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WWE Network |OT| $9.99 PPVs, that's gonna put some butts in the seats

BFIB

Member
I don't know how true it is, but there was a RAW Magazine that claimed Yokozuna weighed in at 804 pounds at Survivor Series 1996, which prompted the company to send him on a weight-loss plan. Russo was in full effect at this point and had turned RAW Magazine into a very edgy magazine with "shoot" articles and almost-naked photoshoots of the women, so it was probably close to truth. He was fucking gigantic at that PPV.

During the "giants" Legends of Wrestling, I believe it is Jim Ross who stated that Yokozuna was sent to a company to try and get his eating under control.

And yeah, that PPV in '96, he was insanely huge.
 

Striker

Member
They need to release some Raw episodes soon. Look forward to seeing the build and entire events of the '96 and '97 years. The main event talent of WWF '96 consisting of Mankind, Sid, Undertaker, Michaels, Austin, Vader, and Bret is gud.
 

BFIB

Member
They need to release some Raw episodes soon. Look forward to seeing the build and entire events of the '96 and '97 years. The main event talent of WWF '96 consisting of Mankind, Sid, Undertaker, Michaels, Austin, Vader, and Bret is gud.

At this point, it won't be long. Seems like every day there's new Raw episodes popping up.
 

geomon

Member
They changed Adam Rose's entrance music.

tobey-maguire-crying.jpg
 
During the "giants" Legends of Wrestling, I believe it is Jim Ross who stated that Yokozuna was sent to a company to try and get his eating under control.

And yeah, that PPV in '96, he was insanely huge.

I also remember a home video release that had a feature where Mean Gene Okerlund went to a restaurant with Yokozuna and Mr. Fuji. Yoko ate 11 pounds of rice in one sitting. Okerlund was hilarious during the whole thing.
 
They need to release some Raw episodes soon. Look forward to seeing the build and entire events of the '96 and '97 years. The main event talent of WWF '96 consisting of Mankind, Sid, Undertaker, Michaels, Austin, Vader, and Bret is gud.


This was a pretty awesome time. These 2 years felt the most "real" in WWF history. Probably my 2 favorite years. Compare early Attitude Era 96/97 to 98/99. Its night and day.
 
And then there's 2000 Attitude Era...

I've seen things.

2000 things started to get a bit more streamlined. This is where you can see this is the beginning of that WWE style match which is used today. Every superstars signature moves and finishers had to be in a match. Made for a very predictable style.

2000 is also when they started to tone down the moves. Taz couldn't use his arsenal of suplexes, Taker and Kane stopped doing the Tombstone, DDT's were butchered to land on their face and I even think powerbombs might have been limited.
 

strobogo

Banned
2000 things started to get a bit more streamlined. This is where you can see this is the beginning of that WWE style match which is used today. Every superstars signature moves and finishers had to be in a match. Made for a very predictable style.

2000 is also when they started to tone down the moves. Taz couldn't use his arsenal of suplexes, Taker and Kane stopped doing the Tombstone, DDT's were butchered to land on their face and I even think powerbombs might have been limited.

Despite all that, 2000 is one of the strongest in ring years for WWE.
 

somedevil

Member
2000 things started to get a bit more streamlined. This is where you can see this is the beginning of that WWE style match which is used today. Every superstars signature moves and finishers had to be in a match. Made for a very predictable style.

2000 is also when they started to tone down the moves. Taz couldn't use his arsenal of suplexes, Taker and Kane stopped doing the Tombstone, DDT's were butchered to land on their face and I even think powerbombs might have been limited.

Funny thing even with this tone down a lot of wrestlers still broke there necks later in 2001. Examples are Edge, Rhyno and Chris Benoit.

Also in 2000 the wrestling quality went up. In 1999 the undercard was crap in quality wrestling.
 

Shiv47

Member

geomon

Member
Why isn't wrestlemania 17 showing up as available to watch?

- According to a source in WWE, the PPVs that have vanished form the WWE Network and returned a day or so later is because WWE is updating the initial ones they threw up with a final version. In most cases the versions put up were for the Classics on Demand channel and were edited for a general audience and the WWE Network doesn't require that due to parental controls.

