The Wrestling Round Up: ITS STING

With December almost over that means @RantsWrestle is back with another round up of all things wrestling including news on sting debut with the wwe and his potential wrestlemania match with triple h, CM Punks podcast with good buddy and former ROH second city saint tag team partner colt cabana and signing with UFC. Vince McMahon on the stone cold steve austin podcast, wwe tlc-s results and the rise and fall of Dolph Ziggler in a few short weeks. More NXT notes as well as a quick review of this months NXT network special, Kevin Owens and more Sami Zayn praise. We also look ahead to new Japan's joint ppv show with Jeff Jarrett's group GFW wrestling kingdom 9. The fall out from ROH Final Battle 2014 and a look ahead for 2015 in ROH. We also look at Dixie carter seriously considering bringing back vince Russo, lucha underground news, a review of chikara tomorrow never dies ippv and my top ten predictions for 2015 

WWE 

Well I suppose I should start with CM punk considering he generated lots of press for his appearance on colt cabanas podcast the art of wrestling. In part one of the interview punk spoke openly about his departure from wwe (being fired on your wedding day was a little vindictive on wwe part), the medical teams lack of knowledge over concussions and staph infections and claimed ryback was to stiff in the ring and was using steroids. Punk pulled no punches in the interview regrading his final year and half in the  wwe. Punk even out right buried head of talent relations triple h and claimed hunter had buried him in 2011 when punk was still pipping hot from his Pipebomb and going rogue with the wwe title storyline in the summer of 2011. Punk also touched on how his love for the business was all but dead thanks to his time at Titan. Punk the following week in part two of the interview punk answered some fans letters and emails regrading part one of the interview but only touched on how some troll fans had been trolling him and only real fans would understand why he quit. That weekend punk shocked (well not everyone) most insiders when he appeared on UFC and announced he had inked a deal with the fight organisation and would now beiving into training to become a full time mixed martial artist. Punk now is done with wrestling according to his media interviews but somewhere down the road I wouldn't rule out a move back into wrestling. Because realistically punk did point out the amount of concussions he had suffered while in his final year with wwe (if you were keeping count during the AOW podcast he had reportable suffered over 13 concussions) and was banged up from years of being on the road. So for a man to complain of all this damage his body has taken and is now taking a career in MMA which is ten times more gruelling on the body than wwe but the limited road schedule most have been appalling to him. Now question is can CM punk after all damage his body has taken honestly hang or even realistically fight for the UFC. His training camp should answer those questions and his first (if it ever happens) fight of course. Personally I hope punk makes a success of his new career but the more you think about it the more it is highly unlikely he will achieve any success in the world of fighting. Sting finally made his long awaited debut for the wwe and return to pro wrestling at wwe survivor series ppv. It was quiet a sight for a longterm fan like myself I thought I would never see this happen but now has. On the show he walked out and cost the authority there match against team Cena by allowing Dolph Ziggler the chance to pin Seth Rollins after putting Dolph on top of him. Also on the show sting came face to face with hunter had a stare down and sting ended up giving hunter a scorpion death drop to hopefully set up a match between the two for wretlemania 31 next year. The angle was historic (because sting was finally in wwe) but a little confusing we still don't know what stings motivation was in costing the authority the match but only time will tell on this one and should play out as wwe kick it into high gear for the wrestlemania season. Vince McMahon stepped out of his comfort zone and appeared on the stone cold steve austin podcast in a televised addition of the podcast which aired on the wwe network following another ordinary raw in Tulsa Oklahoma. Stone cold was as stiff as ever with vince asking vince questions about TNA, wwe stop/start booking, wwe creative team, the handeling of Jim ross, cm punk AOW comments and macho man randy savage hall of fame induction among other things. Early on vince looked a little uncomfortable with Austin's questions but eventually loosened up and by the top of the hour was telling his team and austin let's go another 15 (personally by this point there wasn't a lot else the two had to talk about). The punk situation was brushed down the carpet by vince with the chairman giving a very cooperate answer for that question. Stone cold also mentioned the jr situation to which vince response was to blame good ole jr for the panel he hosted during the summer slam 2013 ppv (where flair hijacked it in his usual manner), again it felt like vince was dodging the question and he quickly moved on to another question not really wanting to talk at lenght about jr mistreatment by vince. The only excuse the chairman seemed to have was that jr wanted to move away from wwe home base in cunnicati back to his home in Oklahoma. Cesero and the rest of the millennials (as vince called them) must have been gutted to hear vince McMahon essentially bury them for his creative teams misfortunes. Overall vince stuck up for his creative team and placed the blame for talents stop/start pushes on them which was very quzzling indeed. Also vince was asked by austin about macho man randy savage and posed the question longtime fans like myself have been asking for years and that was would macho man randy savage ever get that long due hall of fame induction to which vince said yes, it might not happen next year but by 2016 surely vince has to induct the macho man into his much panned hall of fame. Dolph Ziggler seems to be getting another wwe push after he recently stole show at the survivor series ppv. Ziggler has suffered like so many others in this company over the years from a stop/start push but now it looks like wwe have finally decided to go all out and push Ziggler. However that was how it seemed in the fall out from survivor series as by December he was back to losing meaningless matches on raw and was scheduled to face Luke Harper at the wwe TLC&Stairs ppv in a rematch for the IC title, so that so called push seems to have come to an end already. NXT continues to be the only reason to have a wwe network subscription these days and there was proof of that with NXT R:Evolution which delivered and made wrestling fans everywhere rave about hunters side project. The main event saw Sami Zayn defeat longterm rival Adrain Neville to finally win the big one and NXT title, the main event blew away anything wwe has promoted this year. Kevin (Steen) Owens made his long awaited debut by beating CJ Parker in what was essentially a squash match and then later that night turned on longtime rival/best friend Sami Zayn to set up a main event programme with him going forward. ROH fans everywhere have been rejoicing at the fact the two will now be feuding on wwe tv (well NXT) and so am I in fact. Also on the NXT network special Finn Balor and Hideo Itami beat The Ascension Konnor and Victor in a good outing and Finn nearly stole the show with his enterance. Charlotte pinned Sasha Banks to retain the NXT women's title in another fine outing. Agains sasha impressed me here with another fine heel performance and I'm hoping that in 2015 she can finally win the title she deserves after a stand out year in NXT. The lucha Dragons Kalisto&Sin Cara rolled over the Vaudevillians Aiden English&Simon Gotch in a average match to retain the NXT tag team titles and Baron Corbin defeated Tye Dillenger in a nothing match afterward Corbain had a stare down with rival Bull Dempsey. The brain geniuses at wwe decided to rename wwe tlc ppv to TLC&Stairs as they would be promoting a stairs match between Erik Rowen and The Big Show. Finally here are the quick results from the wwe TLC&Stairs ppv which aired on the wwe network on December 14th. Dolph Ziggler beat Luke Harper in a ladder match to win the wwe intercontinental title in a good match but both men took some unessecary bumps and ladder hits in my opinion. The Uso Jimmy&Jey won by DQ over wwe tag team champions The Miz&Miz-Dow in a worthless match. Big Show rolled over Erik Rowen (so much for big reds push) in a lousy stairs match which went 10 minutes to long with bout only going 12 minutes. John Cena toppled Seth Rollins rather predictably in a tables match which seemed to go on forever. Nikki Bella bested AJ Lee in a rather dull match to retain the wwe divas title. In another stinker Ryback defeated Kane in a chairs match, by this point the crowd was dead and finally Bray Wyatt beat a Dean Ambrose in a tables ladders and chairs match which had a dreadful finish. 

TNA 

A rather quiet month for TNA as they gear up for there January 7th 2015 relaunch after signing a television deal with destination America. Rumours are running throughout the industry that TNA boss Dixie carter is seriously considering bringing back vince Russo as head of creative (boy does she ever learn). Russo in my opinion has been a failure as TNA head of creative. In late 2006 through to 2011 Russo didn't have any effective on TNA product expect in a bad way. Take for instance that TNA averaged 30,000 ppv buys a month during it's peak in 2005 as well as never really being able to effect the tv rating it gained on spike tv each week during this period (TNA rating stayed within the 1.3 to 1.5 range throughout his years as head of creative). Also TNA had gotten better (during the NYC tv tappings for sure) with Russo gone and I can't see why Dixie is yet again turning back to Russo. Jim ross reportable spoke to TNA last month about TNA ex lead announcer mike tenay possibly coming in for the joint new japan GFW ppv wrestling kingdom 9. Ross also offered TNA a free spot of advertising on the ppv for tenay's services but TNA turned that offer down. Talking of tenay he has reportable been replaced by ex wwe announcer josh Matthews as TNA new lead announcer. Shame because again it seems if TNA has learned nothing and during it's relaunch be viewed as nothing more than wwe lite after employing another former wwe announcer. TNA has announced that they will be returning to New York for it's impact tappings in January and the group will record 6 episodes which will all air on TNA new home destination America. Bobby Roode and Lashleys third match has been announced by TNA to be taking place on a special live impact on January 7th, so far these two have clicked and worked well together in the ring and I can't wait for the third match together. Finally TNA will be making a new programme to air on destination America it will be called TNA unlocked and will debut on January 17th 2015. 

ROH 

Ring of Honor ended the year on a high (unlike wwe) with ROH final battle 2014 ppv being wildly regarded as ppv of month (until NXT R:Evolution aired). ROH pulled a reported 1,400 paying fans to the venue terminal 5 in New York City. The ppv buy rate hasn't been released yet but I'm expecting a solid 15,000 buys for ROH. Here are the quick results from ROH final battle for those who missed it, Hanson toppled Caprice Coleman, Jimmy Jacobs and Mark Briscoe in a four corners survival match which was a very good opener. Roderick Strong hammered Adam Page in a descent outing, Michael Elgin beat Tomasso Ciampra in another good outing. The Young Bucks Matt&Nick Jackson and ACH bested Cedric Alexander and The Addiction Christopher Daniels&Kazarain in a very good spot fest which was a six man tag. In the worst match of the night Moose rolled over RD Evans after Veda Scott swerve turned on rd to cost rd the match. Jay Lethal beat Matt Sydal in another very good match to retain the ROH television title. reDRagon Kyle O'Riely&Bobby Fish pinned Time Splitters KUDHIDA&Alex Shelley in what was my match of the night to retain the ROH tag team titles and finally Jay Briscoe defeated Adam Cole in a fight without honor (no DQ) to retain the ROH world title in another very good match. My full review of the show is now up on the JWR Podcast blogspot page which is that jwrpodcast.blogspot.com , so go check it out. ROH tag wars begins on ROH tv this week with six team entered only three can progress to the final which will be a four way elimination tag match also involving ROH tag team champions reDRagon and also Kyle and bobby will put there titles on the line in this final match. Alberto Del Rio/El Patron has been confirmed to be making his ROH debut at the January 3rd show in TNA old stomping guards at the Nashville fairgrounds. Finally for the ROH section I take a look ahead and see what might be in store for ROH in 2015. Surely Adam cole is getting 'his' ROH title back at some point but maybe that is to obvious and that was why cole got beat by Jay Briscoe at the recent ROH final battle ppv but ROH must surely know like it's fans cole is the most deserving of the strap in 2015. reDRagon have been my tag team of the year and hopefully in 2015 they can continue to regin surpreme in the ROH tag team scene. Jay Lethal seems to be ROH second most dependable heel at the moment behind Adam cole and 2015 maybe a face turn and break away from truth martini and feud with cole could be possible. Michael Elgin is now a heel thanks to ROH fans but maybe after a feud with Ciampra he'll be accepted back as a face by the ROH faithful, if not then I can't see what's next for Elgin in 2015. Hanson is surely in for a big push in 2015 after a number of impressive showings in 2014 maybe he's the guy to end Jay lethal run as ROH television champion. I fully expect the decade to split into two in 2015 with Roderick strong and jimmy Jacobs feuding with Adam page and BJ Whitmer. 

