Month: October 2010

Chris Benoit Vs Randy Orton – Smackdown January 13th 2006

Chris Benoit Vs Randy Orton – Smackdown January 13th 2006

Last week, Benoit got a DQ win over Orton who replaced Booker T in the best of 7 series for the US Title. That win for Benoit made it 3-3, so this would be the final match. If Benoit wins, he gets the US title. If Orton wins, then BOOKER wins the US Title.

Should also be noted that Batista gave up the WHC at the start of the show after Henry injured him. Orton wanted in the Battle Royal to get his shot at the WHC, but was forced into this match as he has already agreed to replace Booker. So Benoit would be fighting for the US Title, while Orton would be fighting for pride and to prove that he is one of the best, and no doubt to gain momentum going into the Royal Rumble which is a couple of weeks away.

They spend the opening few minutes just fighting for control, and you really get the sense that both men are doing their absolute best to fight for that position. This is an important match for both men, and for different reasons; Benoit wants the title, Orton simply wants the win for bragging rights (and no doubt to prove to Teddy Long that he should have been in the WHC Battle Royal).

Benoit ends up on the outside, and sees Booker T coming towards him with the crutch. So what does he do? Channels Eddie Guerrero of course! He holds his knee and tells the referee that Booker hit him with the crutch, and Booker gets sent to the back! Smart by Benoit to get any outside party sent away so he can be fully focuses on Orton, who he knows CAN beat him, as he proved in 04 for the WHC.

With Booker gone, and a commercial break, nothing has really changed in the ring. Both guys are still fighting for control, and its probably done in a way that Andy would describe as “gritty”, so you know its probably good lol.

Benoit turns things up a notch when he gets tired of fighting with Orton on the mat, and just chops the fuck out of him. Orton’s facial expressions when he gets chopped are just priceless too, which makes his attempt to stop Benoit even more meaningful.

Even with Orton in control of the match, he has to fight with Benoit every step of the way to keep control, and sometimes very nearly loses it. Benoit has to be right up there as one of, if not THE best opponent Orton has ever had. Its basically a lite version of the Benoit/Regal and Benoit/Finlay matches, so I think its safe to assume that everyone on here will pretty much adore this match.

Benoit’s big “comeback” spot is awesome too, something that you probably wouldn’t see from ANYONE else; its a headbutt while both guys are on the ropes, and Orton gets headbutted off the ropes to the guardrail. Its probably one of the best comeback spots I have seen lol.

I’m struggling to think of something to say now lol, without going all play by play :p. I guess its best to just reiterate what I have already said; this match is a fight. You can tell who has control of the match, but there is never a part of the match where someone is completely dominating as the other guy is constantly trying to fight out of whatever hold he is in. Screw calling this a lite version of Benoit/Regal and Benoit/Finlay, this is pretty much the full thing now.

I think highly of a small handful of Orton matches, but I don’t think I have seen anything quite like this from him before, even with Benoit. Most likely Orton’s best singles match, and probably his best match singles or otherwise.

My ONLY complaint with this match is the ref bump and interference. Orlando showing up was pointless (like always, even when he has a match), and with the performance Orton put on for this match, I think it would have been better for him to win this one clean rather than with Booker’s help. Everything else before that though was fan-fucking-tastic. This is going to make my top 50.

Rating: ****1/2

The Undertaker Vs Shawn Michaels – In Your House 18: Badd Blood 05/10/1997

The Undertaker Vs Shawn Michaels – In Your House 18: Badd Blood 05/10/1997

Here we go! The first ever Hell in a Cell match. The Undertaker, fighting for revenge. Shawn Michaels, fighting to survive. Also, something that is often forgotten about this match, the #1 contendership for the WWF Championship at Survivor Series is on the line too!

Before the match starts, we see referee Earl Hebner padlock the cell door shut, as Shawn pleads with him to let him out. No chance Shawn. You danced with the devil, and now you are about to get burnt!

