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What Are You Watching / Last Match, Event or Documentary You Saw
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Ah found it on youtube! Put away your tricorns and eyepatches!
Part 2 & 3 are uploaded by the same guy
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I watched IYH 14 the other night. Got it on tagged classics a good while ago.
It was worth it for the unveiling of the Honky tonk mans new protege
How did they think this had any sort of chance of getting over.
Catchy tune though
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WCW Halloween Havoc 1993
I continue my look back at WCW events from 1993 with Halloween Havoc which took place on October 24th of that year from the Lakefront Arrena, New Orleans, Louisiana.
The show kicked off with another insanely whacky video package involving some kids trick or treating and ending up at Tony Schiavone's house who had seemingly cooked his wife or something. :eek: He invites them inside and reveals the PPV card to them. Obviously these kids don't know the rule that when you see Tony Schiavone you scream and run away instantly. In fairness to Tony he was pretty good here.
Schiavone was on commentary with Jesse Ventura and was dressed like him. Bischoff was wearing some crazy US Civil War soldier garb and there was a spin-the-wheel on the show which would determine the Vader/Cactus Jack match for later on (which turned out to be a Texas Deathmatch. More on that later). On to the card...
Harlem Heat and the Equalizer vs Shockmaster, Ice Train and Charlie Norris
I watched most of these at the last PPV and don't particularly care for any of them except for Harlem Heat so I wasn't thrilled by this opener. It was average enough stuff. Norris was on the last PPV and was doing a Native American gimmick. I think he was a genuine Native American. Finish saw poor Booker do the job once again to the Shockmaster via a bearhug into an inverted Atomic Drop.
Verdict: Not in my fave five.
Paul Orndorff vs Ricky Steamboat
I liked Steamboat's performance at the last PPV Fall Brawl against Regal but this one wasn't as good. The chemistry didn't seem to be quite there on this night. Steamboat lost when Paul's manager the Assassin put some object in his mask and used it to headbutt him causing him to lose by count-out.
Verdict: Not great.
Davey Boy Smith vs Lord Steven Regal (World Television Title)
I wasn't aware these two had wrestled before so I was excited to see it. The match was quite good with some nice technical moments, but wasn't helped by a disappointing finish. Davey Boy had hit a piledriver and had Regal pinned but the time expired and so Regal retained via the draw.
Verdict: Good with a poor ending
Stunning Steve Austin vs Dustin Rhodes (US Title)
Some fan had a sign which said 'Stunning Steve Austin - wrestler of the 90s'. How right he/she was. If only WCW knew. As I said in my last write-up I was disappointed to see the Blondes missing from the card so seeing one of them here was a big plus. This was a good match, helped by Austin's heelish antics which were very humourous even back then. Again however this match wasn't helped by the finish which saw Austin pin Rhodes via feet on the ropes. The ref had counted to three but seeing his mistake the ref just continued the contest and then Rhodes won with a roll-up when Austin's shoulders didn't even look down. The fans were happy but all I could think was WHAT?
Verdict: Same verdict as the previous match.
Nasty Boys vs Buff Bagwell and 2 Cold Scorpio (Tag Title match)
Bagwell and Scorpio had won the titles the night before on TV. The fans were into the match in a big way and it was better than I expected. Finish saw Scorpio hit the 450 and have the match won but the Nasty Boys cheated behind the ref's back and got the win and the titles back.
Verdict: Good
Sid Vicious vs Sting
Apparently this was to see who WCW's franchise guy was. Time would show Bischoff felt it was Hulk Hogan. Sid had quite a bit of support here from the guys in the crowd and was pretty over but Sting was Sting and so he had his fans and it didn't sound like the older fans turned on him. There was more goofiness with the finish here as Sid's manager the Colonel inadvertently took Sid's leg allowing Sting roll him up for the win.
Verdict: OK
Ric Flair vs Rick Rude (WCW International World Title)
As I noted in the review of Fall Brawl the title was rebranded with the above moniker. Terry Taylor was acting as a second referee. This was an enjoyable match which the fans were into as Flair was loved and Rude despised, but yet AGAIN we had a whacky finish. The first ref was knocked down and Rude had tried to use some brass knucks on Flair but Flair got a hold of them and used them on Rude. Taylor was about to make the count to win the match but the first ref recovered and spotted Flair had used the knucks so Flair was DQ'd and Rude retained. Flair attacked Rude afterwards. Keep in mind that by this stage the only match with a non-bullsh*t finish was the first match which no one cared about.
Verdict: Good, but these finishes...WHY?
