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Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WCW Starrcade ’96

Starrcade1996

WCW Starrcade ‘96
December 29, 1996
Nashville, TN

Background: The Wrestlemania of WCW: Starrcade.

WCW was absolutely rolling. The nWo angle was perhaps the hottest thing in wrestling ever. WCW was kicking the WWF’s ass in pretty much every way. And WCW looked to continue that trend with Starrcade, putting in the main event slot a huge main event of WCW World Champion Hollywood Hogan vs. Roddy Piper. The WCW style was always awesome in-ring action at the top of the show, star power later. And it worked for a while.

You really see all the pieces come together for this one. Temporary international stars such as Jushin Lyger. The international WCW Cruiserweights such as Ultimo Dragon and Rey Mysterio Jr. The workhorses from ECW in Dean Malenko, Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit. Midcard WWF guys like Jeff Jarrett. And of course, the top guys. The Hogan, Nash, Hall, Luger, Giant tier. Amazingly WCW was missing a lot of guys for this one too (No Steiners, no Harlem Heat, no Jericho).

So let’s see how the granddaddy of them all came together in 1996.

The Card

A lot of the hype for the main event (“the match of the decade”) is that Hogan never beat Piper (why did no one care here about that build-up but everyone shit on when the Warrior used that logic 2 years later). They must be just counting pinfalls, since Hogan beat Piper by DQ at the Wrestling Classic.

J-Crown Championship vs. Cruiserweight Championship
Ultimo Dragon (J-Crown) vs. Dean Malenko (Cruiser)

Japan vs. America I

The J-Crown is like 8 belts. Ultimo Dragon looked bad ass with them.

Great hold for hold wrestling early on….makes sense since these two were both top 10 in the world as technical wrestlers at this point.

Crowd solidly behind Malenko. Dragon was still a heel here.

Funny announcer quarrel about a half-crab. I love it when Dusty and The Brian get on Schiavone.

Nice STF/Crossface. It’s practically the opposite of John Cena’s STF in terms of how bad ass it looks.

Dragon with the backflip fakeout to Suicide Dive. I love that spot. Shame no one understood it in Dragon’s WWE 2003 run. I blame the 619.
Really enjoying this one. Match is slowly building the pace.

Admittedly a little too much with the leg grapevine here. Kinda killed the crowd.

Great series of reversals lead to a Malenko powerslam! Crowd popped for that.

Tombstone from Malenko! Nice false finish!

Ultimo Dragon pinned Dean Malenko to unify the titles in 18:30. Match gets really hot with big moves and reversals. A great sequence ends with Dragon hitting a trap Dragon suplex for the win. Gave this 18 minutes and other than the slow part in the middle, this was really good. Great way to start Starrcade. Also it is worth noting that Malenko was really over.

WCW Women’s Championship
Akira Hokuto vs. Madusa

Hokuto is wearing a gas mask?

Vacant title. Is this a tournament final? I have no idea. I don’t even remember a WCW Women’s Title.

Lee Marshall is brought in as an expert on Women’s wrestling. Sure…

USA vs. Japan II

Hokuto busts out a Scorpion Deathlock. Odd finish steal there.

Horrific floatover DDT from Madusa.

Weird Tornado DDT from Madusa where Madusa landed on her feet first. No idea if that was intentional.

Botched counter to a powerbomb…if it even was supposed to be countered. This match sucks.

Akira Hokuto wins the title by pin in 7:06. Sonny Oono attacks Madusa with the American Flag…then Hokuto hits a sloppy brainbuster for the win. A lot of blown spots. Bad match. The title wouldn’t last either. And the Brian points out Japan 2, USA 0. Tough way to start with two heels winning.

Piper with an insane promo. Sky Low Low and Jurassic Park made this promo. He goes on about Icons. Then we get into instruments. This is nuts. Roseanne Barr makes the promo too.

Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Jushin Liger

Japan vs. USA III.

This is a dream match I believe.

Handshake. Liger really isn’t a heel like Dragon and Hokuto.

This is a weird match that Liger just dominates.

Jushin Liger pins Rey Mysterio in 14:16. Liger Bomb kills Mysterio’s comeback. Apparently this is a Japanese style, but it kinda killed the crowd. Rey basically got squashed. Dragon vs. Malenko was a lot better. This was okay I suppose, I mean it was wrestled well at least.

No DQ
Jeff Jarrett vs. Chris Benoit

This spawned from Jarrett kinda being in the Horsemen but not really.

I think Jarrett is supposed to be the face and Benoit the heel…but it surely isn’t working out that way crowd wise.

Not really a lot happening. A lot of punching and kicking. I wonder if Benoit isn’t doing tech stuff because it’s a no DQ match.

Schiavone makes it a point that Benoit doesn’t get DQed for throwing Jarrett over the top rope. That stupid rule was still in place?

Arn Anderson walked by Benoit. Does that mean he’s pro Jarrett in the Horsemen?

Big pop for Double A though.

Dungeon of Doom out here. No idea what’s going on.

Jeff Jarrett pinned Chris Benoit in 13:48. Anderson DDTs Jarrett…and Kevin Sullivan smashes a wooden chair over Benoit’s head! When Double A tosses Jarrett back into the ring, Jarrett’s hand ends up on Benoit for the pin. I actually that finish is a little creative, but the booking and people involved was all over the place. Match was pretty lame as well. Nothing happened. Strange.

Mongo is out here to talk Horsemen or something. The Horsemen are unstable. Flair’s not even around anyway. Debra talks too. I don’t care.

We get some insight into Sting, who just turned crow. No idea who’s side he’s actually on at this point.

WCW World Tag Team Championship
The Outsiders© vs. The Faces of Fear

The Faces of Fear? Seriously?

Nick Patrick is the referee. I’m sure that note will have no effect on this match whatsoever.

So who do we cheer for here? The Outsiders?

Meng and Hall with a solid start. Good physicality.

Nash seems motivated here. Weird match to be motivated for though.

Now we’re getting some slow Nick Patrick stuff.

Weird legal man stuff. Meng was on the apron despite being the legal man. I’m sure that’s been broken tons of times.

Syxx is out here. Takes Jimmy Hart’s megaphone then leaves chasing Hart.

The Outsiders win when Nash pins Barbarian in 11:52. Jackknife for the win. Match made no booking sense. Outsiders were the faces for some reason…but had a crooked referee in their pocket. WCW announcers were rooting for the Faces of Fear. I would say wrestling wise this was a lot better than it had any right to be. Probably because it had a lot of Scott Hall, who was still trying at that point.

