YOU better call somebody; because it happened. Before the New Age Outlaws where crotch-chopping their way to 5 tag team championships, plus the one they got almost 14 years later this weekend, they were just two guys with actual outlaw-like gimmicks. It might sound cool at first, but when I say "outlaw", I really just mean "cowboy" and there was also some Honky Tonk Man, country bumpkin nonsense to it, too. While The Rockabilly (that was pre-Ass Man/Mr. Ass/Bad Ass Billy Gunn), and Jesse James (previously The Roadie/Double J and Pre-Road Dogg) made an appearance here together under the guidance of the Honky Tonk Man himself, this team was not yet assembled on the main show, Monday Night Raw. No, it wasn't until a few weeks after this match (featuring two halves of the Puerto Rican gang, Los Boricuas) that The Rockabilly and Jesse James would be seen again, this time cracking HTM's skull with his own guitar.
Showing posts with label tag team match. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tag team match. Show all posts
Monday, January 27, 2014
Match of the Day - Oh you didn't know? Team Rockabilly & Jesse James?
The Rockabilly & Jesse James vs. Los Boricuas (Jesus Castillo & Jose Estrada, Jr.) - Shotgun Saturday Night (1997)
Monday, January 20, 2014
Match of the Debut - Batista... Deacon Batista.
Reverend D-von & Deacon Batista vs. Randy Orton & Faarooq - Smackdown (2002)
Obligatory debut match of the day for the returning Batista.
Obligatory debut match of the day for the returning Batista.
While this wasn't the first time that a man named "Deacon Batista" was seen carrying around a donation box for D-Von Dudley's Reverend alter-ego, this was the first time that this large individual actually stepped into the ring and had a match on Smackdown.
It just so happens that one of the competitors on the other side of the ring would eventually accompany Batista into a much bigger role in the WWE with the forming of the modern-day Four Horsemen stable, Evolution. That individual would be Randy Orton. He's apparently a champion or something right now but I couldn't tell you because I always fall asleep when he's on TV.
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Match of the Day - The American Dragon tours FMW w/ Lance Cade in 1999
American Dragon & Lance Cade vs. Hisakatsu Oya & Yoshinori Sasaki - FMW (1999)
Here's a rare match, it's American Dragon, mask and all, along with his tag team partner also from the states, Lance Cade taking on Frontier Wrestling Alliance's Hisakatsu Oya and Yoshinori Sasaki. It's a bit slow, but it pays off once you realize that that guy in the silly dragon mask is now over as rover in WWE currently. Damn right, that's because that kid in the red, white, and blue costume is Daniel Bryan, the Goatface Killah of WWE.
Unfortunately Lance Cade, who did happen to move onto WWE and become a three-time World Tag Team Champion, passed away in 2010 due to heart failure.
Fun Fact #654: In 2012 Daniel Bryan was awarded the "Most Animal-Friendly Athlete" award, and was honored in his town as they announced that January 13th would be renamed, "Daniel Bryan Day". Yesterday was definitely Daniel Bryan Day!
Two rookies from Texas Wrestling Academy taking a tour of Japan in 1999.
Here's a rare match, it's American Dragon, mask and all, along with his tag team partner also from the states, Lance Cade taking on Frontier Wrestling Alliance's Hisakatsu Oya and Yoshinori Sasaki. It's a bit slow, but it pays off once you realize that that guy in the silly dragon mask is now over as rover in WWE currently. Damn right, that's because that kid in the red, white, and blue costume is Daniel Bryan, the Goatface Killah of WWE.
Unfortunately Lance Cade, who did happen to move onto WWE and become a three-time World Tag Team Champion, passed away in 2010 due to heart failure.
Fun Fact #654: In 2012 Daniel Bryan was awarded the "Most Animal-Friendly Athlete" award, and was honored in his town as they announced that January 13th would be renamed, "Daniel Bryan Day". Yesterday was definitely Daniel Bryan Day!
Monday, November 18, 2013
Match of the Debut - Truth & Consequences, Team Pacman
Ron "The Truth" Killings & Rasheed Lucius "Consequences" Creed (w/Pacman Jones) vs. AJ Styles & Tomko - TNA Tag Team titles match - TNA Bound For Glory (2007)
If there's one year of TNA that I actually watched and forgot about, it's 2007. I guess that's why I thought it was mighty odd that people were saying that Consequences Creed, now Xavier Woods, had already teamed up with R-Truth before the debut of Woods on Raw tonight. As it turns out, before Lethal Consequences (Creed's tag team with Jay Lethal that I do remember), Consequences Creed was the guy added to the team of Ron Killings and... yep, you guessed it, Adam "Pacman" Jones of American football shenanigans fame in TNA in 2007. Since Pacman Jones was technically still under contract with the NFL (he just happened to be suspended at this time), Pacman was not actually allowed to wrestle, which doesn't sound that bad except for the important and incredibly inane fact that he was one half of the TNA tag champions. I'm not going to say this was a poor decision by TNA; putting the title on someone who has never wrestled and happened to be the bad boy of football that week is nothing new. Titles with more prestige have been put on worse nobodies, but here Pacman wasn't even allowed to wrestle. That's where Consequences Creed came in, however, and thanks to Pacman in a way, Creed made a big enough impact in this match to be called back and eventually had a pretty solid run in TNA until 2010.
So here's to the silver-lining of Team Pacman in TNA circa 2007. Here's to Xavier Woods hopefully getting to stay on the main roster for good.
I should also point out that Pacman returned to TNA two weeks ago. Maybe WWE saw this and remembered Team Pacman for the first time since 2007 as well, and remembered that they have the better halves.
