2013 Pro Wrestling Thread

OK, THAT, was a fun ending.

 

Finally, we get the Wyatts vs. the Shield -- if only for a few seconds. The crowd was insane for that.

And that, folks, is your Survivor Series match: Punk, Bryan, the Usos and the Rhodes boys vs. the Wyatts and the Shield.

 

What does it say about me that I kinda loved it when 3MB came out as the Union Jacks? Or when Zeb said, "'Ello," with a horrible British accent?

 

Can someone show WWE creative the reaction to Dolph cashing in and winning the World title and then ask them why he's jobbing clean to Curtis Axel for the IC title now? So frustrating to see that, especially given the crap competing for the major titles right now.

 

This is the same creative that took a year to put Zach Ryder on Raw despite fans chanting for him every show, and the same creative that took its most popular babyface and tried to bury him in a misfit tag team, only for the tag team to outshine the creative team.

 

Evidently Dolph has some heat backstage with how he's toeing the kayfabe line with his interviews. Some feel he's getting a little bit too cocky in his interviews, especially when he talked about Randy Orton and what he think should happen with current storylines. Read this on a reddit post that pulled together several dirtsheet reports together.

 

I thought Raw was pretty solid start to finish. Then again, Hulu Plus cuts out 45 minutes of bullshit for me.

 

I was in the building that night. Most electric reaction at any sporting/entertainment event i have ever attended. Was an absolutely awesome night!

 

Here's a review of This Tuesday in Texas
Dec 3, 1991



The show begins with a scene from after Survivor Series where Mean Gene interviews Paul Bearer and new WWE World Champion, The Undertaker. Taker claims the funeral of Hogan will occur at This Tuesday in Texas.

Bret Hart (c) vs Skinner - WWE IC Title
Commentators, Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan, claim Skinner earned this title shot by being undefeated. Ignoring the fact that he was pinned less than a week ago at the Survivor Series. We'll also ignore all of his house show losses to Ricky Steamboat. Skinner was actually defeated on TV (Primetime Wrestling Nov 18, 1991) by Bret Hart two weeks ago! The early going was a little boring with Bret just killing time by working over Skinner's left arm. Things finally pick up once Bret went shoulder first into the ring post. This is really where Bret shows his talents of being able to suck a viewer into a story thanks to his selling. For Skinner, he showcases his character of being someone who is capable of punishing an opponent, but he doesn't use his head to make smart decisions (IE. sticking to a body part). It's after Bret is the first man to kick out of Skinner's Gatorbreaker (Reverse DDT), before launching into the 5 moves of doom. After Bret tosses Skinner off of the top rope, he wraps Skinner up into the Sharpshooter and scores the submission victory. Fun fact: This is Bret Hart's first successful title defense on PPV. Surprisingly decent thanks to Bret putting in the effort. ** 3/4

In the back, Sean Mooney interviews Jake Roberts about his upcoming match against Randy Savage. Roberts recounts his version of when his cobra bit Savage. Roberts mentions how pathetic and weak Savage looked. Yet, the thing that caught Roberts' attention was the look in Elizabeth's eyes. Basically, in 1991 WWE PG terms, it was an orgasmic experience for Roberts. The interview is amazing and even Sean Mooney added something to it by looking downright terrified of Roberts, yet also captured by what Roberts is talking about. The scared and sickened look Mooney has when Roberts mentions the bite by pointing to his forearm is magical.

Meanwhile, Mean Gene interviews Randy Savage. He's just ready to pay Roberts back while being fueled by Elizabeth's love.

Randy Savage vs Jake Roberts
Despite the fact that it's a fairly short match for a grudge feud (Seven minutes or so), they handle things so perfectly. They begin the match, not by a tie-up, but rather Savage running out and attacking Roberts during Snake's entrance. From there, it's just a brawl with Savage wanting payback. They play into Savage's injury with Roberts making his comeback by going after the wrapped up forearm. Besides attacking it with whips against the ring post and knee drops, Roberts manages to rip shreds of it off of Savage's arm. Savage's selling of the arm is great. Savage makes his comeback by avoiding the short armed closeline and picking up the victory with a flying elbow drop. The match ends there, but the story has just begun. *** 1/4



