News/Columns
Information
Interactive
Services/Misc.
Rantbag for 03/20/02
Remember, if you have any rants, send them out to rantbag@TWNPNews.com. Your
emails will be posted here within 1-5 days usually, depending on when enough rants are sent.
Also remember, you will not get any responses from these, if you want to ask a wrestling related
question, please use our Mailbag/Q & A where your question
will be answered, but within 1-2 weeks.
Here is the latest rantbag, this week TWNP asked its visitors "What did you think of WrestleMania X8?"
On with the rants
Nick
Wow, did the WWF fail this wrestlemania, eh? I'm a native of Toronto, well
the GTA actually, and i watched i ordered this PPV expecting sum huge
events to take place. But like everyone, i was let down, shame Vince.
RVD vs. Regal - I actually really liked this match, RVD busted regals
teeth and Regal nailed a sick suplex. More PPV matches need moves you dont
see regularly. I would have liked someone to interfer in the match, like
Lance Storm, and set up a real feud for RVD. But whatever, new champ.
DDP vs. Christian - Good match. It's nice to see these two in a real match
for once. Great stuff.
Goldust vs. Maven - I dont know why Maven didnt fight Al Snow, that would >have given this match more passion. But it was good how they incorporated
sum of the under used wrestlers. Personally i would have liked to see
actual HARDCORE men jump in such as Tazz, Al Snow, Saturn...
Think how cool it would have been to see Raven come back and pick up his
first PPV win and start another reign as the King Of Hardcore
Kurt Angle vs. Kane - What The F***!!!!!! I really dont like Kane. Wicked
gimmick, terrible wrestler. Kurt Angle won, who cares, personally i would
have liked Edge vs. Kurt Angle and Kane vs. Booker T.
Undertaker vs. Ric Flair - 10-0 baby. The win would have been much more
dramatic if Flair put up more of a fight. He's the dirtiest legend around,
why didnt he get to use more of his tricks???
Edge vs. Booker T. - They put on a better match then i had anticipated.
Edge, work on the spinarooni.
Steve Austin vs. Scott Hall - Hall actually pulled out a clean job. I was
expecting this whole controversial segment to go down, something,
anything. But not a goddamn thing. AHHHH, didnt like this match.
4 Corner Tag Match - Why were the APA eliminated so early? True badasses,
i wanted to see them and the Dudleys really go at it. I never noticed how
much the Hardys suck. They only have 2 spots. And they used them both like
3 times each. D'Von took a nice bump through the table. Probably the
biggest bump of the night. n' Chuck won, yeah. (Note Sarcasm) Chuck
needs a real finisher.
Rock vs. Hogan - The one match everyone was looking forward to. Beats the
hell out of everyone as to why it wasnt the main event. But holy shit
Hogan still has the moves. It was so amazing to watch him throw Rocky
around. I was so amazed with the crowd throughout this match. This is
deffinatly going down in history as the biggest match EVER! Nash/Hall
beating on Hogan after was too premature. Hogan was getting over huge as a
face, which was good for the respect stuff at the end. To bad on RAW they
made Hogan a full face, boo.
Triple Threat - To high on the card, but has to be one of the best womens
matches of all time. I'm really impressed on how Trish learned how to wrestle.
Triple H vs. Jericho - Everybody had sumthing bad to say about this match
and I agree with you all. After the feud these two had a few years back i
was surprised by how shitty this match turned out to be. Match could have
easily gone another 20-30 minutes. Steph took a solid pedigree, nice. The
match needed alot more drama in it ala Savage/Steamboat. I kept waiting
for someone to run down and interfere. Picture Shawn Micheals running down
and giving the Sweet Chin Music to Triple H, damn.
This Wresltemania needed so much more drama and suprises. The card was so
stacked and the opening for many major events to take place was there but
Vince failed to deliver anything special.
JP - Hogan and Rock, Hogan and Rock. Am I the only one who wasn't hyped about this match? Not only wasn't I hyped about it but I give HHH vs Jericho the top match of the show and that's exactly why it was the Main Event.
