Author: M. Swift

Let’s look at the top five WCW tag teams. Will there be a WWE edition? Yes, and it’ll cover the same period of the early 90s to the early 2000s since WWE has decades of tag teams. I mean going through every tag team combination from the 1960s until now and picking five? C’mon, folks. Just wait on Top 5 WWE Tag Teams of the 90s. Let’s dive into these top five WCW tag teams from fifth to first. The Filthy Animals (Rey Misterio Jr, Konnan, Billy Kidman, and Juventud Guerrera) Exciting high flying was becoming all the rage towards the end of the 1990s…

In the 1990s, WCW was known for having a number of strong tag teams gunning for the World Tag Team titles. WWE had a few strong teams, usually keeping two or three regular teams around. Then you have ECW tag teams. Remembering The ECW Tag Team Scene The thing with Extreme Championship Wrestling was that there was always one dominant tag team, combinations made by fate, and a rising, successor team. Heyman’s formula meant that ECW always had a team that was paired together as a unit. Now, the company didn’t have a bunch of teams, after all, ECW was smaller than…

Every wrestling legend starts from somewhere. Stone Cold wasn’t always Stone Cold, he was stunning. The Rock used to flex and The Undertaker was Master of Pain. This wasn’t a degree he picked up from Parts Unknown Community College. It also isn’t a weird mix of Dean Douglas meets The Undertaker. Simply put, this was an oddly named gimmick that was perfect for Memphis in the late 1980s. Undertaker As Master of Pain Each of The Undertaker’s previous gimmicks fed into the persona he’s best known by today. A fan of the deceptively agile grappler The Spoiler, young Mark Calaway emulated his style to a degree when wrestling as…

In a couple of shoot interviews in the 2000s and 2010s, legendary manager, storyteller, and podcast host Jim Cornette discussed his dislike of “hot-shotting” a major title like the WWE World Championship during the Attitude Era. For those who have never heard this term in wrestling, it’s when a champion loses a title only for the new champion to lose the belt in short order. Oh, it doesn’t end there! That new champion also loses their title quickly and that’s just how wrestlers live in that company. Hot-Shotting The WWE World Championship The most known culprit was the WWE World Championship during the Attitude. Cornette has pointed out that…

We’re heading back Into the Vault and looking at WWE In Your House 8: Beware of Dog. This is an interesting show in that the PPV’s feed cut out and didn’t come back until the main event. There was another show meant as a freebie and continuation of the PPV two days later. Since the Network used it to make up In Your House 8, we’re just counting these four matches. Low-Tier The main problem with Marc Mero taking on young Triple H is that it was 15 minutes long. No needed a match that long featuring Hunter at this point. He was…

Let’s go on ahead and check out TNA Sacrifice 2005. Taking place on August 14th, the stakes are high for Jeff Jarrett as he must win in the main event tag match. If Raven or Sabu manages to pick up the win, Jarrett can’t challenge for the belt for a year. It’s almost as if TNA knew people were growing weary of Double J possessing the NWA World title. Low-Tier Honestly, the low-tier stuff wasn’t bad for the most part it just wasn’t as engaging as the rest. A good example was the opening six-man which was actually pretty decent. …

In 1997, there was an ongoing feud between Rob Van Dam and Sabu and the team of Tommy Dreamer and The Sandman. That feud evolved into ECW vs. USWA when Jerry Lawler challenged the company. I’ve been rediscovering this feud via the old RF Video compilation ECW vs. USWA: Civil War of the 90s. It runs for almost three hours and features matches, promos, and angles. Most of it can be found YouTube, just use the tape listing as a guide. It was presented as an inter-promotional feud but was a talent exchange where ECW reaped more. Remember, ECW was rapidly on the…

I’ve been thinking a lot about next-generation wrestlers who missed the mark or never came close to it. Wrestlers who were taken out early like Reid Flair and Richie Steamboat. Let’s look at five such wrestlers. Reid Flair Young Reid Flair was gone too soon. Even though he had his demons, towards the end of his life he looked to be shaping up a wrestler as he was training in All Japan Pro-Wrestling. The last two punctuations on his name were the two failed drug tests in WWE that were mentioned in Ric Flair’s 30 for 30 and a really awful attempt at heel work on the mic by Paige. Seven…

While theme music came into wrestling in the age of Gorgeous George, it became popular for big arena shows in the 70s and 80s as the entertainment aspect found its place in the business. Just like popular music and albums released each week, there’s stuff you enjoy, stuff that sucks, and stuff so bad it’s good. Let’s look at five wrestling theme songs so bad you have no choice but to love them. The King of Cheesy Wrestling Theme Songs: The Fabulous Rougeaus – All-American Boys Jimmy Hart has a background in music and production as a vocalist in 1960 band The Gentrys—which had a Billboard hit in 1965. That’s a…

I enjoyed the second episode of ECW on TNN so much that I figured we’ll hit the third for First Month Fire. This one aired September 10, 1999, and features a TV Title defense between RVD and Jerry Lynn. This show also features we have Rhino taking on Super Crazy. There’s a replay from Heat Wave 1998 to hype up Anarchy Rulz’s World title bout with champion Taz defending against Mike Awesome and Masato Tanaka! Mid-Tier The opener between Super Crazy and young Rhino was short but good. They put on a nice little competitive match in under five minutes. It leaned heavily in Rhino’s favor but…