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IANdrewDiceClay

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Finding WCW results is a nightmare, I'm confusing myself. I was at Woldwide tapings as well as Pro in 97. Any good sites to check results? Other than historyofwwe?

 

Not that I can really think of. ProfightDB.com?

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Yeah, no luck. I'll pick us all something good soon on that channel. It's just now that I've started hunting those results, It's going to piss me off until I find them.

This ones good kandd.shootangle.com/wcw

EDIT: No worldwide or pro though.

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Just watched Terry Funk v Tully Blanchard from Slamboree 1994. Gordon Solie and Bobby Heenan are on commentary, and what an absolute delight they both are together. Just wonderful. Great match, too, obviously.

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WWF The Main Event February 5, 1988

Sponsored by Coors Light - There’s no slowing down with the silver bullet.

main_event_ident.jpg

 

The largest ever audience in wrestling history watched this NBC special. 33 million viewers were glued to see the rematch between Andre The Giant and Hulk Hogan. It gives you a sense of how big the company was in the 80s. 33 million people?! Another 20,000 people packed into the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis, Indiana to witness a huge night, where future storylines were set well in motion. It was a cracking event, filled with spectical, colour and everything that made late 80s WWF a great product.

 

The show kicks off with a series of studio interviews, in front of a screen with each individuals custom logo. The colour is blinding. Its mad to think how anyone couldn’t like wrestling watching the beginning. Randy Savage proclaims he is going to teach Honky Tonk Man a lesson for disrespecting Miss Elizabeth. This is followed by Honky Tonk informing the world “what a whiner that Macho Man is”. Honky Tonk Man seems extremely confident. And you would be as well, if you’d refused to put Savage over and knew you were holding onto the belt. It ends with a bit of comedy.

 

Jimmy Hart “you know, he’s lucky”

 

HTM: “Why’s that?”

 

Jimmy: “He’s lucky you don’t play the piano lolololol”

 

Next up is Ted DiBiase and Andre The Giant. Ted DiBiase is at his best. Just a really good promo in his day. Andre comes out with “HOGA, E FELL SO GOO” in reference to the choking he dished out a few weeks prior at he Royal Rumble. Hogan, not to be outdone, gives a classic coke and pill induced promo. He’s wearing the old WWF belt as well, strangely enough. Continuity wasn’t the order of the day, on this night. Hogan gives off a ‘most muscular pose’ his interview freezes as we cut to the intro video.

 

WWF was so on the ball in 1988. Dick Ebersol brought a load of new ideas to pro wrestling, its really understated. The Main Event specials were so well put together, they still hold up today as far as creating a big time atmosphere. There was millions and millions of people tuning in for the first time here. And if you watched the intro video, you wouldn’t have felt in the dark at all. Hogan is shown slamming King Kong Bundy and his logo pops up on the screen. Andre is shown hitting his one armed suplex on Bam Bam Bigelow and his name is shown on screen. Honky Tonk Man next in full regalia. Playing the guitar and performing his Shake Rattle and Roll. Closely followed is Randy Savage, who does his top rope double axe handle and is in full rope and sunglasses with his lovely manager Elizabeth. From the intro video, we find out the names of the people on the show, a trademark move and we are bombarded with so much colour and flashy costumes, you wont want to turn away. Its such a brilliant job. Top marks.

 

Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura are in the crowd, in the broadcast booth. Vince is wearing his best tuxedo, where as The Body has a leopard skin genie hat on and a vampire cloak! Unlike the usual episodes of WWF programming, the microphone is turned up for this intro. Vince and Jesse are on loud speaker and can barely speak over the rapid fans. You need to hear it. The fans are going absolutely batty. Of course, Jesse wants Honky Tonk, The Hart Foundation and Andre are walking away with the belts. The fans aren’t to pleased with it. it’s a beautiful intro. Makes the whole thing look so big time. Its not hard to see why WWF was so massive during this period.

 

Next up we see Hulk Hogan lifting weights in a tank top and bandana to the Jake Roberts theme song. Very much like the John Cena thing the other week. Hogan’s showing how strong he is. He’s trained extra hard for this bout, obviously. Jesse even looks impressed.

