Smackdown – December 30, 2005

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Smackdown
Date: December 30, 2005
Location: Mohegan Sun Arena, Uncasville, Connecticut
Commentators: Michael Cole, Tazz

We’re finally finishing up the year with this one, as the road to the Royal Rumble begins. There are a few things to wrap up first and hopefully we go out with some of them being finished off. I’m not sure what we’ll be covering tonight, but maybe things can work out better than usual for a change. Let’s get to it.

Read moreSmackdown – December 30, 2005

ECW on Syfy 12/22/2009 #185

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We’re in Orlando, Florida to continue the road to ECW Homecoming (while the brand continues down the road to the knacker’s yard).

Read moreECW on Syfy 12/22/2009 #185

Saturday Night Thread – May 30, 2020

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Good evening!

WWE has banned the buckle bomb after Kairi Sane’s head injury at a RAW taping in April.  Probably wise.

Tonight is another UFC, which is pretty much just a show.

Tomorrow we return to WWF Superstars here on the blog for the Royal Rumble go-home show, and then….well I guess we’ll have to redo that one, too!

Spoiler, I already redid it and I’m posting it on Monday.  Just trying to build some suspense.

Have a great night.

WWF Monday Night RAW – January 23rd, 1995

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January 23, 1995

From the Manatee Civic Center in Palmetto, FL

Your hosts are Vince McMahon and Shawn Michaels

The show starts with a somber sounding Vince in front of the ring. He extends an apology to Lawrence Taylor and his family over the actions of Scott “Bam Bam” Bigelow. Vince also lets us know that Bigelow has been suspended without pay.

Read moreWWF Monday Night RAW – January 23rd, 1995

Mike Reviews Every WCW Great American Bash Main Event Part Two (1995 to 2000)

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Hello You!

Let’s close out Great American Bash. Sadly I don’t expect the overall match quality to be as good in this one as it was in Part One, mainly because we’re now moving into the Bischoff Era, where WCW’s trademark essentially became hot under cards with Main Events that couldn’t live up to what came before them.

The Bash actually took a break from 1992 to 1995, so there are no 93 and 94 Bash events. I’m not sure why they decided to get rid of it, especially as it had traditionally been such a big event for the company prior to it getting side-lined.

Anyway, less chatter, more chuffing wrestling!

Read moreMike Reviews Every WCW Great American Bash Main Event Part Two (1995 to 2000)

If Vince sold…

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Hey Scott-

Hope all is well.

Here is a question that I don’t think was ever asked. 

Let’s say Vince did sell, what do you think the number would be?  Ufc was sold for 4 billion. I am assuming they go higher than that correct?


Seems like a fair assumption.  Maybe the Khans have that under their couch cushions and can make an offer?  

Safest workers

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Bret Hart is seemingly the gold standard for safe in ring workers. Jeff Jarrett seemingly has a great reputation as one as well. Who else ranks up there as being very safe? Besides LOD, Vader, The Nasty Boys, and Nia Jax, who else has a reputation sitting on the other end of the spectrum? 


Stay safe.

Orton might be boring and injury prone, but he's never hurt anyone that I'm aware of.  Yokozuna was also famous for looking like was throwing his hundreds of pounds at people like a monster but landing pillow soft.  

Embarrassing angles

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Hey Scott,

Hope you and yours are safe.

Quick question, has a 'drunken' angle ever worked, we've seen it with depressing regularity in the 'E'?
Jake the Snake
Hawk
Jeff Hardy (Twice now) 
and 
Scott Hall in WCW

And others, I'm sure I've missed, but have these angles ever actually been successful??

I can't remember any that have. Makes you wonder why Vince returns to these insulting angles,
I can't ever remember any that worked, no. 

Daily News Update – May 30, 2020

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The weekend is here!

DATELINE:  Chris Jericho says that “a deal is being worked out” with Mike Tyson.  

https://www.f4wonline.com/aew-news/chris-jericho-mike-tyson-deal-being-worked-out-open-boxing-match-312151

Maybe they can hire Mike’s mystery solving team to be in the corner!  The pigeon would probably turn on him, though.

DATELINE:  Nigel McGuinness furloughed by WWE.

https://www.f4wonline.com/wwe-news/nigel-mcguinness-furloughed-wwe-312116

Also writer Chris DeJoseph, too.

Here’s a TNA free match to start your Saturday.

