~~~~~THE TBL NEWSLETTER~~~~~
Volume 2, Issue #9
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Brought to you by:
The Balrog’s Lair –
http://www.thebalrogslair.com/
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Contents:
I. Note from the Editor
II. News & Rumors
III. Columns
IV. Advertisements
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Note from the Editor:
Joe Balrog
joe@thebalrogslair.com
Note from the Editor:
Hi everyone! I hope that you enjoy the latest edition of The TBL Newsletter! In this edition we feature the debut of a new columnist who will eventually be placed on our newsboard. So with that we’d like to welcome Morris Belleville to our staff! Also, in this edition I’ve placed some news and rumors from around the internet (not just our own newsletter) in the news area. I figured that I might as well give it a shot since I only visit a few different sites anyway! By the way, there is a new poll up at the lair regarding the return of “Mean” Gene Okerlund as well as a tribute page dedicated to the late Davey Boy Smith.
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News & Rumors:
News and rumors taken from The TBL Newswire as well as some other noted sources.
^^^Wrestler Comments on British Bulldog’s Proposed Return^^^
Ben Bassarab, a longtime friend of Smith’s and former fellow wrestler, said Smith’s comeback was meant to be brief and was a last-ditch effort to clear his reputation, enabling him to retire from the wrestling world with dignity. “He wanted to show everybody he could still do it and that he wasn’t washed up,” Bassarab said, adding that plight may have eventually killed him. “He wanted to prove to people he wasn’t a drug addict and a loser.” – Joe Balrog
^^^Ed Ferrara Talks on NWA’s Tradition^^^
Let’s talk about NWA TNA and J Sports — what do they think about me? Well, judging by the press release I read on the site earlier today, they must be pretty tickled to have me aboard. Or, at least, they’re pleased to have the guy they think I am. You see, I recently pulled one of the biggest swerves in the world by getting them to hire me (and, with my contract, I’m free to talk about it). Now, don’t get me wrong — all that stuff in the press release is true to the letter. But they think they’ve hired a company guy, a guy who will go out there and do the NWA name proud: “NWA: Where Tradition Rules.” Piss on that — I’m falling asleep already. You know what tradition is? Tradition is where you do the same things over and over and over again so that you don’t ever have to think of something new to do. Is it any wonder why the NWA never made it into the mainstream before now? It’s because it’s “Where Tradition Rules.” If you’re gonna give me two guys who hit the ten-minute mark before they lock up with one another, I’m gonna take my short attention span elsewhere. – Joe Balrog
^^^After RAW Went Off the Air^^^
After the cameras stopped filming (I think, I wasn’t paying much attention due to how boring the match was), Taker left the ring with his belt. RVD got up to a few cheers. He did his RVD thumb thing, then left too. – Brendan Starr
^^^WWE Buys Back NBC Stock ^^^
“We believe this is an excellent transaction for the Company and its shareholders. With approximately $292 million in cash balances, we have the resources to effect such a transaction without compromising our overall business strategy or our financial condition as we continue to generate significant free cash flow,” said Linda E. McMahon, Chief Executive Officer. – Joe Balrog
^^^Youngest Developmental Talent Ever ^^^
WWE have signed their youngest ever talent to a developmental contract. Rene Dupre is only eighteen years old and hails from Canada. He will be working OVW for the forseeable future. – Kevin Malton
^^^RAW Ratings^^^
Stamford, we have a problem. Someone should hit the alarm button and give a wake up call to the folks at World Wrestling Entertainment. Not only the post-PPV show didn’t get any extra viewers, it got a worse rating than last week’s 3.9. Monday’s show did just a 3.7 composite with a 5.7 share off hours 3.5 and 3.9. In weekend ratings, Heat did a 0.9 with a 1.7 share and Excess did a 0.7 with a 1.5 share. – Rob Allison at RingsideEdge.com
^^^Problems with Nash and X-Pac?^^^
The PWTorch.com website reported earlier today that both Kevin Nash and X-Pac threatened to quit the company if their nWo segment wasn’t changed. From the looks of it, the WWE creative team had something different going for the nWo angle yesterday which didn’t sit well with Nash and his little buddy. Both complained – with Vince McMahon not present – and threatened to walk out if they didn’t get it their way. The script was then changed to make the two buds happy. Can anyone say….WCW? – Rob Allison at RingsideEdge.com
^^^Smackdown Spoilers!^^^
I’m going to try to hide these by typing them in with a white font. If they show up and you don’t want to see them, scroll down and get to the columns! If you do want to see them, highlight the area below and (God willing), they will show up!