Even though Savage won, he's still not satisfied. First he tries to bring in a chair to hit Roberts, but official, Tony Garea, manages to pull the chair out of Savage's hands. Then, Savage tries to replicate what he did to Ricky Steamboat by bringing in the ring bell. Yet, referee, Earl Hebner, grabs the ring bell, temporarily distracting Savage. That brief moment gives Roberts the opportunity to give Savage a DDT. What follows is one of my favorite segments in the history of wrestling. While Roberts toys with Savage (DDTing him a second time) he teases leaving, but he stops midway to the back and returns by pulling his cobra bag out from under the ring. That brings Miss Elizabeth out to cover herself on Savage. Elizabeth showed the most personality and emotional that she ever did by crying and screaming "Please stop it!" to Roberts. While she's pleading, Roberts is in his glory, telling her to beg, threatens to pull the snake out of his bag and even gives Savage a third DDT in front of Elizabeth. Finally, Savage pulls Elizabeth to her feet and slaps her. Eventually, extra WWE officials, including Jack Tunney comes out to force Roberts to leave. If I have one small issue with the segment, it's that Roberts didn't dump his bag to reveal that there wasn't a snake in the bag. Instead, all we got was Roberts telling Tunney that it was empty.

It's still not over yet as we go back to Mean Gene as he interviews Roberts. In my favorite promo of all time, Roberts is in a state of euphoria over what has just happened. Roberts has just one request if Savage ever wants to wrestle him again. Roberts BEGS Savage to bring Elizabeth with him. Jake admits that slapping Elizabeth was the greatest moment of his life. This interview is essentially Roberts jerking off at the memory of slapping Elizabeth. What a sick bastard. Jesus, Roberts in 1991 was one of the greatest heel ever.

The British Bulldog vs The Warlord w/Harvey Wippleman
These two have been feuding since the start of the year with matches at Wrestlemania (Bulldog winning), a six man tag at Summerslam (Bulldog's team winning) and an elimination match at Survivor Series (Both were eliminated by others). The big moment in the feud came on Primetime Wrestling at the start of November when Bulldog injured Warlord's manager, Slick. With Slick gone, Warlord added Wippleman (Who had debuted during the summer as Big Bully Busick's manager) as his new manager. I suppose it all worked out for the best as Slick was leaving and Busick wasn't working out. While the match starts off well enough with Bulldog working hard and busting out a missile dropkick and launching himself to the outside, the action comes to a screeching halt when Warlord goes on the offense. It becomes a chore to stay awake during an extended full nelson spot where Warlord had it on sloppily and eventually just gave up and let Bulldog go. By this point, I'm just waiting for the match to end when Bulldog gets a surprise victory with the crucifix pin. What did Bulldog ever do to Vince to be married to Warlord for all of 1991? Poor guy. * 1/4

In the back, Sean Mooney interviews a distraught Randy Savage. Savage acts like an insane guy by randomly shouting out "I blame myself!" while slapping himself, pulling his hair and rolling around on the floor. If only all wrestlers had this level of believability to their characters. I can fully believe that if Savage gets his way, Roberts is going to find himself being treated like a victim in Hostel.

Ted DiBiase and The Repo Man w/Sherri vs Tito Santana and Virgil
I refuse to call Santana El Matador. So Virgil and DiBiase have been feuding since Rumble '91 when Virgil finally stood up for himself. After winning the Million Dollar Title from DiBiase at Summerslam, DiBiase paid Repo Man to steal the title back. Similarly to the previous Summerslam bout, this may not look like much, but it ended up being a pleasant surprise. First off, the crowd was vocal and into everything that was going on. You had the fun of Santana avoiding every attempted shot by Repo Man and DiBiase bouncing around like a pinball for Virgil. For the sheer hell of it, they included two cases of a face-in-peril with Virgil getting the first and Santana the second. The latter even involves some classic heel actions to keep Santana from tagging out. The hot tags led to the fans erupting with Santana's hot tag being the superior of the two. Unfortunately, the finish ended up being a little wonky. What happened was that while the ref was busy with Repo and Santana, DiBiase held Virgil up so Sherri could nail him with her high heel. Virgil, barely moved, yet DiBiase still sold the move. So while DiBiase laid on the mat, Repo Man ran up and delivered a knee in Virgil's back. With that, DiBiase jumped on Virgil to score the pinfall. So I guess a Repo Man knee to the back is more painful than a high heel to the head? Still, it's the best match of the night and a nice surprise. *** 1/4



In the back, Mean Gene interviews Hulk Hogan. It's just your typical Hogan hype promo that I find myself barely listening.

