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The SmarK Rant for Monday Night RAW–04.08.96

The SmarK Rant for Monday Night RAW – 04.08.96

They have thankfully fixed the server issues with the Network and Roku is working perfectly tonight, so apparently some of that new budget actually went to dealing with the problems they were denying having.

Taped from San Bernadino, CA

Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Mr. Perfect

Yokozuna v. The Man They Call Vader

This would be the first time they pulled out that name for Vader, I think, as he had been off TV for the past couple of months with shoulder surgery. I can just hear Art Donovan on commentary yelling HOW MUCH DOES THIS GUY WEIGH over and over for this match. Of note: Mr. Fuji is now at ringside waving the American flag. OK then. They exchange slaps and Yoko puts him down with a samoan drop, but Vader clotheslines him as Vince promises that they’ll start the show early every week from now on. That can’t have lasted long. Vader beats Yoko down in the corner, but Yoko comes back with a uranage and legdrop, and Vince declares it a “clash of BOHEMETHS”, which is a unique Vince-ism. Yoko pounds away in the corner, but Vader trips him up and splashes his ankle and the ref calls for the bell at 3:27. Vince sells it as a broken leg, and we get weird overdubbed ring announcing from Finkel declaring Vader the winner by ref stoppage. In a cool visual, they bring out a forklift to take Yokozuna away and tend to his broken leg. Nothing as a match, but it made Vader look like a killer.

The Ultimate Warrior makes his RAW debut, cutting a nonsensical promo that pops the crowd anyway, until Goldust interrupts his maniacal ramblings because he wants to play superheros with him. Warrior’s response: “What is, is, and whatever you’re into, I don’t give a shit.” In other words, QUEERING DON’T MAKE THE WORLD WORK. Warrior punks him out and sends him running to end the segment. This show has Vince Russo written ALL over it.

Meanwhile, we return to Yokozuna’s treatment, where Vader interrupts and smashes a chair into his already-broken leg because he’s kind of a jerk.

Hunter Hearst Helmsley v. Duke Droese

Really, Duke was still getting TV time at this point? Droese attacks and sends Hunter fleeing, and back in we get a Flair Flip from Hunter. Press slam follows, but Duke charges and hits the floor. Hunter sends him into the stairs to take over and comes back in with a double axehandle for two. Perfect notes that Hunter might be focusing too much on his valets and should focus on the match more, which actually turned into an angle that paid off pretty big later in the year. We take a break and return with Droese escaping the Pedigree and making the comeback. Atomic drop into a spinebuster and he follows with a powerslam, but Hunter escapes the Trash Compactor and finishes with the Pedigree at 6:33. Hunter was actually improving tremendously at this point, moving past his initial snob character and becoming more of a snotty heel in general. Good TV match. **1/2

Meanwhile, Yokozuna gets loaded into the ambulance (“Like Free Willy”, notes Perfect).

Arm Wrestling match: Ahmed Johnson v. British Bulldog

Owen Hart is hilarious here, bitching about everything Ahmed does. Why didn’t anyone think of putting Owen and Bulldog together as a team before now? Finally Jack Doan has enough of Owen and sends him away, and with no further stalling Ahmed quickly wins the actual match. And then Bulldog of course attacks him and just destroys him with chairshots and whips him into the table, which is so loaded up with Ahmed’s oil that it doesn’t break. So Bulldog does it again. Still no breakage, so he just drops the table on him whole. That table is so fired. Probably a WCW spy. Great angle and Owen Hart as the insufferable little bastard was tremendous. Of note, the Observer reported on the tapings and specifically listed Shane McMahon as the referee, but it was actually Jack Doan and Vince even called him by name, so I have no idea where that came from.

Shawn Michaels v. Jerry Lawler

Big D is on commentary, wearing a Shawn Michaels shirt, as Vince works hard to get “Good Friends, Better Enemies” over as a catchphrase. Smart move, since In Your House VII was the first one to be officially subtitled. Nash was just on fire at this point, just before jumping to WCW. Shawn wins a comedy slugfest with Lawler and stops to high five fans at ringside. Back in, Lawler finds his phantom foreign object and takes over with a cheapshot. He chokes away as we take a break, and return with Lawler hammering away from the floor while Shawn sells on the apron. Piledriver gets two. Lawler goes up and gets nailed coming down, and Shawn makes the comeback with the flying elbow. Shawn stops to jaw at Diesel and Lawler goes to the tights again, but charges into a superkick for the pin at 10:34. You’d think this would be a huge trainwreck, but it was totally fine. **1/2 Diesel goes in and slugs it out with Shawn, and Perfect tosses him the title belt to really lay Shawn out. I love that Diesel made sure to take off his watch and sunglasses before kicking Shawn’s ass.

