July 14th, 1984 is a DAY… WHICH WILL LIVE… IN INFAMY!!!!

It is called by NWA marks as “Black Saturday”. The “World Championship Wrestling” 6:05 timeslot on Saturday Nights, which throughout history was under the stranglehold of primarily Georgia Championship Wrestling and the NWA, was purchased by Vince McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation as part of the WWF’s national expansion, or as some call it, takeover.

Jack Brisco and Gerald Brisco were both co-owners along with Ole Anderson before the Brisco’s sold their stock of Georgia to Vince McMahon (including the timeslot), which explains by Gerald is still seen as a “stooge” and has a job for life. This was somewhat of a “double-cross”, but hey, business is business.

Georgia Championship Wrestling was one of the cornerstones of the NWA in the late 70s and early 80s, providing a rougher, more athletic pro wrestling show rather than the WWF’s overtop steroid bodies and cartoon gimmicks.

Ironically enough, the WWF show, for perhaps the first time in company history, EPICLY FAILED when compared to a REAL wrestling product and became a ratings disaster. The other real issue with it was that the content that McMahon provided to Turner were essentially “re-runs”, a.k.a. matches and promos that already aired in other markets in syndication or on the World Wrestling Federation’s television network.

Turner pressured Vince into selling the timeslot to Jim Crockett, who turned it over to Ole, starting “Championship Wrestling from Georgia”, not to be confused with Georgia Championship, which was dead.

It would be just a decade and a half later that Vince would own it all, but in THIS situation, he took one to the temple.

Intro:

Second half:

I bring to you, the first ever Fight Game Blog Awards. Since our website is unique in that we cover boxing, pro wrestling, and MMA, we have three different categories for awards.

In addition to our FGB brothers, Stevie J from Angry Marks is also giving his picks.

Pro Wrestling

Wrestler Of The Year
Big D - Edge
Alan - Shingo Takagi

Was given the ball in Dragon Gate due to top star CIMA being on the sidelines, and the company had it’s best business year ever. He was also outstanding in the ring and is full of charisma.

Duan - Jeff Hardy

This may not be a popular choice, but Jeff has really delivered main event quality matches this year, and he has now finally been given the chance to carry a world title. His ascension has helped freshen up a tired WWE main event scene, and the title change was executed perfectly.

I might’ve given up on WWE this summer if it weren’t for Chris Jericho. He and Shawn Michaels were the sole reason I bought any B shows this year.

Match Of The Year Continue Reading »

I remember it like it was yesterday. I was watching Saturday Night’s Main Event where the big angle for this Wrestlemania started. The main event was scheduled for Hulk Hogan vs. The Magnificent Muraco and instead of Muraco’s regular manager Mr. Fuji by his side, Bobby Heenan was in his corner. They said that Fuji had the flu, which was an angle alert. However, I was only nine so I didn’t know about angle alerts. During the match, Hogan went after Heenan and King Kong Bundy came in to attack Hogan and “pearl harbor” him as Vince McMahon would say. It was a sneak attack that left Hogan laying in the ring, taking big splash after big splash. As a young Hulkamaniac, I was devastated. I had just been turned on to wrestling the year before by my best friend at the time, and I bit hook, line, and sinker. There I was, up at midnight, watching my hero take the beating of his life. Bundy was played up huge. He was a mountain of a man. He actually resembled the letter “O” with his short but fat torso and lack of neck. He used to be called a condominium with legs. As Hogan lay lifeless in the ring, I was upset at this guy with the bald head and wrinkled forehead. But I was smart enough to know my guy was going to get revenge. The storyline was that Hogan was in the hospital suffering from rib injuries and you could write the Hulkster to wish him well. I wasn’t that gullible, but I know other young kids were. They even had Mean Gene Okerlund talk to the doctor and they showed x-rays of Hogan to sell the angle. They would meet again in the main event of Wrestlemania 2 and in a steel cage.

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According to F4W/Wrestling Observer, Batista is going to be out of action for a while with a hamstring tear that may need surgery. This probably throws a wrench into the Wrestlemania plans, but will help freshen up his character which wasn’t really going anywhere. You hate to see someone like him go through another muscle tear with his past injuries, but that’s the price one pays for being so muscular. There’s a reason you don’t see most NFL players with that kind of muscle size.

On a happier note, Trish Stratus returned to Raw last night (for one night only I’m guessing) since the show was in Toronto and teamed with John Cena against Glamarella. She looked great and even though the match wasn’t anything special, the show actually did feel special with her presence. Remember when Raw used to fun like this?

You can watch the end of the match at WWE.com.

Trish Stratus photo by The Badder in the World and shared through creative commons

Who would’ve thought that this man would become the biggest star in the business just a few short years later? Amazing how things work out. We can pray for the RYAN BRADDOCK WORLD TITLE REIGN!!!!

It wasn’t even black tights - it was green!

So I got this DVD comp of the short but sweet, late eighties, heel run of Haku and Tama, The Islanders. Wasn’t totally sure what to expect going in but I was assured it was great, so I decided to dive right into it when it came in the post.

