Jarrett’s Rise To Power In WWE


Hey Scott, quick question. Just a year and a half ago, Jeff Jarrett was seemingly on WWEs trash list. He left on bad terms, got fired on national TV when WCW was bought and even went on to compete with Vince. So he gets the Hall Of Fame call, months later gets hired as a producer, gets some of his friends hired (Dutt, Abyss) and now supposedly was promoted to creative team member will have alot of influence over it. How the hell did he rise so far up in so little time for somebody who was allegedly hated by Vince??


He's a charming guy!  Plus if there's one thing about Vince, he'll put aside his numerous grudges and weirdness if he thinks he can do business with someone. 

Scott Hall in the WWF in 1996


When Hall and Nash were finishing up their WWF runs in early 1996, unlike Nash, why was Hall barely featured going out the door?  His last match against Vader at In Your House was hardly even promoted ahead of time, although Hall did get a surprising amount of offense in that contest before jobbing clean.  I take it Vince didn't fully trust Hall to "do business", or was it something else entirely?  

Hall had a lot of substance abuse problems even then, and Vince didn't trust him very much at that point as a result.  I think the feeling was that losing him to WCW was no big deal, but when Nash went with him, that was the killing blow.  

Eddie Gilbert What If


If Eddie Gilbert had not died, what would have become of him? Would he have ended up working behind the scenes in WCW or WWE as a writer/booking committee member? Become an ECW fixture as an old guy who exists solely as comic relief fodder? Or like a lot of old timers, when the Attitude/NWO era hit like a truck, would he have ended up permanently exiled to the indie scene until TnA or ROH came along and gave him a job as booker?

I think he had burned his bridges to the point where he was going to end up exiled to the indies or Puerto Rico for good.  Memphis was about to go away so he couldn't go back there past a certain point, and certainly neither Vince nor Bischoff was going to take a chance on him any longer.  

Flair/Steamboat in ’91?


Watching the series of Flair/Steamboat matches in 1989.  Vince had to have watched these matches back then secretly in his bedroom at night and known how awesome they were.  How in the hell did he not manage to get these two together in late 91' when Flair came in?  I'm sure if he told Steamboat that he was going to be in a program with Flair Steamboat would have stuck around and they could have actually made something worthwhile of his wasted run.


Scott


That was the common sentiment at the time, but somehow they managed not to think of it.  

Smackdown – October 14, 2004

Smackdown
Date: October 14, 2004
Location: Manchester Evening News Arena, Manchester, England
Commentators: Michael Cole, Tazz

It’s the first ever Smackdown in England and we’re coming off a big surprise last week when the debuting Carlito Caribbean Cool won the US Title from John Cena. That wasn’t it though as Cena was attacked in a nightclub after the show, meaning he probably won’t be here tonight. However, we do get Hardcore Holly vs. JBL in a hardcore match for the World Title. That’s WWE’s gift to England: a Hardcore Holly title shot. Let’s get to it.

Read moreSmackdown – October 14, 2004

The SmarK Rant for WWE Network Hidden Gems– The March to Wrestlemania IX (03.28.93)

The SmarK Rant for WWE Network Hidden Gems – The March to Wrestlemania IX (03.28.93)

I was wondering when they’d start adding these to the Network!

Taped on the USA Network from wherever the Superstars and Challenge tapings were that week.

Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Bobby Heenan

Read moreThe SmarK Rant for WWE Network Hidden Gems– The March to Wrestlemania IX (03.28.93)

Strong Style Saturday Thread – 03.16.19

ROH had a PPV last night, featuring Jay Lethal retaining his title against Matt Taven in a 60 minute draw, and Brody King & PCO winning the tag titles from the Briscoes in an ECW-style brawl to set up a title v. title match against the Guerrillas of Destiny at the MSG show.

I guess that since today is 3/16 you should go give someone a Stunner?

Enjoy your Saturday, and here’s a list from WWE…

Timing of Dustin/Terri Split



Follow-up question of sorts, since Goldust's own 97 interviews were brought up.

Watching the interview where he splits with Terri, it really feels like what we're seeing isn't just their characters splitting, but that that's when he made their real-life separation official, right then and there (albeit with some obvious references that would have fit with their characters only).

Question being – was that the case? Had they already separated before those aired? Did that not come till after? I'm seeing that their divorce was finalized October 18, 1999, so at the very least, if he didn't split with her live on-air like that, it had to be pretty damn close to when that aired.

Oh yeah, they were dragging all kinds of real life shit into that storyline.  The whole thing with Dakota on screen and Dustin the Family Man was apparently them trying to reconcile their marriage and failing.  

Question

Scott,

I’ve been watching Superstars from ‘92, and one of the things that seems strange to me is the return of 43 year old Bob Backlund to the WWF. Obviously, Backlund’s “crazy old man” heel character got over the following year, but the vanilla, white-bread babyface Backlund seemed very out of place in the 1992 WWF world filled with Doink and Papa Shango. 

Why did Vince decide to bring Bob back at this point? 
Because he was a big star from a previous era and Vince was pretty desperate for talent at that point. 

