I Before E posted:

If anyone, I'd blame that fat gently caress Yokozuna.

DarthXaos posted:

You gave a brand new gimmick match away on Saturday Night?

DarthXaos posted:

You gave a brand new gimmick match away on Saturday Night?

Der-Wreck posted:

Big props to WCW's writers on Sting's promo. That poo poo was HEAVY

Sanguinia posted:

Thanks, the team was very proud of it and the one who wrote it couldn't have done it without the input and assistance of the whole group. It's a real trophy piece for Team WCW's storytelling I think.

freehate@aol.com posted:

Wrestling's cool. I saw some wrestling. WWF Superstars!

We started out with four dark matches. Jerry Lynn, Taz and Brian Pillman took on Johnny Paradise, Tracy Smothers and Phatu, Paradise was pinned by Pillman. Chris Candido, Men's Teioh and Dirty White Boy took on Kaz Hayashi, Michael Modest and Bart Gunn, with Gunn pinning Candido. These two were boring. Smothers looked like crap in the first one, Bart Gunn looked good in the second.

King Kong Bundy, Vampiro and Samu wrestled Rick Martel, Aldo Montoya and some tall guy who didn't get announced, and Bundy pinned Montoya. Martel looked good.

Then Shawn Michaels and Vader came out and beat the hell out of each other. That was awesome. They went at it until neither one could get up anymore, and they got counted out together.
When the cameras came on we got a bad surprise. Those clown guys introduced "The Fresh rear end Interview Tent," where they "find out which members of the WWF roster are truly down with the clown." Edge, Skunkrocker, Dave Taylor, and Doink are the first guests. Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope are very hostile towards Edge and Dave, and very in favor of Skunkrocker and Doink. Skunkrocker mentions that the loyalty demonstrated by the Insane Clown Posse's fanbase would have been very valuable in his partnership with Shawn Michaels, and may have prevented their acrimonious division. The faces eventually threaten to come to blows with the heels, but Violent J proposes a Totally Twiztid Tag Tussle for tonight's main event, pitting Edge and Dave against Skunkrocker and Doink. The blonde clown did a little better than the other one, I guess.

There was a quick graphic advertising a contract signing between Vader and HBK tonight for their match at Summerslam.

We watched a video of Dave Taylor and Dr. Tom Prichard feeding the needy at a soup kitchen. Good for them. Dave Taylor is a real man's man.

Billy Gunn had a match with Steve Austin. Austin missed with a clothesline and Hunter shouted instructions to him, leading to an argument lasting long enough for Billy to get a roll-up for the three count.

Then Road Rage had a match with Ace steel and JC Ice, and went over fast. Yawn.

There was a video package about Sid and Rick Martel's feud.

Hunter Hearst Helmsley had a quick match with Cuddly Chris Daniels. The dancing guy got pinned after a pedigree.

There was a video of the Two Man Power Trip. Austin and HHH are at a bar. Austin gets an American lager, HHH gets a fancy cocktail with expensive vodka. Each man looks at the other's drink disdainfully. HHH voiceover "We may not be the best of friends outside the ring..." clips of TMPT matches "... but when the match starts, we're a perfect team."

Then Vince McMahon interviews Mankind. "Loyal WWF viewers may know this man by his stage name, Mankind, but few know the man behind the mask, Mick Foley." an unmasked Mick talks about his troubled life. "I've always tried to be the hero like HBK, I always tried to fight for the underdog, but when people see my ugly face, my patchy hair, my uneven smile, my lack of an ear, they run away. I've never felt accepted, never felt like I fit in..." Foley begins to sob, and McMahon offers him a hug, which he tearfully accepts. Mankind looked great in all this. Vince was..okay.

There was a video with footage of Owen Hart and the British Bulldog winning matches. Then they had a match with Jammin Jamie Noble and Sugar Shane Helms. Bad night for the dancing guys. Bulldog seemed really out of it for some reason.

We got another PNN video. PNN: Pillman News Network logo fades into Pillman waiting backstage as he spins a large wheel with several names on it. Some names: VADER, HBK, BRET, TAYLOR, OWEN, JERICHO, DANIELS, GOLDUST, PIPER, LIGER, BULLDOG, AUSTIN. "Round, round, round it goes, where it stops, they won't know... until it's too late. Heh, heh, heh." Fade to black as the wheel begins to slow, but we don't see where it stops.

