Beast

Suffers from following not only Bret/Austin, but also the Chicago Street Fight, both of which were No DQ. So when Vince announces that Gorilla Monsoon has now made this No DQ as well, this WrestleMania begins to feel like a frantic attempt to catch the ECW Hardcore wave. This isn't worst match of the year quality, but it doesn't feel anything like a WrestleMania main event. The Bret appearances bookending the contest are the highlights. Neither guy shows much emotion and Undertaker lacks any aura. This should have been in the vein of Warrior/Hogan, but the big moves don't feel big outside of some cool moments like the finisher tradeoffs. Nothing seems to hit hard and Sid flying around takes away from his presence. And agreed with the thoughts above about Bret undercutting Undertaker's moment. The final pin has terrible camerawork, with Hebner out of sight so his slow, off-rhythm 3-count seems to come out of nowhere. So lots of things going against it, but Sid and Taker did the best they could. The Undertaker of 2007 probably could have torn the house down with someone like Sid (he did multiple times with Batista).

Agreed that this compares extremely well with the 2002 3-Way. This is all action, usually involving all three guys, rather than the typical one outside for a breather deal seen even in some of the best WWE versions of this era. Everything looks really great and even though its go-go-go-go-go, it never really feels choreographed or too spotty. My viewing experience was basically seeing Low Ki do something amazing, thinking he's the best, only for London to do something even better to change my mind, but then AJ topped that and so on and on. For something 17+ years old to hold up so well in terms of spots is impressive.

Unique angle built up over the past few weeks. Going back further, Hercules "filled in" as jobber Jim McPherson's partner against The Orient Express and got jumped after the match until Roma made the save. When Roma faces Bravo, Vince drops all sorts of hints about how Roma's talented, but hard to like because he thinks so highly of himself (which starts getting Jesse on Roma's side). Bravo and Roma have a basic, but fun match with Roma getting a little more offense than usual before falling to Bravo's "experience". Bravo then nails Roma with Jimmy Hart's megaphone for whatever reason, leaving Roma laying when the Rockers come out for their squash. They try to assist Roma in leaving the ring and he gets super aggressive, pushing each away, yelling he doesn't need their help. Hercules runs out to back Roma and both attack the Rockers, out of nowhere. Rockers have their squash, and Roma/Hercules pop up in an interview box declaring they are a new team and will teach the Rockers a lesson. The following week is the announcement of Slick as their manager and the awesome name, Power & Glory. The very next time they appear in an interview segment they've got their sunglasses, t-shirts and the whole look down. The backstory is a little strange and as a kid I would have been really confused as to why Roma was angry at the Rockers when Bravo was the attacker. Plus why longtime face Hercules wasn't backing up fellow faces the Rockers. But it's still a really effective and creative way to immediately place a new heel tag team in the mix of things and Roma and Hercules proved to be a formidable duo and should have gone farther. If only WCW had been smart enough to keep the Nasties under contract. Possibly the best power/speed tandem of this period? No one else comes to mind and Power & Glory are the rare combo of previously established singles wrestlers that paired perfectly together. Add in Slick and I'm really excited to watch their progress into 1991.

Yep, just as Volkoff's embracing of America was the perfect way to acknowledge the evolving World outside WWF, Slaughter's return as the unbeliever stuck in the pro-USA Cold War mindset is amazing. Like so many of you said above, this is a surprisingly forward thinking angle by Vince that all fell apart once they attached it to the Middle East turmoil. In this guise, Slaughter was checking off the Mick Foley heel tip of believing what you're saying. And while I don't know if he would have gotten to the main event of WrestleMania VII without the Saddam connection, I think this run would be much more fondly remembered today. His '80s heel stuff with Patterson and Backlund was as good as a heel was in that pre-Hogan era. Add in some jealousy of Hogan taking his fanbase in 1984 and they could have had a feud that matched the quality of their matches and didn't touch on anything distasteful. Lots of "What If?" scenarios to throw around here.

