WCW Clash of the Champions XXVIII

WCW Clash of the Champions XXVIII
Cedar Rapids, IA
Five Seasons Center
August 24, 1994

Only a couple months into his run, Hulk Hogan insanity has completely taken over WCW. This entire COTC from top to bottom was focused entirely on the Hulk Hogan circus, which was only just beginning. It’s interesting how WCW feels so much different once Hogan arrives. There was still a lot of great stuff happening underneath, but nothing was nearly as important as the Hulkster. This Clash felt more like a traditional Saturday Night’s Main Event, with only five matches and most of the time spent revolving around the big Hogan angle.

The Five Seasons Center in Cedar Rapids is packed and looks great for this show. I love these classic WCW venues! AEW really could take a page out of WCW’s book and stick to booking these mid-size buildings, which look so much better on TV, then cavernous darkened areas (although to be fair, they can barely get 2000 people into a small size building these days, really channelling this era of WCW). The crowd is hot for the show, especially everything to do with Hogan, and there’s great heat for the main event.

WWF Paul Bearer’s Hits From the Crypt

For one our last weekends in Pinawa I decided to watch some classic Coliseum Video action. Over the past 10 years, I’ve relaxed out here with so much great and nostalgic wrestling. It has been a staple of my summers and something I look forward to all year long. I now strongly associate so many great events and goofy Coliseum Videos with my summers out at the lake. It’s layers of nostalgia for me now with a lot of these shows; from when I first watched them as a kid, to watching them now as an adult.

I dove into some good old 1994 Coliseum action, as I continue to slowly work my way to the end of the catalog. 1994 ended up being a full year for Coliseum Video tapes, something I didn’t fully pay attention to at the time. A lot of these tapes I only rented a time or two, so they don’t quite have the same memories as tapes from 91 – 93. This is the last tape released in 94, but Coliseum Videos continue into 1995 and 96, but the releases become far less frequent until they’re phased out entirely.

AEW Dynasty 2024

AEW Dynasty 2024
St. Louis, MO
Chaifetz Arena
April 21

The inaugural edition of AEW’s new Dynasty pay-per-view event took place in front of a hot crowd in St. Louis. 2024 so far has been a return to form for AEW, as they delivered another PPV filled with great matches from top to bottom. While the storylines and character work may be lacking, there’s no arguing that AEW is delivering the best bell to bell action in wrestling right now. It’s all about the matches, and if you’re looking for workrate, then this is the promotion for you. As much as I’m loving the matches, I’d personally love to see more development of the characters and personality, other than just wrestlers being great in the ring.

The build towards Dynasty was overall really well done, with a concentrated effort in establishing the main event and all the big matches. I really appreciate this change, as so many major events felt thrown together in the past couple years. That being said, TV has been kind of inconsistent, with some really boring shows in March, as AEW continues to struggle with attendance, presenting TV in cavernous, blackened arenas, with no atmosphere. But then things picked up more in April, with Dynamite feeling hotter and more exciting leading into Dynasty. It’s an interesting time for this promotion right now, as they seem to be searching for an identity and need something hot to help pick them back up. With WWE doing so well, I’m happy to see AEW concentrating on in-ring action, as that will always keep its core fan base satiated, but I am worried about the rapidly declining attendance and general interest in the company.

WWF Wrestlemania VI

WWF Wrestlemania VI
Toronto, Ontario
Skydome
April 1, 1990

Wrestlemania returns to a stadium in front of a packed, red hot Canadian crowd after two stagnant years in Trump Plaza. The atmosphere in the brand new SkyDome was electric for the first Wrestlemania of the 90s, making this show one of the premiere Wrestlemanias of the golden Federation era. The sheer size of SkyDome and the huge crowd makes everything feel spectacular, along with all the added touches like the ring carts, big screens, and spectacular lighting. The entire presentation felt huge!

Much like previous years, Wrestlemania VI is all about the main event, with a few big feud matches scattered in between quick mid-card battles. And what a main event it was! To WWF kids like me, there was no bigger match than Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior. It’s truly the 80s vs the 90s, as the WWF felt that this would be the transition into a new decade, a new era that would run as hot as Hulkamania. They had done a super job of building up the Warrior over time and by 1990 his popular seemed to be about equal with the Hulkster. Could he defeat Hogan and supersede Hulkamania like many were anticipating?

As a tried and true Hulkamaniac, my allegiance was firmly with the Hulkster, and I felt the Ultimate Warrior was acting too much like a bad guy leading up to Wrestlemania. There was more on the line that just the titles for us kids! I didn’t buy into the Warrior. I thought he was awesome in destroying hated heels like the Honky Tonk Man and Ravishing Rick Rude, but I never saw the Warrior as being better than Hogan. Don’t get me wrong, I was beyond excited for the match, but I wanted Hulk Hogan to defeat the Warrior and have him go back to mowing through baddies. As his lacklustre title run would later prove, I wasn’t the only kid feeling this way.

WWF Wrestlemania V

WWF Wrestlemania V
Atlantic City, NJ
Trump Plaza
April 2, 1989

This time of year always kicks up some Wrestlemania fever in me (even if I’m not watching it lol), and I felt the urge to revisit a couple of my all-time favorites that I haven’t seen in years.

Wrestlemania V is pure comfort food for me – peak childhood nostalgia. The last Wrestlemania of the 80s perfectly caps off the decade with a main event that defines the era and remains one of my all-time favorite matches to this very day. I rented this tape countless times as a kid, eventually buying my own used copy of it from a clearance sale at the local video rental store, watching it endlessly. I love everything about this show and it has always brought me immense joy and happiness.

