Monday Night Raw – August 19, 2019

Monday Night Raw
Date: August 19, 2019
Location: XCEL Energy Center, St. Paul, Minnesota
Commentators: Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler, Renee Young

It’s royalty night with the first round of the King of the Ring tournament kicking off. That means we should be in for some good wrestling, but it could also mean that we’re in for some annoying booking. This would also apply to the likely announcement of NXT moving to USA to fight off the combined forces of Marko Stunt, Orange Cassidy and Sonny Kiss. Let’s get to it.

Read moreMonday Night Raw – August 19, 2019

Monday Night Open Mic

Howdy Blog O’Doomers!

Sorry for the late post tonight. I’m currently on the West Coast and sometimes that little three-hour time difference gets lost during the day. I couldn’t even think about watching wrestling with so much sunshine outside right now!

But anyway RAW is Live tonight. It’s the first half of the first round of the King of the Ring tournament. We’ve got Cesaro vs. Samoa Joe and Sami Zayn vs. Cedric Alexander announced for tonight. And there is a Sasha Banks interview tonight.

There is a ton of other stuff (baseball, ninja warriors, etc.) on tonight so watch what makes your happy.

Keep it Clean!

Joshi Spotlight- AJW Wrestlemarinepiad ’93 (Part One)

AJW WRESTLEMARINEPIAD ’93:
(09.10.1993)

It’s the fifth Wrestlemarinepiad! With the Dream Slam having happened earlier in the year, “Interpromotional Matches” are the new norm! This led to a series of increasing houses for the various joshi companies in a new age, though of course this had that issue you always run into- once you escalate things to that point, what are you going to do once the fans get bored… or worse, if you eventually stop co-promoting stuff and have to go back to regular shows? But tonight, we have a ton of Main Event-quality matches that are also Dream Matches in many regards!

Read moreJoshi Spotlight- AJW Wrestlemarinepiad ’93 (Part One)

What the World Was Watching: WCW Worldwide – September 16, 1995

–Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan are in the booth and they are taped from Orlando, Florida.

Read moreWhat the World Was Watching: WCW Worldwide – September 16, 1995

Hillbilly Jim

Were there any plans whatsoever for Hillbilly Jim when he came to the WWF? After being introduced and teaming up with Hogan, he kinda floated around, had his WM III match with Bundy and the midgets, got injured and disappeared.  You would think with Vince's love for all things hillbillies he would have done something with him.  Yet he is one of the most remembered 80s WWF wrestlers.  Is there some feud or match I'm forgetting about?

Not really.  But then Hillbilly was the kind of perfect midcard babyface that they could market to kids and beat a million times without him ever losing his heat, so they didn't need to have big plans for him.  It's too bad that the broken leg really messed up his career so badly, though, because he could have milked that gimmick for decades like the Bushwackers.  

Title change

Nail your colours to the metaphorical mast : 

Leaving aside anything to do with Benoit, which title change (any title) had you marking out the hardest?

Personally, I still can’t go past Steamboat getting his  vengeance over Savage…

I nearly jumped out of my seat when Demolition won the tag titles from Strike Force at WM4.  Plus that one was closed circuit at the Coliseum in Vancouver at the time and EVERYONE was cheering for Demolition in that match.  I'd probably say Steamboat but we didn't go to WM3's closed circuit showing for whatever reason, so I didn't see it until the tape came out.  
Story time!  I've probably told this one before, but there's first-time readers everywhere.  So Steamboat v. Savage was actually the impetus for us to switch from Beta to VHS.  We had a Betamax player from, like, 1978 that we used as our VCR and it was getting questionable, but once WM3 came out in the video stores, my dad got super pissed that there were only 1 or 2 Beta copies available to rent and a bunch of VHS.  So we went to Sears that very night, bought a brand new VHS recorder, and then returned to rent Wrestlemania as the first thing we watched on it.  And in fact I ended up taking that VCR with me when I moved a few years later and used it as my dubbing deck all the way until about 2005, when I copied my massive wrestling tape collection over to digital formats and then chucked the entire thing in a dumpster.  Frankly had I known that the WWE Network would be a thing, I wouldn't have bothered even doing that. 

