The SmarK Retro Rant for WWF Wrestlemania VII
- Yeah, this is a kind of a random choice, I know, but I've been meaning to do the full Anthology version of the show for months now and this is as good a night as any. Since we didn't have PPV in Edmonton at the time, this is the first time I've ever seen anything besides the heavily edited Coliseum version of this show.
- Live from the Los Angeles Coliseum LA Sports Arena
- Your hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and a rotating cast of color commentators, mainly Bobby Heenan. First up is Hacksaw Duggan, introduced with entrance music dubbed over where he had none previously. I don't get that.
- This show, much like Summerslam 93 (upcoming as soon as the Summerslam Anthology gets here from Amazon), is draped in cynical patriotic fervor from the WWF in hopes of drawing a buyrate on the back of the first Iraq war. It didn't work.
The Rockers v. Haku & The Barbarian
FACES OF FEAR~! Odd choice for an opener, as Haku & Barbarian had no backstory together other than being members of the Heenan Family. Haku grabs a headlock on Shawn to start and runs him into the corner, but they criss-cross and Shawn takes him down with a shoulder tackle for one. The Rockers double-team with a hiptoss into a double elbow, but Barbarian DESTROYS them with a clothesline for a rare double 180 somersault sell by the Rockers. Truly a special night. Rockers regroup with a double superkick to put Barbarian on the floor, and the heels get some advice from Heenan. Normally I'd have a joke here, but you'll have to insert your own tonight. Back in, Barbarian hammers Marty on the apron, but gets caught with a sunset flip that gets two. Marty tries working the arm, but a double headbutt flattens him. Marty tries a rana, but Barbarian drops him on the top rope and Jannetty is YOUR face in peril. Haku elbows him down for another somersault sell, and Barbarian gets a press slam and draws Shawn in with a cheapshot. Haku and Marty collide and Marty gets two. That was clearly a blown spot, but they worked through it. Haku gets a pair of nasty backbreakers and Barbarian gets two. Clothesline and bearhug follow, and Barbarian whips Marty into the corner to work the back. Marty comes out of there with a flying clothesline, but Barbarian catches him in mid-air with a powerslam. Good spot. Barbarian goes up for the diving headbutt, but it misses, and it's hot tag Shawn. Back elbow for Haku and he slugs away on both heels, and a neckbreaker on Haku gets two. Sunset flip gets two. They double-dropkick Barbarian out of the ring and finish Haku with a Marty missile dropkick into Shawn's flying bodypress at 10:33. Great opener, as the Rockers were peaking as a team just before they self-destructed. ***1/2
Meanwhile, Mean Gene interviews Regis Philbin, Alex Trebek and Marla Maples. One of these things does not have the same cultural status she did in 1991.
Dino Bravo v. Kerry Von Erich
Now here's a depressing match for you. Both guys were rapidly on the way down the slippery slope as it was, and of course it ended badly for both. Bravo hammers away before Tornado can get his robe off, but he makes the comeback and they slug it out in the corner. That goes nowhere and Bravo gets a cheapshot, then drops an elbow for two. Side slam gets two. Bravo comes off the middle rope with a forearm shot that literally misses by a foot, but Kerry comes back with the claw and finishes with the discus punch at 3:10. Short and yet still god-awful. Kerry was just missing everything and couldn't even hit the finisher properly. 1/2*
The British Bulldog v. The Warlord
Warlord pounds away to start, but Bulldog shoulderblocks him out of the ring. Back in, Bulldog with a crucifix, but Warlord drops down to counter and follows with an elbowdrop for two. Bearhug, and he drops Bulldog on the top rope for two. Belly to belly gets two. We hit the chinlock, but Bulldog elbows out and dropkicks him into the corner. Bulldog comes off the middle with a forearm, into a crossbody for two. Piledriver is countered into a backdrop, but Bulldog gets a sunset flip for two. Warlord clotheslines him down and it's time for the Full-Nelson, but he's no Chris Masters so Bulldog is able to power out. And since he's had enough tonight, the powerslam finishes at 8:12. Not too shabby. **1/2
WWF World tag titles: The Hart Foundation v. The Nasty Boys
Bret gets slugged down by Sags right away, but gets the Thesz Press and fights off both Nasties. He slingshots Sags in and starts on the arm, prompting Sags to tag out to Knobs. So Anvil comes in to match and pounds him in the corner, then hiptosses him over the top to clean house. Back in, he goes to the arm, but goes to the wrong corner. He quickly recovers and gets Bret in in for some punishment on Sags in the corner. Russian legsweep and elbow get two. However, he goes after Knobs and turns his back, which opens him up to getting clobbered from behind with a clothesline, and thus he's the face-in-peril. Bret was also clearly the breakout star of the team at this point, and seemed bigger than the match. So Bret goes to the corner and Sags follows with a backbreaker for two. He gets a rear chinlock and Knobs stays on the back with the same. Back to Sags, who adds a neckbreaker for two. Back to the chinlock, but Bret escapes with his own neckbreaker. Knobs comes in and stays on the back, however, forcing Bret to power out. The Nasties try the Harts' own double-whip, but Bret moves and it's the false tag. Heel miscommunication gives us the real hot tag, however, and Anvil clotheslines everyone and gets two on Knobs. Powerslam gets two. Nasties collide again and the Hart Attack results, but Sags hits Anvil with the helmet and Knobs gets the pin and the titles at 12:01. Probably one of the best matches ever for the Nasties, although I still think a match against Money Inc. on a Coliseum video was better. This was more about Bret's coming out party than elevating the Nasties in any meaningful way, and that's fine. ***1/2