Triple H vs. Lance Storm
-Storm gets on the mic before the match and talks some smack about Jericho. He says that even though Triple H beat his good friend Chris Jericho last week, he is about to be taught a real wrestling lesson. Match went back and forth with Triple H busting himself open. Lance Storm headed to the top ropes for a high flying move, but Triple H appeared to push the referee into the way, causing Lance to slip. He then hit the pedigree for the pinfall victory. Winner: Triple H.
Backstage we see Christian and Kurt Angle meet. Angle is about to walk out to the arena with his brand new bald head and he tells Christian that it will be a true act of courage to go out looking like he does.
Kurt Angle comes to the ring wearing a wig. He says that it’s been amazing feat that he grew his hair back in only a few days and it’s just too bad that the fans paid money to see a bald man in the ring, but there is always Hulk Hogan for that. Maven comes to the top of the ramp and tells Angle to take off his wig because he might actually look better without any hair. Angle bashes Maven saying he has no idea who he is and then tells him that if he wants his wig off, why don’t you come down and do it yourself. Maven obliges and runs down but he gets beat up by Angle. As Angle starts leaving, Edge comes out of nowhere and beats up Angle until Christian comes down for the save. Christian and Angle leave together.
Test vs. Randy Orton
-Stacy Kiebler comes down to the ring for color commentary in this match. Nothing really happened here as Stacy didn’t get involved and Test won a pretty pedestrian match. Winner: Test.
Undertaker gets interviewed in the back. He says that he did what he said he was gonna do and now he is the man everyone has to beat. Tonight, Undertaker says he is here to see the end of Hulk Hogan and Hulkamania!
Backstage Chris Jericho talks to Faarooq and says that he needs some APA protection tonight. Faarooq refuses and Mark Henry walks up and says that tonight he will bust up Jericho’s face.
Edge and Maven vs. Christian and Kurt Angle
-Angle still has his wig on. Lots of near falls in this match but near the end Edge hits Christian with the Spear, but Angle comes in and throws Edge out of the ring before he can cover Christian. But then Maven comes in and does the same to Angle and then pins Christian to give his team the victory. Winners: Edge and Maven.
Backstage Rico, Billy and Chuck are standing around with Rico holding his new championship belt. Billy and Chuck remind Rico that they were the ones who were responsible for him being in WWE in the first place and Rico agrees, saying that the win at the PPV was a fluke. All three men hug, but Billy and Chuck are clearly not impressed.
D-Von Dudley vs. Rikishi
-Before the match, D-Von expresses his disgust with Rikishi, telling him to go put some clothes on to cover his ass. During the match, Rico, Billy and Chuck come down with Rico coming down all the way to the ring. He takes his title belt and belts Rikishi with it allowing D-Von to roll him up for the win. After the match, Rico meets up with Billy and Chuck who seem happy at what Rico did to Rikishi. Winner: D-Von.
In the back, Chavo Guerrero is watching clips from RAW, especially the part where Eddie Guerrero beats up Stone Cold Steve Austin. Gregory Helms walks in and finds a note with a clue. The clue is some beef jerky. I don’t know what this means but Hurricane will wrestle Chavo later tonight!
Backstage, Triple H is getting interviewed when he gets distracted by Lance Storm, allowing Test to sneak up from behind and attack him with the Big Boot kick.
Hurricane Helms vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.
-Pretty quick match with Hurricane winning by a DDT. Winner: Hurricane.
Backstage Stacy explains to Vince that she has no interest in the match that she came down for and it was just for fun. Vince says that it doesn’t matter because he’s in a good mood cause tonight Hulkamania will give his final interview in WWE. Chris Jericho walks in and asks Vince why he has to wrestle tonight since he is still injured from the Hell in a Cell match. Vince says it’s an opportunity for Jericho to show his talent.
Chris Jericho vs. Mark Henry
-Henry dominated this match, bloodying Jericho and knocking him around with several bombs including a second rope splash. Henry tries to use a chair on Jericho but the referee catches him and then gets distracted. This allows Jericho to come up from behind and hit Henry with another chair for the victory. Winner: Chris Jericho.
