Category: Wrestling PPV Musings

You know… I never got around to doing write-ups for the last few King Of The Ring PPVs, so we may as well get those out of the way. And what better way to celebrate the Fourth of July than give people a King Of The Ring 2000 musings… and then the next couple weeks will see the last two KOTR PPVs finally checked off the list. Who knows where we’ll go from there?

While 1999 might have been successful, 2000 was when the WWF product started to get really good as the stories told began to make more sense and you had more guys who were capable of wrestling more compelling matches that were longer yet enthralling.

Unfortunately, none of those positives can be found in this show, which probably explains why I held off watching these even when I had access to the VOD part of the WWE Network. Nonetheless, we move forwards onto the breach… and instantly regret it.

Continue reading “WWF King Of The Ring 2000”

Happy Canada Day, everybody. Let’s celebrate by watching what may very well be Bret Hart’s last crowning moment in the WWF. The Canadian Stampede In Your House PPV eminating from Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Context is required for those who wasn’t watching WWF television in 97 or just aren’t familiar with wrestling in general, but this show took place during a time when Bret Hart, once beloved fighting champion, turned on American wrestling fans for cheering anti-hero bad guy types like Steve Austin and booing honest good guys like him. As a result, you had this weird dynamic where Bret Hart (and his brother Owen, his brother-in-laws Davey Boy and Jim, and family friend Brian Pillman) were booed in the United States, but cheered everywhere else.

And then there was Canada, who not only bought into what Bret was selling, but actually cheered him on as an actual honest-to-goodness Canadian hero. And the Hart family was treated as the closest thing to wrestling royalty as you can get within this Canadian territory. So when you had this show in Calgary, the home of the Harts, just guess how people reacted to these guys.

Anyway, on with the show… the final two-hour In Your House PPV event, as the next IYH event would be three-hours; the standard running time for wrestling PPVs until the WWE Network came along and now PPVs are marathon shows… but I digress.

Continue reading “WWF In Your House 16: Canadian Stampede”

We’re jumping ahead a year here because I don’t want to wait until months down the line to replace an old slot.

In 2004, WWE attempted an “innovative new” formula for their PPV offerings; Taboo Tuesday, a PPV that would air on a Tuesday instead of the traditional Sunday and also give the audience (we didn’t have a WWE Universe at the time, whatever that is) some control over the booking of the match.

I posted my votes and subsequent thoughts on the show back in the old blog and those have been reposted here. The choice of words is unfortunate, as is the overall tone, but it does give you an idea of what I thought of this show at the time. It’s been years since then and I’ve opted to give this show another look, if for no other reason than this give this show a proper write-up circa 2018.

Continue reading “WWE Taboo Tuesday 2004”

If you’re following these weekly wrestling musings, I’m skipping Survivor Series for the eventual Survivor Series marathon run of musings that I might consider doing in November… because I sure as hell ain’t doing another Starrcade run if they’re not doing a televised event under the name.

But in any event, it’s for the best since I’d just want to get 2003 over and done with and… yes, we still have the couple Smackdown PPVs to cover down the line, but that’s down the line, not the immediate future.

So, let’s put a hole through Armageddon 2003 so we never have to revisit this terrible year in wrestling again… unless I lose my mind and end up watching an NWA-TNA PPV from this era.
So this PPV took place shortly after U.S. forces discovered former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. And this is why Lillian Garcia is singing the National Anthem. Continue reading “WWE Armageddon 2003”

So we have a co-branded PPV in Survivor Series, where one brand is planting the seeds to its eventual future, while over at the other brand, it’s business as usual. If you’ve been following these Classic Musings or even following the 2003 WWE product on the Network, then you probably already know which is which… but for the rest of you… well, it’ll become readily apparent.

Continue reading “WWE Survivor Series 2003”

When I watched WWE Vengeance 2003 some time ago, I was pleasantly surprised by how good that show was. After sitting through a number of RAW-exclusive PPVs that were the absolute drizzling shits, Smackdown’s first PPV was something of a palette cleanser and that lifted my spirits a bit. Sure, Smackdown had its share of bad angles, but its first PPV outing gave me hope that maybe things weren’t ALL bad.

And then I watched that year’s No Mercy PPV… and those hopes were dashed almost instantly.

Continue reading “WWE No Mercy 2003”