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No time for a long intro. This is more G1. Please read it (Cheers to Andy for the plug earlier)
Anyway, let’s get to some more B Block Action!
Read moreNew Japan Pro Wrestling G1 Climax 2019 – Night Six (19/07/2019)
Michael Fitzgerald
New Japan Pro Wrestling G1 Climax 2019 – Night Five (18/07/2019)
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Back we come for more hot A Block action. Last time out in this block KENTA and Hiroshi Tanahashi main evented in a bout that saw the former NOAH and NXT alum go on to his second big win in the Block. Tana is currently still stuck on zero points, but can he get on the board today? Well, let’s take another journey to the land of Puro and find out!
Read moreNew Japan Pro Wrestling G1 Climax 2019 – Night Five (18/07/2019)
Mike Reviews: ECW Heatwave 99 (18/07/1999)
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So here we are, after months of absolute non-build we are at ECW’s big event of the summer in the form of Heatwave 99. Sadly the hype for this show has been poor to say the least, but now we’re here hopefully the ECW roster can enter a good performance and end the last Pay Per View before the TNN Era with a bang!
Heatwave 98 is possibly my favourite ECW show ever, so the 1999 version is going to have to go some way to match it. Still, with a main event of Rob Van Dam and Jerry Lynn taking on Justin Credible and Lance Storm, they should be able to end on a strong note if nothing else.
So without further ado, let’s adorn our favourite pair of swimming shorts, fill our inflatable crocodiles with air, put a big blotch of sun scream on the end of our noses and take things to The Extreme!!!
205 Live #138 – 16/07/2019
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Back again with some more 205 Live. This week we actually get a rematch of the match that got me interested in watching the show again in the form of Jack Gallagher Vs Chad Gable. The last time these two took to the ring it was an absolute corker, so hopefully we get just as good a match this time out.
Also, last week Mike Kanellis promised doom for the show due to his personal life going to the dogs, so there’s a good chance we’ll see some chicanery from him this week as well.
So without further ado, let’s take to the skies for another week of 205 action!
Mike Reviews: ECW Hardcore TV #325 – 17/07/1999
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Last week on Hardcore TV, The Impact Players of Justin Credible and Lance Storm actually managed to win a match for once when they defeated Jerry Lynn and Sabu in the main event. As well as that, ECW World Champ Taz threw out a challenge for Steve Corino to find him a challenger for Heat Wave 99 on 18/07/1999.
Speaking of Heat Wave 99, ECW has seemingly yet to announce any official matches for the show, meaning that most of the hype is now going to have to be done in one show. As we’ll get to, there have been external forces that have contributed to this, but it’s still been a pretty lousy build for what should be the biggest event of ECW’s summer schedule.
So, without further ado, let’s strap ourselves and feel the cheese as it’s time once again to take things to The Extreme!!!
New Japan Pro Wrestling G1 Climax 2019 – Night Four – 15/07/2019
Hello You!
We’re back to the world of G1 with some B Block Action!
First off, congratulations to England’s cricketers for winning perhaps one of the craziest games of sport I’ve ever seen with an amazing last ball victory that had me gripped to the edge of my seat. It was like a Hollywood movie screenplay for “dramatic sporting film” by the end.
I actually didn’t watch any of the weekends wrestling outside of G1, mainly because I didn’t have time and to be honest none of it leapt out at me as “must see”. I may check out this Bryan/Rowan Vs Heavy Machinery Vs New Day match though, as I hear it was a bit of corker.
Anyway, enough chitchat, let’s watch some chuffing Puro!
Read moreNew Japan Pro Wrestling G1 Climax 2019 – Night Four – 15/07/2019
New Japan Pro Wrestling G1 Climax 2019 – Night Three – 14/07/2019
Hello You!
Here we are with some more G1 Climax action! I’ve actually been a bit rough today so this took a bit longer than I’d liked, but hopefully this reaches you well and you’ve had a good weekend. As mentioned in Night Two, there’s sadly no tag matches on this one because I didn’t really have time to fit them in, so this is just the five tournament matches.
Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy these and I’ll have Mondays B Block matches hopefully up after I get home from work tomorrow.
