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)

For Those Who Cares… The WWE Announcers Guideline

http://imgur.com/a/NW1WG

This has been floating around for a while and I might have touched on this (or not.) But for any prospective wrestling announcers looking to work at WWE, here’s a helpful* set of guidelines. It’s actually a cool little find and an interesting look behind the mindset of WWE announcing that rarely gets proper exposure.

* May not be actually helpful.

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”

Nobody Cares Enough About The New Tough Enough

The premiere episode of the latest edition of Tough Enough is down 63% compared to the fifth season premiere episode back in 2011. Source here.

It’s too soon to tell how much of a flop this is going to be, since it’s only the first episode. And it’s really unfair to compare the numbers of this season to the prior one, which had the benefit of debuting following the post-Wrestlemania RAW and being hosted by Stone Cold Steve Austin. No knock on Chris Jericho, but sometimes having that big name everyone recognizes hosting the thing helps. Still, like I said, too soon to tell how this will fare.

I haven’t watched it, because for obvious reasons, I don’t get USA Network. I’ve seen the Competition Special… not all that interested, quite frankly. I generally don’t care for reality shows because more or often not, they usually end up feeling phony, fake, scripted… dare I say faker than pro wrestling. And also, given the past track record of Tough Enough, there is not enough reason for me to care about this competition. What do the winners get? They get a contract, which means nothing. Because the most they’ll get a few spots on NXT and best wishes on their future endeavors.

Meanwhile, some of the losers of this competition could very well be picked up by WWE and given contracts… and who knows? They might even make it to the main roster and be “big stars” within that universe… thus making this entire competition pointless. The telling sign of this is Season 5 contestant Ariane, a.k.a. Cameron a.k.a. the chick whose favorite match of all time was Melina vs. Alicia Fox, who was the first contestant of that season eliminated and yet she’s gainfully employed by WWE. Meanwhile, the guy who eventually won that season, Andy, stuffed it out in the developmental territory for barely a year or so before being future endeavored. You probably don’t even remember Andy, do you?

This isn’t a knock on Cameron. She made it to WWE, she’s on a roll, good for her. I got no issues with her. My issue is… why bother with these so-called competitions if they don’t mean anything? What’s the point of these live vote-ins and judges and whatnots to determine who’s tough enough to continue and who’s being sent home when the ones being sent home have better chances of getting WWE contracts and making the most out of it than the winners do? Going through this whole charade of being invested in these people and their journey to “stardom” feels like a waste of time. And that’s because it is; a waste of time.

It feels really sad when the only really worthwhile WWE reality project that dwells behind the scenes is Total Divas, which is really, really, REALLY faint praise on my end because that show is just irritating.

Yeah, so… who’s tough enough? Who cares?