Tag Archive: Stone Cold

  1. Things you must watch on the WWE Network – WWE’s ECW

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    The WWE Network launches in less than three weeks, and there is a wealth of programming available immediately after you pay your first $9.95.  Over the next few weeks, I will be giving you my personal picks of things to watch on demand on the Network.  Today, I’ll be focusing solely on WWE’s ECW.  Many people hated the product, considering it a bastardization of the Extreme Championship Wrestling we all knew and loved.  At the time, I had long since given up hope that the magic of the original would be captured full time, so my disappointment wasn’t as deep as it was for some.  In fact, the brand produced some great television, if sometimes for the wrong reasons.

    (We know that every single PPV on this list will be available.  Let’s assume for argument’s sake that the non-PPV stuff listed is on there as well.)

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  2. Why Hash Could Do The One Thing Eric Bischoff Couldn’t

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    I bet you thinking the other kind of hash weren’t you? However, that symbol. You can find it on a phone to the right of the 0, and yet it is the one symbol that could destroy the foundations on which we stand. The one symbol that could do more damage than Eric Bischoff’s WCW ever could. The one symbol, that means more than the sign of the Wolfpac, the middle finger, and whatever it was Jimmy Snuka used to do combined. But how can a simple number sign be so powerful and deadly?

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  3. RAW: 06/06/11

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    Oh no! It’s that G guy again, reviewing RAW! BOO!!!! BOO!!!!! Yep, back for another week with me. Talking to Pintnoir about covering iMPACT again this week (he did awesome last week, no?) so you get more flavors of stylization on the site during the BWF summer vacations. I don’t mind visiting the ‘E again for a bit. Hope you like the animated gifs and the Charles Barkley, folks! We kick off our show with the overrun of the Tough Enough finale. Looks like it’s down to Luke and Andy. Vince and Stone Cold have some competitive banter back and forth about who will announce the winner. SCSA notes it’s his show, and declares Andy the winner. Vince goes to welcome Andy to the WWE and…
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  4. In Case Stone Cold Asks (My Favorite Matches)

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    Last night, Ariane Andrew became (in)famous on WWE Tough Enough when she was asked for her favorite match ever. She said Melina and Alicia Fox. Now I have been watching wrestling for over 15 years (though there were stretches where I lost interest). I’ve seen plenty of matches, too. I don’t know about this Alicia Fox-Melina match, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen better. Just in case the proverbial gun is to my head, I wanted to come up with a list of some of my favorite matches. These are by no means the best. These are the ones I would call my favorite matches. I’m not ranking these. Some of them you will agree with. Some are special to me for one reason or another.

    1.       Savage-Steamboat, Wrestlemania III-I remember watching this match when I saw Wrestlemania III for the first time. I had started getting into wrestling and I wanted to watch anything and everything I could find. My local video store was The Video Library, a mom and pop store back before Blockbuster ruled everything with an iron fist. They had Survivor Series ’91, Wrestlemania III and a few others. WM3 had Hogan and Andre on the cover. How could I not rent it? And of course I fell in love with the Savage-Steamboat match. It was such a tense, dramatic match. I’m sure many people would have this in Top 5 of all time.

    2.       Chris Benoit-Kevin Sullivan, Falls Count Anywhere Match, Great American Bash ’96-Yes, I said the name Chris Benoit. Regardless of how you feel about him, I am talking about this match, not the person who killed his wife, son and self. There was so much intensity and hatred between these two men. And this was the first fight I’d ever seen go to the men’s restroom. The best part was Dusty Rhodes on commentary. “There’th a woman in the men’th westwoom! There’th a woman in the men’th westwoom!” And then after the match when Arn Anderson turned on Kevin Sullivan, another awesome memory. When I first heard that he had died, and before I knew he was the number one suspect in his murder-suicide, this was the match I watched.

