If there are any errors, please excuse me. Like King of the Ring, I caught this show very late at night. Watching important wrestling stuff for material in a column, late at night, can be bad for your health. Let the error counter begin!
Last night, I was at one of the best backyard wrestling shows that I've ever seen. For the show, the wrestlers had a much nicer floor to work on, so they could do stiffer moves. Talk about entertainment, right there! People have asked me, lately, if I'm still the big fan of backyard wrestling that I used to be. Well, yes I am. The Backyard BBQ, although not updated anymore, is still up and it's an information source on backyard wrestling. I'm looking to buy Best of Backyard Wrestling 2, sometime soon, so that I can laugh kids doing daredevil wrestling stunts again. So yes, I'm still a big fan and supporter of it.
I'm still a big fan of regular wrestling, which I'll probably always be. Many accuse me of being to harsh in my opinion or whatever, but they just point out anything negative that I say. Like they claim I do for wrestling, they avoid any positive things in my column; they only aim at the negative. I think a lot of people need to understand that a lot of my writing is based on sarcasm, which goes over a lot of heads these days. Some think I appear to be negative, but I'm only just using sarcasm on a certain point, and so forth.
But you just wait... a stupid writer or message board poster will find something else to cry a river over, to which I'll tell them to read between the lines. Not the paragraphs or sentences, but what's in between my pointer finger and my ring finger.
On to the PDC.
If there are any errors, please excuse me. Like King of the Ring, I caught this show very late at night. Watching important wrestling stuff for material in a column, late at night, can be bad for your health. Let the error counter begin!
Vince McMahon comes out first, because he's the boss and it's his show. He talked smack on WCW and their wrestlers, which had my mouth watering on who will show up first. The interview wasn't too long, for Vince made a great tribute to his father, Vince McMahon Sr., who helped build the foundation of the WWF in New York City. It was a very fitting tribute, and even better, we were treated to highlights of classic WWF (or WWWF then) matches which occurred in Madison Square Garden.
Our first match is Test vs. Rhyno for the hardcore title, which was a good slobberknocker to say the least. The table spot with Test coming off the top of a platform with the elbow was pretty rough, along with the gore (or goar?) at the end. Rhyno wins back his Hardcore title, to which I ask: "why did he lose to Test in the first place?" Now that's a good question, as you can ask the same for when Big Show beat Rhyno. Booking on the fly has its flaws, by the way. But then, a BIG moment occurs with Mike Awesome attacking Rhyno, after the match, to win the Hardcore Title. The Powerbomb off the ladder looked so painful, and I commend Rhyno for taking it. Oh man, if they just let Awesome wrestle a few hardcore matches against some of the former ECW stars in the WWF now, it would just rule.
For X-Pac vs. Jeff Hardy, I was shocked on someone's prediction, although I should have figured it was coming, too. Scott Keith from TheSmarks.com said the following in his King of the Ring review about X-Pac vs. Jeff Hardy, and I quote: "Fairly solid match aside from the blown sequence, and I wouldn’t be shocked if Sean did the job in exchange for getting the belt tomorrow night." The second I saw these two wrestlers come out on RAW, I said "uh oh", cause I knew Mr. Keith's analysis was right on the money.
But hey, I could go on and on about how X-Pac is considered one of the biggest ass kissers in the business, yadda yadda yadda. However, he's the new Lightweight champ, so let's just see if he'll finally realize his weightclass, which he forgot about ever since he came back to the WWF in 1998. X-Pac has been given a title, so let's see him as a fighting champ. I bet he'll fight defending that title, though.
It's amazing what the WWF will do for their home crowd attendance, like we saw in Steven Richards vs. Tazz. The MSG crowd loved the moment, although I ask this: what does it do for the television viewer? Unless you are going to make a decent match out of it, why throw Richards out there to get squashed, especially when Tazz has done it before and when the Right to Censor gimmick has disappeared lately.
Later in the show, Edge was awarded what resembled the Stanley Cup for winning the King of the Ring the other night. Then, Billy Gunn came out to trade some remarks. From the first few things he said, I was like "hey, something decent for Billy Gunn to do for a night", since injuries hurt his big promised push after he won the King of the Ring in 1999. Oh wait, he was injured in early 2000, not 1999. Hey, wasn't the end of 1999 the time when such guys like the Rock, Triple H, and Steve Austin did not want to work with Gunn because of his sloppy ringwork? D'oh. But it was a decent moment for Billy Gunn, until Edge grabbed the mic and just destroyed Gunn! I mean, Gunn just didn't know what to do or say after that point.
