Mike Reviews Shows Considered To Be Stinkers — page 3

Happy Stinky Saturday Everyone!

Yes, today we’re doing WCW New Blood Rising 2000. For those of you that have never read one of these, I look at a show with a bad reputation and see if that reputation is deserved or not. New Blood Rising 2000 is a famously awful show from when WCW was going off the deep end into the excrement filled swimming pool, as Vince Russo put together one of the most anger inducing messes of a wrestling show ever conceived.

We’ve got Jeff Jarrett taking on Booker T in the Main Event, but it’s the bollocks in the under card that we’ll be mostly focusing on here. Let’s see just how bad New Blood Rising 2000 really is.

You can view the card by clicking below;

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=1721&page=3

Happy Stinky Saturday Everyone!

We’re back with another Stinker Review, where I look at a show with a bad reputation and see if it’s deserved. This week our target is WWF WrestleMania XI, a show that is wildly regarded as one of the worst Mania events ever. It was a show that was built around Bam Bam Bigelow facing off with famous American Footballer Lawrence Taylor, which is at least a big celebrity match with freak show appeal, but the under card isn’t really close to being Mania-Worthy.

However, maybe WrestleMania XI has been unfairly maligned and it’s better than people give it credit for? Let’s give it a chance to defend itself before we decide whether it deserves to be labelled as a Stinker.

You can view the card by clicking the link below;

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=1925&page=3

Happy Stinky Saturday Everyone!

Today we do our monthly review of a show with a bad reputation, as we look at nWo Souled Out 1997. This was WCW’s attempt at establishing the New World Order faction as a viable second brand, with the idea being that they could then run separate WCW and nWo branded events and ostensibly make the WWF the third biggest company in the USA (this was actually their plan).

The event ended up being awful though as, even though the nWo were cool, they were still the bad guys and the WCW fans ultimately wanted to see the WCW guys be booked as competent rather than them being the weekly punching bags they usually were. The show ended up being both a critical and commercial bomb, with the only bonus being they managed to sell out the 5,000 seater arena they booked it in.

Let’s see if time has been kind to this one or whether it’s still as stinky as I remember. If you’d like to see the card for the event you can do so by clicking below;

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=1627&page=2

Happy Stinky Saturday Everyone!

We’ve got another Stinker Review for you this week, where I look at a show with a bad reputation and then decide whether that reputation is deserved. This week we’ve got WWE Royal Rumble 2006, a show renowned for being pretty awful from a general match quality perspective with a Rumble match itself that way under delivers.

I remember disliking it a lot back in the day and I never really wanted to go back to it, but maybe time has been kinder to it?

You can view the card by clicking below;

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=5231&page=2

Happy Stinky Saturday Everyone!

Back with another Stinker Review this week, where I watch a show that has a reputation for being awful and decide if that reputation is deserved or not. This week we’ve got WWF In Your House 19: D-Generation X, which was the WWF’s first pay per view event following the infamous Survivor Series show of 1997.

Shawn Michaels was both WWF and European Champ, and with back up from Triple H and Chyna he had an iron grip on the WWF Main Event scene now that Bret Hart had jumped to WCW. As a result they decided to name the December pay per view after the group, keeping the trend started in 1996 where they named the December event after a top Heel (Vader in 96, Shawn in 97 and Rock in 98).

I remember this show being quite the slog even in my younger days, but let’s see if time has been kind to it. In typical fashion, I’ve written this back in October (hello from the past) and Scott Keith has recently said he’s planning to re-watch this one so there’ll probably be a superior review already posted before this even goes up. That’s just my life sometimes.

If you’d like to view the card you can click below;

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=2002&page=2

Happy Stinky Saturday Everyone!

Today we’ve got one honker of a Stinker Review for you, as we take a look at one of the more infamous examples of multiple companies trying to work together and it all ending in tears. The companies in this case are the AWA from Minneapolis, World Class from Texas, Women’s company POWW and the CWA from Memphis.

Verne Gagne from the AWA was the main person putting this one together, with Jerry Lawler from the CWA winning the AWA World Title and then putting it up against the World Class Champion Kerry Von Erich. The show ended up doing a lousy buy rate of 45,000 and drew under 2000 people to the UIC Pavilion in Chicago.

If the commercial failure wasn’t bad enough, the show was generally considered to be a critical failure as well, and then Gagne ended up hoarding any money the show did make, thus angering the other companies and bringing their short-lived alliance to an end. Meanwhile, Vince McMahon and the WWF continued to crush all before them with only Ted Turner’s WCW remaining.

