Grapple City Rewind
Taking you all the way back to the VHS era PPVs that shaped wrestling history. Created by Bradley Palermo & Aaron Fink.
Grapple City Rewind
Intestinal Fortitude - WCW Halloween Havoc 1996
It’s spooky season in July as Bradley Palermo and Aaron Fink rewind all the way back to WCW Halloween Havoc 1996—a Slim Jim-sponsored fever dream live from Las Vegas. From Dean Malenko vs. Rey Mysterio Jr. to Ric Flair in peak coked-out promo mode, we break down all the mid-card chaos and main event madness you’d expect from late-’90s WCW.
We also weigh in on AEW All In predictions, talk FTR vs. the Outrunners, and discuss the lost art of real heel heat—plus, yes, an Abdullah the Butcher sidebar (because of course).
Match breakdowns, live crowd memories, booking confusion, and one unforgettable Dusty Rhodes “Bula Bula” moment—this episode’s got it all.
This episode brought to you be Weber4Law - your tag team partner when life body-slams you out of nowhere. Call (818) 502-9200 or visit https://weber4law.com/
Email: Grapplecitypod@gmail.com
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Music by Bradley Palermo & The Shadow Queens.
Created by Bradley Palermo & Aaron Fink.
00:00:00.23
AA RON
Okay, checky, check, check, check. Bing, bong, boom. Sounds pretty good. Looks pretty good. i guess I could be...
00:00:06.67
Bradley Palermo
Wow.
00:00:07.50
AA RON
Maybe I could be a little louder here. and Put Hey, everyone. Okay, yeah, that's pretty good. Hey, everyone. This is Aaron Fink from Grapple City Rewind. If you like what you hear on this episode, give us a follow, leave a review, cut a promo on us by calling 626-657-SLAM.
00:00:26.85
Bradley Palermo
hello Hello and welcome to Grapple City Rewind, taking you all the way back to the classic pay-per-views that shaped wrestling history, where we throw it all the way back to the era of monster trucks and top rope power bombs. I'm your, I don't know if I really like that intro.
00:00:45.14
Bradley Palermo
yeah hello Hello and welcome to Grapple City Rewind, taking you all the way back to the classic pay-per-views that have shaped wrestling history.
00:00:46.24
AA RON
Do it again, baby.
00:00:55.27
Bradley Palermo
Today we will be rewinding to WCW's Halloween Havoc 1996 Rewind. A Slim Jim sponsored fever dream straight from Las Vegas, Nevada with with a pretty interesting mid-card, undercard, and Hulk Hogan and Macho Man and Elizabeth and all them on the main card, on the main event.
00:01:17.42
AA RON
who
00:01:17.72
Bradley Palermo
But i'm before we get into all that, I'm Bradley Palermo here, as always, with Aaron Fink. And we should probably talk a little bit about AEW this week because it is the week of All In. What do you think, Aaron? Aaron Fink.
00:01:31.07
AA RON
Let's do it. Why not?
00:01:32.42
Bradley Palermo
was that to I was at Collision 300. No, no. Dynamite 300, Collision 100 100 in Ontario, California last week for a little aw TV show.
00:01:43.54
AA RON
huh
00:01:46.87
Bradley Palermo
That was ah it' kind of fun. I really liked the the the match with FTR versus the Outrunners. FTR is like my favorite, one of my favorite tag teams of recent times.
00:01:55.95
AA RON
Yeah. You liking them as heel now as heels now?
00:01:59.15
Bradley Palermo
It makes me kind of sad because i it's weird. I like i mean, I got into them as babyfaces and I still cheer for them. I like their music. I like those guys. and like i don't I mean, I still like them, but i still to me, they're still babyfaces.
00:02:13.31
AA RON
Yeah.
00:02:13.88
Bradley Palermo
So like i refuse to like get behind the whole Outrunners thing. I feel like they kind of have FTR spot. you know like They're the new like retro classic tag team guys. I liked it both these teams.
00:02:23.46
AA RON
Yeah.
00:02:23.90
Bradley Palermo
are sort of old school tag teams nothing fancy really like head butts off the top rope and just brawling and stuff you know dude i saw one thing that i haven't seen before a live wrestling event i've seen people blade themselves several times but i saw uh dax blade one of the outrunners
00:02:26.90
AA RON
Mm-hmm.
00:02:32.57
AA RON
Yeah.
00:02:38.82
AA RON
Mm-hmm.
00:02:42.49
Bradley Palermo
yeah me, um he had him in a headlock and the camera wasn't on him, but it was just right there in the ramp. He takes out the little and blade and just starts popping, just starts like kind of bouncing it on his forehead a little bit.
00:02:49.34
AA RON
Uh huh.
00:02:51.96
AA RON
Yeah.
00:02:52.68
Bradley Palermo
And have you seen that where they blade each other before?
00:02:55.51
AA RON
I've never seen it. The only time I've ever even heard of that is when Abdullah the butcher used to do it. And we both know how that turned out. If you've
00:03:04.17
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:03:05.11
AA RON
If anyone's never seen the Dark Side of the Ring episode about Abdullah the Butcher, that is a good watch. He was ah massive heel in, I think, God, it was it even the late 60s? Late 60s, 70s, 80s, even up to the 90s.
00:03:19.23
AA RON
He was famous for having his fingertips ah ah taped up with blades in them, and he would just like run his fingers over someone's forehead to to blade them.
00:03:30.49
AA RON
Super crazy.
00:03:30.67
Bradley Palermo
Oh, wow. You know, someone told me the other day that WrestleMania 13, the juice that... that... ah so ju the the jeice that Austin got in WrestleMania 13 was via Bret Hart blading forum that Austin never bladed.
00:03:47.14
AA RON
Oh, really?
00:03:47.14
Bradley Palermo
And Bret Hart was like, I've got you. So that would, that'd be interesting. I mean, if if that was the first time Stone Cold really bled on purpose, that's fascinating.
00:03:55.04
AA RON
Yeah.
00:03:55.27
Bradley Palermo
But Also, Abdullah the Butcher, I have this client. he's He's an interesting guy. He came to one of our shows at the shop and got drunk and peed in the sink while i was playing. but he But he has this thing where he has a friend of a friend.
00:04:11.89
Bradley Palermo
Abdullah the butch Butcher hangs out like somewhere in Atlanta where this guy used to live. And when he gets drunk, he likes to call Abdullah the Butcher. You remember me? He's like, yeah, I remember you. Yeah.
00:04:23.11
AA RON
Yeah.
00:04:23.10
Bradley Palermo
And he like goes to his his indie shows and stuff.
00:04:24.44
AA RON
He's got such a funny voice too, Abdullah.
00:04:26.38
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:04:28.20
AA RON
It's so funny you see these crazy, scary guys back then who... i mean, the the heat that heels used to draw back then, when you look at it now, you think it's it's insane. How could this even happen? People were...
00:04:43.99
AA RON
threatening, wrestlers with guns, with knives. People were scared of Abdullah.
00:04:47.71
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:04:49.19
AA RON
He was a very scary dude. And it's just crazy to think about how different it is now. You know, there it's, it's almost like bad guys in wrestling.
00:04:56.100
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:04:59.88
AA RON
Don't, don't really have heel heat. Like, like the old days, there's pretty much no one that ever.
00:05:04.38
Bradley Palermo
Well, yeah, we boo, but we we kind of smile when we boo and stuff.
00:05:06.37
AA RON
yeah
00:05:08.07
Bradley Palermo
Like, it doesn't really.
00:05:08.55
AA RON
I think MJF probably before he started doing all of the comedic shit with Adam Cole, which I enjoyed for what it was. But before that, I hated him.
00:05:17.65
Bradley Palermo
Right.
00:05:19.09
AA RON
Like he he was he really annoyed me. And I think that's probably the closest anyone's ever come to in the modern era of being actually hated and hateable.
00:05:22.02
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:05:28.29
AA RON
But then as soon as he left and came back, everyone started cheering him. And now it's like, oh, we like him. We don't hate him. We like him, hate him.
00:05:35.07
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, it's like I wanted him to lose back then, but I had like a lot of respect for just how big of an asshole he really seemed to be.
00:05:41.31
AA RON
here
00:05:42.07
Bradley Palermo
And um people would say, oh, no you know he's really he's really open to like critique and criticism from you know the veterans and this and that.
00:05:52.32
Bradley Palermo
and you're like, really? like i just believe him. I just believe this character, MJF.
00:05:56.08
AA RON
Yeah. I mean, it's great that he does that, but I don't, I don't necessarily need to know that. I would just as rather assume that he is always the same guy that we see on TV.
00:06:05.76
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:06:06.73
AA RON
And he,
00:06:06.99
Bradley Palermo
I mean, he sold it to me and I bought it, you know, so, but, but, yeah.
00:06:10.29
AA RON
Yeah, I mean, he still does it. You know, when he goes to signings or whatever, people will come up and he'll be an asshole to them, but they're not reacting the way someone would react in 1985.
00:06:22.91
AA RON
They're like, oh, MJF was an asshole to me.
00:06:22.95
Bradley Palermo
Right.
00:06:25.07
AA RON
That's awesome.
00:06:26.37
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Right.
00:06:26.70
AA RON
you know It's just not the same. i would kind of I kind of miss it.
00:06:28.56
Bradley Palermo
Right.
00:06:29.94
AA RON
i mean that the Not that this pay-per-view that we watched was any indication of real heat. but AEW, I'm excited about All In. you know It's their biggest show of the year.
00:06:42.79
AA RON
They're having it in the United States for the first time. This is the third incarnation of All In. and Man, there's a lot of matches. I guess maybe we should talk about them. Why don't we do the old prediction game?
00:06:55.31
Bradley Palermo
Well, I mean, let's see. We got a Omega versus Okada for some sort of one of two of the many belts are finally it's like the international and the continental or something.
00:07:01.98
AA RON
The Unified. yeah
00:07:07.11
Bradley Palermo
What the fuck?
00:07:07.73
AA RON
Yep. Yep.
00:07:08.32
Bradley Palermo
so third
00:07:08.49
AA RON
they there They're unifying those two. i think they're calling it the Unified Championship, which I feel like is a dumb name, but I'm glad that they're making one title out of two because they're I do agree with some of the sentiment online that they have too many titles.
