June 12, 1984 *Quick note: I will be posting more house shows and different TV shows besides Championship Wrestling. I chose an episode of TNT to switch things up. This is, I believe the 3rd show of TNT. Coming soon will be a house show from the Met Centre, The "Brawl to End it All" and the "Black Saturday" show.   Vince McMahon is the host and Lord Alfred Hayes is his co-host. The set up for this is similar to that of the “Tonight Show,” as Vince is channeling Johnny and Hayes is attempting to be Ed McMahon. Its a variety show with wrestling matches and clips sandwiched between the skits and other pieces.

Smackdown Date: December 18, 2012 Location: Consol Energy Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Commentators: Josh Matthews, John Bradshaw Layfield, Michael Cole Reviewed by Tommy Hall This is a special show so that they can start taping the holiday episodes sooner. This is live as well as commercial free for no apparent reason. After last night's Slammys, we've got a lot of places we can go now, so hopefully the show tonight is as good as Raw was last night. It's hard to say what to expect from these shows though as they can be hit or miss. Let's get to it.

by Logan Scisco - Vince McMahon and Jim Ross are manning the announce table and they are from Lake Placid, New York.  McMahon says that there was a fight between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels before last week’s RAW and that both men were injured.  Bret will be back in a few days, while Shawn will be back in 4-6 weeks.  Since Michaels is out there will be a tag team tournament and the winners will get to face Steve Austin and a partner of his choice for the tag team titles . - McMahon reluctantly interviews Steve Austin, who isn’t happy to hear about the tag team tournament.  Austin says he doesn’t need a partner and Mankind appears on the Titantron and says that he feels that they have a bond.  Austin says he doesn’t need a freak walking around him and they proceed to make fun of Shawn Michaels routine.  McMahon’s facial expressions during this routine are priceless. McMahon says that Austin will face Brian Pillman tonight with members of the Hart ...

Taped from Montgomery, AL Airdate: May 29, 1993 Hosted by Tony Schiavone and Jesse “The Body” Ventura

The SmarK RAW Rant – 12.17.12 Live from Philly. Your hosts are Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler & JBL

One of my favorite things about wrestling is when guys band together and decide they are going to steal the show. The Harts and the Bulldogs used to do it all the time when they entered the WWF. Shawn Michaels did it before he was known for doing it. And last night The Shield, Kane, Ryback and Daniel Bryan did it again. They were probably a little perturbed they were placed in the middle of the show and in a show of solidarity decided to give the fans something to remember. Competition is never a bad thing and the fans always win. Enjoy tonight's show and come out swinging but try to keep it clean.

Hi Scott, Could you plug this on your site please? Really enjoyed the show tonight. Awesome wrestling up and down the card. No complaints here. Well there is but it's still a great show. http://adambrennan.wordpress.com/2012/12/17/tlc-total-lolstop-caction-2012-liveblog/ Thanks! Adam

So yeah, hearing great things about the show I ordered the replay…only to have the screen promptly go to black as soon as Big Show was introduced, and the signal never came back!  I shall be calling Sasktel in the morning to express my displeasure.  So here’s what I had done up until that point: The SmarK Rant for WWE Tables Ladders & Chairs 2012 Live from Brooklyn, NY. Your hosts are Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler & JBL.

Hey Scott, I was recently reading your Retro Rant of Royal Rumble 92.  In it, you make reference to Bret Hart's IC title loss to The Mountie coming because Hart was set to walk out on his WWF contract and debut in WCW.  I've never heard that before.  Can you explain this situation in more detail? Thanks. Not much more to it.  Bret's contract was coming up and there was rumored to be fear he was going to pull a Honky Tonk Man and try to leave with the IC title as a receipt for Flair taking the NWA title to WWF, so they switched it to Mountie and renegotiated with him.  Apparently WCW had made some pretty serious offers and even scheduled his debut for the Clash in January, although legally it would have been dicey at best if he had jumped with the belt because his contract wasn't exactly "expired" in the standard sense of the word.  I'd have to check Bret's book for the millionth time for all the details, but that's the gist.  

Here's the card. TLC Match: Ryback & Daniel Bryan & Kane vs. The Shield Ladder Match: John Cena vs. Dolph Ziggler World Title/Chairs Match: Big Show vs Sheamus Tables Match for No. 1 Contendership: Rey Mysterio & Sin Cara vs. Cody Rhodes & Damien Sandow IC Title Match: Kofi Kingston vs. Wade Barrett U.S. Title Match: Antonio Cesaro vs R-Truth On paper I could see the undercard stuff being decent with Cena-Ziggler giving their best effort to provide a final discussion for MotY. Doesn't look like a must-see card but give me a great ladder match and a balls-out brawl for the TLC and I'll be more than happy. Maybe do an I-C title switch and actually let Barrett win some matches as champion. And with this event christening the WWE's presence in BROOKLYN~! I expect an amazing crowd at Barclays.

