The SmarK Rant for Monday Night RAW – 01.09.95
For those keeping track, this was intended as something of a reset for the show, with the second anniversary providing a new booking direction under Jim Ross. Also, the banners and microphones are now redone with the new blue motif for the logo.
Live from Houston, TX, finally in a damn arena. There looks to be tons of empty seats and blacked out sections, but baby steps. Actual attendance: 3500. Ouch.
Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Shawn Michaels
William Shatner cuts a promo about his impending interview with Jerry Lawler. He’s not here to fight!
Intercontinental title: Razor Ramon v. Owen Hart
Taping in the Summit arena pays immediate visual dividends, giving the show a much more open feel instead of the claustrophobic and depressing halls from the past two months. Owen showboats with the belt, but Ramon takes exception to he who would mess with his gold and beats on Owen before slamming him off the top for two. Ramon goes to work on the arm and controls that, then slugs Owen down for two. Razor catches a crossbody attempt and turns it into the fallaway slam, but Owen backdrops him to the floor to take over. Owen with a dive and back in with a bodypress, but Razor rolls through for two as we take a break. Back with the Owenzuigiri for two and he chokes away for two. They slug it out and Owen catches him with the leg lariat for two and hits the chinlock. Flying forearm gets two. Backbreaker gets two. Sleeper follows and things are looking bad, but Ramon suplexes out and gets two. Razor makes the comeback with the chokeslam and they head up, but Owen drops him on the top rope right on the ol’ razor’s edge. Sharpshooter, but Bret Hart runs in for the DQ at 15:13 and beats the hell out of his brother. Jeff Jarrett comes in to attack Ramon, but the babyfaces send him packing. This was a HELL of a TV match before the cheap ending. ***1/2
Royal Rumble Report with Todd. Aren’t 60 second intervals just AWESOME?
Hakushi v. Matt Hardy
Matt tries to flip around him, but Hakushi superkicks him and follows with a top rope shoulderblock. Slingshot splash finishes at 1:10. Shit, I was hoping for him to bust out the SPACE FLYING TIGER DROP in his debut.
The King’s Court with William Shatner. Oooooh, I remember this show. Trainwreck incoming. Shatner is just there to plug Tekwar, but Lawler gets in his face one time too many and it’s KIRK v. KING. And Shatner takes him down with a monkey flip, so Bret Hart runs in and endorses him after the fact. Where were you when Lawler was trying to beat him up? Bret’s being kind of an asshole this week.
Meanwhile, a video strives to convince us that Pam Anderson gives a shit about who wins the Rumble.
King Kong Bundy v. Gary Sabaugh
Avalanche and we’re out at 0:23. Apparently the show was running super long and Vince was freaking out about getting the tuxedo match in before time ran out. Now they’d just do a 25 minute overrun and take their time.
Kama: still headed in, whether you like it or not.
Tuxedo match: Howard Finkel v. Harvey Wippleman
Well at least this should be short. So yeah, they roll around trying to disrobe each other as you see Finkel’s reward for decades of service and loyalty live on national TV. Fink actually gets stripped first, but apparently still has his cumberbund on so he wins at 2:30. I feel like this professional wrestling match may not have been entirely contested on the up-and-up. Like you even have to guess what this gets. -***** And then they actually went SHORT so we get a minute of Finkel and the Bushwackers dancing around the ring to use up the remaining TV time.
Next Week: Jeff Jarrett v. Bret Hart, with Shatner involved somehow.
The Pulse: Ramon v. Owen was tremendous, the rest was hot garbage on a stick. But hey, one great match is enough to justify these 45 minute shows at least.
Monkey flip?!?
ReplyDelete-***** seems like an impossible rating for this. If this were 10 minutes, maybe.
ReplyDeleteHaven't seen it since it aired but it's seared into my retinas. -***** is a bit much but it's really, REALLY bad.
ReplyDeleteTrue fact, since this feud spanned multiple promotions: Howard Finkle was a fucking incredible heel as part of the WWF Memphis invasion. I think he legit had the goods to be a successful heel manager.
