So - Did The Go Home RAW Draw You In?

So it was the 'go home' WWE RAW show before the biggest PPV of the year. The first hour was pretty dull to be honest, people rave about CM Punk's slow, methodic promo's but really, it was boring. Can't recall much else from hour one other than Kane doing Santino's trumpet, not looking forward to that 8 man tag at Mania at all, I think in the arena people will be going for the proverbial 'piss break'.


Hour two gave us of course the confrontation between The Undertaker & Triple H, I wondered how they could make it interesting if at all and out they wheeled old HBK himself - Shawn Michaels. He put them both over and after Undertaker put Michaels over he then said he basically couldn't get the job done at two Mania's in a row, Michaels went for the super kick, 'Taker blocked it and went for the chokeslam but Triple H broke it. While nose to nose with 'Taker, Triple H said "Shawn, tell him how I'm going to win" no answer from Michaels.

Twitter was raving about the angle with these three, 99% loved it, thought it was amazing, I on the other hand did not. Wasn't that much of a surprise Michaels was brought out but still, I think the fans on twitter etc. marked out a bit too much. Don't get me wrong, with the No Holds Barred stip in the match, I think it will be match of the night and of course, allows Michaels to get involved and maybe others.

We then had a tag match which on paper seemed great, Sheamus & Dolph Ziggler vs. John Morrison & Daniel Bryan. US Champion Sheamus pinned his Wrestle Mania opponent Bryan, I just hope, as it will be a longer match as it's PPV we will see a Bryan Danielson esque match which results in him taking the US strap back.

The next notable thing was the next inductees of the Hall of Fame to be announced and it was of course The Road Warriors. I did a blog about this back on Feb 24th if you want to go back and take a look. Should The Road Warriors of got a place in the HOF before Demolition? Well I've discussed it to death so I'll leave that one.

To end the show, we of course had the three way confrontation between The Rock, John Cena & The Miz. The Rock came out first and was as funny as ever he called Cena a 'Homeless Power Ranger' Hilarious. Cena out next - when he got going, Cena cut a great promo, really held his own up. The Miz with Riley made his way to the ring, sorry to say it, I know many think the sun shines out of his ass but tonight more than ever being in the ring with these two showed that The Miz is way out of his league. I have never thought he should be in the main event picture and to be in the main world title match at a Wrestle Mania is a joke in my opinion. I caught a sign in the crowd that read: Miz, go back to the Real World - made me chuckle. Anyway, there came a point where Riley & Miz attacked The Rock, Rock fought back, sent Riley over the top rope, hit Miz with the people's elbow, messed up his kip-up but we'll forgive him for that, Miz bounced straight up after the elbow so Rock sent him over the top rope, cena came back into the ring and hit the Rock with the Attitude Adjustment.

The show was a decent go home show, well the second half was.

Follow me on twitter @WLH_Stu

FWA New Frontiers Day 2 by AH Walker

I attended both of the FWA shows on the 26th and 27th of March which was part of the Memorabilia shows at the Birmingham NEC… day one was reviewed by Stuart so I thought I would review day two.
The format annoyed me. There would be one match every 90 minutes so people could have a look at the other exhibits but I was only there for the wrestling so I got a little bored between matches. Also only one match was announced so I didn’t know what to expect.
The first match was part of the Adrenaline Division which was Shane Oldham vs ‘Textbook’ Dave Breaks. Dave played the cocky heel and played to the crowd really well and he is a fantastic wrestler with a bright future. Oldham didn’t get enough offense in I felt but he picked up the win nonetheless in an entertaining match.
Then ‘Showstealer’ Nathan Cruz came out whilst the ring announcer was talking and demanded to face El Ligero. This prompted RJ Singh to appear and after a short back-and-forth El Ligero came to the ring to face Cruz whilst Singh stayed Ringside. The finish came when Ligero had Cruz pinned after the C4L (tornado DDT) and Singh pulled the ref out of the ring. Ligero did an awesome looking tope-con-Hilo but was eventually got counted out.
Following yet another break it was time for the final match in the Flyweight tournament which saw ‘Wonderkid’ Jonny Storm against ‘Rockstar’ Spud. I was really looking forward to this match. Jonny said before the match that this was going to be a fight. And that was what we got. The match went outside the ring at many points and at one point Spud was thrown into the guard rail which hit a senior citizen and I presume her grandchild. Then there was a poorly timed ref bump and then a few minutes later they jumped the guardrail where Jonny eventually hit Spud with a bin…yes a bin… But all of a sudden the ref came to and there was a Double DQ. Terrible. This was then followed by a pull apart brawl.
And finally we come to the main event. We saw ever the enthusiastic Nick Riley come out. We then heard the Agenda consisting of Goliath, David Deville and Alex Shane make come to the ring. Alex cut a great promo which (like the previous day) went over the heads of the audience. This promo was also great as Alex was losing his voice and it seemed to work well. Alex handpicked David Deville to ‘take out’ Riley. Long story short, Riley got destroyed. Before, after and during the match. Before the match Goliath and Shane hit a big boot and a Chokeslam (respectively) on Riley. This led to David Deville having 95% of offense in this match and just when Riley was getting some offense in, Shane got involved. Then Deville picked up the win and then proceeded to destroy Riley afterwards. Shane then picked up the mic again saying that Step 1 is complete and before he could fully explain Step 2 Jonny Phere from XWA came in from the crowd, prompting Alex and David to run away. Phere then had his way with the ring crew before cutting a promo to close the show.
I have to say this was a disappointing show. 4 matches, one clean finish, a DQ, a count-out and various interferences. That being said I Know I’ll end up buying the DVD.

Follow me on twitter @AH_Walker

WLH PPV Prediction League - Prizes To Be Won

Every WWE & TNA PPV anyone who enters the prediction league has to predict the result for each match on the PPV, if you get the result right, it's 2 points for you in the league the first counting of points will be after the WWE Summer Slam show in August and then after the final PPV of the year. The winner of the league will have a choice of a DVD of their choice from a list to be determined. I must say, don't want to annoy any American readers but this is for UK readers only for a DVD, any American readers that take part will get a PAYPAL payment instead.

Obviously, you don't have to predict for every PPV but the more PPV's you do, the better chance you have of getting more points.

Next Sunday WWE have their BIG ONE - Wrestle Mania XXVII, below are the matches announced, send in all your predictions to wlhstu@aol.co.uk



1. No Holds Barred
The Undertaker vs. Triple H
2. WWE Championship Match
The Miz (C) vs. John Cena
3. World Heavyweight Championship Match
Edge (C) vs. Alberto Del Rio
4. Grudge Match
Randy Orton vs. CM Punk
5. Grudge Match
Rey Mysterio vs. Cody Rhodes
6. Special Guest Ref. Stone Cold Steve Austin
Jerry Lawler vs. Michael Cole (w/Jack Swagger)
7. SIX-PERSON MIXED TAG MATCH
Dolph Ziggler & LayCool vs. John Morrison, Trish Stratus and Snooki
8. UNITED STATES TITLE MATCH
Sheamus (C) vs. Daniel Bryan
9. Eight Man Tag Team Match
The CORRE vs. Kane, The Big Show, Santino Marellea & Vladimir Kozlov

FWA New Frontiers 2011

I attended the FWA's New Frontiers show today which was part of the Spring Memoribilia show at Birmingham's NEC. The first match of the day was from the Adrenaline division which saw Axl Rage & Xander Cooper over Zack Gibson & Shane Spyral. I had seen Rage at the previous NEC show as was impressed then but his partner today, Xander Cooper was great, good tight worker with a killer finisher.


'Wonderkid' Jonny Storm came out and spoke about his scheduled match with 'Rockstar' Spud which is a ladder match set for tommorrow at the NEC. Storm said, forget the wrestling come out and let's just have a fist fight right there and then. At that point Alex Shane & The Agenda came out and basically told Storm, Spud wasn't there today so he can now leave the ring as he has business to tend to but as Storm was leaving, Shane said they could do with someone like Storm in The Agenda one day.

