For the final pick of Round 9, Team Malfunction Junction says...WELCOME TO WRESTLEMANIA EIGHTEEN!!! Chosen in the Pay-Per-View Category.
This is the view I had of the show...
March 17, 2002 (7 years ago today), live from Skydome (before it was Rogers Centre) in Toronto, Ontario, Wrestlemania 18 was the final Wrestlemania under the "WWF" name brand (they adopted the WWE name shortly thereafter).
The show featured 11 matches, 6 title matches, and only 2 title changes other than the 5 times the Hardcore Title changed hands (RVD became the IC Champ, and Triple H became the Undisputed Champ).
Undertaker stretched his 'Mania win streak to 10 in a victory over Ric Flair.
The show also featured two battles between the icons of the Monday Night Wars (which, like the actual Monday Night Wars were won by the WWF)...Steve Austin defeated the nWo's Scott Hall (with Kevin Nash); and The Rock defeated the nWo's Hollywood Hogan.
The Rock/Hogan match was the one that received the best crowd reaction, even though it was not the expected reaction. The crowd was solidly in support of Hogan, who had been playing the heel role leading into the match. As a result, the "Rocky Sucks" chants started early and lasted through most of the match. Luckily, both men were smart enough to give the crowd what they wanted, as Hogan began returning to his "hero" persona, and The Rock re-embraced his "villain" role.
Because of the unexpected crowd reaction, Hall and Nash were sent to the ring at the end of the match, seemingly to help Hogan, but they turned on Hogan, which allowed The Rock to return to the face role by helping his recent foe.
Hogan soon dropped the black & white "Hollywood" role, and returned to the yellow & red of Hulkamania.
The main event saw Triple H defeat Chris Jericho (who was accompanied by Triple H's estranged wife, Stephanie) to become the second Undisputed Champion.
More than anything else, the reason I chose this is because this was the first (of two consecutive) Wrestlemania shows that I attended in person. I was about 15 rows from the ring on the floor directly in front of the main cameras for the PPV broadcast.
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Turn up the good, turn down the suck!
For the first pick of Round 10, Team Malfunction Junction selects, in the Storyline category: Screwjob Aftermath - the birth of Mr. McMahon and the Attitude Era.
Prior to Survivor Series 1997, Vince McMahon had always played two roles in the WWF...Off camera, he was the owner and driving force behind the company. On camera, he was the lead announcer and head cheerleader to the faces.
That duality changed after the infamous "Montreal Screwjob", where McMahon called for a quick bell and hurriedly rushed Shawn Michaels out of the arena as he clutched his newly awarded (but not won) World Championship belt.
In the aftermath of "Montreal", McMahon had to face the anger of both his employees and his fans. Mick Foley refused to work the Raw show the night after Survivor Series, and Rick Rude (who had been a member of D-X) walked out of the company and joined WCW, which gave him the unique distinction of the being the only performer (prior to the WWF's purchase of WCW) to appear on an episode of Raw and an episode of Nitro on the same night (the following week's Raw was prerecorded, and Rude walked out between that taping and the next live Nitro broadcast).
At first, fans thought that the screwjob was just another wrestling storyline, and expected Hart to get his revenge on Michaels the next night on Raw. When Hart never appeared, the fans wanted answers...and Vince McMahon (still sporting the black eye received from Hart) gave them his side of the story in an exclusive interview with Jim Ross, where he uttered his soon to be famous line "Bret screwed Bret".
Prior to Montreal, Raw had been frequently losing the Monday Night wrestling ratings to Nitro, and Vince had started to introduce new, more risque storylines and characters (such as wrestling porn star, Val Venis) to the WWF, in an effort to gain viewers who wanted "shock television" (which was popular on shows like Jerry Springer at the time).
Bret had made his displeasure with this direction the company was taking well known to Vince. On the other hand, Shawn Michaels and Triple H had embraced the new "WWF Attitude". It's no surprise who it was that Vince thought was expendable.
As 1997 drew to an end, the WWF introduced its new "scratch logo", a variation of which (after they got "the F out") is still in use today, and fully embraced what it was now calling "WWF Attitude".
Vince realized that the negative fan reaction he faced after the screwjob could be turned in his favour. Vince left the announcer's position and fully embraced his bad side, becoming "Mr. McMahon", the evil owner of the WWF. The added bonus was that if he was the company's top heel, he knew he'd never have to worry about losing his top heel to WCW.
