Well, it’s WWE’s annual spotfest for a World Title shot… yippee… I don’t know how much I’m supposed to care here, but I’ll give it the ol’ college try I suppose.
So, they start off with a ten-bell salute to the late Dusty Rhodes… won’t say much here except, “Godspeed, Dream. And thanks for the memories.”
Payback 2015 was a pretty good PPV. Elimination Chamber 2015 is the WWE Network-exclusive event that was added at the last minute when WWE officials discovered an arena that could support the chamber. Well, if you were expecting a quality showing the likes of the quarterly NXT specials or even by the quality standards of Payback, prepare to be morbidly disappointed.
The idea of a filler PPV event is a typical event that doesn’t mean much in the long term. It’s something that’s made to fill a schedule and while given a fair bit of hype, you know that, going in, not much is going to happen. Some filler events fill the role just fine, while others basically feel like filler and makes you wonder why you’re even wasting your time (or money) on the show. And then there are rare instances in which you get into a filler PPV expecting nothing but an otherwise average (or less than) showing to fill the time and come out pleasantly surprised by how entertaining it was.
WWE Payback 2015 falls firmly in that third category. So let’s go through this quickly.
Last night proved… interesting.
For those expecting a Daniel Bryan match, he hadn’t been cleared for action and so his IC Title match against Bad News Barrett was called off. Instead, Barrett got bumped to the pre-show against Neville, where he subsequent fell to the former NXT dude with a cool looking corkscrew like flip. As much as I could bemoan another Barrett lose, at the very least, he made a youngun look good.
Look, the only reason there’s even a blog post regarding this is because it popped up on the WWE Network and it’s a WCW Pay-Per-View event from 1998… oh, and it also featured Jay Leno in the main event. Yes, kids. That Jay Leno. The one formerly of the Tonight Show. The one with the chin.
WCW was at that weird point in 1998 where, after a year and a half of ratings dominance in the Monday Night Wars ™, they were faced with stiff competition from a resurgent WWF. Despite having a super popular superstar in form of Goldberg (in the midst of his legendary win streak), WCW felt they needed more “starpower”. So they bring in guys like Dennis Rodman and Carl Malone to do a match at their Bash At The Beach PPV… which I barely remember because it’s been ages. And then, we get to this show… the one with Jay Leno.
For the most part, you bring up Road Wild ’98 to anyone well versed in wrestling and they’ll usually tell you that it’s that show in Sturgis with all the bikers where Jay Leno wrestled Hulk Hogan. That one bit is the only defining aspect of this one show. And perhaps it’s for the best because the rest of the show?
Meh… it’s pretty bad.
Continue reading “WCW Road Wild ’98 – The One With Jay Leno”
So what follows here is a fairly rough recap based on my initial viewing of last night’s Wrestlemania… which was actually a replay because I was too busy watching the first ‘Mania from 1985. Although I’ll admit that I peered to the live show at times, for the most part, I waited until Monday morning to watch the replay. So here’re some random thoughts on the show; no ratings or reviews. Just some rambles… as per the course.
Quick Fast Lane talk, after the break…
(2024 Update: Hello, folks. This is a slightly updated version of the original Royal Fumble post that combines a number of posts into one. Now there’s only one place for you folks to share the misery. For the record, this isn’t a “Royal Ramble” post; that’ll be coming along in early 2025 – ten years since this event took place.)
I guess we might as well get it out of the way… the Royal Rumble event. Or, as I like to call it, the Royal Fumble… this was not a good show by any stretch of the imagination.
Anyway, let’s get on with some thoughts.
The final WWE “special event” of the year is an interesting one… yeah, no real snazzy introduction for this one, because regardless of whether you’re paying 9.99 or 59.99 for this show, it had no chance of even top last month’s Survivor Series PPV event, much less the incredible NXT Takeover show from a couple days prior. If you ever wanted to see a stark contrast between the WWE product and their developmental product, check out NXT, which is a refreshing slice of the wrestling pie.
Alas, this post is about the rotten strudel known as TLC… and Stairs… and Stools… and TVs…
Continue reading “WWE Tables, Ladders, Chairs, Stairs, Stools, Stumps, Etc. 2014”
Alright… it’s time for some quick thoughts on Night Of Champions and perhaps even some touching on to the aftermath. I didn’t catch the live showing, but I did have it PVR’d and so that’s what I’m watching.
dtm666 