Elsewhere 

New japan and GFW joint ppv, wrestling kingdom 9 is still set for January 4th and features a stacked card top to bottom. Jim Ross will be lead announcer for the show which I'm sure you all know but the second announcer is yet to be confirmed as of writing. In the main event IWGP Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi defends against Kazuchika Okada in what could very well be a math of the year candidate. IWGP intercontinental champion shinsuke Nakamura defends his belt against Kota Ibushi and again this has protential to be a match of the year candidate. IWGP Jnr Heavyweight Tag Team Champions reDRagon Kyle O'Riely&Bobby Fish will defend there belts against Time Splitters Alex Shelly&KUSHIDA, Forever Hooligans Rocky Romero&Alex Koslov and The Young Bucks Matt&Nick Jackson. Also a New Japan Rumble (some sort of battle royal more than likely) has been added to the card. As well as Minuro Suzuki facing MMA legend Kazushi Sakuraba in a UWFI rules match (basically a worked shoot match), Tomohiro Ishii defends the Never Title against fellow bruiser Togi Makabe. IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Rysuke Taguchi defends against Kenny Omega, IWGP Tag Team Champions Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson of the Bullet Club defend against the team of Shibata and Hirooki Goto. In a six man tag Bullet Club members Bad Luck Fale, Jeff Jarrett and Yuijiro Takahashi face off with Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima and Tomoaki Honma. Toru Yono will have three to be determined partners to do battle with Davey Boy Smith Jr, Lance Archer, Shelton Benjamin and Takashi Iizuka in an eight man tag and last but currently not least is AJ Styles facing Tetsuya Naito on what will be a stacked 4 hour spurt show held in the world famous Tokyo Dome. Chikara presented it's season 14 finale Tomorrow Never Dies in it's old stomping grounds at the old ECW arena on December 6th. Here are some quick results from what was a another very good show by the group but had a hard time topping chikara you only live twice and king of trios 2014 shows earlier this year. Heidi Lovelace rolled over Missile Assualt Ant to win the annual chikara Young Lions Cup, Ashley Remmington beat super heel Juan Francisco de Coronado in a German suplex match. Eddie Kingston bested Jimmy Jacobs in a very good match to end eddies on/off heel turn and assiotatiion with the flood. The Devistation Corpration Blaster McMassive&Max Smashmaster defeated The Throwbacks Dasher Hatfield&Mr Touchdown in a best 2 out of three falls match to win the Chikara Campeonatos de Parejas (chikara version of the tag team titles) in another very good match which was my match of the night. Ultra Mantis Black downed Delirious (ROH booker/creative team member Hunter Johnson) In a loser leaves town match to end there near 3 year feud. The Flood flex Rumblecrunch, Jakob Hammermeier, Jaka, Nokken,Oleg Usurper, Sir Oliver Grimsly, Solider Ant&Volgar dropped Team Chikara Amasis, Fire Ant, Jervis Cottenbelly, Kodama, Obariyon, Opihidan, Silver Ant&Worker Ant in a Tomeo Cibernetico (Chikara version of an elimination tag match), with Soilder Ant last eliminating Fire Ant in another very good match. Finally Icarus pinned Decucalion in a steel cage match (only the second ever cage match in chikara's history) to retain the Grand Championship (chikara version of the world title). Lucha Underground continues to present must watch tv on the El Ray network each and every week and in the new year it has already been announced that the group will be recording it's second season and word is Alberto del rio will be involved, which is obviously very good news for the group. But there was also bad news this month for lucha underground with reports El Ray havent been that impressed with television ratings due to how advertising is sold for the show (basically ad revenue has been low due to low ratings with the show averaging 20,000 to 35,000 viewers so far this season). Lucha underground fans should remember this El Ray had been behind a show they were heavily pushing called El Matador but the show was recently canned by the network due to low ratings. 

And Now Something Completey Different 

Finally here are my top ten predictions for 2015. 10. Regins beats Lesnar- a pretty obvious one but it looks like wwe will force roman (who is a solid worker but not good enough on the microphone yet) down your throats and make him the top guy in the wwe come wretlemania. 9. Wyatt vs Taker for WM:31- another obvious match which wwe will book for it's super show in April but how can Wyatt be considered a genuine contender to beat taker on the grandest stage, I suppose that all depends on how the creative book this feud and build Wyatt properly come showtime. 8. Rollins cashes in on Regins at Mania- not so obvious this one but to me it would make sense to have Rollins successfully cash in on roman following what will be likely and that is Regins winning the wwe title at mania. Wwe fans have rejected more from wwe creative an ever before and with Regins clearly being the chosen one maybe after a hard fought win over Lesnar he gets blindsided by Rollins and Rollins successfully cashes in and walks out of mania the wwe undisputed champion. 7. TNA finds a New/old Direction- over the years TNA has been panned by critics and fans alike as being to wwe lite. The product was by far more exciting and fresh feeling in 2005/06 peak and my hoping is that they get back to doing what they do best and that is booking to it's strengths and that is by promoting pro wrestling not sports entertainment. 6. Sinclair Invest More Money Into ROH- with TNA now on destination America and Lucha underground failing to find a large audience maybe it's time for ROH owners Sinclair to do what so many want to see the league do and that is invest heavily in the production side of things and have a real go at legitimately   becoming pro wrestling number 2. It's an achievable goal for 2015 but will Sinclair go all out and invest the right amount of money for ROH to grab that spot. 5. Daniel Bryan returns but doesn't get buried- there's a strange side to vince McMahon and that is he's an old school guy who appreciates a performer tapping up his injuries and just gets on with it. In Bryan's case this wasn't his fault he had some bad medical advice and I hope vince doesn't hold that against him and decide he's nothing more than a b+ plus player. There is curently evidence to back up this claim with many 80's and 90's performers reminding us on shoot DVDs and podcast that this is the way vince operates, don't me well go check out Essa Rioas story. 4. Sami Zayn Stays in NXT for now- last month if you read the round up you should know I was praising Zayn for his work and proposed a idea for him to come up to the main roster (don't know what it is go back and check it out) but now that idea looks like it clearly won't happen. So rather than move him up to the main roster why don't they just let him stay where he is for now. Because in all seriousness at this point I can't see vince taking this tremendous talent seriously at all and I do like Bryan worry for Zayn with McMahon booking his career. 3. Raw Is Bore- wwe main show has been a dud almost all year long the stop/start booking is really driving me away and stopping me from caring about anything or anyone on the main shows. As for 2015 I can't see it getting any better and raw and Smackdown will continue to fail in creating any new stars or interesting feuds. 2. The Indie Scene Continues to Grow- independent wrestling hasn't been this good since 2004 with so many talented performers out there working smaller shows. It can only continue to grow and I'm looking forward to another year of growth for PWG and Chikara just to name a few. 1. Brock goes back to MMA- seriously I think the wwe Brock Lesnar relationship will end following mania. Brock is hot property still in the world of MMA and once his wwe deal expires I wouldn't be surprised if the current wwe champion rejoined UFC or joined upstart group Bellator. One thing is for sure with wwe network failing the way it has this year the question we must ask is can wwe really afford to have Brock on it's books. My answer is no and I fill Brock will leave wwe for one last big pay day back in the world of fighting. 

Well that was the month of December in the world of pro wrestling, if you've read this then thank you and hopefully it brings you back for next months round up. Finally id like to address the lack of sort of live tweets over the last two months, well I've been very busy and hopefully in the new year I will be able to get back to doing my sort of live tweets. Until then as bill apter would say I'll see you at the matches. 

The Wrestling Round Up: Did He Just Say Free

Welcome to another addition of @RantsWrestle wrestling round up covering all of this months wrestling news including vince McMahon's announcement the wwe network would be free for the month of November and wwe big push for the wwe survivor series and trying to create new stars for this years main event. Where is Brock Lesnar and will he resign with the wwe or will he go back to MMA, bray Wyatt, the shocking decline of the unstable one Dean Ambrose and a crazy booking scanerio involving Sami Zayn for mania. We also cover TNA new tv deal with destination America and the changes coming to company as a whole. Also we look at tommy dreamers house of hardcore event and the shocking appearance of Alberto del rio on that show. ROH build for it's second ppv this years ROH final battle and also discuss Michael Elgins return and weather or not his leaving ROH for a few weeks back was a work or shoot. Finally we take a look at El reys new venture lucha underground and discuss Jim ross being confirmed as the lead announcer for the joint Global Force Wrestling/New Japan wrestling kingdom ppv on January 4th. 

