The Knee Lift

It's been almost 9 months..

2009-12-22T10:53:00.000-08:00

..but we're coming back.

2009 Kneelift Year End Awards coming January 2010.

Pre-WrestleMania Thoughts.

2009-03-29T18:54:00.000-07:00

It's good to be back. I lost my interest in this for a few weeks, didn't really feel inspired to write or do anything. It struck me today that maybe I should jot down some thoughts on how I'm feeling about WrestleMania today. Meh.

It's that time of year again!

It's time for WWE's annual extravaganza! It's the Superbowl of professional wrestling! It's the time that all the greatest performers in the company step up to the "grandest stage of them all" and knock it out of the park with stellar matches and high end entertainment (well, high end by pro wrestling standards)!

So, why do I feel a little underwhelmed? It might have something to do with Jericho going in week in and week out lambasting all the old guys, the "WWE Legends", calling them a bunch of has-beens and glory hogs. Well, maybe not those particular words but mean things nonetheless. We all saw this coming, Jericho would go one on one with someone less than desirable, someone no one really cared to see. Instead, we get Jericho against three guys WAY past their prime who collectively might be able to establish something close to a match but fall short of what is expected. Don't get me wrong, I love Piper and Steamboat but Piper and Steamboat at 54 and 56 respectively? Nah. At least it's not Hogan.

I could be wrong, Jericho could pull out the surprise of the night. And why not? Every one's expectations are near or less than zero. Last year Mayweather and Big Show put on an entertaining show and one of those two isn't even a trained wrestler. Who knows? Maybe Rourke could get involved or Flair could fall on his face and shed a crimson mask? Could be something memorable but I don't expect it.

Other than that, we have the stellar build-up involved in both Triple H vs Randy Orton and Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels. Hey, call it cheesy all you want but I'm a big fan of the Michaels and 'Taker stuff. Very old-schoolish. Very 1990's. Who hates the '90's? Certainly not this guy. Michaels couldn't put on a bad WrestleMania match (or match in general) if he tried. I'm sure he could wrestle Barry Horowitz to a 5 star classic at next year's WrestleMania if he wishes. 'Taker can always draw attention and excitement with thoughts like, "This is the year, this is the year the streak ends!" I've had those moments. Spoiler Alert: Undertaker will win.

Randy Orton and Triple H have taken a storyline that seems like it's already been done, although I can't quite provide an example and created something fresh and interesting. They've certainly done a number on me, I actually can't believe I'm interested in where they're going with this.

All in all, I feel a bit deflated when it comes to this year's show. Then again, I usually think that up until the day before, when I watch the HOF broadcast. We'll see anyway, hopefully the lights stay on for the whole show this year.

WWE DVD Review: Heatseekers (LOW Collection)

2009-02-21T14:58:00.001-08:00

I recently received a copy of “Legends of Wrestling” DVD collection in the mail from the good folks over at Amazon. I’d been having a hard time locating it here in Fort McMurray and assumed that this was my best way of acquiring the three disc set. Along with this package, I purchased The Best of Saturday Night’s Main Event, which I’ve yet to watch. I managed to finish one of the discs in the legends set and that was the “Heatseekers” episode. I’ve decided to review each disc separately.

After reading the backside of the package, it looked to be the best panel in the whole collection (three episodes in total) with appearances by Michael Hayes, Jerry Lawler, Mick Foley, and Eric Bischoff and moderated by none other than good ol’ JR, Jim Ross. Throughout the near one hour running time, the “legends” give stories and opinions regarding the most notorious backstage trouble makers, you know; guys that were difficult to deal with.

I can say that without any hesitation, this is one of the best wrestling related television shows I’ve ever seen. It really feels like you’re sitting around with a group of friends, talking about their best (and sometimes worst) days in their profession. Wrestling is an industry that really lends itself to some great stories and antic dotes, as with many entertainment related industries and I believe that is why this set stands out so well.

Some of the highlights include discussions about "The Total Package" Lex Luger, former WWE head writer Vince Russo and "Razor Ramon" Scott Hall. One of the more standout tales comes from moderator Jim Ross and his tale of a certain phone call received from the mother of former WCW b-list talent, Buff Bagwell, concerning a weekend of missed shows.

If you’re anything like me and enjoy professional wrestling biographies (books) and the documentaries that accompany certain superstar DVD collections, then you will love this episode. I had many a hearty laugh while watching, I hope you do too.

Top Ten Tuesday - Top Ten No Way Out Moments/Matches

2009-02-17T21:09:00.000-08:00

While the road to WrestleMania begins at Royal Rumble, it’s really No Way Out that determines what WrestleMania will look like each year. Many people suggest that No Way Out should be done away with; that WWE should start building up WrestleMania immediately after Royal Rumble is done and over with. My goal here is to list the top ten matches/moments from No Way Out in its 11 year history.

10. 8 Man Massacre: The very first No Way Out took place in 1998 with a stellar main event. On one side of the ring, you had Steve Austin, Cactus Jack, Terry Funk and Owen Hart and on the other side of the ring you had DX (the Outlaws and HHH) and Savio Vega. Both teams tore each other apart in what was supposed to be a preview to WrestleMania (if you haven’t guessed or didn’t already know, Vega was the replacement for an injured HBK) using steel chairs, tables and barbed wire.

09. Hogan/Rock II: Hogan and Rock met for the 2nd and final time in the middle of the ring in Montreal, Quebec. Hogan mostly has Canada to thank for his career resurgence during this decade for the way they cheered him at WrestleMania x-8 and the following night in Montreal the year before. Why not have his and Rock's return match in the place that helped bring back "Hulkamania"? Despite the lackluster finish (which is mostly to blame for planting the seeds for Hogan/McMahon the following month), Hogan/Rock II was a worthy follow up.

08. Olympic Gold Medalist vs. The Deadman – The Undertaker and Kurt Angle had not really had a proper one on one match since their brief rivalry in 2000 (brief but still entertaining). Angle had recently changed his character slightly to be more of a total badass and Undertaker was in his 2nd year since bringing back his "deadman" character. It was by far, ‘Taker’s best match in years and was refreshing to see a title match with no special rules steal the show, especially with two long established main eventers as they would put on a near 30 minute clinic.

07. Revenge is a dish best served Stone Cold: I apologize for that incredibly lame and cliched pun but it describes No Way Out 2003 perfectly. Austin returned to the ring against his former WCW boss, Eric Bischoff in a No Holds Barred contest. After being let go from his WCW contract, while injured, Austin focused all his rage and contempt towards Bischoff through early ECW promo's and the very birth of his "Stone Cold" character. Austin destroyed Bischoff from pillar to post in just under 5 minutes, classic stuff indeed.

06. Lose one championship; gain another: Edge walked into the Smackdown WWE championship elimination chamber match with one goal, make it to WrestleMania XXV as champion. Unfortunatley, Edge would lose less than 5 minutes into the contest, shocking the wrestling world in the process. A few hours later, Edge would somehow make it into the World Heavyweight Championship Chamber match, proving that WWE really enforces no rules whatsoever. I guess you can just do whatever you want. Either way, not only did he lose the WWE championship and win the World Heavyweight Championship but he also competed in two chamber matches in one night! A record to say the least.

05. Viva La Raza: Eddie defeats Brock Lesnar for his first (and only) WWE championship reign with some help by the destructive force known as Goldberg. I can certainly say that no one expected this victory, at least not me. While a great ‘Mania match between Angle and Guerrero was a byproduct of this night, we had to bear witness to one of the biggest letdowns in Goldberg vs. Lesnar.

04. The nWo returns: 2002 saw the return of the three men who had lead the charge against their former employer in 1996 as a part of the ruthlessly competitive Monday Night Wars. Hall, Nash and Hogan made their "re-debut" in February of 2002 and immediately made an impact by costing Steve Austin the WWE championship in that evenings main event contest against Chris Jericho. It must have been both gratifying and frustrating for the young Jericho as he headlined a PPV that featured Hogan (something long overdue) but also had the show stolen out from under him by the very men who deemed him "to small" to ever really make an impact.

03. Steve Austin destroys Vince McMahon/Big Show debuts: Granted, this isn’t a "No Way Out" PPV but it took place during the designated time that No Way Out is supposed to take place. Austin sent Vince flying from the top of the steel cage, to the floor through the announce table in a ridiculous unnecessary bump that wasn’t needed, yet totally entertaining. Not only did that insanity take place but WWE acquired their first big name from WCW since the turn of the ratings in late ’98. Big Show debuted by ripping through the ring and throwing Austin through the cage to the floor, winning the match despite the fact he failed to go through the door or over the top.

02. Flaming Barbed Wire: Triple H made his first appearance inside the demonic Hell in a Cell against the man who set the standard for brutality inside "Satan’s structure". If Cactus Jack was to have his final match as an active member of the WWE roster, Foley made sure he went out with a bang (bang) for sure. Foley took a fall through the top of the cell, through the ring. However, that was not before lighting a 2x4 coated in barbed wire on fire first! Nevermind the fact that Foley still injected himself into the WrestleMania main event and the fact that he had several "one-off" appearance afterwards, this was truly his last "real match".

01. 3 Stages of Hell: In February of 2001, Austin and Triple H had a match that you can easily find on a lot of fans’ top ten lists. Never before had anyone attempted such a feat of endurance with 3 back to back to back matches, all with a different stipulation. The match was incredibly brutal and a fitting end to a good, not great, rivalry. Since this initial match, there had only been one other attempt at this stipulation but ended up as overkill, at least in my opinion.

Top Ten Tuesday - Top Ten Ric Flair Matches

2009-02-10T18:49:00.000-08:00

So, The Knee Lift has been down for about two weeks; down but not out! I’m returning this week with my Top Ten Favorite Ric Flair matches. Keep in mind, these are the top ten matches I’ve seen (so, there could be some omissions).

10. Ric Flair vs. Bret “Hitman” Hart – Now, I had to put this in there, at least at number 10. This was Bret’s big chance, his big foray into main event status. Ric Flair was on his way out of WWE; and the WWE championship had to go somewhere. Bret was the best choice as he was far and away the best worker the company had. Flair and Hart had a decent match; decent enough to make this list. Despite the fact that Hart dislocated his finger in this match and for whatever reason, the story was that Flair apparently didn’t want to drop the belt to Bret, the match still managed to be memorable.

09. Ric Flair vs. Mick Foley (Summerslam 2006) – Flair and Foley had always had bad blood between one another and for years, it went unspoken. In the early part of this decade, Ric Flair “wrote” a book in which he referred to Foley as a “glorified stuntman”. This didn’t sit well personally with Jolly ol’ St. Mickels and as usual, the best storylines are usually somewhat pulled from real life. Flair took SO much punishment in this encounter and that’s the reason it’s on this list. Flair achieved legendary status AT LEAST 20 years before this match, so there was really no need to take the risks he took, he did it because he’s Ric Flair.

08. Ric Flair vs. Sting (The Final WCW Nitro) – Flair and Sting competed in the last ever match in WCW’s storied history on the final episode of WCW Monday Nitro on TNT. These two can have a great match on their worst days and with Flair at 59 years old and Sting at 50, I’m sure they can still put on a show better than half of today’s superstars (TNA and WWE included).

07. Ric Flair vs. Vader (Starrcade ’93) – Flair’s first of a few retirement matches saw him facing tremendous odds in the “man they call Vader”. No one would ever think a guy like Flair could somehow manage to beat the monstrous Vader, let alone win with a roll up. Flair, however, being the talent that he is (“the toughest piece of work in wrestling today”) managed to make the match look competitive and made you believe that winning was an option. Flair won the WCW championship that night and continued on his career for a staggering 14 more years.

06. Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels (Bad Blood ’03) – HA! I bet you all expected his WrestleMania match to be on there. The truth is, this match was much better. Flair was about 5 years younger at the time (a competitive 53 years old) and HBK was still within his first year back in the sport. It was also something fresh, a dream match if you will. I’m not taking anything away from the WrestleMania 24 encounter but I just feel this was a better match altogether.

05. Ric Flair vs. Randy Savage (WrestleMania 8) – Flair had come off one of the biggest wins of his career, taking the 1992 Royal Rumble from the #5 spot and thus capturing the World Wrestling Federation championship. “The Nature Boy” was on his way to competing in the main event match at his first Wrestlemania – not bad if I do say so myself. The storyline that had been building prior to the match was top notch; Flair had threatened to reveal “intimate” photos of Mrs. Randy Savage (Miss Elizabeth) in the event that he won the match. Savage would have the last laugh capturing the WWE championship and beginning his 2nd championship reign.

04. Ric Flair vs. The Undertaker (WrestleMania x-8) – Flair’s triumphant return to the ring (against a real opponent) was only a few short months after his on screen return in November 2001. ‘Taker was at his most interesting in years and people were anxious to see if Flair still had it, Flair himself included. The two met in the middle of a capacity crowd consisting of 60,000+ fans under no disqualification rules. Even with the help of “Double A” Arn Anderson, Flair could not defeat “Booger Red” and Taker added his tenth straight WrestleMania victory in a classic match.

03. Ric Flair vs. Terry Funk (Clash of the Champions 9) – Flair’s first ever “hardcore” match in his career, Terry Funk brought out something in the “Nature Boy” we all thought didn’t exist. Gordon Solie uttering the phrase; “Five Letters, Two Words, I Quit” created the perfect atmosphere necessary to coincide with the match itself. At the very least, this is the best match I’ve ever seen Funk compete in (the re-match wasn’t all that bad either).

02. Ric Flair vs. Sting (Clash of the Champions I) – On this night, Flair and Sting competed in the match that made Sting’s career. The two would go to an amazing 45 minute time limit draw and create a classic match that they should teach students in professional wrestling school. Sting would go on to become the face of World Championship Wrestling for the following decade and Flair would continue to have an amazing career ahead of him.

01. Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat (Clash of the Champions VI) – Flair and Steamboat collided in a 60 minute, 2 out of 3 falls match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship that nearly went to a time limit draw until Steamboat pulled out a victory at 55 minutes and forty-nine seconds. Man, what an encounter. Flair and Steamboat put on an exciting match that captured the competitiveness necessary to win the richest prize in the game. Steamboat should have risen higher in the ranks of the WWE, this matches proves that.

High Hopes for Hardy vs. Hardy

2009-01-27T17:47:00.001-08:00

I decided to skip Top Ten Tuesday this week in favor of an article. Yes, my first editorial. I think. Is this an editorial? I have no idea. Enjoy anyway!

Matt Hardy is a bland character.

For some reason, in the world of professional wrestling the characters that succeed are the performers who play an amplified version of themselves. People such as Steve Austin, The Rock, Curt Hennig, Shawn Michaels, Roddy Piper and others succeed when they’re given creative control over their character.

Now, in the world of professional wrestling fans, the common solution to fixing or improving a performer is to turn heel. I can agree to this opinion at times, it certainly did wonders for Santino as well as a fledgling Chris Jericho upon his return in late 2007. Matt Hardy even proved this theory in 2002/2003 when he made a drastic change in his demeanor, declaring that World Wrestling Entertainment was in the “era of Mattitude”. The V1 character took Matt Hardy from being a typecast tag team competitor into main event matches against The Undertaker and Brock Lesnar on Smackdown.

On Sunday at the 22nd annual Royal Rumble, Matt Hardy took a step into the right direction. Now, before some people get all defensive, I will admit that Matt had a strong connection to the fans. There is no doubt in saying that the man is beloved, it’s as simple as that. Matt receives huge reactions and for a time was appearing on all three shows. So, basically if it’s not broke, why fix it?

A few years ago, WWE tried doing an angle that involved the Hardy’s splitting up. In late 2001, Matt and Jeff competed in a match @ WWE Vengeance with Lita playing special guest referee. The match had no real build up and lacked meaning. Who could blame them; Bret and Owen simply set the bar so high in the realm of brother vs. brother rivalry. It’s a hard thing to accomplish. They also met in the middle of the 2003 Royal Rumble back when the brand split was more enforced; Matt and Jeff never had the chance to build up anything substantial. Shortly after that brief brawl, Jeff was released and found his way to TNA.

Face it, this eventual attack was at the very least, 8 years in the making. Jeff always received the praise despite his reckless actions and constant mistakes in his professional career. Jeff was always the higher praised of the two Hardy brothers. Why? Jeff has a personality. Matt Hardy had one for about a year and then lost it, going back to boring old Matt Hardy. Matt has such an incredible passion for the business and it shows in his in-ring work but in the business, that alone cannot get you through, especially in the tough markets of New York, Philadelphia and Toronto. Sometimes, that’s all you need (see: Santino).

I’m excited for the new Matt Hardy, I really am. I can’t wait to finally see this rivalry played out correctly. Hopefully they save this match for WrestleMania and not waste it somehow. Both of these guys are tailor made for the Elimination Chamber match as well as the Money In The Bank Ladder Match, so it seems strange to think they could make it through the next two months without some kind of altercation.

Ringside Reactions - Royal Rumble Edition!

2009-01-26T18:14:00.000-08:00

The 2009 Royal Rumble happened last night. I watched it. Here's what I thought!

Jack Swagger/Matt Hardy

Matt Hardy sold the arm injury so well, especially in a time when the selling of injured body-parts is really lacking (see Kane/Batista). Matt looked as if he was going to cry and I swear, I totally saw tears. I generally prefer heels as champions anyway. Also, I am slowly warming up to Swagger; he seems to get slightly better every time I see him.

Beth Phoenix/Melina

A few out of character bumps took place in this match; Melina’s fall from Beth’s shoulders looked legitimately painful and that inventive submission applied by Phoenix to Melina was fantastic. Although I picked Melina to win and I’m usually happy when my selections turn out to be correct, I would have preferred that she lost. Ah well, I’m sure it won’t be long until she gets it back.

Cena/JBL

It’s a good thing they had Shawn Michaels to help in building excitement/anticipation for this match because without that factor, this match had nothing going for it. Now, I’m not an anti-Cena guy by any means, I think the guy can have the odd great match (see HBK/Cena from WM 23) but man, was this match bad. I’m wondering where they’re going with HBK/JBL now after what transpired. I do know this, Undertaker and Shawn Michaels needs to happen at WrestleMania. If that meeting in the back wasn’t proof enough, I don’t know what is.

Jeff Hardy/Edge

Jeff Hardy failed in his first attempt at defending the WWE Championship. However, WWE did it in a way that makes Hardy come off strong. Hardy took an absolutely brutal chair shot from his brother, Matt, and was subsequently pinned by Edge as he won his seventh world championship. That has to be some sort of record, seven WWE Championships in 3 years! I’m anticipating watching Smackdown this Friday to see where they’re going with Jeff & Matt. I’m all for this.

The 2009 Royal Rumble Match

The right man won the match. That’s all I can say. Well, I can say a few more things. Santino’s elimination was amazing as was RVD’s one night return (well, maybe not amazing, would you settle for awesome?) One thing I noticed, I’m not sure if Rey was supposed to be eliminated when he was. It seemed so anti-climatic where he was in there for 47 minutes. I could be wrong. However, I always wait for something like that to happen, like if the intended winner somehow was knocked out by mistake.

The show certainly wasn’t as good as last year’s but it was still entertaining nonetheless. How can you not be entertained by the rumble match? Answer: It is impossible.

WWE Royal Rumble Preview Post

2009-01-25T12:12:00.000-08:00

Tonight, the 22nd annual Royal Rumble takes place in Detroit. MI. Like last year, there doesn’t seem to be any clear favorite going into the match, which is usually preferable. 30 of the top (and sometimes, not so top) performers in World Wrestling Entertainment will do battle to acquire a shot at participating in the main event of Wrestlemania 25. Lets breakdown the nights festivities shall we?

Aside from the main event 30-man Royal Rumble match, we’re going to bear witness to 4 undercard matches, all of which are for championships.

Beth Phoenix vs. Melina (Women’s Championship) – Phoenix is clearly the best athlete in the women’s division on RAW and perhaps Smackdown as well. Melina had returned a few months ago from an ankle injury that kept her out of action since June 23rd, 2008. Melina certainly has the momentum behind her tonight and WWE is usually pretty fond of giving championships to people who return from injuries, so I’d say it’s a safe bet to take Melina in this one.

Matt Hardy vs. Jack Swagger (ECW Championship) – I still find it hard to believe that Swagger acquired the ECW Championship so early in his WWE tenure. Rumors came down the pipe a few weeks ago that officials in WWE were going to be reluctant in pushing new guys so quickly after the void that was left when Lesnar and most recently, Lashley, departed from the company. Swagger, while having shown shades of improvement each week, should at the very least pull out a cheap victory tonight. I find it difficult to imagine Hardy taking the championship back so soon; then again, stranger things have happened.

Edge vs. Jeff Hardy (WWE Championship) – Edge is participating in his second straight Royal Rumble main event against the underdog, Jeff Hardy. Over the past few weeks, Hardy had been involved in several “terrible accidents” including a pyrotechnics fiasco and a car accident (yet he is still able to compete). This should be the match of the night and hopefully good enough to be an early candidate for match of the year (then again, that should be an expectation for any match). Hardy takes this one.

JBL vs. John Cena (World Heavyweight Championship) – Ah, the match that no one asked for. Cena and JBL have a long and storied rivalry dating back 4 years to the beginning of 2005. Yes, they’ve had several brawls in the past that went over and above expectations but I can’t see this being a stand out match. While I can see JBL theoretically walking away World Heavyweight Champion, it would be ludicrous to expect it. Cena is going to main event Wrestlemania 25 but the question is, against whom?

The 2009 Royal Rumble Match – If you look at the numbers and the history, the odds on favorite is Triple H. The man has been in the main event at 7 of the past 9 Wrestlemania’s. Granted, only one of those main events was obtained from a Royal Rumble victory, a healthy Triple H usually guarantees a good spot in the yearly extravaganza.

