House Show/TV tapings random happenings

[Fatty Facesitter]

Recalling some memories with a friend today of past shows we've attended. We both attended WWE's first UK-based Raw taping in 2004 at the MEN. The opening dark match pitted Maven against the one and only Robbie Brookside. Presumably Regal got him his foot in the door for that - not sure if was some sort of tryout match for him or if he was just filling a slot for the evening. I don't remember much about it other than it was fairly short. 

 

[simonworden]

8 hours ago, Fatty Facesitter said:

Recalling some memories with a friend today of past shows we've attended. We both attended WWE's first UK-based Raw taping in 2004 at the MEN. The opening dark match pitted Maven against the one and only Robbie Brookside. Presumably Regal got him his foot in the door for that - not sure if was some sort of tryout match for him or if he was just filling a slot for the evening. I don't remember much about it other than it was fairly short. 

 

Didn't know about that one. I know he was used on Raw in 2007 which I assume was through Regal. 

Reminded me of Raw/Smackdown in London in 2012. Can't remember which taping (Smackers I think) but in non televised matches we had Dean Ambrose pre shield who cut a pre match promo too and Cesaro. It was the same show he debuted in a segment but the match didn't air. 

 

A weird a disappoining TNA one from a few months prior in Wembley was after the taping the dark macth brawl had a 25 second Kurt Angle appearance. I think he did one move and fucked off backstage again didn't even pose for the crowd. 

Edited January 20, 2022 by simonworden

[air_raid]

Just a quick one today… Lex Luger. Now, his WWF run was so poorly booked by having him choke against Yokozuna on TWO main events on PPV, that I actually started using “they Lugered him” about Reigns when they cut his balls off a dozen times between 2015 and 2018. But I was wondering if on the live shows between his turn and Mania X, did he look like a loser on the road too?

Straight after the Intrepid he’s losing a few Lumberjack matches to Bret, but they’re in Edmonton and Calgary so it’s to be expected. At a big show at the Spectrum in Philly on the 16th and subsequent shows, Luger makes the save for the Hitman after DQ finishes with Yoko and Bret - shows on which he didn’t wrestle. Easy cheques, sounds like Lex. Ridiculously, he does no house show matches as a babyface before SummerSlam. The “call to action” gave precisely zero American fans a chance to cheer for Lex before his shot at the evil foreigner.

30th September in Fresno, the Lex Express finally makes a stop at THE RING and he starts his interminable run with Ludvig Borga. Imagine the wisdom of putting two muscle guys in there, one new to playing babyface, one completely new to the company, and expecting them to have good matches? That’s all Lex is up to on the road for the whole of the rest of 1993. Is it any wonder he never improved? The occasional Raw match against a Bam Bam or working Shawn on Coliseum must have felt like Christmas morning after working Borga for weeks on end. Yoko meanwhile works Bret for months then moves onto Undertaker but Yoko vs Luger never gets a run.

New Years Day at the Palace in Auburn Hills - scene of the crime a/k/a SummerSlam - Lex finally has reason to celebrate as he and Tatanka beat Yoko and Borga. Lex is usually beating Borga (sometimes in flag matches) as Yoko is strangely going on last with Tatanka by now with the latter doing stretcher jobs to further enhance Yokozuna’s menacing reputation, but they do the tag again on 9th in Landover, Maryland and 14th in San Jose, and incredibly the finishes are Luger pinning the champ courtesy of the Six-Inch Steel Plated Forearm(TM). 