The Pulse

Best episode of the show in ages, actually. Three strong angles and some good wrestling make this one a solid thumbs up show.

Comments

  1. Warrior's promo here is ahead of its time. His swearing in interviews was awesome.

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  2. Vader was ahead of his time.

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  3. Seriously... who WOULDN'T want to hear a curse-laden Ultimate Warrior promo of Pulp Fiction proportions?

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  4. This short period between WM and the Shawn-Diesel IYH is really good. After that, '96 gets weird for a while.

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  5. I've always wondered if Vince gave Warrior to curse on this episode by saying 'shit', or if Warrior just did it without asking. Vince has a look on his face briefly like he's super pissed when Warrior says it.

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  6. Theberzerker, #1 HUSS CHOMPIONApril 3, 2015 at 7:30 PM

    I'm very interested in these, because this was when I officially "defected" to WCW because I could not STAND the "boyhood dream" crap with Shawn and was a huge Bret mark. So I haven't seen or remember any of these until mid-98.

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  7. Theberzerker, #1 HUSS CHOMPIONApril 3, 2015 at 7:31 PM

    I can sort of see him trying to evolve his character during this time, injecting a little more "reality" to it.

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  8. What, Ice Train vs. Scott Norton didn't bring the thrills?

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  9. are we getting Show/Kane vs Reigns/Ryback at Backlash? Man, that's going to kill him off for good.

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  10. The NXT Cruiserweight Championship limit would have to be like... 165lbs.

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  11. I remember this one - Nash said something like "I'm just a member if the kliq - aren't we all?" When asked why he was wearing the hbk shirt. Good stuff.

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  12. He also ended the promo by saying "I've got a full length action packed adventure for you. Me kicking your ass, from beginning to end!" before attacking Goldust. Too bad their IC title match blew.

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  13. Was there ever any consideration of programming Perfect with Shawn during this period? It seemed like they kept having Perfect involved in his storyline. He throws Diesel the belt here, then refs the KOTR match, but then he never ended up wrestling for WWE in '96.

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  14. Pretty sure the story was Lloyds of London would stop insuring him if he wrestled.

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  15. So then what happened at the end of '96 when it seemed like he was going to be feuding with Mero?

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  16. And the suplex he murdered Inoki with founded that city.

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  17. Swerve to put the IC title on Hunter?

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  18. HHH's Flair flip always looks way more dangerous when he does it than when Flair does it.

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  19. And then to make matters worse Ahmed gets his thumb broken during the segment too.

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  20. When did Goldust hurt his knee? It seems like they could have put Warrior against someone else to give us a moderately better match.

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  21. IIRC, it was on an overseas tour of Germany before the PPV.

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  22. The steiners were the best tag team ever they got great mat he's out of the.nasty boys and freebirds. I would have loved to see them do better in the wwe but like Scott said Vince didn't create them so they aren't great. If you want a hidden gem watch them vs the midnight express. It's on the web and well worth your time

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  23. Virgil's Gimmick TableApril 3, 2015 at 8:17 PM

    Until November when it got awesome.

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  24. Virgil's Gimmick TableApril 3, 2015 at 8:17 PM

    Warrior was in full attitude era badass mode here. I wish we had seen a match between him and Shawn.

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  25. I wonder what that flag match from Halifax (my hood!) would've been like had it been an 8 man with Austin/Foley/Taker/Warrior vs The Hart Foundation. Or, have him take Goldust place at Canadian Stampede.

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  26. Didn't Raw & Nitro fuck around for awhile with starting earlier than the other. First it was 2 minutes then 3 before they both said fuck it and started at the top of the hour.

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  27. I know revisionist history now paints Warrior as someone special, but after his 1996 run and then of course his 1998 run in WCW he pretty much killed his character.

