Courtesy: www.MondayNightMayhem.com
Monday Night Mayhem DVD Review: “Timeline: The History Of WWE As Told By Lisa Moretti”
Produced By: Kayfabe Commentaries
Written By: Shawn “The Angry Hero” Marek
Once again, the mighty Kayfabe Commentaries brings forth yet another installment in their “Timeline: The History Of WWE” series. This time around is 2001: A Wrestling Odyssey. 2001 is best known for the WWE officially becoming the top of the pack in the sports-entertainment business. The Dean Stockwell guiding our Scott Bakula through this eventful year is former WWE Diva Ivory joining KC host Sean Oliver. Thankfully, Ivory looks fantastic and is not constantly smoking a cigar or punching a Texas Instruments keypad.
Starting with the 2001 WWE Royal Rumble (the one with Drew Carey), Ivory talks about her match with Chyna, where they kayfabed a broken neck for Chyna after a springboard elbow. She talks about Chyna’s unique situation as a female world-beater in a dominantly male environment. There’s also a measure of sympathy for Chyna, as Ivory implored her to get out of the WWE machine, away from the Triple H break-up drama, and do something great. Later, Ivory references their WrestleMania X-7 match and Chyna’s subsequent WWE Women’s Title reign that she never really wanted. In Ivory’s opinion, a lot of missed potential.
Ivory also gives her perspective on the roles of Triple H, The Undertaker, & Kurt Angle from that era. “The Game,” in particular, gets no love, as he was transitioning to “Triple Son-In-Law” by this point. There’s a great story about a “Wrestler’s Court” back in 2004, where Triple H was in the judge role and not The Undertaker. It just wasn’t the same. Speaking of The ‘Taker, Ivory gives him huge props and attributes his locker room leader status to years of being levelheaded and political enough to get by.
On the demises of WCW & ECW, Ivory welcomed the new acquisitions, because it meant new faces for the WWE product (and new hot dudes to look at). For the most part, she hoped that whatever angles she had going at the time would stick around. Eventually, she was drafted to the Alliance and placed with Torrie Wilson & Stacy Keibler. What frustrated her more was the shift from the original batch of wrestling Divas to the swimsuit models that Johnny Ace found in magazines.
2001 was the first year for WWE’s “Tough Enough,” a show that Ivory was a coach on in the second season. She was into the cultivation of new talent, but it was frustrating for Al Snow & “Big” John Gaburick to dismiss her input at times. There’s a story from Season III about Ivory noticing one of the female hopefuls was being a little weird during lock-ups. After she was dumped, the contestant was following the Tough Enough crew around, claiming to still be a part of the show.
Ivory shares her thoughts on a whole slew of related topics, including: the XFL, the pay scale structure at the time, the drug issues involving Eddie Guerrero, Brian Christopher, & The Road Dogg, plus some notes on wrestling deaths. Regardless of what she is addressing, her energy is infectious, as she rattles off a bunch of wayward analogies that raise Sean Oliver’s eyebrows a few times.
It’s nice to get the female perspective in the “Timeline series,” and Ivory was a great choice. Do what you can to pick this up over at the Kayfabe Commentaries website (located at www.KayfabeCommentaries.com), and follow them right now on Twitter (at www.Twitter.com/KayfabeComment). Speaking of which, follow me on Twitter right now on Twitter (at www.Twitter.com/AngryHeroShawn), and check out my updated blog (located at www.FutureEndeavored.tumblr.com). Thanks for reading, and remember: Above all things, be a man!
