WWF In Your House - Ground Zero

September 7th 1997 
Louisville Gardens 
Louisville KY

Brian Pillman vs Goldust

Brian Christopher vs Scott Putski

Savio Vega vs Crush vs Faarooq
(Triple Threat Match)

Max Mini vs El Torito
(Midgets)

The Headbangers vs The Legion of Doom vs The Godwinns vs Owen Hart/Davey Boy Smith
(4 way Elimination match for the WWF Tag Team Titles)

Bret Hart vs The Patiot
(WWF Heavyweight Title)
                                                                               
                                                                                Shawn Michaels  vs  The Undertaker

"WWE Presents" - Michael "P.S." Hayes sings "Freebird Road"

really good tribute to a forgotten legend

Four Horsemen part 1

Part one of the "The Four Horseman"

RAW 1000th Episod

Ok here are my thoughts about the 1000th episode of Monday Night RAW.

The opening with DX was tremendous and was really even better when the New Age Outlaws made their appearance.  Now Xpac still looks like the little brother that they bring along because mom said they had too or they couldn't go...slimy and icky, I dont like him.


Now for the lack of Stone Cold Steve Austin... I couldnt even imagine this show without him but the pulled it off and The Rock did his dead level best to give us his best which led to CM Punk,Daniel Bryan and Cena upping their game last night (just like the glory days) .   Now the reason for Steve Austin's absence was a mystery to most people but it was explained on his blog today
(courtesy of Online Wrestling Network)


Stone Cold Steve Austin wrote a blog on his BrokenSkullRanch.com website
to explain his absence from yesterday's RAW 1000 show. "The reason I did
not attend RAW 1,000 was because I underwent a major knee surgery on my
left knee on July 2, 2012," Austin wrote, saying he watched the show from
his Los Angeles home. The WWE Hall of Famer said that the surgery was a
complete success but he is three weeks post op and just started physical
therapy a few days ago. Austin said that he is still on crutches and then
he's back to wearing a knee brace for around 9-12 more weeks. "There was
no way I was going to limp down the ramp on crutches for RAW 1,000. It
was time to get my knee fixed. The decision to no-show RAW 1,000 was made
by me and no one else," Austin added. Austin said that he's sorry he
missed the show and he would have loved to be there under different
circumstances. "I normally keep my personal business to myself, but due
to feedback and incorrect speculation, I have posted this blog and given
the 411 on why I was not at RAW 1,000."



I can give Steve Austin a pass here because he spent years wrestling when he shouldnt have so he needs this time in his life to heal and get repaired, maybe this will lead to an appearance at one of the major PPVs .. I couldnt even imagine this show without him but seeing all the legends helped.

The Brothers of Destruction made their appearance and fought off several jobbers but it was nice to seem the together one more time.




Lita showed up and looked better than ever and just as gorgeous as when she left (Edge should have been there, but we can't have it all).
JBL looked in tremendous shape and nearly decapitated Heath Slater with his "clothesline from Hell".



CM Punk turning heel is a great move and will give him more room to really ramp up the feud with Cena and maybe even have a heel vs heel with Daniel Bryan.


And of course we had the meeting of Paul Heyman and Triple H, with Stephanie McMahon making and appearance

WCW WrestleWar 1992 (The Match Beyond)

The 1992 version of the famous Match Beyond cage match.

Sting's Squardon
Sting
Ricky Steamboat
Dustin Rhodes
Nikita Koloff
Barry Windham
vs
The Dangerous Alliance w/Paul E Dangerously
Steve Austin
Arn Anderson
Rick Rude
Larry Zbyszko
Bobby Eaton.




May 17th 1992
Jacksonville Florida

Great American Bash 1987 on Tour

25 years ago this week the NWA was holding The Great American Bash on Tour and July 18th 1987 it was in  Charlotte  North Carolina at Memorial Stadium

Here is the match lineup
What you see in the video is the edited to 1 hour presentation on NWA Pro Wrestling TV

• Kendall Windham, Jimmy Valiant and LazerTron defeated Sean Royal, Gladiator #1 and Gladiator #2

LazerTron was Hector Guerrero and the Gladiators were Gary Royal and George South.

• Chris Adams defeated Black Bart (with Skandor Akbar)  (Not Shown)
• NWA Western States Heritage Champion Barry Windham defeated Big Bubba Rogers (with Skandor Akbar)
• Steve Williams and Terry Gordy defeated Eddie Gilbert and Dick Murdoch in a Bunkhouse match
• (Not Shown)
• The Fabulous Freebirds defeated NWA United States Tag Team Champions The Midnight Express (with Jim Cornette) by disqualification.
• NWA World Tag Team Champions The Rock 'n' Roll Express def. The MOD Squad
• Road Warrior Animal (with Paul Ellering) defeated Arn Anderson (with James J. Dillon) in a Taped Fist match  (Not Shown)
• NWA United States Champion Lex Luger (with James J. Dillon) defeated Nikita Koloff  (Not Shown)
• NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair (with James J. Dillon) defeated Road Warrior Hawk (with Paul Ellering) by disqualification to retain the title  (Not Shown)
• Dusty Rhodes (with Barry Windham) defeated Tully Blanchard (with James J. Dillon and Dark Journey) in a "lights-out" Barbed Wire Ladder match for $100,000.

