Post by DiBiase is Good on Jan 8, 2008 22:35:12 GMT -5
For those of you who are unfamiliar with these threads. I basically write a review of an old WWF PPV and disguise it as a thoughts thread so people can discuss the PPV. I used to always put these in the Wrestlecrap section of the board, but as people use this section for older stuff I'm putting it here.
And be warned, this is going to be a long post.
So, I'm choosing Royal Rumble 1991 for my next review. I always view 1988-1992 as the greatest period since I started watching wrestling in the mid-80's, so most of my reviews are from this period.
First, a brief recap of what was happening in the WWF around this time....
The Ultimate Warrior was 10 months into his championship reign. He had beaten his main rival Rick Rude in a cage at SummerSlam and spent a lot of the last months of 1990 having the I/C champion Mr. Perfect challenging him and coming up short. He also had the Macho King Randy Savage claming that he should be the #1 contender following him around everywhere. But at the rumble he would be challenged by the Iraqi sympathiser, Sgt. Slaughter. Inconvenient, as the show took place during the Gulf War.
Although not the champion, Hulk Hogan had come back from his "injury" at the hands of Earthquake and was arguably more popular than Warrior. Although he had defeated Earthquake by count-out, there was no feud settling match between the 2.
Elsewhere, the Big Boss Man was feuding with the Heenan family after the Brain repeatedly insulted the Boss Man's mother.
The Undertaker had debuted a few months earlier and was destroying anyone in his path.
And there was still bad blood between Ted DiBiase and Dusty Rhodes. This would be settled in a match with Dusty tagging with his son Dustin (who DiBiase beat up on a Saturday Night's main Event a few months before). DiBiase's partner was Virgil, whom Teddy had been verbally abusing in the last few weeks.
So here we go with the event. First up is the Rockers vs The Orient Express. The teams had a match at Wrestlemania the year before and although Sato had been replaced by Kato, there was still a score to settle. When I think of the greatest tag matches of all time there are 2 that always come up, The Hart Foundation vs The Brain Busters from SummerSlam 1989 is one, the other is this match. I won't try to explain it's greatness, just watch it. It's one hell of a tag match with a lot of offense that wasn't commonplace in the WWF circa 1991. There are moonsaults and Tanaka's beautiful flying forearm and the Express beat down on Michaels for ages. Eventually Janetty gets the hot tag and after a bit of "Marty going bananas" the Express get the upper hand. But they go to slingshot into a reverse knife-edge and it ends up with Janetty getting a sunset flip on Tanaka and getting the pin. Amazing, amazing match.
Sherri is trying to secure her man Savage a title match by sucking up to the Warrior, making comments like "I've wondered what it would be like to see the wind blowing through your hair". Sherri kisses the Warrior and then drops to her knees (yeah, my mind is in the gutter) but Warrior spits and denies Savage a title match. Savage is pissed.
Up next is the Boss Man vs The Barbarian. These are both agile guys for their size so they put on a really good match here. Barbarian looks so cool when he suplexes BossMan with ease! Eventually the Boss Man gets the win when Barbarian hits a high cross-body from the middle rope but Boss Man reverses the momentum into a pin.
It's time for the WWF Title match. It's an ok match with a great spot where Sherri distracts the Warrior who runs after her to the back only to be jumped by Savage who beats the piss out of the Warrior. Warrior gets the upper hand in the match but a knee to the back by Sarge drops Warrior on the ropes, Savage smashes his sceptre into Warrior's head, Sarge drops an elbow and gets the pin. Made even better by the Fink saying "The Winner of this contest and (long pause) NEW World Wrestling Federation Champion, Sgt. Slaughter".
Time for the filler match on the card. It's Koko B Ware vs The Mountie. I believe this was the Mountie's debut after weeks of hype vignettes, so no surprise who is going over here. And indeed, The Mountie gets the win with his 2 handed chokeslam.
Backstage, there are interviews with Savage and Slaughter and we cut back to Gorilla and Piper disgusted. Piper even spits which hilariously causes his headset to fall off.
Oh well. It's time for DiBiase to grace us with his presence. Virgil gets outwrestled so Teddy tags in to show Virgil how it's done. Shame Virgil accidentally clothesline his employer which causes Ted to punch Virgil. Dusty eventually gets the tag after Teddy destroys Dustin's leg but he misses a charge and ted gets the roll-up.
But it's not over. DiBiase gets on the mic and abuses Virgil some more. He demands Virgil to get in the ring and put the Million Dollar belt around his waist. Virgil drops the belt on the floor and Teddy gets madder making comments about Virgil's mother. Virgil bends over to pick up the belt and DiBiase laughs and turns his back on Virgil, cue the immortal line "Everybody's got a price". He turns around and Virgil twats Ted with his own belt and the pop is huge. A great moment and although we all like to make jokes about poor old Virgil, for me this ranks as one of the greatest face turns of all time.