Fwd: Crazy Roman idea:

I’ll preface by saying it’s unlikely/almost impossible… but 

The WWE through his cancer diagnosis/return, feud with Shane, and careful booking have somehow kept Roman as an over babyface since his return. Roman realizing what it has taken WWE fans to embrace him after years of hate has orchestrated this angle himself, paying others to “attack” him to play the fans into cheering him.

He reveals this in a grand “It was me Austin!” type promo when he’s confronted by Rowan and Bryan. He calls out the fans for being pathetic and only willing to cheer him when he’s on the verge of death. He could say he’s proven he has to literally die for the WWE Universe in order to get a positive response.

This could be the Rock 97/98 heel turn mixed with Hogan 96. I’d go double turn and have Bryan end up the sympathetic face. After all, Roman was booed initially for stealing Bryan’s spotlight and now he falsely accuses the man of vehicular homicide to get fans to hate a guy they used to love.

I know this won’t ever happen, but on the fantasy booking scale, how’s this as Angle to build to WM

So, you're saying they should turn Roman Reigns heel, then? 

Disney Plus launches in Canada!

https://www.iphoneincanada.ca/news/disney-pricing-canada-8-99-month/?fbclid=IwAR0V5E6T6cXCHsVNT8QrOFcs8k8pa_lCYQLing0eBQBHLZ6hcAkl3DOJD6g 
About time they announced this.  I'd call $9 a month totally fair given what you get, although we're never getting the Hulu bundle deal up here.  Can't wait for the cable monopolies to start crying foul, though, so hopefully this won't get tied up in court for years while Rogers claims the loss of Canadian culture or whatever.   

Mailbag question

Thanks to a certain t-shirt company, has there ever been a better time to be under contract to WWE than now?

You're getting your contract renewed (and a raise) without hesitation because Vince is scared of AEW (for no reason). 

You don't have to worry about being released because Vince is scared of AEW (for no reason). 

If you're under contract, but not being used, WWE will just pay you to stay home (ala Lanny Poffo), rather than see you pull a Lex Luger and show up on TNT Wednesday because Vince is scared of AEW (for no reason).

Is WWE even doing drug testing anymore? 
Only if AEW is doing testing. 

Rock Star Gary reflects on WCCW 12-17-1983

Taped from Dallas, TX

Airdate: December 17, 1983 (taped 12/09)

Attendance: unknown

Hosted by Bill Mercer

Will Parsons gain some revenge against the Super Destroyers with Kerry by his side? Will Kevin be victorious or does Roberts have something else in mind? And who will join me to capture this episode?

Read moreRock Star Gary reflects on WCCW 12-17-1983

Jeff Hardy



All the Orton talk this week got me thinking. Do you think Jeff could of been a bigger star had he not dealt with his "demons"? People forget that at one point, that man was the most over guy they had on the roster. During his last run, I'd even say he was the Daniel Bryan of that time period as far as popularity. Just sucks he spent all those years in TNA destroying his body cause he's still a pretty young guy, maybe a revamped in ring style to go along with the damaged body?

I think it goes without saying that he destroyed his own career.  He was selling millions in merch at his peak and literally threw it away for drugs and booze.  Even in 2010 they still tried to push him and he was a wreck.  

ECW on Sci-Fi 06/30/2009 #160

Oh it’s finally happening: Tiffany The GM Because They Couldn’t Be Bothered To Find Anybody Else announces that thanks to Donald Trump’s re-jig of Raw, there’s been another talent exchange/New Talent Initiative which would be the final shake-up for ECW On Sci-Fi. Well they’ve only had Christian vs. Swagger to run on these past few months so thanks Trump! (That sounds bad but it’s still preferable to thanking Tiffany.)

Read moreECW on Sci-Fi 06/30/2009 #160

WWE Rejects

An early concern for AEW would have to be (and they've vocalized this) not just snatching up WWE people. One of the complaints about WCW and later TNA/Impact was how they would sign up the WWE castaways & push them over their stars. The lack of care for their homegrown stars was a problem, but isn't it a positive to have this business approach? Shouldn't we encourage this?

