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Not gonna lie, I was hoping to see Rarity tackle WrestleMania 9. Though given some of her comments in the Farewell callouts I cant help but think the upcoming Rarities are for the Golden Era only, and a new set will be done for the New Generation era in possibly a different thread....
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Aug 22, 2018 17:01
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It's interesting though since what you'd think of as the New Generation doesn't really start until...without spoiling things I'd say maybe a year, but until then we have this period where the old guys are being shuffled out, you get some neat "Hey that guy!" debuts and you're generally looking at what happens when Vince starts getting thrown a bunch of curveballs he can't hit
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Aug 22, 2018 17:19
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Papa Shango's involvement with that main event was completely inexplicable outside of "he is a heel and Sid is also a heel." It's like if Summerslam ended with Killian Dain coming to Brock's rescue against Roman. Considering your two addendums and your covering Summerslam 92 is unlikely, I feel confident enough to say that nothing in that main event mattered after the fact other than Warrior being back. They set it up as Hogan/Warrior vs. Sid/Shango. Hogan's immediately gone. Warrior and Sid film a couple promos against each other for the house show circuit, but Sid bails after the second day. Now we're down to Warrior vs. Shango as a feud, which is more batshit than we're used to. It's mainly remembered for two things: 1) Papa Shango using his magic to make Warrior double over after a match. Backstage, he projectile vomits onto some doctors. 2) Warrior cuts a promo about how he's not scared of Shango, only for some black goo to leak down from his scalp. He looks at the goo and yells, "WARRIOOOOOOOORRRS!!" There was no televised blow-off to this and the storyline presumably ended on the house show circuit. But it ended long before Summerslam.
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Aug 22, 2018 19:45
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Jason Sextro posted:Fair play to Sid, then, for arguing against being an all-conquering face. Sid definitely works better as a monster heel, no argument from me. For all his obvious shortcomings, Sid knew what his strengths and limits were, and yet for some reason the bookers wouldn't take his word for it, sometimes leading to disastrous consequences.
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Aug 22, 2018 20:39
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Sid always strikes me as probably one of the most self-aware people in wrestling during this time period. Maybe its because he'd often go play softball instead.
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Aug 22, 2018 20:45
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Gavok posted:Papa Shango's involvement with that main event was completely inexplicable outside of "he is a heel and Sid is also a heel." It's like if Summerslam ended with Killian Dain coming to Brock's rescue against Roman. I haven’t seen the black goo promo since it aired, but that image is burned into my brain. I was six at the time. EDIT: Looks like he had a pump in his jacket with something going through his hair. https://youtu.be/J6YKICReUCY Open Marriage Night fucked around with this message at 01:55 on Aug 23, 2018 |
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Aug 23, 2018 01:49
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Man, that audience went from "Yay" to "What the gently caress is happening" in a blink
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Aug 23, 2018 02:10
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I’m sad this thread is ending
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Aug 23, 2018 02:22
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Rarity posted:We start with Finkel introducing Harvey, who has made his way to the ring suspiciously quickly. Finkel is full of scorn for this man and Harvey clarifies that he's “Dr. Harvey Whippelman!”. drat right, you put in the funds to pay for that doctorate you better have everyone mentioning it. I couldn’t agree more. Now that this thread appears to be drawing to a close, I’d like to add my thanks, and ask something I’ve wanted to know for a while: why is Mean Gene a zombie?
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Aug 23, 2018 09:37
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Dr. Dirt posted:Now that this thread appears to be drawing to a close, I’d like to add my thanks, and ask something I’ve wanted to know for a while: why is Mean Gene a zombie? I made a one-off joke at WM3 which I started to run with and then didn't know how to walk back when I was tired of it three days later.
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Aug 23, 2018 10:23
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Rarity posted:I've got pretty much no idea of anything pre-1998. You know what you must do. The end is only the beginning! 
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Aug 24, 2018 13:09
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Aw, is this the end?