If there's one year of TNA that I actually watched and forgot about, it's 2007. I guess that's why I thought it was mighty odd that people were saying that Consequences Creed, now Xavier Woods, had already teamed up with R-Truth before the debut of Woods on Raw tonight. As it turns out, before Lethal Consequences (Creed's tag team with Jay Lethal that I do remember), Consequences Creed was the guy added to the team of Ron Killings and... yep, you guessed it, Adam "Pacman" Jones of American football shenanigans fame in TNA in 2007. Since Pacman Jones was technically still under contract with the NFL (he just happened to be suspended at this time), Pacman was not actually allowed to wrestle, which doesn't sound that bad except for the important and incredibly inane fact that he was one half of the TNA tag champions. I'm not going to say this was a poor decision by TNA; putting the title on someone who has never wrestled and happened to be the bad boy of football that week is nothing new. Titles with more prestige have been put on worse nobodies, but here Pacman wasn't even allowed to wrestle. That's where Consequences Creed came in, however, and thanks to Pacman in a way, Creed made a big enough impact in this match to be called back and eventually had a pretty solid run in TNA until 2010.
So here's to the silver-lining of Team Pacman in TNA circa 2007. Here's to Xavier Woods hopefully getting to stay on the main roster for good.
I should also point out that Pacman returned to TNA two weeks ago. Maybe WWE saw this and remembered Team Pacman for the first time since 2007 as well, and remembered that they have the better halves.
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Match of the Day - The unmasking of Tiger Mask II!
Tiger Mask II & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Yoshiaki Yatsu & Samson Fuyuki - AJPW (1990)
I was doing a little research on the Tiger Mask character and I came across this gem of a match. It features Tiger Mask II teaming with Toshiaki Kawada against Kawada's former tag team partner, Samson Fuyuki (AKA Ricky or Kudo Fuyuki) and Yoshiaki Yatsu. During the match, Tiger Mask II responds to Fuyuki and Yatsu's strikes and constant headbutts by firing back a more aggressive arsenal on Yatsu, which is followed by Tiger Mask instructing Kawada to remove his mask. The removal of the tiger mask revealed the of face of Mitsuharu Misawa, who then went full-on assault mode on Yatsu, leading to the two men spilling out onto the floor and almost brawling into the crowd!
While the crowd quickly recognized Misawa, who had been under the tiger mask for almost 6 years, Misawa was not the icon of Japanese wrestling that we think of today. Thanks to this match and the unveiling of the tiger mask however, Misawa would go on to shine as one of the greatest wrestlers in Japan with dozens of championships under his belt, multiply matches of the year, and over twenty legitimate 5 star matches.
As for the Tiger Mask legacy, the rights to the character (based of the character from the Manga series) would be picked up by New Japan Pro Wrestling and given to Koji Kanemoto in 1992.
I was doing a little research on the Tiger Mask character and I came across this gem of a match. It features Tiger Mask II teaming with Toshiaki Kawada against Kawada's former tag team partner, Samson Fuyuki (AKA Ricky or Kudo Fuyuki) and Yoshiaki Yatsu. During the match, Tiger Mask II responds to Fuyuki and Yatsu's strikes and constant headbutts by firing back a more aggressive arsenal on Yatsu, which is followed by Tiger Mask instructing Kawada to remove his mask. The removal of the tiger mask revealed the of face of Mitsuharu Misawa, who then went full-on assault mode on Yatsu, leading to the two men spilling out onto the floor and almost brawling into the crowd!
While the crowd quickly recognized Misawa, who had been under the tiger mask for almost 6 years, Misawa was not the icon of Japanese wrestling that we think of today. Thanks to this match and the unveiling of the tiger mask however, Misawa would go on to shine as one of the greatest wrestlers in Japan with dozens of championships under his belt, multiply matches of the year, and over twenty legitimate 5 star matches.
As for the Tiger Mask legacy, the rights to the character (based of the character from the Manga series) would be picked up by New Japan Pro Wrestling and given to Koji Kanemoto in 1992.
Monday, October 21, 2013
Match of the Debut - AJ Styles' debut, TNA's debut show, and TNA's debut match!
AJ Styles, Jerry Lynn, & Low Ki vs. The Flying Elvises (Jorge Estrada, Sonny Siaki, & Jimmy Yang) - first TNA match on the very first TNA show - NWA: TNA PPV (2002)
While technically this is everyone involved's debut match in TNA, since it was TNA's first match seen on the very first TNA show via Pay Per View, AJ Styles won the TNA world title last night and therefore gets the recognition above as part of new champ Debut Monday tradition.
Anyways, here's the genesis of the X division showing what they got to the Nashville crowd and the NWA legends in the back... and whomever heard about TNA and bought the PPV in 2002.
Over 10 years later and AJ Styles is still the future of the company. At least he's the top face again, for now.
Also, The Flying Elvises, the team of Sonny Siaki, Jorge Estrada, and Jimmy Yang (Later known as Akio or Jimmy Wayne Yang in WWE) are not to confused with the skydiving Elvis look-a-likes who jumped out of the airplane with Nic Cage in Honeymoon in Vegas. Being that early TNA had a lot of leftover WCW talent that didn't get picked up by Vinnie Mac, it's no surprise that they would have a Nic Cage gimmick on their program!
While technically this is everyone involved's debut match in TNA, since it was TNA's first match seen on the very first TNA show via Pay Per View, AJ Styles won the TNA world title last night and therefore gets the recognition above as part of new champ Debut Monday tradition.