Hulk Hogan comes out for an interview. He talks about his past and how his father died this past winter. One thing his father told him is to go back to the WWF (WWE) and get your wrestling career back on track. Hogan then says that he made it back to the WWF but he couldn’t have done without all the fans and he thanks us for the support. But there is always a time where you have to step down and he is about to do that tonight. However, Hogan says his wish is that Hulkamania will live on for everyone. Vince McMahon walks out right about now and says that there is no chance in hell that Hogan will retire tonight. He already walked out on him once before and he won’t stand around and let it happen again. Vince says that he is the one who created Hulk Hogan and he will be the one who decides when he leaves. Hogan responds by saying that he knew this would happen, he knew that Vince McMahon would come out during his retirement speech. And guess what Vince, I won’t retire today and not until I kick your ass. Hogan then starts attacking Vince but Undertaker runs out and the two attack until Taker and Vince walk away.
Biggest Pop: Hulk Hogan, Triple H, Edge, Rico (just kidding!!)
Biggest Heat: Vince McMahon, Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, Lance Storm
– RajahWWF.com
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Columns:
Ringside Rantz
By: Morris Belleville
vile316@yahoo.com
What’s that?…… Is that a toilet I hear flushing.
Yes, I was one of the lucky ones; with way too much time on my hands and apparently too much disposable income. Yes, I purchased Sludgement Day.
The in ring action of the event was decent for the most part (with some glaring exceptions) But the show, and the follow up Raw just left too many questions.
Let’s start with RVD. You remember him don’t you? The whole F’n show. One of the top performers in the world. You don’t? Didn’t think so. It’s as if Vince has said to him “Rob, thanks for participating; we’ll validate your parking on the way out.” No wonder he wants to leave when his contract is over. I said it before, I’ll say it again. You do what you have to do to keep him in the WWF. RVD will help the WWF in the long term more than ANY of the old farts will now.
And speaking of old farts, it’s nice to see that Stone Cold is still the booker, creator, producer, director, key grip, et. al of ALL of his matches. How else do you explain the “super human” effort of What? 3:16 vs. the Old World Order. Granted, Flair, Show, and 1-2-3 are a trio of mental pygmies, but Austin was able to make them look even dumber than they are. If that’s possible. So what happens? Austin is now……benched? Who came up with this crap? And when did Ric Flair become George Halas?
Bubba Ray and D-Von were casualties of the brand extension. Then, Jesse Jackson D-Von and Deacon Shleprock lay out Bubba at the PPV. This will lead to absolutely…….NOTHING. That’s because they’re on different shows. Is that what we were supposed to expect from this?
Is this the point in the program where the WWF decides to just take the tag team belts, and turn them into paperweights? I (We if anyone else was dumb enough to do it) paid to see Neal and Bob vs. Rikishi and…..Rico? And now Rico and Rikishi hold the belts after the worst tag title match in WWF history? Nice.
Now Ric Flair and Vince are apparently buddies. Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of the brand extension in the first place? Wasn’t their hatred for each other supposed to propel the WWF to new heights. Now you have TWO evil promoters. The gag is older than Mideon’s body oder. When do we insert the names Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff?
And speaking of the evil promoter gag, that’s how the Biker Taker won the undisputed WWF title at the PPV, capping off one of the worst WWF title matches in history. You had Hogan, a man with no wrestling skill, against the Biker, who checked his at the door long ago. Hogan being beaten up so badly didn’t help either. And now, we have had FOUR “Undisputed” champions in the last 62 days. The WWF title now has as much credibility as the WCW title, or Bubba Clinton; take your pick. When does David Arquette get a crack at it?
There were a couple of brief highlights at the PPV:
Best sign- If you say “What?”, you’re a jackass.
Best line by JR- What; do you want me to say I think Heyman is a human urinal?
Best line by Lawler- Heyman has the body of a god; problem is, it’s Buddha.
It’s getting very, very, very, very hard (Did I make my point) to support the bilge the WWF is throwing at us right now. And while I’m not ready to completely write them off, it certainly doesn’t look very good. Especially when you have just raised your PPV rates. W#CW pulled that crap a long time ago, and Starrcade 94 was the last event I bought for a long time. You remember that epic event, don’t you? Highlighted by a Hogan-Beefcake main event. I can count on one hand the number of PPVs I bought from then until their demise.
And lastly, condolences to the Smith and Hart families over the loss of David Smith, 1/2 of the greatest tag team of all time, the British Bulldogs. It’s amazing; some of the personal battles wrestlers wage with their inner demons, and David apparently had many. It’s ironic that David used to call home to England and tell everyone that Dynamite Kid was on a destructive path with drugs, and that he thought he wouldn’t live much longer. In the end, the demons got to him first.
