Spotlight On The WWE Network

The Mania of March- The Spotlight On Wrestlemania 2

Tom Lynch Spotlight On The WWE Network, Wrestling , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Wrestlemania 2: 

Welcome to day two of our comprehensive 31 Wrestlemanias in 31 days through the month of March.  Today we’re going to take a look at Wrestlemania 2 which was final Wrestlemania to take place prior to my birth as I was born later this year in October of 1986.  When I think about Wrestlemania 2 the first thing that comes to mind was the fact that this show took place over 3 venues.  The first four matches on the show took place in New York (Nassau Coliseum actually) than the next four matches took place in Chicago and then the final four matches took place in Los Angeles.  It was an interesting idea at the time and a pretty ingenious way to make money.  Production for this event had to be wild in order to pull that off.  There are so many things that can go wrong with live event production when broadcasting from one venue, let alone three. I always thought that this could be an interesting idea to try again but it will never happen this day in age where Wrestlemania takes over a city that has been bidding on it for, sometimes, years.

The way that this was that each venue had their own “Main Event” and then the fans would stay in the venue and watch the rest of the show on big screen monitors. The first venue was New york and was headlined by a boxing match between Roddy Piper and Mr. T.  From there the Chicago portion was main evented by the tag title match between the British Bulldogs and The Dream Team.  (Before you correct me, I know that the 20 man battle royal was more of the headline match in Chicago and is often remembered as Chicago’s main event but the tag title change ended the Chicago Portion of the show.  Lastly, the Los Angeles portion of the show featured the main event of the entire Wrestlemania, Hulk Hogan defending the world title in a steel cage against King Kong Bundy.

This was also during the time period in which celebrities played such a big part of Wrestlemania.  As with today’s Wrestlemanias you might hear a casual fan who hasn’t been watching in quite sometime ask what the top matches at Wrestlemania are, those same casual fans had to have been asking which celebrities were going to be at Wrestlemania.  I mean on this Wrestlemania alone, if you include the NFL players who participated in the Battle Royal, there were over 25 celebrities who appeared at this Wrestlemania.  It was absolute who’s who of celebrities which featured everyone from Ozzy Osbourne to Joan Rivers and even the old Burger King guy, “Herb”! What we did get out of this was, however, was my personal favorite rendition of America The Beautiful ( and also the first time in which America The Beautiful was performed at Wrestlemania all together) ever performed at Wrestlemania, that by the late great Ray Charles!

Photo Credit: WWE

The One Match You Should See:

For me the answer here is the battle royal (I love battle royals), and it’s tough because the tag title match between the British Bulldogs and the Dream Team is a great match with a finish that the crowd absolutely loved.  That said when you mention Wrestlemania 3, the thing that immediately come to mind would be the involvement of the NFL players, especially members of the Chicago Bears in Chicago fresh off winning a superbowl.   It’s crazy to go back and think about the fact that you had active, pro bowl caliber players like Refrigerator Perry in a battle royal with hall of fame level WWE Superstars like Andre The Giant.  Could you imagine if in the Andre The Giant Memorial BattleRoyal you had JJ Watt and Demarcus Ware? It would never happen!  The crowd was so hot for the Chicago Bear players that I actually think the WWF should have made the call to have Refrigerator Perry win the match outright, even if this would mean that Andre would lose a battle royal for the first time ever.  The crowd would have just went completely wild for a Perry win.  What this did lead to for Perry was a memorable moment of him dumping Big John Studd and would later lead to his induction into the celebrity wing of the WWF Hall Of Fame (an induction, mind you, that John Cena presented Perry with leading to the first time I can really remember a crowd completely turning on him).  One last note on the Battle Royal, this was the only match in Wrestlemania history that WWE legends/ hall of famers Pedro Morales and Bruno Sammartino competed in.

Well that’s going to do it for today but I’ll be back real soon with my look back at WrestleMania 3!

The Mania of March- The Spotlight On Wrestlemania 3

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Wrestlemania 3:

This was the first Wrestlemania I was alive for but I’ll admit that I never saw the full show until I rented the tape from a wrestling store here in Queens in the late 90s. That said, I probably have seen Hogan and Andre as well as Steamboat and Savage so many times I can’t even remember.  These two matches are the perfect example of how two matches can be so different but both still be so memorable in entirely different ways.  I feel like depending on the type of fan that you are, you either remember Wrestlemania 3 for Savage-Steamboat or Hogan-Andre.  If you’re more into the classic moments, it’s Hogan and Andre, whereas if you’re more into the classic matches, then its Steamboat-Savage.  There are so many of today’s wrestlers from Chris Jericho to the Hardys that have credited that Savage and Steamboat match as being an inspiration.