00:07:15.61
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:07:22.02
Bradley Palermo
Too many.
00:07:23.56
AA RON
it's And it's not that they have too many. It's just that... they don't mean anything because there are so many of them.
00:07:28.09
Bradley Palermo
Right.
00:07:29.10
AA RON
The only one that really means anything right now is the AEW world championship. And we haven't seen the belt in 10 months. So we'll get to that, but, but Omega and Okada, is it going be a good match?
00:07:36.83
Bradley Palermo
Right. I think,
00:07:41.31
AA RON
Can't deny that.
00:07:42.34
Bradley Palermo
yeah, I don't, I don't know if I'm gonna have to, if I have to predict,
00:07:46.33
Bradley Palermo
I guess Okada can defend it
00:07:46.50
AA RON
I think Okada. Yeah.
00:07:48.03
Bradley Palermo
He can defend it more.
00:07:48.46
AA RON
Yeah.
00:07:49.03
Bradley Palermo
I think Kenny's kind of at that point where he's like sparing sparingly doing appearances.
00:07:52.84
AA RON
Yeah. I mean, he had a serious, he had a serious, uh, health scare with his diverticulitis and he had surgery.
00:07:55.17
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:07:58.83
AA RON
I mean, they, I'm, I'm pretty sure the way diverticulitis works is they like remove a section of your intestines or your colon or some shit. Like it's crazy.
00:08:07.00
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:08:07.50
AA RON
So he can, I, I can't imagine that he's operating at a hundred percent like, or, or whatever he was operating at before he had this surgery.
00:08:16.94
Bradley Palermo
no
00:08:18.95
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, it's I think it's that part of his career. you you know you kind of You help out where you can. You stay involved how you can. But not going to go out there like every Monday or whatever, every Wednesday night and wave that thing around.
00:08:25.06
AA RON
Yeah. Yep.
00:08:30.32
Bradley Palermo
So yeah, probably Okada. Toni Storm versus Mercedes Money. um
00:08:35.44
AA RON
ye
00:08:35.55
Bradley Palermo
Mercedes is getting like some serious heat, I think, with me with all those belts. it's She has like six of them and it's becoming... She never loses. She's never lost in AEW.
00:08:46.11
AA RON
Yep, that's correct.
00:08:47.24
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:08:47.39
AA RON
Yeah, she's definitely playing the the heel role well, and the booking of her is supporting that.
00:08:54.61
Bradley Palermo
yeah
00:08:55.14
AA RON
I mean, you know, I think that people online calling her Mercedes Hogan and saying she never loses because she has creative control. I just don't. Maybe that's true, but that doesn't mean that she is like...
00:09:10.07
AA RON
Saying I want to win all the time and no one can ever beat me if they're if that's what they're doing. And it seems like that's what they're doing. The other companies have to approve of this a and B.
00:09:17.05
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:09:19.45
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Right.
00:09:20.92
AA RON
It's all being led towards something. They're not going to do this for no reason.
00:09:24.91
Bradley Palermo
right
00:09:25.87
AA RON
So I don't think Tony Storm is going to win. I think Mercedes is going to win and then have seven belts. And then somebody is going to have to show up either at all in or very soon after.
00:09:38.38
AA RON
And to make the crowd, the the fans think, okay, there's the person that will finally dethrone her or start the dissent.
00:09:45.39
Bradley Palermo
It's kind of, it's funny watching her put on all those belts like and all the refs helping her and stuff because they're just falling off left and right, upside down, you know, like coming unbuttoned.
00:09:50.33
AA RON
Yeah.
00:09:53.92
AA RON
It's ridiculous.
00:09:55.85
Bradley Palermo
It's like, I mean, it is a pretty funny gimmick. i don't I don't know anything about what's real or what's fake about her creative control, but what's presented to me is like this.
00:10:03.98
AA RON
Why does it matter? You know?
00:10:05.48
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:10:06.15
AA RON
Yeah.
00:10:06.24
Bradley Palermo
What's presented to me has me responding.
00:10:06.60
AA RON
She's just, yeah, I don't like her.
00:10:08.28
Bradley Palermo
So, yeah.
00:10:10.17
AA RON
Exactly. i mean, is she, she does good work in the ring.
00:10:11.13
Bradley Palermo
I'm going to,
00:10:13.42
AA RON
No one can deny that. And and her in ring work has gotten better since the first match that she had in AEW.
00:10:15.03
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:10:20.17
Bradley Palermo
She's had some pretty good ones recently, but mainly, what was it?
00:10:23.12
AA RON
Yeah.
00:10:25.10
Bradley Palermo
All these fucking pay-per-views have like similar names. Was it like Revolution I went to? That was a good match she had versus a Jamie Hayter.
00:10:32.69
AA RON
here I mean, she's had a lot of good
00:10:33.62
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:10:34.54
AA RON
one she had against Mina Shirakawa, I think.
00:10:37.41
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:10:37.67
AA RON
Wasn't that last week? Weren't you there?
00:10:39.17
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, I was there.
00:10:40.00
AA RON
I think that was pretty good, too.
00:10:40.41
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, that was good too. um We don't have to go through all of them, but Moxley versus Adam Page, like that's where we're going to get title change, I think.
00:10:50.30
AA RON
I hope so.
00:10:50.94
AA RON
i mean, i I would be disappointed. It's just hard to tell. i mean, they they're i guess the one thing that AEW is doing great right now is they're not showing their hand.
00:11:04.29
AA RON
I don't really know what's going to happen. I think... if hangman were to lose after the promo that he gave you on Wednesday, i would, as a hangman fan, I'd be like, well, I don't believe anything this guy says anymore.
00:11:12.32
Bradley Palermo
yeah right yeah yeah
00:11:17.70
AA RON
If he, if he, you know, is like, I'm going to, you're gonna have to kill me for me not to, you know, walk out there, the AEW champion, I'd feel pretty bad about hangman. So my hope is that you're right.
00:11:28.70
AA RON
That hangman, finally dethrones Moxley, we get to see the belt again. But there's also a world where he doesn't. And there's, yeah, they I think they said it's a Texas death match now.
00:11:36.51
Bradley Palermo
it's no DQ right?
00:11:40.79
Bradley Palermo
Back to the death. Yeah, and so so you're going to get all the heroes from the babyface locker room, Will Ospreay, and all these guys are going to be coming to the defense.
00:11:49.14
AA RON
I hope so, yeah so to like It'll be you know lots of interference, lots of run-ins, everything legal because it's a death match. And just as likely as hangman winning is hangman not winning.
00:12:01.61
AA RON
And there're there being this dark cloud over the end of the pay-per-view and you know, that could be the perfect time for Darby to come back or whoever is actually going to have a chance to come back, make that last little
00:12:11.77
Bradley Palermo
Right.
00:12:13.04
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:12:13.28
AA RON
I'm surprised we haven't seen Darby yet.
00:12:14.96
AA RON
He's back from Mount Everest.
00:12:16.58
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. um Is he back? Because because they were like,
00:12:19.20
AA RON
him I mean, he's not on TV yet, but he's in the States.
00:12:20.53
Bradley Palermo
he's he was he planted the flag and they were like, hope he's on next week. And people were like, you don't know how this works. You have to walk back down. It takes like months to come back.
00:12:31.78
AA RON
I'm pretty sure he's already back.
00:12:31.88
Bradley Palermo
So.
00:12:33.02
AA RON
I saw a video of him doing some dumb stunt shit.
00:12:35.93
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:12:37.56
AA RON
he's He's back, I'm pretty sure.
00:12:37.12
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:12:38.92
AA RON
And I
00:12:39.28
Bradley Palermo
We need Eddie Kingston to come back at some point.
00:12:42.72
AA RON
do you like Eddie Kingston a lot. Yeah, that'd be cool. I doubt it, but I love Eddie.
00:12:47.00
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Cool. Should we get into the rewind?
00:12:49.49
AA RON
Yeah, let's do it.
00:12:50.66
Bradley Palermo
Why don't you set us up since, hey, this one was your call, Aaron.
00:12:53.61
AA RON
Sure.
00:12:55.10
Bradley Palermo
Why don't you go ahead and set it
00:12:56.56
AA RON
Yeah. All right, so today we're talking about Halloween Havoc 1996. This was in Las Vegas, Nevada at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
00:13:05.57
AA RON
There were 10,000 people, according to Wikipedia, at this event, and seven-year-old Aaron was one of them. i went with my dad. He bought us tickets. And think this was the second wrestling show I'd ever been to. The first was A Clash of the Champions, I think, earlier that year.
00:13:22.78
AA RON
So yeah, little seven-year-old me was pretty stoked. I obviously didn't know anybody that well, but I had a lot of fun. And looking at the pay-per-view now, you know in hindsight, it's a pretty exciting time in WCW. This is just a few months after Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, formerly Razor Ramon and Diesel of WWF, had left the WWF, came to WCW as the outsiders and were essentially in storyline from the other company coming to take over. They were tired of the way things were going and they were going to change it So a few months before this pay-per-view Halloween Havoc was Bash at the Beach 1996, where
00:14:14.55
Bradley Palermo
which
00:14:17.69
Bradley Palermo
Which was 29 years ago to the date of us recording. That was ah was July recording on July
00:14:25.09
AA RON
Wow.
00:14:26.70
Bradley Palermo
two thousand and twenty five so what a weird what a weird coincidence
00:14:30.98
AA RON
Yeah, and you know in just a few short months after that, the NWO had gotten their talons into the WCW. It wasn't just Hall, Nash, and Hogan anymore. By this point, they had brought over the Giant, who you might know as The Big Show or Paul White.
00:14:49.27
AA RON
They also had the Million Dollar Man as sort of a spokesman of the group. They had Six, who was X-Pac or the 123 Kid in the WWF.
00:14:54.32
Bradley Palermo
Thank
00:14:58.68
AA RON
And yeah, the, you know, it kind of just seemed like every week on TV, there was a new member of the W or the NWO. And, So this was a very weird crowd in hindsight because they weren't super excited all the time and they were excited for some of the NWO people, but not all of them.
00:15:20.98
AA RON
It was just like very split and kind of wonky to me.
00:15:21.72
Bradley Palermo
Right.
