Author: M. Swift

In the fourth episode of WWE Monday Night RAW. There’s a return, Tatanka in action, High Energy, and more. Let’s get into this episode! Storylines On This Episode We have the return of Brutus Beefcake. He was out of action for three years after being hurt by a parasailer. Brutus talked with Vince about returning and dropped the most depressing-sounding story on the crowd in attendance. Two parents passed before his injury, he got divorced, then suffered facial injuries. He’s getting back into the ring because he’s got nothing left. This crowd had had enough and they were dead for this segment. In the crowd’s defense, this story went on too long and…

Let’s take a trip back to a very special edition of WWE SmackDown from February 1, 2001. Oh yes, I’m talking about WWE SmackDown Xtreme! All of the titles sans Test’s European Championship and Essa Rio’s Light Heavyweight Championship—were defended. Let’s check this show out. Low-Tier Women’s champion, Ivory managed to hold on to her title in a triple threat match against Lita and Jacqueline. It didn’t even make four minutes and it wasn’t an entertaining brief match. Seriously, if you so much as blinked or headed to the restroom you missed this match. It was the length of a commercial break. Remember, this wasn’t the hottest…

It’s more First Month Fire with ECW Hardcore TV and its third show from April 19, 1993. This episode features the semi-finals and finals of the ECW Television Championship tournament. We also have hostilities brewing between Rockin’ Rebel and The Sandman. The major storyline is the boiling feud between color commentator Terry Funk and Eddie Gilbert. If you’re following on the WWE Network, you’re in for a treat with a dope Terry Funk promo after getting a little payback on Hot Stuff! Low-Tier Let’s get to these matches. Hunter Q. Robbins III sicced his Super Destroyers on two scrubs in another sub-meh match. Even though he’s a scrub, Super Ninja had a better mask…

On February 17, 1996, Extreme Championship Wrestling continued to be ahead of the American wrestling industry with ECW CyberSlam 1996. The show ended up being aired on ECW Hardcore TV later on. I tend to focus on the actual in-ring action when we head into the vault but Brian Pillman owned the mic on this show! After the lights went out and Pillman appeared to takeover Joey Styles’ opening, no one else should’ve been near a mic. It was amazing. For added humor, the crowd kept calling for ECW to “Let him piss” after he threatened to whiz in the ring. If you want more chuckles how about Shane Douglas coming out and threatening to hold up…

I always said that wrestling feuds and rivalries get mixed up or used just used interchangeably. When you’re watching wrestling Monday night or on Tuesday, Wednesday—whenever—are you watching a rivalry or a feud? Rivalries In Wrestling Can Have An Ending A rivalry is purely competitive. There might be some bad blood action but 95-percent of that story is seeing who is the better of the two or who is the best. There might even be lots of boasting when charismatic wrestlers are involved. Think Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels when it was just those two going at it. Other rivalries you might know…

We talked about the five greatest tag teams in WCW and ECW, let’s get into the five best of the WWE Attitude Era. We have to keep it within the same period of time so let’s do it! APA/The Acolytes While Farooq and Bradshaw were both tough, powerful bruisers—a former World Champion and a future World Champion—they seemed like an odd pairing. Farooq was on his own after The Nation of Domination booted him and Bradshaw was flying solo after the failed Blackjacks didn’t take off. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFLuGQrC48M Paired together, they formed a basic but effect power duo. This fifth spot was…

Ahmed Johnson really made his national name after signing with WWE in 1995. He was only in the company for three years but was involved in a couple of memorable storylines in the late-New Generation and early-Attitude Era periods. Career Breakdown When Johnson came in you just knew he was someone who was tailor-made for the company. He was big, muscular, had an explosive style, and radiated intensity. His rapid push wasn’t that surprising when you watch RAW from that period. Actually, his push speed was just a bit faster than the pushes of newcomers to WWE. Four months in, he won his first PPV match at Survivor Series on a team with HBK, Sid,…

The two important things on the third episode of WWE Monday Night RAW from January 25, 1993, were the minor beef between Randy Savage and The Repo Man and the conclusion of the Mr. Perfect and Ric Flair beef. Yeah, that Savage-Repo Man thing is an odd side storyline. Savage was a color commentator on WWE television at the time and Repo Man stole his cowboy hat. That’s the gist of that story. Savage wants his stuff back, didn’t call the police to file a report, and decided to solve it in the most exhausting way possible to solve such a…

Let’s go ahead and close the books on the first month of ECW on TNN with episode four. Who knows, we might end up doing a review of all 59 episodes. After all, it’s a one-hour show and one of the most digestible ones. Airing on September 17, 1999—September is a magical month for wrestling TV—it was main evented by RVD defending his TV title against Jerry Lynn! There was a promo from Raven about his and Tommy Dreamer’s former feud and why he is back in ECW. Basically, it’s to give his life and career meaning and help him get…

I was watching some XPW Monday Nightmare for our First Month Fire series. In one episode we had Danny Doring vs. Kaos fighting over the XPW TV Title. Danny Doring is best known for his time in ECW in a team with Roadkill and as the final ECW World Tag Team Champions. In ECW, since he was mainly a tag team competitor towards the end when he was featured on TV and at PPVs more often, it could be easy to overlook Doring. However, after seeing his match vs. Kaos in XPW, I began seeking out his singles stuff from the early…