Oh, and on an unrelated note, Cricket can be bloody exciting when it wants to be can’t it?
Read moreNew Japan Pro Wrestling G1 Climax 2019 – Night Three – 14/07/2019
New Japan Pro Wrestling G1 Climax 2019 – Night Two (13/07/2019)
Hello You!
We’re back to the world of G1 with some B Block Action!
Just regards the last review, I know some were unhappy that I didn’t include the tag matches. This was mainly down to me actually missing the first half of the show due to working on something else. I’ll be including the full show today because it’s a Saturday morning and works well for me, but going forward it’s unlikely I’ll include the tags.
The reason for that is simply in the interest of expediency. To give you an idea, last year I wrote nearly 58,000 words on just the G1 tournament alone, so you can imagine how much more it would be if I did the tag matches as well. Basically I have a full-time job and also have other writing commitments, so I just don’t have the time to do the tag matches as well most of time. Recaps of other shows might also not be up so promptly either (Mainly because I’ll be doing them when I get home from work most days as the shows happen in the morning here in the UK)
I know some won’t like this, and I get it. The tag matches are part of the overall story of the tournament and certainly aren’t throw away as some think, but unfortunately they’ve got to be a victim of time I’m afraid. It’s just one of those things. Kevin Kelley is usually pretty good at bringing up any relevant titbits from the tags anyway, so it shouldn’t be too much of an issue.
Anyway, now that’s out of the way, let’s enjoy some hot B Block action!
Read moreNew Japan Pro Wrestling G1 Climax 2019 – Night Two (13/07/2019)
205 Live #137 – 09/07/2019
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Back again with some more 205 Live action, as this show will be the go home for Extreme Rulz, where Drew Gulak will defend his Cruiserweight Title against Tony Nese.
So without further ado, let’s get Live with the 205!
Mike Reviews: ECW Hardcore TV #324 – 10/07/1999
Hello You!
Last week on Hardcore TV, The Dudley Boyz once again retained their ECW Tag Titles against the makeshift team of Balls Mahoney and Spike Dudley, but the gutsy challengers ran them pretty close. Is it possible the scrappy duo of Spikey-Balls get another shot down the line?
In the other big match from last week, Rob Van Dam defeated Lance Storm to retain his ECW TV Title thanks to assistance from both Sabu and Jerry Lynn. Lynn especially seemed to play a key role in providing a chair so that RVD could hit his patented Van Daminator move, whilst Sabu was essentially there just to nullify Justin Credible.
We are now 8 days away from Heat Wave 99. It would be really nice if ECW could actually announce some matches on this show, but I’m not holding my breath in all honesty.
Anyway, let’s head down to Home Depot (Other stores are available) to pick up an assorted collection of warped weaponry so we’re nice a prepared for another journey to The Extreme!!!
New Japan G1 Climax 2019 – Night One – 06/07/2019
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I decided to stay up and watch this one tonight and also decided to write up the G1 matches from the show as well. If I get a chance I’ll do this more over the course of the tournament. I’m sure there’ll be someone covering it in full as well.
Obviously this contains SPOILERS, so don’t read beyond the “Read more” section if you’re trying to avoid the results.
205 Live #136 – 02/07/2019
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So here we are with the second week of 205 Live recaps. Hopefully you’re all enjoying them.
Last week Tony Nese defeated Akira Tozawa to earn himself a match with new Cruiserweight Champ Drew Gulak, mostly likely on the Extreme Rulz pre-show because this company seems obsessed with treating the poor Cruiserweights like second class citizens.
Also The Lucha House Party challenged The Singh’s to a Tornado Match, so we should get to see that this week. And Mike Kanellis’ life continued to get crappy when he was defeated by Jack Gallagher.
So without further ado, let’s strap ourselves in and take flight with some Cruiserweight action!
Mike Reviews: ECW Hardcore TV #323 – 03/07/1999
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So I was going to put these on ice but a few people got in touch to say they liked them, so I’ll keep them going for the time being as the shows are generally easy to watch and no one else is really doing classic ECW stuff on here (Although Maffew’s reviews of WWECW are always worth a read if you’ve never given them a try)
Last week on Hardcore TV, Jerry Lynn defeated Justin Credible in the main event to earn himself a match with Rob Van Dam on this show for the ECW TV Title. However, a post-match attack from The Impact Players left him unable to compete this week, so Lance Storm will be taking the shot instead.