Post Rumble there’s a series of tags with Luger tagging with either Tatanka or Randy Savage to beat Yoko and either Crush or Kwang who’s in for the (permanently) injured Borga, as they build for Mania. 30th at the Nassau Coliseum, Lex randomly beats Crush with a crab in a submission match on last while the makeshift Yoko/Kwang team have a random 2/3 falls match with the Steiners underneath. I’m sure it made sense to someone. On the European tour he divides his time between tagging with Bret (WILL THEY CO-EXIST?!?!11) to beat Yoko & Kwang, or some singles wins over Double J. Some of those are only by count-out which is pathetic but some feature his first road wins with the Rebel Rack. We see out February with a loop through Canada and Luger’s racking Kwang for wins while Yoko is with Tatanka. Talk about matches we never got to see - Wisconsin towns at the same time are getting Bret & Kid vs Shawn & Owen. Imagine being a fan in Alberta and having to sit through Luger/Kwang instead???

3rd March in Anaheim, Lex tags with frenemy Bret again to beat Owen and a random IRS. What’s our WWF Champion, Yokozuna doing on this show? Why, he’s tagging with Bastion Booger to beat Men On A Mission, why wouldn’t he be? I swear, some of this booking was done on beer mats at 3AM. Oakland on the 4th gets the same, 6th in Seattle it’s a far more logical Bret & Lex (The Lexcellence Of Lexecution?) vs future tag team champions Owen & Yoko, with IRS on Booger duty instead. No heroics for Luger here sadly, lame salt bucket DQ fare. One more shot in Denver gets the same but Lex can’t duck IRS forever and 11th-13th in Charleston, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia it’s him and Bret against Irwin and Owen again. And that takes us to Mania, where they Lugered him good.

Is it any wonder the country didn’t get behind him when on the live shows he was saddled with bores like Borga and IRS? What a debacle. It’s pleasing to read that he actually did get to put Yoko down for the count but never on TV, where it matters.

[BomberPat]

11 hours ago, Fatty Facesitter said:

Recalling some memories with a friend today of past shows we've attended. We both attended WWE's first UK-based Raw taping in 2004 at the MEN. The opening dark match pitted Maven against the one and only Robbie Brookside. Presumably Regal got him his foot in the door for that - not sure if was some sort of tryout match for him or if he was just filling a slot for the evening. I don't remember much about it other than it was fairly short. 

 

Brookside worked practically every UK tour around that time; even got squashed by Umaga on an episode of RAW. Imagine it was just a jobs for the boys deal rather than actually any attempt at bringing him in full-time; they needed local talent, so they'd always lean on Regal to give his mates a call.

[Snitsky's back acne]

Rowdy Roddy Piper and The Undertaker had a couple of singles matches on the October European tour in 1991.
Probably as rare as Savage vs Undertaker in that regard.

Edited January 20, 2022 by Snitsky's back acne

[thicko]

First event I ever went to was the early 1991 tour at Sheffield. As mentioned Taker faced Piper. The wrestlers came out of the regular entrance to the dressing rooms as opposed to any entrance way, we were seated right by the curtain.  During the post match beat down of Piper, Animal of LOD stuck his head through the curtain to have a look. Cue rabid ‘LOD’ chants from the crowd. Animal just shook his head and said words to the effect of ‘he’ll be fine’ As Taker bundled him into a body bag. 
 

Also, after The British Bulldog (accompanied by Andre the Giant) beat Earthquake, he chased him down the aisle and into the back. Where he immediately stopped and leant against the wall clearly fucked. 
 

I never believed in kayfabe but, had I have done, that would have been the day it died! 

[wandshogun09]

On 1/20/2022 at 6:58 AM, air_raid said:

Talk about matches we never got to see - Wisconsin towns at the same time are getting Bret & Kid vs Shawn & Owen.

[air_raid]

So.... this is going to be a long one, for which I'm sorry, and this is the only time I plan to do this. I went down a rabbit hole when I found a couple of interesting finishes involving Steve Austin, still a heel in late 96/early 97, being allowed to pin guys that he wouldn't be pinning as a heel on TV or in the case of Bret, ever.

