For years, I was a huge wrestling fan (although Stone Cold Steve Austin once told me that I didn’t look that huge, but that’s another story).
I really don’t follow wrestling regularly anymore, but I still catch the occasional tv show or big pay per view and I have a near-encyclopedic memory of all the wrestling I have seen, good and bad.
Last (Sunday) night was Summer Slam, the WWF/E’s second (or third, depending on who you talk to) biggest card of the year. A group of my associates and I gathered at Iron Mike’s CribZoneTM to watch the PPV.
The card, on paper, was decent. But it was one of the most bizarre shows I’ve ever seen. Nevertheless, the experience was entertaining.
The show opened with Chris Benoit v. some joker named Orlando Jordan. The match had shades of King Kong Bundy v. S.D. Jones and the Ultimate Warrior v. the Honky Tonk Man. The match ended in 15 seconds- with the only result that we would have accepted- Benoit winning.
The next two matches were bizarre, as the grudge match between Matt Hardy and Edge was stopped by the referee 5 minutes in and Rey Mysterio and Eddy Guerrero had the worst ladder match ever. Not only did Mysterio and Guerrero blow every other spot in the match, but every 20 seconds, the camera took a shot of Rey’s kid, who the winner got custody of.
Kurt Angle v. Eugene was good, the wrong guy won Cena v. Jericho and Batista v. JBL was like the ’86 Worlds Series to me- I didn’t want either guy to win.
As far as the main event, Shawn Michaels v. Hulk Hogan went, it was a decent match, but hardly “the match of Hogan’s career” as was claimed. Michaels did a perfect impersonation of Ric Flair, not just in his mannerisms, but also carrying the whole match. It’s sad- because Hogan really can’t do anything other than punch, fall, HulkUp, punch, kick and leg drop. But for this show, it was a good main event.
Wasn’t what I’d call a “great” show, but it was fun nonetheless. I still don’t get why Vince pushes certain guys, but at least HHH wasn’t involved.
The show wasn’t enough to get me back into wrestling full time, but I may check it out if the TV is on and not tuned into a Yankees game.
But looks like once again I’m hosting the (now) annual King Tom WrestleMania bash. Should be fun.
Last week, the WWF/E brought back Kamala, the Ugandan Giant. Hopefully by Wrestlemania, they’ll be bringing back this guy:
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