That Clown from Outta Town - PWG One Hundred

I've wanted to see this PPV since I saw this promo. Finally, it's time...

This event took place in December 2009, but since hardly anyone watches PWG I'll try and keep this as spoiler free as possible.

LET'S DO THIS!

00:03- Wow, no fucking about - straight into the match. I'm impressed.
00:57 - It's Gen Me...with different names.
2:26 - Gen Me (aka Young Bucks) vs Cutler Brothers - I've heard of the Cutlers but not seen them in action, Young Bucks are awesome though
05:55 - I don't know what that was...kind of a suicide headscissors to the outside, I guess...but it was awesome
09:50 - This match is awesome
11:32 - Fucking hell, the youngest Buck just did an insane corkscrew dive from the top rope to the floor...he must be dead
13:54 - Great match, great finish - it sucks that so few people were there, it's even worse that so few people will ever see it.
14:06 - Next match, Scott Lost v Roderick Strong...I know nothing about either of these guys, names sound familiar though. Hopefully it'll be a decent match.
15:20 - Very fast paced match so far, and the moves seem pretty impactful...I like :)
19:56 - The match seems pretty one sided so far in Lost's favour...nice mix of high impact moves and extremely uncomfortable looking submission attempts
22:21 - Strong has momentum now...very violent style also...these guys look like they're actually beating the crap out of each other
27:36 - Another great match
27:55 - Next match, Bryan Danielson v Kenny Omega...should be good.
28:02 - I like how they go from one match straight to the next...no entrances, no promos, no fucking about - just wall-to-wall wrestling.
32:58 - Great start to the match, both guys are great wrestlers, and Omega's funny as hell too
36:40 - I love this crowd - Omega puts his hands up for a test of strength, and one guy yells "Don't trust him, his arm is sometimes a chainsaw"
42:25 - Holy shit, both guys were standing on their heads, hitting each other in the face - how is that even possible??
43:22 - Omega grabbed the mic...this match is pure comedy
46:23 - Now they're dancing around the ring together...this is awesome
47:46 - Moonsault from the second rope to the floor...
51:50 - What an awesome match...both guys are super talented, and the comedy aspects made it a joy to watch. Best match I've seen all year that didn't include Kurt Angle.
53:33 - Paul London v Joey Ryan...I like London, Ryan rings a bell...I seem to remember seeing him on RoH but I might be wrong...
1:12:05 - Pretty decent match. London was good, I didn't see anything particularly special from Ryan. He executed everything perfectly, but his moveset seems a little generic from that showing...
1:12:30 - 6 man tag, B-Boy, Candice LeRay & Scorpio Sky vs Austin Ares, Chuck Taylor & Human Tornado...the only one I've seen wrestle before is Ares, but I'm looking forward to seeing Human Tornado in action - his highlight reel is awesome so I'm interested to see how good he is in an actual match. Weird that one side has a woman and the other doesn't, usually in mixed tag matches both sides are mixed.
1:24:50 - LeRay is really good...she's getting her arse handed to her though
1:25:53 - Ares taking the piss out of Cena :)
1:27:29 - LeRay just did a belly to back suplex on Ares...except instead of grabbing him round the waist, she grabbed his nuts. Ouch.
1:28:18 - Taylor went for a baseball slide under the bottom rope, Sky trod on the rope and crotched him...I've never seen that before, inventive and funny.
1:29:35 - Pretty cool match, 6-man tags are hard to get right imo. Tornado was great, Sky was really good too, as was LeRay...but it felt like I didn't see much of anyone, they were tagging in an out so quickly that nobody got a good head of steam going.
1:29:57 - Tyler Black v Davey Richards...Black's name sounds familiar but no idea who he is, Richards is a complete unknown to me.
1:30:26 - Actually, I recognise Richards' face but I can't remember where from...I seem to remember him being a hard hitter.
1:33:20 - The crowd is still awesome. Kid: "You suck!" Adult: "No he doesn't!"
1:34:51 - I like Richards, he'll just do a totally normal move but it looks about five times as violent...even his punches look nasty
1:43:43 - Really cool match, Richards just looks violent as hell
1:44:07 - Sonjay Dutt v El Generico...Sonjay is fucking awesome, Generico has an awesome highlight reel - I'm expecting good things from this one
1:53:27 - Running backflip over the top rope to the floor from Generico...insane
1:58:36 - Brainbuster from the top turnbuckle, and he rammed his head into the turnbuckle itself...nasty
1:59:11 - Colt Cabana v Chris Hero for the title...
2:04:35 - Awesome exchange between Cabana and the kid in the audience...ended up with the audience chanting "This is awkward" after the kid made a comment about the size of Cabana's package...even the ref had to cover his laughter
2:06:29 - Awesome technical wrestling from both guys
2:18:37 - Really good match, it looked like he actually knocked him out cold with that finishing move

Decent PPV overall, the standout match was the Danielson Omega match but overall everything was pretty damn good.

