WWE

The Spotlight On Daniel Bryan’s Retirement

Tom Lynch Spotlight On Raw, Wrestling , , , , , , , ,

Well the above tweet really says it all, Daniel Bryan has officially announced that he is retiring from in ring action.  Bryan (34) has been out of action since a smackdown taping last April 14th in which he suffered a concussion, shortly after winning the intercontinental title at Wrestlemania.  Bryan had been hoping to gain medical clearance from the official WWE doctor, Dr. Joseph Maroon but had been unable to do so, despite gaining medical clearance from the doctor who worked at last year’s Superbowl.

While it is no doubt heartbreaking to long time fans of Bryan’s work (and I’m at the top of that list), WWE has to be commended here for taking concussions so seriously.  Bryan has been a part of WWE since 2009 and went on to win the World Heavyweight Title in 2011 and winning the WWE world heavyweight championship on 3 separate occasions, the last of which was in grand fashion at Wrestlemania 30.  As big of a fan as I am of Bryan the in ring performer, i’m a bigger fan of Bryan the person and his health and well being have to come first.

This tweet was released a little over an hour ago and I’ve already received a number of text messages from friends asking if this is storyline.  I suppose it’s possible being as Bryan teased a retirement announcement prior to announcing his return to the Royal Rumble back in 2015.  That said, I’d be pretty surprised to see that this is a storyline and I beleive it’s pretty legitimate.  Raw emanates from Seattle, Washington tonight, just a short distance from Bryan’s hometown in Aberdeen.

We’ll have a definitive update as more information is released and full coverage of Raw as well.

Nobu, John Scott & Colin Kaepernick…a New York Jet?- The Daily Spotlight for 2/2

Tom Lynch The Daily Spotlight , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Happy Tuesday Guys & Gals! What you didn’t think after declaring a February filled with updates that I would stop on Feb 2nd would you? Let’s turn on the spotlight & get right into it. 

-Unfortunately we have to start with another sad piece of news on the wrestling front. It’s being reported that WWE Hall Of Famer Blackjack Mulligan was rushed to the hospital yesterday and isn’t doing very well. Mulligan is the grandfather of current WWE Superstars Bray Wyatt & Bo Dallas, which explains why they were off of Raw as WWE actually sent them home to be with Mulligan. Mulligan was inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame back in 2006 with longtime tag team partner Blackjack Lanza by fellow Hall Of Famer Bobby The Brain Heenan. This sad news comes just 24 hours after the news about Bret Hart revealing that he is currently fighting Prostate cancer. Our thoughts & prayers are with Mulligan and his family during this very difficult time. 

– Had a chance to catch up on this entire John Scott situation and I can’t get over just how bad the NHL looked during the entire thing. An all-star game is supposed to be all about fun (my main reason why I hate that baseball puts homefield advantage during the World Series on the line during theirs) and it’s supposed to be an event for the fans. Sure, in theory, it’s supposed to be the best vs the best but by allowing a fan vote, you allow fans to choose the players that they want to see the most. The NBA All Star Game is going to be all about Kobe Bryant and he’s obviously not having an all star caliber year for the 9 win Los Angeles Lakers. Can you imagine the outrage if the NBA asked Kobe Bryant to sit out during his final all star game because “the game isn’t for him” or if they questioned Kobe about whether his family would be proud of him for accepting the all star spot despite his bad year? It would never happen! The good news for Scott is that he had the miracle ending and finished with the all star game MVP. The better news is this whole story is likely going to become a movie, and the NHL will look just as bad in cinematic form. 