Orton and his team, Legacy, are being pushed to the moon on RAW and after Orton’s actions last Monday, he certainly has the momentum. Orton is my pick for the victory tonight but as I mentioned earlier with Triple H, it’s not set in stone.

I can tell you who’s NOT winning and that’s Undertaker. There’s no way he’s main eventing WrestleMania for the 3rd year in a row. It’s a guaranteed win and that my friends, is boring.

All things considered, my picks might not pan out but I can certainly guarantee that the event will be entertaining. The Royal Rumble is the most exciting and unique match WWE puts on by far. Enjoy!

Ringside Reactions - RAW/21-01-09

2009-01-21T19:55:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the very first edition of “Ringside Reactions”! I’ve decided to retool the recap as it was very boring, very repetitive and very cumbersome. I’ll put up three things that stuck out on RAW to me, good or bad. So, without further adieu, let’s begin shall we?

Mike Knox speaks! – Okay, I really like Knox. Granted, when he first showed up on our television screens about two and a half years ago as a part of the re-launched ECW, he received some flack. Yes, poor Knox was not embraced by the fans and deservedly so, he wasn’t anything special. I certainly didn’t put a whole lot of faith in the guy, he was pretty damn bland and to the best of my knowledge lacked a finishing maneuver (and unless your name is Santino, that’s not going to do you a lot of good). However, after a while it was clear they had nothing for him. Knox returned after some time spent in developmental territories and was moved over to the flagship show, RAW. Knox is spending his time destroying Mysterio which I’m all for. Not that I dislike Mysterio, I think he’s a great performer, it’s just…I think the man can take a convincing looking thrashing. So, it’s entertaining to me. He basically had no reason for destroying him each week, which is the best possible reason. Knox and his year old beard could be destined for great things.

Mr. McMahon gets his head kicked in – I can’t help it. I just can’t. I can’t watch Orton kick someone and NOT laugh. No, its not that I find the move ridiculous by any means, I find it brutal and extremely effective. It’s a wonder that this sort of idea hadn’t caught on years ago. I watched poor old Vince take the brunt of Orton’s foot to the side of his head and scream-laughed. If that wasn’t great enough, showing it in slow motion was even better. All kidding aside, this makes Orton look totally badass and makes a good case for him winning the Royal Rumble. I’ve got my reasons to think that something big is going down pretty soon, something that I may or may not like. We’ll see how it plays out. However, it would probably take away from Orton himself but who knows.

CM Punk takes the Intercontinental Championship – Now, I’m a bit skeptical on this one. Punk deserves this title; I think it’s a better fit for him than the World Heavyweight Championship. No, not because I think anything about the guy just screams “mid-card” (I’m not going to turn into Eric Bischoff here), I just think this title is tailor made for a guy like Punk provided WWE does something with his title reign, makes the title mean something. Have the guy defend the belt at a damn pay-per-view! The Intercontinental Championship has NOT been defended at a WrestleMania since WrestleMania X8, back when it was still called “WWF”. That’s a damn travesty. I’m not going to give WWE the benefit of the doubt, I’m sure the defending champion will be in the Money In The Bank match.

Top Ten Tuesday -- Top Ten Royal Rumble Undercard Matches

2009-01-20T21:02:00.001-08:00

The Royal Rumble match is one of the most fast paced and exciting WWE matches that the company has to offer. Each year, 30 men (and sometimes 1 woman, the odd celebrity or has-been wrestler) compete for the chance to main event WrestleMania. However, little praise is often given to the undercard, the other hour and a half of action before the big brawl. The Knee Lift is here to bring praise to the top ten matches OTHER than the Royal Rumble at the yearly extravaganza.

10. Edge vs. Shawn Michaels (2005) – A proverbial dream match for some, Edge had been gaining speed as a main event singles star in World Wrestling Entertainment. A back and forth offensive clinic, Edge pulled out the victory in what many would consider a major upset.

09. Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker (1998) – This match was the cause of Michaels’ 4 year absence from World Wrestling Entertainment. Michaels was tossed over the top rope and slammed his back on corner of casket. HBK would wrestle a few more matches before dropping the championship to Austin at WrestleMania XIV.

08. Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels (2004) – The first Last Man Standing match to ever occur at the Royal Rumble, Triple H and Shawn Michaels destroyed one another yet again. Just when you think these two couldn’t pull any life out of a year and a half long rivalry, they succeeded.

07. John Cena vs. Umaga (2007) – One of the only truly exciting and great things Umaga had been involved in was his nearly year long unbeaten streak. Umaga went toe to toe with Cena a few weeks earlier at the now defunct pay per view “New Years Revolution” with a sense that the two still had unfinished business at the completion of the match. The two fought again, this time on a much larger scale in a Last Man Standing Match. Cena might have walked away victorious but this match proved that Umaga was worth the hype. It’s too bad he went downhill after that for a while.

06. The Hardy’s vs. The Dudley’s (2000) – The very first “tables” match took place at the 2000 Royal Rumble. A match that is now somewhat commonplace and is no longer special or at the very least innovative, the tag team tables match that took place that night was an exciting display of violence at its best. Jeff Hardy had just started his highlight reel career 3 months ago at WWE No Mercy and added another memorable clip when he delivered a swanton bomb off an entrance way for the win.

05. Randy Orton vs. Jeff Hardy (2008) – Jeff Hardy was finally looking to cement himself as a main event player and Randy Orton had finally found his stride. The two met in the middle of the ring in the famed Madison Square Garden in an epic showdown with a quick and unsuspecting ending.

04. Mankind vs. The Rock (1999) – Mankind and The Rock took it to the limit in the most brutal “I Quit” match in pro wrestling history. Foley took nearly ten chair shots to the skull but somehow made the match seem almost competitive. It might be a hard one for some people to watch but it certainly made Rock look strong going into Wrestlemania XV.

03. Triple H vs. Cactus Jack (2000) – Undoubtedly the most brutal match in the events 22 year history, Cactus Jack did just about everything he could to Triple H in an attempt to capture the WWE Championship. Foley and Triple H put on a bloody show for the fans in attendance that ended with Mick taking a face full of thumbtacks from a devastating pedigree.

02. Chris Benoit vs. Chris Jericho (2001) – The single greatest one on one ladder match ever to occur in World Wrestling Entertainment (at least in my opinion), Jericho and Benoit fought tooth and nail over the Intercontinental Championship. This match had several memorable moments including the brutal “suicide-dive chair shot” and Jericho’s modified “Liontamer” on the top of the ladder.

01. Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit (2003) – One of the greatest one on one matches for the WWE Championship in history, Benoit and Angle tore the house down in their usual style. Angle just barely walked away with the championship but it was Benoit that was left with the standing ovation.

DVD Review -- Viva La Raza: The Legacy of Eddie Guerrero

2009-01-18T19:38:00.000-08:00

In November 2005, the professional wrestling industry lost one of its most talented performers in the late Eddie Guerrero. Guerrero had been enjoying his best years both in his professional career and his personal life; enjoying 4 years of sobriety and capturing his first world championship. Shortly before his demise, World Wrestling Entertainment released a DVD set named: “Cheating Death and Stealing Life”. The set was a solid release from top to bottom including a great documentary on the man’s life and career as well as several top notch bonus matches. However, with the release of this 3 disc set “Viva La Raza: The Legacy of Eddie Guerrero”; WWE had felt that his career deserved a second look.

“Viva La Raza” is modeled much in the same way as recent career retrospectives like the 3 disc releases for The Rock and for Steve Austin; a match by match production broken up with small segments helping you along the career of said performer. However, Eddie nails it correctly giving you the best possible version of this template. The short segments in this 3 disc set are made up of actual interviews with the performers involved in each match and NOT short video packages with cheesy voiceovers. It works much better on several levels.

The fact that this set is missing a documentary is not as painful as one might think. With the release of “Cheating Death and Stealing Life” coming so close to the end of Eddie’s life, not much is left out. Provided you have that set, “Viva La Raza” feels like an extension to the original material. Due to the actions of Chris Benoit, he is nowhere to be seen on this set aside from sporadic commentary. It’s really a shame; some of Eddie’s best work came from matches with The Crippler. Of course, the omission is understandable; World Wrestling Entertainment does not want to be seen as a company that glorifies the work of someone who had done the things Benoit had done.

Eddie had many tremendous matches in his career; most of which are captured on this set. Some notable showdowns occur with Edge in a no disqualification match on an episode of Smackdown in the fall of 2002, with Angle as a part of the WWE Championship series from 2004 and several epic encounters as a part of the cruiserweight division in World Championship Wrestling.

Guerrero will always be remembered for his fast paced, never boring encounters with athletes of all shapes and sizes. He was one of the few that could work a great match out of just about anyone. Jericho had noted during the DVD that “when Eddie was on, he was the best in the world”, I can certainly see no problem ranking him near the top.

No Posts?

2009-01-16T06:19:00.000-08:00

Perhaps some people have been wondering why I haven't updated in a week and a half. Well, I've been thinking about some changes to the site.

One might be a name change for the third and final time (more than likely). A few others are new columns and restructuring existing ones. I'm pretty excited.

I'll post a list of the upcoming changes this Sunday. I hope people like them.

Top Ten Tuesday - The Kneelift Year End Awards!

2009-01-06T07:46:00.000-08:00

I thought that for the first top ten of 2009, I would do something slightly different. I thought I would name the first EVER “The Knee Lift” awards! The most prestigious of all awards related to sports entertainment of course. Granted, due to three previous top ten lists, three awards are guaranteed so I might as well get those over with first.

Match of the Year – The first of ten prestigious awards goes to Rey Mysterio and Evan Bourne for their great one on one encounter from RAW on October 27th, 2008! Rey Mysterio certainly has “fallen from grace” in the last few years without any real standout matches to speak of. Bourne has stepped his game up and has the style of a younger Mysterio, providing a great style for Rey to work with in the process. Makes you wonder if it isn’t Rey that has been performing at a subpar level but it’s the caliber of opponents he’s had to face. ***Runner Up – Edge vs. The Undertaker (TLC: One Night Stand).

Brand of the Year – For the first time in a few years, Smackdown has become really competitive with the flagship show that is Monday Night RAW. It’s this “journalists” opinion that it takes the award by a nose this year. 2008 has been a great year for the two top brands showcasing excellent feuds and great world championship choices from Randy Orton to Jeff Hardy to Edge. Smackdown had a better year with Edge doing some of his best work in recent memory selling the whole “I’ve gone crazy” thing with The Undertaker. However, the Edge/Undertaker program was not the best of the year. The next award will be the judge of that. ***Runner Up – RAW.

Angle/Feud of the Year – Chris Jericho must have realized that for whatever reason, he just didn’t seem to be connecting with the fans anymore. Jericho needed to do something drastic; he completely altered his character into what has been commonly known as “Serious Jericho” all over the webernets. Jericho started using big words, words that Michael Cole would screw up (Sicko-Fans!) on occasion. I just realized that it looks like I’m complaining here when I really don’t mean to. Jericho and HBK had some of the best matches all year and delivered some of the most emotionally charged promos we hadn’t witnessed in quite some time. They tore the house down with a great unsanctioned match at Unforgiven and followed that up with a great ladder match at No Mercy back in October. ***Runner Up – Edge/Undertaker.

DVD Release of theYear – 2001 saw the release of the first ever DVD devoted to a tag team with “Leap of Faith: The Hardy Boyz”. It would be 7 years until The Hardy’s would get another DVD release. Granted, the documentary goes over many things covered in the original release but this would be the first time we’d have some comprehensive coverage in regards to each brother and their single careers. Coupled with some great bonus matches, “Twist of Fate” earns the DVD release of the year from The Knee Lift. ***Runner Up – Edge: A Decade of Decadence.

PPV of the Year – I really expected WrestleMania XXIV to get the spot as it usually is the best PPV of the year, however, it just didn’t measure up to the 2008 Royal Rumble. For the first time in a while, the Royal Rumble not only had a great 30 man rumble match but also had a fantastic undercard as well. Both the WWE and World Heavyweight Championship matches were excellent, especially Randy Orton narrowly defeating Jeff Hardy in one of Hardy’s best matches and Jericho and JBL had a bloodbath of a street fight. All of that was capped off by the unexpected return of one John Cena winning the Royal Rumble from the 30th spot. ***Runner Up – WrestleMania XXIV.

Superstar of the Year – It’s really hard to go with anyone aside from The Slammy Award winning “WWE Superstar of the Year” Chris Jericho. Jericho had the best year he’s had since 2001/2002. Jericho completely altered his character and ended 2008 with two world championship reigns, a slammy award and several career defining matches with great encounters with CM Punk, Shawn Michaels and believe it or not, Batista. ***Runner(s) Up – Edge/Randy Orton.

Tag Team of the Year – Once again, I agree with World Wrestling Entertainment. The easy choice for tag team of the year is the Slammy award winning team of The Miz & John Morrison. The dynamic duo has captured both the WWE Tag Team Championship and the World Tag Team Championship and that’s enough in ANYONE’S book to be considered the favorite. Honestly, you can’t argue with the facts, folks. ***Runner Up – Priceless (Rhodes/Dibease Jr.)

Best Comedic Moment of 2008 – I had to add this in there if only to give an award to Santino. Santino delivered one of the most insanely hilarious moments of the year on the March 24th edition of RAW when he stole Jerry Lawler’s subway sandwich. Santino splashed a full cup of soda in Lawler’s face and then proceeded to steal his sandwich proclaiming, “HAHA! I have stolen your delicious subway sandwich!!” You can view the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gULuQJu4UAA ***Runner Up – Goldust and Boogeyman exchange pleasantries.

WWE Rookie of the Year – And the winner is…Kofi Kingston! Kingston debuted to a lengthy undefeated streak losing minimal times before capturing the Intercontinental Championship from then champion, Chris Jericho. Kingston would hold the title for a few months before dropping the strap to Santino but wouldn’t go long before capturing his second championship, the World Tag Team Championship with CM Punk. Kingston is now a stellar mid-card performer on RAW who shows a great deal of promise for years to come. ***Runner Up – Evan Bourne

Most Surprising Moment of 2008 – The thing that NO ONE had seen coming, Cena returned at #30 and won the 2008 Royal Rumble. All the reports had come in that Cena was going to be out until well after WrestleMania, no one had thought otherwise. Cena shocked the world and entered in last and won the damn thing. ***Runner(s) Up – Undertaker falls 15-20 feet through 4 tables at One Night Stand/Orton wins triple threat match at WrestleMania XXIV.

Weekly Recap - January 4th, 2009

2009-01-04T17:35:00.000-08:00

I’ve decided that I’m going to change up the recap just a little. I find that it’s becoming somewhat of a chore for me to do this, which means I’m treating it as this daunting task that I have to complete every weekend. Therefore, I’m going with a shorter version! Yay!

On RAW this week, WWE had a fatal 4 way match contested under strange rules. Instead of having all 4 participants in the ring at the same time, which they’re supposed to do, they had two in at a time and you could tag out whenever you wished. It was also an elimination match, which they do not normally do either. Either way, Jericho was eliminated first, followed by Orton, followed by HBK. So, there you have it, the worst possible match is set for Royal Rumble with JBL and Cena. I really hope they prove me wrong but usually having JBL involved in a match typically means a snooze-fest will occur.

Other happenings from RAW: Orton gave each member of his group, Legacy, a chance to prove themselves. Either win or you’re out. Sim Snuka (who is apparently a part of the group now) defeated SuperHaas (Charlie Haas mascarading as “Superfly”), Rhodes somehow managed to defeat Punk via countout and Manu ended up on the losing end of things to ECW Champion Matt Hardy. If we’re lucky, this gets blandy mcblanderson, Manu, off of television. Seeing as Orton also lost, I’m guessing Manu will use this as an excuse to stay apart of the group.

John Cena, Cryme Tyme, Rey Mysterio and Kofi Kingston defeated Mike Knox, The In Crowd, Dolph Ziggler and Kane in what Cena described as a match that would CHANGE THE WORLD. Interesting. Also, Melina won a 6-diva battle royal to get the right to challenge Beth Phoenix at Royal Rumble. I actually think that the Women’s division on RAW is actually pretty decent; if only Trish would return full time (one can dream).

ECW results: The greatest announce team in WWE at the moment is actually the best part of this weekly program. Striker is far and away the best color commentator WWE has had in years, YEARS I tell you! They made a match between DJ Gabriel and ECW’s newest addition, Paul Burchill, entertaining. Matt Hardy defeated Mark Henry in what I hope is their LAST MATCH TOGETHER. In the main event of the program, The In Crowd took on the ridiculous team of The Boogeyman (who for some reason never bores me) and Finlay. Miz and Morrison walked away with the victory but suffered an attack after the match was over. I actually don’t even remember Boogeyman getting tagged in at any point. That’s okay; they’re just biding their time until the greatest tag team of all time is formed. Boogey-dust!

On Smackdown this week, The Hardy’s reunited to take on the team of Edge and The Big Show. Surprisingly, this match went over twenty minutes and was actually pretty good. This being the first time both Hardy’s tagged as world champions; I suppose it was meant to be pretty significant. In other news, Triple H made fun of Mrs. Edge thus causing her to put him in the first ever “triple jeopardy” match next week on Smackdown. Triple H will win; I hope I didn’t spoil it for anyone.

In an attempt to redeem themselves by making us all suffer with the RAW main event at the Royal Rumble; Smackdown has added a potential classic as their main event. That’s right; WWE Champion Jeff Hardy will defend against challenger Edge! I’m all for this match but I was kind of hoping Edge would win the Royal Rumble. However, you never know. The Brian Kendrick and his partner Ezekiel Jackson defeated Biscuits & Gravy in a #1 contenders match for the WWE tag team championship. Next week, they face the Colon’s (who, might I add, have done a terrible job defending the titles). Kizarny debuted and silenced a crowd who seemed to have no enthusiasm towards the Karny as he trumped poor, poor MVP. Finally, Hurricane Helms was destroyed by Kozlov in a one on one bout.

They mentioned the first 5 participants for the Royal Rumble as well. Benjamin, Triple H, Kozlov, Big Show and Undertaker were announced as the first 5. I’m not really sure who the odd on favorite this year is, however, it’s always a safe bet to go with Triple H.

WWE DVD Review - Edge: A Decade of Decadence

2009-01-01T16:46:00.000-08:00

Thanks for checking out our review for Edge: A Decade of Decadence 3 disc DVD collection!

Adam Copeland has spent the better part of the last ten years as an active member of World Wrestling Entertainment and why not? He was voted by his peers in high school as “Most Likely To Win The World Wrestling Federation Championship”. During his time in World Wrestling Entertainment, Copeland brought us the memorable character, Edge. As Edge, he has achieved just about anything any given performer can achieve in the business. A combined 24 title reigns as well as a King of the Ring tournament victory and the inaugural “Money In The Bank” match winner, Edge has earned his spot in history. So, I guess this qualifies the man for a DVD release.

With “Edge: A Decade of Decadence”, WWE takes the popular route of a match by match collection with short segments in between with the superstar in question rather than the standard documentary with bonus matches. I would have preferred the latter but this set still ends up with more “pros” then “cons”.

I do really enjoy how the DVD is laid out. Matches are grouped in sections of 2 or 3 with “trailers” preceeding them, either informing you of the history behind the encounters or signs of what is yet to come in the career of Edge.

One of the cons would be the lack of special features. Granted, “The Totally Awesome Best of Edge & Christian” feature contained on disc 1 is a great 5 minute video package showing off some of the best backstage skits and promos from arguably the greatest tag team of the attitude era. Other than that, there are two bonus matches, featuring Edge and Matt Striker on commentary. First up is a match between Copeland and Christian (Edge’s first WWE match) and a match from a WWE house show in 1999 where Edge wins his first Intercontinental Championship. I do see the value in these matches as they are important to the man’s career but it would be nice to see some interviews or some career stories as bonus material as well. I suppose they’re saving that for the next Edge collection?

I will say this; the matches contained on this set are mostly all great choices. Matches that I had either forgot about or had underappreciated in their initial showing. His best matches are against some of the most talented workers in the industry. Kurt Angle brought out the best in Edge, as did Eddie Guerrero and either of the Hardy’s. Other matches are poor choices, like either his encounters with Randy Orton or a painfully boring match with Kane (important only for the relationship with Lita taking form).

Overall, it’s a set that has been over 10 years in the making. I would have liked a documentary but I still enjoyed the set nonetheless. Ric Flair didn’t get the documentary treatment until his second DVD release, so there’s always hope. I’m sure that with the direction Copeland is taking in this industry, it will only be a matter of time before another collection is released.

Top Ten Tuesday -- Top Ten DVDs of 2008

2008-12-30T06:51:00.001-08:00

So, it’s the last Tuesday of 2008 and therefore, the last Top Ten Tuesday of 2008. I counted down the Top Ten Superstars and the Top Ten Matches. I tried to come up with another Top Ten year ending list of sorts and I thought of something. I’m a big DVD collector of sorts, so I thought I’d enjoy creating this list.

10. The Rock: The Most Electrifying Man In Sports Entertainment – I was a little reluctant to put this on here but with the inclusion of The Rock’s greatest promos it makes the list. The matches are broken up with lame video recaps featuring nothing new from Dwayne Johnson. It’s sort of like when your favorite band has a “greatest hits” record released from their label without any authorization or without any involvement. It would have been so much better with some interviews with “The Great One.”

09. WrestleMania XXIV (Blu-Ray) – WWE’s first release into the Blu-Ray category, WrestleMania XXIV comes to us in glorious HD. This is basically the only reason it gets on the list, the special features are certainly lacking. They haven’t really put a lot of effort into the annual WWE extravaganza since WrestleMania XX back in 2004.

