Mickie James vs. Trish Stratus - Women's Title match - Wrestlemania 22 (2006)
Some pre-Total Divas women's action featuring the obsessive fan turned deranged lunatic, Mickie James challenging the Women's champ, Trish Stratus. Not as violent as the last female wrestling match I posted but still pretty heated for WWE standards... so, not very violent at all.
This match however does include this spot by Mickie James which is super not PG (or safe for work) and has since been cut out from the match if you watch it on The Network from what I've been told.
For weeks a guy named Montel Vontavious Porter appeared on Smackdown to boast that he was the greatest free agent on the planet. When he finally stepped into the squared circle at No Mercy, it was obvious this guy was just heeling it up. So, JBL on commentary did his best at giving the Most Valuable Troller as much criticism as humanly possibly. Granted MVP did come out through a blowup tunnel, had a blue bodysuit on and was cocky as all get out, I think the multiple comparisons to Power Rangers, Battlestar Galatica, and William Shatner (I honestly don't see that one) were a bit over the top. Still, it got MVP over as a guy fans could easily rip on for the rest of his tenure in WWE.
So, who was MVP's first (televised) opponent in WWE? Why it was Marty Garner, of course. Commentary might have forgotten who he was, but the internet has not. Marty Garner is that guy who took the craziest looking pedigree from Hunter Hearst Helmsley back in '96. Garner was also trained by The Hardy Boyz and one of the other guys from OMEGA, a promotion started by The Hardy's and their friends around North Carolina. Coincidentally, MVP would go on to have a rather amusing feud with Matt Hardy some time after this match which saw Hardy and Porter perform all sorts of challenges to see who was the better man. These challenges included a football throwing contest, an arm wrestling match, a pizza eating contest, and a beer drinking contest.
Ric Flair vs. Edge - TLC match for the WWE Championship - Raw (2006)
While maybe overlooked by wrestlers such as Shawn Michaels and The Hardy Boyz when it comes to who's who of ladder matches, Edge is definitely a pioneer of the ladder match in his own right. He was in the very first tag team ladder match, the first ever triangle ladder match, the first three TLC tag team matches, seen here in the first ever singles TLC match, participated and won the first ever Money in the Bank ladder match, and has (as of right now) been in more TLC matches than anyone else. Looking at it that way, Edge should definitely not be overlooked when it comes to ladders and wrestling. His opponent in this first ever TLC match for the WWE title on the other hand, had never been in a TLC match, let alone a ladder match. Edge's opponent was familiar with one thing in this match of firsts however, and that was championship gold... his opponent was the "Nature Boy" Ric Flair after all, a 16 time World Champion. And it was also Flair's home state of North Carolina.
This match between Edge and Ric Flair is a PPV quality match that replaced the death-defying spots that the tag team TLC matches were praised for with pure brutality. I almost forget this match is even a ladder match until at least 10 minutes in. Someone eventually climbs the ladder and retrieves the title, but who?
Fun fact: This is the only TLC match where someone blades... You'll never guess which one did that *Cough* Flair *Cough*.
"Mr. Instant Replay" Matt Jackson vs. "Slick" Nick Jackson - HPW Heavyweight title tournament first round match - Hybrid Pro Wrestling (2006)
Currently, the brother team of Nick and Matt Jackson AKA The Young Bucks are one of the top indie tag team darlings going today with their constant spots and superkicks. It wasn't too long ago that the brothers were just two kids inspired by The Hardy Boyz and The Rockers to put on exciting matches together. Here's a match between the two brothers from Southern California in their early days before making a name for themselves and touring the world. They are clearly very green here, but they show a lot of potential even without the multiple dives to the outside, flips for the sake of flips, and superkick after superkick.
This Jackson brother's match also features the now-retired Human Tornado providing color commentary.
Kishin Liger is the much darker and sadistic side of Jushin "Thunder" Liger. One could also argue that he is the KISS version of Jushin Liger, but don't let that fool you, this is not the Liger who wants to party all night. No, this is the Liger you definitely do not want to be crossing paths with. First appearing after The Great Muta ripped off his mask in 1996, The "Kishin" character only makes rare appearances when it is most fitting for revenge - such as this match featuring Bad Boy Hido ten years later. Hido, an ultraviolent specialist, thought it would be a wise move to chop some of Liger's hair off...
Let's just say Hido got what he had coming to him.
Horse the Band - Crippled By Pizza from Pizza (2006)
Today, on top of eating a good pound of pizza, I ate the worst pizza I have ever eaten. I'm not going to say who made it or where to find it, but let it be known that cold peanut butter and bacon pizza is a big no-no in my book.
May 19th may have been the release date for WWE's first film released by WWE Films that starred Kane as the slasher, Jacob Goodnight, but it was also a date that Kane never wanted to be reminded of ever again. What was so significant about May 19th? Why was it such a traumatic remembrance?
