Category: Wrestling Television Musings

IMPACT (Mar. 11th, 2017) – The New Impact Wrestling… Oh Dear…

It’s a day late but that’s only because I saw it a day late and since I’ve seen it and since this is supposed to be a new day yes it is and since I don’t know what a comma is apparently I’m going to share my thoughts on the first episode of the brand spanking new IMPACT WRESTLING being run by all the old TNA guys.

I guess that’s good enough for TNA standards, right?

Anyway, to provide context, this is the first episode of Impact Wrestling under the direction of the new creative team of Jeff Jarrett, Scott D’Amore, Bruce Prichard, Dutch Mantell, and a couple other guys… essentially some of the folks who were around during the TNA heyday years, whatever that ends up meaning, I guess. The company had been acquired by the Anthem Sports group (who also owns the Fight Network up here in Canada) a while ago and have before this point produced lame bird episodes from what’s left of the old regime. And since this is a new era or something, this seems like the perfect jumping on point for someone looking to get into this would-be alternative to the WWE circus.

Some more context to provide; this is the first episode of Impact Wrestling that I actually sat down and watch in its entirety in years. Yes, despite the “brilliance” of Broken Fatt, Brother New Coke, and Not So Final Deletions, I haven’t had the urge or desire to catch up on anything going on with the TNA promotion beyond reports I’ve read online. If anything, the story of the administrative in-fighting and financial woes of the company were more compelling than anything that took place in the hexagonal circle.

With Dixie Carter and Billy Corgan turfed in some form or fashion and most of the major stars having left, I figured it’d be interesting to see how Jarrett and company fare on their first effort in a new chapter of Impact Wrestling. So I gave the first episode a go and well, you could read my full thoughts after the break. However, given the choice of image used for the header of this post, you could probably surmise what I thought of this first episode.

Grab a drink, kids. This is going to be a long one.

Continue reading “IMPACT (Mar. 11th, 2017) – The New Impact Wrestling… Oh Dear…”

WWE Roadblock 2016 (March 2016 WWE Network House Show Special)

I won’t spend too much time on that here because there isn’t a whole lot to talk about here; it’s a WWE house show, er, Live Event eminating from Toronto and anyone hoping for a change in the narrative on the Road To Wrestlemania (R) will be disappointed, but for those who just want a good little wrestling show, you’ve definitely got that here. A nice 2 1/2 hour with a bunch of good matches and good action.

Continue reading “WWE Roadblock 2016 (March 2016 WWE Network House Show Special)”

RAW (Jan. 4th, 2016) – Roman Reigns To Defend WWE Title In Rumble Match? Yes, Please.

So it’s been announced on RAW that Roman Reigns will be defending his WWE World Heavyweight Championship thing against twenty-nine other men in the 30-man Royal Rumble match at the upcoming PPV. This would make it the first time since 1992 that a Rumble has been for the WWE championship itself, as well as the first time since 1990 that a WWE World champion has participated in the Rumble. However, this is the first time in which the reigning WWE World champion is actually DEFENDING the title in the Rumble match itself.

You know what? I don’t know about anybody else, but I actually like this idea. I always felt that if they really wanted to do something really different with the Rumble, they should have the champion defend his title in the Rumble match itself. A title shot at Wrestlemania is all well and good, but means nothing when the match itself could potentially play second-fiddle to whatever bullshit old-timer match they have going on. Remember, we’ve had Rumble winners get title shots at Wrestlemania in the OPENING MATCH, making the prize about as worthwhile as winning Tough Enough.

A Rumble match where the champion is defending, on the other hand? That sound interesting. And who knows? Maybe Roman might triumph, maybe someone else will get the win. But one thing’s for sure. It’ll be a fun ride. And thus, I approve of this.

I may have jinxed the whole thing, haven’t I?

Live From MSG… Not This Match Again. (Oct. 2015 Network Special)

Just finished watching one of the replays.

So it’s a WWE Network exclusive show where we showcase a house show from Madison Square Garden, the Mecca of WWE. Why is this house show airing on the Network? Because it features Brock Lesnar, of course! And who is his latest, greatest opponent to send to Suplex City, Bitch?

Big Show.

Really? This is what we’re going with?

