Before anyone asks, I have yet to watch the Double Or Nothing show, though I did get the replay and will probably do so this weekend. If I do, expect a write-up for next week. In the meantime, however, we’ve got another WCW PPV event from 1994 uploaded onto the free WCW YouTube channel… will wonders never cease? Well, they did if you’re watching this show, which is best served as a precursor to WCW’s later (and far better) Spring Stampede ’94 PPV event. Still, this one isn’t all bad, is it?
Category: Wrestling PPV Musings
WWE Judgment Day 2002
Well, it’s the first World Wrestling Entertainment PPV after the World Wide Fund For Nature sent their legal pandas against the former World Wrestling Federation and took back its WWF initials, so now we’ve got WWE. And while that brand would be synonymous with the premier brand in sports entertainment, back in the day, it was off to a rocky start, especially since the Hulk Hogan nostalgia run was over and done with.
So in our previous PPV outing, Hollywood Hulk Hogan defeated McSon-In-Law to win his sixth WWF/E Championship while Undertaker defeated Stone Cold Steve Austin to earn himself the next PPV shot at the title.
WWF Backlash 2002
“Hulkamania is alive! Well, so is communism in China and crotch rot,
and no one’s real thrilled about them, either.”
Scott Keith, 2002
Someone had sent a question via the question box gimmick on the blog’s side bar thing about how I had felt when Hulk Hogan had won the WWF Championship in 2002.
For those who need context, WWF Wrestlemania X-8 featured the marquee match of The Rock facing off against Hollywood Hulk Hogan, where the heel Hogan was cheered by the Toronto crowd while the normally babyface Rock was booed heavily. This resulted in a resurgence of popularity that saw Hogan break away from the WWF version of the nWo (another story for another time), bring back Jimi Hendrix as an entrance theme (before it got redubbed with Real American in the replays), and go back to the ol’ red and yellow… while keeping the Hollywood Hogan five o’clock shadow. This nostalgia run, as it were, somehow resulted in a PPV main event that saw Hogan challenge for the Undisputed WWF Championship, which was being held by McSon-In-Law, who won the title at Mania from Chris Jericho in what can be generously described as an anemic main event.
The thought then occurred to me that it’s been years since I’ve seen the Backlash show in which that match took place. And while the WWE Network is kaput, the show is on Netflix… but I also have my old DVD recording of the PPV from back in the day and since I prefer Voodoo Child over Real American as a Hogan theme – hell, I’d take American Made over Real American – I went with that instead.
And yes, I will get this out of the way. Backlash 2002 is a largely terrible show because WWF in 2002 was the drizzling shits that wouldn’t get better… but at the very least, it gives me stuff to talk about. Granted, I could have watched the Backlash show that took place last weekend, but really, other than the 738,909,251,831,862,583,019th match between John Cena and Randy Orton, there was nothing on that show that made me go, “Yes, I want to watch this.” So you get this, instead.
See? We both suffer… that’s how life works around here. Anyway, moving right along…
WCW Spring Stampede 1994
So back in March, WWE started up a WCW Youtube channel and they’re in the process of uploading all the old WCW shows and some of the key matches. Yes, you can watch old Nitros, old Thunders, and even old PPVs in their entirety… for free. What a world we live in… and so we’re diving into that magical bag of goodness and checking out the 1994 edition of WCW Spring Stampede, featuring the main event of Ric Flair defending his WCW World title against Ricky Steamboat in what I believe was their last-ever encounter.
It’ll be a surprise for most of you to know that in all the years I’ve been doing this PPV musings on this blog, I’ve only ever touched one Spring Stampede event and that was the last one in 2000. It’s also entirely possible that I might have another Stampede or two on VHS somewhere, so maybe we’ll give those a look one of these days if I can find them, but otherwise, it gives me an excuse to dive back into vintage WCW big boys playing with each other professional wrestling from 1994… by which I mean, early-1994, before Hulk Hogan came along and everything started to be built around his orange ass.
Let’s get on with this, shall we? I’m genuinely excited…
WCW Battlebowl 1993
For some reason, I felt like watch WCW Battlebowl 1993 – a show that I have on DVD-R because I had recorded off the WWE Network back when it was a channel on TV in Canada. I never got around to watching this one and it sort of languished in the archives until recently… and so here we are.
Anyway, WCW Battlebowl was a thing that they did one time and never did again. The idea of Battlebowl had existed previously in prior Starrcade PPVs, but this was the first and only time that WCW had expanded the idea into its own PPV. And there’s a good reason for that.
Ramblemania 41
“If you think the grass is so green on the other side, be my guest. Go ahead. Leave. Main event night four of a buy-one-get-one-free extravaganza and then get released faster than you last in the sack.”
CM Punk, AEW Dynamite – January 5th, 2022
You know… sometimes, it doesn’t take a whole lot of thought.
When word broke that CM Punk was finally getting his Wrestlemania main event, that line immediately popped to mind and the banner for this event soon followed. It just comes together on its own without needing to break my head over these things… and look, I’m not going to begrudge Punk. This was something he wanted and I’m glad that he’s getting that chance as well as the fat paycheck that comes with it. At the same time… how do I not go along with that?
I’m sure some folks will be riled up. Others will more likely not give a shit.
In any event, Wrestlemania took place this past weekend and I suppose I should be thankful that I was able to watch this at home instead of a hospital bed. Admittedly, I wasn’t too excited for this one. You had the main events to look forward to, but everything felt like stuff booked to fill time. Still, it’s that time where everyone puts on their absolute best and… well, we’ll see if they actually went ahead and did that.
WWE Payback 2020
I said I needed a palette cleanser… I’m not sure that this qualifies, but hey, it’s a WWE PPV from the Thunderdome. And quite a notable one, for it is the first PPV main event for the returning Roman Reigns, who would make waves on the go-home edition of Smackdown by aligning himself with the former advocate of Brock Lesnar and future wiseman, Paul Heyman.
That’s right, kids. This is where the Tribal Chief legend begins… and it’s at the cost of one big stupid dummy and a fiend in a silly mask.
Enough talk. Let’s dive in for… more talk.
AEW WrestleDream 2024
It’s AEW WrestleDream 2024 – the show where Bryan Danielson’s full-time career came to an end.
A bit of disclosure here: I had already watched the show earlier this year and had this whole thing written up. The idea was to post it in between the 2015 and 2025 Royal Ramble posts, since I wasn’t planning on watching the Genesis PPV from TNA due to the whole deal there, but then I ended up watching the Genesis PPV where the right guy won and so this ended up in the backburner while that Genesis show got the spotlight.
And so here we are at WrestleDream, which is our last AEW PPV for a while. Next week, we’ll probably do another TNA PPV or something.
AEW Revolution 2025
And then there was the AEW Revolution show… which I was able to watch while at a friend’s house taking care of some stuff… yes, it’s another four hour show with the usual great wrestling and some spectacles of sort, but this is also comes across as a late-90s WCW PPV, where the undercard matches are great, but the main event is shit.
WWE Elimination Chamber 2025
Yeah, so John Cena turned heel on this show…
Meh…
Let’s get on with the rest of it.
dtm666 