Chicago, IL - Rosemont Horizon - December 26, 1996. Vader & Steve Austin defeated Bret Hart & Shawn Michaels when Austin pinned Bret with a roll up after Vader threw Michaels into Bret; Hart and Michaels brawled after the match. In the new year, Austin's pinning Shawn on a couple of Cali shots with schoolboys after interference from Bret. There's one in Stockton where thehistoryofwwe records Hunter wrestling Marc Mero like all the other towns but actually Bret goes on first with Helmsley, announced for the Intercontinental title. This is the one Bret references in his book where its suggested to him to do a job for Hunter to show the boys he's willing to do business. Sure enough, with the ref down and Triple H in the Sharpshooter, Austin runs in and lamps Bret with the Stunner, and when the zebra wakes up he counts the pin for Hunter. The main event of the show is one of one of the Austin/Shawn matches which immediately follows Bret beating Vader by DQ when Austin is caught interfering, and underneath Sid beats Taker by count-out when the latter is fighting Vader at ringside.

Between Shawn, Sid, Bret, Austin, Taker and Vader, the WWF had a hell of a main event selection at the start of 1997 but nobody stayed fit. Sid, Shawn and Bret all had on and off injuries and of course Austin did his neck. I fancy a deep dive into what the top of house shows look like in 1997. Might not be particularly notable but I'm in that mood. A few datestamps in bold to make it easier to follow.

Up to the Rumble we start with the California loop in January with Shawn vs Austin on last supported by Bret vs Vader and Sid vs Taker for the belt. There's a couple where the deck is shuffled for various reasons - Bret's off on 02/01 in Hartford before they go to California so Sid works Goldust and Shawn goes last with Mankind, and when they get to San Jose they have no Mero again or Sid, so Bret and Austin contest a three-way with Hunter (which Hunter wins), they do Undertaker vs Vader and Shawn vs Mankind again. The loop finishes in Anaheim with Taker vs Vader, Bret again does a job for Hunter after Austin interferes, Shawn and Mankind second to last and Austin going down to Sid in the main after Bret interferes. The same four matches are done in Vegas and El Paso, and that takes us to the Rumble.

Post Rumble you've got a few shows in Dallas, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia and Montreal where you have the Shawn/Sid/Bret three way as per the famous SkyDome dark match although some are triple threats, at least one is elimination. Hershey, MSG and Ottawa have Shawn defending against Mankind, Sid's wrestling Taker on all of those, Bret's beating Vader usually by DQ or by Sharpshooter, Austin's all over the place beating Goldust or Ahmed Johnson or Mankind or double count-out with Vader in Philadelphia, and Ottawa has Hunter/Austin/Bret again where Hunter pins Austin after Bret hits Austin with the Intercontinental title belt. Anywhere Taker isnt wrestling Sid he's tagging with Ahmed against the Nation. Completely randomly Quebec City has a night off for Vader, Taker and Sid double count-out, Bret vs Austin with a real finish (small package for Bret) and Shawn against Farooq for the belt. 

The last few shots before Thursday Raw Thursday have Bret & Sid vs Shawn & Austin where Bret's pinning Shawn every night when Austin gives HBK a blind stunner. Taker makes most of those shows, doing DQ losses to Farooq, Vader misses them. There's some mental undercard stuff - Doug Furnas misses these shows so Bob Holly subs tagging with Phil LaFon to wrestle Owen & Smithers and a couple of times they do the fake title switch then re-start the match because Owen's foot was on the rope, and if that wasn't weird enough, Ahmed is doing jobs for The Sultan after Nation interference! Two house shows in between that show and Final Four, the Final Four match gets two dry runs with Taker pinning Vader to win after Bret throws Austin out, then Austin interferes causing Bret to eat the Vader Bomb. Sid punches his clock with Savio.

Half the roster pisses off to Germany for a couple of weeks after the February TVs and I kind of consider that tour as a separate topic, Taker holds the fort in the interim going on last with Farooq in cage matches. When everyone's home, the loop of Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit and Springfield get Sid and Bret in a cage, Undertaker doing more DQ losses for Farooq and Vader is either beating Ahmed after Nation interference or losing by DQ when they get caught, then a couple of shows before Mania in Louisville and Maryland, Bret isn't there so Sid's going over Vader and Taker's going on last getting wins back from Farooq, which takes us to Mania.

