Mike Reviews Shows Considered To Be Stinkers

Happy Stinky Friday Everyone!

Take a drink, because this week we’re reviewing NWA/WCW Starrcade 1989. I believe by this point the company that was Jim Crockett Promotions was now going under the name World Championship Wrestling after Ted Turner purchased it in 1988, but Cage Match still lists the show as being NWA Starrcade, so that’s the name I’ve gone with.

1989 represented one of the first occasions of trying to “theme” Starrcade. Attempts to do this often fell flat, as fans wanted Starrcade to be a WrestleMania-like big event where all of the important feuds and issues of the year were settled in a satisfying fashion. The big buy rates for 1996-97, and the more-than-satisfactory one for 1998, when Starrcade was actually treated like that, would seem to bear this theory out.

However, in 1989 WCW instead decided to do two round robin “Iron Man” tournaments, with one for the singles stars and one for the tag teams. Ric Flair, Great Muta, Lex Luger and Sting will be battling it out in the singles Iron Man tournament, whilst DOOM, The Steiner Brothers, The Samoans and The Road Warriors will battle in the tag tournament.

Scott Keith famously noted in his original review that the true iron men on the night were the fans that managed to sit through the whole event without leaving. The “inmates” on Cage Match have the show at a pretty unimpressive 5.28 out of 10 as of my most recent checking, but that doesn’t mean Starrcade will be without any redeemable qualities.

Scott himself notably came around on the show when he did a re-review in October 2023, so maybe there’s hope for the show yet? Let’s see if Starrcade 1989 is unfairly maligned or justifiably slated. You can view the full card for the event by clicking below.

NWA Starrcade 1989 Card

Happy Stinky Friday Everyone!

We’re back with another Stinker Review today, where we look at a show with a bad reputation and see if that reputation is deserved. Today’s topic/target is Great American Bash 2000, a show which enjoys a particularly naff 1.32 score over on Cage Match at the time of writing. WCW had essentially “rebooted” the promotion in April, starting a feud between the under-pushed New Blood group and the established Millionaires Club faction. Despite what the names might suggest, the hungry up and comers were the villains in this story whilst the greedy veterans who wouldn’t give up their spots were the heroes, because WCW.

Spring Stampede had been a decent enough show in a “throw a million things at the viewer and hope that some of it leaves an impression” style that Vince Russo is well-known for, and it looked like WCW’s new storyline direction might have had a chance of working. However, since then WCW had changed the World Title what seemed like hundreds of times, with even Scream actor David Arquette, better known as Deputy Dewey Riley, enjoying a World Title reign (no, I’m not making that part up) and most of WCW’s positive momentum had ebbed away.

One positive for WCW was that Goldberg had finally returned to the promotion from a long injury layoff, but going into Great American Bash 2000 the company desperately needed both a good pay-per-view and a central storyline that fans actually wanted to invest in. Did they achieve that? Well, this show is under Stinker consideration for a reason, but let’s see if the “inmates” on Cage Match have been a little unfair.

You can view the full card for Great American Bash by clicking below;

WCW Great American Bash 2000 card

Happy Stinky Friday, everyone!

Last week I reviewed a WWF Home Video release from the 1990s that is generally well regarded. This week I’m reviewing Sable Unleashed, a tape that was slightly less well regarded.

That being said, there’s no reason a tape about Sable couldn’t be good. After all, Sable was a huge star in the WWF from 1997 to 1999, and when she was motivated she could be a decent fired-up babyface, especially when battling the likes of Marc Mero, Luna Vachon, and Jackie Moore.

However, Sable could never really be accused of having an especially deep character or personality, so dedicating an entire tape to her already sounds like an uphill battle. Still, I’m sure the WWF will compensate for any charisma deficiencies on the part of the future Mrs. Lesnar by falling back on the tried-and-tested tactic of showing her in various states of half-undress.

Nowadays, all you need is a phone and an Instagram account to see most of your favourite celebrities in some form of swimwear. Back in 1998, when fewer people had access to fast internet connections, a VHS tape featuring that sort of content could genuinely be considered a selling point.

So, thanks to the kindness of F&C, let’s take a look at Sable Unleashed and answer the age-old question: is it a stinker or not?

Happy Stinky Friday Everyone!

We’re back with another Stinker Review today, as Survivor Series 1991 steps up to the docket to be judged on the dreaded Stinker Scale! In fairness, I’ve dragged Survivor Series 1991 into the discussion because I’ve personally never really enjoyed the event that much from memory and it has a few turgid ratings over on Cage Match. However, I’ve never sat down to review the whole event, so maybe it will have aged better than my memory recalls?

