Wrestling Reviews and Opinions

The SmarK Rant for WCW Clash of the Champions XV: Knocksville USA!

Oh, you can tell Dusty is booking again from those quality show titles.

The original rant was sometime in early 1998 for this one, so much like Superbrawl it’s time to revisit now that we’re at that point in the Flashbacks. I also did a re-rant in 2006 but I was in a really bad mood at the time or something, so let’s hit this one a THIRD time.

Live from Knoxville, TN

Your hosts are Jim Ross & Tony Schiavone

WWE.com Smackdown Preview

http://www.wwe.com/shows/smackdown/2016-12-20

NJPW Announces Change to Wrestle Kingdom 11 Tag Team Title Match

Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano have been added to the Tag Title Match at the show going up against the Guerrillas of Destiny and Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma

http://www.f4wonline.com/japan/njpw-announces-change-wrestle-kingdom-11-tag-title-match-226791

TNA to Air Live PPV in January

TNA will be airing a live “One Night Only” show on 1/6/17 at Universal Studios in Florida.

http://pwinsider.com/article/106653/tna-returning-to-ppv-live-next-month.html?p=1

ESPN.com Interview with Lio Rush

http://www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/18313500/lio-rush-embarking-accelerated-path-stardom-just-22-pro-wrestling

Hey Scott,

I was reading an article called The Racist Alt-Right Dictionary: 7 Terms You Need to Know to Understand Trump’s Most Hateful Supporters and discovered this entry:

"3. Glorious. To alt-righties, this appears to be the superlative of adjectives, applied to many things other than the term cuckservative, harkening back to the rhetoric of the Third Reich…The Daily Stormer website routinely refers to Trump as ‘Our Glorious Leader.’"

Of course I immediately thought of Bobby Roode, the man who wants to heighten the tone of the NXT audience by filling it with CEOs and 1%’ers. Also the man whose theme music, while very awesome, also wouldn’t sound out of place in a Nazi propaganda film.

Surely this is just a coincidence, as it would be inconceivable for Vince to draw from any current cultural trend so current, but could this be problematic down the line, as the Alt Right’s voice and language continue to spread across social and traditional media? Should the WWE embrace the connection to create a boldy relevant heel character, Roode as an extreme Trump supporter? This could be the most daring political tie-in since Sgt. Slaughter turned his coat (or Muhammad Hassan, but that was such a flop it barely registers). Of course it’s also worth considering how ugly this would look if the dots were connected and the audience continues to cheer Roode.

​I feel like we’re veering a bit into tinfoil hat territory with this one, but regardless I can’t see them doing someone as a heelish Trump supporter just because of the whole Linda deal. Plus they’d probably get lynched.

​

Hi Scott,

Whatever happened to UFC announcer Mike Goldberg coming over to Raw to replace Jim Ross in 2005? Was that indeed slated to occur, or was that rumor never true? Thanks.

​Well it was true in as much as Vince desperately wanted it to happen, but Goldberg turned him down cold and he ended up getting Mike Adamle instead. So lucky us, I guess.

​

Fence Contractor Elkhart, IN

Previously on the Flashback… https://blogofdoom.com/index.php/2016/12/18/wrestling-observer-flashback-06-03-91/

OK, now we’ve got some stuff going on, with two of the biggest stories in HISTORY about to break.

But first, Sid…

December 19, 2016

From the Schottenstein Center in Columbus, OH

Your hosts are Corey Graves, Byron Saxton, and Michael Cole

May 21, 1989

From the Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Des Moines, IA

Your hosts are Bobby “The Brain” Heenan and Gorilla Monsoon

This week, we get the debut of the new theme song and opening montage for the show.

The featured match is The Rockers vs. Fabulous Rougeau Brothers. Also in action are the Ultimate Warrior, Brutus Beefcake, and Dino Bravo

Happy Holidays Blog O’ Doomers!

Another Monday night and another follow-up RAW episode to another below-average, slightly boring PPV. Last night I realized that they just need to put the strap on Goldberg (or Cena) and just let them roll with it until Wrestlemania or longer if need be. Sometimes a shot in the arm is what’s needed and this boring crop of guys needs an injection.

Otherwise another halfway decent Monday Night football game on between the Panthers and Washington. And there’s other sports on. Probably some Christmas movies too. Maybe you can watch Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern put over Macaulay Culkin or Bruce Willis take out an entire terrorist ward.