The promo I linked to at the start is actually part of this show, not promoting this show...I really want to see the event they're talking about.

Survivor Series Predictions

As Survivor Series is almost upon us, I figured I’d do some predictions. This is probably most rushed PPV card ever, so it is obvious the WWE haven’t done a great job at building it up. Let’s do this...

- WWE Championship - Orton (c) vs. Barrett w/Cena as ref.
I’m hoping for a Cena heel turn and Barrett to take home the strap. I can’t stand Orton, the guy is as wooden as, erm, some wood and looks like one of the muppets (Beaker?). I can see a lot of bullshit going down in this match, maybe even a good few swerves, but I hope not.
Barrett to win.
(then Miz will cash in his Money in the Bank case)

- World Heavyweight Championship Match - Kane (w/Paul Bearer) vs. Edge
Who cares, will probably be less painful to watch the Kane/Taker... hope Edge wins.
Edge to win.

- Team Del Rio vs. Team Mysterio - Rey Mysterio, The Big Show, Kofi Kingston, M.V.P & Chris Masters vs. Alberto Del Rio, Jack Swagger, Drew McIntyre, "Dashing" Cody Rhodes & Tyler Reks.
Don’t watch Smackdown, so don’t care... flip a coin...
Del rio to win.

- John Morrison vs. Sheamus
This match is stupid. Sheamus has been going after Santino for weeks, so he’s having a match with Morrison... who gives a fuck. Potential to be a half-decent match though.
Morrison to win.


- 2 on 1 Handicap Match for WWE Unified Diva's Championship
Team Laycool (Michelle McCool & Layla) vs. Beth Phoenix
Don’t care about Divas...
The first one to win.

- WWE United States Championship Match
Daniel Bryan vs. Ted DiBiase (w/Maryse)
This could be pretty good, but can see bullshit with Maryse. I’d like to see Danielson keep the strap.
Danielson to win.

- WWE Intercontinental Championship Match
Dolph Ziggler vs. Kaval
This could be the best match of the night, Kaval (Low-ki/Senshi) has been floundering a bit of late, so would like to see him win and have some matches with Danielson.
Low-ki to win

- WWE Tag Team Championship Match
Nexus (Justin Gabriel & Heath Slater) vs. Santino Marella & Vladimir Kozlov

Really? Is this the best they could come up with? TNA gives you Guns/Beer Money/Gen Me... WWE charges you to see Santino and the generic Russian guy versus the ones without personality who stand in a line with Wade Barrett wearing the same T-shirts. WWE tag team division is a complete joke, it really is.

I suppose half of the matches I want to see, which will give me time to go the bar while some of the Socko writers go to watch the event at a bar...


I want to see these in a ladder match at TLC:

Greatest Promos Ever!: "the man of 1004 holds..."

This might actually be one of my favourite promos in wrestling ever. It was from when Chris Jericho was feuding with Dean "the man of 1000 holds" Malenko on WCW.

I miss Jericho when he was like this...





















...arm bar

Worst Characters Ever!: Glacier

When it comes to wrestling gimmicks, none leave me colder (geddit?) than Glacier. Glacier’s gimmick was that he was a martial arts guy, not in an MMA shoot style, but it in that really cheese-tastic exhibition style whereby a guy would stand there and do a series of moves for no other reason than to show that he can do a series of moves (I think it might be called Kata, but I might wrong).
From April 1996, promos for Glacier started appearing on Nitro, they were very cryptic at first, but then he was finally revealed after about 4-5 months to be... Glacier – the Sub Zero of WCW.
Glacier’s entrance involved the house lights dimming and blue laser beams being shot across the crowd, the awful, awful music played and it would, erm, start to snow. I’m not kidding, fake snow would fall from the ceiling. At this point Glacier enters looking exactly like Sub-Zero did in Mortal Kombat 2 (when he was given a waistcoat and funny face-paint to differentiate him from the array of generic ninjas of varying colours). According to the ring announcer, his outfit has an evil face on his back because he knows that evil is always behind him, and he wore a helmet which was over 400 years old! No really, even though it looked new, it was actually handed down from his sensei.
After Glacier’s long-drawn-out entrance (it usually took about two or three minutes after he did all his fannying about in the ring, he would bow to his opponent and then bow to the referee. With the house lights still an eerie shade of blue and the snow still falling, the match would begin.
Glacier sucked in the ring. There’s no better way of putting it, the guy sucked. In his matches he utilised his martial arts to do some pretty looking roundhouse kicks and some stupid take-downs.
I can’t emphasise enough just how shit this gimmick was; with all its build-up, high production values (over half a million dollars were pumped into the production of his entrance), and hype, you’d think that he’d at least be half decent... you are wrong, you are so wrong.

Best of Youtube - Mexican Wrestling Tribute

Since it's been so quiet around here lately, I've decided to go through my favourite Youtube videos and post all the ones related to wrestling here. Hopefully the other contributors to this blog will join in too, and we'll all get a fuckton of awesome wrestling clips.