The big match here is Hulk Hogan defending the WWF Title against The Undertaker, with the secondary focus of Survivor Series 1991 being the WWF hyping up a pay per view the following Tuesday in Texas. This was an experiment that the WWF didn’t see much in the way of a return on, so they didn’t try it again in the pay per view era. Elsewhere we’ve got elimination tag team matches, one of which has potential to be quite good so long as they don’t get too cute with the booking.

You can view the full card for Survivor Series 1991 by clicking the link below;

WWF Survivor Series 1991 Card

Happy Friday Everyone!

We’re back with another Stinker Review today, where I look at an event with a low reputation and see if that reputation is fair. Today’s topic/target is WWF UK Rampage 1993, which was a UK and European special show on the Sky Channels. We’ve got a thrilling Main Event of Lex Luger Vs Jim Duggan to look forward to, with no Bret Hart, Steiner Brothers, Razor Ramon, Hulk Hogan, Bam Bam Bigelow or Undertaker. We do have Bob Backlund and Typhoon though, so there should be no shortage of fun!

You can view the full card for UK Rampage by clicking the link below;

WWF UK Rampage 1993 Card

Scott Keith has also reviewed this show and you can read his thoughts on it by clicking HERE

Happy Stinky Friday Everyone!

After reliving the terrible Main Event of Starrcade 1997 for my WCW Fan Favourites review a few months back I decided to review the show as a whole seeing as it was uploaded by F&C this year.

Presented as the show where WCW would finally get revenge on the nWo after the group had terrorised the promotion for 18 months, Starrcade 1997 would end up being nothing of the sort and just continued the usual booking malaise that the promotion was suffering from at the time.

It’s not like WCW’s business took an immediate nosedive following Starrcade 1997, but it was a bad show at the time they didn’t really need one, especially as the WWF was starting to kick it’s push of Stone Cold Steve Austin to the next level.

However, is the show itself THAT awful or does the Main Event and stodgy booking just make it feel worse than it actually was? Let’s watch on to find out, I guess.

You can view the full card by clicking below

WCW Starrcade 1997 Card

Happy Stinky Friday Everyone!

As we’re in WrestleMania Season I decided to review what I will charitably refer to as one of the…lesser WrestleMania events in the form of WrestleMania XV. Suffering from a chaotic build focused more on swerves and hotshot booking rather than solid build for the event itself, WrestleMania XV ended up being a real miss on the night itself as well. It’s interesting to think that, despite it being one of the most successful periods in WWE’s history from a purely business perspective, the Attitude Era was kind of a mixed bag when it came down to WrestleMania events. 1998 is decent, 1999 and 2000 are both pretty cack, and 2001 is one of the best ever.

The Main Event of WrestleMania XV sees Stone Cold Steve Austin challenge The Rock for the WWF Title. Elsewhere we’ve got Undertaker and Big Boss Man going at it in Heck in a Cell, whilst Triple H takes on Kane and Shane McMahon battles X-Pac. Let’s see if time has been kind to WrestleMania XV or if it’s as sucky today as it was all the way back in 1999. I’m watching the Netflix version of the show as opposed to the Silver Vision Home Video version I have because my VHS player isn’t playing ball at the moment.

You can view the full card for the event by clicking below;
WWF WrestleMania XV Card

Happy Stinky Friday Everyone!

I remember watching No Way Out 2002 back in the day and not especially enjoying it, and it has quite a few low scores over on Cage Match as well. However, it’s been a long time since I actually sat down to watch No Way Out 2002, so maybe it’s better than I actually recall?

The big story coming into the show was that Vince McMahon had brought the nWo in to kill the company. In addition to that, we’ve got the Main Event of WrestleMania X8 taking shape, with both the #1 Contender and Champion to be supposedly sorted out by the night’s end.

You can view the full card for No Way Out 2002 by clicking below

WWF No Way Out 2002 Card

Happy Stinky Friday Everyone!

We close out our journey into 2003 WWE today with Armageddon 2003, which is a show I actually haven’t ever watched before, but I’m aware of it due to so many people telling me that it’s a rubbish show. Thus, we’ll give it a looksee today and I’ll see if those folks were being unkind or if this show genuinely is as bad as advertised.

You can view the full card for Armageddon by clicking below;

WWE Armageddon 2003 Card

Happy Stinky Friday Everyone!