In other news, Steve Corino and Taz’s feud continued as Taz blew through Corino’s new “Rookie Monster” Rhino in mere minutes. Corino managed to escape unscathed once again however. Will Taz ever give Corino the beating he’s talked himself into?
The other big news last week was that Little Guido got a big win over Tajiri, although it took plenty of interference from Big Sal to ensure it happened. Will Tajiri be out for revenge this week? And lets not forget that Super Crazy also has an issue with both men.
We are also 15 days away from Heat Wave 99 on the 18th of July and we still haven’t had any matches announced yet. ECW really needs to get something on the docket whilst they still have time to actually hype the show. They have literally just 3 more hours of TV to hype the Pay-Per-View.
So without any further ado, let’s once again order ourselves a thumbtack kebab and take it to The Extreme!!!
205 Live #135 – 25/06/2019
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I decided to put the Hardcore TV reviews on ice, mainly because I don’t think anyone was actually reading them. Seeing as 205 Live is probably the only show that super-reviewer Tommy Hall doesn’t recap around here, I decided I’d try it out for a few weeks and see what everyone thinks.
Recaps going forward will probably be up on Wednesday evenings at the earliest because the show is on pretty late in the UK and I have things like sleeping and a regular day job that I have to contend with. Whenever I’ve watched 205 Live I’ve tended to enjoy the wrestling on it quite a lot, though the crowds can sometimes be pretty dispiriting, so I’m optimistic going in to this.
Anyway, let’s take a look at 205 Live for 25/06/2019
Mike Reviews: ECW Hardcore TV #322 – 26/06/1999
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Last week on Hardcore TV Balls Mahoney assisted Rob Van Dam in defeating D-Von Dudley in the main event, but RVD was less than grateful for the interference of the Hardcore Chair Swinging Freak, which earned him a stiff chair shot in return. Will that be followed up this week?
Also on the show, Taz finally clocked Steve Corino after weeks of feuding between the two, but Corino was able to get away before Taz could fully lay a whupping on him. And Justin Credible fired the first official shot in the war between The Impact Players and The Dudley Boyz when he wore out Buh Buh Ray Dudley with his Singapore Cane.
Despite being less than a month away from Heat Wave 99 on the 18th of July, we actually haven’t had any matches announced yet. Hopefully ECW can start doing that this week so that we actually have something concrete to look forward to.
So without any further ado, let’s once again adorn our barbed wire underpants and take it to The Extreme!!!
Six of the Best – WWF/E King of the Ring
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So we’re back again with another Six of the Best, this time looking at what was, for a while, the fifth biggest pay per view event of the WWF/E calendar in the form of King of the Ring. KOTR as an event ran from 1993 until being discontinued in 2002.
I will be looking at just the KOTR PPV’s themselves for this and not the times WWE brought back the tournament for television purposes. I also won’t be covering any of the tournaments prior to the first PPV version of the event in 1993, as I have actually never seen any of the matches from them and couldn’t even tell you if footage of the matches actually existed or not. If they do then please feel free to confirm that in the comments section.
This one was difficult in the sense that I really didn’t know whether to include one particular match and only eventually decided to go with it after watching it again. We’ll get to that when we get to it. Aside from that particular match, the rest of the list wasn’t too difficult for me to narrow down, as KOTR events tended to be a bit meh when compared to the likes of Royal Rumble, WrestleMania and Summer Slam. As a result, narrowing the list down to Six didn’t take too long as the really good matches from these events stand out quite clearly.
As always, these are just my own personal picks. This isn’t supposed to be some sort of objective list or anything. If I leave out a match that you think warrants inclusion, then please feel free to put it down in the comments section below. As with previous lists, I’ll be listing the matches in chronological order.
So without further to do, let’s take a look at Six of the Best for King of the Ring!
