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THE JOHN REPORT WWF, WCW Thoughts and Some HBK Corrections
After every edition of Raw I get emails from people asking me where the Raw Report and R&R is. The answer is that the old Raw Report I used to do is in the past because I work long days on Tuesday and I have absolutely no time for it. It bothers me because the WWF is really hot right now and I would love to write more about them. Maybe I will bring out the Raw Report and R&R at a future date but for now it's in the past. Even though I have been writing less, I really have enjoyed writing about past events in wrestling history, the PPV previews and things of that nature. If you want my opinion on something, email me or talk to me on AOL Instant Messenger about it. This will be a shorter column by my standards although it will cover a lot of things I wanted to talk about. It will mostly be short thoughts on a variety of subjects rather than a long column about one topic. Here she blows... Before I get to it let me first say that I thought this week's episode of The Simpsons was hilarious this week. Am I the only one that heard them say they are a "Northern Kentucky" family? Man, this is earth shattering news that had the office buzzing. Anyway, onto the wrestling talk.
Judgment Day is a Huge Success My list for best WWF PPVs of the year is as follows: 1) Backlash, 2) Judgment Day, 3) Royal Rumble, 4) No Way Out, 5) WrestleMania. In my opinion, all of these PPVs were better than any of the PPVs from last year so the WWF is definitely at its best. The main event did not really surprise me because I expected a good match. I think Triple H proved to everybody that he is a tremendous wrestler in every aspect and if you ask me he is very close to the level of WWF legends such as Michaels, Austin and Foley. The Rock also put on a great match showing that he can hold his own with just about anyone. I do not think Triple H did a huge carry job but he carried The Rock enough that it was one of the Rock's best matches ever. The finish was unique in that it left us wondering what really happened. Now we know that the Undertaker showed up a few seconds too late and it made for a sloppy finish. Even with the screwy ending it was still a very good match for nearly 59 minutes. I liked the Benoit/Jericho match although I think the Backlash match was slightly better. The only problem with the Backlash match was the ending whereas the Judgment Day match seemed to lack in terms of building the match. Both were ****+ affairs, it's just that I thought the Backlash match was marginally better. I like the new look Undertaker. Last year I was very vocal about my displeasure with the whole gothic Undertaker gimmick. He did not get great heel heat with it and his wrestling suffered because of it. Now he is back with a more human type gimmick and he is rejuvenated so I expect him to be in old, kickass form very soon. The Undertaker was at his best in '97 and '98 when he acted like a bad ass in black instead of the grim reaper. With this new biker gimmick, his best days could be ahead of him once again.
Other WWF Thoughts My guess for the KOTR finals is Angle vs. Rikishi. If Vince Russo is such a genius how come he did not let Edge & Christian work the mic before? I always knew they were naturals on the stick (because of their many TV appearances here in Canada) and it is showing right now. If Russo really was smart he probably would have seen their potential. Malenko with some ho's? Never thought I would see it but man that was a funny moment. Raw was a good show this week although I never really got excited for it. It ended with a very hot ending that sent the crowd home happy after a Rock Bottom through the announcer's table. I doubt we will see Triple H vs. The Rock at KOTR although I think they may be a part of a triple threat or tag match to headline the event. I like Saturn's brainbuster. I am glad somebody is using that move for their finisher because it is always a move that I enjoy looking at. The next time they bring their legends back they should have them come out together. Imagine the reaction if Austin, Michaels and Foley all stood in the same ring.