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Aug 24, 2018 16:32
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Rarity, as a wise man once said: “Never Give Up”. 
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Aug 24, 2018 20:43
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I, too, would like to see this thread continue. Obviously, take as much time as you need to recharge...but yes, please, bring it back for the next phase.
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Aug 24, 2018 21:12
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Yeah, would be sad to see this thread finish up because it's been great. Please consider some form of continuation 
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Aug 24, 2018 21:52
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So just wanted to mention re: Money Inc, while DiBiase & IRS is a fun combination it actually works even better when you consider Mike Rotunda was Michael Wallstreet before he jumped from WCW over to the Fed, which was basically a DiBiase knock off.
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Aug 29, 2018 23:32
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Jerusalem posted:Yeah, would be sad to see this thread finish up because it's been great. Please consider some form of continuation What Jerusalem said. Otherwise I have to start recapping again, and I don't want to watch Spring Stampede 2000! You can't make me! (Seriously, there's like, 14 matches in less that 3 hours. It's be a funny review, but I'd hate all of humanity for a few days)
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Aug 31, 2018 04:39
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Yes, please continue. I really want to read your take on the Attitude Era.
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Sep 1, 2018 08:04
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Honestly, the New Generation is the era where workrate and decent wrestling start to become more emphasized, so I think that Rarity would actually appreciate it more than the Attitude Era. Everyone remembers the Attitude Era fondly because of the character work, storylines, and surprises from week-to-week but at the peak Russo-era the ringwork starts to get REALLY bad. There's a point where even good ringwork is actually poo poo on by the audiences and matches are expected to last no more than 5 minutes unless it's a main event or something.
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Sep 1, 2018 08:10
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Is it time to goldmine this beauty? 
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Sep 6, 2018 19:23
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While doing WrestleMania 8 as the last show due to it being the end of Hogan's original run makes sense, I kind of wish Rarity ended with Survivor Series 92. Without going into the matches and storylines, it takes place during a sweet spot in-between WWF doing their final Saturday Night's Main Event (until the mid-00's) and before the first episode of Monday Night Raw. In retrospect, that spelled out the era shift better than anything.
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Sep 6, 2018 21:21
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Without spoiling, I'd say King of the Ring 93; however, it would be understandable not to want to voluntary subject herself to Wrestlemania IX.
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Sep 7, 2018 00:26
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Hey guys sorry about the delay, I was on holiday then I got a concussion so things didn't happen. Welcome to the Most Presitigious Awards In Wrestling, It's The Rarities! Welcome, welcome one and all to this most fabulous of occasions. More important than the Observer Awards, bigger than the Slammies, shadowing the Punchsport Prizes, it's the Rarities! Tonight we've got some very special awards for some very special wrestlers. I see that we've all dressed up in our finest attire so thank you. J-Ru, I'm loving your Jesse Ventura fancy dress over there! ...What's that? It's not fancy dress? ...Oh. Awards, friends! And I think it's only fair to kick us off in style with one of the big ones. Rarity's Top 5 Matches 5. Bret Hart vs. Rowdy Roddy Piper (Wrestlemania VIII) – Making a last-ditch assault on the rankings from the very last show we've covered, Bret/Piper stands as proof that you don't need to be the most technically gifted to put on a great match. When it comes down to it wrestling is about the story and in fifteen minutes these men told a story of competition and camaraderie that is almost unmatched. Bret carries much of the ringwork allowing Piper to focus on bringing his personality into the mix and this is where the match really shines. It's in the little moments like Piper spitting at Bret or later holding the ropes open to allow Bret back into the ring. But it's also in the big moment and there's few bigger than Piper's visible conflict over whether to cheat to keep his title. In many ways this works as a passing of the torch with one of the biggest stars of the fading era