Scott,
Take a wee look at this BBC produced hour long documentary on a small promotion in Scotland called ICW. They book the usual Indie guys like Colt Cabana, Sabu, Rhyno, DeVitt and run 1000+ sell out shows in Glasgow & Edinburgh. This show aired on British national TV and drew over a million viewers on the night, more on iPlayer views later. It's a nice positive show about wrestling, a change from the usual. Thought it might interest the blog readers.
Keep up the good work!
He looked bigger on the Lucky Charms box.
ReplyDeleteI loved Tazz's catchphrase in ECW: "Beat me if you can...Survive if I let you!"
ReplyDeleteProgramming him with Bossman was death after his hot debut. They just had him just the shit kicked out of him every week to show how tough he was. Then the Radicalz came and overshadowed him.
ReplyDeleteHe did have one of the great WrestleMania moments of all time when Bundy splashed him in the Pontiac Silverdome.
ReplyDeleteTazz wasn't in ECW.
ReplyDeleteOne of Taz(z)'s memorable WWE Moments: Looking like a doofus who couldn't win with the help of Tommy Dreamer in a Champ vs. Champ Match against Triple H on Smackdown.
ReplyDeleteDidn't he live with his annoying family in Taz-Mania?
ReplyDeleteDecent theme song though.
ReplyDeleteAnd one of the worst SNES games I've ever played.
ReplyDeletefeel stupid I live in Glasgow and still haven't been to one of these shows
ReplyDeleteIt was an illegal choke against Angle.
ReplyDeleteTaz was Michael Cole's best broadcast partner. They both had a chemistry that neither was able to duplicate with anyone else.
ReplyDeleteLooking back, I can't believe I thought he had a chance in the WWF despite going bonkers over the prospect of him becoming a big name. His size alone should have stamped OBVIOUS over my head on day one.
ReplyDeleteTo this day, I don't know why they waited to bring Goldberg in. I mean, I know it was because of money. But whatever money they had to pay Goldberg to bring him in, they would have made back 10 times over by running Goldberg/Austin at SummerSlam.
ReplyDeleteWhen people talk about missed dream matches, they focus on stuff like Hogan/Flair from 1992 but Goldberg/Austin in 2001 is by far the biggest in my book. Whether you like or hate Goldberg, a match vs. Austin would have set things on fire and would have overcome any booking problems they had.
As Scott said, they brought him over two years too late, didn't know what to do with him and struck him with Triple H during Triple H's REIGN OF DOOM when he couldn't have a good match with anyone, including Shawn Michaels.
Makes me angry just thinking about it 13 years later. I watched this Raw with my college roommate, who was the biggest Goldberg mark I ever met in my life. He was so excited for an Austin/Goldberg match that he said he'd pay "any amount of money" to see it live.
Because a lot more people were going to watch SmackDown than the PPV, especially in 2002. And when you're trying to build a guy up, you want as many people as possible watch him destroy Hulk Hogan.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Brock/Hogan wasn't a draw that would get people to buy Vengeance...they were all buying that show to see The Rock come back.
So the question would be...why would you waste Brock/Hogan on a PPV when you can have 3-4 million more people see it on SmackDown??
I felt the same way. The way ECW booked him and Raven made them seem like they should hop in straight to the world title picture.
ReplyDeleteCouple bucks, tops.
ReplyDeleteYeah, he stomped a mud hole on Debra after he walked out, which was about 15 months after this.
ReplyDeleteWasn't one of the biggest problems with the Invasion was a lot of the top talent didn't want to break their current deals to just sit and home for a while (Hogan, Nash, Hall, Goldberg, Sting, Flair)? Didn't they have to wait on a lot of people, hence the screwy result of trying to book the invasion mere months before a bunch of ex-WCW big names eventually came on board?
ReplyDeleteThe Dallas Raw from 2000 when the Radicals turned heel, culminating in the 10-man. I was watching it in my dorm room and remember everyone watching and marking the fuck out. And along with the Rumble, served as the starting point for the WWF's best year ever (and fun fact, came the same week as Vince announced the XFL)
ReplyDeleteRecap: http://rspw.org/petrie/000207.txt
Oh, look. It's a thread about the Invasion. Has anyone asked why they booked the Invasion angle the way they did?
ReplyDeleteCome on...your jokes are usually of a higher caliber
ReplyDeleteMind sharing the 10% that isn't? And skip the obvious shit like Montreal and Brock/Taker.
ReplyDeleteIt was dead in those territories too. And what are you going to do? Just run 4 towns in a loop.
ReplyDeleteI stand corrected. Now the question is this: do I be a douche and edit my comment or be a man and let my mistake stand?
ReplyDeleteWhich, by the way, is basically what Warrior did at Summerslam '91; he just still had a contract, and wanted what he was promised.
ReplyDeleteThey always talk about a crowd making a match, and that crowd totally made that match even better.
ReplyDeleteI had such a bad taste from the Invasion stuff that post-SVS 2001 to June 2002 was the first hiatus I ever took from watching wrestling ever since I became a fan. So much wasted fucking potential.
