This week saw two new videos advertising returns to WWE and it made me think of some of the better reveals/surprises that have occurred in wrestling. So in this list I'm looking at wrestlers "revealing" themselves (not like that) or just general surprises, you'll get the idea when I start listing them off. So let us begin.
10) The Power Trip Begins
At Wrestlemania 17 Stone Cold challenged the Rock for the WWE title. This was one of the biggest matches at the time and the Reliant Astrodome was jammed packed, partly because of the great card (this Mania was one of the greatest ever in my view) and for their own Steve Austin going for the title. The match is still one of the best I've seen and is one of my personal favourite Mania main events. As the match went on Vince McMahon, who had been feuding with Steve Austin constantly for years, headed down to the ring. Everyone was worried about what he would do but no one expected him to help out Austin, it was a great twist. The biggest problem was where they did it, you could of had Steve Austin shot a bunny in the face with a shotgun and they still would of cheered him like crazy. Anywhere else and this would of worked so well but in Texas was a big mistake.
9) Andre wants his shot
Andre the Giant was one of the biggest stars in wrestling and probably one of the only true global stars when he was around, everyone knew who he was. Andre became one of the main guys in WWE and when they were looking to expand they hit the mother load with Hulk Hogan and he became just as big of a star as Andre maybe even bigger. The two biggest babyfaces had met in matches way before Hogan rejoined the WWE but it never really went down well. Hogan's reign as champion went well and he was beating everyone, we come to a Piper's Pit and a big surprise. During the segment out came Andre with Bobby Heenan, Bobby announced that that Andre wanted a title shot and that Hogan had been ducking him. It ended with Andre ripping Hogan's shirt off and necklace and walking away. At the time this was a massive deal and it was done so well that it drew 96,000 *cough* it didn't draw that many at all, they lied *cough* for Wrestlemania 3 and it became one of the most iconic matches ever.
8) They're Here
When Abyss mentioned that "They" were coming at 10/10/10 in TNA we all knew that it involved Hogan & Bischoff turning heel. The date was for Bound for Glory and as the night went on we were waiting to see Them at some point. They were so many rumours running around that Kurt Angle or Mr. Anderson would be involved in the group. As the main event began a Triple threat between Jeff Hardy, Kurt Angle and Mr Anderson, we were sure that They would show up to help Angle. So as we waited for an eternity for Hogan to make it down the ramp while Eric Bischoff was in the ring we thought it was time and then BAM it turned out Jeff Hardy was apart of them. Hardy was one of the biggest babyfaces at the time and the turn was a big surprise. I haven't been able to praise TNA much over the past two years but this was one of the better planned and executed turns.
7) You know that girl you want to marry, I married her first
First off this is one of the funniest things I've seen in wrestling. In 1999 Test was set to marry Stephanie McMahon (on-screen) and there were some big angles based around it, including a great match between Test and Shane. The ceremony had started but as it went on Triple H came out and said he had something to show the world. What was shown was a drugged up Stephanie being married to Triple H in a drive-thru ceremony. It was a truly hilarious and one of the better twists in wrestling, I really didn't see it coming and I think the fans didn't either. All I can say here is go and find it.
6) The Next Entrant is
I would love to write about one specific moment on this one but it's just too damn hard to pick one. Let's face it the Royal Rumble match is always one to watch every single year and in part it's due to the surprises that we expect, there are always surprise entrants or returns that gets a pop out of us. Whether it was RVD, Diesel, Booker T or the Honky Tonk Man we always get a pop from it. But the two bigger shockers in terms of Rumble surprises were the return of John Cena and Edge (in different years) both at the time were recovering from major injuries and hadn't been expected back for months, they received some of the biggest reactions and then went on to win the Rumble. The rumble is and will forever remain one of my favourite matches every year and the surprises is a key factor there.
5) I now pronounce you man and man?
Bischoff was playing the priest and then his monster squad (3 Minute Warning) destroyed everything. The reason why this is on the list is because you really couldn't tell that it was Bischoff or that it would end the way it did. You can look back now and say it "Oh I knew it was Bischoff" but I'm pretty sure that at the time you didn't, and if you still say you did then you're a liar a dirty, dirty liar.
