So this isn't really a PPV, it was an event that happened before PPV was really mainstream. It still stands as the biggest wrestling show ever to happen in the America's and when you consider that's two continents worth of wrestling that is quite an achievement, but the thing that made it stand out aside from its enormity is the fact that so many calculated risks where taken in its inception. The show of course is Wrestlemania III. The second biggest show of all time, and the biggest show that had paying guests as opposed to an audience forced to be their by a dictatorial communist government, no kidding this actually happened.
As well documented Vince McMahon risked everything on the first Wrestlemania. His own family's considerable fortune amassed as the lead promoters of the New York territory in an effort to make wrestling a major national contributor to popular culture. Wrestlemania 2, while an incredible effort in logistics, three events ran in three different cities coast to coast, was merely a stepping stone to the all conquering, record setting, humungaloid freak of a show that was Wrestlemania III, but if you look down the card there was political intrigue at every turn. A main event that could have been a disaster waiting to happen, an IC title match that was planned to the finest detail, wrestlers on the verge of physical breakdown and at the head of it all one man whose belief in his abilities as a booker would serve him well for the next twenty years when he would rule the wrestling world and set the tone for everyone else to follow with this one spectacular night.
Let's start at the bottom and work our way up;
The Can Am Connection vs. Cowboy Bob Orton and Don Muraco.
This had potential to be a good opener and really it set the tone, the soon to be gone Tom Zenk was a good partner for Martel but not as good as Tito Santana (more of him later) in the Strike Force team that was just around the championship corner, but a solid opener.
Billy Jack Haynes vs Hercules
The sign of things to come; two very good looking and actually very solid workers producing a submission based brawl that would be the blue print for the Warlord Davey Boy Smith feud some years later that seemed to go on for years. Looking back now you remember two things; one they where 'roided to fuck and two guys that muscled can't go that hard for long. So you get an entertaining but short match.
Hillbilly Jim, The Haiti Kid and Little Beaver vs King Kong Bundy, Little Tokyo and Lord Littlebrook
Well where do you start? What King Kong Bundy had done to deserve this nobody knows, but going from the main event to this comedy spectacular was not on the long term cards and Bundy was done in mainstream wrestling after this débâcle. Just goes to show what comes up must come down.
The Junkyard Dog vs Harley Race (with Bobby Heenan and the Fabulous Moolah)
If one match epitomises what Vince had done to wrestling, this is it. JYD fresh from his stadium filling run in Mid South. Harley Race then the most successful NWA champion of all time, Bobby Heenan the greatest manager in AWA history, and The Fabulous Moolah the longest reigning NWA Women's Champion ever. Faces from different times and places brought together under one company. Race hadn't been there long. He had been promoting Saint Louis, taking over from the Thesz family, in the 80s. He didn't like the idea of giving up the business to go with Vince and fought it tooth and nail, threatening WWF promoters with acid and slashing tires at one point. The bitterness may have stemmed from how Vince handled Starcade two years earlier. Knowing that Mid Atlantic where going to get the jump on the WWF with a major nationally televised show with Starcade where Race was due to drop the NWA title to Ric Flair, Vince made Harley an offer he thought he couldn’t refuse. This happened over a polite dinner in New York. It ended up with Vince begging on his knees when it turned out that it was indeed an offer Harley could refuse. Being loyal to the NWA was part of Harley's deal and he wanted to be there for Ric. The result was that Starcade was a huge success and the wrestling wars lasted about 15 years longer than they would have done if Harley had signed then and there as the NWA champion. So you have JYD who wasn't that good to start with and an under appreciated Harley Race, so you can imagine how this one worked out.
The Fabulous Rougeaus (Jacques and Raymond) vs The Dream Team (Greg Valentine and Brutus Beefcake) (with Johnny Valiant and Dino Bravo)
This one was another short but fun packed effort with the struggling face Rougeaus up against the dream team plus Dino Bravo. It was kind of a French Canadian hoe down, with a turn for Brutus Beefcake which would morph into more successful things down the line. However it never hurts to be friends with Hulk Hogan I have to say.
Roddy Piper vs Adrian Adonis (with Jimmy Hart)
And now we get into the card proper. Piper had announced this as his retirement bout (oh how we laughed), really he was taking time off to film They Live and Hell Comes to Frogtown, two wonderfully bad movies that you should take a look at from a guilty pleasure point of view. Here he is with the late great Adrian Adonis working a homosexual gimmick that looks ridiculously dated in this day and age. We live in more enlightened times but this one had heat down to Roddy who was of course the most hated wrestler on the planet two years before and now one of the most beloved. Piper was that talented it was hard not to root for him even as a heel, so why not turn him face? Not his greatest moment in the ring, he needed Bret Hart for that, but a wonderful crowd popping with genuine emotion, so well worth a watch.
The British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith and The Dynamite Kid) and Tito Santana vs The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart) and Danny Davis (with Jimmy Hart)
This could have been a classic. Three of the competitors where world class, but it never really got going because of the time issue. Dynamite said in his biography that he wasn't happy with the match because it involved Tito and Danny Davis. Davis was a heel referee who had fast counted on The Bulldogs and Tito costing them the Tag and IC titles respectively. Dynamite didn't dislike either Davis or Santana his main issue was that they had to split the money three ways on each team instead of two which to a man who had just spent three months in hospital with spinal fractures, was a bitter pill to swallow. This was good but not great. Dynamite was on the slow downhill slide to being in a wheel chair and the extra members on board hurt a match that could have flown, but hey the all got on the biggest card in company history and not everyone got that opportunity.
Koko B. Ware vs Butch Reed (with Slick)
This one was what Vince calls a palette cleanser. He anticipated that the six man would be a great match, it was good but not great, and this was the throwaway fluff to get you back on track. Not bad for throwaway fluff mind. Koko was always underrated as was Reed. Koko, as popular as he was, never found his groove in the WWF, but he was the man who brought the Brainbuster to prominence in the US. Even if it is banned now in the WWE.
