Thursday, January 29, 2015
Roman Reigns: Legit Superstar or "Shield"'ed by the Company?
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Profile Series: Jerry "The King" Lawler
There have been a lot of champions over the years that have been highly decorated. Bruno Sammartino, Harley Race, Ric Flair to name a few. Ric Flair is talked about a lot today for his great feat of being 16 time world heavyweight champion between NWA/WCW/WWE. Harley Race was as rough & tough as they came. No non sense, nothing flashy or pretty about him. He just came to the ring and fought. Great wrestler and could brawl as well. Bruno Sammartino was very well publicized like Race for being the man's man of wrestling. He had the muscles to take on all and backed down from nobody and Vince McMahon Sr carried him to the top & back. All three of the above mentioned guys had a well documented career thanks to cable tv but most people only know Jerry Lawler as the announcer on RAW that showed up in the 90's as a self proclaimed king of wrestling. They don't know of his credentials as a champion in the mid-south Memphis wrestling territory that was owned by Jerry Jarrett. Well, let's help change some of that by talking about one of the all time greats that never had the exposure as the others did.
Jerry Lawler was the most highly decorated champion in memphis history. In wrestling in general, all territories included, he has held more total titles than anyone in professional wrestling. He fought all newcomers in the area including the people that Jimmy Hart would specifically bring in to take him down. His most notable feuds were with other locals such as Jackie Fargo when Lawler was new to the sport, Superstar Bill Dundee off & on throughout his career in Memphis, The Universal Hearth Throb Austin Idol & Hot Stuff Eddie Gilbert. The feuds with Eddie Gilbert were legendary there as they pulled out all the stops.
That is some of the great stuff we used to get to see on tv. Studio brawls and wrestling matches, not just 75% of a three hour program talking on a mic. There was action every single week and Jerry Lawler was dishing it out with the best of them. Like I said, Jimmy Hart tried bringing in a lot of people to take out the king and he just kept on coming. Some of the names include Randy Savage, Hulk Hogan, Kamala the Ugandan Giant, The Undertaker wrestling as the Master of Pain, Sid Vicious wrestling as Lord Humongous, Terry Funk, Austin Idol and more. He has beaten Ric Flair & Harley Race. He feuded with Nick Bockwinkle who was the AWA Heavyweight champion and traded wins with him. He beat Curt Henning for that Same title years later and beat Kerry Von Erich for the WCWA heavyweight belt. He was the first wrestler to hold two heavyweight titles at one time and the first wrestler to be a Unified World Heavyweight Champion by combining the AWA & WCWA title he won from Kerry Von Erich. I am sure I am a little biased on my favoritism towards Jerry Lawler since I grew up watching him but right is right & he deserves the recognition. He has won over 140 championships over his career including tag team gold. As a tag team with numerous partners he has faced and beat the Road Warrios, Moondogs, The SHeepherders, The Bladerunners (Sting & Ultimate Warrior), The Fabulous Ones, The Four Horsemen Ole, Arn & Tully while teaming with Dusty Rhodes & Magnum TA.
So when you hear someone say "Introducing the 16 time World Heavyweight Champion", you just laugh ahd say "So what!! The King had over 140 title reigns!". Leave your comments & likes or dislikes & share with your friends for their opinion as well.
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Royal Rumble 2015
Annnnnnnnnd here we go again! Royal Rumble time 2015!!! Historically this has been a great match keeping you on edge with near eliminations and I am sure tonight will be no different. I've seen a number of different predictions on who will win but I am wondering who may show up as a surprise participant??
Match #1 New Day vs Cesaro,Tyson Kidd
It's hard to believe they have busted Cesaro down to the point he is an opning match for a PPV thats not really an official on the card match. It's the freebie for the wwe universe before the actual PPV begins. I'm not really a Big E fan but Kofi Kingston is providing to nice high flying moves for the crowd to enjoy. The match went about 10 minutes with Cesaro & Kidd getting the win from a combination Cesaro uppercut in tyson Kidd's finisher which was pretty nice. Winners- Cesaro & Kidd
Match #2 The Ascension vs The New Age Outlaws
The match hasnt started as I am writing this but I suspect the outlaws are just hear to put over Ascension. They get their payback from Raw I suppose but you know I'm pulling for the Road D-O double G & Baddass Billy Gunn to win. Outlaws had several good spots there ...road dogg showing his usual self doing some shuckin & jiving but as I expected it was a squash match. I would have had enough respect for the outlaws to have last longer than that but this is what WWE does. I think Ascension should be under a different gimmick though. Face paint & shoulderpads do not make you an awesome team like JBL said. Winners - Ascension
Match #3 The Usos vs The Miz & Mizdow
Here is a prime example of what I mentioned in previous blog. The Uso's can be exciting but their matches are all the same. You can call the move before it happens and we are force fed them every week vs the same opponent. I'm begging fo the day they give Damien Sandow a push away from Miz. Decent match even though we have seen it a thousand times, both sides went back and forth with mizdow wven hitting the miz's finisher but the Uso's pulled it out with usual super kick into a splash from top. Winner - Uso's.