    Also his ramblings and blog posts in post retirement in the early 2000s really made him seem like quite the jerk. I vividly remember when Bulldog died he had a blog post about how terrible the wrestlers that died young took care of themselves and that he was above it. Also had a lot to say about Dibiase.

    There were tons of posts, he was very arrogant, rambled on and on about politics, and generally was very combative.

    Funny those are no longer available on the Internet and now warrior gets his own award at the hall of fame.

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  28. I don't know. I'm pretty sure none of that actually happened. I mean, he's dead and all.

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  29. Someone special is putting it lightly. He's basically a rung under Hogan and Austin according to the 'E's current history, which confuses me greatly. They are so, so protective of their image, but they erected a f*cking STATUE to Mr. Warrior Warrior.

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  30. Dumbest move Vince did was make Nash look like a trillion dollars before he jumped. Has to be a back story to that.

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  31. Found the lost! Internet way back machine!

    web.archive.org/web/20040603203214/http://www.ultimatewarrior.com/ww.06.06.02.htm

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  32. The actual quote was - I'm part of the kliq. Isn't everybody?

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  33. I don't get it either. It sure seemed as if he mellowed, which is fine, but he was a lunatic for over a decade.

    The hall of fame induction was fine, but they kind of are going over the top with him

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  34. Alot of people point at Rude, MX, etc. on those most deserving for HOF. I point 1st at the Steiners. Its a shame that the greatest tag team of all time is barred cause of some stupid beef between Scott and Vince/Hunter

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  35. Mainly because he did it quicker (ah, youth).

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  36. I agree vince loves have guys by the balls and keeping them there. I loved the steiners back then and still can't belive the moves they had. To me scott steiner was like if there was a brock lesnar in the 90s with his size strength agility.

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  37. Yea hunter sandbagged him and put the blame on scott for the bad matches

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  38. Isn't Halifax an hour ahead if eastern time? That must make watching live sports a pain

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  39. Vince was still trying to sign Hall up until the time he left so I imagine he was doing the same with Nash.

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  40. Yeah, Raw would finish around 11 or midnight, can't remember which. There were many a time, I'd nod off to Thunder. Although, that was likely due to it being Thunder.

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  41. Agree, it has definitely reminded me of early to mid 90s vader

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  42. I remember this episode! I thought it was one of the better RAWs. Bulldog's heel turn disappointed me so much.

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  44. Exactly. When the Rock and Roll Express and Midnight Express were at their hottest they were main eventing B live shows for Crockett in 1986 and outdrawing shows headlined by no less than Ric Flair. The Steiners vs. Doc & Gordy main evented Beach Blast '92 that had a Sting-Cactus falls count anywhere match and Rude-Steamboat Iron Man on the card. A different world. I miss it.

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  46. Wasn't it a done deal by this point that they were both going to wcw?

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  48. No idea, to be honest. The MSG Curtain Call took place May 19 and he debuted on Nitro June.

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  49. Take with a grain of salt, but Nash's shoot (the timeline I think), he's in the shower and tells Hall to let Bischoff know he's on board, Hall is so happy he's not going alone, he almost hugs Nash in the shower, was kinda funny.

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  50. Mene Gene - for what it is worth - reported on the hotline in Feb that they both were going.

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  51. I think the key to it all is that Warrior was really part of the McMahon family in an adoptive sort of way, with Vince and Warrior having a father-son sort of relationship that soured on and off over the years, but they eventually ended up back in each other's good graces right before he died. Vince is really shaken up in that documentary they did on Warrior when he was talking about that copy of The Little Engine That Could that he got from him, kind of like how a dad would react if their wayward son who had just come home had then died.

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  52. I remember this one, too. "I'm part of the Kliq. Isn't everybody?" remains one of the all-time funny heel lines.

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  53. Unless I'm missing someone else, Warrior is the only person Vince has gotten sentimental over that wasn't his Dad. I think Vince definitely looked at him as another son.

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  54. Is the beef that HHH couldn't carry Scott out of a negative stars match?

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  55. Mr. Glass thought Ahmed was fragile. He got injured every other fucking week.

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  56. There's even a moment during the GF,BE match where he stops to taunt and threaten Vince McMahon. Nothing is ever outright stated but it was a very cool shoot-looking vibe (and not Vince Russo bullshit, either).