Ricky Steamboat (with George Steele) vs Randy Savage (c) (with Miss Elizabeth)
For many this was the real main event of Wrestlemania III. The pure wrestling match a lot of people anticipated and it delivered. It was a match well planned in advance. In an interview Ricky Steamboat once was asked what was the difference between wrestling Savage and wrestling Flair (whom he feuded with later over the NWA title and had numerous 5 star matches with). Steamboat replied “it was just different, with Randy I had to remember 25 spots in a row, with Ric we just made it up as we went along”. Savage was notorious for planning his matches to the minutest of details and this one was no different. That preparation paid off as the delivered this classic that still stands up today as how to tell a roller-coaster ride of a story and deliver in the ring. Almost perfect.
Jake “The Snake” Roberts (with Alice Cooper) vs The Honky Tonk Man (with Jimmy Hart)
This one was a long way from perfect. Though Jake was a competent wrestler he was never blinding for in ring action. His understanding of psychology though was second to none. Honky could go when he wanted to, and in this setting he was going to do well or look awful, but the tone of this match was a set in an interview months before on The Snake Pit when Honky hit Jake with a guitar so hard it smashed two vertebrae. The result was a much slower moving Jake, though you possibly couldn't notice because he had a lot of tricks to cover his tracks. This was again what it said on the tin, a revenge story that was simply and effectively told, but could have been so much better, if someone had got Honky a K Mart special in that interview.
The Killer Bees (B. Brian Blair and Jim Brunzell) vs The Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff (with Slick)
Palette cleanser number 2, just well what can you say? Terrible? Doesn't really cover it, just really really bad and the B's where not at fault.
Hulk Hogan vs André the Giant (with Bobby Heenan)
As political stories go, this one tops the lot. So much could have gone wrong with this one match. Vince had it in mind for quite some time, all of these shows where planned nearly a year in advance so as the curtain closed on WM2 Vince must have been thinking how can I really grab people's attention? André was the only nationally known star anywhere near Hogan's popularity by this point. The number two baby face for the company, but he had no way of getting up that ladder. He also knew he was getting close to the end of his time in the spotlight. 15 years a main eventer, 15 years of blood sweat and toil on three continents and not one title to show for it. André was the show, he travelled just like the NWA champion did but never wore the belt. So Vince surmised correctly that a title match for André would be big business, and something André would be very interested in, he was correct. The thing is André was beloved by fans in the US, so they had to turn him heel, which to American fans was a revelation. Being given a chance to be creative André excelled in this new role. In actuality he had been a heel for years in Japan and had the psychology down to a T, he was just being given chance to prove it. Vince also knew he had to be in shape to look like a threat to Hogan. So Pat Patterson would pick up André every day and drive him to Vince's house to make sure he used the gym. It was part of the deal André had to make to get the biggest match of all time.
On the other side of the equation, Hulk Hogan was a worried man. Sure he was main eventing the biggest match in North America ever, he was riding high in popular culture as well as the wrestling world, but André the Giant? That's something else. As a former IWGP Heavyweight Champion, Hulk was more than aware of what André was capable of when the mood took him. He could get drunk, he could get angry, he could get angry AND drunk, usually the worst André as Akira Maeda found out. What if André went into business for himself? There really is nothing you can do with a man that size when he decides not to cooperate. Thankfully for all involved there was no incident. André did his job and everything went happily.
No man was happier that night than Vincent Kennedy McMahon. Pat Patterson tells the story that as a co creator of this event he wanted to get the feel and emotions of the fans. So he stepped out into the crowd during the main event, as he realised the magic happening before him a tear filled his eyes and as he wiped them away he looked over and there was Vince, crying as well. He said “you did it” Vince replied “I am glad we did because I put it all on the line tonight”, for the second time in three years Vince gambled his company on one night and really one match. With that match thought he stacked the deck in his favour, and had the boss hand for another ten years.
Enjoy the show.
Monday, 14 October 2013
One Night in Gothenburg
Sweden! Oh your beautiful fjords, endless supply of blonde air stewardesses (apprently) and pro wrestling. Yup pro wrestling. I discovered this little gem of a PPV while searching for matches featuring Jenny Sjödin. For those of you who don't know who Miss Sjödin is she is a very accomplished grappler and pro wrestler. Meaning she is a genuine hard case as well as a top Euro Joshi talent. I had heard great things about her and wondered if she was as good as all that. Turns out she is. Anyone who grew up on All Japan Women and was trained by Fergal Devitt is pretty much going to be all right in my book, but she has a star quality and the skills to back it up.
That aside of course having watch the first match it would be rude not watch the rest and I was pleasantly surprised. GBG's Night of Thunder is a tight show in the European style with a healthy dose of characters and a mix of grappling, high flying and straight up brawling. It reminded me greatly of Chikara, especially in its early days. The setting is a night club, but they clearly look after their audience. VIP seating areas with champagne hats a plenty. Their main crowd is pretty much what I would expect to see at a niche indie show like Lucha Britannia or Chikara; punks and hipsters on a night out you also get more hipsters in the ring itself. Sporting sleeve tats and ill advised beards hardly any of these guys are going to make the cover of Muscle and Fitness, but they know their crowd and know how to work. They even have one guy, Kid Gorgeous who is clearly a total hipster heel, cutting a promo on how he has tricked out his fixie in a calm moderated tone. Its in Swedish, but you get the gist. Anyone who can take the piss out of their own audience and fill a nightclub while putting it on IPPV is doing the right things. The ring work is competent if not spectacular, the outstanding performer is clearly Sjödin, she has the background and training to make things seem effortless, but there are competent aerialists with a good understanding of modern wrestling.