08. The Life & Legacy of Stone Cold Steve Austin – Steve Austin is a man who can probably boast the most DVD collections of any Superstar with 4 in total! However, WWE keeps putting them out and people keep buying them. There are certainly a lot of great matches on here including his overlooked Survivor Series 1996 encounter with Bret Hart. Excellent buy for any fan of The Rattlesnake.

07. Triple H: The King of Kings – Triple H hasn’t had a DVD set since 2002 when “The Game” was released. A poor and lackluster single disc DVD collection (a great documentary), The Game featured only ONE bonus match and nothing else. With The King of Kings, Triple H returns with a 2-Disc set (which could easily be 3) broken up only by matches and no real documentary. Why is this not higher? One reason; a match with Marc Mero.

06. The Complete Summerslam Anthology – The only thing remaining now is Survivor Series (and perhaps a King of the Ring) with this stellar twenty disc collection. This is the only DVD on this list that I have not purchased or watched but to be fair, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen all twenty Summerslams (plus 1).

05. Viva La Raza: The Legacy of Eddie Guerrero– One of the greatest in ring performers of all time and having what is arguably the greatest match in the HISTORY of WCW (mask vs. title against Rey Mysterio in 1997) makes you a man worthy of two great DVD collections! Guerrero has had great matches against many different opponents and can work many styles. Some of his best matches are on this set including his No DQ encounter with Edge on a random episode of Smackdown in 2002.

04. Nature Boy Ric Flair: The Definitive Collection -- This wasn’t really needed but it’s Flair, so…it’s still great. This has a ton of Flair’s whimsical promos from over the years as well as some overlooked matches not included on The Four Horsemen set and then “Ultimate Ric Flair Collection”. Flair never gets old and I would probably buy another set from the “dirtiest player in the game”.

03. The Life and Times of Mr. Perfect – Mr. Perfect is a man who some people probably thought would go without a DVD set but that’s not saying this was not deserved. Hennig had a long and illustrious career over his years in AWA, WWE and WCW spanning three decades and several championships. One of the greatest wrestlers to never hold the WWE Championship, Hennig made his mark on the Intercontinental Championship and through entertaining mic work and great non-title matches with some of the best workers in the business. His great King of the Ring match with Hart might have been left off but you can still find some great moments on this set.

02. Edge: A Decade of Decadence – This is a DVD that feels like it’s been long overdue. However, it made sense to wait at least ten years in order to truly get a great Edge set. My only complaint about this set is that it’s really lacking in the special features department. I really would have preferred a documentary set with bonus matches but I’m certainly not going to complain about having an Edge set. I’ll have more on this set when I review it this week.

01. Twist of Fate: The Matt and Jeff Hardy Story – The Hardy’s had a great release a few years ago during the height of their career but SO much has happened since then in their singles careers, especially Matt. A lot of Jeff’s disc concentrated on his personal life as it was unable to cover his years in TNA (obviously), which was sort of uninteresting, surprisingly. Matt’s disc was the better of the two, covering the Lita/Edge stuff that happened in the summer of 2005 as well as his classic V-1 stuff from 2002/2003. Matt really needs to find an attitude like that again, at least in my opinion.

So, that’s the Top Ten of 2008! 2009 looks to be a banner year as well with upcoming releases chronicalling Starrcade and Saturday Night’s Main Event. Also, do not forget to look out for the 3 disc Legends of Wrestling TV Show DVD collection!

Delayed..

2008-12-28T12:48:00.000-08:00

I never wanted it to come to this but I need to skip this weeks recap. Christmas sort of got in the way. Top Ten Tuesday will be up on Tuesday as usual. Not sure what exactly I'm going to count down, I have a few ideas. Also, I will have a review up this week as well for the new Edge DVD, "A Decade of Decadence"!

See you all on Tuesday!

Top Ten Tuesday -- Top Ten Superstars of 2008!

2008-12-23T22:17:00.001-08:00

It’s the second last Tuesday of 2008 and as promised, this week’s edition of Top Ten Tuesday will feature the Top Ten Superstars of 2008. This should be a pretty easy list to come up with as we’ve had a lot of superstars excel in 2008! However, it’s pretty rare but only one rookie managed to make the list.

10. Evan Bourne – What can you say about a guy who is easily one of the most exciting young talents to emerge in WWE since Brock Lesnar? Granted, it’s hard to compare those two when you factor in their in ring styles but hopefully someone can appreciate the comparison. Also, factor in that Bourne received the prestigious “match of the year” award from The Knee Lift!

09. Kofi Kingston – It certainly was a breakout year for the young superstar capturing both an Intercontinental Championship and a World Tag Team Championship. Kofi Kingston is a talented worker and fun to watch. Now, if only Michael Cole would stop using the term “controlled frenzy” we’d be much better off.

08. Shawn Michaels – Hey, why not? It’d be hard to put Jericho on this list without the man who helped raise him to permanent main event status in 2008. Michaels had another career year, competing in untouchable matches with Jericho while delivering some of the most spirited and emotional promos in years. The man is showing no signs of slowing down.

07. The Undertaker – Like Edge, Undertaker competed in Hell in a Cell and TLC. Not only that, Undertaker also competed in cage matches and casket matches. The man won his 6th Heavyweight Championship and had his most interesting feud in years with Edge. Not bad for a guy at age 43.

06. John Morrison & The Miz – Yes! A tie entry! The first time ever! Miz & Morrison held BOTH tag team championships this year and won TWO slammy awards. One of which was for the top web show on WWE.com with The Dirt Sheet, the other, you guessed it, tag team of the year. You can’t argue with the facts presented to you.

05. Matt Hardy & Jeff Hardy – The second ever tie! Makes sense to have both Hardy’s on the list. Both Hardy’s captured their first World Championship (ECW is one of the “big three”) and Matt also captured his first singles title since the Cruiserweight Championship nearly 5 years ago. It certainly was a banner year for V One-uhhhh!

04. CM Punk – Punk won the Money In The Bank match this year which pretty much guarantees you a World Championship or WWE Championship reign as every person who has cashed in the briefcase, walked out with the title after the match. Punk held on to the title for the better part of three months and reached levels of popularity most guys on the roster can only dream of.

03. Randy Orton – Randy Orton kicked off 2008 as WWE Champion and headlined most PPV’s from January to June before suffering an awful collarbone injury and becoming sidelined until October. Orton had a great match with Hardy at the 2008 Royal Rumble, competed and won the RAW main event at WrestleMania 24 and was easily the most popular non-active on screen personality in WWE during his off-time as it was rare to not hear loud pops preceding his entrance.

02. Edge – To the best of my knowledge, other than the initial undisputed champions, no man has won both the World Heavyweight Championship and the WWE Championship in one year. Edge is also the first man to compete in both a TLC match and a Hell In A Cell match in one year as well (but I guess you could say The Undertaker was as well as he was also involved in those matches…burn).

01. Chris Jericho – This was also an easy pick. It didn’t happen until about mid-way through 2008 but it certainly picked up for Jericho in an impressive fashion. The man accomplished more in about 6 months than most performers accomplish in a full year. Jericho put on consistent 5 star matches with Shawn Michaels, won two World Heavyweight Championships, an Intercontinental Championship and was in the main event for 5 straight PPV’s. Not bad.

Weekly Recap - December 22nd, 2008

2008-12-22T06:31:00.000-08:00

Hey folks, time for a weekly recap of the week that was in World Wrestling Entertainment. I swear, someday I will get into TNA and start posting that as well. However, it doesn’t appear that a whole lot of people come here and no one has really posted anything declaring their disappointment for a lack of TNA…so I’m not all that worried.

RAW this week emanated from the steel city, Pittsburg! I just want to mention that I’m not a fan of Kane, I’m sure you all know that. This week’s stuff with Kelly Kelly was unbearable, I mean, is there any reason to continue doing things like this with Kane? Two weeks ago, didn’t Kane go on about how he loves the fans? Now he’s stalking with the intention of doing horrible, awful things to Kelly squared? I suppose the real question is who is Kelly dating and why should anyone care? Or is she dating anyone? Why is this taking centre stage? Too many questions!

Deuce ‘dropped a deuce’ when he dropped his ‘stage name’ and informed us all that he’s really the son of legendary hall of famer Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka. I was almost certain this was common knowledge; it felt very anticlimactic, like it felt when it was revealed that Brie Bella had a twin sister. After Snuka lost to Rey Mysterio, Mike Knox walked about and annihilated Mysterio again. I’m not sure where they’re going with this but I like it. Knox looks like a total badass and his finishing move is pretty darn impressive.

Chris Jericho was apparently supposed to compete against ‘Old Yeller’ Jim Duggan but refused to due to the fact that competing against Jim Duggan is apparently embarrassing. I can’t imagine why it would be embarrassing competing against a man who once claimed to win a championship after finding it in a garbage can? I’m a little curious as to see what Cryme Tyme is going to do with Duggan, it looked almost like they were going to put him out of his misery but I can almost guarantee he’ll be coming back next week all pimped out and what not. Hooray.

Finally, in the main event, Randy Orton’s group “Legacy” competed against Batista and Cena in a 2 on 3 handicapped match. “Legacy” somehow managed to lose but it didn’t seem to matter as the clear objective was to “take out Cena and Batista” and take them out they did! Orton punted Batista’s great big bald head and left him in some sort of seizure. Apparently, he’s going to sell this injury as he’s not even going to appear on “WWE’s Holiday Bash” this weekend on “The Score” here in Canada.

Over on ECW this week, Finlay defeated Gavin Spears in a solid match up. Finlay looks to be finding his stride in ECW since arriving there during WWE’s annual draft special back in the summer. One good thing about the brand split (which is nearly 7 years old now, crazy) is that it’s really given room for Superstars to grow and excel whereas it would not have been possible on a show populated by a small group of main eventers and consistent mid-carders. Guys like Finlay take that opportunity and run with it.

Matt Hardy walked out on ECW and congratulated his brother Jeff on his WWE Championship victory. Poor, Poor Matt, I don’t remember Jeff coming out on Smackdown and addressing Matt’s big ECW Championship win? Chavo walked out and challenged Matt to an ECW Championship match, Matt accepted. Matt defeated Chavo.

In the main event of the evening, we saw six man tag action in the form of The In Crowd teaming with Jack Swagger against Kofi Kingston, CM Punk and The Big “O” Ricky Ortiz. Man, I have an extreme dislike for both Swagger and Ortiz…I’m not really sure why, I just do. It was nice seeing Kofi and Punk return to ECW but does it really matter? Guys can go on which ever show they want really. Swagger picked up the win for his team delivering a gut wrench powerbomb to Mr. Ortiz.

Over on the vastly superior show, Smackdown, we witnessed Jeff Hardy’s first public address as WWE Champion. There certainly was a lot of hoorah and ballyhoo with confetti flying everywhere and pyro exploding everything in sight! Edge played the role of the party pooper but was shortly accosted by the new champ as he was dropped with a twist of fate.

The altercation between Jeff and Edge directly led to Vickie Guerrero making a match between longtime rivals Edge and the ECW Champion, Matt Hardy. In what was easily the match of the night, Edge pulled out a hard fought victory. If I hadn’t already made my top ten list for matches of the year already, this would have been a contender.

MVP continued his losing streak, losing in a tag team match alongside Shelton Benjamin against R-Truth and Hurricane Helms. I’m a pretty big fan of The Hurricane, at least his older stuff, when he was a superhero. He’s a perfect combination of a character who knows he is not to be taken lightly yet has fun while he’s at it, which is good as I did not really like the “super serious” Gregory Helms. Weird.

Jeff Hardy met the Moscow Mauler in the main event and scoring a DQ win in the process. HHH entered and just had to get himself some of Kozlov. Kozlov is not great by any means. I was a fan of the guy when he was coming in and destroying people…then, he had a match on a PPV. The stuff he did with HHH at the Survivor Series was just lame. I hope it’s not just me but that match certainly was not the most entertaining match on the card to say the least. I think it’s because I mostly hate “The Bearhug”.

In other Smackdown action, Morrison defeated Festus using the same trick he’s used for the past 3 weeks. Can you blame him? It works, I guess. Ezekiel Jackson steamrolled over Carlito in a squash match. Way to build up your Tag Team Champions, WWE. I’m pretty sure Carlito had the pleasure of a “currently in the ring” introduction and he also didn’t even have his tag title on him. Maurice defeated Maria in a match to find out who has a shot at that Barbie accessory someone calls a championship. Let’s hope she brings the championship back to Nouveau Brunswick!

One last night, I did manage to miss Tribute to the Troops for the 6th consecutive time bringing my grand total to seeing approximately zero episodes. So, I will not be covering that this week. I think it only had two matches anyway and an introduction by Bush and that’s not the rock band folks.

Merry Christmas!

Classic Rivalry - The Undertaker vs. Kane

2008-12-18T06:46:00.000-08:00

I can’t even believe I’m going to attempt this. This week’s Classic Rivalry is between “brothers” Undertaker and Kane.

It was 1997; The Undertaker had been embroiled in a feud with Shawn Michaels following HBK’s actions which had led to Undertaker losing his 2^nd WWE Championship. After months of brutal brawls, it led us to October 5^th where Michaels and Undertaker met in the very first Hell in a Cell match. In the weeks leading to the anticipated bout, Undertaker’s former manager Paul Bearer had been advertising the debut of ‘Taker’s long lost brother, Kane. Speculation had been running wild that Kane would show up during the heavily hyped contest, and show up he did! Kane waltzed out with Bearer in a full body spandex red and black get up, tore the seemingly “untearable” door off its hinges, walked into the structure and proceeded to explode the ring posts and destroy the Undertaker. All of this led to a win for ol’ HBK and the rivalry between the brothers would ignite.

Taking a page out of the Bret/Owen book from a few years back, Undertaker went on record saying he would never fight his own “flesh and blood” but just like Bret would do; he would go on to later retract that statement. As Kane persisted, Undertaker finally agreed to meet the man in one on one contest at WrestleMania XIV on March 29^th, 1998. Of course, it only took Kane locking The Undertaker in a casket and setting it on fire to make ‘Taker change his mind. Nothing like a good ol’ case of attempted murder!

After their infamous Wrestlemania match, Undertaker and Kane went on to compete in the first ever “inferno match” at In Your House: Unforgiven. In order to win this match, you had to set your opponent on fire. Yes, set them on fire. Undertaker was declared victorious after he, yes, set Kane on fire. In the weeks that followed, more of Kane’s back story would be revealed. Apparently, Paul Bearer was Kane’s REAL father and Undertaker and Kane were revealed to be half brothers. Kane and Bearer would go to ridiculous lengths to screw with The Undertaker on an episode of RAW by “digging up” The Undertaker’s dead parents and proceeding to chokeslam ‘Taker into their decayed caskets.

Now, around this time, Undertaker had made his intentions known in regards to the WWE Championship. Kane would win that coveted championship but only hold it for ONE day before losing it back to Steve Austin. Bound by a common interest, Undertaker and Kane formed an alliance to take down Steve Austin. However, it seemed to be short lived when Undertaker and Kane seemingly switched attitudes when ‘Taker sided with Bearer and Kane became embraced by the fans. This led to Kane interfering with The Undertaker’s Buried Alive match with Steve Austin during 1998’s last PPV, “Rock Bottom”.

Shortly after, Undertaker reinvented himself as a much darker version of his character. He formed a stable of misfits he named “The Ministry of Darkness” and began cite scripture and perform satanic rituals. Kane on the other hand, was forced to align with Mr. McMahon because he had threatened to lock Kane up in the Insane Asylum yet again (this completely ignores the fact that Kane supposedly had a teenage relationship with high school hottie Katie Vick…someday I will attempt the Kane story, may God help us all).

Kane and Undertaker would go their separate ways for a while due mostly to the fact that Undertaker took a leave of absence but upon returning, formed a tag team in mid-2000. This led to an argument as well as a few differences which in turn led to another match at Summerslam 2000. Kane would lose the match via count out when Undertaker would remove Kane’s mask causing him to “flee the scene”. The two would go their separate ways yet again, forming a tag team known as “The Brother’s of Destruction” about a year later; capturing the WCW Tag Team Championship and the WWE World Tag Team Championship.

A feud would be reignited one last time when for whatever reason, Undertaker lost his “Buried Alive” match against Mr. McMahon at Survivor Series 2003 due to outside interference from Kane. This set up the meeting between Kane and Undertaker at WrestleMania XX. Heavily hyped as Undertaker’s return to the character that made him famous, Kane and Undertaker had a lackluster match at the annual extravaganza, effectively putting an end to their one on one feud.

I think that’s it.

Top Ten Tuesday - Top Ten Matches of 2008

2008-12-16T06:28:00.000-08:00

I took some time off; things were pretty busy around here. So, I have returned with Top Ten Tuesday. There are approx. 3 Tuesday’s remaining in 2008. I have decided that this week, we will count down the top ten matches of 2008! Next week, Top Ten Superstars of 2008 and on the final Tuesday; the Top Ten Moments of 2008. So, without further adieu, let’s get started!

10. Edge vs. The Undertaker (Hell In A Cell – Summerslam: August 17^th, 2008) – I was skeptical about putting this match on here as I don’t really remember it being all that great (at least in comparison to other HIAC matches). This isn’t to say it is a bad match; it was certainly a great way to end that fantastic feud. You’ve got to give it to The Undertaker, with reports coming in that “The Dead Man” is nearing the end of his career and his constant battle with injuries he still lays it all on the line and competes at the level that a main-event player of his status no longer needs to.

09. Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho (World Heavyweight Championship – No Mercy: October 5^th, 2008) – Jericho and Michaels were supposed to have what was billed as the “ultimate ladder match”. Both men have been known to have mastered the art of ladder matches (I’ll leave that up for discussion) and the anticipation was at a very high level. Jericho and Michaels tore each other apart with Jericho leaving without half of his front tooth. When it was all said and done, Jericho won.

08. Shawn Michaels vs. Ric Flair (Career Threatening Match – WrestleMania 24: March 30^th, 2008) – Ric Flair’s final match was one of the better ones he’s had in the last 3 to 4 years. It’s a shame it had less to do with Flair and more to do with Michaels. Flair might have started to show his age over the last few years but he can still pull out great matches every now and then, which is more than about 50% of the roster can say.

07. Randy Orton vs. Jeff Hardy (WWE Championship – Royal Rumble: January 27^th, 2008) – This was the match that showed WWE fans that Jeff Hardy belonged in the WWE Championship picture. Hardy and Orton put on a stellar 5 star match that had the audience believing that at any moment Hardy could walk out of the PPV with the championship. It was not until Orton dropped Hardy with an impromptu RKO that Orton walked out with the championship.

06. Jeff Hardy vs. Shawn Michaels (RAW: February 11^th, 2008) – The battle of HBK and Hardy was certainly a dream match for some. Constant comparisons of Jeff Hardy to Shawn Michaels have been thrown around the last few years; people calling Hardy “the next Shawn Michaels”. Hardy pulled out the victory in an excellent match; one of the best encounters of the year.

05. CM Punk vs. John Morrison vs. MVP vs. Chris Jericho vs. Shelton Benjamin vs. Carlito (Money In The Bank Ladder Match – WrestleMania 24: March 30^th, 2008) – Granted, the Money in the Bank ladder matches are getting a bit formulaic over the last few years, however, that did not stop a lot of the innovation on display in this year’s match. Watching Benjamin fall off the ladder and through… ANOTHER LADDER was certainly amazing to say the least.

04. Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels (Unsanctioned Street Fight – Unforgiven: September 7^th, 2008) – Jericho and Michaels would clash several times over the course of 2008 but this would be the best showcase of them all. Jericho would take the beating of a lifetime in this match but come out on top persevering in the main event of the evening, taking home the World Heavyweight Championship.

03. Edge vs. The Undertaker (World Heavyweight Championship – One Night Stand: June 01^st, 2008) – What a match. I didn’t see this until recently but it was one of the standout matches of 2008 in a year with three different types of ladder matches. Pretty impressive. Undertaker took a nasty bump, falling through a barrage of wooden tables and losing the match but gaining even more respect (if that’s possible) in the process.

02. Triple H vs. Jeff Hardy (WWE Championship – No Mercy: October 5^th, 2008) – Jeff Hardy came *this close* to winning the WWE Championship on this night. About a year ago, I remember saying that I thought Hardy and Triple H had next to no chemistry in the ring. They certainly proved me wrong this year, especially in this outing.

01. Rey Mysterio vs. Evan Bourne (RAW 800^th episode celebration: October 27^th, 2008) – This match single handedly proves that Rey Mysterio should work with guys more his size as he and Bourne went on to steal the show that night. Stealing the show is something I’ve had a hard time saying about Mysterio in the last few years which is kind of sad as he’s much better than he’s been.

News..

2008-12-15T06:37:00.000-08:00

So, The Knee Lift is not dead, I simply took a week off, I guess.

Top Ten Tuesday will be up tomorrow, Classic Rivalry on Thursday.

Sorry for the delay, had a busy week with my actual job.

Delayed

2008-12-10T06:35:00.000-08:00

Hey folks, sorry I didn't post Top Ten Tuesday yesterday. It gets pretty crazy this time of year with the holidays and whatnot. I meant to post it last night but we had a huge snow storm in our area and I did not return from the day job until very late in the evening. I will try to post a few things this week and get everything back on track.

Weekly Recap - December 7th, 2008

2008-12-07T10:31:00.000-08:00

So, here we are again, its weekly recap time! The biggest story of the week isn’t John Cena suffering a vicious beat down on RAW at the hands of Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes and Manu. No, No, NO! The biggest story of the week was the mind-blowing debut of Dolph Ziggler! Ziggler debuted this week against “The Animal” Batista. Get this; Ziggler mounted some offense and what offence it was! Sadly, Batista took the victory, handing Ziggler his first loss on Monday Night RAW.