I don't know what all that Twiztid stuff was, but then the main event happened. Dave Taylor hit Doink with his finisher after a long match and pinned him. Edge and Taylor both looked bad.

After that was the contract signing for Vader/HBK. HBK comes out alone, while Vader has Cornette with him. Gorilla Monsoon is there to officiate. It is revealed that Cornette has finagled to get Michaels' rematch clause declared null and void. Michaels is livid, but signs the contract, since when he beats Vader in San Antonio, there will be no need for a rematch. When Vader isn't ambushing someone, he'll get cut down to size. Once both copies of the contract are signed, HBK Sweet Chin Musics Cornette, ducks under a clothesline from Vader, and tries to hit another Sweet Chin Music. Vader catches the leg, and attempts to pick him up for a powerbomb, but HBK drops out behind Vader. Monsoon tries to intervene, but takes a hard lariat from Vader. Vader laughs and holds the unconscious Monsoon up to intimitade HBK as the show closes. HBK and Vader both looked great in all this. Gorilla Monsoon was as bad as ever.

All in all, I'd call it a C show.

sk posted:

A throwaway Buried Alive match in snow on a B show for a guy whose gimmick is "cold dude" is so much more absurd than the real Monday Night Wars and I love it.

sk posted:

A throwaway Buried Alive match in snow on a B show for a guy whose gimmick is "cold dude" is so much more absurd than the real Monday Night Wars and I love it.

Sanguinia posted:

WWF gave away Mankind vs The Undertaker for literally no reason and no stakes on their first Raw, I think we're entitled to a throwaway gimmick match for some midcarders.

Abrasive Obelisk posted:

Well, it was a #1 contender's match meant to set up Goldust/Taker, so

Sanguinia posted:

And this was a match meant to set up a major midcard feud. I don't think being a gimmick match makes it any more egregious to use it on Saturday than it is to give away a PPV Main Event calibur match on Monday.

blueblazer@aol.com posted:

Yo, I just got back from Summerslam, and for everyone who didn't catch the PPV, I've got the results. In the first dark match, Brian Pillman, Jerry Lynn, Taz, and Jerry Lawler beat Barry Horowitz, Aldo Montoya, Phatu, and Tracy Smothers when Pillman pinned Montoya off Air Pillman. Good to see Brian Pillman back, no ring rust on him either, he looked good.

Then, British Bulldog, King Kong Bundy, Robert Ford, and Bradshaw beat Michael Modest, Johnny Paradise, Bob Holly, and Scott Taylor when Bulldog pinned Taylor. Match was whatever, kinda disjointed, but Bulldog looked good.

Then Samu and Sione, who were The Headshrinkers like a year ago, beat Brooklyn Brawler and Kaz Hayashi when Sione pinned Brawler. The Samoans had Brother Love with them as a manager. This one was a real stinker, Sione floundered and Brawler + Kaz didn't click as a team at all.

Final dark match, Marc Mero beat Funaki from Kaientai.

Cameras started rolling, some pyro to start it off, then the ICP came out. Promo transcript:

"When my ninja Shaggy and I hizzeard that Summerslam was being held in Texas, we started getting excited. When we heard it was in San Antonio, all that excitement faded away. Because we assumed they were talking about Austin, the only good city in Texas. That's the only place in this God-forsaken state with a sophisticated enough population to enjoy our music! You inbred, uneducated morons couldn't appreciate anything that didn't have some dumbass singing about his dead dog and his beat down truck, and you don't deserve the Insane Clown Posse!"

The cheapest of heat, but they worked the crowd up a fair bit before Jake Roberts made his entrance for the first match, Jake Roberts vs. Vampiro, which Jake won after DDTing Vampiro onto a chair. Shaggy 2 Dope tried to interfere but Jake dodged him. Match was pretty lame, lacked a good flow and they didnt make good use of the No-DQ stip.

Sid vs. Rick Martel. We got a video recapping the feud between Sid and Rick Martel before they came out for their match. Martel won with the Slingshot Splash. Sid was awful tonight but Martel kept it from being a total trainwreck.

