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The 2000s saw the death, resurrection, and face lift of ECW- Extreme Championship Wrestling. In early 2001 ECW owner Paul Heyman declared bankruptcy and went to work for Vince McMahon and the WWE. Despite the death of ECW, fans kept the promotion’s spirit alive. Every time something jaw-dropping happened chants of “E-C-DUB” would break out. After the WWE released “The Rise & Fall of ECW” DVD the dead company continued to gain momentum. Finally in June 2005 WWE chairman Vince McMahon decided to bring back Extreme Championship Wrestling for a one night stand.
Describing ECW One Night Stand as magical may be cheesy but lay on the cheese because ECW One Night Stand was truly magical. There were many fears about how the WWE would screw up the PPV but to the surprise of many the night came off as a rather genuine ECW event. Sure, the night wasn’t perfect but the event could have been a lot worse. There are just so many great moments from the night including the fans chanting “Chris Candido” during the Lance Storm/Chris Jericho match, the “super crazy” moonsault from the balcony onto the Full Blooded Italians, and the brutal bout between Mike Awesome and Masato Tanaka. Even Kurt Angle and JBL’s promos were entertaining.
Diehard fans of Extreme Championship Wrestling are likely to agree with me that ECW One Night Stand 2005 should have been the end all, be all for ECW. The night was the perfect farewell for Extreme Championship Wrestling. Sadly, the current ECW is taking away from the legacy Paul Heyman and the original ECW built. Re-watching ECW One Night Stand 2005 is a great way to remember the real legacy of ECW.
On Halloween night while kids were out trick-or-treating and adults were dressing up to go to Halloween parties I parked myself right on my couch and watched Batman Forever. Batman Forever was released in the summer of 1995 but if you didn’t know that you would have thought Batman Forever was a more recent release. The graphics for the film have done well with standing the test of time.
Batman Forever has a star studded cast including Tommy Lee Jones as Harvey Dent/Two-Face, Jim Carrey as the Riddler, Van Kilmer as Batman, Nicole Kidman as Dr. Chase Meridian, and Chris O’Donnell as Robin. Out of the five stars I just mentioned Jim Carey shines the most as the Riddler. Jim Carey has always seemed sort of eccentric to me and that quality makes him the perfect person to portray the Riddler. Jim Carey’s performance as the Riddler is reason enough to see Batman Forever.
Outside of the film’s graphics and Jim Carey’s portrayal of the Riddler not much sticks out to me about Batman Forever. If you have kids into Batman or superheroes in general renting Batman Forever from Net Flix or Blockbuster would be a good choice for a family movie night. Jim Carey fans and Batman enthusiasts are other people who will get a kick out of Batman Forever.
Before I start I would like to say in no way is this match from Wrestlemania XIX anywhere close to being amongst the best of the decade in regards to ring quality. Part of the reason I chose this match for my next installment of "Best of the Decade" is because I wanted a Hulk Hogan related post to correspond with TNA's signing of Hulk Hogan (which I do think was a mistake, as you would know if you read my column, "The Hardcore Truth", over at www.tnawrestlingnews.com).
Moving on, the build for the Hogan/Mr. McMahon match was done very well. The bout was truly 20 years in the making. This is a kind of storyline you can't script which is why it was so good. There was legitimate beef between Hogan and McMahon. McMahon claims he could have made the Hulkamania gimmick work for any wrestler but Hogan insists Hulkamania worked because he was the right man to carry the torch. To this day it can still be debated who should get credit for the success of Hulkamania- Hulk Hogan or Vince McMahon?
The actual match was as good as it could have been considering Hulk Hogan was way past his prime and Vince McMahon isn't even a wrestler. The brutal chair shots and McMahon's leg drop from the ladder helped to make this match memorable but overall the bout was far from a five star clinic. Still, both men deserve some props for the match.
With John Cena’s match with Randy Orton at Bragging Rights this Sunday, John Cena/Edge from Unforgiven 2006 seems to be an appropriate match to analyze for my first “Best of the Decade” posts. Just like this Sunday, at Unforgiven 2006 John Cena’s career on Raw was in jeopardy. If John Cena didn’t win the WWE Title from Edge John Cena would have to leave the Raw brand.