losing to one of the biggest stars of the next one. 4. The Ultimate Warrior vs. Rick Rude (Summerslam 1989) – All three of the clashes between Warrior and Rude were in contention for my top 5 and if I made this a top 10 I reckon they'd all be there. These two just had so much chemistry and their styles managed to compliment each other so well. Rude would bump like a madman to make Warrior look like a beast while Warrior would receive as good as he gave which made Rude look like a beast for keeping up with him. In the end I went for their second contest for this list because it was the most revolutionary. Here they went to extremes that may feel tame by today's standards but still shock in the context of the era. It feels like how the recent Brock/Roman matches were meant to feel like, two heavy hitters trading their hardest shots. Beating Honky for the IC title a year prior might have announced Warrior to the world but it's this match that made Warrior a star. 3. Bret Hart vs. Curt Hennig (Summerslam 1991) – If we're going to judge a match purely on its technical merits then this would be the best match of the Golden Era, hands down. In this bout Bret and Hennig put on an absolute masterclass that no other men on the roster at this point could hope to match. It's crisp, it's snappy and it's a super taster to show us the direction that wrestling is heading in. While we're only just about to start the New Generation Era you can see its roots right here. And it's all the more impressive when you consider that Hennig wrestled the entire match with a broken freaking tailbone. While the signs are there if you look for them if you had no idea then you would still come away thinking this was an amazing match. It's clear from this that the future is in good hands. 2. The Rockers vs. The Orient Express (Royal Rumble 1991) – Talk about your matches that come out of nowhere! This contest had no right to be as good as it was. Ok sure, we all know how brilliant Shawn was and is and Marty was no slouch alongside but this was a match against a remixed version of a team they'd pulled an absolute stinker with at WM6. Yet somehow we wound up with a match that combined athletic flips with technical knowhow and inventive ideas. There were so many moments that felt new and fresh and they were delivered with so much pace that you had to sit up and take notice. This was the one that really put the Rockers on the map and it's a dang shame they didn't much opportunity to do more like this. 1. Randy Savage vs. The Ultimate Warrior (Wrestlemania VII) – While Bret/Hennig may have shown the style of the New Generation Era, there is no match that better epitomises what the Golden Era was than Savage/Warrior. This is the peak of what I've always defined as 80s wrestling and it shows just how much that style is capable of pulling off. In terms of actual skill this might be the weakest entry in my top 5 but based on pure spectacle and emotion it can't be beat. The retirement stipulation is a huge factor here because no matter your wrestling tastes you're going to be attached to at least one of these two so you'll have a dog in the fight. With the stakes assured Savage and Warrior drive the tension further and further with nearfall after nearfall that pushes the bounds of incredulity. The Golden Era produced a lot of turgid poo poo in its time but it managed to produce this match as well so at the end of the day it can't be all that bad. Biggest Missed Opportunity: No Strike Force blow-off It really is insane that Tito and Martel had one of the hottest feuds in the company for over a year and still never managed to get a proper conclusion out of it. Just think of poor lil J-Ru's heart that was broken when they split. Think of how much joy he would have received from seeing his hero Rick Martel put that lazy, talent-free Tito Santana in his place and prove once and for all who the real star of Strike Force was. Why, I can just see the glee in Lil J-Ru's eyes, the laughter in his throat, the cheers coming from his lips as Martel stomps Tito's head into the mat. Without this big money match some people might actually try to claim that Tito was the one carrying Strike Force and I couldn't live with myself if I allowed such madness to happen. Worst Musical Performance: Run DMC ~ The Wrestlemania Rap It's always surprising just how often music manages to cross over with wrestling. It's strange, WWE seems to have some magic property that makes otherwise talented musicians suddenly become a vacuum of suck the moment they step into a WWE arena. This thread has made it clear that this is not a new phenomenon and nowhere is that clearer than with Run DMC's horrendous appearance at WM5. And oh boy there is a serious update to bring you guys up to speed on since we covered this in the thread. For some reason that I can only contribute to Vince's ongoing slide into dementia WWE have now seen fit to put a video of this up on their website. So if you want to watch three respected hip-hop artists half-heartedly mumble their way to a paycheck on the most embarrassing day of their lives while tens of thousands of wrestling fans watch on in