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Something tells me the name of this tape is writing a cheque that the WWF isn’t going to be able to cash, but we’ll give them a chance to live up to it.
So, are you ready to laugh?!
I SAID ARE YOU READY TO LAUGH?!?!
Well let’s watch some chuffing wrestling!!!
Hello You!
It’s time to move on to WWE’s traditional biggest event of the summer. Summer Slam was always my favourite WWE show during my younger days and I would excitedly look forward to it through the years.
I’m going to break this one up a bit into roughly something like 6 parts, so by the time we reach the end we should be in August and I’ll then leave myself some time to cover WCW Road Wild (Shudder)
Along the way we’re going to see some great matches and some…not quite as good to put it nicely. Regardless I hope we all have fun together!
Let’s start off with 1988 to 1992
Read moreMike Reviews Every WWF Summer Slam Main Event Part One (1988 to 1992)
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Let’s finish off these King of the Ring reviews. I’m not especially looking forward to this part, mainly because I don’t have particularly fond memories of KOTR as an event during the Attitude Era. Anyone who has had to live through the fresh heck that was KOTR 1999 will know what I mean.
However, there’s at least one match on the docket today that I remember being decent, so hopefully it is and I’ve not just imagined it.
Let’s watch some chuffing wrestling!
Read moreMike Reviews Every WWF King of the Ring Main Event (1998 to 2002)
Hello You!
Back to the WWF this week, as we look at an event that for nearly a decade was their regular June offering. KOTR was always the lesser of the “Big Five” pay per view events, mainly because it fell between WrestleMania and Summer Slam, which are the two biggest. By 2002 they finally decided that the KOTR Tournament winner would earn themselves a Title match at Summer Slam, which gave the tournament some much needed importance once again, but then they jacked the event in following that one, so it’s new importance lasted for all of one show.
Shunting the actual tournament to the side following the 93 event ultimately meant that people cared less about the show as a whole, as KOTR often felt like quite a missable event with throwaway matches up and down the card. That will likely come across when you see some of the Main Events. Even the bigger more well-known matches from some of the Attitude Era KOTR shows felt like they were thrown together with a napkins worth of planning to them.
Anyway, that’s enough rambling from me, to the chuffing wrestling that we shall now watch!
Read moreMike Reviews Every WWF King of the Ring Main Event (1993 to 1997)
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Judgment Day was an event that the WWF/E usually held in May, although the first one was in October 1998. This is just speculation on my part, but I think it ended up as a May event due to the horrible situation that took place at Over The Edge 1999, where Owen Hart tragically fell to his death. Seeing as that name would likely remind people of Owen’s passing, the WWF probably thought they would be best served to retire the name and, seeing as No Mercy was now the regular October event, they decided to reuse Judgment Day seeing as that one was currently available.
I’m going to break this one into a couple of parts I think, just because there have been too many Judgment Day events to squeeze them all into one review. So we’ll do five this week and the final six the week after.
Let’s watch some chuffing wrestling.
Read moreMike Reviews Every WWE Judgment Day Main Event Part One (1998 to 2003)
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First things first, my condolences to the friends and family of Howard Finkel (I am writing this on the day of his sad passing). I think it’s fair to say that Howard was the greatest ring announcer in wrestling history and he will be sorely missed. If everyone in wrestling was as passionate about their job as Howard was then we’d have a much better industry that’s for sure.
Last time out we looked at the Main Events from WCW Spring Stampede over the years, so today we’re going to take a look at a WWF event that usually happened around the same time in the form of Backlash.
Backlash was usually the post-WrestleMania pay per view offering from the WWF, which often led to Mania re-matches most of the time. There have been a total of 14 Backlash events over the years, so I’ll be splitting this into three separate parts, otherwise it’ll be far too much to chew in one sitting.
There’s been some great Backlash Main Events and some that…weren’t, and there’s no better example than the offerings we have for you this time. Some of these matches are truly excellent, whilst others are a bit of slog.
