Paid Members IANdrewDiceClay Posted October 28, 2013 Paid Members Share Posted October 28, 2013 (edited) Shawn vs Batista was the original plan. That had to be the most reshuffled WrestleMania ever. Started off with Hogan vs Big Show, then Big Show got injured. So it changed to Khali vs Hogan (URGH!) and then Hogan fell out with them. So it got changed to Umaga vs Lashley. Then HHH vs Cena. Which got changed around. Edge vs Orton was on the cards as well. Undertaker and Umaga was on the board for a little while as well. Â I was reading Bob Holly's book and he mentions he was originally going to be in the Battle of the Billionaires match. And I was reading it going "fuck off". Then I went and had a look at old PW Insider reports and Holly vs Lashley for the ECW title was supposed to happen. Obviously they pulled him as soon as the match became of any importance, but he was spot on in a way. Â Looking back, they shouldn't have put Umaga over Cena if they were going for Undertaker vs Umaga. Undefeated Umaga vs The Streak would have been quite decent at the time. Edited October 28, 2013 by IANdrewDiceClay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lightningxlock Posted October 28, 2013 Share Posted October 28, 2013 I'm going to the RAW tv taping in Manchester in a few weeks and having never been to a WWE tv taping I have no idea what to expect. Am I right in thinking it's Superstars/RAW/dark match? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ant Posted October 28, 2013 Share Posted October 28, 2013 I'm going to the RAW tv taping in Manchester in a few weeks and having never been to a WWE tv taping I have no idea what to expect. Am I right in thinking it's Superstars/RAW/dark match? Â Yeah you're probably looking at a dark match or straight into the Superstars taping - in fact it might not even be clear if the first match is a dark match or for Superstars (eg Zack Ryder vs Jinder Mahal). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members JNLister Posted October 28, 2013 Paid Members Share Posted October 28, 2013 Cena-HHH, Michaels-Batista, Edge-Orton, Hogan-Big Show, Undertaker-Umaga, Lashley-Holly and then add in MITB, Benoit-MVP and the ECW 8 man actually sounds like a pretty darn great show. Assuming Hogan didn't drop Big Show on his head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted October 28, 2013 Paid Members Share Posted October 28, 2013 WrestleMania 13 was all up in the air as well wasn't it? I've seen a few interviews with guys who were on the roster back then saying Vince didn't really know what direction he was going to go in until very late in the run up to that WrestleMania. Especially considering back then Vince would usually have plans laid out well in advance. Â I know Bret vs Shawn was on the cards at one point for WM13. Was Taker vs Sid always the plan? What would Austin have done had Bret vs Shawn gone ahead? Even the Owen/Bulldog vs Vader/Mankind match seemed cobbled together just to get those four on the card. If you look at the way things were going on TV in late 96-early 97, it looked like Owen vs Bulldog was likely for Mania. And didn't Foley say him and Terry Funk were going to do a big hardcore match on the show as well? Or was that the year after? Could have been a completely different card but in hindsight it worked out for the best with how Bret vs Austin played out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members garynysmon Posted October 28, 2013 Paid Members Share Posted October 28, 2013 I know Bret vs Shawn was on the cards at one point for WM13. Was Taker vs Sid always the plan? What would Austin have done had Bret vs Shawn gone ahead? Even the Owen/Bulldog vs Vader/Mankind match seemed cobbled together just to get those four on the card. If you look at the way things were going on TV in late 96-early 97, it looked like Owen vs Bulldog was likely for Mania. And didn't Foley say him and Terry Funk were going to do a big hardcore match on the show as well? Or was that the year after? Could have been a completely different card but in hindsight it worked out for the best with how Bret vs Austin played out. Â That was for 14 but was apparently changed because the WWF were a bit scared how the increased media presence (because of Tyson) would react. So they changed it to the Dumpster Match against the NAO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members IANdrewDiceClay Posted October 28, 2013 Paid Members Share Posted October 28, 2013 (edited) I'm certain they were going to do one at 13 as well. Funk and Mankind had a brawl in the Royal Rumble that year and were causing such a fuss they were used as a distraction for when the referees couldn't see Austin get thrown out. Edited October 28, 2013 by IANdrewDiceClay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted October 28, 2013 Paid Members Share Posted October 28, 2013 I know Bret vs Shawn was on the cards at one point for WM13. Was Taker vs Sid always the plan? What would Austin have done had Bret vs Shawn gone ahead? Â It's clear to me Taker vs Sid was the original plan after they had their staredown in the wake of the Bret/Shawn face to face interview on a December '96 Raw. Watching the interaction between the two in late '96 and early '97 (certainly between the night after Survivors and the Rumble) I've always believed the plan was for Austin to face a newly-turned Bulldog at the big one, since plans for Austin to turn baby were only put in place in the weeks before the show, after Hart/Austin had been announced. Â This would have left Owen with nothing to do, so after watching the Slammys, I'd definitely have put him with Doink. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members IANdrewDiceClay Posted October 28, 2013 Paid Members Share Posted October 28, 2013 Owen vs The Rock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NEWM Posted October 28, 2013 Share Posted October 28, 2013 Yep, I'm with all that Raid. I could be wrong but I think I remember Powerslam and the net reporting it as a stonewaller that Bulldog was gonna be a big face again following the big split from Owen, and Bret's demands as part of his heel turn was what nixed it. It also lead to the messy all-heels tag title match at Mania. To be honest, things obviously turned out for the best, but I thought it was a real credit to Owen how well Bulldog was getting over as a face again. He was still acting the prick (and bizarrely so, at that) but Owen at that point was such a brilliant sleaze bag dickhead that the people couldn't wait for Davey to fucking chin him. Â As we probably all have, it's mental to think of 97 had all the weird events not lead to the year we got. Let's say there's no Harts vs Austin, and Bulldog turns face. Once he's done with Owen, what the hell's he doing if Taker's your Champion? Or a face Bret or a god-knows-what-Shawn? That's all been done before, and Davey's not a proven draw. If Austin stays heel, do they feud for the IC belt and neither get any more over than that? It's such an odd landscape to think about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reznor Posted October 29, 2013 Share Posted October 29, 2013 (edited) I know Bret vs Shawn was on the cards at one point for WM13. Was Taker vs Sid always the plan? What would Austin have done had Bret vs Shawn gone ahead? Â It's clear to me Taker vs Sid was the original plan after they had their staredown in the wake of the Bret/Shawn face to face interview on a December '96 Raw. Watching the interaction between the two in late '96 and early '97 (certainly between the night after Survivors and the Rumble) I've always believed the plan was for Austin to face a newly-turned Bulldog at the big one, since plans for Austin to turn baby were only put in place in the weeks before the show, after Hart/Austin had been announced. Â This would have left Owen with nothing to do, so after watching the Slammys, I'd definitely have put him with Doink. Â This came up not too long ago, nobody really knew, so was just filled with theories. I reckoned it might have been Austin/Rocky, someone else speculated on Austin/Vader, might've been yourself actually. Â At the arse end of '96, i'd be pretty confident the tentative plan for Austin was to face Pillman at WM13. I wouldn't imagine they'd have run such a controversial, high profile angle knowing at the time it wouldn't lead anywhere - I suspect Pillmans 'recovery' took 2 or 3 months longer than anticipated or he had a setback somewhere along the line. Â If Bulldog was turning, you'd have to think the first few months of it would have been focussed on the inevitable feud with Owen. Something like that would've been great for WM13, with Vader v Foley too. Amazing how much better that show could have sounded just by splitting that tag into two separate matches. Edited October 29, 2013 by Reznor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted October 29, 2013 Paid Members Share Posted October 29, 2013 At the arse end of '96, i'd be pretty confident the tentative plan for Austin was to face Pillman at WM13. I wouldn't imagine they'd have run such a controversial, high profile angle knowing at the time it wouldn't lead anywhere - I suspect Pillmans 'recovery' took 2 or 3 months longer than anticipated or he had a setback somewhere along the line. Â I assumed they had Austin smash Pillman's ankle in precisely because he'd already had his setback and they knew he'd be out for a considerable time, and they ran the break-in angle to make Austin look like an unstoppable psychopath en route to his meeting with Hitman (and because they knew he was going places) since they couldn't really run any build-up angles or incidents between Stone Cold and Bret since they seemingly didn't want to put Bret in the ring in front of an audience between the 21st October Raw and Survivors itself. I would say they wouldn't have chanced planning Austin's match for Mania around an opponent that was on the D/L in the autumn/winter months, but then again who knows, it's been described by people working for the WWF at the time as (paraphrasing) "the year Vince didn't have a clue what to do for WrestleMania." Â It only dawns on me now that if they'd have had any confidence in the Road Warrios as major players in reviving their tag scene, they could have ran with Owen/Smithers VS LOD at WrestleMania and left Ahmed vs Farooq as the originally announced one on one streetfight. That would have been a less confusing dynamic for the tag title match than the one they put on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members IANdrewDiceClay Posted October 29, 2013 Paid Members Share Posted October 29, 2013 (edited) The submission match and the street fight as one of the best two-punch combos I've ever seen on PPV. You could never do those two matches in a row now. On paper it was retarded pacing of a card. But it worked a treat. You would have to put something in the middle of it. You made a 20 minute crowd exhausting classing in Bret and Austin featuring arena wild brawling, chair shots, bell shots and blood throughout. And then they followed that up with a street fight with about 12 people hitting each other with everything not nailed down. You would have had to stick a womens match in to chill the crowd out if you did that now. It probably says a lot about the Sid and Undertaker match that they could have silenced that red hot Chicago crowd. That takes a special kind of skill. Edited October 29, 2013 by IANdrewDiceClay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheShowOff Posted October 29, 2013 Share Posted October 29, 2013 In his first book, Foley talks about having a death match with Funk at Mania 14, dropped for the reasons Gary said. It would have been stupid to present such a match on that card with the media coverage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members bAzTNM#1 Posted October 30, 2013 Paid Members Share Posted October 30, 2013 A quick Channel 4 "Gamesmaster" question, why would Buff Bagwell & The Patriot appear on it in 1994/95? Was there a WCW game out? Cheers. Â "Gamesmaster" Wiki Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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