00:15:25.93
AA RON
and For the commentary team, we had Tony Schiavone, Bobby the Brain Heenan, and the American Dream Dusty Rhodes. We occasionally had Mike Tenet. Actually, i think it was maybe just the first match that Mike Tenet was there. But first match of the night was honestly could be match of the night for me.
00:15:45.86
AA RON
Dean Malenko versus Rey Mysterio Jr. for the Cruiserweight Championship.
00:15:49.99
Bradley Palermo
I feel like this one started off hot.
00:15:52.50
AA RON
Yeah.
00:15:53.04
Bradley Palermo
it's I mean, Ray Mysterio Jr. is obviously incredible as a young guy. He's just so fast and crazy.
00:16:00.62
AA RON
Yeah.
00:16:01.31
Bradley Palermo
i don't i don't know a lot about Dean Malenko, but he was a lot of mat work. it
00:16:07.03
AA RON
Yep. Man of a thousand holds is what they call them.
00:16:07.35
Bradley Palermo
He slowed it Yeah, I think, you know, to me, he he slowed down the match at some point to a point where I was, I kind of lost some of that. When it lost some of that steam, it started to, like, bore me a little bit.
00:16:19.86
Bradley Palermo
was, like, 20-minute 20-minute match, and, like, I don't know, half of it was on on the ground, sort of.
00:16:24.48
AA RON
Yeah.
00:16:25.34
Bradley Palermo
But there was Ray somehow switched masks mid-match without revealing his face.
00:16:30.09
AA RON
Yeah, that was that was kind of an interesting thing.
00:16:30.45
Bradley Palermo
I mean...
00:16:33.74
AA RON
The story, I guess, was that Dean Malenko had stolen his mask at some point, or a mask at some point in the past, and Ray was able to get it back.
00:16:42.45
Bradley Palermo
And Ray was from build from Tijuana still back then. and Nowadays it's San Diego.
00:16:45.45
AA RON
the San Diego, yeah.
00:16:48.11
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. That was interesting.
00:16:56.52
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:16:59.34
AA RON
And once he retired, I think that's when Rey Mysterio Jr.
00:16:59.46
Bradley Palermo
Right.
00:17:02.54
AA RON
became Rey Mysterio.
00:17:03.82
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, it was like, i think his uncle, it was like M-I instead of M-Y in the spelling, but it was like a small, small spelling change and added the junior, but but yeah.
00:17:09.66
AA RON
Oh.
00:17:16.34
AA RON
So it's funny that you don't know a lot about Dean Malenko because I love Dean Malenko. feel like I feel like your boys FTR probably love Dean Malenko, too.
00:17:20.91
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:17:24.83
AA RON
He's he feels his style is very much like an FTR style.
00:17:25.14
Bradley Palermo
Probably.
00:17:28.08
AA RON
He was always a super solid technical wrestler and was always wrestling the smaller guys, the cruiserweights. I thought for us for an opening match, this was like insane how good it was.
00:17:42.22
AA RON
You know, lot of impressive stuff, like you said. For me, Malenko taking it to the mat wasn't necessarily like it wasn't as exciting for sure, but it didn't take me out of it um because I just love both of these guys so much. And we didn't get to, you know, the thing about Malenko is Malenko was never in the WWF or the w WWE. So you never really got to see him ah unless you were watching Territory Wrestling or WCW.
00:18:07.38
AA RON
And now he is a coach or an agent working for AEW.
00:18:07.29
Bradley Palermo
Right.
00:18:12.38
AA RON
So glad that his knowledge and stuff can still be passed on.
00:18:13.36
Bradley Palermo
Oh, cool.
00:18:16.18
AA RON
i just really liked seeing both those guys together in the ring. So yeah, I love the match.
00:18:21.15
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, I think one thing I like about pro wrestling versus like like like legitimate fights or whatever is that they can always keep the pace. They can always have a spot that comes up.
00:18:31.43
Bradley Palermo
And it's like people like oh, do you watch UFC or whatever? I'm like, you know, it's going to end up being like a bunch of ground control for a long time. Like kind of just give me the story kind of. So sometimes when I feel like I'm watching a fight, it's like it makes it feel, i guess, legitimate when you're doing all the groundwork.
00:18:46.32
Bradley Palermo
But, like, also, you know, i was kind of like, man, and this is going to be crazy.
00:18:46.51
AA RON
Yeah, you just got to find the balance.
00:18:50.20
Bradley Palermo
And then I was like, oh, you really slowed that shit down. But then we got to a backstage promo, Jeff Jarrett, with Ric Flair.
00:18:53.49
AA RON
Yeah.
00:18:57.74
Bradley Palermo
And, you know, we've seen Ric Flair and in various forms so far and in the 80s.
00:19:02.59
AA RON
And Jared too.
00:19:03.08
Bradley Palermo
You know, he was kind of calm and just, like, calculated in his promos. But now he's...
00:19:08.23
AA RON
Just yelling.
00:19:08.44
Bradley Palermo
He's got the full like peak coked out Mad Men energy, slobbering, wild that we're like, that we kind of associate with Ric Flair.
00:19:12.07
AA RON
but yeah
00:19:15.76
AA RON
Yeah, yeah.
00:19:16.14
Bradley Palermo
So, and Jarrett, you know, we've seen a ton of, I feel like we've seen more Jarrett lately in these old things.
00:19:21.62
AA RON
We have the last three things in a row, both WWF things and then this one.
00:19:23.95
Bradley Palermo
Oh yeah.
00:19:26.46
AA RON
So this is this is the weird thing about how you watch stuff is this is before the last two WWF pay-per-views that we watched and like in time, you know?
00:19:34.67
Bradley Palermo
Right, yeah, for sure. um And then we had, what was it, Battle for the Ring? da Diamond Dallas Page versus Eddie Guerrero.
00:19:41.92
AA RON
Yeah, yeah.
00:19:42.48
Bradley Palermo
So we we get Ray and Eddie back to play.
00:19:43.32
AA RON
i don't know what the ring part was about. I don't know what the ring part like where they're like, oh, yeah, there's some ring that Diamond Dallas Page took for Eddie Guerrero, but we've never seen it. And and this match is for the ring or whatever.
00:19:56.39
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, i don't I don't really get that either, but...
00:19:59.07
AA RON
it's just Yeah, i but you know, another good match. Yeah, we got you like you said, we got to see Rey Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero right one after the other. And I think the following year, Halloween Havoc 97, its opening match is Rey Mysterio versus Eddie Guerrero.
00:20:15.77
AA RON
And that's a super famous match too, where Rey's in the all purple onesie suit thing.
00:20:16.20
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:20:21.21
AA RON
Have you ever seen that?
00:20:23.53
Bradley Palermo
No.
00:20:23.88
AA RON
Oh, that's a good match. Yeah, you should watch that.
00:20:26.29
Bradley Palermo
So DDP rolls out or strolls out rather with a lit cigar and he's he's like a heel.
00:20:31.07
AA RON
While he's chewing gum.
00:20:32.90
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. He's cool. i like I like DDP a lot.
00:20:35.13
AA RON
I love DDP. Yeah, I liked him even back then when he was supposed to be a heel.
00:20:45.53
AA RON
huh
00:20:48.74
Bradley Palermo
like That's the kind of match I really like. I did think it was interesting, though.
00:20:51.23
AA RON
Me too.
00:20:53.15
Bradley Palermo
What'd you say?
00:20:53.82
AA RON
I just said me too. I like those matches also.
00:20:56.49
Bradley Palermo
i thought the diamond cutter finish that dd ddp did to eddie guerrero looked great and fucking jr was it no tony shivani right he's a dipshit he called it a bot on the fucking pay-per-view he's like oh he had his hands up it didn't look like he really hit him there and then it was like one two three and i'm like dude
00:21:17.76
AA RON
I got him.
00:21:19.01
Bradley Palermo
It looked great. Like, you just fucking called it a botch on your own fucking TV. I was like, this is crazy. You're a dipshit.
00:21:27.16
AA RON
It's funny. I was going to say the one thing I didn't love about the match was the diamond cutter. Like if, I mean, i I guess it's just cause I'm, it's not what I'm used to. And the, whenever I think of DDP versus Eddie Guerrero, you may have not seen this and I don't remember what pay-per-view or show it was from, but they have a match in the future after this where,
00:21:36.55
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:21:47.38
Bradley Palermo
Mm-hmm.
00:21:49.30
AA RON
DDP does like the coolest diamond cutter he's ever done against Eddie Guerrero, where he's like got him up on his shoulder and almost does like the storm breaker thing that Osprey does, but then diamond cutters him out of it.
00:21:54.05
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:22:02.66
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:22:02.89
AA RON
And so when I saw that, I was like, oh, That's this is not the match that I thought it was. Also, he was really slow with that diamond cutter. But i do. I do see what you're talking about.
00:22:13.20
AA RON
Like it was it looked super intense. It it kind of looked rough, which I guess made it more impactful.
00:22:18.28
Bradley Palermo
You just, you don't need,
00:22:20.64
Bradley Palermo
you don't need the commentary to like tell you how fake shit is. Like you need them to reinforce that what's happening is like serious and real.
00:22:24.53
AA RON
Well, yeah.
00:22:29.90
Bradley Palermo
It's like, I did. I feel like Tony Schiavone is just not the guy for this business. Like he's not good on commentary. He's good as like a twerp being interviewed or whatever, but, um, I don't know.
00:22:40.41
Bradley Palermo
Fuck that guy. So, um,
00:22:42.79
AA RON
Poor Shivani, leave him mal alone.
00:22:44.36
Bradley Palermo
He sucks, dude.
00:22:45.95
AA RON
He's fine.
00:22:47.73
Bradley Palermo
You can tell the difference, though, when it's like JR or something. He's like someone who's really good at making things feel more legitimate.
00:22:51.93
AA RON
Yeah, when someone's really locked in, i mean, the thing is, Shivani.
00:22:53.62
Bradley Palermo
and Yeah.
00:22:57.71
AA RON
i don't know, I just he was always ah You know, like that was it. He was never like, I don't think about WCW moments and hear his voice in my head, you know, like, not like I do with JR.
00:23:08.80
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, there's there's not a lot like memorable about him to me. and like yeah Even on AEW now, he's just... You know mean?
00:23:16.08
AA RON
I don't like him on AEW right now.
