horrorfan_1986

Bret Hart vs Ted DiBiase w/Sherri - SNME - April 27, 1991
Interesting time for the WWE as this is the first major show after Wrestlemania. The commentating team is Vince McMahon, Roddy Piper and Randy Savage. Which really adds in to the dynamics of the match. Okay, so a lot has happened since Wrestlemania with these five (Not counting Vince for obvious reasons). Sherri left Randy Savage after he lost to the Ultimate Warrior and joined up with Ted DiBiase in early April. Roddy Piper and Ted DiBiase still has their feud going on that is stemming from the one with Virgil vs DiBiase. Despite Savage and Sherri breaking up, Savage is still technically a heel, so he gives Sherri credit during the match. Finally, Bret is now starting his second singles push (First being in 1988).

From the get go, Sherri keeps trying to grab at Bret's ankle whenever he runs the rope near her. Bret shows that he's fully aware of how big this match is by slingshots himself over the top rope onto DiBiase. The Million Dollar Man takes over and Bret goes on his terrific selling segment of the match. Bret bump in the corner. Whenever the ref has his back turned, Sherri chokes or punches Bret in the throat. I WILL PUNCH YOU IN THE THROAT~!!! Bret comes back with the opening set of the 5 moves of doom. (Bret had just debuted the Sharpshooter on the April 13th edition of Superstars despite not using it here.) Sherri once again trips Bret up, causing Roddy Piper to leave the booth to take care of her. Bret settles for just punching DiBiase as he lays on the mat while Roddy chases Sherri around the ring. Piper pulls up the ring curtain to pull out a SLEDGEHAMMER~! OH SHIT! Okay, it's really just a broom, but think about how badass it would of been had it been a sledgehammer. Piper slaps Sherri in the ass with the broom as he runs her back to the locker room. DiBiase follows Piper trying to figure out what's going on. As he's walking back up the entrance, Bret leaves the ring and the two have a brief epic face off in mid walk before the lay in the punches. The referee counts to ten and we get a double count out. Boo.

Despite the match being restricted by the SNME time limit and the hi-jinks of Sherri and Piper, these two delivered a great match to really show off Bret's singles push. These two wrestlers had such great chemistry together that it's a real shame they never feuded. Had things been booked different, I truly believe these two could have put on a better match together at Summerslam than Bret did with Hennig. Instead of having this special on again off again feud for Bret that he had with Perfect, all we're given is a few random matches throughout a few years span between Bret and DiBiase. This would end up being one of DiBiase's last good singles matches while it's one of Bret's first good singles ones. Take away the interference and add 10 more minutes and this could have easily been a MOTYC.
3 1/4 Stars.

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horrorfan_1986

Just whatever matches I could find from the full shows I had on my computer. The theme should become clear.

John Morrison vs Shelton Benjamin - Smackdown - May 1, 2009
From Madison Square Garden in New York City. The draft took place a few weeks before, but I believe this was the first Smackdown were the new roster is fully in place with the exception of MVP. Morrison is still technically a heel. Morrison avoids Shelton's old face spinning heel kick, but walks right into a nasty big boot. Nice. Shelton hits a back breaker. Jim Ross calls Shelton "Silky smooth". Okay then. During a headlock sequence, Morrison stomps his boot to get the fans involved, but they're not playing along. Morrison hits a nice springboard turning kick right in Benjamin's face. The Moonlight Drive gets Morrison the victory. Meh. Way too short to be anything really good. Morrison was playing the face role, but he got very little reaction since the fans knew him as a heel. For what it was, it was decent. But you're hard pressed to come up with a good match in under three minutes. 1 3/4 Stars.

