BackToBionic

I wonder if Lawler wanted to instinctively help them out with the fireball.

For years the WWF pushed Bret as the ultimate babyface and I never was a fan. Shawn starts cutting promos like this and suddenly I sympathise with Bret big time. Funny how that worked.

As an aside, I remember seeing that shirt for the first time and thinking that I had...absolutely HAD...to have it. Might have been the second wrestling shirt (after the nwo) that I begged my parents for.

I was such a big Owen Hart fan for the past few years so I was pretty confused at the time..."Now I'm a....Bret Hart fan?!" The start of a great stable.

People always talk about Vince's obsession with big muscular guys but his biggest love is Shawn, not exactly a "big" guy at all.

That Sagrada stage dive was indeed pretty awesome looking.

Gotta love Heyman, he sure did jam as much as he possibly could into these segments. Also - Feinstein in a WWF ring o_O

So did Anderson completely leave wrestling at this time or did they just put him in a behind the scenes role?

I love the depression the two people in the front row exhibit. 1-2-3, guy throws his head back in exasperation, woman throws her hands up as if to say "fuck this company". Always loved how fluid that was and how I'm sure a lot of people felt about the booking of the title at the time.

Yeah, DDP has no trouble selling what he's doing. And hey...rightfully so, he's cleaned up the two biggest messes in wrestling so I think he has earned the right to say YRG 800 times in every interview for eternity.

Terri Runnels sat in a director's chair, not doing or saying much for over a year. But this is the start of her really earning her keep. She takes that "shaking" amazingly and I know in years to come she takes more decent bumps than she probably should have.

I watched this as a youngster (with no internet/dirt sheets) so I didn't think of it this way at the time (I was pretty convinced Taker would win here) but if you watch this with knowledge of the way wrestling (though not always WWE so maybe that's the point) works, you would assume Vader would win this. The winner faces a babyface Sid so right there you are to assume one of the heels would win. And not Austin because he has a hotter feud with Bret to deal with and the belt will come eventually regardless, you just sense that. Then the way they're working, Vader is working his ass off even after a pretty nasty injury and (as pointed out before) Bret just seems pretty blase about it all. This whole period really was booked in the most complicated way possible but I guess Shawn leaving kinda screwed them so they at least have SOME excuse. The amazing thing is that they gave him the belt again when he came back. Oy.

Especially when Vince says "This Monday on Raw it will be Sid versus Bret Hart!........................or the Undertaker...or Steve Austin...or Vader"

I would have been 13 at this time. I didn't have a computer and had never heard of Dave Meltzer. But I had a memory and could put 2 and 2 together. It made Shawn look like such a "wuss" (I probably used another word at the time). And Lawler, Ross, even McMahon fellating him during all this nonsense made them look so disingenuous as well. I haaaaaated Shawn in 96, the "edgy" thing was actually kind of making me like him somewhat but after this he never could've won me over. I can appreciate that he can put on a good match and that he has changed and that's all great, but stuff like this ruled me out of ever being a Shawn "fan".

This is pretty bad. I assume that's his real family and that makes it even weirder. I was there and you could neither hear nor see a thing so it was like an intermission.

Ah, my first Monday night show. I was so excited (no competing Raw to miss!) even though I could touch the ceiling. Worst seats I ever had despite buying them the day they went on sale. Jacksonville is always hype for WCW and this was no exception. This just felt so cool at the time, and it does hold up even after all these years.

He actually says "In San Francisco, watch my fists go" which makes somewhat more sense.

Man, Ross is belittling Hogan/WCW as Michaels comes out and says "HE'S NOT BALDING! HE'S NOT MAKING PROMISES HE CAN'T KEEP! SHAWN MICHAELS PROMISES ON THURSDAY RAW THURSDAY HE'S GONNA COME OUT HERE AND PUT IT ALL ON THE LINE AGAINST SID!!!" Yeesh, almost as if he knew and was just being sarcastic.

I wonder who had their finger on that button?

Yeah, I think hosting this in a more "rowdy" wrestling city would've been a better idea. Philly could've backfired on them because ECW had a cult fanbase there, but maybe somewhere like Chicago (where they ran a red hot Nitro the week before) or even Nassau Coliseum (I think they started running shows there around this time) would've helped their cause with trying this "different" PPV.

Three months later and Schiavone still has to say "Slim Jim's Halloween Havoc" instead of just "Halloween Havoc". Slim Jim really had an ironclad clause in that contract. Anyways, yeah I remember this crystal clear. I think I remember it even more because I went to my first televised show a few weeks later when Page did a similar thing (which may or may not be on the yearbook).

Yeah, Vince didn't look too impressed when they cut to him.

For whatever reason (maybe because it's sandwiched between 2 "hot" areas for wrestling - Atlanta and Tampa) north Florida never has lasting indies. When I was a teen (96-98ish) I'd go watch some really awful stuff at a sports bar that was a promotion I don't even remember the name of. The only one I remember lasting several years was the TWF, Thunder Wrestling Federation. I'd say they ran from 95/96 through the early 2000s at least. They were targeted to a black audience (the owner was black and a lot of the wrestlers were obviously just his buddies that he trained). 'Black Nature Boy' Scoot Andrews is without question the only "name" guy that ever had a run there. He was usually the champion. Sometimes they'd have a former star roll through. Barbarian did a few shows per year. Greg Valentine too. And this was in like 2001 so not glory days obviously. The biggest thing to happen on a Jacksonville indie was New Jack stabbing that guy during a match and getting arrested, which I guess sums up my story.

Big Smiths fan... The Smiths Best of Davey Boy Smith, DH Smith, Bison Smith, JT Smith Meat Is Murder Compilation of Shawn "Meat" Stasiak Strangeways, Here We Come Compilation of some of the strangest gimmicks Hatful of Hollow The greatest hats in wrestling history Louder Than Bombs Compilation of guys loudly calling spots The Queen Is Dead Deceased women wrestlers comp and Morrissey Kill Uncle Uncles vs Nephews Viva Hate Best of Mexican feuds Ringleader of the Tormentors Clique-era Shawn Michaels comp Southpaw Grammar The best left-handed wrestlers

I just watched the DDP Youshoot. It was ok, not sure what I was expecting from a Page shoot. Nothing great in it and because it was filmed longer ago than I realised there's not even any good Jake stories. It seemed to be very, very early in that and Hall hadn't come along yet at all. No way for the company to know it but KC would've been so much better to do this shoot about 6 months later in that regards. He does talk about wifeswapping but it was never as if he was gonna say "YEP THAT'S TRUE!"