One of the great pieces of story telling of wrestling history. The icing on the cake was Brets look of utter disdain for the Americans at the end as he hugs his family.
Bret Hart will always be on my Mount Rushmore of Wrestling, the top 4 guys without dispute. There might be wrestlers that are flashier, there might be wrestlers that are better promo men, or money draws. But in terms of that guy, that could for 10 or 15 or 60 minutes of wrestling make you believe that wrestling was real, and sincere.
He was seriously under rated on the Microphone, but I will say, that on the Mic he was better as a heel then as a face. Only Bret understood the little details. The shake of his head and the look of damn on his face when he wrestled the 123 Kid. The look of disdain as he hugged Davy Boy and Owen. The little chain movements in his matches. The fact that Bret never ever cut a corner, and while his stuff looked Stiff, and hurt, it also look authentic and you believed that he was hurting his opponent, though he never injured anyone in the ring.
I mean frankly, if I was going to look at a Mt Rushmore, its Bret, Taker, Stone Cold and I'm going with the Rock.
Now some people are going to scream "Hey Captain what about Hulk, or Shawn or Flair" Well frankly.
Lets be honest, while the Hulk had an awesome career, a lot of his success after he reached the top was more about backstage influence then his body of work. He was so good and unique on the Mic, but eventually he just became repetitious. His Ring work started as poor and went to bat crap bad. Shawn, absolutely awesome in the ring, and on the mic, no question. But to me his ring work outside of the superkick, was just a high speed drive to get his stuff in. Outside of a few matches (Vs Ric Flair) he was not as much of a story teller as a crash test dummy. Flair, Every match the same, and he was great on the mic, but he lost the script too many times and broke out into nonsensical streams of consciousness.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
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Bret Hart will always be on my Mount Rushmore of Wrestling, the top 4 guys without dispute. There might be wrestlers that are flashier, there might be wrestlers that are better promo men, or money draws. But in terms of that guy, that could for 10 or 15 or 60 minutes of wrestling make you believe that wrestling was real, and sincere.
He was seriously under rated on the Microphone, but I will say, that on the Mic he was better as a heel then as a face. Only Bret understood the little details. The shake of his head and the look of damn on his face when he wrestled the 123 Kid. The look of disdain as he hugged Davy Boy and Owen. The little chain movements in his matches. The fact that Bret never ever cut a corner, and while his stuff looked Stiff, and hurt, it also look authentic and you believed that he was hurting his opponent, though he never injured anyone in the ring.
I mean frankly, if I was going to look at a Mt Rushmore, its Bret, Taker, Stone Cold and I'm going with the Rock.
Now some people are going to scream "Hey Captain what about Hulk, or Shawn or Flair" Well frankly.
Lets be honest, while the Hulk had an awesome career, a lot of his success after he reached the top was more about backstage influence then his body of work. He was so good and unique on the Mic, but eventually he just became repetitious. His Ring work started as poor and went to bat crap bad. Shawn, absolutely awesome in the ring, and on the mic, no question. But to me his ring work outside of the superkick, was just a high speed drive to get his stuff in. Outside of a few matches (Vs Ric Flair) he was not as much of a story teller as a crash test dummy. Flair, Every match the same, and he was great on the mic, but he lost the script too many times and broke out into nonsensical streams of consciousness.
IMO, Michaels was the best heel in WWF history. His heel mic work was the best.
His work with Bret in 1997 was golden and his work as the corporate commissioner in 1998 was even better.
Actually a pretty good first night of Wrestlemania. The Miz Paul Mysterio's match was very good, with the Miz getting nuclear heat for turning on his partner after the ring.
This Belair Lynch match is amazingly good.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
I thought KO-Austin was pretty damn entertaining myself. Was rough at the beginning but really picked up and really didn't see Austin taking the bumps he did.
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So just some thoughts, because honestly, this turned out to be a fun night that might be tough to top if your on the second night.
USOs (C) def Nakamura and Boogs
A decent but not a spectacular match. The USO's are still one of the great tag team champions. But the match had a unfortunate ending as Boog's suffered a major knee injury when his knee collapsed while lifting both USO's up on his back and they had to call an audible.
2/5 stars
McIntyre vs Corbin
The two wrestlers did work their ass off and it was physical. They hinted at trouble between Moss and Corbin, when Moss distracted his buddy when he was dominating. So they might be getting rid of the Happy Corbin gimmick for good. The match was ok though it had a real nice physical nasty edge to it. But this is how far Drew has fallen that he's not involved in major built up feuds anymore. 2.5/5
Miz and Paul vs the Mysterio mafia
This match was just a ton of fun. They put Miz in with celebrities because he just makes them look good. But Paul was on the button tonight as a heel and Miz took a backseat to let him shine. It was funny to see Paul pulling off a three amigo's suplex set and then gaining heat by doing the Eddie shimmy on the top rope. Like it should be, the heel team cheated to win. The end of the match was fun as the hated heel got a huge pop when he turned on Paul with a skill crushing finale.
3/5
Belair defeats Lynch to win the Raw woman's title.
This is pretty much a top match of the year candidate for me and was simply awesome. People were upset at the Belair humiliation at Summer Slam, but its pretty clear that was a launch point to Belair's ascension. Becky had a great heel entrance, Belair got the marching band. This match was physically relentless. There were lots of fake out pin attempts. Reversal after Reversal, fast paced and physical. This match was booked perfectly. These two woman really are the best in the business.