00:23:16.29
Bradley Palermo
He's just kind of like, I love my life. you know It's just like, what?
00:23:19.67
AA RON
This is great guys.
00:23:19.92
Bradley Palermo
Wrestling is hilarious. Yeah, or whatever.
00:23:21.64
AA RON
Yeah. Not, not my favorite.
00:23:22.32
Bradley Palermo
youre like
00:23:24.08
AA RON
I, i
00:23:24.24
Bradley Palermo
I feel like he doesn't really... It's like he got a job, but it doesn't feel like he has...
00:23:28.89
AA RON
He has a ton of experience and knowledge that I'm sure goes very far in AEW.
00:23:29.40
Bradley Palermo
don't know.
00:23:33.89
AA RON
My personal opinion, similar to yours, is I don't think he brings a ton to the commentary table. But, you know, when i actually like him more on collision when it's when he's in charge, when he's doing play by play.
00:23:40.08
Bradley Palermo
right
00:23:49.16
AA RON
But even still, i would much rather have a Michael Cole or Ian Riccoboni.
00:23:50.26
Bradley Palermo
yeah i mean
00:23:53.46
Bradley Palermo
now that i know yeah Not that I know a lot of people that work over there, but I've heard that Tony Schiavone is very cool, very nice, very supportive.
00:24:03.15
AA RON
Yeah. Yeah.
00:24:04.54
Bradley Palermo
so
00:24:05.20
AA RON
So like you keep them around.
00:24:05.13
Bradley Palermo
But also, I've heard from some people, like i mean I know he kind of sucks a lot, but he's really cool. Yeah. um the jeff jarrett versus the giant with uh ted diviase the giant being you know big show or paul right you said earlier for a for a quick little match here what'd you think of this one
00:24:23.59
AA RON
Well, what was kind of weird and different is the way that the Giant entered the arena. and Ted DiBiase was standing...
00:24:34.60
AA RON
I guess sort of at the top of a, of a concourse, uh, out in the, in the fans and gave a little introduction.
00:24:39.26
Bradley Palermo
Thank
00:24:41.18
AA RON
And this was the same concourse that all of the NWO members would come through to enter the arena and, you know, participate in their matches. So yeah, giant walks down through the crowd. I guess, you know, they're trying to play up the fact that they're outsiders from another company who've come to take over WCW. So they don't walk through the stage and, you know, the entrance ramp like everyone else does.
00:25:07.99
AA RON
And yeah, Giant got Cheers, you know, NWO member, definitely a bad guy. Although Jeff Jarrett is a member of the Horseman, which historically hasn't ever been a babyface group.
00:25:19.88
AA RON
They've always been heels as well.
00:25:20.94
Bradley Palermo
Right.
00:25:22.05
AA RON
So yeah, I kind of one of the, this was the first match where was like, I don't know who i the viewer, am supposed to be rooting for.
00:25:29.57
Bradley Palermo
Right. I think, so NWO is salty, right? That Jeff Jarrett didn't join the NWO.
00:25:34.31
AA RON
Mm-hmm.
00:25:34.94
Bradley Palermo
That's the whole angle right here. um i thought it was kind of confusing too, because NWO are like, I guess like this tweener thing, like people buy their t-shirts, but they're like bad guys.
00:25:44.17
Bradley Palermo
But my my biggest thing was like, The Giant wearing, like, cosplaying Andre the Giant's, like, you know, once single single shoulder singlet is awful.
00:25:53.14
AA RON
Singlet, yeah.
00:25:56.04
Bradley Palermo
Like, that guy should have just been in, like, a tank and some jeans. You know, just, like, something. Something like a brawler look or or i don't know.
00:26:03.30
AA RON
Yeah.
00:26:03.64
Bradley Palermo
But, like, dressing him up like Andre the Giant from 15 years earlier was just, like, it' it's a terrible it's a terrible angle.
00:26:07.83
AA RON
I don't think that lasts for very long, if I remember correctly.
00:26:12.30
Bradley Palermo
It's like, we all know.
00:26:12.79
AA RON
I'm pretty sure in a couple months he's got the NWO shirt and jeans just like everybody else.
00:26:17.72
Bradley Palermo
Okay, yeah, well, that's what he needed. Yeah,
00:26:20.22
AA RON
Yeah. This was kind of a okay match to me.
00:26:20.81
Bradley Palermo
the
00:26:22.91
AA RON
i mean
00:26:23.90
Bradley Palermo
yeah I mean, we you know, you have Ric Flair out there. He low blows the giant disqualification.
00:26:29.59
AA RON
Yeah. So giant wins via disqualification. Then the horsemen come out and then there's a little bit of a brawl.
00:26:31.90
Bradley Palermo
right
00:26:35.31
AA RON
Just kind of felt like if I had had, if I had watched some TV leading up to this, maybe it would have been a little more impactful, but like, you know, the one thing you can say about this pay-per-view as a whole is that there really was, there was very few times where they were catching the audience up.
00:26:51.89
AA RON
to get them ready for a match that was coming. If they hadn't maybe watched, you know, a few weeks TV prior, it was just like, okay, here we go. We're in the matches, you know?
00:27:01.45
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, I mean, Ted DiBiase would kind of talk shit from the audience on behalf of the NWO, like before the NWO matches and kind of you get a little taste of what the beef is. But we had Chris Jericho versus Six next. Another WCW versus NWO. Of course, Six being NWO.
00:27:19.91
Bradley Palermo
Jericho's 1996 music is the best music he ever had. And I looked it up. And was like, who made this music? Obviously Jericho's in like the shitty, like red state rock band Fozzy, with the embarrassing like lyrics that the crowd loved to sing for years at AW when he came out.
00:27:31.45
AA RON
Yeah.
00:27:38.59
Bradley Palermo
super cringe, but this music was designed by the WCW house band. So I think that, uh, I need to look up more of what they made. Cause I actually liked Chris Jericho's music in this.
00:27:49.54
AA RON
Yeah, I mean, he's so young here, he's not even Lionheart Chris Jericho. And yeah, we had another little introduction from Ted DiBiase as Six, before Six walked down the concourse through the crowd.
00:27:53.56
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Yeah.
00:28:03.04
AA RON
This was the point in the pay-per-view that I... really started to feel the connect, like the spiritual succession of WCW into AEW.
00:28:12.77
AA RON
not Not because I'm seeing Jericho, but just the vibe of it all, the crowd, the quality of the in-ring action being very solid, the loose story threads that are there.
00:28:13.12
Bradley Palermo
yeah
00:28:23.22
AA RON
But, you know, at the time, they're not, at the same time, they're not really dictating the matches that we're seeing, right? Like they're kind of just like, okay, NWO guy, WCW guy.
00:28:30.78
Bradley Palermo
Right.
00:28:33.61
AA RON
and You know, I don't know. Based off of the way that they set it up and DiBiase set it up, like I didn't assume that Six and Jericho had been feuding on TV ahead of this match.
00:28:46.09
Bradley Palermo
right
00:28:53.63
Bradley Palermo
So who is Nick Patrick? nick Nick Patrick. It seems like the NWO has planted their own referee. He's out there with a neck brace.
00:28:59.98
AA RON
Yeah, Nick Patrick is a referee.
00:29:00.95
Bradley Palermo
He counts.
00:29:02.82
AA RON
He he was in WCW prior to the NWO, and you're you're absolutely correct.
00:29:09.41
Bradley Palermo
Okay. So he does fast counts for six and he's slow for Jericho. So I guess he's been bought by the NWO, right? that By Ted DiBiase.
00:29:16.35
AA RON
Yeah, he...
00:29:17.78
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:29:18.04
AA RON
he yeah the they tell the I feel like the thread throughout the pay-per-view is anytime you see Nick Patrick, he's a complete piece of shit and because he counts really slow for anyone who's not in the NWO and then counts a lot quicker for people that are in the NWO.
00:29:26.95
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:29:30.36
Bradley Palermo
Right.
00:29:34.25
AA RON
And I can tell you... Now, present day Aaron fucking hates this shit.
00:29:35.98
Bradley Palermo
So
00:29:39.49
AA RON
I like, this is the kind of thing.
00:29:39.87
Bradley Palermo
yeah, I hate it.
00:29:41.56
AA RON
If I was an adult in the crowd back then, i would throw shit in the ring and be like, fuck you.
00:29:46.18
Bradley Palermo
Right. The referee does not need to be like a character with a side on the thing. I mean, it's fine. you know it's fine a In we know like who Aubrey Edwards is and and like Rick Knox.
00:29:57.44
AA RON
Sure. And that's fine. We can know who they are and they can,
00:30:00.30
Bradley Palermo
But they don't they don't run around and like try to throw a match or whatever. it just Unless yeah a guest referee can do that a little bit.
00:30:06.50
AA RON
Sure, yeah. i mean this
00:30:07.43
Bradley Palermo
but But this is like ridiculous.
00:30:09.12
AA RON
I mean, this became a part of the finish of the match, and the commentators like spoke about it. And I feel like...
00:30:15.26
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, I wrote down Nick Patrick buzzkill, you know, because that's how that's how I felt about it, too.
00:30:18.20
AA RON
Yeah.
00:30:20.45
Bradley Palermo
It's just a shitty fucking way to tell a story that the referee is going to.
00:30:23.94
AA RON
and the thing But the thing is, it's like it works, right? You hate him. You fucking hate it And that's what we're supposed to feel.
00:30:28.44
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, yeah.
00:30:30.85
AA RON
We're supposed to hate it, so...
00:30:31.35
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, he's this sloppy fat fuck with a neck brace on. And when he's, he acts like his neck hurts.
00:30:37.10
AA RON
little floppy counts.
00:30:38.10
Bradley Palermo
So he can't pay. Yeah, it's so stupid. But I mean, seeing Six and Jericho at this young age, I mean, the fantastic moves, the fantastic athleticism.
00:30:51.23
AA RON
Yeah.
00:30:51.51
Bradley Palermo
It was a treat to see them to see them work until, you know, the kind of, the other forementioned Yeah.
00:30:52.07
AA RON
Another great match.
00:30:57.07
AA RON
Until Nick Patrick started fucking around.
00:31:00.40
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Lex Luger and Arne Anderson was that was the next match. And, you know, you said before that Luger, you know, was better than you maybe assumed he was or remembered him as.