Anyways, here's the genesis of the X division showing what they got to the Nashville crowd and the NWA legends in the back... and whomever heard about TNA and bought the PPV in 2002.
Over 10 years later and AJ Styles is still the future of the company. At least he's the top face again, for now.
Also, The Flying Elvises, the team of Sonny Siaki, Jorge Estrada, and Jimmy Yang (Later known as Akio or Jimmy Wayne Yang in WWE) are not to confused with the skydiving Elvis look-a-likes who jumped out of the airplane with Nic Cage in Honeymoon in Vegas. Being that early TNA had a lot of leftover WCW talent that didn't get picked up by Vinnie Mac, it's no surprise that they would have a Nic Cage gimmick on their program!
Monday, September 9, 2013
Match of the Debut - Forgotten 90's tag team number 101: The Blackhearts
The Blackhearts vs. Dave Hart & Mike Winner - WCW Saturday Night (1993)
The Blackhearts were a mysterious team to say the least. You may notice that these guys look a lot like another forgettable character that only appeared maybe once or twice in the 90's - The Black Phantom. If you did notice this, I'm really impressed and as it turns out, you would be correct - at least with one of them. See, The Blackhearts were a team made up of Tom Nash and David Heath AKA The Black Phantom AKA Gangrel. I have no idea who's who, but apparently Heath was called Apocalypse and Nash was Destruction. Of course, Jesse Ventura had no idea what their names were here during their debut on WCW television, so they were just referred to as Blackheart #1 and #2.
As legend has it, The Blackhearts, who started in Stampede Wrestling, were the bastard sons of Stu Hart. As for the screeching and weird hand gestures they would do, well, that's all apart of the mystery that was The Blackhearts.
Enjoy.
The Blackhearts were a mysterious team to say the least. You may notice that these guys look a lot like another forgettable character that only appeared maybe once or twice in the 90's - The Black Phantom. If you did notice this, I'm really impressed and as it turns out, you would be correct - at least with one of them. See, The Blackhearts were a team made up of Tom Nash and David Heath AKA The Black Phantom AKA Gangrel. I have no idea who's who, but apparently Heath was called Apocalypse and Nash was Destruction. Of course, Jesse Ventura had no idea what their names were here during their debut on WCW television, so they were just referred to as Blackheart #1 and #2.
As legend has it, The Blackhearts, who started in Stampede Wrestling, were the bastard sons of Stu Hart. As for the screeching and weird hand gestures they would do, well, that's all apart of the mystery that was The Blackhearts.
Enjoy.
Friday, September 6, 2013
Match of the Day - The Legion of Doom return for the last time
Speaking of Warrior returns...
Rob Van Dam & Kane vs. The Road Warriors (Hawk & Animal) - World Tag Team titles match - Raw (2003)
Eric Bischoff decides to "raise the bar" on Raw in 2003 by bringing in one of the greatest tag teams of all time - The Road Warriors (referred to as the Legion of Doom in WWF/E) - to face the tag champs at the time, RVD and Kane for one night only.
Unfortunately, this match would not only be LOD's last return match to WWE, but also Hawk and Animal's last Televised match as a team. Hawk passed away after years of battle with his personal demons and alcohol addiction a few months later.
But yes, they did looked a lot better than that last Ultimate Warrior return we just saw.
Rob Van Dam & Kane vs. The Road Warriors (Hawk & Animal) - World Tag Team titles match - Raw (2003)
Eric Bischoff decides to "raise the bar" on Raw in 2003 by bringing in one of the greatest tag teams of all time - The Road Warriors (referred to as the Legion of Doom in WWF/E) - to face the tag champs at the time, RVD and Kane for one night only.
Unfortunately, this match would not only be LOD's last return match to WWE, but also Hawk and Animal's last Televised match as a team. Hawk passed away after years of battle with his personal demons and alcohol addiction a few months later.
But yes, they did looked a lot better than that last Ultimate Warrior return we just saw.
Friday, August 30, 2013
Match of the Day - Who's the real Midnight Express?!?
The Midnight Express w/Jim Cornette vs. The "Original" Midnight Express w/Paul E. Dangerously - NWA Main Event (1989)
After Paul E. Dangerously brought in the original Midnight Express team of Dennis Condrey and Randy Rose to Jim Crockett Promotions, it was only appropriate that they would go after the newly turned babyface team of Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane, AKA the current Midnight Express at the time. The feud quickly became a heated battle of who is the best Midnight Express pairing - the original or the current.
Unfortunately, due to Dennis Condrey's departure from JCP in the midst of this feud, the battle of who's the real Midnight Express just fizzled out rather than ending with a bang. Still, there's always this match from Main Event that best portrays the feud that really could have been momentous!
After Paul E. Dangerously brought in the original Midnight Express team of Dennis Condrey and Randy Rose to Jim Crockett Promotions, it was only appropriate that they would go after the newly turned babyface team of Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane, AKA the current Midnight Express at the time. The feud quickly became a heated battle of who is the best Midnight Express pairing - the original or the current.
Unfortunately, due to Dennis Condrey's departure from JCP in the midst of this feud, the battle of who's the real Midnight Express just fizzled out rather than ending with a bang. Still, there's always this match from Main Event that best portrays the feud that really could have been momentous!
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Match of the Day - A very excited Jon Moxley takes on MNM in his first WWE dark match
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 Moxley Story 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.
I've been watching the Best of the Indies series, Stories From the Streets: The Jon Moxley Story 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.