With the door locked, the match can begin. HBK circles the ring, as The Undertaker slowly stalks his prey. After everything Shawn has done to him over the last couple of months, The Undertaker wants to put Shawn through a lot of pain, and is going to take his time doing it. He sees no need to rush, no need to run after Shawn, because unlike Ground Zero, he has nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, and no one to save him.

After playing a bit of cat and mouse, The Undertaker catches up to Shawn in the ring, and here we go! Nothing fancy, just ‘Taker grabbing Shawn by the back of his head, and ramming him into numerous turnbuckles. Shawn sells them like he just hit concrete, which some people would state he is overselling, but personally I loved it, and felt it made The Undertaker seem like a vicious powerful monster, which WWF were really turning him into at the time.

Shawn takes a beating for a couple of minutes, with ‘Taker working over the arm, hitting Old School, and even going for a cover at one point. Was The Undertaker trying to win? No, I don’t think he was. He gave Shawn a beating a month ago at Ground Zero, and Shawn never gave up, so he knew it would take more than what he had done so far to put HBK away. So why go for a cover? Because he can. He is showing Shawn that HE is in control, not Shawn. Also, kicking out of a pin attempt with a 300+ pounder on top of you wastes energy, and just helps The Undertaker more. A question some of you may be thinking is “why did Shawn kick out?”. Good question, because let’s face it, if Shawn didn’t kick out, the match would be over and he would escape the possibility of worse pain. Going back to what I said earlier, this match is for the #1 contendership. Shawn, like everyone in the WWF, wants the WWF Championship. Winning this match will place him in a title match, where he is one step closer to being champion once again. Then there is the fact Shawn is an arrogant heel, and beating The Undertaker will feed his ego, and give him bragging rights forever more.

The Undertaker decides to step things up a bit, as he grabs Shawn by the throat, seemingly going for a Chokeslam! Shawn senses this, and desperately fights his way out, sending ‘Taker into the corner. He mounts him, and begins to punch ‘Taker in the head. The Undertaker throws Shawn off, and he flies half way across the ring, again perhaps overselling, but IMO putting The Undertaker over even more. Shawn is a resilient man though, and he quickly gets to his feet and charges over into the corner to mount the Dead Man once again.

Every time Shawn attempts any offence, The Undertaker just shrugs it off and continues his epic assault on the “Sexy Boy”. The fight goes to the outside, and things are about to get brutal. ‘Taker imposes his will on Shawn, using his size and power along with the deadly cell walls to inflict more pain and damage. A couple of spots I always enjoy are when The Undertaker picks up Shawn, then smashes him back first into the ring post, turns around and smashes him back first into the corner of the cell, turns around again and smashes him in the ring post once again, then turns around one last time to send him back first into the corner of the cell. The other is when ‘Taker goes for a powerbomb, but Shawn seemingly reverses it, punching The Undertaker repeatedly in the face, only for The Undertaker to turn around and repeatedly smash Shawn into the corner of the cell again! When Shawn drops to the floor, you can see the marks on his back left by the cell, showing you that he really did hit the cell, and he hit it hard.

The underlying story of this match continues, with Shawn using the cell to attempt an escape from the pain and destruction The Undertaker has on his mind. He tries his best to climb up the cell wall to get away, but The Undertaker is tall enough to reach up and drag Shawn back down, back to hell.

Again the cell comes into play in this match, this time providing Shawn with an opening he so desperately needed. ‘Taker whips Shawn into one of the cell walls, then comes running at him, only to smash face first into the cell himself! I’m unsure if it was Shawn being able to dodge the attack, of if the sheer force of The Undertaker’s Irish Whip caused Michaels to bounce off and dodge the attack, but either way it created an opening, and HBK took it!

