HHH announced on the website that TLC will indeed have a "unified title" match with both belts hung above the ring. My predictions? Cena drops with the WWE title and Orton has the World title.
If it's indeed Orton vs Cena to unify the two titles, my prediction is that Cena will become the unified champ. No matter what anyone says, Cena is the face of the WWE and has been for some time. He's this generation's Hulk Hogan although I don't know how or why he got to that point.
Just finished disc 1 of the WWE produced Starrcade dvd set.
This disc is kind of a dud. The documentary is short (about 49 mins) and is the ususal WWE fluff piece. There is only one really good match - steamboat/shane dougas vs pillman and Windham.
Some basic observations:
* in the Hogan/Piper match: ~ making the hip replacement of a past his prime wrestler a major part of the story is probably not good for business. ~the ref throwing down on a fan who rushed the ring and the big show having to stall on a choke slam (holding up Piper the whole time) while it happened was great in a bad way.
*In the Sting/Great Muta match: ~Gary Hart rubbing Muta's abs was dusturbing. ~Muta getting Sting in Cattle Mutilation was a mark out moment.
*Battle Bowl 91 was a CLUSTER but i do like how Ricky Morton and Tommy Rich became Richard and Thomas. Wacky.
They buried Dustin Rhodes by having Steve Austin win 2 straight falls in a title match. This was Starrcade 93. Was this right before he jumped ship to WWE and became Goldust?
Looking forward to the good stuff from the mid 1980's on later discs. This disc is a no buy.
That's a shame. Am I mistaken or was Starcade WCW's big PPV event? Or was that a different one?
It was the big NWA/wcw ppv.
There were a few solid moments in the battlebowl. They just involved Steamboat or Sting showing out. Luger was an awful "star"
The Austin/rhodes match wasn't bad. It would have been much better if they wouldn't have fixed the lights in the middle of bout 2. Those guys had major league talent way back when.
Just finished disc 2 of the Starrcade set (disc 10 of my 529 dvd collection - this is going to take forever)
This disc was leaps and bounds better than disc one. All of the matches on it are at least good and some are GREAT. Highly recommend.
Some observations:
1. You get some Dusty finishes (one of them you do not actually get to see the reversal - it happened later on TBS Saturday night. Dusty was booker for 4 of these matches and was just fired as booker right before 2 more. Of the 6 total, 3 have wacky finishes.
2. Dusty Rhodes doing commentary on matches with international wrestlers is comic gold.
3. It is a miracle that nobody was ever crippled or killed during a Scaffold Match in the 80's. I would have liked to have seen what would have happened if the scaffold match was still in play during the prime Mick Foley years. Cornette throwing his tennis racquet straight up to Eaton on the scaffold who catches it on the first try is kind of impressive. The post match Big Bubba (Big Boss Man) stuff is GREAT.
4. There is a weird spot in the Flair/Luger match where the ref gets confused. Luger gets Flair in the figure four and Flair goes to the ropes for the break. The ref kicks his hands away twice. I guess the ref thought that Flair was administering the hold (which did happen later) and going for leverage. On the third attempt, Flair had to wrap both his arms around the ropes to get the break.
5. Guerrero and Malenko were putting on a CLASSIC match and the announcers only wanted to talk about the NWO main event. Argh!! Maybe this is ok on Nitro to keep viewers but there is no reason to keep selling people on the main event during a PPV. The show is already bought.
This disc saves the set so far. Disc 3 is up tomorrow.
Sami Zayn vs Adrian Neville on last week's NXT... if you haven't watched it yet, go and do so ASAP.
Between this and that match Zayn had with Antonio Cesaro a few months back, I don't even think he needs the NXT title anymore. I don't think the belt would give him any kind of bump at all. I think the only thing keeping him off the main roster right now is that his niche is already being filled by the likes of Daniel Bryan and CM Punk.
Just finished disc 3 of the Starrcade set (disc 11 of 529 for me to watch)
Overall i do not like disc 3 as much as disc 2 but there are 4 or 5 classic matches on 3 that are must see.
Some notes:
The Steiners/Road Warriors match was hurt by lack of time and keep everyone strong booking. Good for what is is though.
The Jim Cornette scaffold match bump is still terrifying to watch.
The finish to Sting/Hogan is an all time botch that if your not paying attention or thinking about it, you will miss.
The mat to the Harley Race/Ric Flair match said NWA, but all i could see was staph infection. That was probably the dirtiest bloodiest mat i have ever seen.
If you pay attention to the commentary for Race/Flair, you will notice Gordon Solie saying Flair is already a 2 time champ. Solie was protecting the Florida territory (his home territory) which had an angle in which Flair won the belt in Miami after losing in Puerto Rico to Carlos Colon. Neither the Puerto Rico or Miami match were recognized by the NWA.
Gene Kiniski, the special ref in the Race/Flair match did not understand that it was a no dq match. - it was a great match regardless but the ref did his best to kill it.
Earl Hebner was the ref in the Tully Blanchard/Magnum TA "I Quit Match" and i think this was his first screw job. I don't think Tully quit. He definitedly did not say I quit, and i do not think he was yelling yes to the question. Also, at least when this dvd set was produced, Blanchard could still cut a tremendous promo. Road Warrior Animal - still awful on the mike.
You can skip disc one, but disc 2 and 3 make this a buy.
Yep. The fast count that was PERFECTLY NORMAL. Besides complete mismanagement, this match and the goldberg taser finish killed any momentum the company had.
Yep. The fast count that was PERFECTLY NORMAL. Besides complete mismanagement, this match and the goldberg taser finish killed any momentum the company had.
