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When it’s Good it’s Fucking Great.


Supremo

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Brilliant thread, and some ace choices so far! Nak's debut, Foley winning the title on RAW, The Streak ending and that Daniel Bryan cage moment are in my top fave WWE moments and I've re-watched them countless times. 

Can I be that wanker who talks about non-WWE WIGIFG moments? I too share the ideology that when the planets align, wrestling is better than any form of entertainment out there, but not just restricted to the big boys.

Super Dragon Returns To PWG

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Super fucking Dragon. What a man. What a bad ass. The world needs more wrestlers who shoot monkey flip arrogant wrestling fans (this happened at a ROH show. What a time to be alive). He was the reason so many people started following this So-Cal promotion, as PWG was his main stomping ground. Every promotion needs THAT guy who you can only really see at their best on their home turf. CZW had Nick (FUCKING) Gage, ROH had Samoa (FUCKING) Joe and PWG had D̶i̶s̶c̶o̶ ̶(̶F̶U̶C̶K̶I̶N̶G̶)̶ ̶M̶a̶c̶h̶i̶n̶e̶  Super (FUCKING) Dragon.

He was the main man on PWG shows.; from 2003 all the way until he bowed out in 2007. He made a short return in 2008 but again bowed out after only a couple of matches (heavily rumored to be a long-standing injury).

So, during November 2011's Steen Wolf, when the Young Bucks double teamed Kevin Steen after a grueling ladder match against El Generico, no one expected the return of Super Dragon. Absolutely no one. Listen and watch the crowd go fucking mental (you can skip to 1:20 for the return);

 

Which actually serves as a backdrop to, for my money, the best story PWG have ever produced and of the best stories in wrestling period;

The Return Of Kyle O'Reilly

"Kyle O'Reilly??" I hear you cry? Yep, good ol' KOR. Whereas he was a straight-forward MMA-inspired wrestler in ROH (and most other places), in PWG he morphed into this incredibly likable babyface with a palpable charm to him. His 'Sleazy Kyle' gimmick that he'd break out every now and again really helped ease his way into our hearts. He won the big Battle Of Los Angeles Tournament in 2013, which was his real coming out party.

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He won the World title from sneaky, cheating champ Adam Cole but had to bugger off in December 2014 due to ROH contract obligations. In the year leading up to his departure, he had frequent battles with his ex-tag partner Adam Cole over the PWG title (he and Cole debuted in 2011 as Future Shock at the very same show that Super Dragon returned) and he was involved in a blood feud with Roderick Strong. Strong was the one who sent him packing after beating KOR in an impromptu World Title No-DQ match immediately after KOR had just defeated Ricochet.  

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A few months later, Adam Cole also vanished due those every same ROH commitments.

Are you still with me?

After his 2011 return, Super Dragon aggravated his old injury and retired again in early 2012 after just two matches. He wasn't seen from anyone again until June 2015, where he again appeared with the 'lights off' gimmick, but this time he turned heel and joined Roderick Strong and The Young Bucks, forming Mount Rushmore 2.0 (the original iteration consisted of Kevin Steen, The Young Bucks and Adam Cole).

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The original Mount Rushmore were a nightmare until they imploded due to Steen leaving and then Cole's subsequent disappearance.

Mount Rushmore 2.0 were worse. No one was safe and they spread their own brand of violence and disruption over every show...for at least a few months. After only two matches (one of which was a fantastic brawl that let Biff Busick/Oney Lorcan go at it with Supes), Super Dragon suffered an injury in August of 2015 (can you see a pattern here?) and MR2.0 were left without a fourth man. 

That is until All-Star Weekend Night 1 in December 2015.

Roddy and The Bucks attacked the wholesome babyfaces at the end of the main event. The lights went out. They came back on. Super Dragon was now stood in the ring. He joined his MR2.0 stable mates in battering the good guys, but his movements looked very familiar. He stooped dead in his tracks and unmasked as...

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ADAM COLE, BAYBAY!

Now we have the final showdown set for the next night at All-Star Weekend Night 2;

Chris Hero, Mike Bailey & The World's Cutest Tag Team (Candice LeRae & Joey Ryan) vs Mount Rushmore 2.0 (Adam Cole, Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson & Roderick Strong). 

Hero, Bailey and WCTT had suffered the most at the hands of both versions of Mount Rushmore. That's three years of chaos waiting to be avenged. Hell, even commentator Excalibur (retired since the mid-00's) and head referee Rick Knox had a vendetta against them. You garner a lot of hatred when you run rough shot over a promotion for years.