Say, remember back in 2002 when they had that one match on Smackdown and the ring broke? WOW, that was amazing. Back when Big Show was a bit of a threat and back when Brock Lesnar was interesting and not just the modern-day equivalent of 2003 Scott Steiner.

Continue reading “Live From MSG… Not This Match Again. (Oct. 2015 Network Special)”

WCW Monday Nitro (March 26th, 2001): The Final Episode Of Monday Nitro

The show opens with the WCW signature with the flying logo and thing. And right after, the first person on screen is Vince McMahon in the backstage area of RAW IS WAR.

“Imagine that,” he says with a smug look on his face, “Me. Vince McMahon, on WCW television. How did that happen? Well, I’ll tell you how . See, it was only a matter of time before I bought my competition. That’s right. I own WCW.”

This is the segment that opened up the final episode of WCW Nitro, eminating from a beer hall in Panama City, Florida. Coincidentally enough, this is the first episode of WCW Nitro that I’ve watched in months since making the decision to stick with RAW for my wrestling viewings, as Nitro had become such an unbearably unwatchable show that it wasn’t worth the headaches. This is the only episode of Nitro that I still have on tape in its entirety.

So it’s one of those Spring Break specials where a bunch of drunk kids show up and enjoy the show… or the booze. From the segment with McMahon, we open up with a somewhat impassioned promo from Ric Flair, who talks about the company in a positive light. Seems almost funny looking back at this after having heard Flair on numerous occasions say that he was happy to see the company put out of its misery. Going back to the promo, he challenges Sting to one last match… in TNA.

Okay, perhaps not.

Continue reading “WCW Monday Nitro (March 26th, 2001): The Final Episode Of Monday Nitro”

RAW (July 20th, 2015) – RAW IS MEH… again

Gathered up some notes on last night’s episode of RAW; the first I’ve seen in ages and apparently for good reason.

– So Brock Lesnar and Undertaker (scheduled to meet at Summerslam… joy.) had something of a little fight that lasted two segments and involved the great majority of the roster holding both these guys back. I suppose I’m supposed to praise as an awesome segment like everybody else is, but honestly, this would’ve been a more “awesome” segment if it didn’t involve two part-timers. It’s really sad that out of all the ideas WWE could have went to try and drum up interest in their product, they have to do THIS match… over a year and a half after it meant anything. But more than anything, all this did was have me ask myself, “Why bother with this match?”

– Poor Rusev. You know you’ve fallen off the totem poll when not one, but both your partners ditch you for greener pastures.That, and going from the luscious Lana to Fandango’s sloppy seconds… meh. On the bright side, I kinda dug the flip into the RKO finish. That was a cool spot.

– On the not-so-bright-side, it looks like they’re starting to build towards a Seth Rollins vs. John Cena main event match for Summerslam. I suppose it was fun while it lasted, but then again, considering how much of a pansy Rollins has been depicted as thus far, I guess it would make sense to go back to the well, however stale it might be… as long as it means Sheamus cashing in and winning, which might not be the worst possible thing they could do here.

– So Miz is being written off due to being knocked out by Big Show, huh? Poor fella must have a glass jaw or something… I’ve got nothing. But Big Show being missing since the Attitude Era? Surely, you jest. I’m thinking he’s been missing since the Dungeon of Doom.

– The match between Charlotte and Brie Bella (who lost, by the way) as well the later tag-team match between Paige/Becky Lynch and Naomi/Sasha Banks (who won, by the way) was almost vaguely interesting and could almost be watchable… if not for the constant references to Stephanie The Shrieking Harpy “saving” the Divas division. If we can phase her out of this story (or probably out of television in general) I’d probably enjoy it more. It’s really unfortunate that we have the first vaguely interesting direction in this Divas division and it’s hampered by constant praise to someone who didn’t deserve it. Look, it’s bad enough enduring the Bellas as the focal point based solely on their starring roles in a popular yet mediocre reality show, but at least THAT makes sense within the context of the story. This was Stephanie interjecting herself in something that was getting traction and by doing so, she risks curtailing the whole damn thing again into something that people will lose interest in.