Video of Mankind and Vince McMahon backstage. Transcript:
"After that hug on Superstars, I've been thinking, sir. C-could you teach me to- to be good?"
"I-I don't know what you mean, Mick?" "Mister McMahon, people like you. They think you're good inside. I wanna be like you... Vince."
"I'm... hmmm... I'm alright with that, Mick. Whether you win or lose tonight, Mick, I'll still like you."
"Oh, Mister McMahon, nobody's ever said that to me before!" They hug. Alright promo, pretty cheesy but Mankind made it work.

Edge, Doink, Dave Taylor and Skunkrocker for the Pan-American Championship up next. Edge and Doink spend most of the match too distracted by their hate for one another to focus on winning the match, instead brawling all over the arena, rarely coming back to the ring. It's during one of these visits that Skunkrocker blindsides Edge and Stinkbombs him for the pin. Didn't like it - it didn't feel like a four-way, just two singles matches going on at the same time.

Hype vid for a new signing, Jerry Lynn. We saw him doing cool flippy moves and bragging about how agile and amazing he is. Came off as a major dickwad.

Jericho and Roddy Piper vs. The Dudleyz for #1 tag contendership. Finish had D-Von tag Bubba in and they went for the 3D, but Jericho countered mid-move with a neckbreaker on Bubba, then tapped him out with the Liontamer. This brought the crowd's mood up after the stinkers that were the last few matches - Piper really stood out, age hasn't slowed him down one bit.

A hype vid for Brian Pillman's return: "PNN: Pillman News Network" graphic appears on the screen, before we cut to Pillman backstage. "Well it seems like a lot's gone on since I've been away. My old tag partner's found someone new, one of my greatest opponents has found himself in the WWF, and one of the top technical wrestlers in the United States today is defending his title against a man who thinks a "schoolboy rollup" is when Owen Hart does a small package. Well, that's just great. Because loose cannons like me thrive by rolling with the punches, by embracing change. And make no mistake, I've been watching you all." Great promo! Can't wait to see him back on TV.

Yokozuna vs. Hakushi was a pretty short match. Yoko looked like poo poo, and tapped out to the Paradise Hold in no time flat.

Next up was the tag title match, Stone Cold and Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Billy and Bart Gunn.

HHH and Bart start off. HHH starts off with heavy strikes, gets countered into irish whip, rebound, knee smash. Even match-up for a few minutes, HHH gets Bart in the corner and tags in Austin who comes in hot with a Thesz press. Bart sweeps Austin's leg, goes for a roll-up, kickout at 1. Holds his own against Austin but can't finish the job and tags in Billy.

Austin dodges a dropkick, hits an elbow drop, goes for the pin, kickout at 1. He walks over and tags in HHH. Repeated kicks to torso, goes for the Pedigree, countered into a Boston crab, HHH reaches the ropes, gut punch, tags in Austin. They hit a double vertical suplex, cover, kickout at 2. Billy and Austin go at it for a couple minutes until Billy tags in Bart who goes for a suplex but gets countered into a Stunner. TMPT retain. Man, people just do not care about the Smoking Gunns. Everyone was cheering the heels.

Austin celebrated with a beer as HHH got on the mic. "Jericho, old man Piper, you've seen what we can do to them. If you think you can beat us you're dead wrong. And I do mean... DEAD."

Next up, Finlay vs. Mankind in a Texas Deathmatch.

It started out quick, with both men throwing out strikes. Mankind backed Finlay into the turnbuckle, and started to whack him into it before Finlay headbutted him and escaped. Finlay came back with elbows, and Mankind reciprocated. After a mutual flurry left both men on the ground, Mankind rolled out of the ring and started looking for objects under the ring. He pulled out a chair first, and rolled back into the ring, only for Finlay to take the chair and set up the Celtic Cross piledriver onto the chair. Mankind slipped out, and tried to set up a double arm DDT only for Finlay to power out. The hold got turned into some weird-looking suplex, I think they botched whatever they were going for, but they both went over the top rope. Mankind then went to the apron, and hit a running elbow off the apron to the floor. Ref started counting, but only 2. Finlay started crawling under the ring, and was obviously rummaging for weapons. he pulled out a table, and got to his feet. He set up the table, and dragged Mankind over. Finlay hit a powerbomb into the table. The ref started to count again. Mankind was still writhing on the floor. When he got to 5, Mankind staggered to his feet.

