UKFF REreviews

[moofasa]

 

Thought I would start this thread to see if their is any interest. Each week John Pollock and Wai Ting from Live Audio Wrestling podcast take a pay per view from the past rewatch and review it. I have been enjoying playing along. And being able to listen to a present day review of a past show has added alot to my enjoyment of rewatching the shows. They ask for comments and read them out on the show (which could be fun). Is there any interest on the UKFF in reviewing and discussing one ppv from the past a week? They are posted every Wednesday and the next review will be of Wrestlemania 2000 so only three days. (but normally a week).

 

Totally prepared for this to die on it's arse. Any interest?

 

Here is part 1 all parts on this channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6t5ePY-9DQ...;feature=colike

 

WrestleMania 2000

 

Fatal Four-Way Elimination Match for the WWE Championship

Triple H vs. Mick Foley vs. Big Show vs. The Rock

 

X-Pac & Road Dogg vs. Rikishi & Kane

 

Mixed Tag Team Match

Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn & Dean Malenko vs. Chyna & Too Cool

 

Two Fall Triple Threat Match for the Intercontinental & European Championship

Kurt Angle vs. Chris Jericho vs. Chris Benoit

 

Cat Fight

Terri (w/ Fabulous Moolah) vs. The Kat (w/ Mae Young)

 

Triangle Ladder Match for the World Tag Team Championship

Dudley Boyz vs. Edge & Christian vs. Hardy Boyz

 

Al Snow & Steve Blackman vs. Test & Albert

 

Hardcore Battle Royal for the Hardcore Championship, featuring

Crash Holly, Tazz, Viscera, Pete Gas, Rodney, Joey Abs, Hardcore Holly, Taka Michinoku, Funaki, Mosh, Thrasher, Faarooq & Bradshaw

 

Godfather & D-Lo Brown vs. Big Boss Man & Bull Buchanan

 

 

[Joey Joe Joe Jr]

Not in relation to your experiment, but with that podcast I find that while I enjoy the idea of rewatching a random PPV and reviewing it years later in a new context (as well as the nostalgia bonus), the pair of presenters on there really annoy me and make it hard to listen to the show. They make really sarky comments and neither laugh along so it feels just like embittered smarky fans who are torturing themselves watching WWE and are trying to out-do the other as to who can sound more anti-establishment or above-it-all as they can. Sometimes when they go off-tangent and talk about irreverent things, its neither humourous or entertaining. just things like the tone of their voice is not suited to that kind of style. The idea of revisiting the past seems awfully redundant if there isn't any light-heartedness to it; otherwise it just feels unnecessary and not fun at all both to do from their perspective and thus to listen to.

 

 

EDIT.

 

In relation to that show, on looking back it was pretty meh compared to the rest of the year, but that was my first proper Mania so I'll always look back on it somewhat fondly. I had just gotten into WWF a few months earlier as I didnt have Sky. I was so dishearteaned when it came to the weekend of the show and saw that Channel 4 would not be showing the PPV live; I had very high expectations clearly. I caught it a week later at a friend's house, but got my own copy on VHS while on a daytrip to Hastings in July and wanted to go home as soon as to watch it.

 

Whenever people mention that show, four things come to mind:

 

1) Peter Gas's juice job.

2) Trish's boobs being the first shot of Test and Albert when the camera cuts to them walking to the ring backstage and Trish being almost black what with the tan she had.

3) The slightly-redneck couple who won the Wrestlemania competition and thus tickets to the show.

4) AND THEN the Triangle Ladder Match.

[Cobra1000]

count me in, Wrestlemania 2000 sounds like a fun way to spend my Sunday night. Shall report back after I've watched it.

 

Cool idea, hopefully it does well.

[andrew "the ref" coyne]

Overall a poor and over crowded mania, but you have to give wwe credit for trying to give all of their guys a spot on the show. Plus the number of tag teams (both in tag matches and in the hardcore rumble) is amazing: 14!

 

Naturally there are highlights; the two fall triple threat match (though I don't think it's as good as some make out), the ladder match and the fatal four way were a lot of fun.

[JLM]

Review a Wai is actually what got me watching wrestling again after a few years of just barely keeping an eye on it via this place. I stumbled accross it a few months ago and have sinced worked through the entire archive, as well as listening to Review a RAW each week once I've watched the show for myself.

 

I find that John Pollock is more guilty than Wai of the snarky and negative for the sake of negative slant, and Wai often has to play devil's advocate or just flat out disagree with him a lot of the time. I do think they can be funny and I quite enjoy Wai's calm and dry delivery, and in most cases with review-a-wai I've seen the show myself and I enjoy the nostalgia of it all.

 

Also when they have a guest who worked the show or who was a writer at the time you get some interesting insights you might not get elsewhere. I think the fact that I'm about the same age as them and that they're Canadian rather than American means that I have a similar perspective to them for a lot of the shows they've covered because I saw them for the first time at around the same time they did. Also things like reveling in the comedic shitness of the later WCW PPVs particularly appeals to people in my age range. Their review of King of the Ring 94 and their coverage of Art Donovan's commentary stands out as a favourite episode.

