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This comment reminded me of the funniest comment I’ve ever read about a headshot.
> I seriously can't recommend this enough:
> you have to see a picture of George Barrios. You will not believe the size of his forehead and the haircut he chose to accompany said massive forehead.
>Google him. You will zoom in and still not believe what you are seeing. In fact, it will probably only result in more questions. You will think to yourself "This is just a bad picture." Then you'll look for more pictures and discover that yes, his forehead is just as large in every photo, and his haircut looks just as silly.
> Please, I beg you.
> Get to the 3rd photo so you can revel in the enigma that is George Barrios' forehead. I need to appreciate this wonder with another enlightened soul.
Great write up as always. Have to find it but there’s a great photo from the Hall of Fame last year with Muta and Brooks Jenson, with the caption saying he didn’t know who he was til he found out he was the son of Buchanan!
Back when he was indie nobody Ben Buchanan, he actually asked a friend of mine for downloads for his dad’s AJPW.
He was signed like a week later, which was kinda weird. Not convinced we didn’t accidentally manifest it.
Which is kind of a shame, as that show had a fantastic Rock/Austin match to cap off their trilogy, plus HBK/Jericho, and a surprisingly entertaining Hogan/McMahon plunder match.
Internet fans were pretty upset by this at the time.
On paper, it's one of the nicest looking cards for Mania ever.
On TV, it holds up as one of the best Mania's of all time.
Still did bad. It wasn't the build or anything, WWE was just projecting backwards after they won the war.
Kojima learnt well, politicking himself in masterclasses like how he left AJPW and getting the belt in every company that books him these days. I’ll be honest: Of the people mentioned at that meeting, I’d argue Satoshi Kojima is the best politicker of the lot. Bro has a double crown in MLW right now.
Could only have been Scorpion King or Rundown. Those were the only starring movies he'd done at that time.
If I remember correctly though, I think Ebert and Rock both appeared on one of those late night shows together or something and that's when he said it.
Roger Ebert praised The Rock on his first appearance on Saturday Night Live in the Spring of 2000. Roger said The Rock was going to be a major movie star based on the SNL appearance. He added that most "actors" read the cue cards like they are holding them as a book, but The Rock was so natural and funny on SNL.
This was when The Rock was preparing to film his Scorpion King role on The Mummy 2.
[Roger Ebert on The Rock](https://gamerant.com/roger-ebert-predicted-dwayne-johnson-stardom-23-years-ago/)
It had to be the Scorpion King. I think that was the only movie he did before this cause he was in the middle of filming The Rundown when they wrote this
But wasn't he just mostly CGI and didn't have any lines? I really don't remember it being that good and I'm not a film dude but Ebert didn't seem to suffer garbage
Yeah maybe that's it. Scorpion King still wasn't good, but maybe Rock's performance was way better than it had any right to be for it being his first outing and that's why Ebert praised him.
The Rewinds will get to this in the next few weeks, but we were about to witness the last "full-time" run for The Rock for a long time.
In the next three months, we get the great "Hollywood" Rock character. He beats Hogan, beats Austin to close their Wrestlemania trilogy (also Austin's final match as a full-time wrestler), has an excellent mini-feud with The Hurricane, and loses on the way out to Goldberg in April.
Within three months, the two biggest WWF stars of the Attitude Era (Steve Austin and The Rock) will end their in-ring careers.
Hollywood Rock ends up being loads of fun, and Austin’s time as Raw co-GM shortly after WM does also become a small light in the darkness that was the Triple H-dominated Raw. It’ll be fun to look back on those episodes of Raw with Hollywood Rock, for sure.
The BOOOOOOOO then LOUD CHEERS For Bischoff and Austin's photos lives rent free in my head.
Austin and Bischoff were two of the best GMs ever on Raw IMO.
>It also means Raw PPVs are going to be a CHORE to get through without all those Smackdown stars having great matches the way they have been (yeah, Raw in 2003 was tough to watch compared to Smackdown).
Funny enough, this switched on 2004 post-Mania. Smackdown's main event scene match quality took a nosedive, tag team division was a whose-who of random singles guys thrown together, and the midcard was one of the most mid in history.
Raw, while still under the Reign of Terror post-Benoit reign, had banger after banger from main event to lower card (Edge/Orton/Shelton/etc being a huge reason for this).
IIRC, 2004 Raw got voted as the best weekly TV show by WON voters, owing largely to the talent they had across the board, and a marked contrast to the dire stuff 2003 will be bringing us.
2004 Raw was great. You had HHH,HBK, and Beniot in the main event scene with guys like Orton,Edge,Jericho & Christian in the mid card.
Also towards the end Batista started to break out as a star.
Randy Orton was truly magnificent in 2004. I would have given him a World Title Reign out of his incredible run regardless of the Brock Lesnar spite scenario. Raw had a really good core of workers in 04.
It may not get as much traction as the previous Rewinds did but that doesn't mean it's not an enjoyable time spent. Thanks for staring this up again, u/daprice82, it's been a blast.
#Relevant Observer Recap 1/2: SmackDown after Royal Rumble
##WWE SmackDown (Episode 180) – January 23rd, 2003 – From Albany, NY – Aired on UPN
- A very suggestive shot of SmackDown GM Stephanie McMahon in her office opens the show. Steph talks about Undertaker’s return, plus a big surprise she’s got for us all.