    3.       Stone Cold-Bret Hart, I Quit Match Wrestlemania XIII-Ken Shamrock as guest referee, Jerry Lawler & Jim Ross on commentary. This was such a hot intense feud. Bret Hart was beginning his anti-American Hart Foundation persona, and Stone Cold was about to embark on being one of the top stars in wrestling of all time. And in this fight, there was blood. The blood flowed out of Austin’s forehead like I had never seen before. And Austin never gave up, but Ken Shamrock awarded the match to Bret Hart. This was a watershed moment in the attitude era.

    4.       Johnny Kashmere & Justice Pain-Jun Kazai & Nick Mondo, CZW Un-f’n-believable-I’m sure most wrestling fans would scoff at this one being in my list. But this is my list. Make your own. This match had all the drama you could ever want. They were feuding factions. This was “Fans Bring the Weapons,” and wrestling fans are very creative. This was intense and bloody, very bloody. The match was everything the title says. It really was un-f’ing-believable. This put CZW on my map, love it or hate it.

    5.       Vince McMahon-Shane McMahon, Wrestlemania X-7-I know. This is not the most technical match ever. But there were so many storylines that were built up here. Shane had just “bought” WCW from his dad. Linda was in the wheelchair from the meds Trish was giving her. Mick Foley was the guest referee. The moment that Linda stood up, I stood up in my Arlington home for the pure emotion of it all. And if I remember correctly, there was a Van Terminator from Shane.

    6.       Eddie Guerrero-Rey Misterio Jr., Halloween Havoc ’97, Mask vs. Title-This is my redemption for the above two matches. The build-up to this match was awesome. When Eddie was a heel, he had no equal. He had unmasked Rey on WCW Saturday night. As useless as Tony Schiavone was, the look of disdain on his face, covering Rey with his jacket, they were both so perfect. And in this match, you didn’t know if Rey was going to lose or not. I spent the match on pins and needles waiting for the bell to ring. Out of Eddie’s and Rey’s many matches together, this one was my favorite.

    7.       Randy Orton-Cactus Jack, Backlash ’04-I hated the whole Orton spitting on my hero Mick Foley. And I hated it even more when he did nothing. But I read on the Internet this was Foley’s idea, and I just decided to sit back and let Foley be Foley. But we went to the PPV at the movie theater that carried the PPV’s. The match was a thing of beauty. Now, not graceful Eddie-Rey beauty, but more like a “Terry Funk-Sabu, you’re going to be able to count the number of visible tendons” beauty. When my then-fiance and I saw the thumbtacks getting laid out, we were both saying, “Oh, Foley’s going to be diving into those.” And then Orton took the bump, and our jaws both hit the floor. I had not really respected Orton yet, but when he did that, I had a newfound respect for him that I still carry to this day.

    8.       Kurt Angle-Rey Misterio Jr., some Smackdown-I have no idea what it was, but Angle and Misterio had the greatest chemistry together. Misterio beat him out of nowhere. And the best part of the match was the post-match interview with Angle. “I just got pinned by a 12-year-old. Some kid barely old enough to mow my lawn beat me.” Angle and Misterio had some great matches. This was just the beginning.

    9.       Mr. Pogo & Terry Funk-Hayabusa & Masato Tanaka, FMW 5-5-96-Yes, this match is pretty much bloody stumps galore. There was barb wire, explosives, pretty much everything you’ve always heard about wrestling but didn’t know it existed. The drama of the guys about to go into the barb wire and then stopping is so gripping. You get Mr. Pogo and his knives. Hayabusa nearly had his mask ripped off. After the match, you can hear Terry Funk repeating, “I don’t need no f***ing stitches” and insults at Atsushi Onita.

    10.   Kristopher Haiden, Carrion Arcane, Frankie Fisher & Matt Andrews vs. WASP, Gregory James, Seph Annunaki & James Hawke, ladder match, MPX All on the Line- This match is unique as this is the only one I’ve ever seen live. It is also important that this was the day I met the guy now dating my sister-in-law (and the way these kids talk, he might be the brother-in-law before too long), so you know there are some emotional attachments this has for me. This is what I wrote about this the morning after:

    “What can you say about this match? I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen a better match than this live. All ten guys gave everything live. I always praise this company for the little things. The wrestlers came out of the dressing room to watch. It reminded me a lot of old ECW when the boys all used to watch from the aisle. The only negative is that at the beginning of the fight, there was too much action going on.