Chris Jericho vs John Morrison - Superstars - June 11, 2009
We are just a few days removed from Extreme Rules where Chris Jericho defeated Rey Mysterio for the IC championship. The belt is not on the line though. Jericho is in a nice blend of new heel mode of being ultra aggressive and old school by asking the ref to keep asking Morrison if he gives up. Morrison gets in some of his flashy moves that looks pretty decent. Trademark Jericho springboard dropkick sends Morrison down from the apron to the floor. I'm sure that move has a more "Proper" term though. Jim Ross and Todd Grisham keeps talking about Morrison's mojo which kind of creeps me out. Morrison hits a back breaker on his knee followed by a side Russian leg sweep combo that comes off looking a bit sloppy. I like the idea though, but turning Jericho around to hit the second part of the move allows too much room for mistakes. Jericho hits his old step up enziguri for a two count. Morrison moves out of the way from a Lionsault, but Jericho lands on his feet only to be hit by the Chuck Kick (Later called the Flying Chuck) by Morrison. Nice sequence. Morrison avoids the Codebreaker, but misses the split legged corkscrew moonsault (Starship Pain is such a lame name). Morrison reverses a Walls of Jericho attempt into a pin attempt, but Jericho rocks backwards to cover Morrison. A handful of tights allows Jericho to steal the victory. A few awkward spots aside, a fine free match. The crowd wasn't too active while the commentators didn't help at all. The final few minutes were pretty exciting though. From the review I read, it was said to be a free MOTYC. I wouldn't go that far, but it's an easy recommendation from the Summer months. 3 1/4 Stars.

John Morrison vs Tyson Kidd - Superstars - July 30, 2009
We jump over a month ahead with the first Superstars after Night of Champions. I believe this is during the time Morrison is being booked as the possible next World Heavyweight Champion during the Punk/Hardy feud. Ha, Jim Ross and Todd Grisham confirms my belief as they tell the main event for the next night's Smackdown being Morrison challenging Jeff Hardy for the World title. Kidd stalls a lot in the beginning leading to very little action. Morrison works over the arm a little in the early going. Jim Ross puts over the fact that Morrison is going to be more of a mat wrestler right as Morrison relies the spots again. Bad timing, JR.
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An awesome looking neck breaker to Morrison is hit on the apron. Kidd sends Morrison to the outside where David Hart Smith gets in a cheap shot. Back from the commercial, Kidd is channeling his inner Jericho as he asks to check on Morrison during a side headlock. Back drop driver by Morrison. Damn. Kidd blocks a kick, so Morrison handstands into a Pele kick. Wow, that was awesome. The referee throws out Smith and Natalya. Corkscrew plancha onto Kidd. Kidd with a sunset flip into a pin attempt, but Morrison rolls through until he lands on his feet and runs with a knee shot. Split legged corkscrew moonsault finishes Kidd off. Great way to kick off Superstars and lead into Morrison's title shot. Morrison has some really entertaining flashy moves, he just needs to get the fans more into him. The final few minutes were highly entertaining though. Give Tyson Kidd time and he will truly start to impress people. 3 1/2 Stars.

John Morrison vs Dolph Ziggler - IC Title - Smackdown - October 9, 2009
The first SD after Hell in a Cell where Morrison successfully defended the IC title against Ziggler. Just by his entrance, you can tell the fans are starting to like Morrison. Huge difference from the Benjamin match. Dolph currently has the second best theme song in the WWE. From the start of the match, Dolph keeps Morrison grounded which changes the entire story of the match compared to the other matches. Unless my ears are mistaken me, Dolph is getting a small 'Dolph' chant by a few fans. It doesn't sound like much, but the fact that he gets a chant is important. Once Morrison gets in a little offense, Maria comes down to ringside and sits down in a folded chair. Morrison hits the back breaker/side Russian leg sweep combo much better than against Jericho. Morrison runs at Dolph sending both men over the top rope and to the outside. Maria stands up and backs away from the action. Once Morrison is inside, Dolph grabs Maria's chair and sets it against the ring. Mindless fighting on the inside as we're shown Maria taking the chair and sitting back down on it. Ziggler has a brief moment where Morrison is down on the mat, so he goes for the chair. It takes a few moments for Dolph to realize that Maria has the chair. The miscommunication gives Morrison time to recover and surprise Dolph with the Flying Chuck Kick to win the match and retain the title. The match was really limited by the real storyline of Maria and Dolph. So the match wasn't the main attraction. I enjoy Dolph and I think he has a bright future ahead of himself. Morrison's biggest problem as a face became very clear in this match. The audience doesn't have any reason to cheer the guy. Despite there being some Morrison signs and his entrance got a good reaction, the fans didn't react to him at all during the match. In some cases, you could just place the blame on the fans, that they weren't energetic enough. The problem is that Dolph did get a chant. I'll address this more at the end of this post. Overall, it's decent for a TV match, but it's nothing special. 2 Stars.