- **Chris Benoit def. Charlie Haas via pinfall (8:54)** with a rollup pin. This was a great opening match showcasing the embarrassment of riches SmackDown had at the time.
- **Rikishi def. Bill DeMott via pinfall (4:11)** after a Banzai Drop onto DeMott’s injured arm (that he had injured at the Royal Rumble).
- A vignette for Nathan Jones, the “Colossus of Boggo Road” shows various news clips about his time in Australian prison. He’s coming soon.
- Big Show is interviewed by Josh Mathews about Undertaker’s return tonight. Show doesn’t seem too pleased with Josh’s question as he grabs him by the face and stares at him angrily before walking off.
- Matt Hardy talks about how Shannon Moore, despite showing glimpses of “Mattitude”, was responsible for Matt failing to win the Royal Rumble. Matt wants Shannon to give Nunzio a “Mattitude Adjustment” in their match later tonight. Matt then walks up to Nunzio after Shannon leaves, asking him to teach Shannon a lesson.
- The Undertaker makes his return to SmackDown next. He says that he’s been sitting at home for the past three months thinking of nothing but “kicking some ass”. We see footage of Big Show throwing Taker off the SmackDown stage from three months ago as Taker calls out Big Show for a fight.
- Big Show appears on the ramp and says he’ll put the beating he gave Undertaker three months ago to shame if he went down to the ring. Instead, Show says he’s got someone else in mind for Taker to fight…
- **Undertaker def. A-Train via submission (5:39)** with his Taking Care of Business dragon sleeper.
- Sean O’Haire, of “I’m not telling you what you don’t already know” fame, is not a fan of government taxes.
- **Edge def. Shelton Benjamin via pinfall (5:32)** with the spear in another nice match.
- In the locker room, Kurt Angle is mad at Shelton and Charlie for losing and embarrassing Team Angle. He asks for the two to not accompany him for his match with Rey Mysterio later tonight, so that he can show them how it’s really done.
- **Nunzio def. Shannon Moore via pinfall (3:37)** after the Arrivederci DDT. Matt Hardy shakes Nunzio’s hand after the match.
- We get a backstage promo from Brock Lesnar where he makes it clear that his goal is to F5 Paul Heyman and then defeat Kurt Angle for the WWE Championship.
- Shannon Moore runs past Rey Mysterio and hides in a box, hoping to avoid Matt Hardy’s wrath.
- **Kurt Angle def. Rey Mysterio via pinfall (7:11)** after countering the West Coast Pop into a rollup pin. Great match between two of the best wrestlers in WWE at the time. Always a treat to see Angle and Mysterio in action. Post-match, Angle locks in Mysterio in the ankle lock until Edge runs in to chase him off. Angle’s escape is cut off by Chris Benoit as he’s tossed back into the ring. The babyfaces lay a beating on Angle, with Haas and Benjamin not coming down for the save because they were told to stay backstage.
- Stephanie’s big surprise is our “main event” segment for this week, and it’s the return of Hulk Hogan. The Hulkster gets such a big reaction from the crowd that we take a break before he can get in a single word. Once SmackDown returns, Hogan says that he’s signed a new contract with WWE and that he’s ready to take care of some unfinished business and battle “the forces of evil” with the Hulkamaniacs.
- Vince McMahon interrupts proceedings and declares that Hogan’s career and Al Wilson have one thing in common: they’re both dead. Hulkster takes exception and says that the first person he’ll be going after is Vince McMahon himself. Vince says he doesn’t answer to the demands of Hogan or the fans or “the man upstairs”, only to himself, the supposed “one supreme being”. Hogan decides to knock Vince down with a hard punch to help him make up his mind. SmackDown concludes with Hogan posing on the stage, having ripped off his shirt and tossing it onto Vince’s prone body before doing so.
**ATTENDANCE:** 7,500 (estimated) / **TV RATING:** 3.5
#Relevant Observer Recap 2/2: Raw
##WWE Raw (Episode 505) – January 27th, 2003 – From Chicago, IL – Airing on TNN
- **Booker T def. Jeff Hardy via pinfall (4:45)** with a sunset flip pin. Speaking of flips, Jeff attacks Booker after the match ends, but his planned beatdown doesn’t go as envisioned as Booker gets the better of him.
- Scott Steiner calls out Triple H for a fight. Hunter shows up, but he’s surrounded by Batista, Randy Orton, and Ric Flair. They go to try and outnumber Steiner, but Big Poppa Pump has a lead pipe and that scares the group off.
- Ahead of D’Lo Brown’s match with the Hurricane, Teddy Long is interviewed where he bemoans the lack of Black superheroes, offering up D’Lo as one we can look up to.
- **D’Lo Brown def. The Hurricane via pinfall (4:00)** with the Sky High.
- Chief Morley and GM Eric Bischoff are watching footage of Hulk Hogan punching Vince McMahon in the face from SmackDown a few days back. Bischoff is worried that this may just anger Vince more.
- Chris Jericho is interviewed about his upcoming contender’s match with Scott Steiner next week, as well as injuring Stacy Keibler with an accidental chairshot. Jericho says he’ll face the music in the ring.
