Review-A-Wai
WWF Ground Zero 1997 Released Sept 13, 2009 --- Copyright (C) 2009 John Pollock and Wai Ting. All rights reserved.
Review-A-Wai and all its related broadcasts belong to Live Audio Wrestling. All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders.
Transcript provided by Randy Wiesner & Wisecorp Computer Systems. You may not copy or reproduce this transcript except for personal and private use. --- [introduction music]
00:09 Wai Ting: So, take a look.
00:11 John Pollock: Wai Ting, I am very, very excited about this. An unannounced return to the airwaves. Go ahead Wai and give the people what they have been craving since January.
00:22 WT: I don't know if you're mocking me or what John, I don't know... 00:25 JP: Wai Ting has returned to Live Audio Wrestling.
00:26 WT: I don't know understand what this is. No, no, no. Well, you asked me if I wanted to do a sort of a review segment with you after the LAW. And said, "Yeah, sure, let's do it." And that's what we're doing. This is not...
00:38 JP: Well you also, You had some ground rules in terms of doing this segment. You said it had to deal with wrestling or mixed martial arts. You didn't want any of this "unattached crap" as you put it.
00:51 WT: I honestly think that, I don't know. For our audience, for the LAW's audience, it should be somewhat related to Live Audio Wrestling, and...
00:59 JP: Well, I gave you that. That's where I was willing to compromise to bring Wai Ting back. And Wai Ting, what have you been up to...
[laughter]
01:06 JP: In the last nine months since we last heard from you. You've been busy. You've gone to Dubai. I'm sorry, Abu Dhabi?
01:14 WT: Abu Dhabi. Which is not in the country of...
01:18 JP: Dubai is a city, then?
01:19 WT: Dubai is a city.
01:20 JP: I thought it was a country.
01:21 WT: And Abu Dhabi is a city. The country that they are both in is the United Arab Emirates. And see, I was there, I've been doing a lot of different things, John. But one thing I have not really been doing is watching pro-wrestling.
01:35 JP: Which is why we're not going to be talking about current stuff Wai. Because I realized that I have a very unhealthy video tape collection of pro-wrestling. And we're going to use this time to review, not just pay-per-views and old events. Anything, anything within the wrestling and mixed martial arts realm, we are more than willing to review. First off the bat, for future editions of Ask-A-Wai...
01:59 WT: No, no, no. We're not calling this Ask-A-Wai.
02:00 JP: If you want us to review anything, if there's any stuff out there that you want John
Pollock and Wai Ting's opinion on, please send us an email to either john@thefightnetwork.com or wai@thefightnetwork.com.
02:13 WT: Wai@thefightnetwork.com, W-A-I.
02:15 JP: W-A-I @thefightnetwork.com and...
02:17 WT: Or Facebook.
02:19 JP: Yeah, you can go to Facebook to Ask-A-Wai. Wai is misspelled on the Facebook group. 02:23 WT: No, no, no. I changed it, but then...
02:24 JP: You changed it?
02:25 WT: I changed it I have the power to change it. But anyway, that has nothing to do with this. This is not Ask-A-Wai.
02:30 JP: Basically we are not expecting a ton of feedback. So chances are if you email us, we will be reviewing it next week. But today, we are actually, this one was a little strange. Because we originally, we decided that we were going to review WWF Breakdown from September of 1998 because it took place in Hamilton. And we're approaching, well but the time you're listening to this, we just passed the September WWE Pay-Per-View event in Canada. And that was our logic for tying it all in. However, I went home and I could not find this tape. I have since found it, so don't worry, but I had to go somewhere else. And I went to the September 1997 event. And everyone knows that in September of 2001, a horrific event happened. And that WWF actually held an event four years prior in the month of September called Ground Zero.
03:21 WT: That's right. WWF In Your House Ground Zero.
03:24 JP: This was the 17th version of In Your House.
03:27 WT: Presented by Stridex.
03:28 JP: Which, I have written down here, we now have sponsors like Pepsi Max and 7/11. Back then they had Stridex, Pimple Cream.
03:38 WT: And Icopro.
03:40 JP: Icopro. Now one of the biggest annoyances I found back during this time period, was the blimp that they would have inside of the arena. I don't know if you caught it during the tape. And for those of you out there who are so intrigued at the end of this review to go catch this event, you can actually watch the entire three hour Pay-Per-View on YouTube. It is broken up into 18 parts.