May 30th 1987 Superstars
Islanders vs. Can-Am Connection

Going into this match both teams were babyfaces, and dammit, Bruno on commentary was oh so excited about the good clean technical match we had in front of us! However something smelled fishy as Bobby Heenan came down to ringside and Jesse Ventura seemed to have the scoop. He laughed a knowing laugh and Bruno and Vince weren’t happy. Then the Islanders did the greatest pop-in interview, they simply did a nice big belly laugh. Bruno: “I don’t know what dat was allll about Vince”. Of course about 5 minutes in, Haku and Tama go rudo all over the Can-Ams asses and Bobby gets in the ring and hugs them.

The first three post-turn matches are a great squash, a match against THE YOUNG STALLIONS~! and a match against Rick Martel and JYD (I dunno where Zenk went). The main thing that came out of these was how unbelievably great Tama was as a heel. Just such a total cocky prick. He was great.

August 15th 1987
Strike Force arrives! (and my sister was born, but that’s significantly less important)

So with Zenk having disappeared, Martel was out on his own in singles action (against Big Bad Barry Horowitz). The Islanders apparently weren’t through with making him a sad little model, so they hit the scene and beat the crap out of him. However they didn’t account for Tito Santana (who was working the Spanish broadcast) hitting the ring for the save. Tito was all fired up and Strike Force was formed!

A couple of weeks later, the Islanders squashed a couple of fools and then made their way over to the Spanish table. They had a bone to pick with Tito. A brawl broke out, the feud intensified.

October 3rd 1987 Boston Garden
Islanders vs. Strike Force

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Thanks to Dave Meltzer and F4W/Wrestling Observer for the results.

Jeff Hardy won the WWE championship in what Meltzer described as a hell of a booked finish. HHH had Edge pinned until Hardy hit the swanton onto HHH and then pinned Edge to finish the PPV.

John Cena beat Chris Jericho to keep the World Heavyweight title and Batista beat Randy Orton to continue their program.

Photo by John O’Neil

This is courtesy of Dave Meltzer’s Yahoo! article about Brock Lesnar’s drawing power.

Just a reminder - this is for North American buys only, so the international buys that pace WWE aren’t included.

1. Boxing: Oscar De La Hoya vs. Manny Pacquiao, Dec. 6, 1,250,000

2. UFC: Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Couture, Nov. 15, 1,010,000

3. Wrestling: WrestleMania, Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Paul “Big Show” Wight, March 30, 670,000

4. UFC: Georges St. Pierre vs. Jon Fitch/Lesnar vs. Heath Herring, Aug. 9, 625,000

5. UFC: Lesnar vs. Frank Mir, Feb. 2, 600,000

6. UFC: Quinton Jackson vs. Forrest Griffin, July 5, 540,000

7. UFC: St. Pierre vs. Matt Serra, April 19, 530,000

8. Boxing: Felix Trinidad vs. Roy Jones Jr., Jan. 19, 500,000

9. UFC: Chuck Liddell vs. Rashad Evans, Sept. 6, 480,000

10. UFC: B.J. Penn vs. Sean Sherk/Tito Ortiz vs. Lyoto Machida, May 24, 475,000

It was really a two dog race and you have to wonder if Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Couture could’ve beaten Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquiao if the previously rumored Spike multiple episode previews which would’ve been much like HBO’s 24/7 series, had happened.

Also, UFC’s December show will probably jump in there anywhere from number 6 on down and bump out the UFC show headlined by B.J. Penn and Sean Sherk. However, I think that Tito Ortiz definitely helped that buy rate.

UFC is the king of PPV. I imagine the next WWE show on that list is probably Royal Rumble or something, but it has to be fairly down that list.

Before all of the current crop of WWE Divas, the one who was most likely the hottest of them all was Tammy Lynn Sytch, kayfabe named Sunny. So let’s look back at TWELVE years ago, at the Slammys, with Sunny and her nice PAIR of… … Slammies.

Amazing body. Perhaps the best ever on a Diva.

Oh and by the way - she has nice hair.

(I’m on the west coast, so this play by play is a bit delayed)

Why, after all these years, are they bringing back the Slammy’s? Well, they need three hours of TV to fill tonight. Why after 5 years away am I blogging Raw again? Eh, I don’t know. I think I just have a heart for nostalgia and while this show won’t be as wacky as the old Slammy’s stuff, I think it will still be fun.

But probably not as fun as this.

For some reason, we have three huge matches that completely overshadow anything that WWE will try and make you pay for this weekend at Armageddon. It’s highly unlikely that we’ll get any clean finishes though.

Maria and Festus (with a tie over his overalls) present the tag team of the year award.

Nominees: Carlito & Primo, Team Priceless, Miz & Morrison, and Cryme Tyme

If Miz & Morrison don’t win, it’s a travesty. And thankfully, they win. Morrison thanks Chuck Norris while Miz thanks Baba Booey.

1. John Morrison vs. CM Punk

This match is one of the semi-finals of the Intercontinental contender tournament. Punk did a cross body to the floor, but Morrison didn’t catch him very well.

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