Wrestling

Smackdown – March 10, 2006

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Smackdown
Date: March 10, 2006
Location: Mobile Civic Center, Mobile, Alabama
Commentators: Michael Cole, Tazz

We’re running out of time before Wrestlemania and this time around that means we need to start setting up some Money in the Bank participants. Other than that we are all but guaranteed to get some fallout from last week when Mark Henry attacked the Undertaker to cost him the World Title. Let’s get to it.

Read moreSmackdown – March 10, 2006

ECW on Syfy 02/09/2010 #192

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The penultimate episode, time to put on the blindfold and light the cigarette.

Read moreECW on Syfy 02/09/2010 #192

Saturday Night’s All Right for SPORTS Thread

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Hey, the Canucks won their first playoff series since 2011!  But of course, tonight there’s a TON of other hockey and baseball games, plus a UFC.

Smackdown’s ratings were up slightly.

I picked up Hitman 2 on clearance at Toys R Us for $4 today because I insist on watching people like the Outside Xbox crew play those games and I always think “Man, that looks really fun and easy!” and then I play it and can barely get past the tutorial.  But hey, $4, why not?

Hopefully the evening brings you some enjoyment.

Gauntlet Matches

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Hi Scott!

Q&A for the site. I think the quarantine is really getting to me that tonight I was starting to feel nostalgic for the Kofi Kingston and Seth Rollins gauntlet matches on TV last year before WrestleMania (or just too many empty venue shows since March is making me think 2019 WWE crowds were “alive”).

Are there any other good or great gauntlet matches out there? I feel like the only ones I have any memory of existed just to tell the story of either giant is unstoppable or put two main event guys over the entire tag division, and neither of those are promising signs for match quality or entertainment value.


Also, did you ever review any of the Stranglemania tapes? The closest I could find was a couple years ago you saying people kept asking you to do it.
I never did those, no.  Closest would be the ICP's Juggalo Championshit Wrestling tapes that I reviewed and generally enjoyed.  
As for gauntlet matches, meh.  I never remember any of them and it's kind of a dumb concept that usually gives you a bunch of super-short matches with stupid finishes.  I do typically enjoy the Beat the Clock variation, however, because it gives you real stakes.  

The North vs FTR

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So, Scott D'amore has tweeted that Impact would support a match between FTR and The North. The match itself would be pretty cool, and obviously good for Impact whose profile is pretty low these days. However, would it be good for AEW? If they did as Scott suggests and have two matches, one on each show, I could see that popping a rating for Impact, but would that do anything for AEW other than halting a current storyline to feature non signed talent. I mean, when Brian Pillman Jr was on, nobody was talking about MLW, so I imagine AEW would be hesitant to promote Impact in the first place.

I'd agree with that.  I'm also very surprised that Pillman is just getting used as a job guy on Dark, but maybe he's still locked in with MLW and they can't really do anything with him, I dunno.  

Best finisher name

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What do you think is the coolest name for a finishing move? Scorpion Death Lock always sounded pretty intimidating to me.


Hard to argue with that one too much.  Doomsday Device was also great.  Midnights had a lot of tremendously creative ones, like the Veg-O-Matic (which admittedly loses something without the context of Ron Popeil's commercials).  Also hard to top the simplicity and symbolism of the DDT.  

Mike Reviews Every WCW Road Wild Main Event

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Hello You!

Urgh, Road Wild

I have never really enjoyed this event, even though the visual of them setting up a ring in the middle of a biker rally always looked cool. The atmosphere on the shows was inconsistent to say the least and some of the work was below standard as the wrestlers just wanted to get in and get out without drunken bikers throwing rocks at them.

I’m not overly optimistic at the thought of watching these, but who knows, maybe some of them will have gotten better with age?

Let’s tentatively watch some chuffing wrestling

Read moreMike Reviews Every WCW Road Wild Main Event

Saturday Morning Cartoons! Bigfoot and the Muscle Machines!

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I’ve recently been transferring some shows from video to DVD and this is one of them. My own history with it is seeing the trailer for it on a Transformers video as a kid, but never seeing or getting it fully myself. Then a friend of mine picked it up when we were in our teens and we watched it to make fun of it, mocking some of the voices and plot contrivances. As an adult, I picked it up on tape and was able to enjoy it more as what it was intended to be.

This is effectively a “movie”, although it only runs for 53 minutes. Sunbow produced it as a series of small parts to be included in a block they had with Robotix, Inhumanoids and Jem. Inhumanoids went a bit further and Jem went a lot further, but Bigfoot and Robotix didn’t develop beyond getting their “movie” collections of all the shorts stitched together.

Read moreSaturday Morning Cartoons! Bigfoot and the Muscle Machines!