Dibiase and Hogan promo. Just running down Piper here. Hogan doesn’t understand time zones though. Hogan mentions that the belt stays with the nWo. That’s important here.

WCW US Championship Title Tournament Final
Diamond Dallas Page vs. Eddy Guerrero

Some story here…the nWo had been interfering and helping DDP win matches to get him to join. Nothing to do with Guerrero.

It’s a bit weird to see DDP has a cocky heel and Guerrero as an underdog face in WCW.

It’s also weird to see Eddy Guerrero dominating DDP in a WCW match. They were at two totally different levels 12 months later.

Pretty solid back and forth match here.

I do think DDP and Eddy’s styles don’t really click though. I assume solid back and forth is the best you’d get here.

nWo is out here. Hall though hits Page with the Outsider’s Edge!

Eddie Guerrero wins the title and pins DDP in 15:20. Eddie hits the Frog Splash after the Outsider’s Edge for the win. nWo beats up Eddy too, although he put up a good fight. Guerrero wrote in his book that he hated this finish as it looked like the nWo beat Page and not Guerrero…and he was 100% right about it. Match was fine.

The Giant vs. Lex Luger

Giant is nWo here…which I didn’t think made too much sense. Luger is now the face of WCW as Sting is off brooding and Piper is really Piper and not WCW.

Really long lock-up to start, then punches and kicks everywhere.

Luger brought his selling ability with him tonight. Which against the Giant, he should.

I think it’s crazy how the Giant used to just throw dropkicks like it was nothing.

Funniest ref bump I ever saw with Giant powering out of a pin and Luger landing on the ref.

Nick Patrick interferes and kicks Luger’s leg when he had the rack! He’s nWo!

Sting is here. But who’s side is he on?

Syxx ruins another rack attempt.

Sting drops a bat in the ring and tells both Luger and the Giant something, presumably that there is a bat in the ring.

Lex Luger pins the Giant in 13:23. Luger gains control of the bat and beats the crap out of the Giant. Pin afterwards. Huge pop. This was WCW’s first win over the nWo…which storyline wise is fine…but it’s interesting of all people the Giant was the first nWo member to lose. Match could have been A LOT worse. Pretty solid considering who was involved. Giant looks angered as the announcer’s say the nWo left Giant high and dry.

Hollywood Hogan vs. Roddy Piper

Story matters here, because it’s a huge problem with the match. Piper showed up when Hogan beat Savage at Halloween Havoc. This led to the Eric Bischoff in the nWo reveal. In the match build, remember that Roddy Piper got to choose the terms of the match. Because he for some reason chose a NON-TITLE match. And WCW is hiding that by the way. Hogna mentioned the title earlier. The crowd thinks this is for the title.

Crowd is really hot for this. As they should be.

Hogan sells a lot for Piper. Match is very punchy-kicky of course. Not much else these two can do at this point.

Really punch-kick-punch-kick. I mean, I guess this match wasn’t done for workrate reasons.

Piper comeback…and the Giant is here!

Ref clearly sees the Giant there, come on.

Random fan in the ring!

Piper somehow kicks Hogan while up for the chokeslam, then knocks Giant over the top.

Roddy Piper beats Hollywood Hogan via sleeper in 15:27. Crowd erupts. And Piper doesn’t win the title. Because it’s non-title. Bizarre. Match sucked as well. Post match has Hogan and Giant arguing, and Hogan blames Giant for dropping the ball. Hogan the celebrates with the title. Um..he lost the match?

Pretty disappointing Starrcade all things considered. It gets some extra credit for DDP and Sting developments, but loses a little for the non-title main event and general horribleness of the main event. Dragon vs. Malenko was great and Eddy vs. Page was solid, but everything ranged from disappointing to meh. Benoit vs. Jarrett and Faces of Fear vs. Outsiders were just flat out confusing.

I’d say Dragon vs. Malenko alone had it in C+ territory, but the overbooked nWo stuff hurts the second half of the show. nWo interfered in the last three matches…is one clean finish too much to ask? I mean, this is supposed to be the big show of the year, right?

Final Grade: C

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WCW Fall Brawl ’96

wcwfallbrawl1996

WCW Fall Brawl ‘96
September 15, 1996
Winston-Salem, NC
Reviewed on September 7, 2014

WCW is getting its ass kicked.

Not by Vince. Oh no, at this point WCW had left Vince and the WWF in the dust ratings wise. They were about 10 weeks into their eventual 84 week streak.

It’s because they were getting their ass kicked by the NWO.

For two months the NWO had been destroying WCW in one of, if not the best, angle in North American pro wrestling at that point. Hollywood Hogan, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall were the most destructive group in wrestling and had beaten up WCW at pretty much every turn. Ted Dibiase joined them shortly afterwards, and then The Giant followed.

On paper the Giant joining was brilliant. It showed that any top guy would join the NWO, and it helped plant the seed that Sting could join. The Giant had no previous ties to the WWF, unlike Hall, Nash, Hogan and Dibiase. Of course, the Giant in the NWO didn’t quite work out and they used him to be that “first loss” at Starrcade, and then he left and re-joined WCW. If they kept the NWO as a group that only allowed top members and no one would want to leave it would have been great, but Giant leaving showed that it wasn’t the end-all be-all to join.

Still, the major angle, is Sting joining the NWO? Him doing so could kill WCW dead! He attacked Luger afterall! (Not really).

The only way to decide this war? WAR GAMES!

The Card

We get a pretty awesome overview if the dominance of the NWO over the past few weeks.

Bobby Heenan points out that War Games was created for the Four Horsemen and is confident the NWO will be wrestling their last match tonight. It’s pretty awesome that WCW felt this was the big comeuppance for the NWO. I’ll explain why later.

Diamond Dallas Page vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.

You know, for all that WCW didn’t create new stars bs, what do you call DDP?

It’s hard to see Chavo go toe to toe with DDP, knowing where both would go in a couple years.

Pretty good start. It’s weird that Chavo was a better worker when he started than he was later.

Weird timing spot which was impressive as Chavo actually delayed standing on the top rope (not corner). Still technically a botch again.

DDP tosses Chavo from one ring to the other. I love spots like that.

Semi-botched sidewalk slam. Ah well, it was good enough.

Incredible spinning gutwrench powerbomb from Page. Wow. (Ok, the landing was a bit off but still looked great.)