The work is not state of the art, but that is no bad thing. No one takes a ridiculous bump, no one is blading, in fact there is not a drop of blood in sight and the fans are a lapping it up. As Jim Cornette has said many times, when you do the big stuff it's harder to make the small stuff work. You can often tell more about a wrestling company from its fan reaction than you can from the performances in the ring, really check out Terry Funk in 70's Japan, the crowd sits their as quiet as lambs while Terry gives it his all yet he was the most over gaijin ever in Japan at the time. At a guess there are probably very few full time performers on this card and it is hard to give your all when you have work Monday morning. Much like the British performers of old, who saved the risky stuff for when they really needed to do it. The result is an old school feel and and old school response. Some top comedy, (wrestling has the international language of prat falls going for it), with some seriously scary looking heels makes for a great few hours entertainment. I am sorry I can't give you much more information but their website offers the following clues to their existence;
GBG Wrestling started in 2002 in Gothenburg darkest docklands and has since grown to become Sweden's most professional, extravagant and impressive wrestling federation. GBG Wrestling gives its audience an experience and feeling that can not be found in any form of entertainment anywhere. Good is set against evil, speed pitted against strength, cunning pitted against honor - and blood, sweat and tears are sure to flow, every time. You MUST see GBG Wrestling live to fully understand, and to fully experience the priceless feeling of being a part of the magical atmosphere created, the wrestlers and the audience together. Intrigues and conflict followed up in the ring and there is always something to make up for. Come and look, roar, cry and cheer. Today is owned and controlled GBG Wrestling unanimously by Lady Dolores, the union president.
There isn't a whole lot more to say about GBG. Just cause I can't find much on them. They clearly run professional slick and entertaining shows. So enjoy Night of Thunder. That's all till next week.
That aside of course having watch the first match it would be rude not watch the rest and I was pleasantly surprised. GBG's Night of Thunder is a tight show in the European style with a healthy dose of characters and a mix of grappling, high flying and straight up brawling. It reminded me greatly of Chikara, especially in its early days. The setting is a night club, but they clearly look after their audience. VIP seating areas with champagne hats a plenty. Their main crowd is pretty much what I would expect to see at a niche indie show like Lucha Britannia or Chikara; punks and hipsters on a night out you also get more hipsters in the ring itself. Sporting sleeve tats and ill advised beards hardly any of these guys are going to make the cover of Muscle and Fitness, but they know their crowd and know how to work. They even have one guy, Kid Gorgeous who is clearly a total hipster heel, cutting a promo on how he has tricked out his fixie in a calm moderated tone. Its in Swedish, but you get the gist. Anyone who can take the piss out of their own audience and fill a nightclub while putting it on IPPV is doing the right things. The ring work is competent if not spectacular, the outstanding performer is clearly Sjödin, she has the background and training to make things seem effortless, but there are competent aerialists with a good understanding of modern wrestling.
The work is not state of the art, but that is no bad thing. No one takes a ridiculous bump, no one is blading, in fact there is not a drop of blood in sight and the fans are a lapping it up. As Jim Cornette has said many times, when you do the big stuff it's harder to make the small stuff work. You can often tell more about a wrestling company from its fan reaction than you can from the performances in the ring, really check out Terry Funk in 70's Japan, the crowd sits their as quiet as lambs while Terry gives it his all yet he was the most over gaijin ever in Japan at the time. At a guess there are probably very few full time performers on this card and it is hard to give your all when you have work Monday morning. Much like the British performers of old, who saved the risky stuff for when they really needed to do it. The result is an old school feel and and old school response. Some top comedy, (wrestling has the international language of prat falls going for it), with some seriously scary looking heels makes for a great few hours entertainment. I am sorry I can't give you much more information but their website offers the following clues to their existence;
GBG Wrestling started in 2002 in Gothenburg darkest docklands and has since grown to become Sweden's most professional, extravagant and impressive wrestling federation. GBG Wrestling gives its audience an experience and feeling that can not be found in any form of entertainment anywhere. Good is set against evil, speed pitted against strength, cunning pitted against honor - and blood, sweat and tears are sure to flow, every time. You MUST see GBG Wrestling live to fully understand, and to fully experience the priceless feeling of being a part of the magical atmosphere created, the wrestlers and the audience together. Intrigues and conflict followed up in the ring and there is always something to make up for. Come and look, roar, cry and cheer. Today is owned and controlled GBG Wrestling unanimously by Lady Dolores, the union president.
There isn't a whole lot more to say about GBG. Just cause I can't find much on them. They clearly run professional slick and entertaining shows. So enjoy Night of Thunder. That's all till next week.
Saturday, 14 September 2013
Last time we looked at the issues that the rebirth of ECW suffered, in balance I thought it would be good to look back at the early days of ECW to redress the balance. So our show in question isn't actually a PPV its a live show that was recorded for TV and video tape. The fact that ECW had a video tape distribution deal in 1995 shows what the promotion had done in a very short time. The show begins with a promo from an example of what ECW did well. “The sexiest man on earth” Jason was up until that point known as Jason Knight a WCW jobber. Paul Heyman, wrestling genius that he is, looked at the package and did not see a great wrestler, what he did see was a heat machine. A good looking young man who could cut a promo and take indignity with heart (he lost to Jazz on a later PPV) the ideal concept behind a manager. It is what Bobby Heenan did well for years here its reinvented. This is early in ECW's development, so early the fans are still trying to pronounce the W in ECW, but even in the first five minutes the manifesto of the company is laid out. Fan interaction, chants the whole deal is as Pavlovian as it gets. The fans loved this attitude and they loved Jason in way that has only recently become mainstream. Jason was not a great wrestler, but the fans knew he had talent on the mic and booed him because they where supposed to, a mark of respect accorded to few in the ECW locker room at the time. Jason also introduces the one other factor that set ECW apart from other promotions of the time, they brought in wrestlers from all over the world and gave them equal time with their stars. Jason the Terrible never really caught on as the second coming of Abdullah the Butcher in the US, however over in WINGS and later the IWA he was a huge star. ECW knowing they had a very loyal but also very knowledgeable tape trading fan base brought him in for a series of matches teaming him up with the super over Pitbulls to great effect. Really this opening segment sets the tone of the show and lays out the philosophy of Paul Heyman as a booker. Hide the negatives accentuate the positives, make the most out of what you have got. Give people the opportunity to excel and see what happens, when it works chase it up and keep it moving. Respect the fans and respect their opinions. Even Shah Hack Myers was an ECW legend through his never ending but usually futile efforts. Note to this is no squash match, everyone gets even billing and is a competitive contest, though it maybe kept short to hide the short comings of the participants. 6 man's always do it gives the appearance of greatness without anyone having to be great.