    “I counted the number of “Holy s***” moments for me. I had 9. There were a few that happened on the other side from where I was sitting, so I think there were a few more. At one point, we had dueling Van Terminators with ladders. There was a different spot where the two Kyles were climbing up the ladder at the same time, made it to the top and both threw baby powder at each other. It was awesome. We had Gregory James do the lucha libre plancha spot onto the 5 or 6 guys. He also did a conchairto on top of the ladder to Frankie Fisher. Haiden was already bleeding and took an insane bump onto two tables. Being that we know him outside of the business, it was difficult for my wife and some other people who knew him. It’s one thing to watch the Dudleys on Monday Night Raw back in the day; it’s another thing to watch our friend go through the tables. All I know is that my buddy took a table bump that would have made Sabu smile in approval.

    “There are very few things in this business that surprise me still. I will admit I got worked when Bryan Danielson was the 7th member of Team WWE. That’s probably the last time somebody worked me that I never saw coming. Matt Andrews took the belt and the briefcase. He asked for the mic and thanked Genesis for getting him to where he was, but now that he was the champion, he was done with them. He fired all of them, climbed down the ladder, threw the briefcase on Seph and said, ‘I don’t care about this. You can have it.’

    “What an insane, breath-taking main event. I guess one of the best compliments we can give the night is that my sister-in-law took her new boyfriend to wrestling for the first time last night. On the way home, he asked, ‘Do they do that all the time?’ I’ve said my peace about everything else that night. Great main event made for a great night.”

    11.   El Hijo del Santo & Octagon-Art Barr & Eddie Guerrero, Mask vs. Hair, WCW When Worlds Collide-I’m a total El Santo mark, so the importance of El Santo, El Hijo del Santo and his mask are so important to me. There was no greater heel faction in Mexico than the Gringos Locos (Barr, Guerrero, Konnan & Louie Spicolli). Oh, yeah, and Octagon is one of those guys I ALWAYS mark out for. There was such intensity in that match. And Eddie lost his mullet.

    12.   Ice Train-Scott Norton, Some episode of WCW Worldwide (I think)-Again, this is no Ring of Honor 5-star match. Nobody else probably remembers this match, but I do. The story of it was so awesome. Scott Norton & Ice Train were very similar wrestlers, and they mirrored each other. They couldn’t beat the other. Since both were on the same level on the card, you had no idea who was going to win. It even went to a time limit draw, and thus was born the tag team of Fire & Ice.

    13.   Chris Benoit-Dean Malenko, WCW Hog Wild ’96-Again, if you are offended by me using Chris Benoit’s name, I apologize. Benoit and Malenko had such an amazing chemistry. They were awesome together in the ring. First the match went 15 minutes. Then it was given 5 more minutes. Then it was given 5 more minutes. Finally Nancy “Woman” Benoit interfered and won the match for Benoit.

    14.   Undertaker-Mankind, Hell in a Cell, King of the Ring ‘98-I know. No points for originality. This is very well-documented. And if you’ve never read his account of it, read “Have a Nice Day” by Mick Foley. There were two major bumps: first was where Mick was thrown onto the table. That was planned. The second one was when the Undertaker choke-slammed Foley and the cage gave way and Foley fell to the ring. And then the chair fell on top of him. The amount of punishment that Foley took was insane.

    15.   Tommy Dreamer-Brian Lee, ECW Scaffold match-The Tommy Dreamer-Raven feud could not have been any hotter. With respect to Sabu-Taz, it was quite possibly ECW’s biggest feud. Brian Lee was part of Raven’s group in ECW and had made it his goal to end Tommy Dreamer’s career. There was a rickety scaffold built over a ring piled up in tables 3-deep. There was so much drama over who was going to be the first to fall. And Brian Lee went through the tables in an incredible moment.