The first 'main' show match was supposed to be Nick Riley & Sha Samuels against The Agenda's Joel Redmond & Iestyn Rees. Alex Shane had something to say about this. I have met a few times with the first time being over 10 years ago and I ended up doing an interview with him for Wrestling's Last Hope when it was a 'paper' newsletter way before it was a blog page like it is now. The interview for whatever reason caused some heat back then but that is water under the bridge. I always liked Alex, great knowledge of the business, way before I got into internet wrestling radio shows Alex used to have a show on talkSPORT that some of you UK readers may recall and that show to no surprise was great. Today, before this match, Alex came out a cut a tremendous heel promo, maybe wasted on 95% of the crowd at the NEC because only a handful knew the British product and followed the FWA but after this weekend, hopefully more will. Alex told us all as well as Nick Riley his partner Sha Samuels was stuck in London and Riley would have to face Redmond & Rees on his own just then, the music of Resistance leader Leroy Kincaide came on and came the Kent native to announce he would step in and be Riley's partner. Decent match, I like Redmond & Rees as a team but they lost via DQ after excessive rule breaking, the FWA use a yellow and red card scheme, yellow being a warning, red being a final warning and then after that it will be a DQ. This match saw Kincaide take a real beating and he had to be helped from the ring and put his main event match against the unknown newest member of The Agenda in jeopardy.


Match 3 was set as RJ Singh against El Ligero and just as this match was supposed to start out came the 'Showstealer' Nathan Cruz. Cruz said the FWA don't give him the oppotunity to do what he does so he makes his own oppotunity and after cutting a good heel promo made this become a 3 way match. Match of the night by far, both Singh & Ligero performed well as FWA fans will know they can anyway but for me the star of the match was Cruz. He has a great look, good charisma and has the tools to back it up, a very good worker indeed and as I posted on facebook at the time, big things in the future for Cruz I think.

This led us to the last match of the day, Leroy Kincaide against the newest member of The Agenda, Kincaide came out and said he'd been asked since the earlier attack if he would be fit enough to wrestle and he admitted he wasn't 100%, his neck was killing. Anyway, out came FWA champion David Deville and said Kincaide basically has been trying to win the title for 18 months and he just wasn't going to get it but now, for starters would have to face the Agenda's newest member and out came a huge guy who goes by the name of Colossus who worked as Colossus Kennedy in Dynamic Pro Wrestling. The match was basically Colossus using his weight and power advantage over Kincaide. Kincaide got some offence in but the weight advantage tied in with the prior attack and injured neck was just too much for him to cope with and the referee stopped the match after he fell unconcious after a neck vice type move by the big man.

Overall, the only fault with the show was the format, basically because it's at the Memoribilia show it's not like a normal FWA show, there were big gaps between the matches, over an hour at some points so people could see the other attractions at the overall show.

There wasn't any negatives about the actual wrestling really - impressed with RJ Singh and El Ligero, the latter I have seen a number of times before. Really impressed with Xander Cooper and even more impressed with Nathan Cruz.

Annoyed due to work constraints I can't make Sunday's second show of the New Frontiers weekend as it will feature Jonny Storm vs. Rockstar Spud in a ladder match and apprently FWA champion David Deville in action plus other great stuff I imagine. I will deffo pick up the DVD of the weekend when available.

Follow me on twitter @WLH_Stu

Ten Years Ago: Vince Owns the World By Kevin Kelly

I’ll never forget the smug, satisfied look on the face of Vince McMahon when he told us he’d bought WCW. We were gathered at Cleveland’s Gund Arena (now renamed the “DieLebronatorium” or something) in the usual spot for the production meeting… if you’ve been in one cold, gray room, they all look alike, you know?

Anyway, Vince led with “well, you’ll hear it later today but I want to officially tell everyone that we bought WCW.” For a second, we thought it was a rib. The slightest burst of laughter that even Vince chucked at. He sat back in his chair a little and smirked that smirky smirk. He told us he bought everything for two million dollars.

We all do the same thing... when we find a great bargain, we’ll tell anyone that will listen how much we paid for it… makes us look smart. Vince was smart here but more than that, this was about how stupid those in charge of WCW were. Vince got over on them and he knew it.

Books have been written about what a royal collection of dummies were in charge of WCW and someday, there will be a “Scared Straight” pamphlet handed to kids about the same collection of dummies that run TNA.

Seriously, we should start a neighborhood watch program because if Russo or any of them show up around future wrestling shows, someone should blow a rape whistle.

But back to history… there was a collective pep in everyone’s step that day. While high hopes turned into disappointment in the wake of the failed Invasion, the WCW library was the real treasure here. I enjoyed my role in starting the inventory process on the tape collection and am happy that fans can relive moments like the Nitro in 1997 when my pal, Maverick Wild, made Jacqueline Moore look like ten zillion bucks.

So, where were you when the Wrestling War ended? Twitter thoughts @realkevinkelly



This past Saturday, a brief stroll was the distance between Ring of Honor and the WWE, while a short subway ride separated Ring of Honor from the UFC. Jon Jones and Eddie Edwards both attained championship glory and could have met at a diner on Route 3 together to celebrate.

Two new champions crowned this Saturday will be linked forever.

Have you heard the reaction when Eddie Edwards defeated Roderick Strong to become the new ROH World Champion? Click here! One of the biggest reactions I can remember… As great as Roddy was as champion, Eddie’s victory shows just how tough and deep the field of ROH World Champion contenders really is. This is now Eddie’s reality. You wanted to be champ, kiddo? Good luck!

Same goes for “Bones” who wins the title in the deepest division in MMA… 205 features Rashard Evans, “Rampage” Jackson, Lyoto Machida and more… watch out for a rematch with Ryan Bader as well. Celebrate now, Jon but don’t dwell on your moment for too long.

Eddie has to get right to work, defending the World Championship on April 1st against Christopher Daniels in Atlanta on iPPV at “Honor Takes Center Stage” and then the following night, Edwards reunites with American Wolf partner Davey Richards against Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team.

Just like Jon Jones, Eddie Edwards must know the hard work lies ahead of this past weekend’s achievements.

Jones is just 23 and the praised heaped on him is enormous. Edwards also in his mid-20’s and everyone always said “man, Eddie Edwards has talent!”

But did anyone really think Eddie Edwards would be the first American Wolf to win the ROH World Championship? While other grabbed headlines, Eddie kept getting better and better and better. From tag team champ to the first Television Champion to now ROH World Championship, the progression from goal line to goal line now has Edwards rightfully called the best wrestler in the world.

As Bones is being hailed as the Michael Jordan of UFC, Eddie Edwards will now have to continue to do what he does best and that’s work hard in hopes of making the dream of becoming World Champion last as long as he hopes.



