The Dart Posted June 9 Posted June 9 (edited) 4 hours ago, Lorne Malvo said: Actually, maybe I'm getting this completely arse over tit and they were actually the same Raw highlights but just with different jobber matches. That would make much more sense. You are getting it right, your timeline is just a little off. It wasn't Metal/Jakked, but Shotgun/Superstars in the late 90s. (I don't think Metal/Jakked were ever on at the same time, Metal replaced Jakked which was eventually replaced with Velocity - Jakked replaced Shotgun and was eventually replaced with Metal in the US, but we still got a version of Shotgun which featured the matches from Jakked with different commentary) - I may be misremembering some of this. What I don't misremember though is : You'd have Superstars at midday, immediately followed by Shotgun at 1pm on Saturday or Sunday (or the other way around) and they'd have the same matches with different commentary. That went on for at least a year until Heat started in America and Superstars started showing the matches from Heat with Shotgun showing the matches from Shotgun. In the US Superstars ended in March 1997 while Shotgun started in January 1997 but we got a version of Superstars way into the 00s that featured those Shotgun matches and eventually Heat matches, while also getting Shotgun. And we famously didn't get Heat until Jan '00 by which time our version of Superstars had ended. I think things also changed quite a bit when we started getting Smackdown at 10am Saturday morning, not sure when that was but I'm thinking also Jan '00 ? I think eventually our version of Superstars was exclusively Raw/Smackdown highlights as the original B show matches were on Metal on Sky and Heat on C4. Supertars was eventually replaced on Sky by Heat when it moved from C4 to Sky. Edited June 9 by The Dart Quote
Paid Members Lorne Malvo Posted June 9 Paid Members Posted June 9 4 minutes ago, The Dart said: You'd have Superstars at midday, immediately followed by Shotgun at 1pm on Saturday or Sunday (or the other way around) and they'd have the same matches with different commentary. Yeah, this rings a bell actually! It's all conflated timeline-wise in my mind though, so I've got memories of watching two hours of Smackdown then following it up with two hours of the same jobber matches (twice!) which would have been one hell of a comedown. Quote
The Dart Posted June 9 Posted June 9 (edited) 3 minutes ago, Lorne Malvo said: Yeah, this rings a bell actually! It's all conflated timeline-wise in my mind though, so I've got memories of watching two hours of Smackdown then following it up with two hours of the same jobber matches (twice!) which would have been one hell of a comedown. It's definitely possible you are correct there, but I think the 2 hours of Smackdown on Saturday morning starting in early 2000 replaced the 2 hours of of Shotgun/Superstars with repeated matches. Smackdown was definately on Sat mornings, maybe Metal was on straight after it, but I think Metal or Shotgun was probably on Sundays at 11am or something from that point. Hard to remember for sure. Edited June 9 by The Dart Quote
Paid Members theironshake Posted June 9 Paid Members Posted June 9 My first video was a pirated copy of wrestlemania 3...and I was obsessed with Savage v Steamboat. Looking back it was a good one to love. Quote
Paid Members Lorne Malvo Posted June 9 Paid Members Posted June 9 4 minutes ago, The Dart said: It's definitely possible you are correct there, but I think the 2 hours of Smackdown on Saturday morning starting in early 2000 replaced the 2 hours of of Shotgun/Superstars with repeated matches. Smackdown was definately on Sat mornings, maybe Metal was on straight after it, but I think Metal or Shotgun was probably on Sundays at 11am or something from that point. Hard to remember for sure. Digital TV listings were a bit of a wild west back then. I've looked before and it's hard to find any definitive guides to what was on and when. I was a big fan of when Sky sacked the jobber shows off so when Smackdown finished, it was right into Relic Hunter. Tia Carrere Quote
The Dart Posted June 9 Posted June 9 The first wrestling show I ever saw was Wrestlemania 7 and even then I remember just thinking Warrior vs. Savage was a brilliant match, without knowing the characters or the storyline, I just knew it was better than everything else on the show and it was probably my favourite match for years. I'd even say it was my favourite match until Sid vs. HBK at Survivor Series 96 and that was a show which changed me from a fan of wrestling into a wrestling fan. Quote
Paid Members Statto Posted June 9 Paid Members Posted June 9 49 minutes ago, The Dart said: You are getting it right, your timeline is just a little off. It wasn't Metal/Jakked, but Shotgun/Superstars in the late 90s. (I don't think Metal/Jakked were ever on at the same time, Metal replaced Jakked which was eventually replaced with Velocity - Jakked replaced Shotgun and was eventually replaced with Metal in the US, but we still got a version of Shotgun which featured the matches from Jakked with different commentary) - I may be misremembering some of this. Metal and Jakked were concurrent, weren't they? From late 99 until Velocity started in 02. They were effectively the same show IIRC - the same 3 (or 4?) undercard/squash matches and the same highlights from the main shows, just in a different order. And wasn't there also Superstars which was basically the same thing too? Probably syndicated differently in the States but we just got the lot! It sticks in my head as they were on consecutive days at 5pm on Sky Sports and I used to watch the lot. Can't get enough of that latest Lo Down or Essa Rios encounter! Quote
