Mt. Rushmore of Wrestlemania

By my calculation of Wrestlemania being on the Sunday after Easter, I'm thinking Wrestlemania 41 will be held on 4/27. This article was published all the way back in 2018 about the four pro wrestlers who would be on a Mt. Rushmore of WrestleMania: Which 4 WWE Legends Deserve the Honor? by Mike Chiari March 15, 2018. Wrestlemania 40 should have been in 2024 (since the first one was in 1984) and, assuming WWE exists in 2025, Vince McMahon (the current owner) will be 79 years, 8 months, 3 days (29101 days), per How Old is Vince McMahon? so we'll have to see what becomes of WWE between now and then.

Editor's Note: Today is a milestone as oxygen has been going in and out of lungs for 55 years, 4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days (20233 days) today.

Fast Forwarding 1099 Days

I know I post a lot of "back in the day" videos from the WWE and WCW. Most of the time, I do so with no memory of those events happening, though I am fairly confident I would move heaven and earth and my kids in order to watch pro wrestling on Monday nights with Debbie when Karen and I lived on Prospect Court. However, this clip, from when Shane McMahon bought WCW from under Vince McMahon's nose is a scene I definitely specifically remember. I was always as interested in WCW as I was interested in WWE whereas Debbie was more firmly rooted in WWE and, actually, back then it was "WWF" but you get my drift. The two companies were definitely competitors and were definitely trying to win the ratings every week. As yesterday's Reliving the War video, which I embedded below the Shane buys WCW video, by 3-23-1998, the war was on. In context, there was a lot going on:

• I had been on earth for 10336 days (28 years, 3 months, 2 weeks, 5 days) and for the last 40 days (1 month, 1 week, 5 days), working at my new job - Jordan Systems in Cedar Rapids
• Megan was 586 days (1 year, 7 months, 1 week, 2 days) on 3-28-1998
• Karen was pregnant and it would be 213 days (6 months, 4 weeks, 1 day) until Alex would be born on 10-22-98

According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invasion_(professional_wrestling), the Monday Night Wars came to an end on March 23, 2001, when the WWF bought the rights to WCW's video library, trademarks, 24 contracts for selected wrestlers, championships, and other properties for what was considered to be a lower bargain price. 

This episode happened on March 26th, 2001:

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https://youtu.be/ 8WbZaT8qSw4

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In the Reliving the War series, we are only up to 3-23-1998, which is 1099 days (3 years, 3 days) prior to the above video.

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Some PW News

WWE Rumors on Ric Flair, Vince McMahon, Charlotte, Adam Cole and Bray Wyatt's Release

Got 10 Hours to Waste?

This is the entire first season of Behind The Titantron compiled into one single video for your viewing convenience! No intros/outros/openers or disclaimers. Some had been blocked by WWE. NOTE: There is an Ad placement for each complete episode! 

Episodes In Order: 

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Editor's Note - the video in question was removed from youtube.com so it is no longer available for your viewing pleasure.

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1. The WWE/F Steroid Scandal (0:01)
2. The Death Of Owen Hart (14:18)
3. The WWF Ringboy Scandal (29:05)
4. The Benoit Family Tragedy (40:17)
5. The Mass Transit Incident (54:53)
6. The Murder of Bruiser Brody (1:04:45)
7. The Truth Behind Wrestlemania (1:17:00)
8. The Plane Ride From Hell (1:26:45)
9. The Curtain Call Incident (1:34:58)
10. The Death of Nancy Argentino (1:42:15)
11. The Montreal Screwjob (3 Parts) (1:53:35)
12. The Murder of Dino Bravo (2:29:14)
13. Black Saturday (2:39:23)
14. WCW Racism Lawsuit (2 Parts) (2:52:15)
15. The Rise & Fall of Sunny (3:14:39)
16. The Death of Miss Elizabeth (3:29:09)
17. The Von Erich Curse (3 Parts) (3:42:47)
18. CM Punk vs WWE (2 Parts)(4:16:15)
19. The Self Destruction of Chyna (2 Parts) (4:41:59)
20. WWE Concussion Lawsuit ft. Brian Zane (5:08:55)
21. This Was The XFL (2 Parts) (5:21:55)
22. ECW: A Botched Reboot ft ThinkSoJoe (5:42:18)
23. Heroes Of Wrestling: A Night To Forget (5:54:19)
24. The WBF: World Bodybuilding Failure (2 Parts) (6:07:57)
25. Muhammed Hassan: Misunderstood (6:32:02)
26. Jake Roberts: Rise & Fall (6:49:15)
27. Scott Hall: Rise & Fall (7:09:58)
28. WCW Revival That Almost Happened (7:23:34)
29. Moolah: Fabulous or Frightening (7:36:16)
30. The True Story Of The Royal Rumble (7:51:06)
31. The Final Days of Brian Pillman (8:03:04)
32. The Final Days of Eddie Guerrero (8:24:38)
33. The Suspicious Death of Gino Hernandez (8:37:01)
34. Vince McMahon: Harassment Cases (8:48:41)
35. The Tragic Real Life Story of Hulk Hogan (9:05:10)
36. The Final Days of Rick Rude (9:25.37)
37. The Final Days of Curt Hennig (9:37:45)
38. Saudi Arabia: Blood Money (9:51:26)

HIAC Results

WWE Hell in a Cell 2019 Results: Winners, Grades, Reaction and Highlights

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Hell in a Cell for the Universal Championship: Seth Rollins vs. The Fiend

The culmination of The Fiend Bray Wyatt's terrifying rampage on the WWE roster culminated Sunday night inside Hell in a Cell as he challenged Seth Rollins for the Universal Championship.