Aside from those two great matches, Wrestlemania 3 cannot be mentioned without talking about the 93,000 + plus fans that were in attendance.  I remember specifically that if you watched the home video they showed the fans as they were running to the arena or filing in after a long tailgate, which sadly isn’t on the network).   It really made Wrestlemania feel like a massive event.  Then of course when they brought you into the arena you were immediately him with that great screenshot of the crowd that just looked incredible.  I can’t imagine how amazing it must have been to be in that arena.  When I went to WrestleMania back in 2011 in Atlanta, I remember sitting way up in the nosebleeds and looking out going, “wow it’s amazing to see a wrestling show in such a large venue.  Well there were at least 20,000 more fans live for WrestleMania 3 and with the show taking places in the middle of the day, you could probably look out and see everyone, it had to be incredible.

From here I loved how the show started with Vince McMahon in the middle of the ring, welcoming the crowd to WrestleMania 3.  If you remember the risk that Vince took with the first WrestleMania, just two years earlier, it was nice to see him being able to soak in the massive success that the event had become.  I always thought it would be cool for Vince to kick off every show like but obviously that would have been hard to do as he became the villainous Mr. McMahon.  I remember that at some point a few years back WWE put out a history of WrestleMania DVD and a pop u video like version of WrestleMania 3.  Hearing Vince on those sets get choked up when talking about how he was thinking about his dad when he was welcoming the crowd to WrestleMania and how he knew his dad would be proud   This makes it mean that much more and is definitely something I can relate to.

Lastly, I also really get nostalgic for the motorized carts that brought the superstars to the ring because the aisle way at the Silverdome was so massive.   This just made the superstars look larger than life.  I also love the idea of Greg Valentine leaving Brutus Beefcake off the cart while the announcers ponder how he would get to the back, was walking not an option?  In any event,  I wish they would bring those carts back for like an old school Raw some time.

Well that’s going to do it for me but be sure to come on back tomorrow where we will take a look at WrestleMania 4!

All Photo Credit: WWE

The Mania of March- The Spotlight On Wrestlemania 1

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Well it’s that time of the year again isn’t it. It’s that time after the superbowl and just a few months away from baseball season. For some sports fans, they consider this the lull of the sports year but for us wrestling fans we consider this the pinnacle of sports entertainment. That is because from the end of January until the beginning of April, the WWE takes us on the road to Wrestlemania. Hello everyone and thank you for joining me on this journey through the Mania of March. Get set for 31 days and 31 Wrestlemanias through the perspective of a lifelong fan. Every day I will present another Wrestlemania going over some of the biggest moments and the biggest matches that you can follow along with if you’re watching an old coliseum video or going back through the archives of the WWE Network. Even more than that I’m going to tie in personal stories & reflections about wrestling that happened for me as a fan each year. I’ll include pictures (and some videos) of some autograph signings and events I went to as well as memories of what it was like being a fan back during that period of time. This should be a really be a fun ordeal (Especially once we get to the Wrestlemanias that I was alive for) and I would love for it to be interactive. You can always join us on twitter @Daily_Spotlight or join me personally @TommyOnTheSpot. You can also reach us by email at thedailyspotlight2@gmail.com or leave a comment in the comment section below as I’d love to hear some of your feedback as we go through the month of March here.

It’s probably important that we start with the beginning of when I became a wrestling fan. Few people probably know the exact moment that they became a fan of something but I do here. See when I was born, my mother would go to work on the weekends, at least after maternity leave, and so my father watched me. Before the days of Raw & Smackdown, wrestling was on TV on the weekends, usually in the mornings. My dad was a big fan at the time and so while I was in my carriage I’d sit next to my dad as he watched six hours of wrestling every weekend. I really believe that at this time, I was destined to be a big fan. I’ve been a fan my entire life and I’m 29 now. Amongst wrestling fans these days, the lapsed fan podcast has become a big hit (hell I’ve basically stolen this idea from them but that’s a great show I’ve talked about many times so hopefully they won’t mind), well I can say that for better or worse I have never been lapsed. I have followed the WWE from those days with my father in that carriage thru today. Any time I have some down time at work or in my personal life I always like to mention that I’m a big wrestling fan. On the first day of school every year, I would wear my favorite WWF T Shirt as this was my way of making friends. Today I’m a coordinator for human resources and spend my time editing resumes for people all of the time. This didn’t stop me from proudly displaying my volunteer work at Wrestlemania 29 on my resume for every future employer to see. I’ve always been a big defender of all things wrestling. It’s always irked me to hear people scoff and say that wrestling is fake or question why anyone would watch it. For me I’m as passionate about wrestling, if not moreso, than I am about professional sports.

