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 miguelfitzgerald1878@outlook.com

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…

Howdy-Ho Neighbourinos!

Back with another Stinker review, as I tackle Road Wild 98!

For those not au fait, Stinker Reviews are where I take a look at a show that has a bad reputation and see if it deserves that reputation or not. September will be another reader review, so get your suggestions in either in the comments or to miguelfitzgerald1878@outlook.com. I’ll draw a “lucky” winner out of the Stinker Hat and that’ll be September’s review.

There is an actual hat as well…

See! I don’t exaggerate about these things!!

Anyway, Road Wild was usually a pretty rubbish event each year as WCW held the show in a field in Sturgis in front of a bunch of bikers who didn’t like wrestling. Amazing how that usually led to bad shows eh? The 98 version of the show featured talk show host Jay Leno wrestling Holllywood Hogan (Couldn’t they have at least sprung for Steve Wilkos? I could at least buy that he’d have a chance in a fight).

There’s not much on the under card to get excited about either, but who knows, maybe this show might have aged well?

Well…it COULD happen!

Howdy Gang!

Back with another Stinker Review, where I look at a show that has gained a reputation for being bad for whatever reason and then give it it’s day in court so we can decide whether it truly is a Stinker or not.

This month we have yet another reader request, which comes to us courtesy of Chael Sonnen’s Coke Dealer, as he wanted me to take a look at Grand Masters of Wrestling. And based on the reputation this has, I might need some kind of stimulant just to get through it all.

I’d never heard of this prior to watching it for this review and I haven’t really been that successful in finding out more. As far as I can tell, Grand Masters of Wrestling was a collection of super cheap wrestling DVD’s that were pumped out in the early to mid-00’s, featuring footage from small indie events and starring the likes of The Iron Sheik.

I had a search on the old YouTube machine and managed to find this. I’m not sure if this is the particular show that C.S.C.D wanted me to review, but it’s got Grandmasters of Wrestling in the title and it looks like it will be awful, so hopefully it’ll scratch whatever demented itch he has.

If you’d like to watch along with me (And why wouldn’t you) you can do so by clicking HERE, but don’t hold me responsible for any misery it might cause you!

Salutations Friends!

We’re back with another Stinker Review, where I watch a show that has a reputation for being awful and try to decide whether it deserves it’s stinky rep or not. This month we’re looking at a show from the WWF in 1995 that was so bad it pretty much brought Diesel’s faltering World Title reign to a shuddering halt due to just how bad the buy rate was.

Next month’s Stinker Review will be a reader request, so if you want to put a suggestion in the hat then feel free to either list it below in the comments section or email it over to me at miguelfitzgerald1878@outlook.com

Any unsuccessful requests will remain in the hat for future draws, so it’s still worth suggesting something even if it doesn’t get picked on this occasion.

But anyway, that’s enough chatter for now, let’s wade into stinky waters with WWF In Your House IV!

Hello You!

Back with another Stinker Review, and this month it’s a reader request courtesy of AJ Haemorrhoids (who has one of the more striking names on the Blog I think we can all agree). AJ apparently attended this show live and was so bored by it that they actually almost fell asleep whilst watching it, which is almost impressive in a twisted kind of way.

For those of you that haven’t read one of these before, a Stinker Review is when I look at a show that has a reputation for being bad for whatever reason and deciding on whether it truly is as bad as people say it is. It could be the show features terrible wrestling, torrid booking, miserable production or all of the above. In some cases a show might not be that notorious but a reader may have it on their personal ship list, at which point I then have to decide whether I agree with them or not.

I have personally seen this one before but that was quite a while ago and I honestly remember very little about it outside of the Tag Title and World Title matches. It’s notable for being the last ever UK Special Pay Per View, as WWE decided to bring the Raw and Smackdown tapings to the UK in 2004, which ended up being a better deal for the fans, as now stuff could actually happen on the shows as it was an actual TV taping and not just a televised House Show.

I was pretty down on WWE in 2003, mainly because they just kept tripping up over themselves and the harsh realisation that they weren’t going to be able to usher in another boom period anytime soon slapped me hard in the face like a bucket of iced water. Creatively both the Raw and Smackdown brands were kind of on their arse going into this one, with a bloated and injury carrying Triple H stanking the joint out on the Raw side with a series of uninspiring feuds for his Raw Title, with this show taking part during his “exciting” rivalry with Kevin Nash.

Aside from Godruple H’s reign of terror, on the undercard Test had started an “enthralling” feud with Scott Steiner, whilst newbies La Resistance were going for Kane and RVD’s Tag Team Titles. Trish Stratus was feuding with Jazz over the Women’s belt and Christian had recently connived his way to winning the revived IC Title, screwing over Booker T in the process. Raw’s hierarchy had also had a bit of a shakeup, with Stone Cold Steve Austin being brought into be co-General Manager in an attempt to keep Heel Authority Figure Eric Bischoff in check.

So, has AJ been unduly scathing here or is Insurrextion 2003 really a full-on Stinker? Let’s watch on to find out!

Hello You!