Lamest WWE Storyline Payoffs (Grantland)

Thanks to Bill Simmons great blog Grantland, we have this article about the lamest payoffs for WWF/WWE storylines and a couple from NWA/WCW...please read because I remember them all and you will too.

While reading this I found these 2 great videos from the ill fated Brawl For All series of real (unscripted) boxing/wrestling matches....long before UFC and MMA was a household name.    This was a tournament with some of the so called "tough guys" of the WWF in boxing gloves but also trying to wrestle.  In reality it was a Jim Ross idea to help get Steve "Dr. Death" Williams over as a legit tough guy fighter.  Now Dr. Death was a legit tough guy wrestler and football player but he was way out of his league with the gloves on, it took away his strength of grappling holds.  This left him to try and box and his match with, who was thought to be a patsy setup, Bart Gunn took a turn for the worse for Dr. Death and hilarity for all watching at home.   A knockout of Dr Death and a knee injury took him out of action for several months and left him with a battered reputation.   To me the highlight was Good Ol JR trying to spin the whole thing as Dr Death had been knocked down before and would be back but you can hear in his voice he was not pleased to see his friend knocked the F out on national tv and then have Jerry Lawler really rubbing it in while showing the replays.

Well this was not the end of the shame of Brawl For All...Bart Gunn won the tournament and set up a match at Wrestlemania 15 with Butterbean, the professional boxer known more for his girth and look than actual fighting ability.  Well  Butterbean took offense to the way he was portrayed as a big lug who as more a sideshow freak than fighter.   Poor Bart Gunn.   Butterbean with a chip on his shoulder and a brick in his right hand, spun Bart's head around like Linda Blair in "The Excorcist" and once and for all put the Brawl For All to rest in the graveyard of ideas that should have worked but real life got in the way.

Your Match of the Day

1987 Jim Crockett Memorial Tag Team Tournament

The Super Powers (Dusty Rhodes and Nikita Koloff)
vs
Ravishing and Raging (Rick Rude and Manny Fernandez)
(NWA World Tag Team Champions)

Wrestlemania XI

April 2nd 1995 from the Hartford Civic Center

Wrestlemania XI

1][36]
1	The Allied Powers (Lex Luger and The British Bulldog) defeated The Blu Brothers (Jacob and Eli) (with Uncle Zebekiah)	Tag team match	06:34
2	Razor Ramon (with The 1–2–3 Kid) defeated Jeff Jarrett (c) (with The Roadie) by disqualification	Singles match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship	13:32
3	The Undertaker (with Paul Bearer) defeated King Kong Bundy (with Ted DiBiase)	Singles match with Larry Young as Special Guest Referee	06:36
4	Owen Hart and Yokozuna (with Mr. Fuji and Jim Cornette) defeated The Smoking Gunns (c) (Billy and Bart)	Tag team match for the WWF Tag Team Championship	09:42
5	Bret Hart defeated Bob Backlund	"I Quit" match with Roddy Piper as Special Guest Referee	09:34
6	Diesel (c) (with Pamela Anderson) defeated Shawn Michaels (with Sid and Jenny McCarthy)	Singles match for the WWF Championship	20:35
7	Lawrence Taylor defeated Bam Bam Bigelow (with Ted DiBiase)	Singles match with Pat Patterson as Special Guest Referee	11:42

New Stan Hansen Book

This is for the fans that love Stan "The Lariat" Hansen and his unpredictable and crazy style.  I am one that misses the "dont know what is going to happen next" style that he made famous all over the world.


This  is his story in his own words about everything you wanted to know...from Japan, to King Kong Brody to Bruno's broken neck to the AWA Title and what happened between him and Verne Gagne....good looking stuff from the all the excerpts you can read at the link post below.

Highspots is selling it...click this link.

Your Match of the Night

From 1995 a great match between 2 all time greats but sadly both died tragically too young.  

This was from WCW Saturday Night :  

Eddie Guerrero and Christ Benoit 

NWA Final Conflict 1983

The pre PPV era reached its end with this card from Greensboro NC in March of 1983.  This was a huge sellout as fans from all around came to see a tag team war meets its "Final Conflict" with the team of Rick Steamboat and Jay Youngblood meeting the NWA Tag Team Champions Sgt Slaughter and Don Kernodle.
If Steamboat and Youngblood lost they would have to split up and never wrestle again and if they won they would be Tag Team champions for a 4th time.   This was in a cage and the crowd was over the top excited and made this seem almost world changing.
The undercard featured a Television Title Match between champion Dick Slater and challenger Rowdy Roddy Piper.
What is not see on this video (which was put together from raw footage by one of the undercard wrestlers, this was never put together for official release) is the match for the NWA World Title with Ric Flair defending against former partner and friend Greg "The Hammer" Valentine.

read a good synopsis at "From the Collection" blog.

WWE Raw is now 3 hours, every Monday at 8/7 CT, starting July 23