The Undertaker (c) w/Paul Bearer vs Hulk Hogan - WWE World Title
To ensure there's a clean finish, WWE President, Jack Tunney, sits at ringside for the duration of the match. Their Survivor Series match was dreadful. This rematch, on the other hand, is just average. Thanks to Hogan rushing the ring, there was a lot more speed in the early minutes than throughout the first match. I felt the booking of the first match didn't do Taker any favors (IE. Needing to use a chair and Hogan no selling the first Tombstone). Here though, Taker is almost always on offense and is only pinned after Hogan threw the ashes from Taker's urn into Taker's eyes to allow for the roll-up victory. Taker wasn't beaten, but merely cheated out of the title by Hogan. Way better for Taker than having to lose the title cleanly after a big boot and leg drop. Sure, the middle section dragged on a bit when the pace was slowed down, but once Ric Flair came out to begin the Sports Entertainment hijinks, I was back into the story. Totally fine main event. **



Overall
Survivor Series 1991 Part 2 isn't too bad of an experimental short PPV. The entire match, post-match segment and interviews for Jake Roberts and Randy Savage made the price of the show worth it alone. Those interviews are literally some of my favorite in the history of wrestling. The personalities and characters of Roberts and Savage at this time was simply incredible and this event showcases the very best of the feud. The Taker/Hogan match may have not been anything special, but it was still loads better than their Survivor Series match. Both the IC Title and tag team match were better than I was expecting. The only match that is actively terrible is Bulldog vs The Warlord, but you have to expect that being that it's a Warlord match. Looking back, I'm not sure why we couldn't have had a Rockers' angle match in place of Bulldog/Warlord. This was right in the middle of their big angle that led to their split. In fact, it was earlier in the taping that they filmed the infamous Barber Shop angle. There was two big matches that you could have put on this PPV. The Rockers vs LOD tag title match where a little miscommunication prevented the Rockers from winning the straps (Taped on this day). Then there was the Ric Flair vs Shawn Michaels match where Michaels lost after Marty rolled him back in the ring (Taped the previous day). There just wasn't any need to have Warlord/Smith when they could have had a match that really meant something. Still, for an hour and a half PPV, it's rather fun.

Bonus Matches



This Tuesday in Texas PPV was originally released on video tape as part of the Coliseum Home Video's Supertape 92. Since I'm already watching half of that tape, why not watch the non-PPV matches on Supertape 92?

Nasty Boys, Mountie & Earthquake w/Jimmy Hart vs Legion of Doom, Jim Neidhart & Big Boss Man
From the July 29, 1991 Superstars taping. Much to my surprise, this is a super rare fun Nasty Boys WWF match. Thanks to all of the guys involved, they could do a lot of quick tags to keep the momentum going without anyone dragging the match down. There's a lot of fun moments such as Boss Man going ape shit on Brian Knobbs with a series of punches, Mountie getting really into hitting his head against a turnbuckle and Road Warrior Animal accidentally knocking Earl Hebner down during one of his taunts. Boss Man played the face-in-peril for a bit while the heels used Jimmy Hart's helmet, a chair and the ring steps to their advantage. After a second brawl with everyone getting involved, Brian Knobbs turns around right into a top rope closeline by Road Warrior Hawk. Hawks then gets the pinfall to win the match for his team. Just such a fun match for something I had assume would be a boring dud. ***



Up next is Tax Tips with IRS. Before giving his ten tips, IRS claims Coliseum Home Video viewers are the biggest tax cheaters of all. In fact, they're probably making a copy of this video as they're watching it. I giggle like a little bitch when I hear this seeing as I'm watching a downloaded version of this video. Anyways, the ten tax tips are:

10. Stop claiming pets as household dependents.

09. Claim all cash made at last garage sale.

08. Stop hiding those tips under the mattress.

07. Get rid of gas guzzling four door and walk to work to cut down on "Fuel" expense claims.

06. Claim money made mowing neighbors lawn.

05. Get a Priest to sign a receipt for donations.

04. Business expense claims are for that, business not weekend getaways to Orlando.

03. Having your daughter's bucked teeth fixed doesn't constitute a proper medical claim.

02. Try Mailing your return on time.

01. Quit your crying and pay whats due...

Bret Hart (c) vs IRS - WWE IC Title
From the Sept 10, 1991 Wrestling Challenge taping. Pretty straightforward and simple match. IRS is all about the antics and complaining to the ref about every little thing while also trying to cheat. That left Bret having to be on defense for the majority of the match before making his comeback. While Bret does lock in the Sharpshooter, IRS is too close to the ropes and can easy grab them. Knowing that he can't beat Hart, IRS settles with just blasting Hart in the face with his briefcase, drawing the DQ. After the match, Bret attacks IRS to get a little revenge. Match just felt like a meaningless dark match where you don't need to put in much effort (Which it sorta was). It's not a bad match though, but you can always tell whether Bret's trying or not. This was an example of the latter. ** 1/4

A profile is shown for the Undertaker. Various clips of Taker are shown mixed with close-ups of the Deadman. That leads right into...

The Undertaker w/Paul Bearer vs Greg Valentine
From the Oct 1, 1991 Wrestling Challenge taping. It was later shown on the Oct 14th edition of Primetime Wrestling. This was just one of the many similar matches that Taker had in 1991 against lowcarders. His babyface opponent would get in a few offensive moves to make it clear that they aren't jobbers and then Taker would dominate the rest. In an odd finish, Valentine managed to lock in the Figure Four, but Paul Bearer climbing on the ring apron enraged Valentine enough that he grabbed the ropes to inflict more pain to Taker. That forced the referee to stop the Figure Four. From there, it's just a matter of Valentine continuing to be distracted by Bearer until Taker stands up and picks Valentine up for a Tombstone. Nothing match, but I did love Valentine's hard chops on Taker. * 3/4

The Undertaker w/Paul Bearer vs Jimmy Snuka
From Wrestlemania 7. Just a simple squash for Taker to debut at Mania. Whenever Snuka tried to go on the offense, Taker wouldn't even humor him by selling. Snuka's big moves was thwarted by Taker stepping out of the way (A flying Snuka fell over the top rope) and another saw Taker catch Snuka in mid air during a slingshot splash attempt. With that, Taker lifted Snuka up and planted him with a Tombstone to pick up the victory. Pfft, big deal. You won once at Mania. If you really want to impress me, win twenty more times. ;D * 1/2



And that's where the tape transitions to This Tuesday in Texas, so this is where I quit. Getting the eight man tag was a nice bonus if you only bought Supertape 92 for the This Tuesday in Texas PPV.

 

I never really understood why they did the Tuesday in Texas PPV. It came the week following Survivor Series, and had seemed like it was a last-minute decision to do it. I remember them trying to hype it up all in one weekend, and it seemed really rushed.

I think it's the only time they've done a PPV on a Tuesday, for understandable reasons.

 

It was really more of an experiment to see if a Tuesday PPV could still draw in the viewers. Even though it was thrown together at the last minute, the show mattered far more than Survivor Series. Hell, Survivor Series '91 was practically a 3 hour commercial for This Tuesday in Texas.

Back in the early 90's, they still hadn't fully decided what day would be their PPV day. They were doing PPV's on Monday, Saturday, Thursday and Wednesdays in addition to Sunday.

It may have also been a test to see if you had to space PPV's out by a few months in order to allow them all to be successes. Had This Tuesday in Texas have been a success, the WWE may have went to monthly PPV's far sooner than they did.

They did Taboo Tuesday a couple of times.

 

Funny (to me anyway) personal story surrounding Tuesday Night in Texas. I was probably about 10 years old at the time and I didn't really understand how PPV or pay phone calls worked at the time. I was so into the Savage/Roberts feud that I called the 900 number to get Savage re-instated like 15 times (Savage had a pre-recorded message that made it sound like he was talking to you) and then I ordered the PPV. It put my parents out like $40 and I got grounded for a week. It was totally worth it, though.