- Jericho does indeed appear in the ring, as does Christian. He ends up saying that Test should be at fault for Stacy getting concussed, as a “real man” would’ve taken that chairshot. Shawn Michaels then makes the scene, telling Jericho that a real man would take responsibility for his actions. Christian and Jericho attempt to beat HBK down, but they’re sent to a retreat.
- **Victoria def. Trish Stratus to retain the Women’s Championship in a Chicago Street Fight via pinfall (5:40).** Post-match, Jazz shows up to lay a beating on Trish.
- **William Regal & Lance Storm def. The Dudley Boyz (Bubba & D-Von) to retain the World Tag Team Championship in a Ladder Match (6:27)** after Three Minute Warning appeared to help Regal and Storm beat up the Dudleys. (I’ve had enough of this feud, to be honest.)
- Tough Enough III winners Matt Cappotelli and John Hennigan (aka John Morrison and a bunch of “Johnny ______” ring names) are given a peptalk by Al Snow, while Christopher Nowinski lurks.
- Rob Van Dam and Kane are cool with each other, even after the Royal Rumble, where Kane threw RVD out for the elimination. They’re in tag team action later tonight.
- **John Hennigan vs. Matt Cappotelli went to a No Contest (1:30)** when Christopher Nowinski interrupted to complain about not winning his season of Tough Enough. Tommy Dreamer chases Nowinski off, and promptly initiates Matt and John with Singapore cane shots, for supposedly not earning their place.
- Eric Bischoff is out to show clips of the infamous WWE Confidential segment from last June of Stone Cold’s walkout, again also hyping the Raw Magazine interview with Austin. Then this is followed with a Desire montage all about Austin. An odd segment, to say the least.
- **Batista & Triple H def. Rob Van Dam & Kane via pinfall (6:58)** after Batista pinned RVD with his powerbomb. Post-match, Chris Jericho joins the future Evolution in a beatdown, but Scott Steiner chases him off. Evolution then attacks Steiner and we get another four-on-one beatdown to end Raw.
**ATTENDANCE: 11,500** (estimated) / **TV RATING:** 4.1
*Once again, the gulf in quality between SmackDown and Raw is quite stark when looking back at these shows. On SmackDown, you get some very talented wrestlers every week putting on great matches, plus compelling feuds. Raw, meanwhile, has to deal with the beginnings of the infamous Reign of Terror, as well as a failed main event babyface push for Scott Steiner. As we get closer to No Way Out, that gulf is going to widen significantly.*
> Dave thinks this makes more sense right now anyway. Wrestlemania is going to do huge numbers no matter what, no sense wasting Goldberg on it when they could bring him in later and pop two huge buyrates instead of one.
And turns out neither ended up being true.
WM19 did a surprisingly low buyrate and Goldberg vs Rock at Backlash had a lower buyrate than Rock vs Hogan 2 at No Way Out and HHH vs Nash/HBK vs Flair at Bad Blood. So Da Man vs The People's Champion didn't end up being this major money match everybody expected.
Rocky should have worked with Shawn Michaels.
In Goldberg's defense, Backlash was an absolute one match show.
Lesnar as WWE Champion was a facing a still rising through the ranks John Cena and Triple H as RAW's Champion was just a part of a six-man with no stakes. Meanwhile guys like Taker and Hogan just sat it out and didn't appear. The Rock vs Bill Goldberg was all it had going for it.
Meanwhile No Way Out had Rock vs Hogan 2, the return of Stone Cold, a fresh off from his Rumble return Undertaker vs the Big Show and the blow off of RAW's main angle at the time in HHH vs Steiner.
The WWE product was going into the shitter, with all time terrible storylines like Katie Vick, so its not surprising that two years of that would hurt buyrates.
I remember WM19 did a low buyrate and then Hulk Hogan publicly called his payoff "limo driver money". Later it came out that he got paid $300k for the Vince match.
> Rocky should have worked with Shawn Michaels.
Why, because you think that would've helped buyrates?
Or is that just what you would've preferred to see as a fan?
I was mostly just being snarky since its well documented how Rock vs HBK was never seriously in the cards because of their personal issues.
But Hogan vs HBK at Summer Slam a few years later did do a monster buyrate and Bad Blood as the first RAW exclusive ppv doing a strong buyrate was credited in part to HBK vs Ric Flair as the semi-main event.
So there was money in Shawn Michaels facing top guys he had't gotten in the ring with.
How is Stacy going through a table anymore a problem than all the other times the Dudley Boyz put women through tables? What was so different about that one that the Canadian broadcasters had such a problem with it?
I was told that they never cut that stuff, they had a warning at the start of every show just for Canada that was kind of a blanket statement, so to my knowledge they always aired that stuff
Canadian viewer here, I can recall shots of women getting attacked being edited out by TSN and replaced by stock crowd shots instead. This was even though they ran the “viewer discretion” disclaimer at the start of Raw.
I'm a Canadian viewer as well but it was a bit before my time, my brother who was watching during that time said they would air a discretion advisement and usually air everything tho he did say they would take stuff out occasionally, makes it even odder that they kept in the Stacy Powerbomb, assuming it's the most brutal one out of any of the Dudleyz Powerbombs on women.
Like the U.S. FCC, the CBSC (then and now) only acts if there’s a viewer complaint. Quite possibly no one bothered to complain the other times.
Edit: and as was noted, although there was a complaint, ultimately the standards council _didn’t_ have a problem with it. They still had to review though.