Phil
My thoughts about the rantbag are that J.P. is a ing idiot. I know you have grade 3 education so keep your meaningless, pathetic comments to yourself. I attended WM18 and it was a well performed event and very entertaining. Furthermore, Bret Hart was an excellent wrestler and anyone who differs must be about 10 years old or have a negative ing I.Q. Hey J.P., I think your mommy's calling, it's 9 pm and past your bed time.
JP - It's actually 9:13pm Phillie, Phil, whatever your backpackin homosexual name is. Anyways Phillip, I can call you that right? Sure I can. I'm guessing your more upset about my comments on Bret Hart and not what I thought of the show itself. What I say at the bottom of each rant isn't the main point. What you readers comment about are, so everyone can see what other people are thinking. Accept for you god damn Bret Hart marks. You all get so defensive over the guy. If I commented bad on any other wrestler nobody would care. It's just a opinion. But NOOO!! If anyone mentions Bret Hart ya hitman marks have a sissy fit, yes you heard right you marks have sissy fits. You tottaly spaz out and ejaculate all over your Hitman posters....jackass
Dr. Swank
I thought Wrestlemania was a pretty decent show. Everyone was obviously
giving 110% and really trying to be entertaining. I m in the majority that
think that Hogan vs. Rock was excellent. Americans have to realize that
everything is backwards in Canada, that s why the Rock got booed. Did
anyone else notice the Rock up on the stage staring back at the ring
looking like he was going to cry or something? Was it the emotion or the boos?
HHH and Jericho are two of my favorite wrestlers, and I wish they would ve
been able to top the drama of Hogan / Rock. Their match didn t have a lot
of heart. You know why? They had Steph and HHH arguing over garbage for
the past two weeks while Jericho was playing errand boy. Only this week
did Jericho and HHH interact and try to hype the PPV. Personally, I would
ve taken Angle vs Jericho and had Steph vs. HHH as the shows opener. It
would ve made a lot more sense that way.
JP - Yeah, your actually right. HHH/Jericho would have been a way better bout if they hyped HHH/Jericho and not HHH/Steph. It, In my opinion, (phil might be reading this and get all sensitive again) was the best match of the night. I don't know, I guess I just didn't feel Hogan/Rock like everybody else did.
Kage
God were do i start?
Jeez,.. 2 words to describe it.... Wrestelmania SUCKED...
I mean seriousley people. First thing. WHAT happened to the Triple H that we all knew? He damn sure isnt an "Assasin" anymore. Hes nothing but a poster boy. HHH needs to either. 1. Join the NWO.. or 2. Atleast Go HEEL.Of course by doing the first one, he would be a Heel.... Next we have Rock VS Hogan.... I loved the fact that everyone hated the rock. Cause im not a big fan of him either. But WHY IN THE HELL Did hogan turn into a damn FACE Already? That is the most pointless damn thing i have ever seen in the WWF. They hype the NWO as being this massive force and there not there for what? 2 months? And there already splitting up. Granted, Nash and Hall are awesome, but when they take Hogan from the NWO, its gonna make NWO weak to the peoples Eye. Just because of the name HOGAN. I remember when he first joined the NWO, everyone almost pissed there pants because the Imfamous Hulk Hogan, was Against the "Faces". Now that they have removed that "Feeling" from the NWO, they might as well get rid of the NWO name all together, and make Nash back into Diesel and Hall back into Razor Ramon cause if they keep running the NWO angle, there not going to have a "Driver" if you know what i mean....
HHH VS Jericho.... Personally, I think it was a Letdown. They tried, lol i will give them that. but HHH is NOT A VERY GOOD FACE.. They should hire a bunch of Hardcore FANS to write the scripts for the WWF cause we Know what people DONT EXPECT and what people WANT. HHH needs to go HEEL in order for his character to Progress... simple as that.. if HHH is a face then hes not any good. I dont think.. because he needs his sledgehammer and he needs to be ruthless like he was with Stone Cold as "The power trip"... No offense to any Jericho fans, But Im sorry, Chris Jericho should have never been the world champion to begin with, hes not really that calibur.. im not saying he sucks, im just saying his name isnt as big.. Personally i woulda liked to see.. a FACE Stone Cold VS a HEEL HHH... in the main event.. it seems like Stone cold is getting shafted because hes been knocked down to midcarder. Atleasr for wrestlemania he was....
one more thing before i go... Who the hell does the match order? lol.. that was STUPID.... hogan/rock followed buy the womens title? what the hell??? Enuff said.....