Diamond Dallas Page wins by pin in 13:07. Page goes for the Diamond Cutter, but Chavo reverses into a backslide. Page blocks the backslide by stomping on Chavo’s foot, and gets the Cutter for the win. Big reaction too. Pretty awesome opener and a great start to the show.

WCW SPECIAL REPORT. Goes over the NWO angle at this point. Which is pretty incredible at this point.

Submission Match
Scott Norton vs. Ice Train

Watching the first Nitro, it’s interesting what a big deal Norton was…and where he is at this point.

The story here I think is the Fire and Ice team breaking up.

Ice Train is managed by Teddy Long! Holla Holla!

Not a bad start though. Standing frog splash from Train was nice.

This seems more like an “I Quit” Match as the ref has a microphone.

Ice Train makes Scott Norton submit in 7:08. Scott Norton has Train trapped in an armbar, but Teddy Long tried to interfere. Norton takes care of him but gets trapped in a Full Nelson and he taps out (so much for the microphone?). Not horrible or anything, there was solid power stuff in here.

AAA World Championship
Konnan© vs. Juventud Guerrera

They call it the Mexican Heavyweight Title, but my research (read: wiki) says the AAA title.

No one knows who Juvi is at this point. Konnan is known as he joined the Dungeon of Doom. He was also the US Champ for a while. He is in his gangsta look he would have for basically the rest of his career.

Yellow is not a good color for Juvi.

Pretty sweet release German suplex where Juvi flips over.

Konnan sends Juvi flying!

Konnan just stands that as Juvi does this triple jump spin kick (two leapds on the 2nd ring, then one from the 1st). Weird that Konna just stood there.

Great aerial stuff early on.

Nice powerbomb on the floor!

Mike Tenay says Juvi gives up 50 pounds of weight. Konnan is not 215, and Juvi was listed as 165.

Pretty badly botched headscissor-like move from one ring to the other.

Juvi makes up for it with more crazy flying.

Backdrop over the top rope and Juvi ends up hanging on the other rope! Nice!

Bad moonsault. Konnan seems to take exception and powerbombs Juvi. Pretty sick.

Damn rolling Germans from Konnan. I actually thought Benoit invented that.

Odd rest spot where Juvi just walks arounf and Konnan talks to Jimmy Hart.

Pointless backflip from Juvi? Leads to him getting dropkicked by Konnan.

I know I trash Konnan a lot, but this is the best Konnan match I’ve ever seen and it’s in spite of Juvi, not because of him.

450 is even slightly off, and doesn’t finish anyway.

Konnan busts out a Muscle Buster…but that doesn’t finish. Juvi might have missed some spots, but he’s taking moves like a champ.

Konnan pinned Juvi in 13:45. Splash Mountain Bomb! Nicely done and it’s over. Very good match only hampered by Juvi missing some spots and some weird spots in general (like Juvi’s backflip). Everything else owns though. Best Konnan match I’ve ever seen.

Chris Jericho vs. Chris Benoit

Jericho’s awful 1st theme!

Jericho had just debuted. The story here is simple: two guys just looking to have a great match.

Benoit is super over here.

Tony says he expected Mongo instead of Benoit here. Thank goodness it’s Benoit.

Benoit puts Jericho in the Lion Tamer! I wonder if Jericho was using it at this point.

Jericho looks great early on against Benoit.

Jericho with a crazy springboard back elbow to the outside from Jericho!

I believe this is the match where booker Kevin Sullivan said he wanted Benoit to have 90% of this match. Then Benoit and Jericho just did it 50-50 anyway.

Nice back jumpkick from Jericho.

Backsuplex to the outside with a twist! Some crazy ideas here.

Pretty perfect Swan Dive from Benoit. I like it better than his Diving Headbutt (the difference is how they land, although surely they’ve been called differently each time).

Jericho Tombstones Benoit!

Chris Benoit pins Chris Jericho in 14:36. Back Superplex for the win! Great match! Jericho looked like a star here and surely WCW will capitalize on someone who looked like the next Shawn Michaels here! (lol…at the push part). Great match though. A great back and forth contest.

WCW Cruiserweight Championship
Rey Mysterio Jr.(c) vs. Super Calo

I was once told that Super Calo was named that way as shorthand for supercalifr-whatever. Bobby Heenan then makes that joke immediately.

Super Calo is like a power cruiserweight, if that makes sense. I liked that roll through on the slam.

Mike Tenay says Super Calo is named after a Mexican rap group. Thank goodness.

Nice missile dropkick off the top to the outside by Calo!

Ridiculous somersault senton from the inside out from Calo!

Really surprising that Super Calo has been on the offensive basically the whole match.

Funny botch where Super Calo doesn’t go over the top rope…but Rey tries his damnest to get him over. The ref helps!

Rey Mysterio with the greatest hurricanrana off the apron I’ve ever seen in my life. I can’t explain it. It was nuts.

Rey Mysterio Jr. retains by pin in 15:47. Double springboard hurricanrana finish for the win! Another great match…but it had ONE flaw, which was NO one was buying Calo winning this thing. As a result, it felt pretty long. Oddly Calo had 80% of the offense too. Still great though.

WCW World Tag Team Championship
Harlem Heat© vs. The Nasty Boys

I expect the match quality to drop quite a bit here…

How great was Sherri Martel? She could play so many roles.

Kinda surprised the Nasties never had a random ECW run.

CLUBBERIN! How can someone be the master of CLUBBERIN?

Match is pretty boring. Only excitement so far was Sags chasing Sherri.

That might have been the worst looking roll up by Sags ever.

Nice piledriver from Sags!

Harlem Heat retain when Booker T pins Knobbs in 15:31. Sherri whacks Knobbs with a cane and that’s that. WAY too long. Match was pretty horrid and only big spots were involving Sherri. Fans reacted though, so there is that.

We get a Savage interview! One of the best of all time for sure.

The Giant vs. Randy Savage

Giant joined the NWO, Savage is still a defender of WCW here.

Giant still has the creepy music he had before…then it turns into the NWO theme.

Giant had the potential to beat Nash’s sidewalk slam…but opted for a weak backbreaker sadly.

Boston Crab from the Giant just seems like an odd visual.

Savage slams the Giant! That would lose its luster years later as everyone slammed him.

