This is the first of a series of articles looking at the career, influence and legacy of wrestling’s most influential character, Vince McMahon.

There can surely be no more controversial figure in the history of professional wrestling than Vincent Kennedy McMahon. According to his own company, WWE, Vince is responsible for everything good and successful in professional wrestling or, as they would have it, sports-entertainment, today. On the other hand, many outside the company blame him for more or less everything wrong with the business today. Either way, almost all agree that his mark on this business is truly indelible. Getting to the heart of the real Vince is, however, extremely difficult. He doesn’t give a huge amount of interviews – he probably doesn’t have the time – and he is never unguarded in his public comments. Most, if not all of what we hear said about him is said by someone with a vested interest in attacking or defending him, which makes it hard to be sure what is accurate. Finally, no one in wrestling is harder to distinguish from their on-screen, in-ring persona.

 Being the son of Vincent J McMahon and the grandson of Jesse McMahon, it might have been thought more or less inevitable that Vince would end up promoting wrestling. Yet, in fact he did not even meet his father until he was twelve years old, and it took him much, much longer to persuade Vince senior to let him into the business. It was not until 1971, when Vince was in his mid-twenties that he promoted his first card. It was also in that year that he began the job that would first make him recognisable to the general public, that of play by play announcer. It was not until 1982 that Vince actually bought the company from his father who, by this point, was in poor health.

 The next few years are a key part of one of the most often told stories in wrestling, the collapse of the territories. In a nutshell, wrestling at this time was, and had been for decades, a regional business, with promoters each sticking to their own territory. Vince’s territory was New York and it was perfectly usual for wrestlers to refer simply to “New York” when they meant “World Wrestling Federation”. There were many other promoters with their own territories: Sam Muchnick in St Louis, Verne Gagne’s AWA based in Minneapolis, Jim Crockett in the Carolinas and so on. Many of these promotions were part of a group called the NWA (National Wrestling Alliance) which simply meant that, in addition to their own regional champions, they recognized an overall NWA World Champion who moved between the various NWA territories, defending his title against each area’s local favourite. The exceptions were Gagne’s AWA and Vince’s World Wrestling Federation, who recognized their own world champions.

 Almost as soon as he became owner of the then WWF, Vince began attacking this model. The territory system had worked well for years but Vince realised that he could make his federation a national, rather than regional, institution. Vince began sending tapes of his product to TV stations around the country, touring outside his usual regional boundaries and hiring top talent away from other promotions, not just to strengthen his own product but also deliberately to weaken them. Many old-schoolers within the business were appalled at what Vince was doing. He was gambling big, spending money to make money and, if he failed he would face ruin. The prize, however, was that the World Wrestling Federation could become big, so big that it would transcend anyone’s ideas of what a wrestling promotion could, or should, be.

 Vince’s biggest gamble was Wrestlemania and it paid off big-time. His use of mainstream celebrities helped attract a wide audience to the company and the event was broadcast nationally. Vince’s partnership with Dick Ebersol got the WWF on to NBC, and his instant adoption of the new medium of pay per view gave him more nationally broadcast events and a whole new way of making money. One by one, the regional promotions began to disappear. It is arguably only because of the intervention of Ted Turner that Vince did not entirely conquer North American wrestling back then. Even so, by the beginning of the ‘90s, a multitude of regional promotions had been replaced by two credible national promotions, WCW (Turner’s World Championship Wrestling), born out of the old NWA, and the WWF.

 Vince has come under heavy criticism, both at the time and to this day, for “destroying the territories”. It is true that this has had unforeseen negative effects, primarily due to the fact that it is harder for young wrestlers to break into the business and get the experience they need nowadays. Back then, if a rookie wrestler stank in the ring it wasn’t necessarily fatal; he could learn from his mistakes and move on to a new territory, where a new audience would see him as the finished article. These days, if a young wrestler stinks on national TV practically the entire wrestling audience sees him do so and his career can be pretty much over before it has really had a chance to begin. However, the people who blame Vince for this situation need to recognise some other factors.

 The United States was not the only country that ran wrestling in this regional way; through the fifties, sixties and seventies British wrestling was organised in exactly the same way. However, even without Vince McMahon, this model began to break down at more or less the same time. Throughout history, the local gives way to the regional, the regional to the national, the national to the international. This is a natural effect born of improvements in transport, communication and technology, although every generation bemoans what they lose as if it is happening for the first time. Wrestling was no more immune to this than any other facet of society. Sooner or later the change from regional to national was coming; if it hadn’t been Vince, it would have been someone else.

 Secondly, the other promoters did not go out of business because Vince didn’t play fair but simply because they did not fight him effectively. Several of them, initially, had the base and resources to compete with Vince on the new national battlefield he was drawing up, Gagne and Crockett especially. Instead they chose to fight him in their own backyards, on a regional basis. Eventually, Gagne went out of business, Crockett sold up to Turner. Had Vince been ruthless and acquisitive? Of course he had – hardly sins in the business world. When he ran the first Survivor Series he wasn’t just creating a new pay per view to boost his own income, he was deliberately sabotaging the 5th Starrcade, Crockett’s first pay per view offering. That was ruthlessness, plain and simple.

 Vince was also innovative, though. He was making money in ways his rivals hadn’t even thought of. Who else in wrestling had an animated cartoon show? Vince was putting WWF images, and Hulk Hogan’s image in particular, on everything under the sun and this was having a twofold effect. Not only did it make the WWF more and more money, it made the word wrestling almost synonymous with WWF and Hulk Hogan in the minds of the wider public. Everywhere the public turned, they saw Hulk Hogan and the WWF. The WWF became more than just a wrestling company – they were a brand of children’s entertainment competing with He-Man, Superman, the A-Team, Indiana Jones and everyone else in all the same ways: computer games, toys, lunch boxes, t-shirts and anything else one could think of.

 Critics would point out that the wrestling in Vince’s federation was slow, plodding and technically poor compared to many of the old territories. They were missing the point; Vince was no longer competing with other wrestling promotions, he was competing with everyone who wanted a piece of the American family’s dollar. In the long run, Vince may have been creating problems for the wrestling business in the future but at the time, the eighties were a period of unbridled success for him, and the wrestling business had been raised to unimaginable new heights.

 Next: Vince McMahon vs Ted Turner and Eric Bischoff

WCW Monday Nitro
November 25, 1996
Salisbury, MD
Wicomico Civic Center

The current WCW champs were as follows:
WCW World Champion: Hollywood Hogan (8/10/1996)
WCW U.S. Champion: Vacant (11/25/1996)
WCW World Tag Team Champions: The Outsiders (10/27/1996)
WCW World Television Champion: Lord Steven Regal (8/20/1996)
WCW World Cruiserweight Champion: Dean Malenko (10/27/1996)

HOUR NUMBER ONE! Your hosts are Tony Schiavone & Larry Zbyszko.

Stills are shown from last night at World War 3 of the Piper-Hogan contract signing.

While the Giant stole the U.S. title belt and Flair has been stripped of the champion status due to not wrestling for 30 days, a tournament to crown a new U.S. champion will begin tonight and finish at Starrcade.

• Lex Luger vs. Arn Anderson – First Round WCW U.S. Title Tournament Match

Arn is essentially on his retirement tour at this point. He’s not really having any good matches and just doing what he can. By the way, Arn has his ribs taped up. Luger works on the arm until we go to commercial. Nothing to it. We come back to see Luger fighting out of a chinlock. Arn continues the violence with a catapult into the bottom rope for two. To the floor, Luger backs AA into the ringpost and it looks like there’s going to be a double countout, but it never comes. Back in, Luger stays on the back while the Giant barks down at the ring. He’s got the US belt in his hands! He really thinks he’s the US champion. Giant challenges the winner of the tournament to face him and then we’ll see who the REAL US champ is. Back to the match, they go to the floor where Luger backdrops out of a piledriver and puts AA in the TORTURE RACK! That generates the double countout and now both men are out of the tournament. (13:07 shown) Did they really think this would compete with Bret vs. Owen on Raw? *

We get some stills of Mysterio-Dragon, Jericho-Patrick, and Giant-Jarrett from World War 3.

And here comes the new World order (without Hogan) led by Eric Bischoff. Bischoff explains why he turned to the nWo. The morning after taking a Jackknife Powerbomb off a stage through a table, he asked himself whether or not he wanted to be consumed by the power, or did he want to become part of the force! Now we know it’s the latter. Not only is the highest executive in the nWo, but he’s the highest executive in WCW. The guys in the back have 30 days to convert their WCW contracts to nWo contracts or they will be targeted. As for you Mr. Piper, if you decide to get out of hand, he will fine you. As for the U.S. title, possession is 9/10ths of the law and I mean, who’s going to take that belt away from him? Wait a minute. Here comes the American Males. Riggs tries to change Bagwell’s mind, but he embraces the nWo boys anyway. When Bagwell goes over to tell Riggs that it’s just business, he drops him with a reverse neckbreaker! “nWo” chants roar throughout the arena. That’s actually as vocal as they get the whole night. Looks like Riggs got punked. And there you have it. Marcus Bagwell is the NEWEST member of the nWo.

Many call the defections over the next 30 days to be the first real mistake Bischoff had made with the nWo storyline by bringing in guys who were either long time midcarders or people who never had a big name in the business.

• Diamond Dallas Page vs. Disco Inferno

Disco tries to prolong the inevitable with a swinging neckbreaker, but DDP catches him with the DIAMOND CUTTER anyways. (2:14) Gene Okerlund accuses DDP of already defecting to the nWo simply because he’s old friends with the Outsiders and he happens to live in Bischoff’s neighborhood. Other than that and it’s a poorly thought out reason, Page has really shown no other evidence of jumping ship. ½*

• WCW World Television Champion Lord Steven Regal vs. Tony Pena

No he doesn’t play baseball. Pena is just a maskless Mexican wrestler who we’ve never seen before. If you check out his trunks with the roman numeral IV on it, he could be Villano IV. He tries to rough up Regal, but that just gets him angry. Regal forearms him in the corner. Pena hits a DDT for two. Butterfly suplex from Regal gets two, but the REGAL STRETCH gets the win. (3:05) Somewhat competitive. That Regal Stretch is curtains for anybody though. *½

Gene Okerlund interviews Rick Steiner. He says the Steiner Brothers are 110% behind WCW. After his trip to Japan, he sees Sting hanging up in the rafters and dropping people from behind. What’s that about? Oh Rick Steiner. You’re so much fun.

HOUR NUMBER TWO! Your hosts are Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay, and Bobby Heenan.

• Konnan vs. Eddie Guerrero – First Round WCW U.S. Title Tournament Match

In our second first round match of the night, Eddie starts off with a lucha armdrag and a tilt-a-whirl headscissors to put Konnan on the floor for his big stage dive. Back in, Konnan drills Guerrero with the Rolling Lariat and dropkicks him in the corner. Konnan delivers a Fisherman Buster into a hammerlock roll. Powerbomb gets two. Another Fisherman Buster gets two for Konnan. Doctorbomb scores another nearfall. To mount a comeback, Guerrero dropkicks Konnan as he comes off the top. Konnan does a floatover out of the corner and rolls back, but Eddie comes at him with a clothesline. Could it be FROG SPLASH time? Nope, Konnan stops him with a superplex! Konnan goes for Splash Mountain, but Eddie tries to counter with a headscissors and winds up falling on top of Konnan instead for the 1-2-3. (5:23) And Eddie moves on to face the winner of Benoit-Regal in four weeks! **¼

More stills of World War 3 are shown. Heat-AFC, Malenko-Psychosis, and the triangle match are all included.

• Rick Steiner vs. Big Bubba (w/Jimmy Hart)

Back to our moderately short matches. Rick throws Bubba around for a while until Sting comes out and SCORPION DEATHDROPS him to give Bubba the win. (3:17) Same stuff that happened to Jarrett – just channeled towards Rick Steiner now. Whatever you do people, don’t talk bad about Sting! He’ll getcha! ½*

On the Road with Lee Marshall! He’s in Dayton Ohio getting fans pumped for next week’s Nitro. How does he always know where to find a good Nitro party? They have ‘Pin the tail on the Weasel’ games and everything!

• Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Psychosis

This is usually good as long as they have plenty of time to do their thing. They roll around out of wristlocks as Ultimo Dragon and Sonny Oono show up wearing the J-Crown. Back to the match, Psychosis tries that reverse powerbomb into a hotshot spot and dumps Rey out to the floor. Whoops. Back in, Psychosis hits the GUILLOTINE LEGDROP for 1-2-NO! He goes for Splash Mountain, but Rey counters with a rana for the win. (2:20) Dragon and Oono take a step back after that finish. *

They re-air the entire Piper-Hogan contract signing from last week complete with the chair attack on the hip! That kills about fifteen minutes.

