One of my favorite songs and the last song that Silver Jews ever performed live.
Finals week is finished!
Showing posts with label Finals Week. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Finals Week. Show all posts
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Song of the Day - Smith & Jones Forever
Silver Jews - Smith & Jones Forever from American Water (1998)
One of my favorite songs and the last song that Silver Jews ever performed live.
One of my favorite songs and the last song that Silver Jews ever performed live.
Match of the Day - Last WCW match on the last Nitro ever!
Ric Flair vs. Sting - last Nitro main event - Monday Nitro (2001)
March 26, 2001: The Night of Champions, AKA the last Nitro of all time marked the end of an era and the dawn of WWF as the ultimate wrestling promotion. Vince had won the war and World Championship Wrestling had run its course. I guess it would only be fitting that the last match on the last Nitro, and the last WCW match (if you don't count the Buff Bagwell/Booker T "WCW" match on Raw) ever, be between the first man to be called the WCW World Heavyweight champion, Ric Flair, and the only big name wrestler to ever not jump ship to WWF, Sting!
Ric Flair versus Sting also just makes sense as the send-off match for Nitro. These two had gone toe-to-toe with each other countless of times including at the main event of the very first Clash of the Champions where they wrestled until the 45 minute time-limit. Flair and Sting even wrestled each other for the US Heavyweight title at the very first Nitro at the Mall of America right before the Hogan/Big Bubba Rogers main event less than six years prior. So yeah, perfect.
Anyways...
RIP WCW.
Theme Results:
Final match: Ric Flair in WCW, Sting in WCW, Nitro, and WCW.
March 26, 2001: The Night of Champions, AKA the last Nitro of all time marked the end of an era and the dawn of WWF as the ultimate wrestling promotion. Vince had won the war and World Championship Wrestling had run its course. I guess it would only be fitting that the last match on the last Nitro, and the last WCW match (if you don't count the Buff Bagwell/Booker T "WCW" match on Raw) ever, be between the first man to be called the WCW World Heavyweight champion, Ric Flair, and the only big name wrestler to ever not jump ship to WWF, Sting!
Ric Flair versus Sting also just makes sense as the send-off match for Nitro. These two had gone toe-to-toe with each other countless of times including at the main event of the very first Clash of the Champions where they wrestled until the 45 minute time-limit. Flair and Sting even wrestled each other for the US Heavyweight title at the very first Nitro at the Mall of America right before the Hogan/Big Bubba Rogers main event less than six years prior. So yeah, perfect.
Anyways...
RIP WCW.
Theme Results:
Final match: Ric Flair in WCW, Sting in WCW, Nitro, and WCW.
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Match of the Day - Brian Pillman faces his fellow comrade in his last match on Raw
Brian Pillman vs. Owen Hart - Intercontinental title tournament semi finals match - Raw is War (1997)
The Loose Cannon takes on his friend and fellow Hart Foundation comrade, Owen Hart in what would become his last televised match. The match was a semi finals tournament match for the vacant Intercontinental title against the two - who had both won their opening match of the tournament, but Pillman had other plans as he did not want to fight his friend, Owen. So, Pillman came out with a sling on and informed the crowd that he had slipped in the shower and broke his arm while doing non-PG things with Goldust's wife, Marlena (Terri Runnels).
Commissioner Slaughter, however, didn't buy the whole arm injury excuse and forced the two Stampede Wrestling alum to fight it out regardless of their partnership in the Hart Foundation.
Around this time, Brian Pillman was in a heated feud with Goldust, who had beat him at Summerslam with the special stipulation that Pillman had to wear one of Marlena's gold dresses if he lost. Pillman eventually got his revenge on Goldust at In Your House: Ground Zero when the Loose Cannon defeated Goldust to win the services of Marlena for thirty days. This was day 16.
Brian Pillman's next match on WWF TV was scheduled to be against Dude Love at In Your House: Bad Blood, but Pillman did not make it to the event. It was later revealed that Pillman had passed away from an unknown heart condition that day.
Owen Hart would go on to win the Intercontinental title tournament when he defeating Faarooq in the finals at Bad Blood that night.
Theme Results:
Final match: Owen Hart
The Loose Cannon takes on his friend and fellow Hart Foundation comrade, Owen Hart in what would become his last televised match. The match was a semi finals tournament match for the vacant Intercontinental title against the two - who had both won their opening match of the tournament, but Pillman had other plans as he did not want to fight his friend, Owen. So, Pillman came out with a sling on and informed the crowd that he had slipped in the shower and broke his arm while doing non-PG things with Goldust's wife, Marlena (Terri Runnels).