I might as well talk about the Cena and Jericho stuff. Cena took on the monster Kane in a match that has never occurred (to the best of my knowledge). Cena picked up the victory in a forgettable match but was destroyed by Jericho, Orton, Rhodes and Manu afterwards as he was locked in the backbreaking “Liontamer” (not the Walls of Jericho). It was one of the better images broadcast from WWE in the last year. I’m not really sure why Jericho was screaming “Ask ‘em” over and over again; maybe he was on cruise control?

JBL came to the ring and extended the offer to loveable ol’ HBK again. However, this week we were privy to the details. Apparently HBK squandered his money in the stock market and lost everything in some shady investing. I have a hard time believing this. HBK is probably making thousands upon thousands a week working for WWE. Hell, the person who main events WrestleMania each year gets over $1 million. It’s ridiculous to expect someone who is situated so well within the business to actually be broke. Meh, it’s only a storyline, so I suppose I can suspend my belief. However, it does not excuse JBL from being on television.

RAW notes: The Slammy Awards are set to take place tomorrow night on RAW. Stay tuned to our special Slammy Awards preview post where The Knee Lift will make their choices based on the categories given by World Wrestling Entertainment. Santino continued to be comedy gold this week as he attempted Melina’s provocative entrance after she picked up the win over Jillian. Hilarity ensued. The WWE World Tag Team Champions defeated Rhodes and Manu in a tag team match where the titles were not on the line. Non-title matches bother me so much. Punk and Kofi have been champions for a few weeks now and have yet to defend them on television. Mike Knox “knox-ed” Rey Mysterio off the entrance ramp in something that looked unintentionally hilarious. I couldn’t help but laugh. Mysterio still came from behind in his match against The Miz; picking up the victory and advancing in the tournament. Speaking of the Intercontinental Championship Tournament, Morrison knocked off Finlay to advance as well; he’ll take on Punk next week in the semi finals.

Over on ECW, the best rivalry of 2007 was revisited with Matt Hardy taking on Smackdown’s Most Valuable Player, MVP. The two had an excellent back and forth match with Hardy taking the hard fought victory. These two should compete against each other more often; it’d lead to some incredible bouts. However, look for Hardy to defend against Kozlov at Armageddon, I just have feeling.

Swagger took on “The Big O” Ricky Ortiz in a match so uninteresting; I’m surprised the show didn’t cancel itself. I dislike Jack Swagger so much its insane. I find the man ridiculously boring and shows no positional for a long stay. Ortiz is also boring but apparently is set to turn heel soon. Usually if someone I dislike turns heel, it no longer gives me a reason to hate him, and he’s already hated by everyone else so it can only mean that he can be entertaining.

DJ Gabriel defeated local athlete get again, will he ever learn? Finally, Finlay accepted Mark Henry’s ridiculous request for a tag team match between Henry himself and his tag team partner, Tony Atlas, and Finlay and his son, Hornswoggle.

Over on Smackdown this week, the show opened with the incredibly competitive match between Kung Funaki and Edge for believe it or not, the second time in 2008. Weird. Edge looked as if he could almost lose to Funaki but in the end delivered a punishing spear, eliminated Kung Funaki from action.

Later on in the evening, Jeff Hardy teamed with Triple H to compete in a tag team gauntlet match. Hardy and Triple H immediately disposed of the first team, Hawkins & Ryder with little to no effort. Miz and Morrison followed and picked up the victory after Hardy and Triple H self destructed into an explosion of anger. I’m a pretty big fan of this Hardy/Triple H business. This rivalry has been going for quite some time. They had their first big match last year at Armageddon, in an unimpressive debut. However, they’ve improved consistently over the last year.

The Undertaker and The Big Show met in the main event in a steel cage match. ‘Taker picked up the victory with a move that was banned from competition earlier in the year (go figure), “The Hell’s Gate”. FYI, the banned move in question is also nominated for a Slammy. Hopefully this ends this feud. I really don’t think they should have pinfall and submission rules implemented into these matches, they’re screwing with tradition!

Hurricane Helms returned as what seems to be a mixture of gimmicks past and present. I think it works really well but the man needs new ring attire. He looks like someone JBL needs to help out; never mind Shawn Michaels. Helms defeated, you guessed it, MVP in a great match with an unresponsive crowd.

Smackdown notes: Maria defeated Michelle McCool in a non-title match. Again with the non-title matches?! McCool decided to find Maria backstage after the match and kick her in the stomach. Bitch. Matt Hardy picked up his second victory this week defeating Chavo Guererro in one on one action. Hardy suffered a beat down from the Moscow Mauler following his victory as retribution for costing Kozlov his chance at the WWE Championship the week before. Khali held his Kiss-Cam segment.

So, that’s all the news that’s fit to print.

Classic Rivalry - Razor Ramon vs. Shawn Michaels

2008-12-04T18:22:00.000-08:00

It’s that time again folks, time for another classic rivalry. It seems like Intercontinental Championship week around these parts. This time it’s between “The Bad Guy” Razor Ramon and “The Heart Break Kid” Shawn Michaels.

Razor Ramon, or Scott Hall, debuted in the fall of 1992 with weekly vignettes airing on WWE television advertising a new “Scarface-esque” character set to join the ranks of the World Wrestling Federation. Ramon quickly made an impact by attacking then WWE Champion Macho Man Randy Savage costing him his championship to the deceitful Ric Flair. Ramon would float around WWE throughout his first year until making a face turn following a series of events featuring the “1-2-3 Kid” and Ted DiBiase where Ramon gained support from the “WWE Universe” (groan).

Around the fall of 1993, Shawn Michaels (the then reigning Intercontinental Champion) was forced to relinquish his championship following a ridiculous turn of events involving figurehead president, Jack Tunney. Tunney claimed that Michaels had not defended his Championship in the allotted days specified in accordance to company policy; therefore, he was no longer Intercontinental Champion. A 20-man battle royale was held on RAW and the final two competitors would face off in a match the following week for the vacant title. Ramon would capture the championship and successfully defend it for several months.

Around the 1994 Royal Rumble, Shawn Michaels returned to WWE television, parading around with the Intercontinental Championship. How could this happen? Wasn’t Ramon the Intercontinental Champion? Michaels claimed that he had never lost the championship, that Ramon never defeated him. HBK mocked Ramon at every turn until Tunney was forced to make a decision over the rightful champion. It was decided that at WrestleMania X, Michaels and Ramon would meet in a ladder match to determine the undisputed Intercontinental Champion. You all know how a ladder match works right? Good, I didn’t want to have to explain it. Michaels and Ramon tore the house down that night in what was widely considered the match of the year. The match was so revolutionary that it was for the longest time the measuring stick for all ladder matches (until The Hardys and Edge & Christian obliterated it 5 years later) held in the future.

Michaels would lose that night but the feud was not yet over. A few short weeks following their epic encounter, Michaels would cost Ramon his championship in a defense against HBK’s bodyguard, Diesel. The feud was put on the backburner for the next year as Ramon and Michaels went their separate ways. Ramon would reach the finals of the 1994 King of the Ring, only to loose to Owen Hart but would win the Intercontinental Championship two more times making history as the first man to three reigns! Michaels would win the 1995 Royal Rumble and challenge Diesel in the main event of WrestleMania XI. Following WrestleMania, Michaels would take a turn in the eyes of the fans and became a revered underdog of sorts achieving massive popularity. Michaels and Ramon would meet again at Summerslam 1995 in a rematch to their wildly successful ladder match just a year and a half before. Some might consider it better than the first but the general consensus was that it failed to live up to the high expectations that people had set for it.

Top Ten Tuesday - Greatest Intercontinental Championship Matches

2008-12-02T06:53:00.000-08:00

In honor of WWE’s promotion of the History of the Intercontinental Championship DVD as well as the Intercontinental Championship tournament being held on RAW, The Knee Lift proudly presents the Top Ten Intercontinental Championship matches.

10. The Ultimate Warrior vs. Hulk Hogan – Intercontinental Championship vs. WWE Championship (WrestleMania VI) – For the first and only time in WWE’s history, The IC Championship was headlining WrestleMania. You could argue that the match was really either about who was better, Warrior or Hogan. You could also argue that this match was to symbolize the “changing of the guard” so to speak as Warrior looked to lead WWE into the future (a job in which he “ultimately” failed). However, this was an epic encounter that left Warrior as the first man to hold both the WWE Championship and the Intercontinental Championship at the same time.

09. Triple H vs. Jeff Hardy (Smackdown, April 2001) – Jeff Hardy had been mostly known as a tag team competitor; mastering the division with multiple reigns as a part of the Hardy Boyz. After suffering a beat down of epic proportions the night before at the hands of “The Two Man Power Trip”, Steve Austin and Triple H, Hardy earned a shot at The Game’s Intercontinental Championship. Hardy shocked the world when he achieved a pin fall following a swanton bomb. Hardy’s first reign would last roughly a week before losing it back to Triple H.

08. Marty Jannetty vs. Shawn Michaels – After having his share of problems and suffering through his second release from the company, Jannetty returned and ended Michaels’ seven month championship reign in an exciting match. In matches like this, you can really see Jannetty’s potential in the business; it’s a shame he had to throw it away, multiple times.

07. Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels – Ladder Match (Prime Time Wrestling) – The very first ladder match in WWE took place on a taped episode of WWE’s Prime Time Wrestling in which Hart defended the gold against a young Shawn Michaels. Michaels would go on to revolutionize this match and claim it as his own but we should recognize that it was Hart who brought the idea to WWE in the first place. To think where the match is today after watching this is just astounding.

06. British Bulldog vs. Bret Hart (Summerslam 1992) – British Bulldog captured the championship on his home soil in front of tens of thousands of screaming English residents in a classic match. Granted, Hart carried Bulldog throughout this match but it was one hell of a show.

05. Bret Hart vs. Mr. Perfect (Summerslam 1991) – Hart broke out of the tag team division and into the singles division with his first WWE singles championship acquisition. To think that Perfect walked into this match with an injured back and still performed at the level he did is just astounding.

04. Ricky Steamboat vs. “The Macho Man” Randy Savage (WrestleMania III) – In the era of the big man, Savage and Steamboat tore the house down with over a dozen near falls in an exciting one on one contest. Savage delivered one of the best promos of all time before taking the grandest stage of them all, “History Beckons The Macho Man!” Steamboat appeared as focused as ever and with a little help from George Steel, he claimed the championship!

03. Chris Jericho vs. Chris Benoit – Ladder Match (Royal Rumble 2001) – Another ladder match? It’s had to separate the Championship in question from ladder matches as the two are synomenus with one another. Not only is this a great championship contest but one of the greatest one on one ladder matches in history. Jericho came out on top in a classic match.

02. Bret Hart vs. Roddy Piper (WrestleMania XIII) – Roddy Piper and Bret Hart met for the first and only time in a classic encounter. In Hart’s biography, he spoke of how Vince was adamant about no longer introducing blood into the matches. Bret bled buckets from an apparent cheap shot from Piper early on in the bout. It was later revealed that Bret only made it appear as if it was an accident to fool McMahon in an effort to add drama to the match.

01. Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon – Ladder Match (WrestleMania X) – Was there any doubt that this would be #1? It was the first ladder match to be done on a large scale in WWE and was Michaels’ breakout performance as a singles star. HBK revolutionized the business by introducing a mainstream style of competition in an era that was mostly known for his ground-based and technical matches.

DVD Review: Bret Hart - The Best There Is, The Best There Was And The Best There Ever Will Be

2008-12-01T16:24:00.000-08:00

“I’m not greedy for money, I’m greedy for respect and after tonight, you will respect me.”

In 2005, WWE released a 3 disc set encompassing the legacy left behind by Bret “Hitman” Hart. A joint production of Bret Hart and World Wrestling Entertainment, differences were finally set aside to create this tremendous collection of matches as well as a lengthy documentary that takes you through Hart’s long and illustrious career.

The documentary, over two hours in length, takes you from his humble beginnings as the son of wrestling promoter Stu Hart to his first professional match to his years in World Wrestling Entertainment to his last days as a competitor in the fledging WCW. In the beginning stages of this DVD, it was rumored that Vince had wanted the title to be called “Screwed: The Bret Hart Story”. In an effort to stray from the nastiness of the past, Hart insisted that they concentrate on his career rather than the focal point of many discussions that was Survivor Series 1997.

Bret showed signs of negativity throughout the feature at various stages in his career, be it toward the incident in Montreal or the character of Shawn Michaels. However, Bret mostly came off as very appreciative towards all of his wrestling brethren throughout the years as well as those who helped him achieve success within the wrestling business.

Aside from the documentary, we have a large amount of bonus features ranging from bonus stories and promos to matches galore. Some of Bret’s best work is displayed on the second and third discs from classic bouts with greats such as Ricky Steamboat, “The British Bulldog” Davey Boy Smith, his brother Owen and “Mr. Perfect” himself, Curt Hennig. A personal favorite of mine is featured when Bret had put on a wrestling clinic at WrestleMania XIII with Steve Austin in a bloody and brutal “I Quit” match.

As a huge Hart fan, this set left me wanting more. Granted, a three disc set is sufficient for any casual WWE fan but for the hardcore fan, more is needed. The Bret Hart Story is a rich tale of triumph and tragedy which ultimately leaves you with the feeling that Hart is the kind of mat technician that should have his matches played in wrestling schools all over the world.

Weekly Recap - November 30th

2008-11-30T13:02:00.000-08:00

Another week, another recap of WWE action!

RAW returned to the airwaves with a new World Heavyweight Champion! That’s right folks, John Cena has returned. The problem is that we now need a new #1 contender. That problem was solved when Jericho won a triple threat match defeating Randall Orton and David Batista. We now have the logical rematch for the championship and its going to take place at Armageddon in just a few short weeks. Not a huge fan of their match from Survivor Series but I’m hoping they give a better performance at the pay-per-view.

Jericho was not done as he later served as Cena’s one man welcoming committee and stood in the ring ranting and raving about how he should be the World Heavyweight Champion and not Cena. Well, this didn’t please the Doctor of Thuganomics who stood proudly amongst a crowd of children. Cena walked down to the ring and cut a decent promo speaking about how he sticks up for those who cannot be stuck up for and that Jericho should stop bitching out the “WWE Universe”. Jericho, who became mighty irritated, blasted Cena with a barrage of insults. Cena decided that “enough was enough” and he lambasted Jericho right in his skull and proceeded to lay a beat down of epic proportions on “super serious” Chris Jericho. Not kidding, Cena nearly beat him within an inch of his life. Good for Cena, adds something different to his character, now he’s an uncontrollable maniac who hates name calling. Personally, I have no real problem with Cena and if they’re planning on doing something different with the character, then go for it.

What, an Intercontinental Championship tournament?? This is good news as I am a large fan of that championship. Granted in the last few years, the prestige that comes with winning the championship has gone downhill quite a bit. That might have something to do with how the company has changed their programming or it might have something to do with the fact that we now have 5 singles championships and 2 tag team championships floating around in the company. However, out of the 8 people they have competing for this championship shot; only 3 have ever held the title! If Scott Steiner has taught us anything that leaves us with 5 eighths of a chance someone new will be challenging Regal for the title! Kofi and Punk advanced this week the other two matches will take place next week!

Other RAW happenings: Both Melina and Goldust returned to action on RAW, each picking up a win! Melina led her team to victory in a 6 diva tag match and Goldust toppled the mighty Santino Marella! Has Goldust always had black ears? I just noticed them this week. Shawn Michaels and Rey Mysterio picked up the win against the In Crowd (who later went on to be the highlight of the week on Friday Night Smackdown). Afterwards, JBL saved HBK by destroying Morrison with a huge boot to the face. It was later revealed that it was because of an apparent deal made between Jibble and HBK that JBL saved Michaels.

Over on the “C” show, ECW, three matches took place. In the opening contest, Jack Swagger defeated his arch nemesis Tommy Dreamer in his own element, The Extreme Rules Match! Bah Gawd Kang, what an upset! The win came when Swagger “swaggered” his way to victory by putting Dreamer through a table via a gut-wrench(ing) swagger-bomb. It looks like he sent Dreamer to Dream-land. HA! In all honesty, it was an entertaining match; I tend to enjoy the odd ECW extreme rules match, makes for compelling television if done correctly.

The damn local athlete! The local athlete made his 3^rd appearance in less than two weeks with yet another loss to DJ Gabriel. “TLA”, as I like to call him, is truly an ironman of epic proportions.

Over on Smackdown, Edge returned with his newly won WWE Championship. Edge’s estranged wife (or current wife) announced that Kozlov, Hardy and Triple H would all compete in beat the clock challenges to see who faces Edge at Armageddon. Kozlov failed to beat the time set by Jeff Hardy with his big win of THE Brian Kendrick in 12 minutes; 13 seconds. It was all up to Triple H. Trips defeated Shelton Benjamin in EXACTLY the same time it took to defeat Hardy! WOW! Imagine that; what are the chances??

Jesse and Festus defeated Miz & Morrison in tag team action after Morrison was DQ’d for attacking Jesse on the outside. A helpless Festus could do nothing but look on after Morrison cleverly rang the bell thus deactivating him. Miz went on to do a hilarious side by side impression with Festus as Morrison rang the bell quickly, activating and deactivating the Corn-fed Colossus. Funny stuff.

The only other thing that occurred on Smackdown this week had one of the Bella girls defeating Diva’s Champion, Michelle McCool in 6 diva tag team action. I will still go onto say that the Diva’s Championship is the ugliest belt ever created. We need JBL to show back up on Smackdown and drop it into an exploding garbage can in the same fashion as Cena’s spinning US title.

Top Ten Tuesday - 10 Most Successful Returns To Action

2008-11-25T17:36:00.000-08:00

An athlete has been gone for several months/years, they are approaching their return, and will they be successful? Will the fans remember that performer? With Edge and John Cena returning at the Survivor Series and respectively capturing gold, The Knee Lift proudly counts down the top ten most successful returns to action.

10. Chris Jericho (RAW – November 19^th, 2007) – Can you crack the code? The second coming of Y2J Chris Jericho was upon us. Granted, the first few months back in WWE can be considered a letdown but the hype brought on by his return had everyone on the edge of their seats wondering when he’d be finally show up.

09. The Undertaker (WrestleMania XX vs. Kane) – Mr. McMahon claimed to have ended the phenomenal career of The Undertaker at the 2003 Survivor Series when he defeated him in a buried alive match (ridiculous concept by the way) with the help of The Undertaker’s brother, Kane. Mysterious promos started playing before WrestleMania XX when it was revealed that The Undertaker would make his return to his roots bringing back the incarnation of his character we all missed. Undertaker walked all over Kane for his second WrestleMania win against The Big Red Machine.

08. Bret “Hitman” Hart (Survivor Series 1996 vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin) – After suffering a depressing loss to Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania XII, Bret went on a brief hiatus protesting his loss. Bret had been gone for a total of 8 months before Steve Austin lured him back into the ring at the 1996 Survivor Series. The match was an instant classic with Bret achieving the victory by reversing the million dollar dream into a pin.

07. Kurt Angle (Vengeance 2003 vs. Brock Lesnar vs. The Big Show) – Kurt Angle had been suffering from a history of neck problems and in 2003 finally took the initiative to have surgery. It was experimental in a sense as it was not the normal procedure which lands a wrestler out of action for sometimes over a year; it was a relatively new technique. Angle returned just 3 short months later and recaptured his WWE Championship in a grueling bout with Brock Lesnar and The Big Show.

06. Hollywood Hogan (WrestleMania X8 vs. The Rock) – Hogan had been away from WWE programming for 9 years before returning at No Way Out 2002. Hogan’s first official one on one match back was against a legend in the making, The Rock. The two stole the show that night in the Skydome in front of over 60,000 fans achieving the ultimate in dream matches in the process.

05. John Cena (Royal Rumble 2008) – John Cena suffered a torn pectoral muscle back in October of 2007 in a match against Mr. Kennedy which led everyone to believe he’d be out for quite sometime. It was rather unfortunate as it ended Cena’s 13 month reign at the top of the RAW food chain as WWE Champion. In January at the 2008 Royal Rumble, we had all 29 guys enter with just one number left to be unveiled. That number 30 spot belonged to Cena. In a surprise turn of events, Cena walked into the ring and won the 2008 Royal Rumble.

04. Triple H (Royal Rumble 2002) – Triple H had been gone for 7 months rehabbing an injured quad muscle only to return and win the 2002 Royal Rumble. Just like Cena, this was Triple H’s first match back from injury and an impressive win at that. Triple H had a lower number than Cena so that is the only reason he ranks one notch above the Doctor of Thuganomics.

03. Edge (Survivor Series 2008 vs. Triple H vs. Vladimir Kozlov) – I know this happened on Sunday but it was basically the one that inspired the list to begin with. Edge returned after being destroyed by The Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell match a few months prior. Edge captured his 6^th World Championship by taking the spot of a conspicuously absent Jeff Hardy, picking the bones of Triple H and Vladimir Kozlov for the victory.

02. Shawn Michaels (SummerSlam 2002 vs. Triple H) – HBK had not competed in one on one competition in over 4 years since returning against former best friend, Triple H, at the 2002 SummerSlam. HBK and Triple H put on quite the show delivering the ultimate in comeback matches. Not only did HBK walk away with the victory but he showed no signs of ring rust in a fantastic return.

01. Ric Flair – On October 4^th, 1975, Ric Flair was involved in a plane crash in Wilmington, North Carolina. Flair had been told by doctors that he’d never wrestle again. This was 33 years ago. Flair just retired this year from an active schedule. I’m sure I’ve already said enough.

Weekly Recap - November 24th, 2008

2008-11-24T19:53:00.000-08:00

You will notice that the RAW recap is missing this week; I nixed it in favor of adding Survivor Series and the fact that I am watching RAW at the moment for this week. So it’d be a little strange to have last week’s RAW while you’ve all seen this week’s edition of RAW. Yeah. So, on with the recap!