Thinking about it, there's been plenty of people (Christian, McIntyre, Bubba Ray, etc…) that evolved or developed further once they got away from the WWE System for a while. Having another place for them to sign also gives the wrestlers options and not being forced to stick with a place they don't get to flourish in.

I've often wondered how stale acts like a Dolph Ziggler would evolve (or not) outside of WWE, so I welcome these types having a 2nd life outside of the WWE control. It did wonders for a guy like Cody…

They also appear to be doing well with Shawn Spears, but it's a real crapshoot.  Impact was terrible at it because they'd always push the WWE rejects to the top, at the expense of their own guys, and it made them look second-rate in their own promotion.  I think what Cody is trying to say is that they need to establish their own guys FIRST, and then if the right WWE guys become available, they can find a home in AEW if needed.  But Ziggler?  Forget it, he's damaged goods at this point.  Unless he can drastically reinvent himself PCO-style, he's better off doing stand up comedy.  

NXT to USA question


If Vince does decide to involve himself and helps implode it, would this finally be the move that makes Triple H say "fuck this, I'm out". It's Triple Hs baby and you can tell he has a special bond with every body that goes through there.

I think it's actually a realistic possibility that if Vince starts meddling, HHH will step down again to the Performance Center / Florida touring version of NXT and work on building that up instead.  That seems more like his passion, rather than doing 2 hour live shows with his father-in-law in his earpiece.  

WCW SN rants

Chances you do smark rants for 92/93 Saturday Night episodes? They will upload some 1993 episodes tomorrow. Tons of intriguing stuff with Vader, Cactus, Steamboat, Sting, Hollywood Blonds etc

I like to do stuff in order as much as possible unless there's a really good reason, so I'm gonna stick with 92 for the time being.  Plus those are the shows I watched at the time so I'm familiar with them.  

Booking decisions that were awesome with hindsight.

Hey Scott,


Thanks as always for answering reader questions.


What's your pick for the booking decision which seemed ridiculous at the time, but was rendered awesome by hindsight?


Mine – Delaying Savage beating HTM for the IC title so that he could win the World title at WM IV (which I know was partly brought about by necessity.)

Speaking of Honky, you'd have to go with Honky beating Steamboat for the title originally.  Seemed like a ridiculous move at the time, but Steamboat's title reign was completely DOA in hindsight and Honky went on to draw big money in that position. 

Hidden gem

Hey,

You might've already seen this but there's a Hidden Gem on the Network from March 1984, "Boogie Jam 84" that is a full Crockett card from Greensboro. Includes a Flair-Steamboat classic for the NWA Title, Ernie Ladd, Greg Valentine as a face in a cage match vs. Dick Slater, and Tully Blanchard managed by…Paul Jones.

Definitely worth checking out. 
I'm aware, it's on the list.  That random 84 Crockett stuff never does well, though. 

TJR Retro: WWF Smackdown 07/06/00 Review

The road to WWF Fully Loaded 2000 continued. The main three matches at that show were all set up with angles on Raw when The Rock was attacked by Chris Benoit, Kurt Angle started his rivalry with The Undertaker with a cheap shot and Triple H continued to have issues with Chris Jericho.

Here’s the synopsis from WWE Network: “As the rivalry between Chris Jericho and Triple H continues to escalate, Commissioner Mick Foley gives The Game an opportunity to earn a match with Y2J if he can survive a Handicap Elimination Match. Plus, WWE Champion The Rock teams with Chyna & European Champion Eddie Guerrero for a Six-Man Tag Team main event and much more.”

Read moreTJR Retro: WWF Smackdown 07/06/00 Review

Wait a minute

I’m not taking sides in the aew/wwe cross fire ( I just want good shit out of it ) but saying nxt is moving to USA to screw aew overlooks the fact that nxt was on Wednesday’s prior and technically aew is trying to hurt nxt. Yet no one will say it like that. 

Not saying that AEW hasn't been poking the bear a lot, because they certainly have, but NXT is a streaming show that's available on demand and happens to debut on Wednesday nights.  AEW announced their cable TV show first and then WWE specifically made the move to cable TV in direct opposition to them.