Adorable Adrian Adonis’ review yesterday inspired me to do another WCW PPV retro review.
REVIEW: WCW Uncensored (1999)
Month: July 2018
NXT Review, 7/25
ADAM COLE VS. SEAN MALUTA
As I’ve mentioned before I really don’t like all the cheers that Adam Cole gets. Mr. Cool Heel is bullshit. When he has to do real heel work it doesn’t work right because of how he plays his character. He’s not even on Miz’s level because Miz can get boos when he really wants them.
REVIEW: IN YOUR HOUSE: FINAL FOUR
Review: In Your House: Final Four
February 16th, 1997
We are back into the Retro-Reviews, and this one is a doozy of a show, packed with tons of backstory, excitement, and my favorite thing in wrestling—the winds of change!
Going back to Survivor Series 1996, Sid beat Shawn Michaels and finally killed one of the worst babyface title runs in company history, and Bret Hart defeated Steve Austin in a virtual #1 contenders match. In the lead up to the December and January PPVs, these four men interacted with each other weekly, all straddled the lines of face and heel, and they were eventually joined by Vader and the Undertaker as men who all vied, and had claims to, the World Wrestling Federation Title. How did this all happen and culminate?
205 Live Review, 7/24
AKIRA TOZAWA VS. GENTLEMAN JACK GALLAGHER
This is an interesting clash of styles, and a clear heel vs. face matchup. Tozawa loves to have fun and play to the crowd, and those are the things that Gallagher has come to loathe. I’m not sure who has the advantage here. Both wrestlers have styles and attitudes that can really frustrate and get into the heads of their opponents. However, they also both have great focus and poise in the ring that keeps their opponents from doing the same. So it’ll be Tozawa trying to keep up the pace and stay out of Gallagher’s grasp, and Gallagher trying to ground Tozawa, choose a body part, likely a leg or both legs, and damage it as much as possible until it’s time to go for the kill.
SmackDown Live Review, 7/24
The Miz and Maryse arrive in a limo with their and I’m gonna vomit. Yes, great way to get boos for your heel. Have him show up with his wife and baby and promote his sure-to-be-horrible new show. To steal a line from podcast maven Conrad Thompson: Who booked this shit?
Raw Review, 7/23
This is gonna be a huge announcement if Vince is in the ring with the entire locker room on the stage. The rumor mill says it’s a all-women pay per view in the fall. HHH says some damn nice things about the entire roster before singling out the women. Sure everything is a work, but this truly feels from the heart. And if it’s not, who fucking cares, because he does a damn good job making it sound that way. I can only imagine what it feels like for the women wrestlers and fans to be lifted up this way and recognized as equals. Stephanie makes the historic announcement that we expected, the all-women PPV on October 28, called “Evolution”. Not only that, it’s on Long Island. I gotta get there.
Segment Rating: Historic.
NXT Review, 7/18
DAKOTA KAI VS. LACEY EVANS
If I’m not mistaken, Lacey Evans has a new entrance theme song. Both of these women have gotten big pushes lately, and while a loss won’t knock one of them far down the roster, it will halt momentum and give a good indication of which may get a title shot sooner.
205 Live Review, 7/17
TJP VS. NOAM DAR
TJP asks if we actually admit we’re from here or just say we’re from Philly. We’re as close to New York as we are to Philly. It’s good heel work. TJP seems to be really overselling Dar’s strikes, but it’s fine because it’s very entertaining to me. Quality mat wrestling that’s not as entertaining as TJP flipping over from a punch.
SmackDown Live Review, 7/17
IN-RING SEGMENT: JEFF HARDY
I really like this version of Jeff Hardy. Strange he didn’t address Randy Orton, but the commentator team pointed out beforehand that he should be focused on Nakamura and not let the Orton attack cloud his mind. Good promo.
Promo Rating: Five Stone Colds
Jinder Mahal was a great WWE Champion
Now that I have your attention….
Looking down the list of WWE Champions, Jinder Mahal and Vince McMahon may be the most surprising names on the list. Surprising does not mean bad. You have so many people today that will say he wasn’t “ready” or that he can’t wrestle. Newsflash: some of the most beloved figures and champions of all-time could not wrestle.
Hulk Hogan, who literally WAS wrestling in the 1980s, could not wrestle. Ultimate Warrior could not wrestle. Why do these guys get a pass? It’s because the fans want to dictate how everything will go now instead of sit back and be entertained. In the 1980s and most of the 1990s, people couldn’t wait to see what would happen next. Now, it’s oh great, I know this guy I don’t like is going to win so WWE sucks. Let’s go there and boo and tell them how much they suck. It’s preconceived notions and immediate gratification.
The largest vocal majority of fans today reacted in disbelief when Jinder Mahal won the six-pack challenge to become the number-one contender to Randy Orton’s WWE Championship. He’s not the person they wanted to win nor the person they wanted to see get a push, so they turned on him not because he is a heel who is trying to be booed, but because they had a storyline already planned out in their heads, and this didn’t fit into it. And then Jinder committed the cardinal sin of winning the WWE Championship. How did he do it? He used his lackeys to distract Orton and steal the championship with a dirty win.
So let’s see how this has gone: a foreign heel who shit-talks America and uses two lackeys to do his dirty work takes shortcuts to wins and steals the championship from a popular face. I don’t know about you, but that sounds like pretty textbook storytelling and booking to me. Of course with today’s audience, WWE creative used their mentality to their advantage, continuously giving Mahal cheap wins and dragging out his reign until AJ Styles would defeat him for it 170 days later. These people would tell you that Jinder was a terrible champion and never should have held the belt. But why?
Jinder is a beast. He’s 6’6 and ripped to shreds. So he has the look. He’s storyline Indian (actually from Canada), so he has the anti-America sentiment. He has the personality and the facial expressions that make you hate him. There’s the makings of a good heel. He’s not going to hit a springboard 450 splash or really do anything flashy in the ring. But guess what: THAT’S A NORMAL HEEL STYLE ANYWAY! A heel generally uses rest holds and submission and tries to grind down and ground a usually-faster and more explosive face. Watch any Ric Flair or Hulk Hogan match and dare to tell me I’m wrong. People couldn’t accept that Jinder Mahal could go from 3MB to a championship (but they LOVE Drew McIntyre?).
Why was he a great champion? Because in addition to fitting the mold of a heel champion for the reasons I’ve already mentioned, people wanted to see him lose the title more than any champion I can remember in recent history. Maybe Brock Lesnar is passing that, but the other recent heels champions got nowhere near the heat that Jinder did. Kevin Owens, Seth Rollins, Sheamus, Randy Orton, going back as far as CM Punk, none of them got the crowd venom that Jinder did. Sure he got the boos from the people who hated the position he was in, but that’s not the only heat he got. He was terrific at making himself hated, he never got at least some cheers the way those other heel champions did, and AJ Styles’ win was bigger because of it.
Jinder is the first true heel champion that I can remember since Triple H. If I’m wrong, tell me why.
It's Damn True: All About WWE 