air_raid

Brilliant example. Fucking awful twaddle. They thought he’d win the ICT before Shawn got concussed and wouldn’t be able to work Winnipeg, but WWF title? Dean Douglas? Fuck right off. He’ll tell you. Around SummerSlam 95 is when is Vince told him he’d transition the belt from Kev to HBK. So the plans were already made before “The Dean” had a single televised match.

@d-d-d-dAz I think you know what I think, because I posted it in a different thread ; Cena was ready. Having a lengthy JBL reign rather than transitioning quickly from Eddy to him hurt both Cena and the quality of TV alike.

Just... five? OK, I'll come back to you on these. I'll restrict them to standard singles or tags, even though that's not really fair to Flair.

Exactly. Should be ignored wherever possible. I read that there are 100 better wrestlers of all time than Shawn Michaels, doesn't make it true.

Only just realized that "Perez" could have made you think I was still talking about Melina! PopRox is the finish of Roxanne Perez in NXT. "Sunset Split" is the name of the inverted legdrop DDT that Melly used to do. Which is OK, considering the whole MNM "Hollywood" gimmick could be related to Sunset Drive. I still think someone could get the Overdrive, umm, over. It only got used by a fraction of the people that used the Roll The Dice/Test Drive/Hero's Welcome/Last Rites, and Cody just won the Undisputed Undefeated WWE World Heavyweight Championship Of Life, The Universe And Everything with that. I sincerely hope Cody gets to win a match at 42 with it as well, it's what Douglas would have wanted.

I'd love it if "no user name" ends up going to a show featuring "insert name here". Jokes aside... Nina Samuels is worth £13.50 of anyone's money for those that are local.

Random one - can anyone remember, and I'm pretty sure it was a "Diva" (as was) - who did this for a finish.... Started with an inverted facelock then a leg swept across the opponents body to do like an inverted legdrop DDT. But not the outside leg as Big Show used to do (think they called it the Showstopper), but the inside leg, so it arcs from pointing into your own body all the way out to slamming across the opponent, and you end up sitting facing the same way your opponents feet point.... if that makes sense? EDIT - ignore me. It was Melina. Of course it was. As an aside since I'm on finishers... learning that Perez' finish is called "PopRox" amused me greatly. A far cry from when they used to get real lazy and called anything "(something) bomb" "(something) slam" or "(something) kick."

Imported from the Raw thread because it was a SmackDown show, but I happened upon the results just now while looking for something else. For those that keep an eye on what happens on the road (like I do) there's a lot of repetition from what was going on before/at Mania including rematches of Bayley vs Io and Jade/Naomi/Bianca beating the other three. And you can see it here ; What went on last, you may be wondering....? LA Knight vs Solo. The main event push for both may be very much on, YEAH.

To be blunt, (1) that's not quite the ridiculous, implausible bollocks I'm going for, It's very plausible that Luger winning the belt was planned, because it was at one point, (2) the common version of that story is concerning Mania X rather than SummerSlam and (3) it's been refuted many times by all involved.

My recent reminisce * over the September 93 WWF Mag with a glistening Luger’s abs on the cover got me thinking - what’s the best examples you can recall of hearing/reading someone claim a booking plan that ended up scrapped, which was so outlandish that you know it’s total fiction? The reason I mention Luger… we all heard stories that he was pencilled in to win the belt at Mania X, right? However, my story in question is not that after winning the Rumble he’d have gone on and dethroned Yokozuna at Wrestlemania… that would have made sense! No, there was some poor misguided corner of the web where I once read that if Borga had not done his ankle at MSG… the mind boggles. Allegedly they’d have had Taker actually beat Zuna in the casket match instead of him getting Bloodlined, then Lex would have won the Rumble, at face value setting up Undertaker vs Luger for Mania. However… at some indeterminate point between PPVs (a Raw? A house show???) BORGA would win the WWF title from “the Dead Man” who would then head off for his hiatus to sort his back out. What do you make to THAT?? Taker getting a Three Years Long Service medal of a “thanks for selling so many foam urns” second title reign again lasting no time at all? Luger avenging his “being robbed” (by his own stupidity) at SummerSlam by winning the belt from someone else? Yoko getting built up by squashing every decent babyface on the books and ending Hulkamania then NOT being vanquished at Mania? Ludvig Borga, WWF Champion?? I mean… yes, they were doing everything to build up “anti American” heels around the time - Luger had already been on the road with Borga for near 6 months at this point and they’d had “sympathiser” Crush going over Randy Savage in every town on the loop to make him look a threat too but… are we really cutting Yoko off before Mania just to give Taker another “stat” as the kids would say? And crown Borga, who was never better than “limited”? I don’t think so. So… what was your favourite piece of booking bullshit anyone ever purported to believe?? Bonus points if any suggestion winds up something a Prichard or JR has actually confirmed as discussed as a possibility… LOL. * Not a euphemism.

I think his challenge was only ever down as a Trojan Horse for Ziggler. The story goes that the original plan was for the “cash in” to occur at Mania itself, but Del Rio played his face that he should get a big win at Mania, having been denied one at Mania 27 due to plans changing.

Plus Khali might have been awful to watch but he was believable as a threat, having beaten The Undertaker and that. Jinder was a jobber that magically became champion. That ridiculous sudden leap from nobody to the top spot never fools anyone. Worse - was a crap challenger for Del Rio after winning a Chamber where he was the worst possible winner. Cracking nights work for Mark Henry, mind. I’d only be repeating myself. No justification for one of the Acolytes to win the big belt two months after doing jobs to Bashams. Pathetic.

