Articles by Michael Fitzgerald — page 3

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

We continue on with our three show pay per view arc in the world of WCW in 1997 with World War 3 1997. I’m sorry but I’ve decided to keep the monstrosity that was the three ring battle royal on these events, although I’m hopeful that we can shoot and present it in such a way in order to at least make it watchable.

If you’d like to see how things went at Halloween Havoc then please check out Part One in the archives.

If you’d like to see what the real card for this one was then you can click below;

Card « WCW World War 3 1997 « Events Database « CAGEMATCH – The Internet Wrestling Database

Happy Extreme Saturday Everyone!

Back with some classic ECW today with the Double Tables show from 1995, Main Evented by The Public Enemy taking on Taz and Sabu. We’ve also got Chris Benoit Vs Al Snow on the under card, which should be fun.

The card can be viewed below;

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=354&page=2

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

Back today with another rebooking arc, as we’ll cover the three pay per views that make up Starrcade Season (I just made that name up) of 1997, starting with Halloween Havoc 1997. We’ll see where we end up by the end of the arc and you can judge if things are better, worse or the same after I’ve tinkered.

Some of this card will be kept the same but we’ll play with the running order a bit and also add some new matches whilst removing some outright.

If you’d like to see the original card of Halloween Havoc 1997 you can do so by clicking below;

Card « WCW Halloween Havoc 1997 « Events Database « CAGEMATCH – The Internet Wrestling Database

Happy SuperBrawl Saturday Everyone! I hope all of your collective shirts are too tight on this momentous day!

This week we return to a WCW show I’ve been intending to watch properly for a while now in the form of SuperBrawl VI. It’s probably best known for the Kevin Sullivan Vs Brian Pillman match, but there’s also Ric Flair taking on Randy Savage and that has to be good right?

If you’d like to view the card for the event you can do so by clicking below;

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=1617&page=2

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

We finish off our rebooking jaunt in 1999 WWF, by rebooking what is widely regarded as one of the worst WrestleMania events in the form of 1999’s WrestleMania XV. Mania XV had quite a bit of bad wrestling on it and some of the booking made no logical sense as Vince Russo was so heck bent on things like swerves and wild shades of grey booking that he didn’t actually bother trying to make the show a satisfying payoff for months of storytelling.

We’ll see if I can put together a better “Showcase of the Immortals™” this week when I try rebooking WrestleMania XV.

If you’d like to see how we got here, then the previous two parts are in the archives.

The card for the real life event can be view by clicking below;

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=2069&page=2

Happy Saturday Everyone!

I watched a terrible WWF show last week, so I thought I’d redress the balance by watching a GOOD WWF show this week, in the form of Royal Rumble 1992. For those not familiar with the backstory, Undertaker and Hulk Hogan had a dodgy finish in a Title match that even saw WWF President Jack Tunney take a bump as part of the circus. Thus, the belt has been held up and the winner of the Royal Rumble will win be declared Champion.

Also on the undercard we’ve got Roddy Piper going for the Intercontinental Title against The Mountie, along with The Natural Disasters trying to win the Tag Team Titles from The Road Warriors. Ric Flair is very much the MVP of this show though. I’ve said it before that if the 1953 FA Cup Final is the “Matthews Final” then the 1992 Royal Rumble is the “Flair Rumble”.

If you’d like to view the card you can do so by clicking below;

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=1772&page=2

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

We continue one with our rebooking journey through the first three months of 1999 in the WWF. Last week we covered Royal Rumble 1999 (which can be found in the archives) and this week we’ll be looking at the WWF’s February offering in the form of St. Valentine’s Day Massacre from Memphis.

This was by far the best of the three pay per views the WWF put on during Mania Season of 99, so we won’t be making wholesale changes to lots of it, but there will be some tweaks and certain matches will be cut entirely.

You can view the original card by clicking below;

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=2062&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 Wednesday Everyone!

Something a bit new for this feature over the coming weeks, as instead of just rebooking one show I’ll be doing a series of them in order to create an entire arc. Basically what Jed Shaffer over on WrestleCrap used to do except I’ll just be doing the pay per views and not the week to week television shows like he would.