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Match of the Day - RIP Reid Flair
Reid Flair & Keiji Muto vs. Seiya Sanada & Tatsumi Fujinami - New Year Shining Series - AJPW (2013)
Here is young Reid Flair in a tag match with Keiji Muto against Seiya Sanada & Tatsumi Fujinami at a jammed packed AJPW event from January. Reid had just got back from his tour of Japan and was ready to work some indy shows when he was found dead in his hotel on Friday.
Such a shame to lose someone so young regardless of their personal demons.
Here is young Reid Flair in a tag match with Keiji Muto against Seiya Sanada & Tatsumi Fujinami at a jammed packed AJPW event from January. Reid had just got back from his tour of Japan and was ready to work some indy shows when he was found dead in his hotel on Friday.
Such a shame to lose someone so young regardless of their personal demons.
Monday, March 18, 2013
Match of the Day - DX take on The Oddities w/The Inane Clown Posse
D-Generation X (Billy Gunn, Road Dogg, & X-Pac) vs. The Oddities (Kurrgan, Golga, & Giant Silva) - Raw is War (1998)
I know, I know, ICP again? Well, at least they're not wresting this time. Wouldn't that be something, though?
Psych! It would be awful.
I know, I know, ICP again? Well, at least they're not wresting this time. Wouldn't that be something, though?
Psych! It would be awful.
I'm not going to lie, The Oddities, consisting of Kurrgan (the really big guy that fought Sherlock Holmes in the first RD Jr. series), Giant Silva (the 90's Great Khali if Great Khali could wrestle even a little), and Golga (a smaller John "Earthquake" Tenta under a gold mask and a love for Cartman) along with D-Generation X had my favorite entrance music of this time. I was young...
Not too long after this, Shaggy and Scoob... I mean... Violent J, would turn their backs on The Oddities and side with an even more off-color team, The Headbangers (Mosh & Thrasher).
Monday, February 18, 2013
Match of the Debut - Tekno Team 2000
Tekno Team 2000 vs. two jobbers in short-short jean shorts - WWF Monday Night Raw (1995)
Raw Debut:
Unlike my favorite 80's tag team from the year 2002, New Breed, The futuristic team of Troy and Travis, Team Tekno 2000 where definitely meant for their time. Not meant for any time for that matter.
The way I look at it, the team of Erik Watts and Chad Fortune weren't bad because they were from the future, the future being five years away, they were bad because they just didn't make sense. They weren't giving quirky speeches about riding on their future scooters or Dusty Rhodes being president in five years; they were just two guys, one being the son of Bill Watts and an already somewhat known wrestler, who had another random gimmick and didn't do anything with it. I mean, what was their story? Why did they come back to the past to wrestle the worst tag teams WWF could whip up? Were they trying to sell techno music to kids because techno music was huge in 2000? Clearly not because they spelled it wrong. Were they trying to tell us all the cool things computers can do other than porn and how it all didn't blow up once 2000 hit? Not even that! All this questioning really makes me wonder if they were even from the year 2000.
If only they were really from the future, then we would have had a wrestle who once had somewhat of potential but never went anywhere, Erik Watts, and a monster truck driver, Chad Fortune. Yep, Chad Fortune is now a monster truck driver... a superhero monster truck driver! Now that's a gimmick for you!
Chad Fortune currently drives the Captain America Monster Truck. He previously drove the Superman truck as well.
Erik Watts's only claim to fame these days is that he is still alive.
Raw Debut:
Unlike my favorite 80's tag team from the year 2002, New Breed, The futuristic team of Troy and Travis, Team Tekno 2000 where definitely meant for their time. Not meant for any time for that matter.
The way I look at it, the team of Erik Watts and Chad Fortune weren't bad because they were from the future, the future being five years away, they were bad because they just didn't make sense. They weren't giving quirky speeches about riding on their future scooters or Dusty Rhodes being president in five years; they were just two guys, one being the son of Bill Watts and an already somewhat known wrestler, who had another random gimmick and didn't do anything with it. I mean, what was their story? Why did they come back to the past to wrestle the worst tag teams WWF could whip up? Were they trying to sell techno music to kids because techno music was huge in 2000? Clearly not because they spelled it wrong. Were they trying to tell us all the cool things computers can do other than porn and how it all didn't blow up once 2000 hit? Not even that! All this questioning really makes me wonder if they were even from the year 2000.
If only they were really from the future, then we would have had a wrestle who once had somewhat of potential but never went anywhere, Erik Watts, and a monster truck driver, Chad Fortune. Yep, Chad Fortune is now a monster truck driver... a superhero monster truck driver! Now that's a gimmick for you!
Chad Fortune currently drives the Captain America Monster Truck. He previously drove the Superman truck as well.
Erik Watts's only claim to fame these days is that he is still alive.
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Match of the Day - Masked Team of Snow/Credible take on Heel 1-2-3 Kid and Sid
Avatar & Aldo Montoya vs. 1-2-3 Kid & Sid - WWF Superstars (1996)
For the first time ever, The Portuguese Man O' War, Aldo Montoya - later Justin Credible - teams up with Avatar, the first airbender - later Al Snow - against The Money Corporation's freshly turned heel, 1-2-3 Kid and not so psych, vicious or justice, Sid.
Both Al Snow and Justin Credible (PJ Polaco) would have very unsuccessful gimmicks at this time in their career which led them to seek success in ECW. Why didn't their masked characters work out, you ask? Let's just say that while The Portuguese Man O' War sounds kind of badasss, it's actually a name of a jellyfish, a not so badass jellyfish either. Oh yeah, and that their costumes were a little ridiculous at this time. Remember that this was the beginning of the transition period for WWF - when flashy gimmicks and colorfully characters were no longer making it and new, realist, "attitude" characters were soon to be taking over.
