OOOLD SCHOOOOL

[Mr Butternut Squash]

Knocked this up on one of the tubes. Don't think I've seen it before so I thought I'd give it a watch.

 

In Your House Six 'Rage in a cage' Feb 1996 (Part 1)

 

Free For All

I'm a soppy nostalgic git but no rose tinted goggles will make me enjoy Todd Pettengill. Look at this tit;

 

(Not real surelyl?!)

 

He's as bad as the Miz. Voice of silk Sean Mooney all the way.

 

- Lawler and Vince are at the desk and they hype up Vader massive. He's just been reinstated after his 'suspension' after kicking a ref's head in. Lawler's excited , "the last couple of times we saw him he went berserk! You know something big's gonna happen tonight." They play a vid covering the Diesel/Bret/Taker feud starting with a clip of the Bret/Diesel match with the famous Bret table bump. Bret won the match by playing possum and sneaking a roll up. I forgot about that, what a bastard! Diesel went nuts and powerbombed him 20 times post match. Don't blame him. Taker got the next shot at Bret's title but Diesel interrupts the match and gets him DQe'd. They show an excellent clip where Big Sexy is mouthing off to the camera, "I ain't afraid of the dark". I'd forgotten how cool Diesel was. To stop Taker getting involved, Bret/Diesel is in a Cage tonight. I'm pumped!

 

Jake Roberts vs Tatanka w/Ted Dibiase

Man, million dollar heel Tatanka was a daft idea but he walks with a good swagger I'll give him that. Jake looks bloody terrible, even as a kid I found him a sad sight. He's still sleazy scary old Jake though and the crowd laps him up and Lawler is shitting it on commentary. Tatanka bails after a couple of DDT attempts and Jake sods him off and decides to go after Ted. Jake gets blind sided and Tankaka gets the advantage. Tatanka's strikes are really shit. Jake is getting choked in the ropes and Vince decides to experiment with his hilarious, "1-2-3, HE'S GOT HIM!!! . . No" line by doing some, "Aaaand it's a disqualification!! . . . Nope" instead and it doesn't really work. Ted gets involved with a lovely punch from outside. Jake's selling is reliably great although he looks knackered two minutes in. He comes back, hits the DDT, crowd goes nuts, done. Except Jake pulls out a HUGE disgusting snake and drapes it over Tonks. Lawler is selling it proper, shrieking like a girl. It makes me laugh how all the heels are snakephobic and the faces are nonplussed by it all.

 

- They go over the horrible HBK 'concussion' angle. They were putting HBK over mega at this time weren't they? Doc Hendrix was all "The greatest and most charismatic superstar ever!", and a pilled up looking Shawn appears and talks some bollocks. I always felt like Shawn could have been an all time great level promo if he could've been arsed.

 

- Then we have Vader in leather jacket. Fuck Vader was awesome. Cornette's lobbying for him to wrestle tonight!

 

Razor Ramon vs 123 Kid. Cry Baby Match

Crowd goes mental for Razor! Now this is bloody stupid. Kid battered Razor with a buggy so now we have a match where the loser has to wear a nappy and stick a bottle in their mouth! Fuck knows why you'd do that to the poor Kid. He was on his way out I guess. The match starts pretty great, a nice springboard clothesline and top rope splash from Kid, Razor trying to turn it into a slugfest, stiffness and Ted (he's back) tossing some 'baby powder' into Razor's eyes to begin the heat segment. It goes downhill slightly with a lengthy sleeper hold but I think they're trying to put over the 'sleep now, like a baby' thing, and it ends brilliantly with Ramon tossing Kid crotch first on to the top rope. Razor hits a nice belly to back from the second rope but gets distracted by Ted while Kid grabs the powder. He goes to throw it but Razor kicks it back into his face and he hits the Razors Edge. 1.2 . . Razor pulls him up from the mat before the three. That's not nice! A "one more time" chant starts, but that hasn't become a thing yet so it's very quite. Razor obliges and gets the win. The post match is unbelievable. Razor pulls Kids legs up behind his head and goes to powder his bot-bot but thankfully Ted interrupts and gets the stuff in his face instead. I would hate this if Kid didn't look like he was enjoying it so much. He's hilarious when he regains his senses, stands up and starts doing victory poses, only to realise his got a big ol' nappy on. Class match, shite angle.

