Mike Reviews WWF

Happy Friday Everyone!

I spied this WWF show from LA in the cavernous F&C archive and thought it looked interesting, so I decided to give it a review (that is sometimes the length of thought I give into picking the shows I review). We’ve actually had this show reviewed on the Blog before by Brian Bayless so you can give that one a read as well if you’d like to see how we differ.

The big matches on this show in LA are Randy Savage putting the WWF Title on the line against Andre The Giant and Jake Roberts looking to avenge his wife against Rick Rude. We’ve also got Powers of Pain, Owen Hart, Curt Hennig, Hart Foundation, The Rougeaus and others on the undercard, so hopefully we’ll get some good wrestling. You can view the full card below;

WWF at the LA Sports Arena – 13th Aug 1988

Buon venerdì a tutti!

I discovered this WWF event from Milan whilst looking on Cage Match for something else, and I thought it looked interesting. Thanks to a certain video streaming website, I will now bring you a review of it!

The really interesting match for most of you might be Andre The Giant battling Bret Hart, but we’ve also got Rick Rude and Ultimate Warrior tangling as well, and that’s normally good.

Happy Friday Everyone!

I saw this DVD in CEX for a scant £3.50 and decided to give it a looksee. It’s a compilation of matches covering Andre the Giant’s career from 1976 up to 1985, as well as some interview bits also. I’m guessing that this is an old Coliseum Video that Silver Vision took and re-sold many moons later (a trip to the Scott Keith archive seems to suggest that’s correct). This DVD appears to have come out in 2005 based on the fact that the back of the box has an advert for WrestleMania 21 on it.

Most of the stuff I’ve seen of Andre is from his Heel run in the 1980’s when he was physically past his best; so I’m hopeful that I get to see the better side of his in-ring career when it comes to some of the matches included here.

Happy Survival Friday Everyone!

We’re back with another WWE show from 2003 today, as we take a look at Survivor Series. The big matches here are Goldberg taking on Triple H, and the McMahon Family warring with The Brothers of Destruction in two separate matches, as Kane takes on Shane in an ambulance match whilst Vince takes on Undertaker in a Buried Alive match. I feel like this is some kind of warped episode of Oprah “You get a gimmick match, and YOU get a gimmick match!”

We’ve also got two Survivor Series Elimination Matches, with SmackDown having one to advance the Brock Lesnar and Hardcore Holly feud (yes, really) whilst the Raw one has Stone Cold Steve Austin’s career on the line

You can view the full card for Survivor Series 2003 by clicking below;

WWE Survivor Series 2003 Card

The Pics come from IMDB

Happy Friday Everyone!

We end our journey into WWF pay per views from 1997 today (as I’ve already reviewed In Your House: DX) with Survivor Series 1997. We’ve got Kane Vs Mankind, Owen Hart Vs Stone Cold and Shawn Michaels Vs Bret Hart in a match that I’m guessing most of you will have heard of before

I don’t think we need much pre-amble for this one. It’s Survivor Series 1997. It’s Montreal. So strap in, cos stuff is gonna happen

You can view the full card for Survivor Series 1997 by clicking below;

WWF Survivor Series 1997 Card

Happy Friday Everyone!

We continue our journey into 1997 WWF with In Your House 18: Badd Blood. We’ve got Shawn Michaels Vs The Undertaker in the inaugural Hell in a Cell match and pretty much bugger all else, so this could be another chapter in my unofficial “One Match Show” review series

You can view the full card for Badd Blood by checking below;

In Your House 18: Badd Blood Card

Happy No Mercy Friday Everyone!

We continue our journey into 2003 WWE today by looking at SmackDown exclusive pay per view No Mercy from October 2003. We’ve got Vince McMahon Vs Stephanie McMahon and Brock Lesnar Vs Undertaker as two of the most hyped matches, but thankfully we’ve got Kurt Angle Vs John Cena on the undercard at least

You can view the full card for No Mercy by clicking below;

WWE No Mercy 2003 Card

Happy In Your House Friday Everyone!