John Morrison vs CM Punk - Superstars - October 15, 2009
Morrison is still IC champion, but the belt isn't on the line. Interesting match-up since Morrison scored a couple wins over Punk during his title reign earlier in the Summer. The Miz joins Todd Grisham. Despite having this big match, most of the match is centered around The Miz and what he has to say. Obviously, guest commentators should put over their current feud, but not so much it takes away interest from the match. When we come back from the commercial break, we're shown Punk sending Morrison down on the stairs chest first. Nice flapjack to Morrison back inside the ring. Morrison avoids a round house kick and nails a spinning back kick to Punk. Morrison knocks Punk out with the running knee and heads up to the top rope for the split legged corkscrew, but Punk stops him in time. Some struggling on the ropes, I notice the fans are cheering on Morrison a bit. It could just be because it's action on the top rope, but it's still a good sign. Morrison knocks Punk down in position where he was before. The Miz runs in the ring and stomps the chest of Punk drawing the DQ finish. Miz celebrates on the way out, but Morrison gets his heat back by hitting the Flying Chuck Kick to Punk. Despite a slow finish and the Miz taking attention away from the match, I found myself really enjoying the match. Their current styles leads them to have better chemistry than they had together in 2007. The most disappointing thing was Grisham not even bringing up their past. There was so much history between the three. Hell, the Miz/Morrison feud began back in 2007 when both were chasing after Punk's ECW title. That's how their tag team was even started. Little snippets of trivia like that could make a match feel a bit more important. The one thing I really loved was the finish. Having either man go over cleanly would really hurt the other when they need to look good. So often, the man feuding with the face would attack the face drawing the DQ win for their enemy. That doesn't make a lot of sense. So whenever the rare occurrence happens when the heel will attack their rival's opponent solely to give them the win, the match gets bonus points from me. Due to the finish and my fondness of Punk, I probably liked the match more than most. 3 1/2 Stars.

Overall
Just a little preview to show Morrison as a face. The guy is so underrated by some people on this board. The whole claim that he's only about spots and not about psychology is a BS excuse. Morrison's character is that he loves to steal attention. It's pretty much the same reason why I never had an issue with Rob Van Dam being mostly about spots. It fit his character. Morrison's main problem is giving the fans a reason to cheer him on. The main difference between Morrison as a heel and a face is that he smiles a lot now. Seeing someone smile isn't enough to make me like them. He's been a face since about May of this year. It's about time they give us that reason. It doesn't need to be complicated, even something like taking one of Shawn Michaels' sources for being a face and say that Morrison wants to give the fans the most memorable match of the night every time he goes out there. His matches are good enough where the reason is the only thing he's truly missing before he can be pushed hard.

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King Steventon

RVD was all about cool looking spots and flashy moves but he had a lot more redeeming features than Morrison. No offence, but sometimes you come off as if you are just trying to buck a trend just for the sake of it. Not that I am trying to disregard your opinion or anything, but it can come across that way when yu suddenly switch your stance with not a lot of reasoning. The matches with Punk I saw were good TV matches (outside one which was pretty bad, can't remember which one) and the Jericho one felt like a straight carry. Recall Morrison looking lost a few points in the match after hitting a spot, but he does that a lot.

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horrorfan_1986

How am I just "Trying to buck a trend"?
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I've never said Morrison was great, but I've also never said he was horrible. One of the biggest things I've said to criticize him in the past was that he had problems getting himself over on his own. Yet, I still say it today by him not getting himself over with the fans. My opinion of his hasn't changed since he came onto the main roster in 2005. That's very different from the board changing their opinion about him every month.

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King Steventon

I dunno, maybe I read more into the "underated by some people" part than I should have.