The arena stayed bathed in red as the bell rang and The Fiend launched himself at the champion. Rollins landed some rights and lefts but the masked challenger appeared unfazed, amused even as he stood tall inside the squared circle.

Rollins retrieved a kendo stick and smacked The Fiend with it twice, only to have his opponent no-sell it. Wyatt sent The Beastslayer into the cell, achieving great pleasure in his punishment of the titleholder. Wyatt continued to dominate Rollins until the champion grabbed hold of the steel steps and blasted The Fiend with them.

Rollins scored on a tope suicida but Wyatt recovered and delivered Sister Abigail into the cell. Back inside the squared circle, the heel eyed the table Rollins had set up. He teased a uranage but Rollins fought out. The champion delivered a superkick that left his opponent prone on the table. A frog splash through it did The Fiend no damage.

Nor did the stomp, from which the challenger stood right back up. A second Sister Abigail, this time in the ring, earned only a two-count. The Fiend snapped Rollins' neck, leaving him limp in the ring. He tossed the champion to the floor, where he retrieved an oversized mallet. He attacked the champion's midsection with the weapon but Rollins fought back with a desperation superkick.

He seized an opening and delivered a stomp onto the mallet. Back inside, he delivered a springboard knee on two occasions, then a series of superkicks. Rollins unloaded a series of stomps but The Fiend still fought back to his feet. A pedigree and a fourth stomp followed. Rollins went for the cover but the challenger kicked out at one.

Rollins continued to assault Wyatt with stomps as boos rained down from the stands. He produced a chair from under the ring and inched toward his opponent. He blasted The Fiend with a chair, only to have him kick out at another one-count.

With the chair lying on his opponent's face, Rollins drove a ladder into it. Still, a two-count.

Rollins laid the ladder and chair on top of Wyatt's face, grabbed a toolbox and crashed it into the weaponry. The frustrated champion pulled out a sledgehammer, harkening back to his days as a member of The Authority under Triple H.

After the official begged and pleaded with Rollins, he bashed the pile of weapons with the sledgehammer and the referee called for the bell.

As officials hit the ring to check on The Fiend, the masked maniac recovered and applied the mandible claw. He dragged Rollins to the floor and laid him out with Sister Abigail. A second, this time on the concrete, left the champion motionless as chants of "AEW" filled the arena.

Another mandible claw, this time complete with blood, ended the assault as the boos continued.

Result: The Fiend defeated Rollins via disqualification
Grade: F
Analysis:

This was an overbooked atrocity that Vince McMahon and WWE should be embarrassed to present its fans after the week that was in wrestling.

On the heels of a highly successful Fox debut, and a Wednesday night that proved there is an audience for the alternative, the idea that the old man presided over a creative meeting where this was the finish that was pitched and he was all for it is ludicrous.

WWE had on its hands a rare character that completely captivated the audience and left them wanting more. Instead of paying it off with the short, sweet and dominant victory that would serve as its coronation, it overthought the scenario and sought to drag things out for another pay-per-view rather than pay it off.

A year ago, ironically at the same event, WWE pulled the proverbial trigger on Becky Lynch when it realized it had lightning in the bottle. She went on to become the biggest thing in the industry and is, arguably, the biggest star in the industry at this point.

Instead of learning from that moment, the company failed its fans and the man behind the mask, to the point that whatever aura The Fiend had built for himself has been extinguished.

Why?

Because WWE didn't want to take the universal title off Rollins so shortly after he won it. Or, to get another month of matches out of the program.

Either line of reasoning is deeply flawed the outcome was horrendously damaging.

Good luck recapturing that, WWE. Sometimes, giving the audience the obvious and desired outcome is not a bad thing.

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Retirement of Sting

As I've babbled previously on this blog, I've had a deep appreciation for Sting, the professional wrestler. Aside from his wrestling work, he has talked at great length about his Christian faith and about how he has always tried to follow the path of Christ and to be a good person. I respect him. The news came out the other day that, due to a neck injury, he is going to retire from professional wrestling & that it will be announced that when he is inducted at the WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony on the Saturday night prior to Wrestlemania 32, he will announce his retirement officially.