- Some WCW PPVs that have been taken down and returned have included the music that was co-written and performed by James Papa, which would indicate that they have come to a settlement in regard to his lawsuit against WWE over use of his music and trademarks. There's been no official update on the lawsuit yet though.

- Several Legends of Wrestling panels have been added to the VOD section of the Network.

- ECW and WCW PPVs have been moved to the Vault section of the Network. They are listed in both the PPV and Vault areas on some platforms, while others have then listed only in the Vault.

Credit: PWInsider
 
Not sure what I think about 94 ECW. It doesn't really feel like ECW. I do somewhat remember 95 ECW and it feels more at home. 95-98 was GOAT ECW. Raven leaving was a huge blow. That's why I didn't like 98 ECW as much. Though Justin Credible was such an asshole, what an underrated heel.
 
Logged on tonight to see them add three new Legends of Wrestling. I could watch people like JR, DDP, Piper, Patterson, Foley, Flair, etc. just sit in a room and tell stories for hours and hours at a time.
 
Logged on tonight to see them add three new Legends of Wrestling. I could watch people like JR, DDP, Piper, Patterson, Foley, Flair, etc. just sit in a room and tell stories for hours and hours at a time.

They were the best part of the old WWE 24/7 service. I would love to see them create some more while Mean Gene is still capable to do things like this.
 
D

Deleted member 47027

Unconfirmed Member
Added today:

In Ring
Smackdown Backstage Pass
Backstage Pass to SmackDown #761 - 2014/03/21
 

Shiv47

Member
Watched an Old School show from Boston Garden today, with "King" Harley Race against Pedro Morales. The whole king bit cracked me up, given Race's tattoos and tube socks. At least pick a guy for that gimmick who doesn't look like a dock worker.
 
Watched an Old School show from Boston Garden today, with "King" Harley Race against Pedro Morales. The whole king bit cracked me up, given Race's tattoos and tube socks. At least pick a guy for that gimmick who doesn't look like a dock worker.

The "King" gimmick was given to Haku and Jim Duggan after that. It was obviously a theme with Vince.
 
I've been keeping up with the 1993 Raws and getting a heavy dosage of nostalgia. Actually, I didn't have cable back then, so alot of the content is new to me (although I remember most major events covered on Superstars, PPVs, etc).

One question I have is what happened to Mr. Perfect's face push? After sending Flair on his way, he seemed poised to become a major force in the world title scene. He got into programs with Luger and Shawn Michaels, but didn't come out on top in either. Then, they had him play heel and job to Bret at KotR in a great match. I'm just surprised he never got back to main event level, especially since I recall they put him against Hogan back in the 80s.

So anyone know why Hennig never went further? Behavioral issues? Did McMahon see him as already too old (this is the "new generation" era after all)? Or maybe I was just a huge mark for him and he wasn't as over as I believe?
 

BFIB

Member
I've been keeping up with the 1993 Raws and getting a heavy dosage of nostalgia. Actually, I didn't have cable back then, so alot of the content is new to me (although I remember most major events covered on Superstars, PPVs, etc).

One question I have is what happened to Mr. Perfect's face push? After sending Flair on his way, he seemed poised to become a major force in the world title scene. He got into programs with Luger and Shawn Michaels, but didn't come out on top in either. Then, they had him play heel and job to Bret at KotR in a great match. I'm just surprised he never got back to main event level, especially since I recall they put him against Hogan back in the 80s.

So anyone know why Hennig never went further? Behavioral issues? Did McMahon see him as already too old (this is the "new generation" era after all)? Or maybe I was just a huge mark for him and he wasn't as over as I believe?
I know he battled drug addiction through most of his career. Not sure if that played a part, but I really enjoyed Mr. perfect from his return at Survivor Series.
 

strobogo

Banned
Watched an Old School show from Boston Garden today, with "King" Harley Race against Pedro Morales. The whole king bit cracked me up, given Race's tattoos and tube socks. At least pick a guy for that gimmick who doesn't look like a dock worker.

I'm pretty sure the King gimmick came about as a way to kind of/sort of reference Harley's past without actually saying 7 time NWA Champion. Similar to the way they had Flair bring Big Gold on TV and claim to be the real world's champion, but at the same time have no one have any idea where the belt came from.