I find myself totally baffled that Diesel didn't get any Shatner rub (such as it was) in lieu of Bret. I don't know if it was the mutual Canadian-ness with Bret or what, but it did absolutely no favors to the new babyface hero. No, I'm not saying Shatner's endorsement of Diesel would have led to a new boom period. But it was just another example of the WWF undermining Diesel in favor of his first challenger.
Like to put this in perspective, Kelly Kelly screwing up every spot in her typical matches against someone who wasn't Beth Phoenix is like -** or -*** for the same amount of time. Is that really better than this?
ReplyDeleteI don't know how many viewers of "Frasier" there are here, but all the talk of the show running long and then running short reminds me of when Frasier tried to put on an old-school radio drama, and in his zest to cut it to fit a 30-minute timeslot he alienates his entire cast, until a frustrated Niles kills every character off live on the air and they end up 9 minutes short.
ReplyDeleteI lost my point in there somewhere, but I think it had something to do with everyone on this show needing to be shot. And it's one of the best sitcom episodes of the '90s, maybe one of the best ever.
Negative stars go farther now than they used to, I guess. When he dropped the -***** hammer on New Jack vs. Mustafa from some ECW PPV it felt like a nuclear bomb, or an NCAA death penalty. I think one of the Sting/Vampiro messes got that rating as well, probably also deserved.
ReplyDeleteI always figured an enlightened show like Frasier would be more of Scott Keith's cup of tea rather than Friends.
ReplyDeleteOn my 15th birthday no less. A Hart/Razor vs Owen/Jarrett tag match the following week could've been fun.
ReplyDeleteI mean Sean Waltman in a WWF magazine around this time citing Frasier and Friends as his favorite shows. You'd think the two would sort of negate each other.
ReplyDeleteFun fact...the Summit is now a megachurch..,
ReplyDeleteCall him KVD. Kirk Van Dam. I could totally see Shatner doing the thumb pointing as well.
ReplyDeleteWhile I loved the Owen/Yoko team, I also wished that Owen got the Jarrett push of that year as not only did Owen and Hall have good chemistry, but Owen would have been pretty over as IC champion. Also surprised that WWF booked Hall pretty weak in that match as it looked like he was going to lose clean before the Bret run-in.
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, I was a fan of both shows at the time, but Friends really didn't age well with me.
ReplyDeleteThat would have been pretty awesome, I agree. It's frustrating how much potential WWF had during this period, but never capitalized on it.
ReplyDeleteI watched the first season of Friends. Thought Lisa Kudrow was kinda hot. By the time season 2 rolled around, I had forgotten all about the show, and didn't care enough to continue watching.
ReplyDeleteI liked the sow well enough, until season 4, but always hated talking about the show with other people at the time because everyone I met that watched the show would treat it as the best sitcom ever.
ReplyDeleteIt looked more like a judo throw. Definitely no jumping involved.
ReplyDeleteProbably their "Human Torch" match from GAB 2000. That whole show should've received the flaming pokers up the ass rating. I wouldn't be surprised if it did.
ReplyDeleteI'll mention it here because Scott doesn't review Action Zone but the booking regarding the babyfaces was starting to get really weird as they were acting more like dicks as they did a Backlund-Jarrett match on AZ with the IC title on the line and whomever won the title, either Bret or Razor would get the title shot at WM11 and as Backlund had Jarrett beat cleanly with the chickenwing, Razor ran in for the DQ to ensure he'd be the one that got the title shot. In kayfabe terms, Bret should have been pissed at Razor, but nothing came of it.
ReplyDeleteI went on a binge-watch of Frasier after an AV Club write-up of the Leap Day episode. "Aging well" is something Frasier does an amazingly good job of. Seinfeld is still a stronger overall show--Frasier overstayed its welcome longer and started taking itself too seriously, which was never an issue for Seinfeld--but the gap isn't as big as some may believe.
ReplyDeleteHere's something that helps a lot with that: being rich well-to-do types, Frasier and Niles carried cell phones from the very start. Doesn't sound like much but think of how many Seinfeld plots would be ruined by the advent of cell phones and text messaging.
