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!
For nearly four years now, I’ve been blogging about professional wrestling right here on BoredWrestlingFan.com. In that time, I’ve seen countless professional wrestlers pass away, but I’ve very rarely ever felt the need to get on the computer and write about it, other than maybe a “RIP So-and-so” status on my personal facebook. Today, however, I felt inspired by the passing of one Chief Jay Strongbow.
When you’re a wrestling fan for a long enough time, there are names that, whether you’d actually seen them compete or not, you know. Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Captain Lou Albano, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Ric Flair, Steve Austin, to name a few. Chief Jay Strongbow is one of those. I can’t honestly say that I’ve seen a Chief Jay Strongbow match in my life, but I know the name. I know the legacy. How big of a name in professional wrestling was Chief Jay Strongbow? Here’s a quote from the 1999 Adam Sandler film, “Big Daddy.”
“He taught me how to do the sleeper hold like Chief Jay Strongbow.”
My only real experience seeing Chief Strongbow with my own eyes was in a ceremony done on WWF Superstars with Tatanka, when Strongbow presented him a feather headdress that was destroyed a few weeks later by Irwin R. Schyster. But I’d known the name for a long, long time. Our condolences to his friends and family.
So last week’s Raw took some pretty big steps. I know. I was going through caffeine withdrawal a few weeks ago and decided it was time to go off of it again. Not sure why I did that. Even with everything, there is still a little bit of anticipation tonight. Piper’s Pit. John Morrison’s Future Endeavored Tour ends tonight. Punk-Del Rio.
I liked the build-up to the title match. Cole & Lawler made it sound important.
They introduced a skinny guy named Rowdy Roddy Piper. Piper is one of my top 5 all-time favorites (Double-A, Taker, Terry Funk, Piper & Sting). Piper brought something we haven’t seen in months. Fire and intensity. It took me a while to figure out what was going on with this promo or why it was happening. I think Piper was trying to get the people to cheer him. Cena continued being happy, smiley Cena. So Piper slapped him. Cena stopped smiling and walked off. Did we find some intensity?
Miz was supposed to fight Morrison. Miz attacked John Morrison with a lead pipe. Welcome to the last stop of the Future Endeavored Tour. Morrison got in some offense and had lots of heart. I was actually surprised this match was as good as it was. He wasn’t even pinned. The referee called the fight.
Psycho Miz cut a nice promo. He had good intensity and fire. He’s the one guy who does well with scripted material. The only problem was that I think he sounded just like Cody Rhodes.
The Bellas wrestled Kelly Kelly and Alicia Fox, the new love of my life. By the time I was done typing this sentence, Alicia pinned a Bella for… why? Beth and Nattie did a run-through that didn’t involve interfering in the match.
We got a Sheamus package. I love the video packages they do. This needs to happen more. Broadus Clay has to hold off ANOTHER week? Then Punk delivers a killer segment. Loved the Jennifer Hudson reference. Now Punk can’t get intentionally disqualified? Does this make ANY sense?
Wade Barrett walks down to the ring nicely dressed. We get Randy Orton vs. Dolph Ziggler. I’m expecting a lot out of this. This was a really good match. The crowd was really into this. Ziggler won through a little help from Wade Barrett.
Michael Cole introduced Daniel Bryan. Michael Cole was awful during this promo. Daniel Bryan spoke with a lot of passion and fire. This would have been a great segment with Josh Matthews instead of Cole.
We got Swagger (without an entrance) versus Zack Ryder. It was a nice short match. Swagger needs to go to Ring of Honor and feud with Homicide. Or Eddie Edwards. Right now I’d take just about anybody. Ryder won.
The Kane promos are awesome.
Mick Foley is now destroying every happy memory I’ve ever had of him. Then Punk says “ass.”
The main event was really good. Lots of near-falls. They were going to do the “heel pretends to be hit by a chair” and Punk fell down first.
Tonight’s Raw was pretty good. Everything seemed to be a little more serious. There was some good passion and fire here. Please tell me we are going to make John Cena not hated again. I could do without “St. Mick,” but Super Dave was only featured in one scene.
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Our Celebration of Professional Wrestling continues!
Earlier this year over at Wonderpod-Online, Bruce McGee and PatMan created a new theme of podcast for our site. PatMan and I decided to continue the series with a conversation reminiscing about our experience growing up in Calgary, the “Hart”land of the Stampede Wrestling promotion. What a perfect way for two old smarks to contribute to the ongoing festivities and celebration of professional wrestling going on at Wonderpod-Online and the Bored Wrestling Fan? (more…)
Yours truly was in attendance three weeks ago in Buffalo when they filmed crowd footage for the new RAW open. That said, I doubt I’ll have made it in to the intro, but I’ll be looking nonetheless. Tonight’s show emanates from Madison Square Garden in New York City and is guest hosted by “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, and there’s a hell of a main event in store with DX vs. JeriShow vs. John Cena and The Undertaker! We’ve got our own guest host lined up, @AlyKat_730 from the Twitterverse. Want to guest host RAW for BoredWrestlingFan? Let us know, we’re on Twitter at @BrdWrstlngFn!
I’m shocked. I just signed into twitter and saw a tweet from @wrestlingradio that said “WWE Hall of Famer “Rowdy” Roddy Piper has Terminal Cancer.” According to their article, Piper’s lymphoma has come back and it’s looking as if the WWE Hall of Famer hasn’t got much time left.
I’m at a loss for words. I’m speechless. I can’t put what I’m feeling right now into words…
Earlier today, I posted an article sourcing a wrestling-radio.com article stating that “Rowdy” Roddy Piper’s cancer had returned and that the legend hadn’t had much time left. Pro Wrestling Insider has posted a story (here) stating that rumors of Piper’s impending demise have been greatly exaggerated. He is in need of assistance at home though, he needs assistance for caregivers for Parkinson’s disease. It seems as though the wrestling-radio story had it’s origins on the same site – and likely from the very same person – that started the false rumor that Chris Benoit was dating Victoria weeks before his death. PWI’s article does state that Piper is taking time off to deal with health issues, he is not dying. We here at BoredWrestlingFan are breathing a huge sigh of relief, and I would like to personally apologize for adding to the number of sites reporting this awful rumor.
HBK takes on Vladimir Kozlov and… well… um… that’s all we know! WWE’s been putting on some decent shows lately, let’s hope this one doesn’t disappoint.
I lazily review the show – after the jump! (more…)