The Giant pins Randy Savage in 7:47. Savage drops the big elbow, but Hogan is out here! He goads Savage to the entrance and the Outsiders beat Savage up with a chair. Giant distracts Nick Patrick, and then gets the win when the NWO rolls him back into the ring. Pretty bad all around. It was just 7 minutes of the Giant beating up Savage and a terrible finish.

War Games
WCW vs. NWO

The story here is simple: the NWO is here to take over WCW. This is another battle in the war…but it’s a big one as War Games is one of WCW’s primer match types.

Also, Mike Tenay asks Ric Flair which Horseman has replaced Sting in the match, but Flair doesn’t answer the question. All three of them, Luger, Anderson and Flair, are acting like Sting joined the NWO on Nitro. Sting then shows up and says it wasn’t him. Luger doesn’t believe him. This is all fantastic.

Rules are simple. There was a pre-match coin toss (usually always won by the heels, as it was here). Two men start, one from each team. The team that won the coin toss gets to bring man #2 first, then so on and do forth. When all 8 men are in, you can only win by knockout or submission (or as Michael Buffer says it, surrender or submission…)

We start with Scott Hall for the NWO and Double A for WCW.

Crowd is super hot for this. I think a lot of people thought WCW was winning this.

The announcer’s hype up the coin toss deal with a minute left. Sadly…they find out the NWO has won. Kevin Nash is next.

Outsiders beat the crap out of Double A for the next couple minutes.

Lex Luger shows up early to even the odds. I wonder how that’s legal? Anyway Luger regains control for WCW.

Here comes Hogan! NWO has the advantage once again.

Crowd goes bonkers when Double A and Luger beat up Hogan, but the Outsiders end that.

Huge “We want Flair” chants…so here he comes! HUGE reaction.

Hogan vs. Flair faceoff! When Flair gets a punch in the crowd roars!

Brass knucks for Flair! Flair has taken over!

WCW is owning…but then Sting shows up for the NWO…and everyone is dismayed. Some boos there. Some people definitely bought it.

We get some “We Want Sting” chants. And there are some who definitely knew the real deal here.

The NWO wastes away Flair, Luger and Anderson…but here comes the REAL Sting!

Sting destroys EVERYONE! Stinger Splashes everywhere!

“Is that good enough for you? Is that proof enough?” Genius. Sting walks out on WCW, and WCW doesn’t last long.

NWO wins when NWO Sting and Hogan make Luger submit in 18:15. A Scorpion Deathlock and a Front Headlock get it done. While not the best War Games from a match quality perspective (not a drop of blood!), it told a tremendous story and set the wheels in motion for the red hot Sting story arc for the next 15 months. This showed that only Sting could deal with the NWO, no one else. Brilliant. This is the main reason why WCW made bucket loads of money the next two years.

NWO and WCW go at it a big, and Savage tries to help, but the Giant takes him out. The PPV ends with another big NWO beat down. They even spray paint Miss Elizabeth when she comes out to help Savage…which is a nice touch. We get a Hogan promo too to hype up the Hogan-Savage Halloween Havoc match.

Overall, a great show! The only thing that was bad was the tag title match and Giant vs. Savage. Everything else ranged from decent (the submission match) to pretty good to great. Great matches, good wrestling, and a really well done storyline with WCW not trusting Sting. Historically, it was a huge moment that helped carry WCW through 1997 as the #1 promotion in the US over the WWF.

This PPV tore the hearts out of WCW fans. The Four Horsemen and WCW lost War Games? Sting left us? What will we do?

Just brilliant.

Final Grade: A

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WCW Starrcade ’95

Starrcade95

WCW Starrcade ‘95
December 27, 1995
Nashville, TN
Reviewed on April 27, 2014

Background: There’s little point in going over the background of WCW 1995 leading up to this event. While yes, WCW was coming on strong with Nitro doing well against RAW earlier on, and Hulk Hogan had given them the national recognition they were looking for (the short term gain that eventually turned into a huge long term loss) none of that really matters for Starrcade 1995.

How does that make sense? Because Starrcade 1995 is a war between New Japan and WCW.

You’ve gotta give Eric Bischoff credit. He did everything he could to make WCW different that the WWF and it couldn’t be more evident here. The New Japan vs. WCW war was a really cool idea that actually serves as the prototype for the nWo later in 1996.

Here’s what you need to know: Seven New Japan vs. WCW matches, best of seven. Winner gets a big Cup.

The Card

World Cup of Wrestling Match 1
Chris Benoit (WCW) vs. Jushin Liger (New Japan)

I’m hyped for this.

Benoit was just named as a Horseman.

I like Liger’s rolling spinning heel kick.

Surfboard from Liger. One of my favorite holds.

Crowd randomly erupts on a Benoit superplex. Not sure why the crowd went crazy there.

Jushin Liger pins Chris Benoit in 10:29. Kevin Sullivan provides a distraction, and Liger gets a botches hurricanrana for the three. Good match, although it was getting really good right as it ended. I guess considering who was involved it could be considered disappointing. 1-0 New Japan.

Mean Gene with Eddy Guerrero. Talking about the Benoit-Liger match. This is bland face Eddy.

World Cup of Wrestling Match 2
Alex Wright (WCW) vs. Koji Kanemoto (New Japan)

I guess WCW didn’t want to bring out their best seven. I mean, how else does Alex Wright get a spot?

We get a USA chant. You know Alex Wright is German.

It’s kinda clear early on that Wright isn’t in Kanemoto’s league.

Nice kick combo with a spin kick from Kanemoto.

Definitely a botch there with Alex Wright running from an over the top bodypress…which Kanemoto just hit where Wright stopped running.

Nice moonsault from Kanemoto.

That dropkick that not hit as Kanemoto came off the top.

Koji Kanemoto pinned Alex Wright in 11:44. Jackknife pin for the win. Alex Wright was still pretty raw here and it showed. Not a bad match though, pretty decent. New Japan leads 2-0.

WCW HOTLINE!

World Cup of Wrestling Match 3
Lex Luger (WCW) vs. Masahiro Chono (New Japan)

Luger’s a heel here…but people are cheering him I guess because WCW is down 2-0. Which is smart match placement to be fair.

What a boring match. Chono and Luger skipped the importance of selling somewhere in their career.

That’s not fair I guess. Luger looks like he’s trying at least.

Ha, the famous Dusty and Heenan getting on Schiavone about the Mafia Kick call. Great stuff.

