2013 Pro Wrestling Thread

Is there any word on whether this is a one-off event or a longer run for RVD?

Also, how did he look in his run with TNA?

 

He looked OK early but as time progressed, he got lazier and more detached. But a lot of good wrestlers fell prey to lethargy in TNA, especially toward the end of Russo's booking reign. The feeling is that RVD will be a lot more enthused now that he's back in the big show (ed note: ... ew). But he's 42 and not hitting those highspots the way he did in ECW (plus the Van Terminator and the throw chair at opponent -> kick chair into his face move are verboten). If he's in shape and motivated, he could get a decent run. If not, he may not be around for more than MITB and a couple of other appearances.

 

I think Van Dam will be fine without moves like the Van Daminator. It's not like he was Sabu or Sandman, guys with move sets based on over-the-top violence with international objects.

 

But it's how his ECW/Attitude/Draft Era fans will remember him, and it's the high-flying over-the-top stuff that WWE is sorta marketing (clearly they're not going to show chair shots, but some of the crazy stuff in TLC matches is still a go). If he's not going to look and perform like he does in the vignettes, it's going to be a letdown that may be masked by the Philly crowd that night, but will manifest soon enough in muted reactions.

 

... which is exactly why he's coming back in Philly, like Punk came back in Chicago. Time will tell.

 

No doubt, WWE is smart in a) building up RVD as a big deal and b) making sure he returns in a friendly city. But if he's not ready to go, mentally or physically, it's not going to end well for either party. He'll find himself quickly in Christian territory. Plus I believe he signed a limited-date contract -- maybe not Brock-limited, but he's not doing a full year of house shows either. So if it didn't look like it was going to work out, they could use up his dates quickly and send him on his merry little way.

I hope he provides a semi-steady mid-card face who can punch his way to the top of the card in a pinch, but I can't help but to think a lot of people are doing to be disappointed with what they get. If he can shake the TNA malaise and show up in shape, sure. Otherwise, I dunno, it feels like one more dig in an ECW mountain that's long since been strip-mined.

 

I don't know if RVD will give two shits about his spot on the card at his age. He's coming back for the weed money.

 

Jack Sthwagger will be sucking RVD's sweaty towels for THC residue.

And I'm calling it: RVD vs. Ryback in an air-brush-paint-gun-on-a-pole match.

 

+1.

 

Plus we just passed the 15th anniversary of Foley taking the two dives off the top of the cell vs. 'Taker.

I feel old.

 

I'm thinking they can use him more like in Jericho territory, where he'll put over the new generation (Ziggler, Bryan, Shield), but still work in the main event for a while.

I can see using him as a way to put a slow burn on the Punk/Lesnar program to Survivor Series or Wrestlemania. Think of it this way. He does something to cost Punk the briefcase, which sets up a Summerslam match. Something happens there with Lesnar to set up for their program, or they continue the slow burn with more RVD/Punk matches and/or get Axel involved until later on.

Or, if they do Punk/Lesnar for Survivor Series, they can set that up for Lesnar to eventually face Undertaker and Punk to face Bryan for the title at WM. RVD can work with Christian and Jericho against the Shield.

 

I decided to watch the first Wrestlemania this morning and review it. Hopefully, you guys enjoy it.



Tito Santana vs The Executioner
The Execution is Buddy Rose under a mask. Not sure why he's wrestling as the Executioner as he had been working without the mask throughout the opening months of '85. Rose actually had some name value including headlining the Garden before. They work a short, but quality little match where Santana has a lot of fire. Continuing the Santana/Valentine angle with Santana's recently injured knee, The Executioner spent time working over the knee before Santana made his comeback and won with the Flying Forearm and a Figure Four. Santana certainly knows how to have a good short match with some story to it. 2 3/4 Stars.



King Kong Bundy w/Jimmy Hart vs SD Jones
One of the most well known squashes in history. Jones charged at Bundy, Bundy caught him and rammed him into the corner. An Avalanche follows and Bundy then pins SD Jones after a splash. Full match in detail. In a total pro wrestling move, they announce the time of the fall at nine seconds. Total bullshit. The real time is about twenty-three seconds. That's a pretty noticeable difference. Effective squash for Bundy and it's lived on as one of Bundy's biggest moments. Can you ask for anything more out of a squash? SQUASH.