WWE

The month started out with the company announcing the month of November on the wwe network was completely free. Vince McMahon broke the news shortly after 3rd quarter financial records were announced during the investors call. Wwe announced that since wrestlemania with all the hard selling on tv (the 9.99 jingle springs to mind) of there network that they had only 770,000 subscribers and had lost over 700,000 subscribers as well since mania 30 in April. The figures did not reflect very well on wwe and reports are some investors where extremely unhappy that this had happened. So vince is giving away the network free for the month of November and one of the big four ppv survivor series is included in that free month. Wwe hope this will attract insterest from the casual viewer to subscribe to it's failing network and at this point many are saying wwe need to do something big to keep those people who have signed up for the free month around for December but at this point I can't see what that big angle will be but I'm sure they have something planned. Talking of the network wwe really dropped the ball for uk fans when 20 minutes before launch they pulled the network launch in England and Ireland respectively. Fans were outraged and voiced there disapproval online through either twitter or Facebook. I'm a uk resident but this news didn't shock me it just surprised me as I already have access and a wwe network account thanks to my trusty VPN but I can understand there angrier as it was pulled 20 minutes before the launch.  Word is wwe uk tv partner sky was displeased with wwe giving away survivor series for free as it would seriously undercut sky who would be charging 15.99 for show on there sky box office service. Others have reported wwe and sky were trying to reach an agreement to get the network launched on the sky service (similar to what thy have in Canada) but whatever or whoever it was wwe dropped the ball on this one and now have egg on there face and it couldn't have happened at a worst time as wwe was due to tour the uk that week and once over here most shows had fans chanting where's are network. As for the survivor series card which is free of course wwe have been pushing a traditional survivor series 5 on 5 elimination as the main event as team authority would face team Cena and if team authority lose then they would lose there power and control of wwe and if team Cena lost everyone expect Cena (strange stipulation to add but team Cena needed to have something at stake as well) would be fired. As of writing this match is yet to take place and I for one believe team authority will lose but something screwy will go down on raw the following night and I'm sure the authority will remain in power somehow. Wwe so far have done a good job of building popular star Dolph Ziggler into the main event scene and it looks likely him and hunter may be headed for a showdown at mania or the rumble. Ryback returned and the crowd immediately embraced him back as a star for future after last years botched heel turn and team with Curtis axel and Paul Heyman (which I fill was criminally underrated). Ryback is now the one to watch for that match and I hope wwe plan on keeping him up there in the main event and continue to make him look strong and protect him when he is eliminated from the main event. Rusev has also benefited from an association with the authority and has received a hefty wwe push for this main event. The more I see Rusev the more I know I was dead wrong about how I viewed him on his debut as a Vladimir Kolsov rip off. He's become more than that in his short (so far) run on wwe tv by mania I think wwe will have something big lined up him for mania. Overall the build for survivor series was about one match and one big match and it's a added bonus that it is free. Bray Wyatt returned at hell in the cell after two month absences from tv he at first appeared as a hologram in mid ring then attacked the unstable one himself dean Ambrose who was in the midst of a fine cell match with Seth Rollins to cost Ambrose the match and start a feud between the two. Bray who is getting the stop/start booking treatment in wwe at the moment needs a strong feud after two dire feuds with John Cena and Chris Jericho if he is like many predict to be the future of this company. As for Ambrose it's shocking how far he has fallen over the last month. Remember Ambrose was main eventing a ppv last month and his feud was the vocal point of most raws leading up to hell in the cell. Ambrose over the last 3 weeks has fallen from the top of the card into a mid card feud with bray Wyatt and I'm sure both men want this to succeed but it is shocking to me how far Ambrose has fallen over this short period of time now. I can't even imagine him anywhere near the wretlemania card let alone main eventing it. Finally this wwe section comes to an end with my crazy mania booking idea. It involves NXT star Sami Zayn probably the most sympathetic character in wrestling today. You see Zayn is involved in a hot feud with Adrain Neville at the moment and has been on his road to redemption to the NXT title. What I'm proposing (and hear me out) is that Zayn lose his match with Neville at takeover 3 next month and disappear from NXT saying he had tried but failed to win the big one in NXT. Over the next few weeks he ends up on wwe tv (how you decide) and wins a match against a mid level heel (like the miz or Cesero) to gain entry in the royal rumble and that the rumble Zayn finally wins the big one and books a place against Brock Lesnar the all conquering (and rarely seen) wwe champion. Zayn as mentioned above is the most sympathetic baby face in wwe today (go ahead name another that isn't Daniel Bryan) and a match with Brock at mania could see fan interest rise. Could you really imagine Zayn beating Brock at the showcase of the Immortals, I bet you can't but wait what if zayn actually did beat Lesnar at mania. Now that would be quiet a finish to zayns road of redemption. I'm currently not going to say this is what wwe will do but I think Zayn is more ready than Regins at this point and if Brock is off for that big money pay day back in MMA (with either baltor or UFC) wwe need to have a big future headliner lined up to beat him in my opinion and there is no one better at the moment than Zayn. 

TNA 

TNA finally announced a new television at the eleventh hour with destination America which has been described as a discovery channel 2 (it's flagship shows included a BBQ pit challenge and something about big foot) type of station which is clearly a step down for the number two wrestling organisation in the world but thankfully the group found a new home. Just imagine a world without TNA it wouldn't be pretty and I would worry about those people who are currently employed by the league. So at least for once the group had some good news after months of bad news and online commentators writing them off altogether (and I was one of them). The company can now look forward to the new year and try to start over again but with this step comes an increased chance TNA will be on a much tighter budget come 2015 (due to tv licensing deals which will be nowhere as much as spike paid TNA in the 9 years TNA was on spike) and some fat will have to be trimmed from the organisation. TNA will need to keep hold of bobby lashley, bobby Roode, Kurt angle (I got a bit ahead of myself in last months round up claiming angle could jump to new japan and was probably dreaming a little to much about angle in action against the likes of shibata, tanahashi, nakamura and others), MVP, EC3 and rock star Spud. I can't see TNA having problems with attracting some interest in there product on destination America but it is a little worrying people online are already asking how to get this channel as well as saying they can't get it altogether and I can only see TNA hardcore audience having the patience to stick around to find it's new home on destination America. Also a little worrying Is the announcement the channel is only available in 50 million us homes meaning the the group will lose almost half it's audience because of it but whatever the bad at least there was good news and it meant those men and women employed by TNA still get to have a job and be involved in the wrestling business a business they all love so much because they wouldn't be in it other wise. 

ROH 

ROH final battle is less than 3 weeks away now and it will be the companies second traditional Sunday night ppv this year and will be in New York City. The card for the show is already building nicely as jay Briscoe will defend the ROH title against Adam cole in a fight without honor. One of my favourite tag teams reDRagon will defend there ROH tag team titles against new japan duo of KUSHIDA and Alex Shelley collectively known as the time splitters. ROH television champion Jay Lethal defends against Matt Sydal the artist formerly known as Evan Bourne in what could be a show stealing match of the night. Decade leader Roderick Strong battles former decade young boy Adam Page and even though the streak is dead RD Evans (Archiebald Pecks lawyer) faces former team mate and undefeated himself newcomer (well not so much a newcomer anymore) Moose. The card is already shaping up quiet nicely for the December 7th show and a wrestling ppv I'm actually looking forward to watching. Michael Elgin is back with ROH after quitting on twitter two months back he even went as far as to do a highspots DVD where Elgin vented his angrier at ROH management. It's lead many fans to question weather it was a shoot or a work in my opinion Elgin did quit ROH over his angrier towards management for a number of things including work visas among other things but ROH reached out to Elgin and resolved the issue fairly quickly and now Elgin is back so it Is a shoot and a work, confused yet because I know I am. 

Elsewhere 

Jim Ross has agreed to a deal with Global Force Wrestling to be the lead announcer for the joint GFW/New Japan pay per view on January 4th called wrestling kingdom 9 which will be held in the world famous tokyo dome. Ross will be ringside calling the action for the IWGP heavyweight title bout between champion Hiroshi Tanahashi vs challenger Kazuchika Okada. Also lined up for this ppv is IWGP Intercontinental champion shinsuke nakamura defending against Kota Ibushi, newcomer Kenny Omega challenges IWGP Junior Heavyweight champion Ryusuke Taguchi. IWGP Never Champion Tomohiro Ishii defends against Togi Makabe in what should be a strong style classic, IWGP junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions reDRagon Kyle O'Riely and Bobby Fish defend against Forever Hooligans (Rocky Romero and Alex Kolsov), The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson) and The Time Splitters KUSHIDA and Alex Shelley and also in what will be a UWFI Rules (a worked shoot/MMA match but the rules vary) MMA legend Kazushi Sakuraba fights Minoru Suzuki. Season 2 of El Reys Lucha Unserground begins filming in the new year and Alberto del rio will be involved. Talking of lucha underground the first 4 episodes have been a breath of fresh air so far on El Rey the backstage vignettes have been so different to wwe same old vignettes these vignettes have the production values of a big budget movie and shot in such a way which makes the leagues tv product look different to wwe same old segments which air week in week out. So far prince puma (Ricochet) his manger konnon, super heel Chavo Guerrero and Johnny mundo (John Morrison/Johnny Nitro) have all impressed me and unlike raw or impact I actually look forward to watching there show and am left wanting more each and every week, if you haven't checked out this show yet you owe it to yourself as a wrestling fan to go out and check it out trust me you won't be dissappionted. House of Hardcore 7 aired on rf video ippv stream this past week. Yet again tommy dreamer stacked his show with stars and the show itself actually wasn't bad  and had a little bit of everything for everyone who went out of there way to watch it. Quick Results: House of Hardcore 7 held in the arena in Philadelphia. Stevie Richards pinned Danny Doring in a rather dull opener, Christian York bested Brain Myers/Curt Hawkins in a decent effort . Afterwards Myers refused to leave the ring because he was a big star and would only wrestle a big star completely forgetting his lose to York. Myers was interrupted by Richardo Rodiguez who came out and introduced his charge Alberto Del Rio who came out and cut an impassioned promo. Del rio touched on his wwe release claiming he was so happy that he didn't have to wait an entire year because wwe wanted him to sign a 1 year no compete in America Claus once they released him. The crowd chanted fuck vince McMahon and called vince a pussy which del rio agreed with then Myers tried to attack del rio but del rio slapped Myers in the arm bar to end the segment which was met with cheers by the crowd in Philly in ECW old home the arena. Guido Maritato (little Guido/Nunizo) and Team Tremendous rolled over Vic Daliahus/with the Durprees, Ben The Beast and Anthony Green in a comedy six man tag. Eddie Edwards toppled Eddie Kingston in the best match of the night in my opinion, both men had what looked like a tribute match to misawa and Kobashi. The Dudley's/Team 3D Bubba Ray and Devon beat The Killer Elite Squad Davey Boy Smith Jnr/Harry Smith and Lance Archer/Hoyt in a fun ECW style brawl tag team match. Austin Aries dropped Drew Galloway/Mcintrye in another very good match which was well over 20 minutes long and proved wwe really missed an opprurunity with Drew. In another good match Bobby Roode downed Tommy Dreamer to retain the TNA world title in an old school extreme rules match and finally The Young Bucks Matt and Nick Jackson defeated The Hardys Matt and Jeff in an internet dream match which really did deliver. Afterwards the Hardys tried to swerve turn on the bucks but Matt and nick Were wise to this and superkicked both Matt and Jeff to the outside. The Dudleys then showed up and attacked the bucks (bubba really stiffed one of the bucks) and said they were the greatest tag team in wrestling history. Then to close out the show (like they did on almost every ECW show weather it was in the back or in front of the fans) the entire lockeroom had a beer bash. A Very good nostalgic trip down memory lane felt like an ECW arena show and was essentially just that but I didn't fill like I had wasted my time (it was just under 4 hours long) watching it, Final score for house of hardcore 7 is a solid 7 out of 10. 

Wrap Up 

So that was the month of November 2014 in wrestling history, next month is my year end awards round up. Featuring my match of the year, wrestler of the year and moment of the year, the worst match and wrestler of the year, promotion of the year and commentator of the year as well as my top ten predictions for 2015. So until next month peeps keep an eye out for some great sort of live tweets on my @RantsWrestle twitter account including WWF survivor series 97, WWF wrestlemania 14 and WWF king of the ring 98 this month and my blog reviews of them shows for the JWR Podcast blogspot account. 