• Jeff Jarrett vs. Alex Wright

Wow, we haven’t seen Alex Wright on Nitro in a couple months. He gets in a few dropkicks and headscissors takedowns on Jarrett, but jams his knee in the corner off a missed charge and submits to the FIGURE-FOUR just like that. (2:19) Jarrett used the ropes and everything! ½*

We get some more stills from World War 3. The only thing is the battle royal. I still love the Giant for that one-handed pitch on Rey Jr. It’s just awesome.

• Harlem Heat (w/Sister Sherri) vs. The Faces of Fear

No Jimmy Hart? Tenay puts over the Faces of Fear for being on a win streak even though they have lost the last two matches on PPV. Stevie Ray boots Meng back, but Barbarian comes in and takes him out with the KICK OF FEAR! When Barbarian turns around, Booker takes his head off with the Jumping Leg Lariat. Side Slam/Scissors Kick combo to Meng gets two. Barbarian gets a blind tag for the backdrop into the powerbomb combo. That’s so awesome, but it only gets two. STEREO DIVING HEADBUTTS earn the Faces of Fear another two count. Eventually, the match breaks down as Barbarian and Stevie Ray head to the floor. Here comes the new World order to beat up all four men for the DQ. (4:00) We go off the air with the nWo boys standing tall – including Marcus Bagwell. Everybody is there except Hogan. *½

AND WE OUT! Anybody else notice since Raw moved to 8-9pm, the second hour has quickly became meaningless?

Starrcade goes down on December 29. Here’s the card as it looks right now.

MAIN EVENT: WCW World Champion Hollywood Hogan vs. Roddy Piper

WCW World War 3
November 24, 1996
Norfolk, VA
The Scope

The current WCW champs were as follows:
WCW World Champion: Hollywood Hogan (8/10/1996)
WCW U.S. Champion: Ric Flair (7/7/1996)
WCW World Tag Team Champions: The Outsiders (10/27/1996)
WCW World Television Champion: Lord Steven Regal (8/20/1996)
WCW World Cruiserweight Champion: Dean Malenko (10/27/1996)

Your hosts are Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, and Dusty Rhodes.

• J-Crown Champion Ultimo Dragon (w/Sonny Oono) vs. Rey Mysterio

For those unaware, the J-Crown is EIGHT lightweight championships combined from promotions all around the world. The funny part is and possibly the most annoying for the champion is that he’s got to carry around all those eight titles instead of having just one belt to represent all the belts. Needless to say, the J-Crown championship was short-lived and when the WWF came calling for their light heavyweight championship all of a sudden (which was one of the eight championships) in the fall of 1997, the J-Crown status was absolved and all the belts returned to be defended in their particular promotion. Anyways, this is match #2 in the three part series of the Mysterio-Dragon PPV matches. Mysterio won the first match at Hog Wild in Dragon’s debut and now that he’s got a boost of confidence in winning all those belts, maybe he can pick up the win here especially now that Rey has just lost the cruiserweight belt four weeks ago at Halloween Havoc. Alright that’s enough set up talk, let’s get to the match.

After a short feeling out process, they flip around to come to a stalemate. Enough of that, Dragon puts Rey down with his famous kick combo and corners him for some chops. Rey lands on the apron and looks for a springboard, but Dragon stops that with a springboard dropkick to put Rey on the floor. Awesome! Dragon hits a German suplex and then puts Mysterio in a lucha backbreaker rack drop. Rey outlasts a half crab, but then Dragon powerbombs him and lifts him back up for a hotshot! WHAT. Cover, 1-2-NO! Dragon gives Rey the Giant Swing! After so many spins, Dragon ends up making himself dizzy too. Fisherman buster gets two. Brainbuster gets another two. Tombstone piledriver gets a THIRD nearfall in a row! They go to the floor where Dragon drops Rey with ANOTHER tombstone! While Mysterio’s laid out, Dragon gives him a slingshot splash! Back inside, he hits the DRAGONSTEINER for 1-2-NO! RUNNING LIGERBOMB gets 1-2-NO! Mysterio catches Dragon charging in the corner and follows up with a springboard split-legged moonsault for 1-2-NO! Rey flips out to the apron off a whip and springboard dropkicks Dragon to the floor. He continues with the offense and wipes out Dragon with a springboard somersault plancha! Incredible. In the ring, Rey delivers a springboard sunset flip for 1-2-NO! Awesome cartwheel into a spinning hurracanrana gets 1-2-NO! Dragon comes back with a Dragon Suplex right on Rey’s head for 1-2-NO! He tries another Running Ligerbomb, but Rey sunset flips out for 1-2-NO! WHOA. So many convincing nearfalls. Rey calls for the SPRINGBOARD HURRACANRANA which always wins, but this time Dragon catches him in mid-air and bounces him off the rope into a powerbomb for 1-2-3! (13:47) Wow just an absolutely awesome match. I LOVE that finish too. A slingshot powerbomb? Who thinks of this stuff? Just incredible. Easily a MOTYC here. Next month, Dragon wants Malenko and his Cruiserweight belt. At the time, Ultimo Dragon held NINE total championships – that’s one other belt outside of the J-Crown. The cruiserweight belt would make a ridiculous ten championships at once. That’s insanity. But hey, when you’re a champ, you’re a champ all the way. ****½

In the back, DDP avoids Gene’s question about whether or not he’s got anything to do with Eric Bischoff since he’s his next door neighbor and all. You know what Gene, Page does in fact owe his great hair to Head & Shoulders. Don’t be jealous. BANG!

• Chris Jericho (w/Teddy Long) vs. Nick Patrick

For this match, Jericho has to wrestle Patrick with one arm tied behind his back. Nick Patrick comes out looks all sleazy. He wrestles in a sleeveless zebra shirt, black pants, white boots, and one of those soft collars. Jericho shoulderblocks and hiptosses Patrick around to start. He stalls and gets in Teddy Long’s face for a moment. Back inside, he slaps Jericho and then takes a slap to send him flying to the floor. Patrick finally gains an advantage when Jericho misses a clothesline up against the ringpost. Back in again, Patrick punches Jericho around in the corner, but charges into a boot and takes a bunch of turnbuckle smashes. Patrick leads Jericho in and out of the ring to stomp him on his way back inside, but then he gets slammed off the top (WOO!) and eats a superkick for the 1-2-3. (8:02) I know Nick Patrick used to be a wrestler before he hurt himself and became a referee, but he did pretty darn good since that was about fifteen years ago. Tony tells Patrick to go home to daddy. In case you don’t get the inside joke, his daddy is the Assassin who RULED the southern territories as a masked heel back in the day and in 1996, he ran the WCW Power Plant. Actually not that bad to sit through and it’s certainly satisfying to see Patrick get owned if you can forget about referees usually getting merely bumped and knocked out for five minutes. They’re usually so feeble! *½

Gene Okerlund brings out a rehabilitating Ric Flair. While this crowd was already molten hot, Flair comes out to help them become a little hotter. He promises the wrestling public that before it’s all said and done, he will dance all night and dance a little longer, stay all night and stay a little longer. Oh yeah and the new World order will belong to the WCW. WOO! Wait, what?

• The Giant vs. Jeff Jarrett

Giant wears the US belt with him to the ring. Schiavone says that Flair is no longer the champ because of not defending the belt in 30 days. Jarrett spends the whole match trying to knock Giant off his feet. When he fails, Giant takes over and chokes and chops on him. Wait a minute, here comes STING! Meanwhile, Giant misses a pump splash (yep, even back then) and Jarrett takes him off his feet with a flying bodypress for 1-2-NO! As Sting jumps the rail, Giant gets dumped. Jarrett doesn’t notice anything and takes this opportunity to do the Fargo Strut. While the ref is counting on Giant, Sting hops in the ring and gives Jarrett the SCORPION DEATH DROP! Once Sting leaves, Giant waits for Jarrett to stagger up to his feet and delivers the CHOKESLAM for the academic 1-2-3. (6:52) This achieved a couple things. It continues Sting punishing Jarrett for waltzing in here all of a sudden and demanding that he stop being a loser and become the leader for WCW against the nWo. Secondly it allowed Giant to finally chokeslam Jarrett when he said he couldn’t do it. And yeah, that pretty much ends Giant’s feud with the Horsemen. ¾*

It’s time for a contract signing! There’s a table with a plaid cover ready in the ring and Roddy Piper comes out with the contract in hand. Get out here, Hogan. Instead of seeing Hogan, Eric Bischoff comes out wearing an nWo t-shirt, Ted DiBiase, and Vincent. Bischoff says that Hollywood isn’t coming out to sign this because he’s a little busy looking over some scripts and has made Bischoff his power of attorney, so he can sign the contract in his place. First of all, Piper reminds Vincent that he taught him how to fight, so he better back off. Piper handles these three by being able to talk over all them. He doesn’t care about no WCW or nWo. To Piper, nWo means ‘no way out’. And somewhere Vince is thinking that might not be a bad name for a PPV. When Piper gets up in Bischoff’s face, Bischoff reminds him that he can fine Piper for whatever it is he’s about to do. O RLY? How much would it cost him? Piper gets a little off track and then tells Bischoff that this match against Hogan is no-DQ, no countouts – there must be a winner to find out who the real icon is. Piper doesn’t want to look at Bischoff anymore, he calls Hogan out again. And here comes Hollywood along with the rest of the new World order. First of all, Hollywood says he’ll sign the contract, but then he brings up Piper’s hip replacement. Show everybody the scar, Roddy! Hogan proceeds to call Piper a cripple and “Pegged Leg Pete”. Piper finally has enough and slaps Hogan away. Big mistake. The nWo swarms on him while Hogan blasts his scar with a chair and then spray paints the nWo letters across his hip! Before the nWo leaves, Piper gets to his feet and turns the table over to prove a point. He WILL NOT DIE! While the build towards this match is pretty awesome, it’s a shame that it can’t live up to it.

• Harlem Heat (w/Sister Sherri) vs. The Amazing French Canadians (w/Col. Robert Parker)

If the Heat win, Sherri gets five minutes with Col. Parker. Hopefully this time she won’t bump her head and fall in love with him. During the Canadian national anthem, Sherri wonders if the AFC think they’re at the MTV music awards. SUH-NAP! Jacques kips up after a shoulderblock and nails Booker with a dropkick, but then eats a Hook Kick. Tag to Stevie Ray for a double clothesline. Jacques catches Stevie Ray with a jumping back elbow, but has to tag in Oulette to put him down with a clothesline. Stevie Ray nails Oulette with a back suplex and Bicycle Kicks him down for two. Oulette gets stuck in the Heat corner for a while. Scissors Kick connects. Booker misses an elbow and SPINAROONIES up into a Jumping Leg Lariat. Jacques pulls the top rope down on Booker to send him flying to the floor. Back in, Jacques slams Oulette on top of Booker and continues the double teams with a double hotshot. Boston crab/flying legdrop on Booker gets two. Stevie Ray gets a hot tag and press slams Rougeau on top of Oulette. It breaks down into a pier-six brawl and the ref gets sandwiched in the corner. Booker misses a Jumping Leg Lariat and gets crotched and falls to the floor. That leaves Stevie Ray alone with the AFC for a SPIKE PILEDRIVER! With the Heat all down and out, Oulette makes a scaffold in the corner with a table and then puts the ring steps on top of the table. He puts another bundle of steps down on the mat to make for a SUPER QUEBECER CRASH! OH MY GOSH! Too bad it completely misses. I mean it took all of a whole minute to set up. Jacques gets kicked to the floor while Booker delivers the HARLEM HANGOVER to Oulette for the 1-2-3. (9:15) Standard formula tag with a silly finish. Kind of cool, but kind of silly too. I mean, really guys? Afterwards, Sherri gets her alone time with Parker and beats him to the back after about a minute or two. About what we expected with that. **

Tony Schiavone is wiping away the TEARS of laughter. Yes, TEARS.

On the WCW Hotline, Gene says he’ll tell you who the latest superstar is that will be coming to WCW! Well whoever he is, I’ll bet he’ll be just perfect for WCW.