Love the site, been coming here for over a year.... take it EZ........
JP - What should have happend was HHH turn heel NOT Hogan. Making Hogan a face was the biggest mistake they could have made in a long time. As far as the orders of the matches your guess is as good as mine. Maybe they thought the fans would be worn out if Hogan/Rock was last, or if they had all 3 of the Main Events in a row.
Rob
Here's my Wrestlemania review for your "rantbag" thingy, hope you enjoy...
Hope I don't sound too much like a bitter WCW fan... but I guess I am :)
The moment Hogan hulked up and pointed at the Rock, the look of fear in
the Rock's face... what a moment, it reminded me of why I like wrestling.
I knew the crowd would be split, but even I was surprised at how the crowd
was behind Hollywood. To hear the crowd boo the Rock was music to my
ears!! I half expected Rock to attack Hogan when he asked for a hand
shake... that would have been the ultimate Heel/Face - Face/Heel turn.
However, as a long time WCW and nWo fan, I feel Wrestlemania was a big
cruel joke Vince McMahon was playing on us WCW fans. All my nWo and ex-WCW
guys lost (except DDP) Jericho, Flair, Hall, Hogan, Booker T...even Lord
Steven Regal, all losers! LOL! the Undertaker win really surpirsed me...
the mighty Four Horsemen getting their butts kicked by "Mean" Mark?? I
don't think so!! and Booker T (the 5...5...5...5...5... time WCW
champion!!) losing to.... Edge!?!? booo hissss!!
I think it was a bad mistake not to have the Hogan/Rock match last! I saw
it in a small sports club with about 200 people and everyone was so
emotionaly burnt out after the Hogan match, nobody was really into the
Jericho/HHH match at all.
I was surprised Hogan turned good.. I knew it would happen, but I didn't
except it this soon, there are still some great Hollywood Hogan matches
they could have had against Austin and HHH in upcoming PPV's. the nWo has
only been here for a little over a month and they are already breaking
up?? If this was still WCW I would expect a classic nWo screwjob on Monday
Nitro, where they set up a Hall/Nash vs Hogan/Rock match and Hogan turns
on Rock and spray paints nWo on his back. but this is the predictable WWF,
so I expect it to be real... If he is a face now, I hope they keep him as
a good guy Hollywood Hogan, and not have him wear Red and Yellow, they
tried to bring back the Red and Yellow Hogan in WCW a couple years ago,
but it didn't really work. Maybe Scott Steiner will come in and take
Hogans place in the nWo? or is the nWo over already?
and to respond to a couple comments from your WM Rantbag Part 1...
someguy said...
"but come on slowly but surely the WWF keeps looking more and more like
WCW. "
I say... Thats not a bad thing, thats a good thing.
someone else said...
"Booker T just hasn't moved up or down since his debut in the WWF. He's
not main event material, and never was."
I say... Booker T is a main event talent, he ruled the WCW for almost a
year. like most wrestlers, WWF has no clue what to do with them. They
turned Booker T into a silly fool of a heel. as a WCW fan I was sick to
death about hearing from WWF fans about how WWF was supposed to be so much
better at "pushing talent" than WCW was while WWF had Austin vs Undertaker
in nearly every main event for 12 months. Looking back nothing could be
farther from the truth. ask Saturn, Meng, Raven, Lance Storm, Hugh Morris
and countless others how great the WWF is at pushing and using their talent.
Best sign of the night was "They are wrestling over Shampoo!"
JP - They should get Booker T to do a Herbal Essence commercial.
