OOOLD SCHOOOOL

[bAzTNM#1]

Before the match, heel Fuji is performing his salt ceremony, and throws salt in the face of heel Bobby Heenan, who is on commentary. Odd, odd stuff.

It was at MSG, right? I remember reading that angle was a New York thing. Nowhere else got it.

[Statto]

It was. Here it is :

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHAWivjCLsM

[Devon Malcolm]

One of those most notable things about

is the fans chanting "LSD!" at Damien Demento in the opening match against Mr Perfect!

 

Demento was absolutely crap, wasn't he?

[EdgarTheSlouch]

One of those most notable things about

is the fans chanting "LSD!" at Damien Demento in the opening match against Mr Perfect!

 

Demento was absolutely crap, wasn't he?

 

Half decent look I guess. He was essentially just a jobber with attitude

[King Pitcos]

Watching UK Rampage 1991, and Mean Gene gets in little sly references for the dads in his interviews that would have gone way over my head as a kid. When he's interviewing DiBiase and a cleavagey Sherri, "what a pair you two are." When he's interviewing Fuji and The Orient Express, it's "You've brought a new perspective, a new slant if you will, to professional wrestling."

[IANdrewDiceClay]

When he's interviewing Fuji and The Orient Express, it's "You've brought a new perspective, a new slant if you will, to professional wrestling."

YES! What a man Mean Gene is. He was pure sleeze. More of his GENEius:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyREQE6cdhI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bXOc4JZ3gQ

 

Vince and Bobby Heenan pissing themselves is my favourite (full thing isn't on Youtube sadly):

[air_raid]

Final installment of random thoughts watching all the Raw of 1994, mostly written before my jaunt to Tokyo, both final because I've finished the set and will be moving onto 1995, and I'm not sure whether I'll bother continuing with the thoughts. Depends on the programs, probably.

 

** On the Raw after SummerSlam Shawn & Diesel have a squash match in Lowell which is notable for a few things. Firstly, the crowd chanting loudly for Diesel. Lowell always seemed to be one of those crowds that cheered for who they liked and didn't give a shit whether people were heels or faces - remember their merciless booing of Shawn and chanting for Sid when he was giving up the WWF title? They're ahead of the curve here, well into Diesel three months before his actual turn. Shawn does a wonderfully unorthodox attack where with Mike Bell distracted by Big D at ringside, Shawn goes to exit the ring between middle rope and top, and the motion of his body makes me think that half through jumping out of the ring he thinks "I could just hit him" and forearms Bell in the back on his way down. It's not pretty, but it looks very real in it's sense of "impovised." Finally Vince makes me laugh by explaining the absence of the tag belts by saying that Shawn's having them steam-cleaned - to cover for the fact this match was taped before they had won the titles. Still, it's a very "Shawn" thing to do. Incidentally, this is the squash with the "Shawn splashes jobber off Diesel's shoulders" finish which made it's way into a fair few Shawn compilation vids over the years.

 

On the Lowell note, while most shows are fairly interchangeable, you spot they've been there for three weeks in a row. The Memorial Auditorium stands out with those balconies. It's one of the few small arenas they ever ran that I can instantly say "they're in Lowell" when I turn a match on.

 

** The "New Generation" schtick is described as risible by quite a few industry journos considering that in 1994 they pushed Bob Backlund back to the main event, used Nikolai Volkoff as an on screen wrestler again, had Roddy Piper vs Jerry Lawler as a PPV main event and rehired the nearly-40 King Kong Bundy and the Barbarian, but it's fantastic seeing some of the little vignettes again that were airing when I first got Sky. Especially the one in the church where the hot brunette admits to getting wet when she watches Razor, Shawn and Bret. She's probably at least 50 now, bloody hell.

 

** Another Shawn/Diesel squash has an appearance from a big-bumping Chris Canyon/Kanyon and is also notable for a run-in for the new Headshrinkers. Albano completely bollocks up and refers to Barbarian/Sionne as "Simonne" which sounds like a girl's name to me. Then he concocts some rubbish about Samu eating some raw fish, so he has a disease that can only be cured by a doctor in Samoa. What a shitload of fuck. I mean, I know it's not real and that, but stuff like that was really saft. "Diesel injured Samu, he's gone" would have at least made the tag team champions sound dangerous. Raw fucking fish.

 

** Brilliant random line from Savage - "Call me crazy, but I'm attracted to Bull Nakano."

 

Macho Man retains his "top bloke" aura by diving into the ring to try and save WWF mag writer Lou Gianfriddo from the maniacal Bob Backlund's chicken-wing. In a later episode he saves Lex Luger from the same predicament and really seems on course for a match with Bob, which obviously never materialized. At one point (last Raw of October) Savage says "it's hard to sit in this chair" to Vince. Little would McMahon have realized at that point that Randy really meant it, as this would be the last Raw Savage would appear on. The next week Vince takes a moment to recognize Savage as "conspicuous by his absence" and makes a rare dignified admission that Savage had been "unable to come to terms" on a new contract (although in reality Savage never even gave them chance to make an offer) and thanks him for all his positive contributions over the years and wishes him "godspeed, Randy Savage, and good luck." Amazing to think, that really was the end of the story for Macho Man in the WWF, what with the two decades since where everybody that ever left has come back at least once in some capacity.