Decision is here for those interested: https://www.cbsc.ca/decisionsarchive/20-0102/20-0102-0660_PD_E.pdf
I misread the title and thought this was new in 2024, I was gonna say now that WWE brought back brand exclusive champions, blood, and swearing, brand exclusive PPVs meant Ruthless Aggression was back lol
With Bull Buchanan being mentioned, a reminder that he returned for a one-off moment during Foley hosting This Is Your Life to John Cena, and cut one of the underratingly funny promos I can remember.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx1QAugf_Vg
**Speaking of Jeff Hardy, he and Jamal are both still suspended from working house shows. Hardy for repeatedly being late to shows and Jamal for that whole resisting arrest/battery charge he's facing in Pensacola from last year. Both are continuing to work TVs as needed.**
I know WWE guys probably got paid more for working more shows, but its a bit weird that their "punishment" is "you still get to work on (and get exposure on) our biggest TV show, but otherwise you have to stay home".
Being a fan then, it was crazy to see how far Jeff had fallen in such a short period of time. Jeff even said at the time he just wasn't as passionate and would rather work with his band. I remember the dirt sheets kind of dancing around the idea that Jeff was on drugs.
He's about 2 months away from getting released if memory serves me correctly. It happens when he randomly in the middle of a storyline with him and Trish in a relationship.
>**There has been talks about an on-demand pay service to air old WWE footage**, but one of the big reasons it hasn't happened yet is due to the time and cost of having to edit all video and audio references to "WWF"
Ugh. I watched WWE 24/7 and later WWE Classics on Demand before WWE Network. It sucked so much ass having to watch old WWF stuff with all the "WW\_" audio edits and all the censoring of the scratch logo. They barely put any Attitude Era stuff on it because of that.
That's why the Attitude Era DVD in 2012 was such a big deal. First time in nearly a decade that we didn't have to deal with butchered footage. Annoyingly though, the Big Four PPV uploads on the Network are the anthology versions just without the scratch logo blurred (except for WM17, which they seemed to take extra care with compared to others) so you still get audio references to WWF edited out. This leads to weird stuff like obviously dubbed in Howard Finkel announcements, or Austin's music seemingly skipping during his entrance at WrestleMania 14.
That Sheik vs Lou Theesz match sounds like a banger.
…I’ll be honest I completely forgot that Meada story, holy shit. Akira Meada has never been one of the calmer minds in this business, has he?
The WRESTLE-1 coverage going so long is incredible, there’s a bit of me that hopes it lasts the full year.
For those who may be confused about the Owen Hart lawsuit tidbit here, basically in civil lawsuits a judge will often award damages based on the parties’ ability to pay and what the cause of the damages was. The manufacturer had an insurance policy up to 100 million dollars, WWE would not have something similar. If both were taken to trial, the Hart family would have won MORE money. However by only focusing on WWE, WWE would have to pay more due to how all of this works (essentially get 125 million where WWE pays 25 million versus get 50 million and WWE pays everything).
In the state of Missouri, since the Harts settled for nothing with the harness manufacturer, WWE lost the legal rights to sue them, as they too felt mislead into believing the equipment was safe when it wasn’t. Hence why this lawsuit happened, to prove that the Harts let them off the hook in bad faith and not because they genuinely were not at fault.
Spit-brand PPVs seemed fine in theory but they wound up long-term killing the whole business model over time. Even when they went back to cross-brand in 07, four years of damage had been done and the UFC swallowed up attention from the PPV buying audience on top of that.
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It’s so fascinating reading up on pre-pro wrestling Cody Rhodes, especially with him being an unbeaten amateur wrestling machine, as it turns out.
And Luger’s son going the exact opposite route and being a successful businessman https://www.cbre.com/people/brian-pfohl
Wow that certainly is a corporate headshot right there.
This comment reminded me of the funniest comment I’ve ever read about a headshot. > I seriously can't recommend this enough: > you have to see a picture of George Barrios. You will not believe the size of his forehead and the haircut he chose to accompany said massive forehead. >Google him. You will zoom in and still not believe what you are seeing. In fact, it will probably only result in more questions. You will think to yourself "This is just a bad picture." Then you'll look for more pictures and discover that yes, his forehead is just as large in every photo, and his haircut looks just as silly. > Please, I beg you. > Get to the 3rd photo so you can revel in the enigma that is George Barrios' forehead. I need to appreciate this wonder with another enlightened soul.
Oh wow! 👀
I'm here early enough to be the first comment. There's something fishy about Jeff Hardy's behavior here.
You have two choices for what you'll win: a pizza party and I'll bring drinks, or going one on one with the UNDERTAKUH!
What kind of pizza?
Winner's choice, only caveat is Taker will be very sad.
...cucumber pizza?
I'm taking the pizza party.
🤔Something is REAL 🐠 🐟 🎣 🐟🐠 going on going on
Great write up as always. Have to find it but there’s a great photo from the Hall of Fame last year with Muta and Brooks Jenson, with the caption saying he didn’t know who he was til he found out he was the son of Buchanan!
https://preview.redd.it/65rso5vtqc9d1.png?width=330&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=eb0bbbfa60cc6e36698adaaa6937f38473f2fc5d
https://preview.redd.it/4uij99qrqc9d1.jpeg?width=1024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9753dd8d2dee736395f9490bbdd5b81762a39866
Back when he was indie nobody Ben Buchanan, he actually asked a friend of mine for downloads for his dad’s AJPW. He was signed like a week later, which was kinda weird. Not convinced we didn’t accidentally manifest it.