Anonymous
Rock vs Hogan was a tearjerker for me. i seen the a match that ive dreamed
about since hogan(hulkamania) left. My eyes had actually been filled with
tears by the end with hogam and rock doing fan props together. rock was
right that we fans did respect him and he respected him as the old hulk
and he was my role model as a young (teen) man. take you vitamins and say
your prayers
JP - *sniff* *sniff* Beautiful...
Anonymous
Your response to my rant was brainless. How can you call that a good pay
per view? The bands do not fit. I did not pay 10 extra dollars to see
two shitty bands perform. This was a very sub-par Wrestlemania. No real
big spots that I will remember in 2 weeks, except for the super-plex in
the Flair - Taker match.ANd no, don't extend the length of the only
matches people care about.... ever think about adding matches people
actually care about? I dont want to see Booker fight Edge over a shampoo
commercial. Thats rediculous man. You know Vince could've done 100%
better on this show. Don't be such a wise ass next time you answer a
rant, look at it from the other perspective, the ''non-mark''
persepective... will you?
JP - Okay, first. Since you don't leave a name I have no clue what I said to your response. Second, I am a "none-mark" Third, I have no clue what in the hell your talking about. I didn't call that a good pay-per-view. I commented many times on how dissapointed I was on it. Where are some of your peoples humor at!? The rants are for you to read what you visitors think, if you can't handle what silly (some serious) comments I say at the bottom don't read it.
Jim
ONE great match with Hogan and the Rock, one pretty good match with HHH
and Jericho, and the rest... excellent RAW caliber matches. Where was
Vince? Where was the famous tradmark screw job? I think if Vince is
taking the over storylines and direction, this will KILL the WWF. I
seems to me that other than the Hogan/Rock and HHH/ Jericho the rest5 of
the show looked like it was slapped together. Poison by the NWO? Not
likely, more like bad food...hard to swallow! I miss HBK, Foley and the
Pomp and Circumstance (special guests and I don't mean band plugging
there songs for thenext WWF CD. One more thing, KILL BILLY AND CHUCKY"S
gimmick. IT sucks!
JP -Anyone else now realize why Austin is so pissed off on the direction of these storylines?
PJ
OK , as PPV's go , Wrestlemania is supposed to be the Playplace of the
Immortals.
Instead it became the Showcase of the Sideshows. Maven/Golddust , now there
were two individuals who didn't belong on the "grandest stage of them all".
And how do you put a Women's Title Match as the second highest match over the
most hyped match of the event? I would have expected Hall/Austin to be in the
Hogan/Rock place of the event even without a title. And Jericho/HHH wasn't
the finishing match the PPV needed , although seeing Stephanie get the
Pedigree was something I've been waiting to see since they got married!!!
And why have the "poison" of the nWo sucked out so early with a Hogan beating
at the hands of the Outsiders for his actions with The Rock. This was the
nWo's debut at Wrestlemania , why squash them now?
Furthermore , I could have put together a slightly better card sequence for
the event. Drowning Pool wouldn't have been invited in the first place.
Saliva on their own was enough for me. The match lineup would have been as
follows.....
*DDP/Christian , to start off the night with a little heel action from
Christian with the Canadian fans. A little more energy from crowd after the
rants he pulled also.
*Hardcore Championship , would have had two of 4 Title changes happen in the
ring itself and Big Show would have been involved instead of Golddust. (I
thought Golddust problems were with RVD , not Maven?) Also , the cutaways to
the backstage fights for the HC Title were amusing at best. Give it back to
Crash I miss the weight scale.
*Regal/RVD , RVD would still have won , but with knuckle shot of his own
capped by getting pummelled by Rhyno who makes his WWF return against a
former foe from ECW.
*Tag Titles Match , would have seen better performance from APA and Hardyz
along with a little more TLC flavor. Seeing Jeff Hardy flying into a few
tables at once would have brought more crowd energy. Stacy being at ringside
and getting her ass smacked helped a little visually. (And yes , like Coach ,
I am a sick f-f-f-f-f-freak!)
*Women's Title Match , get your popcorn , cottoncandy , beer and pretzels
during these two matches. Bathrooms to the right and up the stairs. (Where
was Harvina?)