Lex Luger makes Masahiro Chono submit in 6:41. Torture Rack for the win. Commentary owned. Match did not. A whole lot of nothing happens with Chono and Luger selectively selling movies. 2-1 New Japan.

Sting interview. Okerlund brings up that Kensuke Sasaki beat Sting for the US Title a few months ago, which Sting hilariously responds too. They also talk about the Triangle Match later for the World Title shot.

World Cup of Wrestling Match 4
Johnny B. Badd (WCW) vs. Masa Saito (New Japan)

Sonny Oono trashes Kimberly, which ends with him telling Badd to control his woman because we (the Japanese) do. Good heel stuff, I laughed.

I think it’s interesting that two Johnny B. Badd valets in a row did Playboy. Kimberly here, and Sable later.

Johnny B. Badd wins by DQ in 5:52. Saito tosses Badd over the top rope to get the DQ. Pretty much a waste of time. A lot of choking and chopping…then of course a finish with the dumbest rule in pro wrestling. Series tied at 2.

Luger interview. More hype on the Triangle Match.

World Cup of Wrestling Match 5
Eddy Guerrero (WCW) vs. Shinjiro Otani (New Japan)

Really cool variation of the monkey flip from Otani.

Really nice fold up powerbomb from Eddy on Otani.

Awesome height on the springboard dropkick from Otani!

Sick German from Otani.

Eddy busts out the Flying Edge into a Sitout, which is really nice.

Springboard corkscrew press from the top from Eddy to the outside! Nice!

Shinjiro Otani pinned Eddy Guerrero in 13:43. Some crazy pinning combinations lead to Otani holding Eddy down for one. You don’t see that finish a lot, and I liked it. Really good match that was a bit slow at the beginning, but picked up perfectly. 3-2 New Japan.

Savage interview. TO INFINITY AND BEYOND!

World Cup of Wrestling Match 6
Randy Savage (WCW) vs. Tensan (New Japan)

Savage is the Champ. Probably one of the more obvious results you’ll ever see here.

Randy Savage pins Tensan in 6:55. Savage seemingly botches a suplex or some attempt of one into the ring…then hits the elbow off the top for the win. Finish came out of nowhere and I think was Savage’s only offense. Just a boring 7 minutes of Tensan beating up Savage before the quick comeback. Bad match. Anyway, we are tied at 3!

I think Bobby Heenan is drunk.

Ric Flair interview. Weird that he’s not part of the WCW team here…but Alex Wright is?

World Cup of Wrestling Match 7
Sting (WCW) vs. Kensuke Sasaki (New Japan)

There is some history here. Sasuke is the US Champ…and he beat Sting for it.

Sting makes Sasaki submit in 6:52. Scorpion for the win. Had the exact same formula as the last match, which is pretty lame. Crowd popped huge for the Scorpion. WCW wins 4-3.

Triangle Match: Winner gets a WCW World Championship Match
Sting vs. Lex Luger vs. Ric Flair

Interesting dynamic in this match as only two are in the ring, and someone will be on the apron and needs to be tagged in or out.

Not nearly sure on this, but this has to be one of the first type of three way matches on a national stage. I know WWF didn’t have one until 1996.

We start with Sting and Flair.

Typical good Sting vs. Flair stuff. This is probably going to be three matches in one, which I am fine with.

Flair shoves Sting into the corner and Luger gets tagged in. Interesting that we get 1991 face Luger here.

Flair works on the leg, of course.

Flair always got the best matches out of Luger. Kinda similar to Bret Hart and the British Bulldog.

Flair tags in Sting and I like the logic, forcing “best friends” Luger and Sting to go at it.

Ric Flair wins by countout in 28:03. Flair sends Luger and Sting to the outside when they were the legal men…and gets the countout win when Luger “inadvertently” pulls Sting back outside. Finish furthered the story at least. The match is pretty good though, as it’s basically three one on one matches. Very well done. I really like the tag dynamic for the three way for whatever reason.

WCW World Championship
Randy Savage© vs. Ric Flair

Ric Flair vs. Randy Savage: The only match to be a world title match on Wrestlemania and Starrcade.

There’s a Jimmy Hart dynamic here too. He hates the Horsemen. He was aligned with Luger, but when Flair won he came to ringside. So I guess he’s just gold digging and will align himself with the Horsemen if needed. Fine I guess, lol.

Flair had to be the best heel in the business at this point. He’s just cheating everywhere and it’s awesome.

Chaos begins with Jimmy Hart tossing the megaphone in…but Savage gets control and hits him with it…and Flair is bleeding everywhere!

Ric Flair wins the title by pin in 8:41. The Horsemen show up and cause all kinds of problems. Arn Anderson nails Savage with brass knuckles and Flair gets the pin. Crowd pops huge for the pin, showing that WCW is still Flair country even if he’s a heel. Not a bad match, even though Flair himself hated the finish (“I didn’t win the title, they won the title”), but I thought the finish was okay, although disappointingly not clean. Match was decent. A little short.

Starrcade 1995 is a strange show. Let’s break it up in parts.

The concept: The USA vs. Japan War seems out of place. I get WCW was trying to maximize their agreement with New Japan, I just don’t think this concept works in 1995. It doesn’t help that we don’t get the best Japanese guys either. No Great Muta? The WCW team is pretty random too. Why didn’t Flair wrestle in it but Alex Wright did? Was there really no one better than Alex Wright? Also, no surprise that Guerrero, Benoit and Wright all lost and Luger, Savage and Sting won (Badd won through BS). I think this idea works perhaps in the early 90s, but 1995 was pushing it. Starrcade only had 90k buys, which had to be disappointing. Of course, no Hogan was probably a factor there too.

But, you have to give WCW credit for trying something new. Especially since this idea was the prototype for the ultra popular nWo later. No point in shoving out the same old formula if you don’t have to.

The matches are hit or miss. Benoit-Liger, Guerrero-Otani, Triangle are hits. Tensan-Savage, Sasaki-Sting and Saito-Badd are misses. Main event was okay for what it was.

Unfortunately, this show has almost no historical value at all outside of the idea that this served as the prototype for the nWo. The Flair-Savage-Sting-Luger main event scene sounds awesome…but Hogan would overshadow them all in the coming months so it wouldn’t matter. And while Evil Japan still had a presence in WCW (Starrcade 96 even began that way), this invasion didn’t really lead to anything significant.

Mostly a well wrestled show, but the concept doesn’t work enough for me. Would have preferred a clean finish in the main event of the biggest PPV of the year too.