disinterest then check it out. Then you should probably get yourself to a doctor cause that poo poo ain't right. Most Ignored: The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers Think back to the early days of this thread, my friends. A younger age when we were bright and innocent when two brothers from Canada wanted to move to America and in doing so won our hearts. Oh, how we empathised with their struggles to emigrate past border control, their difficulties in being accepted by their new neighbours. But sadly while we recognised the Rougeaus as the standout performers that they undeniably were the same cannot be said for the world at large. Yes, the Rougeaus faced constant discrimination as they were pushed aside in favour of local stars like Demolition and the Powers of Pain. Instead they were treated like a pair of comedy jobbers despite having better characters than any other team in the division. Let's take this one last chance to salute our All-American Boys before they fade into the annals of history. Most Unimpressive Return: Big John Studd I feel like I need to begin this one by acknowledging that when Studd was around at the start of these PPVs he wasn't exactly a big deal. But that's not the point here. No, rather I'm interested in looking at his big return. When Studd showed up at Royal Rumble '89 it felt like it was a big deal. He was presented as a huge threat and he won the Rumble to close out the show. Ok, he wasn't necessarily taking on a main event role like Hulk or Savage but it seemed like he was going to be a focal point of the shows. Fast forward a few months to WM5 where he is for some reason the guest referee for Jake/Andre before loving off to nowhere never to be seen again. What was the point of this? The only impact Studd made here was on the unemployment line. Worst Worst Hair: The Nominations Friends, do you know what the best part of the Rarities is? No? Well, I'll tell you. It's audience participation! Here's an award that you guys get to decide! Yeah, suck on that Oscars. In order to vote in this category all you need to do is send me a PM with your selection. Voting will be open until the end of Sunday, any votes after that will not be counted. So without further ado, let's take a look at the nominations! Greg Valentine  The Red Rooster  Rene Goulet  The Warlord  Zeus  That's all for now! Come back next time for such exciting categories as Worst Career Change, Most Bizarre Favourite, Biggest Racism as well my top 5 worst matches!
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Sep 7, 2018 06:43
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I'd like to take a moment to talk a little about the Rougeaus. Of course, rightly, we know about Jacques and Raymond, but their father, Jacques Sr., was also a wrestler, as was his brother/the Fabulous Rougeau's uncle, Jean Rougeau. He was, also, a bodyguard to none other than Rene Levesque earlier in his political career, and he was a hockey coach for the Laval National, in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. For the uninitiated, it's one of three "major junior" hockey leagues across Canada where most of the NHL's Canadian talent comes from. The Western Hockey League includes BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, but also the Pacific Northwest, the Ontario Hockey League is self-explanatory, but also includes teams in Michigan and Pennsylvania, and the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League includes Quebec, PEI, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. As most sports leagues do, they all have trophies for the team with the most points at the end of the regular season. Quebec's trophy is named for none other than Jean Rougeau, uncle to The Fabulous Rougeaus. I think for Big John Studd, he left the WWF in 89 after not getting enough money, but later that year started to get sick and that's when he started to get symptoms for the cancer that eventually killed him, so it was pretty close to the tail end of his career anyway.
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Sep 7, 2018 15:28
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It's funny how many acceptable matches Warrior had for not actually being good at anything. I don't even mean that as snark, Warrior really wasn't much of a wrestler and his character was one note (cocaine.) Taken as a whole Savage-Warrior deserves to be up there, but I dunno about Warrior-Rude... I mean Rude owned bones and they definitely worked well together, but they just don't feel that "big" to me as matches. I dunno. Steamboat-Savage not even making the top 5 seems a little  though.
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Sep 7, 2018 16:45
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sean10mm posted:It's funny how many acceptable matches Warrior had for not actually being good at anything. I don't even mean that as snark, Warrior really wasn't much of a wrestler and his character was one note (cocaine.) If you my boy isn't getting a top 5 match then you've got another coming. Plus if you go back to my writeup of it you will see that I loved the hell out of that one.
