Professional wrestling thread

Lashley blows. He needs to chill on the sauce and start learning how to work. It's amazing this guy was a big-time amateur wrestler. He looks lost.

 

Read the notes from No Way Out on Meltzer's site and get this, the dark match (shown live to the audience but not on PPV) last night was:

Rob Van Dam defeating Shelton Benjamin with a five-star frog splash.

Bet that match was better than at least half of the PPV card!

 

So this Smackdown PPV had seven wrestlers from non-Smackdown brands (Nitro, Jeff Hardy, Lashley, Cena, HBK, RVD, Benjamin). And they still had to scramble to find a spot for Benoit. That's good stuff right there.

 

And I see that RVD vs. Edge is on Raw tonight in a first-round Money in the Bank qualifying match. Guess Edge is stuck with being in that for WM 23. Gee, wonder if Orton will be in it too? :

 

Has anyone ever been to a WrestleMania?
Is it really any different than going to any ole PPV event?

I have some good friends in the Detroit area and they're going, but they have never been to a wrestling event. They keep asking me questions on what's it going to be like but I'm not sure if my experiences at a PPV are comparable?

 

I've never been, but the people I know who've gone says they go up on the spectacle. The card is longer -- usually in the neighborhood of four hours -- and the matchups are juicier and built up better with everyone putting extra emphasis on their performance. At least in theory. It used to be that Wrestlemania wrapped up all the major storylines, but with weekly live TV shows and monthly PPVs, that's not as true anymore. It'll be scads of fun, but not at the prices they charge.

 

I was at WM 6 at the SkyDome. Obviously rasslin' was a lot different then but it was the greatest card I've ever been to. I was a regular at Toronto cards before that, have only been to one since. No way your average house show - or even RAW etc. - can compete with that.

 

Isn't a Raw TV taping at New York's MSG still a big deal?

I think Canada is a good draw for a lot of WWE stuff, too, not just WM.

 

MSG shows are almost like second-tier PPVs, and given the tendency to go nuts for TV these days, perhaps a bit above them.

Canada has been a good draw traditionally for them, but they don't seem to want to tap that market quite as much. Part of it is Canadians cheer for the people they want to cheer and boo for the people they want to boo, and if you're running Raw (live) in particular, it really fucks around with what you're trying to do to get heels and faces over. See: having Sylvian Grenier cheered like he landed on Mars and booing like hell any time a Hebner kin is seen in public.

One time it worked in their benefit was when they did a Raw in Montreal last year leading into Summerslam, one where Hogan was working against a newly-turned heel HBK, who opened the show with an interview segment. Heat was off the charts. One of the best segments ever, particularly the way he played into their white-hot hatred of him.

 

And another wrestler passes away way too young.

This time, it's Mike Awesome:

http://www.pwtorch.com/artman/publish/article_19406.shtml

http://www.wwe.com/inside/news/mikeawesomepasses


Cause of death believed to be suicide.

 

Not Mike Awesome!!!!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I loved him when he was in ECW and the match with Tanaka at ONS, oh my God.

RIP Mike.

 

From Meltzer

Here are the matches in the upcoming WWE DVD release of "Ric Flair and the Four Horsemen," which includes interviews with Flair, Tully Blanchard, J.J. Dillon, Jim Ross, Dean Malenko, Barry Windham and Dusty Rhodes:
Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard & Ric Flair vs. Pez Whatley & Italian Stallion & Rocky King 6/22/85
Ric Flair vs. Ricky Morton cage match from Charlotte on 7/5/86. As I recall, this was an awesome match
Dusty Rhodes vs. Tully Blanchard First Blood match Starrcade 86. I was at that show and this was not an awesome match
Four Horseman vs. Dusty Rhodes & Steve Williams & Lex Luger & Nikita Koloff & Paul Ellering 7/16/88 in a War Games match
Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard vs. Sting & Nikita Koloff 7/16/88
Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard vs. Barry Windham & Lex Luger 3/27/88 Clash of Champions
Arn Anderson vs. Ric Flair 9/17/95 Fall Brawl