The SmarK Rant for WCW Monday Nitro – 11.27.95 So it’s the night after World War III, and Randy Savage is the new World champion in a twist that not many were expecting at the time. Live from Salem, VA Your hosts are Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan and Mongo.

November 2, 1986 From the War Memorial in Rochester, NY Your hosts are Bobby Heenan and Gorilla Monsoon Tonight's featured match will have Randy Savage defend his Intercontinental Title against Billy Jack Haynes. Also, the Islanders, Iron Sheik & Nikolai Volkoff, Tito Santana & Pedro Morales, and Ricky Steamboat will all be in action.

by Logan Scisco - We have a change in the commentary team as Shane McMahon and Jim Cornette are given the responsibilities for tonight’s show, which is taped from Sacramento, California.  During this time the company had Shane commentating on Sunday Night Heat.  He was not very good at it, though.  Ross and Lawler are not here because they were working on Jim Carey’s film Man on the Moon .

Your discussion options for this evening include:  WWE Network with a live Main Event at 8:00 PM ET, then a new Monday Night War at 9:00, focusing on the Steve Austin era of the war, then at 10:00 it's Countdown, featuring the top ten stylish ring attire. MLB playoffs kick off tonight with the AL Wild Card game between Oakland and Kansas City on TBS. The thread is yours for the taking.

ABABABABA Up Up Down Down Left Left Right Right will unlock AWESOMENESS!

The iron man match. Angle. Lesnar. Do you need anything else? Kurt Angle vs Brock Lesnar ((Iron Man Match... by Kronek10

With all the current hullabaloo for Rusev, where does he stand in the pantheon of evil foreign heels (or at least Russian heels)? You'd think this would be an easy WWE Top 10.  Well, I mean, he hasn't really DONE anything yet to warrant such a list.  Once we get to the program with Juan Cena we'll see where he stacks up.  Clearly Ivan Koloff is #1 for ending the reign of Bruno and nearly starting a riot in the process, and nephew Nikita is #2.  Nikolai would be #3 by sheer longevity, and you could throw Crusher Darsow in there as well. If you expand it to xenophobic heels in general, that gives you Fritz Von Erich near the top and probably a bunch of other Nazi gimmicks from that era.  Great Khali was reasonably effective in that role for a little while, as was Umaga.  And of course Yokozuna.   But yeah, that would be a cool top 10.  Paging YouTube guys!  

HHH Big on Soliciting Feedback From the Internet? A WWE source has told Wrestlezone.com that HHH has been having WWE social media workers keep an eye on various online communities. It has also been reported that HHH is most intrigued by Reddit and its "r/squaredcircle" community. HHH is also said to be working on an AMA (ask me anything) with the site to let fans know that he is aware. A source also said that the idea of Sandow being the Miz's stunt double was taken in part of discussions that happened on wrestling message board websites. http://www.wrestlezone.com/news/514887-triple-h-soliciting-internet-feedback WWE Stable Breaking Up Soon? The WWE is planning on splitting up the Wyatt Family. There is no timetable for when or how this will happen. Credit Dave Meltzer, Wrestling Observer Radio Former WWE Writer Talks About His Experience With the Company Writer Kevin Marshall talked about being "micromanaged to death" on Wrestling Observer Li...

WCW Worldwide is ready to go, and man have we got a doozy today. Who’s here? Well, just the biggest stars on the planet, like Super Calo, the Rock & Roll Express, and no fewer than FOUR members of the Dungeon of Doom. Is Maxx amongst them? Well the only way to find out is to take us “live” (taped ages ago) to the studio, where… We say hello to TONY SCHIAVONE and “SOBER” BOBBY HEENAN !

Hey Scott, Watching NXT lately, and I think it's pretty obvious that Bull Dempsey really really sucks. But he's getting a pretty solid push so obviously somebody sees something in him. Am I missing something here, or is this just a thing where Triple H decided that the wrestling world was ready to embrace the retarded love child of Rhino and King Kong Bundy or what? ​Eh, you always need big guys.  It's NXT, they can always find a new gimmick for him or make him someone's bodyguard later or something.  Obviously Baron Corbin is the guy they're going all in with anyway, so I wouldn't sweat the Dempsey thing.  ​

It's almost October so naturally I'm thinking about WM 31.  If Reigns/Brock is unavoidable, I feel they'll need a huge undercard in case that match flops.  If we can guess-timate Sting/Taker, and a hinted HHH/Batista match, you think there's any chance of Cena/Bryan?   It's so easy to do it also, as you use the Bella feud to get the men involved.  Respect leads to sarcastic insults, and BOOM, insta-feud.  Any thoughts on this?   If not where do you see Cena, Bryan, and Orton at Wrestlemania? ​As I've been saying for weeks, if I had money to bet on a semi-main for Wrestlemania at this point it has to be Cena v. Rusev. They are so clearly building up Rusev for Cena to beat and there's no point in doing it anywhere else but Wrestlemania.  I'm thinking Bryan probably ends up with Rollins or maybe Ambrose in a "for some reason" scenario.  Orton, who knows.  Teaming with Kane as tag champions?  There's no real direction for the company right no...

The SmarK Rant for WCW Monday Nitro – 09.25.95 FINALLY! And the shows have all been renumbered to make sense now, too. Of course, wouldn’t you know that I did the past few episodes in one marathon session because I was going to be out of town for a few days and didn’t want to kill anyone by missing a day. And once I had already got three episodes and the WW3 repost in the can and pre-posted, THEN someone e-mails me being all “Dude, the 9/25 Nitro is finally up!” And of course I’m not anywhere that I can actually access the Network to even check it out for myself. So now, at long last, before I have the chance to change my mind and do a stupid running joke to milk it for weeks, the missing episode of Nitro. Try not to poop yourself with excitement. LIVE from nowhere they wanted to advertise, apparently. Your hosts are Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan & Mongo

Great Muta & Tajiri vs. Great Sanada & James Storm Samoa Joe vs. Low Ki vs. Kaz Hayashi - X title Team 3-D vs. Tommy Dreamer & Abyss Ethan Carter III vs. Ryota Hama MVP vs. Kazma Sakamoto Minoru Tanaka vs. Manik Havok vs. Velvet Sky So I don’t think I’m gonna bother doing a preview column on the Sporting News for this one. 