They weren't the only characters begging for a realist makeover, though. No, most of the wrestlers in this video were eventually stripped of their ill-fated gimmicks and given a much more real, or at least workable, persona. For example, "The Ringmaster", who was said to appear later in the program, became, of course, Stone Cold; The rooted-teeth dentist, Isaac Yankem D.D.S. who would become the replacement to Diesel ironically as well, later became The Undertaker's burn-victim brother, Kane; Even Skip from the Bodydonnas would eventually lose the "yeah, I lift" 90's get-up and become himself, Chris Candido, later on in ECW.
Whether or not Aldo Montoya and Avatar were meant to be, I sill think they made a cool tag team. I'm not sure if they made anymore appearances together, but I think it would have kept their characters alive for a little longer if they stuck together...
P.S. Avatar and Aldo's double flipping clothesline was way cool! What a maneuver that was.
For the first time ever, The Portuguese Man O' War, Aldo Montoya - later Justin Credible - teams up with Avatar, the first airbender - later Al Snow - against The Money Corporation's freshly turned heel, 1-2-3 Kid and not so psych, vicious or justice, Sid.
Both Al Snow and Justin Credible (PJ Polaco) would have very unsuccessful gimmicks at this time in their career which led them to seek success in ECW. Why didn't their masked characters work out, you ask? Let's just say that while The Portuguese Man O' War sounds kind of badasss, it's actually a name of a jellyfish, a not so badass jellyfish either. Oh yeah, and that their costumes were a little ridiculous at this time. Remember that this was the beginning of the transition period for WWF - when flashy gimmicks and colorfully characters were no longer making it and new, realist, "attitude" characters were soon to be taking over.
They weren't the only characters begging for a realist makeover, though. No, most of the wrestlers in this video were eventually stripped of their ill-fated gimmicks and given a much more real, or at least workable, persona. For example, "The Ringmaster", who was said to appear later in the program, became, of course, Stone Cold; The rooted-teeth dentist, Isaac Yankem D.D.S. who would become the replacement to Diesel ironically as well, later became The Undertaker's burn-victim brother, Kane; Even Skip from the Bodydonnas would eventually lose the "yeah, I lift" 90's get-up and become himself, Chris Candido, later on in ECW.
Whether or not Aldo Montoya and Avatar were meant to be, I sill think they made a cool tag team. I'm not sure if they made anymore appearances together, but I think it would have kept their characters alive for a little longer if they stuck together...
P.S. Avatar and Aldo's double flipping clothesline was way cool! What a maneuver that was.
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Match of the Day - The Rock Bottom British Bulldog-shit incident
The Rock and Sock Connection vs. The British Bulldog and Val Venis - WWF Raw is War (1999)
Recently on NFT Presents, I've brought up some pretty memorable Rock moments and feuds such as his many battles with Mankind to his eventual partnership with the deranged man, but this match right here may be a little less known to some people. In the heart of one of The Rock's lesser-known feuds, the one with the British Bulldog, who now just wears jeans out to the ring because hey, it's the attitude era, Bulldog finds himself in deep, well, doo-doo when he had to take on The Rock, the man he screwed out of the title about a month before.
In anticipation for their one on one match at No Mercy 1999, The British Bulldog teamed up with Val Venis to take on The Rock and Val Venis's rival for a short period of time, Mankind. The match would come to a climactic end when Mankind chased Venis into the back with Mr. Socko leaving The Rock to finish The Bulldog off all by himself. Before the match, The Rock and Mankind had gather a bit of bulldog feces and put it on a big tray to bring to the ring to show Davey Boy just what he was. The tray soon made its way into the ring were The Rock got a hold of The British Bulldog and delivered a Rock Bottom into the dog poop!
The dog poop! The dog poop! The dog poop! - Michael Cole
The Rock and Mankind then get the win via dog poop TKO.
Theme results:
Jeans: The British Bulldog
Recently on NFT Presents, I've brought up some pretty memorable Rock moments and feuds such as his many battles with Mankind to his eventual partnership with the deranged man, but this match right here may be a little less known to some people. In the heart of one of The Rock's lesser-known feuds, the one with the British Bulldog, who now just wears jeans out to the ring because hey, it's the attitude era, Bulldog finds himself in deep, well, doo-doo when he had to take on The Rock, the man he screwed out of the title about a month before.
In anticipation for their one on one match at No Mercy 1999, The British Bulldog teamed up with Val Venis to take on The Rock and Val Venis's rival for a short period of time, Mankind. The match would come to a climactic end when Mankind chased Venis into the back with Mr. Socko leaving The Rock to finish The Bulldog off all by himself. Before the match, The Rock and Mankind had gather a bit of bulldog feces and put it on a big tray to bring to the ring to show Davey Boy just what he was. The tray soon made its way into the ring were The Rock got a hold of The British Bulldog and delivered a Rock Bottom into the dog poop!
The dog poop! The dog poop! The dog poop! - Michael Cole
The Rock and Mankind then get the win via dog poop TKO.
Theme results:
Jeans: The British Bulldog
Monday, February 4, 2013
Match of the Day - The debuting Cryme Tyme "steal one" against The Spirit Squad
Special Theme Week debut debut:
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.
Theme results:
Jeans: Shad & JTG.
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.
Theme results:
Jeans: Shad & JTG.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Match of the Day - Muta/Tajiri vs Goldust/Hakushi
The Great Muta & Yoshihiro Tajiri vs. Goldustin & Jinsei Shinzaki - AJPW (2007)
Some really nice contrasting styles in this All Japan Pro Wrestling tag team match featuring Great Muta, Yoshihiro Tajiri, Goldust as Goldustin for copyright reasons, and Jinsei Shinzaki AKA Hakushi.