Would WWE be smart enough to tie The Shield guys with being those SWAT guys that used to be follow around Heyman in ECW.  I do not believe they ever revealed who they were. I know it was not those guys. Do you REALLY?  Maybe Dean Ambrose was just biding his time.   Much like 99% of the continent, I never watched WWECW outside of like 2 episodes, so I don't even remember those guys, and I don't think anyone else would either.  It would be such an obscure plot point to bring up that I don't even see what the payoff is supposed to be.  Especially since Punk has repeatedly stated that he's not working with the Shield, and his word is good enough for me.

It’s the go-home show for Final Battle, and this TV taping is finally over, thank GOD.

Just thinking that although WWE couldn't have done anything about the calendar timing this year, what sane human being is watching a 3-hour RAW on both Christmas Eve AND New Year's Eve?  Hell, I make ad revenue off reviewing the show and even I'm not watching either show until well after the fact.  Perhaps those 100 million WWE fans named in the survey will lift the taped shows past a 2.1 rating, but I wouldn't bet on it.  I think we're gonna see what the hardest of hardcore rock bottom viewership is when the numbers come in for those two shows.   Or maybe CM Punk will hit Santa Claus with his crutches and fake another heart attack to draw even more heel heat, whatever.  

why wasnt mr wonderful on the wrestlemania 3 card? thanks jim I think he was taking time off due to having nerve damage in his neck so severe that he could barely use his arms, but you'd think he'd be back for the biggest payday of his entire life, especially when he'd been gutting out the Hogan matches for months.  I have no better answer for you than that, I'm afraid.    

Hi Scott, I'm watching the "Triple H- The King of Kings: There is Only One" DVD. During the second match (Marc Mero vs. HHH) there is a HUGE sign that says "Hump his face Goldust".  While this may be the funniest sign I have ever seen it leads me to two questions: 1) With all the rampant blurring they've had to do, and given the PG-era of the last many years, wouldn't it make sense to blur potentially offensive signs? 2) This was back in the day when very few people brought signs to matches so it was easy to read them, compared to the Attitude era where it seemed like everyone had one. Are there any that stick out in your mind as being memorably funny? (I always enjoyed Anti-WCW signs at Nitro that would say "I'd rather be watching RAW)     Well my personal favorite was the "What's Kayfabe?" sign I made for my roommate to carry around to the Canadian Stampede PPV, since I wasn't able to attend and wa...

Like a lot of your readers, I have noticed an annoying trend in wrestling and that is the lack of blowoff/payoffs to feuds.  It seems like feuds just keep going with no end in site.  You of course always point it out with your 'so this feud MUST CONTINUE'  For example, Cody Rhodes made fun of the Big Show for always losing at Mania.  Then Show beats him at Mania to win the IC title to finally have his moment in what should have been the perfect blowoff.  But then the feud continued for like another month.  Right now Randy Orton has beaten Del Rio so many times, they had a great falls count anywhere match on Smackdown that seemed perfect to end the feud(3 weeks ago!) and yet, it's still going.  One of the main reasons to buy the PPVs is to see the blowoff of a feud.  Well, why should I pay money when I know that is NOT happening?  It never happens anymore. It happens when creative gets bored and just ends it with no explanation and moves the guys onto something else.  ...

Hi Scott, As the Christmas Season is getting close, a quick question for you and the BoD, of all the Christmas themed shows, wrestlers, matches and moments we've had through the years. Which were you favourites?   Personally i always love the WWE's backstage Christmas Parties, paticularly the 2001 one where they had 2 parties a face & a heel one. The only ones that even come to mind for me are Shawn Michaels laying down for HHH in 97 to give him the European title, and then Steve Austin beating up Santa Claus in 98.  

Smackdown Date: December 14, 2012 Location: Webster Bank Arena, Bridgeport, Connecticut Commentators: John Bradshaw Layfield, Josh Matthews Reviewed by Tommy Hall It's the final show before TLC and most of the show is set. We've got Big Show vs. Sheamus not being able to fight each other (despite having dark matches at these TV tapings) until their chairs match on Sunday. We've also got the potential of the Shield attacking again which should be interesting for the most part. Other than that it's likely to be another dull show. Let's get to it.

http://www.wwe.com/classics/phantom-title-changes-26076117 This is a pretty fun article from WWE.com, especially the one about the Brazil tournaments.  For completeness they probably could have thrown the Freebirds' negative title reign in there, but it's pretty great as is.