The PG Era Rant for Raw, September 29, 2014. Your preview promises the following: Hulk Hogan is in the house! Miz, Cesaro, and Ziggler face off with the Intercontinental Title on the line! Everyone wears pink. This is your warning. Rusev will discuss Big Show's SmackDown actions. Wait, something happened on SmackDown? Set up on the Pre-Show: Mark Henry faces Bo Dallas. Live from... uh oh. Live from Chicago, IL. Getting the drinking game ready. Your hosts are Cole, JBL, and Lawler. We review last week, first Ambrose's Houdini act on Raw, then the briefcase hijacking on SmackDown.

This has nothing to do with the WWE

Howdy Blog O'Doomers! Sorry for the late message. Rain slowed down and my slightly overconfident son wanted to challenge me to a bike race. Yeah, he lost, young buck can't go 20 miles without getting winded yet. Anyway let's break down tonight's TV: RAW, I don't think Lesnar is on so hopefully they go all in with Rollins-Ambrose MNF is Patriots-Chiefs tonight. No baseball as the playoffs begin Wednesday  tomorrow! Gotham, Big Bang Theory, Sleepy Hollow, Blacklist, Dancing with the Stars, etc. etc. HBO Documentary tonight is the 50-year Argument. It's about the New Yorker Book Review section...Scorsese directed it so it can't be that bad. Come on swinging and keep it clean!

To close out September today and tomorrow, we'll go with the brand split era and the Smackdown side of things. Benoit and Angle had the classics ***** encounter at Royal Rumble 2003, but before that at Unforgiven 2002, they paired off in another great match, this one has an ending that hearkens back to their WM X-7 encounter. Chris Benoit vs Kurt Angle - Unforgiven 2002 by puropwgwwestuff

Before we get started on the (condensed!) hour of WCW Saturday Night, I’m handing the final word on Sting (for now) over to resident Dungeon of Doom expert, and the man determined to unleash the secret of Cobra’s covert mission,  Dr. Unlikely : I think the storytelling with Sting here is about as smart as things get in wrestling. His entire career as Sting has been about him being an honorable man in a nest of vipers. Steamboat's gone, Dusty doesn't wrestle, he doesn't even have the Bulldog around. By circumstance, in the company's hour of greatest need where the other hero of his day has gone to the dark side, he's forced to ally with a collection of his greatest enemies and his only "friend" is the least trustworthy guy in the business. The set-up is amazing, because it's perfectly in character - the only possible in-character reactions - for Luger, Flair, Arn and the Dungeon to assume "Oh, yeah, of COURSE Sting sold out" because ...

Listening to a podcast on the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Got me wondering: how many WWF/WWE PPVs have names that were only used once? This Tuesday In Texas springs to mind, as does The Wrestling Classic. Including the IYH titles since some like Unforgiven got used more than once, with and without the IYH prefix. Thought it might pass some time for the blog otters. Dean Andrews ​Ground Zero, Badd Blood, Invasion, Canadian Stampede, D-Generation X, It's Time, Mindgames...there was a period in the late 90s where they messing around with all sorts of wacky names.  ​

Scott, I was just watching summerslam 2000 which featured the hundredth lame, pace less taker/Kane matchup. Throughout the early 2000s, Taker was such a drain to watch- slow, unmotivated, refusing to sell for smaller guys, working an outdated style and by all accounts protecting the hell out of his spot backstage, arguably to the detriment of the up and coming next generation of talent. The Kurt Angle job at fully loaded springs to mind in particular. Fast forward a few years, taker suddenly seems a hundred times more motivated, working that pseudo mma style he developed and putting newer talent over. Do we know when or how this change began? Was there any talk in the dirt sheets about a change in attitude? Cheers, Joe ​There seemed to be a combination of things, but mostly it was the change in style to the MMA-patterned offense where he only busted out the high-impact stuff on an occasional basis.  Plus being the Wrestlemania guy really seemed to invigorate him, knowing he c...

WWE.com RAW Preview http://www.wwe.com/shows/raw/2014-09-29/five-point-preview-26681911 Kurt Angle Interview http://www.alternativenation.net/kurt-angle-interview/ New WWE Stable Name Revealed The Kofi Kingston/Big E/Xavier Woods trio will be known as "Speed Force." Credit Dave Meltzer, F4WOnline.com RF Video Releases Shoot Interview with Adam Pearce \

February 8, 2003 From the Elks Lodge in Queens, NY Your hosts are Ray Murrow and Chris Levy

Hey Scott, I'm watching the Countdown episode of high flyers and #4 was John Morrison. I had forgotten how much I missed him. What's his deal? Isn't he overdue for a comeback? It seems especially timely given their lack of star power at the top of the card. Do you know what's going on? Jon Eks Jon of All Trades Podcast jonofalltrades.us Facebook: Facebook.com/JoATPod Twitter: @JoATPod Johnny Nitro has been pursuing his dream of being an actor since 2011 and doing OK at it by all accounts. That being said they should dump a bunch of cash on his lawn and push him to the moon  as a top babyface because they're desperately lacking in that area and he's already a star trained in WWE Style. Plus he's still young. 

