The Ringside Insider 78 - Part Four

[Ross Marshall]

"One Man s thoughts" by JOHN BALDWIN
Mail to: kir...@aol.com

WWF:

What a difference a week makes. From probably one of the best Raws
ever to a very average one.

Are they really serious about having the Roadie wrestle? By the way, I
will NOT call him Double J because he s not. This guy can t wrestle
a lick. He makes Hulk Hogan look like a great wrestler. That s bad. I
really thought that after some thought, McMahon would drop this angle.
Guess I was wrong.

Steve Austin is sure doing a good job of building up heat for his
match against Bret Hart. This one will be great. The one thing I
can t figure out is the attack on Pillman. After all this time, is
Brian now going to be a fan favorite? I was really hoping that somewhere
down the line these 2 would re-form their tag team (although they
couldn t be called the Hollywood Blondes anymore). Bret Hart is so
cool though. He let Austin rant and rave and just sat back talking in
a normal tone. The only time I can remember seeing Bret lose his
temper is when Jerry Lawler beat him (with outside help of course).
That would send me into orbit too.

Shawn Michaels is becoming more predictable by the week. He needs
time off badly. And this thing with Sid and Shawn is an angle the
WWF likes to use over and over. Get two friends in a title match, have
them accidentally "bump" into each other in the ring and have words.
Why can t they just let these guys wrestle as is. The way Sid has been
wrestling, he doesn t need a reason to want to beat Michaels. The
title should be enough reason. Also, this match is getting pushed into
the background because of the Hart/Austin feud. From watching the
WWF shows the last week, you d think Hart/Austin were wrestling for
the belt. I bet Michaels is REAL happy about that. I still look for
him to turn heel before his rematch with Bret, with or without the
belt. But I m really beginning to wonder if the Sid/Shawn match is
going to be good or not. Is the WWF willing to promote this match and
make it a premier match that it should be, or is it just a stop gap
before the Shawn/Hart match?

Finally on the WWF this week: I am not going to watch Livewire
anymore. It is all set up ahead of time. This is really insulting.
All the questions are powderpuff questions. And that one guy who
called about seeing a "figure in the fog" (i.e. the UT) was the
clincher. You re telling me that was a "spontaneous" call. Please.
Note to Gorilla Monsoon: How can you revoke a guy s wrestling license
when he hasn t wrestled in 3 years? Someone please explain that to
me. It s obvious Mr. Perfect has still not been medically cleared to
wrestle. Neither has Ahmed Johnson i.e. his suspension.

Grade this week: C-

WCW:

Halloween Havoc:

I m not sure where to begin on this, so I ll give my reviews of each
match:

MALENKO vs. MISTERIO - Fantastic match as usual. These two guys have
great chemistry in the ring, much like Steamboat and Flair had several
years ago. My jaw must have hit the floor several times in this match.
I just can t believe the moves these guys have. The power bomb from
the top ropes by Malenko was one of the most awesome moves I ve ever
seen. No wonder Mysterio didn t get up. Hopefully there will be
another rematch, but I m also looking forward to some matches between
either one of these guys against Syxx.

JERICHO vs. SYXX - Another great match. Is it me or has Syxx put on
a LOT of weight since leaving the WWF. I ll have to admit though, as
I was watching Syxx wrestle, for some reason I thought about the time
Hall beat him in that Diaper match and Syxx was crying. For me, that
kinda took away the rough NWO exterior Syxx has been potraying.

PAGE vs. GUERRERO - Not bad, although I expected more spectactular
wrestling moves from Eddie. I guess they were trying to push the
revenge factor but for some reason I didn t feel Page was threatened
in any way by him. The ending was kinda screwy. Yes, Page did get
the Diamond Cutter on him, but to me it looked like Eddie just gave
up. Did something happen and he was really hurt or what? And by the
way, Dusty and Tony need glasses. From what I could see on the replay,
Nick Patrick had his left hand in his pocket and reached down to get
the ring with his right hand. Either I m blind or the whole thing
was messed up at the last minute.