04:00 WT: Yes, yes. Go on YouTube. Watch, I don't know why you'd want to but... 04:06 JP: Okay, well let's get into this. Let's review the...
04:09 WT: Well first of all, before we get into this. You presented me with this tape yesterday. And not only that we were working on the Surf, which is a show that John Pollock and I both work on with Jason Agnew on Thursdays. And on the Surf this week we had Santino Marella. When Santino was there, a couple of kids came into the studio just to meet him. I knew they were wrestling fans,
so I decided to show them this VHS tape. First of all, I don't know if they knew what a VHS was. But they saw the tape and they were like, "Oh Stone Cold. Oh this is Shawn Michaels when he was younger." And I asked these kids how old they were and they said they were born in the year 2000 and 1998. So...
04:52 JP: This depressed me greatly.
04:53 WT: Oh yeah John. We're old. We're 25 and like, this 1997 Pay-Per-View didn't seem that long ago.
04:59 JP: These kids would have been like nine and 11.
05:01 WT: No, well, no, yeah, right now. Yeah, right now.
05:06 WT: They weren't even born...
05:07 JP: There weren't even born when this event took place. And the sad thing is, I remember when this event took place. Holy shit man, Wai, we are old.
05:11 WT: Yeah, We are old.
05:13 JP: Anyway. Ground Zero, brought to you by Stridex. It started off with a match that made no sense. We had Brian Pillman, this was a month before he died, taking it, so this would be his final Pay-Per-View appearance, taking on Dustin Rhodes, AKA Goldust. Now the storyline, as I followed it on this tape, was that Brian Pillman told Dustin Rhodes that, "Your three-year-old daughter is my love child." And Dustin apparently was offended by this.
05:44 WT: Obviously.
05:44 JP: Obviously, he's not the father of your baby. You would be aware of this. Wouldn't you? 05:49 WT: No. How would you know that?
05:50 JP: Well, Goldust responded the only way any rational man would. He said, "Fuck you. You're going to leave this company. And if I can't get you to leave this company, I'm gonna put my wife up on the line and if I happen to lose, you can have her for a month."
06:07 WT: For 30 days.
06:07 JP: What man would agree to this?
06:09 WT: Well, what I wanna know is why would the WWF sanction this bout? You can put up a man's career against another man's wife against her will?
06:20 JP: This didn't make sense and Vince McMahon, who was doing commentary during this with Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross, had the best line of the entire match when he just openly asked, "What could this do to their marriage?"
[chuckle]
06:34 WT: Oh my God. I loved it when J Ross at the end said, "This poor baby, the poor baby in this relationship. This baby doesn't have a mother for 30 days."
06:43 JP: Jim Ross was trying to convey it like he was legitimately upset at this. And Brian Pillman, first of all, atrocious in this match. He was obviously very limited by this point. He had the motorcycle accident and this was a far cry from the worker he once was. Just watching him, this guy was clearly getting by on his character, facials, 'cause he could not move. It was painful to watch this match.
07:08 WT: It was.
07:09 JP: And we always look back at WCW during this time period where they had the awesome undercards and then shitty shitty main event. It was the opposite at WWF that time. 'Cause this undercard was horrible, and then you got the good stuff at the top. So it was really, both promotions were kind of working in opposite of one another.
07:27 WT: Well, this definitely, in terms of in ring action, definitely pales in comparison to some of the better cruiserweight matches and better undercard matches we've seen. I have to say the crowd was pretty hot throughout the whole thing.
07:39 JP: Very hot crowd. This was in Louisville, Kentucky.
07:42 WT: I think they really, really...
07:43 JP: Inside of a gymnasium, it looked like.
07:45 WT: And I think they really, really cared about the storyline.
07:49 JP: Somehow, they apparently did. The finish came when Marlena Terri Runnels got on to the apron with her gold purse, and she went to hit Brian. Brian intercepted the purse and hit Goldust with it and pinned him. And then it was revealed that there was a brick inside of the purse. And thus Brian Pillman won the ownership of Marlena for 30 days and I even have it written down here, JR, "This baby doesn't have a mom for 30 days."
[chuckle]
08:18 JP: So, clearly me and Wai were amused by this. We then cut to the back where Brian forced her into a car, drove off, and we go back to commentators where Jerry Lawler is laughing at this woman who we are to believe is being taken to a hotel to be raped.
08:35 WT: Pretty much. Hilarious.