Today we’re looking not at a show that’s a possible Stinker but a Video Tape (ask your parents what those things were kids) instead. Best Of The Survivor Series was released in 1998 and fits comfortably into one of WWF/E’s favourite categories of “completely re-writing history in order to suit our own needs”, which is something the company has become very proficient at over the years.

I’m sure bringing out a history of/best of Survivor Series tape had NOTHING to do with what happened back at Survivor Series 1997 of course and the WWF trying to desperately get a hold on the narrative surrounding it all. Nothing at all…

Happy Stinky Spooky Friday Everyone!

Back with a Halloween themed Stinker Review today as we look at Halloween Havoc 1992

I’ve picked Halloween Havoc mainly for the terrible Masahiro Chono Vs Rick Rude and Jake Roberts Vs Sting matches it has at the top of the card, but lets see if the rest of the card is Stinky as well or if the overall odour improves when you get into the rest of the bouts on offer

You can view the full card for Halloween Havoc 1992 by clicking below

WCW Halloween Havoc 1992 Card

Pics come courtesy of WWE

Happy Stinky Friday Everyone!

We’re back with another Stinker Review from 2003 (the WWE had a few of those that year) as we look at Unforgiven 2003 and decide whether it’s as bad a show as it often gets “credit” for

We’ve got Goldberg winning the World Title a month after it could have done any good, whilst the Semi-Main sees the Raw and Heat commentary teams wrestling one another. No, that’s not a typo, that’s literally a featured match on Unforgiven

You can view the full card for Unforgiven by clicking below;

WWE Unforgiven 2003 Card

Happy Stinky Friday Everyone!

Back today with another show that has a bad reputation, as Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara (or “RussAra” as I’ve taken to calling them) show you how not to book a major pro wrestling tournament with WCW Mayhem.

The story here is that Goldberg defeated World Champion Sting in an ostensibly non-title match at Halloween Havoc 1999 but Sting then beat up the referee following the match, leading to JJ Dillon stripping Sting of the belt and putting together a huge tournament that featured all kinds of booking silliness, such as Bret Hart defeating Goldberg in the First Round to not only advance but also win the WCW US Title, or Madusa getting eliminated by Meng, getting back in and essentially shagging Evan Karagias in the middle of the ring to advance, only to then get eliminated by Chris Benoit etc. Speaking of Benoit; his opening tournament match was a cage match with Dean Malenko, because why not eh?

All of that has brought us to Mayhem, where we’re finally going to get a World Champ crowned. The show is in Canada and they can still book an all Canadian Final with Bret Hart Vs Chris Benoit, and surely they can’t screw that up right? Right?? Buckle up folks, because things might be getting stinky…

You can view the full card for WCW Mayhem by clicking below;

WCW Mayhem 1999 Full Card

I’ve nicked the pictures from a review by Paul Matthews so please consider giving it come clicks

Happy Stinky Friday Everyone!

I’m actually writing part of this on Christmas Day because we’ve only got six days of WWE Network left and I wanted to at least Bash at the Beach in when it comes to the 1995 WCW reviews (of course since then I think they’ve added the two main matches to the WCW YouTube Channel). Bash at the Beach 1995 is widely regarded as one of WCW’s worst ever pay per views, even though it has a unique setting of taking place on an actual beach. However, a quick look at the card reveals that we’ve got some likely awful contests to digest as the show rolls on.

Who knows though, maybe the negative reviews are a bit harsh and Bash at the Beach 95 isn’t as bad as folks let on? I guess we’ll have to watch it to find out.

You can view the full card for Bash at the Beach 1995 by clicking below;

WCW Bash at the Beach 1995 Card

Check out Wrestle Me on YouTube, seeing as I’ve stolen a bunch of their thumbnails for the review here

Happy Stinky Friday Everyone!

This month our Stinker Review is WWE Bad Blood 2003, a show that was quite disliked at the time for the most part, but it might have aged better in the intervening years. Bad Blood was the first time WWE did a brand specific mainline pay per view (the UK exclusive shows had previously experimented with it), with Raw handling the hosting duties here.

We’ve got Triple H Vs Kevin Nash for the Raw World Title inside the Hell in a Cell, whilst Ric Flair battles Shawn Michaels and Christian defends the IC Title against hometown hero Booker T. All three of those matches can potentially be entertaining if done correctly, so lets see if the Raw brand can pull it off, or whether Bad Blood is indeed as Stinky as folks thought at the time.

You can view the full card for Bad Blood by clicking below;

WWE Bad Blood 2003 Card

Happy Stinky Friday Everyone!