Straight after Mania we have Shawn injured, Bret now a heel, Austin now a baby, Taker as champ and Sid only wrestles a couple of times before getting injury causing him to miss announced TV matches with Mankind on Raw and Bret on PPV. Most of the crew then go to South Africa and Kuwait on tour, notables are Bret going to a double count-out with Undertaker in Durban, Austin beating Bret by count-out in Johannesburg, Austin getting pinned by Owen Hart with help from Bulldog in Kuwait City in the quarters of the Kuwati Cup (eventually won by Tiger Ali Singh) and Taker vs Vader for the belt on semi-finals night. There are two sets of results available between that tour and the next In You House which have Austin wrestling Owen and Taker defending against Smither, with no Vader and no Bret. Because Vader's in a Kuwati jail at this point, if you recall.

Immediately after In Your House in April, Bret has his knee surgery and we're getting really thin on the ground for drawing cards. The next three shows in St Louis, Kansas City and Sioux City, IA all have Austin/Owen and Taker/Smith again. You undercards have Rockabilly, Brooklyn Brawler, Phineas Godwinn in singles and D'Lo making up the numbers. A week later Vader's released and we switch to Austin & Ahmed Johnson beating Owen & Davey Boy in non-title matches and Taker defending against Vader in Winnipeg, Fort Wayne, Wilwaukee and Hamilton, Ontario, before the last house show before Cold Day In Hell has no Vader but a beefed up main event of Taker, Austin & Ahmed vs Owen, Bulldog and - here's a new name - Brian f'ing Pillman.

After the next In Your House, Sid's still injured and Vader's picked up some knocks from Shamrock so we're struggling again. Albany, MSG and Baton Rouge, LA all get Taker vs Mankind for the belt and Austin & LOD vs Owen, Bulldog and Pillman. Around TVs the Undertaker misses Auburn Hills so you've got Austin & Ahmed against Bulldog and Owen on top and little else, then two towns get Taker & Austin vs the Hart lads - all main events are for the tag belts and all three have fuck finishes. These were supposed to be Sid/Austin/Taker vs Bret/Owen/Smith. Three more towns get the same match on last without the tag belts (as Shawn has returned and he and Austin are champs now) but with the same finish - Pillman for the DQ. Sid returns on the 2nd June Raw and the last two houses before King of the Ring are plagued with injuries and are awful cards for Lowell and Portland but the main events are Sid, Shawn and Stone Cold against Owen, Smithers and the Anvil. They're the only shots Shawn does for ages.

The night after King of the Ring, Shawn's off sulking after the backstage fight with Bret and one of only three dark matches I'll mention here has Sid, Taker and Ken Shamrock go over Owen, DBS and Anvil. I mention it because Sid's here and we aren't far from the car crash that will claim his WWF career in the midterm. It's been reported this car crash was on the 13th but Sid makes it to Montreal on 13th and Toronto on 14th, losing to Bulldog and Owen respectively via interference from the opposite brother-in-law, and that's it. Despite being pencilled in for the main event at Canadian Stampede, showing up for the Austin's partner/Dude Love episode of Raw, and being announced as fighting Vader at SummerSlam and early release cards for August houses vs Anvil, thats the end of Sid and he'll get neck surgery a few days after SummerSlam. And then there were five! 

