Wrestling

The Wednesday Night War Thread

I have no idea where that weird post at the top of the site came from, for those of you scratching your heads about it.  I’m gonna chalk it up to the WordPress 5.3 update going sideways tonight and leave it at that.

Anyway, it’s WEDNESDAY NIGHT WAR, with AEW featuring LE CHAMPION challenging SCU for the tag team titles, plus something with Jon Moxley.

NXT continues the build to WarGames at the end of November.

And if you’re needing something to listen to tonight…

 

WWF Superstars – July 16th, 1994

July 16, 1994

From the Marts Center in Wilkes-Barre, PA

Your hosts are Jim Ross and Jerry “The King” Lawler

This week’s featured match is Yokozuna vs. Typhoon. Plus, Tatanka as guest on the “Heartbreak Hotel.”

Read moreWWF Superstars – July 16th, 1994

What the World Was Watching: WCW Saturday Night – November 4, 1995

–Tony Schiavone and Dusty Rhodes are in the booth and they are taped from Atlanta, Georgia.  According to thehistoryofwwe.com, the matches on this show were taped on October 11.

Read moreWhat the World Was Watching: WCW Saturday Night – November 4, 1995

Hypocrisy in Wrestling?!?!


Is there a more hilarious piece of irony than Cornette openly putting over Grado (allegedly) , Colt Cabana and Ricky Starks then going on his podcast and making fun of AEW for small guys, comedy guys, and Joey Janela being "fat"?
Cornette gonna Cornette at this point.  Although his rant about children and midgets was pretty cringeworthy and old man yelling at cloud even by his standards.  

Monday Night Raw – June 13, 2005

Monday Night Raw
Date: June 13, 2005
Location: Broome County Arena, Binghamton, New York
Attendance: 3,300
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

It’s the night after One Night Stand and that likely means no Eric Bischoff tonight due to ECW giving him an all time beating. We’re less than two weeks away from Vengeance and that means it’s time for the hard push towards HHH vs. Batista inside the Cell. Steve Austin is here as the guest star tonight to deal with Muhammad Hassan and Daivari so let’s get to it.

Read moreMonday Night Raw – June 13, 2005

Mike Reviews: ECW Hardcore TV #342 – 13/11/1999

Hello You!

Welcome to all the fallout from November to Remember 1999. As usual I expect this post pay per view show to be more of a recap than feature anything new, but maybe ECW will surprise me on that front?

Sadly I have now gone beyond the point that Scott Keith has reached in his ECW on TNN recaps, so I’m afraid I can’t link you up to some lovely Scott ECW goodness. However, I will share the link for his excellent review of AEW’s “Full Gear” Event, which you can read by clicking HERE, as well as Thomas Hall’s review, which you can read by clicking HERE.

I personally enjoyed the show and especially liked the Hangman Page Vs Pac match (I think Hangman’s “Cowboy S***” shirt is great, but I don’t know where I’d ever be able to get away with wearing it). I’m one of the few who didn’t really have especially strong feelings one way or the other in regards to the Lights Out main event. It’s not really my favourite genre of wrestling but there was other stuff on the show that I did really enjoy so I was content when all was said and done.

If you’d like to read my Review of ECW November to Remember 1999 then you can do so by clicking right HERE. I didn’t especially enjoy the show but it did have an excellent Mike Awesome Vs Masato Tanaka match, so that’s something to consider if you like both men.

So with all that dealt with, let’s break a glass table and cover the floor in its remains as we once again take things to The Extreme!!!

Read moreMike Reviews: ECW Hardcore TV #342 – 13/11/1999

Disney


How fast did you sign up for Disney+?  Thoughts on the Mandalorian?  Any chance you can repost your Simpsons reviews?  Any chance of you continuing on those like say weekly per episode?

1.  5:00 AM Tuesday morning. 
2.  It was great!  Funny and entertaining and a reasonable length!  With a great cliffhanger payoff at the end.  THUMBS UP.  
3. I’ve actually lost a bunch of the reviews and I’d have to reconstruct them from InsidePulse.  Plus I’d have to crop them to 16×9 and cut out references to Michael Jackson.  
4. My child watches Simpsons on repeat ad nauseum.  I’m not really keen to review them as well. 