Back with another Stinker Review, as we journey to the land of ROH for the first (And likely the last unless I ever do that ROH/New Japan supercard show from MSG sometime down the line) time, with Suffocation from 2006. This is one of those shows that might be a comparative Stinker as opposed to a full on one, mainly because ROH generally put on hot shows in 2006 and this is one of the few shows from that year that got less than inspired reviews.

The first half of 2006 for ROH had been really strong, with a blood feud between Colt Cabana and Homicide as well as an inter-promotional feud with fellow Philly based indie CZW being the notable highlights. The latter feud had ended with Homicide going face and helping ROH win the climactic battle, leading to babyface authority figure Jim Cornette trying to make it up to him.

However, one of Homicide’s requests was for Cornette to start booking Low Ki again, which got a big fat no and led to Homicide and Cornette falling out, with Cornette and his heavy Adam Pearce going heel. This led to Homicide feuding with Cornette and his associates, one of which was old foe Steve Corino, along with The Briscoe Brothers.

Homicide had help from the likes of Samoa Joe, and even Colt Cabana buried the hatchet to help him at one point. Eventually along the way it was announced that if Homicide didn’t win the ROH World Title by the end of the year then he’d be gone from the company, so the race was on for him to deal with Cornette’s heavies in time to dethrone World Champ Bryan Danielson.

On the under card, Colt Cabana had begun a relationship with Jimmy Jacobs’ manager Lacey, much to Jacobs’ misery as he had the hots for her as well, enough to write a hilarious slow ballad about how much he loved her. Cabana and Jacobs were thus an uneasy tag team, with Jacobs playing nice to keep Lacey happy in the hope that he could eventually win her heart.

So, is Suffocation really a bad show or just bad by ROH 2006 standards? How much of a role does context play in one of these reviews? Maybe I won’t be able to answer that? Maybe I will? Who knows, just read the pigging review and you might find out!

Also, stay tuned for the end because I’ll be revealing which reader request was the lucky one out of the hat for May’s review.

Hello You!

Back with another reader request this time, courtesy of Sean Mooney, as we dive into the deep toxic waters of World Championship Wrestling as it sunk to its eventual doom. 1998 was when the company initially hit the iceberg but they still did great business that year and it wasn’t until 1999 reared its ugly head that it became clear just how waterlogged the company was getting.

The WWF was not only still top of the American Pro Wrestling food chain in the summer of 1999, but they’d also turned The Rock babyface to gigantic financial returns and were in the midst of preparing the likes of Triple H and Test for elevation up the card (It worked out better for one of those two obviously). They were also in the midst of finally taking the spotlight off the Stone Cold Vs Vince McMahon feud for a bit with Vince set to take a few months off TV, thus keeping things fresh atop the card.

By comparison, WCW was so stale that even most ducks wouldn’t touch it if you took it down the local pond. The New World Order storyline had long since run its course and basically didn’t even really exist anymore outside of a few low ranking guys like Vincent and Horace. The Main Event scene was being built around the usual collection of veterans, Diamond Dallas Page was terrorising the mid-card with his Jersey Triad stable and Ric Flair and Roddy Piper were trying to turn the clock back to the mid-80’s so that they could be conniving villainous heels again, when all the crowd wanted to do was cheer them.

Some efforts were being made to push the likes of Buff Bagwell, Chris Benoit and Perry Saturn, but outside of Flair and Piper none of the top guys were willing to put those guys over, and there were only so many jobs Flair could do for guys like that until it started to really lose its effectiveness. Randy Savage had returned and had actually gotten kind of over as a rebellious babyface, so WCW of course promptly turned him heel so that he could feud with Kevin Nash over the World Title, and even decided to punish the fan base even further by bringing Sid Vicious back to the promotion.

The main feuds coming into this show were DDP and The Triad/Benoit and Saturn, Piper and Flair/Bagwell, Savage/Nash and The West Texas Rednecks/Filthy Animals. There were at least some good matches going on in places, but in most cases the wrong people were going over and the face/heel alignments were all out of whack. For instance, The Rednecks were massively outnumbered and were a funny entertaining act whilst The Animals were insufferable jerks who often abused their numbers advantage, yet The Animals were the ones supposed to be the faces!

All in all the company was on its arse and things eventually got so bad that WCW decided to roll the dice on Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara in the hopes that they could turn it around, which had inevitable results.

However, with that all being said, is Bash At The Beach 1999 really that awful? Maybe in a bubble the show has enough good stuff on it that it’s actually enjoyable? I remember I actually had the VHS for this show back in the day as it was one of the few shows from 99 that WCW actually gave a proper home video release here in the UK, so I’ve probably seen it more than most. Will a tinge of nostalgia help me overcome the worse elements of the show?

There’s still time by the way to put in suggestions for what May’s Stinker Review is going to be. I’ll recap what we currently have in the hat at the end of the this review, so shout up in the comments section if you’d like to add a suggestion of your own. April’s Stinker review will be one of my choosing and I’ll announce what May’s is going to be at the end of that review.

Is this show really a stinker? Let’s watch on and find out!