Austin misses Montreal but goes on last with Taker in Toronto and Ottawa. Being in Canada and the Harts being the faces, there's a weird six-man in Ottawa where Owen, Bulldog and Pillman beat the LOD and Ahmed despite Ahmed being in the Nation by now, and indeed there's friction with the Roadies after the match. Three of the next five Stateside shows either side of TVs have Vader back and beating Goldust after Hart interference and main events of Undertaker & Ken Shamrock dropping Davey and the Slammy Award Winning Rocket/King, with Austin back and in Shamrock's spot June 27th In Dayton and June 29th in Denver. However, June 28th in Anaheim, Bret's back and doing a three-way with Stone Cold and Undertaker for the title (SHIT!) and in a very Japanese style bit of booking, first night back he looks at the lights after a chokeslam. Anaheim was a really bad town for Bret's win/loss record, wasn't it? Those last two dark matches I was going to mention, 30th June Raw in Des Moines after the show get the abridged dry runs for Taker vs Vader for the belt, and the Canadian Stampede 10-man, except the finish is America-friendly with Austin pinning Owen after the Stunner. Vancouver is the last house show before the PPV, Vader's pinning Goldust again, and Taker vs Austin vs Bret again with the same chokeslam finish on Bret. Bet that went over well in Canada.

If you forgot that early Mankind had "outro" piano music as well as an intro like me, raise your hand.

After Canadian Stampede, a July Texas loop through Dallas, Austin and El Paso has Austin & Mankind vs Bret & Owen followed by Undertaker/Vader casket matches for the belt. After the Raw where Austin & Dude Love win the tag titles, Foley starts doing his character for those matches instead. In Worcester the champs retain, but they're back in Canada for shows in St Johns, Newfoundland and Sydney, Nova Scotia right before Raw in Halifax and those matches become non-title with Bret and Owen winning. The last house shows in the States before SummerSlam have Taker & LOD against the Nation main events but in semi-main, Austin is PINNING Bret in singles matches. Plenty more houses post-SummerSlam have Bret vs Austin promoted (as well as the original card for the One Night Only PPV) which would have ended up being WWF title matches, but that's obviously not to be.

Post SummerSlam, we're all over the place with Shawn not back yet and Austin out. Vader spends most of his shows doing submission jobs for Shamrock or pinning Flash Funk in virtually equal numbers, plus a few wins over not-yet-Road Dog, "Jesse James." Bret's doing DQ losses to mostly Taker and occasionally Shamrock. On some shows these were planned to be Bret vs Taker vs Austin, and in the Bret vs Shamrock (sub for Austin) towns, Undertaker pins Farooq. In the middle of the run, New Haven is treated to a six-man with Bret, Smithers and Pillman getting beaten by Undertaker, Dude Love and Goldust, while Vader gets a win over (random klaxon) Savio Vega. A couple of the little towns that follow - Warwick, Rhode Island and Hyannis Port, MA - have no main eventers to speak of and the top three matches are Goldust v Pillman, Shamrock v Vader and Mankind v Hunter. When we get to Tacoma on 28th August and Bret's got The Patriot to warm up for the PPV, and he's losing by DQ, but subsequent shows in Canada have Bret winning. Also of note for 29th-1st in Victoria, Regina, Saskatoon and Thunder Bay (Ontario), Owen puts the first pinfall losses on Ken Shamrock since his debut. In a supremely random last house show before Ground Zero on 6th September in Nashville, Vader - who's turned babyface by now on TV - pins Goldust, and Bret's with Taker again for yet another fuck finish. Shawn does no house shows to get himself ready for Taker at Ground Zero, which I find fascinating. Maybe he didn't need them.

The three house shows they squeeze in between Ground Zero and the roster splitting in two for half flying to One Night Only, Bret and Taker do more DQ finishes on top and Vader gets to work with and pin Hunter. Feel sorry for Poughkeepsie and Scranton for the weekend of the Birmingham show ; they had a real B show full of dross topped with Goldust v Pillman, Ahmed v Rocky and DOA vs Farooq, Kama and D'Lo. After TVs through Illinois and surrounding states Bret vs Taker with the DQ finish is still on top, Shawn's still not back and Vader's off. In Winnipeg they change the finish for the Canadian house to Bret winning by DQ when he's attacked by Hunter, then it's back to Taker winning in St Paul on 4th October which is the last show before Badd Blood.