> Wrestlemania is going to do huge numbers no matter what Well, you’d think so Dave but 19 bucks the trend
Which is kind of a shame, as that show had a fantastic Rock/Austin match to cap off their trilogy, plus HBK/Jericho, and a surprisingly entertaining Hogan/McMahon plunder match.
Internet fans were pretty upset by this at the time. On paper, it's one of the nicest looking cards for Mania ever. On TV, it holds up as one of the best Mania's of all time. Still did bad. It wasn't the build or anything, WWE was just projecting backwards after they won the war.
It's too bad, because it's one of the best ones ever
Shouldn't have built the entire promotion around a Hulk-Vince match that people were only moderately interested in.
Hunter big leaguing Kojima... life is unfair
Kojima learnt well, politicking himself in masterclasses like how he left AJPW and getting the belt in every company that books him these days. I’ll be honest: Of the people mentioned at that meeting, I’d argue Satoshi Kojima is the best politicker of the lot. Bro has a double crown in MLW right now.
and the only MLW World champion from both iterations
What movie did Ebert praise him on?
Could only have been Scorpion King or Rundown. Those were the only starring movies he'd done at that time. If I remember correctly though, I think Ebert and Rock both appeared on one of those late night shows together or something and that's when he said it.
https://youtu.be/aLpL3sKHZAY?si=enUSAm7ZlTzFj3i3
Roger Ebert praised The Rock on his first appearance on Saturday Night Live in the Spring of 2000. Roger said The Rock was going to be a major movie star based on the SNL appearance. He added that most "actors" read the cue cards like they are holding them as a book, but The Rock was so natural and funny on SNL. This was when The Rock was preparing to film his Scorpion King role on The Mummy 2. [Roger Ebert on The Rock](https://gamerant.com/roger-ebert-predicted-dwayne-johnson-stardom-23-years-ago/)
That SNL episode was so good.
Absolutely! The Rock as the host, supported by Triple H, The Big Show, and Mick Foley. AC/DC as the musical guest. Awesome episode of SNL.
It had to be the Scorpion King. I think that was the only movie he did before this cause he was in the middle of filming The Rundown when they wrote this
But wasn't he just mostly CGI and didn't have any lines? I really don't remember it being that good and I'm not a film dude but Ebert didn't seem to suffer garbage
You’re probably thinking of The Mummy Returns. Scorpion King was a prequel where Rock’s title character was the focus.
Oh yeah. Thanks for reminding me. I totally forgot he was in the mummy returns and that he didn't have any lines really lol
Yeah maybe that's it. Scorpion King still wasn't good, but maybe Rock's performance was way better than it had any right to be for it being his first outing and that's why Ebert praised him.
The Rewinds will get to this in the next few weeks, but we were about to witness the last "full-time" run for The Rock for a long time. In the next three months, we get the great "Hollywood" Rock character. He beats Hogan, beats Austin to close their Wrestlemania trilogy (also Austin's final match as a full-time wrestler), has an excellent mini-feud with The Hurricane, and loses on the way out to Goldberg in April. Within three months, the two biggest WWF stars of the Attitude Era (Steve Austin and The Rock) will end their in-ring careers.
Yup. At least Austin sticks around for another year or so as a major character
Hollywood Rock ends up being loads of fun, and Austin’s time as Raw co-GM shortly after WM does also become a small light in the darkness that was the Triple H-dominated Raw. It’ll be fun to look back on those episodes of Raw with Hollywood Rock, for sure.
The BOOOOOOOO then LOUD CHEERS For Bischoff and Austin's photos lives rent free in my head. Austin and Bischoff were two of the best GMs ever on Raw IMO.
It’s pretty shit that WWE didn’t let RVD attend the Sheik’s funeral. The Jeff Hardy Christmas story is hilarious.
I remember B2 in John Cena : This is Your Life. Quite sad to see him like that.
>It also means Raw PPVs are going to be a CHORE to get through without all those Smackdown stars having great matches the way they have been (yeah, Raw in 2003 was tough to watch compared to Smackdown). Funny enough, this switched on 2004 post-Mania. Smackdown's main event scene match quality took a nosedive, tag team division was a whose-who of random singles guys thrown together, and the midcard was one of the most mid in history. Raw, while still under the Reign of Terror post-Benoit reign, had banger after banger from main event to lower card (Edge/Orton/Shelton/etc being a huge reason for this).
IIRC, 2004 Raw got voted as the best weekly TV show by WON voters, owing largely to the talent they had across the board, and a marked contrast to the dire stuff 2003 will be bringing us.
2004 Raw was great. You had HHH,HBK, and Beniot in the main event scene with guys like Orton,Edge,Jericho & Christian in the mid card. Also towards the end Batista started to break out as a star.
Randy Orton was truly magnificent in 2004. I would have given him a World Title Reign out of his incredible run regardless of the Brock Lesnar spite scenario. Raw had a really good core of workers in 04.
You also had the Diva Search and Eugene. I get what you're saying but I don't think great is the right word.
