Classic Wrestling Discussion (as in non-current): Part II

[Loosie]

Just got through King of the Ring 1996, still such an iconic promo from Steve Austin, he also just started using the stunner a week prior to this, so it's been seen on TV three times at this point. Once against Savio Vega on RAW in the quarterfinals, then both matches here.

Warrior's 1996 run was beyond pathetic. The squash of HHH at WM XII, the 'match' with Goldust at IYH and his match against Lawler at KOR. With a handful of RAW matches.

To be fair the 'match' against Goldust was aborted because Dustin wrenched his knee on the pre-show, but that was horribly. 10 minutes of stalling a clothesline by Warrior on Goldust, then Goldust walks away and that's when they count him out.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Just got through King of the Ring 1996, still such an iconic promo from Steve Austin, he also just started using the stunner a week prior to this, so it's been seen on TV three times at this point. Once against Savio Vega on RAW in the quarterfinals, then both matches here.

Warrior's 1996 run was beyond pathetic. The squash of HHH at WM XII, the 'match' with Goldust at IYH and his match against Lawler at KOR. With a handful of RAW matches.

To be fair the 'match' against Goldust was aborted because Dustin wrenched his knee on the pre-show, but that was horribly. 10 minutes of stalling a clothesline by Warrior on Goldust, then Goldust walks away and that's when they count him out.

The HHH match was when he flat out no sold a pedigree right? No HHH was far down the ladder at the time (so the pedigree wasn't as big a deal) but man it's hilarious in hindsight.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Hulk Hogan was more or less a heel in every single 'Former Friend of Hogan' feud, but this one was blatantly obvious.

Didn't we get the seething with rage Randy promo where he yells he "hates Hogan's guts"

He really was always the heel in those feuds. Partly because by that point we were entering pure "******* Hogan" territory. Every rumble had one spot where he heelishly threw his buddy out of the match (except Tugboat. He attacked first and deserved it).

He definitely heel in the warrior feud. Ugh when he starts claiming Warrior is blasphemer or something with his gods and is going against "the big hulkamanic upstairs" ugh. **** off.

The worst part of the whole year with Macho and the mega powers is how he kept inserting himself into Randy's spot light. Whenever Randy won or defended the strap he was always there hot dogging. Guy never got a real chance to celebrate alone until he beat Flair I think (and that wasn't even the main event that year even though it was the best match)

 

[bruins309]

So I'm watching Wrestlemania 7, and I completely forgot how many absolutely insane promos are on this show. It's amazing how many there are on a 14 match card, but I guess there's time when you don't have to show a Flo Rida or Limp Bizkit concert.

Regis Philbin (who is rumored to be WWE HOF-bound this year): after telling Okerlund he saw Earthquake hijack a Pizza Hut delivery truck, later he does a kind of racist promo with Tenryu and Kitao in which he says the name of Japanese products and wants them to respond.
British Bulldog: Actually SPEAKS to his dog, and says there is no bull in this british bulldog.
Warlord: Actually is allowed to talk and we find out why. This is Slick's final PPV and he goes out on a decent note, though I don't like it as much as his Survivor Series '88 promo where he invented the world "exactatiggly"
Nasty Boys: they steal Okerlund's pocket square and blow their noses with it and stuff it back into his pocket. That was pretty funny actually.
Hart Foundation: Anvil screams for a bit then totally loses his train of thought and says "tell 'em Hitman!"

And that's WITHOUT getting to Hogan and Slaughter. I need to get the Arabic translation of what Adnan is saying, because it doesn't seem to exist anywhere online.

 

[Loosie]

The HHH match was when he flat out no sold a pedigree right? No HHH was far down the ladder at the time (so the pedigree wasn't as big a deal) but man it's hilarious in hindsight.

The pedigree was well established and considered devastating at this point. The MSG Curtain Call wasn't until early May, so HHH was still on his way up.