The video packages are also part of the charm of these old ECW tapes, cool music quick cuts and use of locker room interviews that where revolutionary at the time. The company really didn't hide anything. It looks like it comes from a disused bingo hall because it comes from a disused bingo hall, but presented like it comes from MSG. Making things special even when it seems they are not, is incredibly important, especially for a small company.
We then have Steven (not quite yet Stevie) Richards, Raven's lackey, vs Tommy Dreamer, also not quite yet the epic feud that Raven Dreamer would become. This is the opening salvoes, with Raven controlling the gullible Steven to do his bidding. Its a scrappy affair but of note because of firstly Tommy Dreamer's physique which is ripped to say the least and then secondly because of his aerial offence. This was Tommy 30 lbs from his heyday and it showed in his crispness and pure wrestling aesthetic. (I tweeted about this while I was writing this article Tommy replied “I still fly these days just not so high"). Steven and Raven show only potential as to where this feud could go. No Beaulah, no flock and it is amazing to think what happened with this feud after this match and how it touched so many lives.
Then onto an example of the Heyman booking philosophy in full effect Mikey Whipwreck and “Giant” Paul Laurie. Whipwreck was a true Heyman protege, a small young guy who would help set up the ring if they could get some training time in before the show. Paulie saw the young wannabe flying around the ring and he had a vision of a guy who would get beat up for months on end, no jobbers in ECW remember, until one day he got in a shot and the crowd got behind him. They saw something different in Mickey, he was not the same as anyone else on the roster, in fact he wasn't like anyone else in wrestling. Now if Paulie could do that for some one like Mikey, what could he do for someone with real star potential? Which brings us neatly to the Bad Breed fall out. As documented on the tape, Ian and Axl Rotten had a falling out over their break up by The Pitbulls which resulted in this extremely violent affair which began steadily but slowly but surely got up the card with yet another ECW calling card, extreme. This was the year where blood and guts moved up the card in ECW, Tommy Dreamer, The Sandman, New Jack and The Dudleys took it to the next PPV level in the years to come. This match is pertinent for also what happened after ECW, with Ian Rotten going on to promote matches like this as the bread and butter of his IWA Mid South, using DVD and IPPV sales as a platform much the same as Paul Heyman had done with video tapes back in the day.
Despite the violence what I remember most about the early ECW was the pure wrestling that they had on offer. Here Al Snow takes on the Crippler Chris Benoit. Snow was an underground sensation at the time while Benoit was world famous from his time in NJPW and Stampede. These two where perfectly matched, a much more agile Al than you may remember from his WWE days. After the initial exchanges they had the crowd in the palm of their hands. So with a guy like Whipwreck Paulie could make a star, with the ready made stars he just let them go and do what they do best and it all worked for itself. Here Benoit and Snow tell the story of cocky Canadian National arrogance and American Revenge, even ECW fans where not that cynical back then.
And so we move onto the ECW world title match, Tully Blanchard vs Shane Douglas. Paulie always had a cool way of using the veterans, bring them into get the younger guys over. If they proved vital then they would get longer programmes. Blanchard here is clearly angling for a job after a less than stellar previous performance that saw him booed out of the building. Shane Douglas, then champ, takes a beating while Tully goes to town. Tommy Rich and Terry Funk where used in a similar way at times, though Funk was born for ECW. Blanchard makes a good account for himself here and looks as if he is in as good a shape as his Horsemen heyday. Douglas as always is The Franchise, with all the pomp and swearing you can muster. Blanchard, always sharp when it came to money matches, really earned it on this night. You may also notice this was not the main event. That would be saved for the Tag Team titles later on, yes the TAG TEAM TITLES. That's how over The Public Enemy where.
The Sandman and Cactus Jack, the two biggest draws in the arena, Texas Death Rules seemed appropriate, a good idea you would say. Except when, at 1:23:33, Jack takes a swing with a frying pan at Sandman's head. That isn't the flimsy Poundland special Jack took a swing with, something more akin to one of Tefal's greater creations. Which had predictable results on The Sandman. He was knocked unconscious. The rest of the match is a disaster area, or the greatest bottle feeding job of all time as Jack tries to get Sandman to lay down so he can get some medical attention, because its Texas Death Rules so the ref can't stop it . . . When you play with fire . . . This was only topped in the ECW bad ideas stakes when The Sandman got drunk before wrestling Sabu.
And so the main event The Public Enemy Defending against The Tazmaniac and Sabu. When Paul Heyman took over the book of ECW his first creation was The Public Enemy. Flyboy Rocco Rock and Johnny Gurnge where always opponents, so Paul thought they know each other so well why not put them together? The white guy playing black gimmick went down a storm with the locals and it took off better than Paul imagined or hoped. Sabu was a man on the rise before ECW came along and Tazamaniac was an incredible wrestler who never got anywhere because, well to be blunt, he was short and had to have the wild man gimmick to get used anywhere. He hated it, and it was blessed relief for him when he had the chance to reinvent himself as Taz. Double Tables was the ideal environment for two high flying teams like this and showed what the ECW environment could do for match quality.
So there you have it, not all that violent, not all that much violence against women, not to much bad language but all the elements of what ECW is remembered for are there one year after its rebirth. The key element though, reinvention was there from day one.
Enjoy the show.