Care to opine? Kevinfsu90@yahoo.com and on twitter @realkevinkelly

WLH would like to thank Kevin Kelly & Wrestlezone.com for providing this article

Business As Usual: Zuffa/UFC Dominates MMA

Business as Usual
“When Alexander saw the breadth of his domain he wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer” Hans Gruber – Die Hard
The purchase of Strikeforce by Forza, LLC (a subsidiary of Zuffa, LLC the parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championship) a couple of weeks ago sent shockwaves through the MMA world and confirmed (if that was needed) that the Zuffa owned UFC is the only horse in this race.
The news came on the heels that big-time MMA in Japan is basically a thing of the past. With World Victory Road confirming that barring a new primary sponsor (after Don Quijote pulled their money), Sengoku would cease to operate. On top of that Fight Entertainment Group is in the midst of a financial restructuring to try and save the company and that means it’s highly likely they will sacrifice DREAM. Meaning that the UFC is the only major MMA company in the world, something that the Fertittas and Dana White have worked the past ten years to accomplish.
It didn’t come easy and it wasn’t all their doing, along the way they got a helping hand from incompetent promoters and sheer dumb luck. When Zuffa bought a down on their luck UFC from Bob Meyrowitz’s Semaphore Entertainment Group in 2001, I doubt anybody could see the unbelievable growth the company would go through but I’m getting ahead of myself.
We all know the history of the UFC pre-Zuffa, almost an immediate success on PPV as a relatively small 26 year old Brazilian with phenomenal Jiu-Jitsu skill captivated the imagination of the viewing audience by beating a string of much larger and far less skilled opponents.  We, the viewing public, not being the ripped 6’2” 240lbs ideal of a professional athlete, saw this lean almost passive man “kicking ass and taking names”. The success would keep rolling for years as “Ultimate Fighting” became a sensation, the detractors were their of course, dubbing it as “human cockfighting” but that didn’t seem to effect its advancement until a war hero from Arizona spoke.
That hero was the Republican Senator for Arizona and future presidential candidate, John McCain, and boy did he hate it. It’s widely reported that McCain saw a tape of UFC 1 and found it so completely repugnant he wrote to all fifty governors in the United States and asked them to ban” No Holds Barred Fighting”.
Thirty six of those states would ban the sport and such was the vitriol surrounding the events, they lost their biggest source of revenue, cable pay-per-view.  Between 1997 and early 2001 the Ultimate Fighting Championship would live hand to mouth promoting shows in smaller states and living off DirecTV PPV, with its smaller satellite audience.  Four months before the sale of the UFC the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board (SACB) passed a law to codify MMA using what are known as the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts. Originally drawn up by the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) prior to what was meant to be a vote to pass a law bringing MMA under their jurisdiction but due to budgetary concerns MMA was not sanctioned until five years later in the Golden State.
After the Zuffa takeover things changed quite rapidly as within 8 months MMA would be sanctioned in the fight mecca that is Las Vegas, Nevada. As coincidence would have it, Lorenzo Fertitta was on the board of the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) until July of 2000 and was heavily pushing for the legalization of MMA in Nevada before buying the company. Coincidences aside, the card was deemed a failure (with decision after decision) but nonetheless it was a major step forward in the legitimacy of the UFC and MMA as a whole. Cable PPV came back on board and then the pinnacle at the time was achieved when a UFC fight (Steve Berger vs. Robbie Lawler from the hastily put together UFC  37.5) became the first MMA fight in history to air on US cable TV.
April 9th 2005 the world changed. Something cult became something mainstream. Stephen Bonnar fought Forrest Griffin. “There's no way to really measure or quantify its impact, but we know TV ratings spiked in the middle of the fight, indicating people were flicking by, saw it and stopped, or, someone called them and told them to put it on” said Jordan Breen, Administrative Editor of Sherdog.com. “It was like a mass indoctrination into MMA for the TV watching public”.
The Ultimate Fighter TV show debuted on 17th January 2005 with 1.7 million people watching the new reality show on Spike TV. The strong personalities on the show and the draw of live fights on TV every week maintained a strong audience through its first season. The irony is that a reality TV show wasn’t something the UFC really wanted to do, they wanted to run a weekly show with fights similar to ESPN’s Friday Night Fights. But Spike wanted to take advantage of the booming reality TV market and went to UFC with the idea and an ultimatum do this or no TV, which lead to the inevitable yes.
The Bonnar – Griffin fight not only spiked interest in UFC/MMA but it made believers out of not only Spike’s executives but also the advertisers. “There was a little reluctance at the beginning because a lot of them didn’t know what it was, there was some concern about violence, and, quite honestly, the UFC had some baggage from its previous ownership” said Kevin Kay, Spike’s executive vice president of programming in the Las Vegas Review Journal. “But once they saw the show, they wanted to be part of it”.
From that point on the speed of expansion set a blistering pace, more shows, higher PPV buy rates, more merchandise and importantly more money for fighters. The expansion wasn’t limited to the UFC either as Zuffa purchased the small California based World Extreme Cagefighting in December 2006. Started in 2001 by Scott Adams and Reed Harris, Zuffa saw the potential in bringing through stars in the smaller weight classes and augmenting the already established divisions. It also had another purpose, Versus were looking for MMA programming and Zuffa didn’t want any product they didn’t control gaining a foot hold on cable TV.
WEC was to start kept separate from its big brother (UFC) with very little changing but gradually the change was increasingly more evident peaking at the only WEC PPV, when the letters WEC were never mentioned or shown. From that point on its days as a separate organization were numbered until early 2011 when it merged with the UFC. 
For many years the UFC’s main competition was Japan based Pride Fighting Championship. Dream Stage Entertainment (DSE) started Pride in 1997 and really started to take hold with the emergence of the “Gracie killer” Kazushi Sakuraba. The lavish ring entrances and pyro made Pride stand out from any other sports franchise in the world and this was paid for by Fuji Network TV. The ratings on that station were quite positively obscene and they seemed destined to be the top of the food chain for the foreseeable future, when all of a sudden the rug was pulled out from under DSE.
Rumours of the involvement of Japanese gangsters, the Yakuza, in the running of DSE had been around since the beginning of the company but nothing had ever been proven. With the feeling that arrests were about to be made, Fuji Network TV announced on the 5th June 2006 that Pride would never air on the station again and they would no longer bankroll any of their shows, Fuji were the major financers of Pride. Within a year Pride was owned by a Las Vegas native called Lorenzo Fertitta. The plan at first was to keep the promotion as a going concern but the concerns surrounding the criminality of running shows in Japan made Fertitta nervous about losing his gaming license in Las Vegas. Pride would never promote another show but would leave behind a legendary list of fights that Zuffa now owns.
And now we come to the reality of what is happening in Strikeforce right now. It’s impossible to say what will happen in the future but you can see the writing on the wall for Strikeforce as a separate brand. But at least for the foreseeable future it will exist at least until the end of the Showtime Networks contract, with the extensions placed in the contract this could be at the latest 2014 and at the earliest 2012.
Strikeforce was founded in 2006 by parent company Explosion Entertainment with minority owner Scott Coker and sports promotion company Silicon Valley Sports and Entertainment (SVSE), the former being a long time sports promoter dating back to 1985 and the days of International Sport Karate Association (ISKA). SVSE are the current owners of the National Hockey Leagues San Jose Sharks and owners of “The Shark Tank” the HP Pavilion in central San Jose. Strikeforce became the first company to promote a CSAC regulated MMA even when former UFC Middleweight Champion (now the Light Heavyweight division) Frank Shamrock fought Cesar Gracie on March 10th 2006.
Strikeforce became competition to the UFC when they purchased some of the fighter contracts and the video library of the monumentally poorly run, Elite XC and days later signed a 3 year TV deal with Showtime Network. 25 months later Strikeforce would be under the same management group as UFC for a price in the region (no specific figure has been confirmed at press time) $40 million, incredible if you consider it cost $70 million for Pride without a network TV deal in place.
The sale was basically forced on Scott Coker as SVSE wanted no part of a promotional war with UFC and opted out, rumours started back in December that SVSE were looking at getting out and Zuffa supposedly had minor negotiations at that point. “Silicon Valley Sports and us were great partners” said Coker. “They wanted to get back to their core business, the hockey business and expansion of their other sports businesses. We had a long conversation and started taking different offers and then we started talking to Lorenzo. They had a really good time in this business, but they wanted to get back to their core business. I wanted to stay in this business and this is how we hooked up”.
One of those offers was the newly financed Pro Elite, the former owners of EliteXC, which had an offer on the table of $20 million to the owners and another $20 million for expansion. But the $40 million offer was enough to sway SVSE and Coker and so Strikeforce was sold. Coker is set to stay on and run Strikeforce with a budget and that the production of the Strikeforce shows will still be run by Strikeforce, as per the contract.
Almost immediately after the announcement fans and media types started throwing the words “monopoly” and “anti-trust” around. “Anyone calling what Zuffa has a "monopoly" isn't really aware of what a monopoly is or how they work,” said Breen. “However, there's no getting around the fact that they control 90 precent of the elite fighters from 135 to heavyweight. I think it's wrong to look at it in terms of "good" and "bad"; things aren't that simple. On the one hand, it is an inhospitable climate for fighters on the outs with the UFC or mid-tier fighters who can benefit from negotiating with different promotions. However, it opens the possibility to see the absolute best fighters fight one another, repeatedly, in various combinations. There's no getting around how important that is”
One has to wait and see what the future holds for Strikeforce but Zuffa’s track record for keeping things separate isn’t great. But in the meantime we can all sit back and salivate working out what now are the possible fights we will get over the next few years.

