WWE Extreme Rules 2014

Note: I talked about the PPV on the recent DTM-Cast, but for those who want a text version, here it is. Not up to snuff in formatting, but it’s workable, I suppose.

I wanna talk about the recent WWE PPV… wait, they don’t call them PPVs anymore, do they? They’re called specials… well, anyway, I wanted to talk about the recent WWE “special” from last week… the so-called Extreme Rules event. By the way, that’s pretty much the main thing I’m talking about here.

And with that, some of my random thoughts on the Extreme Rules event from last weekend.

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Ramblemania 30

WRESTLEMANIA XXX
Superdome (or is it Silverdome?)
New Orleans
April 6, 2014

(I should probably point out that the following text was written before news of Warrior’s death broke out. Just covering my ass here for anything that might be construed as “negative” or “offensive”.)

I will say right off the bat that Wrestlemania 30 was a far better show than Wrestlemania 29… I’d go so far to say that this was a better show than any of the past five or six Wrestlemanias. Bold words, I’m sure, but that’s just how I feel… and I’m not just saying that because of the big story. I honestly never felt that much investment in any Wrestlemania main event in about ten years or so.

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Ramblemania XXIX

Sunday, April 7th
MetLife Stadium
East Rutherford, New Jersey

Underwhelming.

That is perhaps the one word that honestly describes my feelings towards the twenty-ninth edition of WWE’s long-running Wrestlemania extravaganza. In every sense, Wrestlemania XXIX was underwhelming when it really shouldn’t have been. After all, this is a show that featured a number of highly anticipated encounters, including John Cena squaring off against the Rock for the WWE Championship, CM Punk attempting to snap the Undertaker’s long-running streak, HHH attempting to get his win back from Brock Lesnar, and Alberto Del Rio defending his World Title against Jack Swagger. With those high caliber matches in place, Wrestlemania XXIX should have been one for the ages…

Of course, while hyper hyperbole would treat the show as such, the truth of the matter is that there has not been a more tepid build to a Wrestlemania in recent memory than the build to this show. The card showed little promise, with main event matches whose outcomes could be predicted long before they’re even booked or written by the monkeys making up the so-called “creative team” of WWE. I can only speak for myself when I say that out of all the Wrestlemanias in recent memory, this year had the least to be excited over. I knew what matches were going to take place and I knew who was going to win each match… and I’m not exactly a smart mark, either.

A part of me was hopeful that despite the utterly predictable outcomes, the show would actually turn out pretty good and the matches would at least be interesting… but alas, it was not to be.

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WCW Uncensored ’95

So I’ve recently popped in a VHS tape of WCW Uncensored ’95 – because why the hell not? – and decided to do a quick musing of this show. Not necessarily a review or a report, but rather some ramblings and thoughts.

The recurring concept of Uncensored was that it was an event that, in storylines, the (fictional) WCW Board of Directors had washed their hands of. Thus, each match on the card was ostensibly “unsanctioned”, meaning they were not subject to the normal rules of WCW-sanctioned wrestling matches. Of course, in reality, it was a normally-booked WCW show, albeit one with a tendency to feature more “gimmick” matches than usual. This notion, however, was downplayed during the last few years that it was part of the WCW PPV schedule.

Most folks may recall the Doomsday Cage match thing at Uncensored 96 which featured Hulk Hogan and the Macho Man overcoming the odds and defeating eight guys in a single match… a rather atrocious match that would have the final nail in the coffin for the revived Hulkamania before the nWo came along and gave Hogan’s career a much needed shot in the balls… sorry, poor choice of words.

But this is the 1995 edition of WCW Uncensored… the original show under this label.

I never saw the PPV during its original airing, as I didn’t get into wrestling until the late-90s. However, during the early 2000s, there was a shop selling video tapes and DVD of various things… and the shop had a number of retail tapes from WWF and a couple WCW tapes when they were made available. So that’s how I got my grubby little mits on this thing, along with a couple other tapes along the way.

So, yeah, on with the show…

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Summerslam 2012 – extremely quick points… and I mean really quick

Brock wins… and that’s good for business.

Meanwhile, CM Punk is still WWE Champion, Sheamus is still World Champion, Daniel Bryan Danielson got a win, Santino is no longer champion, Miz is still IC Champion, and nobody cares about the tag titles.

Almost forgot… best part of the show was when Fred Durst flipped the camera off. Be a star, Freddy. Be a star.

That’s it for Summerslam.

Later.

nWo Souled Out (1997)

I recently came across a blog post somewhere in which the author had done a recap/review of the 1997 PPV event, nWo Souled Out. nWo Souled Out was the first and only PPV event promoted by the nWo and was a different kind of beast compared to what the WWF or WCW were offering at the time. Reading this review had prompted me to do my own little reflection on the show.

I never saw the show “live” during its original 1997 airing. At the time, I was not yet into wrestling as much as I would eventually become a year later when the WWF Attitude era was in full force. However, I did dabble a bit in the weekly WCW Saturday Night that would air on one of the local channels (forget which one) and it’s usually through that I usually get into the storylines. So I knew about the nWo and the Hogan heel turn and the Outsiders and whatnot… while mostly oblivious to what was going on in McWrestling Land. When I heard of an nWo-promoted PPV, my wheels were turning a bit. The most I got was the pre-show; no PPV purchasing powers at the time or even a descrambler box.

So I would not bare witness to Souled Out until a year or so ago when someone got me a copy of the show. Now I have read that this show wasn’t any good; it was different but not quite good and not worth the effort in tracking down. Despite this, however, I always had a vested interest in watching this show. So with copy on hand, I plopped the show onto my DVD player and began watching the show. What follows are some points and thoughts that occur throughout the show – don’t expect any indepth analyses or anything of that nature. Just good old fashioned rambling.

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TNA Slammiversary X (2012)

This month marks TNA’s tenth anniversary and whatever you want to say about the promotion – and I’ve said quite a bit particularly these past couple years – the fact that it’s still around is worthy of celebration. So here are some quick notes that I’ve gathered and believe it or not, I actually have nice things to say about this show.

Yes, I’m going to be complimentary towards a TNA PPV.

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Ramblemania 28

Wrestlemania XXVIII
Sun-Life Stadium, Miami, Florida
April 1st, 2012

Seeing this with people, as per the case with last year’s Wrestlemania. Considering I’m writing this just an hour after the show’s conclusion, I want to try and gather my thoughts on blog while they’re fresh and not worry about cohesiveness or anything like that. Whatever goes through, goes through and will no doubt get minor refinements later.

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