Ricky Steamboat vs Matt Borne
Steamboat had only debuted for the WWE at the start of the month. Borne is best known as the original heel Doink the Clown or WCW's Big Josh. This felt like an extended squash to showcase all of Steamboat's flashy moves. Borne just kept getting up and seemingly only failing against Steamboat due to Ricky's speed rather than Borne just being a stereotypical jobber. Steamboat's chops in mid match were pretty damn painful looking. It's during the match Gorilla Monsoon brought up the South Pacific Connection, the Steamboat/Jimmy Snuka team that never really got off of the ground due to Snuka leaving in a few months. Steamboat wins with a top rope crossbody (Credited as Steamboat borrowing the move from Snuka). Fun for what it was. 2 1/4 Stars.



Brutus Beefcake w/Johnny V vs David Sammartino w/Bruno Sammartino
Bruno gets a huge reaction for his introduction by the crowd. The match does not receive as high as a reaction. I can't say I blame them though. Brutus and Sammartino work a mat based match with David continuously changing his target for offense. He begins with the head/neck region only to then switch to the leg. Then, once the match breaks down to a normal moves and bumps match, David keeps targeting different body parts with each move. Finish comes with Brutus throwing David to the outside so Johnny V can body slam David on the floor. This causes Bruno to explode and attack Johnny V. The crowd is going wild with Bruno beating up Johnny V in the ring while David keeps Brutus busy. Normally, I hate non-finishes to matches, but the post-match event had so much more energy and crowd interest than the rest of the match. Bruno rules. Anyways, the ref DQ's both guys. Dull match that just served the purpose of allowing Bruno to have his moment in the spotlight. 1 3/4 Stars.

Greg Valentine (c) w/Jimmy Hart vs The Junkyard Dog - WWE IC Title
Some punch filled brawling to start. That's followed up by Valentine working over the leg of JYD. The leg work is good, but JYD simply stands up and doesn't sell it. JYD made a comeback with a series of headbutts. Jimmy Hart gets knocked down from the apron to a big crowd reaction. That only sets up Valentine stealing a pin with his feet on the ropes. While Valentine initially celebrates, Valentine's rival, Tito Santana, came down and told the referee what happened. Seeing as the referee decided to trust the one man who hates Valentine the most (Next I hear the ref asked Hitler if a Jew was honest), he restarted the match. Rather than get back into the ring, Valentine allows himself to be counted out. Lame finish despite the furthering of the Valentine/Santana feud. Despite how short the match was, it would have been fine had JYD just sold the leg to have some sort of story. Valentine was solid as ever though. 2 Stars.

US Express (c) w/Captain Lou vs Nikolai Volkoff and The Iron Sheik w/Freddie Blassie - WWE Tag Titles
To my utter shock and amazement, Mike "Knowing how to spell your own last name is overrated" Rotunda is actually a pretty entertaining energetic babyface. The US Express may not have been up to the quality of the Rock 'n' Roll Express, but they kept a fast pace, hit plenty of moves and were really over. Essitally, this was a Southern tag, but compressed into just six minutes. The US Express controlled the early going with their speed until Rotundo was slowed down and forced to play the face-in-peril. This led to the hot tag to Windham and the screw job finish where Sheik breaks Blassie's cane over Windham's back behind the referee's back. Volkoff covers and wins his fourth tag title in the WWE. While they wouldn't work out, the US Express seemed destined to be the tag team in Vince Jr's WWF for years to come. A surprisingly enjoyable match despite the lack of time. 2 3/4 Stars.



Andre the Giant vs Big John Studd w/Bobby Heenan - Body Slam Match
Winner is the first one to body slam the other. These two had been feuding for awhile. The biggest highlight being a tag match with Andre and SD Jones vs Bundy and Ken Patera where the heels cut Andre's old afro, thus giving Andre the haircut he's best remembered for. The gimmick of the match is based around the fact that Studd used to offer wrestlers money if they could somehow slam him. Of course, very few actually did it and when they did, Bobby Heenan disputed it (IE. King Tonga). If Andre slams Studd, he'll receive $15,000 (With inflation it's about $30,000 today). However, if Andre failed, he'd be forced into retirement. The truth is, it's not a very exciting match. Andre spent most of the match with a bear hug and the fact that it ends with a slam is deflating. Yet, it's a major match and the fans loved it. I couldn't believe it, but there was a loud "Slam" chant during the bear hug. At the end of the day, Andre gets to continue to be a wrestler while the fans finally got to see someone slam Studd. It's not a match that can hold up for future video viewings. 1 Star.