*Edge/Booker T , premise of match was pointless , but how else do you get the
hometown boy involved? I think Booker should start checking on taking John
Ritter's place on the Huked On Fonix ads? Now can you dig that , Sucka?
*Kane/Angle , another match which I don't understand the premise for. Angle
pulling punches at Canadian Figure Skating was priceless , but beating Kane
afterwards was boring. Only move I really thought made the match worthwhile
was the toprope throw. Kane needs to use chokeslam more outside of ring on
tables. Hey Kane , got pasta , table for one?
*Austin/Hall , again , non-title , but still worth a top 4 spot on card. Nash
should have been a run-in instead of accompanying Hall to ringside. Hall's
double stun performance at the close of the match was best I've seen given on
account of Austin since McMahon/Austin fued.
*Flair/UT , 10 time , 10 time , count'em 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 times , winner
at WM PPVs. Flairs blood red hair and Arn Anderson's Spinebuster made the
match along with the use of the once powerful Tombstone. Congrats to UT for
his 10th win at WM. Thanks for everything you give to wrestling fans
everywhere Ric and Arn. Undertaker being longest running persona in WWF
deserves to be nearer the top of the card.
*Hogan/Rock , much hyped , but ending must have been quickly put together
because even Hogan looked shocked himself. Rock's expressions during match
toward heel heat and Hogan's "Hulking Up" were awesome as was seeing him
smile at Hogan's apparent last hurrah at WM events. Pulling Hogan out of nWo
so early in angle only brings more speculation as to reunion of Cliq soon. Is
this opening the door for HBK and HHH to rejoin their former running mates?
Only time will tell. I see Hogan's retirement soon after rebuffing old Yellow
and Red "Hulkster". Start saying your prayers now. Multivitamins aren't that
expensive are they?
*Undisputed Championship , its not Wrestlemania without the World Title being
decided at the end is it? Well , this particular one should have had the
Hogan/Rock ending which generated alot of fan involvement , more so than
HHH/Jericho did. Yes HHH won the title , but people expected that over a
month ago anyway.
Overall rating in my view of WM 18 - Solid C+ / B- performance. Slight shift
in matches , better outcomes for a few generate more intrest in tonight's RAW
though.
Thanks for the opportunity to voice an opinion.
JP - Opinion well spoken PJ.
Anonymous
I for one, thought Wrestlemania 18, was the best in the past 5
years. Say what you want about Hogan turning face, it doesn't matter. He
passed the torch to The Rock. It was finally nice to see clean finishes,
no interference or screw-jobs. I was a little upset that RVD was the
curtain-jerker, instead of like Booker T/Edge. All around a great PPV!!!
I've finally gained a little respect for some of these guys again after
last night.
JP - *grabs megaphone* WHAT PART OF SUPER SONIC SPEED DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND!!?
Anonymous
believe me u weren't the only one to cheer 4 the rock when everyone else
was booing him. rocky as a heel is the greatest!!!!!!
JP - Wasn't he though? I mean come on! That attitude, the side burns, it was great. Now Rock has gone Hollywood and makes me want to kill him, his family, and his dog with a wooden spoon
Anonymous
Okay, last night WCW Thursday Night Wrestlemania Nitro Havoc XYZ5165.5 was
the biggest PPV dissapointment since that God awful Starrcade where Nash
beat Goldberg with the help of Scott Hall's PVC pipe of Doom.
The whole thing seemed to me to have been thrown together by Vince on the
limo ride to the arena. I've seen better matches on Metal. Those Tough
Enough x2 kids put on better in ring preformances than the entire Booker
T/Edge match.
What was Booker, Edge, Christian, Regal, Kane, Austin, Hall, Billy & Chuck,
the APA, and mostly Vince thinking? This is the biggest PPV of all time and
you guys are out there sleepwalking through the matches? You don't need
TLC's, Hell in the Cells, and Streetfights to make a PPV interesting and fun
to watch but its sad when your superstars can't entertain you without them.
WrestleCade was a substandard episode of RAW with 2 crappy bands and a huge
stage and that's all.