Blindfold match: Jake Roberts v. Rick Martel
Martel was such a bland heel that even the old venerable "blinded babyface" angle turned into a bore in his hands. So the concept here is of course that both guys are hooded (and this cut of the show clearly shows that they can see through them), as they stumble around the ring for a bit before Jake gets a fluke rollup for two. Another stupid spot sees Martel putting his head down for a backdrop, but Jake just moves out of the way. Which leads to the question: Why wouldn't you just do that all the time? The gag here is that Jake points to a location and the crowd cheers to indicate Martel's location, Martel runs away, repeat. For amusing the crowd it's a fine bit, but a real match it's awful. Martel gets his hands on Jake and slams him, but misses an elbow because Jake gets up and he can't see it. Like really, any halfway intelligent wrestler would, you know, WRESTLE his opponent to the ground rather than trying typical worked spots. Jake claps his hands to fake out Martel and then tries a takedown from behind, but Martel makes the ropes and we're back to blindly wandering around the ring. This also brings up my biggest beef with this match: MARTEL DOESN'T CHEAT. He's the fucking HEEL, he should be taking off his hood behind the ref's back and then beating the shit out of Jake to get the heat. What kind of a pussy adheres to the stips? Jake tries a headlock and then falls to the floor (Bobby: "Excuse me…Martel! He's on the floor!") Martel follows him out and grabs a chair, but Jake drags him back in. Martel comes back with a backbreaker into the crab, but Jake escapes and finishes, thank god, with the DDT at 8:28. -****
Undertaker v. Jimmy Snuka
Horrible overdub alert: Snuka's music is replaced with generic up-tempo crap, so Fink has to redo his introduction. Really? They don't have the rights to "Superfly" any longer? Did the guy at the beginning threaten to sue-sue-sue them?
Thank you, I've been waiting to work that one in for like 5 years now.
Anyway, Undertaker coldly puts Snuka down with the flying clothesline and drops the elbow, but that misses. Snuka fires back with chops, but tries a bodypress and lands on the floor instead. He fights back in for the apron and tries to slingshot back in, but Taker catches him and finishes with the tombstone at 4:15. And that is 1-0 for Undertaker. Can you even imagine? *
Retirement match: Randy Savage v. Ultimate Warrior
Hey, isn't that the lovely Elizabeth at ringside? More importantly, who's her date? Man, that guy is about to get cock-blocked in the worst way. Warrior's entrance is pretty reserved as compared to his usual, which was kind of the point. Savage goes with the cheapshot to start and pounds away, but Warrior puts him down with a shoulderblock and follows with a clothesline. Warrior chokes him down and gets an atomic drop from both ways, then tosses Savage into Sherri before slugging Savage down again. Macho gets tied in the ropes, but gets free and puts Warrior down with the hooking clothesline, then goes up with the flying bodypress, but Warrior catches him and sets him down to really egg him on. Oooo, BURN. Savage gets frustrated and tosses a chair in for the distraction, then blindsides Warrior, but Warrior calmly pounds him down and stomps a mudhole in the corner. Blind charge misses, however, and Warrior hits the floor, giving Sherri a chance to torment him. Savage follows with a flying axehandle to the floor, and sends Warrior into the post. Another shot from Sherri and they head back in for a Savage kneedrop that gets two. Warrior gets a backslide for two and Gorilla informs us "we've just been informed that this is the largest audience in the history of pay-per-view". Really? In the middle of the show they got those numbers? Warrior tries the flying shoulderblock, but Savage moves and gets two. That was a weak spot, actually. Savage goes to a sleeper, but Warrior fights out of it and they criss-cross into the double-clothesline. Warrior reverses a slam into the small package, but the ref is distracted by Sherri and it only gets two. Ref is bumped and Sherri gets more directly involved, but hits Savage with her shoe by mistake. Warrior goes after her, allowing Savage to get a rollup for two. Warrior slugs him down, but Savage sends him into the turnbuckles and it's looking bad for Warrior. Slam gets two and Savage drops the big elbow, then gets really dramatic and drops FOUR MORE of them. You'd think that would do it, but it only gets two. Warrior powers up and makes the comeback with the three clotheslines and gorilla press, but the big splash only gets two. Maybe he should have done FIVE of them like Savage did. Warrior appeals to the gods for help, or maybe just the photographer in the rafters, who knows with this guy. No answer is forthcoming so he decides to walk out of the match and think it over, but Savage makes the decision for him and attacks. Savage tries to drop an axehandle onto the Warrior's throat ala Ricky Steamboat, but he misses and splatters himself on the railing. And Warrior apparently has his message (perhaps God had voice mail and was just on another call at the time) because he heads back in and spears Savage out of the ring. Back in, second verse same as the first. One last shoulderblock and Savage is retired (with a bazillion more World titles yet to come) at 20:45. Still awesome, although the occasional goofed up spot and slightly anti-climactic ending leave it well short of perfection. ****1/2
And of course, Machiavellian Sherri attacks her former meal ticket afterwards like Lady Macbeth, leaving Elizabeth to make the unlikely save, finally getting physically involved on behalf of Savage after years of being the distraction and nothing more. And so they are reunited again and would have been the happy ending to Savage's career, had it actually been the ending. The retirement proved to be pretty inconvenient because suddenly Savage was the #2 babyface in the promotion again and could have easily carried the belt. Anyway, I think I have dust in my eye, let's move on…