Final Grade: C+

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews NWA/WCW Halloween Havoc ’89

Halloween_Havoc_1989

WCW/NWA Halloween Havoc 1989
October 28, 1989
Philadelphia, PA

We are just past the Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat classics and into the Flair vs. Terry Funk feud. Flair and Funk had a title match at the Great American match which ended with a Flair victory…and an attack from The Great Muta.

It had been about five years since the birth of Hulkamania, and it seemed that the NWA was just fine being #2 with their “real wrasslin” as opposed to the mainstream kiddie WWF. I think looking at the men in the main event of this PPV: Flair, Muta, Funk (Stingtoo, but he doesn’t really fit what I am saying) showed that this was still an old school promotion. Really, until Jim Herd showed up that would be the case.

This was also the rare time that not only was Ric Flair a face, but he was on Sting’s side. A little odd considering they would be rivals shortly again.

This is the first Halloween Havoc.

The Card

Captain Mike Rotunda vs. Tom Zenk

No entrances for the first match.

I do feel like I’ve missed something not seeing a lot of Z-Man matches.

He’s also undefeated apparently. Rotunda is the TV Champ. Don’t think this is for the title.

Near the end of the match there is a pretty nice clothesline by Rotunda. Looked crisp.

Tom Zenk pins Mike Rotunda in 13:23. Zenk rolls through a flying bodypress. Pretty boring overall to be fair. I mean, I guess it would technically be classified as good, but I just didn’t get into it. Also looks like Rotunda kicked out in time.

Bruno Sammartino is being interviews. He is the referee in the main event…a Thunderdome Cage Match. Sammartino talks about the type of match and how dangerous it is. I’m sure they had Thundercage matches in the 60s and 70s.

The Samoan Swat Team (Samu, The Samoan Savage and Fatu) vs. The Midnight Express and Dr. Death

I had no idea there were Samoans in WCW.

That’s a really young Rikishi in there as well.

This match feels designed to put Dr. Death over.

The Samoans mess up crotching Eaton on the railing. Samu and Fatu especially seem green here.

Commentary is really making it seem like the Samoans are idiots. Shrug.

Crowd is HOT for Dr. Death.

Horrible botch with a neckbreaker attempt by Lane on the Savage.

The Samoans win when the Savage pins Lane in 18:23. Jim Cornette ends up getting knocked off the apron after he knocked Oliver Humperdink off the apron, and the Samoan Savage pinned Lane. Pretty sloppy from the Samoans…all of them. Fatu and Samu weren’t ready yet.

Gary Hart and Terry Funk interview. Funk looks in monster shape.

How come there are no entrances at all? I coulda swore Starrace ’88 had them (maybe I am misremembering).

The Cuban Assassin vs. Tommy Rich

Of course Rich has an entrance to make me seem stupid.

Rich is a former NWA World Champion, crazy as that sounds.

I think that’s a Tommy Rich sucks chant. Even in 1989, Philly fans were smart.

Opening sequence was horrid. Looked like a WWF 1989 preliminary match!

The Cuban just busted out the ugliest high knee I’ve ever seen.

Timmy Rich pins The Cuban Assassin in 8:29. Thesz Press for the win. Awful match. Fans booed it and Rich right out of the building. Just a bunch of armbars and ugly looking armdrags. Terrible all around.

NWA World Tag Team Championship
The Freebirds © vs. The Dynamic Dudes

The Dudes: Shane Douglas and Johnny Ace, are up there for worst major tag team of all time.

Philly boos the Dudes out of the building too. No surprise. At least Douglas would become Philly famous later.

Huge boos for the Dudes, including a You Suck chant for big Johnny. They are the faces. This is 1989 no less! I didn’t know this happened in 1989!

The Freebirds win when Garvin pins Douglas in 11:28. Wow. Weird slingshot double team leads to Garvin countering and landing on Douglas for the pin. Pop is MASSIVE. One of the biggest I’ve ever heard. Quite the spectacle there just for the crowd reaction. Another bad match though. Douglas wasn’t there yet and Ace never would be. Freebirds were never the best wrestlers either.

Steiners interview. Rick sounds different.

The Steiner Bros. vs. Doom

Doom is Ron Simmons and Butch Reed.

The story here is that a fan wanted to be with Rick Steiner, but he said no, and she got him back somehow by turning into Woman. Woman manages Doom. This is Doom’s debut.

Another boring match here…and it’s not a good boring either.

Rick Steiner almost breaks Reed’s neck with a powerslam. Wow on that one.

Doom wins when Reed (or Doom #2) pins Rick in 15:28. Woman loads Reed’s mask with something and a headbutt gets the upset win. Slow and not good.

NWA US Championship
Lex Luger© vs. Flyin’ Brian Pillman

Lex Luger and Brian Pillman sadly show the sad sides of pro wrestling.

Luger seems like an amazing heel here. And he can work.

Pretty fast paced so far.

Pillman has cheerleaders in the crowd. Seems distracting.

Man Luger is killing Pillman with these clotheslines! One to the back of the head was vicious!

I thought Luger screwed up…but it was actually a brilliant dodge of the top rope dropkick!

Lex Luger pinned Brian Pillman to retain in 16:49. Hotshot for the win after the missed dropkick. Well, this match saved what was a lackluster show so far. Luger sells for Pillman like a million bucks and still looks like a bad ass. What a great big man vs. little man match where both men just go at it full blast. What happened to this Lex Luger? Jeez. Great match. Philly loved Luger.

The Road Warriors vs. The Skyscrapers

Selling won’t be a major theme here.

Interestingly the Road Warriors are announced as the Legion of Doom…I thought that was only a WWE thing.

The Skyscrapers are Dan Spivey and Sid. Two WWF ’95 staples!

Man Spivey just takes an Animal clothesline and no sells. You heard that one.

Sid with a pretty awesome spinning helicopter bomb to Hawk. Why didn’t he keep that move?

The Road Warriors win by DQ in 11:39. LOD has it won, but Teddy Long gets involved and throws the golden key to Spivey to cause the DQ. Weak ending, but this was a bad ass power match. Technically I guess it wasn’t wrestled well, Sid especially misses some stuff, but it’s really a good power match overall.

Thunderdome Cage Match: Bruno Sammartino is the Special Referee
Ric Flair and Sting vs. The Great Muta and Terry Funk

The only way this ends is if Ole Anderson or Gary Hart throws in the towel for their teams. Eh.