4) Congratulation and I'm gonna beat you up
At Summerslam 2009 one of my personal favourite matches took place, the main event saw CM Punk face Jeff Hardy in a TLC match for the World Heavyweight title. Oh what a match it was, those two probably had the best series/feud that year to be sure. The ending to this match saw Jeff take himself out by Swantoning Punk on the outside, as Jeff was being taken off Punk began to climb. Hardy battled back and began to climb but was caught by a kick and Punk won the World title. Punk began to celebrate and even stood over Hardy to gloat. But then the lights went out and when they came back on the Undertake replaced Hardy and chokeslammed Punk. This was beautifully done and set up Punk's next feud while ending his previous feud. The problem then came with the fact Punk had to work Taker and Punk couldn't really win in that feud and he didn't.
3) The Millennium is here
When we saw the countdown clock we knew something special was coming. Ultimately that clock would lead us to one of the best debuts ever in wrestling. We all wondered what that clock would exactly lead to and it ended up being the debut of Chris Jericho. The debut became one of the greatest TV segments ever as the clock ran down while the Rock was in the ring, the two then proceeded to have a great back and fourth with each other and it showed that Jericho was going to be a big deal, he wasn't at first but he did in the end. Again all I can say is search this out as it's worth watching and harder to describe.
2) A King in a crap hole
Every wrestling fan See's the ECW arena as a holy grail in wrestling but it looks like a dump and the fans in their are mostly dicks (personal opinion I really don't like the arena fans). Anyways in 1997 a big program occurred in ECW with some of their guys (Rob Van Dam and Sabu) announcing their alliance to the company. ECW's main guy, Tommy Dreamer, was about to end his feud with Raven and just after he had won he was ambushed by RVD and then Sabu. ECW seemed to always have the lights go out on a show but after the first two times and big surprise came with the third as Jerry "The King" Lawler then appeared. No one expected to see The King, who truly hated ECW and still does to this day. While RVD and Sabu were ECW wrestlers claiming to be WWE guys this was a true WWE guy. The reaction the fans gave was one of true hatred so much so that the King had to sink out afterwards as he was truly afraid for his life. It was a great time to be a wrestling fan with angle likes this could happen.
1) Oh Yeah time to drop a leg
I may be a little predictable here but how could this not be number 1, we've all seen the Bash at the Beach in 1996 and the infamous third guy of the Outsiders. While the Outsiders were beating up Randy Savage everyone asked who could save WCW now, out came Hulk Hogan and the Outsiders ran. Hogan then proceeded to dropping a leg on Savage who was lying on the mat and Hogan became the third guy. The fans couldn't believe it and began to throw garbage into the ring, you could feel real passions from the fans. Hogan was the quintessential babyface and no one expected him to turn heel. This was one of the biggest heel turns ever and more to the point one of the biggest surprises we've seen in wrestling. Hence why it's number 1 on this list.
So that's my top 10 surprises/reveals, were you surprised? Probably not but hey I tried. Anyways let me know what you think and thanks for reading.
Sunday 27 November 2011
Wednesday 9 November 2011
High Noon Preview
So this weekend has Chikara's offical Season finale, I saw offical because they will also hold Joshimania a three day special show involving all female wrestlers and lots of japanese wrestlers. Back to the season finale on November 12th the annual Cibernetico takes place but I'm not looking at that the next night has Chikara doing their first iPPV. So here's a little preview of the show and what I'm expecting from it.
Before I mention the first match Amasis from the Osirian Portal is set to update his wrestling status on the show. For those of you who don't know he was involved in a car accident and had to quit wrestling. We'll have to see just what he has to say. But onto the show.
El Generico vs. Jigsaw-Free Pre-show match
No back story here just one awesome match and it's FREE! I like Jigsaw he's a great wrestler but has had problems working outside of Chikara mainly due to his mask in my view, he did wrestle in ROH without it but he just went downhill until he put the mask back on in Chikara. His opponent, El Generico, is probably one of the best wrestlers I've ever seen. Seriously think about it, when was the last time you saw Generico in a bad match? Generico deserves main event pushes where ever he goes and thankfully Pro Wrestling Guerrila aren't afraid to make him World champ. I'm also looking forward to him challenging Davey Richards for the ROH World title but that's not being discussed here. This free match should hook those who are on the fence about buying the iPPV.
Winner: Jigsaw-This is really a toss up and anyone could win but I'm going with Jig because he's Chikara's own while Generico is just a visitor.
Colt Cabana vs. Archibald Peck
Archibald Peck is one of the weirdest gimmicks I've seen in a while but it works well in Chikara and it works even more by the fact Robert Evans is the man behind the gimmick.