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  57. Hennig was trying to double-dip by collecting the insurance policy and also telling Vince he was going to wrestle again and he got caught by Lloyd's and kicked off the policy. In fact after that they refused to insure any more wrestlers. He was basically forced to come out of retirement and then miraculously got a bigger deal from WCW anyway. He really was a genius in a lot of ways.

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  58. Yep. Nitro had been starting 2 or 3 minutes before the hour, so starting with this episode Raw moved to an official, announced start time of 8:57. Naturally Nitro moved from starting 2-3 minutes early to 5-6, and this continued until Nitro went to 2 hours a few weeks later.

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  59. I think what specifically killed it was announcing Perfect vs. HHH to take place on Raw. At one point I think they actually were going to have a match and then do the swerve later, but Perfect wouldn't drop his policy, and Lloyd's ended up doing it for him.

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  60. I hate Warrior but I have to begrudgingly give him SOME credit for at least attempting to update his image in this run. The blather about "normals" and cosmic destiny and whatever is still there, but way toned down from the 1990 bullshit, and he talked about kicking people's ass more instead of about lifting film from their eyes and injecting poison into their veins.

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  61. One of the funniest moments of the 1997 WWF Timeline is Cornette's rant about having to go to Halifax for that show. It takes a day longer to get in and get out, it's an hour ahead of the Eastern Time Zone, and "if you're not there to farm or fish, you're fucked."

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  62. Man I really enjoy the Lethal Weapon films over the Die Hard ones.

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  63. I wonder what Shane Douglas' reaction was to hearing Warrior swear: "That's f**king gimmick infringement, you son of a b****! I'll kick your *** and make you wish you were g****n retired!"

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  64. I wonder how much of a loose cannon Scott Steiner really is, and how much of it is a "work". His solo work seems very comparable to Sid, both are very polarizing, fans either think they're great or the shits.

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  65. Adam "Colorado" CurryApril 3, 2015 at 10:43 PM

    Scott is a hell of a lot better in the ring than Sid.

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  66. They probably told Vince they were taking Eric's offer, but couldn't actually take the offer until the WWF deal was finished.

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  67. I'm gonna watch a random Raw with Scott Steiner facing Ludwig Borga. Holy shit ITS LIVE!

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  68. Virgil's Gimmick TableApril 3, 2015 at 10:56 PM

    He was in touch with the wrestling climate at the time. Which was rare for the older guys back then.

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  69. Virgil's Gimmick TableApril 3, 2015 at 10:57 PM

    Even more intense. That's for sure.

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  70. I thought the same thing in 93 about the Steiners. A major wasted opportunity.

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  71. He ain't lying!

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  72. People say stupid shit when they feel betrayed and are bitter and angry. Warrior apparently thought of Vince as a father and Vince screwed him over multiple times.

    That doesn't excuse some of the shitty things Warrior said over the years, but it at least explains it.

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  73. You mean Scotty's virulently homophobic rants against Jason? Yeah, those were insane, but they made him the FACE with the ECW crowd. Kind of insane when you think about it.

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  74. The only reason I want the Steiners inducted into the Hall of Fame is because I want Scott Steiner to have a live mic on the network.

    "You wanna redneck trump?"

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  75. But seriously, my two favorite Scott Steiner stories of all time comes from the Observer:

    "Barry Darsow (doing his
    golfer gimmick) was supposed to wrestle Hammer, and blew it off saying
    that he had an early tee time and left. ...Scott Steiner then yelled
    over the p.a. at the crowd 'Blow me'." - The Wrestling Observer Newsletter: October 12, 1998

    "Nobody has any idea why
    they brought a live tiger from the zoo to accompany Steiner to the ring
    on Nitro. Backstage, when he was trying to get a photo with the tiger,
    the tiger nearly took a chuck out of Rey Mysterio's eye" - The Wrestling Observer Newsletter: October 10, 2000.

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  76. Steiner's bombed in WWF because they weren't allowed to literally beat the crap out of anyone that got in the ring with them... and there were upset about it!

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  77. Freakzilla/Big Poppa Pump Steiner? It's close. Steiner of the late 80's until about 1995 is a no-brainer.