The video packages are also part of the charm of these old ECW tapes, cool music quick cuts and use of locker room interviews that where revolutionary at the time. The company really didn't hide anything. It looks like it comes from a disused bingo hall because it comes from a disused bingo hall, but presented like it comes from MSG. Making things special even when it seems they are not, is incredibly important, especially for a small company.
We then have Steven (not quite yet Stevie) Richards, Raven's lackey, vs Tommy Dreamer, also not quite yet the epic feud that Raven Dreamer would become. This is the opening salvoes, with Raven controlling the gullible Steven to do his bidding. Its a scrappy affair but of note because of firstly Tommy Dreamer's physique which is ripped to say the least and then secondly because of his aerial offence. This was Tommy 30 lbs from his heyday and it showed in his crispness and pure wrestling aesthetic. (I tweeted about this while I was writing this article Tommy replied “I still fly these days just not so high"). Steven and Raven show only potential as to where this feud could go. No Beaulah, no flock and it is amazing to think what happened with this feud after this match and how it touched so many lives.
Then onto an example of the Heyman booking philosophy in full effect Mikey Whipwreck and “Giant” Paul Laurie. Whipwreck was a true Heyman protege, a small young guy who would help set up the ring if they could get some training time in before the show. Paulie saw the young wannabe flying around the ring and he had a vision of a guy who would get beat up for months on end, no jobbers in ECW remember, until one day he got in a shot and the crowd got behind him. They saw something different in Mickey, he was not the same as anyone else on the roster, in fact he wasn't like anyone else in wrestling. Now if Paulie could do that for some one like Mikey, what could he do for someone with real star potential? Which brings us neatly to the Bad Breed fall out. As documented on the tape, Ian and Axl Rotten had a falling out over their break up by The Pitbulls which resulted in this extremely violent affair which began steadily but slowly but surely got up the card with yet another ECW calling card, extreme. This was the year where blood and guts moved up the card in ECW, Tommy Dreamer, The Sandman, New Jack and The Dudleys took it to the next PPV level in the years to come. This match is pertinent for also what happened after ECW, with Ian Rotten going on to promote matches like this as the bread and butter of his IWA Mid South, using DVD and IPPV sales as a platform much the same as Paul Heyman had done with video tapes back in the day.
Despite the violence what I remember most about the early ECW was the pure wrestling that they had on offer. Here Al Snow takes on the Crippler Chris Benoit. Snow was an underground sensation at the time while Benoit was world famous from his time in NJPW and Stampede. These two where perfectly matched, a much more agile Al than you may remember from his WWE days. After the initial exchanges they had the crowd in the palm of their hands. So with a guy like Whipwreck Paulie could make a star, with the ready made stars he just let them go and do what they do best and it all worked for itself. Here Benoit and Snow tell the story of cocky Canadian National arrogance and American Revenge, even ECW fans where not that cynical back then.
And so we move onto the ECW world title match, Tully Blanchard vs Shane Douglas. Paulie always had a cool way of using the veterans, bring them into get the younger guys over. If they proved vital then they would get longer programmes. Blanchard here is clearly angling for a job after a less than stellar previous performance that saw him booed out of the building. Shane Douglas, then champ, takes a beating while Tully goes to town. Tommy Rich and Terry Funk where used in a similar way at times, though Funk was born for ECW. Blanchard makes a good account for himself here and looks as if he is in as good a shape as his Horsemen heyday. Douglas as always is The Franchise, with all the pomp and swearing you can muster. Blanchard, always sharp when it came to money matches, really earned it on this night. You may also notice this was not the main event. That would be saved for the Tag Team titles later on, yes the TAG TEAM TITLES. That's how over The Public Enemy where.
The Sandman and Cactus Jack, the two biggest draws in the arena, Texas Death Rules seemed appropriate, a good idea you would say. Except when, at 1:23:33, Jack takes a swing with a frying pan at Sandman's head. That isn't the flimsy Poundland special Jack took a swing with, something more akin to one of Tefal's greater creations. Which had predictable results on The Sandman. He was knocked unconscious. The rest of the match is a disaster area, or the greatest bottle feeding job of all time as Jack tries to get Sandman to lay down so he can get some medical attention, because its Texas Death Rules so the ref can't stop it . . . When you play with fire . . . This was only topped in the ECW bad ideas stakes when The Sandman got drunk before wrestling Sabu.
And so the main event The Public Enemy Defending against The Tazmaniac and Sabu. When Paul Heyman took over the book of ECW his first creation was The Public Enemy. Flyboy Rocco Rock and Johnny Gurnge where always opponents, so Paul thought they know each other so well why not put them together? The white guy playing black gimmick went down a storm with the locals and it took off better than Paul imagined or hoped. Sabu was a man on the rise before ECW came along and Tazamaniac was an incredible wrestler who never got anywhere because, well to be blunt, he was short and had to have the wild man gimmick to get used anywhere. He hated it, and it was blessed relief for him when he had the chance to reinvent himself as Taz. Double Tables was the ideal environment for two high flying teams like this and showed what the ECW environment could do for match quality.
So there you have it, not all that violent, not all that much violence against women, not to much bad language but all the elements of what ECW is remembered for are there one year after its rebirth. The key element though, reinvention was there from day one.
Enjoy the show.
Prelude to a Car Crash
Someone asked for something American or British this week, never man to turn down a request let us look at potential disaster in the waiting. ECW One Night Stand.
This isn't of course the ECW we know and love, the violence, the risqué content, the profanity laced interviews. Well okay it is, but its the first steps WWE made towards ruining the legacy of a company whose star had shone so brightly years before. This is the second One Night Stand and marked the relaunch of ECW as a different entity. I chose this one because its an interesting mix of WWE presentation and ECW before the WWE ideas took over and brought us something not that good. Bobby Lashley as Champion anyone? Kelly Kelly? Mike Knox? Oh yeah we are still stuck with him, but for a while there it was all good in the hood and as usual, most bad ideas do start with good intentions.
