For whatever reason, I feel compelled to talk about this latest edition of Dynamite… which means whatever was supposed to be up today and tomorrow will be pushed back to the weekend.
Continue reading “AEW Dynamite (June 10th, 2020): Stuff Happens And That’s Okay.”
So it’s the aftermath of Double Or Nothing… the stadium stampede has come and gone… and I’m going to buy the replay since I’ve heard good things about the show. If all goes well, expect a write-up on said show in a couple weeks.
In the meantime, we have the aftermath on Dynamite and it starts with…
Continue reading “AEW Dynamite (May 27th, 2020): What’s FTR Doing In The Impact Zone?!”
The night after the Austin era is born…
Continue reading “RAW After Mania (March 30th, 1998) – Business Picks Up”
Well, it’s the night after Wrestlemania 13, featuring one of – if not THE – best Wrestlemania match in the history of the event… and also Undertaker beat Sid for the title.
1997 was the year that began the rebuilding process for the WWF, taking the promotion from a money-losing entity relying on cartoonish gimmicks to a multi-million dollar empire producing edgier content appealing the teenaged anti-establishment audience that dominated much of the 1990s. This was the first step in forging this new direction.
Continue reading “RAW After Mania (March 24th, 1997) – The Rebuilding Process”
The night after Wrestlemania 12, where the boyhood dream came true for Shawn Michaels as he defeated Bret “Hitman” Hart to win his first WWF World championship.
We begin the show with the debut of the deranged Mankind; a large, lumbering fellow in a brown leather mask and brown outfit, coming out to ominous spooky music, pulling off his own hair, and making short work of Bob Holly with his signature Mandible Claw nerve hold, upon which a soothing piano piece places in lieu of the earlier music. Yes, they took the former Cactus Jack from ECW and WCW and turned him into a deranged individual in a mask, but that didn’t stop some fans from chanting “He’s HARDCORE!” This was a simple yet striking introduction to a new face and I’d love to have been sitting in the crowd in 1996, gauging reactions to this person, wondering if they had any clue where he’d end up down the line.
Then we have another debut; the “Wildman” Marc Mero, formerly Johnny B. Badd of WCW fame, making short work of Isaac Yankem DDS despite interference from He Of The Three Hs. He Of The Three Hs and Wildman had an altercation because Hunter got squashed by Warrior at Mania and treated his valet like poop… and so the valet joined Wildman, stuck with him for a few years before posing for Playboy, leaving the WWF and eventually wrestling for good… and ended up marrying Brock Lesnar… so that was a thing.
The Bodydonnas beat Barry Horowitz and the guy with the jock strap on his head… and then we got a promo from HBK, where he refers to fans as his KLIQ… or something. That was lame even back in my VHS watching days. And then Undertaker beats some cowboy guy before getting destroyed by Mankind, kicking off that feud that would be on and off for several years.
This show was a thing mostly for the historical significance, but it’s a fun watch regardless, with only Shawn’s limp dick promo being the only sour spot.
Third time’s a charm, right?
Matches aren’t all that great, but it’s getting there. Hakushi (Japanese Guy With Ink On His Face) beat Bob “Sparky Plugg” Holly in a boring match with lots of rest holds, Lex Luger and the British Bulldog (the Allied Powers, if you will) defeated Well Dunn (some job team unrelated to Kevin, because they’re not bucky beavers) in a squash, Alundra Blayze beat Women’s Champion Bull Nakano to win the title in the only really good match on the show… only to be beat up by the debuting Bertha Faye a.k.a. Rhonda Singh, a hefty woman dressed up as a clown, and Mabel and Mo beating some other job team whose name I can’t be bothered to remember.
There’s a promo with WWF champion Diesel, who offers Shawn Michaels another shot at the title due to the ref’s spraining of the ankle and Sid being Sid costing ol’ HBK the match at Mania. This would be followed up on by Shawn Michaels cutting a promo accepting Diesel and telling Sid that his services as bodyguard are no longer required, only for Sid to lose his cool and beat up Shawn for a bit, prompting Nash to come out and make the save.