I've been keeping up with the 1993 Raws and getting a heavy dosage of nostalgia. Actually, I didn't have cable back then, so alot of the content is new to me (although I remember most major events covered on Superstars, PPVs, etc).

One question I have is what happened to Mr. Perfect's face push? After sending Flair on his way, he seemed poised to become a major force in the world title scene. He got into programs with Luger and Shawn Michaels, but didn't come out on top in either. Then, they had him play heel and job to Bret at KotR in a great match. I'm just surprised he never got back to main event level, especially since I recall they put him against Hogan back in the 80s.

So anyone know why Hennig never went further? Behavioral issues? Did McMahon see him as already too old (this is the "new generation" era after all)? Or maybe I was just a huge mark for him and he wasn't as over as I believe?

He reinjured his back. If I had to guess, I would imagine his back wasn't 100% to begin with and Vince offered him a lot of money/begged him to come back to fill in for Warrior and as is the case with wrestlers, he stuck around for more pay days.
 

Striker

Member
He had some injury but the booking around the time still seemed weird.

Savage got the "too old" tag and Vince wanted him on commentary instead.
 
I'm pretty sure the King gimmick came about as a way to kind of/sort of reference Harley's past without actually saying 7 time NWA Champion. Similar to the way they had Flair bring Big Gold on TV and claim to be the real world's champion, but at the same time have no one have any idea where the belt came from.

Nah. Vince geniunely thought WWF fans had no idea about the NWA and wouldn't know anybody. Road Warrior Animal did an interview and talked about when they met Vince for the first time in 1990. He was asking them to come up with team names and they said, "Um, we already have a name. We're the Road Warriors." Vince said, "Eh, none of our fans are going to know who you are. I can't call you that anyways. We already have the Ultimate Warrior. Come up with something else."

But yeah, I remember Gorilla Monsoon going on TV rants about how nobody in the WWF had any idea where Flair's belt came from and how he must have just gotten it made for himself so he could pretend he was a world champion.

And Harley Race looked like total shit when he came to the WWF. He shouldn't have been wrestling at that point. He looked even worse when he came back to wrestle in WCW briefly before he retired. The best was that he still wore his King tights in WCW for no reason at all.
 
What happened with Perfect is that he had an insurance policy that covered him if he got injured. A lot of wrestlers had insurance policies with Lloyds of London. When he injured his back in summer 1991, he started collecting insurance. When Vince fired Warrior and needed a replacement, he guaranteed Perfect a lot of money for one year to come back. Vince wanted to lower what he paid him, to which Perfect said, "Yeah, no thanks. I'll go back to collecting insurance money." This explains why Perfect suddenly disappeared before Survivor Series '93 and, ironically, had to be replaced in his match with Randy Savage. Vince told him to just go home, but brought him back at Survivor Series '95 as a commentator. When WCW offered him a huge contract to wrestle in 1997, he took it because WCW was paying him way more than his insurance was.

Bret Hart also collects from Lloyds of London because of his WCW injury. I remember they actually told Bret he was being too physical on WWE TV when he came back in 2010 and told him to knock it off.
 

JavyOO7

Member
Is this Smackdown that's on the live stream on Smackdown replays? I can't find it unfortunately.

EDIT: Ah, I can watch it from the show schedule. Its episode #149.
 

strobogo

Banned
Nah. Vince geniunely thought WWF fans had no idea about the NWA and wouldn't know anybody. Road Warrior Animal did an interview and talked about when they met Vince for the first time in 1990. He was asking them to come up with team names and they said, "Um, we already have a name. We're the Road Warriors." Vince said, "Eh, none of our fans are going to know who you are. I can't call you that anyways. We already have the Ultimate Warrior. Come up with something else."

But yeah, I remember Gorilla Monsoon going on TV rants about how nobody in the WWF had any idea where Flair's belt came from and how he must have just gotten it made for himself so he could pretend he was a world champion.

And Harley Race looked like total shit when he came to the WWF. He shouldn't have been wrestling at that point. He looked even worse when he came back to wrestle in WCW briefly before he retired. The best was that he still wore his King tights in WCW for no reason at all.