HEEE LOVVVVES YUUUUUUUUU!!!
ReplyDeleteScott's more of a Joey kind of guy.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe aka Pablo.
Coldplay FTW!
ReplyDeleteMore like HBK, since he can sing his own intro music.
ReplyDelete“No-one else likes the music I like” then you
ReplyDeletelist several of the biggest selling and most popular artists of all time? :)
Off-topic because I have nowhere else to post this, but I just watched the Triple H vs. Flair cage match from nine years ago (which was great BTW) and for fuck's sake, blood is just so necessary to wrestling. Chair shots to the head I can't argue with although I'm sure they could just be done more sparingly, but blood really sells that two guys hate each other. Pussy ass motherfuckers.
ReplyDeleteSadly, this was 15 years before the era of Teddy Long.
ReplyDeleteI hate how they don't bleed in cage/HIAC anymore because of what you said. And on top of that of my face was to be continually thrown into metal, I would fucking expect to bleed.
ReplyDeleteWCW really was at its worst in the Summer of 2000. New Blood Rising May have been worse.
ReplyDeleteBret didn't want the IC title, he could not care less. I actually like the fact that Owen has gotten under Bret's skin so much that he brought Bret down to his level. It actually shows some kind of character development.
ReplyDeleteEven as far back as Summerslam 93 when he refused to let Lawler out of the sharpshooter, Bret ALWAYS had dickish tendencies. It's why he had so many face vs face matches.
ReplyDeleteChucky vs. Rick Steiner > Tekwar vs. Lawler.
ReplyDeleteI thought that was the Astrodome? I'm probably wrong though cause I'm not sure if any could sell out the that place even the smiling preacher
ReplyDeletethat's the problem with these marathon tapings. I don't think Ramon and Owen would have agreed to go out there and do another long match or any match
ReplyDeleteThe astrodome is ready for demolition.
ReplyDeleteFurther back than that- remember, the Hart Foundation actively cheated, whether as faces or as heels. Even Jesse Ventura loved the face Foundation because of it.
ReplyDeleteBret also pissed off Roddy Piper at WM 8 by faking a knee injury and rolling him up (the same thing won him the Title against Diesel).
I thought I was the only one who remembered that show.
ReplyDeleteNobody is ready for the Ax and the Smasher.
ReplyDeleteI turned 13 on this day. Good times
ReplyDeleteI know irl, Bret could have cared less but back then the IC title still had some value and in kayfabe terms Bret should have cared otherwise WWF would be admitting that the title was worthless.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure somebody else remembers Joey.
ReplyDeleteThat show was awful, but Joey's new show Episodes is pretty great. This should have been the spinoff after Friends ended.
ReplyDeleteFunny how I watched the entire series from start to finish just a few months ago, and I had that exact episode in my mind just this morning!! *twilight zone music*
ReplyDeleteI love how this segment, and this segment alone warranted Shatner to induct Jerry Lawler into the hall of fame.
ReplyDeleteI was talking about aka Pablo
ReplyDeletehttp://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A.k.a._Pablo
Happy 13th birthday!
ReplyDeleteBETTER SAY YOUR ACT OF CONTRITION!
ReplyDeleteI liked how Ross loved dinosaurs.
ReplyDeleteI didn't mind the tuxedo match, cause
ReplyDelete1- Harvey had been bullying Finkel ever since WM 10, maybe even before that.
2- They weren't building it up seriously anyway. The preview the week before was, in an ominous tone "The irresistible force... Vs the immoveable object..." So it was all in good fun.
I liked that about his character yep. He was a "hero", but did what ever he needed to do to win. Every trick in the book that he had learned throughout his career.
ReplyDeleteCant agree more. Can it be overdone, yes of course (see: EVERY WWE MATCH IN 2006), but these non-violent, heatless cage matches are sooo stale.
ReplyDeleteHow the hell should I be excited about this years HIAC match (remember when that was the sickest and best gimmick match in wrestling?) When I know its gonna be toned down, barely use the surrounding cage, NO BLOOD?? Oh yes and have pink ropes since its in October...?