Match #4 The Bella Twins vs Paige & Natalya
Welcome to what I like to refer to as filler time. The Bella twins have come together recently to be a team and have pretty much controlled the womens division. I also have to say I am a little impressed with the Bella's teamwork. They have had some nice tag double team moves. I thought Natalya would give more of a fight and Paige hardly had any time in match. The Bellas won though with a forearm smash from Brie Bella. Winners- Bella Twins
Match #5 Cena vs Lesnar vs Rollins
This should be a great match. I'm curious to see if any of the three will align together to take one down and then move to each other. There doesn't seem to be any love loss at all between the three in any way and I picture this one going for a good while. Lesnar & Cena immediatly start on each other while Rollins cowers outside and the theory of any two aligning is shot because they are taking shots all around. Lesnar has done his one offensive suplex about a dozen times in 2 minutes (just kidding) and it is anyones match at this point. No real dominance shown yet except for Lesnar doing the german suplex about 8 times (not kidding this time).Lesnar going for that chicken wing submission early on Cena but Rollins flies from top rope onto both of them. Match has progressed on with some signature moves by Cena such as the shouldert tackles into the side slam/5 knuckle shuffle and we have our first real key moment with brock receiving 3 FU's from Cena and a curb stomp from rollins. Rollins made a very impressive leap from top rope splashing Brock on the announce table and while Brock is out Cena and Rollins are putting on a good show. This is what I do not understand. I didnt hear that is was no DQ match so why are Rollin's goons outside allowed to come in and beat ppl down right in front of the referee???? Complete Bull and no Rollins has the suitcase as a weapon. Cena ducks it & throws him over top rope then beats down J&J security with a double FU. Rollins builds up some good momentum on cena and almost gets pin but lesnar makes his way back in and stops the pin. The 2 fight back and forth and Rollins uses the suitcase on lesnar twice and goes for a curb stomp on the suitcase but Lesnar jumps up & catches him into the F5 one last time & gets the pin. Winner & still champ- Brock Lesnar
Match #6 The Royal Rumble Match
Miz & R-Truth start us out with not to much to like till the 3rd number comes out & low & behold who do we have??? Bubba Ray Dudley!!! A few double teams on Miz and he is first to be eliminated. R truth tries to take out Bubba Ray but fails and goes out as Luke Harper comes in. Harper & Dudley go at it till next number appears and its Bray Wyatt. Harper & Wyatt eliminate Dudley & next was Curtis Axel I think but Eric Rowan takes him out & takes his place. Wyatt & Harper team up on Rowan as well but while Harper was beating on Rowan Wyatt eliminated both. Now the WWE is just throwing names out there for fun I guess...The Boogeyman is next out of the gate and lasts maybe 30 seconds followed by Sin Cara and Wyatt got rid of him too. Zach Ryder makes his appearance as the next one and gets about 10 seconds of offense in before Wyatt eliminated him. Wyatt takes his breathers while talking smack between each one and finally a name comes out in Danial Bryan. Now we shuld start getting some action here.The next participant is Fandango. Fandango & Bryan go back & forth while Wyatt is laid out in corner and trade blows till the countdown starts and Tyson Kidd comes out. They try double teaming Bryan but arent having a lot of luck as Bryan gets the best of them. Next at 13 is Stardust and momentas after he gets in Tyson Kidd gets eliminated by Bryan. Number 14 is none other than freaking DDP! At this point Im begging for it to be DDP but we know it wont be. At the moment Danial Bryan and Wyatt are left outside ring where they went through middle rope. Wyatt makes his way back in and attacks DDP and DDP has layed the Diamond Cutter on every one but Daniel Bryan so far. Rusev has now wntered the ring as the next competitor and he stalks to the ring after DDP. He almost gets diamond cutter on him but Rusev eliminates ddp and fandango one after another. Now Rusev and Wyatt face off and out of nowhere Danial Bryan flies in and takes both down. Daniel Bryan is now eliminated by Bryan and thats Wyatt's 6th person he has eliminated. Now Golddust enters at 16 and takes on both Wyatt and Rusev. Cody Rhodes finally up &tried to eliminate gold dust!!! Now they are fighting! Still shocking to see Danial Bryan to go out this early. Next person in at 17 is Kofe Kingston. Kingston almost goes