Mankind and Finlay exchanged blows again, and again, they both crumpled after they simultaneously hit each other with elbows. Mankind pulled a cassette tape out from under the ring, and motioned for a microphone. "WWF IN YOUR HOUSE 9: MONEY IN THE BANK, AVAILABLE NOW FROM ALL GOOD VIDEO STORES! WATCH ME BEAT DAVE FINLAY FOR THE FIRST OF WHAT WILL CERTAINLY BE TWO TIMES ONCE I WIN THIS MATCH!" He then cracked the cassette over Finlay's head, and attempted to hit him with the microphone, but Finlay grabbed his arm, then pried the mic from his grip. "SCREW YOU, UGLY!" Finlay shouted into the mic, before swinging the mic into Mankind's head. Finlay went back into the ring, picking up the chair Mankind had brought in earlier. As Mankind got into the ring, Finlay ran the ropes, and attempted to swing the chair into Mankind, but Mankind kicked him down below before he could, forcing him to drop the chair. Mankind positioned the chair and got Finlay into position before piledriving him onto the chair. Finlay was close enough to the ropes to climb up at 7.

Finlay fired off a flurry of elbows to Mankind's head, and brought him up to the top rope for what I assume was a superplex. Before he could, Mankind caught him with a right hand, got him in the Mandible Claw, PICKED HIM UP, AND JUMPED, SLAMMING FINLAY INTO THE SPANISH ANNOUNCE TABLE! The ref started the count. Finlay got up at 7, but his knee gave out and couldn't make it back. Mankind won it by count-out. Disappointing match overall, not much psychology and it felt slower than it should've been. After the match, Mankind helped Finlay up, to everyone's surprise, and carried him to the back.

We got a video recapping the Goldust/Taker/Warrior feud, and showing glimpses of the mystery partner.

The unnamed guy in red was ring announced for the first time. "From Death Valley, weighing 320 pounds... KANE!" Undertaker visibly flinched at the name - The Undertaker, flinching! It's obvious that he knows the guy.

Kane & The Ultimate Warrior vs. Goldust & The Undertaker. Warrior and Taker start off. Undertaker can't focus on the match, constantly gazing over at the masked man in Warrior's corner. He finds himself at a disadvantage, but composes himself, big boots a charging Warrior and tags in Goldust. Goldust stomps Warrior continuously, not giving him time to get back up. Full of hubris, he tries to get a shot in on the masked man, but takes a throat-thrust from him and a powerslam from the Warrior. Goldust rolls out of the way of more punishment, regaining his footing and starting a quick exchange of moves with the Warrior, eventually taking Warrior down with a powerslam of his own and tagging in Undertaker as Warrior tags in Kane.

Undertaker looks visibly freaked out as he steps in the ring with Kane, getting in his face and asking questions but getting only a chokeslam hold as a response. Undertaker gets Kane in a chokehold of his own and wrests him to the ground. Kane gets back up and hits a sidewalk slam. The two fight it out, the match devolving into a brawl as it goes on. Undertaker lifts Kane up for a tombstone, but his lack of composure allows Kane to fight out and deliver a Tombstone of his own for the 3-count. Kane's debut was well-received but Warrior really held the match itself back, he tired himself out fast and stayed in way too long when the crowd wanted to see the new guy in action. Typical Warrior.

Post-match, Warrior rushes Goldust to grab the urn, but Goldust hits him square in the face with it. Kane gets a chokehold on Goldust and signals for a chokeslam, but Undertaker saves Goldust with a chop block to Kane. Goldust dashes out of the ring and goes backstage, escaping with the urn once again.

Next up, Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart in Bret's return to the ring. Awesome video package to start it off before they made their entrance.

They lock up at the bell. The pace stays high for several minutes, with deft submission attempts and counters by both. Bret goes for a belly-to-back suplex hold, but is unable to get Owen off the ground. With a burst of strength, Owen rushes towards the ring ropes with Bret still holding on, sending both tumbling through the ropes. Both men hit the floor face first. The referee has counted to 4 when they get back up, Owen suplexing Bret into the barricade then rushing back into the ring trying to get the count-out win, but Bret makes it back in at 8. Owen capitalizes on Bret's weakened state with a camel clutch, but Bret is by the ropes and forces a rope break.