 

Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs Duke Dumpster

Now this is the HHH I can appreciate. He looks and acts so much more convincingly in his 'blueblood' role than anything he's done since. The casual sneer he gives to the plebs in the crowd as he adjusts his ponytail is wonderful. Duke is one ANGRY MAN. Duke is also absolute shite. God, they were scrapping the barrel in 96. Great punches though! Otherwise HHH does his best Flair impression as Duke sloppily throws him about and generally looks like he's on the verge of breaking Trip's neck. HHH's girl this week is sitting at the commentary desk and Lawler is hilarious staring at her point blank with a creepy grin, having cheeky peek at her bum when he can. I can deal with pervy numbskull Jerry Lalwer if he's a heel. Fucking hell Duke is shit. He hits his finisher - a sideslam I think but fuck knows - but instead of going for the pin he goes out for his trash can, lobs it in the ring (it lands straight on HHH's head!), gets told off by the ref, Trip's grabs it and wallops the idiot whilst he's distracted and gets the win. It's a miricle HHH didn't get injured by this wasteman. Rubbish.

 

Part two after bed.

[bAzTNM#1]

(Shawn Michaels) Yeah, around the time of KOTR and SummerSlam in '93 he was a bit of a tubby sod.

He definately was. Look out for the match between Marty Jannetty and him that was on the first "Wrestling Greatest Cage Matches" DVD. Even Raven and Monsoon are just ripping the piss out of him. He looked well out of shape. Comedically so.

[jonnybgoode82]

Nash stated in one of his shoot interviews that this was because Shawn was trying to go drink-for-drink with him on the road and pounding back a fair few brewskis every night, which led to him developing a severe beer gut

[air_raid]

Nash stated in one of his shoot interviews that this was because Shawn was trying to go drink-for-drink with him on the road and pounding back a fair few brewskis every night, which led to him developing a severe beer gut

 

If only somebody had mentioned that seven posts before yours, eh?

 

Anyway, on the Shawn note, he really is great fun on commentary on '95 Raw. He gives Luger a terrible time : "I think Lex Luger has been exposed for his lack of talent here in the World Wrestling Federation."

 

Shawn also stands up to Bundy after a squash where Bundy and DiBiase come over to the commentary desk to tell Shawn that BUNDY is going to win the Royal Rumble, not him. Just stands there jawing back, not intimidated in the slightest, and a full three months before his face turn I already catch myself thinking "Shawn's not scared of you, you fat fuck."

 

Lengthier thoughts post to come when I have more diverse thoughts than "Shawn is teh gratest." And recovered from that Shatner nonsense. Although it was amusing seeing Trekkies hold up the "live long and prosper" gesture the way Horsemen fans used to hold up four fingers.

 

Seriously, TekWar looked shit.

[iamthedoctor]

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.

 

Speaking of Summerslam 1993 while I have fond memories of this year looking back why did they just have such a lackluster show?

 

Vague memory of the show but surely if we were led to believe that Hogan/Bret was to Main Event the show Bret to be fair should have won the belt at Summerslam or failing that have Luger beat Hogan for the belt on the show then the other guy can win the Rumble and win the belt at mania.

 

Dibiase/Razor was another match that bothered me as would have preferred The Steiners there and then at Summerslam to win the titles.

 

Maybe the slight disruption between Macho & Lawler might have led to a interesting match.

 

Mr. Perfect I would probably have put him in the ring with Luger and let Shawn & Marty have a decent match on the show for their final encounter.

 

I suppose Razor could have finished off his feud with The Kid where a new found respect is earned.

[ShortOrderCook]

How much would you recommend Shawns book raid? I read a chunk of it while in a book shop many moons ago. Seemed decent. Thinking of picking up his or Brets, would you recommend it over that or do they compliment each other quite nicely?

[EdgarTheSlouch]

How much would you recommend Shawns book raid? I read a chunk of it while in a book shop many moons ago. Seemed decent. Thinking of picking up his or Brets, would you recommend it over that or do they compliment each other quite nicely?

 

To be fair SOC, you could probably finish HBKs book whilst in a book shop. For me, it doesn't really bear repeat readings. Bret's, on the other hand, I can read several times and still find fresh things in to enjoy.

