On a recent ask1wrestling column, someone asked about Lex Luger's WWF push, and why it resulted the way it did. It got me to think about an unfinished fued he had with Bret Hart. If you all recall, both Luger and Hart won the Royal Rumble by being eliminated at the same time. This set up a storyline leading into Wrestlemania 10, where many expected Bret to go against Luger, but instead Yokozuna got involved. Luger and Bret never had their big blowoff match. I know many probably prefer Luger not wrestling, but the storyline was interesting, built up well, but never concluded. I know there's a ton of other situations like that.
Yokozuna was already involved. For one thing, he was the WWF Champion, which was the brass ring both men were hoping to get a shot at by winning the Rumble in the first place. For another, Luger and Bret already had existing feuds with Yoko: Luger's was a continuation of the 'Lex Express' storyline which ran from July 4 to Summerslam 1993, and Bret's enmity was from Wrestlemania 13.
I'm also intrigued by unfinished/forgotten angles, though. My current favorite is from the Mankind match where someone pushed Mick off his perch as he was preparing to deliver an elbow off a stack of boxes. We never did find out who pushed the hardcore legend, but since this is the Internet, I'll blame HHH. Or maybe Moppy. I'll get back to you.
The person in question was the late British Bulldog, who was helping HHH get into the "6 Pack Challenge" at Unforgiven, and the two had an agreement that if either won, the other would get a title shot. HHH won, the reniged on his part of the deal.
You think WWE now is bad? Some of us had to live through 1993-1996!
Well, there are probably a thousand candidates. Off the top of my head Test Vs. Jericho was never blown off last year. That's when Jericho bopped Stacy with a chair to give him an interim fued between the rumble and NWO since Shawn wasn't a full time wrestler. Test and Stacy wound up in the doghouse and Test was taken off the PPV and the matter was never resolved.
Jericho vs. Booker T was started after Booker and Big Show had cage match and the culmination was Jericho/Christian vs. Booker/Goldust.
Austin drove Booker T through a supermarket in a wagon, broke a bunch of eggs on him and dumped a bag of flour on his head and it never yeilded anything.
Austin also had unresolved matters with Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit, but then he "took his ball and went home."
Anyone remember DVon and DEACON Batista beating up Bubba Ray at a PPV after the brand split?
And didn't Bret hit Goldberg with a shovel in the desert somewhere when the "band got back together" in WCW?
They gotta bring these back!!!: "talk to the hand because the man don't understand." - "The Crippler" Chris Benoit "...and that is the LAST WORD." - "The Big Nasty" Paul Wight and of course: "Don't hate the playa...HATE THE GAME~!" - WCW World Champion Booker T
Originally posted by The SquireAnd didn't Bret hit Goldberg with a shovel in the desert somewhere when the "band got back together" in WCW?
Well, after the kick to the head I'd call that one even EDIT: But seriously, after the nWo thing started, Goldberg was out with an arm injury after he smashed a winshield as part of an angle. During THAT time was also when Bret left because of the post-concussion stuff. Bret may have made an appearance or two after that (in fact if I remember right one of those appearances involved him interfering in one of Goldie's matches), but he never actually wrestled again after he left in January.
Yeah, I would definately say Goldberg "won" his feud with Bret. However, Bill did have an unfinished feud with the Scott Hall at that time too, but that was cause there was no nWo left when he returned from injury.
Speaking of his return in 2000, I think his Tank Abbot feud, while not technically unfinished, was one of the worst handled feuds WCW had that year, and it said a lot. They did a great job of building Tank Abbot up in Goldberg's absence as a guy who didn't know how to wrestle but just needed to hit you with one punch, and he could knock any man out.
So what do they do on Goldberg's return? Instead continuing to build the heat off of all the trash Tank was talking while Goldberg was away, they jsut blew it off in a quick squash on Goldberg's first Nitro back.
This was the perfect feud for Goldberg, ti wasn;t gonna require a classic wrestling event. You could have jsut bult it up to where it looks like no one can survive Abbot's right cross, and then have Goldberg be the first man to kick out of it. Pure Gold, that was lost behind an ill concieved heel turn.
Originally posted by themakerSpeaking of his return in 2000, I think his Tank Abbot feud, while not technically unfinished, was one of the worst handled feuds WCW had that year, and it said a lot. They did a great job of building Tank Abbot up in Goldberg's absence as a guy who didn't know how to wrestle but just needed to hit you with one punch, and he could knock any man out.