• WCW World Cruiserweight Champion Dean Malenko vs. Psychosis

Malenko stretches Psychosis down on the mat to start. During the mat work, somebody apparently is getting kicked out of the building. Who knows. Finally, it picks up a little as Psychosis takes Malenko to the floor, but then he misses a leap to the floor and slams his face on the guardrail. Oww? Back in, Malenko returns to the mat with a headscissors. He changes over to a nasty vertical half crab and then levels Psychosis with a butterfly powerbomb into a TEXAS CLOVERLEAF, but Psychosis is in the ropes. They fight to the floor while Malenko cranks on the knee. Psychosis mounts a comeback with a pumphandle backbreaker and then NAILS Malenko with a corkscrew senton on the floor! WHAT. Back in, Psychosis delivers a GUILLOTINE LEGDROP for 1-2-NO! Malenko avoids a charge, but gets caught up top and takes a rana to the mat for 1-2-NO! Whoa, Psychosis catches Malenko with a rolling Koppou kick. We see a DOUBLE REVERSAL on a tombstone piledriver which Dean wins. Cover, 1-2-NO! Malenko eats a boot off a corner charge, but avoids a leapfrog and gets the rolling clutch into a bridge for the 1-2-3. (14:34) Took too long to get where it was going to be great. However it did include quite a few awesome nearfalls. Certainly not as great as the Dragon-Rey match, but still a very good match. ***½

• WCW World Tag Team Champions The Outsiders vs. The Nasty Boys vs. The Faces of Fear (w/Jimmy Hart)

I do believe this is the final WCW PPV for the Nasty Boys. While Knobbs would wrestle on his own later in WCW, I know this is certainly the end of PPVs for Jerry Sags. Anyways, they clean house on the Outsiders before the Faces of Fear even make it to the ring. Once the Faces of Fear make it to the ring, the Outsiders stand back while the other two teams beat the crap out of each other. As you might expect, there’s a lot of CLUBBERIN’. Knobbs gets cornered in the champs corner for a while. Hall kicks Barbarian in the head a bunch and that wakes him up. The Faces of Fear slug him around until the Nasties take over. Sags hits a PILEDRIVER on Barbarian and gets two. Nash lays out Barbarian with the Side Slam. In comes Hall, the Faces of Fear have some more fun with him. Back over to the Nasties, they concentrate on Barbarian some more. Eventually, Knobbs and Meng decide to stop fighting each other and they tag in both Hall and Nash. They think they are brilliant for making these two fight, but all they have to do is pin each other to regain the tag belts, says Tony. They hype the crowd up into a frenzy making them think they’re going to really fight, but then Nash lays down for Hall and they get a two count off that. Does that remind anybody of a certain Monday night in January of 1999? Just saying. The match breaks down with the Faces of Fear heading to the floor to beat up Sags. Meanwhile, Hall gets Jimmy’s megaphone and blasts Knobbs in the back of the head so Nash can give him the JACKKNIFE POWERBOMB for the 1-2-3. (16:11) I don’t normally like tag team triangle matches because they’re usually just a huge mess, but this felt like a good fight. The Nasties and the Faces of Fear are known for being tough dudes, but the Outsiders proved to be the smartest. In this case, being the smartest won them the match. **¼

• 60-Man Battle Royal – Winner Gets The Next WCW World Title Shot

The participants: Lex Luger, Eddie Guerrero, ‘Boston Bad Boy’ Tony Rumble, Diamond Dallas Page, Kaos, Rage, M. Wallstreet, Marcus Bagwell, Scotty Riggs, Sgt. Craig Pittman, Booker T, Stevie Ray, Big Bubba, Hugh Morrus, Konnan, Ron Studd, Lord Steven Regal, La Parka, Pez Whatley, Steve McMichael, Disco Inferno, Renegade, Joe Gomez, Meng, Barbarian, Bunkhouse Buck, Arn Anderson, Johnny Grunge, Ciclope, Galaxy, Syxx, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, The Giant, Scott Norton, Ultimo Dragon, Jimmy Graffiti, Mike Enos, Rey Mysterio Jr., Roadblock, Ice Train, Jack Boot, Jim Duggan, Chris Benoit, Juventud Guerrera, Jacques Rougeau, Carl Oulette, Prince Iaukea, Dean Malenko, Jeff Jarrett, Bobby Eaton, Jim Powers, Squire David Taylor, Chris Jericho, Alex Wright, Mark Starr, Mr. JL, Villano IV, Rick Steiner, and Kevin Sullivan. Our commentators for ring one – Mike Tenay and Dusty Rhodes; ring two – Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan; ring three – Lee Marshall and Larry Zbyszko.

A black-eyed and bruised Benoit meets Sullivan in the aisleway as he comes to the ring. They had a rematch from the Great American Bash in Baltimore the night before. A Horsemen/Dungeon battle ensues on the floor. Benoit and Sullivan fight into the crowd. Bubba tries to help out, but he gets beaten down the steps. Hard to tell if any eliminations are happening even with the three-way split screen because the commentators are all talking about the Horsemen/Dungeon fight. Somehow Lee Marshall gets swept up into the brawl. HA. Apparently everybody involved in the fight is disqualified from the battle royal. The jobbers and the luchadores slowly get weeded out. That excludes Rey Mysterio Jr. The new World order people are just standing around picking their shots. Giant gets into it with Roadblock and clotheslines him out. In one ring, everybody clotheslines Ron Studd in the corner. Once he’s down, they all dog pile on top of him for some reason. While the Amazing French Canadians have their problems with Duggan after they eliminated, Eddie Guerrero pescados out on top of Regal. Off-camera, it looks like Bagwell eliminated Riggs to further their problems with Wallstreet coming up behind Bagwell to send him to the showers. It’ll all become clear tomorrow on Nitro. In another ring, the nWo pretty much stand back and watch while Rey and Dragon make a little match. I thought Eddie was eliminated when he launched himself out on Regal, but he’s still at ringside beating up DDP. Eventually, everybody congregates into the same ring. Jack Boot, better known as Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker, gets tossed out. I know everybody was DYING to know what happened to him. Luger tries to punch away on the Giant, but he can’t stay there forever with the nWo standing in his way protecting their own. Luger does manage to toss out a different giant in Ron Studd though. Now the midcarders like Rick Steiner and Chris Jericho get sent out. How is Regal still in the match? Finally when there’s nine people left, WCW stops fighting each other momentarily. Luger and Jarrett go after Hall and Nash while Regal, Mysterio, DDP, and Eddie continue beating on one another. I’ve seen everybody left from WCW on the floor at some point during this match. Regal backdrops Eddie out for a crazy bump. Rey charges Giant and gets hoisted up with ONE HAND. He pitches Rey on top of Eddie. That’s just ridiculous. Hall goes to give Jarrett the OUTSIDERS EDGE when Regal makes the save! Nevertheless, Nash clotheslines Jarrett out. DDP charges Regal and misses to crash and burn on the floor. Now that Regal is on fire, Nash and Giant swarms the guy and dumps him out.

We’re down to Syxx, Nash, Hall, and the Giant left to take on Luger. The crowd gets to their feet. Luger goes on the move and starts taking everybody down with clotheslines. All except the Giant. He whips Luger across and misses an avalanche to land himself up on the top turnbuckle. Lex gets Giant up on his shoulders to get rid of him, but Syxx kicks Luger in the gut. Hall kicks Luger for the OUTSIDERS EDGE, but Luger backdrops him out to the floor. Lex presses Syxx and throws him out onto Hall! Luger ducks a clothesline from Nash and then nails him coming back around with a running elbow! With Nash staggered, Luger lifts him up in the TORTURE RACK! As he moves over to the ropes to dump him out, Giant comes over and shoves them both out to win the match. (28:23) This actually turns out for the best because it creates an opportunity to weaken the nWo just a little bit. They were getting a tad too strong. Since Giant is part of the new World order and Hogan’s the champ, to ask for the guaranteed title shot for winning World War 3 would mean absolute treason. And boy, this should get a little interesting in the weeks to come.

Final Thoughts: What a fun PPV. Apart from who won at least from a booking standpoint, I’m not a big fan of the main event. It’s usually just a nasty cluster of a match, but the hot ending was just spectacular. Most people hate the undercard on this show aside from the cruiserweight stuff. I didn’t mind it and found those matches to be enjoyable. World War 3 ‘96 will get an easy thumbs up from me. November 1996 was just a great month for PPVs. For an interesting time in WCW, go and check this out however you can.

This week on the Drunkcast join ed and Cutrer as they are joined by legendary wrestling Diva The perfect 10 BABYDOLL~! Well ask her about growing up with a dad and mother that were prowrestlers. How she got into wrestling in 1984 for WCCW. What it was like to work with Gino Hernandez, Jake Roberts, and Chris Adams against the Von Erichs. Thoughts on wrestlings first Diva Sunshine and also Stella May French. Why she left WCCW to go work for Jim Crockett Promotions. We will ask where the Perfect 10 name came from(Ed has been there)Thoughts on her teaming with Tully Blanchard, Dusty Rhodes, and Ric Flair. All the trouble that was caused by her marrying Sam Houston that led to her leaving JCP. We will also get her thoughts on the Divas of today and why she will be rememberd when most of them will be forgoten~! Plus Ed will tell the story of MISSY-GATE and how she ribed and punked Ed last week~!

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Edward-Loredo

If you miss the live edition the replay will be available here and on iTunes (keyword: angrymarks). Thanks for checking out The DRUNKCAST.

http://www.angrymarks.com/index.php?ArticleID=8837

last nite i w as feel in gsa d

so i texted a great poet

i said :

dear goD

do you think, if
i havent really suffered
if

basically

ive lived a spoiled
and                          TOTALLY

pampered life

is there still a chance that sometimes
at least

i could still write good poetry ?

and hE said no.

No my child
as with anything in lifE

there are prerequisites :

like two heads in the oven
or a noose hanging
off a wooden beam

a chair kicked over into the corner of a room
those are the ideal
asia weevils
plaths

you need those

but who would want those my child

wouldnt you just want to be dr williams
dead of a recurring stroke
that pushed his weelchair
into a bush
of crimson cyclamen

he, pushed over
headfirst ?

leave dying alone
at a stinking hospital bed at tangiers
both yr legs cut off at the knees

leave greatness
to the real Gods

to the Rimbauds of the world
to the Rambos of the world

remember how in First Blood Part Un
he had to chisel a bullet
out of his arm
with a hunting knife ?

you want that ?

no you dont
believe mE

you wouldnt want that kind of lifE
greatness is overrated
believe mE

This week I was joined by Larry Oji from ocremix.org.  Larry and I discussed video game music and how it has evolved from timeless classics to a full-fledged art form. Larry also stuck around and talked wrestling.We addressed what was wrong in the wrestling business.

Larry was kind enough to share some his knowledge in regards to the ocremix submission process and take calls from my listeners. My Take Radio would like to thank Larry and the ocremix crew for their tireless efforts in making game music an art form.

If you would like any of the music discussed on this week’s show head over to ocremix and show your support.

Here are the links for this week

ocremix.org-Home of the best video game remixes on the web. Show djpretzel & Larry Oji some love.

VGFrequency.com- Larry Oji’s personal site

KNGI.Org- Larry Oji podcast

Follow Larry on Twitter

Follow and support ocremix on Twitter

So, today, while I was eating a rueben at Applebee’s, I was thumbing through the latest edition of the American Poetry Review. When it comes to that journal, it’s kind of hit or miss with me. Anyhow, I happened across something that touches on my aesthetic beliefs about horror in literature. APR republished an old essay by William Carlos Williams, entitled “The Practice.” Basically, Williams is reflected back on his other profession (the one that paid his bills), medicine. Basically, he suggests that without his practice of medicine, he wouldn’t have been able to write. Basically, making daily house calls kept him in touch with other people’s humanity, and that, in the end, fueled his writing.

That is why as a writer I have never felt that medicine interfered with me but rather that it was my very food and drink, the very thing which made it possible for me to write. Was I not interested in man?

It’s something I always circle back to. People make literature interesting, as language can only go so far. In the end, it’s always Achilles or Hamlet that keeps us reading, not the meter Homer or Shakespeare wrote in. The drum I often beat about horror is: in order to understand or comprehend inhumanity, you also have to understand and comprehend humanity. Squirting blood can only get you so far, and it’s the people written about that keeps readers reading. Have an uninteresting character, and you have an uninteresting story. If we adapt this to poetry, it’s a matter of voice and persona, in most cases. You have a listless voice, and you have a listless poem.

But that’s not the all of it. APR also published some other material on Williams, some of it from Robert Lowell, and then there’s Christian C. Thompson’s essay “The Science of Subjectivity.” Thompson basically seeks to examine Williams through the Lens of Immanuel Kant. But, those greater points aside, I found the third paragraph of the essay and instructive reminder of what it is to be a writer:

The serious poet — whether he or she realizes it or not — is a social scientist. On a daily basis the poet is inundated by a vast amount of cultural data which excites the sensibility, is synthesized and stored by the brain, until on occasion, something happens–sometimes immediately, somtimes weeks, months, or years later, which results in a poem.

As writers, to an extent, we are the sum of our experiences. Even if fiction is largely contrived, there’s still some form of observation going on, some sort of stimulus that has warranted a response. For Williams, it seems, this came by way of his patients and his house calls. And, it makes one wonder, at least, what might happen to horror writers if they took these observations, this sort of writing ethic to heart.

WCW Monday Nitro
November 18, 1996
Florence, SC
Civic Center

The current WCW champs were as follows:
WCW World Champion: Hollywood Hogan (8/10/1996)
WCW U.S. Champion: Ric Flair (7/7/1996)
WCW World Tag Team Champions: The Outsiders (10/27/1996)
WCW World Television Champion: Lord Steven Regal (8/20/1996)
WCW World Cruiserweight Champion: Dean Malenko (10/27/1996)

HOUR NUMBER ONE! Your hosts are Tony Schiavone & Larry Zbyszko.