JARRETT vs. THE GIANT - I didn t really expect a lot from this match,
therefore I wasn t disappointed when it wasn t that great. Jarrett s
style of wrestling doesn t match up with the Giant s (he has none).
The only dilemma was figuring out how Flair was going to interfere
and I even had a feeling that he or Jarrett would do what Flair did
to stop the choke slam. That s the only way, unless of course you have
a hot cup of coffee hanging around.

LUGER vs. ANDERSON - This ended up being one of Luger s finer
moments. When he promised to hurt Arn before the match, I chuckled
to myself. Typical fan favorite threatening to hurt a heel. It never
happens (at least very rarely). And when Arn took the early advantage,
I knew that Luger wouldn t do anything. But then again sometimes
suprises are good, and this was a big one. Luger wrestled with some
flare and vigor the last few minutes. I couldn t believe he hit Arn with
the chair once, much less four times! Why so long to bring this side
of Luger out? And when he had him in the rack, he was REALLY bouncing
Arn around. I mean, it really looked like he was hurting Arn. Now
the question remains: Will we continue to see this side of Luger or
will he revert to the pathetic wimp we saw at War games. By the way,
why didn t he wrestle like that at War games? One last thing about
Luger - did he stick his finger in a light socket before this match
or what? Or is he taking hairstyle lessons from Don King. At any rate,
he had a bad hair day. At least "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan doesn t have
to worry about that.

HARLEN HEAT vs. HALL and NASH - Another good match. I liked seeing
Nash get a taste of his own medicine when Sherri gashed his eyes. But
as usual they found a way to steal the belts in the end. But I don t
mind that so much. It sets up some good matches with the Nasty Boys,
FOF, and maybe even the Horsemen (please not McMichael though). Too
bad they couldn t do a post match interview. That would have been great.

FACES OF FEAR vs. HORSEMEN - This was another ho-hum match. Michaels
can t wrestle a lick. Benoit is good though and showed it in this
match. He held off all the DOD for at least 2 minutes before getting
the crap beat out of him. If I were Benoit, I d take that suitcase
and give McMichaels a few whacks with it. Why they continue to put
Chris in meaningless matches is beyond me. He should be contending for
the TV belt or US belt. He reminds me so much of Arn Anderson about
10 years ago.

HOGAN vs. SAVAGE - Wasn t expecting much, but ended up being better
than I thought. The comedic part of Hogan losing his sunglasses and
wig was very effective as was the reaction of the announcers. And
besides I knew going in Savage wasn t going to win so I was just
hoping for Savage to give him a good whipping and he did. And after all
the hype about Miss Elizabeth, she comes down and does absolutely
nothing but cause chaos and throw cold water on a effective match. Thanks
for that exciting angle Mr. Bischoff. Now you are a rocket scientist.
Hogan looks so funny when he gets beat up now, sometimes over reacting
to the point of making William Shatner proud. But it s what happened
after the match that made my night. Have you ever thought about what
would make a great wrestling angle and have it come true. That
happened to me Sunday night. On Saturday I heard Jim Ross mention
that Piper may be making a comeback, but not neccessarily with the
WWF. My mind started rolling. Wouldn t it be great, I thought, to
see Piper come to WCW & go after the NWO. Talk about a crazy nut that
would really disrupt the momentum of the NWO! But I really didn t
think it would happen so I abandoned the thought. Until I heard the
Bagpipes playing after the Hogan match. I nearly went through the roof!

The look on Hogan s face is one I don t think I ll ever forget. And
I want to say one thing to Rowdy Roddy Piper: THANK YOU! Thank you
for saving all of us from another stupid, boring, insulting, meaningless
tyrade from the mouth of Hogan. I loved the speech Piper gave. The man
has a singular wit that never quits. Calling the Giant "Sprout" and
Hogan "Charlie Brown" were absoultely hilarious. The main thing I
liked though was he told Hogan to shut up several times, and Hogan
did! Folks, that s probably as close as well ever get to Hulk Hogan
"jobbing" for somebody. Everything Piper said was dead on. Especially
the part about Hogan did not bring in the fans, but that the fans
made Hogan. And note to the WWF: WCW is not afraid to mention events
that happened in other federations, i.e. the reference to WrestleMania.
I can t wait to see Piper in a match against Hogan. Hey, are there
any cocunuts left over from the Snuka incident we can use on Hogan?
Another interesting side to this is that Sting is now becoming a
Hollywood star and that could also be part of this angle.