 

Smackdown – May 29, 2020

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Smackdown
Date: May 29, 2020
Location: WWE Performance Center, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Michael Cole, Corey Graves

We’re very slowly closing in on Backlash but tonight is all about the Intercontinental Title tournament. That means a pair of semifinal matches and one of them is actually interesting. It’s AJ Styles vs. Elias and Jeff Hardy vs. Daniel Bryan, where I’ll leave it up to you to figure out which is the interesting one. Let’s get to it.

Read moreSmackdown – May 29, 2020

Verne Gagne’s The Wrestler

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Scott,  

Do you get Amazon Prime up there? Verne Gagne's “The Wrestler” movie is available on it & It's just begging for one of your snarky reviews. It's an easy watch at less than an 1:45 & there are lots of interesting cameos, including Rhodes & Murdoch. Plus it focuses on Verne getting too old and needing to retire…in 1974!

I do get Prime but the selection is totally different up here outside of the Amazon produced stuff.  Same with Netflix.  Canadian streaming rights are ludicrous.  I was hoping that the Memphis shows everyone talks about were on there, but nope.  

Friday Night Party Thread: May 29, 2020

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We made it!

Hey, this weekend I start a project for my guys at CRAB Wrestling in Maryland.  Don’t wanna give anything away, but you will see what it is.  So that’s why this is rushed — need to do research.

Tomorrow, Mike returns to review WCW Great American Bash main events!  Pray for him.

In the immortal words of time-traveler Rufus, “Be excellent to each other.”

ENJOY THE WEEKEND!

What the World Was Watching: USWA Championship Wrestling – April 15, 1995

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Footage of Jerry Lawler throwing a fireball in Mabel’s face at the recent Mid-South Coliseum show is played.

Lance Russell and Dave Brown are handling commentary and they are coming to us from the WMC-TV5 studio in Memphis, Tennessee.  Brown notes that the USWA Southern Heavyweight Championship is held up due to referee problems in Brian Lee’s matches with Brian Christopher.

Read moreWhat the World Was Watching: USWA Championship Wrestling – April 15, 1995

Good Match-Ups You Got Sick Of?

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What match-ups between wrestlers did you enjoy at first, but then got tired of them when they were rode into the ground?  I remember being that way with Christian vs Sheamus in the WWE in 2014.  I swear for awhile there they had a match every week on Raw  More recently it was Seth Rollins vs Dolph Ziggler a few years ago.  
Randy Orton v. Daniel Bryan.  Cena v. Orton was good once or twice.  Orton v. Christian.
I'm noticing a pattern here.

Business-changing promos

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Hey Scott,

Been enjoying your work for 20+ years…

The recent repost of Scott Hall invading WCW made me think how his promo (or maybe Hogan's “Stick It!” promo after the Bash turn) fundamentlly changed the direction of the business.Austin's 3:16 promo would be another example. Can you or the blog think of any other examples of promos (before or since) that were similarly so seismic?
Austin 3:16 did not change the business.  That's a bit of retroactive history that WWE has come up with over time, like the DX tank.  It took months after that promo for Austin to catch fire.  Something like the Pipe Bomb, which didn't really generate business numbers but started a big shift towards wrestlers trying to make money off social media, would be a better example. 

Bret question(not Montreal)

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Hi Scott;

With many years of perspective on Bret’s career(probably not helped by his opinion of himself), where would you say he ranks as a worker now? Yes, he took the business too seriously, but to me his work was solid, he was able to come up with inventive finishes, and he could have good matches with a lot of different guys and styles, as well. 

Wondering that you and the BOD think.

I don't think anyone is really disputing that he's one of the greatest in-ring workers in history. 

Daily News Update – May 29, 2020

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It’s Friday!

DATELINE:  Bray Wyatt And JoJo Welcome Second Son

https://wrestlingrumors.net/tommyhall/great-news-bray-wyatt-jojo/

Man, when the Fiend says “Let Me In”, he’s not messing around.

DATELINE:  New Non-WWE Video Game In Development

https://wrestlingrumors.net/tommyhall/video-new-non-wwe-wrestling-game-development/

DATELINE:  Coronavirus Caused AEW To Cancel Live Event Plans

https://wrestlingrumors.net/tommyhall/coronavirus-caused-aew-cancel-live-event-plans/

Dammit!  Just think of how many of those t-shirts that Jericho could have sold off at those shows to recoup some money.

Also, I’d like to add from the Observer that Double or Nothing was apparently AEW’s biggest PPV in their history, so looks like Brodie Lee v. Jon Moxley was not a bad choice for a main event after all.