out twice but saves himself just like last year. The action has really picked up here as the ring fills up and you can hardly keep up who is going where. At 18 now Adam Rose comes in with his rosebuds. Please throw him right out ... I hate the character image. Kofe Kingston gets thrown out again but lands on Rosebuds and saves himself but thankfully Rose is eliminated right after he gets in. Right after that Kingston goes out and this time is gone leaving the dusts in there fighting wyatt & rusev. Now at 19 we see Roman Reigns ... business is picking up. Roman makes his way down the Aisles into the ring and both star & gold dust take him on but reigns is taking everyone on.Golddust eliminated ...stardust eliminated. At 20 we get Big E coming in. Reigns is still going at it with Reigns as Big E and Rusev go. The action in ring continues as number 21 comes in and we have Mizdow. The crowd pops huge but Miz comes down and doesnt let him in and takes his place till he gets knocked back down and mizdow runs in anyways After a couple of impressive moves he gets thrown out and falls back to imitating miz ...humorous but they misuse him so badley. At 22 we have Jack Swagger come in...what do we say??? WE THE PEOPLE!!!! Immediatly takes on Rusev and is trying to dump him over till Bray Wyatt stops it. Reigns and Big E are in the corner fighting with Big E trying to throw him over. Entering at 23 we have the hungriest guy in the company ...FEED HIM MORE!!! Ryback goes straight for Rusev too. Ryback has laid everyone out including Roman Reigns. As it has gone so far, Bray Wyatt has come to Rusevs aide. They seem to have a partnership of sorts working here & Wyatt has been in for 30 minutes already. Number 24 comes in as Corporate Kane. He goes after Ryback trying to eliminate him and almost does it but Ryback makes it back in. Swagger is almost out by Big E but hanging on. Number 25 is Ambrose the lunatic Fringe.He is going nuts on Kane,Wyatt & Rusev.Several good spots in this minute till t he next comes in. Ryback almost got thrown out but saved himself again. Number 26 comes in as Titus Oneal. No major threat there as he goes out in 3 seconds. Now back to the fights again. No immediate threats of being gone just ppl trading blows. Wyatt is still in at 38 minute mark. Number 27 is Bad News Barrett makes his way in to deliver some bad news and he is making NO friends as he goes after Ambrose and Kane both just as it should be.Who will we see at 28??? Cesaro at 28. I would say that you can't underestimate him but they have him buried so far he most likely won't last too long.We have about 10 men in the ring now so someone has to be going soon and as I type that Big E is gone. Number 29 is the Big Show. Everyone stops as he makes his way in and EVERYONE jumps on him at once. Ryback is now out followed by Swagger. Kane & Big show are choke slamming everyone. Kane has just reached 39 career eliminations in the rumble. Finally at 30 Dolph Ziggler come in. He has eliminated Barrett and took on both big show & kane & set them down. Cesaro ALMOST eliminates Ziggler but he hangs on and drags cesaro over the top and fights on the ring apron till he eliminates Cesaro. Ziggler flys back in frome top rope but takes a knockout punch from big show and gets tossed over with ease. Wyatt is now out leaving Big Show, Kane against Reigns and Ambrose. Just like Shield vs Authority again for now. Ambrose choke slammed by Big Show and he is eliminated leaving Big show & Kane vs Roman Reigns. The final three left and the crowd is not happy with the current results as they chant the favorite BS chant. Reigns in the mean time is taking a good beating by the 2 and they have almost eliminated him until big show trys to turn on kane and eliminate him which does not make Kane happy so he turns his attn to him and they fight but as they turn their backs fighting Roman Reigns eliminates them both. Match is over but they come back in and double team him with a double choke slam. BAM!! The Rocks music hits & the rock comes in!!!Lays out big show, drops the elbow on Kane. Big show comes back in and tried to choke slam Rock but he takes a kick to groin into the Superman Punch then into a Rock Bottom....Rock goes back outside ring but wait .... Rusev was never eliminated. He sneaks back in and tries to take Roman out but Reigns sends him flying out for the OFFICIAL win. Now HHH ^ Steph comes out staring the rock down not being too happy with what he did.Nothing was said but as they back their way out Reigns points to t he Wrestlemania sign to let them know he is on his way. I think I have seen better Rumble matches but this one was not bad.