Now I will give some props. The Underseller and The Natch put on a good
match. God you have to love Little Flabby Flair, bleeding like a stuck pig
on command and doing all his signature spots..except for the good old
climbing to the top and getting slammed by his opponent one. And even Mean
Mark Callus showed us that thos knife edge chops really smart. It was kind
of sad to see this guy (Flair) I grew up watching do things like rip Ricky
Morton's face off and tie Dusty Rhodes to the bumper of a car and beat like
an animal with a tire iron get obliderated but that's just the was the buz
bounces. I just wish Flair could have gone out on top after beating Vince at
the rumble.
The Hogan/Rock match was good but I think it was better because of the
intense crowd reaction as opposed to the guys working in the ring. Don't get
me wrong in a match where logic would say 5 moves tops would be executed in
the whole thing, Rocky and Thunder Lips pulled out 7. Hulk was really trying
to look good in his Wrestlemania return. The Rock also understood the
gravity of the event and they played it to the hilt. The crowd was amazing
and Rocky getting booed made me think he was going to flip out and kill
Hogan thereby turning total heel. That didn't happen. I guess the whole
"passing of the torch" thing had to take place. I wouldn't have anything bad
to say except for the fact that the People's Elbow MISSED Hogan by like a
foot. It didn't even come close. Geeze.
Good people in bad matches needd to be recognized. The Hardys and...ooooo
those damn Dudleys...were the ONLY good things in that 4 way dance. I really
respect Trish as a wrestler now. She is trying hard and has a lot of sprit
and my GOD she can take a hit! RVD did his best to ressurect the IC title
match eventhough his moves weren't a smooth and fluid as they usually are.
On a scale of 1 - 10 I'd give the show a 5. Rumble and No Way Out were WAY
better but it was still better the Vengeance and Invasion.
PLEASE GOD give Vince some real compitition before he brings Doink back.
Save Wrestling!
JP - Thunder Lips...hahaha...haha...and WCW Thursday Night Wrestlemania Nitro Havoc XYZ5165.5 ...haha..that's good stuff. You crack me up. (Waits for WCW marks to send hate mail)
Jim
Well first let me say a few things personally I think this was one of the best WrestleMania's in a long time. I have seen them all but this is the first one that I have seen Hulk look as good as he did. Now I have read some of the rants and it seems a lot a people are mad about the Hogan turn well think about this he doesn't have that long left in wrestling and I think he should go out as a face. Now this also sets up a few different way's to go now 1) Hogan setting up the Rock. 2) the Rock setting up Hogan. or some other way that we haven't seen coming. We also need to think about the up coming split and who will be going where and who will be face's and heel's. I am sorry to say I just never have bought into the whole Hogan as a heel it doesn't work look at last night people were going nuts for him. When is the last time we have heard the "Rocky Sucks" chant. Hogan has never and will never get over as a heel. Now as far as the Rock he is a great heel or face but the WWF the short of great heels that can carry the ball. I am sorry but Y2J just doesn't cut it he is a great worker but Y2J is not ready to carry the ball as the top heel. Kurt Angle is the top heel in the company right now, and the WWF needs some one like the Rock or HHH to help in the heel area. I don't know where this story line is going but I will be watching to find out.
JP - *downloading Repo Man's theme music*
John
First of all I was at the event and the Hogan/Rock match was one of the best
matches i've ever seen. NOT in terms of actual wrestling but the pschology
and the atmosphere was unreal. That match should have been the main event
not the Triple H/ Y2J match. Most people were literally on their feet for
the entire match. That being said most of the other matches were
disapointments. They were matches you usually see on TV, not the biggest PPV
in the business. All the matches were pretty predictible. Considering I paid
$50 to sit in the nosebleeds I think the WWF could've put on a much better
show. Aside from the Hogan/Rock match the PPV was pretty much a dud.
JP - I think it's pretty safe to say that in this case, majority rules. Most people were upset with Wrestlemania and it's card despite the Hogan/Rock bout and many can even argue on that match itself too. I think hyping up all these matches would have made it a little bit better. Austing/Rock was hyped big time for last year's Mania and I was on my feet the whole match. If the WWF would have hyped better the show itself would have been better.