Still though, I’m sure we’ll have fun regardless. Let’s watch some chuffing wrestling!
Read moreMike Reviews Every WWE Backlash Main Event – Part One (1999 to 2003)
Hello You!
Well, I’m not sure if we’re actually going to have a WrestleMania this year, and even if we do it’s probably going to be later than the planned April date.
However, I’ve got written notes for all of these matches so I reckon I’ll keep uploading them anyway, and I can always re-post them during the build up for Mania should it end up in June like some of the rumours are suggesting
Anyway, let’s all try and distract ourselves from stuff going on in the real world and watch some chuffing wrestling!
Read moreMike Reviews Every WrestleMania Main Event – 2000 to XX
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I decided that, seeing as WrestleMania is on the horizon, I’d go and review every main event that has happened over the events 36 year history. I’m defining “main event” as the match that goes on last, so that will almost surely mean that I miss off some classic bouts, but don’t blame me, I didn’t book these shows!
I’ll be releasing one of these every week in the build up to Mania, with each one containing five matches. Hopefully they are fun and give you something to look forward to. If not, it shouldn’t be too difficult to ignore them at least what with all the other stuff going on here on the Blog of Doom during Mania Season.
Last week I covered the Main Events from Mania’s VI to X, and you can read what I thought by clicking right HERE
Anyway, that’s enough chatter from me, let’s watch some chuffing wrestling!
Read moreMike Reviews Every WrestleMania Main Event – XI to XV
Hello You!
I decided that, seeing as WrestleMania is on the horizon, I’d go and review every main event that has happened over the events 36 year history. I’m defining “main event” as the match that goes on last, so that will almost surely mean that I miss off some classic bouts, but don’t blame me, I didn’t book these shows!
I’ll be releasing one of these every week in the build up to Mania, with each one containing five matches. Hopefully they are fun and give you something to look forward to. If not, it shouldn’t be too difficult to ignore them at least what with all the other stuff going on here on the Blog of Doom during Mania Season.
Last week I covered the Main Events from Mania’s I to V, and you can read what I thought by clicking right HERE
Anyway, that’s enough chatter from me, let’s watch some chuffing wrestling!
Read moreMike Reviews Every WrestleMania Main Event – VI to X
Hello You!
I decided that, seeing as WrestleMania is on the horizon, I’d go and review every main event that has happened over the events 36 year history. I’m defining “main event” as the match that goes on last, so that will almost surely mean that I miss off some classic bouts, but don’t blame me, I didn’t book these shows!
I’ll be releasing one of these every week in the build up to Mania, with each one containing five matches. Hopefully they are fun and give you something to look forward to. If not, it shouldn’t be too difficult to ignore them at least what with all the other stuff going on here on the Blog of Doom during Mania Season.
This week we’ll be starting out with the Main Events from the first five WrestleMania’s.
Anyway, that’s enough chatter from me, let’s watch some chuffing wrestling!
Read moreMike Reviews Every WrestleMania Main Event – I to V
Hello You!
I’ve had this particular DVD in my collection for a while and have never gotten around to giving it a proper looksee, so I decided to do a review on it.
I actually bought this as part of Silver Visions “Tagged Classics” range, which was where they would put two releases in one DVD box from their cavernous back catalogue. One good thing about these releases was that they kept the old WWF “scratch” logo on them, which meant that pre-WWE Network they were by far the best option for watching retro WWF events, as they weren’t full of the horrible blurring and sound edits you’d find on regular WWE releases.
Released in September of 2001, “Action!” is meant to be a collection of all the “most thrilling” events that took place in 2001. Somehow I kind of doubt that, but hopefully there’ll be some interesting nuggets of gold nestled amongst the usual pap. This is the sort of thing they’d just put on the Network in the form of a playlist these days, rather than going to the trouble of doing a whole standalone DVD/VHS release.