Just as Shawn appears to have the advantage, The Undertaker fights back. But as quickly as he re-gained control, he loses it! Shawn knocks The Undertaker off the apron, and sends him into the cell, then follows it up with a suicide dive, again driving The Undertaker into the cell! He isn’t giving ‘Taker time to recover, as he climbs the cell once again, this time to drop an elbow! Shawn is looking strong in this match now. He has used his speed, quickness and high flying ability to gain control, and is now using dirty tactics to keep that control. One of my all time favourite spots (not just from this match, but in general) right here, as Shawn hits a Piledriver to The Undertaker, ON THE STEEL STEPS! It makes one hell of a sound, and just looks incredible.

But even after all of that, The Undertaker crawls back into the ring. Again, this is putting over The Undertaker as an unstoppable monster, while at the same time, showing how resilient and CREDIBLE Shawn Michaels is when he is in the ring with the bigger, stronger opponent. Shawn doesn’t like the fact The Undertaker is still coming after him, so he pulls out a steel chair! This epic feud all began with a steel chair shot, and Shawn hopes to end it with one. I say one, but Shawn hits ‘Taker twice for good measure, and makes the cover! 1…2… NO! The Undertaker is not going out like that again. He still needs to extract his revenge on Shawn, and a steel chair isn’t going to do it this time.

The match starts to change from this moment on, as The Undertaker back body drops Shawn over the ropes, and onto a camera man. Shawn begins to beat the hell out of the camera man, laying him out on the floor. Why did he do it? I believe because he knew it would force the referee to open the door for EMT’s to attend to the guy, and the open door would allow Shawn to escape.

Until then though, Shawn must keep The Undertaker at bay. HUGE elbow drop from the top, followed by Sweet Chin Music! While all of this is happening, the door has been opened too! This is the part where I now feel the door being opened was a contingency plan, IF his superkick was not enough to put down The Undertaker. After all, what would be better than pinning The Undertaker in this match, instead of running away?

Of course, things don’t quite work out for HBK, as The Undertaker sits right up from Sweet Chin Music! Shawn is shocked, and makes a run for the door before it’s closed again! The Undertaker follows him out and catches him, sending him into the cell wall on numerous occasions, and busting him open too!

Shawn is lucky once again to find a small opening, but what is he going to do with it now? Inside the cell, he was unable to put the Dead Man away with his finisher. Outside of the cell, he was still unable to get away from the monstrous beast. The only thing left, if for him to CLIMB to the top of the cell! Unfortunately for Shawn, The Undertaker, even at 330lbs, near 7 feet tall, is able to follow him up there too!

Both men are now on top of the cell, and Shawn attempts a Piledriver up there, but instead gets a back body drop onto the steel! If that wasn’t bad enough, The Undertaker lifts him over his head, and slams him from over 7 feet in the air to the steel! Right hand now by The Undertaker, and Shawn nearly falls off the edge! He holds on, while The Undertaker has something sick on his mind. He stomps on one hand, he stomps on the other hand, and…

“Incoming!”

Shawn Michaels has nothing to hold on to, and falls back from halfway up the cell, through the announcer’s table! It crashes under the weight, and Shawn is a bloody mess on the concrete floor! It’s not over yet though, as The Undertaker climbs down, and slams him onto the floor!

While the majority of this match has been about The Undertaker being an unstoppable, almost un-human DESTRUCTION MACHINE, it’s also all about Shawn showing off just how damn resilient he is. After everything The Undertaker has done to him, he is STILL able to get up, and following the story of the match, does his best to get away from The Undertaker.

The Dead Man catches up to him once again, and throws him back into the cell, and the referee padlocks it shut one more time! Shawn is bleeding even more it seems, as it is flowing from the head of the Heart Break Kid.

The Undertaker has complete control now. He senses the time is right to put away the man who cost him the title, and starts it all off with a Chokeslam from the ropes! WOW! That isn’t enough though, as ‘Taker goes to the outside, and brings in a steel chair! As I’ve said before, this feud started with a chair shot, and The Undertaker wants it to end the same way. SICK chair shot to the bloodied head of Shawn Michaels, and payback is a BITCH! Undertaker signals that the end is here, but the lights go out, and we hear the eerie music of the man we discover to be… KANE!

