Daily News Update – June 6, 2020

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Don’t worry, NWA-TNA won’t break me, I’m a professional reviewer of dumpster fires.

DATELINE:  A&E Removes Live PD from their schedule this weekend because people apparently hate cops right now.

https://news.avclub.com/cops-and-live-pd-both-yanked-from-cable-schedules-for-s-1843930011

I can understand the sentiment, I guess, but I think Live PD really does a great job at the same time of humanizing them and showing a lot of ways that they de-escalate situations by talking with people and treating them like human beings.  But it’s a shitty time and you do what you gotta do.  It’s not like repeats are hard to find anyway.

DATELINE:  DC Comics splits with Diamond Distributors and instead partners with more expensive retail distribution partners

https://www.gamesradar.com/comic-book-retailers-unite-in-shock-and-anger-over-dc-split-with-diamond/

Probably not big news unless you’re a comic geek, but this is BAD news for comic book stores that are already struggling with profit margins.  Like, a real dick move from DC, for sure.  Real show of heart and class towards struggling comic book shops in the face of a pandemic here, DC.

Anyway, your dose of awesome for the day is Rock Sugar, who are a rock band fronted by Jess Harnell (aka the voice of Wakko Warner and an insanely talented mimic) with some of the most incredibly batshit classic rock mashups you’ll ever hear.  Trust me, if you’re into that type of music, as soon as you hear the opening of “Don’t Stop The Sandman” you’ll be hooked.  My favorite is “Here Comes The Fool In The Rain You Wanted”.  Sadly the album is buried seventeen feet under in legal hell and will never again see the light of day on streaming or physical media, but it lives on YouTube and deserves to be heard again.

 

Oh and wrestling this weekend, whatever.  I like to talk about different shit sometimes, sue me.

 

Mike Reviews Every WWF King of the Ring Main Event (1993 to 1997)

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Hello You!

Back to the WWF this week, as we look at an event that for nearly a decade was their regular June offering. KOTR was always the lesser of the “Big Five” pay per view events, mainly because it fell between WrestleMania and Summer Slam, which are the two biggest. By 2002 they finally decided that the KOTR Tournament winner would earn themselves a Title match at Summer Slam, which gave the tournament some much needed importance once again, but then they jacked the event in following that one, so it’s new importance lasted for all of one show.

Shunting the actual tournament to the side following the 93 event ultimately meant that people cared less about the show as a whole, as KOTR often felt like quite a missable event with throwaway matches up and down the card. That will likely come across when you see some of the Main Events. Even the bigger more well-known matches from some of the Attitude Era KOTR shows felt like they were thrown together with a napkins worth of planning to them.

Anyway, that’s enough rambling from me, to the chuffing wrestling that we shall now watch!

Read moreMike Reviews Every WWF King of the Ring Main Event (1993 to 1997)

Wrestlemania X-7 comparison

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When thinking about Austin's heel turn at Wrestlemania X-7 I just realized there was another PPV where the top babyface won the title and then immediately turned heel – Great American Bash '91!  The WWF ripped off the booking from WCW's worst PPV.

“Ripped off” is such a strong term.  I prefer “failed to heed the lessons from”.  

Best Ritual Jobber Humiliations in WWF History?

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Hi Scott,


Back when squash matches were a thing, a lot of name wrestlers used to benefit from what I like to call “ritual jobber humiliation” routines after their TV victories.  Oddly enough, it wasn't restricted simply to heels.  You had Jake turning Damian/Lucifer loose on DDT'ed jobbers and Brutus giving haircuts to sleeperhold victims.  But mostly it was the heels.  DiBiase stuffing dollar bills into the mouths of passed-out jobbers or Bossman beating handcuffed guys with the nightstick were not only memorable back in the day; each could (sadly) pass for social commentary today.  Taker used to dump a little packet of dirt on jobbers when he was with Brother Love before switching to the classic body bag routine with Paul Bearer.  And then there were feud-specific RJH's–Owen and Anvil putting Hitman shades on defeated jobbers and Sid putting Hogan bandanas and T-shirts on jobbers getting stretchered out before WM VIII.

