Wrestling — page 2

Impact Wrestling
Date: November 24, 2022
Hosts: Tom Hannifan, Matthew Rehwoldt

It’s Thanksgiving and that means we are in for a special Best Of show around here. That’s about as logical as you’re going to get for this time of year as there is no reason to believe that anyone is going to pay attention to a show on such a big holiday. You never know what you’ll see on something like this but let’s get to it.

Rampage
Date: November 25, 2022
Location: Wintrust Arena, Chicago, Illinois
Commentators: Ian Riccaboni, Tony Schiavone, Jim Ross, Excalibur

It’s time for the other Chicago show of the week and we have a title match this time around. The Ring Of Honor Tag Team Titles are on the line as FTR defends against Top Flight, which has me wondering what is next for them at Final Battle. Speaking of Final Battle, it might be smart to announce something for the show. Let’s get to it.

Vince McMahon, Roddy Piper, and Randy Savage are in the booth, starting a new taping cycle in Worcester, Massachusetts.  According to thehistoryofwwe.com, the taping took place on July 29 and drew a heavily papered crowd of 14,221.

Jake Roberts tells the Ultimate Warrior that he needs to enter a dark room, where Lucifer awaits him in a coffin.  The Warrior goes inside, and Roberts locks the door behind him, turning the lights on to reveal snakes all over the floor.  The Warrior cautiously gets to the coffin and opens it.  When he does, Lucifer bites him in the face.  The Warrior begs Roberts to open the door as the snake’s poison takes effect, but Roberts refuses, laughing at how the Warrior is affected just like any common man.  Roberts welcomes a “man in black” to see his work, which is revealed to be the Undertaker, and Roberts tells the Warrior never to trust a snake as the Warrior loses consciousness.  Like all the segments to this point, Roberts knocked this one out of the park and his heel turn was shocking for many young fans that had only known him as a babyface.  According to Roberts, the Warrior was bitten several times by snakes when they filmed this segment because he did not shuffle his feet and kicked and antagonized the snakes he was working with.

This week we look back at an issue of Inside Wrestling that went to press on June 30, 1988 that sold for $1.75 in the U.S. and $2.50 in Canada. (I’ll also throw in bonus Wrestling Observer coverage from the same period.) Let’s go straight to the Ratings, where the NWA gets 6 in the Top 15, the WWF gets 4, and the AWA gets 3.

The SmarK Rant for NWA Starrcade 84 – 11.22.84

True story:  Some guy actually went to the trouble of finding my home number and called my house in 2004 asking me to review this show.  I didn’t have a copy of the tape back then, but now there’s the Network and I’ve been on an old school territorial kick anyway, so the time is right!

Live from Greensboro, NC, drawing 16,000 in the building and a shitload of people on closed circuit.

Your hosts are Gordon Solie & Bob Caudle

ECW On Sci Fi
Date: February 26, 2008
Location: Convention Center, Tuscon, Arizona
Attendance: 5,200
Commentators: Joey Styles, Tazz

We’re on the way to Wrestlemania and this week isn’t likely to have Ric Flair for a main event. Chavo Guerrero vs. CM Punk should be done for good but you never can tell with that feud. It feels like it could somehow keep going despite being long past its expiration date. If not Punk though, who else is supposed to go after the title? Let’s get to it.

The SmarK Rant for NWA Starrcade ’83 (11.24.83)

(Hey, it’s Thanksgiving down there, so we go back to the beginning of the tradition with a repost of the very first Starrcade!)

Live from Greensboro, NC, drawing 15447.  This was of course the first “supercard” as we know them today, broadcast on closed circuit to a bunch of locations and starting a Thanksgiving tradition for the NWA.

Your hosts are Gordon Solie & Bob Caudle.  If there was any introductions or talk beforehand, it’s all cut out on the Network version because we go TO THE RING post-haste.

The SmarK Rant for AEW Dynamite – 11.23.22

So my copy of Office 365 stopped working this afternoon, thanks to the supposed “lifetime” license that I bought from a guy on eBay 6 years ago, which suddenly stopped working because the guy running the company probably got arrested or whatever.  Man, you just can’t trust anyone these days.  So now I have to PAY for it, like some kind of common schnook.  $11 a month Canadian for the Family plan!  That’s almost one and a half Twitter checkmarks!  Or it would be if Elon hadn’t screwed it up already so that no one could subscribe anymore.  But enough about him, what about ME?  So yeah, GoFundMe is being set up as we speak.  Give until it hurts!  I’ll even use some of the funds to investigate election malfeasance in Arizona.  Honest.

Live from Chicago, IL, complete with updated intro and new champions.

Your hosts are Excalibur, Tony Schiavone & Taz

Dynamite
Date: November 23, 2022
Location: Wintrust Arena, Chicago, Illinois
Commentators: Taz, Tony Schiavone, Excalibur

It’s the first show after Full Gear and thanks to William Regal, MJF is the new World Champion. That is enough of a story to carry things for the time being, but we have more important things to get to right now: like building up a Ring Of Honor pay per view in the next few weeks. Let’s get to it.

Jamison hears a radio announcement in Bobby Heenan’s dressing room that six “deranged lunatics” have escaped from the Stanford Sanitarium and have escaped on a yellow bus.

Sean Mooney, Lord Alfred Hayes, and Gene Okerlund are shown blowing up balloons for Randy Savage’s bachelor party.  They are tired and complaining that Heenan, who organized the party, has not done any setup work.  Gorilla Monsoon hauls Heenan onto the set, which has no audience.  Koko B. Ware, the Bushwhackers, and Jamison show up, with the Bushwhackers bringing a long sub sandwich.

Welcome back to more Dream Matches! This week, I have a huge “Wait, THAT happened?” match, as the BRITISH BULLDOGS face the ROCK ‘N’ ROLL EXPRESS! In the AWA. And it goes… well, let’s see why this isn’t a tape trading legend, why don’t we?

Next up, I continue my look at Manabu Nakanishi in WCW, as “Kurasawa” takes his martial arts to the “Macho Man” Randy Savage in a pair of matches set six months apart- the latter of which when Kurasawa had definitely entered the job squad!

And finally, remember last week when I subjected y’all to Sgt. Craig Pittman vs. The Cobra? Well now they’re TAG PARTNERS, and their opponents are the freakin’ Faces of Fear! This one actually ends up great… if you want to see how the mechanics of wrestling work, because Pittman here is SO BAD that he actually throws off all three other wrestlers, none of whom seem to know what to do with him flailing around all weird. It’s one of the greatest examples of a wrestler being such a stiff that nobody can do anything with him.

THE BRITISH BULLDOGS (Davey-Boy Smith & Dynamite Kid) vs. THE ROCK ‘N’ ROLL EXPRESS (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson):
(AWA When Worlds Collide, 1989)
* This is a completely wild Dream Match I had no idea existed, as the Bulldogs typically existed in the WWF & Japan while the Express were mostly in the Southern companies/NWA. The Bulldogs are shredded to the gills here, just on ALL the steroids (especially Smith), while the Express are the same doughy guys they always were, absolutely dwarfed by their opponents (neither of whom were that big in the WWF). Makes you realize why they never did a run in the WWF around this time, ya know? The Express are in black & blue tights, and the Bulldogs are in their white & blue ones with the Union Jacks on the asses. Luscious Johnny Valiant is doing commentary, putting over the Bulldogs but mentioning that the Express match their experience. Legend Pat O’Connor is the ref here.

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