[d-d-d-dAz]

Isn't Bret's book full of utter, utter shite?

 

Like a more po faced version of Hogan's?

[air_raid]

How much would you recommend Shawns book raid? I read a chunk of it while in a book shop many moons ago. Seemed decent. Thinking of picking up his or Brets, would you recommend it over that or do they compliment each other quite nicely?

 

Well, they are very complementary in terms of the two different accounts of the same events, especially their backstage tussle in June '97, and it's fairly amusing that both seem to think the Harris Boys were on their side. Shawn' book is good for the stuff about the friendships in the Kliq (and it's really a revelation in terms of what a good mind Razor had for the business, both Shawn and Kev changed elements of their act off some of his suggestions which are mentioned). However certain stretches of his career aren't covered in enough detail for me, especially the Rockers stuff. He basically mentions coming in, working Arn & Tully, first 'Mania memories (working the Twin Towers massively hungover), the Rougeaus matches, the phantom title switch, and them splitting up, in a rather lean number of pages. In comparison Bret's is a complete encyclopaedia of virtually every major match or program he ever had.

 

Isn't Bret's book full of utter, utter shite?

 

Like a more po faced version of Hogan's?

 

Bret's book is full of stuff that you feel might be exaggerated about how wrestlers spoke to him about how good a match was or moreover how good they thought he was, and it's more "take this with a pinch of salt" whereas Hogan's book contains more of what I like to call "lies."

[LEGIT]

Isn't Bret's book full of utter, utter shite?

 

Like a more po faced version of Hogan's?

Is it fuck

[PowerButchi]

I'd say the Harris Boys were on Bret's as The Harris' got their P45 for offering Michaels a good going over at one point.

 

They couldn't wrestle, but fuck me those Harris Boys were hard as fuck.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Shawn Michaels is just full of shit in his book. Its sickeningly bad. Its the story of a born again who thinks its OK to lie about his mistakes in life because he considers himself a better person now. Michaels is such an unlikable twat in it. There is such so much in it that can be proved as never happening, so he's either taking someones word as truth because he was so pilled up to remember any of it or he's just lying. Especially his take on Montreal and his mid-90s period. They did that Bret and Shawn DVD, and the stuff Michaels says on that is the complete opposite to what he says in the book, so his credibility is dead. That book is a huge avoid.

[air_raid]

I'd say the Harris Boys were on Bret's as The Harris' got their P45 for offering Michaels a good going over at one point.

 

Well that's what I thought, considering they were mates with Crush and he was always Bret's mate. But Shawn sez :

 

The Harris Twins had left and come back and were now working as the Disciples of Apocalypse - DOA. When they came back, they apologized for that incident, and I was fine with them. We weren't friends by any means, but we didn't interact much so we didn't have any problems either.

 

I was walking in the back and they came up to me and said completely out of the blue, "We know that Bret isn't doing right by the company. We've got your back no matter what happens. If anything goes down, we will tear him limb from limb." It was so bizarre. They did not know we were going to swerve Bret. They were basing this solely on the gossip from Wrestling With Shadows, and Bret's and my history. But they backed up what they said. Those guys did not leave my side all day unless I was in a private meeting.

 

And later....

 

They shuttled me into the locker room. There was this stunned look on a lot of people's faces. I saw the DOA guys and I went and sat next to them.

 

(snip)

 

"As God is my witness, I didn't know anything about it, Bret." I lied, plain and simple. As a Christian now, I wouldn't say that. But I'm not going to pretend that I didn't. That's what I told Bret. I wasn't afraid of him. I was sitting with the DOA. If we got into a fight, we got into a fight. I had people around me. Davey Boy was yelling. I didn't say a word. I just sat there in between the DOA.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Harris Twins denied that ever happened funnily enough. That shit reads like a fucking e-fed. Where were Ron and Don when Bret Hart dropped Vince in front of everyone? Surely defending your boss is going to score more points than defending the bloke you hate and who got you sacked?

[PowerButchi]

Yeah, The Harris Boys, while dead shite, always struck me as being loyal "men of their word" types. And I really don't see HBK as being their kind of people. Even if they are mental white supremacists.