Rampage
Date: June 2, 2023
Location: Viejas Arena, San Diego, California
Commentators: Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, Excalibur
This is an interesting one as it’s more or less Battle Of The Belts but none of the titles are AEW championships. Instead we’re seeing Ring Of Honor, AAA, New Japan and New Japan Strong, which should certainly make for a big mixture of stuff. Other than that, we could use something being announced for Forbidden Door, which is about three weeks away. Let’s get to it.
ANATOMY OF A DISASTER: SID VICIOUS vs. THE NIGHTSTALKER:
-One of the early infamous “worst matches of all time” was a business-exposing nightmare featuring rookie Sid Vicious & Bryan Clark on a Clash of the Champions show in 1990. I reviewed this ages ago for “Dream Matches” but I needed an easier one after the HHH/Steiner mess (thanks for the great response it got, though!).
Two “Body Guys”, neither Sid nor Clark went through the all-important “Jobber Phase” of a young rookie’s life, and were immediately put against each other when Clark was still a brand new guy, ten days into his WCW run. The result… stuff like “Sid slowly runs into a big hug from the Nightstalker”. It’s a 3-year vet having to lead a 1-year giant through a match. But hey- it’s only scheduled to go under three and a half minutes. How bad could it be REALLY?
THE STAGE: WCW Clash of the Champions (Nov. 20th 1990)
THE PERFORMERS:
Sid Vicious: Sid Eudy was a monster of a man who had debuted in 1987, but could still work only a little as of 1990. He was a member of the Skyscrapers, but showed so much innate charisma that crowds would chat “We Want Sid!” and get excited for the two moves he knew how to do really well- the chokeslam and the powerbomb. By this point, he was one of the Four Horsemen, and WCW started booking him in a lot of of Big vs. Big matches. And he’s all of three years into the business, having spent most of it as a tag team wrestler, and is expected to carry a match against an immobile green giant rookie.
The Nightstalker: Bryan Clark was green as absolute grass at this point, having debuted only the year prior, feuding with The Trooper (The Patriot) in AWA in its dying days. With his 6’6″ height and HUGE muscles (he was even bigger here than he was as Adam Bomb, with babyfat on his face and not as much definition as he’d get later on), he was obviously seen as money from day one, and was too big to just be used as some regular job guy, so he skipped a lot of important training in jobber matches and was simply pushed in his first couple years. With AWA dying, he joined WCW, and for some reason, ten days after his debut, he was thrown into this match against a guy just as big as he was.
Happy Saturday Everyone!
We’ve got some matches from Jakked/Metal this week, which was WWF’s Saturday syndicated show for a while. We’ve mainly got this one today because it features Perry Saturn Vs Mike Bell in quite an infamous bout. Some of the other matches looked fun though so we’ll review them all as it shouldn’t take long.
I’ll list which episode the matches are from if you want to hunt them down.
Ring Of Honor
Date: June 1, 2023
Location: MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada
Commentators: Ian Riccaboni, Caprice Coleman
We’re back to what is considered a normal length show this week at just under two hours after last week’s almost three hour Super Sized show. Following last week, Athena is defending the Women’s Title against Kiera Hogan and the New Japan TV Title will be on the line as well. Just like it will be tomorrow night on Rampage. Let’s get to it.
The SmarK Rant for AEW Rampage – 06.02.23
I really like this idea for the show, since they can’t make it work as a continuation of Dynamite, instead change it into a batshit crazy series of title defenses from their deep cuts. I hope it does well.
Smackdown
Date: June 2, 2023
Location: Mohegan Sun Arena, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
Commentators: Michael Cole, Wade Barrett
We’re done with Night Of Champions and while there wasn’t a big Smackdown title change, the major story came at the end, as Jimmy Uso superkicked Roman Reigns to seemingly remove himself from the Bloodline. Tonight just so happens to be the 1000 day celebration for Reigns’ Universal Title reign so we should be in for some fireworks. Let’s get to it.
Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan are calling the action, kicking off a new taping cycle in Lubbock, Texas, which is where the recent Saturday Night’s Main Event was filmed. Heenan is wearing a red jacket that says “Indiana’s Favorite Bobby” on the back.
Footage of Sid Justice’s recent heel turn airs.
Lord Alfred Hayes’ Special Report recaps the changes that WWF President Jack Tunney had made to the WrestleMania VIII main event.