Kane RIPS open the cell door, takes out the referee, and then stands face to face with his brother The Undertaker. He raises his arms, then brings them down to release fire from all 4 corners, just like The Undertaker has been known to do! The Undertaker is distracted, allowing Kane to hit a Tombstone!!!

Paul Bearer wakes the referee up, Shawn raises his head from the pool of blood he was lying in, and covers the Dead Man! A slow count, but The Undertaker is OUT of it. Shawn Michaels has WON!

Holy Shit! Every time I watch this match, I love it more and more. I love everything about it. From the way they build off the Ground Zero match with Shawn trying his best to simply get away, to the epic debut of Kane, which gives Shawn the big win, making him more credible going into the Survivor Series to fight for the title, while at the same time keeping The Undertaker credible from this loss, and further building The Undertaker/Kane feud that had been slowly boiling for months now.

People have been talking about Hell in a Cell matches for years, comparing them, ranking them, praising them and dissing them. I’ve seen people make excellent points as to why another cell match is more brutal, or why another cell match has more action, or why another cell match has better storytelling ect ect. That’s all good, people have different opinions, and that’s what makes us individuals. However, I do disagree with their opinions. I strongly believe that no other Hell in a Cell match has better storytelling, action, or even brutality. Sure, it might not be as straight up brutal as Brock Lesnar/The Undertaker, but it doesn’t have to be IMO. The fact that it’s built around one man just destroying the other makes it brutal to me. Then the blade job from Shawn, the fall from the cell, and the puddle of blood in the ring where Shawn is makes it just as brutal to me. It is only one of two cell matches that combines those three factors into the match (the second being The Undertaker Vs Edge, SummerSlam 2008), instead of just using two of the three, or in some cases, one.

This was the first ever Hell in a Cell match. I strongly believe that is has never been matched, and probably never will. It set the standard, and is the measuring stick not only for Hell in a Cell matches, but every other gimmick match too IMO. It shows perfectly how to combine storytelling, action and brutality into a single match, as well as how you put over both men involved, and even put over a completely new wrestler that has never been seen before the match (Kane). This was the first ever Hell in a Cell match, and I strongly believe it is the GREATEST MATCH OF ALL TIME.

Rating: *****

Wrestling View for 09/10/2010 Update

Due to technical reasons (aka my computer being fucking shit lol), I won’t be able to get this week’s Wrestling View edited and uploaded today. Got it all filmed, I just can’t do a damn thing with it. Hoping to sort out my issues tomorrow, and if I do, I’ll get to work on editing and uploading the video asap. So basically I am hoping to still post it this week as well as recording and editing next week’s ready to upload :).

In the meantime, I guess I’ll post some more written reviews!

Rey Mysterio & Batista Vs MNM – Cage Match – Smackdown January 6th 2006

Rey Mysterio & Batista Vs MNM – Cage Match – Smackdown January 6th 2006

This one is for the tag team titles, and best of all, NO ESCAPE!

Batista and Rey dominate the early going, and :lmao at Rey. Poor guy keeps having to just go around and kick his opponents half the time because big Dave seems to miss a couple of cues for some double team stuff. You can see Rey keep looking behind him at Dave hoping he will realise they are supposed to do a “whip opponents into each other” spot, but Dave just keeps kneeing the fuck out of Nitro instead :p.

Mysterio takes a pretty fucking awesome spot at one point when Batista whips him into… Nitro I think, and Nitro back body drops him into the cage, and Rey’s head catches on the ropes on his way down. This takes him out for a little while so MNM can work over Batista.

MNM look so uncomfortable inside the cage too, and they clearly have trouble running the ropes with the cage behind them, which makes a couple of spots they do just look… shit :p. Doesn’t help that both guys are green as hell too, as their offence comes across as weird to me, and they don’t take some of Rey’s offence as good as they can today (well, I assume Joey has improved, haven’t seen him since he got released lol). Nothing about this match so far is screaming “good”.