We’re going to be looking at WrestleMania Season for the WWF in 1999, starting with Royal Rumble 1999 to get us going. Two of the three pay per views that make up the three pay per view run the WWF was on during this period are pretty awful, so let’s see if I can spruce things up a bit.

If you’d like to see what the actual card was you can click below;

Card « WWF Royal Rumble 1999 – No Chance In Hell « Events Database « CAGEMATCH – The Internet Wrestling Database

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Today we’ve got an AWA review, as they had a show back on Christmas Day 1984, so it seemed apropos to review it today. Apologies if you don’t celebrate the holiday period but I couldn’t find my copy of PWG Chanukah Chaos (yes, they actually named a show that) so I’m afraid this show will have to do.

You can check out the card by clicking below;

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=134210&page=2

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

Bit of a different slant on the feature for this week, as instead of rebooking a show that happened previously I’ll instead be booking a show that didn’t end up happening at all in the form of WCW’s ill-fated The Big Bang event of 2001.

For those not au-fait, Eric Bischoff and Fusient Media had intended to buy WCW in 2001 until Jamie Kellner essentially killed the company off by cancelling all of their TV. However, prior to the deal going belly-up, Bischoff’s idea had been for the company to go dark for a few weeks and then come back with a big pay per view event on the 6^th of May 2001 called The Big Bang, whereby all of the babyface stars that WCW Champ Scott Steiner had been destroying since the autumn of 2000 would return and the company would get a fresh injection of life into it.

That event of course never ended up happening, so this week I’ll take a bash at putting together my own WCW return had the company survived in 2001 and Fusient had decided to hand over the reins to me. I’m going to try and both put on a good show and lay the foundation for further events going forwards, so let’s see if my version of The Big Bang can end up being a success!

Happy Saturday Everyone!

We continue the trend of one match shows this week with WCW Starrcade 1993, as Ric Flair Vs Vader is amazing and the rest of the card is…less so. However, hopefully there’s SOMETHING on the undercard that makes it worthwhile (I think there is to be fair).

If you’d like to see the card, you can do so by clicking below;

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=1570&page=2

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

I’m still finding shows I think will be interesting in this format so I’m sticking with it for the time being before I can stumble across something new to do on Wednesday’s. I mean, WrestleCrap has been doing this sort of feature for years already of course, so it’s not like I’m treading new ground or anything, but hopefully you’re all enjoying reading them.

Today we’ve got SummerSlam 1993, a show best known for Lex Luger “Doing A Luger” by failing to win the WWF Title in the Main Event in a pretty infamous example of the company deciding not to strike whilst the iron was hot and thus cooling off the guy who was supposed to be the new Hulk Hogan.

Today I’ll take a bash at the event to see if I can rustle up a fun show. SummerSlam 93 wasn’t a particularly bad show from an in-ring perspective, just some of the booking and finishes left a bit to be desired, so it’s hardly like it’s a terrible effort that something like Great American Bash 1991 already was. This is a show where there is good potential for me to ruin with my tinkering, as at least most of the other shows I’ve written about were recognised as being generally bad, so it wasn’t like I could make an already bad show any worse.

SummerSlam 93 is mostly alright though, so there’s a real chance I could get this badly wrong. Let’s see if I do! It’ll add an interesting to wrinkle if nothing else I guess.

If you’d like reminding on the real life card, I’ll post it below;

Card « WWF SummerSlam 1993 « Events Database « CAGEMATCH – The Internet Wrestling Database

Happy Saturday Everyone!

This week and next week we’re going to be covering “one match shows”, which are wrestling events that tend to be remembered for one match and one match only, sometimes even by design. This week we’ve got WWF Armageddon 2000, and next week we’ve got a WCW show that can also wear the moniker.

The one match in this instance is a big six man Hell in a Cell match, which means some of the under card is going to be left a little thin. Still, hopefully the undercard isn’t too much of a slog.