There's these new crazy things called Aids and Hepatitis that you may have not heard about. They make "slicing yourself with a blade while pretend fighting with another sliced guy" a bad idea.
ReplyDeleteWe need more "pros" like CM Punk who sneak in bladejobs, like he did against Lawler.
ReplyDeleteYou mean to tell me Vince really would have torn Hunter or Taker apart if they gigged at WM28, or Hunter and Brock if they gigged in their Extreme Rules cage match? (Which soooo needed blood)
"I have SEX with DINOSAURS!?!?!"
ReplyDeleteTJ: 24 years later, FINALLY starting Twin Peaks. Thank you Netflix
ReplyDeleteDidn't Joel Osteen buy the Summit? Holy shit, he did! Joel Osteen bought a fucking arena. I guess God is good.
ReplyDeleteVJ likes his wrestling PG and stale guys
ReplyDeleteI like that the wrestlers practice safety first, and don't literally try to kill each other. I'm funny that way.
ReplyDeleteNope. Horrible.
ReplyDeleteBeh.
ReplyDeleteYou were born in the wrong era. You would have loved having front row seats in the Roman Coliseum, wouldn't ya?
ReplyDeleteNo I couldn't watch that. I just like my blood fueds to have, you know blood. You cant tell me a Dean Ambrose gusher wouldn't push that angle into a new dimension
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, it really, really wouldn't. I just see it as a "lazy booking crutch" 99% of the time. (WM 13 being a super rare exception)
ReplyDeleteVince is serious about that shit. According to Jericho, Batista was fined $100,000 (let that sink in for a minute..... there) for blading in a cage match (I believe) with him on Raw.
ReplyDeleteI wish the PG shit would end already...
If you don't have a soft spot in your heart for the Tuxedo match, get off my planet.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I've got a big, rubbery, soft spot for it...
ReplyDeleteI still don't get it. Save $100000 if you DON'T slice yourself open with a blade??? Why, just to MAYBE add a quarter of a star to a match? Seriously, I don't get it!
ReplyDeleteA- Don't bleed
B - Cut yourself open, but it will cost you $100k.
I CHOOSE "A".
I think it would set a bad example for the rest of the guys... especially if Triple H did it and he's supposed to be running things.
ReplyDeleteI cant agree at all. But we cant all agree all the time anyways
ReplyDeleteOh, stop. "These new things like AIDS and Hepatitis"? Wrestlers have been gigging themselves for longer than you and I have been alive. Cite me the list of wrestlers who have withered away with full-blown AIDS or are suffering with symptoms caused by Hep.
ReplyDeleteOh, that's right... the legendary Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes passed away in the great AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. Yes, apparently by cutting themselves without carrying or transmitting a disease THEY CAN STILL SPREAD SAID DISEASE. I forgot how diseases - primarily transmitted through the exchange of blood via drug use or seminal fluids - worked for a second.
Hey dude, my grandpa smoked all his life, and he still lived until the age of 98!! Smoking is safe and healthy!!
ReplyDeleteThe point is that they shouldn't have banned blood.
ReplyDeleteI think the penalty is draconian, but it is silly to purposely try it knowing you will be penalised. Still, one hundred grand... that's what, two annual paycheques for the average American?
Oh, you're not even trying any more, Vince. It was fun for a minute there.
ReplyDeleteThey should have punished him by DENYING HIM HIS SPOTLIGHT instead. now THAT would have hurt!
ReplyDeleteI'm about ready to move on also. Just waiting for Bayless to post the daily news thread. Just killing time. :)
ReplyDeleteYou devilish scoundrel, you!
ReplyDeleteYeah, and then what recourse would he have had? What, acted for millions? Puh-lease!
ReplyDeleteRazor & Owen is an odd match-up that I can't recall seeing much of before. Just different worlds, I guess- Razor was an IC guy mixing it up with Jarrett for 200 years (or however long that feud lasted), while Owen was mixed up with Bret for a year, then moved on to the Tag division.
ReplyDeleteI turned 14 on the day of the WCW All Nighter....I win.