08:36 JP: And this would be a theme throughout the night. This was funny to Jerry Lawler and this was a story line being presented at the time. Even though the WWF said, "We never will do murder, rape, or vandalism." Those were always the no-nos.
08:50 WT: Yeah. Or, but they'll do necrophilia. They'll do, I don't know. Anyway, what surprised me was I remember this being 1997, but I guess I didn't really realize how this was really the beginning of the attitude era, wasn't it, when they started to make the story lines a lot...
09:10 JP: This was, yeah, fall of '97. So this was right around when Vince Russo was getting into power with company and they were making that big shift, so...
09:17 WT: And they're breaking kayfabe. They were calling Dustin Rhodes by his real name. They
were starting to refer to Vince McMahon as the boss.
09:23 JP: There were a lot of subtle hints throughout the show about Vince McMahon being more than just a play by play announcer. We go to the next match, Brian Christopher against Scott Putski. Scott Putski is by far the most ridiculous excuse for a drug free environment. This guy looked insane. I don't know if I've ever seen a wrestler, other than maybe the Ultimate Warrior at his peak, look like this.
09:54 WT: Well, when I first saw this guy walk into the ring, first of all I was like, "Who is this? Who is Scott Putski?" Then I thought it was Lex Luger. He looks just like Lex Luger but with brown hair.
10:06 JP: I wrote, "Putski, pre-wellness era."
10:09 WT: Oh, yeah. For sure.
10:09 JP: He was the son of Ivan Putski, and, my God, this guy, I said to myself as this match started, "This guy is gonna tear something." and then the match ended.
[chuckle]
10:21 WT: Did he really? Oh anyway, talk about the match.
10:24 JP: We'll get to the finish in a minute. Vince McMahon stated, "Scott Putski's really put together."
[chuckle]
10:33 JP: And then I just went right to the finish. Brian Christopher, actually, this was a time before...
10:38 WT: Yeah. I don't think we mentioned he's wrestling Brian Christopher.
10:42 JP: Yeah. He's wrestling Brian Christopher who the whole gag at this point was whether he was Jerry Lawler's kid. They were chanting, "Jerry's kid." at him. Lawler had a good line saying, "No, no, no. They're chanting about the Jerry Lewis telethon from this past weekend." like that's kind of funny.
[chuckle]
10:57 JP: Brian Christopher was actually a good worker once upon a time. He's since gone very much downhill in his career. But at this point he was, still had his weight under control and could still move. Scott Putski was just completely useless. This guy was hired because of his look and he was a second generation wrestler, but just horrible. And should we go right to the finish?
11:19 WT: Go to the finish.
11:19 JP: Was there anything notable during this match, Wai? 'Cause I thought it was a bad match. 11:22 WT: What really stood out to me was how much I miss the old Jerry Lawler when he was... 11:28 JP: He was great as a... Yeah.
11:28 WT: He was able to play his heel. He was hilarious. And occasionally, the camera would cut to his... A shot of him next to McMahon and just even his facial features. The guy is just a great entertainer and I don't know why the WWE no longer uses him in that role.
11:45 JP: No, not really. And yeah, that was something I did note throughout this. To me, it was also I wanted to hear more of Jim Ross. He kind of just seemed odd man out on the broadcast booth. The finish game, Brian Christopher took, I wrote, "Putz the klutz" here... I was very tired at this point when I read this, when I wrote. And he tossed them through the middle rope to the outside landed on his feet and blew out his knee, it was shocking, and then we saw a close up where his patella had gone up his leg.
12:15 WT: Was that legit?
12:17 JP: It looked legit. I don't think he ever worked for the company after this. 12:20 WT: Wow.
12:20 JP: I think he went to WCW for a time after this, but really his career amounted to nothing, which is what this match amounted to. We then go to Sunny, who was doing the WWF Superstar Hotline at the time, and said that if you call in now for a $1.99 a minute, she will let you know what is happening in Brian Pillman's car right now [chuckle] This company had no shame. We then go back to the commentators.
12:46 WT: No, no, no, hold on before you do that, she... Is she does it, not only... She not only says that but she says in her phone sex voice, "When Sunny's on the line, everything's too hot to handle."
12:58 JP: We then cut to Vince McMahon who I swear to God responded [chuckle] "Thank you, Sable" [chuckle]
13:04 WT: No, he didn't say that.