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  78. anyone watching around Starrcade 88 knows Rick Steiner was the real star of the team... unless you watched Rick in NWA before he brought his brother in


    according to Bill Watt's book they wanted to turn Scott heel in the summer of 92 and even Rick was excited and trying to talk Scott into it but he wouldn't go for it...


    Scott had some great moves, but Rick was the guy that could hold a match together... and Rick was stiff but Scott was outright dangerous

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  79. think HHH's beef is that Steiner couldn't pull him out of negative stars... the matches were bad not because Steiner couldn't deliver suplexes (he could) but we could all see that HHH couldn't move enough to take the bumps... and to cover he immediately put the hate on him backstage...


    and it never made sense that HHH thought Scott was that terrible... then books himself to beat him again on ppv the next month anyway... yeah

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  80. hidden Steiner gems; vs Bret/Owen Hart on a home video, i think Wrestlefest'94


    Clash of Champions 12 vs Hunter and Silencer... it's a squash but the crowd is rabid

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  81. Owen Hart on commentary at KOTR'96 is some of the most hilarious heel commentary in the business, ever


    (after Dox forgets to mention Owen when throwing it back to ringside)
    "Hey, Dox! What about me? There are three people sitting here you idiot!"

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  82. always liked it when Nash threw his leather vest on top of Vince doing commentary at ringside instead of handing it to the ring attendant

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  83. agreed... Hall getting in way too much offense against Vader at the ppv was a dumb move to

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  84. They weren't really a good fit for the WWF in that era. Nearly everybody in the WWF was a cartoon character by that point, but the Steiners didn't really have a "gimmick" as such. In the NWA / WCW, they were pushed as legit athletes and they wrestled stiff. That was never really on the cards in the WWF.
    Also, the tag team division had already nearly tanked by that point in the WWF, so it wasn't like there were many good teams for the Steiners to feud with. Going from wrestling The Midnight Express, Sting & Lex Luger and Steve Williams & Terry Gordy to The Beverly Brothers and The Headshrinkers was a bit of a comedown, to say the least.
    The Steiners probably didn't help their own case by being disgruntled with the business in general by that point. Bill Watts cut them loose from WCW because they were on guaranteed contracts, and Watts wanted to get rid of all the guaranteed contracts in order to slash overheads. The WWF weren't offering guaranteed contracts either, but Vince probably regaled the Steiners with tales of how much they would be making in bonuses. Problem being that house show attendances were way down by that point, so nobody was getting decent bonuses.
    Going to the WWF was supposed to be moving to the big time, but the bottom line was that the Steiners were making less money than they did with WCW and New Japan. They went from being a marquee attraction in WCW, where they were almost on an equal footing with Sting and Ric Flair, to curtain jerking with the Quebecers in the WWF. Understandably, they were pretty pissed off with McMahon and the WWF in general.

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  85. I know Owen was supposed to get out of the wrestling business entirely once he finally hung it up, but I wonder if he could've been convinced to stick around as a commentator. Imagine him bickering with JR on Raw or Cole on Smackdown throughout the 2000s? I miss Owen so much.

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  86. Rick was an excellent tag team wrestler. But by the time they broke up he was a formulaic shell of a wrestler. And his WCW single run was stiff as shit and reckless.

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  87. STEINER: GIVE ME A FUCKING MIC.
    VINCE: YOU HAVE A MIC.
    STEINER: I'M DOING YOU AN EGG. GIT MY BAGS. GITTTTTT MY BAGS!

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  88. the idea of him being a "gay basher" was behind its time though.

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  89. didn't Bret Hart and Vince have a similar relationship?

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  90. I didn't knew the Steiners before they came to WWF but I thought they did fit in with their "college athlete flashy outfits" gimmick. The team that didn't fit was IMO the Heavenly Bodies, because they looked like a jobber team from the 70s.

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  91. lol @ he ALMOST hugs him.

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  92. Nash and Hall have both stated that there was no "bad blood" between them and Vince. I guess it's a case of the latter liking them and wanting to be kind of "civil about it" instead of "burying" them (which, as you point out, might have made more sense from a business standpoint).

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  93. starting a few minutes earlier and almost immediatly giving away the competitions results. what a glorious (but clever) dick move.

