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WWF New Generation Thread III

Just put up that whole tape. Savage/Martel is super solid and it has one of my favorite Shawn/Razor matches with Shawn breaking the toothpick over his knee
 
Lane's announcing was so far removed from his personality/wrestling character. WWF took a Midnight and Fab One and tried shoehorning him into another Mooney or Craig DeGeorge.
 
Lane was such a weird signing, especially since they seemed to wait until he retired anyway and not even getting the superior Heavenly Bodies. But, frankly, as bad as Lane was in the role, I'll take his jacked Joe Fowler over Dok Hendrix any day.
 

The commercial at 5:40 was aired all the time when I started watching as a kid. His Tatanka impression was on point, I thought.

Also, LOL at Nash turning down money.
 
Hits From the Crypt is a great video. Starts with a visibly annoyed and half-assed Luger dragging Jarrett to a bleh match but, more importantly, it has a Mabel/Bigelow match where Monsoon gets really into the MOM intro and Lane talks about how "you know the brothers in the ghetto don't like that white mohawk."
 
I loved Coliseum Video. Some tapes had great matches but almost all of them had enough stupid shit to at least be funny in a Beavis & Butt-Head kind of way.
 
Lowest drawing MSG ever for WWF. They had been hitting 10,000 for most shows in 93 and up to this:

WWF @ New York City, NY – Madison Square Garden – August 25, 1994 (4,300)
Sparky Plugg defeated Quebecer Pierre
Adam Bomb pinned Kwang with a series of clotheslines and a DDT at 9:53
The Heavenly Bodies defeated the Bushwhackers at 11:33; prior to the bout, the Bushwhackers were escorted to the ring by a fan
WWF Women’s Champion Alundra Blayze pinned Bull Nakano (w/ Luna Vachon) with a German suplex into a bridge at 8:15 after avoiding a clothesline; Nakano used Kamala’s theme song for her ring entrance; after the bout, Luna accidentally clotheslined Nakano when the champion moved out of the way
Shawn Michaels & WWF IC Champion Diesel defeated WWF Tag Team Champions the Headshrinkers via disqualification at 18:04 when Fatu assaulted both challengers with one of the title belts after Michaels brought the belt into the ring as the referee was knocked out
Jeff Jarrett & Bam Bam Bigelow defeated Mabel & Doink the Clown at 5:42 when Bigelow pinned Mabel with a clothesline after Jarrett made a blind tag
IRS defeated Tatanka in a strap match at 7:39 when Tatanka knocked IRS into the fourth and final corner
WWF World Champion Bret Hart & Razor Ramon defeated Owen Hart & Jim Neidhart at 15:14 when Bret pinned Owen after Neidhart shoved Bret as the champion had Owen in a bodyslam position with Owen falling on top and the momentum putting Bret on top
 
0:00 – Shawn Michaels & Diesel vs. Bret Hart & Undertaker – MSG, 3/17/199621:41 – Mabel vs. Pierre – MSG, 11/26/199435:03 – Undertaker vs. Mankind – Meadowlands Arena, 7/5/199656:46 – Razor Ramon vs. Jeff Jarrett – Montreal Forum, 11/21/19941:15:17 – “Stone Cold” Steve Austin vs. Undertaker – SkyDome, 6/14/1997
 
Heenan and JR are an underrated combination. Heenan was so good at pushing his buttons while not being as aggressive as a Heyman or Jesse, but it still gets some great pissy JR reactions.
 
The Golden Era is generally regarded as having ended in 1992, but I think I’ve settled on the Brain’s departure being the true final nail in the coffin.
 
Hits From The Crypt has Monsoon and Polo calling a Taker match and it's both wholesome and sad hearing Monsoon try to work in Heenan bits to see how Polo plays along. "Would you consider yourself...a broadcast journalist?"
 
The Golden Era is generally regarded as having ended in 1992, but I think I’ve settled on the Brain’s departure being the true final nail in the coffin.
I like that. Makes sense, and it tidily wraps up the era at the end of 1993.
 

Heel Bigelow helping his Summerslam opponents in a segment I have zero memories of.

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Macho and the Toddster had to put the work in to keep that Intrepid thing interesting for almost an hour. Todd calls Heenan in from time to time. Brain probably should have been there to heckle the entire thing since Yoko was mute and Fuji wasn't a wordsmith.

