So. Here’s an interesting predicament. My computer is not currently allowing me to search Google. So it might actually be somewhat difficult for me to find images to post in this review. Apparently some jackass on the same wireless network I’m on was sending automated requests to Google which caused them to Ambrose “nope.” So, let’s hope for the best!
I watch 30 minute of RAW then leave for work to watch the rest here and type up what happened, mostly so YOU don’t have to suffer through it yourself. Aren’t you lucky to know me?
You know,last year on the night after RAW, I was in the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, NJ helping to start Fandangoing, and shitting all over Randy Orton vs. Sheamus by chanting for everybody not involved in the match, including the ice cream guy, the cotton candy guy, and the pretzel guy. This year, I’m sitting at work wishing I was in New Orleans, LA for tonight’s RAW. And after a shocking WrestleMania, I can’t wait to see this crowd. Let’s go!
I watch 2 hours at home, drive to work, skip through the first two hours again, then watch the last hour. All for you. Yes, you, the specific individual reading this right now. Because you are awesome. Don’t ever let anybody tell you otherwise!
Last year, I did reviews of the first six WrestleMania events as part of WrestleMania week. I complained a lot after that week about how bad WrestleMania V was. This year, I’m picking up where I left off, with WrestleMania VII – and the best part about it is, I don’t have to buy the individual events, I can just pull them up on the WWE Network! So, without further adieu, I review WrestleMania VII – Superstars and Stripes Forever!
Let me tell you right now that the first hour of this show pretty much dragged. That said, I’m going to be really skimming through it this week. The second hour was actually pretty good, and the start of hour three? Well, you’ll see when we get there. So, let’s go!
I watch the first two hours at home, drive to work, then have to watch the entire show again because I forgot what happened and didn’t have the foresight to review it live. It’s irrelevant anyway – you’re more interested in Gregory Iron being our special guest on this Sunday’s BWF Radio.
Here we go again. Another Monday, another RAW that I have to leave for work in the middle of a great segment involving Daniel Bryan. But we’ll get to that later. There’s other stuff that happened first. Let’s see how much I can remember and how much I actually have to re-watch. Which might be a lot since I had in-laws over while RAW was on. Let’s go!
I watch RAW. I press “enter” to add line breaks, and they mysteriously vanish by time I read the review on BWF Radio. Meanwhile, I make no money doing this, and I’m flat broke until payday. If only I could come up with a way to generate some money…
Once again, getting a copy of RAW proved sort of difficult this week. Luckily, I knew the alternate place to look this week, but it was still a process. So now it’s 1AM and I’m reviewing RAW. So, let’s go.
I watch 30 minutes of RAW, which is equivalent of how much of SmackDown ISN’T RAW recaps, then leave for work. Then I watch and review the rest, half-assedly because Jorge isn’t on facebook. You want my RAW reviews to get better, don’t you? Then go like Jorge!
This is it! BoredWrestlingFan’s WrestleMania week is in full swing, which kicked off with the WrestleMania 29 prediction podcast. My contribution to WrestleMania week this year will be reviews of the first six WrestleMania events, which started Monday with 1985′s WrestleMania, and will finish up Saturday with a review of WrestleMania VI. And don’t forget to tune in to BoredWrestlingFan Radio this Sunday at 2PM Eastern as I will be reporting LIVE from Met Life Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ, the site of WrestleMania XXIX!
Today, we’ll be taking a look at WrestleMania IV. This one went nearly four hours and featured a tournament to determine the new WWF Champion after it was declared vacant by WWF President Jack Tunney. Andre The Giant won the title in controversial fashion on an episode of The Main Event, and immediately sold it to “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase, who was immediately stripped of the title. I don’t remember much at all about this particular show, other than it was so big they had to put it on two VHS tapes. Now you can store the entire thing and watch it on devices smaller than VHS tapes. Such as what I’m doing. Tablet at one side, computer on the other. Let’s roll!
Either Darin is really great at selling or he had a legit sprained ankle. Speaking for somebody who has had one, walking to the ring, much less competing in a match is a small miracle. Gary’s work was really good as always. It was a really strong first match, though I thought it was a bit short.
We had a Barrett Brown promo. He needs a mouthpiece. He has such an amazing presence in the ring; he just needs the promo ability taken off his plate.
2. Barbi Hayden & Bolt Brady vs. The Takeover
Barbi is probably one of the best wrestlers you’re not watching. This is the first time I’ve ever seen Barbi as a face, which is funny because she’s one of Texas’ top heels, male or female. This is my first time to see Miss Maulie. I’ve only had the chance to see Jaykus Plisken once and it was when I was ring announcer so I was running around trying to find my bearings. He has a great look and is a born main-eventer. He has such a presence. I wonder if he needs a mouthpiece to help preserve the gimmick. I liked Maulie’s work here. And Bolt earns his name as he is-sorry, I have to-“electrifying.” The pumphandle slam into the knee breaker thing was incredible.
Jojo Bravo cut a really nice promo heeling Ricky Romida. Bravo is where ACH was a few years ago.
3. Ricky Romida vs. Carson
Add Carson to the list of best wrestlers you haven’t heard of. The match itself started off as Andre the Giant vs. Cary Elwes from Princess Bride. The strategy was that you had a little man (which Carson isn’t) trying to take down the bigger man. Romida looked strong, and Carson put him over as a monster, which he’s not really that big. I was impressed by both’s work here. I believe we had a story told.
4. Jeffery Gant vs. Athena
When I see Gant, I wonder where the rest of him is. Athena is just in a class by herself. This match was way more competitive than I thought it would be. The longer it went, the more Gant impressed me. I might call him the Texas Spike Dudley. I found myself liking this match a lot more than I thought I would. This was a great showcase for Athena’s submission skills, but both looked great in this match.