Batista eventually gets up and destroys MNM, before we get Mark Henry trying to break into the cage for 10 minutes (cut down to immediately for the TV showing lol, but the poor people in attendance had to sit through it all lol). Even the clipped version looks awful, with Henry breaking the door off and throwing it OUTSIDE of the ring, then having to go and get it before bringing it in and attacking Batista with it.

This match only lasts about 11 minutes, but it feels like 30 minutes when watching it. Its just horrible. Oh, and MNM win the tag titles back. Whatever.

Rating: 1/4*

Chris Benoit Vs Randy Orton – Smackdown January 6th 2006

Chris Benoit Vs Randy Orton – Smackdown January 6th 2006

This was during the best of 7 series with Booker, but Booker was “injured” so Orton replaced him.

This was starting to get good, really good, until it ended with a DQ thanks to Orlando “useless” Jordan who was pissed that Booker didn’t pick him to face Benoit in his place.

Not got much to say about this one unfortunately, as I wasn’t paying full attention to it :p. But it looked like their usual hard hitting stuff that was building nicely until that fucktard ruined it (I don’t like Orlando…).

Rating: **1/2

Motor City Machine Guns Vs Beer Money Incorporated – The 2010 Series

These reviews are best read after watching my video review of these matches, that can be found here.

Beer Money Vs Motor City Machine Guns – Victory Road 2010

Been a LONG time since I watched any Beer Money matches, which is kind of a shame for me because I used to love them. Always had that Old School Tag Team vibe. Can’t say I’m too much of a fan of MCMG since they seem to be your typical Indy spotmonkey wrestlers from what I have seen of them over the years.

On paper, the match reminds me of the Brainbusters/Rockers matches, with the two smaller, quicker opponents against the 2 bigger guys who can wrestle. Of course neither team matches up to those two legendary teams, but hey, who can?

WTF at the whole referee/tag shit around the 5 minute mark? Storm is the legal man, Roode attacks Shelly to gain control for his team while Storm has the ref distracted, then when Sabin tries to tell the ref what’s going on, Storm and Roode try for the basic “come in and switch partners without actually tagging” shit… but the ref sees this whole thing and makes the non legal man tag in the actual legal man, and this whole thing seems to take forever and kills the heat Beer Money got from illegally gaining the advantage.

Speaking of killing heat… the hot tag is about as hot as Awesome Kong in a playboy shoot. They do try to build to it, but then the Guns just completely ruin it by making it seem like they were back in control, and Shelly makes the tag like it was the easiest thing in the world.

From here they go into a massive finishing stretch which is completely unwarranted given the fact the match has only been going about 10 fucking minutes, IF THAT, with a short FIP segment and the worst attempt at a hot tag ever.

Oh, and we get a somewhat pointless ref “bump” when he gets beer spat in his eyes by mistake… and then he stays in the ring trying to get it out of his eyes while another ref is in there. Oh wait, it actually leads to something! Both refs make 3 counts at the same time, but one pin was Beer Money and the other was MCMG! How the fuck would the first ref even know who was legal or not? He was fucking blind for the last few minutes! And he KNEW there was another ref in there, so why did he even bother?

I thought that this would be how the best of 5 series all came about, ya know, with both teams not really winning or losing, so the titles are vacant until one team wins the best of 5… but nope. Match restarts and the Guns pick up the win. Making the ref shit/double win thing POINTLESS.

I went in with low expectations, and I STILL ended up being disappointed. How the hell did that happen?!?!! I was kinda expecting to like the match, but fucking hell, I’m actually getting pissed off the more I write about it!

Fuck this match.

Rating: *1/2

Beer Money Vs Motor City Machine Guns – Best of 5 Series Match 1 – Ladder Match – Impact July 15th 2010

So… the FIRST match in this series is a ladder match. Why? Remember when gimmick matches would mean something, and a feud would BUILD to a gimmick match? Nope, me neither.

