Bear with me, as I am not quite to meltdown mode (it will come soon DB's) but I was thinking of this one on the bus: Who is the greatest tertiary champion in WWF history and what is the best tertiary championship match? Obviously you are going to have Owen-Bulldog in 97, and the spectacle of HBK and HHH later that year...but were there better European or Hardcore matches? Hit it up BOD'ers.
If you include outside the WWF, I would mention TV champion Arn Anderson (4 reigns equaling 870 days), and Cruiserweight champion Chris jericho and his feuds with Dean Malenko and Quasi Juice Guerrero.
ReplyDeleteGotta go with Godfathers Hoe on this one.
ReplyDeleteI remember most of the cruiser tag title matches being pretty good.
ReplyDeleteThe Jumping Bomb Angels were the definition of a "tertiary champion" since I think they were the champs of a two-team women's tag division. Yet man alive, were those women ahead of their time compared to what even the male wrestlers were doing.
ReplyDeleteYeah pretty much any high profile cruiserweight title match from 96-early 98 blows most the of the WWF stuff out the water.
ReplyDeleteBut as far as WWF stuff goes, the Euro title was a complete joke by WM14.
Tully Blanchard probably the best tertiary champ, best tertiary match might be Malenko-Jericho for the cruiserweight belt just for the imaginative booking and great heat.
ReplyDeleteThe hardcore battle royal from WM2000 always entertains me. It's utter garbage, but I love it all the same.
ReplyDeleteYeah me too, you look at it from a scientific wrestling perspective and it's crap but if you can sit back and turn your brain off, it's a fun match.
ReplyDeleteMost Excited: Definitely Wrestlemania III - the first PPV I watched live and nothing since has topped that. I was talking about Hogan-Andre and Savage-Steamboat with my friends for WEEKS before that show.
ReplyDeleteMost Exciting Reveal - Maybe not the same as the defined term, but Bobby Heenan randomly holding the Big Gold Belt at the end of Wrestling Challenge on a random Sunday. No big build, not anticipation, but it was a HUUUUGE moment. The nWo "Third Man" reveal was awesome, but PWI Weekly ruined it for me two days before the show.
Favorite Moment - Flair winning the 1992 Royal Rumble. "With a tear in my eye!"
Biggest Letdown - Ordering the last couple of Royal Rumbles with their predictable endings, probably.
Luger choking against Yokozuna in that racist, xenophobic, hyper-patriotic angle is probably my favorite moment in wrestling.
ReplyDeleteHow about Dean Malenko vs. Scotty 2 Hotty at Backlash 2000 for a WWE-only option?
ReplyDeleteFor tertiary champions? Arn Anderson, TV Champ
One disappointment, albeit in a slightly different context: the Benoit/Guerrero title wins. At the peak of my fandom, I was such a huge Benoit and Eddie mark and could not wait for the day they got to be on top...but by 2004 I had stopped watching regularly, only kept up on the product through SK's occasional review, enlisted in the Marines, and sort of moved on with my life. So when I read somewhere that Benoit & Guerrero won the titles in the main events of WM's 20th anniversary, it was more of a "I used to love those guys!" than a big payoff.
ReplyDeleteThis got a legit chuckle out of me. I sometimes wonder if they could have turned that into a great heel turn for Luger. He shits the bed in his big title shot, then wrecks the Lex Express bus with a baseball bat and goes on a tirade about not wanting to be the WWF's next American hero. I think Lex could have been Bret's heel counterpart during that post-Hogan era
ReplyDeleteRaven/Kane/Big Show from WM17 is at the top of the hardcore match mountain for me
ReplyDeleteBetter Euro matches. Not too many Hardcore matches stand out. (except for the few Raven were in.)
ReplyDeleteThe NWA had TONS of tertiary championships. (which is what I liked, because they were treated as important.) But the best to me where the US Tag championships when the Midnight Express held them.
ReplyDeleteExcited: WM 17/WM 20.