Anyway, I write not to glorify such exploitative behavior (you know it gave Vince his jollies), but to grade them objectively.  What, in your opinion, was the best ritual jobber humiliation?  The worst?  Did I omit any glaring examples?

I gotta go with Beefcake's haircuts as the best because they got extra cash from Vince for going along with it, and that's pretty cool of him.  The worst has to be the Beverly Brothers painting “L.O.S.” on jobber chests for a few weeks in 1992 to build up a feud with the Legion of Sissies, who were seconded by a dummy I should point out. 

Luger slamming Yokozuna

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Was anyone else considered for that spot?  What if they had brought back Hogan?  Would Hogan-Yoko III have drawn as a main event for Summerslam?

No, but according to the Observers at the time the spot was apparently heavily rumored to be going to Crush (which seemed like the obvious direction from TV as well) before suddenly whiplashing to Luger at the last minute.  I think Crush would have been worth a shot in that spot, honestly.  Would have been cheaper than Luger, at least.  

The Womens Revolution at MSG

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Hi Scott,

With all the talk of the Womens revolution and how awesome the the talent level & pushes being given to women in WWE are at the moment. I want to take you back to one of the (many) low-points. The Swimsuit Contest at Royal Rumble 2000. I recently watched the PPV and for such a pointless & throwaway segments i was left with a few questions i hope you can please answer.

1) In the build-up Edge was promoted as being one of the judges, this was when they were also acknowledging he was getting married to Val Venis' sister.  Edge wasn't used as a judge and the Venis relationship was dropped. Was there originally some kind of angle at the PPV that got dropped last minute regarding Edge & one of the women int he contest? 

2) Ivory & especially Luna were reluctant to disrobe and complained about the contest. Whilst i doubt they went off script, was this added to the skit because of their real life feelings towards these kind of T&A contests?

3) The PPV was advertised and sold with a nudity indicator, showing that the WWE obviously planned for someone to go at least topless. Was Mae Young always the plan or was one of the normal Divas meant to be exposed but backed out?

Cheers for covering what you must agree is an integral moment in wrestling history 

I'll cover these in order.

1.  I don't know.  Maybe?  

2.  I don't know.  Probably?  

3.  I don't know.  Possibly?  

Hope that helps.

Smackdown – June 5, 2020

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Smackdown
Date: June 5, 2020
Location: WWE Performance Center, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Michael Cole, Corey Graves

It’s a title night as we have the Women’s Tag Team Titles on the line with Bayley and Sasha Banks getting their shot at the titles. Other than that we’re still on the way to Backlash with the amazing main event of Miz and John Morrison getting slaughtered by Braun Strowman. Let’s get to it.

Read moreSmackdown – June 5, 2020

Friday Night Party Thread: June 5, 2020

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We made it!

Tonight, on SmackDown, Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross face Bayley and Sasha Banks. Meanwhile, AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan continue to hype the Greatest Wrestling Match Ever (no, not that one, the one they’ll have), plus Jeff Hardy assures us he had a perfectly good reason to be found where he was after the hit-and-run.

Over on IWTV at 8PMET tonight, H2O Wrestling will be honoring the late Danny Havoc.

Phase Two in Virginia begins today.  So all you Virginians are free to hit the gym again!  WHOO!

All right, everyone, we’ve been over the rules in the back.  I expect a good clean thread.  Obey the mods’ instructions at all times.  Now, touch latex gloves, get six feet apart, and come out posting.

Enjoy the weekend!

What the World Was Watching: USWA Championship Wrestling – April 22, 1995

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Lance Russell and Dave Brown are doing commentary from the WMC-TV5 studio in Memphis, Tennessee.

Russell interviews Tommy Rich.  Rich says that he is going to drop a bomb on the USWA.

PG-13 cut a pre-taped promo, promising that the Gambler and Brickhouse Brown are going to pay for beating them on last week’s show and winning the tag team titles.