McMahon fully established himself as the heel owner, during the lead-up to Wrestlemania 14, when he tried to do everything in his power to prevent Steve Austin from winning the WWF title, including hiring Mike Tyson to be the "special enforcer", who was supposed to be aligned with Shawn Michaels and DX. Tyson aided Austin at 'Mania, allowing Austin to win his first World Title, and the stage was set for the epic feud between Austin and McMahon, and for the WWF to win the Monday Night Wars.
The Raw episode that aired the week after Wrestlemania 14 was the first episode of Raw to defeat Nitro in the ratings in nearly 2 years. Starting with the first week of November 1998 (nearly one year after the Montreal Screwjob), Raw won the Monday Night War every week until Nitro was eventually canceled and the WWF purchased WCW.
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Turn up the good, turn down the suck!
If we are going to do a list of who's pick other than your own would be on your ALL STAR team... Drunk's belt will be the first thing I pick...
I didn't even know they gave him a different belt, but it makes sense.
Also, seeing as how people are going with specific belts, I've updated my IC Belt pick (http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showpos...&postcount=251). The colour of the strap may have changed, ie - Hunter's white strap, or Warrior's neon of the week, but the design stayed the same, so I'm not going any more specific than that.
I couldn't find when it changed, but I'm sure it was after they unified it with the Euro, Hardcore, and Heavyweight...
In the aftermath of "Montreal", McMahon had to face the anger of both his employees and his fans. Mick Foley refused to work the Raw show the night after Survivor Series, and Rick Rude (who had been a member of D-X) walked out of the company and joined WCW, which gave him the unique distinction of the being the only performer (prior to the WWF's purchase of WCW) to appear on an episode of Raw and an episode of Nitro on the same night (the following week's Raw was prerecorded, and Rude walked out between that taping and the next live Nitro broadcast).
Rude was not only on RAW and Nitro on the same night but he was also on that week's ECW broadcast.
With my 10th round pick, I am proud to select in the title belt category,
the current WWE...
"Intercontinental Championship"
2001-2009 - CM Punk
1991-2000 - William Regal
1980-1990 - Curt Hennig
Pre-80's - Abdullah the Butcher
Tag Team - Miz & Morrison
Stable - Raven's Flock
Women's - Maryse Ouellet
Personality - Eric Bischoff
Storyline
Title Belt - Intercontinental Championship
PPV
Match - HBK vs Jeff Hardy, RAW 2/11/08
1 Chris Jericho defeated William Regal. Singles match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship 07:08
2 Tazz and The APA defeated Right to Censor Tag team match 03:53
3 Kane defeated Raven and The Big Show. Triple Threat Hardcore match for the WWF Hardcore Championship. 09:18
4 Eddie Guerrero defeated Test Singles match for the WWF European Championship 08:30
5 Kurt Angle defeated Chris Benoit. Singles match 14:02
6 Chyna defeated Ivory Singles match for the WWF Women's Championship 02:39
7 Shane McMahon defeated Vince McMahon (with Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley). Street Fight with Mick Foley as special guest referee. 14:12
8 Edge and Christian defeated The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von) (c) and The Hardy Boyz (Matt and Jeff) Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match for the WWF Tag Team Championship 15:53
9 The Iron Sheik won by last eliminating Hillbilly Jim Gimmick battle royal 03:05
10 The Undertaker defeated Triple H. Singles Match 18:17
11 Steve Austin defeated The Rock No disqualification match for the WWF Championship
Kanellis was a contestant on the reality show Outback Jack in 2004. In the same year, she placed fifth in the Raw Diva Search, but was later hired by WWE as a backstage interviewer. Kanellis began competing in the ring as a wrestler in 2005. It was not until 2007, however, that she received her greatest push in the company, as the on-screen love interest of Santino Marella. As a result, she received more air time and began winning more matches than she had previously. She also posed for the April 2008 cover of Playboy magazine, which was incorporated into a storyline on Raw.
If anyone wants to know who I was going with before... PM me... I'd love to see her picked, but couldn't pass up Maria...
James began her professional wrestling career in 1999 as a valet on the independent circuit, where she was known under the name Alexis Laree.[8] She trained in several camps to improve her wrestling abilities before working for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) in June 2002, where she gained national attention.[8][10] After only a few appearances, she joined a stable called The Gathering and was written into angles with the group. She is also the only woman to be involved in Clockwork Orange House of Fun matches.[11]
James appeared in WWE in October 2005 and was placed in a storyline with Trish Stratus, in which James' gimmick was that of Stratus' biggest fan turned obsessed stalker, an angle which lasted almost a year.[2][8][12] She received a push, and she won her first WWE Women's Championship at WrestleMania 22, a title she has held a total of four times.[13]