Paul Dyer

WLH Competition: Tito Ortiz's "This is Gonna Hurt"

I have available the book pictured here from Tito Ortiz "This is Gonna Hurt" but fear not wrestling fans, it's a wrestling related competition to win it. Readers of the blog will know one of my main contributors is Shaun Nichols, Shaun is on holiday at the moment but when he returns he will compile in his opinion, the top 10 Wrestle Mania matches ever. What you guys have to do is list your own top 10 and whoever gets the most right in the same order will win the book. Now this is not getting as many matches in your top 10 as he does but it's the most in order as he does. To enter - email ONLY to wlhstu@aol.co.uk with your choices and and your name, you will be contacted afterwards for your address if you win.

Good luck,

Stu

The True Story of Wrestle Mania

The True Story Of WrestleMania

I have begun to watch this documentary released by the WWE after hearing great things. It has been OK so far, interesting to hear how each event came about, choosing the venue etc. The Mania I got up to before leaving the house was WM VIII and this is what I wanted to talk about. 

I recall this WM like it was yesterday, all the fall out from the Royal Rumble and then the 'dream' match being signed between WWF champion Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan. For years Hogan had been the face of the WWF and Flair likewise in the NWA/WCW and so when Flair signed for the WWF in the fall of 1991 and proclaimed himself the 'real world champion' even brandishing the title belt he was holding when he left WCW we all waiting with baited breath for battle to commence. For a while the two were kept apart, Flair embroiled himself in a series of matches with old nemesis and friend 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper. Hogan was building to a WWF title match with The Undertaker at the Survivor Series and Flair got himself involved in the build up. The match itself saw Flair get involved which led to Undertaker winning the strap. A rematch was signed for the following week in a special PPV dubbed 'Tuesday in Texas'. Once again, Flair got involved in the match and following the controversy the WWF title was was held up and it was announced that the winner of the 30 man Royal Rumble match would be the new WWF champion. In one of the greatest Rumbles ever Flair outlasted everyone to win the title. Shortly after, it was announced Hogan over Piper, Randy Savage & Sid Justice would face Flair at WrestleMania VIII. In the build up, Hogan storyline wise got into a feud as such with Justice which originally stemmed from Justice eliminating Hogan from the Rumble from outside the ring, but it was after an episode of the Main Event it was announced by the promotion that plans have changed for Mania and now in a double main event it would be Hogan vs. Justice and Flair vs. Savage for the title. The show itself was a decent show, good matches with Bret Hart over Roddy Piper for the IC title and Flair vs Savage both matches had 'color' something Vince McMahon wasn't happy with because even though we are in a PG era now back then he had told the roster no blading.

Hogan and Flair did face each other on house shows and even had a couple of matches recorded by the WWF crew which have since be aired on WWE Classics. Going back to the documentary, it was basically said that in those matches on the house shows the two didn't connect. It's a shame really as myself as a fan of both the NWA/WCW and the WWF back then I really wanted to see the match on the big stage. But I think, overall the WWF fans didn't really take to Flair and even though he went on to regain the title in September of 92 he would go on to lose it again this time to Bret Hart in October. January of 93 was the Flair's last month in the company that time around.

Follow me on twitter @WLH_Stu

Looking Back at Wrestlemania - Part Five With Shaun Nicols

Wrestlemania X8 - Main event was Triple H defeating Chris Jericho for the Undisputed title, although Jericho had held the title since December and actually gone over both Austin & Rock in the same night he had never been booked as a convincing champion and few fans were surprised when The Game pedigreed his way to success. To most fans the main event was The Rock facing the nWo's Hulk Hogan. Although booked as the heel, Hogan managed to make himself the most popular wrestler on the show which wasn't the plan. Although The Rock won their match, Hogan definitely made his impact on his first Wrestlemania match since 1993. The Undertaker secured his tenth Wrestlemania victory in an entertaining victory with Ric Flair, Steve Austin surprisingly found himself in the midcard defeating Scott Hall, Austin had turned down the opportunity to wrestle Hogan on the show. The tag titles were starting to lose their gloss when they were successfully defended by the 'legendary' Billy & Chuck. In other title matches, European champ DDP beat Christian, Maven (winner of the first series of Tough Enough) wrestled to a no-contest with Goldust in a Hardcore title match, RVD won I-C title in the opener against William Regal.



Wrestlemania XIX - Hailing from Seattle, it proved to be third time lucky for The Rock when he finally beat Steve Austin at Wrestlemania, the main event though was Brock Lesner defeating Kurt Angle to win the WWE title. Lesnar and Angle had great chemistry together and they provided a fitting finale. I'm sure that Vince could have done without Brock Lesner nearly breaking his neck after he botched a shooting star press in the final moments. The third of the shows main event was Hulk Hogan back in the yellow and red defeating Vince McMahon in a streetfight. Triple H retaining the World Heavyweight title against Booker T. The Undertaker found himself on second on the show though he had little trouble beating The Big Show & A Train in a very poor handicap match. Match of the night arguably went to Shawn Michaels victory over Chris Jericho, I still feel that Shawn had little to gain in winning and it hurt Jericho's credibility as a main eventer in his first run. Team Angle (Shelton Benjamin & Charlie Haas) defeated Los Guerreros and the makeshift team of Chris Benoit & Rhyno. Apart from the the Hogan-McMahon match, most of the main matches of Wrestlemania did deliver making this one of the better Wrestlemania cards so far.



Wrestlemania XX - The WWE didn't have a great deal of faith that having Chris Benoit challenging Triple H for the World Heavyweight title so they added Shawn Michaels to turn it into a 3 way. They did have a great match, with Benoit having his career highlight when he made The Game tap to the crossface. This show was supposed to show the new wave of main event talent as Eddie Guerrero was victorious in his WWE title defence against Kurt Angle in a good outing. They ended the show with Guerrero and Benoit hugging after Benoit had won his match. In other matches, Goldberg defeated Brock Lesnar in a terrible match that was refereed by Steve Austin, both wrestlers left the promotion after the show, Undertaker got the best of Kane for the second time. Evolution (Orton, Batista & Flair) beat The Rock and Mick Foley in an entertaining handicap match which also proved to be The Rock's last WWE match. John Cena beat The Big Show for the US title, Molly Holly had her hair completely shaved when she lost to Victoria. Also on the show Christian defeated Chris Jericho when Trish Stratus turned heel.



Wrestlemania 21 - Where Wrestlemania went Hollywood, the WWE also made the decision to push John Cena & Dave Batista hard, Batista had his biggest victory of his career so far when he defeated Triple H to win the World Heavyweight champion. John Cena also won major gold when he defeated JBL to win the WWE Championship. However match of the night honours went to a more familiar feature of Wrestlemania's past when Shawn Michaels and Kurt Angle tore the house down for nearly thirty minutes. Rey Mysterio made his Wrestlemania debut beating friend Eddie Guerrero in the opener, Edge won the first Money in the Bank match. The Undertaker had his 13th victory by defeating Randy Orton in a very good match. For seemingly for comedy purposes The Big Show found himself losing in just over 60 seconds to Akebono in a sumo match. Most fans have the view that upto the two final matches, this was one of the great Wrestlemania shows however the Cena & Batista matches both failed to live up to the hype and lacked drama and so the show felt a little bit flat by the end.

Manhattan Mayhem IV Results
(Saturday March 19th 2011)

Full credit goes to http://ROHWorld.com for providing the results.

Ring of Honor continued their big weekend of events with Manhattan Mayhem IV. The show from New York City came one night after Defy or Deny in Plymouth, MA. Here are the results:

Adam Cole & Kyle O'Reilly defeated Michael Elgin & Mike Mondo

The up-and-coming team of Cole & O'Reilly proved to be too much for The House of Truth. Truth Martini said he had a man that had listened to him and read the book of truth but that wasn't enough as Elgin and Mondo lost. It was the man on trial – Mike Mondo – who was pinned, this came after a nice bridging German suplex from Cole. After the match, Elgin attacked Mondo as it was clear that he hadn't passed the House of Truth test.

Tommaso Ciampa defeated Grizzly Redwood

The project of The Embassy made it three out of three as he defeated Redwood. After wins against Mike Sydal and Adam Cole, Ciampa made it a hat-trick of impressive victories. The Embassy's newest recruit won after a double knee powerbomb. After the match, the other Embassy members attacked Redwood but Steve Corino came down for the save as chants of 'Kevin Steen' came from the crowd.

