I think they kind of overcorrected in pushing Edge's heeling up a notch to make sure he was getting booed.  And at Rumble '06 (which I was lucky enough to attend), I knew Edge's title reign was toast as soon as I saw Cena's entrance.  So, if you need someone to look like a killer and look like a million bucks, you give Mick Foley a lot of money and bring him out of retirement.  

Good little video segment sets up the feud and the match.  And Edge is doing his 'psychotic' and 'jacked' look, and Foley comes in looking 'psychotic' and 'homeless.'  

It's crazy when Foley wants to put someone over, he does some really, really insane stuff. In this match alone, he gets several unprotected headshots. He gets a barbed wire shot, or 10.  And the one I can't really see how he worked, was a run to the steps that looked pedestrian at first, but on replay shows he clearly hits hip-first on the corner, flips over and basically lands on his head on the other side.  

Edge does some batshit crazy stuff too, not the least of which is a bag of thumbtacks that though a series of reversals ends up on his back, arm, leg, and chest.  Edge's face after that bump was a legit "oh my god what am I doing with my life".  Hell, even Lita gets in on the action as she takes a barbed wire Mr. Socko.   

And then there's the final spot.  

A table got set up in the first half of the match, but never used.  Well, Chekov's table comes back into play when Foley has the advantage and takes a moment to douse it in lighter fluid.   But that isn't set ablaze until Lita kneecaps Foley, and she sets it on fire.  Edge then spears the living fuck out of Foley, off the apron, and THROUGH the damned table. A spot where Edge landed basically face-first.    Lordy.   Yeah, that'll do it.   Standing ovation for both guys.

And like I said, Foley makes Edge look a million bucks and a killer.  And though he'd go on to wrestle in WWE for a few more months, and then TNA for another 4-5 years(!), this was Foley's final WrestleMania match.   And what a way to go out. 

End of Day 67. 

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My favorite part about the Edge/Foley match, is on Foley's dvd he is doing directors commentary with joey styles, talking about the look on Edge's face being similar to the look on Orton's face from a few years back, and THEN turning this match into "the greatest hardcore match of all time" to troll ECW fans for ONS2

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DAY 68

So back in 2001 someone in WWE decided to do a reality show to find the next WWE superstar -- unfortunately we ended up with Maven. Well they did it again in 2004, and in this one there was another guy, who came in with a ridiculously chiseled body and a little white lie. Turns out Marty Wright, a Booker T trainee, was actually 40, which was well above the age limit of 30, so out he went. (This was the year Daniel Puder won it.)   

Anyway, eventually they decided to sign Wright and he eventually became the worm eating, voodoo-inspired Boogeyman.  He was popular enough with the crowd and it's WrestleMania season, so let's put him in there with a vet who will put him over.   

Hmm... well, Booker T is on the roster. 

Well, needless to say, the match itself, which was a mixed tag handicap match was short and atrocious. Boogeyman did his thing, Booker sold and jobbed.   And that's about it.  Seriously the match was like 3 minutes long.  Much, MUCH better things would lie ahead for Booker soon afterwards. 

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9 minutes ago, mattdangerously said:

Is Boogeyman the worst wrestler to ever work for a national company? Even the Ultimate Warrior had a couple of good matches, even though he was carried in all of them. You can't even set the bar that low for Boogey.

Tamina Snuka?

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55 minutes ago, Death From Above said:

Foley's "run into the steps and just flip over it" is a bump I've seen him do a ton of times and I honestly have no clue how he pulled it off so many times. The margin for error on it seems like zero.

*What remains Mick Foley’s knees scream out in pain in approval*

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13 minutes ago, PetrolCB said:

Tamina Snuka?

Tamina Snuka actually has had generally decent matches in her latest return. They have figured out how to work around her limitations finally.

25 minutes ago, mattdangerously said:

Is Boogeyman the worst wrestler to ever work for a national company? Even the Ultimate Warrior had a couple of good matches, even though he was carried in all of them. You can't even set the bar that low for Boogey.

Warrior was working main events. Boogeyman was just a minor side gimmick not working serious matches or feuds at all. He was not good, but they never tried anything over ambitious with him either.

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4 hours ago, mattdangerously said:

Is Boogeyman the worst wrestler to ever work for a national company? Even the Ultimate Warrior had a couple of good matches, even though he was carried in all of them. You can't even set the bar that low for Boogey.

Does Zeus count, or not? Well, he had like zero singles matches in the WWF that I'm aware of, so I guessing not?