Vader vs Cactus Jack (Texas Death Match)
Guess what my criticism of this match will be? Vader was the WCW champ but you wouldn't know it as neither him nor his manager Harley Race seemed to carry the fecking belt with them. This was a non-title match and the motivation was Foley looking for revenge against the guy who had given him amnesia in another crazy off-the-wall WCW storyline.
The rules of this match were batsh*t insane. Essentially you had to pin your opponent which would trigger a 30 second rest period - which would be followed by the guy pinned having to make a 10 count. Confused? So was Vader at the finish when he had laid out Cactus whilst Harley screamed 'pin him, pin him'. There had to be a pin to initiate the rest period. Just total rubbish and it really hurt the match. The match was what you'd expect. There was blood and a table (which wasn't really used) and some chair shots. Not a Cactus Classic. The finish saw Harley shock Foley in the leg with a Tazer and he was counted for a 10 count so Vader won.
Verdict: Another sh*tty finish and nonsensical rules hurt this match bad.
Overall show verdict: I'm starting to realise why WCW lost reportedly 23 million dollars in 1993. The talent on this show is exceptional - Flair, Vader, Rude, Foley, Steamboat, Sting, Austin etc. but the lame finishes really tainted the whole event.
On the plus side the crowd were great and really made the matches feel important and they definitely deserved better endings. I think this was the period when Dusty and Ole Anderson were booking silly storylines and BS finishes and it definitely hurt the product.
I'm afraid with no real classic matches to recommend and because of all the silly conclusions to the matches, this is another PPV I will have to give a thumbs down to. One to avoid.
Just 2 WCW PPVs from '93 to get through now. Phew.0 -
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jaykhunter wrote: »When the Nasty boys have the best match on the card you know you're in trouble! Brave man with these WCW 93 ppvs!! keep it up man
You are SO wrong here.
Nasties were great during this period on PPV.0 -
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WCW Battlebowl 1993
So I'm down to the penultimate PPV in my look back at WCW events from 1993 and after enduring the torture of Halloween Havoc, this time the show being reviewed is Battlebowl. This show took place on November 20th from Pensacola, Florida. It was a rather odd gimmick PPV in which tag teams were formed via a 'random draw' to face off against one another and the winning tag teams would advance to a Battle Royal later on in the main event. What was on the line in the main event? Nothing. Yep. Anyways we'll get to that.
We begin by being introduced to Tony and Jess on commentary. Alas, no Bischoff tonight. They put over how crazy and exciting the stipulations of Battlebowl are and introduce us to Mean Gene and Flair's valet, the French maid, Fifi, who would do the draws to form the tag teams. Throughout the night we would get a running gag where Mean Gene was essentially trying to get into Fifi's French stockings. She seemed quite keen on the old fox so I guess the one guy that can top Space Mountain is good ol' Mean Gene. Wooooo! The first match drawn was...
Cactus Jack and Vader vs Kane and Charlie Norris
It was actually Kole aka Booker T who was drawn and not the other Harlem Heat member but for some reason Kane fought instead. Jack and Vader renewed their hostilities from Halloween Havoc and brawled before the match but Harley Race, Vader's manager, managed to get them to work together eventually. Vader and Jack got the win and advanced to the main event Battle Royal when Vader hit a powerbomb on Norris which made him fall on his ass in the process.
Verdict: It was fine
Paul Roma and Erik Watts vs Johnny B. Badd and Brian Knobbs
These were the next tag teams drawn and surprisingly the match wasn't anything special. Knobbs won for his team by grabbing Watts's tights although it actually looked like he grabbed a handful of Watt's Knobbs.
Verdict: A smash and grab, mostly grab, victory.
The Shockmaster and Paul Orndorff vs Ricky Steamboat and Lord Steven Regal
This was an interesting move to pair Steamboat with the man who took his World TV Title and proved to be one of the most enjoyable tag matches of the night. A nice touch involved Regal and Orndorff, when they would be in the ring together facing off, shaking hands as they were the two heels. This pissed off Steamboat and the fans but was very funny and something I'd like to see more of in today's wrestling when heels square off.
Interestingly Ventura made reference to the Shockmaster's epic fail of falling through a wall from earlier in the year. The most interesting Ventura remark of the night though was when he remarked to Schiavone something along the lines of 'things aren't so bad Schiavone, you could be indicted'. This was around the time Vince in WWF was dealing with his steroid court case issues.