00:31:12.26
AA RON
Yeah.
00:31:12.54
Bradley Palermo
And I agree. I was watching this one thinking about that. And um I feel like... he could go, he could tell a story, he could sell, you know, I mean, I know he doesn't do a lot of moves, but it's not like he's just sitting there, no selling and like standing there, they sort of blank fade, which is sort of how the story is told.
00:31:19.88
AA RON
Yeah.
00:31:30.00
Bradley Palermo
Like Luger, it's football player.
00:31:30.65
AA RON
Yeah.
00:31:32.17
Bradley Palermo
They just kind of had a big muscles, but i was like, no, he's, he did a pretty good job. And, uh, I mean, I know he's a fucking hall of famer and everything.
00:31:38.60
AA RON
I mean, I kind of feel like, you know, sometimes he stands a little too stiff.
00:31:38.78
Bradley Palermo
It's like, but
00:31:44.06
AA RON
Like, he just looks sort of out of place.
00:31:44.33
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:31:45.94
AA RON
He doesn't always look loose or comfortable.
00:31:47.69
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:31:48.44
AA RON
But, But, um yeah, this was another match where I thought to myself, man, maybe I... I don't know why I didn't give Luger the credit that he he has earned and deserves.
00:31:59.03
AA RON
Because this match was another good one. And Arne Anderson is amazing. I think this is our first...
00:32:03.71
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:32:05.68
AA RON
Arn Anderson match since starting the podcast and I've always liked him.
00:32:08.100
Bradley Palermo
I like Arne Anderson in like a, sorry, didn't mean to cut you off.
00:32:12.59
AA RON
No, you're good.
00:32:13.75
Bradley Palermo
I like Arne Anderson in the way that I like like Willie Mack and FTR and all these guys now. it's like I like them that they just look like a dude that's headbutting people in bars.
00:32:24.52
AA RON
Yeah.
00:32:24.49
Bradley Palermo
like they're strong, but they're not like, they're not like pretty boys. Like they really, you know, Arne Anderson to me is kind of that like quintessential, like rest eighties wrestler brawler type, you know, kind of, kind of looks just like cheeseburgers, beer and fight, you know, fighting.
00:32:35.02
AA RON
Yeah.
00:32:40.72
AA RON
Yeah.
00:32:41.47
Bradley Palermo
and,
00:32:41.29
AA RON
Arne's another FTR guy. FTR love Arne.
00:32:44.02
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, I really like him.
00:32:44.25
AA RON
Arne and Tully.
00:32:45.10
Bradley Palermo
I like that kind of wrestler. i like i just like those big like scary farm boy fucking grapple guys. um yeah, Arn was cool. It's cool to see him versus Luger. Two very different looks. Luger obviously is the muscly pretty boy and um this was luger had a little promo before this one where i guess the big issue was arn arn questioned his intestinal fortitude which i just thought it was a funny thing to be repeating over and over again
00:33:07.97
AA RON
huh
00:33:10.76
AA RON
yeah i thought the same thing i was like what does that really even mean does that mean like how how well how well you poop yeah okay
00:33:11.31
Bradley Palermo
yes
00:33:15.68
Bradley Palermo
you don't have the guts You can't stomach it. Yeah. I mean, intestinal fortitude, it did seem like, yeah. How solid is your turd? I don't know, but ah it it sounded funny, but I guess it's a thing people say.
00:33:26.70
AA RON
it's this it was funny Well, they you know, this match actually had a little bit of backstory.
00:33:32.77
AA RON
It's they they told us on commentary that Arne had hit Luger in the back with a chair a couple weeks prior. And so, you know, Luger was was mad, which again, i'm like, that's so an AEW storyline, like somebody attacked me and now I now I'm going to wrestle
00:33:46.01
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:33:47.64
AA RON
Yeah.
00:33:48.71
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. But Luger got Arne in that torture rack and that was it.
00:33:50.46
AA RON
agree
00:33:52.91
AA RON
He did, but but not before Dusty Rhodes told some sort of story with the phrase bula bula in it.
00:33:53.25
Bradley Palermo
He tapped him out.
00:33:58.91
AA RON
Did you did you hear that?
00:34:00.55
Bradley Palermo
He kept talking about Bula Bula.
00:34:00.86
AA RON
you remember that?
00:34:01.95
Bradley Palermo
and he's like, so that's what I'll say.
00:34:02.15
AA RON
Bula bula.
00:34:03.07
Bradley Palermo
is I'll say when they say this, I'll say Bula Bula. Dusty Rose was almost, he's awesome, but he was almost not there on commentary.
00:34:05.90
AA RON
I love Dusty.
00:34:09.47
Bradley Palermo
Like he just, you don't hear his voice for like a couple matches. and then he comes and starts talking about Bula Bula. I'm like,
00:34:15.35
AA RON
He takes a break. He needs to needs to take a little rest and recuperation, if you will.
00:34:20.77
Bradley Palermo
that's a good Dusty Rose. I like it.
00:34:22.65
AA RON
He says, if you will, a lot in this pay-per-view, and it made me laugh.
00:34:24.88
Bradley Palermo
If you will.
00:34:26.96
AA RON
Sometimes it fits, sometimes it didn't.
00:34:26.93
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, I was surprised. I thought I was going to get more from him, but he he's he's great, yeah. i would i wish i I wouldn't mind if he sort of kicked Schiavone off to the side and he did the play-by-play. It would be great. His voice is hilarious.
00:34:42.16
AA RON
Yeah, and you know what? This is a match where I actually felt like I knew who i was supposed to be rooting for because Luger got cheers when Luger you know fired up.
00:34:51.50
Bradley Palermo
yeah
00:34:52.53
AA RON
The crowd was on his side. I don't. Arne wasn't getting actively booed heavily, but I was like, OK, cool. I know who I'm rooting for here. i guess The same is true about the last match. You were rooting for Jericho over six, I think.
00:35:05.32
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:35:05.44
AA RON
But that's the thing. Everyone was cheering six. you know, because he's a WWF guy that came over. So aren't spinebuster, I will say is always absolute perfection.
00:35:16.40
AA RON
And anybody who tries a spinebuster nowadays is probably looking at aren't because his always look good.
00:35:23.09
Bradley Palermo
All right. So we go to faces of fear, which is how do you say this? to Ming? Meng?
00:35:28.70
AA RON
Ming, yeah.
00:35:30.11
Bradley Palermo
Faces of Fear, Ming and Barbarian versus Horseman, Benoit and Mongo.
00:35:35.59
AA RON
Yep.
00:35:36.62
Bradley Palermo
So, yeah. yeah
00:35:39.03
AA RON
The crowd was a kind of tame on this
00:35:39.18
Bradley Palermo
I don't know what to say about this one.
00:35:41.40
AA RON
The Faces of Fear did a cool tag team powerbomb on Benoit from the top rope. And this, you know, was definitely a very brutal match.
00:35:51.86
Bradley Palermo
Oh.
00:35:52.21
AA RON
Ming is also known as Haku in the WWF. What were going to say?
00:35:56.85
Bradley Palermo
was that when Benoit took a super, superplex toss off the top rope at one point, which, I mean, like, I don't see that very much.
00:36:01.95
AA RON
Is that what it was? yeah A superplex toss into a powerbomb. I think, I think that's what it was.
00:36:08.49
Bradley Palermo
Like it's super flex position, but he, you know, while they're, well, while they're in the air perpendicular to the mat, he just flies through the fucking flies off the guy's shoulders.
00:36:18.59
Bradley Palermo
Like like you what the fuck, dude, that was cool.
00:36:19.06
AA RON
Yeah. Yeah. That was pretty wild. Yeah. And the crowd definitely like came up for that.
00:36:21.93
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:36:24.62
Bradley Palermo
yeah that was the thing that was the best part of us from this one this one
00:36:28.39
AA RON
Yeah, I mean, there was a there was a moment where Barbarian chucked Benoit backwards from the top rope. And he flew real far, like almost across the entire ring.
00:36:39.55
AA RON
um um And yeah, i Ming or Haku, as some people know him, is ah infamous in wrestling.
00:36:40.80
Bradley Palermo
yeah
00:36:47.36
AA RON
And many, many wrestlers have gone on record to say that he's probably the scariest and most imposing guy like ever.
00:36:57.24
AA RON
Has the reputation of being the toughest guy legitimate fighter that has ever existed. and And I did a little bit of research and I've heard I've heard about this before, but We can now officially tell the story that on March 3rd of 1989, Haku Ming got into an altercation with some men at a Baltimore airport bar who called wrestling fake.
00:37:19.58
AA RON
And during the fight, Haku bit off the nose of one of the men. That is real and verified.
00:37:24.11
Bradley Palermo
Hmm.
00:37:30.78
Bradley Palermo
He's still with his wife that he married in 77. The The year that punk broke and Elvis died. All right, learning all kinds of stuff about Haku.
00:37:40.69
AA RON
Haku's the man, dude.
00:37:42.17
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:37:42.41
AA RON
He, uh, I, I remember what was it that there was a dark side of the ring recently where they showed him that botched, uh, shock master intro, you know, the storm trooper helmet with the rhinestones and he had never seen it before.
00:37:53.90
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:37:56.87
AA RON
And he's just lap belly laughing for like a minute and straight. So funny. Love Haku. Anyway, back to the match.
00:38:03.07
Bradley Palermo
so yeah there was a bunch of bullshit with like you have like conan and kevin sullivan and jimmy hart they're all sitting in the in the audience kevin sullivan was the booker of wcw at this point so he's kind of the guy that's in charge of all this uh chaos
00:38:10.99
AA RON
Yeah, the the Conan.
00:38:21.00
AA RON
Is he booking in 1996? Really? It's not Bischoff yet?
00:38:23.35
Bradley Palermo
yeah is bischoff is overseeing the whole thing but the head booker is sullivan under bischoff yeah
00:38:27.66
AA RON
a
00:38:32.01
AA RON
Okay. Oh, yeah, because you just read that book, so you would know. Yeah, Sullivan, Conan, and I think it was Big Boss Man, but I don't think his name was Big Boss Man. They were they're referred to as Dungeon of Doom.
00:38:43.40
AA RON
And yeah, they interfered.