That’s nothing like the story they told. Shane and Stephanie sold their WWF stock during the Invasion/Alliance storyline to a “consortium” that turned out to actually be Ric. So he bought his way into part ownership as opposed to having any position bestowed upon him.

Unfortunately the “prior convictions” for skying an open goal when a top star comes back from injury over the last ten years are awful, including (but not limited to) of Seth himself. About the only bloke booked worse than Rollins for more than two years after his comeback was buddy/rival Reigns, the peak of which being that late 2016 period where Owens vs Rollins existed as such a pointless, transparently time-killing feud as we all knew the U belt would end up on Roman… and yet he didn’t win it until 2018 and Seth had to wait until Mania 35. In era of two titles, inexcusable bullshit.

He’s staying, it just hasn’t leaked yet, I’m utterly convinced. If he doesn’t go on last for the Silver Medal in Glasgow I’ll be stunned.

I know people say “oh, there were two titles” as an excuse to throw any shit at the wall, but there was no excuse for dross like Jinder to win one of them when Roman Reigns was bang in the middle of waiting two fucking years to be a champion again. Shameless attempt to get more visibility in an overseas market by prostituting your top title to push a marginal talent. He can fuck off.

Knight to Raw is a no brainer. He’s popular, they have a new heel champion, and you’d buy him as being able to beat Priest.

Fond memories! September 1993 WWF Magazine, the very first I got my parents to buy me at the newsagent instead of getting second hand from friends. Which was the “September” issue, which we bought in August, and reviewed King of the Ring which had happened in June - couldn’t get my head round that. It was a far cry from the Beano, I tell thee. Always thought it was funny that the Hulk still got his face onto the cover even though they’d just buried him on the PPV. Regardless… I could probably tell you everything that was in that magazine. Definitely the “Undertake ‘Em All” Hasbro ad on the inside cover, still trying to flog you figures of Sid and Anvil even if you just saw them on Worldwide on ITV that afternoon, and Nailz, 8 months removed from him getting slung for trying to kill/knob Vince, depending who you believe.. and making you desperately scour Toys R Us for a Shawn that didn’t exist. ….. this fucker. Of course, inside was a SummerSlam preview which, par for the course, made you look forward to matches that would be cancelled like Marty Jannetty vs The Model and Tatanka & Sherri vs Bam Bam & Luna. The King of the Ring review made it sound like Bret Hart was the toughest wrestler who ever lived. The coverage of The Steiners winning the tag belts twice at house shows in “The Night The Belt Changed Hands” was accompanied by photos of matches clearly taken (judging by lighting and setup) at TV tapings - in particular a couple of photos where the wrestlers seem drenched in sweat are dead giveaways it wasn’t from the road. Of course as a kid, looking at these official looking photos I assumed I might see the title switches on Coliseum one day - whoops. The Crush interview was so kayfabed every second word was “brah” or “bruddah” and apart from he was clearly threatening to do something terrible to Doink, it was unreadable. Most famously, the company printed Now It’s Our Turn, the “first of a series” of hitting back, a hatchet job of Superstar Graham, replete with mentions of TitanSports Inc, Dr Zahorian and numerous other things that would fly over the heads of the children reading. Vince McMahon… a good guy. Worst of all it promised future “exposes” on perceived chancers and liars, including Rita Chatterton. Thankfully these never materialised, one imagines subscriptions slumped when parents saw their kids were going to learn about (and I quote) “sex scandals” over their Coco Pops in the months to come. As for Shawn and Ronda, the article and accompanying photos were a fake date, I’m not sure to what end. There’s one in the restaurant where Shawn has lipstick kisses on his face, she’s got fingers playing with his shirt buttons, and it’s reminiscent of one you see when two photos later there will be a cock in Michelle Thorne’s mouth. I didn’t know who Ronda was then, or when she appeared at Mania X, though I later loved the consistency of her mugging HBK off then him getting the same treatment from Pamela Anderson (who I DEFINITELY knew of) the year after. Either way, even this weird pseudo soft porn wasn’t the most embarrassing thing about the magazine, having had to endure this cover to even get out of the shop without being targeted as a gayman by bullies ; ….. looking back I wasn’t sure why THIS was the turning point for me actually buying wrestling magazines, but it’s probably the peak of Youth Club rumours, and I was dying to see if the issue would cover “Lex Luger came out of the sky in a helicopter, powerslammed Yokozuna, pinned him and now he’s WWF Champion.” Still waiting.

Odd market indeed. Never forget, we’re talking about the state where they did Mania in a car park.

Cruiserweight lad who I saw a fair few times in Stockport/Prestwich… probably not known much outside Greater Manchester but I saw him come on leaps and bounds and thought he was in with a shout at cracking the level of a Kris Travis/Joey Hayes/Noam Dar “national recognition” position. Then I stopped going to shows, lost track of the scene, the pandemic happened, and four years later I’m learning he didn’t quite make it.

Best pure striker in the history of the game.

Back in the day they'd simply rename the good Jade just "Cargill" and have done with it. Fucking "Riddle" vs "Theory." Utter joke.

It should have been cancelled. Nobody deserved that much Jack Victory.

Cyrus "You, give belt-o, to Rhino!" Tajiri : "FUCK! YOU!" .... but they also used it to expect us to believe Scotty Riggs was a threat to RVD, so you know, swings and roundabouts.