5/5
Seth "Freaking" Rollins vs Cody Rhodes
First of all, its clear that Seth and Becky have a competition on to see who can be the most obnoxious heel. Second of all, Cody's return entrance was perfect and got a huge heel. I also loved when Seth was beating up Cody he hissed "Welcome back to the big time". A really well booked back and forth. I think the commentators dropped the ball here as you felt like Cody hadn't wrestled in 6 years. Te match was solid, but kind of familiar as this was clearly AEW Rhodes as he pulled out most of his move sets. The ending was perfect as Cody hit Seth with a couple of cross rhodes, then smoked Seth with the bionic elbow, then another Cross Rhodes for the three count. The tough part is following the woman's match.
4/5
Charlotte (C) defeats Rousey
I think by this point the crowd was in a weird place, they had just seen a match of the year candidate, then the return of Rhodes, so its like they were trying to reserve what energy that they had left for the main event. This was a legitimate looking match, and it looked like Rousey and Charlotte were stiffing the crap out of each other. Rousey's style of offense was rough and unpolished, but in a way that worked. Rousey did make Charlotte tap out but of course the ref was down, so Charlotte kicked Ronda's face off for the win. But this match should have been on night two instead of competiting with the Woman's match.
3.5/5
Stone Cold Steve Austin def Kevin Owen's in a Street Fight
This was god damn wrestling heaven. Stone Cold who hasn't wrestled in 20 years, got the biggest pop of the night when the glass broke.
Kevin Owen's is a artist when it comes to heating up a crowd, and he was a beauty here as he ran down Texan's and Texas in General and promising that he was going to run down Texas to Austin's face and Austin was going to do nothing or get stunnered.
This one went from a Kevin Owen's show to a no holds barred match. Austin may be nearing 60, but his instincts are still amazing. Austin frankly looked amazing, and even took a suplex on the concrete floor and an awesome Stunner. This match was way more then I expected and the crowd rallied to just one single 10 minute long explosive pop. In the end, of course Austin won with a Stunner, and about a dozen beers at the end. You have to imagine that it was hard for Owen's to hide a poop eating ear to ear smile throughout this match, and he did everything he could to sell for Austin.
The post match celebration was fun as several aerial Steveweisers were consumed. Jonathon Coachman came in to celebrate and share a beer with Austin and got stunned. Then Austin's brother came in to celebrate and blammo . . . actually no he didn't get stunned.
Rating: OH HELL YEAH!!!!!!
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
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That was a great night 1, tomorrow has the much better matches so hopefully it can top it
Becky and bianca was best womens match in a long time
Cody and seth was waaaaay better than expected, crowd was hot for him too
Logan paul was probably even better than bad bunny, he knows how to work a crowd too, the three amigos and shimmy before the flog splash were great, have to assume they are setting up him vs miz maybe for summerslam or wm next year
Man, if Cody and Seth had that match in AEW, WWE folks would have ripped on them for the sloppiness and the notches. Same with Becky and Bianca. I liked both because of the storytelling but it's interesting how those things tend to get overlooked by a lot of WWE fans.
Austin/Owens got better as it went on, but the first few minutes had all the energy and excitement of a pissed off dad beating up his drunk son in-law at Thanksgiving dinner.
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Man, if Cody and Seth had that match in AEW, WWE folks would have ripped on them for the sloppiness and the notches. Same with Becky and Bianca. I liked both because of the storytelling but it's interesting how those things tend to get overlooked by a lot of WWE fans.
Austin/Owens got better as it went on, but the first few minutes had all the energy and excitement of a pissed off dad beating up his drunk son in-law at Thanksgiving dinner.
First few kicks and bumps Austin was super hesitant
I agree on the Cody Seth if it was AEW, but this is also a style that's much better for him, match built really well to the last third
I don't think anyone on AEW women's division could do what Becky and Bianca did though, even with a few botches.
Austin/Owens got better as it went on, but the first few minutes had all the energy and excitement of a pissed off dad beating up his drunk son in-law at Thanksgiving dinner.
When he was stomping a mud hole in Owens in the corner I was thinking to myself, man this is just sad - Steve is really going to regret this… the longer it went on the better it got though! I think the fans got everything they could have wanted out of this match and Steve can actually be pretty proud of how well he performed after a stiff opening sequence.
I’ll have to watch it more closely this week as I just had it on in the background.
But I don’t know how anyone can be disappointed by Austin - Owens.
It went from what looked like it would be just a talk show segment, to maybe at most a stunner and quick pin for Austin, to an actual no holds barred match with Austin taking actual bumps and some fun spots.
Great to see Austin go out like that 20 years after his last match and still look good.
First few kicks and bumps Austin was super hesitant
I agree on the Cody Seth if it was AEW, but this is also a style that's much better for him, match built really well to the last third
I don't think anyone on AEW women's division could do what Becky and Bianca did though, even with a few botches.
I will say that, although I think AEW outgrew him and I was never a huge fan of his matches after about the first six months or so, Cody was probably one of the better guys at the in-ring psychology/storytelling stuff.
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I really dig the WWE network for WCW content. but once the 30 days is up no way. wont give them more money.
Right now I'm going back and watching the sting hogan debacle
jesus christ i almost forgot how bad it was. Hogan kicks the #### out of Sting for like 8 or 10 mins, like, beats this guys ass, wins cleanly, the Hart and Sting conspire to steal the belt. As the faces.
Last edited by White Out 403; 04-03-2022 at 06:04 PM.
