Post by DiBiase is Good on Mar 20, 2008 20:05:02 GMT -5
Wrestlemania is nearly upon us and for the next 10 days I'll be doing more of my old-school PPV "thoughts" threads. They're basically reviews with a few thoughts threw in.
And today I'm reviewing Wrestlemania 9. Why? Because it is considered one of the worst Manias ever by a lot of people but I don't think it's that bad. Sure, it's not in my top 15 manias but it's better than 1,2,11,13 & 16 IMO.
So, here we go with what was happening in the WWF around this time.
Bret Hart was 5 months into his WWF championship reign. He was defending his title against all comers. The 1993 Rumble winner would get a title shot at Wrestlemania (the first Rumble to award that) and Yokozuna would be Bret's challenge.
In the I/C title scene, Shawn Michaels had beaten Marty Janetty at the Royal Rumble but had lost his manager, Sensational Sherri. HBK would fight the still undefeated Tatanka in a non-title match and Tatanka pinned Shawn. Could Tatanka win the title at Wrestlemania?
The Undertaker was in a feud with the newly arrived Giant Gonzalez, who was destroying jobbers on Superstars (sometimes in handicap matches). Doink had jumped Crush with and they were set to meet up at Mania.
In the Tag team scene, Money Inc. were still champions. The newly arrived Steiners were on a roll but would have to wait for their opportunity at the champs. Who would Money Inc. fight at Wrestlemania?
In a match-up between Ted DiBiase and a returning Brutus Beefcake at Raw, IRS and Ted smashed IRS' briefcase into Brutus' already damaged face. The act was so vile that Money Inc's manager Jimmy Hart would turn his back on his team. Hulk Hogan had been out of the WWF since Wrestlemania 8 and would make his big return in the second half of the double main event tagging with Beefcake (and their new manager, Jimmy Hart) in a match for the Tag team titles.
Our host Gorilla Monsoon welcomes us all to Wrestlemania. It's a truly unique venue as it's outdoors. The arena is all done up in gold pillars to live up with the Ceasars Palace theme. It truly looks great. So who will be doing our commentary tonight? A youngish man by the name of Jim Ross (you might have heard of him) appears wearing a toga and is making his debut alongside Randy Savage and Bobby Heenan. I must mention Savage's great line "the grapes were great and the chicks were cool". And it's over to our ring announcer Howard Finkel or for one night only, "Finkus Maximus". Oh one more thing, the crowd pops for an elephant standing on it's hind legs. That "paciderm" is OVER!!!
Our first match is Tatanka and Shawn Michaels for the I/C title. Shawn is accompanied by Luna Vachon (in I believe, her first WWF appearance). Sherri comes down the aisle after Tatanka. The match is a good one with Tatanka working over Shawn's shoulder and Shawn bumping like a madman. After a beatdown by Shawn, Tatanka makes him comeback but Shawn kicks out several times. Eventually Shawn is on the verge of being counted out but pulls the ref outside the ring and that's enough to end the match. Fink announces that Shawn was counted out, but surely it should have been a DQ? But who cares, we got a good match out of it anyway.
Next up is The Steiners vs The Headshrinkers. I always liked the Headshrinkers, they were pretty strong and could fly around the ring pretty well too. And long before Fatu morphed into Rikishi several years later, he still had a huge arse. The Steiners were pretty awesome around this time. Scott Steiner was so powerful and seriously agile it's hard to believe it's the same man who's around these days and Rick was no slouch either. The Steiners get the better of the early exchanges, but that is all changed by a pretty sick bump by Scotty. He runs off the ropes, Samu catches him and looks like he's going to hotshot Scott on the top rope, however Fatu pulls the top rope down and Steiner falls headfirst to the floor. Ouch! The Shrinkers beat down for a long time until Samu takes a nice bump of his own missing a huge top rope headbutt and his head whacks into the mat. Rick gets the hot tag and eventually Scotty gets the win with the Frankensteiner to end a really good tag match. I should also mention that JR uses the term "Slobberknocker" for the first time in the WWF in this match.