00:38:43.34
Bradley Palermo
yeah
00:38:45.12
AA RON
I think it was after the match. The match finished with Steve Mongo McMichael using his Halliburton briefcase on Ming. And Benoit won with a pin after his flying headbutt.
00:38:57.16
AA RON
Then Conan, Boss Man, Kevin Sullivan come in, start attacking.
00:38:58.22
Bradley Palermo
Okay.
00:39:01.08
AA RON
It's just a bunch of chaos.
00:39:01.71
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:39:02.18
AA RON
The horsemen show up.
00:39:02.43
Bradley Palermo
Post match stuff. Yeah.
00:39:03.95
AA RON
Yeah. And then we had another WCW versus NWO match. We got a little promo backstage with Harlem Heat.
00:39:13.82
AA RON
What do they call her? Sister Sherry and Colonel Parker. And then we got another little intro from Ted DiBiase for the Outsiders.
00:39:17.20
Bradley Palermo
Hmm.
00:39:22.61
AA RON
Hall and Nash. against Harlem Heat for the WCW Tag Team Championships. Right at the beginning of the match, Diesel and Razor chants from the crowd before the bell rings.
00:39:32.66
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:39:33.33
AA RON
I actually do remember being in the crowd for this match and participating in those chants.
00:39:39.03
Bradley Palermo
Oh, that's cool.
00:39:41.16
AA RON
And yeah, so like this is the this is the thing, right? NWO, looking back now, are clearly the heels, but they're the cool heels. So they're all getting the cheers. Hall and Nash were pretty much exclusively getting cheered from the moment that they showed up as the outsiders up until the point that everyone was tired of the NWO years later.
00:40:03.91
AA RON
very slowly paced. They took their time. They were creating moments and letting things breathe. um But again, like based off of what's happening inside the match, like the moves and who has control over the match, I couldn't really tell who the baby faces and who the heels were. They were both kind of being heel tag teams, you know?
00:40:23.92
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, I wasn't really watching this as like wanting one to win more than the other. I was kind of more interested in like how Hall and Nash looked in the ring, how they worked together.
00:40:33.27
AA RON
sir
00:40:38.24
Bradley Palermo
there.
00:40:39.32
AA RON
Yeah.
00:40:40.64
Bradley Palermo
Nash doesn't do a lot. He's big and kind of throw throws a punch and is kind of imposing, does a choke slam whatever.
00:40:44.96
AA RON
He's like seven feet tall. Yeah. I mean, it's.
00:40:48.91
Bradley Palermo
but He's a man of a few few moves, which doesn't ever really matter to me.
00:40:52.04
AA RON
Mm hmm.
00:40:54.21
Bradley Palermo
I mean, I'm more interested in the pomp and circumstance, the characters, the storytelling.
00:40:59.82
AA RON
Yeah.
00:40:59.73
Bradley Palermo
But I am kind of interested, like at least when I watch this, like what are these guys like really doing in there? I see that Hall does some crazy shit. like He can move He can move fast he does you know, all kinds of, he does, he does more of the spots.
00:41:15.20
AA RON
Takes a lot of bumps.
00:41:16.73
Bradley Palermo
and then when you watch Harlem heat, like, um, what, what are the two guys' names again?
00:41:16.04
AA RON
Yeah. Yeah.
00:41:20.77
Bradley Palermo
I when i wrote them down here.
00:41:21.79
AA RON
Booker T and Stevie Ray.
00:41:23.55
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. So Stevie Ray doesn't really do that much. Booker T is like doing all the action.
00:41:27.65
AA RON
and
00:41:27.62
Bradley Palermo
Stevie Ray is kind of like, you know, you know, it's kind of like the dead weight a little bit. So I was, so yeah,
00:41:34.51
AA RON
Well, you could tell who became the single star, you know, out of Harlem Heat, Booker T.
00:41:37.74
Bradley Palermo
And they were real brothers, right? Real brothers.
00:41:39.45
AA RON
They are real brothers. Yeah.
00:41:40.95
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:41:41.45
AA RON
Yeah.
00:41:41.77
AA RON
And Booker T obviously went on to be very successful as a, as a singles wrestler and Stevie Ray did not. So I think we have our answer.
00:41:49.61
Bradley Palermo
It's unclear why did they had band-aids on both their noses. Did someone like walk up to both of them and like got one of them with his left hand and one of them with his right hand, like double punch?
00:41:57.52
AA RON
I don't know. It's probably just part of the outfit. It wasn't, they weren't band-aids. They're like the things that you put on your nose so that you can breathe better. So, your you know, your nostrils flared up or whatever.
00:42:06.18
Bradley Palermo
Oh, well, with their brothers, maybe they have the same genetic disposition, the some nasal cavities.
00:42:10.63
AA RON
ah The The same breathing problems.
00:42:12.69
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:42:13.95
AA RON
You know,
00:42:14.37
Bradley Palermo
Deviated septums or whatever.
00:42:16.34
AA RON
This, although i enjoyed seeing everyone in this match, like Hall and Nash as a tag team, Harlem Heat as a tag team, this was a terrible finish.
00:42:26.20
AA RON
I mean, the the the
00:42:26.49
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:42:28.45
AA RON
Basically what happened was I think someone from Harlem heat, Booker T did a move on Scott Hall from the top rope and Stevie Ray went to cover him, but Booker T wasn't the legal man. And the ref was just standing with his back turned to Scott Hall and Stevie Ray trying to get Booker T out of the ring while Stevie Ray is pinning Scott Hall.
00:42:50.33
AA RON
And he just ignores like he just like completely keeps his back to the action for what seems like 25 seconds. And then Nash takes
00:42:59.86
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:43:01.74
AA RON
Colonel Parker's cane and hit Stevie Ray with it a couple of times and Hall covers him. The ref finally starts to pay attention to what's happening behind him. Counts the one, two, three, Hall and Nash are the tag champs. I mean, what the fuck?
00:43:16.16
AA RON
That is just so lazy and dumb.
00:43:18.73
Bradley Palermo
There was another dumb thing there where like Hall like basically sexually assaults Sherry, sticks his tongue in her throat.
00:43:19.23
AA RON
go ahead.
00:43:24.95
AA RON
Oh yeah. Yeah.
00:43:26.04
Bradley Palermo
She gets kissed against her will.
00:43:26.42
AA RON
Yeah.
00:43:27.48
Bradley Palermo
There was like all kinds of weird shit. yeah But that's new champs. they They switched the belts on that one. Harlem Heat were the champions. Now Hall and Nash are. um I feel like a disappointing thing about the NWO era is...
00:43:36.18
AA RON
And then.
00:43:40.24
Bradley Palermo
they just fucking always win. And I think that was a trend that just goes through the whole.
00:43:42.51
AA RON
Yeah. Well, it does. i mean, in in the beginning, it kind of makes sense, right? Because they're trying to tell the story that Hogan is the puppet master.
00:43:52.24
AA RON
He's in control of the company. He's, you know, manipulating everything.
00:43:55.42
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:43:56.91
AA RON
And the Nick Patrick thing plays into that too. He's got a, he's bought a ref, this and that, and the other thing. So like,
00:44:03.38
Bradley Palermo
Right.
00:44:04.36
AA RON
In one sense, it does fit the story that they are taking over, they're being corrupt, they're doing bad things. But as you said, they continue to win so consistently for the next three or four years that it becomes a little exhausting. And you know they had that moment, I think...
00:44:25.17
AA RON
December of 97 for Starrcade sting versus Hogan, where they had set it all up where sting was actually going to beat him. They were finally going to lose. It was going to be a big deal. And then it all got messed up for whatever the real reason was.
00:44:36.41
AA RON
We'll never know. But yeah, it's, it's, it's something that, you know, this is a this was a really fascinating watch because people talk about this time as being so incredible and, Oh my God, it was the best and dah, dah, dah, dah.
00:44:37.99
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:44:50.43
AA RON
And I watch it now and I'm like, Yeah, all right. It was fine. You know, like it's cool.
00:44:53.96
Bradley Palermo
yeah
00:44:54.87
AA RON
I guess it was one of those things kind of like how I think I felt watching ECW Barely Legal, where when you watch it 30 years in the past, you're like, yeah, okay, I could see how that was...
00:45:06.99
AA RON
Innovative and different at the time, but now I've seen so much stuff since then that took the best parts of that and then made it better that looking back now, I'm like, yeah, that was cool.
00:45:11.39
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:45:15.92
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:45:17.63
AA RON
I mean, like NWO is still dope and I'll i'll rep an NWO shirt, but I don't I'm not like, oh, my God, you know, that was an incredible pay-per-view.
00:45:24.92
Bradley Palermo
It's Yeah, no, I agree. I think when I was watching this, you know, like this is a turning point and I'm interested in sort of the history of wrestling. And obviously this is kind of taking WCW from their sort of minor league TV status, oh you know, ramping them up to be like the the big show.
00:45:44.09
Bradley Palermo
And... But yeah, it's not that good. Like, it's just... It's not like it makes way more sense than like AEW does now when their shit's not making sense.
00:45:53.72
Bradley Palermo
It's not like...
00:45:54.21
AA RON
her
00:45:54.89
Bradley Palermo
It seems like everyone's on this always on the same page. It's not... It's not like the matches are always good. It's not like... things have changed that much. It's just, we romanticize like the past.
00:46:04.42
Bradley Palermo
Like there's a lot of bullshit in here too, especially as we get to the main event that we're about to talk
00:46:08.25
AA RON
yeah
00:46:09.30
Bradley Palermo
but first we had a promo with Hollywood Hogan in the crowd. He's, he's looked like he's lost some weight and he's like, he's, he's, I mean, he's got muscles, but he's, he's less bulky.
00:46:19.43
AA RON
Yeah, he'd he'd been filming.
00:46:19.52
Bradley Palermo
He's got ah the the spray painted, Big gold belt, of course, with the NWO spray painted on it. um He's got this terrible, like 90s spiky hair that comes into play later in the match.
00:46:29.92
Bradley Palermo
He's not bald for the first time since he's been like 14.
00:46:30.17
AA RON
My God, dude, it was insane. i saw that.
00:46:34.23
Bradley Palermo
He's not bald.
00:46:35.26
AA RON
I was like, what is that hair, dude?