Speaking of styles, it appears that Goldust seemed to be a little more homoerotic, if you will, here in Japan than he would in the states. My guess is that those sort of old school sexual mind games that Goldust puts on his opponents are more acceptable there than in America. It's definitely not acceptable on a product like the G rated Saturday Morning Slam on The CW where Goldust will most likely end up wrestling on now that he's back in WWE after making his 3rd or 4th Royal Rumble return.
This match is all fun and games until Muta and Tajiri gang up on Dustin, giving him a double dosage of mist while Shinzaki was known out of the ring, followed up by a shining wizard for the win.
PS: I would have loved to see the oddball team of Goldust and Tajiri in WWE. I'm quite surprised now that they were never a tag team...
Some really nice contrasting styles in this All Japan Pro Wrestling tag team match featuring Great Muta, Yoshihiro Tajiri, Goldust as Goldustin for copyright reasons, and Jinsei Shinzaki AKA Hakushi.
Speaking of styles, it appears that Goldust seemed to be a little more homoerotic, if you will, here in Japan than he would in the states. My guess is that those sort of old school sexual mind games that Goldust puts on his opponents are more acceptable there than in America. It's definitely not acceptable on a product like the G rated Saturday Morning Slam on The CW where Goldust will most likely end up wrestling on now that he's back in WWE after making his 3rd or 4th Royal Rumble return.
This match is all fun and games until Muta and Tajiri gang up on Dustin, giving him a double dosage of mist while Shinzaki was known out of the ring, followed up by a shining wizard for the win.
PS: I would have loved to see the oddball team of Goldust and Tajiri in WWE. I'm quite surprised now that they were never a tag team...
Monday, January 28, 2013
Match of the Day - Rocky's debut
In honor of The Rock's win last night at the Royal Rumble while he takes a short break from making Disney action adventure movies and shitty sequels to mediocre franchises, here's Rocky's debut way way back in the year 1996.
"Wildman" Marc Mero's Team (Mero, Rocky Maivia, Jake Roberts, and "The Stalker" Barry Windham) vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsely's Team (Helmsely, Goldust, Crush, and Jerry Lawler) - Survivor Series match - WWF Survivor Series (1996)
Shortly after Dwayne Johnson showed off his agility and awkward dropkicks at USWA, owned by Jerry Lawler at the time who happens to be in this match, the first 3rd generation superstar was ready to grace the squared-circle deep in the belly of Madison Square Garden where his father and father's father had previously made a name for themselves.
And since Rocky Johnson and Chief Peter Maivia had made a name for themselves, it was decided that Dwayne Johnson take the name of Rocky Johnson and mash it together with Peter Maivia to create - Rocky Maivia. Honestly though, it really didn't matter if he had named himself Peter Johnson at this point, he was a 3rd generation superstar; he was going to be used whether he could wrestle or not.
Whether or not he was going to eventually break out of the spotlight of his elders and become his own on star is another story for another day. Many people can argue when exactly Rocky Maivia became The Rock, the people's champ, but this match is no way near that time. This was the blue chipper era for Dwayne Johnson - long before he could ever image starring in Walking Tall remakes or Mummy spin-offs...
"Wildman" Marc Mero's Team (Mero, Rocky Maivia, Jake Roberts, and "The Stalker" Barry Windham) vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsely's Team (Helmsely, Goldust, Crush, and Jerry Lawler) - Survivor Series match - WWF Survivor Series (1996)
Shortly after Dwayne Johnson showed off his agility and awkward dropkicks at USWA, owned by Jerry Lawler at the time who happens to be in this match, the first 3rd generation superstar was ready to grace the squared-circle deep in the belly of Madison Square Garden where his father and father's father had previously made a name for themselves.
And since Rocky Johnson and Chief Peter Maivia had made a name for themselves, it was decided that Dwayne Johnson take the name of Rocky Johnson and mash it together with Peter Maivia to create - Rocky Maivia. Honestly though, it really didn't matter if he had named himself Peter Johnson at this point, he was a 3rd generation superstar; he was going to be used whether he could wrestle or not.
Whether or not he was going to eventually break out of the spotlight of his elders and become his own on star is another story for another day. Many people can argue when exactly Rocky Maivia became The Rock, the people's champ, but this match is no way near that time. This was the blue chipper era for Dwayne Johnson - long before he could ever image starring in Walking Tall remakes or Mummy spin-offs...
This match consists of a team made of heels captained by Marc "I don't know how to be anyone except Johnny B. Badd" Mero and his rival at the time, Hunter Hearst Helmsely and his team of stalkers, drunks, and Rocky Maivias. Along with Rocky in this match, there are three other 2nd generation wrestlers: Goldust, son of Dusty Rhodes, Barry Windham, son of Black Mulligan, and Jake Roberts, son of Grizzly Smith.
Side note:
Also at this time, Jake Roberts was having a small feud with Jerry Lawler in an angle where Robert's "Demons" were openly discussed and paralleled his real life battles with alcohol and cocaine (which they didn't mention of course). This sort of art imitating reality type situation was an early element of the Attitude Era and the more Jerry Springer/soap opera style of wrestling we say from the late 90's (onward basically). The "demons" angle where a wrestler legitimately has a problem and it is thrown into their onscreen character has also been used on Road Warrior Hawk and his much more exploited drug/alcohol problem in the heart of the Attitude Era as well as Scott Hall's drinking problems all throughout his WCW/NWO career. I want to say there was also a small bit where Rowdy Roddy Piper would just get drunk on the Smackdown Brand revamp of Piper's Pit every week, but maybe that was just me subtly wishing I had something to take to get through that Mr. America gimmick. Ayeyeye.