ReplyDeleteIt's too bad they can't test for those things nowadays.
ReplyDeleteWell with the behavior of wrestlers when it comes to ring rats, and their overall "I am indestructible" mentalities.... I would be very concerned if I was a wrestler myself. (Unless they really have all converted to "Play video games all night" by now.
ReplyDeleteI've always assumed 95 was worse than 94 because of Mabel and Isaac Yankum ... but rewatching these Raws ... i was wrong. 94 was BRUTAL.
ReplyDeleteTJ because the daily thread's not up yet: Jericho's new podcast is up and he takes calls and one of them is from Bray Wyatt in character. They do a little kayfabed back and forth and it's kind of stupid, and very jarring in the context of Jericho's podcast where he talks openly about the business with everyone else.
ReplyDeleteThe Diesel/Mabel match at Summerslam 1995 is incredibly underrated (In the sense that it's maybe 2,5 stars, instead of a dud. Certainly not main event material, but it was actually ok, with a surprisingly hot crowd.)
ReplyDeleteDouche chills.
ReplyDeleteOff the top of my head Bob Orton, Abdullah the Butcher, X-Pac, and Billy Graham all have Hep-C. I'm sure there are others we don't know about.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes never died of AIDS isn't exactly a compelling argument against guys purposely cutting themselves and bleeding all over each other. I'm with Vince, we can learn to live without it, it *is* pretty stupid when you think about it.
Didn't they do a bit not too long ago where Shatner sang a bunch of intro themes and one of them was HBK's?
ReplyDelete1995 was actually a pretty awesome year IMO.
ReplyDeleteDoes Jericho really think the type of people listening to his podcasts want to hear something like that?
ReplyDeleteThe image of Bray Wyatt calling in to Chris Jericho's show on his Samsung Galaxy in order to intimidate him is pretty funny though.
That's the OPPOSITE of why I listen, lol.
ReplyDeleteI still remember watching this show as a kid. I loved it all and remember believing it to be probably the best episode of the show to date, calling up my friend on the phone and talking about how much fun we were having.
ReplyDeleteGod I want to be 12 again.
I think that's pretty awesome.
ReplyDeleteAustin's was the original and by far the best. Jericho annoys me on his podcast.
ReplyDeleteThe first "season" is the best season of any show ever. Once they started resolving various stories is when it starts to derail a bit.
ReplyDeletethat mabel banzai drop on diesel's back was BRUTAL.
ReplyDeleteThis thread certainly went in an unexpected direction.
ReplyDeleteFor the record, I like Frasier just fine, but literally stopped watching completely a season before Niles and Daphne got together. Just lost interest in the show around that point and never came back.
Outside of Abby giving that Damian Nichols kid Hep C, has there ever been another reported cased of one wrestler passing a blood-born illness to another wrestler? Even CZW somehow has dodged that bullet.
ReplyDeleteIt's legendarily bad. Letting it get away with anything less is just encouraging others that it's OK for this kind of thing to happen on national TV.
ReplyDeleteX-Pac I'm pretty sure has stated he got it from an ex, and Billy Graham definitely didn't get it from wrestling but rather drug use. Abby and Orton are the only two guys we know who have it, and Abby's the only guy who has ever been known to transmit it to someone else in-ring.
ReplyDeleteThat was a cool aspect Jesse had as an announcer. Even if one of his favorite guys turned face, he would still root for them. He'd say things like they need to go back to their old ways or get more aggressive but he'd still say complimentary things about them. He would also compliment faces who wrestled in a more aggressive manner like the Bulldogs. Made it seem like he was an actual announcer not just a guy playing heel announcer.
ReplyDeleteWith all of the in-ring blood and backstage drugs and sex going on in ECW back in their heyday, you'd think that place would've been a breeding ground for disease.
ReplyDeleteIt really wasn't, if you actually watch it. There was a great Jung Dragons-Three Count match, and Booker vs. Jarrett wasn't bad. The first tag team title match was also decent I think.
ReplyDeleteThat made Diesel no-show a house show I went to about 10 days later. DAMN YOU MABEL!