So the backstory here is at King of Trios this year Peck beat Cabana, he said that Eddie Kingston sent him to the future via the Backfist to the Future and he saw who he was going to be facing. Since then Peck has re-introduced Colt Cabunny to Chikara. Colt has declared war on Peck and said he was going to stop his abuse on the Cabunny.
I expect this match to give you some laughs and really just entertain you, these two are two of the most entertaining men in wrestling today. If you don't know who Peck is then you may have seen him working with the Embassy in ROH in a non-wrestling role. And we should all know Colt who is probably the best wrestler to mix comedy into his wrestling and put on great matches. If you don't get a laugh from this match at some point I'd be surprised.
Winner: Peck-Once again it makes more sense to give the win to someone who is always at Chikara instead of someone just visiting the promotion. But having said that I could also see Colt winning.
Sara Del Rey vs. Jakob Hammermeier
These two were once part of the BDK faction in Chikara Sara was a part of the faction while Jakob was their personal ring announcer. Over the last year a lot has happened, Jakob was trained to wrestle and started to regularly. While Sara broke away from the BDK and was left to fight on her own when her tag partner Daizee Haze was injured. Sara scored some big wins over the two BDK leaders (Claudio Castagnoli and Ares) in singles matches. So the main backstory here is that Del Rey was to beat all of the BDK members and so she's on to Jakob.
This is a weird one to me, Sara is one of the best female wrestlers and generally one of the best wrestlers going today but I haven't seen much of Jakob's work so I don't know how good he is. Sara can probably make him look great and if Jakob is good then the match can be good.
Winner: Del Rey-She beat the top dogs of the group so I'm pretty sure she will beat Jakob here. I'm personally more interested in just who she will be wrestling over the Joshimania weekend.
Green Ant vs. Tursas
This is not the first time these two have met but this time it doesn't have as much build, let me explain. Earlier this year these two were set to meet and Green Ant decided to copy the infamous Lex Express from WWE in 1993/4. They even got Luger on a Podcast-a-go-go to add his support. On the day of the show Green Ant showed off a new red, white and blue outfit and had the fans going crazy, sadly he did not win that match. So we now get the rematch. Tursas has not been beaten often during his Chikara run only losing a handful of single matches. He is a real big man but is a good worker for his size. Green Ant has really shown talent during his time in Chikara, I was actually surprised that he didn't win the Young Lions Cup this year. I expect this match to be good but short as a long Tursas match just doesn't work for me really.
Winner: Green Ant-It just makes sense to have him get this big win here and Tursas doesn't really need the win.
Gregory Iron vs. Icarus
Gregory has really exploded in the world of wrestling this year, he has gained a lot of attention and has proven himself to be a great wrestler as well. These two have met twice before, scoring one win each. The main story here is that Icarus has often made fun of Greg's cerebral palsy on Chikara shows and on his Chikara blog. This is the big grudge match between the two and the story is pretty simple. I expect this to be one hell of a match, Icarus is extremely underrated in my view and Greg has shown serious talent as well.
Winner: Gregory Iron-With this season rapping up once again it makes sense to give the good guy the win.
The Colony (Fire Ant & Soldier Ant) vs. The Young Bucks (Nick & Matt Jackson)
No real story here except that both teams are on two points and want their third. For those of you who don't know in Chikara teans gain points by winning tag matches and when they get three they can challenge the champions (currently Team FIST aka Johnny Gargano & Chuck Taylor). FIST and the Colony have had some serious history in Chikara and have started up again recently, the Colony have been champions before and could be the first to become two time champions. While that match could be great I'd personally prefer to see the Bucks challenge for the tag champions. Either way you will get a great tag title match and this will be a great tag match as well.
Winners: The Colony-As I said I'd prefer the Bucks but it just makes more sense for the Colony to win this one.
The Spectral Envoy (Ultramantis Black & Hallowicked) vs. The BDK (Tim Donst & Ares)-No DQ match
Pretty much two years of feuding could come to a end here. When the BDK formed Ultramantis was one of the guys leading the charge, Mantis tried to get Hallowicked on his side but wasn't able to due to their history. At last year's Season finale Wicked joined up with Mantis and they've been in a stable ever since. This is really two feuds put into one. Mantis and Ares have had some a series of matches, including a wild Falls Count Anywhere's match at The Germans. Their feud has really been Chikara vs. BDK but Hallowicked vs. Donst has more story. Donst has made it his mission to be recognised as the greatest Young Lions Cup champion ever problem is that Hallowicked is a former champ. They have traded wins and the feud even saw Hallowicked beat up Donst and made him lose to Max Boyer in the shortest match in Chikara history.This match should be crazy, I expect outside interference from both parties but overall it should be awesome.