ReplyDeleteYeah I was going to say that originally WWF probably did have some big plans for him, but then they signed the Radicalz and scrapped any plans they had for Tazz.
ReplyDeleteCult:9 million
ReplyDeleteParallax: 0
I was at Vengeance 2002 so it was quite different for me. Talk about your one match shows.
ReplyDeleteIf the Radicalz never come over, he probably does better. They did everything he could do but better.
ReplyDeleteI remember hearing a rumor that he was supposed to win the Intercontinental Title in 2000 but the glass going into his eye at Wrestlemania 2000 forced the plans to change. It might have worked as a short term thing.
ReplyDeleteI really feel like they missed the boat on a Tazz/Saturn tag-team. Sure, they had both deteriorated by 2000, but I always wanted to see that.
ReplyDeleteThen again, it was always rumored that they didn't get along, so who knows.
Yeah, I'm not sure that it is fair to pick on Meltzer for his 'biases' when the whole thing is so subjective in the first place.
ReplyDeleteHe was an anti-WWF guy pretty much since he started The Observer, so I don't think he's ever really cared for their particular flavor of 'pro-wrestling'. He's definitely remained consistent in that regard.
He liked a lot of the undercard guys and especially Bret and Shawn, so I'm sure their big push coming after him being in their corner for so many years gave him the warm and fuzzies and colored his feelings on the organization for awhile. Plus he loved the NWA and that gritty style, and really Bret/Austin and Shawn/Undertaker have that kind of a feel to them.
I think it's really only an issue because he's the largest voice in such a small crowd. If there were more guys who made their living as wrestling journalists it wouldn't be such a big deal that his tastes are so specific. In the end, I doubt anybody cares but us anyways, are pro-wrestlers really that worried about what Meltzer thinks of their matches?
I always liked Bossman, but he was just about the LEAST over guy on the roster for a while there.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's really how I use match ratings anyways -- you might as well just give ratings like "don't need to see it", "perfectly decent waste of 15 minutes", "go see it right now". That pretty much encompasses everything.
ReplyDeleteThe things that get me are ratings like negative stars through **. The way I read ratings, there is nothing in that group that you need to bother watching, so it seems silly to discriminate between a * and a ** match really.
Remember when he came back wearing a button-down shirt tucked into workout pants, and started feuding with the announcers?
ReplyDeleteThe fuck was THAT?!
I remember Mick Foley mentioning in his book that Tazz was a perfect example of the nasty politics in wrestling- guys who felt threatened had talked behind his back so much that he was gonna get buried as soon as he debuted.
ReplyDeleteI'll agree with that -- although his hard numbers have only really got better in the last 10 years or so, prior to that ... damn there is a lot of 'creative math'.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Bret/Austin for best WM match ever and best match ever period.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised that Rock/Austin III wasn't on here, as I feel the emotional pull of the match and lack of Crash TV Main Event Style lift it above the first encounter in terms of quality.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it still chaps my Chilean sea bass that they call WMXXV the "25th Anniversary of WrestleMania."
Yeah I watched that...but I think it was at BW3 so no worries. If I remember I was watching with some actual ring rats that we met there.
ReplyDeleteBut I did go see WM X-7 at the dome. There is no point to that sentence in context but I just wanted to brag.
But I guess here's my point: if you enjoyed it, was it a waste? Who gives a shit if Vinnie made money or if he coulda made more money? I don't get to see a penny of it. But I do get to watch a match.
ReplyDeleteDigression: I really hate these "well he could have made MORE money if he did..." debates. Maybe the money he made was worth more to him than the gamble of losing money? Its hard for me to question the business acumen of a billionaire and I guess it bugs me when we do. Could be in the minority when I say that though.
TBQH, they're my favorite announcing team post-AE. They had a great banter between them and they actually called matches very well; I often like when Cole would ask Tazz what it was like to be in a hold or in a specific predicament in a match.
ReplyDeleteIt gave us one of the coolest things in botchamania,...so all is good! ^^
ReplyDeleteI find it silly that he didn't even give Austin/Hart from SurSer '96 give snowflakes. In fact, IIRC, he only have it 3.5.
ReplyDeleteHow about stop pretending that what happened had anything to do with you or affected you in any way and separate the wrestler from the person?
ReplyDeleteIt's not hard.
I actually kinda liked that. Those taunts to Jerry--"Hey Law-luh!"--cracked me up. Then, he'd jump on the headset a couple of times and mimic what a mockery Lawler's commentary had become (as soon as he uttered the word "puppies," it was the beginning of the end in terms of quality for Lawler). Overall, the feud felt beneath Tazz, but that feud probably won him his job as a commentator about 18 months later.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad TNA is still paying him. Can you imagine being an announcer in WWE, trying to call the action and tell the story while Vince is literally screaming in your ear?
ReplyDeleteI wasn't checking things out online at the time, so Tazz showing up at the 2000 Rumble was a huge shocker to me. I knew who he was from PWI, and some really late night ECW viewing. But as soon as he showed up, I couldn't believe how small he was. I just never noticed it in ECW. Heyman just hid weaknesses so well.
