He breaks his neck for fun just to get the pop at the Rumble.
He breaks his neck for fun just to get the pop at the Rumble.
Don Cena takes half of his bumps on his head. He's probably not actually going bald. It's all just worn away.
Hopefully that botch means 3 more months of Jinder and Khali.
If anybody's ever in the moods I get into where they're just looking for some entertainment off've the past the Network I can recommend February 7th 2000's Raw. Opens up with Cactus Jack and the Radicalz, leading up to a good bit between Cactus and HHH setting up their Hell in a Cell, then HHH gets the Radicalz to turn and ends up with Foley booked in for a 5 v 1 (HHH, X-Pac, Benoit, Malenko, Saturn vs. Jack) main event. The Rock says he'll join in about halfway through the show making it 5 on 2.
Match opens, the scrapping starts and then Too Cool randomly run out to make it 5 v 5. In something you'd never see in the ultra-polished direction of WWE now the cameras switched between about three different fights in the opening bit without getting the action from any of them at one point.
Eventually the match actually starts but at a proper pace (which it maintains, rather than doing what they'd do now and pretending that ten guys are all beaten up about five minutes in) and the crowd are right into it. Then breaks down into a chaotic ending too, of course, and then the lights go off, Bearer waddles out and Kane makes his return because he wants to batter X-Pac and then he beats everybody up.
A lot of nonsense but really good fun.
Loads of Jinder. In a choice between a small, weird-looking foreign dude and a big, roidy 'foreign' dude there's only one winner.
Is that the origin story of Rock and Sock, then? I think I remember it as being earlier than that, but it would be quite good if it did come together as randomly as The Rock just deciding to back him up one night.
Just give Khali a suit, a microphone and a dubbed voice for promos. He's prime for Jinder's manager.
Nah, that was when he was Mankind. This would probably be one of the last times they teamed up in Foley's main run (before they fought against Evolution years later at a Wrestlemania.)
Rock 'n' Sock was late 90s. Had the wonderful "This is Your Life" segment. Man, might need to go back to that next.
I knew it was primarily Mankind, but I thought it existed for a time with Mick Foley under his own name so I'd have bought the team starting out with Cactus Jack.
Wrestling really was brilliant in those days. I watched either the last or next to last Wrestlemania with a mate and the only bit of the whole thing worth mentioning was all the old geezers turning up for whatever reason they gave. Admittedly that bit had me off the couch, but the rest of it seemed like a pale imitation.
They probably did some more Rock 'n' Sock type stuff in the build up to Wrestlemania 2000 as well.
Damn it. They should've had a 'Mankind in Every Corner' Wrestlemania.
Apparently Will Ospreay wants to move to Australia in an attempt to build the Indy scene. It probably helps that we are a stones throw to Japan.
I really need to watch that original Ospreay / Ricochet match at some point. I suspect I'll side with the tedious old farts but I should make the point of having a look.
It does hold to the hype as a stand alone match. However if that was the style of the whole card it would be too much.
So I re-watched the Outlaws vs . Rock / Austin match we discussed on the wrasslin thread on the Titanic. Taking aside the amazing crowd reaction to fucking everything another thing strikes me.... the selling from the commentators of a good tag team as a threat to a coupling of two main event stars. I'm trying to imagine commentators now in WWE of selling Big E and Kofi as a threat to Orton and Cena, or Cesaro and Sheamus (Iwho should be a threat) against Strowman and Jeff.
It's a thing he does. Cornette is about as enamoured with it as you'd expect.
That is fantastic
Word. I bloody miss how hard they (mostly JR) tried to maintain a kind of internal logic to it all back then. I think it's also why I loved Heyman-booked Taz/Cole commentated Smackdown so much as a kid. I know people take the piss out of Taz's TALE OF THE TAPE shit from back then, not for nuthin, but any attempt to make it feel like a real sport is good with me.
Naito's botched pile drive off a fucking table is the most horrific spot this year. Omega could have easily been paralysed.
From other clips I've seen it genuinely wouldn't have surprised me if that wasn't a botch. They do a lot of stupid shit.
Yeah that's true. Omega is mental enough to put his hand up for a spot like that.
Is Ric Flair on his way out?
I read he was in hospital but not why.