The build for this match is what makes the bout standout. John Cena wanted one last shot at the WWE Championship but the champion Edge was only willing to give him a title match on Edge’s terms. Edge said the match would a TLC match, a match John Cena never wrestled in and a match Edge had never lost. To make matters worse for John Cena the match would take place in Edge’s hometown. To top everything off if John Cena lost he would have to leave Raw. The stipulations worked well in building anticipation towards the match
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We are in the final months of the ‘00s decade. For professional wrestling the past decade has been an unforgettable one. World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) went out of business giving Vince McMahon a monopoly on mainstream wrestling. Vince McMahon also lost a lawsuit to the World Wildlife Foundation which forced Vince to change his promotion’s name from World Wrestling Federation (WWF) to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). In 2002 McMahon’s mainstream wrestling monopoly broke when the upstart Total Non-stop Action (TNA) Wrestling promotion started holding weekly PPVs. TNA eventually signed a television deal and went to a monthly PPV schedule.
The 2000s also proved to be a decade of tragedy. The wrestling world lost Chris Candido, Eddie Guerrero, Bam Bam Bigelow, Mike Awesome, Curt Henning, and Chris Benoit amongst others. Some of these losses have been true tragedies while others will forever be surrounded by controversy. Either way wrestling fans will always remember what these wrestlers contributed inside the ring
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Last night I watched Knocked Up on television. I had seen Knocked Up on a couple of previous occasions and liked the movie. However, I always considered the film a typical Seth Rogen movie. I think of a typical Seth Rogen movie as a film that is funny but has no deep message. After watching Knocked Up last night I realized the movie does have a strong message viewers should take with them.
Knocked Up stars Seth Rogen as Ben Stone, a man whose life consists of smoking pot and watching nude scenes in movies. The reality of life begins to set in for Ben Stone after a one night stand winds up making him an expecting father. The movie focuses around the odd couple of Ben Stone and Alison Scott (Katherine Heigl) and Alison’s sister, Debbie (Leslie Mann) and her husband Pete (Paul Rudd
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Time to time fans at TNA shows break into chants of “this is awesome”. The chant is reserved for a hard hitting match or wild brawl. While TNA does have awesome moments, their overall product sucks. The main problem is the booking. A lot of the booking makes little sense, which makes the entire promotion look like one bad joke. For an example, let’s review the Suicide/Amazing Red match from this past week’s iMPACT!
Going into iMPACT! Suicide was schedule to wrestle in an Ultimate X match at Bound for Glory against three other wrestlers to determine the #1 contender for the X-Division Title. Keeping that in consideration, on iMPACT! Suicide wrestled Amazing Red with the X-Division Title on the line. If Suicide is getting a title shot doesn’t that already make him the #1 contender? If he is already #1 contender why is he fighting in the #1 contender Ultimate X match at Bound for Glory
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I enjoy watching TNA Wrestling despite the fact the promotion is far from perfect. My biggest pet peeve with TNA Wrestling is the company’s presentation of their product. For example, let’s look at this week’s iMPACT! The show started off with an Abyss promo. In the promo Abyss stated he main evented the first Lockdown PPV with AJ Styles in 2004. The only problem with this is the first Lockdown PPV happened in 2005. The company is only seven years old and they can’t even get their own history straight!
Even worse is how TNA Wrestling announces pay per view matches. They really don’t announce matches. For example, the Ultimate X match scheduled for Bound for Glory. When was that match announced? Mike Tenay and Taz just started talking about it as if everyone knew about the upcoming Ultimate X
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Over the summer “Anvil: the Story of Anvil” was one of the movies I desired to see but never ended up getting to movie theatres to watch. Therefore when I learned “Anvil: the Story of Anvil” was making its television debut on VH1 Classic I made sure to tune in. “Anvil: the Story of Anvil” is a documentary about the band Anvil.
Anvil is led by guitarist/singer Steven “Lips” Kudlow and drummer Robb Reiner. The two started making music together as teenagers. In the early 1980s Anvil toured alongside big name bands, like Whitesnake and Bon Jovi. After the tour the band plummeted into the land of obscurity. However, Lips and Reiner continued to make music, with hopes of one day becoming huge rock stars. For over two decades Anvil played bar after bar looking to get discovered
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I’m glad the WWE had a special show to celebrate Smackdown’s 10 year anniversary. However, I think the WWE tried too hard. A lot of the show came off forced. For example, I can’t figure out why Jack Swagger, Legacy, and other personalities who never appeared on Smackdown before were on the show. The 10th anniversary show should have been reserved for those who have been a part of Smackdown history.
While watching the show I couldn’t help but think about how far the wrestling industry has fallen the past decade. Case in point, 10 years ago Joey Styles’ “Oh My God!” line was used when something unbelievable took place inside an ECW ring. Last night “Oh My God!” was the punch line to a comedy skit where a drunken Michael Cole threw up on Chris Jericho’s shoes
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