Demolition v. Genichiro Tenryu & Koji Kitao
What a strangely random tag team match. Clearly this is after the intermission, which is brutal because we're already two hours into this thing with two title matches to come. The pre-match interviews with Regis trying to interview the Japanese contingent and Trebek antagonizing Demolition are brutal. Speaking of brutal, "Demolition" is once again edited out, giving us Spooky Ghost Finkel. Crush attacks Kitao, but he fires back with forearms. Fuji hits him with the cane to give the Demos the advantage, but Kitao doesn't really sell any of Smash's goofy offense. Crush goes to the neck vice and Smash chokes him out. Kitao finally gets a random clothesline out of the corner and brings Tenryu in, but he misses an elbow off the top. Crush comes in with a backbreaker and Smash sets up for the finish, but Kitao pushes Crush off the top and Tenryu hits Smash with an enzuigiri and finishes with the powerbomb at 4:39. I don't WHAT they were going for here, but it probably wasn't this. Demolition was thankfully put out to pasture as a concept after this. DUD
Intercontinental title: Mr. Perfect v. Big Bossman
Finally, I can watch the uncut match. Another two-death match in a depressing series of them tonight. Four if you're counting the referee and Andre. This was of course the culmination of Bobby Heenan insulting Big Bossman's mother for months, resulting in Bossman mowing through the entire Heenan family. In hindsight, he should have won the title here. They had lots of time to put the belt back on Perfect before Bret got it anyway. Bossman's music is overdubbed with the shitty Attitude era music, but thankfully Perfect's theme survives. Bossman DISRESPECTS THE TOWEL and then spits on Perfect, and you know that's not gonna stand. Bossman tosses Perfect around by the hair and then catches him with a clothesline out of the corner, as Perfect gives us his first somersault sell. Bossman tosses him to start the bumping officially . Back in, Perfect does the somersault bump out of the corner, and Bossman whips him with his belt for good measure. Perfect, however, is SMART and absorbs the punishment long enough to steal the belt, then wraps it around his fist and puts Bossman down with it. They slug it out in the corner and Perfect whips him into the turnbuckles, and then it's a historic Gorilla moment: Mr. Perfect applies an abdominal stretch and Gorilla notes that it's perfectly applied! That is the only time I've heard him fail to gripe about the foot not being hooked properly. Perfect releases and gets the necksnap, and NOW YOU'RE GONNA SEE A PERFECTPLEX, but sadly he's wrong because Bossman reverses for two. Perfect fires back with an inverted version of the necksnap, and that's just nasty. Perfect goes up and lands on Bossman's boot, and Bossman posts him. Perfect bails to escape that, suckering Bossman out and into the STEEL stairs. Luckily, Andre the Giant is in the building to deal with these shenanigans, and he grabs the title belt from the timekeeper and then casually whacks Perfect with it. Perfect's sell of that is epic. You'd think "title change" there, but no, it only gets two as the cavalry runs in for the DQ at 10:44. Much better than the edited Coliseum version, but the finish just totally fell apart because Andre was really slow in hitting his marks. But then, would YOU argue with him? ***1/4
Earthquake v. Greg Valentine
Boy, that Greg Valentine face turn…what more can you say about it? Oh man, Chuck Norris interviewed at ringside many years before he became an internet meme. Quake pounds him in the corner and follows with the powerslam, but Hammer comes out of the corner with an elbow and pounds Quake down. Elbow off the middle rope and Valentine drops the Hammer, but Quake's legs are too big for the figure-four. Another try, but Valentine gets distracted by Jimmy Hart, and Quake puts him away at 3:14. It was what it was. 1/2*
The Legion of Doom v. Power & Glory
If you put together a "Paul Roma's Greatest Moments" DVD, this would probably be high up on the list. Another two-death match. P&G attacks to start, but Animal powerslams Roma and the Doomsday Device finishes him at 1:00. There's your Wrestlemania Moment, Paul. DUD
Ted Dibiase v. Virgil
Virgil's inevitable slow-burn face turn was one where people had been waiting for years to see it, but once they did it they had nowhere else to go with the character. It's a shame that UFC was still a few years away at this point, because a name change and refit into a MMA-style street fighter would have been a good gimmick direction for Virgil. The name change would have been an easy one as well, because he could be like "That was just the name you gave me!" and everyone would completely buy it. In fact, why would he continue calling himself "Virgil" after leaving Dibiase's employ, anyway? Virgil uses the fisticuffsmanship to get Dibiase off his game to start, then slingshots him in from the apron. He clotheslines Dibiase back out again, and gets a back elbow for two in the ring. Dibiase bails and stalls, and back in he accuses Virgil of cheating to buy time. Virgil takes him down, but Dibiase gets his own drop toehold and rams him into the turnbuckles a few times. Piledriver gets two. Suplex gets two. Gutwrench suplex gets two. Virgil bails and Dibiase follows him out and beats up on the crippled Roddy Piper for good measure, because he's AWESOME. Back in, powerslam for Virgil, but Piper uses his crutch to pull down the top rope and Dibiase is counted out at 7:35. This didn't really go anywhere and was far eclipsed by their Summerslam match later that year. *1/2 Dibiase lays the beatdown on Virgil afterwards until Piper saves, but now Sherri changes teams and debuts as Dibiase's new manager for a pairing that should have worked way better than it did. The storylines with Sherri siphoning off Dibiase's millions could have written themselves.