There is something amazing about Terry Funk and The Great Muta as a tag team.

The cage is apparently electrified.

The top of the cage actually catches fire. Well damn. I don’t think that was supposed to happen.

Wow Muta Misted the fire! That alone owned.

For some reason this is being wrestled as a regular tag. Why? I have no idea, it’s supposed to be no DQ.

Why in WCW 2000 didn’t Russo just run Sting vs. Muta again instead of that talentless bum Vampiro?

Bruno being the ref just seems so out of place.

Muta gets shocked climbing high on the cage. Why climb at all? I don’t understand this logic. Commentary actually brings this up.

There’s a rope hanging for some Tarzan action…but it really doesn’t work.

Sting takes out Funk my leaping off the cage, which was cool.

Sting and Ric Flair win in 23:46. Flair locks Funk in the Figure Four and Sting splashes him off the top rope twice! (Ouch). Gary Hart still refuses to throw in the towel. Muta attacks Bruno, and Bruno decks him. Ole Anderson attacks Hart and the towel goes flying into the ring. The stipulations pretty much guaranteed a shit finish, so we got it. The cage gimmick is pretty disappointing overall. It was mostly used for some Tarzan stuff, and honestly the logic of anyone climbing the cage was stupid. The match was well wrestled…an old school no DQ Texas Tornado woulda been awesome between these four. If anything the cage probably hurt the match.

Pretty subpar PPV overall. Most of the card sucked. Pillman vs. Luger ruled. LOD vs. Skyscrapers served its purpose. Main event had a gimmick that didn’t fit the match. Could have been a lot better of a show, but here we are.

Historically…I guess we keep building Sting up as a main event guy…and I think this was the start of the Sid to the top run? I do think the non-finish of the main led to the I Quit match between Flair and Funk, so there is that.

Luger vs. Pillman the rest of the second half of the show helped it, but I still wouldn’t say this was good overall.

Final Grade: C+

Pro Wrestling

The Fastlane to Wrestlemania

FastLane replaces the Elimination Chamber
FastLane replaces the Elimination Chamber

WWE Fastlane replaces the Elimination Chamber Pay-Per-View (rumored to be done later in the year) as the penultimate PPV stop on the Road to Wrestlemania. After a lackluster Royal Rumble, WWE has created one of the least exciting atmospheres on the Road to Wrestlemania in recent memory. While a lot of this has to do with the Royal Rumble winner Roman Reigns, it moreso is the issue of new talent not being pushed properly, popular talent being made fools of (see Ambrose, Dean) and a thin roster overall. The most interesting rivalries are HHH vs. Sting, Bray Wyatt against whomever he is talking about, presumably The Undertaker and Daniel Bryan vs. Reigns, which seemingly has a forced narrative after Reigns was booed out of Philadelphia at the Royal Rumble. Three of the six of those matches have legendary guys that don’t (or rarely) wrestle on any of the other PPVs, one is Wyatt, who while interesting, is interesting despite of the booking crew. Bryan of course should be the top guy in the company right now no question, and Reigns is the guy WWE wants to be the top guy.

Fans want Bryan at the top
Fans want Bryan at the top

This forced push of Roman Reigns has led to WWE spinning their wheels. Roman Reigns has an amazing look and a ton of charisma, and is even a bit underrated as a worker (not different than Kevin Nash in 1995 really) but his monster push has turned fans against him. WWE might be turning him heel here…in the long run him fighting Bryan is only going to lead to a heel turn where WWE intended it or not. This is the best route though. If Reigns beats Bryan at Fastlane and gets his WWE Title shot against Brock Lesnar, Lesnar would be just fine as a face. The strength of Lesnar’s character is that for all intents and purposes what you see is what you get. Lesnar is a prize fighter who doesn’t really care about the business and is out to make his money. He doesn’t pretend to like anyone. He is true to himself. And honestly, while the reasoning is quite heelish, as a fan I can cheer that. I want to see Lesnar destroy the “WWE’s golden boy” Roman Reigns. Roman Reigns would be better off doing the same in being true to himself, and aligning himself with the Authority.

Rollins made himself a star at the Rumble
Rollins made himself a star at the Rumble

My favorite scenario for Wrestlemania? Lesnar vs. Reigns vs. Bryan vs. Money in the Bank Winner Seth Rollins. Lesnar is the champ. Having both Reigns and Bryan there make sense given their storyline at the moment. Rollins would be a great guy to say “hey, I almost beat Lesnar and Cena at the Rumble. I deserve to be in the main event at Wrestlemania and I’ll force my way in”. Also make this an elimination match. If Lesnar is leaving, you can still have Reigns Superman punch him to take him out of the match and give him that rub. Let Bryan and Rollins steal the show. Put the belt on Bryan and have Rollins and Reigns chase him, then Wyatt and Rusev afterwards. And don’t tell me there isn’t money in another Bryan vs. Cena match.

The other matches at Fastlane don’t quite excite me. Tyson Kidd and Cesaro hopefully will get a nice run with the tag titles. They remind me a little bit of Razor Ramon and the 1-2-3 Kid. I really don’t care about The Bella Twins anymore and I’m one of the few who isn’t a huge Paige fan, although her appearance on Total Divas is making me one. Rusev vs. Cena is interesting in the sense that Wrestlemania won’t be the beginning of their feud, and hopefully will end it. I’m fine with Cena ending Rusev’s undefeated streak for sure, but I want Rusev to come out on top at the end. Bad Bews Barrett I think is a little past the point of where I really care about him. It’s a shame as I wanted Barrett to be the World Champ every year through 2013. Ambrose, good as he is, just hasn’t been the same since the Shield broke up. That’s another booking disaster. I can’t say I care about the Dust Brother feud. I like them both and as a face team I enjoyed them. This is the closest they’ll get to that dream feud Goldust wanted between him and his brother years ago at Wrestlemania. I assume Sting shows up and I hope they fix that music. At the end of the night, we’ll know where we are at for Wrestlemania. I just hope it’s a good place.