Owen backs off to catch his breath, resting in the corner. Bret catches his breath in the opposite corner, staring Owen down as he does. Provoked, Owen backs out of the corner, yelling "it's over for you!" He gets a running start out of the corner, corner clothesline, runs the ropes, Bret counters with an atomic drop, kip-up, goes for a Figure-4 leg lock! "NOT THIS TIME!" yells Owen and counters into a Figure-4 of his own. Bret breaks the hold, then goes for the Sharpshooter. Owen tries to roll Bret up off it, but Bret rolls back into the Sharpshooter! Owen is forced to tap. These two were good as always but this was still one of the weaker matches they've had against each other.

After the match, Bret offers Owen a handshake, Owen refuses and leaves. This really had the crowd going.

As Owen walked to the back, it showed Cornette and his Camp making a game plan backstage. Owen joined in in the middle of it, just coming back from his match, and Bulldog taunted him about the loss. Good promo but they looked a little out of it.

Almost time for the main event, HBK/Vader video package. Footage of the constant assaults by Cornette's Camp: Piper, HBK, Jose Lothario. "When Owen Hart failed to win the WWF Championship from the Heartbreak Kid, Jim Cornette went for his nuclear option: VADER. Over the past weeks, Shawn Michaels and his friends have been ambushed over and over again." Footage of Vader laying out Gorilla Monsoon on Superstars. "With the World Wrestling Federation in chaos after the incapacitation of Gorilla Monsoon, Shawn Michaels prepares to defend his WWF title, possibly for the last time." Roadies set up a curtain on the back wall of the stage as the video package plays.

Shawn Michaels came out after Vader with a special entrance. He stopped halfway down the aisle and flexed his muscles as fireworks went off and the curtain dropped, revealing a huge Texas flag. I thought it looked stupid but the crowd loved it.

The main event, Shawn Michaels vs. Vader for the WWF Championship. The men size each other up as the bell rings. Vader works the crowd by mocking Michaels's entrance gestures and poses. He then approaches HBK to lock up, but HBK steers clear, sticking and moving to get some quick strikes in on Vader. Irish whip to the apron and a dropkick sends Vader to the outside. HBK takes this moment to play to the crowd himself, mocking Vader's entrance walk and gestures - but Vader wastes no time getting back in and taking Michaels down with a huge lariat. He pushes HBK around for several minutes, stopping to bark at Cornette to set up a table.

As Cornette sets the table up, Vader whips HBK into the corner, lifts him up on the turnbuckle and goes for a superplex to the outside - but HBK fights back into it, striking Vader's head and pushing him off back into the ring. He stands up on the turnbuckle, elbow drop, kick out at 1. HBK leaves the ring and searches the ringside area for a weapon, grabbing a trash can and a baseball bat from under the ring, re-entering with both as Vader gets back up. HBK holds on to the bat tight as Vader gestures at him to come at him. He swings with the bat, Vader ducks under, German suplex onto the trash can! Vader covers but HBK kicks out at 2. Vader gets back up, goes for a Vadersault but finds nobody there as he completely flattens the trash can with his weight.

Vader gets back up, only to take a Sweet Chin Music! The impact sends him over the top rope and through the table! Cornette explodes with fury and panic. HBK pursues Vader, only to come face to face with Owen Hart. He pushes Michaels into Bulldog, who lifts him up for the running powerslam! Cornette tries to shake some life into Vader as Owen rolls HBK back into the ring - and turns around, right into a Codebreaker! Jericho and Dave Taylor storm the ring and brawl with Camp Cornette while Vader and HBK get back to their feet. Vince McMahon has enough of the madness and makes an announcement.

"God damnit, that's enough! This is a match, not some bar-room melee! As the acting General Manager of the WWF, I am banning all non-competitors from ringside!"

Jim Cornette swears and shouts as security guards haul everyone out of ringside, leaving the beaten Vader and HBK, both prone in the ring. HBK staggers to his feet, gets in the corner and starts tuning up the band with a tired grin on his face. He goes for the kick, but Vader catches the foot and slams HBK by the leg into the canvas! He follows up with a Vader Bomb. 1... 2... It's over! Vader's the new champion. Hometown crowd is furious.