Bret's last month of house shows between the final two WWF PPVs of his run, is absolute chaos. 11th October in Anaheim he's finally winning in that town, stopping Shamrock with the Sharpshooter after he'd been hit by a chair wielded by Bulldog. On the same show Shawn's finally back on a house show tagging with Hunter to lose by DQ to LOD in a tag title match. San Jose and San Diego both have Bret vs Shamrock vs Hunter, 18th October in Fort Worth he's losing by DQ to Taker again who didn't wrestle in California at all, neither did Vader. Wichita gets Bret vs Taker vs Hunter, still no Vader. Bret's the only top guy in Lexington and Evansville on 22nd and 23rd, and he's losing to Jerry Lawler by DQ. Nassau gets a proper top of the card where Bret vs Taker goes second to last, and Shawn and Hunter beat LOD by DQ on last. Six men, no jobbing. With the top end of the card including Bret and Taker are in the Middle East, a tiny fundraiser at the Boys & Girls Club in Pittsfield, MA on 25th has a main where Steve Austin is back in the ring, pinning Triple H, and the same match happens half way through an otherwise terrible show the next night in Bushkill, PA, heavy on JTTS guys, Goldust vs Road Dog on last. Rochester on the 31st has the same weak card but instead of Austin vs Hunter, they get Vader vs Kane(!). Binghampton on 2nd November is on YouTube and gives a clearer idea of what happens ; DX come out, Shawn cuts a promo about how he's too big a deal to wrestle at little towns, Austin comes out in cutoffs and a t-shirt and gives Shawn, Hunter and Chyna about a dozen Stunners, without doing a match. The show is weird from bottom to top with the lack of stars (the Truth Commission are spread between three separate matches) and in one match Road Dogg comes out still to With My Baby Tonight as the Outlaws were pretty newly formed and had no music yet, and he wrestles Salvatore Sincere playing face who comes out to Staying Alive like he's in the FBI. Bizarre. The last two house shows before Survivor Series in Toronto and Detroit, Vader's doing DQ finishes with Farooq and the monster six man mains of Taker, Austin & Mankind against Bret, Bulldog and Anvil with the "Wrestling With Shadows" finish - Stunner on Neidhart. Of course, Survivor Series is the end of Bret for house shows in 1997. And then there were four!

Post-Survivors, there's heavy reliance on Austin, Taker and Shawn and any show without one or more of them suffers badly. 12th in Barrie, Ontario, Austin & Dude Love beat Owen and Anvil (yes), and Vader loses to Kane. Youngstown the night after Vader loses to Kane again but Dude against Anvil is your main event. Austin is clearly easing his way back in, in Pittsburgh on 14th he's only doing a run-in for Dude against Savio Vega (yes) in a no holds barred match, Vader's losing to Hunter, and - PROPER MAIN EVENT - Undertaker beats HBK by DQ on last. MSG on the 15th OF COURSE is the biggest show they can offer. It's not Bret vs Shawn vs Taker vs Austin as they announced before Bret leaving was confirmed, but halfway up the card Shawn defends against hometown hero the Brooklyn Brawler who'd won a battle royal the month before, they do Kane vs Vader, Rocky vs Shamrock and the tag that will cause riots later - Steve Austin & The Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels & Triple H with Chyna, run ins from the Outlaws and eventually a proper finish. You can see it here ;

Four shows between 16th and 23rd have Taker vs Triple H in casket matches on last with Shawn and Austin only doing run ins with Shawn seconding Hunter and Austin accompanying Dude Love for matches with The Rock. Vader's losing to Kane except 16th in Baltimore where he gets to beat The Rock, leaving Dude with Savio again. 22nd in Greensboro is as loaded as they can manage - Kane/Vader, Shamrock/Hunter, Dude/Rock and Shawn vs Taker for the belt with a DQ finish. Austin again is only doing a run-in. After TVs, Cleveland on 28th has Austin back at in six-man with LOD against the Nation, Taker/Hunter casket match on last. Boston on 29th is blessed with the same six-man, Shamrock/Hunter and Taker over Shawn by DQ. Syracuse on 1st is back to Taker/Hunter with neither Shawn or Steve wrestling, and the last show before In Your House on 6th in Providence, Taker and Shawn are both off and Austin vs Hunter for the Intercontinental title goes on last. Vader (of course) loses to Kane on all these shows.

