Monday Night Open Mic

Howdy Blog O’Doomers!

The road to Wrestlemania continues tonight with another live RAW from…somewhere. And I’m assuming it’ll be used to push the upcoming Wrestlemania show, which is supposed to have damn near 20 matches and only about three have been announced. Do better WWE!

Oh well, at least A.J. Styles is staying with the promotion

HHH, Batista, Brock….you know all the REAL stars…will be in the building tonight with the rest of the crew.

4 NHL games, including the one I’m at watching the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Arizona Coyotes and 9 NBA games.

The great animated flick “Sing” is on FX tonight and HBO has a documentary on that Elizabeth Holmes chick that stole a load of money on some pharmaceutical scam and who doesn’t blink.

Keep it clean!

Scott’s Litmus Test


Hey Scott–


Working my way through the 'Manias, and just wrapped up number ten. This show is universally praised (I recall Dave stating in the Observer that it was the greatest WWF PPV of all time) based on the strength of two matches: The opener with Bret and Owen and the ladder match. The funny thing is, outside of those two fantastic bouts, the rest of the card ranges from mediocre to complete junk.

So I ask you: What do you need from a show to feel like it delivered? Can an event earn your recommendation if the main event is great and the rest is garbage (WM XV with Rocky and Austin comes to mind)? I've noticed lately you don't really give overall opinions of the shows anymore. It's more "Make sure you catch x, y, and z. Skip the rest."

What separates the "recommend" shows from the "recommend to avoid" shows in Scott Keith's world?

It’s a different world now, my friend.  Basically now in the Network era I’m looking for one good to great match and nothing bad for an overall recommendation.  At $9.99 the NXT shows justify the price on their own and the main PPV shows are literally just a bonus.  That’s why I’m more on the side of “Just watch match X on the Network or YouTube or Twitch” and I’m not so married to the concept of sitting through a whole show these days.  I do it because it’s me, but most shows outside of Takeover don’t lend themselves to repeat viewing very well. 
Maybe I need a new rating system?  Like, a scale from “watch one match” all the way up to “Binge the whole thing”,kind of like the Completionist? 

Split-Show Mania


With the reports of a 17 matches 400 hour show, we are obviously approaching the time for a two-day, split show Mania. This year would've been a perfect time to try it with NYC and multiple venues. Even the card breaks down nicely:


SDL Saturday Mania:
WWE Title –  (c) Bryan vs. Kofi
Ladder match for US Title – (c) Joe vs. Rey vs. Andrade vs. Rusev vs. Nakamura vs. Truth vs. Sheamus vs. Cesaro 
SD Tag Titles – (c) Usos vs. Hardys
Grudge Match featuring a McMahon – Shane vs. Miz
Two Top guys feuding for reasons – AJ vs. Orton
SD Women's Title – (c) Asuka vs. Mandy vs. Sonya
Cruiserweight Title – (c) Buddy vs. Nese
Women's Battle Royal

Sunday Raw Mania:
Raw Women's Title – (c) Ronda vs. Charlotte vs. Becky
Universal Title – (c) Brock vs. Seth
Raw Tag Titles – (c) Revival vs. Black & Ricochet
Grudge Match featuring a McMahon – Triple H vs. Batista
Angle vs. ??? (Cena)
Two Top guys feuding for reasons – Roman vs. Drew
IC Title – Lashley vs. Balor
Women's Tag Titles – (c) Boss-n-Hug vs. Samoans vs. Natalya & Beth vs. Iiconics
Men's Battle Royal

Each night/show gets 8 – 9 matches and 3-hours plus there's no burn out from exhausted crowds, and each night the big face wins draw hero-pops. 

Just think WrestleMania IV had the whole tournament and 15-16 matches and was crazy long at 4(!) hours. 
Dude, some of us have a life and don’t want to spend all weekend watching a Wrestlemania.  I mean, not me clearly, but some of us.  NXT and then WM is enough.  This talk about 17(!!!!) matches is insanity when they didn’t even know what the main event was going to be until January.  
Also, I’m gonna steal Two Top Guys Feuding Because Reasons, okthx.  

Human Suplex Machine



Should Tazz have been a bigger deal in WWE?


Would he have been a much bigger deal if he was around now as opposed to then? 

The problem now is that most of his "shooter" rep and bonafides were the creation of Paul Heyman's hype machine.  Today he'd be a guy who throws suplexes, but we know what a UFC fighter looks like, and it ain’t Tazz.  

The problem back then was that he was the little guy who threw suplexes and hit hard, but then Benoit came in two weeks later and was like “Hold my beer, eh?” and suddenly they didn’t need Tazz anymore.  

Shawn Michaels collapsing angle on Raw


What was the deal with the whole "Shawn Michaels collapsing" storyline on Raw after the Survivor Series in 1995?  IIRC, it never went anywhere. 

I think it was just a thing to build off the real-life Syracuse beating and turn Shawn into a sympathetic babyface, which is of course exactly what people didn't want out of him.  It also set up the match with Owen as a roadblock to get to Bret, so it was fine.  

Help a father out?



Hey Scott,

    Long time reader, many time emailer. I’m taking my youngest daughter to Raw in Chicago tomorrow night on her birthday; her first live show ever! She’s a fanatic for Bayley and I’m trying like hell, however futilely, to get a Twitter post to go viral in hopes of Bayley sending out a Happy Birthday tweet. Any help you or the blog could give would be  mucho appreciated.


Chris
I’ll do my best!