Winners: The Spectral Envoy-After all this time between these four it's about time to move on and the Envoy winning could put a end to it.
Eddie Kingston vs. Mike Quackenbush to crown the first Grand Champion
Earlier this year Chikara announced they would crown their first Grand Champion, they held the 12 Large Summit which had two blocks of wrestlers having matches and scoring points. Mike Quackenbush won the highly competitive Block A which could of been won by any one while Eddie Kingston won Block B by beating everyone except Vin Gerard who injured Eddie's knee at the last event. So Kingston enters this match with a injured knee which could be bad since Quack is the Master of a 1000 holds. Now I'm pretty sure this tournament final was meant to be Kingston vs. Claudio Castagnoli but Claudio signed with WWE and that match can't happen.
Quackenbush has done pretty much everything there is to do in wrestling he's won tournaments and titles throughout his long career. Over the last couple of years Eddie Kingston has really became the MAN in Chikara, he has beaten some big name stars including Chris Daniels, El Generico, Homicide and more.
Winner: Eddie Kingston-He is the man in Chikara and deserves to be the first champion. A first challenger already seems in the making in Vin Gerard and Kingston has pretty much been facing whoever for the last two years now so making them title matches makes sense to me.
So that's my preview of High Noon, Chikara has been one of my favourite companies for years now and I always love their shows. I expect this show to be just like their others and by that I mean truly awesome.
Before I mention the first match Amasis from the Osirian Portal is set to update his wrestling status on the show. For those of you who don't know he was involved in a car accident and had to quit wrestling. We'll have to see just what he has to say. But onto the show.
El Generico vs. Jigsaw-Free Pre-show match
No back story here just one awesome match and it's FREE! I like Jigsaw he's a great wrestler but has had problems working outside of Chikara mainly due to his mask in my view, he did wrestle in ROH without it but he just went downhill until he put the mask back on in Chikara. His opponent, El Generico, is probably one of the best wrestlers I've ever seen. Seriously think about it, when was the last time you saw Generico in a bad match? Generico deserves main event pushes where ever he goes and thankfully Pro Wrestling Guerrila aren't afraid to make him World champ. I'm also looking forward to him challenging Davey Richards for the ROH World title but that's not being discussed here. This free match should hook those who are on the fence about buying the iPPV.
Winner: Jigsaw-This is really a toss up and anyone could win but I'm going with Jig because he's Chikara's own while Generico is just a visitor.
Colt Cabana vs. Archibald Peck
Archibald Peck is one of the weirdest gimmicks I've seen in a while but it works well in Chikara and it works even more by the fact Robert Evans is the man behind the gimmick.
So the backstory here is at King of Trios this year Peck beat Cabana, he said that Eddie Kingston sent him to the future via the Backfist to the Future and he saw who he was going to be facing. Since then Peck has re-introduced Colt Cabunny to Chikara. Colt has declared war on Peck and said he was going to stop his abuse on the Cabunny.
I expect this match to give you some laughs and really just entertain you, these two are two of the most entertaining men in wrestling today. If you don't know who Peck is then you may have seen him working with the Embassy in ROH in a non-wrestling role. And we should all know Colt who is probably the best wrestler to mix comedy into his wrestling and put on great matches. If you don't get a laugh from this match at some point I'd be surprised.
Winner: Peck-Once again it makes more sense to give the win to someone who is always at Chikara instead of someone just visiting the promotion. But having said that I could also see Colt winning.
Sara Del Rey vs. Jakob Hammermeier
These two were once part of the BDK faction in Chikara Sara was a part of the faction while Jakob was their personal ring announcer. Over the last year a lot has happened, Jakob was trained to wrestle and started to regularly. While Sara broke away from the BDK and was left to fight on her own when her tag partner Daizee Haze was injured. Sara scored some big wins over the two BDK leaders (Claudio Castagnoli and Ares) in singles matches. So the main backstory here is that Del Rey was to beat all of the BDK members and so she's on to Jakob.
This is a weird one to me, Sara is one of the best female wrestlers and generally one of the best wrestlers going today but I haven't seen much of Jakob's work so I don't know how good he is. Sara can probably make him look great and if Jakob is good then the match can be good.