Clearly the date was enough for Kane to turn on his tag team partner, Big Show just for mentioning it. The attack on Big Show, which damaged his eye*, resulted in one of the most dominate teams to split and led to this match at Backlash.
As it turns out, May 19th was the day that Kane's brother, The Undertaker burned down the funeral home which killed his parents and left Kane permanently scarred! So, yeah... pretty heavy stuff.
Unfortunately, the voices in Kane's head did not stop after May 19th had passed that year and it was later revealed that the voices were of impostor masked Kane... an angle that was quickly dropped soon after Drew Hankinson (Festus/Luke Gallows) debuted with a god-awful wig on.
*Kane damaging Big Show's eye was also a little jab at the release of Kane's movie, See No Evil, clearly.
MNM (Joey Mercury & Johnny Nitro w/Melina) vs. Jon Moxley & Brad Taylor - Velocity (2006)
I've been watching the Best of the Indies series, Stories From the Streets: The Jon MoxleyStory by Smart Mark Video and thought I would look up this match mentioned early on in the interviews with Jon Moxley - a man now known as Dean Ambrose. The bout is Moxley's first dark match with the WWE where he tags with his fellow Heartland Wrestling Association wrestler, Brad Taylor (Brad Attitude). In the interview mentioned above, Moxley talks about how excited he was to get a chance to have a try-out match with the WWE and be where the big boys play. During the match you can plainly see just how amped up Moxley was for this little bit of spotlight. The tiniest, really.
All in all, it's not a bad match for what it is: a glorified preliminary match to make the champs at the time, MNM, look strong. But Moxley didn't care about that here at 19-20 years old and was just really in love with wrestling. Also in the interview, which was made pre-Shield/FCW (so, 2011), Moxley mentions that he has no plans of being with the WWE anytime soon.
Now he's already fought the Undertaker and pinned Randy Orton at Wrestlemania.
Bonus: You can pick up The Jon Moxley Story in DVD form from Smart Mark Video dot com. It's actually a three disc DVD that also features 14 Jon Moxley matches from CZW, IWA-MS, IPW, HWA, and wXw.
Abdullah Kobayashi vs. Kyoko Kimura - Intergender Lighttube Deathmatch - BJW (2006)
Think of this match as less of a wrestling match and more of a horror movie where you actually care about the girl who's being attack by the monster and actually has a chance of winning.
It's tough to watch at some parts, especially if you are not a big fan of the whole 'make sure to break as many lighttubes because it looks cooler' hardcore wrestling mentality, but it's not as tough to watch as an intergender match once you realize how stiff Kyoko Kimura normally works. I haven't watched a lot of Kimura's matches, but the ones I have she is either really nice and friendly or stomping on girls off the tops of balconies. No joke.
Cryme Tyme (Shad & JTG) vs. The Spirit Squad (Johnny & Mikey) - RAW (2006)
After the OVW male cheerleading team known as the Spirit Squad (remember those guys?) issue an open challenge for their tag team titles, the black parody team of Shad and JTG come out guns a blazin' as they debut on RAW in 2006.
While Cryme Tyme was supposed to be an openly stereotypical comedy troupe, they mostly made light of thug life and had the gimmick of stealing things from people. Despite the sound of all that, their gimmick was actually a lot better than the Spirit Squad, which was essentially just a way for WWE to try to get a few guys over from OVW (Ohio Valley Wrestling), WWE's training territory which is now TNA's training territory, to at least make it somewhat big. Of course, these young up-and-comers had to be male cheerleaders before they could become the likes of Kenny Dykstra (the chosen one who flopped) and Nicky (who waited this whole gimmick off before renaming himself, Dolph Ziggler). As for the rest of the team, they eventually got sent packing back to OVW (literally in a crate marked OVW via DX one Monday night).
As for Cryme Tyme though, they actually had somewhat of potential. I mean, at least they were a real tag team, not just two wrestlers put together and given a fan picked name i.e. Air Boom, Team Hell No, etc. They also had great size and a gimmick that, oh wait, PG era... never mind.
And yes, Cryme Tyme did wrestle with baggy jeans, "non-traditional wrestling boots", grills, and occasionally the bulletproof vests when necessary.
You never know when you'll run into New Jack in the hood... The hood known as pro wrestling.
This debut also features Johnny AKA Johnny Jeter, who mostly stayed in OVW after the departure of the Spirit Squad, and Mikey AKA Mike Mondo, who currently works for Ring of Honor.
Jerry "The King" Lawler vs. Gregory "don't call me The Hurricane anymore" Helms - WWE New Year's Revolution (2006)
I don't really remember the story behind this match.
It's at New Year's Revolution, though... so it's relevant.
A plus in this match is listening to Joey Styles on commentary. Unfortunately you have to also listen to Jonathan Coachman. Remember that guy? Listening to Gregory Helms commentate during his own match was more entertaining than that joker.