Today's video is a tribute to Mexican wrestling. Sorry the video quality is so low, this would be awesome in HD but this is about as good as it got in 2007 when it was first uploaded. While the video quality is bad, the quality of the wrestling is...well, judge for yourself.

Ultimate Warrior's Confession

I stumbled across this gem on Youtube...where else?

Socko's week in wrestling

As the blog seems to have gone a bit by the wayside recently, I’ve decided to summarise the weeks highlights in my own wrestling experience.

TNA Turning Point.

I thought that this was a very strong PPV which seemed to dip in quality near the end. I really enjoyed the Guns/Dudleys match. The Lethal Robbie match was pretty dull, there was some good spots, but Robbie E’s style is very WWE. Tara versus Mickie James was pretty decent for a Knockouts match, and really showed how much better the style of women’s wrestling is in TNA compared to WWE. The RVD/Dreamer match was an absolute car-wreck and should have been stopped after Dreamer’s wrist was clearly dislocated. Dreamer has this old-school mentality that the show must go on, and ended up doing some crazy shit (like a jumping piledriver and getting crotched with a ladder) with his hand half hanging off. It was nasty to watch. The Fourtune/EV2 had some pretty good moments, but wasn’t a great match, Raven looked an absolute mess and did nothing for the whole match. Sabu ended up getting pinned and then fired as a result. Flair gave a classic Flair promo to Sabu about him hating the Sheik, really funny. The Abyss/Pope match was pointless and dull. The Hardy/Morgan match showed that Morgan is mid-card at best and really can’t perform at the top level. That should have been Joe or Angle in the ring, not Morgan.
As expected the Immortals swept the board at this one, and I’m pretty sure that all of their matches had at least some NWO-style shenanigans.

The Shore.

Though I’m still not convinced by Robbie E’s in-ring ability, The Shore’s gimmick is pretty strong. In a week when TNA had a guest appearance from someone from one of the hottest (albeit shittest) shows in America, WWE had Peewee Herman (wonder if he had a wank in the audience of this one?). As a gimmick, the casting is great, both Becky Bayliss and Robbie E are convincing as annoying Jersey Shore types, and the mini-feud between Cookie and J-Wow from the Jersey Shore show only served to cement that. Though they are annoying, at least TNA are trying to be relevant to a modern audience.

Impact

If you can get past the first half hour of Bischoff et al talking themselves up, this wasn’t a bad Impact. A lot of the matches were screw-job matches or handicap matches which favoured Fourtune (Joe versus Gunner and Murphy had a run-in by Jeff Jarrett.) Stevie Richard versus AJ was surprisingly good, the others matches weren’t bad, they just stunk of NWO.
Putting Jeff Hardy over as a heel is clearly not working, but at least he came out wearing a suit this week (that’s how you know he’s a bad guy).

WWE Raw

I only watch Raw now, I can’t be bothered with Smackdown, and I certainly can’t be bothered with NXT or Superstars. I was in the audience for the last Raw (filmed in Manchester) and my experience of it is a little mixed. It was fun to be there, bu when there were commercials breaks, the matches would literally stop as the wrestlers stood and waited for the programme to air again.
WWE aren’t making anywhere near as much money as they used to and Linda McMahon didn’t win her election, so shouldn’t WWE take stock and sort their shit out? The PG thing clearly isn’t meeting the financial projections and come next Wrestlemania, what is going to be WWE’s draw for the event? Taker is hurting and is in and out of surgery every few months, Shaun Michaels has retired... what are we going to have? Wade Barrett versus Cena?

UFC 121 – Lesnar versus Velasques

I’ve never been arsed about MMA, but I ended up watching the last UFC this week with a mate. One the whole, the fights were pretty dull, but the main event with Lesnar was stunning. Both the fighters were relentless and Lesnar got beat by TKO. I’m still not convinced by UFC, but I really did enjoy that last match.

WCW Nitro – October/November 1996

It’s amazing how quick I can get through an episode of Nitro when I fast forward past the crap. I only watch the Cruiserweight matches and have been intrigued by the NWO stuff. I’ve read all about the NWO stuff before, but thought I needed to watch it for myself, and I have to say that the way it has built up was very well-executed, and I’m sure that, for a while at least, the angle was believable. I’m at the point now where Bischoff has just joined the NWO, and a main event has been signed for Hogan versus Piper. WCW’s main events were shit. Hogan/Macho Man/Lex Luger/The Giant... but the undercard was excellent and I don’t think it has been equalled. The Cruiserweight division had a real international feel to it, and some of the matches were fantastic. Dean Malenko/Ultimo Dragon/Psychosis/Rey Mysterio/Jushin Liger/Chris Jericho/Juventud Guerrera/Eddie Guerrero are just some of the regulars and there is nothing like it today.