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  94. I'll edit that for you:

    "Shortly thereafter, the Steiners unceremoniously lose the belts 3 months into their reign to the newcomer Quebecers, the greatest Intercontinenal Champion of all time teamed up with a rookie."

    Better

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  95. They always had nice things to say to each other. Russo called him a genius

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  96. Cornette complaining about something? No way

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  97. Somehow I can see Scott/Steph rumors being more legit than the Savage ones...

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  98. Vince looked at Bret as one of his millennial sons.

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  99. Lol dont remember what it stemmed from. Yea those matches were rough

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  100. Nearly 11 minutes? So stupid.

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  101. Not by Good Friends, Better Enemies. They were gone.

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  102. Well Hogan did defend against the Mask Superstar, so in a way he did defend against Ax.

    (Dead silence)

    I'll see myself out.

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  103. So Scott has always been BPP after all then?

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  104. It's kind of crazy that out of all the late-80s guys, Warrior somehow figured out how to make his character more realistic and updated. He flaked out before it could go into high gear but looking back he fit in way better than he should have (baseball hat, swearing).

    Every other guy on that level from that era (Hogan, Savage) had to turn heel to find that jump in character. Warrior didn't.

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  105. I still wish they bring back the Tax gimmick and give it to somebody. Brock comes close to the shoot elements, but I always loved the phrase - Beat me if you can, survive if I let you.

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  106. Better Bob Backlund gimmick:

    1978 monotone champion

    1984 prototype with the screaming

    1993 monotone

    1994 heel Mr. Bob Backlund

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  107. Which Raw was it where Lawler hit the piledriver and Shawn leaped up, no selling it? That was beyond fucked up. I mean a hoss, sure. But Michaels? Lawler must've fucking hated the Clique.

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  108. But the baseball bat ruined that painting angle 'blah blah blah.'

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  109. I can see that working. I mean one Raw or Smackdown a week and one PPV a month? For six figures a year? And minimal physical contact? I can see Owen being down for that. And Vince yelling at Owen and Owen fucking trolling Vince on air would've been amazing.

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  110. Steiner hates people from Russia.

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  111. Threadjack, but it's a damn shame we didn't get 1990 talent Steiner and 2000 promo Steiner versus current day Rusev. Steiner breaking Rusev's streak while cutting hilariously incoherent promos? That'd be amazing.

    RUSEV: Russia is best.
    STEINER: I'M GONNA SHOW LANA THE BIG DIPPER, THEN YOU'RE DOING ME AN EGG.

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  112. I believe this was an early example of Vince pushing the envelope due to the Monday Night War. Ratings were close and he wanted an edge, and it would only grow from there.

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  113. To be honest, I've always felt Warrior was a bigoted, hateful, judgmental shithead, and I'm still scratching my head on why everyone know seems to prop up the guy like some sort of glowing role model. I kept my mouth shut when he died because that was hardly the appropriate time, obviously, but since some time has passed and its been brought up, seriously, fuck that guy.

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  114. Another big problem is that there were no teams in the WWE at the time that worked a style that was cohesive with the Steiners.

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  115. It's kind of interesting how a lot of the angles done to get Vader over a monster heel were repeated with Austin a year later...and they got him over as a super face.

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  116. It was the PERFECT PLAN!

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  117. I started watching King of the Ring 96 yesterday with Vince, JR, and Owen on commentary. His heel color commentary was another thing to put on the list of "ways Owen Hart was underrated"

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  118. From what I read and hear he's always been that way backstage. ECW was the first time he was the character on camera

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  119. Rick as the star of the team lasted only until the early '90s. By then everyone saw Scott as this insane physical specimen that should probably be doing something else. That doesn't mean Rick was awful, though. He was actually very good until like '96.

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  121. Fat, Ugly Inner-City SweathogApril 4, 2015 at 11:50 AM

    Luger & Steiners should have banded together in WWF as an unstoppable force. It doesn't even matter that they had history in WCW, but they could have been some sort of "All-American" stable, like a babyface version of the Varsity Club.


    I contend that the Steiners should have gone undefeated from their title win until a worthy contender came along. The tag division was not particularly strong, but Money Inc. and the Quebecers were great foils for them.

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  123. 1994. He really took that to a high level.

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  124. But say what you want: I loved that SummerSlam match-up!