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Sep 7, 2018 16:47
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don't be hating on the Rarities, the Worst Hair Award has one of the strongest contender pools I've ever seen.
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Sep 7, 2018 20:53
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Jason Sextro posted:don't be hating on the Rarities, the Worst Hair Award has one of the strongest contender pools I've ever seen. (obama voice) LET ME BE CLEAR... I love the Rarities. And that hair hahahahahaha
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Sep 7, 2018 21:11
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No "What Dat Butt" award?
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Sep 8, 2018 00:39
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TL posted:No "What Dat Butt" award? It would just be Rick Rude competing with himself 5 times. 
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Sep 8, 2018 00:54
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That Rooster hair has my vote.
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Sep 8, 2018 03:33
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sean10mm posted:It would just be Rick Rude competing with himself 5 times. He's the winner of the Best Hip Swivel Award.
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Sep 8, 2018 04:22
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sean10mm posted:It's funny how many acceptable matches Warrior had for not actually being good at anything. I don't even mean that as snark, Warrior really wasn't much of a wrestler and his character was one note (cocaine.) I actually agree with Rarity's Top 5 completely. Even in the same order. I wouldn't call Savage/Steamboat overrated, but I think the match has lost some of its effect. Probably because the feud was built before the PPV era was a proper thing, and so we as viewers from the future suffer by not having the benefit of watching the buildup of match on weekly TV. Rude/Warrior on the other hand is an example of a feud that was carried properly through multiple PPVs. Rude-Warrior at SS89' has a lot of emotion and some absolutely brutal bumps that were insane for the kid-friendly Hogan era. Probably the only spot during the era that was more "WTF" (in a good way) was the Hogan/Bossman Cage Superplex. BTW I think a "WTF" Top 5 for the unexpectedly impressive or awesome moments out of nowhere would be a good category. Shiki Dan fucked around with this message at 05:55 on Sep 8, 2018 |
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Sep 8, 2018 05:51
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Shiki Dan posted:BTW I think a "WTF" Top 5 for the unexpectedly impressive or awesome moments out of nowhere would be a good category. It's too late for this as I've got everything written up but off the top of my head I think Bossman's enziguri would have won.
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Sep 8, 2018 06:04
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sean10mm posted:Is it time to goldmine this beauty? I think we can certainly say that it is deserv- Rarity posted:Biggest Missed Opportunity: No Strike Force blow-off The Comedy Gas Chamber! 
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Sep 8, 2018 06:09
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The worst hair award is an easy one for me. As far as I'm concerned, Greg Valentine's hair is the only part of him that looked decent. Rene Goulet was never meant to be anything more than a forgotten Les Lye character from You Can't Do That On Television, so he's allowed to look stupid. Warlord? Well, he looked way better bald, but at least the two-toned horseshoe fit in with the Mad Max aesthetic. Zeus' Zs are as iconic as they are silly. But Red Rooster? Look at that poo poo. It's so half-assed. When he had a thicker red mohawk, it almost worked (as well as it could), but in that picture he looks like he had five minutes to slap together a project for school and the best he could come up with was paint some Q-tips red and glue them to his head.
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Sep 8, 2018 06:55
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Buddy of mine won a contest as a kid and got front row at like WM 5 or 6, and got to meet a wrestler. It was Red Rooster.
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Sep 8, 2018 07:29
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Jerusalem posted:I think we can certainly say that it is deserv- Don't think about it, J-Ru! It only hurts if you think about it!
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Sep 8, 2018 07:39
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Jason Sextro posted:don't be hating on the Rarities, the Worst Hair Award has one of the strongest contender pools I've ever seen.
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Sep 8, 2018 10:25
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I think the issue with Savage/Steamboat is that you have to be aware of the story beforehand. It's a good match, but there's a lot more behind it when you're familiar with the angle.
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Sep 8, 2018 13:56
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