Anyways the finish came when Regal looked to hit Shockmaster with a cane but Steamboat stopped him and clubbed Regal with it, allowing Shockmaster to hit a big splash for the 1-2-3 and advance his team.
Verdict: Enjoyable match
Flair/Vader promo greatness
They showed a clip from a press conference promoting Starrcade next month. Vader was there in a suit which with his mask looked a ricockulous combo. Vader didn't have his title with him as usual. Flair challenged Vader to a title vs career match at Starrcade. Just take it from him Naitch, he doesn't wear it. Maybe it doesn't suit his mask/suit ensemble. The interaction between Vader and Flair was great here. For example...
Vader: 'What do you bring to the table?'
Flair: 'Ten World Titles'.
Vader: 'Not Enough'.
Vader: 'You want to put your head on my wall? Bring it on.'
Flair: 'If you want my head on your wall you better come and get it.'
Vader: 'You got it'.
I can't do it justice but trust me this was more enjoyable than many of the matches. The next tag teams drawn were:
The Equalizer and Awesome Kong vs King Kong and Dustin Rhodes
Match was short which was good. Nothing much to report here except the two Kongs (who were a tag team) refused to fight each other so it was like a 3-on-1 match for Rhodes. The Kongs butted heads allowing Rhodes hit the bulldog on Awesome and get the win, advancing his team.
Verdict: Like a fart in an elevator. Bad but brief.
Sting and Jerry Sags vs Ron Simmons and Keith Cole
Crowd chanted 'We want Sting' and he was very over. Sags was enjoyable playing the heel. Finish came when Sags tagged himself in after Sting hit the Stinger Splash on Cole and he got the pin with a flying elbow to advance the duo. Afterwards Simmons turned heel by beating the sh*t out of Cole which got pretty much zero reaction since no one cared about Cole.
Verdict: OK
Stunning Steve Austin and Ric Flair vs Maxx Payne and 2 Cold Scorpio
Now this was a hell of a draw in hindsight. The Nature Boy and the future Rattlesnake teaming up. This match was great fun as Austin and Flair struggled to get along with Austin being his brash self and Flair being the slick cool veteran. Finish came with Flair making Payne tap to the figure four.
Verdict: Good fun
Ravishing Rick Rude and Shanghai Pierce vs Marcus Bagwell and Tex Slazenger
Another tag team were paired off against each other here with the future Godwinns on opposing sides. I still can't get over the awful brilliance of the name 'Shanghai Pierce'. The future Godwinns did end up going at it unlike the Kongs earlier. Finish came when Rude hit the Rude Awakening on Slazenger. After the match the future Godwinns shook hands and made up which the fans didn't like. This is another thing it would be good to see more of in modern wrestling - heels teasing a split but actually making up and becoming tighter.
Verdict: Fine
Road Warrior Hawk and Rip Rogers vs Davey Boy Smith and Kole
So Kole aka Booker was called out twice and this time he actually participated. Rogers was a comic, goofy figure and Hawk laid him out before the match. The match was short and the finish came when Hawk military pressed Rogers on to Kole who got the pin. Poor Booker T had a tough year in 1993 having to job to Shockmaster and this guy.
Verdict: Short and OK
Hawk and Rogers were the last team to qualify for the Battle Royal and so we had the 16 men necessary for the main event. Schiavone explained beforehand that since WCW had a connecting ramp, being thrown over the ropes and landing on it did not mean an elimination. It was later claimed in the match by Ventura that this made it harder for the guys involved since only 3 sides could be used to land an elimination. This makes sense from that point of view, but from the fan's point of view it was not very satisfying to see guys get thrown over on the ramp and be allowed back in. I felt that took something away from the match. Ventura and Mean Gene both predicted Vader to get the win in the main event which was to come...
16 man over-the-top Battle Royal
As noted earlier there was apparently nothing riding on this match. Not a title, not a title shot, so it was basically just for pride. This presented some logical holes like why would some tag teams want to pair off against their regular partners, or guys in feuds want to team up, so as to wind up in a battle royal later where there was absolutely nothing at stake? As well as guys not being eliminated when they went over and hit the ramp, you had guys as usual going through the ropes at times, so this must have been tough to follow for the live crowd and it was tough at times for the announcers.
The final moments of the match saw Rhodes do well eliminating the Nasty Boys almost by himself before Austin got rid of him. Hawk eliminated Rude and was then thrown out by Vader and Austin. The final four left were Vader, Flair, Austin and Sting, which is a pretty good final four it must be said.