Best Heel Feud Win

Scott, 

What are your thoughts on the the best example of a heel decisively winning a feud?  Usually a heel gets the upper hand and the face gets some kind of revenge. My guess would be Ken Patera vs The Heenan Family. After the debate where Patera injured Heenan’s neck, months later Heenan got his revenge when the whole Heenan Family jumped Patera and whipped his back and even Bobby got his licks in. As far as I can remember, Patera never really got any type of revenge on Heenan or anyone in the family. 

Also, in the debate where Patera injured Heenan, Bobby went off about what a bad person Patera really was but his rant was censored on TV, any idea as to what Heenan actually said?  Wouldn’t seem he was dropping F bombs back then.

He was just saying his usual stuff and they bleeped it for effect.  
As for heels winning a feud, was there any more decisive example than the nWo beating the Horsemen in 1997?  Hennig reveals himself as an nWo member in the match where they going to get their revenge for the parody skit, and turns on Flair, and then retains the US title multiple times until Flair's group literally just breaks up and is done. 

The SmarK Rant for WCW Clash of the Champions XXX

The SmarK Rant for Clash of the Champions XXX (January 1995)

(Originally written sometime in 2015, whenever the initial dump of Clash content onto the Network was.  Figured that since we covered the Observer with this show yesterday, might as well repost it.)  

Oh god, THIS show.

Live from Las Vegas, NV.

Your hosts are Tony Schiavone & Bobby Heenan

Read moreThe SmarK Rant for WCW Clash of the Champions XXX

Triple H/Batista


So with it being announced at No Holds barred, it spares us the "work a body part for 25 mins" Triple special but does this mean were gonna get the "dramatic lay around after each move" version we saw with him and Taker?

I liked that match!  Also, he and Batista has an awesome Cell match in 2005. I’m sure they’ll be fine.  

Black-ochet


As much as I love Aleister Black and Ricochet individually, their team is currently (no spoilers please) involved in the RAW, SD, and NXT tag title scene.

Do you think they’re too good by themselves to team and this is overkill or just right?

I hope there’re not working crazy house shows in addition to being on every TV show as this isn’t the best time to push hard and risk injury.

I’m not a fan. I think both guys could have been huge stars right off the hop by debuting alone, and now they’re mired into the weird morass of the tag divisions.  Black in particular checks all the boxes and should have been the big post-WM surprise debut in a top level feud.  They could have slotted  him right in with Strowman or whoever and built up to Brock.  

Indies and Insanity: March 14, 2019 (the Thursday Night Thread)

Your NBA on TNT doubleheader today is Lakers/Raptors, followed by Mavericks/Nuggets.

It’s CHAMPIONSHIP WEEK!  ESPN has the ACC quarterfinals of Louisville/North Carolina and Syracuse/Duke.  The Big XII quarters of West Virginia/Texas Tech and Texas/Kansas.  FS1 is in on the action in the Big East, with Saint John’s/Marquette and Georgetown/Seton Hall.  ESPNU has the AAC, with SMU/Tulsa, and East Carolina/Wichita State.  CBS Sports Network is in on it with the Mountain West, featuring New Mexico/Utah State and Air Force/Fresno State.

So… now let’s look ahead to some wrestling this weekend!

Read moreIndies and Insanity: March 14, 2019 (the Thursday Night Thread)

Best wrestling nickname?


What are you thoughts?

I’m sure a lot nostalgia plays into everyone’s thoughts.  But I would think it would have to be a nickname that when you hear it you think. “Dam- sucks no one else can use it today”

The Hitman

The Enforcer

Mr Perfect 

Nature Boy

Lunatic Fringe (just kidding)

Come to mind.

My personal favorite is The American Dream

What say you?

Conversely. What is the worst?

Apex Predator is pretty fucking stupid. 
For the good ones, the Russian Nightmare was a badass nickname.  Tells you everything about the character and the gimmick during the ring introduction. Also acted as a foil to the American Dream.  

Big E


I don't know how much of Smackdown you've been catching, but after seeing the serious promos and limited silliness from the New Day lately my question isn't about Kofi — my question is why isn't Big E a bigger star? When he's not clowning he can talk and work and he has a unique look. Have you ever seen anything special in him?

No, I think he's slotted right where he should be.  Wasn't he IC champion for a cup of coffee?  He's overachieved a bit with the New Day gimmick, although given his look and moveset I could see Vince giving him a shot.  

End of New Day?

It seems to me like this Kofi angle is leading up to Vince forcing him to possibly quit the New Day or the whole team has to disband for him to get his title shot. Would they actually do this or do they make too much $$$ with their merch sales?

Hey, they split up the Shield and the Wyatt Family multiple times, so why not?  It kind of makes sense for an endgame, in as much as anything in this storyline makes sense.  

BoD Daily Update: March 14, 2019

SI.com Week in Wrestling

https://www.si.com/wrestling/2019/03/13/wwe-news-mustafa-ali-adeel-alam-muslim-video?utm_source=twitter.com&xid=socialflow_twitter_si&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sinow

 

ESPN.com Interview with Jeff Cobb

http://www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/26252790/persistence-pays-olympic-wrestler-jeff-cobb-breaks-ring-honor

 

Impact Wrestling Free Match

You can watch AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe from the 2005 TNA Sacrifice PPV