Before there’s even an intro, we see the aftermath of an Outsiders beatdown with chairs in-hand as they interrupted a Nasties vs. High Voltage vs. Ciclope/Galaxy triangle match that occurred prior to the broadcast. They head over to Tony and Larry Z’s ringside announce table to tell them and everybody watching that the new World order can make you laugh (as they did for Tony Schiavone last week) and they can also be extremely deadly. Nash flicking Tony on the head is pretty hilarious though. WHO’S LAUGHING NOW, FAT BOY? After they leave, Meng and Barbarian are waiting to attack them backstage as they fight out of the building!

After a short break, Larry Z tries to calm Tony down and reminds him that they didn’t hurt him or anything, but he’s got five kids (wow!) and a wife. He doesn’t need to put up with this kind of abuse, so he leaves the broadcast for the rest of the show.

• Juventud Guerrera vs. La Parka
  

Here is La Parka’s WCW debut. Mike Tenay comes out and joins Larry Z for the rest of the first hour. They do some kip-ups from chops to start. La Parka dumps out Juvi for a suicide dive. Back in, Juvi pushes La Parka off the top turnbuckle onto the top rope and then takes him down onto the mat with a springboard headscissors! Cover, 1-2-NO! Quebrada gets another two. Juvi sets up for another springboard, but La Parka dropkicks him in mid-air. Back to the floor, La Parka delivers the Eddie Guerrero stage dive. Back inside, La Parka delivers a powerbomb for two. Juvi escapes a surfboard and drills La Parka with a missile dropkick for two. La Parka misses a corner charge and takes a whole BUNCH of turnbuckle smashes. Another springboard headscissors out of the corner gets two for Juvi. Ugh, Guerrera delivers one ugly looking spinning hurracanrana for two. La Parka misses something off the top and takes a Tornado DDT for two. However, La Parka blocks the Dragonsteiner and nails Juvi with a CORKSCREW SENTON for the 1-2-3. (9:22) Great TV debut for La Parka with loads of neat nearfalls on him, but Juvi just didn’t have the weight advantage over the big luchadore. ***¼

Video package shown to hype Ultimo Dragon as he looks to defend his newly-won J-Crown (short-lived unification of EIGHT lightweight championships from promotions around the world) against Rey Mysterio Jr at World War 3. We see some clips of him vs. the Great Sasuke in the J-Crown tournament final back on August 5.

• WCW World Cruiserweight Champion Dean Malenko vs. J-Crown Champion Ultimo Dragon (w/Sonny Oono)
  

OH SNAP. This should be good. Some nice mat stuff to start. Dragon hits the handspring back elbow, but Malenko immediately whips Dragon across for the corner clothesline. Some awesome counters lead to a nearfall sequence which leads to a Tiger Suplex from Dragon for two. They go to the floor for some guardrail action. Back in, Dragon elbows out of a back superplex, but misses the moonsault. Sonny Oono hops up on the apron once Malenko hooks on the TEXAS CLOVERLEAF. Malenko lets go of Dragon and flips Oono into the ring. Dragon goes to save his manager and takes a backdrop over the top to the floor. Oops, DQ! (4:02) Oh WCW and your inconsistencies over what is a toss over the top rope and what isn’t. Good for what it was and it’s got me looking forward to their match at Starrcade that nobody knows about yet. **½

WCW Saturday Night! Watch it IF YOU WEEL! 6:05PM eastern! TBS! The Faces of Fear takes on Ciclope & Galaxy! TV Champ Lord Steven Regal defends his belt against Dean Malenko! Both the Taskmaster and Chris Jericho will be in action! Arn Anderson faces Bunkhouse Buck! Jeff Jarrett battles Mike Enos! Also, a match from the new World order! Don’t miss out! It’s the MUTHASHIP! PAY WINDAHS, CLUBBERIN, AND PLUNDAH, BABY!

Recap to last week where Sherri took a swing at her former lover Col. Robert Parker.

• Amazing French Canadians (w/Col. Robert Parker) vs. The American Males
  

Parker debuts his new French Foreign Legion look. The American Males clean house to start so they can chant “USA” together. Back in, Jacques shows off a little bit. Riggs and Bagwell collide to cause a little problem. Oulette nails Riggs from the apron into a jumping back elbow from Jacques. In comes Oulette, as Jacques slams him on top of Riggs. Maybe they aren’t as good a gimmick as the Quebecers, but they’re still fun to watch. I’m a fan. Double hotshot to Riggs, but heel miscommunication ensues. HOT TAG TO BAGWELL! He completely owns the AFC with backdrops and dropkicks! DOUBLE NOGGIN KNOCKER! Jacques backflips to avoid another backdrop, but then Riggs knees Jacques into Bagwell and their heads collide. While the ref tries to get Riggs out of the ring, Oulette puts Jacques on top of Bagwell for the 1-2-3. (5:25) Fun little formula match to continue the problems between the American Males. *½

For all you total nerds out there who are always typing away at your computers and using that new fad called the world wide web that nobody uses except complete geeks who live in their parents basement and never even talked to a girl before, check out wcwwrestling.com! It’s cool if you’re a NERD!

• Lex Luger vs. Hugh Morrus
  

Another week, another TORTURE RACK! (4:22) Luger is on a roll! Surely he’s the guy who will win the 60-man battle royal at World War 3! After the match, Sting quietly interrupts Luger’s post-match interview with Gene Okerlund. He points his baseball bat at Luger and then shoves him back into the corner with it. What’s Sting going to do? He turns the bat around, gives it to Luger, and leaves through the crowd. Luger has nothing to say about what just happened. *

HOUR NUMBER TWO! Your hosts are Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan, and Mike Tenay.

Flashback to last week’s Saturday Night: Tony Schiavone conducts a meeting between Nick Patrick, his lawyer, Teddy Long, and Chris Jericho. Teddy says something about Jericho being able to beat Nick Patrick with one arm tied behind his back any day of the week. The lawyer guy takes him up on that and we’ve got another match signed for World War 3!

• Chris Jericho vs. Johnny Grunge
  

Seems like an odd match. Nick Patrick comes out to get a closer look at the match. Grunge ends the feeling out process with a back suplex. Jericho lands on his feet after Grunge moves away from a moonsault press, but gets nailed with a clothesline. We go to the floor as Jericho nails Grunge with a springboard dropkick off the apron. Grunge gets desperate and grabs a chair. He hotshots Jericho and sits him down in a chair for a running clothesline. Now Grunge slides in a table and sets Jericho up on it. Is he going to splash himself and the chair on top of Jericho? Nope. Jericho moves and hits a missile dropkick for the 1-2-3. (5:22) How is bringing a table and a chair in the ring not a DQ? Anyways, decent enough for somebody like Johnny Grunge who isn’t known to be a singles worker. ¾*

Hollywood Hogan, Ted DiBiase, Vincent, and Elizabeth all come over to take control of the announce table. Heenan gets the heck out of Dodge. Hogan gets on the mic and demands Bischoff to tell the world that he’s the bigger icon of wrestling than Piper, that he’s scared to death of Hogan, and that he’s a hundred times richer than Roddy Piper. Of course Bischoff says he disagrees but he’ll say whatever Hogan wants. That’s all Hogan wanted to hear.

Over to Gene Okerlund, he’s standing by with Diamond Dallas Page. He says he still refuses to be the eighth pick for the new World order. Hall, Nash, Giant, and Syxx stop by to tell DDP that he doesn’t get it. You don’t get it? He doesn’t get it.

Bobby Heenan and Mike Tenay return to the announce position.

• Jeff Jarrett vs. Bobby Eaton
  

Extremely short. Jarrett struts and we go to the floor for some guardrail stuff. Back in, Jarrett hits the Bossman straddle and gives Eaton a suplex for the FIGURE-FOUR. That gets the win. (2:19) Here comes Ric Flair. Of course he’s got his arm in a sling. Flair says that no matter what Benoit and Mongo may say, Flair gives Jarrett his full endorsement as a member of the Four Horsemen while he’s away. We see Sting watching on from the rafters. WOO! ½*

• Big Bubba (w/Jimmy Hart) vs. Jim Powers
  

During the match, Bischoff explains how he’s still unable to get Roddy Piper to sign for a match against Hogan. Bubba controls much of the match until Powers comes back like a good ’80s babyface. Turnbuckle smashes and the Knee Lift connects, but then he runs into a BUBBA SLAM for the 1-2-3. (3:54) Filler. ½*

• Chris Benoit (w/Woman) vs. Eddie Guerrero
  

This is a return match from the night after Halloween Havoc when both men were so banged up and couldn’t compete at the usual fast-paced high-impact level. Guerrero slows Benoit down early with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Eddie lands on his feet out of a monkey flip, but charges into the CRIPPLER CROSSFACE! Luckily Eddie makes the ropes. Eddie comes back with a Hilo for two. Benoit comes back with a series of suplexes in order to keep Guerrero on the mat. He’s stretching Eddie like he’s back in Stu’s Dungeon! Commercial break. We return to see Eddie taking Benoit down with a headscissors. Benoit hangs Guerrero out to dry and gets a superplex. Delayed cover gets two. Eddie takes Benoit to the floor and Woman gets in the way to temporarily help her man. Back inside, Guerrero delivers a back suplex to set up for the FROG SPLASH, but Eddie rolls through when Benoit moves. Eddie goes for a hurracanrana, but Benoit rolls through that into a sunset flip for the 1-2-3! (9:23 shown) Nice finish. One of the best Nitro matches we’ve seen in MONTHS. ***½

Eric Bischoff is in the ring to tell the crowd that Roddy Piper still has not signed a contract to face Hollywood Hogan, but he’s going to do everything he can to make this- IS THAT BAGPIPES I HEAR? The crowd goes insane as Roddy Piper walks out the tunnel. Bischoff doesn’t look too happy to see him and Piper has got his FIGHTIN’ EYES going. He’s here to tell some truth because he’s never heard more lies in his life than when he was telling them. Piper calls Bischoff a liar and the crowd seems confused, but Bischoff looks 1000% guilty. Did you have a nice flight to Portland? Is the path to his ranch straight or crooked? He grabs Bischoff and calls him a “little piece of poop” as the Giant and the rest of the new World order grab Piper (except for Hogan who comes out when Piper has been stopped). Hogan embraces Bischoff and reminds everybody that Eric runs WCW and now he works for the nWo! Hogan continues to denigrate Piper by calling him a coward and how he was nobody before he fought Hogan. A bunch of policemen come down and have to restrain Piper while the nWo pose and watch Piper while they head to the back. Before we go, Piper says he’ll be at World War 3 with the contract for his match with Hogan in his teeth! No surrender! No retreat! Kiss his butt, Hogan.

AND WE OUT! Finally, a great episode of Nitro.

World War 3 goes down on November 24. Here’s the card as it looks right now.

MAIN EVENT: 60-Man Battle Royal – (Winner gets the next WCW World Title shot)
WCW World Tag Team Champions The Outsiders vs. The Nasty Boys vs. The Faces of Fear
The Giant vs. Jeff Jarrett
WCW Cruiserweight Champion Dean Malenko vs. Psychosis
Harlem Heat vs. The Amazing French Canadians – (If the Heat win, Sherri gets five minutes with Parker)
Chris Jericho vs. Nick Patrick (Jericho has to wrestle with one hand tied behind his back)
J-Crown Champion Ultimo Dragon vs. Rey Mysterio Jr.