Morris Belleville
vile316@yahoo.com
The Professor’s Classroom #97
By: The Professor
TheProfessor11@hotmail.com
Field Research – A WWE House Show
The hallmark of any academic institution is, of course, field research. The distinguished faculty here at the Powerbomb Institute of the Net (PIN) does not wish to be accused of sitting in our ivory basement…er, tower isolated from the world.
And so, with exams over and some time before the summer session, your Professor ventured out to a WWE house show in Raleigh, NC, accompanied by my able research assistants. All right, they were my son and his buddy, but they’re very able. Having already been to a couple of televised events (Raw and SummerSlam), we were interested in how different a house show would be. I even dipped into my pension plan for $40 14th-row floor seats. (I had 2nd row until &%$#@! Ticketmaster hiccupped in the middle of the transaction.)
I don’t intend to recap the matches here, for the most part. Such recaps are ably done by others on this site. They weren’t much of a surprise, anyway—the same crew had done the same show the previous night in Kentucky, so I already knew what would happen. So what I will present to you here is impressions–things that I noticed here and there, in an attempt to give you a sense of the entire event.
We had a nice dinner in a local restaurant. (We never get arena food—I refuse to pay four-star restaurant prices for hot dogs and nachos.) We arrived at the Entertainment and Sports Arena at 5:50 PM, a little more than an hour before show time. Wonder of wonders—they actually opened the doors at 6:00! It was a good thing, too, because it was unseasonably cold, had been raining most of the day and was threatening to start again. The last time we were here they opened the doors a half-hour late and we got good and soaked by a driving rain before we finally got in.
We took a walk around the concourse and found exactly ONE souvenir stand selling WWE merchandise, 90% of which was T-shirts. Since I already have enough T-shirts to fill a store (including my rare, prized XFL T-shirt), I wasn’t interested. Funny thing I noticed—there are large signs outside the entrances telling you about things you can’t bring in, one of which is chains. There was even a guy checking purses and handbags coming in. So what were they selling at the WWE souvenir stand? Chain wallets!
I bought a program, which came with WWE magazine. The copyright notice at the bottom of the program still said World Wrestling Federation Entertainment. And the magazine had a big feature article about Curt Hennig. Whoops.
Lots of T-shirts in the crowd, including a fair number of the new Kurt Angle “You Suck” T-shirts. Lots of NWO shirts, too. Even a few ECW hats. Another thing I saw in the crowd: a lot of little kids. A lot of REALLY little kids. What are their parents thinking? ARE their parents thinking?
Finally we entered the arena. No TitanTron. No video screens. No pyros. Just a little red doorway with a curtain in one corner of the floor. There was a chair for the announcer at the side of the ring, with a bell sitting next to it, but no announce table. And, of course, the ring. The “F” was clearly visible on the WWF logo on the ring apron skirt, despite attempts to alter it.
I remember being impressed with the arena crew. Friday night, they had a Carolina Hurricanes/Toronto Maple Leafs hockey game in this arena. Saturday morning, North Carolina State University had its graduation. And here we were Saturday night for the wrestling show. I hope they get paid overtime. They deserve it.
The attendance reminded me of the old WWF days prior to Attitude. The floor was full, but the lower level was a little less than half-full, the club level about one-quarter full, and the upper deck completely empty. I would guess about seven to eight thousand total. That’s still a lot of people, but it doesn’t look good in a building that seats 21,500.
For some reason, the overhead house lights were off the entire night. The lower levels were so dark that I had trouble seeing the stairs going down. As the usher asked for my ticket at the bottom, I missed a step and almost wiped him out.
The show began promptly at 7:00. Howard Finkel got a big pop as he walked out and entered the ring. As he picked up the microphone and began to speak, I realized just how bad the acoustics were on the floor. I never understood a word that anyone in the ring said the entire night.
We started with a couple of announcers from 96 Rock (a local radio station) doing an arm-wrestling contest, with the Fink doing play-by-play. Nobody cared. It was rather stupid-looking and embarrassing, especially when I remembered that I used to work with those guys.
Crash and Jacqueline got big pops, probably because they were the first real wrestlers of the night. Quieted right down for their match, though.
