The SmarK Rant for WWE Vintage Collection \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 10.07.11<\/p>\n
Playing catchup a bit here.<\/p>\n
Your host is Mean Gene, and the theme is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Good Friends, Better Enemies\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 This should make the feature match obvious.<\/p>\n
Meng v. The Barbarian<\/strong><\/p>\n From the Road Wild PPV in 1998, I totally forget the circumstances behind this.\u00c2\u00a0 JIP with Meng booting Barbarian down and going up, but Barbie brings him down with a suplex for two.\u00c2\u00a0 Meng comes back with a powerslam for two, but Jimmy Hart acts as distraction and allows Barbarian to attack.\u00c2\u00a0 They slug it out and neither guy sells anything, and they finally make their way to the floor in slow motion.\u00c2\u00a0 Back in, Barbarian loads up the boot, but the TONGAN DEATH GRIP finishes clean for Meng at 3:05.\u00c2\u00a0 Sadly, Hugh Morrus runs out for the heel beatdown while the apathetic biker crowd revs their engines.\u00c2\u00a0 Meng makes his own comeback, but Hugh Morrus hits the moonsault until Jim Duggan makes the save.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m perversely curious to see Meng & Duggan v. Morrus & Barbarian now.\u00c2\u00a0 DUD<\/p>\n WCW World tag team titles:\u00c2\u00a0 Doom v. The Fabulous Freebirds<\/strong><\/p>\n This is one of the most famous matches in wrestling history, for all the wrong reasons.\u00c2\u00a0 From WrestleWar 91, an underrated show. Both teams were heels at this point, with the Freebirds recently adding Oliver Humperdink to their circus as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153road manager\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Big Daddy Dink.\u00c2\u00a0 And that actually WORKED. Simmons overpowers Hayes to start and whips him around the ring, into a spinebuster for two.\u00c2\u00a0 The Birds regroup and Garvin goes after Butch Reed, getting nowhere with that.\u00c2\u00a0 He manages a sunset flip for two, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s back to Hayes.\u00c2\u00a0 The Freebirds are so obnoxious that fans are actually cheering for Doom here. \u00c2\u00a0Reeds presses both Freebirds, but Hayes punches him in the face to break up the slam on Garvin.\u00c2\u00a0 We take a break and return with Doom putting Garvin down with a double elbow, and Garvin slams him on the floor for good measure.\u00c2\u00a0 I guess the bookers wanted Doom to be heels here, which is a weird dynamic because I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t cheer for the Freebirds if they were saving babies from a burning building while working the match.\u00c2\u00a0 Garvin hits Reed with the DDT and Simmons cuts off the tag with a spinebuster.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 He adds a powerslam for two and Hayes continues making the save, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s BREAKING LOOSE IN TULSA.\u00c2\u00a0 Reed tries to hit Hayes with an international object, but he nails Simmons instead and Garvin falls on top for the pin and the titles at 6:23.\u00c2\u00a0 This was a really messed up match, with the wrong team playing heel the biggest issue.\u00c2\u00a0 I recall the original version being much longer and shittier, too.\u00c2\u00a0 **\u00c2\u00a0 However, the biggest issue here was the total lack of suspense in the title change, as the Steiner Brothers had actually won the tag titles from the Freebirds\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6a week earlier.\u00c2\u00a0 So WCW gave us the first negative title reign in wrestling history.<\/p>\n THUNDERDOOM STEEL CAGE MATCH:\u00c2\u00a0 Butch Reed v. Ron Simmons<\/strong><\/p>\n So with Doom turning on each other after that last match, they EXPLODE at the first Superbrawl to begin Simmons\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 singles push.\u00c2\u00a0 We pick things up with Simmons already bleeding, and Reed rams him into the cage for two.\u00c2\u00a0 He goes to a chinlock and adds a neckbreaker, then goes up\u00c2\u00a0 with the flying shoulderblock.\u00c2\u00a0 That gets two, as Simmons has his foot on the ropes.\u00c2\u00a0 Reed misses a big splash, allowing Simmons to make the comeback and slug him down.\u00c2\u00a0 Reed comes back with a high knee to cut him off, and they clothesline each other, as Teddy Long throws an international object from the cage above the ring.\u00c2\u00a0 Reed gets it, but Simmons gives him the spinebuster to finish at 3:30 anyway.\u00c2\u00a0 Edited down to almost nothing.\u00c2\u00a0 *1\/2\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Oddly enough, while Simmons would go on to the World title after this, Reed\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s career was done and he essentially disappeared for good.