13:05 JP: He did; I rewound it to double check [chuckle]
13:06 WT: Oh my God.
13:08 JP: Go, it's probably part... It's probably part three on YouTube.
13:12 WT: Don't put that clip on.
13:12 JP: Right after this "thank you Sable".
13:14 WT: Hilarious.
13:15 JP: We then went to a video to hype up the upcoming three-way, Faction Action. [chuckle] Is that what they called it?
13:22 WT: Yeah, that's what they call it.
13:23 JP: This was every stereotype confirmed. We had the Puerto Rican gangster Savio Vega against the Black Militant Faarooq versus the White Racist Motorcycle Biker Crush.
13:37 WT: Let me just say these opening packages...
13:39 WT: Horrible.
13:40 WT: Yeah but hilarious, like if you guys do check it out just watch this video. 'Cause like this video... These are done in the style of like what it reminded me of was Maury Povich.
13:52 JP: Yeah.
13:54 WT: You know like they have those episodes where like probably with problem children, just like a music blaring in the background and like kids saying "I do what I want, I don't care", and these were done in the exact same style.
14:07 JP: There was one... There was a video right off the top to start the pay-per-view where they were talking, because the last pay-per-view Shawn Michaels' had hit the Undertaker with a chair. And they interview fans talking [chuckle], and one of them was saying how they were disgusted with Shawn Michaels and then the next one was like "I think Shawn Michaels' did it on purpose" [chuckle] "And I loved it, it was great".
14:30 JP: This video yeah it was campy to say the least.
14:32 WT: Yeah.
14:32 WT: It was the like the Warriors, but like a much campier version of the already campy Warriors.
14:39 JP: I fast forwarded through the intros 'cause there were three of them, they were all long. 14:43 WT: Oh but the Nation's music is awesome.
14:46 JP: Is it... Was still when they had the rappers, the white guys rapping for them? 14:52 WT: No.
14:53 JP: Remember the Nation at one point they had a group of rappers.
14:55 WT: Oh I don't remember that.
14:56 JP: It use to be that team PG-13.
14:56 WT: I don't remember that, this was just...
14:58 JP: Alright.
14:59 WT: Just as a constant loop "We are the Nation, of domination".
15:02 JP: Domination.
15:03 WT: Yeah.
15:03 JP: This was when the Rock was just...
15:05 WT: The Rock was there.
15:05 JP: A background figure.
15:06 WT: Yeah, yeah.
15:07 JP: This three way was horrible.
15:09 WT: Yeah.
15:10 JP: Savio Vega attempted a, I guess a shake, rattle, and roll type of maneouver on Faarooq who could not have taken it worst [chuckle], this was just horrible, horrible, horrible.
15:22 WT: It just, it dragged, there were sloppy horror moves.
15:24 JP: Oh my God.
15:24 WT: My favorite part though was like was when actually when Faarooq was walking out to the Nation's music, then the camera cuts to a group of white dudes pumping their fists in the air. [chuckle] Doing the salute.
15:37 JP: Aw I shouldn't have fast forwarded through entrance, just 'cause you miss stuff like that. Savio Vega and Crush performed what was easily the worst bike piledriver in history onto Faarooq. Out of nowhere Crush punched Faarooq in the face, that was his finish.
15:52 WT: No, no, no, it was the heart punch.
15:54 JP: Oh the heart punch?
15:55 WT: It was awesome man.
15:55 JP: I don't understand it, why is it so vicious? He punched him in the face [chuckle] why is it so bad?
16:00 WT: He punched him in the heart.
16:02 JP: Oh I thought he punched him in the face.
16:03 WT: No, no, no, he put... I actually... This was probably the coolest move that I saw on the whole pay-per-view. I mean they should bring this back.
16:11 JP: The heart punch.
16:12 JP: The heart punch is... Why do you have to put the hand on the back of your...
16:14 WT: Just to emphasis that the space there so that they guy can't block it, and you hook... You hook the dude's elbow, or arm around his head, and then you just punch him in the heart, and that's suppose to knock...
16:26 JP: Well he did this, he knocked out Faarooq, and Vega hit Crush with a spinning heel kick, and Savio Vega of Los Boricuas was the winner in Action Faction.
16:36 WT: Yeah, this was what I'd noticed about this was Brian Adams is dead, right? 16:42 JP: Yeah, he passed.
16:43 WT: Okay, but this was already the fourth like incarnation of Crush in the WWE. 16:48 JP: Yeah.
