Falls Count Anywhere

03-18-03

I have just been elected to the Reppish House of Finns.

RAW
RAW wasn't a bad show. In fact, I got a bit of enjoyment out of a good deal of it, but it never really gelled for me. I was bored, and the main event was fun, but the set-up was completely useless.

Nothing was offensive on the show. Though Rodney Mack has no charisma, the Hurricane is a great worker and he pulled some hot moves off. The crowd was into him too, and the Rock coming out to destroy him will take him a little further down the road. Teddy Long is a nice throwback to the managers of the late-80s, who do the talking and distract the refs.

Maven vs. Rico wasn't a great match, but Rico is entertaining, and Maven has that same thing the Rock had back in 1997 where you know he's gonna break out, but you can't be sure how or when.

The RVD/Kane vs. Lance Storm and Chief Morley match was decent, and Morley looked better than he has since his major injuries. RVD was good, and Kane looked about average, but the match had no feeling from where I sat. Having the Dudleys reluctantly join up with Morley got an amazing amount of crowd heat, but it's muddled storytelling. I will say this: when Buh-buh tossed RVD over the top to the outside, I fell off the couch. It was that awesome.

Goldust came out during the HHH spiel, and I know that I am the only one, but he plays the affliction so well, I was entertained. HHH did not manage to entertain me this week, though, and we didn't get enough of Booker, which we need to build to Mania.

I have read elsewhere that folks were into the Steiner/Test vs. Jericho/Christian match, and I can see how they would be, but I wonder if they just enjoyed it for the fact that Steiner looked better than usual. I was not interested until they started to do the near-falls at the end, and then it picked up, but not enough to make me say it was the best match on the show.

The Shawn Michaels WrestleMania package they put together was another example of how the WWE can produce flashback segments better than anyone in the history of wrestling. You got almost all of Shawn's Mania experience in a 3 minute piece, and it made him look like a major star. If they did one of these for every non-main eventer this year, the heat for the whole show would be amazing.

Interesting to watch in the ring. Yeah, that's it..

The intergender tag team match was fun, with the classic heel walking out on their face partner storyline. Jazz is a very good wrestler, but I see no connection with the audience. Trish is gorgeous, and she can wrestle, but she is far from spectacular in the ring. Victoria is a burning ball of HOTHOTHOT and should be bathed and brought to me. Plus, she is interesting to watch in the ring.

I like Stevie Richards, as he used to make me laugh, and learned how to work a crowd in ECW, so he gets the fans into his matches. Not the best woman's match in a while, but fine enough. Trish took some punishment to the face. Jeff Hardy came out to make the save for Trish, and gave her a kiss. Interesting, as money may change hands in a number of betting pools.

The main event was useless, except to get Rock and Austin in the ring together. I like Austin, but I am hoping he gets some ring time, even if it's off TV, because he is not looking like the hero he was in 2001.

All in all, a fair show, but not strong enough to capture me, and not enough build towards Mania.

NEWS
Flair. Bischoff.

This time, it's for real.

Seriously, The Nature Boy and Bisch the Disch had a scuffle backstage over the weekend. Flair vented a little of his frustrations for Bisch's WCW tenure and a fight started, but quickly broken up. I can't say I didn't think this would happen eventually, but I am surprised it was Flair, as he is better known for his level head than his backstage antics.

Tony Halme, aka Ludwig Borge in 1993's WWF, was elected to the Finnish House of Reps. I am sure there is a joke in there somewhere.

Heat is moving to TNN, and it looks to be changing to an all SmackDown! show. I haven't watched Heat in ages, and when a wrestling columnist like myself is regularly skipping your show, you know there are problems.

FlashBack!
The WWF started WrestleMania in 1985, and a lot of folks think they started the whole wrestling supercard concept. Those people are wrong, as Starrcade 1983 became the first yearly supercard, but the WWF had a tradition in the 70s that I think started it all. They were the once every Olympic year Shea Stadium shows.

These were the WrestleManias of the 70s. Wrestling moved much slower, so you could actually have a yearlong build to a climactic battle. The Shea Stadium shows drew huge crowds, and were the biggest shows in the Northeast each of the three years they took place. The shows were always built around the legendary Bruno Sammartino.

About to break his neck. Literally.

The first show, in September of 1972, featured a 65:00 draw between Bruno, who had lost his WWWF title back in 1971, and Pedro Morales, who had beaten Ivan Koloff for the belt a few months later. This was seen as the Rock vs. Brock of it's day, as there was hope that this would be the true passing of the torch match. It didn't really happen, and it was said to be boring as hell. Not much else was on the card that year, but most of the rowdy Puerto Ricans who came to see Pedro were happy.

1976's show looked like it was going to be a disaster, but it turned around due to a little luck. The show was originally built around the closed circuit of the Muhammad Ali vs. Antonio Inoki match from Tokyo. That turned out to be a miserable failure, going 15 of the most boring rounds ever.

A few months earlier, Stan Hansen, one of the toughest Texans ever to step into the ring, had broken Bruno's neck in a match. They built the Shea show as a revenge run, and it drew huge, 30,000+. The rest of the show was only fair, with Andre the Giant taking on boxer Chuck "I was the inspiration for Rocky" Wepner.

The final Shea show took place in 1980, and was built around a "student has become the teacher" story between Bruno and Larry Zbysko. The two had been partners, until Larry turned heel and in one of the better moments of Bruno's later career, he started choking Zbysko and had to be dragged off, setting up the cage match at Shea.

It was a huge match, with the crowd going nuts the whole time, as apparently they always did back in those days. Bruno walked out the winner, but with a seriously gross looking bloody arm. The rest of the card was good, with 13 total matches, including appearances by Antonio Inoki, Chavo Guerrero (is the brother of my favorite wrestler), Perdo Morales, Tatsumi Fujinami, and the first big WWWF show Andre the Giant vs. Hulk Hogan match. This one was the one to go out on.

There was talk of doing one in 1984, supposedly, but once Vince the Younger took over, he had his sights on Mania. Still, these are legendary shows that had WrestleMania feel and each paving the way for the hype machines that build to Manias today. Historical shows, each of them, but when compared to the magic that happens every March nowadays, there is no contest.

OK, that's another Falls Count Anywhere in the bank. Friday, SmackDown!, news, and a FlashBack! talking about the darkest Mania ever: WrestleMania 9.

Chris Garcia