Author: M. Swift

Conor McGregor and WWE have been a thing for years now. There’s always been speculation that he could join the New Haven-based promotion. This all stems from McGregor prodding WWE stars on social media and his box office appeal. The former UFC lightweight and featherweight champion is the biggest PPV star. All of this spawns a couple of questions about McGregor in WWE. Is There Interest From WWE? This should be a no-brainer. Triple H has even discussed dream match-ups featuring McGregor. Plus, as mentioned above, he’s basically Mr. PPV. He’s recently had a double dose of infamy with the…

Let’s get into some more First Month Fire with WWE RAW from January 18, 1993. This show featured three bouts and a lot of segments including the beef between Ric Flair and Mr. Perfect. Mid-Tier That’s right, there were no Low-Tier bouts! “Midnight Murderer” Marty Jannetty had a brief but solid squash match against pre-Thrasher Glen Ruth. Nothing to really elaborate on about this match. Marty picked up the win in a mid-show time-eater. We also had HBK hyping his upcoming Royal Rumble showdown against Marty during the match. I’m loving this show so far. The pacing of it and how we had promos during matches.…

I decided to just follow up Hard Justice 2005 with TNA Slammiversary 2005 because it was another first in TNA’s PPVs as well as the third-anniversary show. This event had a few cool things go down and one of my favorite event names ever. It’s in the top three with Starrcade and Wrestlepalooza. The question is: was TNA Slammiversary 2005 better than Hard Justice 2005? Let’s find out! Low-Tier Ron Killings vs. The Outlaw—listen, I had Billy Gunn fatigue in TNA. It’s nothing with his wrestling it’s basically being “The Bad Ass” or “Mr. Ass” with different names. If he’d shown up with a tweak to his gimmick or something maybe I would’ve…

In WCW, The Wall was this basic but odd presence who managed to become involved in actual storylines faster than the guy he was a bodyguard for—Alex Wright. The Wall came out of the Monster Factory and was mentored by fellow Monster Factor graduate Bam Bam Bigelow. He began his career in 1994 as Hellraiser. What I didn’t know was that he actually trained at the WCW Power Plant years before his debut in 1999. The Wall’s Career I can best describe him as a big man who was a decent enough brawler. He had a really good chokeslam but also had…

While doing the Mic Battle between Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair, something else popped into my head. Let’s get into WWE’s babyface champion booking. Both were more prominent during the 70s, 80s, and early 90s. As the late 90s came around tweeners and cool heels became the order of the day. However, before the 90s wrestling boom both promotions were defined by the booking of their champions. Opponents who managed to win the belt were often transitional. Let’s do a quick breakdown of both and you tell us which booking approach you preferred: WWE’s face World Champion or WCW’s heel…

Almost every promotion has wasted the potential of a few wrestlers. Impact Wrestling had several in its 18 year-run. Let’s look at five of them. Abyss (2002-2019) Joseph Park—better known as “The Monster” Abyss—was an Impact Wrestling/TNA O.G. He was there when it was still NWA: TNA. Even after leaving for WWE, he is still one of the longest-tenured wrestlers the company ever had. Listen, he was there longer than the founders of the company. However, TNA never really used him to his full, destructive potential. While he had several brushes with the World title, he only managed one almost…

We’re in April 1996 for Into the Vault and we’re looking at WWE In Your House 7: Good Friends, Better Enemies. I dig the subtitles for In Your House events. It’s like the episode title of a show where you’re given an idea of what that episode is going to be about. This one is headlined by buddies HBK and Diesel for the World Title. Low-Tier The team of Owen Hart and British Bulldog—known as Camp Cornette—took on Ahmed Johnson and Jake the Snake. It wasn’t a trash match but it could’ve been on TV. At this time, wrestlers were just getting paired…

I dig the Lethal Lottery and Battlebowl concepts in WCW. It would’ve been great if it was continued and was consistent but the last one came at WCW Slamboree 1996. The kicker about the 1996 Battlebowl is that the Lethal Lottery part wasn’t as strong or surprising as previous years. Let’s get into this show and see what hit and what missed. Low-Tier Just save the drudgery of going through the Lethal Lottery tournament, the whole thing is very low-tier. It’s a mix of matches that just weren’t good and bouts that were solid but unexciting. One of the Lethal Lottery matches that looked intriguing on paper…

Dynamite Kid vs. Tiger Mask is one of those early 1980s rivalries that get a lot of love. Their one-on-one battles took place across three years and seven matches. One of their matches—the August 1982 bout in WWE—was the first exposure of this rivalry in the West since the tape trade wasn’t as vast as it would be in the late 90s and 00s. These matches served as the blueprint for early 90s high-flying before lucha would influence things for the rest of the 90s. What else stood about these matches? Dynamite Kid vs. Tiger Mask: Chemistry 101 Chemistry in a…

It’s been a while since we’ve had a Mic Battle on The Overtimer. Let’s see who really rocks the mic between Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair. There really aren’t any rules to the Mic Battle but I tend to keep to contemporaries—wrestlers who had their peaks around the same time. Hulk Hogan The Hulkster’s mic work as a face was top tier for the 80s. There weren’t many who came close to delivering as a charismatic babyface at the time. Babyface wrestlers can be severely restricted if they’re going in as a beacon of good in the company. Outright roasting or insulting an…