It's possible that HHH was the only one willing to take the squash match, other than the jobbers, but then it would have been quite obvious. He was shown to be a 'company man' even back then. He took the fall out of the curtain call like a champ and they rewarded him with the IC belt and then the King of the Ring in 97.

 

[bruins309]

Trips thought he would have an actual match with Warrior and not a squash. Warrior was supposedly like "nah" and it went the way it did. Don't underestimate that day in making Triple H become the master Machiavellian politician he would become. While he did get punished, he still did get the IC title by the end of the year so they didn't bury him too badly.

I have a Leap Day special one day early, and it's a review of SuperBrawl II from 1992, the only PPV ever to air on February 29. Oh my goodness, what a freaking show this was.

http://section309.com/2016/02/28/superbrawl2/

- Pillman vs Liger with Ventura just openly marking out on commentary. That's what I loved about Jesse, he was very open to different styles.
- The WCW rampway and how it was utilized in just about every match
- The poor guy who got booed when he was ring announcer because he won some contest
- Missy Hyatt and her poor journalism instincts
- Lex Luger juiced to the freaking gills. Seriously, everything you have heard about Luger on that show is true. But what's funny is that commentary points it out and kind of buries him. I mean who cares, he was on his way out anyway.

This was quite the show to watch before I dig into the WCW 2000 series. Aye carumba.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Trips thought he would have an actual match with Warrior and not a squash. Warrior was supposedly like "nah" and it went the way it did. Don't underestimate that day in making Triple H become the master Machiavellian politician he would become. While he did get punished, he still did get the IC title by the end of the year so they didn't bury him too badly.

I have a Leap Day special one day early, and it's a review of SuperBrawl II from 1992, the only PPV ever to air on February 29. Oh my goodness, what a freaking show this was.

http://section309.com/2016/02/28/superbrawl2/

- Pillman vs Liger with Ventura just openly marking out on commentary. That's what I loved about Jesse, he was very open to different styles.
- The WCW rampway and how it was utilized in just about every match
- The poor guy who got booed when he was ring announcer because he won some contest
- Missy Hyatt and her poor journalism instincts
- Lex Luger juiced to the freaking gills. Seriously, everything you have heard about Luger on that show is true. But what's funny is that commentary points it out and kind of buries him. I mean who cares, he was on his way out anyway.

This was quite the show to watch before I dig into the WCW 2000 series. Aye carumba.

Lmao he didn't know it was a squash? He must of been legit surprised when Warrior just got right up from that pedigree then. That was bad.

 

[bruins309]

Lmao he didn't know it was a squash? He must of been legit surprised when Warrior just got right up from that pedigree then. That was bad.

That's the story HHH tells. Of course it may need to be taken with many many grains of salt. Like 93,173 in the Silverdome.

 

[Emperoreddy]

I finally watched Final Nitro for the first time. I've always known about the major bullet points (I missed RAW that night as well as it was actually around when I was starting to get tired of wrestling for the first time).

I know it was cobbled together last second because of how quickly the sale went and everything else, but god this was a bad show. Those matches were so damn short. Title match on first and Booker T got almost no time to celebrate (love how WWE tries to rewrite history and make it seem like a bigger deal, but it was a nothing match against Steiner and Booker was rushed.

Every other match was on light speed. I don't think any match hit 10 minutes. Then holy **** so many ****ing Vince vignettes that literally did nothing. One is just him putting on his coat. He was being such a gloating ******* about it too, and only some of that was kayfabe.

Schivanie for the most part is professional but does take a couple of legit shots at Vince (would of loved if he just went off the reservation. He knew he was going to be let go so just go to town).

Main event was alright but watching Flair wrestle in a t-shirt sucked and it wasn't that long either. Then the big Vince/Shane promo. It is a great promo, but man it sucked on the WCW side as the audio wasn't synced so when Shane spoke it sounded like ****.