McMahon was doing some of his best promoting during this period and was ready to pit WWF Champ Randy Savage against Hulk Hogan in a feud that practically gave him a license to print money, so the failure of this show and the damage it did to the promotional alliance probably wouldn’t have delayed the inevitable, but it was another example of how everything seemed to just fall into place for Vinny Mac in the 80’s and why the chastening bum kicking he got in the early stages of the Monday Night War was rather satisfying for a lot of people.

However, has the commercial disaster that this show was ended up giving the show itself a worse reputation than it deserves? Viewed as just a wrestling event, is there enough good stuff on this show to make the event overall worthwhile? Let’s take a deep dive to see if SuperClash III really is a Stinker or not.

Happy Stinky Saturday Everyone!

I’m afraid I’ve lost the Stinker Hat with all the reader requests, so if you want to post some in the comments section I’ll make note of them just so I have something in reserve in case I can’t find the hat again. It’s my Miami Dolphin’s hat too so I hope I find it!

This week’s show is the first pay per view of Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara’s disastrous first run in WCW, where they took a company that might still have been salvaged and tanked buy rates to the point of no return. But hey, the ratings ever-so-slightly improved, so that was worth utterly destroying the pay per view business and essentially throwing millions of dollars out of the window wasn’t it.

Halloween Havoc was only partially built up by the Gruesome Twosome, so it ended up doing WCW’s last somewhat decent buy rate and then buy rates plummeted from that point onwards, as Russ-Ara were more interested in wacky skits and crash TV, none of which made fans actually want to buy the pay per views.

This show has a number of bad matches on it, and was a jarring switch to a more WWF/E styled product, which WCW fans didn’t want as they (gasp) LIKED the fact that WCW was actually DIFFERENT from the WWF, as it gave them an ALTERNATIVE to watch instead of WWF-lite. Sadly this was a lesson the Russ-Ara duo would never learn.

Let’s see if this show really is a Stinker or whether time has been kind to it.

Happy Saturday Everyone!

This was another reader request; with greaterpower99 thinking this show was awful enough to deserve the old Stinker treatment. I have very little memory of this show outside of the Main Event having a very screwy finish, so for all I know gn99 is being rather unfair to it. Anyway, we’ll have a looksee at it to decide if it truly is a Stinker or not.

The Main Event here is Heel CM Punk defending the Smackdown belt against Undertaker, whilst John Cena goes after Randy Orton’s Raw belt. The gimmick is that all the major matches on the show have submission rules of some kind, which was a theme WWE didn’t stick with going forwards. Let’s see if it works though.

Happy Saturday Everyone!

WWE are heading to the UK for a big show in the first week of September so I decided to spend the next couple of weeks reviewing some of WWE’s shows from previous trips over here, starting with this notable event.

This show is mostly known for preceding the infamous “Plane Ride From Hell”, but what often gets forgotten is the show itself and how good/bad it was. It happened very early on in the Brand Split of 2002, so it’s just the Raw crew that have travelled meaning no Edge, Kurt Angle or Chris Jericho to spruce things up.

The two Main Events are Stone Cold Vs Big Show and Triple H Vs Undertaker, so yeah, we’ve got some exciting action to look forward to let me tell you. However, maybe the show isn’t quite as bad as I remember? Let’s see if Insurrextion 2002 really is a Stinker.

This was also the last show to ever use the WWF initials, as they went to being WWE from the next Raw show. Vince McMahon apparently had to be talked out of wrestling a dude in a panda suit for this show (The World Wildlife Fund for Nature has a panda as it’s mascot), although if they’d dressed up one of the women wrestlers as Xiaoyu to manage the panda then I would have gotten a kick out of it at least.

Happy Saturday Everyone!

We have another Stinker Review this week, as I take a look at a show that has a bad reputation and see if it deserves that reputation or not. This month we have another reader request, with Bones plumping for this WWF event from 1998.

The WWF was doing incredible business in 1998, with the Survivor Series event in November seeing The Rock end up as WWF Champ after swerving the fans on a potential babyface turn and joining up with Vince McMahon’s Corporation stable. As a result of agreeing to become The Corporate Champion, Vince named the December pay per view after Rock and the show would feature Rock defending his newly won WWF Title against Mankind.

The Main Event is actually Stone Cold Steve Austin Vs The Undertaker in a Buried Alive Match, which came about because Undertaker went Heel and bonked Austin in the head with a shovel. Austin has to win in order to qualify for the Royal Rumble.

Let’s see if this show is as bad as I remember it being.

Happy Royal Saturday Everyone!