Match is… ok. Its a ladder match, and there is nothing special about it. We’ve seen just about everything before, and tbh it looked unspectacular here. The main good point of the match is that it was only around… 9 minutes or something. If it had 20 minutes, I could see myself hating it even more than their VR match lol.

Anyway, since it IS a ladder match, and a sub-10 minute one on TV at that, I’m fine with them going crazy with moves and shit. After all, the object of the match is to keep your opponents down long enough to climb the ladder and retrieve whatever the fuck is at the top.

It kept my interest for the full 9 minutes, and got pretty good towards the end… but fuck me another shitty ref thing. And its Brian and Earl Hebner AGAIN (same as at VR). Brian gets knocked out, Earl shows up to help him, and Beer Money steal the contract from the Guns thanks to a beer bottle, and Earl decides to finally look up and declare Beer Money the winners. Bah. They already did some shitty ref thing during the VR match which ended up being pointless, so why bring it back and stable it on to a fucking GIMMICK match too?

So yeah, match is definitely watchable and entertaining, but the shit ending doesn’t help the match in any way.

Rating: **

Beer Money Vs Motor City Machine Guns – Best of 5 Series Match 2 – Street Fight – Impact July 22nd 2010

MOAR GIMMICKS!!! At least a street fight can still be wrestled as a normal match for the most part, but I ain’t expecting them to do anything more than brawl for the majority of the match or some shit.

In saying that though, brawling for the majority/entire match makes sense. Beer Money obviously chose the match so they can do whatever the hell they want to MCMG, and MCMG have been screwed in the ladder match so they want revenge. See, this is why I like to write about matches. If I’m writing, I’m thinking, and if I’m thinking, I can see things differently to how I might see them by simply looking at them, if you get what I mean.

Did Mike Tenay just call the Double A Spinebuster the Double R Spinebuster because Robert Roode did it? Yes, yes he did. Mike, if you do that again, I’ll hunt you down and stab you in the eyes. Arn Anderson and his Spinebuster will not be disrespected!!! :p

Some really, really good action in this one, and while they probably went overboard with the weapons, I can’t complain too much about what they are doing. However… is that ANOTHER FUCKING REF BUMP? Why? Are they building to a fucking Earl Hebner vs Brian Hebner match? Its a street fight. They can do whatever they want. They don’t need the ref to get taken out to use the motherfucking beer bottle. ARRGHHH.

Aside from the lame arse ref shit being thrown in again, this was a decent match. Better than the rest of them anyway, which isn’t saying too much.

Rating: **1/4

Beer Money Vs Motor City Machine Guns – Best of 5 Series Match 3 – Cage Match – Impact July 29th 2010

Oh look, Brian Hebner is the referee again, and his Dad Earl is on the outside guarding the door. I wonder how they will manage to include them in this match too.

Roode is busted open in the first minute. Not sure why he bothered blading, especially so soon. Surly having one of the Guns bleed would have been better, to help get more heat on the heels and more sympathy on the faces and make their eventual win even bigger because they did it with one of them being hurt and bleeding. Instead it might help give the heels an excuse as to why they didn’t win, and you never want your heels to have a somewhat legit reason for not being as great as they claim. If nothing else, maybe he should have bladed towards the end so it would seem like the guns have managed to get some revenge over Beer Money while winning the match as well, and not winning by beating a team where one guy has been bleeding all match.

There really is just so much wrong with the damn blade job that I could go on about lol, because in all honestly I think it helped kill this match. Having one of the Guns (I forget which now) trying to fight back against Roode who is bleeding, to try and get the hot tag takes away the damn heat needed to make the hot tag work (what is it with these two teams together and killing heat and being unable to make hot tags?). Why should I be surprised that someone is able to fight back against someone who is cut and hurting? Why should I get behind him and WANT him to make the tag? I’m more surprised that he isn’t controlling the match since he is the more healthy of the two.