The Mountie v. Tito Santana
And one last squash before the main event, just because this show wasn't ridiculously long enough as it is. Tito gets the flying forearm right away and goes after Jimmy Hart, then hits Mountie with an atomic drop. Shock stick to the gut finishes for Mountie, however, at 1:18. DUD
WWF World title: Sgt. Slaughter v. Hulk Hogan
Hulk works the headlock to start and boots Slaughter down, but goes after Adnan and that allows Slaughter to attack with a chair. Not just any chair, but a Wrestlemania souvenir chair from the looks of it! Those hurt EXTRA, but Hulk no-sells it and they head back in. Slaughter pounds away in the corner and puts Hogan down with an elbow, then drops knees before missing an elbow. Bobby goes off on a funny run on Regis' behalf about how he dislikes Hogan because "the men I managed never got any title shots", which is such a ridiculously blatant lie that you have to love it. Hogan comes back and whips Slaughter around the ring, then backdrops him out of the corner. Catapult into the post and Gorilla declares that we're seeing "The Hulkster of the 90s". No, I'd say the Hulk of the 90s was yet to come, but kudos for trying to be timely. Corner clothesline gets two and Hulk goes AERIAL, but Slaughter catches him coming down. Hulk shakes it off and slams him, then drops the elbows before going up AGAIN. Slaughter slams him off the top to take over, and goes to work on the back. Clothesline misses by a good foot, but Hogan sells it and goes to the floor anyway. Sarge chokes him out with the TV cable, which is carrying the signal to the biggest PPV audience in the history of PPV you know, and back in Slaughter keeps pounding the back. Boston Crab, and Slaughter uses the old Arn Anderson trick of having Adnan push on his head for leverage, but Hogan makes the ropes. Slaughter stays on the back and goes up with a flying kneedrop, but Adnan actually distracts the ref while Slaughter is covering. It still gets two. Slaughter retrieves another chair and hits Hogan right in the bald spot, and we get blood from that. The REAR CHINLOCK OF DEATH seems to signal the end for Hulkamania, but much like those democracy-loving Kuwaitis, Hogan escapes the deathgrip of Iraq and makes the comeback. Big boot, legdrop, and it's mission accomplished and Osama Bin Laden captured all in one pinfall at 20:21. Lex Luger probably would have won by countout. Gorilla declares that the war is now officially over that Hogan has won the title back. I'm sure all the soldiers in Kuwait were relieved to hear that. ***
The Pulse
Holy cow this show is LONG. The full version isn't significantly different from the edited one in terms of making the show better or worse, but 3.5 hours is just way too long for a show that didn't need junk filler like Earthquake v. Valentine and Tito Santana v. Mountie. Still kind of a forgotten and overly maligned show. Mild recommendation.
Surprised you reviewed this one since you’ve already done 2-3 Rants on this before.
Anyways; “In fact, why would he continue calling himself “Virgil” after leaving Dibiase’s employ, anyway?”
We didn’t have Russo to look out for us back then!
Martel a bland heel? Wtf?
Yeah I’m going to have to respectfully disagree Scott, I thought Martel was a fantastic heel. Perfect as a mid-carder.
The blindfold match is also a guilty pleasure of mine. It may not hold up well now but as an 8 year old I thought it was a cool match because it evened the playing field (yes I really thought Jake was temporarily blind). Jake using the crowd to locate Martel was great.
I gotta agree with Scott on this one. The character wasn’t bland, but in the ring, Martel as a heel just didn’t click. Some people just can’t work heel, and he unfortunately was one of them.
Yeah, Martel was one of those guys who were great at playing a heel gimmick in interviews but just couldn’t pull it off convincingly enough in the ring. So, he resorted to the ‘goofy heel’ antics which basically ensured that he’d never rise above midcard level despite having all the talent in the world. And that’s one of the reasons why his later run in WCW caught many people off-guard, because they forgot that he was a hell of a worker as a babyface.