00:46:38.23
Bradley Palermo
And then he's doing a movie plug for some something no one remembers.
00:46:42.02
AA RON
Yeah, he was in a Three Ninjas movie that I definitely saw as a kid, and he had that stupid hair in there, too.
00:46:41.96
Bradley Palermo
Okay.
00:46:45.74
Bradley Palermo
okay Yeah, he's in full douche mode with the giant, Diviassi.
00:46:48.26
AA RON
And then, yeah, the other movie,
00:46:51.88
Bradley Palermo
Virgil's hanging around. Virgil's
00:46:53.85
AA RON
Bobby the Brain was like, he must have used half a gallon of Rogaine. Yeah.
00:46:57.75
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. You know, Bobby bobby the Brain doesn't have the same spark in WCW that he did in WWF.
00:47:02.82
AA RON
Yeah. Yeah.
00:47:05.48
Bradley Palermo
He doesn't say quite as much. doesn't seem Him Gorilla always seem to have like a great fucking time, but he's just... I don't know. i don't know the i guess the commentary was a little off for me compared to some other things we watch, but...
00:47:16.46
Bradley Palermo
Let me get to the World Heavyweight Championship. So Hogan, obviously the champion versus Randy, the Macho Man Savage, or as I prefer to say it, the Macho Man Randy Savage.
00:47:26.03
AA RON
hurt
00:47:26.93
Bradley Palermo
This was an interesting... Okay, so so this whole thing is sponsored by Slim Jim. It's it's actually... The official title is Slim Jim's Halloween Havoc 96. slim gyms halloween havoc ninety six um savage comes out in a full slim jim themed outfit that says snap into it fucking slim jim monster truck rolls in the slim jim monster truck is wearing a macho man hat it's got a fucking hat the size of a monster truck on top of a monster truck yes right and then oh and somebody won the fucking somebody won the monster truck right like
00:47:42.00
AA RON
who
00:47:49.35
AA RON
It is. it's not It's not street legal though. They made sure to point that out.
00:48:00.56
AA RON
Yeah. but They won a a ah a, a normal street legal version of it. Yes.
00:48:04.83
Bradley Palermo
okay
00:48:05.57
AA RON
That was in the beginning of the show. Yeah. Macho man announced the winner of, of a slim Jim monster truck.
00:48:12.51
Bradley Palermo
Yes. Oh.
00:48:14.35
AA RON
Oh, you forgot to mention they had Michael Buffer announce the main event, which is the thing that WCW like to do. that the The let's get ready to rumble guy.
00:48:24.16
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, didn't he not did he not say that? But he had another...
00:48:26.67
AA RON
did. No, he did.
00:48:27.87
Bradley Palermo
oh oh the beginning they were like, for the millions at home and the thousands.
00:48:31.36
AA RON
Yeah.
00:48:31.98
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Yeah.
00:48:32.81
AA RON
Yeah, he did do that.
00:48:33.77
AA RON
It was just, it was kind of a weird, he said it at a weird time because Hogan's music was still playing. And normally they do that kind of stuff either before the entrances start or after they're already in the ring. So it was a little, they kind of botched it a little bit.
00:48:48.96
Bradley Palermo
Yes. So.
00:48:50.17
AA RON
My God, dude, Hogan was a coward in this match. The first five minutes of this match, certainly achieved the goal that I assume they were trying to achieve of making me hate Hogan, because every single time Macho Man is ready to do anything, Hogan either rolls out of the ring, goes between the ropes.
00:49:01.19
Bradley Palermo
yes
00:49:09.17
AA RON
And i said, I said, this is so dumb. Why is Macho Man not doing anything? That was, I think, the thing that bothered me the most is like, you're telling me that he's mad, he that he's been harassed by Hogan for weeks.
00:49:20.68
AA RON
And he's so emotional that he might lose control, and yet he's not doing anything to Hogan for five minutes. Like, what is this shit?
00:49:26.58
Bradley Palermo
ah ah this was This was a match where i I just sat there because, you know, there's nothing really happening in this.
00:49:32.30
AA RON
No.
00:49:32.35
Bradley Palermo
And I just wrote down, i was like, I'm going to write down everything that Hogan does because I want to see, you know, we always talk about Hogan sucks in the ring in this 15 minute and 47 second match. Like, what does Hogan do? Now, I only wrote down his offensive moves, so not his selling or his bumps that he took.
00:49:49.64
AA RON
Mm-hmm.
00:49:49.100
Bradley Palermo
but there wasn't a whole lot of that either. But here's here's what it is. It's it's like 22 things. He does a headlock. He does a shoulder block takedown. He kicks. He rubs Macho Man's face on the mat.
00:50:00.04
Bradley Palermo
He punches Macho Man, slams Macho Man's head to the turnbuckle, chops him once, clotheslines him once, shoves him twice, punches him once, hits him with the chair twice,
00:50:20.62
Bradley Palermo
So he just did with a couple punches. I mean, there's like nothing happening there.
00:50:22.72
AA RON
yeah
00:50:24.35
Bradley Palermo
That's probably the only time I'm going to sit there and write down everything someone does in a match. But I feel good now that I now that i actually have that visual aid. Like it's headlocks, shoulder blocks, kicks, punches, stomps.
00:50:35.47
Bradley Palermo
That's it, you know? um
00:50:36.99
AA RON
And again...
00:50:36.100
Bradley Palermo
you
00:50:37.90
AA RON
Like not what he always did. he did more, like he didn't spend his entire career doing nothing. I think it was just at this point he's old and he's a heel and his, the whole shtick of Hollywood Hogan is he's above everything. He's above everyone.
00:50:53.33
AA RON
he has all the power. I, I understood why what I was seeing was happening, but I i i didn't like it. And then i also felt like I went past the point of not liking it the amount that they wanted me to dislike it.
00:51:07.46
AA RON
It was like I am actively not enjoying this because there is nothing happening and.
00:51:14.02
Bradley Palermo
And you're your your main event is a fucking, you know, WrestleMania V main event. Like, it's tired.
00:51:20.76
AA RON
hmm.
00:51:21.51
Bradley Palermo
These two guys going after each other. Not to mention the four or five pay-per-views between WrestleMania V and this where was Macho Man and Hogan or on the same side or opposite of each other. It's like, it's not that cool to me to, like, regurgitate old shit from another company.
00:51:32.07
AA RON
Yeah.
00:51:37.52
Bradley Palermo
I don't know, like...
00:51:38.26
AA RON
I think it would have been fine if the match was actually interesting and not boring and stupid.
00:51:42.73
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:51:44.35
AA RON
I mean, like, okay, I will say, the toupee spot was dope.
00:51:44.92
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:51:49.12
AA RON
I take back my anger at the at the hair. the hair I was like, what the fuck is he wearing? how That is not his real hair. And then later in the match, Macho Man actually ripped it off his head, and that was...
00:51:58.37
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, I was really confused.
00:52:03.45
AA RON
That was great. I was like, oh, okay. I see what you did there.
00:52:05.16
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, I was i was like thinking, like there's no way he didn't get a hair transplant because it's like it's like you see him bald after that.
00:52:05.73
AA RON
All right. I popped for that.
00:52:10.77
AA RON
all Right.
00:52:13.87
Bradley Palermo
And then it's like, there's no sometimes when you when you you're losing your hair, you can cut it short. And it's not quite as obvious because it's not all pulling down on your bald, shiny head.
00:52:20.24
AA RON
Sure. Or you just do some magic, you know, whatever.
00:52:23.24
Bradley Palermo
And I was like like, this is before Topics existed.
00:52:23.78
AA RON
Yeah.
00:52:26.13
Bradley Palermo
So you can't really mask it with powders.
00:52:27.48
AA RON
Yeah. yeah
00:52:28.75
Bradley Palermo
And I'm like, I'm like, did did his short hair really? I'm like, no fucking way. And so I was kind of, that was, that was the one thing that had me interested also. I like, what's going on with this fucking guy's hair? And then, yeah, when he pulled it off, it was, I mean, that was good and good on Hogan for letting himself be a little humiliated about, about that, you know?
00:52:39.11
AA RON
Yeah.
00:52:44.74
AA RON
Yeah. Yeah. I give him props for that.
00:52:47.34
AA RON
But, you know, for for right after the or several minutes after that moment, I get annoyed again because. there They do these this chair spot thing that makes no sense to me either.
00:52:57.62
AA RON
Macho Man has a chair, hits Hogan in full view of the referee, and the referee just looks at it, doesn't do anything.
00:53:02.03
Bradley Palermo
Right.
00:53:05.27
AA RON
But then when Macho Man's going to do it a second time, then the referee grabs the chair,
00:53:09.70
Bradley Palermo
yeah
00:53:09.96
AA RON
And it suddenly becomes a big deal. And then Hogan, like, you know, hits him with something cheap and then does those two chair shots that you said, one of which the ref sees and does nothing about. And the second one, which the ref does not see. But i was like, well, what?
00:53:24.82
AA RON
What's the point of that too? Like why we didn't need macho man to hit Hogan with a chair shot. You just needed Hogan to hit macho man with a chair shot, not in view of the referee.
00:53:35.55
AA RON
That's like, that's, that's all that that needed.
00:53:37.14
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:53:37.87
AA RON
If you want the crowd to be pissed off at Hogan, it just didn't, it was just extra for no reason.
00:53:38.51
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:53:40.83
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:53:43.40
Bradley Palermo
You know, elizabeth Elizabeth came back speaking of, you know, old shit from WWF, like that was also, I think to me, it's not like you can't give her a job, but you get, you put her with the same workers.
00:53:55.10
Bradley Palermo
You put her with her husband that she's been divorced for four years from and, and and it's at an angle,
00:53:58.77
AA RON
Right, and had had like domestic abuse problems with.
00:54:02.18
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, it's like you are just saying well what worked say seven years ago or or whatever and um doing it again. that i guess that's the thing I don't like about Bischoff. I feel like that's a lot of what it is. It's like, well, you know they're not as young, they're not as good as they were, but I'm just going to do what you did.
00:54:21.26
Bradley Palermo
And you know there was nowhere to go with that.