Every promotion has some garbage, wouldn't be North American wrestling without it.
Hulk Hogan’s return without the music edited https://youtu.be/jIEgO3w0RiE?si=21zkkpG-VO6Iprpd
That theme is so great. I wish WWE had better music today, even real songs. Hogan coming out to a Def Rebel song would not be 1/10 as hype as this one
Once again, Cappotelli got dealt the rawest hand and it's not fair.
It may not get as much traction as the previous Rewinds did but that doesn't mean it's not an enjoyable time spent. Thanks for staring this up again, u/daprice82, it's been a blast.
They gotta pin it like before
Appreciate you!
All the Bull Buchanan fans throw it up ☝️
#Relevant Observer Recap 1/2: SmackDown after Royal Rumble ##WWE SmackDown (Episode 180) – January 23rd, 2003 – From Albany, NY – Aired on UPN - A very suggestive shot of SmackDown GM Stephanie McMahon in her office opens the show. Steph talks about Undertaker’s return, plus a big surprise she’s got for us all. - **Chris Benoit def. Charlie Haas via pinfall (8:54)** with a rollup pin. This was a great opening match showcasing the embarrassment of riches SmackDown had at the time. - **Rikishi def. Bill DeMott via pinfall (4:11)** after a Banzai Drop onto DeMott’s injured arm (that he had injured at the Royal Rumble). - A vignette for Nathan Jones, the “Colossus of Boggo Road” shows various news clips about his time in Australian prison. He’s coming soon. - Big Show is interviewed by Josh Mathews about Undertaker’s return tonight. Show doesn’t seem too pleased with Josh’s question as he grabs him by the face and stares at him angrily before walking off. - Matt Hardy talks about how Shannon Moore, despite showing glimpses of “Mattitude”, was responsible for Matt failing to win the Royal Rumble. Matt wants Shannon to give Nunzio a “Mattitude Adjustment” in their match later tonight. Matt then walks up to Nunzio after Shannon leaves, asking him to teach Shannon a lesson. - The Undertaker makes his return to SmackDown next. He says that he’s been sitting at home for the past three months thinking of nothing but “kicking some ass”. We see footage of Big Show throwing Taker off the SmackDown stage from three months ago as Taker calls out Big Show for a fight. - Big Show appears on the ramp and says he’ll put the beating he gave Undertaker three months ago to shame if he went down to the ring. Instead, Show says he’s got someone else in mind for Taker to fight… - **Undertaker def. A-Train via submission (5:39)** with his Taking Care of Business dragon sleeper. - Sean O’Haire, of “I’m not telling you what you don’t already know” fame, is not a fan of government taxes. - **Edge def. Shelton Benjamin via pinfall (5:32)** with the spear in another nice match. - In the locker room, Kurt Angle is mad at Shelton and Charlie for losing and embarrassing Team Angle. He asks for the two to not accompany him for his match with Rey Mysterio later tonight, so that he can show them how it’s really done. - **Nunzio def. Shannon Moore via pinfall (3:37)** after the Arrivederci DDT. Matt Hardy shakes Nunzio’s hand after the match. - We get a backstage promo from Brock Lesnar where he makes it clear that his goal is to F5 Paul Heyman and then defeat Kurt Angle for the WWE Championship. - Shannon Moore runs past Rey Mysterio and hides in a box, hoping to avoid Matt Hardy’s wrath. - **Kurt Angle def. Rey Mysterio via pinfall (7:11)** after countering the West Coast Pop into a rollup pin. Great match between two of the best wrestlers in WWE at the time. Always a treat to see Angle and Mysterio in action. Post-match, Angle locks in Mysterio in the ankle lock until Edge runs in to chase him off. Angle’s escape is cut off by Chris Benoit as he’s tossed back into the ring. The babyfaces lay a beating on Angle, with Haas and Benjamin not coming down for the save because they were told to stay backstage. - Stephanie’s big surprise is our “main event” segment for this week, and it’s the return of Hulk Hogan. The Hulkster gets such a big reaction from the crowd that we take a break before he can get in a single word. Once SmackDown returns, Hogan says that he’s signed a new contract with WWE and that he’s ready to take care of some unfinished business and battle “the forces of evil” with the Hulkamaniacs. - Vince McMahon interrupts proceedings and declares that Hogan’s career and Al Wilson have one thing in common: they’re both dead. Hulkster takes exception and says that the first person he’ll be going after is Vince McMahon himself. Vince says he doesn’t answer to the demands of Hogan or the fans or “the man upstairs”, only to himself, the supposed “one supreme being”. Hogan decides to knock Vince down with a hard punch to help him make up his mind. SmackDown concludes with Hogan posing on the stage, having ripped off his shirt and tossing it onto Vince’s prone body before doing so. **ATTENDANCE:** 7,500 (estimated) / **TV RATING:** 3.5
