Category: WWE PPV Musings

Yes, so in one of those rare instances where I gave Netflix a premium for a month of divesting its material, I took the time to throw up the Survivor Series PPV from this past weekend on the telly. It’s in a stadium setting, which is nice. The show itself, on the other hand…

Continue reading “WWE Survivor Series 2025”

It’s Survivor Series…

WARGAMEZ!

From last year…

So yeah, full disclosure: I had this laying around last year and never got around to posting it, but since it’s around that time again, I’d figured why not. Here are my (very quick) musings on last year’s Survivor Series PPV, which featured the reunited Bloodline (led by Roman Reigns and also featuring CM Punk) and the Bloodline B-Team led by that Solo guy and a bunch of other Samoans that got signed from New Japan or something. If, a year after the fact, this is what I’m referring to that “other” Bloodline team, maybe it’s not as effective a storyline as some would suggest.

Also, yes, even though most of this was written last year and promptly forgotten about, there will be occasional notes to try and keep this more timely, as though it was written up on a few days ago as opposed to months prior or even a whole year previous.

Anyway, let us begin…

Continue reading “WWE Survivor Series 2024”

Yes, we’re doing the PPV musings early this week. Also, this is the last one for a while, as next Wednesday will begin my weekly visit to the first year of WCW Monday Nitro, which turns 30 next week. Hopefully, this run lasts longer than the NWA-TNA run did.

In any event, the people have wanted it and after almost a decade, WWE has delivered another all-women PPV event because we have an AEW megashow to counterprogram and we’re going to do that by swamping the weekend with all sorts of mediocre programming. Starting off with a run of the mill NXT show that featured a Slammiversary contract signing and nothing else of note unless you’re a regular NXT viewer – and I’m not – and then following that up with the latest Saturday Night’s Main Event, which featured GOLDBERG coming out of retirement to lose in his retirement match against GUNTHER and then getting cut off in the middle of his retirement speech.

And then there’s this show… which I’m only watching because I am genuinely curious to find out if there was any match that could match or surpass the superb All In match between Timeless Toni and Mercedes. This show that WWE pulled out of their ass purely for the sake of counter-programming AEW. I mean, let’s call a spade a spade. The only reason there was an Evolution PPV in the first place was to give the women something to do because they couldn’t wrestle in Saudi Arabia. Once that started to lighten up, there was no need for another Evolution… that and there was no Cold Ronda to build this show around.

So was there anything on this show that surpassed the All In match that I mentioned? The short answer is “maybe.” The long answer is the rest of this post.

Continue reading “WWE Evolution 2025”

Sorry for the week delay on this show, kids… but you know how it is with these WWE PPVs that go fifteen hours… and then on top of that, you double it up. Anyhoo, it’s Summerslam 2025 – at the beginning of August so we can clash in Paris or something at the end of August… or is it Saudi Arabia? I’m not quite sure. All I know is that, unless one of these other “premium” shows boasts a card that’s worth my time, this will probably be my last WWE PPV musings for the year until next year’s Royal Rumble.

Yeah, sorry that I didn’t watch the Money In The Bank event from last month and that I would rather watch a bunch of crappy old WCW PPVs than a generally mid-level modern WWE PLE offering. Even moreso, I’m sorry that I’m not in the least bit interested in this John Cena retirement tour that went off the deep end when Dwayne interjected and then decided that his planet needed him or something. (No, Dwayne didn’t show up on this show… but someone else did; we’ll get to that.)

And yes, I did recycle the Buy One Get One Free banner of Ramblemania 41 for this year’s Summerslam as soon as I heard the announcement that they were going to make it a two-night event months ago. The fact that CM Punk would end up main eventing one of those nights was more of a happy coincidence.

Continue reading “WWE Summerslam 2025”

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.

Continue reading “WWE Judgment Day 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…

Continue reading “WWF Backlash 2002”

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.

Continue reading “WWE Payback 2020”

Yeah, so John Cena turned heel on this show…

Meh…

Let’s get on with the rest of it.

Continue reading “WWE Elimination Chamber 2025”

This is it, kids. The last WWE PPV before COVID hit and everyone stayed at home to enjoy WWE do some sports entertainment from an empty Performance Center to kick off some of the saddest WWE shows in recent memory.

Continue reading “WWE Elimination Chamber 2020 (Blood Money VI)”