At least Fuji learned from Mania 9 and wasn't going to accept Luger's instant challenge. Luger yeets him and goes for it anyway
 
For me the coolest moment as a kid is Yoko just eating the forearm and being kind of inconvenienced. Slam whoever you want, your finish only kinda rocked him after months of it killing everyone else in the company dead. That is what made me want to see the match more than anything.
 
Apparently WCW was going to try and run MSG with Hogan on top in late 94 so the WWF threw a card together to run a show and MAY have put Diesel over Backlund as sort of a "Thank you" to the MSG team for not running WCW.

I'm not sure I buy the 2nd part as transitional heels as champs were fairly common for the WWF.
 
I feel like if that were true someone (especially Bret) would've said something by now. I could definitely see MSG talking to WCW as well but not being serious.
 
For me the coolest moment as a kid is Yoko just eating the forearm and being kind of inconvenienced. Slam whoever you want, your finish only kinda rocked him after months of it killing everyone else in the company dead. That is what made me want to see the match more than anything.

Reminds me of Jesse and Gorilla's exchange during Towers-Rockers at WM 5.

"I believe he irritated Akeem."
"Irritated? He decapitated him!"
 
I feel like if that were true someone (especially Bret) would've said something by now. I could definitely see MSG talking to WCW as well but not being serious.
I guess the alternative Brian Soloman mentioned would be Backlund losing it at the Rumble. It's a lot harder to book Bret out of that match, so the way it happened, with Nash being a sub and Bret getting his rematch at Rumble was better.
 
Have you ever seen the full card for that MSG show where Diesel won the belt? I don't think that could be called any kind of "thank you."
The Executioners (sub for Shawn Michaels and Diesel)
 
The Bushwhackers defeated Well Dunn
Aldo Montoya pinned Kwang at 7:03 with a hurricanrana into a roll up (Montoya’s MSG debut)
WWF IC Champion Razor Ramon pinned Jeff Jarrett with the Razor’s Edge at 20:13 after blocking a backdrop attempt; prior to the bout, Jarrett cut an in-ring promo; Jarrett initially won the match via count-out at 16:23 after sending Razor into the ringpost as the two fought on the floor; after the decision was announced, Jarrett took the mic and said he came to win the belt and wouldn’t let Razor sneak out of getting beat for it, then challenging the champion to continue the bout
Mabel pinned Quebecer Pierre with a crossbody from the middle turnbuckle at 10:01
Action Zone – 11/27/94: Diesel (sub. for Bret Hart) pinned WWF World Champion Bob Backlund in a No DQ, no count-out, no time-limit match to win the title at the 9-second mark following a boot to the midsection and a powerbomb; Diesel’s involvement in the match was not announced until WWF Superstars aired that morning; it was announced on local TV during the Nov. 5-6 weekend that Randy Savage would be the guest referee for the originally scheduled Hart vs. Backlund match but that announcement was never mentioned again
The New Headshrinkers defeated the Executioners (sub. for Shawn Michaels & Diesel) at 12:43 when Fatu scored the pin with one foot after hitting the splash off the top; a fan was the guest ring announcer for the match (the Barbarian’s MSG return after a 3-year absence)
Davey Boy Smith fought King Kong Bundy to a double count-out at 6:53, moments after Smith hit the powerslam on Bundy as the two fought on the floor (Bundy’s MSG return after a nearly 7-year absence)
The Undertaker pinned IRS with the tombstone at 8:06 after catching IRS in mid-air

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I believe Savage was gone by this show, which makes the booking of him as a ref weeks earlier surprising.
 
Having seen/heard more of 1994 Savage, man it's depressing. Dude was checked out after the Cush feud and it's a total shame. That said, that makes me wonder if they were going to run a program with Backlund at least briefly.

Summer of 94 needed Savage/Lawler at least, man. At least.
 
The Raw where Vince announced Savage was gone was on November 7th, and supposedly Randy called Vince the night before to tell him he was leaving. Or if you believe Lawler, they turned on Nitro (ten months before the premiere) and there he was.
 
Was that when Lawler debuted as an announcing because Savage left?
 
I think it actually was the first time Lawler did commentary on Raw, as previously he had just done Superstars. So he may just be remembering wrong and conflating events.

When they bring Savage out at the beginning of Summerslam and then he doesn't even announce, that's some sad shit. Treating him like a mascot. No wonder he left.
 
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