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12 hours ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

DAY 68

So back in 2001 someone in WWE decided to do a reality show to find the next WWE superstar -- unfortunately we ended up with Maven. Well they did it again in 2004, and in this one there was another guy, who came in with a ridiculously chiseled body and a little white lie. Turns out Marty Wright, a Booker T trainee, was actually 40, which was well above the age limit of 30, so out he went. (This was the year Daniel Puder won it.)   

Anyway, eventually they decided to sign Wright and he eventually became the worm eating, voodoo-inspired Boogeyman.  He was popular enough with the crowd and it's WrestleMania season, so let's put him in there with a vet who will put him over.   

Hmm... well, Booker T is on the roster. 

Well, needless to say, the match itself, which was a mixed tag handicap match was short and atrocious. Boogeyman did his thing, Booker sold and jobbed.   And that's about it.  Seriously the match was like 3 minutes long.  Much, MUCH better things would lie ahead for Booker soon afterwards. 

i was lucky enough to be at Mania 22 in Chicago. this match was my bathroom break. 

i bought the dvd right when it came out. by sheer coincidence, the first time i watched it, i was making a snack run and missed this match.

now it's sort of a running joke with friends that this was the best match on the card and i'll never get to see it, due to circumstances always dragging me away. I gotta say, this is totally OK with me.

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Trish Stratus is well into her reign as best female wrestler of the 2000's, and as such, has been Women's Champion for over a year.  And, remember what I said about the Chicago crowd earlier?  Well, let's just say familiarity breeds contempt.  

For the last two months, a superfan has been trying to get into Trish's life, showing up at her matches, backstage, etc.  Trish eventually (does the VERY stupid thing of) befriends Mickie James, and it's all downhill from there.  Mickie James goes from "adoring" to "psycho" quite quickly and nicely as she was perfection in this role. Soon enough, the obvious happens, Trish asks to take a break, so Mickie breaks her face and gets a title shot at WrestleMania.  

Now... the crowd.  Well, Chicago has always been known... well, to speak their mind.  Probably in the S-Tier of cities that do so with NYC and Philadelphia. Trish has been champ for... ever, and they're ready to move on.  Mickie is cute and insane....  So let me quote the great Jack Donaghy in 30 Rock:

Quote

Lemon, let me explain something to you that you could have no way of knowing. Emotionally unstable women are fantastic in the sack, I mean their self-loathing translates into... nevermind. 

So, yeah, Chicago is firmly on Mickie's side of this.   

As the entrances start, JR and King are both clearly annoyed by the huge face pop Mickie gets. (As JR all but calls King a pedo right there! Damn, I'd forgotten about that.) And seemingly perplexed by the boos that Trish is drawing.  To the point that they have to acknowledge it, which you know means Vince is fuming backstage. (And since he's up next, probably means he's roid raging... well, just wait.)  

The story is Trish is furious, obviously, but has clearly underestimated Mickie.  James on the other hand is, and clearly has been, messing with Trish's mind this whole time, and is a very good wrestler, and is working hard on Trish's leg & knee in a brilliant bit of strategy, as no knee means no Chick Kick or Stratusfaction.  Mickie beats Trish's ass until Trish starts to make a comeback to a vicious set of boos from the crowd.  JR keeps on grumbling. 

Trish is doing great selling the knee, because, the spot of the match happens when she's very slowly doing the MaTrish escape, which Mickie counters with a

[[[SCENE MISSING]]]

Trish is all out of sorts, and goes for a Stratusfaction, but her knee buckles.  Mickie is up, and for the first time in WrestleMania history(!!!), hits the face's finishing move on her for the pin!   The crowd goes nuts, Mickie's plan has worked perfectly, and she bolts.  And a star is born.  (Or so you'd think...)

In that enormous edit, Mickie did a vaginal claw on Trish, and proceeded to lick her fingers in full view of the cam.  Oh, if you think Chicago liked her before... hoo!   Vince, of course, was furious backstage as they'd been working down their rating trying to avoid a TV-MA at all costs.   Apparently called her a fucking whore when she got backstage and apparently she nearly got fired.  

The only thing that probably saved her was him getting ready for his own match later, and the match being very, very good.  As good as I remember it. 

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4 minutes ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

Forgot to mention, in the middle of the last match, I hit 1000 miles on my bikes odometer.  

(Non-yanks, that's ~1610 km.) ? 

Onward...

Hey! That's how I watched all my wrestling in 2009-2013. 

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