It was interesting to see Brock Lesnar actually wrestle a match with a good-sized opponent. Picture this—D’Lo Brown jumped off the top rope and Lesnar caught him in mid-air. Wow. Now THAT is who should have been arm-wrestling those radio guys. He would have torn off their arms at the waist.
Good match between Molly and Trish, although nobody really cared about it.
Some of the biggest pops of the night, strangely enough, were for referee Charles Robinson. He seemed surprised, but smiled, pointed and waved to the crowd. Lots of boos for Nick Patrick, but he sort of ignored them.
One nice thing about a house show—no long, dead breaks for commercials. Just matches, one right after another.
The OVW match of the night (read: popcorn match) was our old buddy Bull Buchanan taking on Ron “H2O” Waterman. (To picture Waterman, imagine Scotty 2 Hotty’s head stuck on HHH’s body.) There was actually a brief “H2O” chant. Then things got pretty quiet until a guy behind me yelled, “Where’s Bret Hart?” and the entire floor cracked up. The only other noise during this match was, “Boring! Boring!”
We had trouble all night with kids sitting on the backs of the seats. Periodically security would tell them to get down, but they never stayed down. I paid $40 for the privilege of seeing less than I would have from the upper deck. Couldn’t get any pictures, either—the guy in front of me had a habit of jumping up or waving his arms every time I tried.
Only thing resembling a disturbance I saw was when a couple of guys started a fake wrestling match at the top of the stairs. One slip and it’s wheelchair city for the rest of your life. Security stopped it pretty quickly.
RVD and Guerrero were decent enough, although they mostly played it safe. I would have done the same thing the night before a PPV.
The only time it was really loud was when the Hardy Boyz came out (which you would expect, since they live right down the road in Cameron.) They had probably the best match of the night. Goldust had some fun, too—he kept giving flipping the bird to the crowd behind his back while he was waiting for a tag. I also noticed Lita quietly watching from the control booth.
The most entertaining match had to be Buh Buh Ray and Steven Richards. There was no mike work—just old-fashioned working the crowd and ring psychology, and they were both very good at it. Steven even spanked Buh Buh at one point, and Buh Buh’s reaction was priceless. Raven did a funny Three Stooges–style bit after his run-in, too. Good stuff.
I had to head to the men’s room as the Undertaker came out for his match. (He had to park his motorcycle after a few yards—there was no room for it around the ring.) On my way out, I encountered some beered-up moron who decided to impress his friends by kicking in the men’s room door. The only thing he impressed was my hand, as he smashed my fingers pretty thoroughly. He said, “Oh, sorry, man,” and walked away. Yeah, that made me feel much better. Since I didn’t want to walk down the stairs in a pitch-black arena when I couldn’t hold the rail, I sat down in the top row of the lower deck to watch the match. It was the best view of the action that I had the entire night. Bradshaw and Taker, and a dead-quiet crowd.
Intermission, to set up the steel cage for the main event. The most popular guy on the floor was a guy with a full-size replica of the old WWF Heavyweight Championship belt. He must have loaned it to at least 30 people so that they could get a picture of themselves posing with it.
Finally, the main event. Good pop for Ric Flair. After all, this is Raleigh. (Every time the Hurricanes score a goal, they play a video of Flair yelling, “Woooooo!”) There was a mixed reaction for The Big Show; a good pop for Steve Austin. The crowd was actually into this one.
We were all standing, watching the match, until an arena security guy ran in yelling, “Down in front! Sit down!” We all did, and as the guy walked out, another arena employee said to him, “They’re not allowed to stand up?” Whatever he was told, he just shook his head and walked away. I wonder if the guy tries that during college basketball games here.
The match was pretty decent, even though Austin looked like he was just going through the motions. As they were approaching the climax of the match, the guy behind me had his cell phone ring. He said a few things that I won’t repeat and answered the call. He couldn’t hear, and had to leave the floor, and he missed the end of the match. I knew there was a reason I hate cell phones.
There was an unbelievable amount of trash on the floor after the show. I’ve seen garbage heaps that were cleaner. The arena crew had about 4 or 5 hours to change the place back to a hockey arena. They were already entering the floor as we were on the way out.
I’ve had worse nights at the theater. But I will never, ever buy a floor seat again unless it’s in the first two rows. It wasn’t worth it. The lower deck has a better view, and it’s a lot cheaper.
I’ll tell you this, though: if you’re like me, and you prefer to see more wrestling and less “sports entertainment,” then a house show is definitely for you.
