April 2, 1995! Are you ready for WrestleMania XI? Tonight we witness the showdown between Shawn Michaels and Diesel for the WWF Championship, and NFL great Lawrence Taylor steps into the squared circle with The Beast From The East, Bam Bam Bigelow! Let’s get to it!
Last year, I did reviews of the first six WrestleMania events as part of WrestleMania week. I complained a lot after that week about how bad WrestleMania V was. This year, I’m picking up where I left off, with WrestleMania VII – and the best part about it is, I don’t have to buy the individual events, I can just pull them up on the WWE Network! So, without further adieu, I review WrestleMania VII – Superstars and Stripes Forever!
Our dear friend Doc Knight of Original Stampede Wrestling needs your help. As many of you know, Doc has been wheelchair bound for the last several months after suffering a back injury. Last Sunday, two teenage punks tackled Doc and robbed him of his rent money. While we’re glad to report that friends have helped Doc pay his rent, the two suspects are still out there, and Doc wants them caught, “so no one ever has to feel the horrible, useless way this left me feeling.” So here’s where you come in. Doc is selling some one-of-a-kind Hart Family memorabilia. The money taken in by the sale of these items will be split 50/50, with half going to charity, and the other half being used as a reward for the tip that leads to the arrest of these two young punks. The items for sale, and contact info for those interested, are below.
Welcome, welcome, welcome. When the big events come, they call in the big guns. The Howard Finkel of BWF, if you will. I’m back, for my first appearance since Jan 4th. See? What’d I say about Big Time events? With superstars like Bret ‘Hitman’ Hart, Shawn Michaels, Triple H and the Undertaker appearing, you’d think it was 1997. But, it’s 2010, and we are LIVE from Phoenix, Arizona.
Tune in, after the turn, for LIVE, unedited, uncensored, and Pro-HBK coverage of WrestleMania XXVI. Oh, and a quick note for Jack Korpela. Why do you have a job?
Some NASCAR guy (note: It’s Carl Edwards) hosts RAW tonight as we witness the next chapter in the war between Bret “Hitman” Hart and Vince McMahon. What role will John Cena and Batista play? Will Edge make another RAW appearance? And who will walk out with the Unified Tag Team Championships – DX, Miz-Show, or CM Punk’s Straight Edge Society? All this and more, tonight!
Mark tonight on your calendars. Write it down somewhere and put it somewhere where you won’t lose it. Today is January 4, 2010, and as a wrestling fan, you’re in for what promises to be the biggest night in Sports Entertainment in nearly nine years. TNA Wrestling has finally decided to fire the proverbial first shot at World Wrestling Entertainment, a shot that one Vincent Kennedy McMahon will certainly do everything in his power to fight off.
Back in October, the wrestling world was in shock when Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan announced a partnership with TNA President Dixie Carter during a press conference at New York’s Madison Square Garden, a building where the McMahon family and World Wrestling Entertainment has long held a monopoly on the wrestling business. World Championship Wrestling, in it’s entire history, never held an event in the Garden. Neither had the National Wrestling Alliance. MSG was strictly McMahon territory. While TNA hasn’t held an event in the Garden, and likely won’t, just having the press conference in the house that Vince built was huge. It wasn’t as huge as the announcement that followed on TNAWrestling.com – Hulk Hogan was coming to TNA.
Speculation ran wild – no pun intended – as to when Hogan would make his TNA Debut, but during an Ultimate Fighting Championship broadcast on Spike TV, Hogan announced that on January 4th, 2010, TNA would be airing a three hour live edition of iMPACT head to head with WWE’s flagship show, RAW. TNA obviously had huge plans for tonight, but that’s not to say that the WWE hasn’t countered. Rumors originally indicated The Rock would guest host RAW, as he’d arguably been the biggest star in WWE since Hogan’s heyday, but just a few weeks ago the gossip shifted from The Rock to one Bret “Hitman” Hart when RAW Guest Host Dennis Miller indicated that he’d like to see Hart as a future guest host. Last week, McMahon confirmed Hart’s presence for this evening – his first time on a live WWE program in over a dozen years.
Hogan vs. Hart is a long time dream match for wrestling fans, and though the two have never, and given health concerns, likely will never face each other in the ring, tonight they’ll go head to head in a ratings war.
Hulk Hogan is most certainly a bigger name in the world of Sports Entertainment than Bret Hart, but will fans tune in to see him? Do enough people even know that TNA iMPACT – let alone Hulk Hogan – will be on tonight to make any sort of ratings difference?
Whether Hogan’s influence on TNA makes any kind of difference on the product remains to be seen. What changes will be made to the TNA product? What kind of effect will it have on WWE’s stranglehold on the Sports Entertainment audience? Can TNA prove themselves tonight to be a legitimate contender to the WWE throne? I guess we’ll start to find out those answers tonight, as a special 3-hour TNA iMPACT! airs tonight at 8PM EST on Spike TV against WWE RAW at 9PM EST on the USA Network.