Winner: Del Rey-She beat the top dogs of the group so I'm pretty sure she will beat Jakob here. I'm personally more interested in just who she will be wrestling over the Joshimania weekend.
Green Ant vs. Tursas
This is not the first time these two have met but this time it doesn't have as much build, let me explain. Earlier this year these two were set to meet and Green Ant decided to copy the infamous Lex Express from WWE in 1993/4. They even got Luger on a Podcast-a-go-go to add his support. On the day of the show Green Ant showed off a new red, white and blue outfit and had the fans going crazy, sadly he did not win that match. So we now get the rematch. Tursas has not been beaten often during his Chikara run only losing a handful of single matches. He is a real big man but is a good worker for his size. Green Ant has really shown talent during his time in Chikara, I was actually surprised that he didn't win the Young Lions Cup this year. I expect this match to be good but short as a long Tursas match just doesn't work for me really.
Winner: Green Ant-It just makes sense to have him get this big win here and Tursas doesn't really need the win.
Gregory Iron vs. Icarus
Gregory has really exploded in the world of wrestling this year, he has gained a lot of attention and has proven himself to be a great wrestler as well. These two have met twice before, scoring one win each. The main story here is that Icarus has often made fun of Greg's cerebral palsy on Chikara shows and on his Chikara blog. This is the big grudge match between the two and the story is pretty simple. I expect this to be one hell of a match, Icarus is extremely underrated in my view and Greg has shown serious talent as well.
Winner: Gregory Iron-With this season rapping up once again it makes sense to give the good guy the win.
The Colony (Fire Ant & Soldier Ant) vs. The Young Bucks (Nick & Matt Jackson)
No real story here except that both teams are on two points and want their third. For those of you who don't know in Chikara teans gain points by winning tag matches and when they get three they can challenge the champions (currently Team FIST aka Johnny Gargano & Chuck Taylor). FIST and the Colony have had some serious history in Chikara and have started up again recently, the Colony have been champions before and could be the first to become two time champions. While that match could be great I'd personally prefer to see the Bucks challenge for the tag champions. Either way you will get a great tag title match and this will be a great tag match as well.
Winners: The Colony-As I said I'd prefer the Bucks but it just makes more sense for the Colony to win this one.
The Spectral Envoy (Ultramantis Black & Hallowicked) vs. The BDK (Tim Donst & Ares)-No DQ match
Pretty much two years of feuding could come to a end here. When the BDK formed Ultramantis was one of the guys leading the charge, Mantis tried to get Hallowicked on his side but wasn't able to due to their history. At last year's Season finale Wicked joined up with Mantis and they've been in a stable ever since. This is really two feuds put into one. Mantis and Ares have had some a series of matches, including a wild Falls Count Anywhere's match at The Germans. Their feud has really been Chikara vs. BDK but Hallowicked vs. Donst has more story. Donst has made it his mission to be recognised as the greatest Young Lions Cup champion ever problem is that Hallowicked is a former champ. They have traded wins and the feud even saw Hallowicked beat up Donst and made him lose to Max Boyer in the shortest match in Chikara history.This match should be crazy, I expect outside interference from both parties but overall it should be awesome.
Winners: The Spectral Envoy-After all this time between these four it's about time to move on and the Envoy winning could put a end to it.
Eddie Kingston vs. Mike Quackenbush to crown the first Grand Champion
Earlier this year Chikara announced they would crown their first Grand Champion, they held the 12 Large Summit which had two blocks of wrestlers having matches and scoring points. Mike Quackenbush won the highly competitive Block A which could of been won by any one while Eddie Kingston won Block B by beating everyone except Vin Gerard who injured Eddie's knee at the last event. So Kingston enters this match with a injured knee which could be bad since Quack is the Master of a 1000 holds. Now I'm pretty sure this tournament final was meant to be Kingston vs. Claudio Castagnoli but Claudio signed with WWE and that match can't happen.
Quackenbush has done pretty much everything there is to do in wrestling he's won tournaments and titles throughout his long career. Over the last couple of years Eddie Kingston has really became the MAN in Chikara, he has beaten some big name stars including Chris Daniels, El Generico, Homicide and more.
Winner: Eddie Kingston-He is the man in Chikara and deserves to be the first champion. A first challenger already seems in the making in Vin Gerard and Kingston has pretty much been facing whoever for the last two years now so making them title matches makes sense to me.
So that's my preview of High Noon, Chikara has been one of my favourite companies for years now and I always love their shows. I expect this show to be just like their others and by that I mean truly awesome.
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