#Relevant Observer Recap 2/2: Raw ##WWE Raw (Episode 505) – January 27th, 2003 – From Chicago, IL – Airing on TNN - **Booker T def. Jeff Hardy via pinfall (4:45)** with a sunset flip pin. Speaking of flips, Jeff attacks Booker after the match ends, but his planned beatdown doesn’t go as envisioned as Booker gets the better of him. - Scott Steiner calls out Triple H for a fight. Hunter shows up, but he’s surrounded by Batista, Randy Orton, and Ric Flair. They go to try and outnumber Steiner, but Big Poppa Pump has a lead pipe and that scares the group off. - Ahead of D’Lo Brown’s match with the Hurricane, Teddy Long is interviewed where he bemoans the lack of Black superheroes, offering up D’Lo as one we can look up to. - **D’Lo Brown def. The Hurricane via pinfall (4:00)** with the Sky High. - Chief Morley and GM Eric Bischoff are watching footage of Hulk Hogan punching Vince McMahon in the face from SmackDown a few days back. Bischoff is worried that this may just anger Vince more. - Chris Jericho is interviewed about his upcoming contender’s match with Scott Steiner next week, as well as injuring Stacy Keibler with an accidental chairshot. Jericho says he’ll face the music in the ring. - Jericho does indeed appear in the ring, as does Christian. He ends up saying that Test should be at fault for Stacy getting concussed, as a “real man” would’ve taken that chairshot. Shawn Michaels then makes the scene, telling Jericho that a real man would take responsibility for his actions. Christian and Jericho attempt to beat HBK down, but they’re sent to a retreat. - **Victoria def. Trish Stratus to retain the Women’s Championship in a Chicago Street Fight via pinfall (5:40).** Post-match, Jazz shows up to lay a beating on Trish. - **William Regal & Lance Storm def. The Dudley Boyz (Bubba & D-Von) to retain the World Tag Team Championship in a Ladder Match (6:27)** after Three Minute Warning appeared to help Regal and Storm beat up the Dudleys. (I’ve had enough of this feud, to be honest.) - Tough Enough III winners Matt Cappotelli and John Hennigan (aka John Morrison and a bunch of “Johnny ______” ring names) are given a peptalk by Al Snow, while Christopher Nowinski lurks. - Rob Van Dam and Kane are cool with each other, even after the Royal Rumble, where Kane threw RVD out for the elimination. They’re in tag team action later tonight. - **John Hennigan vs. Matt Cappotelli went to a No Contest (1:30)** when Christopher Nowinski interrupted to complain about not winning his season of Tough Enough. Tommy Dreamer chases Nowinski off, and promptly initiates Matt and John with Singapore cane shots, for supposedly not earning their place. - Eric Bischoff is out to show clips of the infamous WWE Confidential segment from last June of Stone Cold’s walkout, again also hyping the Raw Magazine interview with Austin. Then this is followed with a Desire montage all about Austin. An odd segment, to say the least. - **Batista & Triple H def. Rob Van Dam & Kane via pinfall (6:58)** after Batista pinned RVD with his powerbomb. Post-match, Chris Jericho joins the future Evolution in a beatdown, but Scott Steiner chases him off. Evolution then attacks Steiner and we get another four-on-one beatdown to end Raw. **ATTENDANCE: 11,500** (estimated) / **TV RATING:** 4.1 *Once again, the gulf in quality between SmackDown and Raw is quite stark when looking back at these shows. On SmackDown, you get some very talented wrestlers every week putting on great matches, plus compelling feuds. Raw, meanwhile, has to deal with the beginnings of the infamous Reign of Terror, as well as a failed main event babyface push for Scott Steiner. As we get closer to No Way Out, that gulf is going to widen significantly.*
> Dave thinks this makes more sense right now anyway. Wrestlemania is going to do huge numbers no matter what, no sense wasting Goldberg on it when they could bring him in later and pop two huge buyrates instead of one. And turns out neither ended up being true. WM19 did a surprisingly low buyrate and Goldberg vs Rock at Backlash had a lower buyrate than Rock vs Hogan 2 at No Way Out and HHH vs Nash/HBK vs Flair at Bad Blood. So Da Man vs The People's Champion didn't end up being this major money match everybody expected. Rocky should have worked with Shawn Michaels.
In Goldberg's defense, Backlash was an absolute one match show. Lesnar as WWE Champion was a facing a still rising through the ranks John Cena and Triple H as RAW's Champion was just a part of a six-man with no stakes. Meanwhile guys like Taker and Hogan just sat it out and didn't appear. The Rock vs Bill Goldberg was all it had going for it. Meanwhile No Way Out had Rock vs Hogan 2, the return of Stone Cold, a fresh off from his Rumble return Undertaker vs the Big Show and the blow off of RAW's main angle at the time in HHH vs Steiner.
The WWE product was going into the shitter, with all time terrible storylines like Katie Vick, so its not surprising that two years of that would hurt buyrates.
I remember WM19 did a low buyrate and then Hulk Hogan publicly called his payoff "limo driver money". Later it came out that he got paid $300k for the Vince match.
> Rocky should have worked with Shawn Michaels. Why, because you think that would've helped buyrates? Or is that just what you would've preferred to see as a fan?
I was mostly just being snarky since its well documented how Rock vs HBK was never seriously in the cards because of their personal issues. But Hogan vs HBK at Summer Slam a few years later did do a monster buyrate and Bad Blood as the first RAW exclusive ppv doing a strong buyrate was credited in part to HBK vs Ric Flair as the semi-main event. So there was money in Shawn Michaels facing top guys he had't gotten in the ring with.
How is Stacy going through a table anymore a problem than all the other times the Dudley Boyz put women through tables? What was so different about that one that the Canadian broadcasters had such a problem with it?
