(We’re actually getting a few weeks ahead on the Observer Flashbacks now, so here’s two episodes of RAW to get caught up again.)
The SmarK Rant for Monday Night RAW – 05.15.95
Live from Binghamton, NY
Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Jerry Lawler.
Read moreThe SmarK Rant for WWF Monday Night RAW–05.15.95 / 05.22.95
We’re in Cleveland, Ohio (Japanese crowd: “OHIOOOO!”) and the main event is…a replay of Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker?
Read moreECW on Syfy 09/01/2009 #169
Hey, we made it through the week.
Well, the Yankees didn’t. BYE BYE!
Kenny Omega won the AAA Mega Title on Saturday night. I actually watched the Omega documentary on TSN before Dynamite this week. It was good! I would recommend it!
I would also recommend listening to the Wrestling Observer Radio where Dave interviews David Lagana of NWA Powerrr, as it’s a really interesting hour of insight into the show and where they want to go with it.
Keep your stick on the ice, and don’t eat any yellow snow.
Judgment Day 2005
Date: May 22, 2005
Location: Target Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Attendance: 9,500
Commentators: Michael Cole, Tazz
It’s time for another Smackdown pay per view and that could go in a variety of ways. Granted it tends to be a variety of bad with these things but there are a few different levels. This time around there are two matches that look good with JBL vs. John Cena in an I Quit match and Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio, which should be enough to get it past bad. Let’s get to it.
So with the ratings like this now and CM Punk seemingly softening, how much is too much for him? Do you think if he is featured he can kept the ratings above at least 3 million?
Hour Two: 2,493,000
Average: 2,441,500
Hour One 18-49: 0.7
Hour Two 18-49: 0.8
Down from an average of 2,899,000 last week. FOX must be THRILLED!
That is…not good. So now they've burned through the old people show with Brock Lesnar winning the title, and then the draft show, and there's not much more they can hotshot now. And they've already fired Bischoff!
Shouldn't they have called his character Petrol?
Perhaps it could have been the fake Diesel that caused the fire that disfigured Kane's face?
The WWF: Deep man!
Now where's my tablets.
Smackdown
Date: May 19, 2005
Location: Tyson Events Center, Sioux City, Iowa
Attendance: 3,000
Commentators: Michael Cole, Tazz
It’s the go home show for Judgment Day and most of the card has been set. We could be in for a good show on Sunday with the two biggest matches looking solid, though there isn’t much underneath them. I’m not sure what to expect from this week’s show but I don’t exactly have my hopes up outside of Eddie Guerrero’s rapid fire loss of sanity. Let’s get to it.
Well, Smackdown last night was certainly a show that aired on TV.
All of the sports continue today and hopefully the Astros can get rid of the Yankees and be done with it.
I took the family to the Addams Family last night. It was pretty good! And Malificent was sold out anyway.
My friend Ross Owen Williams sent me copies of the Hornswoggle and Al Snow books, so I’ll have a read of those soon and tell you what to think.
Have a super Saturday!
Smackdown
Date: October 18, 2019
Location: Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, Indiana
Commentators: Michael Cole, Corey Graves
This is an important show as we are officially into the new era with unique rosters for both Raw and Smackdown. That means they need to have something special here as they are running at half power and don’t have many excuses yet if the audience isn’t there. I’m not sure what to expect here but Roman Reigns is getting an Intercontinental Title shot against Shinsuke Nakamura. Let’s get to it.
The SmarK Rant for WWE Friday Night Smackdown – 10.18.19
Live from Indianapolis, IN
Your hosts are Michael Cole & Corey Graves
Read moreThe SmarK Rant for WWE Friday Night Smackdown–10.18.19
Yes, every show will get an episode title from me. Deal.
TONIGHT! We open the show with the Intercontinental Title (aka the de facto Smackdown title for now) on the line as Shinsuke Nakamura defends against Roman Reigns in a match set up because Sami Zayn can’t keep his damn mouth shut. If we get Motivated Nakamura, this one will be amazing. I loved their segment to close the 2018 Rumble. Even if Reigns winning seems the most likely result, it’s fine. Roman Reigns has everything a wrestler needs for universal appeal (except, of course, for actual universal appeal).
In other news, The New Bayley needs someone to defend the gold against, and the draft is the closest thing to reset we have. So let’s run a scramble! Six-way trainwrecks are really popular in the indies, so why not give it a whirl? It’s Mandy Rose, Sonya Deville, Nikki Cross, Lacey Evans, Carmella, and Dana Brooke with the winner getting run through like an inflatable smiley face when Bayley faces them.
Speaking of, Bayley will be explaining why she’s suddenly in her angsty teenager phase on MizTV tonight. Half of you will be waiting to see which cliche she uses to justify her turn. (I have money on “It doesn’t pay to be nice, so why should I be?”) The rest of you are just begging for her to come out in short trunks. Weirdos.
Also pre-announced, we have Otis Dozovic, Tucker Knight, Xavier Woods, and Big E facing Scott Dawson, Dash Wilder, Bobby Roode, and Dolph Ziggler. Man, the charisma gap in that one between the teams… heck, Otis and E by themselves have more charisma that their four foes combined. This is all to set up the tag team turmoil match at Allahween Havoc, so expect neither team to get along.
College football is everywhere today, as we have Ohio State/Northwestern, Marshall/FAU, Pitt/Syracuse, and UNLV/Fresno State on TV. The ALCS may well wrap up tonight as Houston (3) looks to end the Yankees (1). ESPN2 has some MMA on, with Chris Weidman facing Dominick Reyes in the main event.
Enjoy the weekend, but let’s keep it clean, folks!
Hello You!
The reason for this one is that it’s a show I’ve never seen in full, owing to the fact that when it happened way back in 2007 I was in the middle of moving house and thus didn’t have the disposable income to burn on a WWE pay per view. It’s quite an interesting show however due to what happens in regards to the WWE Title. And hey, now I have WWE Network it’s never been easier to catch up on the shows I missed back in the day and we’re still in October so it kind of fits.
The original main event of the show coming in was supposed to be John Cena defending the WWE Title to Randy Orton, but Cena then suffered a severe injury in a nothing Raw match with Ken Anderson which took him out of this show and meant he’d likely have to miss WrestleMania as well.
Thus WWE had to scramble to find a way to crown a new Champion and also rescue the pay per view card that had now been left without its main event. Did they manage it? Let’s take a look and find out.
BIG EGG WRESTLING UNIVERSE:
(“AJW Doumu Super Woman Great War”)
(Tokyo Dome- 20.11.1994)
-And now it’s the second part of this quick, breezy 10-hour wrestling show! At least this time, I’ve reviewed two of the matches already, so I don’t need to re-post them!
TL; DR- Why Should I Watch This?: Well, one of the greatest matches in history is fought tonight. Also, Aja Kong surpasses Bret Hart’s “Three good matches in one night” achievement in terms of quality, several people put on AMAZING performances, and you see Joshi in its biggest spectacle in history- something women’s wrestling has never matched since.
Read moreJoshi Spotlight: Big Egg Wrestling Universe (Part Two)
–Tony Schiavone and Dusty Rhodes are in the booth and they are taped from Atlanta, Georgia. According to thehistoryofwwe.com, the matches on this telecast were taped on September 27 and October 18 at Center Stage.
Read moreWhat the World Was Watching: WCW Saturday Night – October 21, 1995