Finish is good though, with the beer bottle finally coming back to bite Beer Money in the arse. Oh, and no ref shit! I guess all it took was a STEEL FUCKING CAGE to keep them apart and keep them from doing some pointless shit.

Yeah, this was BAD. It had some decent action to it, but the blade job killed the entire thing completely, and it wasn’t looking to be EPICS without the blade job either.

Rating: 3/4*

Beer Money Vs Motor City Machine Guns – Best of 5 Series Match 4 – Ultimate X – Impact August 5th 2010

Only 2 more matches to go… only 2 more matches to go…

Since the Guns go the win in the last match, they finally get to choose the stip for this match. So they go with Ultimate X. I’m 50/50 on this decision tbh. On the one hand, Ultimate X probably favours the Guns more than any of the other stips favoured Beer Money. However, since the Guns won the tag titles in a straight up WRESTLING match against Beer Money, I would have liked them to have gone with that as a “stip” since they would have gone into the match knowing that they could indeed win as they had done it before. But that would screw up TNA’s obsession with GIMMICKS :p. And its not even a big deal anyway, I’m perfectly fine with it being Ultimate X, especially given the stip for the final match anyway.

Nice promo before the match with both teams making sure we all know how important the tag titles are to them. I like when companies go out of their way to make their titles seem important. I wonder when WWE will try it.

Roode bleeds again, but I’m guessing this match was taped the same night or whatever as the previous show, so its understandable lol. Plus they aren’t tagging in and out and “trying” to work a STF so one of the heels bleeding doesn’t really matter :p.

So, Storm’s too drunk to climb up and try to get the X. But he’s sober enough to wrestle. Ok. At they its kinda funny when they play on it and Storm has to try and pick Roode up who was taken out so he can climb the ropes for the team since Storm cleared the ring but still can’t climb himself :p.

:lmao at the “this is awesome” chant. Its not awesome you stupid fucks.

Finish is ok for this type of match. Guns win. I disliked this match. Had one or two cool spots… and then about 8 minutes of filler for the rest of the match.

Rating: *

Beer Money Vs Motor City Machine Guns – Best of 5 Series Match 5 – 2 out of 3 Falls – Impact August 12th 2010

Last match. Thank FUCK.

I’m glad this doesn’t have some pointless gimmick stuck onto it, but rather a wrestling stipulation. However… anyone else think its a little dumb to have a 2/3 falls match as part of a “best of 5” series? :p

Tenay is putting this series of matches over as being the best tag series he has ever seen, and maybe even the best series in general ever. Its one thing to put over your product, but another thing to blatantly LIE and spew bullshit. HHH/Orton had a better series of fucking matches. And don’t get me started on tag series…

First fall is pretty good. A short FIP segment, a somewhat decent hot tag (not enough time to build to it properly, but since they have to do 3 falls they had no choice but to cut it short), and a nice finishing stretch with Beer Money picking up the first win. Then from here we can go into a big FIP segment for the majority of the second fall which was obviously built at the end of the first fall with one of the Guns being beat down enough to be pinned… oh wait. No. Tag within seconds, Guns win within about a minute. Third fall.

Third fall is mostly a finishing stretch… so this match is pretty much VR with 2 extra pins in it. Which really made those 2 pins pointless. Should have just been a regular tag tbh.

Quality wise, its on par with VR, and not even close to be MOTY or MOTYC or even Tag MOTY/MOTYC like most TNA fans are claiming. A bad series overall imo. I blame Andy for it. Maybe if I didn’t love the old STF so much, I might have liked these more. But instead, I DO love STF and none of these matches were able to give us that. They tried in a couple of them, and failed miserably, so they went for MOVES~! instead.