Opposite of the Slaughter stuff that was on the horizon; great idea to end officially end the "Evil Russian" era like this. If Volkoff had any juice left in him, he likely would have done better for himself. I think he gets some pretty good reactions for a while after this. Didn't enjoy how Love's take on Glasnost and Nikolai's embracing of American values felt like contrarian disingenuous BS you'd see a Fox News talking head throw out today. But I guess a faux preacher is the perfect mouthpiece for that stuff...

When watching Coliseum tapes of this era as a kid, I never grasped how weird this would have been in 1990 to see Valentine as Honky's axeman. Catchy song; it's got a good beat and you can dance to it. I'll always pop for a Jimmy Hart song played "live". Honky's still great at what he does and I'm all for the purposeful awkwardness of Valentine becoming Roy Orbison.

He's asked a question about how "Dark Side Of The Ring" uses WWE-owned footage, pulls an answer out of thin air ("they pay WWE"), then is corrected in his comment section ("fair use"). https://blogofdoom.com/index.php/2020/05/28/dark-side-of-the-ring-2 Seems like it should be OK to say "I don't know", but I'm pretty sure the Vice guys have been very open about how they get footage. I guess Keith feels the need to post every mailbag question for clicks?

Iconic Rumble, probably has more memorable spots than any before or since (at least until the distinct choreography of modern Rumbles). I can easily picture Bossman and Slaughter's eliminations, plus Flair's encounters with Kerry, Valentine, Davey Boy, Michaels, Hogan, Piper, Jake, Barbarian, and so many more. There's a lot of punching and kicking and choking and lockups, but the match moves at an easy to watch pace, especially with Bobby and Gorilla pushing the story. And the post-match promo is one of my favorite moments ever. Nothing like watching heels celebrate. Flair is at his best and he deserves all of boasts he wants as he backed it up. Heenan and Perfect's "We told you so" is absolutely perfect. It's impossible to side with Hogan in his argument with Sid. I love Sid's "It's every man for himself, big boy!" and he's right. They could have gotten a lot of mileage about who's in the right and had an effective feud that wasn't black and white (pushing Sid to the top face position), but that wasn't going to happen in 1992. I do wish they had carried the Flair/Hogan, Jake/Savage, Sid/Taker programs until Mania and then switched partners, but with Hogan, Sid and Jake on their way out (purposefully or not), I guess that wasn't in the cards.

Absolutely love this match. It's rare for a 30-minute match to keep my attention no issue and this is one I can go back to over and over and still enjoy the whole thing. It's a masterclass in storytelling. Each participant has a distinct role and the fun is seeing how they interact and build towards the overarching storyline of the collapse of the D.A. supergroup. Face side - Ricky Steamboat (experienced master wrestler), Dustin Rhodes (up and coming, full of fire), Nikita Koloff (intimidating powerhouse) Heel side - Arn Anderson (de-facto leader, at least by virtue of charisma), Bobby Eaton (brutal technician), Larry Zbyszko (can't do anything right, but is still clearly effective) Plus Paul E. continuing to show why he's an all-timer at ringside. The little conversation pieces he has with his team on camera are tremendous and add so much. Arn complains to him after Zbyszko initially screws up (again) and Paul E. calms him down and mentions a vote Austin and Rude took (we can infer meaning to give Larry another chance), and then freaks out when he sees the camera on him. It's the best use of the 2/3 falls era of Saturday Night and every single moment feels purposeful. You could use this as a case for 6-man matches being the best type of match based on this, with every guy able to go 100% all the time since they get rest time on the apron (while still clearly being invested and engaged in what's happening in the ring. The endings of each fall are anything but arbitrary and the overall story is filled with so many great moments. 6 months of having the same group of 12 guys facing each other in match after match leads to the amazing chemistry seen here. This just might be Arn's single greatest performance ever (at least in gaga heel mode). He's on the entire 30 minutes and his timing and facial expressions are out of this world. I could write a small book on this, so I'll end for now with how disappointing it is we never really got Larry vs the DA after the breakup. Despite 12 years of heeling and a recent crushing of Windham's hand, it could have been a great story with him being separated from the bad guys, but not liked or trusted by the good guys until he finally makes the full turn over time. There was a lot of potential for even more greatness with the Dangerous Alliance versus everyone, but I guess Watts didn't get it (or like Paul E.) and that was that, even though this feels so much like the type of storytelling Mid-South was known for. Full 5 stars for me. Maybe I need to see more from this time (although I've seen a bunch and I really don't think any of the 6-man's mentioned earlier have anything close to the depth this one has). Different strokes...