On ECW last week, DJ Gabriel made his long awaited debut against “local athlete”. I like the way WWE’s website describes his opponent, it pretty much leaves it open for interpretation. Is he a local hockey player? A basketball player? Is he a master of croquet? Who knows? Either way, he lost.

Jack Swagger defeated Tommy Dreamer in a one on one amateur wrestling match because Tommy Dreamer broke the rules! He decided he would rather issue a painful “Dreamer DDT” then compete within Swagger’s rules. Which means that this feud is still NOT over, next week, we see an ECW Extreme Rules match. Hopefully it is interesting.

The main event of the evening was a 6 man tag match between the team of Mark Henry, Cody Rhodes and William Regal and the team of Kofi Kingston, Matt Hardy and Finlay. Interesting enough, this was intended to be a preview of Survivor Series, yet Finlay was no where within the original match. Weird. Either way, Henry squashed Kofi for the win.

On Smackdown we saw the insanity of Jeff Hardy rear its ugly head yet again as he wore painted on sunglasses, which I STILL thought were sunglasses despite being told they weren’t. I’ll have to admit, I do enjoy the “tweener” version of Jeff Hardy, and I prefer characters that perform in more of a grey area, which explains my fandom for Steve Austin. Jeff Hardy defeated Triple H to earn his entrance into the triple threat match at the 22^nd annual Survivor Series.

Undertaker supposedly read The Big Show his last rites. I didn’t watch this as it happened as I had no interest in a promo being the main event of anything. Big Show showed up and interrupted ‘Taker but left alone when Vickie was shoved into a casket, followed by Chavo who received a chokeslam for his trouble.

The local athlete had his revenge this week on Smackdown for the loss of his “brother” to DJ whats-his-name on ECDub. He rolled up the consistent loser MVP and stole a victory due to the distraction from the Punjabi Playboy. Barry Horowitz shed a tear.

Also on Smackdown this week, Matt Hardy and R-Truth defeated Shelton Benjamin and Mark Henry in an “okay” match. I can’t get enough of that insane twirling clothesline that R-Truth somehow manages to do. The Brie Bella twins defeated The Anvil’s offspring and Victoria in a tag team match. The In Crowd nabbed a win over Jesse and Festus with a genius move by Morrison, who would have ever though about ringing the bell mid match to cause Festus to zone out? I hope everyone does this now. Makes you wonder if Festus ever freaks out backstage when he hears the bell in the ring? Maybe he wears earmuffs. I hate non-title matches; they should have just given The Brian Kendrick and Jackson the titles since they scored the win.

Survivor Series took place last night and it was a pretty great event. Let me give you the quick rundown.

Team HBK scored the win over Team JBL in an entertaining opening matchup as Rey Mysterio, The Great Khali and Shawn Michaels outlasted the other team to be declared the sole survivors. The highlight of this match? MVP actually got a pin fall. He only eliminated one of the members of Cryme Tyme, which isn’t really much of an achievement but for MVP, it is.

Team RAW took the victory over Team Smackdown in the 10 Diva tag team match in what must be going down as the longest Divas match in WWE history. Beth Phoenix led her team to victory in a surprisingly decent match, which is really better than I thought considering I had the lowest of the low expectations.

Team Orton defeated Team Batista making Orton 3 and 1 in Survivor Series matches. Pretty impressive. He delivered one of the best looking RKOs in recent memory that had almost everyone standing in the vicinity. Orton is probably the hottest character in the company now (and I don’t mean physically...pfft) and is getting cheers despite being a total jerk. I love watching Batista lose, I never get tired of it.

The Big Show suffered a loss to The Undertaker in a different casket match. I appreciate the fact that they changed things up a little from a match that is mostly boring and a strange concept. It sure was funny watching Big Show fly into the casket and see it fall to the ground.

John Cena returned and won the World Heavyweight Championship from super serious Jericho in an underwhelming match. Everyone and their dog knew Cena was walking away with that title; it would have been confusing if he had lost. I did like the fact that Cena seemed to second guess himself a lot when going for that top rope maneuver.

Vladimir Kozlov and Triple H put on a terrible match before Vickie Guerrero showed up and threw Edge in the match. The story was that Jeff Hardy had been incapacitated in his hotel room earlier in the day due to a shot in the back of the head with a “blunt” object. I have to admit, I had my theories of a sledgehammer. Meh, you win some and you lose some. Edge returning was the highlight of the night, I was very pleased.

Edge Returns!

2008-11-24T06:46:00.000-08:00

We here at The Kneelift (snazzy new name by the way) try to remain impartial when reporting the news or providing you, the valued reader, interesting and informative articles.

However, sometimes we show favoritism above other performers. What can I say, we can't control it.

Therefore, The Kneelift fully endorses the return of The Rated R Superstar, Edge (and his beard) to regular WWE programming.

By the by, I know I said last week that I would not be late with posts anymore but I was late. Tonight will be the recap update. However, I had a good reason, I wanted to include the 2008 Survivor Series as well. Also, Top Ten Tuesday will be right on schedule tomorrow.

The 22nd annual Survivor Series! Preview!

2008-11-23T15:20:00.000-08:00

The 22^nd annual Survivor Series PPV takes place tonight and in the grand tradition of the last 21 (aside from the 1991 PPV) we will see some 5 on 5 tag team elimination matches.

Team HBK (Shawn Michaels, Rey Mysterio, Cryme Tyme and The Great Khali) vs. Team JBL (JBL, MVP, The In Crowd and Kane) – This match has a lot going for it with some great participants, however, the possibility of some boring ring time devoted to Khali, JBL and Kane are holding this one back. I’m wondering that with this whole MVP loosing thing if he’s expected to eliminate someone tonight or if he’s expected to the sole survivor OR if his team just needs to pick up the victory. Either way, I think he’ll end up losing tonight in some fashion. I suspect HBK will go the distance.

Team Batista (Batista, CM Punk, Kofi Kingston, Matt Hardy and R Truth) vs. Team Orton (Randy Orton, William Regal, Cody Rhodes, Shelton Benjamin and Mark Henry) – Look for this match to be the best of the night as the caliber of the participants in this match is just “through the roof”. Get set for some interesting matchups. I’m looking at Team Orton to take this one with “The Legend Killer” as the sole survivor.

10 Divas Elimination Match (Team RAW vs. Team Smackdown) – I’m sorry, I was looking at the screen of the Divas that are involved in this match and I couldn’t put a name to some of them. So I went to WWE to get a rundown of the participants and they do not have a list written anywhere. This leads me to believe that they also are unaware of some of the names of the female wrestlers in question. I apologize if I look uninformed but I don’t expect much from this match.

John Cena vs. Chris Jericho for the World Heavyweight Championship – John Cena returns after being away from the ring for 3 years. Wait? It hasn’t been 3 years? 2 years? 3 months?! It’s only been three months?! You’d never know that by the way WWE have been hyping his return. I expect it to be a rather close match but Cena is clearly taking this. If he does not walk out of Boston with the big gold belt, I will eat my hat.

The Big Show vs. The Undertaker (Casket Match) – This has been a terrible feud. Undertaker was involved in the hottest program of the year with the best performer on the roster, Edge. Lately, he’s been stinking up the joint with Big Show. However, it’s neither performer’s fault really; there just isn’t anything interesting in this rivalry. Both men have no chemistry working together and I’ll be pleased with tonight’s match ends it.

Triple H vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Vladimir Kozlov for the World Wrestling Entertainment Championship – There has been rumors all day that Jeff Hardy may not compete this evening. Apparently Hardy was found unconscious in his hotel room early this morning and was rushed to a “local medical facility”. No idea if this is storyline driven or if this is something serious or something caused by Hardy’s carelessness (i.e. drugs). Either way, hopefully the guy is okay. There have also been reviews popping up about the HHH/Kozlov one on one matches taking place at house shows and it’s certainly less than positive. The addition of Hardy looks like a last ditch effort to save the match but let’s hope things go well. If Hardy is okay, I’m hoping he walks away with the Championship but I doubt that will happen. Triple H will walk away the better man this evening.

Classic Rivalry - The Mega Powers Explode!

2008-11-20T19:34:00.000-08:00

This week’s edition of Classic Rivalry explores the alliance and destruction of one of the greatest alliances in wrestling history, The Mega-Powers!

Randy Savage had recently changed his character from an ambitious, cheating heel to a likable sympathizing hero who was embroiled in a heated rivalry with the self-proclaimed “Greatest Intercontinental Champion Of All Time”, The Honky (Donkey) Tonk Man. On a random episode of Saturday Night’s Main Event, The Macho Man was suffering from a brutal beat down at the hands of Jimmy Hart, Honky Tonk Man and The Hart Foundation. Just as things had looked its bleakest, Miss Elisabeth returned with the hero of the day, Hulk Hogan. Hogan fought of Hart’s cronies and just like that, you had “The Mega-Powers!”

The Mega-Powers would “run wild” over WWE the following months. At WrestleMania IV, Savage would capture the WWE Championship in the finals of a massive tournament to crown a new champion after the controversy created when Andre The Giant attempted to sell the championship to Ted Dibiase (one of the better story lines devised in the 1980s). During their run as a team, they competed in the very first Summerslam in 1989 against the team of Ted Dibiase and Andre The Giant defeating them in the main event.

However, the strain began to show on the team after the 1989 Royal Rumble when Hulk Hogan eliminated Savage in error. Savage had already been showing signs of jealousy when Hogan had allowed Elizabeth to manage him on occasion. During an episode of Saturday Night’s Main Event the month following the Rumble, Savage began his heel turn against the Hulkster leading to the inevitable clash at WrestleMania V, dubbed the event in which “The Mega Powers Explode”.

Savage would come up on the losing end at ‘Mania V dropping his elusive WWE Championship to Hogan. Savage and Hogan would battle over the course of 1989 eventually competing in tag team matches with Savage picking up a partner in the menacing Zeus (a character from Hogan’s movie “No Holds Barred”) and Hogan teaming with long time friend, Brutus Beefcake. Their series of tag matches would culminate in a vicious tag team steel cage match shortly after the 1989 Summerslam PPV.

Behind the scenes, a feud would ignite between the two athletes with Savage's growing suspicion of Hogan “sleeping” with Elizabeth. Evidently the black-eye that Hogan had at WrestleMania IX was due to a rather surprise punch from Savage, that was later declared false. Hogan and Savage would go their separate ways in terms of on screen characters as well as professional wrestlers as Hogan would jump ship to WCW. Savage would eventually follow Hogan to “Turnerland” only to be attacked on screen by Hogan in an effort to rejuvenate Hogan’s stale career when he formed the nWo with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash.

Savage would have his shot at greatness shortly after when he faced Hogan for the WCW Championship at the 1996 Halloween Havoc pay-per-view. Savage would come up short after suffering a match-ending chokeslam from The Giant (The Big Show). Savage then adopoted the “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” mentality and joined forces with the nWo by helping Hogan secure a win in a match with Piper.

Hogan would eventually lose his coveted Championship to Sting and fail to get it back on several occasions. Savage decided it was his turn to take a crack at “the man they call Sting” and with some help of other nWo members, captured the Championship. A rift had formed in the nWo camp with Hogan showing signs of jealously over Savage’s big victory. This gave birth to nWo Wolfpac, a separate entity lead by Kevin Nash. Savage would then lose the WCW Championship to Hogan on an episode of Nitro due to interference from “The Hitman” Bret Hart.

Following that encounter, Savage and Hogan would keep their distances from one another, personally and professionally. In later years, Savage would release a ridiculous rap album in which he called out Hogan for a legitimate fight. To this day, Savage still holds a massive grudge towards Hogan and blames him for his failed marriage to the late Elizabeth.

Comments?

2008-11-19T15:44:00.000-08:00

Hey folks, I've changed the blog so that anyone can comment on the entries.

Before, I had it set up that only registered users could comment but I would like to see some feedback regardless of your status with "blogger".

Feel free to give some feedback, I enjoy reading it.

Top Ten Tuesday - Top Ten Survivor Series Teams

2008-11-18T06:50:00.000-08:00

As you all know, the 22nd installment of the fall classic, Survivor Series, is taking place this Sunday. So, in honor of this event, The Pro Wrestling Blog will count down the top ten Survivor Series teams!

10. Jerry Lawler, Sleazy, Queasy, and Cheesy (The Royal Family) – I hate to even put this team on here but they were literally the first group to make it through an entire match without losing a member. Probably had something to do with the losers they competed against.

09. Jake Roberts, Jimmy Snuka, and The Rockers (Marty Jannetty and Shawn Michaels) (The Vipers) – Not only is this an awesome team name but you have a great combination of guys in their prime (well, HBK ended up just a little bit better). Jake Roberts would go downhill shortly after the end of the 1980s, Jannetty would self destruct on several occasions and Snuka… well, he sort of disappeared.

08. Team Cena (John Cena, Bobby Lashley, Kane, Rob Van Dam, and Sabu) – The other Survivor Series match from 2006 had Cena facing a team put together by Big Show. Undoubtedly, by reading the lineup Cena had behind him, you can bet your bottom dollar that he had the more impressive group of teammates. In the end, Cena and Lashley were declared the sole survivors. How can you go wrong with the once great team of RVD and Sabu?

07. The Radicalz (Chris Benoit, Perry Saturn, Dean Malenko, and Eddie Guerrero) – Now, I know its mostly a faction or group if you will more than a compiled Survivor Series team, but I still think they’re one of the best teams in history. Look at the talent.

06. Hulk Hogan, Jake Roberts, and Demolition Axe and Smash (The Hulkamaniacs) – Another team captained by the great Hulk Hogan with a fantastic name no less. I mean, how can you leave this team off? It has one of the most intimdating tag teams of the 1980’s, one of the guys who would later commit attempted murder against the Ultimate Warrior by locking him in a room full of snakes and well, Hogan. Despite the fact that the team was stacked from head to toe, Hogan came out of it looking like a million dollars as the sole survivor.

05. Team WWE (The Rock, Chris Jericho, The Undertaker, Kane, and The Big Show) – It’s hard to discount this team from this list. Storyline wise, they worked together to banish the evil ambitious WCW from rearing its ugly head on WWE television forever. That and it’s a pretty impressive team, I know that if I had my own survivor series team, I wouldn’t rush into the ring to take on these guys.

04. The Powers of Pain (Warlord and Barbarian), The Rockers (Marty Jannetty and Shawn Michaels), The British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith and Dynamite Kid), The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart), and The Young Stallions (Jim Powers and Paul Roma) – Look at this team! You have The Rockers, The British Bulldogs and The Hart Foundation all on one team! Arguably the top teams of the 1980’s. Also, it might be hard to believe this, but this match was 47 minutes long! I had probably seen this match when I was a kid but I have a hard time remembering any of it.

03. Edge, Christian, Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy – Shortly after these guys competed in one of the most legendary tag team encounters in the history of the company, they struck up a friendship and teamed together at the 1999 Survivor Series. Granted, the team came up short but it would be one of the only times the group teamed together as they started their brutal rivalry shortly after.

02. The Hart Family (Bret, Owen, Bruce, and Keith Hart) – This match makes history based on the fact that it’s the first and the ONLY all brother survivor series team and the first team where all but one participant on a team were declared “survivors”. They were originally supposed to compete against Lawler and his group of “knights” but Lawler was replaced at the last minute with Shawn Michaels, which made a whole lot of sense.

01.Team DX (Shawn Michaels, Triple H, CM Punk, Matt Hardy, and Jeff Hardy) – This is without a doubt, the coolest and most entertaining team assembled in the 22 year history. They destroyed team Rated RKO in a matter of minutes and were entertaining in the process. HBK’s elimination of Mike Knox was classic. I doubt WWE will ever assemble a more sensible team in the next 22 years.

Weekly Recap - November 15th, 2008

2008-11-15T19:18:00.000-08:00

It’s been a week already? Things have been rather slow here lately due to all the travel to Edmonton and what not but I promise you, that was the last trip until after the new year so basically, no more delays. Now, given the fact that I only managed to take in RAW this week, here is the recap for November 15^th, 2008.

On RAW this week, we had the pleasure of witnessing a live show broadcast from England. I always enjoy RAW a little more when they’re in the UK, I mostly like the slightly modified set (despite the fact it’s a little more that stereotypical). In the main event, we witnessed a non-title match with Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels competing in a Last Man Standing Match. This match was not very good at all, in fact, it was downright disappointing and one of the worst Last Man Standing Matches I have ever seen. If it wasn’t for Shawn Michaels delivering a flying elbow drop from the top of the ladder onto Jericho and through the announce table, it would have been the worst. Ah well, you can’t win them all.

We were teased with the possibility of Orton going one on one with Batista in what would have been a huge mistake on WWE’s part, giving away a match of such caliber for free on television rather then on a PPV. Instead, Rhodes stepped in to take Orton’s place for whatever reason and was promptly annihilated by Batista.

Rey Mysterio defeated “The Big Red Machine” Kane in a No DQ match, which in essence took away from the anticipation for some “hardcore” brawling in the evening’s main event last man standing match. The match ended up being pretty underwhelming with Mysterio scoring the victory. For some reason, I find it really hard to believe Rey beating Kane in anything, including horseshoes. I don’t know if I’ve lost faith in Rey Rey or just the believability required in thinking he can beat anyone anymore. I still like Rey a lot, don’t get me wrong, I just think he should stick to competing against guys like Bourne in matches that entertain me instead of the “black hole” of entertaining wrestling matches that is Kane.

In other RAW notes, Mike Knox made his flagship show debut against the M.I.A. D’Lo Brown. Hobo Knox ran through D’lo in a matter of minutes. For some bizarre reason, WWE decided to can Santino’s Honk-A-Meter (which became the Honk-A-Perfect-Mountie Meter) and give the IC title to Regal, a man who will inevitably do nothing with it. Finally, Mickie James failed to create de-ja-vu and take the Women’s Championship from “Tough Guy” Beth Phoenix on UK soil.

Now, onto ECDub and Smackdown. I decided against watching Extreme Championship Wrestling last night as I had to get up at 6am to catch the bus back to Fort McMurray so I just watched the quickcut on WWE.com and read the results. As for Smackdown, the hotel room didn’t get TheScore for whatever reason.

Matt Hardy retained his big silver belt with a win over Hornswoggle’s Dad in what looked like a decent match. Hardy’s championship reign has been kind of lame but considering who he has to work with, it’s a bit understanding. I wish he’d work more with Miz or Morrison in singles competition, I bet they’d have some real barnburners.

In six man tag action, The In Crowd and Jack Swagger defeated Tommy Dreamer and Cryme Tyme. I’m guessing the rivalry between Cryme Tyme and In Crowd has yet to end and here I thought it was already over? Silly me. Okay, please move Miz & Morrison onto other things, please?

Mark Henry defeated a local jobber? Man, this show looked like it wasn’t the best, I’m kind of glad I didn’t miss anything too important.

On Smackdown, Jeff Hardy debuted a new look. I guess I can’t be upset with someone for wearing face paint and if Hardy wants to keep putting on great matches, then he can do whatever he wants. However, that being said, I prefer “regular” Jeff Hardy. Hardy fought Undertaker in the main event under “Extreme Rules”. The match looked to be pretty exciting and fast paced as Jeff Hardy pulled his first win over the Dead Man in his career. After the match, Hardy approached Vickie for approval. Vickie granted the charismatic enigma a match with Triple H next week and if he goes over, he will be injected into the Smackdown main event @ Survivor Series.

Triple H and Kozlov held the obligatory contract signing before their big match but were interrupted by an angry Jeff Hardy who performed a sweet looking flying clothesline through a table to the “Moscow Mauler”. After completing said move, Hardy casually walked past The Game seemingly sending the message “Hey, look what I did”.

The other Hardy was in action on Friday as well as he took on the man who beat him for the United States Championship, Shelton Benjamin. Neither championship was on the line but the match still garnered a hot crowd with Hardy getting revenge for his title loss by picking up the win. See? Hardy is a great worker, he’s just been given mostly awful opponents.

Other Smackdown stuff: The Brian Kendrick picked up a victory over Carlito after Jackson distracted him long enough for Kendrick to sneak up behind and hit The Kendrick for The Win! MVP suffered another loss (oh noes, he’s buried!) this time against the ridiculous Kung-Fu-Naki. Say what you will about the absurdity of the gimmick, it made the guy relivant again after being kept on the company payroll for no logical reason for the last few years. Good for him. Finally, the ugliest belt in professional wrestling was defended this week with Michelle McCool defeating Maria in one on one action.

Top Ten Tuesday - Top Ten "Snaps"

2008-11-11T14:41:00.000-08:00

This past week on Smackdown, Jeff Hardy seemingly cracked under the frustration of not being able to capture the elusive WWE Championship and took out a number of folks. Therefore, this week’s edition of Top Ten Tuesday counts down the top ten “snaps”.

10. Kurt Angle Snaps Your Ankle – This might seem like the most uninformed entry of the lot as I’m a little shady on the circumstances as to why this occurred but on a random episode of RAW one week, Angle went one on one with Scottie “Too Hottie”. As the match ended due to a submission from Scottie, Angle refused to relinquish the ankle lock, causing the referees to pull together to remove Kurt. In one last feat of rage, Angle snapped Scottie’s ankle in a sick turn of events. I’m not sure if he actually broke it but they did a very good job making me think otherwise.

09. Foley Is Insulted? – After competing in a tag team steel cage match the night after WrestleMania XIV, Cactus Jack (Foley) and Chainsaw Charlie (Terry Funk) took a brutal beatdown from the new and improved D-Generation-X. As Foley and Funk were being carried away by EMTs, the fans chanted for Steve Austin. Insulted by the lack of caring from the “WWE Universe”, Foley cut a ridiculously well crafted promo in the ring declaring that the fans would not see Cactus Jack for a long while. That night, Foley would “snap” and attempt to destroy Terry Funk in a one on one match. As far as Cactus Jack would go, he was right, we did not see the character for another 2 years.