Mike Reviews: ECW Hardcore TV #321 – 19/06/1999
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Last week on ECW Hardcore TV, The Dudley Boyz jumped poor Balls Mahoney once again in the locker room, bloodying him up with a chair shot. Lance Storm talked trash about The Dudleyz on the phone saying that they were ducking him and Justin Credible, whilst Rob Van Dam and Jerry Lynn traded barbs in the closing segment.
Where will all of these stories head next? Let’s see if that question is answered in today’s ECW Hardcore TV!!!
Mike Reviews: NWA-TNA Episode #1 – 19/06/2002
Seeing as TNA/Impact Wrestling has somehow managed to survive a whopping 17 years, I decided I would set the way back machine to 2002 and watch the first ever event in the company’s history, seeing as it’s up on their official YouTube page and all.
For those who weren’t around or have expunged this period of wrestling from their memory, when TNA first started out it was as a weekly pay per view product, where they’d have a 2 hour pay per view event every week costed at a quarter of what WWE charged for its normal pay per view events.
The thinking was that, seeing as wrestling fans would pay the full amount for a 3 hour WWE event every month, they’d happily pay the same for 8 whole hours of TNA a month. It would also have the bonus of TNA not needing to have a pesky television show either, which is what wrestling had always traditionally needed to be successful.
The idea was a complete bomb and the company was pretty much dead on its feet mere months into its existence, with only investment by Bob Carter’s Panda Energy company saving it from the scrapheap. This in turn led to Bob’s daughter Dixie getting her mischievous fingers into the wrestling pie (Which led to a whole host of other issues) but TNA at least survived long enough to eventually be moved onto new owners.
Of course there were plenty of other issues too, such as Jeff Jarrett getting pushed as the top star in the company due to his dad’s involvement, even though he was a supporting player at best, and the hiring of Vince Russo to work on the creative end of things.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen this episode in full (Unless The Wrestling Channel put it on during its short period of existence and I just forgot about it) but it is cool that TNA has it up there for posterity. Hopefully there’s some good stuff on here.
Six of the Best – NWA/WCW Great American Bash
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Back again with another list, this time for The Great American Bash. Just to quickly explain, I’m only covering full Pay-Per-View events that happened under the NWA or WCW umbrella, so basically the previous Bash tours prior to 1988 aren’t included, which means the great War Games matches don’t make the list. Rest assured that I like them a lot however.
Also I’m ignoring the WWE Great American Bash shows for this list and decided just to focus on the NWA/WCW ones. Apologies if you’re a big fan of JBL winning the WWE Title or Muhammad Hassan getting killed off with a powerbomb, but those events aren’t going to be considered for this list because I wanted to give WCW it’s time in the sun. Maybe I can do the WWE ones on their own one day, but to be honest outside of Umaga Vs Jeff Hardy, John Cena Vs Bobby Lashley and Chris Jericho Vs Shawn Michaels I’d be drawing a blank over what matches would actually qualify to make the cut. It certainly wouldn’t be Undertaker and Big Show in a Panjabi Prison that’s for sure. Maybe I could do Six of the Worst for the WWE Bash events? Something to ponder…
This was actually quite difficult to get this down to six matches as I whittled it down to eight and then had to make some tough choices. If you look at the matches in bold in the honourable mentions, they were the two matches that only just missed out. All eight were perfectly valid choices in my mind, so I just went with the six I personally enjoyed the most. The exclusion of the two matches that didn’t make it is no comment on their quality, but I had to have six so I cut them.
As always, these are just my own personal picks. This isn’t supposed to be some sort of objective list or anything. If I leave out a match that you think warrants inclusion, then please feel free to put it down in the comments section below. As with previous lists, I’ll be listing the matches in chronological order.
So without further to do, let’s take a look at Six of the Best for The Great American Bash!
Mike Reviews: ECW Hardcore TV #320 – 12/06/1999
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Last week on ECW Hardcore TV, Sabu tried to wrestle Justin Credible but a gaggle of security and referees stopped them because Sabu is still unable to wrestle in North America due to Credible stooging him out to all of the commissions. Sadly this led to Sid coming out to seemingly brawl with both men when the showed faded to black. Hopefully we won’t be seeing much of Sid following this.