Monday Night Wars and stuff made it seem like this Nitro was more of a celebration then it really was. It was a mess that had Vince gloating all night (and it is worse considering how badly the Invasion story went). Flair's opening promo about how great WCW was was funny considering in all interviews he apparently couldn't wait for the place to die.

 

[Engebretson]

Watching old 80's WWF PPV's has really given me a new appreciation for the Fabulous Rougeau's as a heel tag team. They were never overly flashy, but they were a pretty solid heel tag team for that time period. That theme song was just so great and their whole gimmick about being "All-American Boys" was great at drawing heat. I mean, the foreign heel gimmick has been done to death in WWF/E, but there were just so many things they'd do from their entrance to their exit after the match that was just done well. In particular, I loved how they'd mockingly wave little American flags or try to start the "USA, USA" chants during matches.



Interesting to read about their real-life feud with Dynamite Kid which was apparently started by a prank by Mr. Perfect. Speaking of Dynamite Kid, it's hard not to look at him and see Benoit. I know that I've read that Benoit had looked up to Dynamite while growing up, but it's amazing how their look and movesets were so similar.

 

[bruins309]

I always wondered how they settled on Memphis as the Rougeaus new hometown....I bet it was a rib on Jerry Lawler for his lawsuits against the WWF over promoting Harley Race as "King" in Memphis.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Watching old 80's WWF PPV's has really given me a new appreciation for the Fabulous Rougeau's as a heel tag team. They were never overly flashy, but they were a pretty solid heel tag team for that time period. That theme song was just so great and their whole gimmick about being "All-American Boys" was great at drawing heat. I mean, the foreign heel gimmick has been done to death in WWF/E, but there were just so many things they'd do from their entrance to their exit after the match that was just done well. In particular, I loved how they'd mockingly wave little American flags or try to start the "USA, USA" chants during matches.



Interesting to read about their real-life feud with Dynamite Kid which was apparently started by a prank by Mr. Perfect. Speaking of Dynamite Kid, it's hard not to look at him and see Benoit. I know that I've read that Benoit had looked up to Dynamite while growing up, but it's amazing how their look and movesets were so similar.

Didn't someone legit get their teeth knocked out over that locker room prank?

Ahh the Mountie in his pre-Mountie days.

 

[Engebretson]

Didn't someone legit get their teeth knocked out over that locker room prank?

Ahh the Mountie in his pre-Mountie days.

Dynamite had 4 teeth knocked out because Jacques hit him with a roll of quarters in his fist. Apparently, Dynamite was going to get his revenge at the Survivor Series '88 20-man tag elimination match, but the Rougeaus were purposefully booked to get eliminated first while the Bulldogs got eliminated near the end to avoid a backstage confrontation. I believe that was Dynamite's last match in the WWF.

 

[bruins309]

Dynamite had 4 teeth knocked out because Jacques hit him with a roll of quarters in his fist. Apparently, Dynamite was going to get his revenge at the Survivor Series '88 20-man tag elimination match, but the Rougeaus were purposefully booked to get eliminated first while the Bulldogs got eliminated near the end to avoid a backstage confrontation. I believe that was Dynamite's last match in the WWF.

But wait, there's more! In the Observer from the time period, Meltzer said that Vince told both teams that if any funny business happened that the teams would forfeit their pay for the night. To drive home the point, he said both teams would go deep into the match. Then Vince changed the booking and had the Rougeaus go out early to get them out there ASAP.

What I want to know is why the Conquistadors stayed til the end. Because I LOVED that story so much. That PPV is very underrated historically.

 

[Engebretson]

But wait, there's more! In the Observer from the time period, Meltzer said that Vince told both teams that if any funny business happened that the teams would forfeit their pay for the night. To drive home the point, he said both teams would go deep into the match. Then Vince changed the booking and had the Rougeaus go out early to get them out there ASAP.