Commissioner Slaughter, however, didn't buy the whole arm injury excuse and forced the two Stampede Wrestling alum to fight it out regardless of their partnership in the Hart Foundation.
Around this time, Brian Pillman was in a heated feud with Goldust, who had beat him at Summerslam with the special stipulation that Pillman had to wear one of Marlena's gold dresses if he lost. Pillman eventually got his revenge on Goldust at In Your House: Ground Zero when the Loose Cannon defeated Goldust to win the services of Marlena for thirty days. This was day 16.
Brian Pillman's next match on WWF TV was scheduled to be against Dude Love at In Your House: Bad Blood, but Pillman did not make it to the event. It was later revealed that Pillman had passed away from an unknown heart condition that day.
Owen Hart would go on to win the Intercontinental title tournament when he defeating Faarooq in the finals at Bad Blood that night.
Theme Results:
Final match: Owen Hart
Friday, May 3, 2013
Match of the Day - Mean Mark gets an 8.2 on the slam-o-meter + Robocop gets his own dressing room
Mean Mark w/ Theodore R. Long vs. Johnny Ace - NWA/WCW Capital Combat: The Return of Robocop (1990)
Who knew that all three of these men would still be around and even employed by WWE in the year 2012? Two of whom would have their own separate teams in a Survivor Series-style elimination match at WrestleMania XXVIII while the other would win his 30th WrestleMania match, the longest streak of its kind in WWE!
Who knew that Mark (pre-Undertaker) Calaway would be the last person to face Johnny Ace, AKA "Senior Vice President of Talent Operations" John Laurinaitis, in a televised match in WCW? A bout that may have also been Johnny's last televised match ever in the US as, soon after leaving WCW, he went of to wrestle and fine tune his "skills" in Japan with AJPW until his in-ring retirement in 2000.
Johnny Ace would later return to WCW after retiring, but just as a backstage figure with his real name, John Laurinaitis. Laurinaitis would eventually replace Vince Russo and be the head booker for WCW until its demise in 2001.
... And the rest is history.
This match is taken from the Capital Combat WCW PPV that revolved around Robocop saving Sting from the Four Horseman in promotion for Robocop 2 and then disappearing into wrestling folklore. Maybe Robocop will make a return in TNA this year or the next to help rescue Sting from the Aces & Eights to promote the new Robocop remake.
The match also features great use of the Slam-O-Meter, a very scientific metering system that WCW invented to calibrate and calculate the impact of a slam. Mean Mark earned himself an 8.2 on the Slam-O-Meter with his tight-rope elbow drop to end the match and send Johnny packing...
Theme Results:
Final match: Johnny Ace's final televised match in WCW and possibly in the US.
Who knew that all three of these men would still be around and even employed by WWE in the year 2012? Two of whom would have their own separate teams in a Survivor Series-style elimination match at WrestleMania XXVIII while the other would win his 30th WrestleMania match, the longest streak of its kind in WWE!
Who knew that Mark (pre-Undertaker) Calaway would be the last person to face Johnny Ace, AKA "Senior Vice President of Talent Operations" John Laurinaitis, in a televised match in WCW? A bout that may have also been Johnny's last televised match ever in the US as, soon after leaving WCW, he went of to wrestle and fine tune his "skills" in Japan with AJPW until his in-ring retirement in 2000.
Johnny Ace would later return to WCW after retiring, but just as a backstage figure with his real name, John Laurinaitis. Laurinaitis would eventually replace Vince Russo and be the head booker for WCW until its demise in 2001.
... And the rest is history.
This match is taken from the Capital Combat WCW PPV that revolved around Robocop saving Sting from the Four Horseman in promotion for Robocop 2 and then disappearing into wrestling folklore. Maybe Robocop will make a return in TNA this year or the next to help rescue Sting from the Aces & Eights to promote the new Robocop remake.
The match also features great use of the Slam-O-Meter, a very scientific metering system that WCW invented to calibrate and calculate the impact of a slam. Mean Mark earned himself an 8.2 on the Slam-O-Meter with his tight-rope elbow drop to end the match and send Johnny packing...
Theme Results:
Final match: Johnny Ace's final televised match in WCW and possibly in the US.
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Match of the Day - RVD van-terminates almost every midcard title in 2002!