TJR Retro: WWF Smackdown 04/20/00 Review (Rock vs. Jericho, Triple H vs. Tazz)

I’m back for another WWF in 2000 review. The storylines were really heating up in April 2000 and the matches were starting to improve on television as well. Here’s the synopsis on WWE Network: “WWE Champion Triple H and Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley abuse their power going into Backlash. Plus, The Rock, Chris Jericho, and many more.”

Read moreTJR Retro: WWF Smackdown 04/20/00 Review (Rock vs. Jericho, Triple H vs. Tazz)

“Nitro Plus”


Why did WCW launch "Nitro Plus" at the end of 1998?  If you'll remember, it was a 1 hour version of Nitro on Tuesday nights taped from the day before.  It was cancelled after less than a month.  I guess they honestly figured at that point that the way they were going to start beating the WWF again was to pump out even more hours of programming, and that overexposure was a myth.  

Never heard of it before, man.  I'm assuming that we thankfully didn't get it in Canada.  

Saga of Brian Lee

Here's a big guy going through all big companies of the 90s and 00s (cup of coffee in WCW in 1990, Fake Taker, SMW, ECW, WWF again, TNA in 02/03), was in a ton of stables (arguably only time he was ever really over was with Candido/Tammy in SMW, with the Triple Threat in ECW and with DOA in WWF) and never "made it". Why was that? Also how far can "being Taker's friend" get you? Making money with autographs/appearances claiming he's the real Undertaker (after he was released in 1998) maybe wasn't the best idea either?

He seemed like he might get over as Chainz but then that whole DOA deal went down the tubes and they jobbed to everyone on the roster.  It is kind of astonishing that someone with the same size and general look as Undertaker, who used to be able to work, could not find a way to get over with any big company.  

Hall of Fame – nWo

So, they are inducting the entirety of DX–minus Rick Rude (which is kind of crappy and probably worth it's own thread).  Let's say, for argument's sake, that Hogan & Hall are able to keep it clean for another year or so. When the nWo goes in, is it just Hall/Nash/Hogan?  The more I mull it over, it feels like you have to put Bischoff in as well and make it 4.  None of the other geeks make the cut, but ole Easy E seems too integral to not recognize him with the traditional trio.  What say you?


You think it's bad they're not putting Rude in with DX?  What about Harvey Wippleman!  

If we're continuing to play the "induct stables" game, then yeah, it's nWo Classic with Hogan/Hall/Nash.  I think Bischoff would go in alone.  When the LETHAL DOSE OF POISON came back in 2002, it was the big three.  Case closed.  

ECW on Sci-Fi 02/24/2009 #142

We’re in Nashville (birthplace of Big Kev) and Christian gets his first ECW Title shot tonight against Jack Swagger, which he earned by being Christian.

Read moreECW on Sci-Fi 02/24/2009 #142

The SmarK Rant for WWF Sunday Night Heat–04.04.99

The SmarK Rant for WWF Sunday Night Heat – 04.04.99

I know. This show and myself have a complex and heated relationship. I hate watching it, and it doesn’t even do particularly impressive numbers on the blog. But it’s quick and easy to recap and now that I’ve started, I only have to make it to July and then it’s DONE! At least as far as the Network is concerned.

Read moreThe SmarK Rant for WWF Sunday Night Heat–04.04.99

Impact Wrestling – March 15, 2019

Impact Wrestling
Date: March 15, 2019
Location: Sam’s Town Hotel & Gambling Hall, Las Vegas, Nevada
Commentators: Don Callis, Josh Matthews

Things are rolling along as usual around here, which means a lot of the same stories that kind of need to go somewhere already. That’s one of Impact’s biggest problems and it’s been the case for years: they don’t seem to know how wrap up stories so things just keep going on and on for months. Hopefully we get some advancement soon because the good things that they have are rapidly approaching their expiration date. Let’s get to it.

Read moreImpact Wrestling – March 15, 2019

Get your coffee and coke ready



Forbes published a new report by Alfred Konuwa looking at the confirmed and rumored matches for this year’s WrestleMania. If the event moves forward with the additional rumored matches, this could become the longest WrestleMania event in the history of WWE with a total of 17 matches.

Granted, this would include matches that would take place on the extended live Kickoff show as well as the event. Last year’s card had a total of 14 matches, but three of those took place on the pre-show, and 11 were on the main pay-per-view card. It had a total runtime of 314 minutes. The runtime for the year before was 305 minutes. In 2017, the runtime was 286 minutes.

(411mania.com)

Royal Rumble was bad enough.  Gotta have my mini fridge of Rockstar Punched ready, I guess.  

TJR Retro: WWF Raw Deal 04/17/00 Review (Triple H vs. Jericho for WWF Title)

Hey yo. My name is John Canton and I’m a longtime internet wrestling writer. I’ve contributed to a lot of pretty big wrestling websites out there, but my main focus is on my own site TJRWrestling.net – the TJR part stands for “The John Report” because that’s the name I started using when I began writing on the internet way back in 1999. For the past ten years, I have committed to writing about wrestling full time with a major focus on current WWE stuff. My “WWE Raw Deal” reviews are what I’m most known for, but I’ve also written a lot of WWE history including reviews of most PPVs in WWE history. I have been reading my fellow Canadian Scott Keith’s reviews/columns about wrestling for at least 20 years (I guess we’re old!), if not longer. Recently, I reached out to Scott to ask if I can contribute to the Blog of Doom and he said yes. Thanks to Scott for giving me this opportunity. I really appreciate it.

Read moreTJR Retro: WWF Raw Deal 04/17/00 Review (Triple H vs. Jericho for WWF Title)