Yesterday’s Nitro recap generated some counter-arguments to my Sting stance. Look, I *know* that the end game is amazing, and from a writing perspective, everything surrounding Sting right now is fantastic. My stance, however, is that Sting, as a character, right now is behaving like, and I say this respectfully, a giant pussy. Sting was immediately vindicated, not after a month of back and forth, but within about 10 minutes of him announcing “yo friends, I’m not nWo”. Can’t cooler heads prevail here? Sting sulking around for a week, silently steaming and carefully watching his friends’ reactions to see if maybe, just maybe, he might catch a twinkle in their eye for old Sting? This move is not only out of Every Wife’s Playbook, it is the first chapter. Sting needs to understand, that when you hear his voice clearly state his loyalty to the nWo, followed by Luger getting assaulted by someone who looks just like Sting, that all things considered, “IT WAS MY EVIL TWIN~!” usually ...

Some of your discussion options tonight include: WWE Network: WCW Fall Brawl '95 at 8:00 PM ET - this card included Brian Pillman vs. Johnny B. Badd for a shot at the US title; Cobra vs. Sgt. Craig Pittman; The Renegade vs. DDP for the TV title; Harlem Heat vs. Dick Slate & Bunkhouse Buck for the tag team championship; Ric Flair vs. Arn Anderson; and WarGames with Hogan/Savage/Sting/Luger vs. The Dungeon of Doom. Sunday night football on NBC: New Orleans is in Dallas to face the Cowboys. Season premieres include The Simpsons, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Family Guy, CSI, Once Upon a Time, Resurrection, Revenge. I don't particularly care if you keep it clean, but no hand-to-hand combat please.

After going 2-2-1 last week, I improved to 4-10-1 on the season, which is sad. Anyway, here are my picks for this week: Oakland -3.5 vs. Miami Indianapolis -7.5 vs. Tennessee Houston -3 vs. Buffalo Atlanta -3 at. Minnesota Green Bay -1.5 at Chicago

The SK Retro Rant for WCW World War III 1995 (This was originally done around 2001.)  - For those of you who follow my little personal asides in these rants, you’ll know that this was actually the show that ended my WCW boycott in 1995. I had actually stopped watching WCW entirely once the Orange Goblin won the WCW World title and killed Ric Flair’s career dead in the process, and after almost 18 months of waiting, Hogan finally lost it and WCW, probably not coincidentally, put together a card that looked good enough on paper for me to part with my $29.95 and come back into the fold. - Live from Norfolk, VA - Your hosts are Tony Schiavone & Bobby Heenan.

Hi Scott,  I'm listening to the Place to be Podcast of WM VI and they mentioned how Hogan v Warrior being one of those matches that most wrestling fans have seen a hundred times.  What do you think are the Most Watched Matches Ever? The matches that are watched over and over and over again and have been seen the most times by fans?  Thanks as always! Best,  Ed  I personally have seen Rock v. Hogan a TON of times, oddly enough.  Other contenders would be Savage v. Steamboat, Raven/Richards v. Pitbulls, the entire Barely Legal and N2R95 shows (dubbing those over and OVER for tape trades) and indeed Warrior v. Hogan.  

Extant1979 here. So, if you end up reviewing Nitro, maybe this question gets answered, but I'm into January 1996 now and I thought maybe this could spur some discussion on the BoD.  Was there an endgame planned for Sting and Lex Luger that just never came to fruition when the nWo came along? Or was it just a week-to-week thing that was allowed to continue to evolve into Sting becoming Crow Sting when the nWo debuted? Was there anything discussed in the the WON archives?  Pretty much everything from the Nitro era onwards was pretty week-to-week, with Luger seemingly jumping back and forth between heel and face depending on the week and the situation.  There was no endgame I can remember.  

WCW Fall Brawl is one day behind us now, and just what the heck happened? Everyone’s talking about Sting’s loyalty, and just where he stands. After proving to the team he had never turned his back, and that the nWo had created their own “Sting” (who was not, for the record, Hardbody Harrison) – Sting walked out on his friends, leaving them to rot at the hands of the New World Order. So where does he stand today? More importantly (to me, anyway), is where on earth was he for an ENTIRE WEEK that he couldn’t have taken 2 minutes to check in with his best friend Luger? Sting is JUST as much at fault here as anyone else. TONY SCHIAVONE  and  LARRY ZBYSZKO  are LIVE LIVE LIVE, because they are LIVE, did we mention LIVE, not like the WWF who is NOT LIVE. Tony shares still shots from last night’s pay-per-view that the nWo won and was the worst day of his life (buy the replay!). Tony apologizes to Sting, personally. Apparently he was in Japan, and he figures we all should ha...

Slamboree 1999 Date: May 9, 1999 Location: TWA Dome, St. Louis, Missouri Attendance: 20,516 Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, Mike Tenay Reviewed by Tommy Hall Things are going downhill in a hurry around here and the pay per views can be the biggest disasters they have. The main event here is Page vs. Nash for the title along with a Sting vs. Goldberg match that you had to pay attention to hear about. We also have Piper vs. Crazy Flair for control of the company, even though both have been fired in recent weeks. Let's get to it.

So I just got done watching SummerSlam 91 on the Network tonight and the PPV just ends with the wedding.  I know the wedding reception was a "Coliseum Video Exclusive" or something, but since that was more memorable than nearly everything else on the show, wouldn't you think that it should be shown after the PPV instead of having to find it on YouTube? It was on Primetime, so you just have to wait the 7 years it's apparently going to take to add those to the Network.  Besides, if they just go and add everything people want to see, no one will renew!  Simple math.  

On tap for tonight: MLB Action College Football SNL 40th Season Premiere with host Chris Pratt The Sid Vicious shoot won the poll and will be reviewed on Thursday at noon. Quick note: The RoH First Anniversary Review will not be posted until tomorrow night.

http://the-w.com/threadx.php/id= 49794 No Brock?  