The premise of this PPV began with The Money in the Bank ladder match held at Wrestlemania that year won by none other than Rob Van Damn. With Vince more than willing to put himself on TV to fire up the feud a lot of the angles wrote themselves. The first match on the card, Tazz vs Jerry Lawler was quick. Inevitable really as Tazz is permanently retired through injury. This stemmed back from the days of ECW taking over Raw to support their first Barely Legal PPV, a rehashed angle but with strong heat. Jerry Lawler was Satan to ECW fans, and if you've seen the night that Raven left ECW you will see how hot he was. Next we have Kurt Angle vs Randy Orton, which is especially interesting because Angle's first foray into pro wrestling was with ECW. He attended one show and left when Raven crucified the Sandman swearing up and down he would never get involved with Paul Heyman again. So why he ended up being an ECW guy is beyond me, though he fit into things quite well, and as always the ECW fans gave good wrestlers respect. This match leads on to a good comedy aside. The FBI vs Super Crazy and Taijiri. Crazy and Taijiri both made their names in ECW and by then had been WWE regulars as had the FBI, this showed in a more polished version of the ECW three way dances Guido, Taijiri and Crazy worked in the early 2000's. Then it was on to the business end of things.
Sabu vs Rey Mistero for the World's Heavyweight Championship, oh sorry World's Championship, like not calling it heavyweight was going to make us think Rey wasn't 190lbs and 5' 9. Anyways, this was a very good match, and full of the things both where famous for, they lived up to their legacy. However Sabu was about 6 years past his prime and Rey was in on of those spots in his career where he wasn't injured, though he looked like he could be injured at any time. The two ECW veterans knew what the crowd at the Hammerstien Ballroom wanted though and they gave it to them, the match ending in a no finish, which back in the day would have caused a riot. Maybe the ECW fans had calmed down?
Mick Foley, Lita and Edge vs Terry Funk, Tommy Dreamer and Buelah. This match is another booking choice oddity. Cactus Jack was the first true star of the fledgling ECW in 1993, his work for them while with WCW as tag champion made the company name (along with some incredible matches with Sabu). The angle came from real emotional interplay between Paul Heyman and Mick Foley. Heyman had called Foley a prostitute for going to the WWE in real life, and they cut some of the some rabid promos that hark back to the days of the Anti Hardcore ECW interviews that where quite possibly the best interviews ever done in wrestling. This was a nostalgia match for sure. Even Terry Funk who I do believe will go on for ever didn't look good, despite taking most of the big bumps. He was outpaced by younger talent in the opening of the match. But did they put their bodies on the line? You bet they did. All in the name of ECW, which for Edge was quite the thing having not been an ECW guy to begin with. As this is really a WWE show we had what The Masked Man calls “the palate cleanser”, something a bit more throwaway before we got onto more serious business. Balls Mahoney and Tanaka put together a fun, chair shot laden, high spots match that you would come to expect from those two really. Did what it said on the tin and gets us to the main.
John Cena vs RVD for the WWE title. There have been crowds bigger than this for WWE title match, but none more vocal. This was the birth of “Cena Wins, We Riot” (okay those fans hadn't calmed down at all). This is where Cena began his route to being a heel in the 18-30 male demographic and clearly he loved it. Having not been a heel for so long he revelled in the fact that he could do as he liked, all he had to do was be himself and do his regular thing and he was over like no other guy in front of any ECW crowd. They hated him of course, RVD was God for a night, but if you want to see where the kernels of the Second Summer of Punk come from, this is it. Daniel Bryan's feud against John Cena? That starts here to. As Punk said himself if there was one city that appreciates Daniel Bryan more than any other its Philadelphia. Bryan and Punk would have been right at home in the old ECW, and as we know Punk made the new ECW his brand. This match of course would not be in Philly, its in New York. The sentiment is the same though wherever you go, and it gave Cena, and Vince, the chance to see the possibilities of where things could go. It wasn't the first time he was booed, London crowds have always been particularly unkind to Cena, and Boston doesn't seem to hold home town advantage any more, but back then this was something very different and it worked perfectly.
Of course in the end the idea of an ECW relaunch turned out to be a dud. The wrong bits of ECW came forward, the philosophy of breaking new talent and trying to make stars would not happen until NXT 6 years later. RVD was caught in possession about a week later, the TV show sucked because they didn't take it seriously enough and on top of that RVD, Paul Heyman and Tommy Dreamer, the architects of the new ECW did not have enough power over the WWE old order; Michael Hayes, Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn to make the show work with one vision. However at the beginning there, it was a sight to see.
This isn't of course the ECW we know and love, the violence, the risqué content, the profanity laced interviews. Well okay it is, but its the first steps WWE made towards ruining the legacy of a company whose star had shone so brightly years before. This is the second One Night Stand and marked the relaunch of ECW as a different entity. I chose this one because its an interesting mix of WWE presentation and ECW before the WWE ideas took over and brought us something not that good. Bobby Lashley as Champion anyone? Kelly Kelly? Mike Knox? Oh yeah we are still stuck with him, but for a while there it was all good in the hood and as usual, most bad ideas do start with good intentions.
The premise of this PPV began with The Money in the Bank ladder match held at Wrestlemania that year won by none other than Rob Van Damn. With Vince more than willing to put himself on TV to fire up the feud a lot of the angles wrote themselves. The first match on the card, Tazz vs Jerry Lawler was quick. Inevitable really as Tazz is permanently retired through injury. This stemmed back from the days of ECW taking over Raw to support their first Barely Legal PPV, a rehashed angle but with strong heat. Jerry Lawler was Satan to ECW fans, and if you've seen the night that Raven left ECW you will see how hot he was. Next we have Kurt Angle vs Randy Orton, which is especially interesting because Angle's first foray into pro wrestling was with ECW. He attended one show and left when Raven crucified the Sandman swearing up and down he would never get involved with Paul Heyman again. So why he ended up being an ECW guy is beyond me, though he fit into things quite well, and as always the ECW fans gave good wrestlers respect. This match leads on to a good comedy aside. The FBI vs Super Crazy and Taijiri. Crazy and Taijiri both made their names in ECW and by then had been WWE regulars as had the FBI, this showed in a more polished version of the ECW three way dances Guido, Taijiri and Crazy worked in the early 2000's. Then it was on to the business end of things.