The rest of December is equally anaemic with now Foley out with fractured ribs and Vader off for a few. Bangor on 10th only has Taker vs Hunter as any kind of main event level match. Chattanooga on 12th has the same but the noteworthy main event is Jeff Jarrett and The King beating the Outlaws by DQ, Nashville the next night has Lawler tagging with Jarrett to the same effect and Undertaker/Shawn on last but Memphis the next night and Little Rock on the 15th are infamous because DX vs Jarrett/Lawler and Hunter vs Shamrock as the scheduled main events don't happen as Shawn & co incite the crowds to riot and police are called to the arenas. Taker, also injured, works short casket matches with The Rock on those shows. Boxing Day has Milwaukee in the afternoon and Chicago in the evening, both have main events of Austin & Dude Love against The Rock and D'Lo falls anywhere with Taker beating Hunter in a casket match in Milwaukee and Shawn by DQ in Chicago. Worcester the next night has Taker/Hunter and the same tag on last, all three nights have Vader jobbing to Kane as usual. Hamilton on the 28th, Undertaker gets (TAFKA) Goldust in his brief casket match, and the loaded main is Austin & Dude vs Shawn & Hunter, during which Triple H gets the knee injury he'd sport on TV for the next month or longer. That's a fitting end for my look at the main event scene on house shows in 1997.

Sorry about that, it won't happen again.

Edited August 11, 2022 by air_raid
removed dead YouTube links

[Jazzy G]

Bret & Shawn tagging? That must have been awkward. 

[LaGoosh]

5 hours ago, air_raid said:

Sorry about that, it won't happen again.

Don't apologise, I'd happily read your write-ups like that of every year of WWE house shows. Good work.

[Chili]

4 hours ago, jazzygeofferz said:

Bret & Shawn tagging? That must have been awkward. 

Thought Bret always denied the Sunny days stuff. 

*golf swing

[AshC]

Enjoyed the post @air_raid! 1997 is still such an interesting year.

[air_raid]

15 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

Don't apologise, I'd happily read your write-ups like that of every year of WWE house shows. Good work.

I don’t know if I’d get away with it most years, none have the state of flux 1997 did. Most would probably read “Hogan wrestled Earthquake for three months” etc. I’ll see, between other oddities.

[BomberPat]

4 hours ago, air_raid said:

I don’t know if I’d get away with it most years, none have the state of flux 1997 did. Most would probably read “Hogan wrestled Earthquake for three months” etc. I’ll see, between other oddities.

1997 is pretty unique in terms of WWF booking because it's one of the only times where they went with a nexus of main eventers rather than building everything around one top guy - you could have any combination of Bret, Shawn, 'Taker, Austin and Sid (while he was around) in the mix, and on top of that it wouldn't be odd for Mankind, Vader, Owen, Shamrock or Bulldog to step up to the top spot. So as a result the main event scene really was so much more fluid and dynamic than it's ever been before or since, and I think all adds up to why it's one of the best years in their history.

There's a Meltzer point from the Montreal Screwjob where he sums up a lot of the heat between Hart and Michaels, and the chaos at the top of the card, by saying that there were constant fights about how Bret had been promised he'd be the highest paid wrestler, while Michaels insisted he was the top star so should get paid more, and both were so caught up in that argument that they didn't notice Steve Austin surpassing them both. 

[air_raid]

Today I'm going to talk about a less popular talent from 93-94, Ludvig Borga. 