Rating: *1/2

The Undertaker, Ted DiBiase, Greg Valentine & Honky Tonk Man Vs Dusty Rhodes, Koko B Ware, Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart – WWF Survivor Series 22/11/1990

The Undertaker, Ted DiBiase, Greg Valentine & Honky Tonk Man Vs Dusty Rhodes, Koko B Ware, Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart – WWF Survivor Series 22/11/1990

THIS is where it all began. The debut of The Undertaker character. The start of my near 20 years (at the time of me writing this) of being a fan of wrestling AND The Undertaker. I wasn’t 3 years old yet, and my first memory is of seeing The Undertaker making his debut and walking down to the ring. He was the first wrestler I ever saw, and to this day has remind my absolute favourite. Its about time I reviewed this match!!!

The Undertaker is a mystery partner for DiBiase’s survivor series team, and he starts the match against Bret Hart. He powers Bret down to the mat and chokes him, then lets Bret tag in The Anvil, who does no better against this new, mysterious giant. Koko is next to get a tag, and he is the first to feel the devastating Tombstone Piledriver, sending him to the back!

Bret’s back in, takes a few shots at Undertaker who doesn’t seem to feel any of them, and then both men tag out to give us Valentine Vs Dusty. Valentine ends up taking a beating, with Dusty’s team making some quick tags to try and keep The Hammer down.

We see plenty of action over the next few minutes, with HTM getting eliminated, DiBiase getting in to the match finally, and Dusty getting his shots in on the Million Dollar Man.

The Anvil gets eliminated, and its now 3 on 2, with Undertaker getting another tag into the match. He takes care of Dusty and sends him into his own corner to make a tag and get the hell out of there, then proceeds to dominate Bret before tagging out again. Not enough Undertaker in this one for my liking! :( :cal:

Yey, Undertaker is back in :D. Dusty made the mistake of sending DiBiase into his own corner where he could make the tag, and Undertaker gets back in, climbs the ropes and launches himself at Dusty, pinning him too. Seeing a man the size of Undertaker do that TODAY is still pretty impressive, but in 1990? If I was older and could understand wrestling better, I’d probably be in awe lol. Even though Dusty is eliminated, Undertaker hasn’t done with him yet, and continues to beat the shit out of him on the outside and to the backstage area, getting himself counted out in the process.

Not quite enough Undertaker in the match imo, but the time he actually was in there was very well spent. He powered through everyone, eliminated Koko and DUSTY, showed off his great athleticism, and got his gimmick over rather nicely too. Definitely the best debut match I have seen from Calaway so far, wonder how is WCW debut is? As soon as I find out which match is his debut match I can look into seeing just how good or bad it is :p.

Anyway, the rest of the match (which is still interesting :) )…

Bret is alone now against two men, and the overconfident Valentine ends up getting rolled up and pinned. Now its a one on one match between Bret and DiBiase which makes me smile :). Bret fakes a leg injury and ALMOST gets a surprise win, then ALMOST gets another surprise win when DiBiase accidentally runs into Virgil on the apron. Really cool to see them running through some overused finishes to matches, then ending with another one (DiBiase rolls through a crossbody), only this time its DiBiase doing it instead of Bret.

Fun match, a great debut for The Undertaker, and some good action at the end between Bret and DiBiase. Not the best match by any means, but an easy, easy match to sit through and holds a great deal of sentimental value to me.

Rating: **3/4

The Master of Pain Vs Rodney Napper – CWA 12/02/1989

The Master of Pain Vs Rodney Napper – CWA 12/02/1989

This is Big Mark’s CWA Debut! At least, I think it is :p.

He cuts a promo before the match, telling everyone he knows pain because he spent the last 4 years in prison (aka WCCW lol). Yeah, not the best promo he has cut :p.

This is a squash match, with Mark just beating the shit out of Rodney, using a big slam, a massive legdrop, a straight punch to the face, and then his leaping lariat for the 3 count in 1 minute 8 seconds.

Yeah, umm, not much to say about this one, since its 1 minute and 8 seconds long, but it was fun :). Mark showed off his athleticism and power, so the match did exactly what is was meant to do, and didn’t go on for 5 bloody minutes like some squash matches do (*cough* Lance Archer matches *cough*).

Rating: 1/4*