Sabu vs Rey Mistero for the World's Heavyweight Championship, oh sorry World's Championship, like not calling it heavyweight was going to make us think Rey wasn't 190lbs and 5' 9. Anyways, this was a very good match, and full of the things both where famous for, they lived up to their legacy. However Sabu was about 6 years past his prime and Rey was in on of those spots in his career where he wasn't injured, though he looked like he could be injured at any time. The two ECW veterans knew what the crowd at the Hammerstien Ballroom wanted though and they gave it to them, the match ending in a no finish, which back in the day would have caused a riot. Maybe the ECW fans had calmed down?
Mick Foley, Lita and Edge vs Terry Funk, Tommy Dreamer and Buelah. This match is another booking choice oddity. Cactus Jack was the first true star of the fledgling ECW in 1993, his work for them while with WCW as tag champion made the company name (along with some incredible matches with Sabu). The angle came from real emotional interplay between Paul Heyman and Mick Foley. Heyman had called Foley a prostitute for going to the WWE in real life, and they cut some of the some rabid promos that hark back to the days of the Anti Hardcore ECW interviews that where quite possibly the best interviews ever done in wrestling. This was a nostalgia match for sure. Even Terry Funk who I do believe will go on for ever didn't look good, despite taking most of the big bumps. He was outpaced by younger talent in the opening of the match. But did they put their bodies on the line? You bet they did. All in the name of ECW, which for Edge was quite the thing having not been an ECW guy to begin with. As this is really a WWE show we had what The Masked Man calls “the palate cleanser”, something a bit more throwaway before we got onto more serious business. Balls Mahoney and Tanaka put together a fun, chair shot laden, high spots match that you would come to expect from those two really. Did what it said on the tin and gets us to the main.
John Cena vs RVD for the WWE title. There have been crowds bigger than this for WWE title match, but none more vocal. This was the birth of “Cena Wins, We Riot” (okay those fans hadn't calmed down at all). This is where Cena began his route to being a heel in the 18-30 male demographic and clearly he loved it. Having not been a heel for so long he revelled in the fact that he could do as he liked, all he had to do was be himself and do his regular thing and he was over like no other guy in front of any ECW crowd. They hated him of course, RVD was God for a night, but if you want to see where the kernels of the Second Summer of Punk come from, this is it. Daniel Bryan's feud against John Cena? That starts here to. As Punk said himself if there was one city that appreciates Daniel Bryan more than any other its Philadelphia. Bryan and Punk would have been right at home in the old ECW, and as we know Punk made the new ECW his brand. This match of course would not be in Philly, its in New York. The sentiment is the same though wherever you go, and it gave Cena, and Vince, the chance to see the possibilities of where things could go. It wasn't the first time he was booed, London crowds have always been particularly unkind to Cena, and Boston doesn't seem to hold home town advantage any more, but back then this was something very different and it worked perfectly.
Of course in the end the idea of an ECW relaunch turned out to be a dud. The wrong bits of ECW came forward, the philosophy of breaking new talent and trying to make stars would not happen until NXT 6 years later. RVD was caught in possession about a week later, the TV show sucked because they didn't take it seriously enough and on top of that RVD, Paul Heyman and Tommy Dreamer, the architects of the new ECW did not have enough power over the WWE old order; Michael Hayes, Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn to make the show work with one vision. However at the beginning there, it was a sight to see.
Thursday, 22 August 2013
What happens when you've done everything
Saturday,
June 29, 2013
FMW,
like ECW, worked on a shock and awe principal that was even more
shock and awe than ECW. By the time Atsushi Ohnita had finally (and
it took a while by Japanese standards) shuffled off into the sunset,
FMW needed something new to compete in a crowded market. The late
nineties where a time of rebirth for wrestling world wide. WCW was in
its last legs, ECW as at the peak of its popularity before going into
its horribly painful for all involved death throes and the WWE was as
hot as it had ever been. Ohnita was one of the most bankable stars of
the prior era and when he finally called it a day FMW where left with
the problem of how to fill that huge void. In reality they couldn't
so they tweaked the product to try and find a new audience.
Their
idea was interesting to say the least, but in no way original. They
took one look at Vince MacMahon's evil company boss figure and said
“we can do that”. So in came Kodo Fuyuki and his evil
commissioner persona, creating a factional company, two groups vying
for new titles the World Entertainment Wrestling belts, having
retired the Independent World Brass Knuckles titles (the long time
cherished holy grail in FMW). The shift went from stories of honour
and toughness to political control. A much harder concept to
understand in a Japanese format because Japan really doesn't do story
lines. The violence became toned down, not entirely gone, clearly and
electrified cage match is no walk in the park but the main event is a
pure wrestling match H vs Mr. Gannuske (or fake Hayabusa) in a
regular NO DQ bout. Actually this was a throwback to the earlier era,
Gannuske and Hayabusa grew up together, trained together and where
old friends. In much the same way as Ohnita and Genichiro Tenryu had
been 6 years earlier. What really made this match special was the
special guest referee Shawn Michaels. Yes THAT Shawn Michaels, show
stealer, Icon that could still go (actually he couldn't then he was
in the midst of his
Undertaker-press-slam-into-the-coffin-bad-backness). This was
somewhat of an oddity for him to attend but he is not the only Gaijin
by any means. The WEW tag match with Kuroda & Hisakatsu Oya vs.
Raven & Tommy Dreamer is a nice slow burner of a brawl. Compared
with the returning Funk Brothers vs Yoshinori Sasaki & Naohiko
Yamazaki something of a spectacular. The Funk's brought back their
classic 70's approach for a nostalgia match of high quality. Kintaro
Kanemura vs. Balls Mahoney is another dream match for brawl fans, we
even get a classic Kanemura giving a promo-with-no-clothes-on-moment
which is always hard not laugh at.