08. Brian Pillman Packs Heat – After having his ankle shattered by a vindictive Steve Austin, Pillman became a shut-in. He stayed at home with his wife while recovering from the deabilitating injury. Austin, in an attempt to cause Pillman more pain and suffering, took a trip to Brian’s home. Pillman, who knew Austin was on his way, had visiablly snapped and sunk into a deep state of paranoia, arming hiself with a handgun. As Austin showed up, the cameras went off the air to the sound of gunshots.

07. Owen Kicks Bret’s Leg Out Of His Leg – Owen had been jealous of his brother’s fandom and the respect he received from all “the boys in the back”. Sick of living his life in his older brother’s shadow, Owen turned on his brother Bret after their Tag Team Championship match had been stopped due to Bret’s inability to compete. Owen kicked Bret’s left leg out from under him and posed for the approval of the masses. Owen went backstage and cut a ridiculous promo finishing with “…and that’s why I kicked our leg out of your leg”.

06. Christian Snaps and Con-Chair-Toe’s Edge – Frustrated by his brother’s recent success, Christian met with Edge one night in the middle of the ring during the wCw invasion. Christian blindsided Edge with a brutal attack, destroying his King of the Ring trophy in the process. Christian then delivered the first ever one man Con-Chair-Toe, destroying Edge and left him laying. Shortly after, Christian would take Edge’s Intercotinatel Championship as the two would exchange wins in one of the highpoints of the Alliance storyline.

05. Edge Looses His Mind Over Undertaker’s Return – Edge had defeated The Undertaker in a TLC match in mid-2008. The conditions of this match were that if Edge was declared the victor, Undertaker would be banished from WWE. Shortly after, Edge and Vickie Guerrero were to be married. Edge was caught “cheating” with the wedding planner and as a measure of revenge, Vickie re-instated ‘Taker and signed a Hell in a Cell match for Summerslam. In the week’s leading up to the big match, Edge drifted in and out of sanity ultimately destroying Foley and punishing Vickie.

04. Austin Beats The Living Hell Out Of Jim Ross – Spring 2001, Austin had just turned his back on his massive fan base in favor of a guaranteed WWE Championship reign. A few days after Austin had aligned himself with Mr. McMahon, Austin was set to meet J.R. in the ring for a candid one on one interview. J.R. asked the tough questions like “Why, Austin, Why?”. Austin seemingly “snapped” and beat the living hell out of Ross. McMahon seemed to intervene but only encouraged the Bionic Redneck, telling Austin to “OPEN ‘EEEM UP!”. Classic stuff.

03. Psycho Sid Destroys Shawn Michaels – The night after WrestleMania XI, HBK met his bodyguard Psycho Sid in the ring for a post WrestleMania promo. During his speech, he shifted the blame for his loss against “Bid Daddy Cool” Diesel (Kevin Nash) on the actions of Sid. Sid, not taking lightly to being ordered around, attacked the Heart Break Kid. Sid powerbombed Michaels an astonishing 3 times before Kevin Nash made the save. Michaels appeared sympathetic in the eyes of the fans, thus starting his massive push to the top.

02. The Un-Masking of Kane – Despite the fact that Kane had gone through so many character changes and layers in his 6 year career he had somehow managed to get stale. So, WWE made the conscious choice to unmask Kane and transform his character into a psychotic mega-heel. Once Kane had removed the mask, he became a punishing monster, led to the ring by a group of bodyguards and chained at the ankles and wrists. It might not have been the most successful transformation but I will admit, it was pretty cool… which is a lot considering my general disdain for Kane.

01. Bob Backlund Stares at His Hands – The only reason this surpasses Kane is due to the fact that Kane had his share of "mental problems" in the past whereas Backlund was known as a "straight man" and friendly towards the general public. This “snap” resurrected the dead career of WWE Hall of Famer Bob Backlund. Backlund, during a routine match, seemingly snapped and would not let go of the painful crossface chickenwing submission hold. After the official finally managed to pry Backlund from the victim, Backlund stood up staring blankly at his hands. At first, the gimmick seemed ridiculous and a poor attempt at riving a boring performers career who had no business being at the top at his age. However, over time, Backlund began to gain speed and became a legit threat to the championship. And that’s what had happened, at the tail end of 1994, Backlund captured the WWE Championship.

Weekly Recap - November 10th

2008-11-10T07:00:00.000-08:00

So, the recap is a few days late, you’ll have to excuse me, I was pretty busy this weekend, which is a total shock as I mostly never seem to do much of anything. However, we’re not here to discuss that, we’re here to discuss the week that was in World Wrestling Entertainment.

RAW celebrated its 800^th episode this Monday (which is really their 806^th episode) with a 3 hour extravaganza! Highlighting this show was the World Heavyweight Championship re-match between “The Animal” Bob-tista and Super Serious Chris Jericho. Both men put on a lackluster steel cage match, I say lackluster because no one seems to put the effort into a steel cage match anymore. In the end, that didn’t matter as Jericho walked away the new World Heavyweight Champion! Now, Jericho will carry the Championship to Survivor Series where he will face a returning John Cena. Hopefully, Jericho can hang on to that belt and have Cena chase him for a few months but I don’t really see that happening.

Other notable happenings on RAW this week included the tag team match between D-Generation-X and The In Crowd (Miz & Morrison). I don’t really remember a whole lot from this match other then Morrison’s sweet… sweet chin music (sorry) connecting with The Game’s bearded chin. It’s what happened before the match that was great. I don’t really care what anyone has to say about DX and the fact that the gimmick is getting tired or that the characters are stale, I’m still a big fan. The whole “Are you ready?!” followed by HBK’s “No, I’m no ready” nearly killed me. Some people might find their particular brand of comedy annoying but I still think Triple H is quite funny.

We also had the privilege of getting to witness Orton’s in ring return in a long awaited match with CM Punk. He looks strange with all that ink on his arms, I don’t know if I’m a really big fan of that, perhaps it’ll take some time getting used to I suppose. Orton was still Orton, not that that’s a bad thing. The match ended when Priceless interfered, clobbering CM Punk. Due to his unwanted assistance, Orton kicked ol’ Teddy’s head off forcing him to be removed via stretcher.

In a few other notes, Santino will face William Regal next week on RAW in what I’m sure will be a barnburner in front of a hot UK crowd. Santino SHOULD retain to keep the Honk-A-Meter going for as long as he can. Mae Young returned to the delight of no one. Adamle resigned as GM, not a big fan of that, I think he should’ve stuck around but the word going around is that he’s done with WWE. Undertaker defeated his one time nemesis JBL via count out, HBK tossed JBL back into the ring to receive a tombstone piledriver. Afterwards, HBK and Undertaker exchanged a stare down possibly teasing the rumored WrestleMania encounter.

On ECDub this week, we witnessed the epic confrontation between Finlay and Matt Hardy, could they think of a more uninteresting ECW Championship match? I guess anything is better than Henry/Hardy XXXVI. Finlay defeated Sexual Chocolate to earn an ECW title match with Matt Hardy in a “thrilling” bout. Not to be outdone, Hardy defeated Bam “Why am I here” Neely. Jack Swagger continued his onslaught against the ECW Original Tommy Dreamer in a decent promo, a nice change from their relatively cumbersome feud.

Smackdown is quickly becoming my favorite show of the three. On Smackdown this week, Jeff Hardy cost himself and Triple H their tag team match against The In Crowd. When it looked like The Game had the match won, Hardy nailed Miz and Morrison repeatedly with a steel chair in an effort to prove to Vickie that he’s “extreme”. It was actually pretty awesome. Later in that evening, we would see more of Hardy as he would interfere in the evenings feature match between “The Dead Man” and “The Moscow Mauler” nailing both combatants with a steel chair. Vickie saw what Jeff had done and decided that next week he would battle The Undertaker in their first one on one meeting in over 6 years. Like the last time, this will not be a normal match, its set to take place under Extreme Rules! Folks, this cannot be bad.

R-Truth lost, which is always a good thing as I really dislike the guy. I appreciate his in ring work but I just can’t get behind that character. Shelton hit his finisher “Paydirt” for the easy 1-2-3. It was finally revieled that Brie Bella has a twin, anyone with half a brain could’ve figured that out but Taz had acted like he’d just discovered plutonium. The Brian Kendrick delivered a promo taken from the script of Pulp Fiction against poor helpless Jimmy Wang Yang. Ezekiel Jackson, in his way-too-small ring attire, destroyed Yang leaving him helplessly on the receiving end of (a?) The Kendrick. The Great Khali continued his comedy reign of terror against MVP, who he quickly squashed. I think the idea of pushing Khali as a “face” is totally the wrong direction. A guy of that size and stature should ALWAYS be a heel.

So, that’s it for this week. Looking forward to Survivor Series, two great matches have already been signed in Triple H vs. Vladimir Kozlov and Chris Jericho vs. John Cena. Neither of those will be bad.

Classic Rivalry - Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart

2008-11-07T06:50:00.001-08:00

In the latest edition of Classic Rivalry, we explore one of my favorite feuds. Yes, the “family feud” if you will, between Bret “Hitman” Hart and Owen “The King of Harts” Hart (or “The Rocket”...).

Throughout their respective careers, Bret and Owen remained allies. It was not until 1993 that the terms “jealousy” and “anger” entered into their onscreen relationship. It all started at the 1993 Survivor Series where a rivalry between Bret Hart and Jerry “Stupid” Lawler was quickly coming to a head. The team of Hart brothers (including Bret and Owen) were to meet a team of Jerry Lawler and his “Royal Knights”. Before the match began, it was revealed that Lawler could not make it and was promptly replaced by Shawn Michaels. The Harts steamrolled over Michaels and the Knights, however, during the match, an accident took place causing the inadvertent elimination of Owen Hart. As Bret and his brothers celebrated, Owen had looked furious.

For the next few months, Owen simply refused to have anything to do with Bret, angry with his older brother. Bret somehow managed to heal any tension between the two and secured a World Tag Team Championship match at the 1994 Royal Rumble. During the match, The Quebecers (champions) had caused insurmountable damage to Bret’s knee forcing the referee to stop the match. Owen, frustrated, attacked his brother for costing him the championship. In an unintentionally hilarious post match interview, Owen had furiously claimed that he “kicked Bret’s leg out of his leg”.

Owen went on the offensive, attempting to lure Bret into a match with him. The two met in the ring at WrestleMania X in an all time classic match. Owen shocked the world when he rolled up Bret and pinned him clean in the center of the ring. The victory would be bitter sweet as later on that evening, Bret defeated Yokozuna and capture the WWE Championship.

Not to be outdone by his brother, Owen would go on to win the 1994 King of the Ring tournament and declare himself “The King of Harts”. All during the summer of 1994, Owen and Bret would clash in many singles matches leading up to their main event steel cage grudge match at Summerslam. The Harts would rapidly change offense; Owen would hit a massive missile drop kick from the top of the cage on the Hitman, but shortly after was on the receiving end of a crushing super-plex from the top of the cage! Bret pulled out the victory in the end, securing the title for another day.

A few weeks later, Bret and Owen would meet in a lumberjack match (which seems like an odd choice) and at one point, Owen would be declared the winner and the new WWE Champion! The decision was reversed almost instantaneously due to blatant interference. The rivalry would continue when at the 1994 Survivor Series, Owen would coax his mother into throwing in the towel during Bret’s brutal submission match with WWE vertern, Bob Backlund costing Hitman his championship.

Bret would receive his WWE title shot at the 1995 Royal Rumble against then champion, Diesel. Bret lost due to outside interference by Owen, proving that he would do anything to make sure his brother never held that championship again. Bret asked for another match with his delinquent brother, this time, beating him cleanly and quickly.

This would put an end to the nearly year and half long rivalry for the time being. In the spring of 1997, Owen and Bret would patch up their differences and become a part of the Hitman-led stable, “The Hart Foundation”.

You know the rest of the story.

Top Ten Tuesday - Top Ten RAW Moments

2008-11-04T19:55:00.000-08:00

In honor of RAW's record setting 800th episode celebration, TPWB counts down its top ten RAW moments!

10. Bret Hart vs. The 1-2-3 Kid – 1-2-3 Kid gets a title shot? A WWE title shot?? Yep, that’s what happened on a random episode of R AW in 1994. No build up, no advanced advertising, just a match that took place. The kid gave Hart a run for his money and at several points had looked like he was going to take the championship! Hart had pinned Kid and had been given the victory and in what I’m sure was the first time ever, Hart had the match restarted when he noticed Kid’s foot was on the ropes (which is an automatic break). The match went back and forth until Hart finally caught Kid in mid air and slamming him to the ground followed by a Sharpshooter for the submission victory. Classic, classic match.

09. HBK owns Montreal – During his feud with Hollywood Hulk Hogan, HBK walked out into a hostile Montreal environment, playing the heel in a city that had despised him for the past 9 years. Never before has anyone received such a negative reaction. Just as HBK had the crowd in the palm of his hand, Bret Hart’s music hit the speakers and fans thought the confrontation of the century was going to happen. Then, nothing. HBK had played the music for no reason and had fooled everyone! I was beyond angry yet laughing at the same time!

08. Eric Bischoff – RAW GM – Never say never, right? Bischoff and McMahon were sworn enemies, hated one another’s existence during the Monday night wars of the late 1990’s. WWE had formulated a brand extension which separated RAW and Smackdown into two separate rosters exclusive to Monday and Thursday nights. The idea was to bring in two authority figures to run the respective shows. It started with Vince running Smackdown and Ric Flair running RAW. However, Flair returned to active duty and RAW needed someone new to helm the show, enter Bischoff. The most unlikely choice of all, Bischoff “ran” RAW for 3 and a half years (not nearly long enough if you ask me).

07. ECW/WCW Alliance Formation – WWE had just recently purchased WCW and ECW and instantly cemented themselves with a pro wrestling monopoly. What was Vince going to do with all the talent from WCW and ECW who had no where to go? The answer, finally create that dream interpromotional feud that wrestling fans had talked about for years. Who would win? The Rock against Hulk Hogan? Goldberg against Stone Cold Steve Austin? Chuck Palumbo against Bradshaw? Huh? WWE did not get the big names but utilized the smaller names and started this war of sorts. The night on RAW when ECW and WCW formed an alliance to “kill” the WWE was glorious, its too bad that everything after that was anticlimactic.

06. DX reforms in 1999 – Triple H had just started a new direction in his career as a vengeful and destructive mega-heel and had been tearing up the competition. He had been WWE Champion twice at this point and looked to become a permanent main event mainstay. DX was sort of still together, you had X-Pac and The Road Dogg hanging around but they weren’t interesting. On a random night, with what seemed like no build up whatsoever, DX reformed out of no where, this time as a pack of heels. X-Pac, HHH, Billy Gunn and Road Dogg were once again a hot team.

05. The nWo vs. The Rock & Stone Cold Steve Austin – What did I say earlier about “never say never?” After years of being a part of the single most ambitious wrestling organization in history, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash and Hulk Hogan were once again a part of the WWE roster. A few “Top Ten Tuesdays” ago, I listed his as the biggest match ever given away on TV, so you can imagine its going to be on my biggest RAW moments list. Its rare that its not used more often in clip shows or recognized due to the sheer size of it but I guess Rock/Hogan from WrestleMania X8 overshadows it.

04. Mick Foley beats The Rock for his first WWE Championship – On a taped episode of RAW, so some people had actually known what was going to happen before it happened, Foley defeated The Rock in one of the biggest episodes of RAW. Nothing else notable happened that night but it will be rememebered due to Tony Schavonie’s memorable comment of “Mick Foley as World Champion? That’ll put some butts in seats”. The comment that caused nearly half of Nitro’s viewers to switch over to RAW that night. Funny stuff. Go watch this clip on youtube, when Austin’s music hits, it’s the loudest crowd reaction I’ve ever heard.

03. Jericho ‘defeats’ Triple H – An impromptu match on RAW began between Chris Jericho and Triple H for the WWE Championship, no one expected Jericho to win, no one. Yet, he did win. Due to some less the professional antics by Triple H towards senior referee Earl Hebner, The Game found himself on the end of a “fast 3 count” after a lion-sault and was left without his championship. HHH protested the results and had Hebner overturn the decision and the match was declared a no-contest and Jericho’s win was never entered into the record books.

02. Jericho Debut – The countdown to the new millennium had started. No one (aside from those without an internet connection – i.e. Me) knew who or what this was for. I had my doubts but when those big block letters spelling out Jericho appeared on the screen, my 15 year old self could not believe it. One of the best parts of WCW had just moved to the better wrestling organization! To start of with The Rock? Could you think of anyone better suited for Jericho’s first confrontation? Jericho broke free from cruiserweight purgatory and became a huge star in WWE and your current World Heavyweight Champion.

01. Austin/Zamboni/McMahon – At this point, Kane and The Undertaker had been trying to get the WWE Championship out of the hands of the Bionic Redneck, Steve Austin, for weeks. With some help from Vince McMahon, they finally managed to do so and Vince had been set to unveil the new WWE Champion in a lush ceremony on RAW, seriously, they had red carpet and everything. Austin spoiled the party by driving a zamboni into Joe Louis Arena in Detroit (the site of RAW), up the aisle and launched himself from the hood while delivering a huge clothesline to the boss. The place exploded, if RAW can ever reach this type of popularity in terms of crowd reaction, I’d be shocked.

Weekly Recap - November 1st

2008-11-01T19:43:00.000-07:00

I know you all were wondering what had happened to the weekly recap that is USUALLY posted on Fridays. Well, I’ve been battling this sickness and even though I attempted to upload this last night, I ended up passing out after taking a Nyquil. So, yeah, here are some notable talkative points from the “WWE Universe” this week!

RAW kicked off this week with a bitter and annoyed Jericho who angrily stomped his way to the ring to declare that he was robbed @ Cyber Sunday the night before. Which, in essence is true as at one point Jericho did have the win but good old’ HBK refused to count the pin fall. Jericho demanded that he will invoke his rematch clause and that the match will take place on RAW next week during the 800^th episode celebration, which will be broadcast on the 806^th episode. Yup. Ademle strutted on out to his theme music, which is the RAW theme song which always confuses me as I usually take that as a cut to commercial. Ademle informed Jericho that he has approved his request BUT has decided that the match will take place within the confines of a steel cage. Could Jericho put on a repeat performance of his World Heavyweight Championship title defense against CM Punk a few weeks back and win? WHO KNOWS?!

Are you fifty? That’s the question The Miz wants Triple H and Shawn Michaels to answer next week on RAW. I don’t know about you but I really found that funny. If it’s all in the delivery, Morrison’s was far better. Next week D-X will take on The In Crowd in a potential dream match for some and a boring squash match for others. I’m personally hoping that this turns into a competitive bout with both sides looking good upon the finish rather than a D-Generation-X beat-down.

The match of the week goes to the spectacular match between Rey Mysterio and Evan Bourne. This match proves that there should be a cruiserweight division within WWE and Evan Bourne should spearhead it as the champion. I’d be content if these two formed a permanent tag team or had to wrestle each other week in and week out. Best of 7 series anyone?

Kofi Kingston and CM Punk defeated Pricele$ to win the World Tag Team Championship and a great matchup. Rhodes and Teddy have lost the championships twice since Night Of Champions which also showcased Rhodes losing the title to himself? Do not get me wrong, I’m not complaining, I’m pleased with the team of Kofi and Punk. If they want Punk out of the main event scene then I’m okay with him heading up the tag team division!

Over on ECDub this week, we had a 6-man tag match headline the show with the stunningly awful team of Chavo Guerrero, Bam Neely and Mark Henry defeating the stunningly awesome team of Finlay, Evan Bourne and ECW Champion Matthew Hardy. Evan Bourne took a nasty spill and injured his ankle which of course, is never good. Look at what happened to Pillman? He never recovered.

The uneventful and boring rivalry between Tommy Dreamer and “The All American American” Jack Swagger continued this week with Swagger crushing Dreamer with the gut wrench powerbomb. I am not a fan of Swagger, he’s dreadfully boring. Bourne is still the best of the “new guys”.

The In Crowd brought out mooks dressed up like DX and beat them up to prove how they’re going to beat DX on Monday. Huh? Hasn’t like, everyone tried this? I’m tellin’ ya guys…reverse momentum. This is one of the most overused spots in a feud. Is it just me, or does it also seems kind of ridiculous to have Morrison and Miz make fun of HBK and Triple H week in and week out and have The Game and Michaels totally ignore them and say nothing about it? Meh.

Over on Smackdiddly-down, Triple H made me a happy fan by referencing the greatest boxing inspired film of all time, ROCKY IV! However, he does come off as ridiculously ignorant and annoying to claim that Kozlov will lose based on the fact that he’s Russian. Ah WWE, always aims for the lowest common denominator. Part of me wants to see Kozlov crush him because I am in fact becoming a fan of his but the other part thinks it’s too soon and he is being rushed. I think it would have been better to have him capture the US title and do something with that, in an ironic sense. See? Because he hates Americans and America. He sure loves Double double E though!

Awesome 6 man tag this week finally bringing together the dream team of The Hardy’s and Rey Mysterio against the unimpressive team of MVP, Kane and Mark Henry. MVP does the job again for the 456,403,001^st week in a row after getting hit with a twist of fate/swanton bomb for the pinfall. Poor Montel, will he ever get that incentive bonus? No.