Speaking of hardcore Intercontinental Championship matches:
Rob Van Dam (c) vs. Tommy Dreamer (c) - Intercontinental title match/last Hardcore title match - Raw (2002)
In 2002, RVD made (little known) history when he unified the European title with the Intercontinental title after defeating Jeff Hardy (Euro champ) and then faced Hardcore champion Tommy Dreamer in a hardcore unification match a little under a month later. Rob Van Dam with his IC title was pretty much the go-to guy for defuncting a midcard title back then. Maybe if Rob returned to WWE today he could win the IC title and unify it with the US title since, like the Hardcore and European title in 2002, the US title serves zero purposes anymore.
Theme Results:
Final match: final Hardcore title match.
Rob Van Dam (c) vs. Tommy Dreamer (c) - Intercontinental title match/last Hardcore title match - Raw (2002)
In 2002, RVD made (little known) history when he unified the European title with the Intercontinental title after defeating Jeff Hardy (Euro champ) and then faced Hardcore champion Tommy Dreamer in a hardcore unification match a little under a month later. Rob Van Dam with his IC title was pretty much the go-to guy for defuncting a midcard title back then. Maybe if Rob returned to WWE today he could win the IC title and unify it with the US title since, like the Hardcore and European title in 2002, the US title serves zero purposes anymore.
Theme Results:
Final match: final Hardcore title match.
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Match of the Day - Jeff Jarrett teaches Chyna how to be a woman in his last match ever in WWF
Hardcore Wednesday:
Jeff Jarrett (c) vs. Chyna - Good Housekeeping match for the Intercontinental title - No Mercy (1999)
In order to prove that Chyna was really a woman, Jeff Jarrett issued a special challenge to the "Ninth Wonder in the World" to put her female skills to the test. The challenge: a Good Housekeeping match. What exactly is a Good Housekeeping match, you ask? Clearly it is a match filled with any sort of object that could be found in the house that women might use. So yep, Jeff Jarrett tried to beat Chyna with everything... including the kitchen sink.
This match is pretty significant not only because it was the first ever match featuring a man and a woman fighting each other with household objects and no one got arrested for domestic abuse on PPV, it was also significant because it was the last WWF/E match for Jeff Jarrett (who was wrestling without a contract and technically wasn't a WWF superstar) and was also the first time that a female wrestle, yep Chyna, won the Intercontinental title or any other title that wasn't in a female division in the WWF/E!
Now, this Good Housekeeping match might sound a little ridiculous and the last hurrah of Vince Russo (who was also leaving for WCW at the time) on paper, but from the looks of the promo shown before the match, this was seemingly one of the better and more well put together rivalries of late-1999. Even if this match revolved around Jarrett trying to hit Chyna with "every household appliance known to woman".
While Jeff Jarrett has yet to step in a WWF/E ring since this match, he did have a run in with Chyna again a couple years back when Kurt Angle brought her out as his "mistress" tag team partner against Jarrett and Angle's former wife, Karen. However, this was after Chyna stopped wrestling and started doing porn instead. So...
Thanks TNA.
Theme results:
Final match: Jeff Jarrett in WWF/E
PS: There were so many jokes for this match and I just couldn't write them all down. My apologies.
Jeff Jarrett (c) vs. Chyna - Good Housekeeping match for the Intercontinental title - No Mercy (1999)
In order to prove that Chyna was really a woman, Jeff Jarrett issued a special challenge to the "Ninth Wonder in the World" to put her female skills to the test. The challenge: a Good Housekeeping match. What exactly is a Good Housekeeping match, you ask? Clearly it is a match filled with any sort of object that could be found in the house that women might use. So yep, Jeff Jarrett tried to beat Chyna with everything... including the kitchen sink.
This match is pretty significant not only because it was the first ever match featuring a man and a woman fighting each other with household objects and no one got arrested for domestic abuse on PPV, it was also significant because it was the last WWF/E match for Jeff Jarrett (who was wrestling without a contract and technically wasn't a WWF superstar) and was also the first time that a female wrestle, yep Chyna, won the Intercontinental title or any other title that wasn't in a female division in the WWF/E!
Now, this Good Housekeeping match might sound a little ridiculous and the last hurrah of Vince Russo (who was also leaving for WCW at the time) on paper, but from the looks of the promo shown before the match, this was seemingly one of the better and more well put together rivalries of late-1999. Even if this match revolved around Jarrett trying to hit Chyna with "every household appliance known to woman".
While Jeff Jarrett has yet to step in a WWF/E ring since this match, he did have a run in with Chyna again a couple years back when Kurt Angle brought her out as his "mistress" tag team partner against Jarrett and Angle's former wife, Karen. However, this was after Chyna stopped wrestling and started doing porn instead. So...