After the match, Andre begins throwing Heenan's $15,000 to the audience. Heenan sneaks back into the ring and steals what's left of his money back from Andre.

Leilani Kai (c) w/Fabulous Moolah vs Wendi Richter w/Cyndi Lauper - WWE Women's Title
Here we go, the biggest drawing program for women wrestling in the states. The future Glamour Girl, Kai, defeated Richter for the title on the MTV special, The War to Settle the Score. Moolah is a part of this because she originally lost the title to Richter on the '84 MTV special, The Brawl to End It All. It's unbelievable, but the Moolah/Richter match was actually the main event of that special and it's very possible it still holds the record for highest rated show in MTV history. As big of a match as this is, it's still a WWE Divas match. It sucks. Rather than sucking from a series of botched moves like women wrestling of the past 15 years, it's bad because it's mostly just a match of two drunk girls cat fighting. Near the end, Moolah interfered to pull Richter's hair, so Lauper got to shove Moolah off. Richter regains the title when she rolls through a top rope crossbody for the three count. Oh...that was botched too. Huge different in quality between these Kai matches and the Glamour Girls matches with the Jumping Bomb Angels. 3/4 Star.

After the match, Richter and Lauper celebrate by dancing around while Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" plays. It's actually a cool moment as it makes the title feel so important and you have some classic images of Moolah screaming her head off in the background.

Hulk Hogan and Mr. T w/Jimmy Snuka vs Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff w/Bob Orton Jr.
The first thing to note about this match is the heat. The crowd is so psyched to see the match and they're never quiet. If you're going to have a celebrity involved in a match, this is the route to go. Hogan handled the majority of the work while T got in a few times. T's offense was believable with some headbutts and simple wrestling moves such as a body slam and a pretty good looking hip toss. Yet, half of the time T's in the ring, he's on the mat being worked over by the heels. It makes perfect sense from a kayfabe perspective. With T, you know he's known for being street fighter. Yet, he's not a professional wrestler and the heels can easily outwrestle him. The ending is perfect with the heels' cheating (Orton using his cast) ended up costing them the win as Orton accidentally knocks out Orndorff. It's a smartly worked match with great heat and believable booking. Really good first main event at Mania. 3 1/4 Stars.



After the match, Roddy Piper and Bob Orton Jr. leaves Paul Orndorff alone in the ring with the faces. By time Orndorff wakes up, the faces have began feeling a bit sorry for Mr. Wonderful. Orndorff doesn't understand what's going on and leaves before a fight can break out.

Overall
There you go, the first Wrestlemania. If you try and compare it with other Wrestlemanias or even Pay Per Views, it's going to be a disappointment. After all, it's a show filled with squashes and short matches. Yet, it's not fair to judge Wrestlemania (Or Wrestlemania 2) as a regular Wrestlemania or PPV. It's a glorified house show that finishes off the show with three major matches with plenty of backstories. Had it been a traditional Wrestlemania, we would have saw a match such as Greg Valentine defending the IC Title against rival Tito Santana. So if you're judging Wrestlemania fairly, it's an enjoyable house show with a rocking crowd and far more important events than you're used to with house shows. 1985 was such a big year for the WWE as far as changes. You could really make a case for it being the transitional year between the WWE that Vince Sr. ran and the eventual worldwide promotion that the company would be several years later. Gone were past major names as Bob Backlund, Sgt. Slaughter, Rocky Johnson, Dick Murdoch and Billy Graham. New talents like Ricky Steamboat had just arrived. The Hart Foundation would be formed the following month. The British Bulldogs had just came to the WWE around the same time as Ricky Steamboat. A few months later, Randy Savage would be making his debut. Things are about to really take off for the company. All that being said, it's 2013 and I don't see many modern fans being too impressed with the show. If you want to get a good grasp for the changes that occurred in the WWE in '85, I'd just start with SNME. The sole match that is worth checking out from this show is the main event. Everything else is worth skipping unless you really want to explore 1985 WWE.