Of all the superstars of wrestling, few attract more controversy than Triple H. For years he has been held up by his supporters as being one of the best, if not the best wrestlers in WWE. His detractors have claimed that he only owes his position to his marriage, that he uses his power to hold down other wrestlers and even that he has killed the business. He has, for much of his career, been involved in skits and angles that expose the business, or use insider terms and yet he is known to be a student of the business with a thorough understanding and appreciation of what has gone before him. In short, everyone in wrestling, whether promoter, wrestler or fan, has an opinion on Triple H and those opinions cover every imaginable base. What then, is the truth about the man who is arguably the most powerful and influential wrestler in the business today? The controversy with Triple H really starts with his arrival in the then World Wrestling Federation. Soon after joining the company in 1995 he became close friends with Kevin Nash, Shawn Michaels, Sean Waltman and Scott Hall, better known as The Kliq. By joining this group, Triple H was setting himself up for criticism and suspicion but also gaining opportunities. Depending on who you ask, The Kliq were either a shadowy group of opportunists, manipulating Vince McMahon in order to benefit themselves and harm their rivals, or a group of friends whose enthusiasm for the business had given them a good relationship with Vince. That The Kliq had Vince’s ear was unquestionable. To what extent, whether they were the only ones and how they used and benefited from this are the questions. The other question that Triple H’s critics pose is this: did Triple H deliberately target The Kliq as the group to join in order to further one’s career? After all, they were notorious party animals, famous for their excessive lifestyle, while Triple H himself was a bodybuilder for years and just did not seem the type to get carried away in that manner. So, was it really just a shared love of wrestling that made them friends, or was the young Triple H smart and devious enough to deliberately worm his way into the most influential group on the roster? Given the fact that the friendship between these men has endured for many years, despite all kinds of ups and downs, it seems unkind to try and suggest that their bond was anything other than sincere. Whatever the case, the fact is that they did become friends and Triple H was, therefore, in an influential position. Moreover, isn’t it only natural that a young wrestler entering the company is going to naturally gravitate towards more established and experienced wrestlers? Of course, there was a downside to being the junior member of such a group, one illustrated in the now infamous “curtain call” incident in 1996. By this point, Nash and Hall were about to go WCW and, in their last match they faced Shawn and Hunter at Madison Square Garden in a non-televised show. After the match the four friends embraced, thereby breaking character and “exposing the business” to the live audience. As Shawn and Hunter have told this story, this was intended to be nothing more than a fond goodbye between friends. They had, apparently, cleared it with Vince beforehand and, as far as exposing the business went, well, this was 1996 not 1984 after all. Afterwards, however, some unknown other people got in Vince’s ear and persuaded Vince that what The Kliq had done was disgraceful and that they should be punished. Since Nash and Hall had now gone, and Shawn was the WWF Champion, that basically meant that Hunter was going to be punished. According to Hunter, Vince told him that he was “going to have to eat sh*t and learn to like the taste of it” for some indefinite period. Hunter’s response was that he would endure whatever he had to, as long as Vince assured him that, once his punishment was over, the issue was done with. It wouldn’t be brought up again and Hunter wouldn’t find himself dogged by this time and time again. Vince assured him that, so far as he was concerned, the matter was already done with and thus, a planned push for Triple H was put on hold for about a year. For example, Triple H had been scheduled to win the 1996 King of the Ring, but that honour now went to Steve Austin (clearing the way for “Austin 3:16 says I just whipped your ass” and therefore possibly saving the company from extinction) and Hunter would have to bide his time. In later years, Triple H has often referred to this as a blessing in disguise, insisting that, at that stage of his career he was not ready to be featured that strongly, and that this “punishment” actually ensured he was ready when his turn came around. I would have to agree with him, particularly as this supposed “punishment” was hardly as serious as one might imagine. For most of the following year Hunter was still featured prominently on television, briefly gained the services of Mr Perfect as manager (before Perfect left for WCW) and even won the Intercontinental Title in October of 1996. To me, therefore, it seems more that Hunter’s push was slowed rather than stopped. Besides which, wrestling is a fluid business. It’s all very well for Vince to say “I’m punishing this guy” but if said guy is getting over with crowd then he’s getting over and you may as well go with it. The next major stage of Hunter’s career was, of course, the formation of Degeneration X with Shawn Michaels and Chyna (and, briefly, Rick Rude as Shawn’s “insurance policy”), which was another of the pivotal factors in the arrival of the “Attitude Era”. DX have often been compared to WCW’s NWO and, given that two of The Kliq formed DX, Nash and Hall were two of the founders of the NWO and Sean Waltman was the only man, prior to WWE’s takeover of WCW, to work in both groups, it is hardly surprising. In point of fact, there are as many differences as similarities between the two groups but one definite connection that both groups had was a willingness to blur the lines between story and reality and, therefore, to frequently run the risk of exposing the business. Now, this was, of course, the late nineties and it was already years since Vince McMahon had taken the decision to “break kayfabe” and publicly admit that professional wrestling was a worked sport. Nevertheless, at that time the business still had not, and many would argue still has not, come to terms with exactly what that meant and how far one should now go in this new era. The Kliq were, though perhaps they did not realise it at the time, in the vanguard of a new group that also included, for example, Vince Russo, who wanted to test the boundaries of the new freedoms and restrictions that breaking kayfabe had instituted. In that sense, they were either iconoclasts or visionaries (or both) but, either way, they got right up the noses of a lot of more old-school people within the business. Regardless of what people thought of DX, and Vince himself was often appalled by their antics, they were a massive hit with the audience. Triple H himself has often said that, at that time, they were “the hottest thing in the business not named Steve Austin” and it is certainly true that, along with the Rattlesnake, along with The New Hart Foundation’s war with America and along with the macabre soap opera that saw Kane introduced to the Undertaker’s back story, they were one of the crucial building blocks of the era of Attitude. It was inevitable, in this era of shifting fan loyalties that DX would come to be popular even as they were supposed to be booed. It only made sense when, after Shawn Michaels’ apparent retirement after Wrestlemania 14, a new Degeneration X became babyfaces. Another important change had taken place, too. Triple H was now a leader. By now, Hunter was a former European and Intercontinental Champion, as well as King of the Ring. His rise had been steady and showed no signs of abating. Critics often say that he was “shoved down the fans’ throats” but, really, this is hardly a justifiable accusation. Triple H joined WWE in 1995, the same year as Steve Austin. By Wrestlemania 14 Austin was champion but he is regarded as a man who earned his spot while Triple H was forced on the fans. Even if one accepts what appears to be a double standard here, on the grounds that Austin had more experience in the business overall, what of The Rock? He joined WWE after Triple H, with less experience, and was made Intercontinental Champion almost immediately. If ever a man was “forced on the fans” it was The Rock. Yet, by the vast majority, he is now rightly regarded as an all-time great and, if people reference his difficult early years at all, it is merely to point out the skill and charisma he displayed in turning heel. In point of fact, all three of these men, along with several others, rose quickly during these years for a couple of reasons. Firstly, because WWE was in a life or death struggle with WCW and the company were therefore willing to try new ideas and new people. Secondly, and very simply, because they were over with the fans! If you don’t believe me, get some tapes or DVDs and watch them back. Triple H was getting a great response from the crowd back in 1998 as a bayface and an even better response in 1999 as a heel. It seems to me that, ultimately, Triple H has been judged harshly for not being as over as Austin and The Rock, two of the three biggest stars in the company’s history, along with Hogan at his peak, rather than receiving the praise he deserves for being as popular as he was in his own right. Since then, of course, it is his marriage to Stephanie McMahon that has cast the biggest shadow over his career. According to his detractors, all of his success since can be attributed directly to this relationship, this despite the fact that he was already a main-event wrestler before said relationship began. Furthermore, he is accused of using his influence to sabotage the career of anyone who might threaten his own spot on the roster, to the great detriment of the company he works for. Triple H himself has always maintained that he would happily give up any creative power he may have if it were for the good of the company, and that he will step away from the limelight whenever his father-in-law, the man who wields the real power, tells him to. However, he also maintains that now is not the time for that, as the company does not have the star power to sustain such a loss. So, what is the truth? It is certainly true that, for the last decade or so Triple H has enjoyed a vast run of success at the top, winning no less than thirteen world championships. It is also true that in the early part of this century the WWE lost a lot of star power, with Steve Austin and Mick Foley more or less retiring and The Rock leaving for Hollywood. It is also true that these men have not been adequately replaced, partly due to the deaths of Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit, plus the defection of Kurt Angle to TNA. The idea that Triple H will not put people over is an arguable point. One can point to Triple H’s feud with Batista, some of his matches with Jeff Hardy, his Wrestlemania submissions to Benoit and Cena, even the recent DX-Legacy feud and say, sure, of course Triple H puts people over. Or, one could look at feuds with, say, Booker T, Rob Van Dam, Scott Steiner and Hunter’s first feud with Randy Orton as evidence that Triple H does nothing but squash people and make them look bad. It should surely be obvious that to go entirely one way or the other is to present a jaundiced view. The real key, of course, is who makes these decisions. Hunter’s critics assert that he is the one deciding to hold down talent and that any examples to the contrary are merely rare examples of times he was over-ruled. Without being part of the creative meetings, how can we possibly know? All we know for certain is this – the WWE is Vince McMahon’s company and the buck for every decision stops with him. If Hunter uses his influence to maximise his own position, why then he’s only doing what countless other wrestlers have done in the past. Moreover, Triple H managed to carve out a main-event spot for himself in an era when Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock were at the height of their popularity. I sincerely doubt that he is at all worried that anyone might ever threaten his spot in this day and age. The other factor that needs to be remembered is that, these days, the WWE is unwilling to take chances. As a company, their inclination is to stick with a safe bet, a proven draw like Triple H, rather than gamble on an unknown commodity. The spur of desperation once provided by the threat of Ted Turner’s millions is no longer present and so WWE will not take desperate gambles. It is not just Triple H’s role but WWE’s entire main-event picture, especially on Raw, that has become static and unchanging. It’s interesting to note that John Cena and The Undertaker, perhaps the only men booked even stronger than Hunter these days, are rarely, if ever, accused of refusing to put people over. In their case, the blame is almost always put on Vince and creative for not using them to elevate new talent. The mere fact that they’re not married to a McMahon does not mean, however, that they have no influence over Vince. What we see hear is a double standard in operation, something that I hope I have shown is nothing new in Hunter’s career. Finally, does Triple H deserve his success? Well, as I’ve said before, it’s difficult to provide a fair, objective view when one is writing about such a subjective issue. There are, and always have been, some fans who consider Triple H a dull competitor and/or a dull speaker. These are entirely valid assertions. Triple H’s ring style is not spectacular enough for the tastes of some, too repetitive for others. His speaking style is realistic, rather than caricatured promo style of many of wrestling’s great speakers. Personally, I have always found his work to be extremely entertaining. Many of my favourite WWE matches have involved Triple H and I have found him to be convincing as both a hero and a villain, believable both when intense and when humorous. For the most part, the crowd have always been into him and his fellow wrestlers tend to speak highly of his work. For my part and, I would guess the majority of fans, yes, Triple H does deserve his success. Maybe we might quibble over the precise number of title reigns but, by and large, I think most would agree that Triple H is a bone fide main event player.

(Note: The lack of recent posts has to do with missing several episodes of WWE programming. In this case missing is strictly in the physical sense, as in I didn’t watch them, not that I felt bad for not watching.)

TNA currently is in a weird spot. The company claims to be making its big move, it’s ’swing for the fences’, as president Dixie Carter eloquently put it last week. However, it can’t really make that move until this guy shows up on TV:

Until then, which, hopefully, is right after Sunday’s pay-per-view, TNA is just buying time. The big picture is staying in neutral, if you will. However, there were some little things that, needless to say, entertained and refreshed fans on the most recent Impact.

• Beautiful People, ugly stick: Madison and Velvet have claimed to be cleansing the world, one ugly person at a time. With their newest member, the lovely Lacey Von Erich, comes a new prop. Lacey literally carries around an Ugly Stick. OK, so it’s a bubble-gum pink nightstick. It still kicks ass.
• Old dogs, no tricks: As if adding 56-year-old Hogan wasn’t enough, TNA debuted two ‘new’ competitors this week — Raven (45) and Jim ‘The Anvil’ Neidhart (53). Raven rejoined the promotion via a lights-out run-in that included changing the outcome of the Abyss/Stevie Richards match and shooting a fireball into Mick Foley’s face. Well done. The Anvil made what supposedly was his TNA debut during the Black Machismo Invitational, in which Jay Lethal (a hilarious Macho Man knockoff) vows to face/defeat a legend each week. Neidhart, who looks like he ate the rest of the Hart Foundation, somehow went over. So much for that.
• Double turn, triple personnel: Team 3D started a heel turn last week, when Brother/Bubba/Buh Buh Ray used a chair in their match against Matt Morgan and Hernandez. They completed the turn in a promo that showed them buying into Rhino’s conspiracy theory (basically the young guys are trying to take out the old guys…a solid plan if you ask me) and going a bit racist on Hernandez. In the same promo, it is brought to the attention of the faces that they need a third man for their 6-man street fight at the PPV. Out comes D’Angelo Dinero, who makes a face turn to join ‘the future’ against ‘the past.’ Not often you see three guys turn at once, probably because it’s confusing, but I liked it.
• X Division, simply Amazing: I now am convinced there currently are three things that keep me watching wrestling — Randy Orton as the best heel I’ve ever seen, Kurt Angle as a face, and Amazing Red as…well…Amazing Red. He’s young (27), risky, innovative and energetic…a classic luchador. Think Rey Mysterio in WCW, without the mask (or hip-hop makeover, depending on the era) and before he was doomed to a life of David vs. Goliath matches. If you’re a wrestling fan, you will *love* this guy.

Ever since my last blog about Hogan signing with Total Nonstop Action more than one person has shared very negative opinions with me about the subject. I understand how this could turn certain people off, since there are quite a few less than positive opinions floating around about Hogan. There are those that feel it was solely Hogan’s fault that WCW collapsed or that he refused to work with certain people for political reasons or they simply don’t appreciate him as a person. Of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinion but I feel that there is such a thing as being unimformed. Every since the announcement was made public, the internet wrestling community has been abuzz with all sorts of rumors and  speculation as to what his role may be and/or what he may do in the ring and backstage. So far, all I know is that he has signed with the company and it has been very good for TNA so far.

