Scott's Blog of Doom

The ‘Captain Hindsight’ Retro Review of Halloween Havoc 1998

By red29

This show was played on WWE Classics on Demand this past month and I remember being so excited for this Supercard back in the fall of ’98. The Monday Night Wars were still up for grabs although the tide was certainly turning to the WWF. I had been watching wrestling religiously for a year at this point (started oddly enough with Starrcade ’97 at a friend’s house). I watched this originally from my college dorm room on a live internet stream from WCW.com, using a login/password from some IRCnet chatroom I think. That was pretty big for 1998. The point of this review is to see how this holds up eleven years later using my cynical jaded wrestling eyes. . Actually I’m a pretty positive guy and I WANT to enjoy what I’m watching. Anyway, I rate matches on the typical 5 * scale with your average match weighing in at **1/2. I did not dig up Scott’s original rant on this from the 411 or Pulse archives so anything that sounds familiar is strictly due to osmosis from reading all his stuff for the last eleven years (started on Wrestline.com). Let’s cue up the 24/7 montage…

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OK, so after giving this about 5 minutes of total thought, here’s my 64 team field for the first annual Scott’s Stupid Dream Tag Team Tournament.  This is not in any particular order, it’s just 64 teams I could think of off the top of my head who are pretty cool and probably deserve slots here.  If there’s any more deserving you can think of, now is the time to nominate them.  I’m just gonna end up randomly seeding them and letting people vote in a poll to determine the winner.  The criteria will be entirely up to you.  Vote for your favorite, the ones who were the best workers, the ones you’d think would win a real fight, whatever.

The nominated teams:

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Hey Scott,

If everyone were in their primes, what do you think would be the better match:

Midnight Express vs. Hart Foundation or Brittish Bulldogs vs. Steiner Brothers?

 

Well I can certainly tell you what the stiffer match would be.

I think heel Midnights v. babyface Harts from 1990ish would have been the best bet for match quality.  The Steiners could be hit or miss with similar-styled teams and the Bulldogs were dependent on Dynamite’s mood and injuries, so you never knew what you were getting.  The Harts and Midnights both knew the formula inside out and you could be guaranteed a ***1/2 match just by them going through the motions, so I’m thinking that’s the better choice.

Maybe for fun we’ll do a big “fantasy tag team tournament” deal so people can debate this topic more in depth.

Scott, 

Did you check out the match list for WWE: History of the World Heavyweight Championship?

There are some real winners here: Flair v. Magnum from the AWA Superclash, Rock & Jericho from no Mercy and Angle v. Undertaker from No Way Out a few years back... and some real stinkers like Luger v. Windham from Bash '91 (I hope they leave the original audio intact), Jeff Jarrett v. Booker T, and HHH v. RVD from Unforgiven '02. They also have some matches form the 60s and 70s, but I'm betting it'll just be clips or something.

Anyway, thoughts? I mean, Rock/Jericho on DVD is a MUST BUY, and so is Flair/Magnum.

 

Match quality looks pretty great and it’s interesting mix of stuff from a style standpoint, but what the FUCK are they doing with the lineage?  The Smackdown title now represents the NWA World title, the WCW World title, the WWE version of the WCW World title from 2001, AND the current “World heavyweight title”?  People still have trouble with the WCW-NWA split in 1991, this set is just going to needlessly confuse things even more. 

The Ultimate Fighting Championship VII: The Brawl in Buffalo!

- Live from Buffalo, NY.

- Your hosts are Bruce Beck and Jeff Blatnick, with Don "The Dragon" Wilson on color.

- The draw seems like an easy win for Marco Ruas, along with a Shamrock v. Oleg superfight.

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WWF MONDAY NIGHT RAW

Vince hypes the IC title match between Dean Douglas and Razor Ramon as well as Marty Jannetty vs Sid. Also, Shawn Michaels’s “personal physician” Jeffrey Unger will update us on the condition of HBK.

Your hosts are Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler (more...)

A couple of months ago I e-mailed you 10 rapid fire questions, and the readers seemed to enjoy it so here's part two.

Again, the premise is 10 quick questions, answer with the first things that come to mind.

here we go!

1. Of all you books, which is YOUR personal favorite to read? (or i should say write)

2. Best Hogan match ever?

3. Demolition or Road Warriors?

4. Midnights or RocknRolls?

5. Citizen Kane, The Godfather, Casablanca, Raging Bull, Singin in the Rain, Gone with the Wind, Lawrence of Arabia, Schindler's List, Vertigo, The Wizard of Oz. These are the American Film Institue top 10 movies all time. Agree with the choices? If not what needs to go and what needs inclusion? (i think 2001 DEFINITLY belongs, thats me though)

6. On the best day's of their lives, whose a better worker Bret or Shawn?

7. Isnt wargames the greatest gimmick match ever?

8. If Terry Funk retired in 89 after the I quit with Flair and never had his ECW stint, would we REALLY consider him a legend nowadays or would he be another old timer we barely recognize like Verne Gagne or Lou Thesz?

9. Favorite Sting-Vader match?

10. Ever seen AJ-Joe-Daniels from Unbreakable 05? If so what you think? Meltzer said its ***** and the best 3 way ever (better than WM20 even)

 

1.  Well that’s hardly a fair question.  You can’t make choices like that in a lightning round.

2.  Against Warrior at WM6.

3.  Demolition.  I was never into the Road Warriors.

4.  Midnights.  I’m more specifically a fan of Ricky Morton when it comes to the RNR.

5.  I’d say Godfather part 2 belongs in there, but I haven’t seen them all so it’s not fair to judge the rest.

6.  Shawn.

7.  Yes.  Yes it is.

8.  Funk was a former NWA World champion and a huge star long before he became a crazy old man, so yes, we’d still remember him.  For his WWF stint in the 80s if nothing else.

9.  The one from Starrcade 92.

10.  Yes, it’s definitely *****.  The three-way at WM didn’t happen and was just a dream (along with Backlash) so I don’t have a point of comparison, but hypothetically if that WM main event DID happen it’s still the best because of the bigger match feel.

Michael's Extreme Review #16

October 27, 2009

Rochester, New York

-Well, the Orange Goblin will make his return to TNA.  Scott Keith is somewhere dry-heaving.  Enough about that, how about Raw last night.  Wasn't feeling it, plus, Kyle Busch or Kurt Busch or whoever didn't read his final notes before entering the ring.  Kofi Johnston?  Really?  That wasn't even close.  At least Summerfest sounded like a cool idea.  Oh, and Ozzy is hosting next week?  What's the over/under on how many actual words he gets to say?  SHARON!!!  Let's get down the ring....

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Yeah, this doesn’t make me want to watch TNA, either.

http://www.f4wonline.com/content/view/11119/

Obviously this is a very desperate company, although if Bischoff is involved in the creative end of things and still has the desire to go to war with Vince, it could be interesting in a giant trainwreck sort of way.  At least it’s SOMETHING relatively exciting to break up the giant vacuum of boredom and suck that has been the WWE’s last 10 years or so.

I anxiously await X Division champion Brutus Beefcake.

The SmarK Rant for WWE Bragging Rights 2009

- Live from Pittsburgh, PA.

- Your hosts are Michael & Jerry & Todd

- So apparently the winner of the metaphorical bragging rights gets an actual trophy. Really? In 2009?

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