<\/p>\n WWF World title:\u00c2\u00a0 Shawn Michaels v. Diesel<\/strong><\/p>\n This is the famous street fight from the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Good Friends Better Enemies\u00e2\u20ac\u009d In Your House PPV (April 1996), as Diesel turned on his friend on the way out of the promotion.\u00c2\u00a0 They show the video package for this beforehand and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s epic stuff.\u00c2\u00a0 Shawn runs in and attacks to start, then dropkicks Diesel out of the ring and baseball slides him.\u00c2\u00a0 He adds a moonsault press, then steals the boot off the Spanish announcer and nails Diesel with it for two.\u00c2\u00a0 Foreshadowing there.\u00c2\u00a0 Diesel comes back and whips Shawn into the corner for a Flair Flip, then sends him crashing into the railing to take over.\u00c2\u00a0 Back in, Diesel slugs him down and adds a short clothesline and Snake Eyes.\u00c2\u00a0 He pounds away in the corner with knees while laying the badmouth on Jose Lothario, and the sidewalk slam leads to a break.<\/p>\n Back with Diesel holding a neck vice, but Shawn fights up and we get a great sequence with Shawn slugging away blindly and Diesel fighting him off until he finally goes down and out of the ring.\u00c2\u00a0 Then another memorable spot sees Diesel setting up Shawn for a powerbomb on the floor, only to change his mind in mid-air and put him through the announce table instead, resulting in total chaos at ringside and a shocked crowd.\u00c2\u00a0 Shawn is DEAD.\u00c2\u00a0 Diesel grabs the title and actually straps it on himself while Vince tells Shawn to stay down, and this is all great stuff.\u00c2\u00a0 However, Shawn gets a fire extinguisher and sprays it at Diesel, allowing himself time to make the comeback.\u00c2\u00a0 There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no commentary, which makes it all the more effective.\u00c2\u00a0 Shawn gets the forearm and grabs a chair as Vince finally gets back on the air, and Shawn lays Diesel out with a sick chairshot to the face.\u00c2\u00a0 Diesel is having none of this, however, and hits Shawn with the big boot as we take another break.\u00c2\u00a0 Shawn blocks the Poochiebomb and slugs him down, then goes up for the flying elbow.\u00c2\u00a0 That sets up the superkick, but Diesel CATCHES it and clotheslines him down.\u00c2\u00a0 They brawl to the floor and Diesel drops him on the railing, as Shawn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Ricky Morton selling is just off the charts.\u00c2\u00a0 And then in the other most awesome spot, Diesel mugs Maurice Vachon at ringside and STEALS HIS ARTIFICIAL LEG.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Shawn goes low to stop him, grabs the leg, and puts Diesel down with it, and then hits the superkick with his own foot to send Diesel to WCW at 13:11.\u00c2\u00a0 Just awesome, with all kinds of crazy stuff that pre-dated the Attitude era by a couple of years.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d say this is easily Diesel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s best match.\u00c2\u00a0 ****3\/4\u00c2\u00a0 My only issue is that Shawn recovered too fast from getting powerbombed through the table, but otherwise everything was spot-on and the selling from Shawn was impeccable.\u00c2\u00a0 Plus I had forgotten a couple of the spots and I was going nuts watching it again as a result.\u00c2\u00a0 Anything that can make me mark out after 15 years is GREAT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The SmarK Rant for WWE Vintage Collection \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 10.07.11 Playing catchup a bit here. Your host is Mean Gene, and the theme is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Good Friends, Better Enemies\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 This should make the feature match obvious. Meng v. The Barbarian From the Road Wild PPV in 1998, I totally forget the circumstances behind this.\u00c2\u00a0 JIP with Meng … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2082,7767,100142],"tags":[111313,109859,109991,109803,110177,110692,112556,100019],"zone":[121870],"series":[],"episode_featured_image":false,"episode_player_image":"https:\/\/insidepulse.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/seriously-simple-podcasting\/assets\/images\/no-album-art.png","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"stitcher":{"key":"stitcher","url":"","label":"Stitcher","class":"stitcher","icon":"stitcher.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/insidepulse.com\/feed\/podcast\/inside-pulse","embedCode":"The SmarK Rant for WWE Vintage Collection – 10.07.11<\/a><\/blockquote>