Flair and Austin went at it and did not team up like earlier in the show while Vader and Sting battled. Race ended up taking Flair through the ropes and Vader splashed him on the ramp which led to EMTs coming down to take Flair away. All four guys ended up on the ramp outside the ring but were still technically in the match, but with Flair taken away Vader and Austin worked on Sting. The Stinger battled against the odds and tossed Austin over as he ran at him. Austin had hit the ramp initially but then slid to the floor so it was deemed he was eliminated. This led to Vader and Sting as the final two. Sting put Vader on the turnbuckle and charged him but Vader moved and Sting crashed to the floor so Vader won the match. :eek:
The crowd were stunned into silence by this finish and I found it a bit head-scratching. I mean, Vader's the World Champ (even though he refuses to wear his title for some reason) and with no title matches on the show I felt a babyface win would have been the best move. It felt like a waste to award the win to the guy that two of the commentators picked as their favourite and who was the World Champion anyway. I can only think that perhaps they wanted Vader to look strong ahead of the match with Flair at Starrcade. The real problem in truth for me was the match didn't seem to have much at stake in the first place.
Verdict: A poor pay-off which left a bad taste.
Overall show verdict: This was a strange one. It's a gimmick PPV with no title matches on the card but instead a series of tag matches leading to a Battle Royal with nothing on the line in that bout. In terms of match quality most of the tag matches ranged from fine to good but I was left with the feeling that nothing much was accomplished in the end except for making Vader look like a big scary bad ass. The problem with this is Vader was the World Champ and most viewed him as a big scary bad ass anyway.
Having said all that, on the plus side, in contrast to Halloween Havoc, we did get decent finishes to the matches and some fun moments. Thus I find it tough to give it a thumbs down verdict. The bizarre rules however and the anti-climactic finish stop me from giving it a thumbs up verdict. I therefore give Battlebowl '93 a thumbs in the middle. Not a disastrous show by any means but could have been so much better.
Just the one PPV from 1993 to get through now and it's the big one - Starrcade '93.0 -
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Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »Due to a combination of the buzz over a possible Sting return and some boredom I've decided to check out some early nineties WCW, and for no particular reason I've settled on 1993. My aim is to work through each WCW PPV from the year.Charisteas wrote: »I've got a similar deal going on myself.
Call me crazy, but I decided to embark on a mission of watching every WCW Nitro and PPV from 1998. And because i'm only watching them for the first time in my life, it's almost like i'm watching three different products and following three different sets of storylines with this Nitro 1998 collection along with todays weekly dose of Raw and Impact.jaykhunter wrote: »How is this going? U should write up a quick review of each show when you're done, it'd be pretty cool to read about
I've never seen those Nitros either
In a word - slowly. I'm only at April, and I think due to time constraints i'm going to finish up here.
Also, the Nitro episodes are 3 hours each, which I didn't realise before I started. Thought the shows were decent for the most part, despite them getting a lot of criticism, but maybe I just have a very pro-attitude era view of the wrestling industry.
But i'm only really watching these Nitro's to follow the storylines, not very interested in the quality of wrestling matches.
So I watched today - Nitro from March 30th 1998.
Crowd are $hit hot in Chicago (a sell out apparently) home of the Chicago Bulls, as they talk about building towards Spring Stampede.
Nitro girls open the show shaking their T 'n' A's as Tenay, Shivaone and Zybysko talk about current storylines - The main storyline is the dissension in the ranks of the nWo - Hogan and Nash seem to be building toward a feud as they both want to be leader of the nWo, but they will be a tag team at the next PPV against Piper and Big Show.
Wayne Enos and Mike Bloom Vs High Voltage was stopped when Big Show interferes and choke slams all 4 guys - crowd going crazy.
Roddy Piper comes out, says god bless harry carry (Who?!). He sarcastically says 'Hogan, my pal', spits out his chewing gum but it gets stuck on his bottom lip. LOL moment.
Anyway, tonights main event will be Piper Vs Hogan.
Perry Saturn with hair! (with Raven and his flock) over fit finlay by arm bar submission.
Okerlund plugs the WCW hotline - remember those?
Hollywood Hogan comes out, hes joined by Bischoff, Scott Steiner, Rick Rude, Mr Perfect, Virgil, and a few leechers. Cuts a promo on Piper and Nash.