Mike Bennett defeated Steve Corino

These two men just don't see eye-to-eye as Corino tries to teach Bennett not to turn out like he did. “The Prodigy” won't have any of it though and rebounded after his loss to Christopher Daniels in Plymouth last night. Bennett put an exclamation point on his victory by hitting three side slams on Corino for the win.

Jim Cornette announces that ROH will return to the Hammerstein Ballroom on Sunday June 26th for the 'Biggest ROH event ever!'

The All Night Express defeated The Briscoes

The All Night Express capped off a good weekend as they beat The Briscoes. They defeated Grizzly Redwood & Steve Corino last night and added another win in what was an important weekend for them. They gained the victory with a rollup after reversing the Springboard Doomsday. After the match, the Briscoes beat down on Rhett Titus until Kenny King intervened. The two teams then fought to the back with the crowd firmly behind ANX.

El Generico defeated TJ Perkins

Generico now knows that he can't challenge for the ROH World Title again whilst Roderick Strong is still champion. He faced a tough task of getting over that fact by facing off against TJ Perkins who was making his second appearance on his return to ROH. Perkins, coming off a loss to Chris Hero, came close but was ultimately defeated by Generico in a great match. Generico picked up the win with a sick brainbustah onto the ring apron.

The Kings of Wrestling defeated The Latin American Exchange

The Kings reigned supreme again after defeating yet another team put in front of them. Homicide told the Kings that he and Hernandez would take them on in New York after the Kings defeated ANX at the 9th Anniversary Show. Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli once again proved they are the best tag team in the world today as Castagnoli hit a pop up European on Homicide for the victory.

Davey Richards defeated Christopher Daniels

Both men were coming off wins at Defy or Deny but it was Richards who came out on top. The man, who said he won't challenge for the World Title again if he loses the next time he challenges for it, beat “The Fallen Angel” with a rollup. This came after Richards missed a Shooting Star Press, the same move he used last night to beat Claudio Castagnoli. Daniels put on a good showing but was obviously fatigued after his ROH TV Title defence against Mike Bennett last night.


ROH World Championship
Eddie Edwards defeated Roderick Strong

Eddie Edwards beat Roderick Strong to become the new ROH World Champion. Edwards, who gained a title shot after winning the Survival of the Fittest tournament in 2010, overcame the odds – and the numbers game – to win his first World Title. With the House of Truth already having a bad night, this capped it off as Edwards took Strong by surprise to get the win with a rollup. Truth Martini tried to help Strong but it wasn't enough to stop the belt from changing hands. Only one question now remains: When will we see Edwards vs. Davey Richards for the belt? Make it happen!

This Week in TNA Airing 10/3 US 15/3 UK With Olly Peters

This week’s TNA IMPACT is kicked off by the new TNA Champion Sting. Sting tells everyone that he wouldn’t be there without the fans yada yada yada, not the money and a title reign by any chance Sting? Saying that Jeff Hardy is the greatest he has ever faced, really Sting?! I liked Sting’s comment about Jeff that "He needs to sort his head out" or something to that effect. Sting is interrupted by Hogan and Bischoff, and while they make their way to the ring we are shown a video recap of last week’s IMPACT. So we get Hogan talking and then Bischoff talking, Hogan saying that he is the real Hero there and not Sting, I lost interest to be honest. Then Mr Anderson Anderson stomps to the ring, acting like a little baby going on about "me me me", wanting his title shot. I found it funny how Bischoff was hiding behind Hogan while telling Sting he would give him what for!
As Anderson whines on Hardy makes his entrance and claiming he was robbed by Sting and Anderson should get in line. This prompts RVD to come out and moan about never losing the title! Same old same old. So Hogan is apparently calling all the shots now and the Network has no say anymore, and we are given our Main Event by Eric Bischoff! It’s Mr Anderson and Jeff Hardy verses RVD and Sting.

We go backstage to a swear-fest with the Knockouts.

Next is our first match, surprisingly early! Samoa Joe vs The Pope D'angelo Dinero. Pope enters through the crowd taking out Kato from behind, Joe runs outside after him and as he gets into the ring Pope starts his offence. The match had some even offense, some back and forth, basic stuff, then Pope goes over to the corner and rips the padding off of the turn buckle, Joe gets some offence in but then ref Brian Hebner decides he is going to try and fix the padding. Joe puts Pope in the Muscle Buster, but Pope has his chain wrapped around his hands and thumps Joe, the ref misses this and Pope gets the three count.

Backstage, Bully Ray is intimidating some bloke and the camera man, cutting a vicious promo (I heard this once so I thought I would nick it!) on Tommy Dreamer, calling him out.

Our next match is the Knockouts Championship. Madison Rayne vs a returning (one shot deal) Roxxi. Before the match is an in ring promo from Madison, saying that there are no challenges, screams at the crowd, in TNA and calls out her next opponent. Now before I go on telling you about this awesome match, has Madison stolen Kip James's old Mr Ass trunks? Just have a look. So this match was over quickly, not much to say except ODB got longer and Madison finished with the spinney knee thing again. After the match is over Madison starts a beat down on Roxxi and Mickie James comes down to the rescue. Mickie punches Tara who is at ringside but as she gets in the ring Madison runs away.

Next we go backstage where Tommy Dreamer is outside calling out Bully Ray. We then cut to Ray who is looking for Tommy and then gets side swiped by Devon who starts to beat down on Ray. I think this is very unfair! Devon came out of nowhere and attacked Ray, yes attacked him from behind! As Devon, who was unprovoked, was whipping ray with a thick chain, you can see a random guy stood buy a car just watching this brutal attack! Run you fool, get help!! Idiot! Anyway Tommy Dreamer comes to Rays rescue and stops Devon from hitting him with a sledge hammer. Then we get some busy body coming over and getting in Rays face as he is trying to get his head together after the unprovoked attack from Devon. Ray retaliates to this guy who is getting in his face by knocking him to the ground, whipping him with the chain and slamming a security rail on him! Serves him right for getting in Rays face!!

Next is a six woman tag team match with the rest of the Knockouts on the roster. I really didn’t care about this match and wanted just to press fast forward! It makes me wonder though, does Earl Hebner have it written in his contract that he has to do Knock out matches and get to hold them back as often as possible?! Thank GOD (pick your own, I pick Thor!) this match is over quickly! Nothing really happened anyway.

Quickly moving on!! Backstage, Mr Anderson is in a small office type room with Jeff Hardy, Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff. Anderson and Hardy start to have words and threaten a beat down on each other, when Bischoff chips in reminding Ken that he is out numbered................. ok let’s pause there for a moment, really, press pause and look who is in this room! Eric Bischoff, one punch and he's down, Hogan won’t be able to get out of his chair so that’s two down, and Hardy is so off his head most of the time that he probably doesn’t have a clue what’s going on! Anderson leaves, we carry on.

Next we get yet another recap from last week and the week before that, and then the week before that! Seriously!! Don’t they know we wipe our memories after every IMPACT!!! We don’t want to remember!!

Our next thrilling match is a three way street fight between AJ Styles, Matt Hardy and Ric (I bet he bleeds) Flair.
It starts with Hardy and Flair in the ring, with Flair on the mic, oh joy! Flair calls out AJ saying that he didn’t get to finish what he said, which was when? So AJ appears and Flair tells him that he is in the town that Flair built. While flair is talking (and yes, I was bored) all I could hear was some girl screeching! AJ tells Flair that Flair is in the TNA house which he built to a huge crowd pop. I agree with AJ that Flair yabbers on all the time. This is where I got a txt that was way more interesting that Matt hardy talking, so I missed what he said and got reeled back in after AJ thumped him. We had some back and forth offence between them all, more of a handicap match, which you knew it was going to be, than a 3 way. Flair goes for the figure four but is blocked and AJ put Flair in it instead but is broken up by Hardy. The match goes outside and yes, you guessed it, Flair bleeds! The match continues with AJ and Hardy going at it, and when Hardy goes for a ladder the crowed gives a huge pop – although mainly for the ladder not Hardy! AJ goes for the Styles clash but is caught with a low blow from Flair, and Hardy does the Twist on Hate on AJ onto a chair. Flair pins AJ for the win.