The 1st Ever Episode of WCW Nitro Review

Yet another week so that means yet another review of a wrestling event this time it was wcw Monday night nitro's first ever episode which I sort of live tweeted on my @RantsWrestle account but first lets go back and take a little look that the brief history of WCW and what inspired them to go to war with WWF back in September 1995. As the death of wcw book opening paragraph said wcw wasn't supposed to die, according to insiders following the death of the promotion in March 2001. Many within the company believed that Owner Ted Turner would never allow his promotion to die regardless of how much money it lost in 12 years he had owned the promotion. Well why you ask well for that you would have to back to 1976 when ted turners then fledgling tv station (TBS/Superstation) needed programming and pro wrestling was a cheap alternative to producing live sporting events and big budget tv sitcoms. Ted gave Jim Barnett (a successful promoter in Australia and later booker in the WWF and wcw) then Georgia championship wrestling promotion. The promotion got a Saturday evening that 6.05 and on Sunday evening (where GCW run a best of programme) timeslot on Turners TBS superstation (which at this time was called UHF). Serveal years later turner had a small request and that was to change the name of the promotion and Barnett agreed and renamed his promotion to WCW which was the name of his old promotion in Australia. In 1985 during the WWF national expansion vince McMahon purchased barnetts promotion for 750,000 as apart of the deal McMahon purchased the then extremely lucrative Saturday evening 6.05 timeslot on TBS. The switchover from WCW to WWF programming was dubbed by many fans as black Saturday on July 14th 1985. The two shows were vastly different as on WWF shows the emphasis was on short mathes which were normally one sided and short promos while Georgia (WCW) was more based on long athletic matches and amazing promos both were normally delivered by ric flair. Over a 1,000 angry fans flooded the tbs phone lines with angry calls demanding to know where there version of pro wrestling had gone and what was this circus that had replaced it. Ted in fact listened to these angry callers and commissioned a show booked by Ole Andersson to air on a Sunday morning (reports vary some say 7am others claim 10am) under the name championship wrestling from Georgia which appeased fans for now. Over a year later turner turned to bill watts mid south wrestling and handed them the Sunday evening timeslot (were the best of Georgia championship wrestling shows used to air) and told Bill he would back him and mid south financially so he could compete on a national level with vince. Vince was irrate at this as he felt when he purchased the timeslot he had exclusive rights to be the only wrestling brand on tbs to which ted disagreed. In fact ted told vince that vince had regened on a stipulation in a deal the two had inked a year earlier. As vince had claimed to turner when requiring the timeslot he would run a separate weekly wrestling show from Georgia with Georgia's biggest stars and not use the timeslot as a dumping ground for his brand of wrestling. Obviously turner was unhappy with vince reneged on there deal and as vince wouldn't do the Georgia shows then ole or watts would. Vince meanwhile was obviously furious and so was ted and this began the near 15 year rivalry between the two businessmen. In 86 ted was so angry he threated to throw Vince's WWF shows off the air until Jim Barnett stepped in as he neogtiated a deal between McMahon and Jim Crockett (JCP) which would see Crockett purchase the timeslot for 1 million from vince, Turner was reportable ecstatic to get rid of vince. Eventually watts stepped aside and sold Mid South (watts had renamed the promotion to UWF universal wrestling federation by this point) to Crockett while all the other territory's all but died, the AWA was still there just hanging on as Crockett and vince went to war over the next few years. In 1988 crocketts promotion was in a financial mess as well and turned to ted for help (ted had always had a soft spot for wrestling in his heart and was a mark just like the rest of us) and turner brought JCP for 9 million. Then ted made the famous phone call to vince saying hey vince I'm in the wresslin business. Over the next few years WCW would be a horribly mismanaged promotion under the leadership (head booker) of ole Anderson, dusty Rhodes or bill watts and this mismanagement had many within turner to plead with ted to just put wcw out of business once and for all but ted never listened as mentioned above he was a mark at heart for pro wrestling. So in 1993 after 5 years of mismanagement the company turned to eric Bischoff an announcer at the time for wcw 3rd string shows and he was given the role as executive Vice President of wcw. Gone were the grumpy ring warriors that had proceeded Bischoff like ole and watts. Take for intense ole he was not well liked within the turner organisation and bill watts well Jim ross puts it best he weren't ever going to be a corporate guy while Bischoff was someone within the CNN towers turnerbemployees could approach without having there head bitten off. Bischoff took wcw out of the dingy lit arenas and transferred wcw tv tappings into the much more nicer looking and family friendly Disney studios in Orlando Florida and It saved wcw a boatload of cash in doing so. Bischoff also decided to save wcw more money he needed to do what vince had done earlier in the WWF expansion and Tape weeks worth of shows like WCW Saturday night and sometimes even months at a time but this horribly backfired for wcw. As tv tappings had indicated Sid vicious would dethrone Vadar at wcw starrcade 93 for the wcw title but this match never happened. As during a tour of England in late 93 Sid began to talk shit to Arn Andersson he has been reported as saying that Arn and flair were to old to draw and he was the future of wcw. The exchange between the two become more heated and escalated as a fight broke out between the two which ended with Sid taking a pair of scissors and stabbing Arn serveal times. Police and an ambulance were obviously called by staff of the hotel in Blackburn were this incident had taken place and it even made the national newspapers. Sid was fired and the starrcade 93 main event was no more. By this point ted turner had approached Bischoff asking him what would it take to compete with the WWF to which Bischoff replied he would need to sign hulk hogan. In June of 1994 hogan finally signed to wcw (on screen anyway but I believe wcw had secured hogans services before June as the promotion had been hinting since February of 94 that hogan was on his way to wcw), hogan was a short term success for sure as his matches with flair at wcw bash at the beach and wcw Halloween havoc bumped wcw ppv business by 40%. Hogans next feud with good buddy old pal ed lesile was a shambles and had no right headlining that years starrcade ppv. Hogan then buried Vadar in there feud which resulted in hogan no selling vadars  powerbomb which had crippled jobbers years earlier and it made Vadar look like just another guy and his killer aura was gone to never return in the USA at least. Hogan then entered into a dreadful feud with the dungeon of doom but it was so bad it was actually good but during this time hogans appeal was beginning to wear off with the hulkster now regularly being booed in arenas up and down the country. As for Bischoff he was again pulled into turners office and asked point blank by ted what do we have to do to compete with vince. Bischoff was put on the spot and blurted out the only answer he could at the time saying we need prime time. Bischoff says on the Monday night war DVD giving his best ted impression give eric prime time on Mondays head to head with Vince's WWF Monday night RAW show. Many within the industry felt this was an awful move by wcw and it wouldn't just result in there death but wrestling as a whole, yes seriously insiders thought that at the time. Obviously time would tell on that over the top comment and this review isn't about the death of wcw because I will touch on that next week when I sort of live tweet the final episode of wcw nitro. 

