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IT'S THE SURVIIIIVOORRRR SERRRIEEEES (Rewatch Thread)

alkeiper

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Diesel getting pinned clean in that ‘93 tag is a bit weird given the mega push to come.

That four Doinks tag is one of the most insulting wrestling matches I’ve ever watched. The heels forced to act like buffoons while the basic rules of wrestling are ignored and the faces do bad comedy.
 

King Kamala

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The Four Doinks match is my kneejerk, gut instinct choice for least favorite match of all time. Just aggravating. Hell in a Cell 2019 main event puts in a strong challenge though.

I've brought it up in another thread recently but Idk if any wrestler's stock has risen higher in a calendar year than Diesel. He went from midcard filler that was on verge of being released at the beginning of the year (if NASH shoot interviews are to be believed) to being undisputed top guy at the end. I feel like by the end of '94, people were already speculating "Uh oh! Diesel's World Title run is in trouble!" so he really ran the gamut!
 

Valeyard

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1993 Heenan is brilliant. He was on every night and his ability to put things over was so needed. It's just not fair he wasn't around to call the Bret/Owen feud.

I'm a 1993 apologist but I like this show more than I should. Main event rules.
 

JHawk

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Took a break for a nap and finished 2013. Majority of the crowd is insanely quiet for the main event and what reaction there is are Daniel Bryan chants.

It's mind boggling given all this that had Punk not walked out two months later we never would have gotten the Daniel Bryan run
 

King Kamala

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If you weren’t watching on a week to week basis, you would almost think they were purposely booking poorly to make WrestleMania XXX that much more joyous.
 

Laz

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The number of people who actually believe WWE booked Bryan like that on purpose from September through April is mind boggling.
Devil's advocate time here, but I remember the word from HHH was a bunch of "wait and see" bullshit, so maybe the idea, on paper, was to put Bryan over huge at WM30. Sure. I could potentially buy it.

But absolutely burying somebody after they just had an all-time classic main with your #1 guy of the last decade to the point where you needed to rehab them by tossing them into a hot heel faction for a few weeks and then having them turn on them without provocation or build AND THEN backing up into them going over huge (when 1/3 of that match openly said that wasn't the plan at any point until a few weeks beforehand) is so NOT the way to go about it. That was the moment a lot of people gave up any and all goodwill for the company in a creative sense, and they earned however badly AEW kicks their ass over these next few years.
 

King Kamala

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There was nothing intentional, long term, about the booking of XXX. Idk if more than a handful of matches that they had penciled in at the beginning of the year for the show actually happened. But good on them for caving into fan pressure and changing it on the fly cause two years later, they'd be stuck in their current "Look it's gonna be Triple H Vs Roman Reigns whether you like it or not dammit!" mindset.


HEY! This isn't the WrestleMania rewatch thread.
 

King Kamala

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If he wasn't absolute butt in the ring during his second WWF run, I feel like Mr. Bob Backlund could have remained a great counterprogramming heel during the Attitude Era. Imagine him feuding with Stone Cold. It's weird how quick his period of relevancy was during the New Generation era, the ascendance and quick plummet was all in five months or so.
 

BruiserBrody

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[quote author=BRODY link=topic=7317.msg606823#msg6
- Finished SS 88
- Sad to see all the dead guys on Andre's squad (Rude, Perfect, Heenan, Bravo, Frenchy)
- I was surprised to see Jake pin Rude clean as Rude was about to move up to a Warrior program.
- Hogan was the only guy who got his own entrance all night (IIRC) and came out AFTER his buddy the World champion. HOGAN WAS THE HEEL!!!!!!!
- Great booking on the teams as feuds crossed over in layers (Andre vs Jake/Duggan- Duggan/Bravo....Jake/Rude) (MegaPowers vs Dibiase...Mega Powers/Twin Towers....Dibiase/Hercules) etc
 

Valeyard

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I'm a big defender of Bret/Backlund but outside of that 1994 is awful. Everything shitty about the year on full display, right down to IRS being a key player in the main event. Show needed more clique, who I've come to realize are consistently the best part of a lot of the mid-90s shows.

1995 and 1996 are great. Breeze to get through and awesome matches around every turn. Only thing about 1996 is me pissed at young me for recording it over episodes of Thunder In Paradise.
 

King Kamala

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Is there any other example you can think of, in wrestling, where the first one is the best one? It might be this and ECW One Night Stand (although there's definitely "ECW One Night Stand II is better" weirdos).

'96 might challenge it but in terms of pure traditional "Teams of five (or four) strive to survive" cards, '87 is still tops.
 

BruiserBrody

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[quote author=BRODY link=topic=7317.msg606823#msg6
I can't recall if the SS Graham team photo ever emerged instead of that silly Muraco photoshop.

What's the best Starrcade? 86 over 83?
97 was bleh. 95 was fun but certainly not all time historic feeling. The 91-94 were mostly a waste. 90 holds a place in my heart but most of the tag tourney is not stellar. 85 is a classic as well.
 

alfdogg

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87_SUR0024-1255255547.jpg
 

Valeyard

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Only Survivor Series '95 and '96 come close to the first one for me. Solid card throughout with some great stuff happening, then a classic main event. All one could want. But the first one is the ultimate in getting your bang for a buck for star power alone, let alone every match being great.
 

snuffbox

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1988 still holds up too and the 20 man tag team match is better than the first one. But the injuries/etc and near-jobber level replacements drop it out of that 87/95/96 tier.

1990 is still my all time favorite but that's a lot different than best. '98 is still rewatchable for me.

But the '91 event annoys me a little more each year.
 

King Kamala

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'87 is really the only year they had the star power to fill up that many teams. Even just a year later, you have a lot of "What are they doing on PPV?" selections like Jim Brunzell and Scott Casey.

(They probably could have pulled it off in '85-'86 too but they didn't know how to do PPVs until WrestleMania III. They probably could have pulled off an awesome traditional Survivor Series card in the early '00s after they bought out WCW but millennials would be bored, I guess)
 

BruiserBrody

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[quote author=BRODY link=topic=7317.msg606823#msg6
‘87 had the advantage of the women taking up ten spots. Put men in there and you might actually have Outback Jack on PPV.
I think I dug through the roster a year or 2 ago for this thread and made a list of all the 87 talent not working (Dibiase, Warrior, Orton, Haynes, etc)

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@King Kamala Holidays don't besmirch Jumpin' Jim with your whore mouth!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

geniusMoment

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I really like 93 just for Heenan's commentary. You could tell he was willing to let loose a little more with his imminent departure. His lines during the Hart match are some of his best work.
 

strummer

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JYD and Muraco were both fired over behavior on a European tour a month or so before 88. Honestly I can't even recall what teams they were supposed to be on
( I think JYD was supposed to be on Warrior's team).(nope Muraco was supposed to be on Warrior's team. Dog on Duggan's) This was clearly when the roster was getting so thin that they had to replace them with job guys. I can't even remember if there were reasons given on tv for all the replacements.

Who else was supposed to be on that show? I can only remember Muraco and Dog (Brian Blair was the other)

Iirc, I wasn't even watching much of the tv during this time. I think 9 year old me was more enamored with the Mets being in the NLCS that wrestling didn't seem that important for a couple months
 
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