While the cleanup crew takes on the difficult task of cleaning up Flair’s blood, we have a backstage heart to heart with Sting and RVD.

The next match is Gen Me verses Ink Inc. Now I’m going out on a limb here and predict that Ink Inc wins, as they are number one contenders for the tag titles and are in a match against Beer Money at Victory Road.
We also get Beer Money on commentary. Then match goes on but I have no interest in Ink Shmink and Jessie Neal is a waste of air time! Although he does do a nice spear in mid air! Non-the-less Ink Inc win, as I predicted and wait for it! Shannon Moore picks up the mic, I’m holding my breath with (sarcastic!!!) anticipation to hear what he has to say!! Nothing really, James Storm in his AWESOME hat stole the segment now can we please move on!!

We now are in the locker room with Jeff Hardy and Mr Anderson, having their heart to heart, and yes Ken, we know! You’re an asshole!! I brought the T-shirt!!
Backstage we have The Pope, followed by another recap of last week.

Next we see the Jarrett’s and Jeff reveals where they are going to spend their honeymoon. Where you ask with excitement???............................... ORLANDO!!!!!! Florida, not Jordan.

We now have an Ultimate X vignette, before moving on to a Sting history video.

Jeremy Borash is interviewing Sting when Mr Anderson attacks Sting and gives him a beat down!

We have another video package hyping the matches at Victory Road and people’s opinions on the return of Sting. I like the Popes: "Pope don’t care"! This section went on way, way too long and I started to lose interest.

Finally we get to the Main Event of the evening.
Mr Anderson with Jeff Hardy verses RVD and Sting, who doesn’t appear.( One thing, why is So Cal Val announcing?) The match goes ahead handicap tag team style, and RVD gets punished by Anderson who to tag out, slaps Hardy around the back of the head! Best tag I've ever seen!! As RVD gets the upper hand on Hardy, Hardy tries to tag Anderson but Anderson jumps down off the apron and RVD carries on his offence. Eventually Hardy gets a hard tag in on Anderson, but Anderson doesn’t enter the ring. but as RVD runs into him, Hardy gives the Twist of Hate to RVD. As Hardy goes for the pin Anderson pulls him off and gives him the Mic Check when the lights go out, for a while, then a puffing Sting is in the ring and beats on Anderson and giving him the Scorpion Death Drop and tells RVD to finish him off. RVD Frog Splashes Anderson and picks up the win.

Not a bad IMPACT, too much video packages as usual but more matches which is a bonus! So I give it another 3/5.
Till next week!!

Your Task: Save TNA

On facebook & twitter recently I asked the question - Fans, what can improve @TNAwrestling ? Seriously, what can be done to get the product more positive coverage?

They are being ripped a new one from here and there and everywhere in between. I don't think at any point in their exsistance have they been the bigger supported company over the WWE. This is not too much of a shock being as most fans began as WWF/E fans and have stayed that way to this current day but they haven't done anything to help themselves either. Bad decisions by Dixie Carter and whoever else has the 'power' has led TNA down this path. She doesn't book TNA but employs the people who do, more notably one Mr Vince Russo. I for my sins have been a defender of Russo back in his WWF then WCW days but he all but killed WCW but once again, like in TNA now, if he is allowed to do what he can, how can you blame him?


Hogan & Bischoff promised so much yet delivered nothing at all really. The Hogan name was supposed to catapault TNA into the upper tier of wrestling/sports entertainment but instead, they are just basically a joke compared to the WWE.

I am not writing this as an anti-TNA fan and pro WWE fan, I don't like the latter that much either, I really want TNA to succeed because, we know when WCW went out of business the WWE had no competition and it told in the product. At this rate, TNA really won't be around that much longer and that will be bad for the business in my opinion.



TNA got even more heat after last Sunday's PPV Victory Road when Jeff Hardy was allowed to go to the ring and wrestle in the companies main event world title match against Sting. The match went for less than 2 minutes and was a total debacle. Hardy, going by all accounts wasn't in a fit state to wrestle. As I mentioned on the Total Wrestling Show, who was worse, Hardy for doing it or the TNA powers that be allowing it to happen?

I said it earlier, I really want TNA to better themselves and improve their product for the business as a whole and the boys & girls that work there.

I want anyone reading this with ideas to please post them I am interested in feedback and you never know, the right person might see this article and your comments.

Follow me on twitter @WLH_Stu

Old News Now But 'Ric Flair' on the Bret & Josh Show

Some people are saying it is not actually Ric Flair who is featured in the calls to the Bret & Josh show (links on the right of the page) but I will let you all decide for yourselves. Just a note to add, they have had some big guests on in recent weeks such as the Honky Tonk Man, Steve Austin, Hulk Hogan and this past show #10 they had Teddy Hart, and he was HILARIOUS. Anyway, here are the links to the Flair calls.







Follow me on twitter @WLH_Stu

And The ROH Champion is......

Eddie Edwards is the new ROH world champion. Edwards beat Roderick Strong tonight in New York city to win the strap and become an ROH triple crown champion after being TV champion and tag team champion (with Davey Richards).
Congrats to Eddie who is a great worker, but I am chuffed really the title is off Strong

ROH Defy or Deny Results Thanks To ROHWorld.com

Defy or Deny Results Friday March 18th 2011

All credit goes to the EXCELLENT http://ROHWorld.com

Ring of Honor kicked off a very exciting couple of weeks last night in Plymouth, MA. The show was headlined by Roderick Strong against Jay Briscoe, Homicide and El Generico in a non-title match. Around 550 people crammed into the Plymouth Memorial Hall to witness ROH 'Defy or Deny'. Here are the results from last night's show:

Mark Briscoe defeated Kyle O'Reilly

This was described as a fantastic opening match and that's hardly surprising. These two went toe-to-toe for a good 15 minutes but it was Briscoe who eventually came out on top. Briscoe hit a frogsplash elbow drop on O'Reilly which gave him the win in the opening match of the night.

The All Night Express defeated Steve Corino & Grizzly Redwood

Corino asked ROH officials to make this match because he respects Grizzly's fighting spirit. They faced off against the much improved All Night Express in a valiant losing effort. Their downfall was caused by miscommunication as Corino accidentally clotheslined Grizzly. This allowed Rhett Titus and Kenny King to hit the backbreaker knee drop combo for the win. Redwood bailed on Corino after the match as he is clearly having problems in trusting the ROH veteran.

Tommaso Ciampa defeated Adam Cole

Ciampa was introduced to us on last week's ROH on HDNet as The Embassy's 'New Project'. He looked impressive after defeating Mike Sydal and picked up where he left off as he took on Adam Cole. Cole put up a strong challenge and should have won the match after a backbreaker but Prince Nana distracted the referee. Ciampa took this opportunity to hit Cole with a low blow and then the double knee powerbomb for the victory.

Chris Hero defeated TJ Perkins

The other half of The Kings of Wrestling – Chris Hero – went up against the returning TJ Perkins and the pair put on a fantastic match. TJP did all he could on his return but in the end it wasn't good enough as Hero hit a roaring elbow followed by a big boot for the win. Perkins got a standing ovation from the crowd afterwards as it's clear ROH fans want to see more of TJP in Ring of Honor.

Eddie Edwards defeated Michael Elgin

Michael Elgin continued his way through his 'hit-list' given to him by ROH Champion Roderick Strong. He faced off against Eddie Edwards who goes up against Strong at Manhattan Mayhem IV for the World Title. Truth Martini was at ringside and got involved in the match. At one point, Edwards had both Elgin and Martini in the Achilles lock. He then managed to hit the Die Hard (fisherman suplex) for the three count.

ROH World TV Title Match: Christopher Daniels defeated “The Prodigy” Mike Bennett

“The Prodigy” tasted defeat for the first time inside a Ring of Honor ring as he was defeated in his first match since being crowned the Top Prospect of 2011. Bennett resorted to underhand tactics and was close to hitting Daniels with the belt when Steve Corino intervened which allowed “The Fallen Angel” to get his bearings together and he eventually won thanks to the Best Moonsault Ever. Corino and Bennett had words to open the show and their match-up at Manhattan Mayhem IV should be a fiery one indeed.