WCW Monday Night Nitro 1st ever episode on TNT 05/09/95 

The opening shot of this brand new wrestling show shows the skyline of Minneapolis minnasota and were live says Bischoff as we shoot to inside the mall of the America ( I here you ask why a mall well it was because wcw could cross co promopt hulk hogans resturant pasta mania) the site of the first ever wcw Monday night nitro live on TNT. Eric Bischoff welcomes us to the show and welcomes steve mongo mcmichael to the announce desk here on wcw nitro. In walks bobby the brain Hennan who had been on the build up to this show saying how much of a chicken mcmichael was among other things. Hennan tries to shake mcmichaels hand but he's having none of it as Bischoff throws us to the ring for opening bout of the evening. Brian Pillman vs Jusin Thunder Liger- liger goes for Pillmans arm at the bell and slaps on a side headlock onto flyin Brian, liger Irish whips Pillman to the corner and follows it up with a cart wheel kick to Pillmans shoulder. Liger serves the first plate of chops of the evening to Pillmans chest. liger goes to Irish whip Pillman again but Pillman counters it and sends liger into the corner but before liger ends up back first in the corner liger jumps up top and moonsualts into the awaiting arms of Pillman. During this sequences Bischoff utters his iconic tag line for nitro for years to come that this is where the big boys play. Liger covers Pillman for a two count and then slaps on a sleeper to Pillman to give the two a much needed rest. Liger whips Pillman into the far corner and then drives his knees into Pillmans head. Liger goes to whip Pillman again and follow him in but Pillman catches liger with a head scissors and it drives liger head first into the top turnbuckle. Pillman backs liger up into another corner and proceeds to chop liger serveal times with a knife edge chops. Pillman goes to Irish whip liger but liger counters it and Pillman ends up in the corner then liger charges Pillman but Pillman puts his boot up and liger runs face first into Pillmans boot. Pillman goes for a botched huancaina and covers liger for another two count, snapmere by Pillman to liger. Abdormal stretch by Pillman to liger while the two are in a seated position (sorry I don't recall the spots actual name) then Pillman rolls through on liger and has ligers shoulders pinned to the mat but only gets a two count. Pillman goes for another Irish whip but again liger counters it and sends Pillman into the corner as Pillman stumbles out he is taken down by liger with a scoop slam and liger applies the rarely seen in 1995 the Mexican surf board. The announcers meanwhile talk about how you won't see action like this anywhere else (verbal joust number 2 by wcw to WWF). Liger breaks the surfboard at 4 and reverts to a chinlock on Pillman then he breaks that and whips Pillman into the ropes which again Pillman counters with a headscissors. Liger is dazed by the ropes so Pillman runs at liger but liger sends Pillman up and over onto the floor on the outside. Liger on the ring apron now then runs and cannonballs from the apron into Pillman. Liger rolls into the ring and the referee counts but only reaches 6 as Pillman rolls back into the ring to break the count. Pillman rolls back onto the ring apron to get a breather but liger grabs him and tries to bring Pillman back into the ring the hard way via a suplex but Pillman counters the suplex and sends liger out onto the floor below. Pillman ascends the ropes and goes up top and dives out onto liger who is just recovering after being suplex from the ring to the outside a few moments ago. Pillman rolls liger into the ring and goes up top again but now liger is up as he drop kicks Pillmans feet out from underneath him and Pillman falls crotching himself on the top rope in the process. Liger then climbs up top and suplexes Pillman from the top to the mat below and liger covers Pillman but only gets a two count. Liger goes up top now and flys off into Pillman but Pillman is waiting for liger and dropkicks liger in the gut. Pillman covers liger and only gets a two count again, both men are up now and Pillman chops liger. Pillman whips liger into the ropes but liger counters and sends Pillman into the ropes. Pillman rebounds into liger who cuts him off with a right hand and then liger gives Pillman a powerbomb and covers him for the 1,2 no as Pillman just kicks out. Liger is frustrated and then puts Pillman up top and goes and follows Brian up top. Pillman pushes liger back down and gives liger a right hand and a swinging DDT but only gets a two count. Waist lock by Pillman but liger counters it and teases giving Pillman a German suplex but Pillman counters it with a standing switch rolls up liger and gets the 1,2 and 3 and your Winner is Brian Pillman to open up nitro proper with this excellent contest. Liger shakes Pillmans hand afterwards as Bischoff throws us to a pre tapped sting promo were sting shares with us there is no one better to scorpion death lock than the nature boy ric flair. After commerical easy e is in the pasta mania store with wcw champion hulk hogan and jimmy hart. Hulk seems more interested in plugging his resturant than his main event title defence against big bubba (the big bossman/Ray Traylor). Up next is Us champion sting facing the nature boy Ric Flair in a Non Title Match. The nature boy is out first and gets a big pop from the crowd and he's followed by the stinger who gets an even louder reception from the crowd. Mongo is then in the middle of saying something when Bischoff interrupts him with well what in the hell is he doing here and take the camera off of him as lex luger a recognisable WWF superstar and former wcw champion himself has arrived on nitro and live on TNT. The crowd that first is in some sort of a stunned silence then the reaction gets louder and louder. Security head Doug Dillinger and his security team escort luger away into the back as flair and sting even look on stunned by what they had just witness. Flair and Sting lock up and flair backs sting into the corner and they release the lock up as the crowd chant lets go stinger. Sting let's out a wooo that the nature boy so ric goes in for another lock up and flair sends sting into the ropes. A shoulder block by sting to flair who pops right back up and rebounds into the ropes while the stinger goes the other way and a kris cross by both men. Sting leapfrogs clean over Naitch not once but twice then sting catches flair and gives him a military press and hoists flair up into the air and flair goes and hits the mat stomach first. Flair begs off as sting stands over him but sting is having none of it and grabs flair by the hair and picks him up and does the same spot again to get a massive ovation from the crowd. Sting then gives flair a hip toss and then drops flair with a dropkick. Flair rolls to the outside as the crowd are at a fever pitch chanting sting. Flair gets back in the ring and the two lock up again this time flair proves why he is the dirtest player in the game and takes a short cut by poking his thumb into stings eye. Flair backs sting up into the corner and begins to chop at the stingers chest but it has little or no effect on the stinger as flair begins to back up begging off again from sting. Sting then whips flair into the ropes and does his 3rd military press slam to flair. Sting picks up Naitch and tries to whip flair into the ropes but flair counters it and kicks sting in the gut. Then flair whips sting into the ropes but Sting rebounds back into flairs path who goes for a chop but sting ducks it hits the ropes and flys back out at flair with a cross body block but flair ducks and sting hits the top rope and falls to the outside. Meanwhile Bischoff on the announce desk reminds us once again this is live and were the big boys play. Flair follows sting to the outside and begins to chop stings chest again and again it has no effect on sting. Flair begs off again then runs at sting but sting catches him and lifts him up into the military press slam again rather than dumping flair on the floor he tosses the flair back through the middle rope and into the ring. Sting gets back in the ring as flair begs off on his knees this time again sting Irish whips flair into the corner and goes for his stinger splash but flair moves and sting misses his intended target. Flair is dazed and can't recover in time while sting comes back to life and gives flair a bulldog. Sting picks up flair and whips him into the corner yet again and runs that Naitch but this time flair gets an elbow up and stings into it jaw goes flairs elbow. Then we go to commerical once back flair is in control of the contest. Flair then goes up top but sting recovers and catches flair who took a long time getting up there and sting flings nature boy from the top to the mat below. Yet another military press slam by sting to flair who then covers flair for a two count only. Then out walks Arn Anderson (at the time flair and Anderson were feuding and no longer buddies) to get a better view of the action. Back in the ring sting tries to splash flair but misses up pops flair who gives sting a suplex but sting pops right back up and clothes line flair not once but twice. Sting then whips flair into the corner and flair goes up and over landing on the ring apron but sting flairs long time rival knows this and chops flair off the ring apron and flair lands on the floor. Flair rolls back in the ring and flair and sting lock up, stings backs flair into corner and mounts him in the corner and gives flair the 90's baby face spot of ten punches in the corner which the crowd happily counts along too. Sting then gives flair a hip toss all the way from one side of the ring to the other side. Sting puts flair on the top rope, sting goes up top and the two exchange left and rights. Sting falls onto his feet to the mat and flair follows, flair then Irish whips sting into the ropes. Flair goes for a hip toss but sting counters it and sting goes for a hip toss of his own but flair cuts him off with a punch to the gut. Flair takes sting down with a side headlock, sting gets back and the two both tease the backslide which sting wins and has flair pinned for a two count only. Sting then puts flair on the top rope and follows flair up top and gives flair a big suplex from the top rope. Sting goes to cover flair but is distracted by Arn Anderson on the outside and flair has time to recover. Flair gets up and gives sting a chop block and applies the figure four as Arn Anderson jumps into the ring forcing the DQ. Winner By DQ the nature boy ric flair announces Dave penzer as double a removes his shirt and goes right after flair attacking him and the two battle to the back. Back in the ring stings music plays as he celebrates his lose(um ok), great match shame about the DQ finish. Moments later Arn comes back out and confronts sting but the two are cut off by Scott Norton who is on the outside shouting at mongo. The macho man randy savage comes out to the ring as well as sting and Arn leave. Savage then picks up a microphone while in the ring and says I want to fight you tonight Scott Norton. Bischoff then tells norton if he steps foot in that ring he will never work here in wcw and out comes Doug dillenger and his security team who lead norton away to the back. A video package airs on Sabu, yes the homicidal genecidal maniac Sabu on his impending arrival in wcw. When we return mean gene okerlund is in the ring and he announces the winner of the Harley Davidson sweep stakes challenge (pointless segment). Another video package airs this time on another newcomer V.K. Wall Street (get it) who basically buries WWF new generation and mentions his former character IRS. Up next is WCW World TItle Match as champion Hulk Hogan defends his title against Big Bubba. Before the bell can ring Bischoff announces that next week it's been signed and made official as Scott Norton goes one on one with the macho man randy savage. Both start the match with a lock up but the two quickly break it and both men pose (stalling tactics) to the crowd. Again they lock up and bubba slaps on a side lock to hogan which hogan counters by pushing bubba off an into the ropes and hogan shoulder blocks Bubba sending him down to the mat. Hogan poses while bubba recovers and both men lock up again and into a test of strength spot. Bubba takes the low road by kicking hogan in the gut while locked up and pushes hogan back into the corner. Bubba then begins to trash talk the hulkster and it fires hogan up who bursts out of the corner decking bubba with left and rights. Bubba goes low to cut hogan off again with a knee to the gut and powerslams hogan. Bubba backs hogan up into the corner and fires left and right hands at hogans mid section. Bubba then goes to splash hogan but hulk gets his boot up and bubba runs into the boot. Hogan fires more left and rights at bubba until referee randy Anderson can take no more and tries to pull hogan off of bubba. This gives bubba time to recover who gets up and decks hogan up side the head with a right hand and hogan bends over the middle rope and bubba sits on hogans neck. Bubba then goes out after jimmy hart but hulk comes out and saves harts bacon as bubba removes Jimmys jacket. Back in the ring hogan chokes bubba with the jacket (blatant DQ) and then Pummels bubba in the face with a right hand which sends bubba reeling back into the corner. Hogan then gives bubba a clothesline while bubba is in the corner, hogan beats on bubba some more in the corner. Referee randy Anderson has to step in to pull hogan off of bubba and hulk threatens to deck poor official randy Anderson for doing his job (this would be the start of quick tease by hogan that he might go heel). Hogan scoop slams bubba and drops an elbow into bubbas chest. Bubba gets the upper hand with an uppercut to hogans throat while mongo says on commentary you won't see wrestling like this anywhere else (yes mongo this match vince would have never booked during the new generation era because he knew how much it sucked). Hogan hits the ropes and rebounds into bubba who catches hogan and gives him the side walk slam, bubba covers hogan but only gets a two count. Bubba then punches hogan but by now hulk is hulking up and the crowd pop big time for this. Hulk whips bubba into the ropes and gives bubba the big boot leg drop combo and gets the 1,2 and 3. Your Winner and still wcw world champion hulk hogan. As hogan celebrates with jimmy hart the dungeon of doom (the taskmaster Kevin Sullivan, zodiac aka ed lesile or Brutus the barber beefcake, kamala and shark aka earthquake john tenta) who attack hogan. This leads to lex Luger coming out and luger and hogan take out the dungeon sending them packing. Then the two turn and see another and are ready to fight one another when out comes sting and savage who hold both hogan and lugar back respectively as Bischoff says did you hear that hulk hogan just said to luger, to go back from where he came from. We then go to commerical when we return mean gene okerlund is in mid ring he says to hulk I don't know what the hell is going on here. Hulk interrupts mean gene and says what In the hell are you Doing here. Lex then rambles on for a bit and hits his points by saying he was sick to death of playing with kids and wanted to play we're the big boys did. Luger then added the biggest boy of them all is hulk hogan and I want to fight you for that wcw world title weather that be next week, next month or next year. Hogan then tells luger he knows who Luger is and that they've traveled the same path so luger doesn't need to wait because next week with the title on the line, me (hogan) and you (lex) one on one. Mean gene then pops as hogan and luger square up to one another yet again and savage and sting have to step in to pull the two apart and we fade to black. 

Round Up 

Nitro started a trend not seen during this period as they wheeled out three big matches which were all of ppv quality something rarely seen during the mid nineties and this couldn't have been a better week to debut the show as WWF raw was pre-emptied for the westminster dog show so wcw had monoplay that evening and made a hell of a lot of noise as well. Fans who may have not have been aware of raw not being on that week may have flipped the channels and found there wrestling fix that night and wcw would have currently made an impression on those fans. It was so different to WWF raw during that period as raw consisted of one big star match sandwiched in between a bunch of one sided squash matches. In compassion wcw was fresh, hip and innovative. Now the question was would vince change with the times and try to catch up with the times and for once do something different. This is all sounding rather familiar isn't it. Anyway next week I will move onto the final episode of wcw nitro and take a look back at the vince Russo effect, creative control and the fall of wcw in 99 and try to answer went wrong with wcw and how this once innovative show meet it's timely demise. 