16:49 WT: He started off in Demolition.
16:50 JP: Demolition.
16:50 WT: And he did the Kona Crush, the Hawaii thing. Then he was the evil. 16:53 JP: The fanatic, yeah, the Japanese sympathizer.
16:56 WT: The evil Crush.
16:57 WT: Yeah, yeah, and this is a fourth Crush.
16:59 JP: Wow. But there was another Crush after this wasn't there, or did he... Oh he took off to WCW.
17:03 WT: Yeah, after this. But he came back as KroniK, in KroniK.
17:05 JP: Oh that's right it's KroniK, who could forget?
17:08 WT: He had quite the life.
17:09 JP: There were some celebrities in the house [chuckle] Wai. They went to show the USA Boxing Team and they gave these guys horrible seats [chuckle] They were up in the fucking bleachers. What does it take to get a good seat at a 1997 WWF pay-per-view? These guys... But they were huge marks for this company.
17:27 WT: Were they really?
17:27 JP: They were cheering, and they... I wanted them to name some of them because the USA Boxing Team in '97, they're probably very well known now. I was looking for, you know, Floyd or somebody in there.
17:38 WT: They don't do legit athletes.
17:41 JP: We then go to what I thought was the match of the night [chuckle] El Torito against Max Mini.
17:47 WT: Yeah.
17:48 JP: This one was... The first minute of this match blew away everything on the card up until this point.
17:53 WT: These are minis by the way?
17:54 JP: Yeah, they can't say midgets.
17:55 WT: No.
17:56 JP: Minis.
17:56 WT: Minis.
17:57 JP: El Torito, I could be mistaken, I wonder, was this the guy that died recently... 18:01 WT: I don't know.
18:02 JP: In the hotel room. I want to look that up.
18:03 WT: I don't know. That's a good point. I don't know.
18:05 JP: 'Cause one of them, one of the guys that died in that hotel room did worked briefly for the WWF. Could have been El Torito. Max Mini was a very, very tiny man.
18:15 WT: Yeah. 80 what, 83, 86 pounds?
18:17 JP: Yeah. This was weird because they tried to work like a legit match, and then all of a sudden in the middle, they had to do this comedy with Jerry Lawler and then they went right back to the match and the finish and that was it. And it was strange. 'Cause we had the first minute, very, very solid stuff and then yeah, we went in to where Max Mini he kicked the ref, bit him in the ass, ran into Lawler's lap and then all of a sudden, we're transitioning and suddenly we get an asai moonsault to the outside by Max Mini.
18:45 WT: Which is cool.
18:46 JP: Very cool.
18:47 WT: But it did drag at parts.
18:49 JP: Yeah, there was a top rope hurricarana. That was the false finish, and then it was an awkward sunset flip by Max Mini for the win. This was good. After watching the first three matches, this was a ray of sunshine for me.
19:04 WT: Do you think the UFC will ever have a minis division?
19:06 JP: You know what? There have been MMA cards with minis.
19:10 WT: Really?
19:11 JP: Yeah, I've seen them online.
19:12 WT: No.
19:12 JP: Yeah, minis having MMA fights.
19:15 WT: Do they measure their height and length and weight?
19:17 JP: I don't know how... I don't think it's commissioned states that are running these. I think it's the Alabamas of the world, the Louisville, Kentuckys that might be running this.
19:25 WT: Midget fights, I would love to see that, sorry, mini fights. I'd love to see that. 19:29 JP: Very.
19:30 WT: We'd get that on The Fight Network for sure.
19:31 JP: Politically incorrect. I would absolutely wanna run that.
19:34 WT: Oh yeah.
19:37 JP: We then go to a Sgt. Slaughter in the ring with Jim Ross. Dude Love comes out and then Steve Austin came out and Austin was so over during this show. He must've come out like three different times during the show and got a huge pop every time, and I guess it was creatives scheme to see how many times he could say "ass" in a promo. Wore a little thin. This was coming after Austin's '97 Summer Slam match with Owen Hart where he injured his neck and he had to vacate the tag titles with Dude Love. He called Jim Ross a fat ass and then he stunned him, stunned him, stunned JR. It's disgusting. And the crowd cheered.
20:13 WT: Terrible. I don't understand it. Why? Why John? It was just gross. See, Austin can stun JR, but Brett Hart can attack a referee and be booed. Why?
20:26 JP: His fans are hypocrites, Wai.