According to Jacques, Vince told them to just leave right after elimination. Don't shower, don't change, just get out of the arena

Apparently, Vince had also told the locker room that any backstage fighting would lead to all parties being fired. When word got out that the Bulldogs were leaving WWF after Survivor Series, Dino Bravo came up to the Rougeau's and said "the good news is the Bulldogs gave their notice. The bad news is the Bulldogs gave their notice."

 

[Guardian17]

Watching old 80's WWF PPV's has really given me a new appreciation for the Fabulous Rougeau's as a heel tag team. They were never overly flashy, but they were a pretty solid heel tag team for that time period. That theme song was just so great and their whole gimmick about being "All-American Boys" was great at drawing heat. I mean, the foreign heel gimmick has been done to death in WWF/E, but there were just so many things they'd do from their entrance to their exit after the match that was just done well. In particular, I loved how they'd mockingly wave little American flags or try to start the "USA, USA" chants during matches.



Interesting to read about their real-life feud with Dynamite Kid which was apparently started by a prank by Mr. Perfect. Speaking of Dynamite Kid, it's hard not to look at him and see Benoit. I know that I've read that Benoit had looked up to Dynamite while growing up, but it's amazing how their look and movesets were so similar.

I agree.

I can't get this song on iTunes.

 

[bruins309]

I will watch any episode of Superstars from 1986 to 1991, but the best are the ones with Jesse Ventura. Rather than go back to the Network, I hit YouTube for the Aug. 6, 1988 episode. I think I missed this one back in the day because I was at Disney World (which I remember because I know where I was when I learned of Gretzky trade)

- Lot of promo stuff for Summerslam 1988 with Jesse as ref for the main event. Interesting to see how much hype was put into the Beefcake-Honky match that never happened.
- Local promos! Hey Sean Mooney, how are you? This has one for a show in Boston that night that started at 8:30 PM ET. Wow, late start. George Steele in Beefcake's corner as "Georgia" to counter Peggy Sue. British Bulldogs do a promo...man, they were just atrocious promos. Dynamite Kid always compensated for terrible mic skills by taking twice as fast as normal.
- The job guys on the shows....awesome. I popped for Tom Stone because I recognize him from a bunch of stuff. Some dude is named "Harley Manson" in the Jake the Snake match and Jesse asks if he's related to "Chuck"
- Little girl shown twice eating the Superstar Ice Cream bar, and it's a Ricky Steamboat one when he was long gone by then. I would always get those things from the ice cream truck.
- I'm pretty sure there was a good amount of canned heat here but not too noticeable.
- The Powers of Pain cut an insert promo on the Bolsheviks, proving why they always needed a mouthpiece.
- To cap it all off: a PRE-Red Rooster squash match where he refers to himself as "Scary" Terry Taylor and thanks his parents in the inset promo for how good looking he is. No Heenan or anything.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Watching December to Dismember for some reason. Lots of thoughts, but the first thing is holy **** was Big Show fat and Sabu's blading scars are disgusting.

 

[Engebretson]

Interesting to see how much hype was put into the Beefcake-Honky match that never happened.

I'd heard a couple of different stories why Beefcake was taken out of this match. The first story goes that WWF officials didn't think Beefcake would draw as much as they wanted so they decided to put the belt on Warrior at that event instead of Beefcake and wrote him off the event with the Ron Bass spur incident. Another story, alleged by a Beefcake interview awhile ago, goes that Warrior was politicking backstage and threatening to quit so they put the IC belt on him to make him happy. Not really sure which one to believe, but yeah, they really hyped the Beefcake-Honky showdown as Beefcake had been chasing Honky for awhile at that point. To all of a sudden drop it with a kayfabe injury storyline was a bit strange.