The wrestling round up: Cena v Orton 250

WWE

The month of October for wwe has been a rather average month yet again with the company yet again facing the prospect of trying to find a match suitable of warranting the hell in the cell stipulation. Back in September my thinking was Brock would headline the show inside the cell with Cena to end there summer long series once and for all. Even with word spreading in September Lesnar was due to sign extras dates to his current deal so he could appear on hell in the cell ppv and even possibly at survivor series in November. It seemed like the most logical choice of a main event wwe could go with, but alas the company didn't do this due to whatever reason. Now reports claim Lesnar hasn't signed any sort of extra dates to his deal which is a shame for wwe as they really need him at the moment. Instead wwe originally choose john Cena v dean Ambrose with the winner facing Seth Rollins in the hell in the cell while the loser would of Ambrose v Cena would face randy Orton also in a cell match at the wwe network special event (let's face it wwe claims it doesn't do pay per views anymore). Wwe had claimed that Ambrose v Cena would be a no holds barred pole match at the cell show but this match will not happen now. With very little explanation wwe rushed Ambrose v Cena onto free tv and remember this is the twos first single match together if built properly then maybe wwe could have poped a buy rate or as they call it these days a network subscription or two. Anyway the match ended after a ton of interference from the authority's goons Kane, randy Orton and Seth Rollins. The finish protected Cena as always but it did give wwe fans the match they wanted with Rollins v Ambrose and the match they didn't want to see again for the 250th time Orton v Cena. I'm guessing wwe thinking was they needed to announce a main event or at least have one in place to sell this show but it still raises the question why wwe decided to do Cena v Ambrose in this manner. Now on the eve of the show people are wondering who will main event this show will it be Cena v Orton a match wwe fans have seen countless times over the last 5 years or will it be the fresher feud between Rollins and ambrose. For me personally I'd like wwe to send a message to it's fans by having Rollins v Ambrose go on last and ram home to it's viewers it's a new era in this company and these guys are the next top stars. But like so many I think wwe will bottle it come show time and book Orton v Cena on top. This could lead to a better match between Ambrose and Rollins who will surely fill slited by wwe for doing this to them and go out that night and have a damn fine cell encounter that Cena and Orton could never follow. Also rumoured to be happening on hell in the cell show is wwe may turn randy Orton back face again. Some maybe fill a turn will give randys career a breath of fresh air because he's becoming more and more stale as heel with each passing week. I think this could be a good idea for wwe to do this at this time. If you think about it, it will Create a bunch of fresh feuds for Orton and will give wwe a chance to build a long term feud between either triple h or Seth Rollins for wrestlemania and even have Orton v Lesnar at the rumble. Lesnar v Orton is a fresh match up wwe are yet to do and with Lesnar going over Orton it sends message that this guy has now defeated takers streak, beat blood, urine and vomit out of Cena and had then destroyed the viper. That could make Lesnar pipping hot come mania with a new baby face star whoever that may be weather it's Ambrose, roman Regins or the even more unlikely now daniel Bryan (a second surgery is needed on his neck and he will likely miss mania at this point) beating Lesnar to usher in a new era on top within wwe. This new baby face star could lay claim to having beaten and sent packing the man who dominated wwe in 2014. For me I think the time is right for Ambrose to beat Lesnar at mania at this moment in time he is the most over baby face on the wwe roster. Wwe may have other plans for mania with the rumoured main event for months now is roman Regins vs Lesnar but I fill with Regins injury hitting him at this time once he returns there isn't enough time to sufficiently build him as a serious threat that fans will take seriously and his beating Lesnar at mania will mean nothing and Lesnar year of dominance may mean nothing and that in turn will mean wwe having undertaker lose at mania to Lesnar will also mean nothing. As for Lesnar as wwe champion I don't have a problem with it but still fill he needs to be back following hell in the cell for a survivor series match with Cena. Then for tlc he doesn't need to be there and then have him defend against Orton at rumble (as mentioned above). It seems feesable scanerio we could be heading to with the current champion being there up to every 3 to 5 weeks and I don't have a problem with that whatsoever. Rusev may be heading off onto bigger and better things once he's defeated the bully boy giants that are mark Herny and big show. Wwe sent a clear message by having the rock interrupt him on raw 3 weeks ago that they see big things for Rusev in his future and why not he's proved he's more than just another Vladimir Kolsov and worked very hard indeed to get himself over. As for what wwe have planned for Rusev at mania, who knows what they will do could he be matched up with Cena or could he wrestle the rock but only time will tell but it was clear during his segment with the rock wwe see rusev as a future main eventer. With all this talk of wretlemania believe it or not rumours are already going around that stone cold steve austin will wrestle at the showcase of the immortals for the wrestlemania 32 show in 2016. Austin has always said if he was given the right operant, stage and creative he'd be open to a return to wwe for one more match. Austins return to the ring will be a very big deal indeed espiecally if it takes place at mania 32 in front of 100,000 fans in Dallas Texas at the AT&T stadium. Austin who was without doubt one of wwe biggest draws ever could be line to face a number of wrestlers at this point but in my opinion a match with either triple h or Brock Lesnar would be the right match for austin as he wrestles what will then be his last match ever but there is still a long way to go yet before mania 32 even gets here so I'm probably getting ahead of my myself here with this one. We finally end this wwe section with news you will surely have read by now that the company has released popular ring announcer Justin Roberts. A move that was probably done due to the company cost cutting measures recently a shame as Roberts was respected by some fans who have grown up on his announcing there favourite superstars (personally I'm a Howard Finkel guy). Again it was wwe knowing they were paying him what they felt was too much and already had a replacement in Cody Rhodes wife Eden who was more cheaper than Roberts. Whatever it was it was probably also due to the fact next week wwe will be releasing there network subscriber numbers and if those reports as some have suggested then maybe his firing was because of this. 

TNA 

I had given up on TNA a long time ago at one point in 2005 while watching this exciting promotion you felt this promotion was onto something special and in 5 years it could be a real threat to wwe, but alas this never happened. Whoever you blame for TNA decline weather it's Dixie carter, vince Russo, Jeff Jarrett, hulk hogan, eric Bischoff or Bruce Prichard this company could have been something special. Note to Dixie why did you fire Scott demore the guys ideas where less storyline driven and mostly focused on in ring action. Never mind rant over. TNA went into this month with them telling the world week after week they would be announcing a tv deal soon. Each week has passed this month and still no deal of which to speak of and that's a shame because as we roll into November it's becoming clear to everyone expect Dixie carter of course that her promotion is in serious trouble. With no TNA the wrestling landscape will look very bleak indeed and as for all the talented workers yes some will end up in wwe but some will not and that will be very bad for the wrestlers who make a living off doing this as there chosen profession and career. At the end of the day I don't fill sorry for Dixie or TNA if they cease to exist I fill bad for wrestlers who may or may not have to leave the business altogether. As for TNA it's been depressing the last 3 months the company has been a shell of it's former self putting together nothing of importance well expect the finish to the Wovles, hardys and 3d feud but not a lot else. Take TNA bound for glory for instance once considered by TNA as there wrestlemania now this years addition was reduced to being a run of a mill house show which happened to be in japan. Wrestle 1 weren't exactly helped by TNA in the build up to the event as TNA pulled it's champion bobby lashley and popular wrestler Robert Roode and the final to the tag team series which was the mentioned above the Wovles v the hardys v the Dudley's. Why even bother calling it bound for glory if the company was just going to end up devaluing it's own show by pulling stars just imagine if Roode v lashley had taken place and the tlc bout it probably could have saved bound for glory and made it fill more like more of an important ppv but alas we got what we got for what could be the last ever bound for glory ppv. Sure it was great to see the great Muta wrestle but this crowd didn't seem to care about this former wcw world champion, multi time IWGP heavyweight champion and triple crown champion which was a shame if it was me I would have booked Muta vs angle but angle wasn't fit to return to the ring so we got Muta and Tariji vs storm and senada in a rather dull main event instead. Just imagine if TNA would have had Muta v angle as well as the tlc and TNA title match the review of this ppv and negative critical response it received May not have happened. I end this TNA section on a plus as TNA have brought back British bootcamp on challenge tv here in the uk and my pick to win this season is Grado but do I fill tna will not pick him to be the winner of the season 2? no I do not as I think TNA think that Grado gimmick won't work in front of a us crowd but they have nothing to lose as the company is all but dead and it's likely last shows will be taking place on these shores in January. So why not have Grado a BBC documentary star win the competition and at least give the fans of blighty something to shout about at the TNA shows as mentioned in the UK in the new year. 

ROH 

Over in ROH the company has announced that ROH final battle 2014 will be heading to New York for a 9th consecrative year in a row but rather than the Hammerstein ballroom it's going to be held at terminal 5. The event will also be ROH 2nd ppv event this year following on from the success of ROH best in the world ppv back in June. Talking of ROH best in the world which was headlined by micheal Elgin challenging for the ROH world title and defeating then champion Adam cole In a dramatic match. Elgin as you will probably know dropped the ROH title in September at the ROH all star extravaganza show to jay Briscoe. It's been rather clouded as to why Elgin dropped the gold. Some sources claim it's due to Elgin hinting in an interview he wanted to be a baseball player in the future which reportable upset some ROH officials who felt Elgin should have been talking about being a ROH world champion rather than his dream to become a baseball player. Other sources say it's down to Elgin and ROH not sorting out his visa issues which forced him to stay behind in Canada following the ROH all star extravaganza show but whatever it was it made Elgin take to twitter a few weeks back and publicly claim on the social media site he was done with ROH and had quit the company. Of course it's lead many to dealt the legitimacy of Elgin so called walk out and claim it was all a work (a storyline that both Elgin and ROH are working). Elgin also has gone as far as to do a shoot interview with highspots and tell all about situation. I for one am a little dissappionted Elgin is gone but I do expect him and ROH to sort some kind of deal out which will see him return to the company weather that be next week or next year or even many years from now. Poor old jay Briscoe couldn't have been happy with all of this attention Elgin was receiving as he's the guy ROH picked to take the strap (sorry vince) from Elgin in Canada last month. He couldn't be off to a more lacklustre start as champion as everyone seems more obsessed with this Elgin stituation rather than him as the ROH world champion and I'm sure he (if he cares at all) is aware a lot of people on twitter are already talking about who succeeds him as ROH champion with the fans and mine thinking Adam cole should get the belt back in time for ROH final battle ppv. 

Elsewhere 

New japan and global force wrestling (Jeff Jarrett's new on and off again promotion GFW) will be co promoting the wrestling kingdom event in the world famous Tokyo dome in the new year and the event will also be on traditional ppv. New japan and global force hope to cash in on the success of ROH ppv exploits and the fact there ippv provider ustream has dropped new japan from it's schedule. The show will likely draw over 40,000 to 60,000 fans to the dome and be a success in japan and with smarks across the world who will go out of there way to pay and watch this show no matter what and I will also be one of these people. Also good ole JR (Jim Ross) is reportable being lined up to do commentary for the show and that could be a massive news in it's self if it becomes a reality of course but it seems as if this is only rumours but ross has mentioned the show serveal times on his podcast the last few weeks, so take from that what you will. New japan recently held the NJPW king of pro wrestling event this month which was a very good show indeed. It featured Hiroshi Tanahashi beating AJ Styles to win his 7th IWGP heavyweight title on the show in a blistering main event and set up a dream rematch at the Kingdom ppv against Kazuchika Okada as Okada beat to retain his MITB breifcase against Tetsuya Naito on the same show. I for one am looking forward to this match (it will blow away anything else on mania next year) but if new japan wanted to make it's ppv appeal to jaded fans of TNA or wwe then I question why they've booked this Match on top surely the less spectacular AJ and Jarrett vs Tanahashi and Okada would have seemed like a more likely choice or even having styles v Okada and Jarrett vs tanahashi would have maybe appealed to those fans more than Okada v tanahashi. Yoshi Tatsu made his return to new japan on the kopw show he stopped Jeff Jarrett's interference during the styles/tanahashi match which will now likely set up Tatsu vs Jarrett for the kingdom ppv. Best of luck to Yoshi I say he deserves his chance to shine because he currently didn't get it in wwe. Kurt angle could be an amazing addition to the kingdom ppv and raise buy rates some more if he wrestled styles or shinsuke Nakamura on the show but again it's down to both sides to make something happen and I know it's just a dream and even maybe too much to ask angle to be back from injury the time the show rolls around on January 4th. Over here in England my thoughts and prays go out to British wrestler Kris Travis who had been diagnosed with cancer, PCW have started up an indie go go page to help the British ace in his hour of need, so go check it out. Finally it's over to Rey Mysterio who made a cameo on MLW podcast this past Sunday, Rey talked (not for very long I may add) about moving away from wrestling and into acting among other things. Then news broke this week Hugo savinovich has said Rey is dying to be let go by wwe so he can resume his career in Mexico with AAA a group Mysterio had worked for before he came to the us of a in the early nineties and had worked for recently in august at the promotions version of wwe wretlemania called triple mania where Rey appeared on the Titon tron to cut a promo. Again I'll say this Mysterio may have to go to court to get out of his wwe deal or return to wwe to work the rest of his deal before wwe let him go anywhere. I for one just wish this whole mess isn't dragged through the courts as it would mean Mysterio would face many more months and even years on the sidelines not being able to wrestle until this whole mess has been sorted out. So that's my two cents on the wrestling world this month and I will be back with another wrestling round up next month and thanks for reading peeps, seacrest out, did I just type that. 