Duggans’s music was actually used on the live PPV as he got that theme in 1990, but the WrestleMania Anthology set was weird as a bunch of original WWE music that WWE owns was removed for no good reason, like Boss Man and Snuka’s music on this event.
It’s just sloppy work from the production department, rather than losing the rights to it, and I really don’t understand how it happens, as you think they would know what was and what was not music created specifically for WWE.
It got better on the Rumble and SummerSlam sets, but it still happens sometimes. For example, Ricky Steamboat’s 1991 music gets dubbed out on WWE.com Legacy these days, even though WWE created it for him.
It’s isn’t always about what WWE “owns” rights to. Keep in mind that Jimmy Hart wrote much of the pre-1994 music, and there was a period of time where he was persona non grata for various reasons (including his involvement with both TNA and Hogan’s celebrity wrestling project). Presumably, anything Hart would stand to make a profit from would be omitted from use if possible, especially inconsequential music pieces.
There’s also a cost factor involved, and since Jim Johnston is a permanent member of the WWE staff, everything he produces for WWE is automatically property of the company, which is an arrangement that doesn’t exist for other contributors. A Johnston composition will always be cheaper for WWE to use than something else, especially when the profit margin for the finished product can be so low (such as on a video-on-demand service, or a DVD box set).
I do think it’s mostly shabby work on the part of the production department, as some of Jimmy Hart’s work has never been replaced on any DVD or re-broadcast and still gets used whenever necessary, such as both versions of “Sexy Boy” and the Million Dollar Man theme.
One particular replacement that was ridiculous was replacing “Bird, Bird, Bird” with “Piledriver” on WrestleMania VI and the 1990 Rumble. Both songs were Jim Johnston songs, and both were performed by Koko B. Ware. What’s even dumber is the fact that it’s replaced on the 1990 Rumble DVD but left in on the 1991 Rumble DVD.
Who knows? Rights issues stuff are a mess. (Though I agree with the Jimmy Hart thing…seems once they struck a deal with him, more music was restored) Look at the DC/WB issues…especially with Justice League Unlimited and the Bat-Embargo. You’d think any WB production could use any character, as they own them all right now, but no.
Of course, if you’re a conspiracy theorist, note that now, they don’t care who’s in what, and there’s multiple renditions of characters again (Batman in the movie, in the DC Direct-to-DVD movies, and Brave and the Bold, and they can use the likenesses of any of his villians on the latter). You almost think they were trying to hamper JLU so they could end the DCAU era. Not that the last seasons of the show weren’t still awesome, of course.
It seems like DC might not have the rights to Superman very much longer either:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman#Copyright_issues
So yay, they get to rush another Superman movie just to keep the copyright. Methinks “Superman vs. Hollywood” (very good book BTW) will need a second edition.
I also wonder…could it be an issue with the singers of the songs too? Not just the writer (i.e. Jimmy Hart)?
In recent videos taken from Classics on Demand and from the MSG Classics, I see that the Demolition theme and Hard Time seem to have been restored. And Common Man was all over Dusty’s set.
Really? They don’t have the rights to “Superfly” any longer? Did the guy at the beginning threaten to sue-sue-sue them?
Okay, that one got me.
To vomit?
The lead singer of the band Yello asks for too much money, I assume.
It’s a play off Snuka’s old theme.
All this editing crap is what kills the enjoyment of watching these old shows for me. I find it very jarring, especially on shows I know well.
It’s been said that the replay value for professional-wrestling events is almost nil.
For me personally (and I suspect this is true for many others) most of the excitement is generated by the uncertainty of the match result. Once you’ve eliminated that after the first viewing, you are left with the nostalgia you have for the show. With the great shows, there is also the appreciation one can have for athletic aspects and production aspects, but these kind of shows are few and far between in my eyes.
The editing of these shows really damages reliving the experience for me. I would guess that to what degree this might bother you is dependent on the way you watch wrestling — it was generally a time for social interaction for me and also part of the fabric of fun childhood experience.
It’s not their fault of course — this kind of legal stuff has haunted a lot of great shows — The Wonder Years will likely never see a release in any format, due to the gargantuan costs to license all the popular and classic music used on the show — but it’s a shame nonetheless.
“It’s not their fault of course — this kind of legal stuff has haunted a lot of great shows — The Wonder Years will likely never see a release in any format, due to the gargantuan costs to license all the popular and classic music used on the show — but it’s a shame nonetheless.”
Yep. And WKRP, as Scott will attest to. And anything CBS/Paramount puts out nowadays.
Yet ALLY F’N McBEAL supposedly has the rights to all its music secured, for a COMPLETE SERIES box set.
I quite enjoyed the WKRP set (mainly because I was blissfully ignorant of what was missing and was able to just enjoy the jokes) but I guess not enough people bought the set as I’ve never heard anything about seasons 2-4 being released.
Yeah this seems to be happening a lot these days, even with classic and popular shows, such as All in the Family. They released the first six seasons of that and then just stopped.
Isn’t that usually a sales issue? I.e. each season drops off in sales and eventually it becomes impractical to continue releasing them?
This is true. This is why we had to fight to the death to get Mary Tyler Moore’s fifth season, which we’re getting JUST NOW (this Oct.) Though Fox denied it was the sales when they said they would dedicate themselves to releasing the rest of it.