Ground Zero is a name that I think had a slightly less severe connotation in 1997 than it would post 2001 seeing as Ground Zero was the name most associated with the area effected by the 9/11 attacks. In 1997 though it was just a goofy name for another WWF pay per view

Ground Zero was the first full-length In Your House Event, as the shows had previously been only 2 hours long. However, WCW were doing 12 full-length pay per views a month by this stage so the WWF had to follow suit

We’ve got Shawn Michaels Vs The Undertaker, with Taker looking to batter Shawn for what happened back at SummerSlam. We’ve also got evil Canadian Bret Hart taking on the flag waving Pro USA Patriot. If both of those bouts are good then the show itself should hopefully have some value. Let’s see if Ground Zero can deliver

You can view the full card for Ground Zero below;

WWF In Your House 17: Ground Zero Card

Happy Slamming Friday Everyone!

I haven’t sat down to watch this one in a while and it’s a SummerSlam event I quite enjoy, even though the Main Event is less than thrilling as two Undertaker’s do battle. Thankfully we’ve also got The Hart Brothers tangling inside a steel cage, so that will boost the overall show quality at least.

You can view the full card for SummerSlam 1994 by clicking below;

WWF SummerSlam 1994 Full Card

I pinched the match pics from a review by Paul Matthews, so please give him some clicks so I feel slightly less guilty for not taking my own screenshots

Happy Friday You Superstars!

With no WWE Network to find stuff to watch on anymore I was struggling for something to review this week, when I saw that the WWE Vault had uploaded this episode of Superstars, so I decided to give it a goosey gander just because this era of WWE history can go from good wrestling to absolute insanity at the drop of a hat from segment to segment, so there should be enough interesting stuff to talk about here at least if nothing else

The YouTube description says;
“With summer beginning, the action in WWE is heating up! This week on Superstars, Shawn Michaels impresses in singles action. Plus, we hear from Ultimate Warrior following the curse placed on him by Papa Shango. Also, a one-on-one interview with “Macho Man” Randy Savage, action featuring The Natural Disasters, El Matador, The Mountie and the debuting Nailz!”

How can that not be an incessant 45 minute thrill ride eh?

Happy SummerSlamming Friday Everyone!

I reviewed King of the Ring 1997 a couple of months back and I’ve already reviewed Canadian Stampede 1997 before, so let’s complete the set when it comes to the WWF’s pay per view output for the summer of 1997 with SummerSlam 1997!

The big matches here are Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Mankind meeting in a cage, Owen Hart defending the Intercontinental Title against Stone Cold Steve Austin, and Bret Hart trying to wrest away Undertaker’s WWF Title, with Shawn Michaels as the special guest referee. If all three of those matches deliver then SummerSlam 1997 should be an easy thumbs up, so lets see if they do.

You can view the full card for SummerSlam 1997 by clicking below;

WWF SummerSlam 1997 Card

Happy Fully Loaded Friday Everyone!

I decided to review Fully Loaded 1998 today for two reasons.

1. I haven’t reviewed it before and it happens to be on Netflix so I thought I’d give it the old looksee and fill in a hole (ooo err matron) in my archives

And

2. The Rock Vs Triple H match on the show tends to divide people on whether it’s good or not, so I thought it would be a good discussion topic in the comments section

So, lets have a look at Fully Loaded 1998 to see how good (or bad) it is. You can view the full card for the event by clicking below;

WWF Fully Loaded 1998 Card

Pics have come from https://www.wrestlingdvdnetwork.com/throwback-thursday-fully-loaded-in-your-house-on-wwe-network/157788/

Happy Royal Friday Everyone!

King of the Ring 1997 is the first WWE show that I’m watching on Netflix, so let’s see how the viewing experience is. I haven’t ever watched this show all the way through, so I thought I would give it a full viewing now.

Happy Friday Everyone!

This is another review I penned whilst WWE Network was still a thing; as I spied this Diesel tape in the Home Video Classics section. Seeing as it’s been 30 years since Kevin Nash tanked the WWF as the World Champ, I thought I’d have a look at the Diesel tape to see what the Home Video department to could slap together in an effort to make their new #1 guy look like the top guy he was supposed to be.

In all fairness to Big Daddy Cool; anyone would have had a tough gig carrying the WWF in 1995 due to the promotion just being the absolute pits. However, maybe someone like Bret Hart or even Undertaker might have been better at steadying the ship than Diesel, especially as poor Diesel had his cool persona torpedoed the minute the big lug was given the belt.