Initial SummerSlam Buyrate Revealed This year's show garnered between 145,000-150,000 buys. Last year's show drew 298,000 buys.  Credit Mike Johnson, PWInsider.com Retired WWE Superstar Making a Comeback After undergoing neck surgery, Santino Marella says that he feels good and is looking to return to the ring in six months Credit Dave Meltzer, Wrestling Observer Newsletter TNA Bound for Glory Main Event Revealed It will be Tajiri & The Great Muta vs. James Storm & Sanada.  Credit Mike Johnson, PWInsider.com RF Video Releases Shoot Interview with Curt Hawkins Below is the trailer, which lasts for 11 minutes. The shoot looks pretty damn good too. 

The SmarK Rant for WCW Monday Nitro – 11.20.95 LIVE once again, from somewhere not mentioned. Your hosts are Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan & Mongo

Hey Scott, I've been watching a lot of Magnum TA lately and I was blown away by his best of seven series with Nikita Koloff.  He goes down 3-0, fights his way back from a deficit to push it to a seventh match and then is robbed.  And it got me thinking... With all of the 50/50 booking that the WWE does and their habit of giving away potential money matches on Raw, why not start booking best of 5 or best of 7 series for some of their hotter feuds?  Guys can eat a pin and then get their heat back the next week with a win against the same guy.  It's outside of the box, but they've trotted out the 2 out of 3 falls recently so why not? You think that kind of booking could work? Definitely, but it has to be a match that people actually want to see in the first place. Putting Ziggler against Miz out there to die for seven shows is defeating the whole purpose.  Cesaro v Sheamus?   Sure because they're established as guys who care about wins and losses.   

Thunder Date: May 6, 1999 Location: Bryce Jordan Center, State College, Pennsylvania Commentators: Mike Tenay, Larry Zbyszko Reviewed by Tommy Hall It's the go home show for Slamboree and things are getting bad around here. Between the nonsensical stories and the boring matches leading up to a show that has barely been hyped outside of the main event, I'm not really looking forward to a two hour taped Thunder. The fact that we only have five matches doesn't make me feel much better. Let's get to it.

Smackdown Date: September 26, 2014 Location: Verizon Arena, Little Rock, Arkansas Commentators: Tom Phillips, Michael Cole, John Bradshaw Layfield Reviewed by Tommy Hall Things are in a state of flux right now with Roman Reigns out of the picture for the time being, leaving Dean Ambrose to take his spot. Dean has already been dealing with Cena, which puts him in about as big a spot as you could ask for. Ambrose still needs to rack up some wins though so hopefully that starts tonight. Let's get to it.

Scott, Any comments on this? Are the CRTC in the right? http://www.f4wonline.com/more/more-top-stories/118-daily-updates/39135-fri-update-weekend-schedule-ratings-carano-wwe-network-fights-to-stay-on-in-canada-tna-stars-on-cbs-tonight-devitt-debut-news-for-those-attending-mania-this-yaer-wwe-dvd-and-video-game-plus-former-ecw-legend-boxers-former-49er-star-#SE0   -Paul. I changed the link from the junk news site to the WON  update it came from first.   And yes WWE is absolutely skirting Canadian content rules here.  I'm shocked they didn't run into this sooner in fact. 

Tonight we have Smackdown, MLB Action, and I am sure other things too. Discuss it all here

November 1, 1986 Your hosts are Lord Alfred Hayes and Gorilla Monsoon This is the WWE Network version of the show, which excludes the Women's Tag Team Championship match between Leilani Kai & Judy Martin (Champions) and Penny Mitchell & Candice Pardue. Also, the order of the matches on the Network version has been switched around.

We get to the Invasion angle here. RVD has won the Hardcore title and puts it on the line against Jericho. RVD's overness was evident from the get go but yet they anchored him with The Alliance. I feel Jericho was getting rather stale as a babyface here, and would in fact turn heel not long after this in his feud with The Rock. Pretty good match between the two here, maybe even forgotten since this is the show where Angle beat Austin for the title. Chris Jericho vs Rob Van Dam - Unforgiven 2001 by Geylow

Welcome to the weekend! Enjoy this sampling of the week that was at PTBN! PTBN's World Cup of Greatest TV Characters is winding down and all Round Four matchups are posted:  PTBN’s World Cup of TV Characters – Knockout Round Four, Day Two On the newest Steve Corino Show, Steve talks Night of Champions and breaks down some classic wrestling "What Ifs":  The Steve Corino Show Episode 20 – Wrestling What Ifs & Night of Champions Recap   The new Hard-Traveling Fanboys looks at the Top Comic Movie performances:  Hard-Traveling Fanboys: Countdown (Top Comic Movie Performances) Will, Scott, Johnny Sorrow, Phil Schneider & Kris Zellner discussed Night of Champions 2014 as soon as the show ended: Place to Be Network: Night of Champions 2014 Reaction Scott & Justin's Vintage Vault Refresh series continues with WrestleMania III:  Scott & Justin’s Vintage Vault Refresh: WrestleMania III Movies of P2B's Generation is up through 2002:  Movi...