As for Wrestlemania, as I go through each of the different shows, you’ll see this changes but when I first started watching Wrestlemania, I didn’t realize it was such a big deal. This was because, as a kid, I loved gimmick matches. Thus, I’d go back and rewatch the Survivor Series and the Royal Rumble over and over and rarely would Wrestlemania until I got older. To me the Rumble was the biggest show of the year followed by the Series, Mania and Summerslam. Don’t worry though, sooner than later I was able to figure out what the true grand daddy of them all truly was… Wrestlemania! These days, my girlfriend and I attend every wrestlemania since we’ve been together (since the middle of 2012). We’ve been able to turn Wrestlemania into one of our annual vacations, for my girlfriend’s birthday no less. Thus, the further along we go through these wrestlemanias, they in many ways change as I have changed in my 29 years of life. I’ll go from reminiscing a lot about my family and in particular my father, who tragically passed away just a few months ago. We’ll go from the likes of attending fan fest with my dad during Wrestlemania 10 weekend to what it was like to be there the night Brock Lesnar ended the Undertaker’s streak and everything in between. Without any further ado let’s start at the top, with the very first Wrestlemania.


Wrestlemania 1: 

Photo Credit: USA Today

I wasn’t born yet for the first two manias. But I think I could sum my feelings of that first Wrestlemania by recalling a conversation I had with my girlfriends dad last week. There was a commercial that aired in the middle of the Knicks game (why I still support that terrible team I couldnt tell you) in which the MSG network was promoting a documentary they were airing on the original Wrestlemania. He said “The first Wrestlemania was the best, you had everyone on that show from Cyndi Lauper to Mr T to the Rockettes, even Muhammad Ali! That’s when wrestling was at its best!”. Now if you’d notice there, my girlfriend’s father didn’t mention one wrestler in that bunch and I can’t say I blame him. Other than Hull Hogan, on that first mania it was really more about the celebrities. The matches weren’t given too much time and for the most part don’t really hold up today. I mean on the first few matches alone they contained the likes of Special Delivery Jones, David Sammartino and the Executioner, not exactly first ballad WWE Hall of Famers. That being said, if you do go back and watch the celebrity involvement from the first Wrestlemania, whether it be Liberace dancing with the Rockettes, Pat Patterson doing everything he could to hold back Muhammad Ali or Mr. T teaming with Hulk Hogan, these are moments that stand the test of time and can be looked at fondly today.

Of course when looking at the first Wrestlemania you would be remised to mention the major financial risk that Vince McMahon took with Wrestlemania. This was really the first Wrestling event that was being pushed as a live pay per view event broadcast live through closed circuit telvision. Thus, the production for such an event was very expensive as was having so many A List celebrities as a part of the show. But through unbelievable promotion such as an appearance on Saturday Night Live for Hulk Hogan & Mr. T as well the rock and wrestling partnership with MTV, Wrestlemania was a smashing success. Not only did Wrestlemania sell out Madison Square Garden but it also raised over 1 million dollars on closed circuit television. If you’re unfamiliar with closed circuit, by the way,I really like the idea that the first Wrestlemania was mostly seen primarily through closed circuit, this was when fans would gather in arenas or theaters to watch Wrestlemania together because it was before the days of pay per view. I have always thought this would still work today. I think it would be really cool to go down to the Garden to watch Wrestlemania live on the big screens with a bunch of screaming WWE fans or even in the local AMC movie theater.

The One Match You Should See:

As far matches go with the first Wrestlemania, if you’re looking for that Shawn Michaels- Undertaker Wrestlemania 25 level match, you’re just not going to find it here. That said, the main event between Hulk Hogan and Mr. T vs. Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff was a lot of fun with all of the celebrity involvement as well as Jimmy Snuka and Cowboy Bob Orton. I also really enjoyed the Andre The giant/ Big John Studd match if for nothing else than Andre The Giant getting the babyface spotlight. He’s just adored by that Garden crowd.

Well, that’s going to do it today but I’ll be back tomorrow as we’ll look at Wrestlemania 2!

The Spotlight On The Week Ahead For WWE 2/8-2/14

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Happy Monday everyone!  With the football season officially behind us and baseball season still a few months away, it’s time to shift our focus entirely on a whole different season, wrestlemania season of course!  With a little under 8 weeks away until the biggest Wrestlemania of all time, things are guaranteed to be kicked into high gear before too long.  With that said, let’s take a look at what lies in the week ahead for WWE.