So what do they do on Goldberg's return? Instead continuing to build the heat off of all the trash Tank was talking while Goldberg was away, they jsut blew it off in a quick squash on Goldberg's first Nitro back.
The reason it ended was Goldberg didn't want to work with Tank Abbott. There was nothing WCW could do about that so the fault is not theirs. Between keeping Goldberg happy and taking a risk on a push for Tank, they picked Goldberg. I don't blame them.
Like Spiff said, we're all awaiting the rationale for Benoit to drop his Heyman/Lesnar hate and run to RAW. it should be as simple as "no one beat me for that WCW belt, and I'd like it back."
I'd like to see Rock/Lesnar be picked up again sometime.
Flair left for WWF right before a NWA PPV, and never gave Luger a definitive win over him.
Someone sent Booker a letter referring to "forgetting something." We still don't know who lifted the briefcase in that Austin ladder match. GTV (the myserious WWF backstage videotaped segments) vanished.
Did Rikishi and Austin ever duke it out in a match after Rikishi claimed to run him over?
"To be the man, you gotta beat demands." -- The Lovely Mrs. Tracker
The Bubba Ray Dudley/Triple H feud that never happened is a good one to mention here. It was apparent that after RVD lost at Unforgiven 2002 to Triple H, that they were looking for a new opponent prior to the Katie Vick angle. Bubba looked to be the first in line for that shot, as he had been standing up to Trips backtage and screaming what everyone on the net wanted to hear "This is not the Triple H show."
The feud went as far as Bubba getting the clean pin on Triple H in a tag match w/ RVD against him and Flair. He looked like a lock for a PPV title shot, but during the match Bubba badly blew a spot as half of his body went numb and he nearly droped Triple H on his head.
That was the end of that. As memory serves Kane won the #1 contenders match and IC title the next week, and soon Katie Vick would be introduced.
Its interesting to think of where Bubba would be right now if that feud had actually happened. Even in a loss, one would have had to considered his singles push to be a success if he was headlining a PPV with Triple H. Alas, it was not to be.
Originally posted by themakerSpeaking of his return in 2000, I think his Tank Abbot feud, while not technically unfinished, was one of the worst handled feuds WCW had that year, and it said a lot. They did a great job of building Tank Abbot up in Goldberg's absence as a guy who didn't know how to wrestle but just needed to hit you with one punch, and he could knock any man out.
So what do they do on Goldberg's return? Instead continuing to build the heat off of all the trash Tank was talking while Goldberg was away, they jsut blew it off in a quick squash on Goldberg's first Nitro back.
The reason it ended was Goldberg didn't want to work with Tank Abbott. There was nothing WCW could do about that so the fault is not theirs. Between keeping Goldberg happy and taking a risk on a push for Tank, they picked Goldberg. I don't blame them.
And this is why WCW seemed like it was run by circus monkeys sometimes. It would have taken a five minute phone call to Goldberg to say "We wanna set you up with Tank when you come back...no? Well then how about [x]?"
And they did it that way with an uncooperative Goldberg that completely buried whatever they were trying to do with Abbott the month prior. Not that I think Abbot was anything more than he was, but if you're going to build up a guy, make it mean something. He wouldn't have been the first slug in the hisotry of the biz to get a push.
And the dumbest part was that they gave it away on television. This whole experiment didn't draw a dime.
WCW: It was the best of times, it was the BLURST of times :P
Originally posted by Matt TrackerLike Spiff said, we're all awaiting the rationale for Benoit to drop his Heyman/Lesnar hate and run to RAW. it should be as simple as "no one beat me for that WCW belt, and I'd like it back."
Or how about "I was sitting at home after the Rumble, and it suddenly occured to me that the title Brock Lesnar is holding was, in part, once held by David Arquette, and suddenly a title that was just handed over to someone didn't sound so bad.
We still don't know who lifted the briefcase in that Austin ladder match.
Originally posted by themakerThe Bubba Ray Dudley/Triple H feud that never happened is a good one to mention here. It was apparent that after RVD lost at Unforgiven 2002 to Triple H, that they were looking for a new opponent prior to the Katie Vick angle. Bubba looked to be the first in line for that shot, as he had been standing up to Trips backtage and screaming what everyone on the net wanted to hear "This is not the Triple H show."
The feud went as far as Bubba getting the clean pin on Triple H in a tag match w/ RVD against him and Flair. He looked like a lock for a PPV title shot, but during the match Bubba badly blew a spot as half of his body went numb and he nearly droped Triple H on his head.
That was the end of that. As memory serves Kane won the #1 contenders match and IC title the next week, and soon Katie Vick would be introduced.