In the main event, Undertaker destroyed Chavo in a casket match. Correct me if I’m wrong but is this the first time a casket match has been on broadcast television? I can’t seem to remember another one. Big Show tried to punch Da Undatakah’s head off but flew over the top rope and collided with the casket rolling to the floor. Undertaker grabbed Chavo and threw him in the pine box and took the win! Next week on Smackdown, they are giving away ANOTHER big match with Undertaker going one on one with Kozlov, kind of makes you wonder.

That’s all!.

Classic Rivalry - The Rock vs. Mankind

2008-10-30T08:29:00.000-07:00

This week in Classic Rivalry, we explore the on again, off again relationship between the characters of The Rock and Mick “Mankind” Foley.

Both characters had never really crossed paths until the fall of 1998, the WWE title had just been vacated and a tournament for the championship had been deemed to take place at the Survivor Series. Mankind had been sucking up to Vince McMahon in an effort to become the ideal “corporate” vision of a WWE champion. Donning a shirt and tie in an attempt to clean himself up, Foley began doing favors for Vince and generally trying to be a friend. On the other hand, The Rock had slowly been gaining speed and started to become embraced by the fans leading to cheers and favoritism whenever The Great One entered the ring.

At the Survivor Series, these two met in the final round. During the night, Vince had heavily favored Foley to win the title while attempting to do everything in his power to make The Rock lose. After a hard fought match, Vince screwed Mankind in a repeat of last year’s Survivor Series and handed the title over to The Rock, declaring him the “Corporate Champion”. Weeks had passed and soon Foley would get his shot at the WWE champion at the event “Rock Bottom” only to be DQ’d in a ridiculous turn of events by the villainess Vince McMahon. Vince had claimed that The Rock did not give up but had passed out therefore the title would not change hands. Shortly after, Mankind would receive a shot yet again, this time on Monday Night RAW and this time, Foley would prevail and capture his first major singles championship. This is considered one of the major turning points in the Monday Night War due to WCW announcer, Tony Schavonie’s blatant “low blow” at the creditability of a main event level Foley. As soon as he muttered the words “that’ll put butts in seats”, fans switched over from Nitro to RAW to watch Foley capture the title.

A few weeks later, Foley and The Rock would meet in what many will argue to be the most brutal match of Foley’s career in an “I Quit” match at the 1999 Royal Rumble. Foley took a stunning eleven chair shots to the head! The match would eventually end as The Rock had pumped soundbites of a Foley interview where he had previously screamed the words “I Quit” and the match had ended. The two would meet yet again in a special edition of WWE Heat that was scheduled to take place during halftime of Super Bowl XXXIII in the first (and only) Empty Arena match. Basically a glorified hardcore match that had Vince McMahon on commentary (who played it impartial, which took you out of the storyline) with one of the most unusual and ridiculous endings to a match ever seen.

A match had been booked for In Your House: St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in February between The Rock and Mankind for the WWE Championship, this time, it was booked as a Last Man Standing match. The match ended without a winner as both The Rock and Mankind were deemed unable to continue after a double chair shot that had knocked out both competitors. Frustrated over the fact that The Rock could not get the title back and just because Vince McMahon is Vince McMahon, Vince booked a ladder match for the next night on RAW where a recently signed Paul Wight (Big Show), interfered and delivered a punishing choke slam from the top of the ladder on a helpless Foley. The Rock would take back the championship and would go on to face Steve Austin at WrestleMania XV effectively putting an end to the rivalry.

A few months down the road, the two would patch up their differences and unite dubbing themselves “The Rock & Sock Connection” and become multi-time tag team champions.

Top Ten Tuesday - Top Ten Greatest WWE Rookie Years

2008-10-27T20:12:00.000-07:00

Inspired by Vladimir Kozlov’s recent rise to the top on Smackdown and Evan Bourne’s near victory over Matt Hardy @ Cyber Sunday, we count down the top ten WWE rookie years!

NOTE: The criteria for this list are a bit different, I’ll explain. This had to be the person’s first year in World Wrestling Entertainment. They also cannot have existed as a prior character in WWE, i.e. Kane)

10. Santino Marella – Santino started off his career with a win over Umaga, a man rarely defeated. Everyone disliked Santino; the man was the epitome of a boring “good guy”, nothing special whatsoever, bland, forgettable. After he took the hint from the WWE fans, Santino became an overprotective, egotistical heel. Santino became the talk of WWE once he let his comedic side shine through, he was on fire! Over the course of his first full year, Marella started the highest rated web program on the company’s website and became the most entertaining part of RAW.

09. Rob Van Dam – Van Dam entered WWE as an outsider and was to be portrayed as a heel, however, within his first few weeks, fans chose to cheer and encourage the superstar. This wouldn’t be the first time this would happen, Eddie Guerrero would have a similar thing occur to him in 2003, almost as if the fans wouldn’t let him turn heel? During his first year with the company, Van Dam won the Hardcore Championship on several occasions as well as his first Intercontinental Championship win at WrestleMania x8. He would also challenge Austin for the WWE Championship in a triple threat match with Kurt Angle at No Mercy 2001 but would fall short. Van Dam would nearly win the 2002 King of the Ring but would fall to Brock Lesnar in the final match concluding his spectacular first year.

08. Goldberg – Goldberg’s first year within WWE was mostly considered a failure by a marketing standpoint but in a competitive view, Goldberg accomplished a World Heavyweight Championship reign, a successful first feud with The Rock, a decent program with Triple H and a dream match with Brock Lesnar. Granted his match with Lesnar was largely forgettable and considered a huge waste of time given the effort put forth by both men. However, in the end, Goldberg proved that he could hang with the top superstars in WWE and made a pretty huge connection with the fans.

07. Chris Jericho – Jericho’s first year in WWE started off with a huge media campaign advertising the coming of the new millennium. The countdown clock gave birth to the Y2J character as he verbally assaulted The Rock and declared his intentions to run through the competition in the WWE and to save us all from boredom. Jericho went on to capture the Intercontinental Championship and shortly after, compete with Benoit in a thrilling series of matches creating one of the best feuds of the early 2000’s. Within his first year, if not for the reversal of a decision, Jericho would have won the WWE Championship as well.

06. Ric Flair – Ric Flair came aboard after his relationship with WCW went sour in 1991. Due to this turn of events, Flair took WCW’s world heavyweight championship with him and declared himself “the real world’s champion” on WWE programming. Shortly after Flair showed up, he won the WWE Championship and the 1992 Royal Rumble in the same match! Flair went on to main event WrestleMania in his first year within the company, the first man to do so (excluding WrestleMania I)! Flair also became the first man to win the WWE championship twice in his first year, a feat only accomplished twice since then. Granted, Flair’s incredible reputation helped a great deal in all these achievements but in regards to this list, these accomplishments cannot be overlooked.

05. Undertaker – Undertaker will probably be the only man on this list to hold an undefeated streak for an entire year. Undertaker would squash any and all who stood in his way within his first twelve months as an active member of the WWE roster. At the one year anniversary of his debut, Undertaker would defeat Hulk Hogan and win his first WWE championship (only to lose it two nights later).

04. Yokozuna – Debuting in late 1992, Yokozuna quickly destroyed anyone he faced in the squared circle. Yokozuna ran through the competition, acquiring easy victories against opponents like Virgil and Hacksaw Jim Duggan, and then at the 1993 Royal Rumble, Yokozuna threw Randy Savage over the top rope declaring his intentions for the WWE Championship. A few months later at WrestleMania IX, Yokozuna challenged then champion, Bret Hart, and won the WWE Championship only to lose it about five minutes later in a ridiculous turn of events to the returning Hulk Hogan. Yokozuna would win the WWE Championship back in less then three months becoming the second man to win the WWE Championship twice in his first year!

03. Kevin Nash – Unquestionably, Nash had it all. At the time he stepped into World Wrestling Entertainment, Hulk Hogan had just left for the greener pastures of the acting world and later, WCW. WWE had been looking for the next big man to push and with the suggestion of Shawn Michaels; WWE found what they were looking for with Nash. Having him dye his hair jet black and adopt a gimmick as HBK’s bodyguard, Nash quickly rose through the ranks of WWE. In his first Royal Rumble appearance, Nash eliminated seven men in less than 18 minutes of ring time, a feat that would go uncontested for 7 years. A few months later, Nash would capture the Intercontinental Championship from Scott Hall giving him his first championship reign. Two months after his one year anniversary with the company, Nash would win the Intercontinental Championship for the second time, a Tag Team Championship with HBK and three months after that, the WWE Championship. Even though it took Nash a little over a year to accomplish that goal, certainly no one even touched that level of success in years without the name Hulk Hogan.

02. Brock Lesnar – Lesnar debuted the night after WrestleMania X8 and was immediately labeled as “the next big thing”. Lesnar would destroy several superstars, including the Hardy’s, on his way to a victory at the 2002 King of the Ring which in turn, assured him a shot at the WWE Championship at SummerSlam. Before Summerslam, Lesnar destroyed Hulk Hogan in a brutal squash match of epic proportions. At the 2002 Summerslam, not only did Lesnar win the WWE Championship as his first title, not only did he become the youngest WWE Champion, not only did he do it within 4 months but he also defeated The Rock in doing so. Lesnar would go on to destroy The Undertaker in the Hell in the Cell and continue his impressive reign. He would drop the title to The Big Show at the 2002 Survivor Series but would go on to win the 2003 Royal Rumble to get the right to face Kurt Angle at WrestleMania XIX.

01. Kurt Angle – Some people may argue with me over this one. Clearly, in my mind, Angle should be #1. Angle signed a contract with WWE in 1998 but DID NOT make his televised debut until a match with Shawn Stasiak at the 1999 Survivor Series. Angle would go on undefeated for several months until eventually losing to Tazz at the 2000 Royal Rumble. In February, Angle would capture two singles championships, the European Heavyweight Championship and the Intercontinental Championship (the second man to do so) dubbing himself the “Eurocontinental” Champion. A few months later, Angle would capture the 2000 King of the Ring title clearly making himself a threat for the top prize in the game. In 4 months, just a few weeks shy of his one year mark, Angle would defeat The Rock and capture the WWE Championship, thus ending the most impressive first year ever in pro wrestling. It should be noted that if you flash forward one year, at that time Angle captured the WCW Championship, the WCW US Championship and the WWE Hardcore Championship.

WTF?

2008-10-26T21:02:00.000-07:00

Hey folks,

I wish to apologize for the missing Cyber Sunday preview post and the rest of the weekly recap. I recently traveled to Edmonton on Friday morning and did not return until around 6 pm local time this evening so I did not have time to put together said post.

I will go through a new weekly recap to be posted this Friday that will include last weeks Smackdown and Cyber Sunday as well as this week's RAW/ECW and Smackdown. Hope that will suffice.

Classic Rivalry will BE UP on Thursday and Top Ten Tuesday will be up as planned on Tuesday.

Once again, due to the travel, I apologize for the missing updates.

Weekly Recap pt. 1

2008-10-23T19:18:00.000-07:00

As I will be heading on a great adventure tomorrow visiting the capital of Alberta, Edmonton, I will be posting the weekly recap a little different this week. For your literary pleasure, the RAW portion of the weekly recap.

In another Ademle original, the RAW GM announced that Batista and Jericho would compete in a special gauntlet match this week on RAW. The premise was that Jericho and Batista would compete against the same three opponents and the goal would be to outlast the other. Kind of makes sense on paper, right? Well, when they started the match, it turned into a huge mess of a match and nothing seemed to make sense. Batista destroyed Regal and got the first pinfall. It was then Jericho’s turn to face Regal, which made little to no sense as Regal was physically unable to compete. It went on like this. At one point, Jericho nailed Mark Henry with the championship and was disqualified, yet, continued in the next match. So, in the end, no one really lost and no one really won, so it was a huge waste of time. If WWE has proven to me that there is such a thing as “reverse momentum” (i.e. the person who appears at a disadvantage the week before the PPV usually ends up with the victory) then we can expect a victory for Jericho this Sunday.

Santino Marella brought out the Honk-A-Meter and established that he has roughly 54 more weeks to go before breaking the “Honky Donkey Man’s” record. In an effort to get a psychological edge over his potential opponent @ Cyber Sunday, Santino dressed up as every single opponent he has the chance of facing on Sunday and mocked them excessively. Interrupted by the always annoying Hacksaw Jim Duggan, this segment proved to be the most entertaining bit on RAW this week. Duggan jumped on the bandwagon of accusing Beth Phoenix of having a set of testicles and was beat up to the delight of everyone.

CM Punk and his new partner Kofi Kingston managed to just come up short against The In Crowd in an excellent match. It is kind of strange that Punk went from a two month run as World Heavyweight Champion to NOT being on the card for No Mercy and in danger of NOT being on the card for a PPV in which he is the poster boy? Go figure. I’m fine with his current role in the company as I like the pairing of Kingston and Punk so I guess I shouldn’t complain. I also would like to note that the eventual match between the team of Morrison/Miz and D-Generation-X is due to happen soon. Hopefully its not a total squash, I don’t expect Morrison/Miz to win but I would like to see a competitive bout between the two teams.

So, there are some noteworthy things from RAW this week, expect the ECW/Smackdown Re-cap on Sunday, as well as the Cyber Sunday preview update.

WWE DVD Review: Hell In A Cell

2008-10-23T06:48:00.000-07:00

In 2003, WWE released “Bloodbath: Wrestling’s Most Incredible Steel Cage Matches”. From the best of my knowledge, this would be WWE’s first attempt at releasing a DVD chronicling one particular type of match. Ever since that DVD was released, fans had been asking for a collection of ladder matches as well and in 2007, that package was released. So, what was the next logical step? What other specialty match has had enough matches to fill a three disc set? The answer: the Hell in a Cell match!

Contained within this set are 14 of the most brutal cell matches to ever take place in WWE. In the history of the company 16 of those matches have taken place, leaving two off of the set (Undertaker vs Edge @ Summerslam 2008 and Undertaker vs Bossman @ WrestleMania XV) for understandable reasons. What we get with this release are 3 discs of brutal, bloody and barbaric matches hosted by “The Hardcore Legend” Mick Foley. Foley gives you the introduction for each of the matches, followed by a promo/build-up video that takes you through the actions and events which led to that match in the first place.

There isn’t really too much to review with this set as there aren’t any special features (understandably) and there isn’t much to talk about aside from the matches, which I already did in the first Top Ten Tuesday. If you’re a fan of this type of match, it’s a no-brainer, pick it up. However, I will say this, after watching the set, a lot of the matches seemed to blend together and use the exact same formula. The matches themselves started to become a lot less special then they originally were. Perhaps I just overloaded myself? My only gripe with the set was that we never really had a chance to hear from any of the participants and their reaction to competing in the cell. I would have loved to have heard from a few people on that note.

In the end, this is a great collection of matches akin to buying a greatest hits package of a particular artist you may enjoy, you’ve already seen or heard them all but you never get tired of the same stuff.

Top Ten Tuesday - Top Ten Big Matches Given Away on TV

2008-10-20T19:46:00.000-07:00

In honor of the huge matchup on Smackdown this week, we list the top ten HUGE match-ups given away for free on television.

10. Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. The Rock – Steel Cage Match for the WWE Championship (WWE RAW 2001) – It was the night after WM X7 and The Rock was thrown into a steel cage with Steve Austin, the man who befriended Vince McMahon the night before and had stolen the Championship. In a shocking turn of events, Triple H came to the ring to destroy Austin but attacked The Rock instead, leaving him bloodied and broken on the mat. Austin and The Game formed “The Two Man Power Trip” winning every title available to them and The Rock took a few months off to film a movie.

09. Matt Hardy vs. Edge – Loser Leaves RAW/Money In The Bank Ladder Match (WWE Homecoming 2005) – Edge put his MITB briefcase on the line against the chance to have Matt Hardy thrown out of his life and sent over to Smackdown. During this match, Edge and Hardy mounted some impressive and inventive offense. In a thrilling contest, the end came due to the interference from that “jezebel” Lita as she tied the Angelic Diablo up in the ropes and made him watch helplessly as Edge crushed Matt’s chances for a heavyweight title shot and squashed their ruthless feud.

08. The Rock vs. Mankind (Halftime Heat) – WWE was at its hottest period since the mid to late 80’s, wrestling became relevant again. It was Superbowl Sunday and WWE decided to capitalize on the huge number of people watching football that day and held a single-match episode of Heat that was to be played during Halftime. The catch to this match? It took place in an empty arena, falls count anywhere and was for the WWE Championship. Aside from the incredibly ridiculous ending, the match itself was pretty entertaining.

07. The Undertaker vs. Jeff Hardy – WWE Championship Ladder Match - (WWE RAW 2002) – Jeff Hardy’s first of many eventual WWE title matches, he fell just short of beating Big Evil on that night. The fact that it was Hardy’s specialty, a ladder match, and the fact that Undertaker has never appeared in a match to date, didn't help Hardy whatsoever. We all thought Hardy was going to win after countering “The Last Ride” with a steel chair shot to the skull. However, the end came after a debilitating chokeslam delivered by The Undertaker to a helpless Jeff Hardy from the top of a 50 foot ladder (…ten feet, maybe).

06. Goldberg vs. Hollywood Hogan – wCw Championship - (wCw Nitro 1998) – I’d go ahead and say this was a stupid move on wCw’s part but where I’ve just mentioned a boat load of other matches given away by WWE, I’m not really allowed to say that. wCw was pushing Goldberg beyond belief and he was the most popular thing they had going, Hogan was the top heel, this match was inevitable. Bischoff often said that he was purely obsessed with beating RAW in the ratings game so putting this match on Nitro was a bold move on his part to basically take down RAW on a Monday night. Granted, they had 30,000 plus in the Georgia Dome that night, I still think they could have saved the match for a PPV.

05. Stone Cold Steve Austin & The Undertaker vs. Mankind & Kane – Tag Team Hell In A Cell Match (RAW 1998) – One of only two HIAC matches to ever take place on RAW, this match turned into a violent bloodbath. The complete match was never shown on RAW, nor does it appear on the HIAC box set, but it was a “barnburner” to say the least. ‘Taker locked himself inside the cell while Austin dismantled Foley with a brutal chair shot. Then the Texas Rattlesnake took to the roof of the cell to battle in out with Kane in one of the most memorable shots of all time as the camera captured Austin angrily stomping across the steel mesh to lay a beating on the Big Red Machine.

04. Brock Lesnar vs. Hulk Hogan (Smackdown 2002) – This match would be the last time Hogan would appear on WWE television until February of 2003 and up to that date, the biggest win of Lesnar’s career. In what was most likely the first squash match that Hogan appeared on the other end of, Lesnar dismantled the Hulkster leaving him in a pool of his own blood. At the end of the contest, when Lesnar wiped blood from the scalp of Hogan and smeared it on his chest like a badge of honor, it was the moment I became a huge fan of Lesnar.

03. Chris Benoit & Chris Jericho vs. The Dudley Boyz vs. The Hardy Boyz vs. Edge & Christian – TLC Match for the WWE Tag Team Championship - (Smackdown 2001) – Like the HIAC match mentioned earlier, this was one of only two TLC matches ever given away for free on television. Although Benoit spent the majority of the match in the back after delivering a huge spot involving him crashing through a table and slamming into the concrete floor, Jericho managed to carry on and win the match when Benoit himself staggered out at the end to mount a little extra offense. This should be noted that this was the first time eight people competed in this style of match.

02. Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar (One Hour Iron Man Match for the WWE Championship) – The fact that they gave this match away is beyond confusing. This belonged on a PPV and defiantly not on Smackdown. The match is a classic that is often overlooked, unless Angle or Lesnar returns to WWE or at least gets on good terms with the company once again, I doubt we’ll see this match on a future WWE DVD release.

01. The Rock & Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Hollywood Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall & Kevin Nash (RAW 2002) – The impossible had just happened. Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash reformed the original nWo. Yes, the nWo had formed, broken up and reformed several times in the old wCw but this was different, this time it was in World Wrestling Entertainment. The two biggest stars of the WWE attitude era and the three of the biggest stars of the Monday Nitro era came together in a 3 on 2 handicap match. In a shocking turn of events, Hulk Hogan ended up getting the pinfall (/sarcasm). It wasn’t about who won or lost this match anyway, the fact that it was happening was just surreal.

Classic Rivalry - Marty Jannetty vs. Shawn Michaels

2008-10-18T15:21:00.000-07:00

In the second ever installment of “Classic Rivalry” I’ve decided to go a few years back, all the way back to the early 1990’s. In this installment of “Classic Rivalry”, we examine the very personal feud between Marty Jannetty and Shawn Michaels.

Michaels and Jannetty began their WWE career in 1988 as the exciting high flying tag team known as “The Rockers”. They teamed for 3 straight years and though they never officially won the tag team titles, they revolutionized the tag team division. I used the word “officially” as in 1990, there had been plans for The Hart Foundation to drop the championships to Jannetty and Michaels but the decision was overturned when the top ring rope came undone during the match, ruining the entire bout.

During a match at the 1991 Survivor Series, Jannetty had “inadvertently” caused Michaels to get eliminated which started a war of words between the once proud team. Shortly after the debacle, Brutus Beefcake invited The Rockers to appear on “The Barber Shop” to settle their differences. As the segment drew to a close, all seemed well, until Michaels delivered a devastating kick to the head of Jannetty. Unsure of where he was, Jannetty stumbled to his feet only to be hurled face first through the barbershop window. As Michaels stood above his fallen comrade and adjusted his collar with a confident smirk, the partnership had come to an end and started a fierce and frequent rivalry.

Jannetty spent a few months on the sidelines with the initial plan to culminate the rivalry in a match at WrestleMania VII but due to personal issues, was released from his contract. In late 1992, Jannetty returned to World Wrestling Entertainment picking up where he left off with HBK. On an episode of Superstars, Jannetty jumped the guardrail and stormed the ring with every intention of causing immense physical damage to Michaels but ended up causing “serious injury” to HBK’s valet, Sensational Sherrie in the process. This all led to an Intercontinental Championship match at the 1993 Royal Rumble in which Jannetty lost. The program was set to continue further but while attending the live edition of Monday Night Raw the following evening, Jannetty appeared under the influence and was promptly released for the third time in his WWE career.