Sadly, business is often art.
Though with ‘KRP, maybe they knew it was an epic fail to try and get away with releasing it with butchered music and edits. So they gave up on that experiment. Fear not, iOffer is your friend…they always have it “with original music” on bootleg DVD.
These companies would be better off utilizing the same model that’s currently being used with the release of the Three Stooges films: a simple, no-frills release at or around $20 per season (or, in the case of the Stooges, in three-year groupings per set). I know everyone loves audio commentaries and outtakes and other ‘extras’ that somehow help them justify paying money for what are essentially repackaged reruns, but those extras are what convince TPTB to jack up the prices to reflect the ‘added value’.
And for the most part, are these extras really adding to the overall viewing experience? Everyone knows the stories behind these various shows by now, and if they don’t, then that’s why we have the internet. If the difference in price between having a few commentaries and bloopers or not is about $15-$20, I’d rather have the barebones versions as long as the episodes are mostly intact (I now accept that there will be some editing and music issues, so if it’s a show that I really like then I’m willing to deal with changes as long as they aren’t too intrusive).
Also — did Marla Maples ever have any cultural significance? I’ve seen her in one movie (the delightlfully disgusting dramedy “Happiness”)
She was Donald Trump’s mistress when he was married to Ivana Trump, right? I’m guessing she was in the tabloids for a few months and that was enough for her to get a “celebrity guest” spot at WrestleMania. I guess it’s not such a far cry from Mary Hart though.
Alex Trebek’s participation in this show surprised me the most actually. I guess he’s just a TV guy, but Jeopardy certainly wore the banner of “high-brow” game show for a long time.
I always got a kick out of the fact that they declared this the biggest buy-rate in the history of wrestling in the middle of the show too — which I’m sure was Vince’s idea in order to save face from a year of the “It’ll be the biggest WrestleMania EVER in front of over 100,000 screaming fans” commercials. I guess he meant that those 100,000 screaming fans were going to be in their living rooms.
Just for the record, the Tyson/Ruddock fight that occured the week before had JUST set a new PPV record for # of buys and demolished the WrestleMania 7 buyrate by all accounts.
Wrestling? DISHONEST? Shocking.
I’ve always wondered why Vince thought that a heel Sgt. Slaughter would draw 100,000 fans against Hogan in 1991. In 1986? Maybe, but considering that they ‘only’ did about 78,000 at WMIII with megastar Andre the Giant in 1987, what made the WWF braintrust see dollar signs in bald and out-of-shape Bob Remus four years later?
Maybe it’s just because I’ve been watching Slaughter wrestle on the old AWA shows on ESPN Classic, and I can’t believe how ungodly terrible he was in the ring. At first, I thought it was just because he was squashing hapless jobbers, but even when he was in there with talent who actually could work…well, I just can’t understand how this guy was such a huge star in 1984. Did people really hate the Iron Sheik that much? He didn’t even have the in-ring charisma of someone like Dusty or Hogan, or the presence of a Sid or Goldberg, or even the size of an Andre or Baba. There’s no question that he pulled off the gimmick better than most would have outside the ring, but even the drill sergeant routine was old and hackneyed by the turn of the decade. If not for the G.I. Joe connection, I doubt Verne would have bothered bringing him back in 1989.
I would put money on the fact that the CNN / Headline News footage of the Gulf War that was drawing record ratings for cable at the time had SOMETHING to do with it.
It is certainly one of the first big mistakes (aside from putting the title on the Warrior) since wrestling’s national expansion where Vince was shown to be out of touch with the wrestling marketplace.
Plans were obviously in the works for the Savage/Warrior retirement match by November 1990, when Savage started giving interviews about how he was going to beat the Warrior and then retire.
Sgt. Slaughter was still feuding with Nickolai Volkoff at this point and then all of the sudden he’s a main eventer? It makes you wonder what other ideas they were considering before the war took off.
I can’t imagine that anything BUT Hogan/Warrior 2 was originally the plan for WrestleMania. I’ve heard that Ric Flair was hanging out in town with Vince during the weekend of WrestleMania VI, so perhaps he figured he had a good shot at bringing him in and doing Hogan/Flair at WrestleMania 7.
If I remember correctly, Demolition didn’t use their “Demolition” theme for this show. They had some shitty generic heel music, even worse than the one which over-dubbed it!
Yeah, that’s true, they did have a different theme by this point. I assume the old one usually got a face pop for the beginning and there were supposed to be heels. If I remember correctly they started using it around December 1990 and used it till the team disbanded.
It’s funny – Demolition was probably at the peak of it’s popularity around WrestleMania VI, but they went from three-peat face champions to heels and on the way out of the federation within the span of a few months. I assume this was all due to Bill Eadie’s health problems?
Interesting… from Wikipedia:
“The trio concept was precipitated by a mutual decision to phase out the Ax character and for Eadie to take a backstage role in the company. Popular rumor at the time cited heart problems on Eadie’s part, which have been discredited in recent years. An allergic reaction to shellfish while in Japan before Wrestlemania VI was the real cause of his heart stopping (Eadie confirmed this in a shoot interview in 2007)… Eadie’s new position eventually fell through and his final WWF appearance was at Survivor Series 1990. This event also marked the last time that he and Smash spoke for 17 years.”