I’ll give the show this much; they planted the seeds for the next several months worth of storylines and turned HBK into a beloved figure (well, the girls loved him anyway) and also, in a way, supplanting Diesel as the people care about. It’s still not a great show, but it’s getting there. If nothing else, check it out for the promos and the Madusa/Nakano match.
Wrestlemania X has been lauded as one of the better Wrestlemanias ever produced, featuring a highly praised ladder match between Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon, as well as Bret Hart bookending the show with a loss to his brother Owen in a fantastic match and eventually usurping the WWF Champion Yokozuna to reclaim the title that was stolen from him a year ago… everything in between those things is left to the imagination, but clearly, after a show with many milestones, how do you follow this show up?
With a shitty episode of RAW, of course!
Again, we’re still in the hour-long territory, but this also felt like a chore to sit through. The matches weren’t all that great… The Quebecers (the former Mountie and the current PCO) defeated the Bushwhackers in a boring match, Tatanka (BUFFALO!) squashes some job guy, Diesel also squashes some job guy in a match joined in progress, and Jeff Jarrett beat Koko B. Ware… not quite inspiring stuff.
Only thing noteworthy on this show is Bret Hart’s first interview as WWF Champion, where he talks about the night starting off poorly and ended great before addressing his loss to Owen. Other than that… eh, this wasn’t very good.
So this is a thing we’re doing for the foreseeable future… watching every RAW after Wrestlemania. I’d imagine I get a couple months of mileage before I get bored… and no, the fact that we’re doing this on 4/20 is not a coincidence. I probably took something to have thought up this idea… and I’d imagine it is going to be largely painful.
Funny thing about this RAW; whereas nowadays, these are usually treated as a big deal, the first RAW after Wrestlemania IX was a taped show from the previous taping cycle, so you don’t get the ramifications of the previous show until a couple episodes later. As such, other than passing mentions of the encore presentation of Wrestlemania, don’t expect much out of this show other than a couple quick matches here and there. In fact, the only recurring angle is the teasing of Jerry Lawler’s first WWF match, who comes out every so often, but then leaves after being overwhelmed by Burger King chants… because even back in 1993, the storylines (and the chants) weren’t much to be lauded over.
It’s an hour long show, but somehow feels longer because the matches are short, quick, and generally bad. Bam Bam Bigelow beats Virgil, Bob Backlund beats Kamala’s manager, Damien “Don’t Call Him A Jobber” Demento beats Jim Brunzell and nobody cares, the Steiners beat the Beverlies, and yes, Jerry Lawler beats some mulleted fellow in the main event.
So not a great show to follow up Mania… which is fine because Mania IX was not a great show to begin with. We’re still very early in this RAW show (it’s only a couple months old at this point) and they still haven’t worked out the kinks yet. Maybe next year’s follow-up to Mania will be better.
So… might as well talk some Dynamite, since the content I had planned isn’t ready yet and might be held off for another week or so.
Anyway, we’re starting off the TNT Championship tournament this episode and we also have a heated match between Hikaru Shida and Dr. Britt Baker DMD over an altercation that took place last week… meanwhile, Being The Elite had their own series of wrestling matches for some reason.
Not going to dig into this one that deeply, so I’ll stick with the five points format.
Continue reading “AEW Dynamite (April 8th, 2020): The TNT Has Been Lit…”
So earlier this week, I saw WWE attempt to produce a three-hour RAW from their Performance Center with no crowd; the end result being a rather awkward and uncomfortably boring that had a replay of this year’s Rumble, a quick match, and a bunch of promos. And while I gave credit for their trying, I kinda wish they just did replays and I dread how they’re going to pull off an empty arena Wrestlemania… for two nights no less!
And then there’s All Elite Wrestling; a few months into the television business, lacking the backlog or the experience to deal with a crisis of this sort… and also emanating from an empty arena; in this case, the site where two of their prior events took place. And I will admit that a part of me was dreading this… because these guys and gals were taking a huge risk given the current atmosphere. And, if I would be completely honest, I’d much rather they just took some time off, focused on keeping safe, and pick things up when we’re at a point where things can be picked up. I didn’t want to have that awkward feeling that I got watching RAW.