Jannetty would return a few months later and challenge HBK for the Intercontinental Championship but this time, Jannetty would capture the elusive title. Jannetty would hold the title for only one week before loosing it back to HBK in a championship rematch. During this recent stretch of employment, Jannetty and HBK would battle in a classic steel cage match on an episode of Monday Night RAW which really brought their rivalry to its apex. Shortly after those series of matchups, Jannetty would return to the division that brought him to WWE, the tag team division. Jannetty would enjoy some success including a tag team championship reign with Sean Waltman (X-Pac, 1-2-3 Kid, The Kid, Syxx, Syxx Pac, etc) and a reformation of The Rockers with Al Snow.

He and Michaels would meet in one other match, this time for HBK’s WWE Championship. Jannetty would come up short yet again, as expected and would be released shortly afterwards.

Jannetty and Michaels would appear as allies in all future instances that had Jannetty appearing on WWE television and the rivalry appears to have ended.

Weekly Recap - October 17th

2008-10-17T19:38:00.001-07:00

On RAW this week they used the ol’ method of giving the guys headlining the next PPV the option to put their opponent in a match against whomever they want. It’s not a bad idea, it serves its purpose. Jericho walked on out in his business suit to conduct business as usual and placed “The Manimal” Bob-tista in a match against The Showstopper. The match was okay at best but nothing special. When it was Batista’s choice, he got one up on Jericho by placing him in a match against the former world heavyweight champion, CM Punk. That’s not all folks! No, Batista also crowned himself special referee for the bout. It was a great back and forth match as only those two guys can do but just as Jericho had the upper hand, Batista had something “fly into his eye” intentionally breaking the three count which led to a sequence of events making CM Punk the eventual winner of the contest.

The ridiculous Kane/Mysterio program continued into RAW this week in a tag team match with Matt teaming with Rey and Mark Henry teaming with Kane. I know I’m supposed to be a big fan of Matt Hardy’s and believe me, I am, but I’m just not enjoying his ECW title run. I think it’s that his character has grown stale since his comeback to WWE in 2005. I’d much rather he adopt the loading screen/Matt facts yet again. As for Kane and Mysterio, this storyline is ridiculous but gives both guys something to do. In the future, I wouldn’t be against Mysterio going after the Intercontinental Championship as he’s proven he shouldn’t be considered a legitimate threat to the Heavyweight Championship ever again in regards to his last (and only) run as champ.

JBL waddled into the arena and gave us more reasons to dislike the guy. Not only is he incredibly boring but since his comeback in early 2008, he’s proven that he’s not anywhere near the caliber he used to be. He’s pretty much only just a notch above Hardcore Holly in terms of watchability (yeah, I made that word up). We experienced Haas Hogan! Charlie Haas appeared as Hogan and attempted to get a win over JBL but failed to do so. As I predicted last week, I can guarantee that no matter who wins the shot at Santino’s championship at Cyber Sunday, its going to be Charlie Haas.

Evan Bourne met Chavo Guerrero in what was easily the match of the week. An exciting, high flying, back and forth match that held my interest in what seemed like the longest match shown on ECW TV in the last while. I really have nothing to write about in regards to this show other than Evan Bourne has pretty much secured his ECW title match @ Cyber Sunday. I mean, come on, who are people going to vote for? Finlay’s certainly no ones favorite superstar and Henry is a heel so even if the votes aren’t rigged (which I honestly believe they are) he certainly is not going to be on the receiving end of any votes. Also, I'm really becoming a fan of the commentary team of Striker/Grisham. Striker comes off as really knowledgeable in his commentary and I really appreciate someone like that.

On Smackdown, Jeff Hardy failed to end the undefeated streak of the Russian. Not really a surprise, I’m pretty sure that no one would have picked the Rainbow Haired Warrior to get a victory over the Moscow Mauler. I really have no idea which way the votes are going to go for Cyber Sunday but I can guarantee that the people are not going to leave Mr. Hardy without a match, he’s just too popular.

Big Show announced that his match with ‘Taker is either going to be a “Knockout Match”, “I Quit” or “Last Man Standing”. Personally, I’m pulling for the “I Quit” match myself; I don’t think we’ve seen one of those in years. After he announced the stips, Show ran through 3 locals to the amazement of no one. Da Undatakah competed in a match with The Great Khali, a man who is on WWE television too much lately, and ended the match in a no contest.

MVP suffered his one millionth loss in a row this week as he fell to K-Kwik. Did you know that WWE is where it’s at? That’s what R-Truth told me, right after he asked me “what’s up?” for the hundredth time during his damn entrance. I dislike his entrance so much that its starting make me dislike him altogether. Its too bad he’s going to win that US Championship soon.

For some ridiculous reason, they’re giving away Triple H vs. The Undertaker for free on Smackdown next week. I have a feeling the match is going to be a no-contest almost before it even starts. That match should happen at a PPV or WrestleMania XXV.

A much shorter recap for this week, hope you enjoyed!

Top Ten Tuesday - Greatest Hell In A Cell Matches

2008-10-14T18:17:00.000-07:00

Its been called "The Devil's Playground" and "Where Career's Go To Die". As good 'ol JR dubbed it, "that ominous steel structure hell bent on shortening careers". It's the be-all-end-all to any grudge in professional wrestling. It's two tons of steel. It's a weapon. Its the Hell In A Cell!

I’m putting in our first entry of the Top Ten Tuesday section and it’s a good one! In honor of WWE’s newest DVD, Hell In A Cell, I bring to you The Pro Wrestling Blog’s Top Ten Greatest Hell In A Cell Matches!

1. Mankind vs. The Undertaker (June 28^th, 1998 – King of the Ring) – Without a doubt this is easily #1. If the Hell In A Cell is about sheer brutality, then this match must top the list. Foley’s blatant disregard for his own well-being and The Undertaker’s ruthless aggression made this match memorable for those in attendance and the millions watching around the world. This match had it all! It had a man fly from the roof of a steel structure through an inadequate crash pad, fall through the steel structure only to have a steel chair slam into his cranium and knock a tooth up into his damn nose and of course, Terry Funk was literally choke slammed right out of his shoes! Not only is it the best Hell In A Cell match ever but some people will regard it as the best match to ever take place.

2. The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels (October 5th, 1997 – WWE In Your House: Bad Blood) – This was the match that started it all. This match took place at the apex of HBK’s career, when he was performing at his absolute best and during the very beginning stages of D-Generation-X. Undertaker had been growing stale and his career path was starting to take a turn with the reveal of a sinister evil brother who would go on to be involved in some of the strangest, most unbelievable plots ever devised by WWE creative. At the time, The Undertaker had been planting the seeds for a more in-depth and emotionally involved character and was going to show wrestling fans that not only could he still keep up with the younger and faster guys but that he could bring a whole new level of brutality to the pro wrestling world. HBK spilled buckets of his blood that night and once again set the standard for another match that he can claim he pioneered.

3. Triple H vs. Chris Jericho (May 19^th, 2002 – Grudge Match) – Certainly up to this point, the most brutal match of Jericho’s career, the hell in a cell certainly took a toll on the charismatic showman. Due to a vengeful and hell in a cell veteran, Triple H, Jericho left the match covered in blood and with torn and tattered ring attire, he had looked like he’d been through a war. One of the more unbelievable spots involved the swinging of a 2x4 wrapped in barbed wire which actually became caught in Jericho’s hair! It also marked the first and only time a pin fall finish ever occurred while the two opponents were on top of the cell.

4. Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels (June 13^th, 2004 – Grudge Match) – Certainly holding the record for the longest Hell In A Cell Match clocking in at an excruciating 47 minutes and change, HBK and Triple H took their rivalry to the limit and effectively ended a 2 year bloodbath. However, by deciding not to leave the cell, HBK and ol’ Trips included several weapons to use at their disposal (Ladders, Chairs and Tables). At the time, I remember not thinking much of this match but after re-watching it recently it holds a decent spot in the PWB’s greatest hell in a cell matches.

5. Batista vs. Triple H (June 26th, 2005 – World Heavyweight Championship) – This match apparently took such a toll on The Game that he would go on to take a few months off. Who would blame him? I’ve never in my life watched a match where Triple H took more punishment. Towards the start of the bout, HHH had brought in a steel chair wrapped in barbed wire! Aside from all the crazy weapons and huge painful to watch spots, this was the match that cemented Batista as a main event performer having beat Triple H three times in a row (WrestleMania, WrestleMania Re-match and Hell In A Cell). Shortly after this match took place, Batista would move to Smackdown and not compete in a HIAC match for roughly two and a half years.

6. The Undertaker vs. The Rock vs. Steve Austin vs. Kurt Angle vs. Rikishi vs. Triple H (December 10^th, 2000 – WWE Championship) – One of these things is not like the other, not like the other! I bet you can’t guess which one? Never before had this been done, WWE took all of their top guys and put them in the most dangerous match possible, Hell In A Cell. A literal dream match, a who’s who of the wrestling world. And Rikishi. I can’t really understand why he was there from a marketing standpoint. I understand that he had been involved in one of the bigger angles the company had used over the past year but it seemed like Kane would have been the more logical person at that time. However, in the end Rikishi served his purpose. He was thrown from the top of the cell into a truck filled with bails of hay. Yeah, you read that right. Why was the truck there? Vince had driven it out of course! Why? To pull down the cage. Why? I don’t know.

7. Triple H vs. Mick Foley (February 27^th, 2000 – WWE Championship/If Mick Foley were to lose, he would have to retire from active competition) – This was Foley’s last match as an active member of the WWE. Now, Foley would go on to appear here and there as a referee or to wrestle the odd match but this was the match that took him away from the business as a night-to-night performer. It was a great match with bumps and bruises galore. Foley once again repeated the act of falling through the cage to the mat below (however, this time, it was planned). A flaming 2x4 covered in barbed wire was used as well! If you ask me, the match they had the month before was a lot better than this one, however, in terms of a HIAC, it certainly will stand the test of time; being a classic one at that.

8. The Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar (October 20^th, 2002 – WWE Championship) – Prior to entering this match, Lesnar had “broken” The Undertaker’s hand in a savage attack backstage during an episode of Smackdown leading up to the PPV. Up until then, Lesnar had been steamrolling the competition, winning the WWE Championship in his first shot. This was certainly a match that interested a lot of people; Undertaker was the master of the HIAC appearing in 4 cell matches already and Lesnar was running around destroying everything in his path. The match proved to be every bit as good as advertised. Lesnar was beaten and bloodied like never before and Undertaker didn’t just bleed but rather looked as if he’d suffered a massive head wound! When it was all said and done, Lesnar stood atop the cell proclaiming victory over the fallen phenom.

9. Randy Orton vs. The Undertaker (December 18^th, 2005 – Grudge Match) – Orton enlisted the help of his second generation father to attempt to finally put an end to his rivalry with The Undertaker; however, Undertaker walked away leaving a pile of beaten and bloody Orton’s behind. Honestly, this match was probably the selling point of an overall horrible card. I can’t tell you one good thing that happened on this night aside from the hell in a cell match.

10. Vince McMahon, Shane McMahon and The Big Show vs. D-Generation-X (September 17^th, 2006 – 2 on 3 Handicap Match) – This was certainly one of the more entertaining cell matches, aside from having to watch Triple H shove Vince McMahon’s face into Big Show’s posterior, it wasn’t all that bad. It should be noted that it was the debut of the newly redesigned hell in a cell that they use now which is at least double the size and looks a lot better in terms of craftsmanship.

Classic Rivalry - Chris Jericho vs. Chris Benoit

2008-10-11T22:54:00.000-07:00

Classic Rivalry is a feature here on TPWB that takes a look at some of the best rivalries in the history of the business and breaks them down into a list of three events that made that rivalry a “classic”.

Ah, the battles of the two Chris’. After these two born and bred WCW superstars left the stagnant organization for the greener pastures of WWE, they were quickly put into a program against one another. These two did battle night in and night out and put on some of the best matches the wrestling world had ever seen. Did I mention they were Canadians?

Royal Rumble 2001 – Ladder Match for the Intercontinental Championship – In my opinion, this was the greatest ladder match of all time. Believe it or not, this was the first ladder match for either competitor in the WWE, so the majority of the fans didn’t really know what to expect. However, with the groundbreaking ladder match from No Mercy ’99 about a year and a few months before, the fans had an idea of what they were in store for. Surprisingly in an age where we had seen two TLC matches (tables, ladders & chairs) prior to this match, Benoit and Jericho kept it strictly about the ladders (aside from one really cool suicide dive chair shot). Jericho even managed to lock Benoit in his signature “Walls of Jericho” on top of his ladder for the very first time, a move he would later use on occasion.

SummerSlam 2000 – Best 2/3 Falls – Whether you like him or you hate him (for good reasons), Benoit was without a doubt the guy who could make his moves, punches or kicks look incredibly stiff better than anyone. The events leading up to this match were full of such intensity that you actually believed either man was going to leave with career ending injuries, you actually believed these two hated each other. The match itself was an instant classic and unfortunately because of the actions of Benoit will most likely never been seen on a Jericho DVD collection, the only way you’ll get your hands on that one is by purchasing the SummerSlam Anthology.

King of the Ring 2001 – Triple Threat Match for the WWE Championship– After competing as Tag Team Partners for a few weeks and winning the Tag Team Championship from Austin and Triple H (Two Man Power Trip), Benoit and Jericho were at it again but this time for the “richest prize in the game”, the WWE Championship. During this time, Austin was at his absolute best and needed a new opponent and direction as his partner, Triple H, had suffered a debilitating quad injury a month prior. Enter Jericho and Benoit, two guys that have proven that they can put on great matches. Make a triple threat match and you have an instant classic. It should be noted that Benoit also suffered a near broken neck during this match and would be out for close to a year.

So there you have it; a classic rivalry if there ever was one. These two great performers would stick around for a few years before Jericho’s departure in mid 2005 for a near two and a half year hiatus and Benoit’s incident in 2007. Although they would meet occasionally in tag matches and money in the bank ladder match, they would never compete in a rivalry sense after the draft in 2002 sent both men to opposite shows.

Weekly Recap - October 6th - 11th

2008-10-11T10:36:00.001-07:00

No Mercy took place this last Sunday and pretty much went exactly as I expected. In the PPV pool for the show itself, I managed to walk away with a respectable 5 picks out of 7, thus proving my superior intellect (never mind the fact that Matty came away with a 6 out of 7) when it comes to professional wrestling.

The ladder match proved to be as excellent as it should be. It’s incredible to think that HBK and Jericho at the age they are (43 and 37 respectively) can still put on a match of that credibility at this stage of their career. I’m still a total sucker for injuries sold within the squared circle and Jericho’s nasty bump from a near 20 foot fall literally had me thinking that the Ayatollah of Rock n’ Rolla had seriously messed up his knee. I guess Jericho finally answered JR’s age old question of “How do you learn to fall off of a 20 foot ladder?” He’s certainly lucky that he didn’t “rupture a disc which fragmented into his… spinal column.” Once again, like HBK’s apparently back injury suffered during a brawl with Brock Lesnar from 6 years ago, I was fooled.

Speaking of Jericho, he’s had a rough time and has literally put his body through more damage and destruction in the last month then most guys have done in the last year. Within the last two months, Jericho suffered welts on his back, a cracked tooth and several facial lacerations during two extremely punishing match-ups. Of course, at this stage of his career, Jericho has proved so much and has left a legacy in the ring that certainly does not require this caliber of physical damage and risk-taking. However, you’ve got to give Jericho props for showing that he will still do whatever it takes to tell the better story each and every night in the ring. He’s certainly coming into his prime as a top notch upper card heel.

On RAW this week, Jericho was put in charge of the asylum while Adamle had a “high profile meeting with the McMahon’s”. I’m all for Jericho being in charge but this did not really make a whole lot of sense to me. I know that if I was in charge, I’d probably do what HHH had done to Orton and Cena a few months prior and placing whomever was bothering me in a match with the entire roster. However, we were treated with your usual “overcoming the odds” deal with Batista sliding in to replace the injured John Cena in his usual scenario. Jericho also “made” a match for HBK against “HBCade” in a match where ANYTHING GOES! Apparently the only thing that went was “HBCade” and he went down (you like that?) to the power of HBK’s mighty anger.

RAW had two solid fillers of comeback reminders for John Cena, as if anyone’s forgotten about him during the last two months that he’s been out of action. Once again, Batista manages to come off as a jerk in both of the video segments as well as his promo with Chris Jericho that kicked off the show. Batista is more or less the Sarah Palin of the WWE. Someone who has no business speaking and half the time does an adequate job convincing us all that he has no idea what the hell he’s doing. If Batista is good for anything, it’s loosing on a regular basis, and he’s pretty good at that. Also, he does a pretty mean, “oh no, I lost” reaction.

Speaking of RAW, I used to be a huge fan of JBL. When he transformed from “Bradshaw”, the Acolyte/Cowboy, into “JBL”, the Wall Street genius, I was more than pleased. He was fresh, almost like a new age Million Dollar Man. However, since returning earlier this year, the guy is being put in the upper echelon of the RAW talent pool but really has no business being there. JBL is not entertaining and usually succeeds in bringing the show down when it starts to kick off.

Speaking of Smackdown (what?), I’m not sure if Vickie Guerrero is just annoying or really good at her job. Honestly, watching her attempt to speak on Smackdown is just insane. She has so much heat she can barely be heard over the boo’s. As much as I dislike her, she’s one of the better heel GM’s we had since Smackdown’s Paul Heyman or RAW’s Eric Bischoff and that was like 4-5 years ago.

Watching this new pairing of The Big Show and Vickie Guerrero makes me really miss Edge. I’m hoping he’s back sooner rather than later. Although, I have no idea how he’s supposed to have survived being burned alive under the ring or if we’re supposed to believe that The Undertaker literally sent Edge to hell?

Anywho, Triple H and The Big Show seems like it should be a match not given away on television. The match went well until ol’ Booger Red showed up and caused the match to come to a screeching halt. When Trips was left all alone in the ring, Vladimir Kozlov came rushing down to shove his head through The Game’s chest but was stopped by the Rainbow-Haired Charismatic Enigma who upon knocking the Russian out of the ring dropped a twist of fate on Hunter. This pretty much sets up the triple threat match for Cyber Sunday that I was hoping for unless we fans vote otherwise.

I am a fan of R-Truth’s in-ring abilities; I have no problem with him in that sense. However, the second he opens his mouth to speak or to sing that God-awful annoying entrance theme of his, I instantly want someone to crush him. I’d love to see Kozlov tear through him. He fought Benjamin and pinned the Gold Standard handing the US Champion his second loss in as many weeks.

On ECW this week the show was headlined by an epic 8 man tag pitting the likes of Priceless and The In Crowd against Punk, Kofi, Bourne and “The Big O” Ricky Ortiz. I pretty much like every superstar in that match aside from Ortiz, while he hasn’t won me over yet; I certainly wouldn’t say he’s awful to watch. Something about that man that bothers me.

Also, Finlay and Dreamer defeated “The All American American” Jack Swagger and Mike Knox. Jack Swagger hasn’t really proved anything yet, it takes me a while to get on the good side of a new wrestler. After two years of being in the company, I’m finally getting behind Knox. The look of that guy is something altogether different than anyone else in the company and almost looks like he would actually kill someone if given the chance.

Mark Henry destroyed Jamie Knoble. With Knoble on ECW and Khali on both RAW and Smackdown this week, although the brand split is evident, its really nothing to stick to. Anyone can pretty much go wherever they want.

So that’s it for the first week of recap, I hope someone enjoys it. I enjoyed doing it that’s for sure so here’s to future entries and hoping that I can get better.

Heads Up!

2008-10-09T06:46:00.001-07:00

Just wanted everyone to be aware of what the first few posts entail.

Tomorrow's entry will be the weekly recap for RAW, Smackdown and ECW. Later in the week, I have the first entry for the "classic rivalries" edition being the epic rivalry between Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit. Yes, the story of the two Chris' will be told.

On Tuesday, we have our first entry for "Top Ten Tuesday". In honor of WWE releasing the new 3-disc collection entitled, "Hell In A Cell", we'll have the top ten Hell In A Cell matches.

There you have it, first week of blog entries are set to begin tomorrow. Hopefully I can keep this up, I'm really not asking much of myself.

A New Era Has Begun!

2008-10-08T11:39:00.000-07:00

Greetings!

Welcome to The Pro Wrestling Blog. This is something that I've always wanted to do. I've been a wrestling fan for roughly 18 years (since I was the young and tender age of 6) and have always wanted to do something like this but have either been too busy or too lazy. However, This is NOT a news site, nor is it something that will be updated everyday. I'm going to start out small with roughly 3 guaranteed updates per week with the possibility of updates in between.

The 3 regular features are going to be:

Weekly Recap: This will be updated on Friday Night/Saturday Morning. I will recap the weeks events with one update featuring results/opinions for RAW, Smackdown and ECW. I will try to be entertaining, otherwise, you can just read this stuff elsewhere.

Top Ten Tuesdays: Obviously, updated on Tuesdays. This feature is pretty self explanatory. Featured in various top ten lists will be lists ranging from "World Championship reigns", "Face/Heel Turns", "Matches from a specific PPV", etc.

Classic Rivalries: Whether done right or wrong, I'll throw some of the best/worst rivalries in WWE History. Not sure on a date for this yet.

I'll also throw in the odd article here and there.

Anywho, this is my experiment, hopefully it works out.

I'll see you all on Friday evening.