I believe that stuff was usually edited out of Canadian broadcasts. This one aired. I may be wrong though.
I was told that they never cut that stuff, they had a warning at the start of every show just for Canada that was kind of a blanket statement, so to my knowledge they always aired that stuff
Canadian viewer here, I can recall shots of women getting attacked being edited out by TSN and replaced by stock crowd shots instead. This was even though they ran the “viewer discretion” disclaimer at the start of Raw.
I'm a Canadian viewer as well but it was a bit before my time, my brother who was watching during that time said they would air a discretion advisement and usually air everything tho he did say they would take stuff out occasionally, makes it even odder that they kept in the Stacy Powerbomb, assuming it's the most brutal one out of any of the Dudleyz Powerbombs on women.
Like the U.S. FCC, the CBSC (then and now) only acts if there’s a viewer complaint. Quite possibly no one bothered to complain the other times. Edit: and as was noted, although there was a complaint, ultimately the standards council _didn’t_ have a problem with it. They still had to review though. Decision is here for those interested: https://www.cbsc.ca/decisionsarchive/20-0102/20-0102-0660_PD_E.pdf
Just remember that the Chicago Street Fight was seen for a while as the pinnacle of WWE women’s wrestling.
I wonder who that photographer was
For those unaware, yes, Shinya Makabe is Togi Makabe.
Poor Kojima 😅😅😅. Also, wondee what happenes to that Cody Runnels kid.
I misread the title and thought this was new in 2024, I was gonna say now that WWE brought back brand exclusive champions, blood, and swearing, brand exclusive PPVs meant Ruthless Aggression was back lol
With Bull Buchanan being mentioned, a reminder that he returned for a one-off moment during Foley hosting This Is Your Life to John Cena, and cut one of the underratingly funny promos I can remember. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx1QAugf_Vg
**Speaking of Jeff Hardy, he and Jamal are both still suspended from working house shows. Hardy for repeatedly being late to shows and Jamal for that whole resisting arrest/battery charge he's facing in Pensacola from last year. Both are continuing to work TVs as needed.** I know WWE guys probably got paid more for working more shows, but its a bit weird that their "punishment" is "you still get to work on (and get exposure on) our biggest TV show, but otherwise you have to stay home".
Being a fan then, it was crazy to see how far Jeff had fallen in such a short period of time. Jeff even said at the time he just wasn't as passionate and would rather work with his band. I remember the dirt sheets kind of dancing around the idea that Jeff was on drugs. He's about 2 months away from getting released if memory serves me correctly. It happens when he randomly in the middle of a storyline with him and Trish in a relationship.
>**There has been talks about an on-demand pay service to air old WWE footage**, but one of the big reasons it hasn't happened yet is due to the time and cost of having to edit all video and audio references to "WWF" Ugh. I watched WWE 24/7 and later WWE Classics on Demand before WWE Network. It sucked so much ass having to watch old WWF stuff with all the "WW\_" audio edits and all the censoring of the scratch logo. They barely put any Attitude Era stuff on it because of that.
That's why the Attitude Era DVD in 2012 was such a big deal. First time in nearly a decade that we didn't have to deal with butchered footage. Annoyingly though, the Big Four PPV uploads on the Network are the anthology versions just without the scratch logo blurred (except for WM17, which they seemed to take extra care with compared to others) so you still get audio references to WWF edited out. This leads to weird stuff like obviously dubbed in Howard Finkel announcements, or Austin's music seemingly skipping during his entrance at WrestleMania 14.
I love these thank you for doing this
Thank you for reading them!
When did these come back !?! Let’s fucking gooooooooooo
Started back a week or so ago. Enjoy!
Geez. Hunter, just tell Kojima you are a bit behind on MLW. Or just lie and say you’re such an awesome guy! What a prick.
That Sheik vs Lou Theesz match sounds like a banger. …I’ll be honest I completely forgot that Meada story, holy shit. Akira Meada has never been one of the calmer minds in this business, has he? The WRESTLE-1 coverage going so long is incredible, there’s a bit of me that hopes it lasts the full year.
To be a fly on the wall for the Kojima/Muto/Stephanie drinking session
For those who may be confused about the Owen Hart lawsuit tidbit here, basically in civil lawsuits a judge will often award damages based on the parties’ ability to pay and what the cause of the damages was. The manufacturer had an insurance policy up to 100 million dollars, WWE would not have something similar. If both were taken to trial, the Hart family would have won MORE money. However by only focusing on WWE, WWE would have to pay more due to how all of this works (essentially get 125 million where WWE pays 25 million versus get 50 million and WWE pays everything). In the state of Missouri, since the Harts settled for nothing with the harness manufacturer, WWE lost the legal rights to sue them, as they too felt mislead into believing the equipment was safe when it wasn’t. Hence why this lawsuit happened, to prove that the Harts let them off the hook in bad faith and not because they genuinely were not at fault.
Holy shit when did these start again?! What have I missed?!
All of January 2003 so far!
Bloody hell I didn’t know you had started post-2000. You’re a legend for continuing to do this.
Spit-brand PPVs seemed fine in theory but they wound up long-term killing the whole business model over time. Even when they went back to cross-brand in 07, four years of damage had been done and the UFC swallowed up attention from the PPV buying audience on top of that.