The SmarK Rant for WCW Monday Nitro – 11.13.95 Taped from Jacksonville, FL. But…but…I thought only the WWF did stinky old taped shows? Your hosts are Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan & Mongo

AV Club dipping their toes yet again. I am always afraid to read the comments on these things--just for my own aggravation, but they usually tend to be MOSTLY okay.  Article is fine, (though Masked Man does this stuff way better). Not sure why they skewed so modern, instead of a blend of classic eras and now. But whatever.  http://www.avclub.com/article/and-s-bottom-line-beginners-guide-wwe-208833 ​Yeah, that's a decidedly modern look at the product.  I'd never recommend someone jump in too heavily right now because three hours is a HUGE commitment unless you're already invested.  I'd say NXT is a better starting place, personally.  Or even going back to 93 and watching the old RAWs in order, where you get the serialized aspect and can binge on it. Although one of the best comments in that article was the guy who said that wrestling fandom is like being in an abusive relationship where every once in a while the abuser grabs you by the neck and yells WHY ARE YOU STILL ...

Update on the Future of TNA Right now, TNA does not have any scheduled domestic events for the rest of 2015. At the most recent TV tapings, Dixie Carter told the talent that she guarantees TNA will be on television January 7, 2015, which is the first Wednesday after their contract with Spike TV ends. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter has reported that a lot of people close to the situation believe that TNA will be around in 2015 but that no one knows at what level the promotion will continue to run (either a "bare bones" company, at the level of RoH, or at their current level). TNA has also told it's talent that they can accept independent dates without contacting the office first. Also, TNA took the belts off of people that they were unsure would actually be there with the company in 2015, making sure their champions are those under long-term deals. As far as Impact on Spike is concerned, its expected that the last Impact will air on 11/26 and that the ...

I apologize for falling over a week behind in my recaps – I am on VACATION and ON LOCATION from lovely Cape Cod, Mass. I expected to have time to keep on top of these bad boys, but we’ve been so busy it’s been made impossible. It’s been a wild few weeks since Hog Wild came to an end. We’ve seen the nWo expand from 3 members, to somewhere between 5 and 7 (depending on whether or not we count DiBiase and Nick Patrick). A mysterious voice lingers and threatens us all as #8. WCW says Glacier debuted, but the only footage that exists seems to be of him posing, which we’ve already seen for 6 months. And speaking of at least 6 months, Scott Norton and Ice Train continue to be prominently featured even though nobody seems to have any interest in their feud. DDP has started a war with the Guerrero family, and may or may not be in bed with Nick Patrick and the nWo. Chip Minton and The Gambler haven’t won matches, and High Voltage has won too many. Konnan discovered the secret door to the Du...

Waiting for the Trade Spider-man & the Secret Wars by Paul Tobin & illustrated by Patrick Scherberger & Clayton Henry collects Spider-man & the Secret Wars #1-4 (& Secret Wars #1)   Why I Bought This: This miniseries was released to commemorate the 25 th anniversary of the legendary Secret Wars event. I love that story and am all for a little nostalgia.   The Plot: We revisit key events from Secret Wars from the perspective of Marvel’s flagship character. (spoilers below)

This week, I thought I would choose guys who became stars in the 90's. Here are your four choices: Diamond Dallas Page https://www.rfvideo.com/shootwithdiamonddallaspage1.aspx Lex Luger http://www.highspots.com/p/12018.html Mick Foley http://www.amazon.com/Straight-shootin-Foley-2-dvd-Honor-8-20-04/dp/B000NKBMI6/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411690618&sr=8-1-fkmr1&keywords=roh+straight+shooting+foley Sid Vicious, Volume 1 https://www.rfvideo.com/shootwithsidvicious.aspx Vote by clicking on the link below. Voting ends Saturday at 2pm http://vote.pollcode.com/12259732

Tonight, WWE Network brings you Total Divas at 8:00 PM, followed by NXT at 9:00. NXT matches schedule include Mojo Rawley vs. Bull Dempsey, Justin Gabriel vs. Tyler Breeze, Bayley vs. Alexa Bliss and Sin Cara & Kalisto defend their NXT Tag Team Championship against the former champs, The Ascension. MLB action: all the races are pretty much sewn up, save for a few official clinches. We know who is in, so a lot of teams are in cruise control. The highlight might be Derek Jeter's last home game on home turf. Thursday night football: the New York Giants tackle the Washington Redskins. NCAA action will have Texas Tech at Oklahoma State and UCLA at Arizona State. Of course, you're free to discuss any non-sports matters as well.

NXT Date: September 25, 2014 Location: Full Sail University, Winter Park, Florida Commentators: Jason Albert, Renee Young, Rich Brennan Reviewed by Tommy Hall The seeds are being planted for the big showdown of Neville vs. Zayn but they seem to be doing a very slow build. Tonight we get one of the roadblocks out of the way as Tyson Kidd is getting his FINAL title shot at Adrian Neville. Their first two matches have been solid so this one should be entertaining well. We're also getting the Lucha Dragons defending against the Ascension. Let's get to it.

The British Bulldog. Mankind. Triple H. Kane. The Big Show. The Rock. The referees were all on strike. Steve Austin was the special enforcer. The WWF Championship was around Abeyance's waist and it was up for grabs due to Vince McMahon beating Triple H for the title on an episode of Smackdown and relinquishing it. The Undertaker was supposed to be in this match, but was kayfabe fired by Vince for refusing to face Triple H. This was also at the end of Russo's time with the WWF. However, the resulting match was a near masterpiece, considering all the people involved. The video is in two parts, so make sure you watch both. Unforgiven.1999 - Six.Pack.Challenge - (1 2) by dido67

There's a YouTube app on the ps3. Just watch that episode using that if you really need to see it. Did William Wallace just quit fighting for the freedom of Scotland when the going got tough?Did Abraham Lincoln decide that slavery was OK because it was too inconvenient to change the Constitution?  Did John Cena decide to just lose that important match when the odds were too great to overcome?  NO.  And neither will I!  WE WANT KRUSTY!  WE WANT KRUSTY!  

Hey Scott, What are the odds Reigns injury isn't real and their just using it as an excuse to get him off TV so he can come back and make a huge impact and/or not get over-exposed? Math isn't always my strong suit, but since that would be illegal I'm gonna say 0%.  

