What Wrestling Taught Us This Week…
Jamie Lithgow
This guy’s boring, apparently
Image courtesy of http://www.wrestlingnewsworld.com
- Antonio Cesaro is boring. If you believe the dirt sheets then the reason that he has visibly fallen from grace is because Vince and other WWE officials think that the character is boring. At a time when wrestlers recite entirely scripted promos and are said to have little creative freedom I would suggest that Cesaro himself should not be shouldering all of the blame for this. Another flaw in this thinking is that the man Cesaro has been jobbing to lately, Randy Orton, is as dull as dish water right now.
- WWE have a smartphone app. Just thought I’d let you know, I don’t think they mentioned it on Raw this week…
On This Day in Wrestling History: A Monday Night Raw special
Jamie Lithgow & Craig Wilson
The 1-2-3 Kid is thrown across the ring by Ramon (pic courtesy of Photobucket.com)
Episodes of WWF Raw in 1993 were completely different to what we witness every Monday. Firstly, the shows were a lot shorter – coming in at around the hour mark and largely featured squash matches on the undercard and a main event pitting established stars against each other. That’s not to say that the early Raw’s didn’t generate any big moments. We were treated to a classic bout between Mr Perfect and Ric Flair in a ‘loser leaves town’ match with Flair making his first departure from the WWF as he returned to WCW.
Another memorable early moment was the battle between the two former Rockers with Marty Jannetty pinning his former tag team partner Shawn Michaels to win the Intercontinental Title. Another important moment from Raw history also came from that very episode when perenial jobber the 1-2-3 Kid defeated Razor Ramon and that is the focus in this ‘On This Day in Wrestling History’ as we celebrate the 20th anniversary of that episode of Raw. Continue reading →
Revisiting earlier Extreme Rules predictions
Craig Wilson
(Image courtesy of Wikipedia)
About this time last month I took a stab at predicting what the final card would be for Extreme Rules. Not the most ambitious as some posts you’ll find on this blog, after all Jamie has made his predictions for the Wrestlemania 30 card already.
That said, it was a month out from the event and although some feuds were beginning to bubble nothing contrete was in place. Now, however, we’re 3 days away from the show and the card has all but been finalised. Of course, it’s worth noting that our official predictions will be up on Sunday, this is a mere preview. Continue reading →
In defense of John Cena
Kenneth Richardson
I’m about to commit quite possibly one biggest crimes that you can admit to in the wrestling world today. I acually like John Cena. Now trust me I’m not his biggest fan in any aspects of the term. But I’m also not one of those people who think he is the antichrist either. For this article we are going examine some of the reasons why, I feel, Cena shouldn’t get as bad as a rap as he does. Continue reading →
A little bit of Attitude
James Giles
McMahon pees himself in the centre of the ring in one of the most iconic images from the Attitude era (pic courtesy of droptoehold.com)
As much as the Cartoon Era of WWE was a huge part of my childhood and an important period for developing my love of wrestling, my heart will always belong to the Attitude Era. During this time WWE turned everything up to eleven; the violence, sexuality, characterisation and storytelling were bigger, badder and bolder than any period in wrestling, past or present. This helped make the onscreen product more invigorating and enjoyable than ever; sure not everything worked, with plenty of moments being controversial, offensive or just terrible, but somehow it always remained entertaining and engrossing.
These days WWE has pared back many of these elements considerably, and often with good reason, in an attempt to appeal to wider audience than ever before. But personally I feel that several aspects of the product are severely lacking, and I believe that if WWE took a few more cues from its most memorable era, then the current show could be improved substantially. So with that in mind, I am going to look at a few elements of the Attitude Era that could be applied today to make a better product. Continue reading →
Raw Rewind: 12 May 1997
Craig Wilson
This #Rawrewind is from the night after the ‘Cold Day in Hell’ In Your House PPV headlined by WWF Champion The Undertaker retaining his title against Stone Cold Steve Austin thanks, in no small part, to the Hart Foundation.
This is the episode that built to a finale that owing to going over time, wasn’t shown live and featured Shawn Michaels knocking Bret Hart out of his wheelchair with Sweet Chin Music.
All the previous Raw Rewinds can be located here.
Champion Roll Call:
WWF Champion: The Undertaker
WWF Intercontinental Champion: Owen Hart
WWF Tag Team Champions: Owen Hart and the British Bulldog
WWF European Champion: The British Bulldog Continue reading →
Sunday Sermon: The Makings of a Good Heel
Craig Wilson & Jamie Lithgow
Rowdy Roddy Piper, one of the greatest heels ever (pic courtesy of http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com)
Throughout history it has been the same with heels provoking a heated reaction from fans in attendance be that jeering, the throwing of objects or, going back to the town hall days, being hit by old ladies with their handbags. Heels come in all shapes and sizes from the blood soaked Abdullah the Butcher to Ric Flair and have taken in famous stables from The Four Horseman to the Fabulous Freebirds to the nWo. But what is it that makes a good heel and what, if any, of those traits are missing from modern professional wrestling? Continue reading →
What Wrestling Taught Us This Week…
Jamie Lithgow
- Triple H has a really shit office.
- Fandango has changed his dance partner, again. Why did WWE bother to introduce Summer Rae (Fandango’s blonde dancer from last week) if they were just going to revert back to his original partner to fill the dancing spots this week? There is a case for Summer Rae dancing with Chris Jericho in the dance off next week (and possibly double crossing him) but more likely is that there is no long term planning when it comes to anything outside of the main event scene in WWE.
Well That Didn’t Work: The Debut of Shockmaster
Craig Wilson
With such a ridiculous costume, it’s difficult to imagine that The Shockmaster wasn’t doomed from the get-go (pic courtesy of http://www.tumblr.com)
As debuts go, it’s difficult to imagine one will ever be as bad as that of Fred Ottman when he literally fell onto our tv screens in 1993.
It’s difficult to know how he would have fared had his debut not been as disastrous but one thing is for sure: It’s one of the most memorable moments in wrestling history. Continue reading →
TNA: What works and what doesn’t
Craig Wilson
No one doubts Hogan’s importance in wrestling history but should he feature so prominently in 2013? (pic courtesy of 203prowrestlingreview.blogspot.com)
Having had a few days off towards the end of last week – and having near exhausted the WWE PPVs and shows I had available to watch, I opted to take in last week’s episode of TNA Impact and was pleasantly surprised by the results.
Now, those that have read the blog for a long time will be aware that I previously went through a brief flirtation of watching Dixie Carter’s promotion with fairly mixed results. Basically, I dipped my toes in and enjoyed a few episodes of Impact and a PPV or two but soon lost interest. Continue reading →