Also – although I personally don’t agree with this characterization – the feeling amongst people was apparently that since they now had the actual Road Warriors, they no longer needed the “fake” versions.
Which is kinda missing the point, as the Demos always had a totally different kind of appeal than the LOD – not as dominating, but better at just being a traditional tag team (since both guys could, you know… sell.) The clear LOD rip-off team was the Powers of Pain in their original WWF babyface incarnation, but of course that didn’t work out.
They started using it when they became the “masked Demolition.” I assume due to A) the change of gimmick, and B) the reference to the guy who would be on his way out (as in, “Here comes the Ax…”)
Haha, Andre drilled him with the belt, almost as if Mr. Perfect was an annoying afterthought. And Perfect sold it like Andre was wearing the power bracelet from Zelda.
That was just one of the moments I remember fondly from this show. Also, see Piper javelining the crutch into Marella’s nuts, and Martel hitting the ring post with the chair and selling it as if he snapped both of his wrists.
Of course the greatest moment is the Savage Elizabeth reunion. That’s still the best moment in the history of the WWF/WWE. I mean, could you imagine the fans giving a clapping, standing ovation for anything like that today?
Curt’s selling against Andre is probably my favorite of his patented overselling.
Well, if there’s ever a time to oversell, it’s for the Giant.
See, given how anal WWF/WWE tends to be about their intellectual property and whatnot, you’d think they would have taken steps to ensure that the company held the legal rights to everything WWF-related from the point of the national expansion in perpetuity, especially something as significant as the entrance music for the wrestlers. In fact, wasn’t THAT the reason they started using original music in the first place, since they didn’t want to have to deal with the hassle of using copyrighted songs like ‘Eye of The Tiger’ and ‘Sirius’?
At any rate, this is why I tend to avoid these ‘official’ compilations. Between the blurrings, ridiculous edits, awkwardly replaced music and obvious overdubbings, the nostalgia factor is severely diminished.
Yep. I can take it in small doses, which is why the match/company/etc. compilations are usually OK. And since I am more of a Hulkamania-era fan than an Attitude one, at least the blurring is minimal in the footage I am interested in. But I won’t buy the whole shows in the PPV anthologies for the reasons stated.
And wouldn’t you be anal, if a copyright snafu caused you to lose YOUR NAME?
And wouldn’t you be anal, if a copyright snafu caused you to lose YOUR NAME?
Point taken, but they’ve been gung-ho about such things for years, long before the name-change fiasco (and I still can’t believe they failed so epically with that one). And there are those who would say that Vince McMahon had that one coming, anyhow.
Well yeah, if anyone needs to crash on the karma train, I guess a lot of people would pick him…
One more thought…I guess I put up with it in those small doses because, hey, the matches are there and usually aren’t altered. Now if they digitally insert HHH in there and have him pedigree Lou Thesz…
TV PG changes on Classics notwithstanding…
…but you get my point. The personalities I remember are still there and all.
I never understood why Tenyru and Kitao were chosen to beat Demolition at this event, when they already had tons of established tag teams to do the same thing (LOD being the most logical, Rockers, Hart Foundation, Nasty Boys, Haku/Barbarian, Power and Glory, even the friggin Bushwhackers would have been a better choice).
Tenryu and Kitao were on the card because the WWF had recently begun a relationship with Super World Sports (SWS), and in fact held a join card with them days later in Japan, from http://prowrestlinghistory.com/supercards/japan/misc/sws.html:
Tokyo Dome 3/91
“Wrestlefest”
March 30, 1991 in Tokyo, Japan
Tokyo Egg Dome drawing 36,000
The Hart Foundation beat The Rockers (14:40) when Hart pinned Michaels.
Earthquake pinned Koji Kitao (6:10).
Ted DiBiase & Haku beat The Great Kabuki & Takashi Ishikawa (15:16) when DiBiase pinned Ishikawa.
Samson Fuyuki, Tatsumi Kitihara, Masao Orihara, & Apollo Sugawara beat Goro Tsurumi, Don Arakawa, Kenichi Oya, & Fumihiro Niikura (5:37) when Fuyuki pinned Oya.
Kendo Nagasaki pinned Jim Duggan (2:49).
Demolition Smash & Crush beat Shunji Takano & Shinichi Nakano (5:22) when Smash pinned Nakano.
The Ultimate Warrior pinned Sgt Slaughter (7:14).
Masa Funaki beat Naoki Sano (10:23) via submission.
Kerry Von Erich beat WWF I-C Champ Mr Perfect (6:59) via DQ.
Ishinriki & Yoshiaki Yatsu beat Jimmy Snuka & The Barbarian (10:00) when Yatsu pinned Barbarian.
Randy Savage pinned George Takano (13:42).
Legion of Doom beat Hulk Hogan & Genichiro Tenryu (14:03) via countout.
But why the Demos specifically were chosen over a jobber team like the Bushwhackers or Orient Express, who knows.