Anyway, this tape is only 55 minutes and 38 seconds long, so let’s see what the folks at Silver Vision/Coliseum Video can deliver to us in hopes of getting us all excited about Diesel and his Powerbombing ways.

Happy Friday Everyone!

Time to pick up my 2003 WWE reviews again, with a look at WrestleMania XIX. Mania XIX already had a struggle on it’s hands to follow the might and majesty of Mania’s X-SEVEN and X8, especially as WWE was getting pretty cold at the time and they hadn’t done a great job of building up the respective Raw and SmackDown World Title matches.

Instead most of the focus was placed on a match between Vince McMahon and Hulk Hogan, which fans didn’t really care that much about, as the 560,000 buy rate for the show eventually showed. Still though; WrestleMania XIX is normally seen as one of the better Mania’s that the company ever held from purely a match quality perspective, so it will hopefully be fun to revisit.

You can view the full card for WrestleMania XIX by clicking below;

WWE WrestleMania XIX Card

Pics come courtesy of IMBD

Happy Friday Everyone!

We’re continuing our journey into 2003 WWE today with No Way Out, a show that features the return of both The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin to WWE pay per view. Elsewhere; they’ve decided to book Triple H Vs Scott Steiner again (no, I don’t know why they thought that was a good idea, business was struggling around this time for a reason)

You can view the card for No Way Out by clicking below;

WWE No Way Out 2003 Card

Pictures come courtesy of IMDB

Happy Rumbling Friday Everyone!

With knowledge that WWE Network/Peacock might soon go away (I’m writing this in 2024) I decided to look to my DVD/VHS collection so that I’ll have SOMETHING to fall back on if the Network goes kaput anytime soon. Hence we’ve got a review of Royal Rumble 2003 because I have all of the 2003 WWE PPV shows on DVD.

Business was down in WWE at the time of this Royal Rumble show, as the Attitude Era was long over and the likes of Rock and Austin were either guest stars or just gone in general, meaning more pressure was being placed on the shoulders of the likes of Triple H, Undertaker and Kurt Angle to both steady the ship and also try to get a new crop of stars over. Some of them were better at that than others of course…

You can view the full card for Royal Rumble 2003 by clicking below;

WWE Royal Rumble 2003 Card

Pictures come courtesy of IMDB

Happy Rumbling Friday Everyone!

As it’s Royal Rumble season, I thought I’d take a look at a classic Rumble pay per view from the days of yore, in the form of the 1997 event. I actually reviewed this one nearly 20 years ago for a website that no longer exists, and the review was pretty awful anyway, so let’s see if I can have a better stab at it all these years later.

In the Royal Rumble itself; Bret Hart, Undertaker, Vader and Steve Austin are all potential winners, whilst in the Main Event we’ve got hometown hero Shawn Michaels going for the WWF Title.

I seem to remember enjoying Royal Rumble 1997 back in the day, even though I’m not sure that sentiment is shared elsewhere amongst the fanbase at large. I’ve not watched the show in full for many years, so let’s see how Royal Rumble 97 stacks up 28 years on from the event.

You can view the card for Royal Rumble 1997 by clicking below;

WWF Royal Rumble 1997 Card

Pictures come courtesy of IMDB

Happy Friday Everyone!

In keeping with the theme of “Great TV Main Events” that we started two weeks ago; we’re going to look at an episode of Raw from December 2003 that features Triple H and Shawn Michaels going at it in a famous match. I’m not sure how the rest of the show will be, as Raw wasn’t great in 2003, but maybe there’s some good stuff elsewhere on the show to go alongside the strong Main Event?

You can view the full card for this episode of Raw by clicking below;

WWE Raw #553 card

Pics come courtesy of Pro Wrestling Wiki

Happy SmackDown Friday Everyone!

We’ve got a review of a SmackDown episode from 2002 today, as it features Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Eddy Guerrero and Edge all going at it in the Main Event, and you’d have to TRY to make that one boring. I’ve already reviewed Armageddon 2002 as well, so we might as well just review this episode of SmackDown seeing as the Main Event ended up being a DVD extra when Armageddon 2002 was released.

You can view the full card for this issue of SmackDown below;

Smackdown #173 Card

Pics come from the Pro Wrestling Wiki