Thanks TNA.
Theme results:
Final match: Jeff Jarrett in WWF/E
PS: There were so many jokes for this match and I just couldn't write them all down. My apologies.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Match of the Day - Eddie Guerrero's final match
Eddie Guerrero vs. Mr Kennedy - Smackdown! (2005)
This is Eddie Guerrero's last match which aired three days before his death on my birthday, November 13th, 2005. Unknowingly to anyone, Guerrero would wrestle his swan song against Mr. Ken Kennedy where the Latino Heat pulled off his classic "lie, cheat, and steal" diversions to pick up his last win.
I'm not going to dwell on the whole Rey Myserio main event push because of Eddie dying storyline that transpired sometime after the news got out, but I will say that I am mighty glad that they dropped that terrible "I'm Dominick's real father, Rey" storyline and turned Eddie back into a crowd favorite before it was too late and things ended on a sour note. It is a shame that Eddie's life had to come to an abrupt end so soon after recovering from his real-life demons none-the-less.
Theme results:
Final match: Eddie Guerrero. RIP.
This is Eddie Guerrero's last match which aired three days before his death on my birthday, November 13th, 2005. Unknowingly to anyone, Guerrero would wrestle his swan song against Mr. Ken Kennedy where the Latino Heat pulled off his classic "lie, cheat, and steal" diversions to pick up his last win.
I'm not going to dwell on the whole Rey Myserio main event push because of Eddie dying storyline that transpired sometime after the news got out, but I will say that I am mighty glad that they dropped that terrible "I'm Dominick's real father, Rey" storyline and turned Eddie back into a crowd favorite before it was too late and things ended on a sour note. It is a shame that Eddie's life had to come to an abrupt end so soon after recovering from his real-life demons none-the-less.
Theme results:
Final match: Eddie Guerrero. RIP.
Monday, April 29, 2013
Match of the Debut - Mordecai's in-ring debut, PPV debut, and final match!
Mordecai vs. Scotty 2 Hotty - Judgement Day (2004)
With a cross between Gangrel and The Undertaker, Mordecai looked like the second coming. But not even the "higher powers" that this mysterious man in white followed could help him get his foot in the WWE door in 2004.
Turns out the man who believed in cleansing yourself of all sins had a little trouble doing so for himself and ended up getting into a real-life fight outside of the ring - which led the WWE to pull the plug on the Mordecai character by sending him back to OVW. Mordecai was only seen about two times. This match against Scotty 2 Hotty was his first and only official PPV or televised event.
At least he had a pure streak.
The man behind Mordecai would eventually resurface in the WWE as Kevin Thorn, a vampire who wrestled for the ECW Brand. Thorn found better luck with this gimmick, but the vampire warrior never really got over as well as previous vampires like Gangrel (who he was rumored to start a new Brood with). Thorn was eventually released from WWE again in 2007.
Theme results:
Final match: the character named Mordecai.
With a cross between Gangrel and The Undertaker, Mordecai looked like the second coming. But not even the "higher powers" that this mysterious man in white followed could help him get his foot in the WWE door in 2004.
Turns out the man who believed in cleansing yourself of all sins had a little trouble doing so for himself and ended up getting into a real-life fight outside of the ring - which led the WWE to pull the plug on the Mordecai character by sending him back to OVW. Mordecai was only seen about two times. This match against Scotty 2 Hotty was his first and only official PPV or televised event.
At least he had a pure streak.
The man behind Mordecai would eventually resurface in the WWE as Kevin Thorn, a vampire who wrestled for the ECW Brand. Thorn found better luck with this gimmick, but the vampire warrior never really got over as well as previous vampires like Gangrel (who he was rumored to start a new Brood with). Thorn was eventually released from WWE again in 2007.
Theme results:
Final match: the character named Mordecai.
Theme Week - Finals Week
Theme week is coming early this month since it's finals week. I know, I know, it's supposed to be a busy week. But all this studying and cramming gets me inspired to do stuff I like to do when I have a little free time.
So, in honor of school being over and summer right around the corner, this week's theme will be all things final matches... From the final matches of a wrestler's career, to the final match of a wrestler's life, to a company's final match, to a particular wrestlers last match in a company, to a tournament final, etc.
Let the real finals begin.
So, in honor of school being over and summer right around the corner, this week's theme will be all things final matches... From the final matches of a wrestler's career, to the final match of a wrestler's life, to a company's final match, to a particular wrestlers last match in a company, to a tournament final, etc.
Let the real finals begin.
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