Raw Comes To Yes Country-  WWE Monday Night Raw will emanate live from Seattle, Washington tonight.  As many of you know by now Daniel Bryan released a tweet earlier today confirming that due to medical issues he is going to be coming to Raw tonight in Seattle to announce his retirement from wrestling.  While it’s to see that Bryan is being forced to stop wrestling, something that he loves to do, it is in a way nice that he is being afforded to opportunity to speak in Seattle, just a short drive away from Bryan’s hometown of Aberdeen.  It was on an episode of Raw back in December of 2013 where the fans in Seattle, during a segment designed to showcase the importance of a title unification match between Randy Orton & John Cena, chanted Bryan’s name relentlessly.  This was something that Bryan credited with the birth of the yes movement on his DVD that was released just last year.  For those of you thinking that this is just storyline, ESPN’s Jonathan Coachman has since confirmed that this is not at all storyline and that Bryan would be appearing on Sportscenter tomorrow night to discuss his retirement further.  It should be an emotional Raw to say the least.
Time For Us To Ride Along Once Again- Following Monday Night Raw, the second episode of Ride Along will take place on the WWE Network.  This week’s episode will follow along both King Barrett & Sheamus as well as the trio of Renee Young, Summer Rae and R Truth.  I was able to check out the first episode featuring the New Day and Miz/Ziggler and thought it was actually a lot of fun.  The show doesn’t last more than 20 and is an easy watch.  It’s gives you that “fly on the wall” atmosphere as you watch the superstars on their traveling adventures.
A Beast Of A Smackdown-  Don’t forget about Smackdown.  WWE’s Thursday night program has really picked up some steam in recent weeks since coming over to the USA Network.  Smackdown has definitely been getting more of a focus recently and new lead play by play man Mauro Ranallo has been a welcome addition to the booth.  This week’s Smackdown should be no different as Brock Lesnar makes his first appearance on Smackdown since, I believe, the end of his first run in WWE back in 2004.  On top of that the rematch between Chris Jericho and AJ Styles, which has really been building over the next few weeks, is advertised for Smackdown.
Fourth Quarter Earnings Call- On top of all of this, there will be a fourth quarter earning call on Thursday morning with Vince McMahon and George Barrios.  I’m not sure that I will be able to sit in on the live call, which i did for quarter three, but I will have coverage on Thursday regardless. This particular call will cover the fourth quarter on 2015, basically from October thru December.  These calls are always interesting because it is usually a forum for McMahon to talk about a variety of upcoming business ventures for WWE, as well as the current state of the business.  This is also the chance for everyone to get updated on the current number of subscribers to the WWE network and plans for the network moving forward.
Closing Thoughts-
Obviously with the news breaking of Daniel Bryan officially announcing his retirement from WWE, this has shook the entire week for WWE and taken a much deserved focus.  I have a number of personal stories from either watching Daniel Bryan as a fan or the number of times I got to meet Bryan over the years that I will share when I feel the time is right.
Aside from all of that, this week WWE will released their annual DVD/ Blu Ray compilation focusing on the Best Matches and Moments from Raw and Smackdown tomorrow.  That blu Ray is always fun but obviously loses a little steam with all episodes of Raw and Smackdown now being up on the network.  Total Divas also continues tomorrow night and this season has actually been a lot of fun.  If you’re a fan of Daniel Bryan, you can follow along a lot of what he’s been going through by watching Total Divas.  If you do check that out let me know what you think.  Also as stated above, Daniel Bryan will be on Sportscenter tomorrow night with the coach.  It promises to be one hell of a week in WWE and we’ve got you covered from start to finish so keep it locked in to thedailyspotligh

The Spotlight On The 2016 WWE Royal Rumble

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Well the 2016 WWE Royal Rumble is in the books and what else can be said?  We are on the road to Wrestlemania! I really enjoyed the heck out of that Royal Rumble show last night and felt that it was top to bottom a really good show.  I’m going to go through everything in the order of which it took place so i can point out what I enjoyed about everything.

Highlights:

1) Preshow- It really seems like WWE is behind Byron Saxton as he is now the commentator for Raw, Smackdown and Pay Per Views.  While I like Saxton and think he works really hard, there was something really nostalgic that I enjoyed abut Jerry Lawler calling the pay per views.  That said, with Lawler and Booker T now both a part of the pre show panel, it instantly adds importance and credibility to the panel as the two legends work nicely with Corey Graves and Renee Young.  As for the four way match, I thought it was a lot of fun and it felt really important as all 8 superstars involved showed a sense of urgency that they really wanted to be a part of the Rumble.  I really also liked how into Damien Sandow the crowd was, they loved the guy and this is despite him not really being on tv for about 9 months.

2) Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens-  At first i didn’t understand why Kevin Owens and Dean Ambrose were the first match out but seeing that they were also in the Rumble, following a last man standing match, this was the only spot for them.  These two tore down the house and lived up to the other last man standing matches in Rumble history (Foley-Rock 1999, Triple H-Shawn Michaels 2004, John Cena-Umaga 2007).  The two kicked the show off with a bang destroying the timekeeper area almost immediately.  My favorite spot of the night had to be when Kevin Owens took out Michael Cole out of desperation when he was sent flying over the announce table.  I didn’t think the loss hurt Owens at all as he continued to come back throughout the match.  On the other hand, it was good to see Dean Ambrose get a big win and he was one of the MVPs of the whole show for me.

3) The New Day Vs. The Usos- The New Day continue to grow on me more and more throughout their run in WWE.  they have tremendous personality and it looks like it’s becoming harder and harder for them to remain a heel group as the crowd loves them just as much. The new Francesca was incredibly over with the crowd and i was happy to see the trombone back in full effect.  As for the match itself, these four all busted their ass and continue to revitalize the tag team division.  it was good to see the New Day keep the titles as they’ve now held those title for over 200 days.  Keep your eye on Xavier Woods, by the way, I wonder if over time he’ll continue to show more of his athleticism because he’s really good in the ring.

4) Kalisto vs. Alberto Del Rio-  I could watch these two go at it all the time here but to me, I would have held off on the first title change until this show as I felt it would have meant more for Kalisto to get it on a big stage.  Kalisto is a joy to watch in the ring and it looks like WWE may have found their new Rey Mysterio type of luchador for the kids to get behind.  As for Alberto, while i believe he could really benefit from having a mouthpiece or his own ring announcer, I don’t think he’s ever really had a bad match.

5) Charlotte vs. Becky Lynch-  both of these ladies looked great in the ring and had a good match but the big story here in the end has to be the return of Sasha Banks.  Other than AJ Styles, Sasha Banks got the biggest pop of the night from the live crowd.  WWE has done a good job in keeping Charlotte and Sasha away from each other since both of them debuted on the main roster last August.  I felt that last night was a great time to reintroduce their feud to WWE fans especially to do in in NXT country where fans love all of the talents who performed down in NXT.  It’ll be great to see a high profile Divas title match on Wrestlemania, as I expect that’s where this is going.

6) Royal Rumble Match- There’s been a lot of criticism over the last few Royal Rumble matches but let me tell you, they got it right last night.  First let’s start with AJ Styles who looked great and got a heroes welcome from the Florida crowd who couldn’t wait to see him. Styles got instant credibility by showing up and going toe to toe with the current WWE World Champion.  He also lasted nearly 30 minutes in the Rumble match and WWE was really smart to have Kevin Owens (who has a similar fanbase as the phenomenal one) be the one to eliminate him.  Speaking of Kevin Owens he looked tough as hell to stumble his was down the aisle to enter the ring because there was no way he was missing out on the Rumble.  Of course this led to our second big return of the match as Sami Zayn returned and immediately reignited his feud with Owens.  While people I was with were hoping that Finn Balor would be the NXT entry this year, I thought Zayn was the clear choice and the right choice.  It was nice to see the little comedy spots from Kofi Kingston (who looked rather confused like it was supposed to be Xavier Woods in the match) and R Truth as there’s always room for some comedy during the Rumble. As for the finish of the Royal Rumble, I was a big fan of it.  First of all if you watched that Rumble and saw Roman Reigns get taken out and walk to the back a beaten man, logic would say he was coming back at the end to win the match.  I feel like if that happened (especially since Roman wasn’t brought to the back by a stretcher) then people would have a right to be a little frustrated.  But the fact that Triple H returned, won the title and it came down to Hunter and Dean Ambrose (not Roman) that made for a very exciting finish.  Personally, I would have went with Ambrose and had Roman cost Triple H the title but that’s not because I don’t think Triple H deserves a run with the title but rather that I don’t think Roman and Triple H need the title for their feud and that I think it would have been a good time to propel Dean Ambrose by giving him a run with the title.  That said I think that by Triple H stealing the title from Reigns this puts a lot behind there feud.  I also wouldn’t been too surprised to see a little tension between Reigns and Ambrose being that Ambrose outlasted Reigns in the Rumble.

Closing Thoughts:

Overall, I thought this was a really enjoyable Royal Rumble event and my favorite since the 2010 show which saw Edge return and win the rumble.  The match had so many twists and turns along the way and it made for a really exciting watch.  The three big surprise entrants (four if you include Kane) worked as they added to the match and each one, AJ Styles, Sami Zayn, Triple H, meant something to the match as a whole.