WCW Thoughts Major Gunns aka Tylene was my favourite woman in wrestling when she was an NWO girl. I'm glad they have given her a more active role because she is a pleasure to look at. I could throw out a lame "mouth to mouth" joke here but I have heard 'em all and I am sure most of you have too. My guess is that the main event for Starrcade 2000 is going to be Russo vs. Bischoff because they probably believe they are the biggest draws in wrestling today. Russo's idea of pushing Booker T. is by putting him in a feud with Shawn Stasiak. Why? So he can go over a younger wrestler who has zero credibility to begin with. Why is the U.S. Title being wasted on Scott Steiner when a good, popular wrestler like Booker T. is stuck feuding with Stasiak? Steiner is fine (I guess) but if he is not going to defend the belt what is the point of keeping it around his waist? The best thing about WCW right now: They have the hottest women in wrestling. Jeff Jarrett had a one day title reign this week. If Russo really believed in him wouldn't he keep the belt on the guy for a long period of time instead of handing the belt around like a $2 New York whore? Has he even had a successful title defense? Anybody seen Berlyn or Buzzkill lately? Better question. Does anybody MISS Berlyn or Buzzkill? No? Okay, that's what I thought. Yes, I am negative towards WCW but can you blame me? All this talk about a new WCW and all I am seeing are short title reigns, weak matches and the same old faces dominating the program.
HBK Related Feedback From: Paul. He took the time to write me with five corrections and under each one I will add a comment. First off, I would like to congratulate you on a very well written column. It had everything. Just a few errors I noticed:
1. Shawn wasn't born in San Antonio, it was Scottsdale, AZ at Williams Air
Force Base.
2. Your pic of Shawn with the world title is wrong. It isn't the world
title, it is the IC Title.
3. Bulldog didn't accuse HBK of stalking his wife, it was sexual
harassment.
4. At SummerSlam '96, Vader didn't win two falls by countout. He won one
by countout and the other by DQ when Shawn hit Vader with Cornette's tennis
racket.
5. Shawn and Austin were stripped of the titles due to a real backstage
fight between Shawn and Bret, where Shawn said he was going to Nitro. The
WWF said Shawn got an injury from it to cover it up. All-in-All, GREAT BIOGRAPHY! Paul Now, let's move on to Andrew Green and his corrections: The Post-Concussion-Syndrome collapse was on Raw the day after Survivor Series, not at the PPV. He was wrestling Owen in a one on one match, and collapsed shortly after taking the enziguri. They also blamed the collapse on the Razor's Edge and Sid's powerbomb from the night before. Yeah, this is also correct. I said the angle happened at Survivor Series '95 even though it happened on the Raw episode the next night. Silliness on my part once again. For what it's worth, I actually enjoyed the Survivor Series '95 match Shawn was in which was billed as a "wild card match" meaning heels were teamed with faces on both sides.
Vince told the timekeeper to "ring the fucking bell", he didn't tell Earl
Hebner. Hebner signaled for the bell to ring and Vince told the timekeeper
(his name is Mark Eaton?, I think) to ring the bell. The only contact
between Hebner and Vince during the match was a momentary glance. Finally, I made a mistake when I mentioned the Rockers/Orient Express match at Royal Rumble '91. I said they faced Pat Tanaka and Haku (now known as Meng) and that was obviously wrong. Their opponents were Tanaka and Paul Diamond who wrestled as Kato. Thanks to Cindy for the help on that one. Thanks a lot for all the corrections. I think at least 20% of the email I received from the bio were from people who had corrections for me. Most of them had the letters "HBK" in their email addresses just like Paul did. It should be noted that none of these things are MAJOR things, they are just little things that I simply forgot. Paul and Andrew were the first ones to write me about all of the errors in one email so that is why I chose this one. To everybody else who wrote me to say that "you were wrong" I would like to say thank you. At least Cindy, Paul and Andrew had the decency to say it was a great biography after they corrected my errors. I do appreciate it. As I said in the bio, there were many things that even I did not know about Shawn. I am not afraid to make mistakes and that is why I encourage all types of feedback. I will treat everybody with respect, all I ask is that you try to do the same with me.
In Closing... Considering there are no PPV previews for a few weeks I will probably do the next match in my look at wrestling's greatest matches in the near future. If you have any requests for which match you would like to see let me know and I will consider it. If you have any questions or comments about this column feel free to MAIL ME and I will do my best to reply to you as soon as possible. Have a great week.
Smell ya later, |
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