I would guess the Demos were chosen because they’d be somewhat known in Japan (they were part of the first WWF-AJPW supercard, losing in a tag match to Andre & Baba).
I can’t believe it, but the video of HHH-Orton on the WM25 special on NBC almost made it look exciting (almost). Guess this was the way the match and show were meant to be watched. I don’t think I actually saw this match until now, either.
Off-topic, but I just watched Smackdown and have some thoughts…
SPOILER WARNING for those who haven’t seen the newest Smackdown yet…
Firstly, maybe it’s not too off-topic, as I think Jeff Hardy’s farewell, with many women and girls crying on camera recalls the raw emotion of the Savage-Elizabeth reunion at WrestleMania VII (Savage holding the ropes for Elizabeth is a knockout legendary moment).
Secondly, Smackdown was a story of two shows. For the first five quarters or so, I found it to be terribly, uncharacteristically weak. The time allotted for wrestling dropped dramatically. Much of this can be attributed to the wrapping up of some loose ends from SummerSlam/launching new programs, but even the Morrison/Hardy vs. Hart Dynasty match was too short and lacking in spark. Then, JeriShow came out (seems like WWE is using them as the mid-relievers to save the respective broadcasts right now) and there was all of that heat for Teddy Long making a singles match into a tag team bout. I liked the energy, because you believed that Cryme Time and JeriShow just don’t like each other in any way whatsoever. The little touches to the match(es) were excellent.
Thirdly, the cage match. It seemed to take a while to get going, but I ended up loving the way it wrapped up. I found it so poetically fitting that CM Punk effectively “won the feud for good” by poking Jeff Hardy in the eye with a thumb, a basic heel move enhanced by the history the two have over “injured eyes” from much earlier in the feud. Then you had Hardy’s farewell, which was undeniably emotional even if you’re not a fan of his, and, just when I thought the show was over, Punk returns and knocks Hardy out with his belt. Final shot to conclude the feud–Punk standing over the fallen, humiliated, and essentially now ostracized Hardy.
Many of us have been comparing Punk’s heel turn/ascendancy this summer to HHH in late 1999/early 2000, with the SummerSlam TLC match representing the Royal Rumble streetfight. Well, they effectively crammed in the entire No Way Out build-up and conclusion in one night with Jeff being tossed out of WWE and Punk’s dominance never more potent. (This is all fine, however, because Punk-Hardy goes all the way back to Punk cashing in at Extreme Rules, almost three months ago now, whereas the celebrated HHH-Foley feud really only lasted for a little over two months in its finest incarnation.) Jeff has definitely played Mick Foley to Punk’s HHH.
It’ll be interesting to see where things are headed now with Undertaker chasing Punk for the title. I’m hoping against hope we’re in store for a long, continuous Punk title reign, but feuding with Taker has me worried. I’m hoping they pull off something like Kane showing up out of nowhere to save Shawn Michaels against Undertaker in the first Hell in a Cell, because Punk is white-hot right now and they should ride him for as long as he can take them. If he somehow escapes with his title in a couple of PPV matches with Taker, fans will, one would hope, not only hate him but they’ll be staying up late at night wondering who can take the belt from him.
Ah, if only Raw’s main event scene were 1/5th this interesting.
Couldn’t agree more with all of that, I thought the Hardy send off could not have been booked any better. We saw fan emotion, Jeff got to say goodbye and have a decent send off but, at the end of the day, it’s a wrestling show and the heat needs to remain on the guy staying with the company so it was great that Punk laid him out.
Punk has been awesome in this role but at the end of the day, you only remain over if you look like a threat and Hardy has definitely put Punk on the next level. Two brutal beatdowns as well as clean victories in the TLC and Steel Cage match. There is no way he would have been booked so strongly against Cena or HHH.
The rest of the show was a big letdown though. I never want to see Kane and Rey wrestle again. On a plus note, however, I thought they did a decent job introducing Drew McIntyre. The guy got a lot of heat for beating R-Truth down and, if he’s any good in the ring, that should be a good mid-card feud.
Re-introducing. He was on a few years ago in a tag team with Dave Taylor.
I like the cage match more then the TLC encounter. Punk knocked this match out of the park. First, he comes down during Hardy’s entrance music while Jeff is still slapping hands and starts beating him down. This makes the early attempts to climb the cage MUCH more believable as false finishes. Plus his timing with playing off the injuries from Sunday did not make it seem like constant slow climb and after slow climb to escape. The pacing was fantastic – best cage match I’ve seen in a long time.
I missed the eye poke continuity on first watch – great call Alexander. That makes this match even a better blowoff. I loved the subtle touch at the end too as they put up the Smackdown copyright stuff – show looks like it’s over but they take it down and show Jeff saying goodbye to the crowd. And then his final goodbye at the top of the ramp and Punk wiping him out = priceless. What a well booked match.
The cage match was a fitting and awesome conclusion as to what will probably be the feud of the year.
I’m with everyone here LOVING Punk getting that final cheap shot in the midst of the crying tweeners and kids. Absolutely dickish and awesome at the same time.