About half a year ago, I asked you about your feelings on the four pillars. You felt that Jungle Boy was on his way to being a top guy, Darby was set as an uppercard gatekeeper and Sammy needed to go away and had peaked at the TNT title. After DON, do you feel any of this has shifted?
RIcky Starks?
Is Mr. Kennedy the exception to “never say never” WWE point of view?
Was a botched move a decade ago that horrible? Or the Benoit stuff?
If he were to have come back what would have ceiling been and what year would have been the opportune time?
The SmarK Rant for Stampede Wrestling – 02.06.87
Taped from Calgary, AB
Your hosts are Ed Whalen & Jungle Jim Davies, promising at LEAST one dandy, perhaps more.
Welcome to Flashback Friday, which will be going on hiatus after today while I deal with some other projects. Let’s look back at April 2, 1989 when the NWA and the WWF went head to head, courtesy of recaps, Melter’s ratings, and a panel of insiders and experts.
Live from Atlantic City, NJ from Boardwalk Hall, before 18,946, your hosts are Gorilla & Jesse.
King Haku v. Hercules
Haku attacks from behind to start and slugs Herc into the corner before eventually getting a bearhug. Herc powers out so Haku chokes him on the ropes. Herc comes back with a crossbody for two, but Haku cuts off the comeback with an elbow, but then whiffs on a bodypress attempt of his own. Hercules slugs back and gets a powerslam for two, but goes up and lands on a superkick. Haku goes up and misses his own move, and Hercules finishes with a backdrop suplex. (6:55, Dave gives it 1/2*)
Scott Keith: Not a bad opener, but this crowd is not wrestling fans, it’s gamblers and businessmen.
Brian Bayless: Ring announcer Howard Finkel made a rare screw-up (later fixed in post) when he announced Haku as “King Tonga.”
Bobby Heenan: Herc was a strange guy. He and I were at the airport waiting for a rental car. We were under a partition with five or six businessmen, and the partition had a button that said “Push for Heat.” Herc looked at the businessmen and said, “What happens if you push the button? Does a guy come out and pull your tights?” They had no idea what he was talking about.
Impact Wrestling
Date: June 1, 2023
Location: Western Fair District Agriplex, London, Ontario, Canada
Commentators: Tom Hannifan, Matthew Rehwoldt
It’s the first show after Under Siege and a lot of things took place at the show. First and foremost, Steve Maclin retained the World Title by defending PCO but Bully Ray attacked Scott D’Amore to end the show, even putting him through a flaming table. Other than that, we have a new #1 contender in the form of Alex Shelley, who will get a World Title shot at Against All Odds. Let’s get to it.
Monday Night Raw
Date: May 5, 2008
Location: Air Canada Center, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Attendance: 16,664
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler
We are less than two weeks away from Judgment Day and we have a bit of a crazy boss. Last week saw General Manager William Regal crowned as King, though the power seems to have already gone to his head as he cut the show off so fans who booed him couldn’t see the ending. Mr. Kennedy isn’t happy and it might be time to deal with things. Let’s get to it.
A mini-review and advert of sorts for a new channel on YouTube, courtesy of Steve Anderson, who was Bobby “The Brain” Heenan’s friend and co-writer of his two awesome books. They had a lot of phone conversations and chats that were recorded so that the book could be organised and written. I wanted to look at a few as a taster for other checking them out themselves. Bobby was so good that a lot of the time he didn’t need editing, they just put his stories in his books verbatim. Here’s a few for you.
The SmarK Rant for AEW Dynamite – 05.31.23
Live from San Diego, CA
Your hosts are Excalibur, Taz, Tony Schiavone & Bryan Danielson
Dynamite
Date: May 31, 2023
Location: Viejas Arena, San Diego, California
Commentators: Excalibur, Tony Schiavone, Taz
We’re done with Double Or Nothing and that means we have less than a month to go before Forbidden Door. While there were some hints at where things are going at the media scrum, it’s time to really set some things up this week, as they’re kind of running out of time. Let’s get to it.
Vince McMahon and Mr. Perfect are in the booth, starting a new cycle of television tapings from Amarillo, Texas. According to the historyofwwe.com, the taping took place on January 28.
A replay of Sid Justice’s heel turn on Saturday Night’s Main Event airs, along with Hulk Hogan and Brutus Beefcake’s promo with Gene Okerlund. Footage of Sid destroying the Barber Shop on last week’s Wrestling Challenge is shown too.