A real standout, especially coming between JTTS squashes. Having just watched the Dynamite/Bret 9/14 match for the umpteenth time, it was interesting to see certain spots/transitions repeated but in a different context. But they change things up enough so that it never feels like watching a copy. Neidhart may be the weakest worker here, but he's extremely entertaining and a joy to watch in these matches. The finishing sequence with the top-rope Hart Attack is crazy and had perfect timing leading to Dynamite breaking up the pin for his own victory. I wasn't sure if this was one of their time-limit draws, so when the Hart Attack hit (and looked brutal), Dynamite sneaking in with a top-rope headbutt was pleasantly surprising. These teams both come out of this looking real strong and the Bulldogs are ready for The Dream Team. I guess at this time The Killer Bees would be The Hart Foundation's fellow #2 opponents, at least with The US Express basically done?

The never-ending legvine kills the momentum of the match, quality-wise, but the crowd loved it so good for Andre. It's real fun watch two behemoths go at each other and I was impressed with a lot of what I saw. Andre is super fierce and legitimately feels dangerous, while Bundy gives some right back while also taking some impressive bumps. The highlight of the match and probably the entire MSG card is Bundy taking a header to the outside and slamming onto a table before falling to the ground. It's such an out of control bump, especially for a 450 lb guy to take and it's an amazing sight. Overall, this is an effective continuation of the Andre vs. Bundy/Studd/Heenan feud and it does it's job in cementing the heel tandem as this is right as Bobby trades for Bundy.

Fun sprint with a solid use of the stipulation. They clearly had more matches in the tank so this is a nice placeholder to keep the feud going for the time being. Steamboat is consistently "on" and makes every little moment mean something. And Muraco didn't take the night off, using effective power maneuvers and showing off some impressive selling. I especially liked Swede Hanson standing guard on the ramp, leading to Muraco getting almost atomic dropped back into the ring. If anything, this made me more interested in seeing a final blowoff with even more intensity. If anything, the ending seemed to set up a Steamboat/Santana vs. Muraco/Orton match the next month which didn't happen, although Steamboat/Santana did face Muraco/Fuji in Minneapolis the same night as the next MLG show. Orton did have the history with Steamboat based on their previous MLG encounter, and he also would have made a very interesting challenger for Santana's IC belt around this time.

1985 WWF equivalent of the Nitro cruiserweight match, and I love that it's not spot-spot-spot, but rather a heated back and forth that plays off how well they already know each other as opponents. It always works extremely well as the next chapter in their general tag team wars. Everything is so crisp, sometimes stiff, with the highlight being Dynamite's brutal 2nd rope knee drop directly to Bret's forehead. Both guys are known for taking their craft seriously, which makes even the smallest moment here feel worthwhile. If anything, this could have been longer, as it felt like they were just getting started. Too bad they never really had a major televised singles match ever again. The ending being missed due to a replay has always bugged me. I guess this was a live Cap Centre show with replays chosen on the fly?

This was fantastic, great combination of humor and trivia coming from all angles here.

I enjoyed the political discussion mainly because it's current and it was interesting to hear your thoughts. That I agree with you may have something to do with that, but nevertheless...

Happy to see this back, didn't realize it'd been almost a year. Always fun to hear Jeff's reactions to classic wrestling.

What's the deal with Brian Last and Cornette? You and Brian started 605 together and even though you left, it didn't seem like there was any bad blood, I just assumed you got too busy. Seems like Brian's let his podcast success go to his head or something. Kinda inexcusable for him to sit back while Cornette sics his fanbase on Bix. I'd already found his attacks on Janela to be over the line. Either Brian's "playing a character" or he feels it's appropriate to rag on modern day guys using 1985 logic. Either way is sad.