ReplyDeleteWWF vs. WCW should have gone down as the single greatest angle in the history of professional wrestling. Period.
ReplyDeleteSigh...
Actually it is hard, especially if you're a person who was a huge fan of Benoit and championed him as a guy who was the best wrestler in the world but never good enough to win the big one. But when he murders his loved ones, it leaves a bad taste not just as a fan of Benoit but wrestling itself for creating circumstances that may have contributed to the tragedy.
ReplyDeleteI'm torn. I don't mind when people talk about how good OJ was at football, but then again I don't think injuries OJ sustained while playing football drove him to kill his ex-wife. I think the brain damage Benoit had came directly from professional wrestling and played a large part in his decision to kill his family. I don't mind watching a Benoit match every now and then, but I can completely understand why the McMahons wouldn't want him associated with their brand when they can avoid mentioning him. I doubt they'll ever completely erase him from their catalog, and maybe in 10 or 20 years the stigma will be gone, Until then, you know the match was good. You know they know the match was good. Who gives a shit?
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why the Cole/JBL combo doesn't get more love. I feel like JBL does a much better job than Tazz ever did.
ReplyDeleteJust an awesome avatar and screen name.
ReplyDeleteTazz and Angle feuding for the Euorpean title seemed like such a natural feud after his hot debut, but like everyone else is poinging out, the Radicalz came in a pushed Tazz far down the card. Plus he got himself injured pretty soon after his debut and missed most of May, June and July. By then too much was set in motion for him to do anyhting BUT feud with the announcers.
ReplyDeleteThis six-man from Smackdown I'm watching is the tits.
Did people ever really like Tazz?
ReplyDeleteSo this marked the very beginning of the InVasion in a way... and the day after it ended... Ric Flair showed up.
ReplyDeleteI tried to get tickets for tomorrow's show but they were sold out. It looks like a lot of fun.
ReplyDeleteIT'S TAZ!
ReplyDeleteThe best thing about that whole Brock/Hogan match... is how Vince pitched it to Hogan.
ReplyDelete"So you go down for Lesnar, put him over big... and you'll be out for a bit selling the injury. Lesnar's going to run over everyone for the next few months... but we have Survivor Series in November... and guess who's making his return, to Madison Square Garden, to claim the WWE Championship... The Immortal, Hulk Hogan!"
Bret cares!
ReplyDeleteThat's a good way to look at it. I'm just curious as to what was going through his mind when he thought "Nope, docking this one a little bit."
ReplyDeletePeople complain about Tommy Hall (or maybe Bayless, I always get the two confused) using letter grades to rate matches, but I think that's the way to go. I only use the * scale just because everyone else does.
ReplyDeleteFucking love that song... but it has to do with me seeing Filter at age 18 and witnessing a wheelchair bound guy crowd surfing during that song, chair and all.
ReplyDeleteThe letter grades are interesting, but they confuse me too.
ReplyDeleteHe gives a lot of 'B-' kinda grades for what I consider "go out of your way a little to see this match" matches, but a B- seems like a decent but not great rating to me.
Based on the scale, I assume an 'A+' grade is like a 'MOTY' candidate, but he gives out a lot of A's and then all the pluses and minuses muddy the waters even more for me.
I personally like Scott's old Coliseum Home Video point system -- a point if it's worth watching, no point if it's not, and then a ratio at the end of the good to the bad.
I think Meltzer went ***** for Punk/Cena from Chicago.
ReplyDeleteIT'S YERSEL! (or me, who sent the email)
ReplyDeleteAccording to Scott's "original" FAQ that this site is named for, ** is considered average, or I guess a "C", but a lot of people don't look at it that way. I mean, to me giving a match **1/2 means that it was decent but nothing special, some people that read my ROH reviews thought that rating meant I was shitting on it.
ReplyDeleteAs long as we're not using the 10-point rating scale I'm cool. I HATE the 10-point rating scale for anything.
I may have just seen the Scottish Dusty Rhodes. That Grado guy has more charisma than like 3/4ths of WWE's current roster combined.
ReplyDeleteAh - I'd heard the name of this but I had no idea it was about wrestling. Will have to watch.
ReplyDeleteInteresting times for ICW. Until now they'be been a PGW level operation, running a dozen shows a year in front of 500 people who are mad for the product, but no-one is making a living from them. In the last year they've started playing larger venues and their first show in London is soon. So do they make the transition to the next level of playing a regular schedule in front of 1,000-2,000 audiences or does it all go wrong? Finger's crossed for them.
ReplyDeleteI posted this on the blog comments weeks ago and you just ignored it, Keithy! :-)
ReplyDeleteICW are a cracking show. Wish I could get along to more of them, but the timing is never great.
Hopefully it's all good news. They sold out another 1000+ show in Glasgow tonight, and the London show is going well by all accounts. Another show in Edinburgh in May is selling strongly too, and importantly, the rumblings are all good about the future.
ReplyDelete