Pro Wrestling

2015 WWE Royal Rumble Preview

royalrumble2015

The 2015 Royal Rumble is upon us. I will be attending the event, my 2nd Rumble (2008 in MSG), even though my interest in the current state of the WWE is at an all-time low. A great Royal Rumble though and all of that can change. To be honest, we haven’t had a real crowd pleasing winner of the Royal Rumble since 2010 when Edge returned from a seven month neck injury and won. In 2011 Alberto Del Rio won, opened Wrestlemania, lost to Edge and won Money in the Bank. In 2012 Sheamus surprisingly outlasted Chris Jericho, beat Daniel Bryan in 18 seconds at Wrestlemania and has had his career take a nosedive since. John Cena won the 2013 version just to set-up a rematch with The Rock at Wrestlemania XXIX. Batista made his return to the ring in 2014 to win the Rumble match, and pissed off the entire WWE Universe in the process. Fun fact here is that two of these Royal Rumble results cemented Daniel Bryan as a top guy, and yet he wasn’t apart of either of them (2012 because of what happened at Wrestlemania and 2014, which we will get to).

Let’s talk about the 2014 Royal Rumble. First, we’ll compare it to a scenario to a previous Royal Rumble: the 1998 version.

In 1998 there was clearly one man who was to win the Royal Rumble: Stone Cold Steve Austin. Any other situation would have made absolutely no sense. Business wise, logic wise, any of it. No sense whatsoever. Austin had to win. This was because of his anti-authority attitude that had been in place all the way back to the 1997 Royal Rumble. Austin was the most popular wrestler (really, in both major promotions at that time) in the WWF and a showdown with Shawn Michaels was where the obvious money was.

Daniel Bryan is perhaps the most popular wrestler since John Cena himself in 2005. The crowd has connected with him in an insane way that even CM Punk couldn’t accomplish in his 2011 run (matches in Chicago notwithstanding…and really this whole thing wasn’t his fault anyway). Bryan pretty much got his 2013 Summerslam World Title match because of his crowd reactions, and promptly beat Cena clean for the title. This led to a feud with The Authority when Triple H pedigreed Bryan and Randy Orton cashed in Money in the Bank to steal the title from him. Bryan would get close, but fail at regaining the title (except for one day) throughout the rest of 2013. The feud was clearly designed for Bryan to win the Royal Rumble and get one last shot at Orton, where he would ultimately win the title. Sometimes the obvious route is the best one.

Going back to 1998, imagine if The Ultimate Warrior returned and won that Royal Rumble while Stone Cold wasn’t in it? That would pretty much suck, wouldn’t it? Well we got the same thing in 2014 with Batista. And surprise surprise…it sucked. It did make it seem that there was a star in the making (who was already being pushed hard anyway) in Roman Reigns, as Reigns broke the elimination record and finished runner up to Batista. Still, the WWF had to rectify the situation, and Bryan got his World Title victory at Mania. And it was pretty awesome at that.

Austin vs. McMahon made the '98 Rumble obvious.
Austin vs. McMahon made the ’98 Rumble obvious.

Fast forward to 2015. We have a new obstacle in Bryan’s way, Diesel Power 2K15. I’ll explain in a moment, but first let’s go over why Daniel Bryan should be winning this match. For one, he’s still the most popular wrestler in the promotion. Now he has the injury comeback going for him. Bryan broke his neck and there were even retirement rumors for him throughout 2014, cutting short his title reign. How could there be any more money made than Bryan coming back in the Rumble and winning it outright? It’s a storyline that’s worked one way or another in 2001 with Austin, 2002 with Triple H, 2008 with Cena and 2010 with Edge. Once again Daniel Bryan is the clear path to an awesome Wrestlemania main event, where he could face Brock Lesnar for the WWE Title in a version of the Wrestlemania X Bret Hart vs. Yokozuna title match. We even have our Lex Luger in Roman Reigns.

I have no issues with Reigns, but the writing team has screwed him over a ton. He still doesn’t have the workrate down pat either. He had his Diesel Power moment at Summerslam when he kicked out of Randy Orton’s super RKO. The Diesel Power moment refers to Diesel strongly kicking out of Shawn Michaels’ superkick at Wrestlemania XI. He’s just not ready yet. I do think Roman Reigns has the tools to be a huge star down the line. He’s just not there yet. WWE has constantly blown top face runs by pushing them way too fast. Best example is Sheamus beating Bryan in 18 seconds. There’s big money in Reigns, but if he’s pushed way too fast too soon, he will fall. The best thing for Reigns to do is to fight someone like Big Show at Wrestlemania. It worked for Cena didn’t it? If Roman Reigns wins the 2015 Royal Rumble…he will be booed out of the building as fans chant “NO! NO! NO!” They want Bryan. He’s the logical choice once again.

Fans did not want Batista to win the Rumble
Fans did not want Batista to win the Rumble

The other key component of the Royal Rumble is the WWE World Title Match itself. There’s an argument for any of Cena, Lesnar or Seth Rollins to win the title. I’m pretty much the only person in the world who isn’t a huge fan of Rollins and I don’t think he’s quite earned the right to defend the WWE Title at Wrestlemania yet (he too can get there one day though. I just think he won MITB because Bad News Barrett got hurt). I don’t see Seth Rollins having the name value needed to main event a Wrestlemania in a World Title match yet (this is one of the drawbacks of having only one world title, although it’s still better that way). That leaves Cena and Lesnar. If Bryan wins the Rumble, either one of these winning the title will be fine. Cena vs. Bryan II would be awesome, and I already outline why Lesnar and Bryan would be awesome.

The other matches on the card don’t have huge implications. Mizdow seem to be breaking up soon, so I assume they aren’t winning the titles back from the Usos. I don’t even know why The Bellas are back together and I really don’t care. It’s a shame as I was a fan of the Bellas right up until Nikki turned on Brie. The New Age Outlaws being back last year and winning the tag titles was good for nostalgia, but hopefully The Ascension gets the win they need as they’ve been treated like a joke since their call up to WWE. I think the Outlaws are going to steal a Mania payday though. I’m not sure how Tyson Kidd, Cesaro and Adam Rose became a trio, but their match against The New Day seems irrelevant.

As for surprise Rumble entrants, I’ve heard about a couple but I’m trying to keep this spoiler free. I’ll just write for those I am hoping for that in no way have been confirmed or I’ve heard about. RVD (I’m a RVD mark and its Philly), The Sandman, Raven, The Dudley Boyz (all ECW talents. Raven is by far the least likely and Sandman isn’t likely either. The Dudleyz wouldn’t shock me now that they are free from TNA.), and someone totally out of nowhere, like Flash Funk (he was from Philly, right? He also has a Philly ECW rep).

But none of this matters unless Daniel Bryan wins at the end. Do the ring thing WWE.