Read moreWhat the World Was Watching: USWA Championship Wrestling – April 22, 1995

Best Nia Jax comp

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In terms of her ring work/sloppiness, who is the better male comp for Nia: Ahmed Johnson or Sid?

Both Ahmed and Sid had a natural charisma that Nia has never shown, though.  But given those choices, I'd say she's closer to Ahmed, in that Sid never really hurt people and could certainly never be accused of working too stiff.  

Sting the lost tape

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I keep seeing posts about this new mini video from the WCW period, and I really want to watch it as I was a HUGE sting fan back in the day.

Do you plan to do a watch and review? It’s short so it wouldn’t take that long. Also it sounds like a nice light hearted video to alleviate all the tough stuff going on in the world…

It's a really weird choice to put on there, apparently just a bit of extra backstage footage surrounding a Sting v. Ray Traylor match on PPV, and the runtime includes the actual match.  I guess I can add it to a potpourri rant sometime but it doesn't exactly scream “must watch”.  It seems more like a YouTube video. 

Austin’s Heel Turn At W.M. 17?

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Back when the WWF/E used to actually plan out Wrestle-Mania fairly well in advance, was Steve Austin's heel turn against the Rock at W.M. 17 always the endgame several months out, or was it a fairly recent thing they just went with?  I can't explain why, but I always felt that it was a relatively last minute decision.  Any ideas?  
It was not last minute at all and there was a lot of convincing and hand-wringing on both sides leading up to it. 

Having Fun

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Hey Scott—

Piggybacking off an earlier e-mailer regarding AEW talent v. WWE talent “having fun”, it seems like the AEW folks aren’t just allowed to have more fun in the ring, they’re allowed to in the audience, as well.

Both AEW and NXT have put talent at ringside for their Wednesday shows. And you can argue that NXT is being safer and more responsible regarding COVID-19 by putting up plexiglass between the performers and the “crowd”. But it feels so organic on Dynamite and so forced on NXT. The AEW talent is allowed to act and react like wrestling fans, while every reaction on NXT seems hallow and inauthentic, like being out there is some kind of “mandatory fun” corporate retreat.

Funny that in 2020, WWE is able to recreate the atmosphere of the WCW Disney tapings from the early 90s. All that’s missing are the flashing signs that tell talent when to cheer and boo…


It's funny how they own all of the footage and are content to put out endless self-satisfied documentaries about all the lessons taught by the death of WCW, without anyone ever actually learning any of those lessons.  

My ONE AEW problem

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Hey Scott,

I am 100% on board with AEW and have been from day one. I’d really appreciate both they and WWE be entertaining and life would be grand.

But I’m really feeling like I’ve seen enough of Cody. While I’m pleased he hasn’t been at the top of the card the last year, he’s always been a main player and he’s hovering somewhere between Jeff Jarrett In TNA and HHH for me.

I see no way that he doesn’t eventually have the World Championship in the not too distant future, and I just don’t need to see that.

Fair opinion to have, or am I way in the minority?


Fair opinion.  He's treading a fine line at the moment and hopefully he's enough of a student of the game and student of the Game to figure out when to pull back and just be the guy behind the scenes for a while. 

Daily News Update – June 5, 2020

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The weekend is almost upon us!

DATELINE:  WWE May Have Stripped A Championship

https://wrestlingrumors.net/tommyhall/wwe-may-quietly-stripped-championship/

DATELINE: The Rock Blasts President Trump In Amazing Speech

https://wrestlingrumors.net/tommyhall/video-rock-blasts-president-trump-lack-leadership/

DATELINE: Three NXT Names Possibly Being Called Up

https://wrestlingrumors.net/tommyhall/three-nxt-names-possibly-called/

DATELINE:  Adam Cole’s Contract Status

https://wrestlingrumors.net/tommyhall/adam-coles-contract-status-not-currently-signed-long-term/

 

OTT finally added some new stuff to their YouTube page and it looks like a corker.