– And speaking on interjecting themselves in stuff, the amount of segments featuring the Authority is overwhelmingly ridiculous. HHH as a mouthpiece is insomnia-curing. Stephanie in any role where she needs to appear on camera and spout exposition… I’m sorry, but no matter how much anyone tries to convince me otherwise, Stephanie is simply NOT a good character, in any way, shape, or form. She’s an automatic channel changer for me. She’s irritating as a villain, she’s an absolute fake as a protagonist, she’s not the kind of person I’d like featured on a regular basis if I want to try and be invested in a story because her mere presence TAKES AWAY from the tale they weave rather than augment it. The only time she was seemingly tolerable was when she was on Smackdown back in 2002-2003. And it confounds me that she somehow got WORSE over the years.

And then people wonder why I don’t watch RAW anymore.

WWF Mayhem In Manchester 1998 – The VHS Tape

This isn’t going to take very long.

Mayhem In Manchester was a 1998 WWF event held in Manchester, England about a week after Wrestlemania XIV, featuring Steve Austin defending his newly-won World Wrestling Federation Championship against HHH as well as another encounter between the Undertaker (in street clothes) and Kane. It was apparently a UK-only PPV event, but comes off looking like a house show event with lower production values and overdubbed commentary from Michael Cole and Kevin Kelly.

Beyond this, I know little of the actual event itself. In all honest, typing in Mayhem In Manchester in the search bar brings up a couple reviews of the edited VHS tape and perhaps one review on the full show, but not much else. And, as far as I could tell, this isn’t even part of the WWE Network’s On-Demand service. A strange omission, considering it could’ve been a decent selling point for the Network to have these obscure overseas-only PPVs on hand, but perhaps one that won’t be missed if you didn’t already know about it… or even cared to.

For reasons that I can’t seem to find online – since details on the event are rather scarce to begin with – WWF Home Video would release the event on VHS in a severely edited 60-minute clip show. Some might recall the prior year’s One Night Only UK-exclusive PPV been released to VHS in edited form, but that version only omitted a couple matches here and there, where this video is obstensibly a clip show for all intents and purposes. I suppose it’s a cool idea that the WWF would film one of their overseas house show and turn it into a PPV event (or VHS release, for that matter), but in watching this video tape, I’m left wondering why they would even bother with this.

1997’s One Night Only event was a proper PPV of sorts with at least one significant event in the WWF narrative; Shawn Michaels defeating the British Bulldog for his European championship and attaining Grand Slam status. And while the overall production seems like a lesser deal compared to the typical WWF or WCW Pay-Per-View taking place at the time, at the very least, it felt like a proper event for Sky Box Office or whatever the UK’s equivalent of PPV was and it felt like stuff was happening on the show.

To go with a more recent example, WWE just recently held their Tokyo Dome house show in Japan that was subsequently aired as a WWE Network special called The Beast In The East. It had a totally different air to it compared to a typical WWE production, but was made to look like a top-notch quality production that was worth checking out. It certainly helped matters when the card featured an awesome NXT championship match as well as a rare appearance from former WWE World champion Brock Lesnar, who was booked to be the monster he’s supposed to be and not a bumbling idiot tossing suplexes for five years before finally getting to the point… or the win, for that matter.

Mayhem In Manchester, on the other hand, was just a glorified house show that just so happened to have a bunch on cameras on hand to film the event. Nothing of note really happened here beyond Steve Austin defending his WWF title against HHH (or as the tape calls him, Triple HHH – wow) in what felt like a logical progression in the storyline if Austin vs. McMahon wasn’t a thing, but even then, it just felt like a random wrestling match and, for what little of it was shown, it’s pretty clear that these two would have better days ahead of them. The rest of the show seem like matches thrown together for the sake of having a show on the card and as such, you generally miss nothing by skipping this.

Unless you really need your fix of Undertaker vs. Kane, that is.

With only the clipped VHS tape on hand and no means of tracking down the entire three-hour event, I can’t exactly pass judgment on a whole event when I only have a handful of clips nor is it my intention to do so. As a novelty tape showcasing highlights from an overseas event, it’s an interesting relic of the era, but that’s about all it really is. I suppose curiosity is the only reason anyone would want to track down the full event.