MR2.0 got the early advantage and they took the upper hand for the most part. They dominated and were out to end the careers of all four. That is untik, whilst Adam Cole was posing, the lights go out one final time.They illuminate the building again after a few short seconds. Stood in the ring, facing Adam Cole without fear;

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The crowd go fucking ballistic. The good guys go on to win. Drinks all round. Fucking Yes!

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One of the best blow-offs to an angle I have ever seen. Four years of build and backstory.  Everything came full circle.

(You can skip to 5:20 for the return but I recommend watching from 4:30 onwards);

When it's good, it's fucking great.

 

Edited by Accident Prone
Tons of grammar and spelling errors.
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1 hour ago, W35ty said:

Nexus debut. The buzz during the week was incredible with all the different theories on what will happen next then the next RAW WWE fucked it forever.

 

1 hour ago, Factotum said:

It was done the moment they fired Bryan. People felt deflated. Way to 'suspend disbelief'

Not for me. The run-in at Fatal Four Way was great, I was compelled to write about it recently ;

https://ukff.com/topic/139057-the-one-off-ppv-review-a-match-thread/?page=6&tab=comments#comment-3196253

I thought they did a decent job until SummerSlam, that was the death of it. I won't cling on to "Super Cena squashed Nexus" but for the run and indeed the group to keep some life in it, the unified force should have gone over a Team WWE plagued by in-fighting and including the pensionable Bret Hart.

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As Butch mentioned, the debut of Brodus Clay was a fantastic moment. It seemed like about six months of umming and ahhing promising his debut with Generic Monster vignettes every week but never delivering an appearance. Then finally, he appeared, and he was great! So much more fun than the shitty version of Mark Henry and Great Khali that had been promised. SHOULD I GET HIM? MY BAD! It was a shame that he dropped some entertaining parts of the act, and they lost interest in him quickly, but that first night was lovely.

A quick nod to Sheamus vs Bryan at WrestleMania 28. Completely unexpected, brilliant, caused hilarious shitfits all over the Internet and started the "YES" movement that made Bryan one of the top heroes in wrestling. Even better, it was a WrestleMania match that wasn't too long.

 

 

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The Rock vs The Hurricane

Kurt Angle's Wig

Cena's 2008 Royal Rumble return

Sasha and Bayley in Nxt gave us some crackers. Sasha making Bayley's number one fan cry while her dad shook his head was a great shot. Pure heel. 

As shit as it made TNA, the January 4th 2010 episode with about 1000 debuts was great. Still love the moment when they just debut Ric Flair by him getting out a limo and shaking every person's hand when he probably didn't know half of them. 

Hogan vs Sting Bound for Glory. 

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The night "The Old" Stone Cold came back and beat the shit out of The Alliance.

The build up was great all night with Austin sitting at The Freindly Tap bar all night. And when Austin drove up in the middle of the brawl outside was brilliant. And the crowd was so pumped up to hear the glass break and when Austin came throught the curtain to whip some ass the place went nuts! Great TV

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If Cena Wins We Riot

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We’ll never know what could have happened if they’d decided to exploit the booing of John Cena by turning him heel, which is a huge shame. Considering Big John’s talents on the mic, I think it would’ve likely been spectacular and he would have done such a good job that the fans would have probably turned him back face in twelve months or less. He’d have spent the rest of his career being (rightly) cheered and treated like the great man he is. However, whilst we never got to see fully-fledged heel Cena, we did get a glimpse of what could have been at One Night Stand 2006, which was all kinds of awesome.

If the goal of pro-wrestling is to generate emotion by way of making people suspend their disbelief, then this might be one of the most successful shows of all time. You’ve got a Hammerstein Ballroom filled with fans paying WWE money to attend a WWE show in order to vent their hatred for WWE. It’s incredible when you really think about it.

Now don’t get me wrong, One Night Stand 2005 is overall superior and remains one of my favourite shows of all time for the nostalgia and joy, but the 2006 edition is massively underrated for how brilliantly they exploited the tribe mentality that the re-introduction of ECW generated. It's pro-wrestling at its finest. Make me care about fake fights. I bet they’d kill for an atmosphere like this now. Those fans were passionate as hell. Putting WWE guys in that environment in order to play on the fan’s loyalty to ECW and hatred for all things Vinny Mac was a stroke of genius throughout the night, but the pinnacle was everything involving John Cena.

We start with John walking to the ring, arguably looking the coolest he ever has. Head down, belt raised in the air as he’s showered with profanity and hate. Cool as fuck.

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Then we get the amazing moment when he throws his T-shirt into the crowd and they throw it back at him. He keeps returning it to the crowd and they keep throwing it back to louder and louder reactions. Middle fingers everywhere. This is so great. Like violent, tense panto.