I’ve already reviewed Judgment Day 2003, so let’s take a look at one of the follow-up episodes of Raw with #522. Raw #521 had a really fun Triple H Vs Ric Flair Main Event where they teased a Ric Flair babyface turn and the crowd was into the idea. Let’s just say that the way they continued the story didn’t especially go down well, as the 4.22 score on Cage Match for this episode of Raw would seem to highlight.

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

Raw #522 Card

Happy Stinky Friday Everyone!

I’m back again with a very special guest, as Maffew himself is joining me for this trip down Stinker Lane today! Maffew not only curates the highly successful Botchamania over on YouTube, but he also writes excellent reviews here on the Blog. I had fun doing a Tandem Rant with him a while back, so when it came to tackling WWE Backlash 2003 I decided to ask the Gregarious Geordie (Maffew in best Jericho voice: I’m from County Durham you idiot!) for his assistance, and thankfully he agreed!

WrestleMania XIX might not have been the business success that WWE was hoping for, but it was certainly highly rated from a critical perspective. WWE made news the following night by having Goldberg show up to Spear The Rock and set up a big Dream Match for Backlash. However, the rest of the card was somewhat lacking, and Backlash 2003 ended up being mostly panned at the time (one particular match aside).

Do you have any memories of Backlash 2003 Maff?

No, I watched it years later because this was in between wrestling phases. I only remember The Rock’s promo on Goldberg and being confused why Jericho would team up with HHH.

Well, let’s see how Backlash 2003 looks with 22 years of perspective. Is it really a Stinker, or did folks in 2003 overreact when judging its awfulness?

You can view the full card for Backlash by clicking below;

WWE Backlash 2003 Card

Pics come from IMDB and Classic Wrestling Reviews

Happy Stinky Friday Everyone!

We continue with our journey into the depths of 1995 WCW today, as we look at Uncensored. Uncensored is like WWE Extreme Rules, in that the show has a number of wacky gimmick matches as a selling point. There were accusations from ECW at the time that WCW was trying to step on ECW’s toes by going the gimmick match route, but then ECW stole most of their concepts from FMW, who in-turn stole most of their concepts from Memphis Wrestling, so pot and kettle etc.

Uncensored currently sits at a miserable 2.10 out of 10 over on Cage Match, so I’m not especially optimistic about this one. Following on from SuperBrawl V, we’ve got Vader and Hulk Hogan wrestling again, although they’ve got a Strap Match this time. Elsewhere, we’ve got The Harlem Heat taking on The Nasty Boys in a Falls Count Anywhere match. Let’s see just how Uncensored this event is going to be!

You can view the full card for Uncensored by clicking below;

WCW Uncensored 1995 Card

Pics come from Classic Wrestling Review

Uncensored logo comes from Deviant Artist DarkVoidPictures

Happy Stinky Friday Everyone!

Back with another Stinker Review today, as well as the continuation of our journey into 1995 WCW, as we take a look at SuperBrawl V. Cage Match has this show at a miserable 3.51 out of 10, so I’m suitably wary about how bad it could be. Our Main Event is Hulk Hogan defending the WCW World Title against Vader, with The Sullivans EXPLODING on the undercard.

Still though, maybe folks are being unkind and SuperBrawl V is actually better than it’s reputation. I guess we’ll have to watch it and find out, so pour one out for me.

You can view the card for SuperBrawl V by clicking below;

WCW SuperBrawl V Card

Pics come courtesy of WWE

Happy Stinky Friday Everyone!

Back with another Stinker Review today, which is where I look at a show with a bad reputation and see if said reputation is fairly earned or not. Today we’ve got ECW Battle of the Belts 1993, a show that sits at a thoroughly miserable 3.18  out of 10 over on Cage Match (as of the day I am looking at the page).

Battle of the Belts is a show from very early on in ECW’s existence, back before they really started making a name for themselves in 1994 with the whole NWA screw-job thing. This event also has involvement from the World Wrestling Association, which is a promotion from New Jersey that folded in the second half of the 90’s.

Former wrestler Larry Sharpe looked to be the one running the WWA promotion from 1993 up until it’s death, and they actually managed to get Dude Love, King Kong Bundy and Jimmy Snuka in for their finale show in 1997.

We’ve got both Kerry Von Erich and Davey Boy Smith making appearances here, with this show actually being one of KVE’s final ever matches. The Main Event of Eddie Gilbert Vs Terry Funk sounds like it will be good, but I have no idea about the rest of the card. Let’s see if Battle of the Belts 1993 is as bad as the “inmates” over on Cage Match seem to think it is.

You can view the full card for Battle of the Belts 93 by clicking below;

ECW Battle of the Belts 1993 Card