You can check out the card by clicking below;

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=2177&page=2

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

Yeah, I’m going to do WCW Great American Bash 1991

For those not au fait, this WCW event was originally supposed to have Ric Flair taking on Lex Luger, but Flair fell out with Jim Herd and left for the WWF, taking the World Title belt with him. Thus WCW found themselves in a hole, with no one else ready-made as an opponent for Luger and an angry crowd who weren’t prepared to show them any leniency.

Bash 91 is often considered one of the worst pay per view events of all-time from any wrestling company, as WCW had lost the popular Flair and then proceeded to put on an awful show filled with short terrible matches and bad gimmicks.

I’m going to try and put on a better show here, although I’m thinking the crowd are still likely to be unhappy due to having no Flair, but what can you do eh?

You can see the original card by clicking the link below;

Card « WCW The Great American Bash 1991 « Events Database « CAGEMATCH – The Internet Wrestling Database

Happy Saturday Everyone!

Today we’ve got some classic NXT for you, as we look at Takeover London from way back in 2015. NXT from this period was something I watched all of the time and really enjoyed, even though my interest in the main roster had all but eroded by this stage. It helped that NXT usually had great matches and characters you could actually care about.

I didn’t get to go to this one, for reasons I don’t even remember, although I did eventually get to see NXT live a few times back when I really enjoyed it.

Card for this show can be viewed below;

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=136346&page=2

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

As promised in last week’s feature, let’s see if I can tinker with a real life show and end up putting something fun together, as we rebook WrestleMania IV. Mania IV is a show that is widely recognised as one of the lamer earlier Mania events due to its extravagant runtime and the fact it was held in the Trump Plaza in front of swathes of non-wrestling fans who just wanted to be at a big event and didn’t even know who most of the wrestlers were.

Let’s see if I can try and come up with a slightly less horrible show here, although there’s every chance my tinkering will make it worse, because that’s something I do sometimes with these. Regardless though, let’s have a bash at rebooking WrestleMania IV.

You can view the real life card for this event by clicking the link below;

WWF WrestleMania IV – “What The World Is Watching” « Events Database « CAGEMATCH – The Internet Wrestling Database

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 Wednesday Everyone!

We haven’t done this feature in a while, but seeing as I finally finished the Top 50 Favourite Wrestlers journey I’ve been on, I felt I’d dig this one out of the mothballs because I always find it fun to do and sometimes it generates some fun discussion.

For those new to this feature, I look at a wrestling show from the past and have a bash at tweaking the card somewhat to see what I come up with. In some cases certain matches will stay the same if I personally like them and don’t see a reason to change them.

This week we’ve got Starrcade 1998, a shown known for being one of the many “beginning of the end(s)” for WCW, as it didn’t really feel like the biggest show of the year and they ended it with a big middle finger to the fans, with Bill Goldberg’s long unbeaten streak getting ended in the Main Event by Kevin Nash, someone who didn’t need it or really benefit from it as he laid down for Hogan 8 days later on Nitro.

I’m going to have a tinker with it and I’ll also play with the continuity prior to the event as well. Once we’re done we’ll look at where possibly WCW could go once my version of the show and you fine guys, gals and non-binary Champs can decide whether you think the show is better or not (You might even think I’ve made it worse, which is certainly a possibility).

The original card can be found by following the link below

WCW Starrcade 1998 « Events Database « CAGEMATCH – The Internet Wrestling Database

Happy Saturday Everyone!

I felt like watching a couple of matches on this one because I’ve never seen them before, hence the review. The Main Event is an atrocious 3 ring 60 man battle royal, with the winner becoming the WCW Champion.

However, on the under card we’ve got Ric Flair Vs Sting (And even WCW surely couldn’t ruin that one once it gets in the ring) and a match that should excite the Joshi Boyz here on the Blog with Bull Nakano and Akira Hokuto teaming up.

So that’s at least two matches which should be good, which I’ll take, with anything on top of that being a nice bonus. WCW had already started Nitro by this point, but they wouldn’t start clobbering Raw until the Summer of 1996, so the battle was still relatively even at this stage.