This interview was filmed on 10/30/04 It was conducted by Rob Feinstein and Doug Gentry This was a two-disc set. Disc one runs for one hour and fifty-four minutes while disc two runs for forty-seven minutes. I have included both discs in this review.

Roman Reigns Injury Update Reigns is estimated to be out anywhere from 4-12 weeks following hernia surgery, with a target return date of six weeks. It was noted that the hernia was large, meaning a slower recovery process and that he would have to be completely healed before he could even begin training to get his strength and physique back, let alone bumping. Credit Dave Meltzer, Wrestling Observer Newsletter RAW Script Still Unfinished Before the Show Aired? At 6:40pm EST Monday night, Vince McMahon decided to rewrite the entire script for RAW and they were not finished by the time the show went to air. Credit Dave Meltzer, Wrestling Observer Newsletter Prince Devitt Gets His New NXT Name Going forward, Devitt will be known as "Finn Balor." Credit F4WOnline.com WWE Interested in RoH Star? Despite being under contract to RoH, the WWE has reportedly been sending out feelers to Adam Cole that they are interested in him. Credit Dave Meltzer, Wrestlin...

Question - do you think we may have a repeat of last years Daniel Bryan/crowd hijacking situation with Dean Ambrose??? I can certainly see that happening.  The office wants Reigns but the crowd wants Ambrose to be "the guy" What do you think? Also - what do you think they'll do with Daniel Bryan when he returns?  Will he be as hot as he was when he left? ​I think we should wait for Ambrose to actually win a major match on TV or PPV before we start getting ahead of ourselves with the Daniel Bryan comparisons.  ​

Just read about a "power struggle" between the Helmsleys and some executives within the E. As fans we should be siding with the Helmsleys right?? After all, NXT rulz all kinds of ass. ​I dunno, probably we as fans shouldn't care about that kind of thing.  Although it's pretty well known that Paul Levesque is weeding out Vince's old guard and bringing in people that he wants.  And if Vince died tomorrow the first thing that would happen is Kevin Dunn getting pink-slipped.  The major problem, according to Meltzer, is that Wall Street probably wouldn't accept Vince's doofus son-in-law as the CEO of WWE without the years of business training and stock would take an immediate dive.  But for all the people rallying with the "It'll all get better once the Authority takes over for real!" thing, just keep in mind that HHH has a hell of a lot of power now and has for a long time, and Stephanie ran creative for 10 years.  If it was going to get better, ...

http://youtu.be/kmhRUtwzL6k Whoa, Edge?  MIND BLOWN.

The SmarK Rant for WCW Monday Nitro – 11.06.95 My quest to slay the white whale, the 9/25 Nitro, continued tonight with suggestions from people for alternative delivery methods. So for the record, it’s not in the archives in Roku (either streaming stick or Roku 2), PS3, Xbox 360 or Xbox One. Yeah, I have a lot of shit hooked up to my TV, sue me. I shall continue this pursuit until it bests me! IT TASKS ME! KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN! Congratulations to Derrick for winning this boring, boring, deadly dull season of Big Brother and pretty much cementing his place as the greatest BB player ever. Really the result wasn’t in doubt since day 2. Live from Jacksonville, FL Your hosts are Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan and Mongo.

Impact Wrestling Date: September 24, 2014 Location: Manhattan Center, New York City, New York Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz Reviewed by Tommy Hall We're wrapping up the summer in New York and three shows left before Bound For Glory. The interesting thing for tonight is a tournament for a future title shot which may or may not be at the biggest show of the year. Granted at this point it looks like that's Lockdown anymore as Bound For Glory is shaping up as another One Night Only level show. Let's get to it.

Tonight is the "Gold Rush" Tournament with five qualifying matches with the winner of the tournament getting a shot at any title at any time.

This was set up the week before on RAW with the three men shown here involved in a triple threat match for a shot at the WWF Championship, but it was ruined by the interference of The Undertaker and Kane. It wasn't until Sunday Night Heat, one hour before the show, that we all would find out that it was a cage match. RUSSO-RIFFIC! The match itself is a pretty good one.....and check out how over The Rock is. Mankind vs The Rock vs Ken Shamrock by therock38

Monday Nitro #187 Date: May 3, 1999 Location: Charlotte Coliseum, Charlotte, North Carolina Commentators: Bobby Heenan, Tony Schiavone Reviewed by Tommy Hall It's the go home show for Slamboree and even though a lot of stuff changed last week, we're right back where we were seven days ago. Flair is still insane but is getting to face Piper for control of the company this Sunday, even though both are fired. On top of that we're getting ready for Page vs. Nash and in theory Nash won't give away the title if he wins it again. Let's get to it.

Hey Scott, I thought this was interesting and didn't see it mentioned on the blog yet. There's a sit down interview with Michael Cole and HHH after NXT Takeover where HHH compares now to the attitude era. He says right now NXT is the ECW of this era, the "feeder system, the alternative" as he put it. He said he eventually wants to make it into WCW, minus the going out of business part. But basically just as big and an equal to WWE. Do you think this is where they are going right now with signing all the independent stars? Do you think Kenta, Steen, Devitt, Zayn, etc will just stay there and build it up to WWE vs NXT? But if that does happen, then what will be there feeder system? Go back to just using a small independent promotion like they have in the past? Curious what your thoughts are on this. ​I know that NXT is HHH's baby, but it's easy to talk a big game when you're running what is basically a free taping and literally paying the guys no...