Now, if my son’s buddy will just cough up the 40 bucks he owes me…
The Professor
TheProfessor11@hotmail.com
Linda’s Thoughts
By: Linda Robin
Lvaccarp@hotmail.com
I didn’t want to bore you with three columns in a row. So I thought I would give you the Judgment Day and Raw review today. One is really really positive the other review has it’s good and it’s bad. So let me start out by saying as far as predictions go for Judgment Day I got 5 out 8 right. Hey not bad considering I really had no idea what the hell was going to happen on Sunday. The ones I missed were picking the Hardy’s, Austin, and Billy & Chuck. I have to say I’m pretty pleased with myself.
So let me start with Judgment Day. I have to admit I was kind of surprised to find this show getting mixed reviews throughout the Internet. I thought after it was over the majority would think this show really was good. Well I’m finding so many who thought it was crap but too me it was much better than I ever thought it could have been and a much better show than Backlash. I thought RVD vs. Eddie Guerrero came off very well in fact much improved from Backlash. I couldn’t have asked for a better match to open the show. Brock with Heyman vs. The Hardy’s was fine and my friend Paul put on one annoying performance and that’s the Paul I love. “ Tag me,” Tag me,” is what Paul kept telling Brock, and he did it so obnoxiously how can you not love this character. Trish vs. Stacy again better than I thought and I was so glad the belt stayed on Trish. The battle between D-Von and Bautista against Bubba Ray Dudley was just as expected and it still came off fresh and exciting. Angle vs. Edge was a great match, but again I wouldn’t have expected anything less from either of them. Seeing Angle lose was no shock and watching him try to weasel out of having his head shaved was so Kurt and it just made you wonder if he would get out of his deal for the night. I kind of thought it wouldn’t happen until Smackdown but thankfully the fans weren’t disappointed and Edge got the Olympic hero in the chair and shaved him bald. Great match great segment.
I will say Austin gave me a match I didn’t expect. Hell it wasn’t the match of the night. But he put a lot into it and although when Show was in it didn’t really do much for me, Flair alone with Austin was quite fun to watch. Slick Ric too a lot of bumps and really looked pretty good out there. I was enjoying just watching those two. I wish that’s how the match would have been booked originally. I thought the ending was a little lame having Austin take out X-Pac, Show and Flair for the win. That too me should have sealed the nwo’s fate, meaning disband them. After all that they looked anything but tough. Speaking of the nwo, I thought Booker’s disappearance was rather funny. After a hot chic invited him to her hotel room, the Book felt that was more important than staying for the show. Hey who can blame him? So while Austin was taking out his group he’s in bed with a HUGE smile on his face with this woman, lights out and all of a sudden you hear someone in a very deep voice asking him to leave the nwo and come back to him. Low and behold it’s Goldust in bed with Booker and the woman. I have to say this was very funny scene, it was even funnier that Goldust had on a nightgown over his gold suit. I’ll tell you Goldust is a hell of a lot more enjoyable for me doing these skits then wrestling. But back to the matches. I found the tag team match the worst of the night. Short and really kind of bland. The mystery partner turned out to be Rico, and immediately I knew he and Rikishi are taking the titles. Let me just say the match was more a Smackdown/Heat match, I guess the big thing was the loss of the titles by the “boys.”
Now let me get to the Hell In The Cell Match. Yeah I’m a HHH mark, but I’m sorry I thought Hunter and Chris Jericho put on a great match. I’ve read so many bashing this one because A. no one took a big bump and B. Hunter didn’t job to Jericho. Well first as far as the bumps go, after being out 8 months why the hell would Hunter risk his body and career just to please some fans that love the blood and guts of the match? And why would Jericho do the same, he’s needed at WWE, and I don’t think he’s ready to call it quits either. As far as Hunter not losing, my theory is he lost at Backlash jobbed to Hogan, lost the title in 5 weeks. Did he need to prove something again? Some were saying Hunter MUST lose to prove he’s not keeping Jericho from the top tier. Hey if Vince wanted Jericho to be on top believe me he would do it. Hunter would have no influence over Vince by telling him to hold Y2J back. I think Hunter winning was fine, Jericho put on one fabulous performance, as did Hunter. In fact I thought Hunter looked like he did before his injury. His body doesn’t look quite as muscular as it did when he came back in January. No this Hell in the Cell Match wasn’t anything like watching Foley or HBK, but I thought it couldn’t have been better and yeah to me it was the match of the night,
Then we have the main event. And seeing Taker win was no surprise I think it was the right thing to do. I’m sorry to say I thought this match was well what I expected not very good. I didn’t find it appealing to Taker or Hogan. But what I’m happy about is the fact that I believe it’s now going to be Hogan and Vince and that’s fine with me. No title on the Hulkster and I think the two of them could make their feud less serious and a lot more fun in the ring. So really there were two matches I didn’t care for but that didn’t make me like Judgment Day in less. I for one was glad I ordered it. And now I can’t wait to see who Taker defends the title against at King of the Ring. I’m hoping it’s Triple H, but I guess I will just have to wait and see.