We’re back again with another Stinker Review, where I look at a show with a bad reputation and see if it’s deserved or if the show is really just misunderstood. Seeing as its June, I thought I would go back and look at one of the more notably bad King of the Ring efforts from the WWF. 1995 is the one that usually gets the most press, but 1999 was pretty rubbish too, especially when you consider the fact it took place during the Attitude Era, one of the hottest periods in company history.

The WWF had been thrown into disarray to a certain extent due to the tragic death of Owen Hart, and things weren’t helped by them building up a mystery over who The Undertaker’s “Higher Power” was when they didn’t actually have an end game in mind, leading to them panicking and going with Vince McMahon and basically resetting things. This all set up a Main Event between the freshly Heel Vince and his son Shane against Stone Cold in a Ladder match for control of the company.

Meanwhile, in the King of the Ring tournament itself, the plan was to elevate Billy Gunn by having him get a big push, whilst X-Pac was due to make a run to the Finals. X-Pac ended up suffering a legit injury prior to the show, but the WWF decided to stick with the plan of him going all the way to the Final even though it would mean he couldn’t put much time in during his matches. Thus the tournament was hamstrung on one side of the bracket with Gunn making it to the Final when the crowd didn’t really want to see that, whilst the other side of the bracket had walking wounded X-Pac doing his best to gut it out when he didn’t really need to.

But hey, maybe my memory is overly harsh and when I watch the show it will have aged well?

Happy Saturday Everyone!

We’ve got another reader request this month, with Sivsky demanding that GAB 2004 get the Stinker treatment. For those who haven’t read one of these before, a Stinker Review is when I look at a show that has a reputation for being awful and then have to decide whether that reputation is deserved or not.

This show has an infamous Main Event of Undertaker taking on The Dudley Boyz, where Paul Bearer gets drowned in concrete if Booger Red doesn’t take a dive, but there’s also plenty of terrible stuff elsewhere on the card as well, along with at least (from memory) two good matches to hold things together.

Let’s see if time has been kind to this one or if it’s just as bad as I remember. If you want to suggest any shows for this feature then please let me know in the comments section

Happy Extreme Saturday Everyone!

It’s time for our monthly Stinker Review, where I look back at a show that has a reputation for being bad and decide whether that reputation is deserved or not. This month I’ve picked the show but every other month is a reader request, so get your suggestions in the comments section below if you’d like to take part.

ECW was on a real hot streak back in 1995 with the Raven and Tommy Dreamer feud being engrossing viewing whilst the likes of Eddy Guerrero and Dean Malenko were tearing it up in great matches for the TV Title. The shows generally had a fun mix of good wrestling, strong storytelling and interesting characters.

This show from June has a Main Event of Cactus Jack taking on The Sandman in a Barbed Wire match (hence the title of the show).

Happy Xtreme Saturday Everyone!

We’re back with another Stinker Review today, as I take a look at a show that has a reputation for being bad and decide whether it’s being treated fairly or not. This one was a reader request from candygram for mongo.

If you want to request some shows of your own then please feel free to mention them down in the comments section and I’ll add them to the hat.

For those not au fait, Xtreme Pro Wrestling was a company run by porn baron Rob Black that tried to do an ECW styled product but with more graphic violence and more overt sexual content courtesy of some of the adult film stars from Black’s movies.

This show has a Main Event of Vic Grimes Vs New Jack, which stemmed from a real life botch where both men fell off a scaffold in ECW and Grimes ended up landing on New Jack’s face, causing New Jack permanent damage in the process. New Jack was never known as someone to bare a grudge though, so I’m sure he’ll be entirely professional against Grimes on this show right?

Right?

Why are you looking at me like that?

Happy SuperBrawl Saturday Everyone!

Back with another Stinker Review, where I look back at a show that has a reputation for being bad and decide whether it’s rap sheet is deserved or not. Next month we’re back to reader requests, so if you have one you’d like me to put in the Stinker Hat then please let me know in the comments section.

This show came during the pretty lousy Kevin Sullivan Era of WCW, an era that lasted from roughly January to March 2000 and was replaced by the Russo-Bischoff New Blood Vs Millionaires Club Era. Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Perry Saturn and Eddy Guerrero had all jumped ship to the WWF, whilst Konnan and Shane Douglas were sitting at home because they didn’t want to work for the new regime, meaning that the overall wrestling quality of WCW’s shows had taken a notable dip.

Sullivan was pushing the likes of Sid and Hogan on top still, despite the fact that if they were any staler they could have been fed to the ducks at the local park, whilst Jeff Jarrett was regularly refusing to take the World Title because he didn’t want to go down in history as the lowest drawing World Champion of all-time (He seemed to get over that when he started up NWA:TNA).