Cornette comes back out with a live mic. "YOU HEAR THAT, SAN ANTONIO? YOU HEAR THAT, MR. AND MRS. MICHAELS? YOU HEAR THAT, HBK? IT'S TIME, IT'S TIME, IT'S VADER TIME, AND NOW AND FOREVER, VADER TIME AIN'T GOIN' AWAY! HAHAHA!" Vader holds up the title to some raucous booing as the show went off the air.

WEAK undercard that had the crowd dead for most of the show, but the main event matches delivered. B-
Now that Shawn Michaels isn't champion anymore, maybe he should be reinventing his character a bit - I think a lot of us feel that the "Heartbreak Kid" shtick is getting old.

blueblazer@aol.com posted:

blazeblue2@aol.com posted:

That last guy forgot some stuff, I don't know, maybe he went to the can. After the Sid/Martel match there was a weird promo.
They played a HBK/Taylor video thanking Sky for carrying Raw, USA for continuing to carry Superstars, and announcing the Home Box Office as the new home of WWF Raw. Dennis Miller walked in from offscreen. "Jeez Louise, you cats have more networks on your hands than the Sicilian Mob. HBO is glad to have you guys as part of its all-star lineup."

"WWF RAW COMES TO THE HOME BOX OFFICE IN 8 DAYS"

Then Tom Prichard retained against Tatanka in a surprisingly long match.

Rest of what he wrote looked fine, though.

CaptainYesterday posted:

Let's take a look at where the wrestlers are now:

Brian James: Tag Team Champion

NutritiousSnack posted:

though it's sorta bad Liger fell off the ladder the way he did.

Q7kid posted:

And injured himself as a direct result of your booking, correct.

I Before E posted:

also JESUS CHRIST that feud is loving CURSED.

Q7kid posted:

There was discussion in the WCW writers' room about how well the match was booked, so it's a shame the match rating didn't reflect it.

JoeRules posted:

And to possible new writers - with all due respect, WWF could use another couple of writers to help pitch in.

I Before E posted:

Yeah, their first match was a submission match, but we didn't know that was a technically focused match, and neither of their strengths lay there. So the match suffered.

So we chose a brawling match, a Texas Deathmatch, for their next one. Turns out Sky PPV doesn't want us airing an ACTUAL Texas Deathmatch, so we go with a Last Man Standing, "Texas Deathmatch". Turns out we didn't give it enough time for a Slow Build, and the match suffered.

gently caress. Glad you liked the writeup, though.

CaptainYesterday posted:

Let's take a look at where the wrestlers are now:

Brian James: Tag Team Champion

Jushin "Thunder" Liger: injured in a D match
Dave Taylor: jack poo poo

I hope the following people are happy:

harperdc
wizardstick
xNarUtoRKOrton420x
IcePhoenix
Der-Wreck
Do not even ask
MysticalMachineGun
Perry Normal
legoman727

IcePhoenix posted:

Very happy. Not only was my vote, which specified how we felt they had been used at the time of the vote , for the winning team, but it caused the WCW writers to overreact and put the title on a comedy tag team, noticably pissing off one worker and probably irritating others who were probably more deserving.

I liked Summerslam but the main event seemed like it was maybe a little overbooked. But RAW moving to HBO? Ooohhh boy that doesn't seem good.

IcePhoenix posted:

Very happy. Not only was my vote, which specified how we felt they had been used at the time of the vote , for the winning team, but it caused the WCW writers to overreact and put the title on a comedy tag team, noticably pissing off one worker and probably irritating others who were probably more deserving.

I liked Summerslam but the main event seemed like it was maybe a little overbooked. But RAW moving to HBO? Ooohhh boy that doesn't seem good.

Great White Hope posted:

It's good to see you consider injuring talent for terrible matches to be a good thing.

I Before E posted:

At least it led to us abandoning an awful heatless storyline.

IcePhoenix posted:

Very happy. Not only was my vote, which specified how we felt they had been used at the time of the vote , for the winning team, but it caused the WCW writers to overreact and put the title on a comedy tag team, noticably pissing off one worker and probably irritating others who were probably more deserving.

Great White Hope posted:

Which one?

I Before E posted:

Kaientai. And now our heatless feud quota is taken up by one that's at least fun to write.

Great White Hope posted:

And yet it is both colder and less fun to write than Glacier.