All in all a solid pay per view, and a good new angle revealed with
the Hogan/Piper situation.

Grade for Halloween Havoc: B

Monday Nitro:

Won t comment much on it since I talked so much about the PPV. DDP
is becoming a great wrestler, whether you like his character or not.
He seems to invent a new way to reverse a hold and apply the Diamond
Cutter each week. Why this guy continues to be a mid-carder is
beyond me. He was ripped off this summer when his match against the
Giant was given to Luger. I would like to see DDP in a match against
Hogan. I think it would be a great match. It wouldn t have to be on
a PPV. Put it on Monday Nitro.

Benoit and Guerrero, had no business wrestling. I d rather see
these two wrestle when they are healthy. Again, Benoit should be
getting better matches. He also could give Hogan a run for his money.

Now I ve got a question here: How in the world could Luger have
possibly seen Sting? First of all, his back was to Sting. Second,
even if he was looking that way, it would be awfully difficult to
see someone standing way back near the door. You would have to be
looking right at him for a few seconds to be able to see him from that
distance. All Luger did was look for a split second, drop Booker T.
and run after Sting. The obvious answer here is that this was a planned
event, but does this mean that Luger and Sting are in cahoots here
behind the scenes. With the way Luger has started wrestling, it would
seem so. I m telling you, this Sting angle has the potential to be
a blockbuster if handled right. And the best thing about it is that
so far you can t predict what s going to happen. An angle always
has potential when the average fan is left sitting on the edge of
their seats.

Sting really looks mean with that makeup he s wearing. When he
ends up coming back I hope his demeanor translates to aggresive
wrestling in the ring. Another sub-plot I see developing here is the
fact that Sting is now a Hollywood star so to speak. This will not
sit well with Hogan. You can almost feel this angle seething under
the surface. Eventually it will explode, hopefully in Hogan s face.
And don t be surprised to see Sting join the NWO for a short time just
to keep the fans off balance. Sting will still be the hero in the end.
I m pretty sure of that (I think).

Grade this week: B+

Quotes of the week:

"He looks as clean as a Safeway chicken" - Dusty Rodes on Hogan s bald head
"Get that Ben Franklin back in the ring and nail him" - Bobby Heenan
"Hogan s losing his composure...among other things" - Tony S.
"Hollywood Hulk Hogan...a side we ve never seen of him" - Tony S. on
Savage pulling down Hogan s trunks.
"Bored huh...we ll I m here to break your monotony" - Piper

"Menu for Tonight" by JOHN DELVA
Mail to: pose...@colba.net

"Was that Jockey-strap on Aldo s face your idea Vince??"
Jim Ross to Vince McMahon on Monday Night Raw (10/28)

After one of the most acclaimed and viewed (3.0 at the time of his
speech) interviews in recent months done by "The Excellence of
Execution" and the unfolding of the "Perfect set up", it was certainly
obvious that the WWF absolutely had to continue on that innovative
streak in order to restore some type of faith into their fans' minds
for the weeks to come and not just "tease" them one week with a
respectable performance and let them down the next one with a poor
show of effort.

With an acceptable Superstars brodcasted earlier, what the WWF needed
was pure and simple quality entertainment! What I mean is that the
WWF didn t have to show both, top notch wrestling and intriguing angle
developement simultanously on MNR in order to be exciting but could ve
well done at least one of them and would ve gotten away with it in
the ratings since they haven t been really able to do one or another
properly in the recents months.

Since last week s new set of tapings, they are starting "from scratch"
so that s what had to be focused on. Last Monday night s booking was
far from being perfection but was definitely not close from being a
disaster either. The show began with one "fired up" Jesse Armstrong
who was eager to make his ring debut as his "Real Double J" gimmick
against Salvatore Sincere, who is believed by many, to be the better
one out of all the recent new-comers (T.L Hopper, Goon, Porteau...).