It's really too bad. As this article highlights, Sting didn't go to WWE when WWE purchased WCW. Instead, he went to TNA and helped that fledgling company thrive. After finally arriving in WWE, the "dream match" everyone on professional wrestling websites wanted was Sting v. The Undertaker. When the Undertaker's match for Wrestlemania 32 was announced to be against Shane McMahon, I wondered if something was wrong with Sting. Seriously, the thought went through my mind that instead of Shane v. The Undertaker, if the original plan had actually been to have Sting v. The Undertaker but (for some reason) it couldn't happen.

Now I know why it isn't going to happen. I actually had envisioned Shane "calling in a favor" to Sting, as part of the buildup to WM 32, to have Sting act as Shane's proxy and take Shane's place. After all, the storyline goes that Vince McMahon has The Undertaker stepping in for him, to be (as Shane said on last Monday's episode of Raw) Vince's "bitch" so it would make sense that Shane would summon Sting to help him.

See that's why I should really be a WWE writer - I get the whole storylines of what WWE is trying to do and that storyline would have made a lot of sense. Certainly, I do not get excited about Shane McMahon fighting the Undertaker. It reeks of a desperate ploy to bring Shane back onto WWE programming. I know Shane isn't going to win. It's a given. Vince McMahon will watch his son get pummeled and beaten. The only way this swerves out of the ballpark is if the Undertaker turns on Vince and "lays down" for Shane so that Shane wins. That seems unlikely because Shane and the Undertaker battled (briefly) on Monday's episode of Raw in order to build up Shane as a "fighter" who won't back down.

The way I see it, Shane McMahon is (roughly) my age and has no business being in the match he is in. None. That's why I expected Sting (getting back to the original topic) to be Shane's proxy and give fans like me a match I would have paid to see.

Royal Rumble Results

The 2016 of the WWE PPV Royal Rumble was Sunday night. As usual, the Monday night after a PPV is typically a good Raw episode. Last night's will be remembered for the following:

1. Spoiler alert, Triple H won the Royal Rumble so he is now the WWE Champion. He goes on to Wrestlemania to face someone. Vince McMahon, his daughter Stephanie, and Triple H came out to start the episode and announced that the they (the stable known as "The Authority") would evaluate all of the wrestlers and then decide who will be in the next PPV (Fastlane) main event and that that winner would go on to Wrestlemania to face Triple H. 
2. AJ Styles, who I enjoyed watching in TNA and Ring of Honor, fought Chris Jericho. It was Styles' first ever Raw match. Styles won, which is good. Jericho is a part-time wrestler and probably only going to be on Raw as long as it takes for Fozzy, his heavy metal band, to be ready to record another album. I will say, though, Styles looked a bit rusty in the ring. I don't think there was good chemistry between the two. The camera showed Jericho calling out the next move during the match, which is bad. That said, there were a couple of moves that impressed me based upon the decades I have watched hundreds of pro wrestling matches. The best was when Styles was in the Walls of Jericho submission move (which must really hurt as Styles' body was bent in a way that I could never be bent) and crawled across the ring to break the hold instead of tapping out. A jaded viewer like me never  sincerely thought Jericho was going to get the victory against Styles, especially since Styles probably required a good sum of money. What would have been interesting would be to have Bubba Ray Dudley, who Styles fought in TNA, come out and either congratulate or beat down Styles after the match. Instead, Styles offered Jericho a handshake - which is what the wrestlers in Ring of Honor do before a match - which Jericho reluctantly accepted. It would be interesting to see Styles / Jericho become tag team partners with an eventual betrayal by Styles to make Jericho the face and Styles the heel.
3. The Rock showed up and wow, he's entertaining. As he was doing his promo, he noticed some fans dressed up as other professional wrestlers - The Undertaker, Hulk Hogan, The Rock, and Macho Man Randy Savage - and said, into the microphone, "This is where we leave the script." It was an impromptu move and the Rock, charismatic as ever, pulled off the segment. When the New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods) came out to interrupt him, he asked why they were the tag team champions when they had llama penises on their forehead. The crowd ate it up and started chanting, "llama penis!" It was genuinely funny. The Rock stated that he would be at Wrestlemania and, when he said that, the thought flashed in my mind that Triple H and The Rock had an uneasy promo a while back about who won more matches between them. I thought it was going to be a setup for The Rock v. Triple H at Wrestlemania.
4. For the main event, it was Roman Reigns / Dean Ambrose v. Sheamus / Rusev in a tag team match. Reigns / Ambrose were referred to as "brothers in arms" by the WWE announcers a couple of times during the match. After Reigns got the win, I sincerely thought that The Authority would put Reigns v. Ambrose in the Fastlane main event as a way to screw with Reigns even more. Instead, The Authority announced that the Fastlane main event would be a triple threat match, announcing that it would be Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, and -- here's where I thought they would name Sheamus -- Brock Lesnar. After the announcement, the camera focused on the reaction from Reigns & Ambrose because, now, they have to fight each other for the chance to face Triple H at Wrestlemania 32. Even though we've seen the "friends fighting friends" angle before, I'm predicting the WWE announcers will follow the storyline that in order to fight Triple H, Reigns not only has to fight Lesnar, an enemy, but also his friend, Ambrose. I must say, the way WWE pulls this angle off will be very interesting.