 

Randy Savage vs WWF Intercontinental Champion The Honky Tonk Man

 

Before the match kicks off, Honky gives another interview. He’s great here. He promises to take Elizabeth down lonely street to the heartbreak hotel. He says he wont be cruel, and he’ll love her tender, because he’ll be her teddy bear. He also promises that Randy Savage will end up in the ghetto. If all that failed though, Honky does have a shag for the night, in the form of Peggy Sue. Sherri Martel turned up in a blond wig and was all over Roy Ferris’ cock.

 

We cut to the back, and Randy Savage is quite calm. Claiming Honky’s words are just fuel to the fire. Elizabeth seems flustered, which is understandable, considering she’d been in the janitors mop room from 2 in the afternoon. The reaction Savage gets could bring a tear to the eye of those soft shites among us. The fans love him here. All decked out in his cape and sunglasses, Randy goes on the offence straight away. No lock ups from Mach. Punches kicks and trademark offence right from the off. Savage was really a super worker. He never sits still. Its no wonder his hips, knees, back and neck were completely fucked by the age of 50. Not taking anything away from Honky Tonk Man either. He knew how to work his gimmick, and he’s playing the crowd up really well. Considering they had 6 dark matches for this event, its unbelievable how into it the crowd is. Randy camps on a sleeper hold close to the end, and the fans go fucking nuts! They think he’s winning it on a sleeper. And he might have, if Peggy Sherri hadn’t have gotten involved with Liz. A groggy Honky Tonk takes a count out loss, but the fans still go mad. They must believe Honky gets the loses share of the purse money or something. After the decision, Jimmy Hart whacks Macho with the megaphone, leaving Honky to take the guitar and tease smashing it over Savages head. Macho intercepts, and destroys the guitar to pieces. Savage would have taken the guitar to the head, but the lovely Elizabeth lay herself over him to protect her man. This good deed doesn’t go unrewarded. Randy puts Liz on his shoulders and the fans again go off the heads.

 

The lesson Vince told us was “he doesn’t need the belt, he’s got the real trophy right there”. Awww …

 

WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan vs Andre The Giant

 

Jesse and Vince are hyping it as the most anticipated rematch in the history of wrestling and its hard to deny, given the audience this attracted. Vince and Jess are doing their best Andy Gray and Richard Keys impressions, when they analyze the three count that never was WrestleMania III. I thought for a minute, The Body was going to start banging on about goal line technology at one stage. They really build it like Andre was done over. Ted DiBiase brings it up in the pre match interview. DiBiase again sells the bout as Virgil and Andre stand there and look pretty. The Giant says a few things, but smartly the Million Dollar Man laughs over it.

 

Andre is a fucking sight to behold. He walks to the ring and you get a sense that something is out of the ordinary. He looks unlike anyone on the planet. The camera angles are great for his entrance. They make him look like they cant fit him in the shot. The fans are on his case at the entrance. They cant wait. The Hulkster is next up, backstage with Gene Okerland (again wearing a bandana and the 1987 WWF title) and the doubts about weather he really pinned The Giant seem to have gotten to him. He looks like he has a point to proof. Great interview. Definitely dipped into his bum bag for inspiration for that promo. And out pops the Hulkster. The fans go completely spastic as Real American roars from the speaker. He’s now wearing a headband and the WWF Winged Eagle belt. Jesse Ventura brings up he’s pleased that Dave Hebner is refereeing the match and not Joey Morella. Hmm …

 

Hogan looks worked up. He runs to the ring and the referee stops him from bashing Andre with the belt. Andre is chilled as fuck. Jesse notices it as well. “Andre looks cool” and he does. He doesn’t seem to give a fuck. He was listening to Black Grape's first album on his mp3 player before the bout. The contrast is startling between cokehead Hogan and Daddy Cool Roussimoff. He seems to know something we don’t.