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horrorfan_1986

Pretty much anyone who says he's horrible or was insanely better as a heel. He's not the best on SD, but he surely isn't the worst.

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horrorfan_1986

Christian vs William Regal - ECW Title - Breaking Point 2009
After being screwed out of a proper match at Summerslam, we finally get to see these two on PPV. There was a couple of sloppy moments in the early going, but it quickly got better. It was a slow burn match where everything was physical and had a purpose. At one point, Regal goes for the cover and holds his hand over Christian's mouth and nose. Regal is honestly one of the best at little things like that. I loved how Matt Striker refers to Regal as Master Regal. Near the end of the match, there's a small "Unbelievable" chant. Regal even busts out the Regal Plex that Striker puts over big time. Regal even does a rolling senton! Christian avoids the running knee and gets in the Killswitch for the win.

I knew these two were capable of putting on a good match, but this blew my expectations. Regal was incredible and gave one of his best performances in years. This match reminded a lot of Regal vs Benoit. However, instead of Christian returning the hard hits, he was just overcome by Regal's aggression. Hands down the best Regal performance since the death of Benoit. Perhaps I'm overrating this, but this is the exact style I love. This is easily one of my favorite matches of the year.
4 Stars.

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King Steventon

Glad you enjoyed it. I thought the Montral crowd were awful and only made noise when Christian got them into it, but otherwise it was a tremendous mid-card match. I loved all the chain wrestling at the start. Regal's strikes were ridiculously stiff, especially that one knee to the face and I dug him busting out all his suplexes. Christian is also really great now, I liked his signature huge bump to the outside and he's really good at getting the crowd into all of his comebacks.

You should check out Christian vs Swagger from Feb. if you havent already.

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horrorfan_1986

CM Punk vs The Undertaker - World Heavyweight Title - Breaking Point 2009
Despite winning the World Heavyweight title three times by now and headlining numerous PPV's, in the time span of just a month, Punk would have the two biggest "He's finally made it" moments. The second was having The Rock make fun of Punk on the 10th Anniversary of Smackdown, but the first was this match. Besides main eventing Wrestlemania, is there a more concrete way of "Making it" in the WWE than facing off with the Undertaker in the main event of a PPV for the title? Punk has come a long ways since I first saw him as the likable jobber on NWA-TNA.

The early going of the match reminded me of the Shawn Michaels/Undertaker matches of 1997. Mostly Taker being an unstoppable powerhouse while Punk is selling his ass off. Taker goes for Old School, but Punk knocks him down. God, I love how Punk refuses to take that move. In all of the years of watching Taker, I've always wondered why the opponent just lets Taker hit the move. All you have to do is pull at his arm or fall into the ropes. Yet, there's only been a few wrestlers who have done that. A little later, Punk seemingly crawls right into a Hell's Gate. Punk taps out quickly. Taker celebrates for a bit before Teddy Long comes out. Long informs us that the Hell's Gate submission was barred by Vickie Guerrero and it still is banned. So, the match will have to continue. Punk jumps Taker from behind to restart the match. He tries to lock in the Anaconda Vice, but Taker goes to counter it with a head scissors. The ref rings the bell before anything can happen. SCREW JOB~! Punk retains the title without Taker giving up.

I feel most fans went into this match with too high expectations. For the match quality, it was a good start to the feud. I don't have a problem with the screw job in theory. It was a way to get the feud going and giving the face even more reason to want to beat Punk. To be honest, Taker really didn't have a reason to fight Punk other than wanting the title. Now he does. The problem was the execution of the screw job. How many times is the WWE going to cheat the Montreal fans out of a proper finish? This is at least the third (Second work) time the WWE put on a PPV with a Montreal Screw Job. That's a GREAT way to kill a city. WCW killed Chicago for years after a Dusty finish with the Road Warriors. The WWE is doing the same thing, only doing it over and over. If I was from Montreal, I'd probably think twice before spending my money to go to a PPV where I know I will be cheated. What makes it worse is that this is what ended the show. If you're going to do such a fuck up finish, put it on in the middle of the card. End the show on a high note.