Jericho comes out drinking a cup of water, cuts a promo on Dean Malenko calling him a quitter. He beats Marty Jannetty in a few minutes, and then cuts another promo on Malenko. This was the highlight of the show. Jericho drinks another cup of water, then picks up a 10 foot long sheet of paper, says that he knows 1004 holds, and starts reading them one by one. Except every third or fourth move he just says 'ARMBAR'
After the ad break, he's on 700 and something. Prince Ikea comes down, and Jericho runs out of the ring, and shouts up to the ref in the ring "GIVE ME MY HOLDS!" and the ref hands him down this 10 foot long sheet of paper which is all screwed up by this point, hilarious stuff!
We then got 4 matches in a row without interruption,
Ikea beat Glazer.
Juventud beat El Dando
Chavo beat a Hiyashi.
Raven Vs Buff Bagwell of the nWo was interupted when DDP chased Raven out of the building (raven had stole his belt last week)
Inferno beat a zombie-like Kidman
nWo music hits again, this time its Mr Perfect with Ravishing Rude against Jim Neidhart. Match ends when they handcuff Neidhart to the rope. Bulldog comes out to help Neidhart. Brian Adams gives a piledriver to Bulldog (a f*cking piledriver in the middle of a meaningless run-in) then Bret Hart comes out and takes out the nWo members.
Booker T and Chris Benoit goes to a time limit draw.
Physcosis and Dragon was a good match until another interference, this time from Ravens flock, this made no sense.
Goldberg gets the pop of the night, easily beats Big Boss Man. Saturn and his hair come down to get in Goldbergs face.
Michael Buffer is here, gets the crowd excitement for the first main event - Nash and a Mystery Partner Vs Sting and Luger. Before the match starts, Macho Man comes out, turns heel by attacking Sting from behind, and is revealed as Nash's partner.
Another interference, this time from Hogan, allows Nash and Savage to win. Crows through garbage in the ring (you just dont see that these days!)
Main event is Hogan Vs Piper - you guessed it, another interference. The Disciple clocks Piper from behind allowing Piper to pick up a DQ win. Nash comes out, gets on the apron, and the crowd gasp. Couldn't understand why, but after watching it again, someone threw a box of popcorn or maybe a drink in the ring that landed on top of Piper and popcorn or drink went flying everywhere.
Nash picks up Piper, hold him for Hogan to punch, but Piper ducks and Hogan clocks Nash right in the kisser. Nash is pi$$ed, then Big Show comes out to check on Piper. Nash and Hogan get out of the ring, and show ends with them talking trash to each other even though they will be tag-partners against Piper/Show at the next PPV.
Overall - Decent show but too many interferences in the matches. Of which there were 14 matches I counted by the way.
nWo had too many members at this point, but Scott Hall wasn't on the show (dont know where he was)
The cruiserweight matches were awesome short matches, but they didn't seem to mean anything because there was no evidence of any storylines here. Just seemed like every week, the cruiserweights would be rotated to wrestler a different guy each week.
No hardcore matches despite ECW being hot at this time.
So i'm gonna give my Nitro viewing a break now. Just acquired the entire ECW hardcore TV from the year 1998, and i think those shows are only an hour each, so gonna give that a shot soon.0 -
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Raw from 22/03/1999
This was the go home show before Mania 15.
Wow, now thats how the last show before Mania should go.
It started with the Corporation coming out to hype Rocky vs Austin and was followed by the now legendary Austin "Beer Bash". The beer bash is oft shown but what Ive never seen before was the promo Austin cut before breaking out the hose. It was fantastic and the fans were rabid for it.
Elsewhere there was Rock vs Mankind with Mankind going over in order for him to ref that evenings main event of Austin vs Big Show.
Kane vs Golddust didnt happen as HHH was dressed as GD and used a flame thrower into Kanes face. This was in revenge for Kane accidentally shooting flames into Chynas face two weeks before. This despite the fact Chyna had already turned on DX and joined the Corporation about a month before that.
Shane O'Mac, the then European Champion, challenged X-Pac to a "Greenwich Street Fight" out in the parking lot which was a no contest due to interference but we did get treated to the introduction of the Mean Street Posse, yahoo!
Main event was very enjoyable. Austin got the win following 5 chair shots to the Big Show, (3 very stiff unprotected head shots) and a stunner. The show closed with Rocky laying Austin out with the Rock bottom.
Watching these really puts into perspective how far the product has fallen in terms of talent and feuds (I know one feeds the other). IMO Raw really needs to go back to a 2 hour show.
Gonna watch Mania 15 tonight. Ive seen it before (6 or 7 years ago was the last time I watched it) but Im looking forward to watching it knowing all the back stories of the matches, the build etc.0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edQsVnBuc1c
![[Deleted User]](/applications/dashboard/design/images/defaulticon.png)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srP6ZP5jOLA
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