The
tone is set by the two opening matches. Ricky Fuji, Flying Kid
Ichihara, & Chocoball Mukai vs. Koji Nakagawa, Jado, & Gedo a
lot more comedy and brawling, but a lot of fun to watch. If you have
never heard of Jado and Gedo by the way you should go look them up,
as they are now the bookers for the NJPW division they have been a
key component in the success of Fergal Devitt. No less fun is Kaori
Nakayama & Emi Motokawa vs. Miss Mongol, Malia Hosaka, &
Jazz, the handicap match that has some of the best female workers at
the time in heads up battle. In usual FMW style its pretty stiff but
relied a lot more on action than in days of Combat Toyoda and Megumi
Kudo. Emi Motokawa went on to be the top face of Ice Ribbon. Bad Boy
Hido vs. Willie Williams is good for what it is, a worked shoot
match, but nothing to write home about.
So
what was the story that came out of this card? Well the violence was
still there but placed in the background of an attempt to sell a
story. The end of Ohnita as a main event wrestler allowed
opportunities for Hayabusa, Tanaka and Gannuske to take the lead with
the company. The toning down ensured a more stable roster and the
higher production values developed a sense of style. The upshot was a
much more watchable product from the general publics point of view,
but gone was the spectacle. The move towards entertainment over
violence lost FMW its core audience and its biggest supporter Ohnita.
Though having a healthy roster was vital for long term survival, the
company couldn't ride out the loss of revenue to move back up to
bigger things and it slowly faded away. In 2001 Hayabusa slipped
while performing a springboard thus breaking his neck and ending his
career. Shoichi Arai then owner of FMW was 3 million dollars in debt
to the banks and another million in debt to the Yakuza (sadly the
main money source for a lot of Japanese wrestling promotions) he
declared bankruptcy, went into hiding and attempted to write a book
before finally committing suicide so his family could pay back the
Yakuza with the insurance money. They are still paying it back.
A
truly sad end to promotion that burned brightly for years but fizzled
out unceremoniously. Enjoy the show.
NOAH Final Burning
Monday
May 13, 2013
Giant
Baba had a simple philosophy to booking. Patience, no outsiders, tell
the story. Back in the 80's All Japan essentially signed its talent
then locked itself away from the wrestling world. Baba looked for
charismatic faces that where tough. They had to be. All Japan had
developed its own style called King's Road. The booking of this style
demanded consistency in its wrestlers who followed a pattern in
matches that made them build their stories slowly from match to match
and over a career. In 1981 Baba found the perfect wrestler for his
style; Mitsuharu Misawa. Misawa took the long road to the top, taking
over as Tiger Mask II. Developing King's Road to include aerial as
well as hard strikes and mat work gaining support and eventually
reaching the main event beating Jumbo Tsuruta in June 1990. A journey
that took nine years for Misawa. The patient approach of Baba paid
off dividends. Misawa was a massive box office smash. Baba then
turned his hand to his next project Kenta Kobashi.
After
his début in 1988 Kobashi lost 63 times straight in his rookie year
but the near misses Kobashi went through gave him a loyal following.
He was the ultimate under dog and the fans loved him for it. He won
the AJPW All Asia Tag Team Championship four times with Tiger Mask II
(Misawa), twice with Johnny Ace (John Lauranitis these days) and once
with Junior Heavyweight Tsuyoshi Kikuchi in a deafening Match of the
Year in 1992. Baba kept his run to the top of All Japan focused and
disciplined. Before the decade was through he would win the Triple
Crown, All Japan's top honour, three times. He was a massively
popular and reliable worker. Presenting five star performances
nightly for All Japan. The company ran on the trio of Misawa, Kobashi
and Toshiaki Kawada at the top of the card. It broke records for two
years and then . . . it didn't. The three greatest wrestlers the
company had produced couldn't draw because they had wrestled each
other so many times there where no more combinations left. Elder
Gaijin's where on the decline like Stan Hansen and Terry Gordy, or
gone entirely like Steve Williams. All Japan was losing its fan base
because Baba the long term visionary had not foreseen what would
happen when he had played ALL of his cards. Rumblings went on in the
background of the company, but the fans where crying our for a
change. A visitor from NJPW a fresh face, but Baba stuck to his
tradition.
Baba
passed away in 1999, his dyeing wish was to see All Japan stay the
same as it always had. Home grown talent and hand sourced Gaijins.
The trouble was none of the wrestlers wanted it that way. Misawa who
became president on Baba's death and board member Kobashi resigned
and took all but two of the roster with them. In the biggest coup in
pro wrestling history All Japan Pro Wrestling became temporarily
meaningless over night. The people who did it where the AJPW
wrestlers themselves. They formed NOAH a promotion ran on the Kings
Road Style, with a modern twist. Everyone got a shot, no more slow
pushes if it worked it worked, if we need a NJPW guy or have the
opportunity why not? It was a blistering success. All of this was
unthinkable under Baba.
Kobashi
was important politically as he was as a wrestler. Final Burning was
his final match. It fills me with happiness that he left the sport in
much better shape than when he entered it. His legacy is secure and
despite some near career ending injuries and illnesses, including a
bout with cancer, he has remained more or less as good as it gets for
25 years. What really made me happy, but a little sad to, was that
the fans got to celebrate Kobashi for what he has given them.
Mitsuharu Misawa died during a match in 2009. The fans never got to
celebrate his legacy only mourn. The Misawa chant in the post match
celebration was fitting for Kobashi's friend, but Budokan's favourite
son was Kobashi. Forever will his mark be felt.
Sheriff Lonestar's PPV of the Week
Initially this column found a home on the TNA Fan Forum. Since then it has grown and produced some of my best writing on wrestling, so I decided to bring it to Blogger so as to keep things easy to find.
Sheriff Lonestar
Oil Trough Texas
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