NJPW Strong – August 7th, 2020

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Howdy!

While I didn’t review it, I did watch the Lion’s Break Collision shows on NJPWworld, and now they’re back with another Friday night show, NJPW Strong as part of their push into North America. Featuring some known names and LA Dojo members, this is the first week of an 8-man single elimination tournament called the New Japan Cup USA to decide a challenger for Jon Moxley’s NJPW US title. 

Let’s watch some wrestling, shall we?

Read moreNJPW Strong – August 7th, 2020

Smackdown – August 7, 2020

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Smackdown
Date: August 7, 2020
Location: WWE Performance Center, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Michael Cole, Corey Graves

We are less than two and a half weeks away from Summerslam and that means…well not much actually, but tonight we might find out some more about the Fiend attacking Alexa Bliss last week. That is the kind of thing that could be interesting, but given that it is modern WWE, I wouldn’t get my hopes up. Let’s get to it.

Read moreSmackdown – August 7, 2020

Underrated loser gimmick: 93-95 Crush

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Instead of getting him to the next level in 1993, he is off for a bit because of the Doink attack, misses Rumble, loses to Doink at Mania, loses to Shawn at KOTR, ultimately loses the Doink feud, once again injured after the Yoko thing in the summer, no Summerslam appearance, turns heel in a nice way but loses at Survivor Series, loses match and feud vs Savage at Mania again, loses tag title match against Headshrinkers at KOTR, is an afterthought afterwards

I mean damn, seems like Vince saw him as midcard fodder only

Quite the opposite actually.  Makes it all the more mystifying why he ended up in that position.  

Friday Night Party Thread: August 7, 2020

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New York strip steak?  Check.

Pre-chopped salad? Check.

Pasta?  Check.

A reason to stay indoors all weekend while the training ring is being dried out from the storm?  Oh that’s a big check.  WE MADE IT!

SmackDown is tonight!  We will see Matt Riddle face Sheamus, Jeff Hardy against Baron Corbin, Sonya Deville on the Dirt Sheet, and a Firefly Fun House to (hopefully) answer what the heck is up with that attack on Bliss last week.  (Though seriously, that has my attention on the Fiend.  See what establishing rules does?  It makes breaking them meaningful.  WWE should take that lesson and apply it to, well, everyday matches.  Let heels cheat.)

NBA is heating up in Orlando, and the NHL playoffs have their first victim, as the Panthers are dragged kicking and screaming back to Florida.  Hopefully they take the Pens with them.

All right, everyone, we went over the rules.  I want you to obey the mod’s instructions at all times.  No explicit material, and keep all jabs friendly and jokey and stuff.  Remember: it’s the weekend, and we want everyone in a good mood.  Now, touch gloves, go to your keyboards, and get ready to post.

(But first, here it is, your Moment of Zen.)

Enjoy the weekend!

What the World Was Watching: USWA Championship Wrestling – June 24, 1995

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Lance Russell returns to today’s broadcast alongside Dave Brown and they are broadcasting from the WMC-TV5 studio in Memphis, Tennessee.

Russell interviews Brandon Baxter, who is upset that he is not being treated like a star in the USWA like he was in the Global Wrestling Federation (GWF).  Baxter demands that Russell tell him who Bill Dundee is going to have as his mystery partner for an upcoming match and that brings Dundee out.  As expected, that leads to Doug Gilbert and Brian Lee backing up their manager, but PG-13 make the save.

Read moreWhat the World Was Watching: USWA Championship Wrestling – June 24, 1995

The New Japan Three Musketeers

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If you had to rate Keiji Mutoh, Masahiro Chono and Shinya Hashimoto in order of preference, how would it shape up?
Muto is obviously one of my favourite wrestlers of all time, full stop.  Chono I’ve mostly just seen via his WCW stuff and the occasional tag match against the Steiners.  Hashimoto is someone I’m aware of but have never watched a full match.  

early ECW

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I pretty much never watched ECW during their existence so I finally started watching them on the network, mainly the supershows for now.  Just finished up 1994 and I have one question.


I don't know if this changes later but it seems like there are no clearly defined faces and heels with a few exceptions.  Everyone comes across as a tweener.  And here I thought that Vince invented the whole “shades of grey” thing 3 years later.  All snark aside was this by design so Heyman could mix and match whoever he wanted to?  I assume he didn't have the roster size to keep separate face and heel sides and still keep fresh matchups.

On a side note the impromptu Benoit/Scorpio brawl at the end of November to Remember was fucking awesome and I am really looking forward to 1995.  Yes the production isn't great but I've enjoyed what I've seen so far.


Yeah, guys like Mikey and Dreamer were clearly babyfaces but everyone else was clearly in a fluid state based on what they needed that week.  Especially Public Enemy and Sandman.