00:54:22.15
AA RON
Yeah, that's that that's the stuff that never really amounted to much. It was all of the new and different stuff that made WCW exciting. And I think, you know, despite the fact that this is already in the 83 weeks that WCW was beating WWF in the ratings, this is not really like, I don't know. I mean, I look back on this and I'm like, yeah, there's some cool stuff, but like,
00:54:45.42
AA RON
so I'm already sick of Hogan. I think I wrote, Hogan is the corniest motherfucker ever and adult me hates it.
00:54:53.58
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:54:54.21
AA RON
and mike I'm just so fed up but with it. I'm like, this is nothing about this is exciting at all. I guess all I really wanted was just for Hogan to get his ass kicked.
00:55:04.57
AA RON
And that barely even happens in this 20-minute match.
00:55:07.45
Bradley Palermo
And like the ref doesn't count Savage's pin because he's that same fucking Nick Patrick guy You know, he's, he's, he's fiddling around with his.
00:55:14.29
AA RON
This finish would be... i think there'd be riots if this finish happened in today's day and age. Yeah, so the the first referee in the match was not Nick Patrick.
00:55:20.10
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:55:23.94
AA RON
He gets knocked out by an errant puncher tackle from Hogan, and Nick Patrick saunters down the ring down to the ring with his stupid neck brace on, decides he's the referee, and then it gets really messy. Hogan gets some sort of...
00:55:40.41
AA RON
you know, uh, foreign implement from, from DBS. He tries to use it, but Elizabeth gets in the ring and takes it away. Macho man gets the advantage and slams him, hits the elbow. And then Nick Patrick is down. He's counting one, two. And then as he's about to count to three, Oh, his neck hurts so bad that he can't count anymore. And he stops counting and, um,
00:56:03.21
AA RON
Everyone's so mad in the crowd, which makes sense. I was probably mad too as a kid and and and infuriated as an adult that this is somehow passable as story.
00:56:08.52
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Yeah.
00:56:13.97
AA RON
And so he doesn't count to three.
00:56:15.70
Bradley Palermo
yeah
00:56:16.88
AA RON
And then Hogan does some stupid shit and he magically can count to three and Hogan retains.
00:56:22.20
Bradley Palermo
ah ah The NWO comes in and makes up Hogan with an ice bucket, which is kind of embarrassing and stupid. um
00:56:29.10
AA RON
Yes, it was.
00:56:29.58
Bradley Palermo
hogan cut Hogan cuts nonsense promo. And then Roddy Piper gets his WCW debut. He cuts a...
00:56:38.07
AA RON
Hell yeah.
00:56:38.80
Bradley Palermo
fiery promo claiming he's just as big of a superstar he's just as big of a Hollywood actor I would say Roddy Piper has been in some good stuff so he's much more of a of a movie star much yeah than Hulk Hogan but
00:56:48.32
AA RON
Much better Hollywood actor. Yeah.
00:56:52.14
AA RON
Much better at everything than Hogan, if we're being honest.
00:56:54.03
Bradley Palermo
Yes. And they you know tease a future showdown. um Yeah, he brought some life back into the room.
00:57:01.76
Bradley Palermo
It did seem like a weird place for a promo to like set up something else at the end of a main event.
00:57:05.46
AA RON
Mm-hmm.
00:57:07.89
Bradley Palermo
Usually, you kind of let the main events finish like simmer and make let that moment carry you to the end. But... they made the end about Roddy Piper, which I thought was an interesting choice was, um, you know, it's cool. Like, i don't think I've seen Roddy Piper in person in a ring. I mean, I know we didn't wrestle here, but I don't think I've seen him.
00:57:27.87
Bradley Palermo
I don't think I've seen macho man, Russell Hogan. So you saw, I mean, a lot of, a lot of legends, that night,
00:57:34.10
AA RON
Mm hmm.
00:57:35.30
Bradley Palermo
did well One thing Roddy Piper mentioned was that Hogan was never able to beat him. Is that true?
00:57:40.41
AA RON
Yeah.
00:57:41.39
Bradley Palermo
Did Piper win all those old matches?
00:57:41.50
AA RON
I'm not sure.
00:57:43.43
Bradley Palermo
i can't remember. I mean...
00:57:45.02
AA RON
I mean, and never a never I can't remember how many one-on-one matches they had. I would have to assume that he's referring to their singles matches, but who knows? I mean, the the commentators verified that, but they could just be saying that for the sake of the story and the show. That would be an interesting thing. he would He did say he was shooting a little bit in this promo, which I thought was kind of funny for 1996.
00:58:12.22
Bradley Palermo
To use like an inside term in the ring. Yeah.
00:58:14.42
AA RON
Yeah.
00:58:14.50
Bradley Palermo
He's shooting. Cause I mean, we all know that like shooting straight means telling it like it is, but shooting as just like a, Hey, I'm not, I'm not working. I'm shooting.
00:58:24.15
Bradley Palermo
I'm, I'm not kayfaving.
00:58:26.50
AA RON
Yeah, I'm telling I am telling the truth right now.
00:58:28.50
AA RON
And that was what he said right before he said, you know, I'm I'm just as big a star as you are. I'm a multimillionaire just like you. i really enjoyed the promo.
00:58:36.14
Bradley Palermo
yeah.
00:58:37.41
AA RON
I thought after the disgusting taste left in my mouth by the end of that main event, I was like, oh shit, Piper's coming. He's going to fuck you up. You know, like it it did.
00:58:48.43
AA RON
It did its job. What was strange, however, was the promo ran long and the pay-per-view just ended. in the middle of them talking, which is disappointing.
00:58:55.24
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:58:58.44
Bradley Palermo
So let's do the grapple grade where we we do fast forward, play, rewind, fast forward being boo play being yay. Rewind being double yay. What'd you think on this one?
00:59:09.49
AA RON
I'm going to give this one a play. i think it's it's fun to see this era of WCW with the NWO just starting out, but it's not really required viewing.
00:59:11.18
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:59:18.80
AA RON
I think that there are some really solid matches and you should watch them, but I don't think you have to watch this entire pay-per-view from start to finish. It's good, not great.
00:59:30.12
AA RON
What about you?
00:59:52.81
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.
00:59:54.45
Bradley Palermo
the nwo always kind of won so it was like it wasn't a lot interesting there for me some of it was regurgitated i would say like yeah i i was like a person interested in wrestling history i'm i'm glad i've seen i'm glad i saw it but um but it's not a whole lot to write home about
01:00:09.10
AA RON
Yeah. I feel like for me, you watch the Dean Malenko Rey Mysterio match, watch the six versus Chris Jericho match. that's probably all you need.
01:00:36.36
Bradley Palermo
All right, let's get into some listener correspondence. As always, you can contact us on IG and TikTok or whatever social media. at It's at GrappleCityPod.
01:00:48.01
Bradley Palermo
Or you can leave us a voicemail at 626-657-SLAM. Cut a promo on us. Tell us what you thought of Piper's surprise return. Watch along before the episodes and let us know if you have any thoughts, feelings, reactions.
01:01:03.100
Bradley Palermo
We always love to hear from you. i I think today I'm hearing our voicemail. going pull one of these up. We've got somebody calling in from an Iowa number.
01:01:15.11
Bradley Palermo
Let me see.
01:01:15.80
AA RON
Nice.
01:01:15.87
Bradley Palermo
what Let's see what.
01:01:17.09
AA RON
Hopefully it's not my brother talk shit.
01:01:19.37
Bradley Palermo
Is your brother in Iowa?
01:01:20.46
AA RON
No, he's in Chicago, but I think he might have an Iowa phone number.
01:01:21.55
Bradley Palermo
Okay. Oh, shit. Okay. Let me see.
01:01:41.74
AA RON
Nope. Nope.
01:01:47.18
AA RON
Oh geez.
01:01:50.83
Bradley Palermo
Damn. Hmm.
01:01:51.27
AA RON
Ouch.
01:02:09.58
AA RON
Oof.
01:02:20.73
Bradley Palermo
I'm glad I haven't.
01:02:28.50
Bradley Palermo
Hmm.
01:02:29.61
AA RON
Ouch.
01:02:42.08
AA RON
Jeez.
01:02:44.26
Bradley Palermo
Oh, wait, Dan, I have your theme song right here.
01:02:46.68
AA RON
He has a theme song? oh a
01:02:50.90
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, I'm glad I've never had a cold, hot.
01:02:51.83
AA RON
Did he send a theme song? Did he send a theme song?
01:02:54.93
Bradley Palermo
No, I just had a sound effect. I think he his theme song would have been much more grandiose.
01:02:56.95
AA RON
and Okay.
01:03:00.64
AA RON
Yeah.
01:03:01.47
Bradley Palermo
Doink the Clown, it was a great ring psychologist. I stand by that. You know, he could really fuck with your fuck with your head.
01:03:06.93
AA RON
He got you. He got you on that.
01:03:08.93
Bradley Palermo
yeah yeah, he's got our number. um So next week, we're kind of we're taking it back to summertime, and we're going to watch WCW Beach Blast which was June 20th that year in Mobile, Alabama. And You know, I haven't heard much about it.
01:03:26.58
Bradley Palermo
haven't watched this, ah ah this pay-per-view before, but I was trying to find like some interesting stuff that's like pre NWO, pre Attitude Era, like my mood's kind of like I kind of want to get a little more old school.
01:03:38.75
Bradley Palermo
I saw that Ricky Steamboat and Rick Rude have an Ironman iron man contest in this one, which is which is interesting to me. And I heard that the Sting versus Cactus Jack match is good.
01:03:49.70
Bradley Palermo
Sting versus Mick Foley.
01:03:49.60
AA RON
Nice.
01:03:51.36
Bradley Palermo
The rest of the card didn't look quite as exciting to me, but I kind of want to highlight those two matches, see what's going on. And like I know WCW did bash at the beach, but this is beach blast. So...
01:04:02.60
Bradley Palermo
and don't know. I just kind of want to dip into that. been a while since we've gone that far back. So let's see how it goes.
01:04:06.78
AA RON
Yeah, let's do it.
01:04:09.08
Bradley Palermo
do you want to close it out?
01:04:10.45
AA RON
Sure.
01:04:11.59
AA RON
Well, I guess that'll about do it on another episode of Grapple City Rewind. Thank you all for listening, and we'll catch you the cheap seats.
01:04:19.34
Bradley Palermo
Adios.