Up next is the Rumble match itself.
And be warned, this is going to be a long post.
So, I'm choosing Royal Rumble 1991 for my next review. I always view 1988-1992 as the greatest period since I started watching wrestling in the mid-80's, so most of my reviews are from this period.
First, a brief recap of what was happening in the WWF around this time....
The Ultimate Warrior was 10 months into his championship reign. He had beaten his main rival Rick Rude in a cage at SummerSlam and spent a lot of the last months of 1990 having the I/C champion Mr. Perfect challenging him and coming up short. He also had the Macho King Randy Savage claming that he should be the #1 contender following him around everywhere. But at the rumble he would be challenged by the Iraqi sympathiser, Sgt. Slaughter. Inconvenient, as the show took place during the Gulf War.
Although not the champion, Hulk Hogan had come back from his "injury" at the hands of Earthquake and was arguably more popular than Warrior. Although he had defeated Earthquake by count-out, there was no feud settling match between the 2.
Elsewhere, the Big Boss Man was feuding with the Heenan family after the Brain repeatedly insulted the Boss Man's mother.
The Undertaker had debuted a few months earlier and was destroying anyone in his path.
And there was still bad blood between Ted DiBiase and Dusty Rhodes. This would be settled in a match with Dusty tagging with his son Dustin (who DiBiase beat up on a Saturday Night's main Event a few months before). DiBiase's partner was Virgil, whom Teddy had been verbally abusing in the last few weeks.
So here we go with the event. First up is the Rockers vs The Orient Express. The teams had a match at Wrestlemania the year before and although Sato had been replaced by Kato, there was still a score to settle. When I think of the greatest tag matches of all time there are 2 that always come up, The Hart Foundation vs The Brain Busters from SummerSlam 1989 is one, the other is this match. I won't try to explain it's greatness, just watch it. It's one hell of a tag match with a lot of offense that wasn't commonplace in the WWF circa 1991. There are moonsaults and Tanaka's beautiful flying forearm and the Express beat down on Michaels for ages. Eventually Janetty gets the hot tag and after a bit of "Marty going bananas" the Express get the upper hand. But they go to slingshot into a reverse knife-edge and it ends up with Janetty getting a sunset flip on Tanaka and getting the pin. Amazing, amazing match.
Sherri is trying to secure her man Savage a title match by sucking up to the Warrior, making comments like "I've wondered what it would be like to see the wind blowing through your hair". Sherri kisses the Warrior and then drops to her knees (yeah, my mind is in the gutter) but Warrior spits and denies Savage a title match. Savage is pissed.
Up next is the Boss Man vs The Barbarian. These are both agile guys for their size so they put on a really good match here. Barbarian looks so cool when he suplexes BossMan with ease! Eventually the Boss Man gets the win when Barbarian hits a high cross-body from the middle rope but Boss Man reverses the momentum into a pin.
It's time for the WWF Title match. It's an ok match with a great spot where Sherri distracts the Warrior who runs after her to the back only to be jumped by Savage who beats the piss out of the Warrior. Warrior gets the upper hand in the match but a knee to the back by Sarge drops Warrior on the ropes, Savage smashes his sceptre into Warrior's head, Sarge drops an elbow and gets the pin. Made even better by the Fink saying "The Winner of this contest and (long pause) NEW World Wrestling Federation Champion, Sgt. Slaughter".
Time for the filler match on the card. It's Koko B Ware vs The Mountie. I believe this was the Mountie's debut after weeks of hype vignettes, so no surprise who is going over here. And indeed, The Mountie gets the win with his 2 handed chokeslam.
Backstage, there are interviews with Savage and Slaughter and we cut back to Gorilla and Piper disgusted. Piper even spits which hilariously causes his headset to fall off.
Oh well. It's time for DiBiase to grace us with his presence. Virgil gets outwrestled so Teddy tags in to show Virgil how it's done. Shame Virgil accidentally clothesline his employer which causes Ted to punch Virgil. Dusty eventually gets the tag after Teddy destroys Dustin's leg but he misses a charge and ted gets the roll-up.
But it's not over. DiBiase gets on the mic and abuses Virgil some more. He demands Virgil to get in the ring and put the Million Dollar belt around his waist. Virgil drops the belt on the floor and Teddy gets madder making comments about Virgil's mother. Virgil bends over to pick up the belt and DiBiase laughs and turns his back on Virgil, cue the immortal line "Everybody's got a price". He turns around and Virgil twats Ted with his own belt and the pop is huge. A great moment and although we all like to make jokes about poor old Virgil, for me this ranks as one of the greatest face turns of all time.
Up next is the Rumble match itself.