As far as Raw goes, I’ll keep it short, there was good and there was bad. I loved the fact that the Undertaker attacked RVD for no reason. This set up the main event for the night. RVD going for the Undisputed title against Taker. That I liked very much. I was very happy to see Kevin Nash return because the whole time X-Pac, Show, and Booker were arguing I was yelling DISBAND, DISBAND. Let me just say this, the roster show its weakness when you have the Hardy’s come out for two matches. Something isn’t right. I don’t know if Kevin can do anything to improve this nwo situation, but I’ll tell you I was glad to see him there. Bubba Ray seems to be heading for a feud with Brock Lesnar. I think that could be all right. I liked what I saw last night Brock showing his power over Bubba Ray. I loved Paul Annyoing Heyman making the moves on Trish. Wow he’ a pro at that. I could watch him be low down and scummy all day. Anyway I loved Raven coming out and really giving it to Lawler. Telling Lawler all he knows is puppies and throwing it at Jerry about his wife leaving him. Raven is so good at this. His match with Lawler well it was fine, after all it’s Jerry’s hometown. And Trish vs. Jackie was good not as good as I think it could have been but still good.
I thought Taker’s opening promo was cool. He got a lot of heat from the crowd. He’s the main man now he can do anything he wants. Or at least that’s what HE thinks. Good opening, he beats the crap out of RVD and then just flaps his gums bragging. I thought Flair’s promo with Arn Anderson against Austin was kind of weird. Austin is being benched to punish him. Hell after the matches he’s been in lately that’s a reward. I don’t know it’s like they have nothing BIG for Steve and I just found this kind of flat. Of course he stunned Anderson and Flair and then left. After the break we see him and Debra in a bar. Now I have a good friend that was at the show last night, she’s not an Austin fan but said the bar scenes were great. For me they went on way too long. What I did like was Eddie Guerrero in the bar trying to get Debra’s attention by sending her a little teddy bear. Hey RVD against Taker and now Eddie against Austin. This I like.
However the bar scenes kept going on with Karaoke night. Eddie started singing God knows what the hell the song was. Then Austin got up there because his annoying wife wanted to hear him sing. Oh my God to think I knocked Stephanie all those months, I would love to put a gag on Debra. She bugs me so much. So we have Austin singing a medley of his hits. For me I didn’t like this at all, way to long, it just wasn’t appealing to me. I loved Eddie coming up and hitting Austin with a bottle knocking him out. Thank you Eddie for ending this. Well I didn’t care for the bar scenes I’ll probably be in the minority about that, but I do like Austin facing Guerrero now I think this can be and will be good.
Taker and RVD put on a very good main event. Now this match made Taker look so much better in the ring than the night before. RVD looked well you know just great out there. A wonderful match with RVD winning the Undisputed title. Who would have expected that on a Raw, yeah RVD. Wait he did win for a few seconds until Flair ran out made sure the ref realized Taker’s foot was on the rope. The ref said he didn’t see it, but Flair insisted that no Undisputed match would end like that. So the match restarted and of course Taker got the upper hand. He gave RVD the last ride and Taker remains champion. A really nice match and a good way to end Raw.
This Raw was much better than last week’s without a doubt. Even though there were some boring segments I enjoyed the show. So is it Hunter vs. Taker for KOTR or could it possibly be Taker vs. RVD? Kind of makes me wonder. By the way on Smackdown Thursday it’s being hinted by JR and Lawler that Hogan may announce his retirement. Yeah like that’s going to happen, but I guess they think that this little tease will bring in bigger ratings. This I want to see. And just let me end by saying how sorry I was to read about Davey Boy Smith’s untimely death. My sympathy goes out to his family.
Linda Robin
Lvaccarp@hotmail.com
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