He had questionable politics and not quite the aptitude they wanted, and he did his ankle just before the Rumble which ruled him out of that show and a planned rematch with Tatanka. They promoted him against Earthquake for Mania X regardless, but he didn't recover in time and his recovery was so slow, they let him go. His TV and PPV run was fairly undistinguished. He beat Marty Jannetty after SummerSlam after basically only beating Virgil and jobbers on TV, he did the Survivors eliminator, and his only other TV matches of note where the infamous Tatanka match where he ended the unbeaten streak of "The Native American" and a rematch on Raw with a non finish. His house show runs were also dull - when he'd squashed enough jobbers on TV to go on the road he worked Luger until the end of the year, and in late December/January they did the Luger/Tatanka v Yoko/Borga tags I mentioned in my Luger post, until his MSG match with Rick Steiner where he got injured.

However, in checking TV tapings where the Coliseum cameras were present, having remembered a match he'd done with Razor on "Inside the WWF" for the Intercontinental title, I came across a few interesting unused matches along with the standard stack of Luger matches.

18/09/93 Challenge in Lowell - Bret Hart beat Ludvig Borga by DQ. I find this absolutely fascinating, and I'd love to know if Bret got something watchable out of the lump of wood. This is a really interesting taping in general. Yokozuna as WWF Champion goes over the fairly newly-turned Razor, Tatanka gets a DQ win over Shawn in one of the last matches Shawn had as Intercontinental champ until 1995, and the match from the Unreleased set occurs - Randy Savage & Mr Perfect vs Giant Gonzalez & Mr Hughes.
Yoko d Razor, Tatanka beat dq Shawn

WWF @ New Haven, CT - Coliseum - September 27, 1993 Monday Night Raw taping:
Lex Luger & Randy Savage defeated Ludvig Borga & WWF World Champion Yokozuna via count-out when Luger got back in the ring after the four men fought on the floor
WWF @ Worcester, MA - Memorial Auditorium - September 28, 1993 WWF Superstars taping:
Bret Hart & Lex Luger defeated WWF World Champion Yokozuna & Ludvig Borga via count-out after Yoko was hit with Luger's running forearm

A couple of interesting tags here with I'm assuming similar finishes, and I'd have loved to seen Bret OR Savage trying to get the best out of Ludvig. Then you've got three more TVs where its Luger vs Borga ;

WWF @ Portland, ME - Civic Center - September 29, 1993
WWF @ Glens Falls, NY - Civic Center - October 19, 1993
WWF @ Burlington, VT - Civic Center - October 20, 1993 WWF Superstars taping:
Here's this one, from Unreleased ;

 

 

WWF @ Carbondale, PA - High School - November 9, 1993 Wrestling Challenge taping:
Bret Hart & Lex Luger defeated WWF World Champion Yokozuna & Ludvig Borga
There's no non-finish here so we'll assume Lex pins Ludvig but again, he's in there with Bret.

Here he's back one on one with Lex ;
WWF @ Dehli, NY - Farrell Hall - November 10, 1993 WWF Superstars taping
WWF @ Utica, NY - War Memorial - December 1, 1993 WWF Superstars taping

WWF @ Lowell, MA - Auditorium - December 14, 1993 WWF Superstars taping:
WWF IC Champion Razor Ramon defeated Ludvig Borga via reverse decision at 10:08. This is your one that made the Inside The WWF tape with a reverse decision DQ after Shawn interfered with his copy of the Intercontinental belt and Razor ending holding both aloft, as that build was up and running.

December 15, 1993 Wrestling Challenge taping: Lex Luger defeated Ludvig Borga, yet again. January 10th Raw taping he and Luger do a Flag match, then two days after on the Superstars taping in Fayetteville he's with Razor doing the same finish as Lowell. That's the last TV tapings where our Ludvig does a "Superstar vs Superstar" dark match.

So... there's a lot of Luger, but I'd love to see some of the work he had with Bret and Randy make it to a Coliseum tape. Maybe I'm weird.

Edited January 26, 2022 by air_raid