 

The match starts, and lets be honest, the action is fucking abysmal. Ridiculously rotten. But, that’s doesn’t matter to me or anyone in attendance. Hogan’s offence is limited to punches to Andre’s Rab C Nessbit haired bonce, chops to his massive tits and Abbey like thrusts to the neck and throat. Ever the sportsman, he goes to the eyes as well. Andre doesn’t go down though. Hogan goes to the top rope. He looks so uncomfortable up there. Andre throws him off, and Hogan takes the safest looking top rope bump in history. Andre goes for a Dynamite Kid style falling head butt, but it looks like Andre’s passed out. He just falls. Its definitely the funniest spot of he night. Andre looks like he’s taken a funny turn and hit’s the deck with hilarious force. Hogan cant capitalise though, as Andre goes straight for the throat. Jesse say “I CAN FEEL IT MCMAHON! THE CHAMP IS GOING TO GO DOWN!” as Andre chokes Hogan out for a little bit more. Andre’s in obvious pain here. He sends Hogan off the ropes and delivers a big boot. As he lifts his leg, Andre falls over. Poor sod. Hogan makes his big comeback and hit’s the giant with a Axe Bomber from the second rope, knocking the Giant down and following up with a leg drop. Virgil causes enough of a distraction for Andre to recover and his a side suplex. One .. Two … Shoulder Up … Three!!!!

 

McMahon no sells it, “bollocks” he says “we don’t have a new champion. Jesse is going mad over it “in wrestling you don’t go by instant replays”. He’s changed his tune. The fans are going crazy. They are far from happy. Andre proclaims “I told you I was going to win the World Tag Team Championship” and hands the belt over to Ted DiBiase. Dave Hebner is in the middle of saying “soz mate” to Hogan, when another Dave Hebner enters the ring. It must have been mental to see in 1988. It still looks great in 2012, but if you didn’t see it coming it must have been belting. It all falls into place, now and Hogan reacts in his typical understand way of throwing the evil twin 40 yards into the aisle. Hogan’s almost in floods backstage. He’s been done over, and he vows to get him belt back somehow. Just not before No Holds Barred goes into production, eh?

 

WWF World Tag Team Champions Strike Force vs The Hart Foundation

I don’t think anyone gave two shits either way about this one. Randy Savage never won the belt and Hulk Hogan’s four year title reign just ended miserably. Rick Martel and Tito Santana winning weren’t going to make up for those two crushing disappointments. I’m sure it would have been quite a good bout as well, but due to time constraints, NBC said “see ya, lads” and the show just ended. Reports say Strike Force won. That was good, then.

 

Have to say I love this event. It sums up what being a fan is to me. Recommended to everyone who hasnt seen it. Its what wrestling is. All show. Fuck the technical shit, as a great man once said.

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Just clearing out my wrestling collection but no way was I gettin rid of my snme collection,April 91 still my favorite though,warrior vs slaughter with cameo from bearer,taker,casket and hogan,the "perfect" battleroyal and bret hart vs Ted dibiase,classic stuff

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Great post, Ian. I just watched the main event, and it went down as you described. I feel so sorry for Andre, he should never have still been wrestling at this point, but he was clearly trying as hard as he could, and looked like a badass before and after.

 

Hogan bumped like a maniac though, and the whole story was well told.

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Making my way through Raw 1997 (slowly). Just watched February 3rd 1997 edition. I've no idea why but I've never seen it before. It's subtitled "Royal Rumble Raw", I believe on the premise that they were going to show the whole of the Royal rumble match. If they did, it was missing from this version. This seems to be one of, if not the, first 2 hour Raw.

 

What's fascinating about the episode is that the venue is the Skydome in Toronto, site of WM 6. The crowd is 25,000 and something according to Vince which would normally be seriously impressive but because of the size of the venue, they had to keep all the empty seats in the dark. As a result, it has the feel of a 1980's house show with poor lighting in the ring.

 

It's a really decent show. Kicks off with Vader & Steve Austin, who were due to be part of the Final Four PPV. Well it nearly does but Bret Hart comes down for a pre-match punch-up. Very sensibly, this match has no finish as Steve Austin kicks the shit out of a ref.

 

Next match is alright. Savio Vega, fresh off his heel turn, beats Flash Funk. It's not bad but the story is about the NoD and Savio cuts a decent pre-match promo. It's a unique one, JR chases him up the aisle and he cuts it almost on the ring steps. Aisle isn't as massive as WM6 and there are no little ring trolleys :(

 

Decent Sid promo follows. They are heavily hyping Sid vs. Michaels at Thursday Raw Thursday on Feb 13th (I think there was no Raw that Monday due to Tennis or the dog show). The match would never happen.