Anyways, here's Rocky Maivia's debut. He wins the match and no one really hates the guts of his gimmick yet.
Enjoy.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Match of the Day - The New Breed put the spacelock on T
The New Breed vs. The Armstrongs (Brad & Bob) - NWA: Jim Crocket Promotions (1987)
A couple of days ago I introduced this blog to the glorious gimmick of Hector Guerrero as Lazor-Tron, the masked laser-tagger from outer space. But what I failed to mention was that Lazor-Tron may have actually been not only a real robot but a decepticon. Yes, decepticon - as in the evil robots from Transformers!
How do I know this? The New Breed told me.
The team of Sean Royal and Chris Champion AKA The New Breed were a due of young time traveling cool dudes from 2002; a 2002 from a parallel dimension where Dusty Rhodes was the president and the Rock 'n' Roll Express were being used for medical experiments. They were also probably the coolest forgotten heel tag team of the 80's.
h the recently passed-on Brad and Bob Armstrong. And while this match saw no official winners, you could certainly tell that The New Breed were way before their time - because they were - and really were the winners of this match which was stop due to the time limit.
Unfortunately, like a lot of things in life, The New Breed was short-lived, due in part by Sean Royal's car accident and Chris Champion's hand injury leading the team to lose their push and . Eventually Sean Royal would walk out of the wrestling business leaving Champion to work alone before becoming Yoshi Kwan (an Asian-themed wrestler). Champion was also one of the Ninja Turtles from USWA.
A little side note that I find kind of interesting but quite unfortunate is that Chris Champion would later have a stroke (due to drugs and what have you) which left him in real bad shape. This jut happened have taken place in 2002; the year The New Breed were from.
My theory is that this is why The New Breed time-traveled back to the mid to late 80's; to wrestle back at the prime of tag team wrestling as well as to somehow try to reverse terrible events that had transpired. They also had to go back in time in seek revenge on Lazer-Tron and "Boogie Woogie Man" Jimmy Valiant just because.
A couple of days ago I introduced this blog to the glorious gimmick of Hector Guerrero as Lazor-Tron, the masked laser-tagger from outer space. But what I failed to mention was that Lazor-Tron may have actually been not only a real robot but a decepticon. Yes, decepticon - as in the evil robots from Transformers!
How do I know this? The New Breed told me.
The team of Sean Royal and Chris Champion AKA The New Breed were a due of young time traveling cool dudes from 2002; a 2002 from a parallel dimension where Dusty Rhodes was the president and the Rock 'n' Roll Express were being used for medical experiments. They were also probably the coolest forgotten heel tag team of the 80's.
h the recently passed-on Brad and Bob Armstrong. And while this match saw no official winners, you could certainly tell that The New Breed were way before their time - because they were - and really were the winners of this match which was stop due to the time limit.
Unfortunately, like a lot of things in life, The New Breed was short-lived, due in part by Sean Royal's car accident and Chris Champion's hand injury leading the team to lose their push and . Eventually Sean Royal would walk out of the wrestling business leaving Champion to work alone before becoming Yoshi Kwan (an Asian-themed wrestler). Champion was also one of the Ninja Turtles from USWA.
A little side note that I find kind of interesting but quite unfortunate is that Chris Champion would later have a stroke (due to drugs and what have you) which left him in real bad shape. This jut happened have taken place in 2002; the year The New Breed were from.
My theory is that this is why The New Breed time-traveled back to the mid to late 80's; to wrestle back at the prime of tag team wrestling as well as to somehow try to reverse terrible events that had transpired. They also had to go back in time in seek revenge on Lazer-Tron and "Boogie Woogie Man" Jimmy Valiant just because.
Friday, January 4, 2013
Match of the Day - Rock 'n' Sock Connection are in grave danger!
The Rock & Mankind (c) vs. The Undertaker & The Big Show - WWF Smackdown! (1999)
In yet another interesting tag team confrontation, the ever-popular, Rock 'n' Sock Connection of The Rock and Mankind took on the ever-evil team of pony-tail era Big Show and The Undertaker in the very first tag team "Buried Alive" match. That's right! A tag team member buried alive match.
The first and only tag team Buried Alive match in WWF/E was unlike other specialty tag team matches like a tag team cage match or a tag team tables match in that only one man from either team needed to be buried AKA thrown in a rectangular hole and "completely" covered by dirt. This is contrary to the cage and table matches where both team members must escape the cage (usually, if they don't want to go for a dumb pinfall or something like that) or both team members must be put through a table for the win.
The result of the match comes out to be a shocking turn of events as super heel, Triple H hits The Big Show in the "back of the head", as Michael Cole puts it, with his signature sledgehammer but then buries Mankind by himself for the team of The Big Show and The Undertaker to win the match and Mankind and Rock's tag team titles. An Ambulance immediately appears at the dirt mound to pick up Mankind, but as Triple H goes to help the EMT's by opening the Ambulance doors for them - a real jerk, let the EMT's do their job - out pops the Texas Rattlesnake, Stone Cold Steve Austin! Austin then throws HHH in the back of the Ambulance and drives it out to the parking lot where Austin would then "commandeer" a semi and rams it into the Ambulance with HHH still inside...
Yeah, I know... all that on Smackdown!
This was back when SD! was essentially the blue version of Raw on Thursday nights.