Is this match disappointing? Yes. However, it's the booking of the screw job that's the problem, not the actual action between Punk and Taker. It may not be on the level of Taker vs Michaels, but it's perfectly acceptable wrestling.
3 stars.

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horrorfan_1986

The Brain Busters (c) vs Demolition - World Tag Team Titles - Superstars - November 4, 1989
Since I reviewed their other two main matches in my SNME thread, I figured I'd hunt this one down. This is almost the definition of a lost match. It has yet to see the light of day on DVD, Coliseum Home Video or any WWE On-Demand service. So the only way you can see it is on copies recorded back when it originally aired. We're just weeks away from Survivor Series.

First thing that draws my attention is what a travesty Jesse Ventura is making it out to be that the Brain Busters have to defend the titles on free TV. How the times have changed. Demolition controls the match for the first couple of minutes making it out to be a possible squash. The champions take over when Arn gets a knee to Smash who was awaiting a back body drop. Smash plays the face-in-peril for a couple more minutes with Arn and Tully cheating. Arn Anderson holds his knee up for Tully to Irish Whip Smash into it, but Smash reverses it without Arn realizes. But the champions remain in control. Trademark Anderson Spinebuster. Smash counters a suplex with one of his own to Tully. Arn gets tagged in and the hot tag to Ax happens as well. All four men go at it until Anderson is taken out. Demolition Decapitator to Tully. Ax covers Blanchard for the three count and we have new tag team champions. The only catch is that Anderson was the legal man.

This is their shortest of their three matches which is a real shame since I've felt they deserved more time in their previous two encounters. This title switch only happened because Anderson and Blanchard asked for their release so they could head back to WCW. Tully would end up failing a drug test before leaving which would keep him from returning to WCW. It's my theory that the Brain Busters were supposed to hold on to the tag straps until Wrestlemania until they'd drop them to either the Hart Foundation or more likely, The Rockers. I've yet to hear any backing on this theory, but I'm fairly positive that Demolition vs The Collisional Connection wasn't supposed to be.

Overall, it's a good free TV match. With this airing on a syndication show, it was above average from the weekly squash matches. However, it's easily the weakest of their trilogy. 2 Stars.

Since I watched that match, I felt compelled to watch:

Demolition (c) vs The Colossal Connection - World Tag Team Titles - Superstars - December 30, 1989
From the final episode of Superstars of Wrestling in 1989. Like the previous match, this has never been released in full before. It was, however; shown in edited form for the Coliseum Home Video release of the Hottest Matches. The build-up is extremely simple. Since the WWE didn't have Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard anymore, they found a new tandem in the Heenan Family to take the titles.

Haku jumps Smash before the bell, so Ax goes to attack Andre. I think that pretty much makes Ax one of the least intelligent wrestlers of all time. Ax gets "Rewarded" by starting for his team and spending most of the match being choked. At one point, Haku kept getting the referee to turn his attention to Smash while Andre choked out Ax. This went on for a long time. Ax gets in a few moments where it looks like he might have room to make a tag, but it never happens. Andre is in his glory just headbutting and choking Ax with his ring gear. Andre holds Ax while Haku delivers a thrust kick to Ax's throat. To beat a dead horse even more, Andre nails an elbow drop to score the victory and to win the tag team titles.

A fairly shocking match. Since debuting in the WWE in early 1987, Demolition had been destroying every team. They may have been out wrestled by the Brain Busters, but they were always the power houses in their matches. However, for the first time, they were out powered. This was basically a squash match with Smash not even being in the match legally. I'm sure when most people will watch this match, they will think it's horrible. However, maybe it's because I was such a big Demolition fan or because I know of the limitations, but I enjoyed this. We saw something almost never seen with Demolition treated a rag dolls and Andre was used to his best. While he was barely able to walk at the time, the Colossal Connection was perfect for Andre. He was still very over and due to his size, could still realistically beat people up. Adding in Haku meant Andre could rest some and we could get in some quality wrestling as Haku was fairly talented. It's still pretty horrible for 1989 WWE tag team wrestling goes though. But I'll watch this any day over a Bolsheviks' match.
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1 1/2 Stars.

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