20:28 WT: They are.
20:28 JP: And we'd get that later from Jim Ross in a vignette backstage, but first off, we go backstage to, not Michael Hayes, but Dok Hendrix interviewing Owen Hart and British Bulldog. Owen was awesome here. He said that Steve Austin should not only be suspended for his actions but made a case for him being thrown in to jail for assault, and was so convincing that by the end of this promo, I would have turned on Austin and be like "Fuck yeah, throw that guy in jail."
20:57 WT: He's so convincing but I would've loved to have been the guy behind the camera and just watching that because you know that after the cameras cut, they would be cracking up just at Owen's...
21:07 JP: It's such a good promo.
21:08 WT: Oh yeah.
21:08 JP: Bulldog added in something at the end but it was less memorable. And then we go in to a four way match, a four way tag match Wai. And boy, was the tag division on fire here. We have the Headbangers versus Henry and Phineas Godwinn versus Owen and the Bulldog against Hawk and
Animal of the Legion of Doom. This one was a little, this was one of those kind of creepy matches because three of the eight men have passed away in this match.
21:33 WT: Yeah. The Headbangers are still around?
21:36 JP: Yeah, they're both still alive.
21:39 WT: Okay.
21:40 JP: This match was booked odd because you could argue you have two good workers in this match, Owen and the Bulldog and they were basically left on the apron the entire match while these other fools had a match. And it was not a good match at all.
21:57 WT: Oh, what can you do?
21:58 JP: LOD was just, they got disqualified after they used the Godwinn's bucket and destroyed them with it. These idiots, they were wrestling for the tag titles, why would you grab a bucket?
22:08 WT: Well, their whole promo beforehand was just, if you guys used the bucket on us we'll, I don't know, they're just threatened by the bucket. They're paranoid about the bucket so you could understand why.
22:19 JP: I was really brief on my notes here right next I have Godwinn's rolled up by Headbangers, then Austin ran out stunned Owen Hart. The Headbangers got the fluke win and the Headbangers were once actually the WWF Tag Team Champions.
22:32 WT: This just came as a complete shock to me. I do not remember this.
22:34 JP: You do not recall this. This was back when Marilyn Manson was really big because Vince McMahon even alluded to the fact that he watched the MTV Music Video Awards a few nights ago and Marilyn Manson was wearing a controversial outfit.
22:49 WT: Just like the Headbangers.
22:50 JP: Exactly. We go backstage, Jim Ross is complaining to Sgt. Slaughter. They were kind of teasing a heel turn here with Jim Ross saying that, "I'm not gonna put up with this shit and Vince better be aware of that."
23:01 WT: Yeah, yeah.
23:02 JP: Jim Ross was getting, he was putting his foot down.
23:04 WT: Really, for sure. You could tell by this point, they had really understood the formula for building Steve Austin as the man against authority.
23:13 JP: He just stunned everybody.
23:14 WT: Stuns everybody. People go nuts.
23:16 JP: Then the highlight of the pay-per-view Wai. We went to tremendous video with Del Wilkes, The Patriot where he had an over the shoulder shot where he kept looking back at the camera; like something right out of a 1980's soap opera.
23:30 WT: Yeah, yeah. They did their best to hide his face as he was talking about his old football career.
23:37 JP: Now I was getting tired at this point 'cause this was very late in the evening I was watching this tape, but I woke the fuck up when suddenly I saw Mitsuharu Misawa...
23:46 WT: Oh my God.
23:47 JP: Jun Akiyama, Kenta Kobashi, "Dr. Death" Steve Williams all on my screen. Kiritawe Magazine was in there. This was phenomenal. They had gotten footage from All Japan Pro Wrestling to put over the Patriot as this star, who had succeeded in Japan, and was now coming home to take the WWF championship from this traitor, Bret Hart.
24:10 WT: Perhaps the only time you will ever, ever see Kenta Kobashi or Mitsuharu Misawa on a WWF program.
24:18 JP: It was criminal that we cut from Kobashi and Misawa to Sunny, who interviewed The Patriot. I don't know what he said. Then, we went to a very young Michael Cole with Bret Hart, and Bret Hart said he was gonna stomp the shit out of The Patriot, and keep his title. That's just how it was gonna be. Now, we go Bret Hart and The Patriot for the WWF title.
24:39 WT: And we cue the Kurt Angle music.