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Cena and RVD proceed to have a really fun match that’s enhanced massively by the awesome crowd. RVD is treated like a God and Cena is absolutely hated. Almost all of the fans are on their feet throughout, cheering RVD's every move and showering Cena with insulting chants. And God bless John, he looks to be having the time of his life subtly playing up to it. First he keeps grinning at the fans, which eventually turns to scowls as the match goes on. Then, when the ref makes him break up the STF submission as RVD reaches the ropes, we actually get to see Cena jaw jack with the ref, then shove him, then eventually KO him with a clothesline when the ref shoves back! Amazing! Evil Cena rules!

My only criticism is the finish. It starts off brilliantly, with Cena getting speared through a table by someone wearing a motorcycle helmet. The mystery assailant then takes off the helmet to reveal himself as Edge! I love people unmasking in pro-wrestling. Jericho in particular has made a career out of it this last year or so. Never gets old. But then when RVD hits the Frog Splash for the win they send Paul Heyman out to count the pin rather than an official ref, which I think taints it somewhat. Not that the crowd care though, they go absolute bonkers and it’s amazing. RVD goes into the crowd to celebrate. Boss.

Fun fact: Kevin Owens can be seen in the crowd of One Night Stand 2006, sporting a PWG shirt. How mental that a decade later he was beating Cena clean on PPV.

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Watching this back, it’s funny to think how nobody gives a flying fuck about Raw vs. Smackdown matches. Wear your shitty T-shirts all you want, lads. There’s absolutely no brand loyalty whatsoever. To practically everyone watching, they’re the exact same thing and nobody is particularly passionate one way or another. (Although in saying that, for the record, if pushed - I'm Team Smackers all the way!)

It makes me wonder about them ever doing some type of Main Roster vs. NXT angle though. I actually think they’ve done a good enough job of separating NXT from the pack and portraying it as a true alternative that they could really make something of that feud. Either have a pack of NXT guys, “invade,” one of the main roster shows, or better yet have some main roster guys gate-crash NXT. When Seth Rollins jumped the rail at that one Takeover event there was a real sense of excitement. It’s just a shame they had him carried out by security like a right dickhead some three minutes later.

But yeah. Imagine if Roman Reigns before the cancer diagnosis had appeared in front of an NXT audience. The heat would’ve been nuclear!

Edited by Supremo
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17 hours ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

Always go straight to this one as it still gives me goosebumps. 'He's here!' and the crowd goes fucking ape-shit!
Undertaker had been gone about 6-7 months and if I remember rightly him returning was a massive surprise [at least it was to me] and the reaction is unlike almost anything you would get today. Just a crowd, totally marking out and going apocalyptic for a sustained period of time.

Brilliant.

 

I always read that the angle they did the night after RAW, where DX looked at the tron and they all go to the ramp and he clears them out is what was supposed to happen here. The American Badass song was supposed to hit when you saw the Undertaker's silhouette on the screen (as it did the following night) and he was going to tear down on his bike. But the timing got all cocked up and Taker has to dart down before they even play the Kid Rock song.

Still great, but always found it funny that they did the same angle the following night to debut the American Badass song.

 

Edited by IANdrewDiceClay
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3 minutes ago, bAzTNM#1 said:

He was doing this character or he was fucking off to WCW to try it according to Bruce Pritchard. Might have gave them a shot in the arm for a few PPVs.

Really? I'd never heard that one before. Interesting to hear that was a possibility at one point. 

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Super interesting to hear that they re-ran the angle the night after Judgment Day 2000. I'd never heard that before. It's not surprising though. Watching the PPV, you could see that they'd completely fucked up their timings. As wild as it was, and as much fun as it was watching X-Pac running and bumping like a maniac, it always bothered me that you heard the buzzer go off before Shawn saw Taker hit the Tombstone and called for the final DQ fall. I can't remember, was that controversy ever referenced afterwards on TV? At the very least they could've just alluded to the idea that Shawn was playing favourites with Hunter.

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I remember how great the Daniel Bryan & Wyatt reaction was at the time but one thing that really stands out to me watching that YouTube video is the lack of commentary whilst all this is going on. The match/moment sells itself so well and even better without Michael Cole screaming during it.

Edited by Briefcase
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That for me is the greatest part of the Daniel Bryan story leading up to Mania. WWE will point to the Yes movement ring invasion as being his 'zamboni/beer truck moment', but it wasn't. It was definitely the turn against Wyatt. He had every single member of that crowd eating from the palm of his hand like I hadn't seen since Austin & Rock at their peak and the ring invasion weeks just felt a bit over-forced for me.

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