In addition to the Sabu/Credible stuff, a storyline continued to build between Cyrus, Steve Corino and Taz, as all three are trying to outsmart each other in a game of cat, mouse and lion (I’ll leave it up to the reader to decide which animal is an allegory for whom).
So with that all recapped, let’s once again pull up our adult socks and get ready to take things to The Extreme!!!
Mike Reviews: New Japan Pro Wrestling Dominion in Osaka – 09/06/2019
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This one worked out well for me due to it happening 8am UK time, so I decided to do a write up for it. The main event on this one is Kazuchika Okada defending the IWGP Heavyweight Title against Chris Jericho, but there’s also a match scheduled between Kota Ibushi and Tetsuya Naito, which is a big rematch from the MSG Show over WrestleMania weekend, and that’s even before we get to a match between Will Ospreay and Dragon Lee, which should be all kind of awesome.
So please join me as we take a journey to Osaka for New Japan Pro Wrestling’s presentation of Dominion!
The event is emanating from Osaka-Jo Hall, in Osaka, Japan
Calling the action are Kevin Kelley, Don Callis and Chris Charlton
Read moreMike Reviews: New Japan Pro Wrestling Dominion in Osaka – 09/06/2019
Mike Reviews: ECW Hardcore TV #319 – 05/06/1999
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Last week on ECW Hardcore TV, The Dudley Boyz heated up their rivalry with Balls Mahoney quite literally by flinging him through a flaming table in the main event. As a result of this act, Balls Mahoney and Axl Rotten failed in their attempt to wrest the ECW Tag Team Titles from the half-brothers and must now do battle on the next set of tapings.
However, we’ve still got another week of the tapings from Detroit to watch first, so let’s put on our big person pants and once again take it to The Extreme!!!
Mike’s Mini Review: Mitsuharu Misawa Vs Toshiaki Kawada – 03 06 1994
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For those not aware, 25 years ago today a very notorious bout took place in All Japan Pro Wrestling between Mitusharu Misawa and Toshiaki Kawada. In case you don’t recognise the names, both Misawa and Kawada were the top two stars of All Japan at the time and this was a much anticipated collision between the two.
Both men had actually been tag team partners and allies in the not too distant past prior to this contest, but by the time 1994 rolled around both men had become heated rivals, both on and off screen. Thankfully it led to magic between the two and they often produced an epic chemistry together, one that helped make All Japan incredibly successful during the 90’s.
The two hadn’t met in a match for the famed All Japan Triple Crown of Titles for nearly two years, so this match had a lot of hype going into it and was the talk of the internet wrestling world following its conclusion due to how great a match it ended up being.
Seeing as today is the anniversary of the match, I thought I’d review it seeing as I haven’t watched it in a while and the milestone deserved some recognition. So without further ado, let’s say the way back machine to Budokan Hall for some Retro Wrestle action!
Read moreMike’s Mini Review: Mitsuharu Misawa Vs Toshiaki Kawada – 03 06 1994
Six of the Best – WWF/E Judgment Day
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For a while there I didn’t think I was going to get this one posted before the end of May, but I just about got it all put together before the month reached it’s conclusion, like Indiana Jones sliding under a closing drawbridge right before it closes whilst still having time to reach back and grab my hat…
Or maybe not…
Anyway, Judgment Day was an event held by the WWF/E in the month of May from 2000 to 2009 (There was also a show from 1998 using the name that happened in October). It tended to be an event that advanced or began storylines rather than paying them off, and ended up feeling like a “B Show” most of the time as a result.
Despite that though, it was also a show that usually had at least a couple of good matches every time out, and that meant that I struggled somewhat whittling the list down to six. There were some really good matches that I really enjoyed that I had to leave on the cutting room floor, but I’m generally happy with what eventually made the final list.
As always, these are just my own personal picks. This isn’t supposed to be some sort of objective list or anything. If I leave out a match that you think warrants inclusion, then please feel free to put it down in the comments section below. As with previous lists, I’ll be listing the matches in chronological order.
So without further to do, let’s take a look at Six of the Best for Judgment Day!