Post by thefinker on Dec 26, 2008 20:40:00 GMT -5
I didn't watch the WWF regularly until 1998, and good times as they were, what was the point of "WWF Superstars" in 1998, or you could also say, what was the point of "Saturday Night Shotgun"?
I mean, what was the point of financing 2 shows that both showed highlights of Raw, the same B-matches including the likes of the Los Borichuas and Too Much against mostly jobbers, and the only difference was different commentary.
I can see the appeal of different commentary, i remember it near the start Ray Reageau on Superstars and the late great Gorilla Monsoon.
However, by the end of this run, we had the likes of blandness including the likes choosing between Kevin Kelly & Tom & Bruce Pritchard to Michael Cole and
(Kelly again), who with the exception of Cole, never amounted to anything in the commentating scene. Kelly was demoted from Raw to doing this, and unsurprisingly never became a commentating legend and vanished into obscurity. It felt like the commentators already knew this show was the droppings, and they would go on and on about " Oh, what's going to happen on RAW next week?"
WWF Superstars was a shadow of what it was, and it became all featuring bottom card wrestlers. I think one of the shows should've been dumped, keep Superstars for the history and their theme tune which rocked. Shotgun looked dated very quickly, still sporting the old new generation WWF logo, in the Attitude era of 1998 which got underway.
Also, you may remember in 1999, didn't both these shows got renamed "Metal" and "Jakked" but had the same formula as before. For some reason, i never saw "Jakked" on SKY, but i do know Metal just kept to the same beat. Was Jakked just the same as well? Seriously, when Shotgun and Superstars (and maybe Metal and Jakked) worked in tandem, this should considered in the TV broadcasting section of Wrestlecrap. Another point of ridiculousness between the 2 shows, was that Superstars would alter their b match schedule with 1 new match, which WOW, was another craptacular spectacle, depends who was on though.
Another interesting but absolutely pointless bid, was some of the jobbers being hyped up by the commentator, them being actual former old-time obscure legends(?) like Buddy Landell and Bill Irwin, i think it was possibly Tom Pritchard doing this. But to me, this era of B shows are wrestlecrap potential. When Heat and Velocity came along, they did at least have real competition and some mid-carders, but in 1998 the format of superstar versus jobber became so uncool, which i think peaked, because in recent years Raw's and Smackdown's, you might see unknown jobber vs superstar, but in 1998, these types of matches were nowhere to be seen on RAW, because it seemed like people had had enough of these type of matches, looking for more fast pace in wrestling and storylines, wheras these matches were everywhere in the 80's and early 90's weekly shows before RAW came along. So, at a time when the wrestler vs jobber spectacle had practically become boring to the powers-at-be at WWF when the commentaters were practically begging for it to be 2 days later when RAW comes on, rather than in the 80's, pre-Raw 90's, for the next PPV or Saturday Night Main Event which was months/weeks away, to have 2 shows like it running makes it positively craptacular?
Or maybe, the RAW highlights that filled 50% of the show saves this?
I mean, what was the point of financing 2 shows that both showed highlights of Raw, the same B-matches including the likes of the Los Borichuas and Too Much against mostly jobbers, and the only difference was different commentary.
I can see the appeal of different commentary, i remember it near the start Ray Reageau on Superstars and the late great Gorilla Monsoon.
However, by the end of this run, we had the likes of blandness including the likes choosing between Kevin Kelly & Tom & Bruce Pritchard to Michael Cole and
(Kelly again), who with the exception of Cole, never amounted to anything in the commentating scene. Kelly was demoted from Raw to doing this, and unsurprisingly never became a commentating legend and vanished into obscurity. It felt like the commentators already knew this show was the droppings, and they would go on and on about " Oh, what's going to happen on RAW next week?"WWF Superstars was a shadow of what it was, and it became all featuring bottom card wrestlers. I think one of the shows should've been dumped, keep Superstars for the history and their theme tune which rocked. Shotgun looked dated very quickly, still sporting the old new generation WWF logo, in the Attitude era of 1998 which got underway.
Also, you may remember in 1999, didn't both these shows got renamed "Metal" and "Jakked" but had the same formula as before. For some reason, i never saw "Jakked" on SKY, but i do know Metal just kept to the same beat. Was Jakked just the same as well? Seriously, when Shotgun and Superstars (and maybe Metal and Jakked) worked in tandem, this should considered in the TV broadcasting section of Wrestlecrap. Another point of ridiculousness between the 2 shows, was that Superstars would alter their b match schedule with 1 new match, which WOW, was another craptacular spectacle, depends who was on though.
Another interesting but absolutely pointless bid, was some of the jobbers being hyped up by the commentator, them being actual former old-time obscure legends(?) like Buddy Landell and Bill Irwin, i think it was possibly Tom Pritchard doing this. But to me, this era of B shows are wrestlecrap potential. When Heat and Velocity came along, they did at least have real competition and some mid-carders, but in 1998 the format of superstar versus jobber became so uncool, which i think peaked, because in recent years Raw's and Smackdown's, you might see unknown jobber vs superstar, but in 1998, these types of matches were nowhere to be seen on RAW, because it seemed like people had had enough of these type of matches, looking for more fast pace in wrestling and storylines, wheras these matches were everywhere in the 80's and early 90's weekly shows before RAW came along. So, at a time when the wrestler vs jobber spectacle had practically become boring to the powers-at-be at WWF when the commentaters were practically begging for it to be 2 days later when RAW comes on, rather than in the 80's, pre-Raw 90's, for the next PPV or Saturday Night Main Event which was months/weeks away, to have 2 shows like it running makes it positively craptacular?
Or maybe, the RAW highlights that filled 50% of the show saves this?