Its interesting to think of where Bubba would be right now if that feud had actually happened. Even in a loss, one would have had to considered his singles push to be a success if he was headlining a PPV with Triple H. Alas, it was not to be.
I don't think that feud was ever intended to lead to a PPV match. It was just one of those 'in between' feuds. So, in between squashing RVD and Kane, Hunter decided it'd be fun to take care of Bubba.
And, the feud actually DID have a blowoff match, as the week after the aformentioned tag match, Hunter and Bubba wrestled each other on RAW. I'll let you guys guess who got the clean win.
Spill the beans, InVerse! Don't hold out on us, man.
edit: Huh. That's actually fairly clever of them. I never made that connection the first time I saw that. The only thing I remember is Steve Blackman coming within a hair of main-eventing a PPV and Bossman using his old entrance theme once.
(edited by Mack Salmon on 6.2.04 1715) This will get added at the end of each post you make, below an horizontal line. This should preferably be kept to a small enough size.
Originally posted by Matt TrackerDid Rikishi and Austin ever duke it out in a match after Rikishi claimed to run him over?
Yes, three times, four if you want to count the six man HIAC.
They "fought" in Austin's return match at No Mercy 2000, and Austin destroyed him before trying to run him over with his truck. A few weeks later, Austin beat Rikishi in a cage, and busted him open something nasty by slamming the door on his head.
When they decided to turn Rikishi face, he did it by defying the McMahons, and ended up losing another match to Austin thanks to McMahon distraction.
You think WWE now is bad? Some of us had to live through 1993-1996!
Originally posted by Mack SalmonWhat, we DO know who lifted the briefcase?
Spill the beans, InVerse! Don't hold out on us, man.
Well, I wasn't going to provide the answer so as not to take away the spotlight from the other 50,000 times I've seen this exact question answered.
And, in fact, if you search for "Who lifted the briefcase?" on Google, you get this very board as the first hit.
But for the benefit of the people who are boycotting Google due to their asinine lawsuit... Bossman lifted the briefcase. The stipulation was that no member of The Corporation could interfere with the match. So, before the match, Bossman was kicked out of the Corporation. Later that night, the briefcase was mysteriously raised whenever Austin would try to grab it. The next night on Raw, after the Vince and Shane won the match and regained complete control of the WWE, Bossman was suddenly let back in the corporation.
This answer was brought to you by probably at least a dozen different sites that I've seen this exact discussion on over the last couple years and also the "Why should WWE bother with continuity when their fans have the attention span of a grape anyway?" Foundation.
I still want to know who DDP's secret benefactor was.
The Austin face turn at the end of the InVasion angle wasn't really explained. He was the the biggest heel in the company the night before. He tried to put the company out of business, yet we're supposed to cheer for him because even though we wanted Vince to be back, he's evil and Austin hates him! Oooooookay there buddy.
Oh and as for the briefcase angle, we do not know who it was that lifted it. It was obviously implied that the Big Bossman did it, but it was NEVER mentioned on TV. I bet the Bossman was framed by someone like, oh I dunno, lets just say Tatanka.
Originally posted by jerkflavorkoolaidOn a recent ask1wrestling column, someone asked about Lex Luger's WWF push, and why it resulted the way it did. It got me to think about an unfinished fued he had with Bret Hart. If you all recall, both Luger and Hart won the Royal Rumble by being eliminated at the same time. This set up a storyline leading into Wrestlemania 10, where many expected Bret to go against Luger, but instead Yokozuna got involved. Luger and Bret never had their big blowoff match. I know many probably prefer Luger not wrestling, but the storyline was interesting, built up well, but never concluded. I know there's a ton of other situations like that.
Well, Luger was supposedly going to win his WM match against Yokozuna and then go on to face Bret Hart in the main event, but starting telling people that before the PPV (like Hogan did on a radio show before Hogan returned at WM9 to win the title).
Unlike Hogan, they didn't overlook Luger spilling the beans on their booking.
Tribal Prophet
Wrestling exists in the eternal present. What is, has always been, and when it no longer is, it never was. It has no past and no future, and sometimes even today is in question. - Madame Manga
Thread ahead: 2.7.04 Confidential - Sorry ladies but Randy Orton is the male Torrie Wilson Next thread: RoH Gets a National Distribution Deal Previous thread: Kanyon released by WWE.
I'd rather see Pillman and Zenk vs. The Midnight Express rather than a bad version of the Freebirds, but, WarGames finally escapes from the pit Vince had it hidden in.
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