That having been said, the lack of a crowd and having to work around the current coronavirus world that we presently live in did not deter All Elite Wrestling from putting on another outstanding episode of Dynamite. Opening with a heartfelt promo from Cody about standing together while standing apart, about not living in fear, and parlaying that into a promo for next episode’s Blood & Guts match between the Elite and the Inner Circle.
Even though there are no fans, there is an “audience” of sort comprising all the heels on one side of the ring (MJF, Shawn Spears, and a couple others who gamble on the matches and even invites ol’ Tony Schiavone for a cut) and some faces on the other side (Colt Cobana and others). This gives us some background noise to give the illusion of a crowd cheering or jeering the action in the ring. What also helps is the “hard cam” set up in front of the main entrance set, so that we can hide the fact that the arena is empty. It works pretty damn well for the most part as a set-up and does a fair enough job of making an empty arena show more lively than usual.
By the way, this company has done television since October last year… and they were able to make an empty arena set up look good. Meanwhile, the company that’s been around for over five decades can’t be bothered to make their empty gym look better than usual.
So… quickly running down the undercard, the Lucha Bros beat the Best Friends in a pretty good tag-team match, which caused the Friends to challenge the Bros to a literal street fight in a parking lot. Then we have a women’s four way featuring Hikaru Shida, Kris Statlander, Penelope Ford, and RIHO… a pretty decent little match won by Shida. And then the Jurassic Express beat the Butcher And The Blade (with The Bunny) in a fun little match that seems less so with no girls crying for Jumping Jungle Jack Hammer Perry Boy.
Main event featured a six-man tag match between the Inner Circle (Santana, Ortiz, and the Spanish God Sammy Guevara) and the Elite (Cody, Hangman Page, and Matt Jackson) with the man advantage for next Dynamite’s Blood & Guts match (it’s Wargames with the serial number filed off) on the line. Pretty fun match with Jericho on commentary, which makes it all the more fun… certainly better than Asuka screaming and raving on RAW (sorry, Kanachan). Match ends with Santana rolling up Matt for the win and the advantage.
Jericho then cuts a promo, banning all fans from future events, and taunting the Elite for their lack of teamwork and being down a man. Then the flying drone of Broken Matt Hardy shows up and we get the big debut of Broken Matt Hardy in AEW, which would’ve been a nice spectacle had there been a crowd… still, the lack of a crowd didn’t mitigate the moment and I can’t wait to see how Matt fares in AEW,
Speaking of debuts, the Dark Order’s Exalted One was revealed to be Brodie Lee – the former Luke Harper – who proceeds to beat up on Christopher Daniels, who refused to believe in an exalted one. Also, this Brodie fellow is a pretty good talker for the role he’s given. Wonder why he’s not allowed to talk in his former place of employ.
There’s also a quick interview with AEW champ Jon Moxley as well as a filmed vignette of Jake The Snake’s new charge, Lance Archer, beating up a bunch of nobodies in a backyard wrestling ring. Kudos to the short for featuring a Cheatum-like ring announcer… nobody is going to get that, are they?
So if this ends up being the last episode of Dynamite for a good while, this was a strong showing to end it on until the foreseeable future. And for what it’s worth, the board has been set for next time with the debuts of Brodie Lee as the Exalted One and Matt Hardy as part of the Elite team, the announcement of matches for the next episode of Dynamite – which they have been particular of saying “the next Dynamite” and not “next week’s Dynamite.” It also amazes me that AEW was able to put on a more entertaining empty arena show than WWE did that I was almost able to forget the current coronavirus world we live in.
Almost.
Like I said, I’d have no problem with a suspension of live wrestling for the foreseeable future if it meant the folks could stay safe. But if they’re able to pull this off for as long as they can while staying safe, then I can only wish them all the best.
Be safe.
dtm666 