24:40 JP: Yes! He came out to the Kurt Angle music. And I don't think once people have ever referred to it as The Patriot music when Angle used it. That's how fast The Patriot was out of people's minds, but he once was in a WWF title match on a pay-per-view.
24:55 WT: Yes.
24:55 JP: This was a pretty good match, I would say, very, very strong. Bret won with the Sharpshooter, that's all I wrote.
25:02 WT: Yeah, Bret Hart was the... He's my favorite wrestler. And he really showed it here.
25:08 JP: Afterwards Bret cut a promo, where he called everyone in the WWF, losers. And then he was specific: Patriot, loser. Shawn Michaels, loser. Vader, loser. All Americans, all losers.
25:21 WT: Yep.
25:22 JP: At that point I was like, "Well, Pay-per-view is done. WWF title match closes the show, nope. I forgot, this was in mid '97 with Shawn Michaels... " Who is in the main event. Why was Shawn Michaels in the main event?
25:36 WT: Alright, but... I was thinking about it. It's The Patriot. It's The Patriot. Would you put The Patriot in the main event ahead of Michaels versus Shawn Michaels... Oh, sorry Michaels versus The Undertaker?
25:48 JP: Why would you put the Patriot in the title match to begin with?
25:53 WT: 'Cause a...
25:54 JP: This is the WWF championship. You protect the title.
25:59 WT: Yeah, I don't know.
25:59 JP: Tim Sylvia has gone on last on UFC pay-per-views. Him and Jeff Monson went on last on a pay-per-view with Georges St-Pierre.
26:08 WT: That is true. You know what? That's a question for another time.
26:14 JP: Anyway, our main event, Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker. This, I guess, fits in, because these two had easily the best WWE match, thus far of 2009. And they headlined this pay per-view in September '97...
26:27 WT: And they did not have the best match of 1997.
26:29 JP: No, they did not. This match was basically designed to build up to their Hell in a Cell match, three weeks later.
26:35 WT: Yeah, this match was...
26:37 JP: It ended with a plancha by the Undertaker out onto all of the heels, including Shawn Michaels, and that's how the pay-per-view ended.
26:43 WT: I counted four ref bumps in this.
26:45 JP: This was ridiculous.
26:47 WT: Four ref bumps.
26:47 JP: There was never a disqualification.
26:49 WT: Four ref bumps, three different referees had to come in.
26:52 JP: Earl Hebner was out there. Tim White was out there. I believe... I think Jack Doan was out there. I didn't understand, did they ever say that this was No-Holds-Barred?
27:02 WT: Hold on, there was one point, Mike Chioda was the first ref. How Mike Chioda was ejected from the ring, first of all, he was knocked out by the Undertaker, then the Undertaker picks him up, tosses him onto Shawn Michaels outside.
27:15 JP: Jesus Christ.
27:15 WT: That did not qualify for a DQ.
27:18 JP: Well, they were lenient there in these times, Wai.
27:19 WT: Oh, they were.
27:21 JP: So that was Ground Zero. I was dozing there in the main event. And it was a good match, but...
27:26 WT: I had to watch this in two parts. I actually stopped midway through... 27:29 JP: I did it in one sitting. And this was...
27:31 WT: Respect.
27:32 JP: Really, this was a... I don't know. I'm not gonna give this pay-per-view a thumbs in the middle.
27:37 WT: You're not gonna tell people to go out and not search for a VHS copy of Ground Zero? 27:42 JP: No, I'm not. Go on YouTube maybe, and watch the Mini's match. 27:46 WT: Watch the Features, the Features are funny.
27:49 JP: The videos were the most enjoyable part of this, so let's... We should do a ranking, maybe out of 10, we do these reviews. So, I'm gonna give this one a three out of 10. What do you give this one?
27:59 WT: Well, what's a 10?
28:01 JP: A 10 would be...
28:02 WT: WrestleMania Seventeen?
28:03 JP: When Worlds Collide.
28:06 WT: Okay. What's a one then? Like WOW, Women of Wrestling?
28:10 JP: No, that's zero. One would be, maybe a standard TNA pay-per-view.
28:15 WT: Okay. This I would give perhaps... Well, I have to figure all this out. Am I watching this from the perspective of a 25-year-old me or a 12-year-old me?
28:25 JP: Let's watch with today's standards. It's much more fun to criticize... 28:28 WT: You know what?
28:28 JP: Stuff they have no control over.