[Forrest]

I love WM 2000. Alright, yes, the whole thing seemed to be booked in EWR with creative booking everyone in tag fueds then realising they every fued-ender had to end in tag matches, but it's still a great PPV.

 

The Hardcore Battle Royal is a thing of wonder. It's quite harrowing knowing what we do now about headshots to watch this 15 minute head-smash decathlon, but it's entertainment at it's best. The 2-fall triple threat seems to have been lost in the mists of time, but I think it was executed as best as it could be. Great match.

 

The Triangle Ladder Match is fantastic. Overshadowed by TLC, but still amazing. It must have been mental to watch at the time. Truly groundbreaking. The Fatal 4-Way is my favourite of the lot. A lot of people have a downer on it, but I don't know why. It's one of my favourite WM main events and it's a real fucking story. I hear a lot of people say The Rock should have beaten Triple H and won the title, which I think would be boring. Triple H winning was an absolute masterstroke, because no-one gave the heel a chance and it MADE Hunter the massive heel he was destined to be. The Fatal 4-Way gave Foley his Wrestlemania moment and The Rock got his face revenge at Backlash in a match that many see as one of the best of all time. Everything clicked and this Fatal 4-Way was mint.

 

There should have been at least one or two 1 vs. 1 matches, but if anything it just shows how good WWE's tag team division was at the time. Also, the crowd's nuclear hot and everybody's over. It works!

[CleetusVanDamme]

I think a few of us were going to watch and review some WCW Saturday Nights in the old school thread, but never got round to it.

 

I'll be up for it in a few weeks when I'll have more time, after Mania. As long as the show picked isn't really shit*, and I can find a download for it to watch on my telly.

 

 

*Boring Shit. I'm totally down for entertaining shit.

[Joey Joe Joe Jr]

Review a Wai is actually what got me watching wrestling again after a few years of just barely keeping an eye on it via this place. I stumbled accross it a few months ago and have sinced worked through the entire archive, as well as listening to Review a RAW each week once I've watched the show for myself.

 

I find that John Pollock is more guilty than Wai of the snarky and negative for the sake of negative slant, and Wai often has to play devil's advocate or just flat out disagree with him a lot of the time. I do think they can be funny and I quite enjoy Wai's calm and dry delivery, and in most cases with review-a-wai I've seen the show myself and I enjoy the nostalgia of it all.

 

Also when they have a guest who worked the show or who was a writer at the time you get some interesting insights you might not get elsewhere. I think the fact that I'm about the same age as them and that they're Canadian rather than American means that I have a similar perspective to them for a lot of the shows they've covered because I saw them for the first time at around the same time they did. Also things like reveling in the comedic shitness of the later WCW PPVs particularly appeals to people in my age range. Their review of King of the Ring 94 and their coverage of Art Donovan's commentary stands out as a favourite episode.

 

I can see where you're coming from there. If you enjoy the insights from people who were working behind the scenes at the time, can I recommend Aftermatch with Jimmy Korderas and Lagana's I Want Wrestling (this latter one he has a former creative team member on each week, though this one he's discontinued).

[moofasa]

I do agree with what has been said about John Pollock's attitude to certain things but i do think Wai brings a balance. But they have made me laugh discussing things (Scott steiners swan dive off the apron at Badd Blood, HHH's "I'm bi a lot of things, hold on did i mean to say that" KoftR98) And as prevoiusly said it's good to hear a present day perspective from someone who was actually there. They had Jim Ross for the King of the Ring 98 review. I realize Wrestlemania 16 was not a standout card and doesn't leap out to me as one I would rush to rewatch. However next weeks, will be the Raw before Wrestlemania 24. And then WM24.

 

There seems to be the tinyest bit of interest, so I'm going to run with it.

 

 

We are at the Anaheim Pond in California for Wrestlemania 2000. Jim Ross opens the ppv informing us there is a sellout crowd of 19,776 fans. And we go to Lillian Garcia singing America the Beautiful in the centre of the ring. I know it's relatively unimportant to the wrestling but they should have a mainstream star singing this for Wrestlemania it adds alot, think Aretha Franklin at Wrestlemania 3. Lilian Garcia would sing it again at WM 21. How special was that?, below par for Wrestlemania. She sang well but we saw her every week on Raw.

 

 

Match No 1. Boss Man and Bull Buchanan Vs. D'lo Brown and Godfather

 

Ice T comes to the ring with D'lo and the Godafather all decked out in furry pimp suits with six hoes and starts a rap that I am now struggling to erase from my mind. It goes something like. "Pimpin ain't , Pimpin ain't, easy man, Pimpin ain't ,Pimpin ain't easy, Pimpin... you get the point. I had new found respect for Oscar after seeing this. Ice T: "Godfathers in the house bitch, make some noise for the hoes" these were the attitude days when Broskis were Broskis and you pimped out your Hoeskis.