The other DVD in this Tagged Classic collection is simply called “Hardcore”, and features lots of matches from the hardcore division (Although I’m sure some stores got a bit confused and thought the DVD might need to go in the adult entertainment section of the shop). If you like this one then I might review that one in the New Year.
Anyway, less jibber jabber from me, let’s watch some chuffing wrestling eh?
Hello You!
I used to watch this one quite a bit back in my younger days as I had it on VHS, so seeing as we’re not far removed from the 2019 version of the show I decided to set the way back machine 30 years for some classic Survival action. In a nice bit of symmetry this event also took place in Chicago as well.
Back in 1989 we didn’t have “brand supremacy” or singles matches on Survivor Series events. Instead every match on this show is a survival format, with the change being that they’ve gone from 5 person teams to 4 person ones. This of course means the “Teams of Five, Strive to Survive” tagline is now ruined. They didn’t bother coming up with a new one for the four person teams. The best I could come up with was “Teams of Four, Go to War”, but if you can think of a better one then feel free to share it in the comments section.
Anyway, let’s watch some chuffing wrestling eh?
There’s not much to say in the intro this week. The WWF was on the road to Fully Loaded in July with some interesting matches being set up. Here is the synopsis for this episode on WWE Network:
“While the rivalry between Triple H and Chris Jericho continues to escalate, Women’s Champion Stephanie McMahon plans a special surprise for Y2J. Shane McMahon explains his radical new friendship and has him go one-on-one with WWE Champion The Rock. Plus, Lita takes on Trish Stratus in a Street Fight and more.”
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.”
The WWF in 2000 reviews are back. I took the month of July off from writing these reviews because I needed a bit of a break. I figured if I stopped at the midway point it would be a good time for it. Here is the synopsis for this episode on WWE Network:
“Shane McMahon goes one-on-one with The Rock for the WWE Championship in the main event. While Triple H’s quest for the WWE Championship is put on hold, he is given an opportunity at Rikishi’s Intercontinental Championship. But when Chris Jericho makes presence felt at The Game’s expense, Y2J finds himself in a Handicap Match. Kurt Angle in action.”
This week’s Smackdown follows a newsworthy edition of Raw from earlier in the week. Mick Foley was appointed as the new babyface Commissioner and Vince McMahon went home to make babies with Linda McMahon. Heels lie! It just meant that Vince was taking a break from TV for the next several months.
Here’s the synopsis from WWE Network: “Triple H teams with X-Pac and Road Dogg to face Chris Jericho and The Dudley Boyz in the main event. Plus, Undertaker, Al Snow, and more!”
Hello You!
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!
The King of the Ring 2000 PPV saw The Rock become the new WWF Champion and Kurt Angle won the King of the Ring tournament. Edge and Christian also won back the WWF Tag Team Titles. This Raw signified a change in direction for WWE. The heel McMahon-Helmsley group had dominated TV for months, but that was about to change. I’m excited to go through the second half of 2000 again. I remember a lot of good things happening.
The synopsis for this episode on WWE Network is: “Shawn Michaels returns to introduce the new Commissioner of WWE. Plus, Triple H, Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, and many more in action!”
Read moreTJR Retro: WWF Raw Deal 06/26/00 Review (The Rock vs. Kurt Angle vs. Triple H)
It’s time for WWF King of the Ring with a unique main event match that was unlike anything we had ever seen before. That wasn’t necessarily a good thing!
The synopsis from WWE Network: “The Rock, Kane, and The Undertaker vs. Triple H, Vince and Shane McMahon to determine the WWE Champion. King of The Ring Tournament Matches.”
This was the last edition of Smackdown before King of the Ring 2000. On the previous Raw, we found out that King of the Ring’s main event was going to be WWF Champion Triple H, Shane McMahon and Vince McMahon vs. The Rock, The Undertaker and Kane and if Triple H’s team lost, then Triple H would lose the WWF Championship in the tag team match.
Here’s the synopsis from WWE Network: “Mr. McMahon causes more tension within the McMahon-Helmsley Faction by making a unique Six-Man Tag Team main event.”