Cost of house shows

Hi Scott,

I know house shows have not been major money makers for awhile, but with the new contract extensions are they going to be cost prohibitive?

With Vince handing out 6 figure contracts to low level talent like candy won’t that result in huge talent costs for small shows with a couple thousand tickets sold?  I would think they can’t dilute the star power too much or no one will show up.

Or do you think they just eat the losses as being good for brand awareness and just brush it off?

The guys aren't really paid per show worked, so you can't really factor salary costs into house show expenses.  Running a show with a bunch of people doesn't incur more pay, although there's certainly more expenses on the backend due to transportation costs and labor for setup and stuff.  As it stands, WWE drawing at the current level is apparently breaking even or sometimes losing a bit, but as noted, they really do it for brand awareness and for letting the guys work out matches and practice and such.  The sad thing is that they have a zillion guys under contract who really do need the work and practice and would probably love going around the country and doing 200 shows a year, but instead have to get paid to sit around backstage for RAW waiting for their 30 seconds of TV time in a 24/7 title skit. 

The Very Obvious Punk Question

Hi Scott,


With Punk now officially rolling in Fox money, how long will it be until a deal's made for him to appear on Raw, Smackdown, NXT, or Network special?


I feel like this was maybe more of a desperation move spurred by the show drawing less than 50,000 viewers for its debut than anything else.  But I guess we'll see.  

Tuesday Night Thread!

It’s one of my favorite wrestling nights of the week, with NWA Powerrr debuting on the YouTubes, plus AEW Dark!

RAW ratings were a complete disaster.

Hopefully everyone can spare an hour out of watching old Gummi Bears and Ducktales episodes on Disney Plus tonight and check out episode 6 of NWA Powerrr.  I’ll have the review tomorrow morning as usual.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to my Patreon thus far, which blows my mind that people would even do so.  My next goal is $300 per month, at which point I will start reviewing WCW Thunder from the beginning all over again and see how it looks from 2019 eyes.  http://www.patreon.com/blogofdoom if you are in a position to help out the site and are interested in doing so.

Atomic drop


Hello Scott,

While watching the Holy grail Tom Magee video for the umpteenth time, during the match he uses an atomic drop.

 

Is it me or do we not see people using that move anymore? Also, what are other moves we don’t see a lot of anymore?

The atomic drop kind of died for me when Rick Rude did.  If he’s not selling it, why even bother?  
I feel like the world might be ready for the TONGAN DEATH GRIP again, since the Mandible Claw is back.  

Why Mark Jindrak in evolution?


Scott,

I’ve heard elsewhere that Mark Jindrak was originally going to be in evolution before being replaced by Batista.

My question is WHY?!? Was it because he was big? It was because he was big…

Why not go with his much more talented former partner Sean O’Haire who was also in limbo?

HHH was friends with Jindrak, as I understand it, and wanted to give him and (believe it or not) Scott "Sick Boy" Vick a push.  The Vick connection is actually where Katie Vick's name came from, as he was supposed to pop up as her brother or something.  And then of course, plans changed.  

Feuds That Were Too Short

We all bitch about when feuds go on too long.  However, were there ever any feuds that you thought were too short?  I was surprised the Seth Rollins vs Braun Strowman program for the WWE Universal Title only lasted 1 PPV.  Then again given the fact that the brands would split yet again with Rollins staying on Raw while Strowman went to Smackdown, they had to hurry to get to 1 match between the 2.  

I don't know why they bothered.  That was barely even a feud, it was just something to fill time for one PPV.  Given all the rehashed 4 month feuds these days I'm glad when something is too short.  It's a nice change of pace.  

PIP vs. regular commercial break.

So both AEW and NXT have been doing a combination regular commercials and PIP commercials on their shows.  Is there one you prefer more. I personally find the PIP annoying as the commercial takes up over half the screen, plus nothing really interesting wrestling-wise happens during these things. I say just do regular commercial breaks and be done with it.

I agree.  It's not saving viewers by having the PIP breaks and as noted it's really hard to tell what's going on anyway.  I have found AEW better about placement of breaks in general thus far but the PIP gimmick doesn't add anything to either show for me.