28:30 WT: I would give it a five, just 'cause it was slightly entertaining throughout. I couldn't sit through the whole thing though.
28:36 JP: And finally what should we review next week? Obviously, if anyone emails in we can change, but right now...
28:44 WT: And don't just limit it to wrestling pay-per-views, but if you want to see us, hear us review a wrestling pay-per-view, do so. But if any wrestling related movies, MMA related movies, there are a bunch of those coming out.
28:58 JP: I will say that, in about a month, we are gonna commemorate the 10-year anniversary of Heroes of Wrestling, and review that.
29:05 WT: I look forward to that.
29:06 JP: You've never seen that right?
29:07 WT: Mouth lent me a tape of it, but it was such bad quality I couldn't watch it so this will be a first for me.
29:12 JP: Excellent. Okay, so next week we'll figure out what we're gonna review. We'll try and keep it... You had a good idea about if WrestleMania is coming up, review a past WrestleMania. Try and keep it monthly themed, maybe?
29:26 WT: Sure. What's happening next month?
29:26 JP: Well, what if we do a WCW pay-per-view? What was in September? They used to do Fall Brawl. Maybe we'll find a war games, or something like that.
29:35 WT: Yeah, yeah.
29:36 JP: Sadly for everyone, when you are emailing in, if it's 1989 onwards, I probably have it.
29:43 WT: Oh my God, well, I actually wrote... First of all, my first thought for this whole thing was like, "John, why do you have a VHS copy of Ground Zero?"
29:51 JP: I don't how I got... What I would do is, whenever I'd order a pay-per-view, I always tape them, 'cause I'm like, "It's a waste to order something, and you only get one viewing out of it."
29:59 WT: True.
30:00 JP: And it just added up, and then...
30:02 WT: But this was a real copy, store bought.
30:05 JP: Yeah, I would have... I don't know if it was my brother that bought it or me. I can't remember, but...
30:09 WT: You.
30:11 JP: When I was a little kid, dude, 'cause they'd never have like wrestling tapes and stuff anywhere, so when I would see them... There was one time I went to a Toys"R"Us, and I was walking around the store, and I found... There was seven WCW pay-per-view on VHS for like five bucks each. I went out of my mind.
30:28 WT: You bought them all.
30:30 JP: I bought 'em all.
30:32 WT: Oh my. Well, that explains a lot. It explains a lot about who you are. 30:35 JP: Watched a lot of wrestling Wai, Watched a lot.
30:37 WT: Good for you.
30:39 JP: We're gonna watch them all now, all my collection, we're eventually gonna get through. 30:43 WT: Oh boy!
30:45 JP: So, if you have any suggestions, john@thefightnetwork.com, wai@thefightnetwork.com or go and join the official "Ask-A-Wai."
30:51 WT: No, no, no, no.
30:51 JP: What?
30:52 WT: This is not Ask-A-Wai.
30:53 JP: We can change the name. We can change the group.
30:55 WT: No, we're not. We're not. We should come up with a name...
30:57 JP: Ask-A-Wai.
30:57 WT: No, you're not asking me anything.
31:00 JP: I'm asking you what we should review next.
31:03 WT: No, no, no. It should be maybe Review-A-Wai.
[laughter]
31:12 JP: That's not bad actually. Review-A-Wai. [chuckle]
31:16 WT: It's just as bad as anything that's been used with my name.
31:19 JP: Review-A-Wai. I like it a lot. Okay. We'll talk to you next week on Review-A-Wai. Now, Wai, as we close off here, you have quite the eclectic music taste, and I think you're going to be our decision maker when it comes to music to end this with.
31:40 WT: Man...
31:43 JP: For the first week, could you recommend a good Girl Talk tune to go out with?
31:46 WT: Well, yeah, yeah. Okay. Girl Talk is, for those who don't is sort of a mashup artist, but the thing is Girl Talk doesn't really have songs. He just has like long sets that are like 15 minutes long.
31:56 JP: Oh, forget that then. What should we go out with?
31:59 WT: Well, let's try to relate it to the whole discussion. This is September 11th, John. Is that wrong? Should we not have a song to commemorate September 11th?
32:09 JP: I don't think our audience will...
32:10 WT: Let's do a song from the new Jay-Z album "The Blueprint 3," called An Empire State of Mind dedicated to New York, comes out September 11th. It came out three days ago, but it was supposed to come out on September 11th.
[OUTRO MUSIC]
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