Either way.

Keep it Clean!

I just read Maffew’s ECW recap, and realized that this Wrestlemania would be the 10th anniversary of that match.

I realize the logistics and the political implications probably mean that the WWE won’t even mention this event, but…what if Vince got the Orange Goblin In Chief to do a return match at WM? Who do they each pick?

This is the only Trump-related joy I’ve had since the election…

​I feel like Trump would still try to pick Bobby Lashley and then go off on a Twitter tirade against Bellator when he discovers that he’s not available, until Vince offered up Apollo Cruz as a replacement and smoothed things over. Vince would obviously choose Hulk Hogan for his second, which would result in Trump switching sides midway through the match and siding with Hogan. Then Roman Reigns comes out, hits everyone in the match with spears, and is declared the unified World champion for some reason. The next night on RAW everything is ignored and Sasha wins the Women’s title from Charlotte again in a Punjabi Prison match.

​

Let’s say Bischoff wakes up January 1st after a terrible premonition of WWF winning the war on the back of Stone Cold Steve Austin becoming arguably the biggest star in wrestling history.


Now let’s say he gives Tyson $6 Million to double cross Vince and knock Austin out the night after the Rumble Live on Raw. Does that kill the Stone Cold character dead forever, and like wise prevent the WWF exploding with the attitude era?
(This is the 1998 version of the Iron Shiek being asked to break Hogans leg.)

Given how the real world views wrestling as a side show freak carnival, would Vince have been able to go after Tyson successfully in court? The defense would be the altercation they booked got out of hand.

And even if he is successful against Tyson in court, what does he do creatively? Keep the Austin push alive, move on to Shamrock, insert Taker?

​This is assuming a lot of stuff, like Tyson without gloves being willing to just punch someone in the face hard enough to knock them out. It’s very likely he would break his own hand in that scenario. Plus as the UFC has shown, odds of actually making contact with a knockout punch in a situation where you’re swinging for one are far from guaranteed. Not to mention that just because you hit Austin in the head, that doesn’t mean he’ll go down. I think that, realistically, if Tyson TRIED for a knockout punch in the scenario above, he’d have about a 10% shot at actually putting Austin down, and if he DIDN’T put Austin down, Austin would be smart enough to just go nuts and launch an attack like he did in the real segment.

Now, if Tyson DID knock him out, Vince would 100% sue for damages, and Austin would likely press charges for assault as well. ​Not to mention that Bischoff cutting a cheque for $6 million with Turner company funds would bring down the entire company. But either way, I don’t see this is a double-cross worth pursuing for anyone involved.

I’ve been a WWE fan since the days of Backlund and one of the things that still puzzles me is Diesel push in 1994.

Diesel turns face after getting into a dispute during a Survivor Series match with Shawn Michaels. That was Thanksgiving eve. By Saturday, he beats Backlund for the title in 8 seconds.

I understand that Diesel had the Intercontinental title before losing it back to Razor Ramon at Summerslam. He won the tag titles with Shawn. Did pretty well during Survivor Series ’93 and the Royal Rumble. But what was Vince thinking? Usually when you’re trying to get someone over as a contender and a Champion, there is some actual buildup. I know they gave the belt to Hogan a month after coming back in 1984, but he was Hulk Hogan and there as no buildup needed as he was in Rocky III. I just don’t understand why he would think that would work.

After it wasn’t working, why he didn’t switch to Shawn right after Shawn was turning face after shining in that Wrestemania XI loss? Vince didn’t let Roman Reigns run with the title for a year.

T​hey gave the belt to Diesel the same way they did with Hogan because they wanted to create another Hogan and they thought that’s how they needed to do it. That was 100% their intention.

And Shawn didn’t get it there because Vince needed another year after that match to realize that Shawn wasn’t, in fact, too small to be World champion and could legitimately draw on top if given a chance. He can be very stubborn.​

WWE.com RAW Preview

http://www.wwe.com/shows/raw/2016-12-19

ESPN.com Article on the WWE Performance Center All-Access Event

http://www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/18287588/wwe-kc-joyner-fan-experience-wwe-performance-center

Free EVOLVE Match on WWN Live YouTube Channel

“Hot Sauce” Tracy Williams vs. Drew Gulak from EVOLVE 61, the CWC Qualifier match, is shown below in its entirety below (This is an excellent match).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVz9vVvg2Qc