 

Next comes another good Owen/Bulldog vs. Furnas/Lafon. Furnas is suffering from Flu or something so it's not as good as some of the others. The Owen/Bulldog tension angle is in full swing and continues brilliantly here. The finish is odd though. Owen fakes a knee injury and gets counted out. It's odd because Bulldog had just delivered a Powerslam in the middle of the ring and while he's not the legal man, Owen could've just rolled in and scored the pin. Post match Owen runs down the aisle before faking again when Davey catches up with him. This brings us a glorious moment where Owen waits for Davey to turn around so he can perform his trademark jump of celebration http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7yTTw4pQ3o&t=840

 

Ahmed Johnson interview on the Ahmed & Undertaker vs. Faarooq & Mankind main event up next. Earlier Royal Rumble highlights showed the best and worst of Ahmed. He looks amazing throwing an NoD dogs body through a table but then swings a massive 2x4 like a toddler playing swingball. Crush is making his way out during the interview which leads to Undertaker clamping Ahmed's throat and saying (slowly) "If you go now, you go alone, if you stay, we go together". Ahmed's response is amazing. "You touch me again deadman and you won't be dead enough".

 

Crush beats Goldust in a shitarse of a match with the (lame lame lame) heart punch after Vega catches Goldust with his awesome spinning kick.

 

Promo airs for The New blackjacks. You don't see them, just an old black jack. Cracking promo, better than the team.

 

Shawn Michaels interview mid-ring next. Usual good interview from Shawn who gets a pretty negative reaction in Canada. Ace camera shot of Bret Hart watching the interview from the Gorilla position on the giant screens. When Bret eventually comes out, he calls HBK some names to a great response and they have an electric stare down. I am so looking forward to seeing these two go again at WrestleMania. Mmm. Before the fisticuffs can start, Austin comes down and batters Bret, while Sid comes down to look at Shawn menacingly. After the break, Sid and Austin have gone and it's back to HBK and Bret. HBK lays the title between them. When he goes to pick it up, Bret steps on it. This is a fantastic spot with great crowd reaction. Beautifully subtle. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXsoUyaKt_I&t=539 Bret then takes the title, offers it to Shawn and drops it.

 

Tiger Ali Singh's contract signing, which took place before the show started is shown. He looks the business and has Bret there to endorse it. Shame it never went anywhere. Dastardly heel and IC champion Hunter Hearst Helmsley comes down to his awesome entrance theme and beats Mark mero in a good match with brass knucks. Mr. Hughes and Sable both banned from ringside. They show footage of Sable booting the Undertaker in a recent match as being part of the reason. No wonder she got over.

 

Main event was a decent brawl. Faarooq was leading their top heel faction, Undertaker and Ahmed were super protected so no surprise that Mankind was the one who lost. Vince spent a hell of a lot of time throughout the show hammering home that this no-DQ match would definitely happen and that there would be no bait and switch and no false advertising in the WWF. Something must've happened on a recent Nitro.

 

Anyway, cracking show. WWF was really on fire in 1997.

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The Main Event is a wonderful show as Ian described. WWF don't make one false move with that special, everything is to perfection. I would have loved to have seen it when it originally aired. Imagine what UKFF Chat would have resembled at the Hebner twins :)

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Vince spent a hell of a lot of time throughout the show hammering home that this no-DQ match would definitely happen and that there would be no bait and switch and no false advertising in the WWF. Something must've happened on a recent Nitro.

 

It's possible that Vince had an inkling that Hogan challenging Piper to a title match in the opening segment of Nitro that very night would result in talking, not a match. Which is exactly what happened.

 

Good write-up, I've been through the "Best of Raw" tapes from the first six months of 1997 myself lately. That SkyDome Raw deserved to draw the crowd it did, the live crowd got a dark match main event of Shawn VS Bret VS Sid for the title. Shawn won and retained (obviously) by landing a top rope crossbody on Bret as he was applying the Sharpshooter to Sid. I'm sure the match was recorded, but I don't think it's ever been seen other than by the live crowd.

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