Author: M. Swift

It no surprise that Impact Wrestling uploaded the showdown between Bobby Lashley and Drew McIntyre from the June 16, 2016 episode of IMPACT. They had it in their vault and the match is slated for tonight at WWE Backlash.  The bout was over the TNA World Heavyweight title with Lashley being in his third of four reigns as champion and McIntyre was a one-time champion.  Before losing the belt, Drew McIntyre won the belt in March 2016 after defeating Matt Hardy on IMPACT. He would go on to have nine successful defenses defeating the likes of Jeff Hardy, Tyrus, Eli Drake, Lashley, and Matt…

We’re wrapping up 1995 for the WWE with WWE In Your House 5: Seasons Beatings! I like how WWE added subtitles after a while—or after several years. Oddly enough, WWE used one of these matches for the WWF Winter Combat tape. Let’s find out what rocked and what sucked at WWE In Your House 5!  Low-Tier  Ahmed vs. Buddy Landel was no good. It wasn’t meant to be a match so much as some soft feud building. Also, Landel was such an odd signing for WWE but he was part of that Smoky Mountain crew. You could just look at him with no gimmick change or anything…

Here we are, the last wrestling PPV of 1995: WCW Starrcade 1995. Growing up, Starrcade was always my favorite PPV. It didn’t have the flash and flair of WrestleMania but up until a point it came off as the classier season finale of the year presentation-wise.   WCW Starrcade 1995 has a three-front battle here as it must top WWE In Your House 5’s 5/10 score, WCW World War 3’s 5.5/10, and the same score for WrestleMania XI. Can this show do it or will it fall short?  Low-Tier  Luger defeating Masahiro Chono would’ve made for a decent TV match, but this is Starrcade, baby. A-game only for the time you’re given. That’s not the shocking story here. Johnny…

The Black Scorpion was a masked WCW gimmick meant to be a former friend/ally/partner of Sting. The Stinger was involved in a lot of proto-cinematic stuff during his surfer phase, so this wasn’t unusual. The guys who have been under the mask included Ole Anderson, Al Perez, The Angel of Death, Jeff Ellis, and eventually Ric Flair.  WCW and The Problem With The Black Scorpion  Flair mentioned that it was either going to be him or Barry Windham under the mask. He opted to do the unmasking honors because he wanted to protect Windham and could tank a hit if it wasn’t received well. Plus, creative decided “Ehhh…wasn’t Windham already a bogus Sting…

We’ve done a list on the worst Davids in professional wrestling. It was a smaller list than the number of decent or good talents in the wrestling business named David. And that’s what we’re getting into now. Here are five of the best Davids in wrestling. Does a Finlay make the list? If so, which David Finlay is the better Finlay? Let’s start with our fifth pick:  David Finlay  This fourth-generation wrestler is the son of Finlay—also better known as Fit Finlay. From his first two years in the business, he showed the potential to be a talented wrestler. A foundation established…

Earlier in the 1990s, WCW had an answer to the Royal Rumble match in BattleBowl. As a matter of fact, the concept was interesting as it mixed surprise tag team matches and fed them into the BattleBowl. However, WCW later ditched BattleBowl for the World War 3 match because a promotion must have a battle royal. Which was better the better competitor to the Royal Rumble: BattleBowl or World War 3?  The Case For BattleBowl  If you were watching, the process of the BattleBowl match came off as less random than WWE’s “Let’s focus on who are numbers 1, 2, 15, 29, and 30! Everyone else can come in all willy-nilly” approach. While the…

Another week and another dive Into the Vault 1995. This weekend, we’re going to end 1995 with the final two WCW and WWE shows. Let’s get started with WWE Survivor Series 1995! Before we get into it, WWE Survivor Series 1995 is brought to us by the Karate Fighters game. Marvelous. The only way this could’ve been better is if Snickers, Crossfire, or Slim Jim presented it.  Mid-Tier  This is a hard one as Survivor Series 1995 had a couple of solid at the minimum matches. This is mainly because most of the show was Survivor Series matches. Remember when WWE did all 4v4 matches for this event and you had maybe two non-tag bouts? What a…

Let’s take another dive into fantasy booking land with another Wrestling Salvage Yard. This time, we’re looking at Ron Reis, better known as Reese in WCW.   That Other Giant In WCW…No, Not Kevin Nash  At over 7’0, Reese was a monster of a wrestler who really stood out. Upon his WCW debut as the Yeti at Halloween Havoc 1995, it was noticed that he was noticeably taller than The Giant, who was being billed as 7’4 at the time. Apparently, he was only an inch taller than The Giant and was wearing lifts in his boots. Now, if the guy is already…

WCW World War 3 1995 was the first event in the PPV series and the answer to WWE’s Royal Rumble. It was meant to be bigger and therefore better. Watch your step, mind the ceiling, we’re heading Into the Vault!  Low-Tier  Let’s go through the bouts that just didn’t hit it out of the park. The taped fist match between Big Bubba and Jim Duggan just wasn’t going to do it. It had the right length, wrong players. Bubba is fine, there’s just something about late 90s Duggan that didn’t work for me.  Luger vs. Savage could’ve been much better. These 5-minute PPV matches…

We’re back with another Impact Wrestling/TNA Into the Vault! We’ve just finished up 1995 between WCW and WWE but we’re still early into 2005 for Impact Wrestling. Let’s check out TNA Destination X 2005!  Low-Tier  The first couple of matches weren’t that enjoyable. The opening 8-man was could’ve been better if 3 Live Kru were subbed out. Actually, they could’ve faced The Disciples of Destruction (the Harris Twins) and swap the times given and it would’ve probably been fine. I don’t know who would take their place. Probably Nash and Brown?  Speaking of the second tag bout were running into, scrap this match entirely. The…