 

[Loosie]

I'd heard a couple of different stories why Beefcake was taken out of this match. The first story goes that WWF officials didn't think Beefcake would draw as much as they wanted so they decided to put the belt on Warrior at that event instead of Beefcake and wrote him off the event with the Ron Bass spur incident. Another story, alleged by a Beefcake interview awhile ago, goes that Warrior was politicking backstage and threatening to quit so they put the IC belt on him to make him happy. Not really sure which one to believe, but yeah, they really hyped the Beefcake-Honky showdown as Beefcake had been chasing Honky for awhile at that point. To all of a sudden drop it with a kayfabe injury storyline was a bit strange.

Given what happened with Warrior I would actually tend to believe Beefcake's story.

 

[Guardian17]

I'd heard a couple of different stories why Beefcake was taken out of this match. The first story goes that WWF officials didn't think Beefcake would draw as much as they wanted so they decided to put the belt on Warrior at that event instead of Beefcake and wrote him off the event with the Ron Bass spur incident. Another story, alleged by a Beefcake interview awhile ago, goes that Warrior was politicking backstage and threatening to quit so they put the IC belt on him to make him happy. Not really sure which one to believe, but yeah, they really hyped the Beefcake-Honky showdown as Beefcake had been chasing Honky for awhile at that point. To all of a sudden drop it with a kayfabe injury storyline was a bit strange.

I remember watching a vid with the Honky Tonk Man and he said the plan to drop the IB Belt to Warrior was made months in advance of Summer Slam.

 

[bruins309]

To warm up for 2000 WCW I watched the July 26, 1999 Nitro. Yikes. Three hour shows rarely age well. I have become fascinated with the fact that David Flair got so much air time when he clearly had no business being in a ring. I'm a huge fan of Ric Flair, but he did the company no favors by putting his son out there. People just didn't want to see it.

However, the ordeal of watching may have been made worthwhile by seeing the chops David took from Benoit in that match. Holy moly.

Did a review of SNME #10 from March 1987, the highest rated one they ever did. Thank god for Youtube having the Roddy Piper tribute with the original music ("My Way") so it makes sense. This had the battle royal with Andre headbutting Lanny Poffo, breaking his nose causing blood to spill everywhere.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Been watching stuff around WM X7. Man I really miss Angle.

 

[Loosie]

Into the build up for Summerslam 1996. Lawler actually references Ron Simmons on his debut as Faarooq Asaad. He says "He looks like Ron Simmons, but bigger than Ron Simmons"

 

[UnrealMachine]

Watching old 80's WWF PPV's has really given me a new appreciation for the Fabulous Rougeau's as a heel tag team. They were never overly flashy, but they were a pretty solid heel tag team for that time period. That theme song was just so great and their whole gimmick about being "All-American Boys" was great at drawing heat. I mean, the foreign heel gimmick has been done to death in WWF/E, but there were just so many things they'd do from their entrance to their exit after the match that was just done well. In particular, I loved how they'd mockingly wave little American flags or try to start the "USA, USA" chants during matches.

They did a lot of subtle things very well for anyone paying close attention. They would be over bigtime with smarks in this day of age. Their theme music is amazing and yes, addicting. I remember rediscovering it a few years ago and listening to it repeatedly.

The Rougeaus began calling themselves The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers and feuded with the Hart Foundation during the fall of 1988 into early 1989, with the storyline being that Jimmy Hart still had a contract with the Hart Foundation, and was subsequently giving his percentage of the Foundation's earnings to the Rougeaus as a bonus.[2] The Rougeaus developed a facetiously pro-American gimmick, billing themselves as "soon to relocate to Memphis, Tennessee" and using the theme song "All-American Boys". The theme song was an upbeat rock number, sung by the Rougeaus themselves, would further rile the fans by claiming their affinity for "whitebread" things like "preppy" hairstyles and Barry Manilow's music. The bridge of the song (in French) admits they are aware the fans despise them, slyly confirming that their ingratiating demeanor is phony and done to mock the fans. To draw even more heat, they would wave comically small American flags and try to start a "U.S.A." chant just to annoy the crowd.