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  125. If only it had led to WMX it had been great.

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  126. He probably just went to the zoo and took a tiger home with him as a pet, because why the fuck not.

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  127. I was really really shocked that he was only threatening hogan and not attempting to have sex with Hogan's wife. I can so see him yelling at her to come have a real freak of nature and not a bald headed freak, all at the baggage claim.

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  128. Different styles, different purposes. Incomparable.

    What's the better movie? Die Hard or Amadeus?

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  129. But wait. According to Shawn and Nash, Hall and Nash should be applauded for getting the first guaranteed contracts in wrestling lol. I don't get how vince was mad Shawn brought that up when he was completely wrong

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  130. Watch any squash match with them in WWF. They BEAT the shit out of everyone

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  131. So who's fault was it. Scott's or hunters? Hunter had great matches when he wanted and when he didn't want to we get shit matches like the rvd kane booker t Goldberg steiner and any wcw guy that wasn't on his "level"

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  132. Well, seeing as how Steiner was tearing it up having 3* matches for years prior and years after, its really quite clear.

    I really liked the Booker T match, and the Kane match was as good a Kane match as any. RVD was never going to work out well with HHH....that's some serious style mismatch. As for Goldberg...half the matches were serviceable...but aside from DDP, I'm trying hard to think of a good Goldberg match that lasted more than 6 minutes.

    On the other hand, we got a guy who has more 5* matches under his belt than anyone else under contract. Just breaking down the numbers really.

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  133. Yea that's true but jericho got a really good match out of goldberg.and Lance storm got a good match out of steiner. Steiner was dealing with a foot injury but HHH is being sold as a modern day flair and should have been able to make a good match. Flair got a good match out of El Gigante.so hunter gets no sympathy from me.I feel like he was big leaguing the wcw guys imo

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  134. Fair enough. That's what's awesome about opinions. They don't have to be rooted in reality.

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  135. It is my opinion that hunter cared little for getting guys he didn't like or care about over. when he wanted to he does a great job at it like Benoit or batista.wwe lost alot of stars 02-03 and some of the wcw ecw guys could have been something more than a one time main event

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  136. If you say so. But Guerrero, Mysterious, Booker T, Dudleys, Jericho, RVD, etc etc would disagree with you.

    Again, you're more than welcome to your opinion. Enjoy. Its just not grounded in any form of reality. Statistically.

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  137. Goldberg was a dick but knew he can't get away with that with vince and he tried to with jericho and got embarrassed steiner alot of guys say was a cool guy but very intense and would explode which probably was due to roids.I'm not sure what the list of guys was for though.

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  138. Dude, are you trolling me or something?

    First off...you have no idea what Goldberg knew or didn't know...second, by all accounts (including his own, though he's proud of it) he was a dick that was hard to work with.

    A "cool guy who would explode is not someone you want to be in a ring or even a room with. And I think we've all seen how easy he is to get along with.

    And seriously? That's a list of WCW guys who became World champs. Let alone another list of guys who were over. Most of those guys worked with HHH too.

    Again, I respect that you have your opinion...it just doesn't seem

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  139. Ok I'll say this HHH didn't put anyone over that he didn't feel was on his level idc what happens now but back then he didn't I don't how you're the smartest man in wrestling to question what I know but honestly idc anymore about 2003 raw I hated it then and hate it now one guy cuts everyone down for w.e reason guys today act like he's great because his position in the company and maybe he changed but I'm talking about then

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  140. ...I really couldn't understand a word you wrote. I think most of it is English, but not entirely sure.

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  141. Ok now you're trolling so I'll say this fuck off or suck hunters dick since you love him so much

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  142. See that time I did understand...and if you are seriously anti-HHH I would say you're pretty ignorant of the man's accomplishments. Or drinking some serious kool aid. Both?

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  143. No, really...go reread this. Can YOU understand what you wrote? I'm not even being picky about not having any punctuation, but I can't read it because of words that don't go together "back then he didn't I I don't how you're the smartest man in wrestling to question what I know" - what does that even mean??

    So yeah dude...I think you're just taking the piss.

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  144. You're still responding I thought I thought I told to suck hunters dick

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  145. You thought you thought? I dunno man, did you tell me to suck a hunters dick? I can't tell what you're writing..

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