 

This match seems to have been put together just to have the hoes and the Godfather warm up the crowd. Ross and Lawler don't really bother to commentate on it we just get the intoductions to the show, The Aggression CD gets 3 mentions as does XFL and Jim Ross at one point says "Bossmans record at Wrestlemania is sparkling" even though he lost to the Undertaker at last years Mania. Bull's agility is pretty impressive for a big guy he is whipped to the turnbuckle leaps to the top buckle turns and comes off with a flying clothesline. He also delivers a nice top rope legdrop after Bossman hits his Sideslam for the end to the match. We were never given any reason to care about this match, but it served it's purpose as an opener.

 

"Pimpin ain't, pimpin ain't easy man"

[Philjax]

I started rewatching 2000 ppvs a while back. It's funny thinking back how much i would have hated the likes of Boss Man/Buchanan Vs God/D'Lo & Terri Vs The Kat then, but given the tameness and general shit of todays shows I absolutely loved them and how ridiculously unsuitable for children the entire show was. Lawler's commentary and the general attitudes and treatment towards women back then (including Victoria, who debuted as one of the ho's!) is pretty unbelievable when compared to now. I'd forgotten what it was like so accustomed i am to watching the PG product. Continuing throughout the year i'm very thankful for the then rubbish undercard matches featuring Right To Censor which now smoke everything on Raw & Smackdown aswell as most PPV.

[Reznor]

I love WM 2000. Alright, yes, the whole thing seemed to be booked in EWR with creative booking everyone in tag fueds then realising they every fued-ender had to end in tag matches, but it's still a great PPV.

 

The Hardcore Battle Royal is a thing of wonder. It's quite harrowing knowing what we do now about headshots to watch this 15 minute head-smash decathlon, but it's entertainment at it's best. The 2-fall triple threat seems to have been lost in the mists of time, but I think it was executed as best as it could be. Great match.

 

The Triangle Ladder Match is fantastic. Overshadowed by TLC, but still amazing. It must have been mental to watch at the time. Truly groundbreaking. The Fatal 4-Way is my favourite of the lot. A lot of people have a downer on it, but I don't know why. It's one of my favourite WM main events and it's a real fucking story. I hear a lot of people say The Rock should have beaten Triple H and won the title, which I think would be boring. Triple H winning was an absolute masterstroke, because no-one gave the heel a chance and it MADE Hunter the massive heel he was destined to be. The Fatal 4-Way gave Foley his Wrestlemania moment and The Rock got his face revenge at Backlash in a match that many see as one of the best of all time. Everything clicked and this Fatal 4-Way was mint.

 

There should have been at least one or two 1 vs. 1 matches, but if anything it just shows how good WWE's tag team division was at the time. Also, the crowd's nuclear hot and everybody's over. It works!

Pretty much my thoughts too. I loved it, definitely one of the better Wrestlemania's for me, although it tends to get shat on pretty badly by a lot of folk.

 

Wrestling wise, I had no problems. Opener was a bit boring, but nothing offensive. I never even realised there were no singles matches until years later, and even then, I think it was only because i'd read someone mention it, so it was never really a big issue to me.

 

My only nitpick is a bit of a trivial one, in that visually it looked a bit crap for a Wrestlemania. The neon graphics for TV were all good, but the arena looked awfully dull. Everything seemed to be black; the ring apron, the ropes, the attire of about 3/4s of the wrestlers who appeared in it. Added to that, the arena wasn't particularly big which just made it look like a normal show, and there wasn't much of a structure on the entranceway. It just didn't have as much of a Wrestlemania feel to it in comparison to the others since the turn of the millenium (albeit it wasn't any worse than most from the latter half of the 90s)

[PowerButchi]

I think a few of us were going to watch and review some WCW Saturday Nights in the old school thread, but never got round to it.

 

We should definitely still do that. I find watching forgotten episodes of C-shows from WCW a million times more interesting than watching PPVs these days. Especially when you get such amazingly mental stuff like Jushin Liger vs Dave Taylor or Masa Chono vs Bobby Eaton or something. Also Bunkhouse Fucking Buck!

[moofasa]

I think a few of us were going to watch and review some WCW Saturday Nights in the old school thread, but never got round to it.

 

We should definitely still do that. I find watching forgotten episodes of C-shows from WCW a million times more interesting than watching PPVs these days. Especially when you get such amazingly mental stuff like Jushin Liger vs Dave Taylor or Masa Chono vs Bobby Eaton or something. Also Bunkhouse Fucking Buck!

Ok. How about this: We do Wrestlemania 16 until Wednesday, meanwhile we can vote on which ppv or tv to do? Hopefully that would get a few more people interested.

[Devon Malcolm]

I think a few of us were going to watch and review some WCW Saturday Nights in the old school thread, but never got round to it.

 

We should definitely still do that. I find watching forgotten episodes of C-shows from WCW a million times more interesting than watching PPVs these days. Especially when you get such amazingly mental stuff like Jushin Liger vs Dave Taylor or Masa Chono vs Bobby Eaton or something. Also Bunkhouse Fucking Buck!

 

I'd forgotten about this, too, would love to take part as well. Plus, Worldwide and Saturday Nights had THE best wrestling audiences ever - they could make an Ice Train squash seem meaningful.

[PowerButchi]

To the Ooooooooooldschooooooooool thread!