Davey Richards defeated Claudio Castagnoli

Richards began his trail back to the top of ROH with an impressive victory over one half of the ROH Tag Team Champions – Claudio Castagnoli. It was feared that Richards might have injured himself after both he and Castagnoli fell off the top rope to the outside. Richards had gone for a suplex but both men fell and Richards looked to have landed on his ankle but he fought on. Richards put this setback behind him and finally got the win via a Shooting Star Press.

ROH World Title Match: Roderick Strong defeated El Generico, Jay Briscoe and Homicide

The ROH World Champion defeated his last three challengers all in one match and now none of three can challenge for the title whilst Strong is champion. It was an elimination bout with “The Notorious 187” Homicide going out first, followed by Jay Briscoe, which left Strong and El Generico to battle it out. The end came when House of Truth member Michael Elgin interfered and powerbombed Generico who was going for a superplex on Strong. This distraction allowed Strong to hit a running kick for the win. After the match, The House of Truth began to beat down on Generico before The American Wolves and Christopher Daniels came down to make the save.

Freedom of Speech

Freedom of speech, well not that dramatic but we all have views on wrestling be it the programming, websites, magazines and in my case this time around, podcasts.

The Internet is jam packed with podcasts relating to wrestling, some OK, some good, some better than most and then some just not good at all.
I base most of my views on podcasts on the content, we all know the two biggest promotions around to the masses are WWE & TNA but there is more wrestling out there and podcasts that don't cover these other promotions are naive as far as I am concerned.

The point of this rant is one such podcast doesn't like people to have an opinion on anything unless it's praising them and I'm sorry but if you put yourself in the firing line be prepared to be shot down. It's the same for any of us, bloggers, website owners, magazine writers etc. we all need to take flak when it's due and this podcast who will remain nameless so not to put them over but they know who they are and so will many of the readers.

For all podcasts WLH do think are worthwhile check the links on the right hand side of the page.

Follow me on twitter @WLH_Stu

WLH DVD Sales - RARE WWF & ROH Masters Plus More For Sale

I have set up a little site with all my wrestling and wrestling related master DVD's listed, please visit

http://wlhdvdsales.webs.com/

Looking Back at Wrestlemania - Part Four With Shaun Nichols

Wrestlemania XIV - Or the one with Mike Tyson if you'd prefer. The main event was Shawn Michaels with his legendary bad back defending the WWF title against Steve Austin, it's often been said that the Undertaker had to convince Shawn that it was the right thing for business to put the title on Austin. Mike Tyson himself acted as a special enforcer at ringside but turned on Shawn after the match by dropping him with a right hand. The Undertaker himself was in action beating Kane in the semi-main event, in other matches The Rock still with the Nation of Domination at this point hung onto the I-C title in a decent encounter with Ken Shamrock. LOD 2000 (Legion of Doom repackaged and now managed by Sunny) won a pointless 15 tag team battle royale to open the show. Terry Funk won his only WWF title belt in his persona of Chainsaw Charlie alongside Cactus Jack claimed tag team gold by defeating the New Age Outlaws in a dumpster match. In a rare highpoint for DX, Triple H retained the European title against Owen Hart on the undercard.


Wrestlemania XV - The main event was The Rock defending the WWF title against Steve Austin in a No DQ match which towards the end featured run-ins from both Mankind and Vince McMahon, however Austin would not be denied and finally stunned his way to a second consecutive Wrestlemania main event win. The Undertaker featured in the semi final position again beating the Big Bossman in the worst Hell in a Cell match of all time. Shane McMahon's European title defence against X-Pac also was graced by a number of uninvited guests. The Road Dogg successfully defended the I-C title in a four way match which included Val Venis, Goldust and Ken Shamrock. Owen Hart and Jeff Jarrett were also victorious champions defending the tag titles against Test & D'Lo Brown. And finally to prove that the 'Brawl for All' was a complete disaster, the winner Bart Gunn found himself knocked out by journey man boxer Butterbean in less than 20 seconds.


Wrestlemania XVI - Had a Four Way as the main event, with every wrestler supported by a different McMahon, WWF Champion Triple H (Stephanie) vs The Rock (Vince), vs Mick Foley (Linda) vs Big Show (Shane). Mick Foley had supposedly been retired by Triple H at the previous PPV, this was also the first Wrestlemania where a heel won the main event when Triple H outlasted his rivals when Vince decided to double-cross The Rock and cost him the title. The 2000 version of Wrestlemania also saw the three way TLC classic between the Hardys vs Dudleys vs Edge & Christian who became the new tag team champions. Also in three-way competition were Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle who fought over two falls to decide who would be I-C and European champion. Benoit left with I-C gold and Jericho the European title. The other new additions from WCW, Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn & Dean Malenko had a less successful start to their Wrestlemania careers when they lost a six man to Too Cool & Chyna, what were the bookers thinking?


Wrestlemania X7 - Was basically a re-run of the main event of Wrestlemania XV where once again Steve Austin defeated The Rock for the WWF title in 'No DQ' main event with the only difference being that this time Steve Austion formed an alliance with Mr McMahon and turned heel. This wouldn't be the best idea the WWF ever had. In the semi main event the Undertaker was back on duty facing Triple H in a decent encounter. Strangely the WWE are re-writing their history by implying that The Undertaker and Triple H have never met at Wrestlemania and all talk of their initial Wrestlemania match have been banned for this years show. On the undercard Edge & Christian made it two TLC victories in a row over the Hardys and Dudleys, it didn't reach the heights of the previous years card. In a soap opera moment Shane defeated Vince which featured Mick Foley as referee and appearances from Linda, Stephanie and Trish Stratus. Chris Jericho successfully defended the I-C title against William Regal, Eddie Guerrero retained the European title against Test, while Kurt Angle used more intensity rather than integrity to defeat Chris Benoit.

WLH DVD Sales - RARE WWF & ROH Masters Plus More For Sale

I have set up a little site with all my wrestling and wrestling related master DVD's listed, please visit

http://wlhdvdsales.webs.com/

Before The Bell : Victory Road This Sunday On PPV

TNA Victory Road PPV Hype

Looking Back at Wrestlemania - Part Three With Shaun Nichols

Wrestlemania IX - Right up there as one of the worst Wrestlemania shows of all time, came from Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and was an open air event. The show also for some bizarre reasons had a Roman theme. Among the rare goodpoints of the show, Jim Ross made his commentary debut for the WWF, Bobby Heenan arrived at ringside facing the wrong way sitting on a camel. The Steiner Brothers defeated the Headshrinkers in the match of the night which was probably in the range of ***1/2. The only other passable match was Shawn Michaels' I-C title defence against the Tatanka which ended in a unsatisfactory count out. In the main event Yokozuna bested Bret Hart in a terrible main event, which was made even worse when seconds later Hulk Hogan turned up and pinned Yokozuna in 21 seconds to become the new WWF champion. There was supposed to be a feud between Hogan and Hart in the summer of 1993 over the title which Hogan nixed saying Bret wasn't on his level, instead he dropped the belt back to Yokozuna at the King of the Ring PPV that June and finally re-surfaced in WCW the following year. In other delights Razor Ramon defeated Bob Backlund, Money Inc defeated Hogan & Beefcake by DQ in a tag title affair, the popular Crush had his push completely pulled as he lost to Doink. This show was also where Lex Luger made his WWF PPV debut against Mr Perfect it wasn't good. This is a very poor show.


Wrestlemania X - Back to Madison Square Garden, this featured two of the best Wrestlemania matches of all-time. Opening up the show was Bret Hart facing his younger brother Owen, who had turned on him at the Royal Rumble saying that Bret was too selfish. There were suggestions that it should have been Bruce rather than Owen who should have had that spot. History shows that Owen was the right call. This was a fantastic match with lots of reversals, good psychology and Jerry Lawler doing a great job on commentary. Owen won clean and became a main eventer for most of 1994. The other classic was the I-C title Ladder match between Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon, due to the type of match it is this doesn't stand up to the test of time like Bret-Owen match but was very innovative and comes across as something very different. Even if you watch it now and see Shawn tying himself in the ropes at the end. The were two WWF title matches on the show as first Yokozuna defeated Lex Luger by DQ half way through the show and then in the main event Bret Hart bested Yokozuna when he capitalised on Yokozuna falling over in a match refereed by Roddy Piper. In other matches, Randy Savage was victorious over Crush in a falls count anywhere match when Crush had to pretend that he couldn't get up. Personally I wouldn't trust Randy's knot tying skills. Earthquake defeated Adam Bomb in 32 seconds, the Quebecers lost by count out but kept their tag titles against Men on a Mission.