Now it's time for Crush vs Doink. I can't state enough how much the original heel Doink ruled. Matt Borne took a gimmick that should have been awful and made it fly. This match is basically Crush destroying Doink until the ref is knocked down and a second Doink (Steve Keirn) appears from under the ring and hits Crush in the head with an arm cast. Crush is out and Doink gets the win.
Todd Pettengill chats with the fans and tries to spin the second Doink as an illusion. Yeah, right Ok Todd.
The next match is Bob Backlund vs Razor Ramon. Although Razor is a heel, there's quite a loud "Razor" chant going round. It's pretty much a filler match and Razor Ramon gets the win with a small package.
It's time for the first half of the double main event. Money Inc. do a promo about them being responsible for Hogan getting beaten up the night before??? Hogan and Beefcake, known here as the Mega Maniacs come out to "Real American" (first time we had heard that in a year). Beefcake is wearing a mask to protect his face and Hogan (who had lost a ton of weight since his last appearance) has a beauty of a black-eye. For the first 6 minutes the Maniacs beat down on DiBiase, Money Inc. tries to take the countout win and keep the titles but the Fink announces that the ref has declared that if Money Inc. get counted out that they will lose the titles as well. Money Inc. run back to the ring and Teddy gets the better of Hogan eventually putting on the Million Dollar Dream. Hogan fades but with the Ref's back turned Brutus puts DiBiase in a sleeper. The champs focus on getting Beefcake's mask off and succeed. Beefcake gets a double ax to the back of the head and the referee is bumped too. The match continues regardless and Hogan and Beefcake both pin Money Inc, but there is no referee. Jimmy takes his jacket off and reverses it to reveal a black and white striped jacket and makes the 3 count. Obviously this doesn't count and Danny Davis makes his way to the ring to ref the remainder of the match, which isn't very long as Davis DQ's the Mega Maniacs. It seemed a strange decision when you watch it for the first time, but we all know Hulk's night is far from over. As for the match, it contains my two favourite wrestlers of all time in Hogan and DiBiase so I thought it was pretty damned good and I was most pleased that DiBiase got to main event a Wrestlemania (and yes, I know he was in the tourney final at WM4).
And today I'm reviewing Wrestlemania 9. Why? Because it is considered one of the worst Manias ever by a lot of people but I don't think it's that bad. Sure, it's not in my top 15 manias but it's better than 1,2,11,13 & 16 IMO.
So, here we go with what was happening in the WWF around this time.
Bret Hart was 5 months into his WWF championship reign. He was defending his title against all comers. The 1993 Rumble winner would get a title shot at Wrestlemania (the first Rumble to award that) and Yokozuna would be Bret's challenge.
In the I/C title scene, Shawn Michaels had beaten Marty Janetty at the Royal Rumble but had lost his manager, Sensational Sherri. HBK would fight the still undefeated Tatanka in a non-title match and Tatanka pinned Shawn. Could Tatanka win the title at Wrestlemania?
The Undertaker was in a feud with the newly arrived Giant Gonzalez, who was destroying jobbers on Superstars (sometimes in handicap matches). Doink had jumped Crush with and they were set to meet up at Mania.
In the Tag team scene, Money Inc. were still champions. The newly arrived Steiners were on a roll but would have to wait for their opportunity at the champs. Who would Money Inc. fight at Wrestlemania?
In a match-up between Ted DiBiase and a returning Brutus Beefcake at Raw, IRS and Ted smashed IRS' briefcase into Brutus' already damaged face. The act was so vile that Money Inc's manager Jimmy Hart would turn his back on his team. Hulk Hogan had been out of the WWF since Wrestlemania 8 and would make his big return in the second half of the double main event tagging with Beefcake (and their new manager, Jimmy Hart) in a match for the Tag team titles.