ReplyDeleteYou mean .25 stars?
ReplyDeleteTaker and Bob Orton came VERY close.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZulb74xEIc
ReplyDeletePlus it was probably some good J.O material for you!
ReplyDeleteThe Yokozuna/Undertaker casket match from the 1994 Royal Rumble also received -***** from Scott in a re-rant from about 4 years ago. i recall reading an earlier rant where he gave it only -**** and I thought that THAT was awfully generous...
ReplyDeleteYou're not doing very well today. I'll give you a bit of leeway cause it's friday.
ReplyDeleteYou don't remember Francine? She was a cancer! Isn't that a disease?
ReplyDeleteLoved that whole segment as a kid. It's fun to just let yourself escape in the cartoonish world of wrestling sometimes.
ReplyDeleteAhhh go ole Eddie Ellner. We should all go take his Yoga Class, him and DDP should hook up.
ReplyDelete"Now move into the Downward Facing Junkyard Dog"
At the *very* least, 1995 Raw is when the stars start appearing more frequently.
ReplyDeleteI want to see Eadie and Darsow try to give the Astrodome a Demolition Decapitation!
ReplyDeleteYeah, Bret always seemed a lot more pissed off and edgy compared to other faces, and when he fought bigger heels he got downright nasty.
ReplyDeleteYeah, because that's stopped them for the last 30 fucking years.
ReplyDeleteAre we talking about his days as an authority figure because he managed Doom as well as Bagwell/Scorpio in WCW prior to his WWE days in '98.
ReplyDeleteSo you are faulting them for actually learning from the past, and improving wrestler safety? They should just change nothing, just because it was done like that in the past? Are you serious?
ReplyDeleteSame shit with Elaine in Seinfeld. She looked like a Librarian in the first 4 seasons but around 1994 she started dressing a lot better and got about 10 times hotter as a result.
ReplyDeleteAmore and Cassady will get over on the main shows if they keep their gimmick. Same with Ascension. More tag teams is never a bad thing.
ReplyDeleteSame for Daphne. I only realized around season 3 how literally perfect she was. Niles saw it WAY before I did.
ReplyDeleteX-Pac has the Hep? Well, colour me shocked.
ReplyDeleteAs for the others... Bob Orton fathered a retard, Abby's a dirty looking bastard and Billy Graham stuck thousands of rusty needles up his ass.
And again, other legitimate sports allow for blood flow, and the guys that are saddled with a blood-related disease (that cannot be blamed on blading) are in the 0.001%. It's nonsense.
Case closed.
Yeah, and Taker told them to shove it up their asses because he knew Bob Orton is a filthy fuck whose troglodytic semen birthed a moron who was one yucky strand of DNA away from having Down's Syndrome.
ReplyDeleteBut it wasn't VERY close. They weren't even in the same ring.
If Missy Hyatt was just a fictional character from the imagination of Kip Frey, sure.
ReplyDeleteI think they were running that as the B-show main event around this time for house shows.
ReplyDeleteThey actually should have had Shatner's stuntman swap in before the move. Maybe on the taped show next week.
ReplyDeleteThey needed to bring back Killer Khan for a 1 time appearance.
ReplyDeleteShatner: KKKHHHAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just checking the History of WWE, and it's mainly Bret v. Owen and Diesel v. Jarrett on top for January and February.
ReplyDeleteSo the 7 foot monster in his prime, who just won the world title, has his first 2 house show runs against a 43 year old has-been, and a guy who had mostly been a comedy heel at that point. Damn, I am blaming Nash less and less for his failed title run.
ReplyDeleteI remember this show totally for Shatner and the tuxedo match. That's not such a good thing.
ReplyDeleteHe means 15 years before the era of "Tag Team Match, Playa!"
ReplyDeleteHEY, that's future World Champion Jeff Jarrett you're talking about! He was champion of TWO companies!
ReplyDeleteIt's unfortunate that when WWE got in bad terms with the World Wildlife Fund in 2002, that they didn't indeed rename it the "Double J - F".