It was reported as just a routine heart thing when I first read about it, but now everybody's asking for prayers.
He's probably just selling really well.
Fingers crossed for Flair, the crazy bastard.
Del Rio's been stripped of the TNA World Championship today, for his part in the Paige ORDEAL at the airport the other month.
EDIT: And WWE are doing a free three month trial of WWE Network for new subscribers only, if anyone fancies.
Medically induced coma now. Doesn't look good.
The coma news was some time ago. He's had surgery and it's being reported it went well and he's resting, although other sources are saying the situation is still extremely serious.
I've just read the Raw results, and I had a question about Finn Balor - the write up I've read says specifically that the announcers mentioned that Balor will be 'The Demon' at Summerslam against Bray Wyatt.
Is that not the exact opposite of what the gimmick is supposed to be? It's supposed to be like, an inner demon, right? And it comes out when he can't contain it. Surely it ruins the 'mystique' if someone else can tell everyone that he'll be wrestling as the Demon?
They spent months building that aspect up in NXT (don't know about Japan) and I've seen very little of Raw with Balor on since he was called up, but it just seems like WWE haven't got a bloody clue what to do with him.
Par for the course.
They went one extra before that PPV where he won the title and got injured by just having him come out in costume on the last Raw before it.
It's the same thinking that brought us the yearly Hell in a Cell PPV. Rather than using it sparingly so it feels a bit special we now get one every year for whoever happens to be feuding at the time. The demon thing done right could be quite cool, use it very occasionally and never ever let Balor reference it or say a word while he's in the paint.
Watching some Invasion era Raw over lunch and Vince is giving everyone a pep talk, including Kane who looks like a naughty schoolboy on a tiny chair.
Jesus, and now they (literally) wheeled Freddie Blasie in having dressed him in a multicoloured sequin shirt.
I think the Demon King thing would be better if he hadn't clearly had to spend hours in a makeup artist's chair getting himself meticulously painted while in his supposedly dangerous frame of mind.
But referencing it in advance.... do they think that's going to have people tuning in that otherwise wouldn't have? The same match but with him having gone full Pap O'Shango?
You could say that about anything though, imagine HHH popping down the shops to get his shiny terminator mask or the Undertaker topping up his bike in Sainsburys. There's an amount that can be forgiven but the rest of the presentation has to play along.
I just think given it's meant to be him in super serious mode that the big goofy, toothy mouth design takes away from it. I'm in favour of the body painting in general.
The crowd fucking loved it when he dropped the heavy hint that he'd be in DK mode at Summerslam though, so fair play.
I feel like if they were taking the belt off Neville after his brilliant reign they could have had it happen on PPV. Or at least a more hyped TV match. I partly want him to get bumped further up the card but it's hard to imagine them letting him be properly good against the bigger dudes even though I think he's done more than enough to show he's up to it.
Oh I see, I hadn't really considered it that way, I guess I just roll all that into my blindspot reserved for 'just wrestling stuff'.
In other news, as rubbish as the invasion angle has been so far I am really enjoying the arrival of a load of ECW bods. RVD, Tommy Dreamer, Rhyno, Raven etc, it's great.
The end of Raw was a bit odd. Did they run out of time?
I feel like there was meant to be another moment of somebody battering all the jobbers and STANDING TALL at the end.
Just watched Smackdown. Lol, poor Jeremy. If you'd told me they were having somebody win the case so they could lose it I'd have put money on Zayn.
Which done right could actually have worked really well as part of his underdog thing. If, you know, they had any plans to actually do anything with him.
Southpaw Regional Wrestling is back.
Watched it last night, really enjoyed it. Tyler Breeze was excellent as were both of The Club but Gallows in particular looked like he was having a great time.
The Club, and Gallows in particular as you say, were the highlight of the first one too.
AOP / Sanity was pretty great, Nicki Cross is superb. Also loving the shots of Neville who's dressed like an evil Harry Potter.
I only watched Asuka Vs Ember (which had a great ending, but I think the rest will of the match will inevitably over rated as a result) and Drew Vs Roode (which was fantastic) but I'm already convinced that will be a better show than Summerfest.
Well it was a reasonable length for a start.
Made a start on the new Southpaw episodes. Styles as Malibu Al.