The Dart Posted June 9 Posted June 9 1 minute ago, Statto said: Metal and Jakked were concurrent, weren't they? From late 99 until Velocity started in 02. They were effectively the same show IIRC - the same 3 (or 4?) undercard/squash matches and the same highlights from the main shows, just in a different order. And wasn't there also Superstars which was basically the same thing too? Probably syndicated differently in the States but we just got the lot! It sticks in my head as they were on consecutive days at 5pm on Sky Sports and I used to watch the lot. Can't get enough of that latest Lo Down or Essa Rios encounter! I'm half going off memory and half going off what I've found online. They were the same show - in the US, some places got Metal, some places got Jakked - same matches with different commentary. What I've found online says In the UK - we only ever got Metal which was eventually replaced by Velocity. But I do have a memory of us getting Jakked, in fact I'd say we definitely did, but I am 99% sure we never got both at the same time. We got Jakked for a while, which I think had replaced Shotgun and eventually Metal replaced Jakked. Quote
Chili Posted June 9 Posted June 9 (edited) We never got Jakked (hur hur), it was always under the name Metal at lunchtime on Sky 1. In the states on syndication, Metal was the daytime showing, Jakked was the late night version. Taking a punt at the reason for two identical shows with different running orders probably made the overall rating viewership look good for WWF. Like how Raw is War and the War Zone were 'technically' two separate hours running concurrently together for a time. Edited June 9 by Chili Quote
boshealecta Posted June 9 Posted June 9 I feel like I’m cheating with this but it would be the Royal Rumble match from 92. I didn’t have Sky but my older half brother did and would bring a tape with him when he visited. He brought Royal Rumble 92 (the tape had gone funny and it was weird static til LOD vs Natural Disasters). It was the first ever Rumble I’d seen and I just thought it was amazing seeing all the stars and face offs I never thought I’d see. Ive rewatched that match more times than I can count, never with a cigarette though as Mean Gene wouldn’t like that Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted June 9 Paid Members Posted June 9 On 6/7/2026 at 10:26 PM, davertfnewman said: I think Bret's going to be involved in a lot of these. Have we mentioned SummerSlam '92 yet? WrestleMania X or XIII? Yep. I started watching sometime in 92. One of my first tapes was SummerSlam 89 and Hart Foundation vs Brain Busters was my favourite match of a small number I’d seen for ages. I got Superbrawl 2 and a couple of matches off that came close but it was still the SummerSlam 89 opener for me until Bret vs Bulldog at Wembley. Then in 94 I think Bret vs Owen at WrestleMania X took the #1 spot for me and stayed there for ages after. I absolutely love that match. But to the point of the thread, Bret and Anvil vs Arn and Tully was my first #1 and probably a major reason why I even initially got hooked on wrestling. Quote
SpykeDudlei1 Posted June 9 Posted June 9 On 6/7/2026 at 5:41 PM, BarryOVega said: Great match without question but it still annoys me Hebner calls for the bell before Perfect even starts nodding Sorry to take this slightly off topic but another Hebner ‘moment’ to add to my list of reasons why he’s not as good as he’s been built up to be over the years. See also: - his dreadful, not for one minute convincing near-fall counts that would just see him slump and throw his hand out of the way before the pinned wrestler would even attempt to kick out - his awful, stiff as a board ref bumps. It would be as if rigor mortis had set in upon immediate contact with the wrestler in question To name but a couple. Quote
Paid Members air_raid Posted June 10 Paid Members Posted June 10 7 hours ago, SpykeDudlei1 said: Sorry to take this slightly off topic but another Hebner ‘moment’ to add to my list of reasons why he’s not as good as he’s been built up to be over the years. See also: - his dreadful, not for one minute convincing near-fall counts that would just see him slump and throw his hand out of the way before the pinned wrestler would even attempt to kick out - his awful, stiff as a board ref bumps. It would be as if rigor mortis had set in upon immediate contact with the wrestler in question To name but a couple. The ludicrous over the top way he’d do a wildly gesticulating point, shout “You” then roll his hands over before throwing seemingly his whole body in the opposite direction before shouting “out of here!” to a manager. You’re not the star, dickhead. Quote
Paid Members BomberPat Posted June 10 Paid Members Posted June 10 I do think Earl Hebner got a reputation as being a good referee because he was a notable one, more than that he was particularly any better than anyone around him. Not having any criticism of a big over-the-top YOU'RE OUTTA HERE, though. One of the joys of being a referee is getting to do that, the bigger and dafter the better. Quote
Awards Moderator HarmonicGenerator Posted June 10 Awards Moderator Posted June 10 Whenever I've gone back and watched late 90s/early 00s stuff and Hebner's refereeing, I find him more and more distractingly rubbish. They obviously went too far the opposite way in the '10s with the refusal to even name referees out loud, but it feels like he's always trying to make himself part of the story. Sometimes that might be okay but usually it's just too much. Quote
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