Hi Scott Like everybody else I can understand the WWE's problem when it comes to Lesnar. They've built him brilliantly - too brilliantly - and now it's quite likely that nobody on the roster will be ready to beat him down in time for Wrestlemania. However, surely the company can't go any longer than WM without a full time Champion and you just know they are desperate to try one of the Shield Guys as champion (ideally Reigns). How about a solution to book a four way for the Main Event - Lesnar (as champion) vs Reigns (Rumble winner) vs Ambrose (Elimination Chamber winner) vs Rollins (MITB)? Then mid match you have the three Shield guys realise that the only way to take down Lesnar is as a group with the triple powerbomb through the table. They do that and proceed to have a three way with whoever the favoured one is at the time taking the belt. This pays off the year long Shield storyline - gets your three hottest young stars in the Main Event of Mania and maintains Lesna...

Brock Lesnar Not Appearing at the Hell in a Cell PPV? As of right now, there are no plans for a Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena rematch at Hell in a Cell. Also, Lesnar is also not advertised for the show on WWE.com or the American Airlines in Dallas, TX where the show is scheduled to take place. Credit PWInsider.com RAW Ratings RAW was up slightly from last week in viewership with 3.87 million viewers. Here is the hourly breakdown: 8pm: 4.00 million 9pm: 3.79 million 10pm: 3.85 million The rating is expected to be between 2.7 and 2.8 Credit Dave Meltzer, F4WOnline.com Kayfabe Commentaries Releases 1998 ECW Timeline with New Jack Below is a link to the trailer

The SmarK Rant for WCW Monday Nitro – 10.30.95 I’ve just come to accept that I’ll never get to see the 9/25 episode. Live from Dayton, OH Your hosts are Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan & Mongo

Andy PG and I had some disagreements over Night of Champions. I thought the show was pretty much an episode of RAW -- minus Ambrose teleporting around like the fucking Prestige or silly Total Divas bullshit, mind you -- but it was RAW, especially with a distraction finish and DQ finish where Rollins didn't cash in because #CENAALWAYSPREVAILSLOL.

Does anybody know what the plan was for Hogan in 2002? Was the nwo stint with his Hollywood character always meant to just go until Mania? ​More or less, yes.  The plan was always to turn him babyface pretty quick, but the reactions he got accelerated it even more.  The title reign was definitely an audible on their part, though, as HHH was supposed to hold it long-term.  As I've noted before, that's one case where they actually pulled the trigger on something at exactly the right time and place to cash in on it, but the fad died out so unexpectedly quick that they couldn't even be blamed for the backlash that followed.  ​

November 1, 1986 From the Onandoga War Memorial in Syracuse, NY Your hosts are Bruno Sammartino, Jesse "The Body" Ventura, and Vince McMahon In action tonight are Randy Savage, Junkyard Dog, Kamala, Harley Race, and the featured match of Roddy Piper vs. Mr. Fuji

Tonight, on WWE Network: it's a live Main Event beginning at 8:00 PM ET, followed by a new episode of Monday Night War at 9:00 , focusing on ECW's impact on the WWF/WCW ratings battle; then at 10:00, it's an all-new Countdown, featuring the top ten greatest high flyers. MLB winds down it's final week of the regular schedule. It's still a tight race in the AL Central as the Tigers hold a one game lead over the Royals. Detroit draws the White Sox at home, while the Royals hit Cleveland. The fall TV schedule is starting to swing, so if you stumble upon any cool new shows, you can bring them up in this thread.

- Jim Ross and Jerry “The King” Lawler are in the booth and they are live from San Jose, California.  We are finally back on Monday nights, so this should be a better show.

Hey dude, quick question. I remember many moons ago you posted on the blog a list of all possible Ric Flair title reigns, where you got up to the mid to late 20's depending on how lenient you were. I wanted to check it out again but couldn't find it. Any chance you have it somewhere in your databanks? Thanks! Hoo boy, let's see if I can pull this out from memory again: Documented/televised:   1.  Dusty Rhodes in 81 2.  Harley Race in 83 3.  Kerry Von Erich in 84 4.  Dusty Rhodes in 86 5.  Ron Garvin in 87 6.  Ricky Steamboat in 89 7.  Sting in 91 8.  Fujinami in 91 9.  Royal Rumble 92 10.  Randy Savage in 92 11.  Barry Windham in 93 12.  Vader in 93 13.  Savage in 95 14.  Savage in 96 15.  Hogan in 99 16.  Jeff Jarrett in 2000 As well, there was a pair of switches with Race in New Zealand, a switch with the youngster Carlos Colon in Puerto Rico that created the WWC Universal title, a switch with Jack Venano  in the Dominican Republic, a switch with the Midnight Ri...

I found it very difficult to find One Night Only videos that were intact. This was a very good UK PPV, and I remember watching it live back in Canada, the homeland. Plenty of this thing called "wrestling" on this show. There was a Dude Love vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley match, Vader vs. Owen Hart, and The Undertaker vs. Bret Hart. But do you think I could find a complete version of any of those? So I settled for this two-part clip of HBK and the Bulldog. The heat for this match was off the friggin' charts. Don't forget to click on "read more" to get the second part. Enjoy. Shawn Michaels vs. The British Bulldog (9 20 97... by Yosihait

Who Will be Replacing Roman Reigns at WWE House Shows? Dean Ambrose will be taking Reigns' place at shows starting this Friday as he faces Randy Orton in a street fight at the Izod Center in New Jersey Credit F4WOnline.com WWE Hall of Famer Says WWE Threatening Lawsuit Against Him For Using His Ring Name? On his Twitter account, Wayne Ferris has been tweeting that the WWE has been threatening him with a lawsuit if he continues to use the "Honky Tonk Man" for his appearances https://twitter.com/OfficialHTM WWE 2K15 Video Game Trailer For those of you who missed it on RAW last night, here is the trailer. http://www.wwe.com/videos/wwe-2k15-first-official-gameplay-trailer-26674912