The reason I even deciced to write this blog is as follows: A good friend of mine expressed his opinion to me on this subject and it was all negative. Let me explain…He was a huge wrestling fan in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. You know, basically he rode the wave of the Attitude Era and The Monday Night Wars, along with the hardcore acton that ECW had to offer. Ever since ECW and WCW went out of business he pretty much stopped watching. Since Shawn Michaels was retired, his favorite wrestler by the way, he had no real reason to watch anymore. And on top of that, you guessed it, he is not a Hogan. He told me that WWF/WWE had killed everything that he ever loved about wrestling…which didn’t make much since to me since he absolutely refused to explain it. No, he does not watch WWE, TNA, or ROH currently…he does however watch Dragon Gate when the ppv’s air becasue another friend of ours told him it was good. He has not sense of what is good or bad currently because he refused to even give WWE or TNA a reasonable chance to know if it is watchable or not. Therefore I feel his opinion and attitude about the current product are both uninformed and somewhat closed-minded. After all, some things have changed since the Monday Night Wars ended. On top of this my friend is not the only one that has expressed this opinion to me. I could be wrong but I feel if you don’t what the current product then you don’t really have an opinion on what is good or bad.

Thanks for reading.

WCW Monday Nitro
November 11, 1996
St. Petersburg, FL
Bayfront Center

The current WCW champs were as follows:
WCW World Champion: Hollywood Hogan (8/10/1996)
WCW U.S. Champion: Ric Flair (7/7/1996)
WCW World Tag Team Champions: The Outsiders (10/27/1996)
WCW World Television Champion: Lord Steven Regal (8/20/1996)
WCW World Cruiserweight Champion: Dean Malenko (10/27/1996)

HOUR NUMBER ONE! Your hosts are Tony Schiavone & Larry Zbyszko.

Let’s go back to last week where Benoit and Mongo didn’t care for Jeff Jarrett trying to act like a Horsemen. Don’t forget about Jarrett saying that Sting ‘dropped the ball’ on not becoming a leader for WCW as well. Sting was watching from the rafters and didn’t appear too happy about it. I think Jarrett just needs to shut up.

• Jeff Jarrett vs. Chris Benoit (w/Woman)
  

Feeling out process leads right into a commercial break. We come back and Benoit is beating on Jarrett like he owes him money. However, he telegraphs a backdrop and takes a swinging neckbreaker. Jarrett delivers the Bossman straddle and struts around wishing he was Ric Flair. That fires up Benoit, but Jarrett shuts him down with a short-arm clothesline. Benoit drops Jarrett on the top rope, but he takes a suplex out to the floor! That leaves Jarrett some more alone time to strut in the ring when Sting jumps the rail and drills Jarrett with the SCORPION DEATHDROP! The ref sees it all and DQ’s Benoit. (6:35 shown) That might shut Jarrett up about Sting not being a leader for a while. Decent little match with a blockbuster ending. *½

Right after the break, some Stevie Richards-looking dude jumps the rail to give Tony Schiavone a package. He frantically says there’s a tape inside that they need to show on TV. He gets away from WCW security (what a joke!) and gives Tony the package before he’s carried off. Tony actually opens the package and reads the note inside that tells WCW to watch the tape. “It was played in Europe in 1992 and was a hit. Piper wants Hogan – PLAY IT! You’ll see what I mean.” So apparently you can jump the rail, hand Tony a video tape, and WCW will play it on TV!

We check in with Ric Flair as he’s working with Doc Andrews down in Birmingham Alabama to get his rotator cuff repaired. What body part can’t that nice Doc Andrews fellow fix?

• ZERO (w/Sonny Oono) vs. Malia Hosaka – WCW Women’s Title First Round Tournament Match
  

Hosaka looks REALLY sad to be here. She knows she’s losing! Yes, ZERO is legendary joshi wrestler Chigusa Nagayo. She looks like Kim Jong-Il if he painted his face black and silver. She’s the GAEA All Asia Athlete Women’s champ too! ZERO sells zero of Hosaka’s offense and then destroys her. Nick Patrick is the referee. Just saying. Splash Mountain gives ZERO the win. (1:42) ZERO goes on to face Madusa (in a match that was actually taped BEFORE this episode of Nitro started), but you won’t see that match or anything else from the tournament here on Nitro. The finals would eventually come at Starrcade. ½*

GENE OKERLUND IS BACK! He questions DDP as to whether or not the nWo are “courting” him since they helped them beat Ice Train last week. DDP mentions the history between himself and the Outsiders. And what do you know, here comes Hall and Nash now. They give him a chance to join up, but DDP’s offended that he would be their #8 pick. Nash says Page doesn’t understand the politics of the situation because he lives two houses down from Bischoff. If DDP doesn’t understand, he’s never going to get it. But DDP didn’t say he wouldn’t join the nWo, he just said he didn’t want to be such a late pick. And Gene doesn’t have a problem with this? WHAT.

WCW Saturday Night! Watch it IF YOU WEEL! 6:05PM eastern! TBS! The featured stars this week will be Jim Duggan, Chris Benoit, Hugh Morrus, the Cruiserweight champ Dean Malenko, the TV champ Lord Steven Regal, the Amazing French Canadians, and many more! Don’t miss out! It’s the MUTHASHIP! PAY WINDAHS, CLUBBERIN, AND PLUNDAH, BABY!

• Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Ciclope
  

So Ciclope gets the Pearl Jam “Evenflow” theme before Jericho? It does make a good theme though. By the way, this is his WCW debut. Ultimo Dragon who is covered in title belts (J CROWN~!) and Sonny Oono are sitting at ringside scouting Rey Jr. Onto the match, Rey monkey flips Ciclope and hits him with a springboard headscissors to send him to the floor for a suicide dive! Oh GEEZ. Back in, Rey springboards down into a clothesline. Ciclope takes him to the apron for a sunset flip powerbomb to the floor. Back in again, that gets two. Dean Malenko comes out to watch the match too. Meanwhile, Ciclope hits a missile dropkick for two. He keeps the offense going with a DDT out of the corner. Psychosis walks out the tunnel to stand behind Malenko. Doctorbomb from Ciclope gets another two-count. Rey escapes a chinlock, but quebradas into a tombstone! Ciclope heads up top, but Mysterio stops him and takes him to the floor with a headscissors! WHAT IS HE THINKING? Back in the ring, Rey delivers the SPRINGBOARD HURRACANRANA for the 1-2-3! (5:59) A little messy, but overall a great debut for Ciclope. Too bad he was just clumped together with the rest of the luchadores over the next year. Dean turns back around and locks eyes with Psychosis, but then Psychosis walks away. I mean he could have TOTALLY knocked you the F out, Dean. Ultimo Dragon and Sonny Oono show off the belts some more. Now he needs the cruiserweight belt! **½

Somebody has vandalized the WCW website! Dust off the old dial-up modem, fire up that Netscape, go eat a sandwich, take a three hour nap, find out that you lost your connection, reconnect, and then check out what somebody has done to the site on the latest fad known as the world wide web!

Hall, Nash, and Syxx come out to bother Tony and Larry Z. They’re going to be at the Cable ACE awards this Saturday night! Watch it instead of WCW’s own programming! Oh yeah, now the new World order wants Nitro instead of their weekly segment on Saturday Night. The takeover is almost complete! Great segment if you think these guys are funny. Tony acts like David Letterman when he had Crispin Glover on the show back in ‘89!

HOUR NUMBER TWO! Your hosts are Eric Bischoff, Mike Tenay, and Bobby Heenan.

• Lex Luger vs. Scott Norton
  

Sting is watching this match from the rafters. I think you know where this match is going. Norton works the arm the whole match. He misses a Flying Shoulder Tackle. CAN LUGER RACK EM? YES LUGER CAN RACK EM! (6:17 shown) Way to go, Lex. Way to go. After the match, Luger needs Sting to come back and be the leader for WCW because now the new World order wants their own show. It’s more than he can handle, Stinger! We’re sorry! PLEASE COME BACK! ¾*

On the Road with Lee Marshall: He’s in Florence South Carolina getting people interested in next week’s Nitro. He makes up a ridiculous story about some people forming a ‘Monday Nitro Club’ with jackets and everything! But he’s got to run, because he’s judging a Bobby Heenan look-a-like contest. Boy what a Heenan mark this guy turned out to be. Heenan one-ups Marshall with a terrible Aunt Bea joke. Yes, you can one-up Lee Marshall’s “wit” with a terrible joke.

• Harlem Heat (w/Sister Sherri) vs. Amazing French Canadians (w/Col. Robert Parker)
  

Rematch from Saturday Night that ended with a wacky DQ which all started when Sherri beat up Parker. And yes, the AFC now have Parker as their manager. He’s yet to dawn the French Foreign Legion uniform though. Anyways, they attack the Heat early on, but the Heat fight back. Scissors Kick to Oulette and we cut to the back where the Nasty Boys are trying to get into the building. They need to talk to a WCW executive. When Doug Dellinger won’t let them in the building, the Nasties walk away and seem to run into someone who appears to be Brutus Beefcake and the trail of a half dozen other gimmick names you know him by. Back in the ring, Sherri is beating up Parker in the ring which results in a DQ or a no-contest. I don’t know. (3:06) Anyways, Sherri wants a piece of Col. Parker and not in a sexy/disgusting kind of way either. I can’t rate this with all the other distractions. Hope that’s alright.

• Konnan vs. Chris Jericho
  

I’m not sure what belt Konnan is carrying, but it looks like a circa 1992-94 WCW TV belt disguised as some kind of Mexican championship I’m sure. It shouldn’t surprise you, but Nick Patrick is in charge of this one. Lots of rolls and flips to start while Tenay talks up Jericho’s NHL father Ted Irvine. Meanwhile, Jericho springboard dropkicks Konnan off the apron. However Konnan avoids a pescado and lets Jericho crash on the floor. Konnan nails him with the Rolling Lariat and gives him another one back inside. A goofy neck submission leads to a powerbomb for Jericho. That gets two. Jericho takes a running dropkick in the corner, but sidesteps a running clothesline and hits a release German suplex. He gets a couple nearfalls on Konnan, but then Konnan dropkicks Jericho into Nick Patrick. Even though he barely touched him, he calls for the DQ anyway. (5:18) Ha, Jericho looks so confused! Actually not too bad of a match. Apparently during the commercial break, Jericho was all over Nick Patrick. **

• Juventud Guerrera vs. Miguel Perez Jr.
  

Miguel Perez Jr. – he’s a hairy guy best known in the US for being part of the Los Boricuas stable in the WWF. Tenay gives us a little background on Miguel Perez Sr. who is responsible for bringing Antonino Rocca to the states. Since he’s been in the business FOREVER, Heenan can confirm the comment and does so. Onto the match, Juvi whiffs on a dropkick and that allows Perez to take control. Guerrera comes back with a missile dropkick, but takes a Russian legsweep. Perez hits a Corkscrew Senton followed by a standing moonsault for 1-2-NO! Perez flips out to the apron and takes a dropkick to the floor as Juvi dives out on top of him. Juvi tries to rana Perez off the guardrail, but fails and receives a powerbomb on the floor for his efforts! Perez heads back inside to give Juventud a SPACE FLYING TIGER DROP! NIIICE. Back in, Juvi avoids a tornado DDT and hits a springboard dropkick. 450 SPLASH misses and Perez gets him caught in a torso rollup for the quick 1-2-3. (3:56) Crowd didn’t seem to care, but man that was an awesome four minutes of wrestling. Sucks for WCW, but Perez will be in the WWF by March. ***

Ted DiBiase and Vincent are out where Sting was earlier when he was watching the Luger/Norton match and they’re looking for him. They have an nWo shirt for him!

• The Faces of Fear (w/Jimmy Hart) vs. The American Males
  

YES! The American Males are going to die tonight. Okay maybe not. Double dropkicks to Barbarian and Meng. Eventually, Meng stops Bagwell long enough for Barbarian to powerbomb him. Bischoff finds out that the video given to Tony Schiavone is a Roddy Piper music video? WHAT. The Faces of Fear continue to dominate until Riggs gets the hot tag. Flying Forearm gets two and the action breaks down. As Riggs whips Barbarian into the ropes, Bagwell trips him up when Riggs goes for a dropkick, causing him to crash and burn. He stumbles around into a KICK OF FEAR from Meng as Barbarian covers him for the 1-2-3. (3:35) Bagwell and Riggs argue to the back while Jimmy Hart makes a plea for the Faces of Fear to get into a triangle match with the Outsiders and the Nasty Boys for the tag belts at World War 3. I mean, the Nasties can’t even get in the building while the Faces of Fear are beating everybody! Well except for that recent loss they suffered at Halloween Havoc to Benoit and McMichael, but who remembers two weeks ago? MAKE THE MATCH, WCW! Let the Faces of Fear bring the tag belts back to WCW where they belong! Awesome. Bischoff thinks Jimmy has a good point.