For the sake of “completion” or whatever, here are the results of the full card taking from a pro wrestling wiki;

Jeff Jarrett (w/ Tennessee Lee) defeated Brakkus (7:38)

Henry & Phineas Godwinn defeated Skull & Eight Ball in a “strap” match (13:45)

Justin Bradshaw defeated Marc Mero (w/ Sable) (10:17)

Ken Shamrock & Owen Hart defeated Rocky Maivia & D-Lo Brown (6:19)

The Artist Formerly Known as Goldust (w/ Luna) defeated Cactus Jack (13:23)

LOD 2000 (Hawk & Animal) (w/ Sunny) defeated The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg & Billy Gunn) (c) via DQ in a WWE Tag Team Championship Match (12:51)

“Stone Cold” Steve Austin (c) defeated Hunter Hearst Helmsley (w/ Chyna) to retain the WWE Championship (29:13)

The Undertaker defeated Kane (w/ Paul Bearer) (21:32)

WWE Network Special: The Beast In The East

The WWE Network special, The Beast In The East, where they air a live house show from Tokyo. And this aired in the morning, live, which was surprising, but hey, it’s a nice surprise and one of those little things that makes the Network worthwhile. To tell the truth, they should probably do more of these. Just a random house show here and there.

But of course, there’re two things on this show that makes this worth turning into a televised special; the NXT Championship match between champion Kevin Owens and challenger Finn Balor… and Brock Lesnar’s first match since Wrestlemania… and – spoiler alert for those who haven’t seen it – the main event of this WWE Live show from Japan that has these two major talking points… is a nothing tag-team match that features John Cena… because that screams main event.

Continue reading “WWE Network Special: The Beast In The East”

RAW (May 4th, 2015) – Sami Zayn Shows Up On RAW, Holds His Own Against Cena

Happy Star Wars Day, everybody… because that’s a thing.

Let’s talk about RAW, instead…

So Sami Zayn showed up on RAW last night… he had a good match with John Cena… and he apparently hurt his shoulder… that Cena guy is dangerous… he should know how to work less stiff…

So they added Dean Ambrose to the main event at Payback, so it’s now a four-way match. Sure… why not? Maybe they can have Dean Ambrose job to a house fly or something along the way?

By the way, how refreshing is it that the top contenders for the WWE World Title were defeated by the reigning tag team champions instead of the other way around? If only they’d do this more often…

So they’re really doing the King Barrett thing, are they? I guess you can only have so much bad news before it gets boring… I miss Bad News…

All in all, not a bad showing for Monday Night RAW. I’m almost impressed.

WWE King Of The Ring 2015 (WWE Network Special)

This seemed to have been shot out of nowhere – probably because it was – but it looks like another WWE Network special featuring the final matches to crown a new King Of The Ring, a title that may or may not have some relevance depending on who’s doing the spinning. It’s a weird gimmick because what used to be a PPV stable during the mid to late 1990s became something of an afterthought in recent years, with the last tournament being held in 2010 on Smackdown. More often than not, they use the tournament as an excuse to give a heel wrestler a silly royal gimmick or something.

But in any event, four people compete in the semi-finals; Sheamus, Neville, R-Truth, and Bad News Barrett. Neville beat Sheamus thanks to some timely Ziggler distraction, Barrett beat R-Truth. And so the KOTR finals had a distinctly British flavour, with Barrett emerging victorious to become King Barrett… or something.

Here’s the thing. On the one hand, this was a nice little hour of wrestling and the whole thing certainly felt more refreshing than a typical piece of WWE programming. The matches were pretty good for what they were, they told a good story, and even the commentary was on point at times, being more tolerable than what the usual gang of idiots would provide on three-hour telecasts. It’s nice to listen to Cole talk about the match rather than shill some stupid thing.

On the other hand… it feels throwaway. Just to fill a taping time or something… I felt they could have done an extra hour and had the whole tournament on here instead of just half here and half on RAW.

Still, can’t complain, though. It was only an hour long, but it was an entertaining hour of television if nothing else. And you know what? As far as King Of The Ring being an annual WWE Network thing, I wouldn’t have a problem with that. On the contrary, it’s precisely the sort of thing they SHOULD be putting on the Network instead of having Jerry Springer host a shitty clip show that tries to be raunchy but ends up being lame. For flip’s sake, you can’t have a show called Too Hot For TV and then feature clips that were originally shown – wait for it – ON TEE VEE!

King Of The Ring, though? Not bad. Thumbs up from me.