Wrestlemania XI - Another dubious show, this was headlined by NFL legend Lawrence Taylor defeating Bam Bam Bigelow. Why the WWF thought that this should be the main event is anyone's guess? The WWF title was defended by Diesel who was successful against Shawn Michaels in a match which featured Pamela Anderson and Jenni McCarthy in the respective corners. In the run up to the show Shawn had claimed that this would be the best match of all time and so their match had quite the high expectations. Sadly they didn't meet them. Bret Hart was victorious in I Quit match against Bob Backlund using the chicken wing in a match refereed by Roddy Piper. Owen Hart and Yokozuna won the tag titles against the Smoking Gunns, and Jeff Jarrett retained his I-C title against Razor Ramon although he lost by DQ.


Wrestlemania XII - This featured the sixty minute iron man match between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels for the WWF title. I'll say right up front that I think both guys were very good wrestlers and had some fantastic matches between them however this was dull and boring in long parts. It could and should have been much better especially if they could have traded the odd pinfall. Instead they told the story that they cancelled one another out, it was a big mistake. After the 60 minutes, Bret walked to the back, a number of fans had already started to leave. By the time Bret had been called back and caught with a superkick for the title loss, it meant that Shawn was celebrating in a 2/3rds full arena. In other matches the Undertaker defeated Diesel in the semi-main event, Steve Austin made his Wrestlemania using the 'Ringmaster' gimmick beating Savio Vega, Roddy Piper having a year off from being a referee got the win over Goldust in parking lot brawl which featured a parody of the OJ Simpson car chase. Triple H had an interesting introduction to Wrestlemania he was pinned in 96 seconds by the Ultimate Warrior.


Wrestlemania XIII - One of the better Wrestlemania cards, this features the classic Bret Hart vs, Steve Austin 'I Quit' match which saw the faultless double turn, which left Austin as arguably the biggest babyface and allowed Hart to turn heel and run with his anti-USA gimmick. For the record it was Bret that won, when guest referee Ken Shamrock concluded that Austin couldn't continue. The Undertaker defeated 'Sycho' Sid in the WWF title match in the main event, this was exactly what you would expect. Rocky Maivia won his first I-C title by besting The Sultan in a poor encounter, this was at a time when the future Rock should not have pushed down the fans throats. Owen and Davey Boy fought to a double count out in their tag title match against the unique team of Vader and Mankind, Legion of Doom & Ahmed Johnson (do you remember him?) defeted the Nation of Domination in a decent Chicago streetfight. Triple H had his first Wrestlemania victory when he used the pedigree to beat Goldust on the undercard.

ZUFFA BUYS STRIKEFORCE!

In shocking news, Zuffa LLC, the parent company of the UFC, has finalised the purchase of Strikeforce, their closest competitor. UFC president Dana White says that Strikeforce will continue on as normal, with Scott Coker continuing to run the promotion, and that all employees of the promotion will be able to see out the remainder of their contracts, including those with bad blood with White/the UFC such as Paul Daley and Frank Shamrock.

In a week which has seen Japan's #2 promotion Sengoku Raiden Championship effectively close up shop, with Japan's #1 promotion DREAM on very shaky ground indeed, this effectively gives UFC a worldwide monopoly over MMA, with only minor promotions such as Bellator, the UK's BAMMA and Poland's KSW as distant rivals. Strikeforce gave fighters leverage when negotiating contracts, without this fight purses will no doubt dwindle.

Strikeforce's deals with M-1, the Russian promotion that handles Fedor Emelianenko, and Showtime, the American cable network, remain in place. Dana has stated that some UFC fighters may move to Strikeforce in the short term. Strikeforce's women's divisions (White has been opposed to promoting female fighting in the past) will remain intact.

The move comes almost 10 years to the day since WWE purchased WCW. This was bad for pro-wrestling in hindsight, and it remains to be seen what the results of today's takeover will be.

Fin (I don't have a twitter so follow @WLH_Stu instead)

WLH PPV Prediction League - Prizes To Be Won

OK, so it's time once again it's time for the WLH PPV Prediction league, hopefully everyone that took part last time will take part this time and if you didn't there is nothing stopping you getting in on the action this time. This Sunday TNA have the Victory Road PPV, below are the matches announce, send in all your predictions to wlhstu@aol.co.uk



1. TNA Champion Sting vs. Jeff Hardy
2. Rob Van Dam vs. Mr. Anderson
3. Matt Hardy vs. AJ Styles
4. Hernandez vs. Matt Morgan (First Blood)
5. Kazarian vs. Max Buck vs. Jeremey Buck vs. Robbie E (TNA X Division Title - Ultimate X)
6. TNA Tag Team Champions Beer Money Inc. vs. Ink Inc.
7. Bully Ray vs. Tommy Dreamer
8. Sarita & Rosita vs. Angelina & Winter

Has Wrestling Really Changed? By John Adams

Has wrestling really changed or is it just the fans that have?

No matter what sport you follow, no matter what team you cheer for, you will have witnessed a “golden age” where the players were your heroes, people you bought into thinking they were the best thing ever to grace their sport.

Let me talk about football for a moment, I started watching football as a kid in the late 80’s/ early 90’s where players like Diego Maradonna, Marco van Basten, Georghe Hagi had me mesmerised, that was my golden age of football. That’s what kids do they look up to the people they see on tv or wherever and buy into them being the best thing ever. Kids growing up watching football nowadays may idolise Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi and this is their golden age of football, it isn’t mine. And when the kids of today grow up they’ll still be talking about their heroes that they saw when they were children in exactly the same way that I talk about mine, and the generation before me talk about theirs.

How does this fit in with wrestling?

No matter what wrestling news, view, rumour or opinion you see, hear or read will predominantly have one theme and that is; “I WISH THEY WOULD BRING THE ATTITUDE ERA BACK”! And why is that?......Because that was our golden age.

What todays adult wrestling fans don’t seem to want to acknowledge is that the kids in the arenas today cheering for John Cena, are doing exactly the same things that we did when we were cheering for The Rock. The only difference is in todays world people can boot up the computer and spend night after night bitching and moaning. You think back in the attitude era there weren’t fans hankering back to the time of Hogan and Savage? Of course there were but they had no way of vocalising their discontent.

I think Jim Cornette said it best when he used an analogy about trapeze artists, which went something like:

At first there was just a guy swinging on a trapeze, and the crowd lapped it up because they’d never been able to see that live before, then, after watching the same routine time after time they got bored. So along came another trapeze artist who could do a back flip, again the crowd were amazed by this new thing so they forgot all about the first guy although he was really talented, but again the crowd got bored of the backflip and wanted more, so along came a guy who said he could do double backflips, so the crowd again followed the new guy, he got up on the trapeze, tried to do his double backflip but he slipped, and he died. Now the crowd had no trapeze artists to watch they were bored of the first two, they’d seen the routine a million times, so they had to wait, until again another guy entered the arena and said “I can do the double backflip”, he got up on the trapeze, and again the crowd was gripped, on the edge of their seats as he took off from the trapeze, one backflip, two backflips and he landed safely back on the bar of the trapeze. The crowd went wild, they had witnessed the best thing ever. So they forgot all about what had gone before, the first guy just swinging, the first guy to do a backflip, the guy that died attempting a double backflip…..But eventually they got bored of the double backflip guy as well, only this time nobody could do more than a double backflip, no one could better what the audience had already seen, so the crowd dispersed and no one wanted to watch trapeze acts any more.

We were spoilt by the attitude era, the excitement, the spectacle, it was awesome, but after witnessing what we did then of course your going to feel short changed by the wrestling product of today. However much you dislike it WWE’s product IS PG, it is in the most part aimed at the kids in the crowd, let them enjoy it, let them find their heroes, Let them fall in love with Wrestling like we did, share your stories and your memories but,

PLEASE DON’T DISRESPECT THEIR GOLDEN AGE.