Down the road, they fought their match, which was pretty painful to watch. Gunn just can't cut it anymore in today's WWF, and to see Edge struggling to carry this guy was just rough. After working through a terrible match with Gunn, Edge needed help to beat Rockabilly. When will the WWF officially bury this guy, and let an Edge pin Billy Gunn, cleanly?
Oh my gosh, did the WWF just steal my time machine and repush the Albert vs. Kane feud? Excuse me, I mean PRINCE Albert. What's funny is that Vince is probably thinking that these two could put on a better match than their Smackdown bout a few weeks ago. HAHAHA! Yeah, I'd like to see that happen. What we got on Smackdown was the maximum good match we'd ever see out of those two together, because they aren't as versatile as many of the other WWF wrestlers. But hey, Jim Ross needs another month to shove Albert down our throats, again, as being the future of the WWF.
The Dudley Boyz, thanks to PRINCE Albert, defeated the unholy duo of Undertaker/Kane. After the match, Diamond Dallas Page ripped a lock of hair out of Sara Taker's head. Oh boy. I'd love to see the Undertaker sell a Diamond Cutter at this point. By the way, DDP has been swinging a mean chairshot ever since Dennis Rodman and Hulk Hogan just attacked him with chairs one time on Nitro.
Looks like the WWF is trying the comedic Big Show, now. Wow, maybe if you force him to actually lose the weight you ask him to lose, then maybe you wouldn't be forced to book this guy in a stupid role. But hey, that requires logic and balls to tell an underachieving 7 footer to get his shit together. He just tossed Matt Hardy around, which eventually led to a DQ win for the Big Show. Yeah, just what I need to see... another match between these two.
Bravo to Chris Jericho for taking some mean kicks against Tajiri last night. Is that his punishment for blowing a few spots in the main event at King of the Ring. For those of you who have wondered why Jericho isn't World Champ, those blown spots should tell you why, in the WWF's eyes. Tajiri slapped on the OCTOPUS during this match, which made me mark out beyond belief. Then, Tajiri introduced the mist in the WWF, and what a great moment that was. Regal held Jericho for Tajiri to spray, in which Jericho ducked and Regal got green shit all over his face. That's as good of a spray that you'll get these days, and very clear for the television to pick up. Very entertaining.
We were treated to no main event. Rather, we saw WCW World Champion Booker T attack Vince McMahon in the ring. The WWF did a lame angle for this, though, as they had Angle/Austin travel to WWF NY to find those guys, while Shane/Booker T came to MSG. I believe the WWF did that with another angle, and even recently. Are the WWF writers just totally out of ideas anymore? I mean, they have this huge WCW invasion to do, which has a lot of possibilities, but yet they can only use something repetitive in attempts to get it working? The big band of wrestlers, mostly names not hardly used on Smackdown or RAW, ran down and saved Vince from Booker T.
LAST WORD: On a night that was big for the WWF, where they could have gained some momentum from a good King of the Ring and some smart booking towards the WCW invasion, I believe the ball was somewhat dropped. During this show, lame feuds were created (Gunn vs. Hardy, Albert vs. Kane), bad stuff towards the WCW invasion angle occurred (the WWF NY - MSG switch), and the lack of a big main event really hurt this show. I'm giving this show a
-Booker T vs. Steve Austin
-Diamond Dallas Page vs. the Undertaker
-Kane vs. Albert
-Rhyno vs. Mike Awesome
Ok, ok, ok... many of these matches will likely end up being RAW or Smackdown. I'm sure Kane vs. Albert will occur on a Smackdown, then the RAW after Invasion, the WWF will start another Kane vs. Albert feud. The logic or thinking behind a lot of things, in the WWF, just amazes me these days.
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@That's it for today. I'll be back, tomorrow, with more column to hand out, with some ratings analysis. That is, unless the Nielsen fellas decide to take another week off. See you tomorrow!
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Take Care, and Thanks for Reading.