WWF Unforgiven 2001

It’s 9/11. Let’s do something patriotic for the occasion… by reviewing a WWF PPV that took place two weeks after the United States endured tragedy and travesty.

Continuing our week of Kurt Angle spotlight shows, we’ll be touching on WWF Unforgiven 2001, knee deep in the much-maligned Invasion angle, with reigning WWF Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin (still pretty much a heel at this point) defending his title against the patriotic All-American hero and Olympic Gold Medal winner with a broken fricking neck, Kurt Angle… and also other stuff too.

Anyway, let’s jump in and be all patriotic and stuff… even I’m not American.

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RAW (Sept. 9th, 2024) – A Test Run Of Sorts

So, truth be told, I didn’t watch the entirety of RAW – mostly bits and pieces here and there – but there were a couple notes from the show that I wanted to touch upon quickly.

Perhaps the most significant of all is the news that starting in October, which will begin the final stretch of RAW episodes on USA Network before the move to Netflix, will see RAW’s run time be reduced from the daunting three-hour marathons to the usual two hour format similar to Smackdown and NXT. Some people see this as a bad thing – one less hour equals less ads, although considering this is a last minute short-term deal, I don’t think anyone really minded that point – while others see this as a good thing in that more people will be more likely to watch the show and stick with it throughout.

Count me in the latter category. I have seen far more episodes of 2-hour RAWs that I have 3 hour RAWs and even during the 3-hour sessions, I’m skipping through most of it. With two hours, it makes for a more quick paced show and there’s less padding overall. While I’m sure some people are upset by this news, trust me. This is going to be a good move going forward and might be a sampler of things to come when the Netflix era rolls around.

(Scratch that. Word has it RAW will return to three hours when it hits Netflix. So much for that.)

As far as actual happenings on the show? Bret Hart and Gunther’s interaction was fun for a bit, though I’d imagine not as fun as Bret and HHH hugging it out, where I’d imagine Bret told HHH that he’s still a 4/10 wrestler. Jey Uso looks to challenge Bron Breakker for the IC title and fuck knows if they ever pull some kind of trigger on the guy, who was a genuinely hot act last year and now has sort of become just another guy… letting hot guys become just another guy is the other place’s schtick, Hunter. Also, Nattie being a surprise partner in a multi-woman match at a show taking place in Calgary………………………………… Alberta, Canada is no surprise at all. And of course, there was the Wyatt Sicks/American Made street fight that opened up the show, which was a fun little match.

Regarding the Wyatt Sicks, I am largely ambivalent… which means I don’t particularly care for it, but don’t entirely hate it either. Believe it or not, that’s actually a good thing and it tells me that they haven’t completely screwed any pooch with this one. There’s still time, though.

Regarding new announcer Joe Tessitore? I’ll need a few more listens to gauge a proper opinion on the dude, but so far, I’m liking what I hear. Guy’s got a good voice, seems well into the action, and doesn’t come across as a total goof who hasn’t a clue what he’s talking about. WWE has tried other real sportscasters for the RAW role and they never quite worked out, but they got something with this Tessitore guy. He just needs a couple weeks to find a footing (and maybe a witty catchphrase or two), but he’s off to a good start.

That’s about it.

Later.

TNA Lockdown 2010

Dear lord, are we actually diving into the dreaded period of TNA from the year 2010… again?

But yeah, see, they tell me this is a good show… and there’s a really good Kurt Angle match on this show… which is where we’re doing this show as part of Kurt Angle Appreciation week. Let’s dive in and check this show out.

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AEW Dynamite (September 4th, 2024) – A Flaming Hot Sell For All Out

It took a burning house to produce some intrigue, but at long last, Hangman Page cut perhaps one of the best promos of his entire career to build to this cage match with Swerve at All Out. I mean, the whole thing with Swerve buying his “childhood home” and airing it on TV, only for Hangman to find out about it and burn it down was a bit hokey, but I’ll be damned. I’m almost convinced to buy this All Out PPV just to watch this match… almost.

That one angle alone was enough to produce one of the better Dynamite shows in a while. And you can tell that I enjoyed this Dynamite show moreso than the usual output because I’m using the generic Dynamite musings banner rather than anything with a bemused Shaq, anti-AEW bots, or Tony Khan in a neckbrace. Unfortunately, we’re still trying to get Jack Perry over as a top heel and I’m still not buying it, but Mariah May vs. Nyla Rose was a fun match with a slow start, Okada finally put his working boots on for a free TV match with Kyle Fletcher that was pretty great, and the trios match between the BCC and the Ospreay/O’Reilly/Orange express (for lack of a better term) was a fun party match. Even the Mercedes segment was somewhat tolerable, even if it was every boring Mercedes promo I’ve seen her cut in WWE for years. You’d think having an Emmy Award-winning writer to personally write all your verbiage would be more creative than that, but alas…

So… yeah. Not much to say about this one. This was a genuinely good episode of Dynamite. Probably the first one I’ve seen in a while. I’m almost tempted to buy this show now… almost.

Terry, You Fumb Duck…

I’d normally wouldn’t touch this with a ten-yard pole… I’d prefer a pitchfork of equal length. But I felt… “compelled” might not be the right word, but… nah, I just felt like it.

So resident humanitarian and sportsman of the year HULK HOGAN recently went on some podcast and made the ridiculous claim that people forgave Chris Benoit for the “crap he did,” so why not extend the same courtesy to ol’ Terry, who said some racist things here and there? People still love Chris Benoit, says Hogan. People still think highly of him, says the Orange Goblin. So if people forgave him and still love him, then maybe wrestling fans can forgive Hogan for the less than heinous in comparison things that he’s done, brother. That would work for him, DUDE!

Terry, you dumb fuck.

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