I’ll be watching the Warner Home Video version of the show, so if they are any noted differences with the version up on Peacock/WWE Network then that will be why. I have to say that the tape had NOT aged well, something that is sometimes a trend with these Warner tapes. They clearly didn’t mind skimping on quality control.

Welcome back to the Stinker zone!

We’ve got another reader request this time, as JLA JRC wanted me to set the way back machine to 1993 in order look at this show. For those not au fait with this series, I watch a show that has a reputation for being bad and decide whether it deserves that stinky reputation or not.

Mania IX is widely regarded as one of the weaker Mania events overall (although it does have its fans) with the event taking place in a car park and the show being one of the first occasions that the WWF really dropped the ball with Bret Hart as a Main Eventer.

However, maybe time will have been kind to it? I know there are a couple of matches on here that I’m interested to watch again at least. I’ll be watching the Silvervision home video version, so if there’s anything from the WWE Network version that I don’t cover then that will likely be why.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

For those not familiar with these reviews, I take a look at a show that has a reputation for being awful and decide whether that reputation is deserved or not. We’re back to reader requests for January, so get them in if you have any shows you’d like to see get the Stinker treatment.

We’ve got a special Holiday Stinker for you all today, where I’m going to watch Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara ruin WCW’s biggest show of the year. Well, they’d already ruined WrestleMania in 1999 so it’s only right that they ruin Starrcade too in order to complete the set I guess.

This was the last pay per view they would write together, as Russo was gone by Souled Out in January when he suggested putting the World Title on Tank Abbot. WCW had a pretty decent marquee level Main Event for this show with Bret Hart taking on Goldberg, but then they booked a month of nonsensical crap television and the end result was that, even though the ratings slithered up ever so slightly thanks to the car crash appeal of the TV show, the buy rate for this event was an absolute disaster.

Just to give an example of how horrific a job the RussAra team did of getting people to actually buy the pay per views, Starrcade did a pretty miserable 145,000 buys whilst Halloween Havoc (the first pay per view of their regime) did 230,000. So with more time to promote the show and a better Main Event with which to promote it with, the golden boy duo managed to scare off 85,000 potential pay per view buyers due to their atrocious Nitro and Thunder events.

Howdy Ho Stinkerinos!

Back with another Reader Request this month, as we look at the LPWA’s failed foray into pay per view courtesy of Dave Newman.

For those not acquainted with these reviews, I look back at a show that has a bad reputation and decide whether it deserves it or not. This one is probably going to be more the case of production woes dragging things down, as looking at the list of wrestlers included then the in-ring aspect should likely be decent once the bell rings.

The Ladies Pro Wrestling Association was a women’s only federation from 1989-1992 that tried to present the women as actual wrestlers as opposed to companies like GLOW, that focused more on gimmicks and titillation.

The company was run by a guy called John Berg and they produced some television and VHS releases before throwing their hat into the pay per view realm. I’ve decided to do minimal research into the women I don’t know for this one to see how good a job the LPWA does of introducing its roster to a new viewer. I might even factor that into the eventual decision at the end actually. I’m going into it as someone who has never watched the product before and we’ll see how good a job the LPWA does of getting me up to speed.

Gooooooooooooooooooooooood Day!

Back with another Stinker Review, as I watch a show that has a reputation for being mince and then decide if that reputation is deserved or not. Next month will be another reader request and there’s still time to put suggestions either in the comments or via email to [email protected]

This show was poorly received back in the day, so much so that it almost broke poor Scott Keith and he was moved enough to declare the worst pay per view of the entire year. Still though, maybe time has been a bit kinder to it and it isn’t quite as awful as Scott said? I mean, it almost certainly is like, but I’ll give it a chance at the very least…

Good Day One And All!

Back with another Stinker Review this week, where I look at a show that has a reputation for being rubbish and decide whether it deserves its rap sheet or not.

This time out it’s another reader request, with Bunkhouse Stampede fighting its way out of the Stinker Hat courtesy of WChilders 49. I have watched this show before but it was quite a while ago, and I only really remember one of the matches being any good.

This is one of them there concept shows, with the idea being that guys have qualified for the Main Event by winning Battle Royals on House Show events, leading to them all going at it in a big Battle Royal bout to close the show. The extra gimmick though is that the Battle Royal itself is going to be held inside a cage, meaning you have to chuck your opponents out of the cage until you are the sole survivor.

This show is mostly remembered for being the catalyst for the first ever Royal Rumble event, as Vince McMahon threw that on TV in order to mess with the NWA and the concept got so over that it remains to this day. Would the Bunkhouse Stampede Cage Match™ enjoy the same enduring popularity? I guess you’ll have to read on to find out…