Anyways, it’s time to play the Roddy Piper music video, “I’m Your Man”. It’s a bad Huey Lewis type song with Piper trying to woo this chick. In one part of the video, they have Piper look at the Hollywood Bowl sign with the marquee saying Roddy Piper vs. Hulk Hogan. This video is dated October 1992, which obviously means Piper has been wanting this match for four years now! It couldn’t possibly just be a coincidence! THIS MATCH HAS TO BE SIGNED NOW!

And here comes the new World order led by Hollywood Hogan. Liz is wearing a sexy Santa outfit to help promote “Santa With Muscles”. Give Hogan that Hollywood spotlight again! He really thinks “Santa With Muscles” can top the box office charts even though Ransom (GIVE ME BACK MY SON!) just came out and mother FN Space Jam premieres on November 15! Is he insane?! Of course he still thinks Roddy Piper is scared out of his mind to face him. Three Nitros straight and still no response from the guy. Oh well. Give what they want Hogan. Pose for the crowd as we close out the show.

I’m surprised Hulk didn’t make any jokes about the music video. Even if it wasn’t that funny, there has to be something he could have said about that thing.

World War 3 goes down on November 24. Here’s the card as it looks right now.

MAIN EVENT: 60-Man Battle Royal – Winner gets the next WCW World Title shot
WCW World Tag Team Champions The Outsiders vs. The Nasty Boys
The Giant vs. Jeff Jarrett
WCW Cruiserweight Champion Dean Malenko vs. Psychosis
Harlem Heat vs. The Amazing French Canadians
Sister Sherri vs. Col. Robert Parker
J-Crown Champion Ultimo Dragon vs. Rey Mysterio Jr.

This week on the Drunkcast join Ed and his cohosts Cutrer and Craig as they are joined by legendary wrestling manager J.J.DILLON~! We will ask about his time as a wrestler in Mid-Atlantic, Texas,Florida, and the Maritimes. Starting as a manager in the Funk’s Amarillo promotion. His rise to fame in Florida managing Ron Bass, Black Bart, Jimmy Garvin, and the One Man Gang. Moving to Jim Crockett Promotions and becoming the manager for the greatest group of wrestlers of all time Ric Flair, Tully Blancard, Arn & Ole Anderson the 4 HORESEMAN~! We well ask everything that anyone would ever want to know about the Horsemen. He’s moving to the WWE to be one of the main guys behind the scenes. His move back to WCW as the WCW Commissioner. His breif run in TNA and MLW and his book Wrestlers are like seagulls : from McMahon to McMahon~! This will be one of our best shows ever~!~!~!

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Edward-Loredo

If you miss the live edition the replay will be available here and on iTunes (keyword: angrymarks). Thanks for checking out The DRUNKCAST.

http://www.angrymarks.com/news/View.php?ArticleID=8774

WCW Monday Nitro
November 4, 1996
Grand Rapids, MI
Van Andel Arena

The current WCW champs were as follows:
WCW World Champion: Hollywood Hogan (8/10/1996)
WCW U.S. Champion: Ric Flair (7/7/1996)
WCW World Tag Team Champions: The Outsiders (10/27/1996)
WCW World Television Champion: Lord Steven Regal (8/20/1996)
WCW World Cruiserweight Champion: Dean Malenko (10/27/1996)

HOUR NUMBER ONE! Your hosts are Tony Schiavone & Larry Zbyszko.

STING IS UP IN THE RAFTERS! The Giant, Vincent, and Ted DiBiase are in the crowd looking for him. Tonight, WCW starts a tournament to crown the first-ever WCW Women’s champion. The new belt sits in front of Tony and Larry Z. Eric Bischoff will not be here tonight because he is in Portland Oregon trying to get Roddy Piper to sign for a match with Hogan. Speaking of Hollywood, he is in the building!

• Marcus Bagwell (w/Scotty Riggs) vs. Brad Armstrong
  

Either Brad Armstrong and Marcus Bagwell are popular, or this crowd is HOT. Headlocks and headscissors leads to a short commercial break. When we return, Bagwell gets a little pissed and slaps Armstrong, which triggers a barrage of forearms and a clothesline out to the floor. Bagwell shoots back in with Air Pillman and instead of covering the man, he tries to get the crowd clapping. Huh? Bagwell clotheslines Armstrong to the floor and follows him out with a nasty pescado that causes Brad to clank his head on the floor. Since DiBiase and Giant can’t get to Sting, they decide to leave. Back in the ring, Armstrong hits a nice tornado DDT for 1-2-NO! Bagwell comes back with a gutbuster and once they are going 90 MPH off the ropes, Bagwell catches Armstrong with a crossbody block for the 1-2-3. (7:27) These two looked like they had wrestled a 100 times by now and they probably have. Good match. **½

• Diamond Dallas Page vs. Ice Train (w/Teddy Long)
  

Does Ice Train have a towel with sequins on it? WHAT GOOD IS THAT? And whaddaya know, the Outsiders are in the crowd now flashing the tag belts. Train moves DDP around until Page catches him with a hotshot and a flying clothesline. DDP hits the Pancake Slam and a swinging neckbreaker gets two as Ice Train presses DDP off onto Nick Patrick who sells like death. Ice Train hits a powerslam for 1-2-NO! Tony thinks the count was slow. Maybe so. Senton splash and the standing frog splash gets 1-2-NO! Train clotheslines Page out. Ref Nick Patrick goes out to check on DDP while the Outsiders attack Ice Train with the tag belts. He HARDLY sells the attack at all before getting spun back around for the DIAMOND CUTTER! Yeah, he’ll sell that for sure. (6:34) BANG! Decent match for somebody like Ice Train. *½

WCW Saturday Night! Watch it IF YOU WEEL! 6:05PM eastern! TBS! This week, the TV champ Lord Steven Regal battles Jim Duggan! Also, Harlem Heat takes on the Amazing French Canadians! Don’t miss out! It’s the MUTHASHIP! PAY WINDAHS, CLUBBERIN, AND PLUNDAH, BABY!

• WCW World Cruiserweight Champion Dean Malenko vs. Scotty Riggs (w/Marcus Bagwell)
  

Riggs gets a bunch of nearfalls on Malenko to start. We see Syxx acting a fool in the crowd. Meanwhile, Riggs runs shoulder-first into the ringpost, but then catches Malenko with a boot out of the corner. Riggs delivers a pescado to the floor and when he heads back inside to go up top, Malenko shakes the ropes to cause Riggs to fall to the apron and to the floor. GEEZ. Bagwell *tosses* Riggs back inside for Malenko to Oklahoma roll him up for the 1-2-3. (3:22) And the American Males split begins. *

We flash back to last week where Mongo helped Benoit defeat Eddie Guerrero with some assistance from the briefcase.

• Chris Benoit (w/Woman) vs. Hector Guerrero
  

I believe this is Hector’s first appearance in WCW since he was LAZERTRON. He’s here to avenge his brother Eddie. Benoit still has his shoulder taped but it’s not as heavily taped as last week. We see some quick counters to start leading up to a headscissors by Guerrero. They go to the floor where Hector pump splashes down on Benoit. Of course, you can’t have your shoulder taped up without somebody posting it! Back inside, Guerrero rips at the arm until we go to commercial. AND WE’RE BACK! Now Benoit is in control. He drops Hector on the top rope and then elevates him for a gutbuster while Woman laughs about it at ringside. Guerrero armdrags out of a deep ab stretch, but gets nailed with another gutbuster. Hector comes back with a series of nearfalls and a headscissors out of the corner. Terry Funk roll gets a nearfall, but Woman interrupts by pulling on Hector’s hair. He goes to yell at her and gets rolled up by Benoit for the cheap 1-2-3. (9:51 shown) Match of the night for sure with the story being that Benoit will treat Hector just as if he were Eddie by going after the ribs the whole match. Good stuff. **¾

HOUR NUMBER TWO! Your hosts are Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay, and Bobby Heenan.

We flash back again to last week where the Giant yelled threats at Jarrett and the Four Horsemen from the crowd.

Mike Tenay grabs an interview with Jeff Jarrett, Benoit, Woman, Mongo and Debra. Jarrett tries to act like a Horseman, but Benoit interrupts and tells Tenay to ask Horseman questions to actual Horsemen members. Mongo feels the same way. As the Horsemen leave, Tenay talks to Jarrett about being a leader of WCW. He thinks Sting has dropped the ball. We look up and Sting’s listening to all this from the rafters. Sting has a look on his face like he’s going to deal with Jarrett. Possibly next week? We’ll find out!

It’s time for On the Road with Lee Marshall! He’s in St. Petersburg Florida getting people hyped for next week’s show!

• Madusa vs. Reina Jubuki – WCW Women’s Title First Round Tournament Match
  

Interesting little fact: Reina Jubuki is Akira Hokuto under an elaborate lucha libre mask. She performed in CMLL as this character and held the CMLL Women’s title – that is until she decided to wrestle with this gimmick against the wishes of CMLL in WCW. Since she did what she did, she was stripped of the belt because of her loyalty to WCW and the GAEA women’s promotion. In return, she received two slots in the tournament – one here and again as Akira Hokuto. Jubuki bites all over Madusa (specifically hands and feet!) until ZERO heads out to get a closer look with her manager Sonny Oono. ZERO is legendary Joshi wrestler Chigusa Nagayo – founder of GAEA and one-half of the famous Crush Gals tag team with Lioness Asuka of the ’80s. She’s definitely nothing to look at, but she can wrestle. Oono makes jokes about American cars while Madusa headscissors Jubuki off the top. Jubuki hits a Northern Lights suplex for two. She scores with a missile dropkick for another nearfall. Madusa slips out of a slam and delivers a BRIDGING GERMAN SUPLEX for the 1-2-3. (3:14) Madusa advances! Decent match as you would expect. If ZERO gets past Malia Hosaka, she’ll face Madusa in the semifinals. **

• Chris Jericho vs. M. Wallstreet
  

I can’t believe how similar every Wallstreet match is! He cheats with the ab stretch and works a chinlock. Jericho makes his comeback with a missile dropkick to send Wallstreet out. Of course it’s just a ploy to sucker Jericho out so he can throw him into the ringpost. Back in, Jericho surprises Wallstreet with an inside cradle for the 1-2-3. (6:47) Seriously – they’re all the same. ¾*

Mike Tenay interviews ref Nick Patrick, his attorney, and Chris Jericho just like last week. The same things are said. The attorney does make a funny concerning Jericho’s father Ted Irvine – “I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out.” That actually did make me laugh. Teddy Long comes out to tell Nick Patrick that he’s a player hater. And finally, the attorney brings up Teddy Long’s checkered past as a crooked referee. THANK YOU! Now we can all see the irony of Teddy Long getting screwed.

• Lex Luger vs. Booker T (w/Sister Sherri)
  

Rematch from last week after Luger lost via countout because he saw Sting. Luger hits a suplex and clotheslines Booker to the floor before we go to commercial. We come back and Luger is giving Booker a running powerslam for two. Booker catches Lex for a hotshot and tosses him out for a field goal kick from Sherri. Back in, Booker nails the Hook Kick, but whiffs on the Jumping Leg Lariat and crotches himself on the top rope, which Luger treats like it’s a pony ride. Clotheslines and the powerslam follows, but Booker hooks the ropes to avoid the TORTURE RACK. Booker catches Luger charging at him in the corner with a knee and hits an enziguri. Wait a minute, Col. Parker – the man who cost the Heat the belts to the new World order – comes down for a hug from his sweet potato pie. Booker wants to knock that sucka out and grabs him when he gets on the apron, but that allows Luger to schoolboy Booker for the 1-2-3. (5:55 shown) Oh man, Parker cost Booker another big time victory. Somewhat better than last week. **

We get a phone call from Eric Bischoff. What’s the scoop, Eric? He says the talks between he and Roddy are going well, but unfortunately his agents won’t allow him to sign for the match. He’ll personally be talking with Roddy Piper next Tuesday in Toronto on the set of his latest movie to hopefully strike a deal.

They replay the Piper-Hogan confrontation for probably the hundredth time on WCW programming. We see the same thing from last week as Hollywood Hogan, Ted DiBiase, Vincent, and the Giant all head out to the ring. Hogan gets the Hollywood spotlight and hypes up his new film, “Santa With Muscles”. We get to see a clip of him as a mall Santa Claus beating up two goons stealing from some Christmas charity bucket. So bad, its entertaining. He thinks this movie deserves an Oscar nomination. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. He also wants Ted Turner to nominate him for a Cable ACE award for making Nitro so hot. And before we go, he calls Roddy Piper too scared to wrestle him. Now it’s time to pose for the crowd! Give them what they want, Hollywood!