5. Davey Vega vs. Barrett Brown
I was told how great this match was from a very impartial source-Brown’s dad. (Yes, that sentence was in jest). If you have never seen Brown, he’s worth it. You have Texas’ future vs. the U.S.’ future. (Give Barrett time. He’ll be the U.S.’ future too.) He was able to hang with Vega and he looked pretty good in the ring against a top tier indy talent. It was very emotional to watch this kid that I’ve watched ever since he was 16 get to wrestle in what is probably the biggest stage in Texas. He did really well in there against Vega. The scary part is that Barrett is only 18 and has no limit to where he goes.
6. Arik Cannon vs. Matthew Palmer
Matt Palmer is the best wrestler in the world you’re not watching. I like seeing Cannon every time I get the chance to watch him. They worked really well together and had good chemistry. The thing I write about Palmer is that he never forgets he’s in front of a live crowd. There is so much innovation in this match. Not only were they great in the ring, they were great out of the ring too. This is a great DVD if you have never seen either of these. I’m not sure what they paid Cannon, but he gave you a really good match with brawling, scientific wrestling, striking, lots of blood and made Palmer look like a million bucks. Whatever they paid him, it was a bargain.
7. Pierre Abernathy vs. Darin Corbin
This was good fun. They did a tribute to the Wrestlemania VI Main Event, Warrior vs. Hogan. After 3 really excellent matches, the crowd needed come down a little bit. This was very good comedy.
8. Jessica James vs. Christina Von Eerie
This was an interesting look and transformation for James. James has got to be one of the top female wrestlers in Texas. And Christina has got to be one of the top female wrestlers in the world. She has the most unique look in all of women’s wrestling, plus she is great in the ring. Any wrestler I’ve first heard about while watching AAA is pretty awesome in my book. The match was really good. There were a few moments where I noticed the little things both did well.
9. Mojo Bravado vs. Team Havin Fun (Rachel Summerlyn & Portia Perez)
I really don’t know what to think about some of these creative decisions as Portia is one of the top heels in the world, but she is really good with Summerlyn, and Anarchy is its own creature. It gets to do what it wants to. Jojo Bravo wrestles like a face but is a heel. To call Jojo one of the next big names in Texas would not be much of an exaggeration. He has that same energy and charisma that ACH has. You can’t teach what skills this man already has. Jordan Jensen is extremely good at the heel role. And I’ve gone into detail about what I think about Summerlyn, but just to repeat, she reminds me of a really pretty tomboy. Plus, with Summerlyn, you get Machiko, who is in my opinion, one of Texas’ hottest wrestling personalities. The match was a really good match with intergender implications. Jensen puts on a heel clinic, and both ladies owned the crowd.
10. Children of Pain 2.0 vs. ACH, Summers & Genesis
Wrestling doesn’t have too many wrestlers who looked like The Thing of Fantastic Four fame. Scot Summers is one. Ryan Genesis is pretty jacked up too. I consider these two to be the top tag team in Texas. And ACH is in a category all by himself. I haven’t seen Vexx too much, but I’ve seen Silver and and Sky (the Lost Boys) live and wrestled in one of my favorite matches of 2012. Watching ACH at this point of his career at ACW is like seeing Ric Flair in Charlotte, CM Punk in Chicago, Jim Ross in Oklahoma. It’s his hometown, and that crowd has made him. The match was pretty violent and everybody carried their weight. A good main event to capitalize on a really great card.
All in all… A really good show from Anarchy. The Athena-Gant, Vega-Brown, Cannon-Palmer trilogy of matches were all really good. There are so many great underrated or undiscovered wrestlers on this card: Barbi Hayden, Bolt Brady, Carson, Jojo Bravo, Summers & Genesis & The Lost Boys. There are some top women’s wrestlers: Athena, Christina Von Eerie, Rachel Summerlyn, Portia Perez, Jessica James, so if you like women’s wrestling, this is also very worth your time and money. I’d have to definitely make this a huge recommendation.
After making the clean tag with G, Im back with another edition of Stampede Wrestling classics. This time around I am bringing in someone one BIG. How big you say? How about the legendary Andre the Giant? In order to showcase his amazing size and skills, the big hearted giant made several appearances in the Stampede promotion over the years often appearing in gimmick matches like handicap matches and “tug of wars” . If you don’t think that Andre had skills, think again. He was man who once lifted a massive Arnold Schwarzenegger off his feet so he couldn’t pay the bill at a restaurant, while only using one arm . Andre had incredible strength. Thus, not accidently killing his opponents in the ring while preforming required great skill on his behalf. Skills that I assure you the other wrestlers were praying for. This week, I bring you a match taylor made for Andre, the battle royal. While its almost impossible to NOT center your attention completely on the giant in this encounter from Stampedes past you will find other wrestlers in the mix that are worth noting as well. At least 2 of the Hart brothers are partaking in the chaos, Bruce and Keith can be seen slugging away at their opponents. Also, a young Stampede Wrestler who would later become the Junk Yard Dog in WWF considers his chances against Andre as well. Im off to wonderpodonline.com to check out our video game podcast and also my retro PC game for the week , see you there if your interested! But, “In the meantime and in-between time.” enjoy this old school battle royal and I will be back with another ” ring a ding dong dandy ” next week!
Our Celebration of Professional Wrestling continues!
Earlier this year over at Wonderpod-Online, Bruce McGee and PatMan created a new theme of podcast for our site. PatMan and I decided to continue the series with a conversation reminiscing about our experience growing up in Calgary, the “Hart”land of the Stampede Wrestling promotion. What a perfect way for two old smarks to contribute to the ongoing festivities and celebration of professional wrestling going on at Wonderpod-Online and the Bored Wrestling Fan? (more…)