 Hi Scott,   I'm a Vancouverite who for the past 4 years has been living in Edmonton (and hating it). I'm also a technology Neanderthal. I was waiting for The Network (only $9.99) to come to Canada, but have been left disappointed. My question for you is what is the easiest way for me to get the US version of the network here? I have a flat screen and a Shaw digital box.   Please help me get my old school wrestling fix!   Much appreciated. ​First up, you need a service to make the world think you're in the US.  The one I use is Unblock-US ( www.unblock-us.com ) ​and it'll cost you $5 a month.  This will also give you US Netflix and access to Hulu among other perks.   Next, you'll need a Paypal account or a US credit card.  If you use Paypal, make sure it's funded by your bank account and not your Canadian credit card.   Sign up for the Network ( network.wwe.com ) using your Paypal account and a valid US address.  Most people just the WWE corporate HQ for fun, bu...

The PG Era Rant for RAW, September 22, 2014. Tonight's preview notes: Dean Ambrose is back! Dolph Ziggler calls in his rematch clause against the Miz. The Usos and Sheamus will face Goldust, Stardust, and Cesaro. We get a review of Lesnar/Cena: the Title Rematch and how it fell apart at Seth Rollins's hands. Live from Memphis, TN. Your hosts are Cole, King, and Bradshaw.

This has nothing to do with the WWE

The SmarK Rant for WCW Monday Nitro – 10.23.95 LIVE from Huntsville, AL Your hosts are Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan & Mongo

In our last episode, "Mo' Marriage, Mo' Problems", we saw what happened when some of our Divas were pushed to their personal limits.

Waiting for the Trade X-Factor: Scar Tissue By Peter David, art by Valentine DeLandro and Emanuela Lupacchino Collects X-Factor 213-219   Why I Bought This: It guest stars the Black Cat who is perhaps my favorite Marvel character. It is also written by Peter David, who is one of the all-time great Spider-man writers and who wrote Felicia particularly well back in the day.   The Plot: The main arc is about an assassination attempt on J. Jonah Jameson. He hires both Black Cat and X-Factor for protection. There are also a few single issue character studies on some of the regular cast.   (spoilers below)

Howdy Blog O'Doomers! Welcome to autumn/spring (depending on your hemisphere), or as we Floridians call it...summer. Another rip-roaring Network special last night that featured one of the shittiest streams I've ever encountered on the Network. Still it wasn't a bad show. It wasn't great either. This is going to be a theme for these shows because there's enough good workers for some things to work in every show. The Good: Sheamus-Cesaro was great. I mean the crowd wasn't feeling them at start but you let two guys beat the crap out of each other for 12 minutes and the people were rocking. I liked the story of Cesaro throwing everything at Sheamus and the fella asking for more. It gives the program a nice building point as Cesaro will have to figure out that brute strength alone won't win. Stardust. I'm a fan. People are fans. Heeling them will just make them more popular. Ambrose-Rollins brawl. It worked, Ambrose has already moved into that Da...

Hey Scott,   Lightning round   What are the best Singles' matches you can think of for the following guys, some of the best B+ players of the 80s and 90s? (Let's limit it to North America)   Tito Santana Rick Martel Dynamite Kid Greg Valentine Big Bossman Ted Dibiase (Sr.) Dustin Rhodes Shane Douglas Paul Orndorff Jeff Jarrett   Thanks Tito:  IC title match against Hennig on SNME. Martel:  AWA World title match against Stan Hansen, maybe? Kid:  The match with Tiger Mask, duh. Valentine:  I know he's had some really good ones with Flair, but for ones I've seen the cage match with Tito. Bossman:  The cage match with Hogan. Dibiase:  Probably the famous one against Dr. Death from Mid South. Dustin:  That match he had with Vader on the Clash? Douglas:  His stirring victory over Shawn Michaels at IYH3. Orndorff:  He had some really good ones with Steamboat near the end, I...

This match received top billing over a WWF Championship match. The first major meeting between two of the top stars of all time. The match may end in a schmozz, but how they got there is the story. This would set up the first-ever Hell in a Cell match the next month. The video is in two parts, so click the Read More link to get the second half. THE UNDERTAKER VS SHAWN MICHAELS [P1] by ivan2007martinez

WWE.com RAW Preview http://www.wwe.com/shows/raw/2014-09-22/raw-five-point-preview-sept-22-2014-26666913 TNA Talent Contract Updates Kurt Angle's TNA contract expired yesterday and the contracts for Austin Aries and Gail Kim are expiring very shortly. http://www.wrestlezone.com/news/512971-backstage-cena-interview Prince Devitt to Wrestle as Part of a Tag Team in NXT? Right now, there are rumors that Devitt will be forming a tag team in NXT, with Sami Zayn and Kevin Steen as the choices for his partner. Credit eWrestlingNews.com Another Wrestler Portraying the Bunny on WWE TV? Justin Gabriel has also been playing the Bunny, along with Sami Zayn Credit Dave Meltzer, F4WOnline.com

If they do bring Sting into the WWE, even if it's for a single one time match, how do they do it?  The simplest way would be to just do a tag team match with Sting/Bryan Danials vs Flair/HHH as they can play on the history between Flair and Sting, hide Sting's ring rust via a tag match scenario, and moreso, have his arrival mean something big as far as Bryan thinking outside the box and purposely recruiting Sting as a partner to go against Flair and HHH as far as far as hitting them with a mystery partner who HHH can not bully or threaten or extort (and who would know Flair like an open book to counter). Jesse Baker ​That's the simplest way? I was thinking more that they announce him for the Hall of Fame and someone (let's just say...Moe?) gets all upset that he's never even had a WWE match before, and ​challenges him to said match at the Wrestlemania.