And that’s it. Geez, was this the same episode as last week or what?

World War 3 goes down on November 24. Here’s the card as it looks right now.

MAIN EVENT: 60-Man Battle Royal – Winner gets the next WCW World Title shot
WCW World Tag Team Champions The Outsiders vs. The Nasty Boys
The Giant vs. Jeff Jarrett
WCW Cruiserweight Champion Dean Malenko vs. Psychosis

Survivor Series Matches

Team Kingston vs. Team Orton

Team Mickie vs. Team Michelle

Team Morrison vs. Team Miz

Rey Mysterio vs. Batista

Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H vs. John Cena – Title Triple Threat match

Jericho vs. Big Show vs. Undertaker World Heavyweight Title Triple Threat Match

How will a pulp result? of these matches

WCW Monday Nitro
October 28, 1996
Phoenix, AZ
America West Arena

The current WCW champs were as follows:
WCW World Champion: Hollywood Hogan (8/10/1996)
WCW U.S. Champion: Ric Flair (7/7/1996)
WCW World Tag Team Champions: The Outsiders (10/27/1996)
WCW World Television Champion: Lord Steven Regal (8/20/1996)
WCW World Cruiserweight Champion: Dean Malenko (10/27/1996)

HOUR NUMBER ONE! Your hosts are Tony Schiavone & Larry Zbyszko.

Right off the bat as it should be, Tony tells the world that the Outsiders won the tag team titles and Hogan retained the world title last night at Halloween Havoc. And what do you know, after Hogan won the match, Roddy Piper showed up and we see stills from that. Don’t worry – they will show us what was said later in the show.

• WCW World Television Champion Lord Steven Regal vs. Juventud Guerrera
  

This is our first look at Regal as the TV champ since he regained it back in August. And speaking of first looks, we spot the Crow Sting for the first time sitting up in the rafters. Last time we saw him in the black and white face paint confronting the nWo, he was speaking. Now he just looks like a sad mime wearing a trench coat. So much is happening outside of this match, it’s as if the match is an afterthought. We see some nWo picket signs go across where the hard camera points. Syxx shows up in the crowd and welcomes everybody to nWo Nitro. So that he’s not the only one without a belt, he wants the cruiserweight title. Uhh, wrong match pal. Anyways, Juvi ranas out of a butterfly powerbomb, but misses the 450 SPLASH. How about a REGAL STRETCH? Yeah, you will take the Regal Stretch. And with that, Juvi gives it up. (3:20) When everybody starts paying attention to Sting, he leaves. It appears Tony was supposed to interview Regal, but he just walks off to the back instead. Whoops. It’s LIVE TV, folks! ½*

Stills are shown of the Luger-Anderson match from Halloween Havoc.

• Diamond Dallas Page vs. Mike Enos
  

They brawl to the floor and send one another into the guardrail. Back inside, Page hits the Sitout Powerbomb for two. As DDP calls for the Diamond Cutter after a flying clothesline, Hall and Nash show up in the crowd acknowledging him. DIAMOND CUTTER? Nope, Enos shoves him off into the corner and takes him over with an overhead suplex for two. Enos hits a reverse neckbreaker and then dares the Outsiders to come on down for a FIGHT. As Enos goes for a running powerslam out of the corner, Page hooks his feet on the top rope and powers out into a DIAMOND CUTTER. Good night. (4:37) Uh oh, the Outsiders seem interested in recruiting the man with the deadliest finisher around. Will DDP join the new World order?!

We see stills from Malenko-Mysterio from last night.

• WCW World Cruiserweight Champion Dean Malenko vs. Jim Powers (w/Teddy Long)
  

Really? Jim Powers is a cruiserweight? Power forward AC Green for the Phoenix Suns is in attendance. He was here last time Nitro was in Phoenix. This time he’s wearing an nWo shirt! Tony and Larry Z are offended. While Powers is slamming Malenko around, Psychosis steps out the tunnel to get a closer look at Malenko. Nobody knows this yet, but Malenko-Psychosis is set for World War 3. Powers escapes a chinlock and hits an atomic drop. Turnbuckle smashes abound! Running knee lift sets up a powerslam. He’s got the cover, but ref Nick Patrick is talking to Teddy Long when he’s not even on the apron. WHAT. When Powers goes over to grab Patrick, Malenko gets him with a rolling clutch pin for the 1-2-3. (5:04) Another week, another argument between Long and Patrick. HOLLLLA HOLLA HOLLA. *

WCW Saturday Night! Watch it IF YOU WEEL! 6:05PM eastern! TBS! This week, the Rock N Roll Express against the Faces of Fear! Also, Chris Jericho meets Chris Benoit! Jimmy Graffiti, Big Bubba, and Kevin Sullivan will all be on the show as well! Don’t miss out! It’s the MUTHASHIP! PAY WINDAHS, CLUBBERIN, AND PLUNDAH, BABY!

Stills of the Faces of Fear-Horsemen match are shown.

• Jeff Jarrett vs. Ricky Morton
  

What a southern-fried chicken match this is. At least in the beginning, it goes like this: Jarrett move, strut. Jarrett move, strut. Jarrett move, strut. Finally, Morton hits a slowww crossbody out of the corner and goes after the arm for a while. Jarrett escapes an armbar with a hotshot and hits the Bossman straddle. He nails Morton with a flying bodypress, but Morton rolls through for 1-2-NO! Just as he gains the advantage, Morton telegraphs a backdrop and takes a swinging neckbreaker. Morton gets one hope spot with the Jack Brisco rollup, but then Jarrett catches him with a shinbreaker and finishes him off with the FIGURE-FOUR. (4:34) Here comes the Giant out of the stands with the US belt draped over his shoulder. He thinks Jarrett and the Horsemen are a bunch of rats. They’re all scared of him, too!

Jarrett responds with a message to WCW to unite to take out the new World order.

HOUR NUMBER TWO! Your hosts are Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan, and Mike Tenay.

• The Amazing French Canadians vs. High Voltage
  

Either High Voltage hates Canadians or they can’t stand hearing a grown man sing a song, but they interrupt the Canadian national anthem and clean house on the AFC. Rougeau trips up Kaos from the floor to take over. Oulette bearhugs Kaos while Rougeau comes off the top for a seated senton on him! The AFC look for the QUEBECER CRASH when the Nasty Boys attack High Voltage while the AFC head to the back. No contest? (3:43) They just wanted some interview time. They’re pissed about Hogan and the nWo. Whether WCW wants them around or not, they are NASTY. Long story short, Hall and Nash – let’s get ready to rumble. ¾*

• Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Jimmy Graffiti
  

Rey stands on the middle rope so he could see the crowd over the top rope (HA!) and Graffiti brings him down with an electric chair drop. Sitout Doctorbomb gets two. Mysterio comes back with a monkey flip and dropkicks Graffiti when he tries a crossbody out of the corner. Split-legged moonsault gets two. To the floor, Graffiti reverses a whip into the guardrail and then wipes out Mysterio with a CANNONBALLLLLL. Back in, Mysterio flips all around Graffiti and then mule kicks him to set up the SPRINGBOARD HURRACANRANA for the win. (3:24) Action-packed, but not as long as Graffiti’s match with Malenko to really get something going. *½

On the Road with Lee Marshal: He’s in Grand Rapids Michigan pumping people up for next week’s Nitro. The man can’t talk long – he’s at a Monday Nitro Halloween party (really?) and somebody just showed up in a weasel suit.

• Eddie Guerrero vs. Chris Benoit (w/Woman)
  

Eddie has a broken rib, Benoit has a taped-up shoulder. This is not your typical fast-paced Benoit/Guerrero classic we’re used to see, but it is a lesson in *selling* an injury. That is if they’re really selling and not actually in excruciating mind-numbing pain which knowing their history, it could actually be excruciating mind-numbing pain. Steve McMichael and Debra head down to make sure everything goes smooth. In other words, Eddie’s taking the briefcase in the ribs. And he does. Benoit covers for the 1-2-3. (8:23) Again, great lesson in selling if nothing else. **¼

Tony Schiavone interviews ref Nick Patrick and his attorney. He’s like Clarence Mason, but white and has some Harvard-like hair. While the attorney fellow puts Patrick over for doing his job at the best of his ability, Chris Jericho attacked him last night at the PPV and injured him. That brings out Chris Jericho to lay down the law. Jericho tells Patrick that there’s nothing wrong with his neck and that he’s a paid employee of the new World order. The attorney fellow questions Jericho on the subject of anger problems and not being able to get along with others. Jericho ignores him as Teddy Long (who apparently is “handling” Jericho now) comes out to yell at the attorney. He calls him a “scam artist” and says if he didn’t have a degree, he’d be holding a squeegee and washing windows. Patrick’s attorney accuses Long of ’slander’ and they all continue to argue until we go to commercial break. Alright! I love it when segments are supposed to answer questions and absolutely nothing is settled!

• Lex Luger vs. Booker T (w/Sister Sherri)
  

Luger cleans house to start. Back in, Booker gets in some offense, but gets distracted by AC Green and runs into a boot in the corner. Booker goes low and hits a Side Slam, but misses a flying fist drop. Commercial time! AND WE’RE BACK! Luger turns Booker inside out with a clothesline, but Lex telegraphs a backdrop and receives the SCISSORS KICK! Cover, 1-2-NO! Booker misses the HARLEM HANGOVER and as Luger sets up for the TORTURE RACK, he somehow spots Sting who is standing in the gateway over in the crowd. Gate 105, 106. Lex drops Booker and jumps the rail to go after him. Once he’s halfway to him, Sting leaves and Booker wins via countout. (9:10 shown) As much as Booker carries Harlem Heat, somehow he’s still not ready to go alone. *½

Due to time constraints, they replay only a short amount of the Piper-Hogan confrontation. Probably the best parts though. Here comes Hollywood Hogan, Ted DiBiase, Vincent, and the Giant to respond to Piper’s comments without Piper here to interrupt him. Hogan demands to have that “Hollywood” spotlight put on him for this promo. He tells Randy Savage not to worry about Elizabeth because he’s going to take real good care of her. *wink wink* As for Roddy Piper, he says he think he saw some fear in his eyes last night. He goes on to congratulate the Outsiders for winning the tag team belts because now that they have the world title, the US title, and the tag titles – that pretty much means they have accomplished their hostile takeover. Now it’s time to pose for the Hogan fans before he goes out to party with the rest of the nWo, BROTHER.

And we out.

1. Improved CAW – The biggest problem with creating wrestlers in the Smackdown series has always been that they never look nearly as good as the WWE superstars already made for the game. They look clunky and their clothes and outfits appear to be painted on as opposed to the real-life folks that get all of the cool bells and whistles. This year goes a long way to improving that. Not only are CAWs the most customizable they’ve ever been (It’s possible to choose the pose the wrestler has on the versus screen now!), but the loading times are almost non-existent. Compare that to the 2007 and 2008 versions ofCAW, where waiting for up to two minutes for a CAW’s entrance to load was the norm and it’s a vast improvement.

2. New animations – Past Smackdown games have kept the litany of original animations for basic moves dating back to the first game and then added to those as the years went on. Unfortunately, that lead to a great quality disparity between the older, clunky looking bodyslams and the more intricate, fluid, lifelike moves that came about with every subsequent version of the game. This year THQ and Yukes addressed this by completely overhauling many of the animations, especially the basic quick grapples. Very few of the older animations are gone in favor of the new ones, which is long overdue considering this is the fourth game available on a next-gen console. It’s about time the creators stopped using holdovers from the PS1 and tried to make something that looks as good as possible on a 1080p screen.

3. Online Community – This was the biggest selling point for me this year. When I actually have the time to do so, I love taking existing people from ROH, TNA, the defunct WCW and those no longer employed by Vince McMahon and creating versions of them for the game. This was easy on WWF No Mercy for the N64 because there were fewer options to worry about. Once the Smackdown games started including size differentials for individual parts of the body, I had to quit relying on eyeballing my creations and begin searching for online templates. In the past three years, having a life and a job has proved the biggest roadblock in creating equivalent avatars for people who participate in a fake exhibition sport. I only created one CAW for Smackdown vs. RAW 2009 last year, the one I create every year to represent myself because I am a narcissist deep down inside. That meant I had no Samoa Joe, no Kurt Angle and no AJ Styles, staples for the last few years of my console wrestling gaming. The Community Creations solves this problem. Now players can upload their own created wrestlers, move sets, and entrances for others to download. This saves an assload of time for me, the wrestling gamer fan on the go.

This game is not perfect, as my next planned post will attest, but the improvements are so vast (I didn’t even mention the completely overhauled and fun Royal Rumble match and the ability to edit existing WWE superstar costumes for the first time!) that I feel safe recommending it to anyone who may have strayed from the franchise due to fatigue before.