Final Thoughts
Overall this was a pretty good PPV. As I said I think I have seen better Rumble matches but it was pretty good. Reigns continues to get his push I expected a longer match from the World Title 3 way match but there was some big spots in it that highlighted the match. I know I am hard on the divas division but the Bellas did look better as a tag team with some well timed moves. The WWE is STARVING for a good tag team division and we may never get it. One more note, in the aftermath of the PPV they were interviewing Cena where he actually gave Lesnar & Rollins their props but as the interviewer asked what was next for Cena we might have been given t he answer because Rusev stormed in and stole the mic and shoved Cena out of the way and they go nose to nose. Everyone comes in and separated them as the camera was going off of them. It was great to see Bubba Ray Dudley make an appearance and AWESOME to see quite a few people feel the BANG! from DDP. All in all pretty good.
Hope everybody enjoyed the report and as always leave comments and please share with all your friends!
Where Did Tag Team Wrestling Go???
I guess I am going to show my age here because I have to dig deep to find enough quality tag teams to talk about. Seriously everybody, where did great tag team wrestling go??? As a fan of the territories that used to exist, I can tell you that I was PRIVILEGED to grow up watching the greatest tag teams in wrestling history. Yes there was still wrestlers that were considered singles wrestlers that made good tag teams but your great ones were pure tag team specialists.
I recently watched the documentary Rock n Roll Express Never Dies and it is a must have for any fan of theirs or just a fan of territories period. They were probably the greatest tag team in wrestling history yet WWE has not recognized them into the HOF as of yet which is truly a shame. Their feuds with the Midnight Express were epic and have never really been duplicated. The Midnight Express were great heels, they drew major heat wherever they went. The 2 teams fought all across the US selling out $80,000 & $100,000 gates which was almost unheard of in their day. The Fantastics were brought about a few years after the other two teams and just like them had a great chemistry about them, and that is one thing we dont see a lot of today. Yes, we have The USO's in WWE & The Wolves in TNA but what other tag teams do we really have that are entertaining and have that "it" factor that qualifies them as a tru tag team???
The Fabulous Ones were a favorite of mine growing up. They had the look that drove the women wild in the stands yet the guys still liked them because they were tough and had memorable feuds with The Moondogs & The Sheepherders. They had great team work and were very charismatic. I've had some people tell me they weren't great on the mic but back in that time you didn't have the great talkers like The Rock or Stone Cold Steve Austin. You know why???? Because we were treated to wrestling matches for the bulk of the show and not 75% talk & 25% wrestling matches. They like everyone else in their time held their own on the mic and kicked tail in the ring.
One last thing to leave you with, there used to be a real flow to a tag team match.The same also goes to singles matches as well really.The hero would always start out well and take control but the heel would always do something dirty to make the fans mad to take control and give the hero a beating for a while. Now if the teams were great as most of them were they would sell that beating to the crowd and get them riled up against the heel and then that second or third wind would come up & the hero would make the hot tag and his partner would clean house until they built up to the finishing move being executed and you didn't see a kick out at two. Once the finisher (whether it was a simple double dropkick or clotheline or move off top rope) was executed it was done & the crowd was on their feet counting with the ref and the pop would be huge. Show me one match today where we get a build up, singles or tag team. You can't really! There are some matches that hold your attn no doubt but the suspense is not really there. We as fans can practically call a matches end ourselves.
A lot of today's young stars don't seem to have the same appreciation for the fans either. There are some exceptions like John Cena who makes a lot of make a wish foundation requests come true. When you went to an event back in territory days you could go meet the stars at a table & have your pictures or programs signed. You do not get that now. They wanna sell merchandise and that is it. Disappointing to say the least but it is what we have now.
In closing, I just wanna say that I hope the WWE finally gets off their high horse and takes off their blinders and recognizes the great tag teams of the past. We as fans want to see The Rock n Roll Express, Midnight Express, The Fabs, The British Bulldogs, The Freebirds and so on and so on in the HOF. They DESERVE their spots there as does Ivan Koloff. Please, please PLEASE hear what we are asking for & make it happen!
I hope you enjoyed today's article and will pass it on & share with friends. Please like & comment as well as I love hearing other's points of views on my topics especially with the territorial days.
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Bodyslam The Competition Vlog Episode 1
In his first episode of the vlog I go over a few different things includng the Authority, Bad Newss Barrett making his return & the legend Ricky Morton with a few of his views. Video of Ricky was not done by me, there s a mention at end referencng the souce so please check him out as well!
I hope you enjoyed the first edition vlog, there is more to come. Please share, like & comment!! Hope to hear from you soon.
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