Disappointing and overlong. The big angle/finish is memorable and there are some hot moments throughout, but overall it felt very messy and random. I get what they were going for with Douglas as the one guy everyone hates, but there were long periods where nothing was done with it. And also times where the interactions felt totally improvised, like no one had laid out the goal of the match other then take the title off of Jericho and have Francine join Douglas. So you're left with blown opportunities and things that didn't build to anything like the various refusals to tag Douglas or vice versa. Excited to the see the followup nevertheless, but this is a forty minute slog with maybe 10 mins tops of fun stuff.

Thanks to you and Savage for the rec. This was my first attempt at Arn's Show and I'm blown away by how great he is in this format. Love that the pre-PPV discussion led to a stream-of-consciousness description of working at that time, rather than Bruce and Conrad's usual "here's a random wrestling news story from that era, react to it".

Seems like every PPV match Bret around this era was more than just a match, always with some storyline advancement. It's one of the reason he was my favorite as a kid, he was a major deal. The famous Owen aspects here still hold up and Owen's performance after the match is stellar. That said, in my memory there was multiple times Bret could have tagged but didn't, so I ended up disappointed it was just one really. And even then, it was much more black and white than I remembered. Bret moves out of the way of Pierre, starts to crawl to a corner, but then realizes he accidentally went farther from Owen. Well Pierre's leg is right there so might as well put on the Sharpshooter. Dibiase starts selling that Bret is choosing not to tag well before he even would have an opportunity to, which kinda detracted a bit. Less would have been more here from the announcers. I rewatched this tonight after seeing the MJF turn on Cody and both felt too soon. The MJF deal especially, but this too, even knowing the storyline ended up practically perfect anyway for WrestleMania. Tim White is the real villain here, stopping the match because Bret collapsed once, and not acknowledging that its a tag match so he's got a fresh partner ready to go. You'd never even see matches stopped for this reason in singles competition, so this felt lame. You need the Bret winning the Rumble aspect to the feud, but it would have worked well if they had a rematch on Raw or something and this time Owen walks out or one of the Hart's gets pinned due to miscommunication. Have Owen acknowledge that it wasn't Bret's call to stop the Rumble match, but then he gets mad seeing his brother win a title shot, thus effectively going back on his tag team career promise. Unnecessary fantasy booking as what they did totally worked, but this could have been even bigger and drawn out without losing momentum. All-time great turn either way and although Meltzer said in his review that Owen would need a manager to be a believable heel against anyone but Bret, I think his acting ability his super impressive here and his character only gets better in the following months.

So they've announced that due to the major positive reaction to Omega vs Janela's hardcore match on AEW Dark a few weeks ago, they will be rematching on Dynamite tonight... I dig making adjustments based off fan reaction, but we're getting into 2019 WWE territory with "have a big gimmick match for no reason that then leads to a regular rematch"

I once read that Steamboat's key to selling was to never let more than a few moves go by with making a small comeback; to always struggle. I always look for that in matches now and I'm almost always disappointed by the heat segment with other wrestlers, but Steamboat's selling really is the key to this match. He lives by his mantra and is constantly firing back at Arn and Larry, which makes the ending that much more sweet. I hate matches where the heels dominate 75% but when the face makes their comeback, suddenly the bad guy's "power meter" fades and they're done. Here, The Enforcers have got Steamboat to themselves for a while, but Steamboat chips away whenever he can, causing The Enforcers to exert themselves even more until finally fresh Dustin is able to set Steamboat up for the win. Love this match and with Rude and Steamboat, suddenly WCW is hot stuff again. Agree with thoughts above that Arn and Larry should have been kept together for the Alliance, but I'm guessing Zbyszko was a stronger singles presence than Eaton so if they're all in a group, stick Eaton in a tag role. Frankly I'm surprised they didn't go with Larry/Bobby and have Arn be the third singles guy, but it all worked out.