ReplyDeleteReveal: I don't know if this counts, but Mankind "bringing out" Cactus to face HHH was pretty damn cool. If not, yeah, NWO 3rd.
Moment: I can't lie, Benoit/Guerrero at WM 20 was almost unreal. And even more so now. My second favorite moment is Jericho "winning" the title from HHH on Raw. The reversal was understandable, but it was still one shockingly cool moment.
Letdown: TNA this past year... from promising to once again not good.
Mini-TJ:
ReplyDeletehttp://deadspin.com/bid-on-this-awesome-velvet-painting-of-macho-man-rand-1426683107
Other than Liz looking kinda... off, this is pretty cool. Current bid (Monday, 9:30 AM CDT) is $256.70.
Bob Holly calling Michael Cole a shithead makes it all good for me.
ReplyDeleteReveal: Has to be Duane Gill as Mankind's opponent in the 1998 Survivor Series tournament.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I disliked about the Dean/Scotty match was how damn tiny they looked in WWE's unnecessarily gigantic rings. I'd never noticed it before (and haven't really noticed it since with anyone else), but for some reason those two guys in that one match made them look absolutely miniature. 20x20 rings seem like a lot of wasted space. That ringside area couldhave extra seats, after all.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe that I can say one of favorite matches of all time has "the Worm" in it...
I'll up you one and say that the 6-man (7-man?) Hardcore match at Backlash 2000 the following month was way better. Better booking, better workers (adding the Hardyz helped a lot), better spots... yeah, I'd say it was better.
ReplyDeleteWas the European title ever not a joke? I started watching regularly in '98, so I missed the very beginning of that belt. Did it ever really matter at all?
ReplyDeletein the grand scheme of things it did not, but it was a vanity belt for Bulldog originally and he was having some good matches during the tourney... i guess...
ReplyDeleteDuane Gill: WWF Light Heavyweight champ for like over a year.
ReplyDeleteBoth of those are among the few times where a 'mystery partner' angle actually worked.
ReplyDeleteHas to be Rob Van Dam since he won the ECW title and then went on to win the World title concurrently.
ReplyDeleteI dunno, I think Raven had a better match with Rhyno.
ReplyDeleteThe ppv I was most excited for was easily Wrestlemania XIX. It was my senior year of high school and my buddies and I all piled into a van and drove 13 hours to Seattle for the weekend. The day before we left, we were all buzzing with excitement. On the way up we watched vhs copies of old Wrestlemanias in the van. Walking into Safeco field was surreal. One of the funnest weekends of my life.
ReplyDeleteSecond place would probably be Survivor Series 1998. I was 13 and completely absorbed by wrestling. We were all speculating about who was going to take the belt as the ppv approached. I was firmly behind the Rock and remember being totally shocked by the heel turn.
Favorite moment: This one is hard to pick from, but I'll go with Eddie Guerrero beating Lesnar in San Francisco. I was there in person and it's probably my favorite wrestling moment of all time. Another big one for me was Luger beating Hogan for the belt on Nitro. I was jumping up and down around the living room when Luger got Hogan up in the rack. The whole locker room coming down and holding Luger on their shoulders was such a great moment. Others include Mankind's first title win, Austin saving Steph from the ministry, Benoit making HHH tap. Too many to list.
Biggest letdown: HBK winning the belt from Bret at Wrestlemania 12. I was/am a huge Bret fan and always hated HBK as a kid. When the Iron Man Match was ending and Bret had HBK in the sharpshooter, I was marking out big time. When they restarted the match and HBK superkicked Bret, my heart sank.
I loved the Flair sendoff, but my personal preference was the HBK farewell. I liked the intimacy and simplicity of his speech...there was something fitting seeing the one time biggest jerk ever, finally at peace saying goodbye with no frills. Just great stuff
ReplyDeleteWell it kind of did lead somewhere. Flair beating Bischoff for the presidents job was another big mark out moment for me. Don't know how ya'll feel about the crazy house stuff but I thought Flair was killing it.
ReplyDelete