 

** Speaking of Backlund, the week prior to his match with Kid, Hitman describes Kid as "the best of the New Generation." Between his speech at the '94 Hall of Fame, their match I mentioned in a previous post, and this remark, Bret for one was happy to put Kid over as a player at any opportunity. Again, if only he hadn't have been injured so many times, his first run in the WWF could have been even better than it was.

 

** The weeks where Shawn is on commentary (post-Savage they still haven't settled yet on Lawler as regular colour and bounce between Shawn, DiBiase, King and others) are a joy. "Luger punches like a girl." Indeed he does. He also assures Pettingill matter-of-factly, in reference to fans chanting "Diesel" - "There won't be any of this after the Royal Rumble." I don't know why, but that really tickled me. He also sends out a message to Pam Anderson saying "whatever you do to me, the Heartbreak Kid won't press charges." Steady on Shawn, this is a family show. He also says "Gesundheit!" when Vince mentions Hakushi. God, I love that man.

 

Good stuff, all in all.

[fraserbee]

That brings back good memories!

 

Incidentally, I watched an old WWF Superstars from 1994 on You Tube a few weeks back and had completely forgotten how fat Shawn Michaels got that summer.

[EdgarTheSlouch]

That brings back good memories!

 

Incidentally, I watched an old WWF Superstars from 1994 on You Tube a few weeks back and had completely forgotten how fat Shawn Michaels got that summer.

 

Sure it wasn't 93?

[fraserbee]

That brings back good memories!

 

Incidentally, I watched an old WWF Superstars from 1994 on You Tube a few weeks back and had completely forgotten how fat Shawn Michaels got that summer.

 

Sure it wasn't 93?

Nope, was during the spell where he hardly wrestled and just managed Diesel as IC champ in 94. I think he might have gotten a bit tubby in summer 93 too now you mention it.

[air_raid]

Sure it wasn't 93?

I think he might have gotten a bit tubby in summer 93 too now you mention it.

 

So says the man :

 

At the time I weighed almost 240 pounds. I was fat and couldn't believe (Vince) thought that I was taking steroids no matter what the test results were. "Look at me, I'm out of shape. I'm drinking a case of beer every night with Nash and matching him meal for meal. I would tell you if I took steroids. Why would I of all people take steroids?"

 

Party hard, lads.

 

[wandshogun09]

Yeah, around the time of KOTR and SummerSlam in '93 he was a bit of a tubby sod. By early '94 he was back in good shape if I'm remembering right. I don't remember chubby HBK in the Royal Rumble match in '94 anyway. And his TV matches with Razor and the Kliq tag with Diesel vs Razor/Kid, he looked in good shape as well.

[air_raid]

Yes. Shawn looks pretty lean running around the ring at King of the Ring, and he has a solitary match on Raw (against Razor) in the build for SummerSlam where he looks in great shape. Of course by year's end and heading towards the Rumble, "great shape" started moving towards "ripped to shreds."

[wandshogun09]

That's the Razor match I'm thinking of, from Raw in the summer I think. Was there a particular reason why Shawn was so inactive in that period? He was basically just Diesel's manager from after Wrestlemania up until around Survivor Series wasn't he? Save the tag title win just before SummerSlam and the odd match here and there.

[air_raid]

That's the Razor match I'm thinking of, from Raw in the summer I think. Was there a particular reason why Shawn was so inactive in that period? He was basically just Diesel's manager from after Wrestlemania up until around Survivor Series wasn't he? Save the tag title win just before SummerSlam and the odd match here and there.

 

That match was filmed August 1st, and Shawn basically had not wrestled for three months. He did the European tour post-Mania, then sat on the sidelines. Here's why :

 

Any time you come off a loss at a Pay-Per-View, what you do the next night is very important - more important than the loss the night before. I thought I could make a big impact with a brand-new interview segment and had thrown out the idea of doing one sometime before WrestleMania X. I figured it would elevate my status in the public's eye, because if I didn't wrestle all the time, the times I did wrestle would seem more special. Roddy Piper was the master of this. When he was doing Piper's Pit, you almost never saw Roddy wrestle on TV. He only wrestled on major occasions. That's exactly what I wanted to do. The Ladder match changed a lot of people's perspective on me, and I was now trying to become a star and a special commodity.

 

Along with doing The Heartbreak Hotel, I became Kevin's accomplice. It was almost a reversal of what he had done for me. It made no sense for him to have me for his bodyguard, but I'd come to the ring for all his matches and cause trouble. I was very active on the outside and still bumping all over the place.

 

Maybe Shawn got the chat show bug from hanging around with Rhonda Shear.