The Wrestling Tag

Name Your Top 3 Favourite Heel Characters

Hayley Race - the kingpin of the NWA and the St. Louis territory. Harley was such a villain in my eyes after he tried to retire flair in the build up to starrcade 83.  

The Nature Boy Ric Flair - He was a kiss stealing son of a gun and his attack on ricky Morton in 85 and then later on against savage in the WWF was such a heeliish act I'll never forget it 

Raven - This character was cruelly under used in WWF/E but in ECW he turned Sandmans own family against him and screwed over poor old tommy dreamer over time and time again thoughout 95,96 and 97 

If you could create your own women's division, who would be your top 5 picks 

Paige, Gail Kim, Kharma/Awesome Kong, Sasha Banks and Bull Nakano 

You have to name and create (give it a theme) and choose various matches for a PPV. go ahead be creative. 

Well I would hold a ppv which solely based around pushing the best wrestler. I would name the event destiny or road 2 glory or something like that. The under card would feature 5 qualifying matches for the main event match which would be named after the ppv in question. It would essentially be a 5 man elimination match, two men would start the match then on the 15 minute mark a 3rd man would enter, then a 4th man on the 30 minute mark and finally on the 45 minute mark the final entrant would enter. I'd also give the match a 90 minute time limit and eliminations could only accrue when all 5 men where in the ring. 

Make Your Announce Team 

I want to put Gorden Solie in or lance Russell but my heart says JR and Paul Heyman, incredible partnership on the announce desk back in 2001. 

What Would Be Your Theme Song and Who Would Sing It

Well as I'm a hip hop fan and I'd be a heel I'm going with Nas - hate me now. 

Tag 5 Friends and Let it Grow. 

Michael Cook

Darren Dyer 

Steve Dawson 

Joshua Smith 

John Huxy Huxall

 

WWF Survivor Series 92 Review

WWF survivor series 92 was a strange show which failed to deliver that big card fill WWF were able to do so well thoughout the late 80's but due to a number of scandals that hit the fed in the early 90's. Shows had become stale and in 1991 ppv buys fell and live attendence also fell. At wrestlemania 8 hulk hogan made his final fed appearance until 1993 and business continued to decline. WWF did become better within the ring in 1992 due to vince McMahon pushing younger more athletic wrestlers like Bret hart, Shawn Michaels and the undertaker. So WWF was in a transisition for this show. New acts debuted who would go onto be major players during the WWF new generation era, the focus was on in ring action (espiecally for the main event) and not a hogan or warrior in sight and some guys who were stars years previously made there final WWF ppv appearance as well. As for the main event of the show it was originally susposed to be the team of the ultimate maniacs (randy savage and the ultimate warrior) vs ric flair and razor roman but that changed after warrior quit WWF for a second time over a pay dispute. So in a rather rushed fashion mr perfect then ric flairs on screen consultant was turned baby face and teamed with savage instead after savage offered warriors spot to perfect on prime time wrestling and perfect accepted. Perfect accpted in front of hennan who blow a gasket over this and lost his temper slapping perfect in a rage. Hennan know almost immediately he had made a mistake and backed up apologising to perfect but perfect made