ReplyDeleteIt looked to me a bunch of times during that match they were trying to get hardway pretty badly.
ReplyDeleteapparently Vince was going to fire him on the stop for that but Nash talked him off the cliff.
ReplyDeleteOf course it was very close. They can test for "very close to getting hep".
ReplyDeleteI shouldn't even want to ask how TNA missed that opportunity with Rhaka Khan on the roster
ReplyDeleteNope its the Summit/Compaq Center.
ReplyDeleteThe Astrodome hasnt been used for anything since WMX7
Dumb question: I remember Fink and Wippleman doing the tuxedo match on the post-WM house show tour the previous spring (they gave Warrior's intro music to Wippleman and "Real American" to Finkel). Any idea why they decided to put it on TV months later?
ReplyDeleteThat happened quite a bit with lots of feuds actually. Milk all the money you can with house show tickets, then when the value is down, put it on free TV to pop a rating, in case some people have never seen it.
ReplyDeleteshe has certainly been in my imagination plenty (early 90's version at least)
ReplyDeleteThey had another Raw match in the fall of '95. Decent, but certainly not as good as this one.
ReplyDeleteBecause Fink and Harvey were moving lots of tickets... ;-)
ReplyDeleteYeah, I know what you mean...just had to say it.
'95 was better. Not great, mind you, but an improvement. A decent 4 months, followed by 4 bad months, then another 4 decent to good months.
ReplyDeleteThe Ascension are nothing special, IMO. Cass & Amore can be a midcard comedy act in the WWE but have a long way to go in the ring
ReplyDeleteHarvey had been pushing The Fink around since the day he debuted (or at least from whenever he started managing Sid)
ReplyDeleteAustin is friggin awesome on his.
ReplyDeleteUnlike chairshots to the head, blood is a health issue that can easily be offset by any competent organization that undergoes health tests. You're comparing apples and oranges just to get rid of something that makes *you* squeamish.
ReplyDelete17 time World Champion Jeff Jarrett!
ReplyDeleteYes, Double J edits his own wikipedia page.
Didn't they do stuff with Well Dunn and the Bushwackers in the run-up to this show to "heat up" the issue?
ReplyDeleteBam Bam Bigelow died on my 21st birthday...
ReplyDeleteI recall an interview with Ric Flair where he got really defensive and upset when the interviewer mentioned hepatitis and AIDS and whatnot, which I always interpreted as Flair knowing he had SOMEthing but he was in denial.
ReplyDeleteI take it you're not a fan of Randy Orton.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind their first two albums.
ReplyDeleteNigel McGuinness?
ReplyDeleteOh god yeah- that ugly pile of frizz for her hair was awful. Suddenly she straightens it out and shows off her curves and you're like "WTF? Elaine is HOT?!?" What's freaky is that she still looks basically the same.
ReplyDeleteThe Comeback did (tragically) get cancelled in 2005, but I guess it's coming back for a random 6 episode run this fall in HBO.
ReplyDeleteI never liked Lisa either, but that show gave me a whole new respect for her talent -- it's a great character.
Wait until the Raw in May of 2005 - he brings the Space Flying Tiger Drop against Bret Hart in a great match that very few ppl ever talk about.
ReplyDeleteMaybe before or aftet that then.
ReplyDeleteThat's in July, the night after IYH 2. They had their PPV match in May (IYH 1).
ReplyDeleteThat's right. Got the dates mixed up. Still like that match a lot. They packed a ton into ten minutes.
ReplyDeleteI do like hearing Chavo and Jericho talk. I youtube them all the time.
ReplyDeleteThe Hillbilly Jim vs. Mr. FUJI tuxedo match was cooler.
ReplyDeleteBut he hated Hogan with a passion for real. Maybe not in the beginning -- and maybe he was still in character in 1989 -- but by late 1990 as Jesse made his exit -- the venom flew. Ventura quietly left WCW upon Hogan's first PPV too.
ReplyDeleteHis hero the Dynamite Kid is still around, though.
ReplyDeletePRAY...FOR...MOJO!!!
ReplyDelete