Ugghhh That is the one matched I am planning on never rewatching. I skipped it on disc one and I'll keep skipping it on every rewatch.
I was never very big into wrestling, but I watched it semi-regularly back in the NWA days of the late ’70s and early ’80s. I haven't followed wrestling since ’87, ’88, but this OGN looks like a winner. I'll definitely be checking it out.
[Edit: Should have mentioned that it’s about Andre the Giant’s life.]
The is also one called the old school wrestling podcast. It is located at www.flairchop.com. They review wrestling shows from mostly the 1980's and early 90s.
Comments
FLoLLP - For the love of Leaping Lanny Poffo!
FLAB - For the love of Abdullah the Butcher!
FloBO - For the love of Barry O!
FLIMS - For the love of Iron Mike Sharpe!
This disc is kind of a dud. The documentary is short (about 49 mins) and is the ususal WWE fluff piece. There is only one really good match - steamboat/shane dougas vs pillman and Windham.
Some basic observations:
* in the Hogan/Piper match:
~ making the hip replacement of a past his prime wrestler a major part of the story is probably not good for business.
~the ref throwing down on a fan who rushed the ring and the big show having to stall on a choke slam (holding up Piper the whole time) while it happened was great in a bad way.
*In the Sting/Great Muta match:
~Gary Hart rubbing Muta's abs was dusturbing.
~Muta getting Sting in Cattle Mutilation was a mark out moment.
*Battle Bowl 91 was a CLUSTER but i do like how Ricky Morton and Tommy Rich became Richard and Thomas. Wacky.
They buried Dustin Rhodes by having Steve Austin win 2 straight falls in a title match. This was Starrcade 93. Was this right before he jumped ship to WWE and became Goldust?
Looking forward to the good stuff from the mid 1980's on later discs. This disc is a no buy.
There were a few solid moments in the battlebowl. They just involved Steamboat or Sting showing out. Luger was an awful "star"
The Austin/rhodes match wasn't bad. It would have been much better if they wouldn't have fixed the lights in the middle of bout 2. Those guys had major league talent way back when.
However I agree that disc 1 was a dud.
From 89 to 92, it featured either a tournament or battle bowl. The talent was still really good but the booking and format were tough to overcome.
From 93 to 2000, the cards were hit or miss with more misses than hits.
This disc was leaps and bounds better than disc one. All of the matches on it are at least good and some are GREAT. Highly recommend.
Some observations:
1. You get some Dusty finishes (one of them you do not actually get to see the reversal - it happened later on TBS Saturday night. Dusty was booker for 4 of these matches and was just fired as booker right before 2 more. Of the 6 total, 3 have wacky finishes.
2. Dusty Rhodes doing commentary on matches with international wrestlers is comic gold.
3. It is a miracle that nobody was ever crippled or killed during a Scaffold Match in the 80's. I would have liked to have seen what would have happened if the scaffold match was still in play during the prime Mick Foley years. Cornette throwing his tennis racquet straight up to Eaton on the scaffold who catches it on the first try is kind of impressive. The post match Big Bubba (Big Boss Man) stuff is GREAT.
4. There is a weird spot in the Flair/Luger match where the ref gets confused. Luger gets Flair in the figure four and Flair goes to the ropes for the break. The ref kicks his hands away twice. I guess the ref thought that Flair was administering the hold (which did happen later) and going for leverage. On the third attempt, Flair had to wrap both his arms around the ropes to get the break.
5. Guerrero and Malenko were putting on a CLASSIC match and the announcers only wanted to talk about the NWO main event. Argh!! Maybe this is ok on Nitro to keep viewers but there is no reason to keep selling people on the main event during a PPV. The show is already bought.
This disc saves the set so far. Disc 3 is up tomorrow.
youtube.com/watch?v=zyeY1jDchbI
Between this and that match Zayn had with Antonio Cesaro a few months back, I don't even think he needs the NXT title anymore. I don't think the belt would give him any kind of bump at all. I think the only thing keeping him off the main roster right now is that his niche is already being filled by the likes of Daniel Bryan and CM Punk.
Overall i do not like disc 3 as much as disc 2 but there are 4 or 5 classic matches on 3 that are must see.
Some notes:
The Steiners/Road Warriors match was hurt by lack of time and keep everyone strong booking. Good for what is is though.
The Jim Cornette scaffold match bump is still terrifying to watch.
The finish to Sting/Hogan is an all time botch that if your not paying attention or thinking about it, you will miss.
The mat to the Harley Race/Ric Flair match said NWA, but all i could see was staph infection. That was probably the dirtiest bloodiest mat i have ever seen.
If you pay attention to the commentary for Race/Flair, you will notice Gordon Solie saying Flair is already a 2 time champ. Solie was protecting the Florida territory (his home territory) which had an angle in which Flair won the belt in Miami after losing in Puerto Rico to Carlos Colon. Neither the Puerto Rico or Miami match were recognized by the NWA.
Gene Kiniski, the special ref in the Race/Flair match did not understand that it was a no dq match. - it was a great match regardless but the ref did his best to kill it.
Earl Hebner was the ref in the Tully Blanchard/Magnum TA "I Quit Match" and i think this was his first screw job. I don't think Tully quit. He definitedly did not say I quit, and i do not think he was yelling yes to the question. Also, at least when this dvd set was produced, Blanchard could still cut a tremendous promo. Road Warrior Animal - still awful on the mike.
You can skip disc one, but disc 2 and 3 make this a buy.
Did you mean Nick Patrick's "fast" count?
This is close though
[Edit: Should have mentioned that it’s about Andre the Giant’s life.]