To be fair to Vince, a lot of kids watching DIDN'T have any idea about NWA/WCW then. I didn't even find out about WCW until 1993 or so when a local video store had their tapes. There's so much weird shit like when Paul Ellering came to the WWF and he, LOD, and Bobby Heenan acknowledged they had a past together before the WWF, but then Iron Sheik is brought back as an Iraqi colonel. Which Piper never adhered to and would mention "just like he used to do back in '83" when doing the Camel Clutch while Gorilla acted like he had never seen the guy. Or the Ultimate Warriors team of LOD (Road Warriors), Warrior, and Texas Tornado (Modern Day Warrior) which was never acknowledged on screen but was pretty obvious to anyone who had been watching wrestling for a while.

That whole period of never acknowledging past accomplishments even in passing is still weird to me. Why wouldn't you want to say someone is a former 7-10 time champion when you're going to feed them to Hogan? That would just make Hulk and your title look even better.
 

Shiv47

Member
To be fair to Vince, a lot of kids watching DIDN'T have any idea about NWA/WCW then. I didn't even find out about WCW until 1993 or so when a local video store had their tapes. There's so much weird shit like when Paul Ellering came to the WWF and he, LOD, and Bobby Heenan acknowledged they had a past together before the WWF, but then Iron Sheik is brought back as an Iraqi colonel. Which Piper never adhered to and would mention "just like he used to do back in '83" when doing the Camel Clutch while Gorilla acted like he had never seen the guy. Or the Ultimate Warriors team of LOD (Road Warriors), Warrior, and Texas Tornado (Modern Day Warrior) which was never acknowledged on screen but was pretty obvious to anyone who had been watching wrestling for a while.

That whole period of never acknowledging past accomplishments even in passing is still weird to me. Why wouldn't you want to say someone is a former 7-10 time champion when you're going to feed them to Hogan? That would just make Hulk and your title look even better.

Yeah, as someone who had watched more NWA and WCCW than WWF up to that point, the re-naming and storylines used for Flair and Kerry Von Erich and so on drove me nuts. I'd see the "Texas Tornado" and be screaming in my head "JUST CALL HIM KERRY VON ERICH WHAT THE FUCK." And the Flair as impostor champ thing, ugh. They could have just said "other promotions" or whatever and left it at that, not like anyone would have had that much to investigate. I mean, I guess kids might not have gotten it, but whatever.
 

strobogo

Banned
Hardcore Heaven 1997 suuuuuucks. It's so flat. The crowd rivals a Smackdown in Corpus Christi crowd. Things I don't miss in wrestling: Hitting people in the head as hard as you can with whatever you can find. The ending with a company wide brawl ending with New Jack/Eliminators coming out is so brutal. Balls and Axl were blasting people who weren't even able to brace themselves. I'm glad that shit is only common in rusty shit holes where Bootaaay's hang around.


Main event was terrible. Botches everywhere for starters, but one spot sticks out the most. Sabu climbs up top with a chair with his back facing the ring. As if he were going to do a moonsault. As he's up there, Fonzie is busy putting Terry on a table. Todd Gordon comes out and attacks Fonzie. Shane Douglas then attacks Gordon and puts him on the table. Terry then puts Fonzie on top of him. Sabu finally turns around and jumps on both of them, then is shocked that he jumped on Fonzie. He stood on the top rope with his back to the ring for no reason for nearly a minute just waiting for his spot. And when he turned around, it was pretty obvious Terry Funk was no longer on the table since he was standing up and holding Fonzie on the table. It looked absolutely terrible. Another great moment was Shane beaning himself in the head as he tried to throw a guard rail into the ring and the security guards behind him laughing at him for it.
 
ECW still wasn't on the main PPV carrier at the time, Viewer's Choice, by the time Hardcore Heaven 1997 came around, so they likely didn't give a shit. Their only carrier was Request, which few people had because it was shitty. The lighting in the arena is also god-awful.

The next PPV, November to Remember '97, was the first one to get clearance on Viewer's Choice. You could tell because they stepped their production up big time for that show.
 
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