Overall reaction: First, the bump that Mankind takes after being thrown from the stage to the grave looks super painful. Mick Foley was and forever will be known as the guy who could take the most punishment to his body and get right back up, but I honestly do not think that that poor man had to take so many falls to live up to the reputation he made for himself after Hell in the Cell #2. I mean we got it, Mick was unbreakable, but was repeatedly having him fall or thrown off of something really worth it at this point? Some may disagree. I however feel that Mick proved himself a worthy competitor even without the the scientific wrestling ability at this time in his career and didn't always need to be getting handcuffed and hit with a dozen chair shots or, in this case, taking a super hard bump for no reason. Yeah, no reason; the bump wasn't even necessary as the show was going to end with Triple H getting killed by Austin via vehicular manslaughter anyway.
Secondly, this is The Undertaker's first and only Buried Alive match where he is not buried alive. Undertaker, the only person who has wrestled in every one of this type of match in WWF/E (currently), was 1-1 coming into this match but thanks to HHH and only HHH, who wasn't even in this match to began with, buries Mankind for Taker's second win (believe it or not) and the only time Taker escaped un-buried.
Thirdly, no Buried Alive match has ever been won cleanly. What I mean by this is that almost every match out of the five Buried Alive matches that have taken place, an individual/individuals has interfered and buries the loser completely. In the first Buried Alive (officially won by The Undertaker but often forgotten), The Executioner played by masked Terry Gordy comes out to save Mankind from the grave and buries The Undertaker all the way to the top with the help of the heels (including HHH no less); in the second Buried Alive match, Taker vs. Austin, Austin gets help from Taker's baby brother, the Big Red Machine, Kane; in this Buried Alive match, Triple H buries Mankind (who was already buried in the first BA match) all by himself; in the 2003 Buried Alive match between Taker and Mr. McMahon, Kane (now unmasked kane) once again interferes and buries Undertaker whole with the crane digger; and in the last Buried Alive match at Bragging Rights 2010, Kane buries Undertaker for the third time with the crane thanks to the interference by NEXUS.
Just thought I'd spread a little history today, I guess.
In yet another interesting tag team confrontation, the ever-popular, Rock 'n' Sock Connection of The Rock and Mankind took on the ever-evil team of pony-tail era Big Show and The Undertaker in the very first tag team "Buried Alive" match. That's right! A tag team member buried alive match.
The first and only tag team Buried Alive match in WWF/E was unlike other specialty tag team matches like a tag team cage match or a tag team tables match in that only one man from either team needed to be buried AKA thrown in a rectangular hole and "completely" covered by dirt. This is contrary to the cage and table matches where both team members must escape the cage (usually, if they don't want to go for a dumb pinfall or something like that) or both team members must be put through a table for the win.
The result of the match comes out to be a shocking turn of events as super heel, Triple H hits The Big Show in the "back of the head", as Michael Cole puts it, with his signature sledgehammer but then buries Mankind by himself for the team of The Big Show and The Undertaker to win the match and Mankind and Rock's tag team titles. An Ambulance immediately appears at the dirt mound to pick up Mankind, but as Triple H goes to help the EMT's by opening the Ambulance doors for them - a real jerk, let the EMT's do their job - out pops the Texas Rattlesnake, Stone Cold Steve Austin! Austin then throws HHH in the back of the Ambulance and drives it out to the parking lot where Austin would then "commandeer" a semi and rams it into the Ambulance with HHH still inside...
Yeah, I know... all that on Smackdown!
This was back when SD! was essentially the blue version of Raw on Thursday nights.
Overall reaction: First, the bump that Mankind takes after being thrown from the stage to the grave looks super painful. Mick Foley was and forever will be known as the guy who could take the most punishment to his body and get right back up, but I honestly do not think that that poor man had to take so many falls to live up to the reputation he made for himself after Hell in the Cell #2. I mean we got it, Mick was unbreakable, but was repeatedly having him fall or thrown off of something really worth it at this point? Some may disagree. I however feel that Mick proved himself a worthy competitor even without the the scientific wrestling ability at this time in his career and didn't always need to be getting handcuffed and hit with a dozen chair shots or, in this case, taking a super hard bump for no reason. Yeah, no reason; the bump wasn't even necessary as the show was going to end with Triple H getting killed by Austin via vehicular manslaughter anyway.
Secondly, this is The Undertaker's first and only Buried Alive match where he is not buried alive. Undertaker, the only person who has wrestled in every one of this type of match in WWF/E (currently), was 1-1 coming into this match but thanks to HHH and only HHH, who wasn't even in this match to began with, buries Mankind for Taker's second win (believe it or not) and the only time Taker escaped un-buried.
Thirdly, no Buried Alive match has ever been won cleanly. What I mean by this is that almost every match out of the five Buried Alive matches that have taken place, an individual/individuals has interfered and buries the loser completely. In the first Buried Alive (officially won by The Undertaker but often forgotten), The Executioner played by masked Terry Gordy comes out to save Mankind from the grave and buries The Undertaker all the way to the top with the help of the heels (including HHH no less); in the second Buried Alive match, Taker vs. Austin, Austin gets help from Taker's baby brother, the Big Red Machine, Kane; in this Buried Alive match, Triple H buries Mankind (who was already buried in the first BA match) all by himself; in the 2003 Buried Alive match between Taker and Mr. McMahon, Kane (now unmasked kane) once again interferes and buries Undertaker whole with the crane digger; and in the last Buried Alive match at Bragging Rights 2010, Kane buries Undertaker for the third time with the crane thanks to the interference by NEXUS.
Just thought I'd spread a little history today, I guess.
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