As a kid, I was huge into the build up. I followed every story and every angle leading up to Mania V so closely. Because I was a little older I better understood everything that was going on, and would stay awake for all the SNMEs and other big shows. I remember watching the Main Event in early 89 when Macho Man attacked Hogan after the match against the Twin Towers, setting the stage for the main event of Wrestlemania. I was so mad at Macho, because I thought Hogan was doing the right thing by helping Miss Elizabeth! Only later did I come to realize what a lowlife pervert Lust Hogan really was!

AEW Revolution 2024

AEW Revolution 2024
Greensboro, NC
Greensboro Coliseum
March 3

After a subpar finish to 2023, AEW stormed out of the gate in 2024 with two months of red hot TV and excitement. All of the focus shifted to building Revolution, and it was easily the best build they’ve done for a major event, with every match and rivalry fully established in the weeks leading up to the show. The biggest attraction was of course Sting’s last match, and what better site than the classic NWA/WCW hotbed of Greensboro, in the legendary Greensboro Coliseum.

Sting’s time in AEW has been a treasure and I’ve been a huge fan. He’s been used so effectively as the ass-kicking legend, still competing at a high level and pulling off all kinds of crazy moves and taking huge bumps. I remember how fucking exciting it was when he debuted during the lockdown at the end of 2020. After his poor run in WWE, Sting rehabbed his legendary image, and really, it makes far more sense for an outlaw like him to go out on top in a company other than WWE. He was the one major star that never left WCW right up until its dying days, and him in WWE just never felt right. Sting was never in an AEW World Title match or even in the main event picture, and that’s just fine. He was used exactly where he needed to be, and I’ll argue all day that his partnership with Darby was a perfect pairing. This is the Sting that should have come back at StarrCade 97. This is the Sting that should have kicked the NWO’s ass and won it all for WCW. This is the Sting that should have dominated the WCW World Title picture in the late 90s.

WWF In Your House – Beware of Dog

WWF In Your House – Beware of Dog
Florence, SC
Civic Center
May 26, 1996

Oh boy… one of the WWF’s most notorious PPV trainwrecks and an event that we endlessly mocked at the time. From its ridiculous name to goofy main event feud, everything about this show made us laugh so much, and watching it again immediately took me right back to the spring of 1996. It’s a companion show to Good Friends Better Enemies, with the feuds and matches already being set then, but wow does the WWF landscape feel different.

Change was certainly in the air. Only a week before Beware of Dog, the infamous ‘curtain call’ went down at Madison Square Garden and wrestling history was changed forever. I’m always surprised to look back and see how many landmark moments took place during this mostly boring and monotonous year. 1996 completely changed the wrestling business and we didn’t even know it. As an early internet user, I was reading all kinds of crazy rumors, but who really knew what was real and what wasn’t!

As for the show itself, Beware of Dog took place in Florence, South Carolina… whaaaat? Why Florence of all places? The WWF never ran PPVs in the Southeastern US prior to this, other than Florida and maybe Louisville if that counts, so why the small city of 40k in the middle of South Carolina?! In my few minutes of Google research, I didn’t turn up much. The WWF hardly ran Florence, so I wonder why they chose this city for a PPV location? Feels so incredibly random.

WWF In Your House – Good Friends… Better Enemies

WWF In Your House – Good Friends… Better Enemies
Omaha, NE
Civic Center
April 28, 1996

Talk about a transitional pay-per-view. There’s so much to discuss after watching the seventh In Your House event. This show, in my opinion, marks the end of the New Generation era and the very beginning of the Attitude era, though it wouldn’t full take shape until much later in the year. And of course just a couple months after this the wrestling world gets turned upside down and things are never the same again.

Watching through these events chronologically, it’s funny how 1995 is infinitely more interesting than 1996, with some truly great hidden gems and laughably terrible wrestlecrap. 1996 has its moments later in the year, but really drags from Wrestlemania to Survivor Series. Back in 96 I watched a number of these shows live with Matt on PPV and the rest scrambled, and would also rent all of these shows when they were released at the video store. But I had such a growing negative opinion of the WWF at that time that it clouded my enjoyment of the shows and it would be years before I re-watched most of these PPVs. Just over 10 years ago I started re-watching through 1996 again and found the events to be overall better than I remembered, but still a slog to get through.

WWF Prime Time Wrestling Exclusive Matches 1991 Part 3

1) The Dragon pinned Pat Tanaka with the flying bodypress (9/23/91 – Ottawa, Ontario; Civic Center)

Kicking off the third round of these exclusive Prime Time matches is a battle between two… err.. martial arts masters… uh yeah. Dragon was firmly planted in the mid-card and was just getting rolling in “hot” feud with that exciting newcomer Skinner. No wonder the Dragon was gone in a few weeks. Still, it’s fun to speculate on what the Dragon would have done if he stuck around into 1992. Chances are he would have firmly been at the El Matador level, eventually putting over guys like Papa Shango, but there’s also a chance that they may have given the Dragon another IC title run and maybe even a dream feud with Shawn Michaels. It’s certainly fun to imagine the possibilities. A simple win here for the Dragon excites the fans in Ottawa.

WWF Prime Time Wrestling Exclusive Matches 1991 Part 2

I worked through a second round of these Prime Time exclusive matches and as we get deeper into 1991, the matches become more and more bizarre, which is EXACTLY what I was hoping for! Having grown up only watching Superstars and Challenge, this is a whole new mysterious world to me. Who knew that guys like Greg Valentine and the Barbarian had so many low card feature matches! This stuff perfectly satisfies my love and nostalgia for early 90s WWF.