The bout wasn t "that" exciting but both men showed great enthusiasm
in the ring and that's what made the match more interesting and
showed both athletes potential for the future. Stone Cold s spontaneous
appearances (to make everything look like like it was really live!)
throughout the show made Raw more surprising then usual and *really*
started to get himself over as somebody who was "stone cold" and
reckless. All the "shut ups" and "@ss" said throughout his appearances
weren t surprises to anybody, but the intensity he showed when speaking
and his tone of voice/comments towards McMahon made his presence on
MNR truly credible. Crush s match didn t really have anything original,
but Ross s shoot type comments plus the "Jailbird s" attack on the
guard at the end of his match made any fans wonder where this angle
was going, which is good, since they now need more down-to-earth
story lines in order to captivate peoples' attention.

Everything else was almost done perfectly. The interview involving
Hart and Austin highlighted their oral ease and prowess. The match
between Floyd and Billy Gunn was actually pretty see-saw and
entertaining. The inevitable Gunn's break up is evolving slowly but
surely. The match between the Bulldog and Michaels was one of the
best done by either one of them on television and reminded us of the
days after Shawn s return (after the concussion) where he had to prove
to the fans and McMahon that he was indeed worthy of being the
heavyweight champ by both executing high flying manoeuvres and
entertaining the crowd at the same time on his television matches.

So, from calling the cops to stop one man s "cold" ruthlessness to
beating a law enforcer out of simple rage, the WWF pulled out a lot
of stunts in order to show their fans that they didn t forget about
them. But the question still remains.... Is this for real or is this
just a phase?

"The PowerSlam" by JEREMY VAUGHN
Mail to: roo...@pe.net

It looks as if Steve Austin may just be the major heel the WWF is
in need of. After that great attack on Pillman, destroying the WWF
studios on RAW, and his all around bad attitude, Austin seems to be well
on his was way to becoming the head heel of the WWF. Vader never really
reached that point, Mankind can't get away from the Undertaker, and
Goldust seems to have lost some appeal as of late, which leaves it up to
Austin. He's starting to become one of my favorites, he has that kick
a$$ and take names attitude that I like in a wrestler. On the other side
of that attack, I don't know what will happen with Pillman now. I
figured he'd be back in the ring pretty soon, and be a pretty good heel.
I don't know what they plan on doing with him now, he seems to be a big
Bret Hart groupie.

As I said last week, I don't care much about the WCW Cruiserwieght
title unless Malenko has it, and now he does. I'm glad they took it away
from that little runt Mysterio. He has some pretty cool moves and all,
but his matches all started to seem the same to me, like many of the
cruiserweights do, except Malenko. He's another one of those guys that
doesn't care, he just goes into the ring, beats someone up, and collects
his check.

Halloween Havoc was an average PPV, with some pretty cool twists. I
liked seeing Rowdy Roddy Piper's apperance very much, he's one of my
all time favorites. On Nitro they kept saying he wasn't under contract
with WCW, if that's true, than I hope they sign him at least to a
short term contract. At least long enough to make a few more waves
in WCW. I'd like to see one more Hogan vs. Piper match myself, and we
might just get it at WW3. I thought it was also a good idea by WCW to
get the Dungeon of Doom back into the picture. They did a pretty good
attack on Benoit and McMichaels, and it should shove them back into
some of the spotlight soon.

A few more little things to talk about here, I heard from the
hotline I call once a week, that Harlem Heat's contract is up in about a
month. The hotline speculated that they might in fact jump to the WWF,
and that they also have the rights to their name, so we could see the
Harlem Heat in the WWF in the near future. Also, there is a possibility
of the Bushwhackers returning to WCW. In case you don't remember, they
were in the NWA/WCW as the Sheepherders quite a while back. Faarooq is
supposedly now the newest member of Mason's little group, a group that I
think will be very good in the WWF. He's already got the Tag champs and
of course Crush, so Mason is getting some of the best talent in the WWF
right now.

Yes, I actually like Crush and The Bulldog. Also, I hope that
eventually Perfect ends up in the ring, at least for one more match. Why
is it that the WWF can't stick to tradition? When I watch the Survivor
Series, I want to see Sruvivor Series matches!!! So far there is only
one elimination match, that's not how it should be! Go ahead and have a
title match as the main event, thats fine, but the rest should be the
traditional elimination matches. That is what the Survivor Series is all
about. This year, there are three singles matches. Save them for IYH,
give me 4 on 4!!! Thats it untill next week.

Continued in Part Five of THE RINGSIDE IN