    So, just in case Stone Cold ever asks me, I have it all written down. What are your favorites?

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  5. WrestleMania X-Seven

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    Our Celebration of Professional Wrestling continues!

    This weekend is very special for Professional Wrestling.  See, friends, we’re approaching a very special WrestleMania.  What makes this one so special, you ask?  Well, on its own merit, it’s a fantastically-booked card, one of the best WrestleManias, on paper, in YEARS.  A decade, in fact.  A decade since WrestleMania X-Seven, the closest rival WrestleMania III has had to date, for the crown of “Best WrestleMania of all time.”  A decade since WrestleMania X-Seven, the Last Hurrah of the Attitude Era, and the last great wrestling boom.

    The following comes to us courtesy of Al Creed from Wonderpod-Online.com AND The Cultural Revolution

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  6. Top 5 Wrestlemania Moments

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    Ahhhhhhh Wrestlemania. The very name conjures up countless images which have both thrilled and entertained millions upon millions of people, never failing to lose its appeal in almost 30 years. It’s actually scary for yours truly to think that the very fist ‘Mania I can recall was way, way back in 1990 – when the “Immortal” Hulk Hogan was set to square off with the lunacy that was The Ultimate Warrior. Title for title, muscle-bound behemoth versus muscle-bound behemoth. It’s surely an iconic moment in the history of World Wrestling Entertainment and serves as a welcome reminder of just how much excitement Wrestlemania can cause.

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  7. The Great Defense of Snooki

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    Yeah, that’s right. While everybody else is claiming the end of the wrestling world as we know it, I’m going to point out why it may not be.  While everybody is calling for the Apocalypse, it just may not be.

    I must begin this with a confession. I like Jersey Shore. [pausing for the jokes about losing my man card] It is an entertaining show. Yeah, make all your jokes, shout your snide remarks and giggle endlessly at my expense. But I’m not alone. Jersey Shore’s rating this past week was 4.7. Jersey Shore was the highest-rated show on Cable. Yes, that is better than WWE’s both hours of Raw. We won’t be seeing that during the “Did You Know…” graphic this week. Right now, Jersey Shore is one of the hottest topics you will find on television. If it was more sought after, it would be winning on Adonis DNA and tiger blood.

    And no figure on Jersey Shore is more iconic than Snooki. Towering over none at 4’9″, she is a bubbly, charismatic, polarizing figure. You wanna get a group of people going? Bring up the subject of Snooki, and ask people what they think of her. Regardless of what this says about our society, Snooki is one of the hottest commodities on television today.

    Yes, the wrestling world has had plenty of celebrity appearances go bad: RoboCop, the cast of Jackass, Pacman Jones. But there have been some really successful ones: The War to Settle the Score, Lawrence Taylor-Bam Bam Bigelow, Mike Tyson & that encounter with Stone Cold (How many times did we see that on ESPN?). Wrestlemania was built around the appearance of Mr. T, who was one of the hottest commodities of his time.

    So here is an opportunity to get an actual star from Jersey Shore (and not some joke who hasn’t lasted either season and is now doing TNA) and capitalize on her star power. This CAN work. They will most likely have a broader audience than usual, because there will be some people who will tune in to see Snooki. As much of an indictment that is on our culture, it’ll create some buzz. When the people tune in, the key is to get them a reason to watch again.

    WWE, this part is for you. You might have people who have never tuned in before. You need to make sure you give an exciting product that makes people tune in again. Also, your biggest show of the year is a matter of weeks away. Make sure you find a way to pimp out Wrestlemania like it’s never been pimped before. Also, I know that you’ve always been a sucker for your “Sportscenter” moment. Make sure you parlay this into an effort to sell the biggest show of the year.

    With this in the right hands, this just might work.

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  8. Random Randomness

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    What’s kiddies and non kiddies and welcome to another edition ot the criticially acclaimed and contraversial Abraham Washington Show Random Randomness hosted be none other than well me.  Well then without further holdup, lets get this show on the road will ya: (more…)