Bobby get down on his knees and say sorry and of course hennan did and perfect dumped water on top of hennan telling him he accepted savages offer. Meanwhile the title picture suddenly changed in the summer of 92 after savage lost his second and last WWF title to ric flair following summer slam 92. Flair then lost to Bret hart out of nowhere on an coliseum home video exclusive match shot in front of brets fellow Canadians in Saskatoon Canada. Bret hart upset ric flair to become WWF champion for a first time, Bret was fed all comers thoughout the weeks in the build up to this show beating the likes of the Berzerker, papa shango, the Mountie, Virgil and others to showcase Bret would take on all challengers and was a fighting champion. Unlike hogan who rarely defended his title on tv and during his era. In WWF in 1992 a Bret hart was a breath of fresh air to WWF main event scene which had become stale main under hogan and Bret currently didn't look like a steroid user due to WWF at the time being involved in it's first major steroid scandal. Lower down the mid card a young talent was also catching vince McMahon's eye he like Bret was also a former tag team wrestler going solo. The man was HBK Shawn Michaels and HBK was booked on November 14th addition of Saturday nights main event to win the WWF intercontinental title from the British bulldog who had only won it 3 months prior in wembley stadium in England beating Bret hart on that night as well. Shawn beat Davey due to vince wanting a known steroid users off his tv shows due to the ongoing scandals at the time but also it was a step in the right direction for the WWF at the time. Shawn now believed in the storylines as he beat smith and smith had beaten hart that he was next in line for the title shot. A shot Hitman had no problem accepting and the two would now headline survivor series rather than the tag team match. Meanwhile A former heel and now baby face undertaker had a summer to remember or forget depending on how you look at it and had gained incredible support from the WWF fans in 92. Taker was one of a few of Vince's success story in 92, after taker had beaten Jake the snake Roberts at wrestle mania 8 he was placed into a feud with kamala that summer it didn't exactly set the world on fire but it was doing it's job of establishing taker a strong face the company would need going forward. So to this show after a lot of talk on how the WWF was clearly in a transisition and going in a new direction for this show and the foreseeable future. The 92 addition of survivor Series was held in Richfield Ohio at the Richfield coliseum drawing an impressive live gate of 17,500 and over 400,000 ppv buys (this was considered bad business in 92). To open the show on the live ppv itself was freshly turned baby face reverend slick who welcomed us to the show basically his promo was nothing of importance (this wasn't the start of the show I watched on coliseum home video it just immediately cut to vince and bobby hennan who were tonight's announce team). Then vince McMahon and bobby hennan welcomed us to the show, vince reviewed the main event between hart and HBK and the tag team Match as hennan called perfect an ingrate who would stab savage in the back tonight. Then we went to the fink who announced coming down the aisle was high energy the team of Owen hart and koko b ware. Already in the ring was the team energy would be facing this evening the team of the headshrinkers who were accompied by Afa. There wasn't much to like about this match it was on the ppv to simply showcase the headshrinkers team of Samu and fatu. The bell rang and Samu was all over koko and the team of the samon savages beat down koko convincingly. Koko eventually tagged in Owen who didn't fair to much better against the headshrinkers. It was over within in minutes as Samu hit Owen with a karate kick to the throat and pinned Owen for the 1,2 and 3 in a rather average outing. This match marked the end of high energy who broke up come 93 as koko was sent packing to WWF then unofficial developmental USWA and koko only made a few brief appearances in the fed basically putting superstars over in tv matches. As for Owen going into 93 he suffered a serious knee injury and wasn't seen again in the fed until summer slam 93. Up next was nails vs the big bossman in a night stick on a pole match. A very odd individual indeed was Kevin Wacholz who portrayed the nails character who was a man who claimed the big bossman had abused him while he was inside and bossman was a prison guard. A number of wired vignettes aired over May and June as nails vowed revenge on bossman for the abuse he had suffered under bossmans hands. Sean mooney is in the back with nails who grabs mooney and screams he will get his revenge this evening against bossman. Basically if you know how it all ends for wacholz in WWF then this was  fore shadowing how he choked a reportable scared shitless vince over his summer slam 92 payoff which he felt was a little less than he thought he would receive and basically disappeared from the business in the process. The two didn't really do to much but what they did elected a response from the live crowd at least. Nails had a fondness for choking people and he did it a lot here but if you've seen one pole match then you've seen them all I suspose. Basically the match goes a little something like this both wrestlers tease retrieving the wepeon which is attracted on top of the pole, then the wrestler retrieves the wepeon and uses to win the match normally unless your judy bagwell of course. This match was pretty much following that formula as bossman teases retrieving the night stick and nails follows suit. After serval pain stacking minutes bossman retrieved the night stick hit nails but only gets a two count. Nails recovers far to easily and nails bossman with a big boot. Nails has the stick now and wallops bossman with the stick. Nails then let's bossman recover and goes to hit bossman with the night stick again but bossman ducks and then catches nails and gives him a side walk slam to pick up the win over the convict. Afterwards nails storms off as bossman celebrates, in the back nails grabs mooney by his collar and screams at him next time bossman I will have my revenge and nails is gone forever but he did show up in a cup of coffee with wcw feuding with sting a feud that sting obviously won. Nails would stick around wcw but was almost never used and got paid to sit around at home for a few years before he disappeared from wrestling for good and retired by 2000. Ric flair and razor roman cut a promo on mr perfect as flair called perfect ungrateful and once him and razor were done with perfect that perfect would come crawling back to there side. A video was then shown on mr perfect accepting randy savages invertation to join him to face flair and razor at WWF survivor series which perfect accepted of course and turned full blown face by dumping a jug full of water on top of bobby Hennans head. Rick the model Martel took on the still undefeated tatanka next in what was another dire match on this ppv. Basically the model put over tatanka clean to carry on the native Americans undefeated streak. During this drab affair doink come out to make his ppv debut which took all of the crowds focus away from the match and onto wrestlings first ever clown character. Matt Boone portrayed doink early on and his portrayal was spot on as a child I believed he was one scary clown and I believe wwfs audience then also believed this. Doink smoked a cigar and blow up some kids balloons he then proceeded to pop them and run off into the back. Doink was back as the crowd was falling asleep during another chinlock by Martel to tatanka. This time doink teased throwing water on the audience and the brain couldn't have found it funnier. Doink leaves for the finish as tatanka gives Martel a back slide for another two count, tatanka follows it up with a Samoan drop and gets another two count. Tatanka dances around and lays in a war chop to martels head not once but twice and gives the model another Samoan drop for the 1,2 and 3. Mr perfect and macho man randy savage are in the back with Sean mooney they proclaim themsevles the perfect tag team and perfect vows to pin flair tonight. So up next is macho man randy savage and mr perfect the perfect tag team vs the nature boy ric flair and razor roman. This was pushed as the main event of the show and I must applaud vince for risking it and putting it on early so he could let the two new generation stars main event the show instead but if warrior had been savages partner then I'm guessing vince would have put that on last instead. Savage makes his way to the ring first and is clearly the most over guy on this show and at this time vince is seriously considering benching savage and making him an announcer what was he thinking savage was clearly still over and hot property in WWF in 1992/1993 savage turning heel and headlining mania 9 against hart could have been big business for the WWF but alas vince decided against it. Perfect starts the match with razor and shows early on he has lost none of what made him so perfect in the first place with a pair of arm drags to razor. In comes flair and perfect takes flair down with a side headlock, perfect follows it up with a perfect drop kick to flairs mouth. Perfect tags in savage and he goes to work on Naitch having flair back up and beg off from the savages dangerous right hand. Flair tags in razor and the newcomer never looked out of place after debuting months earlier he was thrown into this big money match and took it all in his stride as he more than held his own in there against these 3 experienced veterans. Savage is all over razor who backs up and tags in flair who drops to the outside and randy follows him out like a crazed man. Back in the ring savage drops flair with another right hand and goes up top and drops a big double axe handle down onto flair. Flair makes his comeback when he gets savage tied up with the referee and chop blocks savages bad knee (a knee savage had injured during summer slam 93 and then again against flair where savage dropped the WWF title to flair). Razor went to work on savages leg by stomping it and applying a leg lock. Flair was in as hennan claimed flair was better than perfect. Flair did a lot of woooo's as he wore down savages knee, quick tags between the two as McMahon cries a foul. Razor has savage in trouble with a single leg crab but savage gets to the ropes and razor is forced to break the hold. Eventually flair went up top and savage went up to join him and on one bad leg gave flair a second rope suplex. Suddenly perfect jumps down from the ring apron and teases walking out on savage but returns in time for the hot tag. Perfect is in and is a house on fire he nails razor with a big right hand and Irish whips razor into the corner. Razor steps out of the corners and he gets a knee lift to the face and in comes flair who receives the same treatment from perfect. Perfect is then cut off by razor who gets the upper hand with a fall away slam. Razor then gets perfect up into the razors edge but perfect wiggles out and when razor turns around he gets given a perfect plex but there is no referee as flair has him distracted on the outside. Savage goes loco and attacks flair but flair this time drives savages knee into the ring post. Back in the ring razor tags flair and flair gives perfect a back drop and teases the figure four but perfect powers out. Perfect is back up by now and boots flair in the gut and gives flair the perfect plex for a 1,2 no as razor breaks up the pin fall and the referee calls for the bell. Savage pulls himself back up onto the ring apron and into the ring with a chair and whilst hobbling swings the chair at razor and flair who are by now double teaming perfect. The heels retreat the ring and up the aisle way as the fink announces that savage and perfect have won by DQ, afterwards perfect and savage shake hands. In the back flair is irrate and says perfect this is just the beginning of the end for you as razor adds savage and perfect got lucky Chico. Up next was another big debut as the Japanese/Somoan Yokozuna made his ppv debut against Virgil. Lord Alfred is in the back and he meets with mr Fuji who asks Alfred to please sit and removes his jacket so the lovely geisha girls can rub him down it's over almost as quickly as it started and Fuji says Yokozuna number 1 as Alfred is thrown out of yoko's dressing claiming well I was enjoying that and how rude says Alfred who is comedy in my opinion. What can I say about Virgil vs Yokozuna it was just another match but it currently left an impression as yoko looked very impressive in victory indeed and Virgil all but disappeared from WWF after this. Early on Virgil tried but could not get yoko off his feet after hitting yoko with two drop kicks and fore arm smash. Virgil followed it up by going for a waist lock from behind and yoko just pushed Virgil off with his ass. When Virgil got up he walked into a thrust kick to the throat, yoko stalked the former million dollar assistant and dropped Virgil with a belly to belly and then a massive leg drop which the crowd ate up. Virgil then made a comeback rocking yoko with a drop kick he then went for a roll up but yoko just fell on top of him crushing virgils ribs in the process. Yokozuna then pulled Virgil over into the corner and hit the banzai for the 1,2 and 3. As for yoko he would go on to become a star of the new generation and Virgil disappeared from WWF tv until 2010 when Virgil got a short term comeback as ted dibease jnrs assistant. Backstage Virgil said he had never been hit like that before adding it felt like the titanic had fallen on him and warned the superstars of WWF about yoko and said even Bret hart should be on the look out of this guy, more foreshadowing of the mania 9 card here. Mr perfect and Macho man are in the back and as it's thanksgiving says perfect he's in a giving mood so he presents razor and flair with two turkeys and bobby hennan a tiny chicken. Next is the only traditional survivor series tag elimination match as the natural disaters team with the nasty boys to take on the new WWF tag team champions money inc and the Beverley brothers. Vince talks about how the disaters and the nasty boys have been teams that little runt jimmy hart used to manage and had stabbed in the back to align with money inc. early on quake and typhoon put a beating on Bo and Blake respectively with bear hugs and splashes and other variety of moves to down the Beverley's. Typhoon and quake do the double splash in the corner and it all but looks over for the Beverley's until irs breaks up the count (no DQ here though). The Beverley's and money inc gain the upper hand when they quadruple team typhoon and get the big man down. Bo and Blake go to work on uncle Fred's leg while hart mocks the Nastys and quake who are all chomping at the bit to get to either teams on the opposing side. Dibease drops a standing elbow onto typhoon for only a two and it's a big kick out which sends ted to the outside. Typhoon finally tag jerry sags and sags unloads on all four men as the crowd comes back to life. Sags then drills Bo with a pump handle slam for the 1,2 no as dibease had distracted the referee. Sags eventually loses his fire as the Beverley's and inc tag in and out whilst working over sags. Sags like typhoon before him finally makes it to his corner and tags in quake who goes right after the Beverley's he splashes both men in the corner and then hits the avalanche on Bo for the 1,2 and 3 and the Beverley's have been eliminated. Earthquake then targets irs and goes for the big splash in the corner but the taxman evades it and money inc give quake a big back body drop. IRS covers quake but only gets a two, dibease and irs double team quake for a bit. Then quake makes a comeback clothe lining both dibease and IRS, quake tags in typhoon. Typhoon goes for another splash as irwin is down and irwin moves again. Irwin gets up and then chop blocks typhoon and rolls up the big man for the 1,2 and 3. As soon as the fink announces The natural diasters have been eliminated knobbs sneaks up behind irwin rolls him up and gets the 1,2 and 3. The nasty boys win, beating the tag team champions in the process but like so many others the Nastys won't be around much longer as they also depart following mania 9 and this angle with money inc goes no where. Up next is the casket Match between the undertaker and kamala and we get a video review of kamala being scared of caskets. Kamala in my mind was facial expression during this feud were priceless and made me laugh he played it so over the top that I really enjoyed that video review but then remember what kamala in ring stuff was like. Moving on Kim Chee is telling a reluctant kamala backstage he must wrestle this match again the Memphis wrestling legend looked horrified. On the way to the ring kamala looks even more scared and when taker makes his entrance looks like he just crapped his pants. Taker gets ready as kamala retreats to the outside and into the aisle way. Taker goes after Kim Chee and Harvey whippleman and chokes both men as kamala attacks taker from behind. Back in the ring Kamala doesn't do to much all and then gives taker 3 slams and pins taker for the two. Kamala looks out at Kim Chee as taker recovers and goes to choke kamala. By this point I had lost interest they were not having a very good match in fact it was plain awful and was hoping it end as soon as possible. Kamala goes for the second rope and splashes taker as Paul bearer gets onto the ring apron and raises the urn up in the air and the taker man rose up from the dead. Meanwhile Kim Chee tripped Paul and the urn fell into the ring and rolled in front of prettified kamala how is so scared backs up and refuses to pick up the urn. Taker has no problems doing so and nails kamala with the urn. Taker covers kamala and gets the 1,2 and 3 then taker rolls kamala into the casket and proceed to nail the lid shut. Shawn Michaels is in the back with mean gene and he says I beat the man who beat Bret hart for the IC title and tonight he would defeat Bret to become both the IC champion and WWF champion. Kim Chee is shown backstage breaking into the casket he plies the lid open and kamala is shown scared stiff laying inside casket. Mean gene is now with Bret hart, mean gene really puts over Bret here saying over the two short months Hitman you've been champion you've defended more an anyone. Bret thanks gene and says he will take on all comers and he will never back down from a challenge and the more successful defences he had under his belt the better champion he would become, because he was the best there was and the best there ever will be. Bret gets a randy savage like pop from the crowd while Shawn gets all heat in the world for his cocky strut to the ring. The crowd is clearly behind Bret here (are you listening vince), early on Bret and Shawn go into some nice chain wrestling spots as Bret softens up Shawn's arm for the hammer lock. The two exchange the hammerlock and then Shawn has the hammer lock on Bret but Bret drops down and HBK falls through the ropes onto the outside. Back in the ring Bret locks on a arm ringer to Shawn and whips Shawn into the ropes Bret bounces back and launches at Shawn with a cross body press for a two count. Bret goes back to HBK arm and the hammer lock but Shawn takes a short cut and gauges brets eye to force Bret to release the hold. The crowd boos Shawn who does a cocky dance for the crowd who clearly don't like him. Shawn goes for a suplex but Bret counters it and goes right back to that hammerlock and Shawn is grounded again. Shawn gets up and drops down which sends Bret to the outside. Back in the ring Shawn cuts off Bret with a left hand and whips Bret hard into the corner then Shawn takes Bret down and slingshots Bret into the top turnbuckle chest first. Bret sells the vicious looking move perfectly and the crowd sense maybe just maybe the champ is in big trouble here. Shawn then goes to Irish whip Bret but Bret counters and Shawn ends up in the corner, Bret then goes to do the same to HBK but HBK counters it this time and Bret is launched shoulder first into ring post. Shawn stomps on brets hurt shoulder and chest and this time Irish whips Bret chest first into the corner. Shawn gloats over Bret and does some poses before he pins Bret for a two. Shawn goes and puts on a chin lock to Bret who battles out of it and bounces back into the ropes and runs directly into a drop kick by Shawn. HBK covers Bret again only a two count, HBK is smart and goes back to the chinlock to wear the Hitman down some more. Again Bret battles back with elbow shots to Shawn's gut, Shawn relinquishes the hold and Bret gives hbk a bulldog. Bret climbs to the second rope and goes to drop and elbow onto Shawn but Shawn moves and Bret hits the mat hard. Quickly Shawn jumps onto the Hitman and again applies the chin lock, again Bret battles back by rolling Shawn up for a 2 count. Bret then clothes lines HBK and gives Shawn a big back body drop for a near fall. Bret then slingshots Shawn into the top turnbuckle/post which knocks Shawn down and out. Bret goes to the second rope and this time drops his elbow into the bridge of Shawn's nose, Bret covers Shawn for another near fall on the boy toy. Bret puts Shawn onto the top turnbuckle and goes up to the top and gives Shawn a big (90's highspot) suplex from the top and both men hit the mat hard very hard indeed. Bret drops his arm across Shawn for the 1,2 no Shawn just kicks out. Bret goes for a waist lock but Shawn counters it and Bret goes crashing to the outside. The referee begins to count out Bret as Shawn begs the ref to count faster (why). Shawn then seems to realize this goes for the outside and throws Bret into the ring and Shawn covers Bret for the another near fall. Shawn shows his frustration and gets caught with a small package for Bret but again Bret only gets a two. Shawn is up faster than Bret and puts the boots to Bret then backs up as Bret gets up Shawn nails Bret with the sweet chin music (at this point it's still not referred to as that and isn't no finisher). Shawn covers Bret and gets another two count on the WWF champion, Shawn looks annoyed and grabs the referee as Bret recovers and bounces back off the ropes and try's a cross body but this time Shawn ducks and Bret ends up crashing into the ring ropes. Shawn then readys himself to give Bret another sweet chin music as the champ recovers but this time Bret ducks the super kick takes Shawn down and slaps on the shape shooter and Shawn screams I quit. Winner and still WWF champion Bret the Hitman hart in his first successful ppv title defence. To end the show Santa comes out and celebrates with Bret who puts on a santas hat as snow falls in the Richfield coulsiuem. Overall I felt this show felt like WWF were still in there transisition since hogan had 'retired' and warrior quit but with a main event as good as that I'm saying the future is bright for WWF and it's main event scene with Bret in it but as we all know vince goes and ruins it by turning back to the retired one himself hulk hogan.