Our host Gorilla Monsoon welcomes us all to Wrestlemania. It's a truly unique venue as it's outdoors. The arena is all done up in gold pillars to live up with the Ceasars Palace theme. It truly looks great. So who will be doing our commentary tonight? A youngish man by the name of Jim Ross (you might have heard of him) appears wearing a toga and is making his debut alongside Randy Savage and Bobby Heenan. I must mention Savage's great line "the grapes were great and the chicks were cool". And it's over to our ring announcer Howard Finkel or for one night only, "Finkus Maximus". Oh one more thing, the crowd pops for an elephant standing on it's hind legs. That "paciderm" is OVER!!!
Our first match is Tatanka and Shawn Michaels for the I/C title. Shawn is accompanied by Luna Vachon (in I believe, her first WWF appearance). Sherri comes down the aisle after Tatanka. The match is a good one with Tatanka working over Shawn's shoulder and Shawn bumping like a madman. After a beatdown by Shawn, Tatanka makes him comeback but Shawn kicks out several times. Eventually Shawn is on the verge of being counted out but pulls the ref outside the ring and that's enough to end the match. Fink announces that Shawn was counted out, but surely it should have been a DQ? But who cares, we got a good match out of it anyway.
Next up is The Steiners vs The Headshrinkers. I always liked the Headshrinkers, they were pretty strong and could fly around the ring pretty well too. And long before Fatu morphed into Rikishi several years later, he still had a huge arse. The Steiners were pretty awesome around this time. Scott Steiner was so powerful and seriously agile it's hard to believe it's the same man who's around these days and Rick was no slouch either. The Steiners get the better of the early exchanges, but that is all changed by a pretty sick bump by Scotty. He runs off the ropes, Samu catches him and looks like he's going to hotshot Scott on the top rope, however Fatu pulls the top rope down and Steiner falls headfirst to the floor. Ouch! The Shrinkers beat down for a long time until Samu takes a nice bump of his own missing a huge top rope headbutt and his head whacks into the mat. Rick gets the hot tag and eventually Scotty gets the win with the Frankensteiner to end a really good tag match. I should also mention that JR uses the term "Slobberknocker" for the first time in the WWF in this match.
Now it's time for Crush vs Doink. I can't state enough how much the original heel Doink ruled. Matt Borne took a gimmick that should have been awful and made it fly. This match is basically Crush destroying Doink until the ref is knocked down and a second Doink (Steve Keirn) appears from under the ring and hits Crush in the head with an arm cast. Crush is out and Doink gets the win.
Todd Pettengill chats with the fans and tries to spin the second Doink as an illusion. Yeah, right Ok Todd.
The next match is Bob Backlund vs Razor Ramon. Although Razor is a heel, there's quite a loud "Razor" chant going round. It's pretty much a filler match and Razor Ramon gets the win with a small package.
It's time for the first half of the double main event. Money Inc. do a promo about them being responsible for Hogan getting beaten up the night before??? Hogan and Beefcake, known here as the Mega Maniacs come out to "Real American" (first time we had heard that in a year). Beefcake is wearing a mask to protect his face and Hogan (who had lost a ton of weight since his last appearance) has a beauty of a black-eye. For the first 6 minutes the Maniacs beat down on DiBiase, Money Inc. tries to take the countout win and keep the titles but the Fink announces that the ref has declared that if Money Inc. get counted out that they will lose the titles as well. Money Inc. run back to the ring and Teddy gets the better of Hogan eventually putting on the Million Dollar Dream. Hogan fades but with the Ref's back turned Brutus puts DiBiase in a sleeper. The champs focus on getting Beefcake's mask off and succeed. Beefcake gets a double ax to the back of the head and the referee is bumped too. The match continues regardless and Hogan and Beefcake both pin Money Inc, but there is no referee. Jimmy takes his jacket off and reverses it to reveal a black and white striped jacket and makes the 3 count. Obviously this doesn't count and Danny Davis makes his way to the ring to ref the remainder of the match, which isn't very long as Davis DQ's the Mega Maniacs. It seemed a strange decision when you watch it for the first time, but we all know Hulk's night is far from over. As for the match, it contains my two favourite wrestlers of all time in Hogan and DiBiase so I thought it was pretty damned good and I was most pleased that DiBiase got to main event a Wrestlemania (and yes, I know he was in the tourney final at WM4).