– So it appears that Colin Kaepernick is seeking a trade out of the San Francisco 49ers organization and is interested in playing…for my New York Jets! Now I’d like to make it clear that I’m not a Colin Kaepernick fan. I always found that he came across very arrogant & I hated the way that the 49ers treated Alex Smith. That said, Colin Kaepernick has led his team (with a defense similar to that of the Jets & comparable weapons on the offensive side of the ball) to a Super Bowl and to two NFC Championship games. Kaepernick is a dynamic dual threat that in the right system can give your team the chance to win any game. I love Ryan Fitzpatrick but he’s only had one winning season and never made it to the playoffs, Colin Kaepernick would instantly become the most athletic quarterback the Jets have had since Bubby Brister….or ever! He’s certainly worth a shot. Sidebar but check out New York’s secondary teams (The Jets & the Mets)  becoming desirable landing spots in the same season, pretty cool to see. 

-Lastly I was able to check out Nobu for my girlfriend’s sister’s birthday and let me tell you, Delmonico’s may have competition for my favorite restaurant in New York City. I grew up the type of guy that enjoyed simple American chain restaurants. Applebee’s, Chilis and Friendlys ranked among my favorites, as I refused to try anything different. Well, over the last decade or so I’ve really expanded those horizons (partially because my relationships had a limited shelf life with weekly trips to Friendlys) andlast night may have been the pinnacle. From octopus to short rib to a variety of raw fish and sushi to a multitude of Sake, I tried it all and loved every bit of it. With a party of 10 we ended up getting 2 dishes of each one of the four course options offered on their restaurant week pre fixe menu. It was so much fun trying the many different delicacies and a major kudos has to be extended to the staff at the midtown Nobu location who treated us like kings and queens, while offering us special dishes on the house. I can’t give this place a higher recommendation and with New York City restaurant week still in effect until Friday, get out there and take advantage! 

That’s going to do it for me as its times to go burn off some of that sushi! Talk to you guys down the road. 

The Spotlight On The 2016 WWE Royal Rumble

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

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.

 

The Spotlight On The History Of The Royal Rumble-2008

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

Whereas Royal Rumble 2000 ended with the disappoint of not being able to attend the event live, I was hoping for a different outcome come 2008 when the Royal Rumble returned to Madison Square Garden in 2008. In the years leading up to 2008 I had became pretty good friends with my biggest wrestling friend growing up who i had drifted apart from during my early college years. In 2006, I noticed that he and his girlfriend had become really big wrestling fans and were attending conventions and shows almost weekly. We ended up going to a smackdown taping together in 2006 and I remember we had an absolute blast booing Tatanka during his ill fated return. We ended up becoming good friends again from this moment and literally started attending local wrestling shows regularly. Whether it was Ring of honor, Dragon Gate USA, WWE, TNA or even local independents on the tip of New Jersey to see Hardcore Holly, we were finding ways and reasons to attend wrestling events live. I had to give my buddy credit too because we often had good seats to WWE events which weren’t always easy to get as a three pack. When Royal Rumble 2008 rolled around, it seemed we had really met our match as tickets for that event sold out instantly.
Something that was really cool back then, was that the WWE was doing a tour of their Axxess fan festival events in the surrounding areas of the live events leading up to Wrestlemania. In New York that year there were a series of Axxess festivals running out of South Street Seaport. The events were hosted by HillBilly Jim and had appearances by WWE superstars as well as different types of contests, games and WWE memorabilia. My friends weren’t working at the time and so they attended every Axxess event prior to the Rumble that weekend as these festivals were also free. I went to work on Thursday and Friday that week and was unbelievably jealous as my friend texted me photos with Matt Striker and the like. I attended Axxess with them on Royal Rumble Sunday. My buddy’s girlfriend and I had pretty much accepted that we were not going to be attending the Rumble as the cheapest seats on the secondary market were $500 each. My buddy on the other hand was hell bent on going to the show and wouldn’t accept no for an answer.

Also at Axxess that day Ric Flair was signing autographs from 12-2 which was huge not only because it was Ric Flair but this was during the last leg of Flairs active wrestling career for WWE. Unfortunately with the line so long for Ric ( people were lined up outside since 6am) we didn’t make it anywhere close to see the Nature Boy. Thus, at 2pm, while we were on the line,Ric was replaced with The Highlanders. Though this could be viewed as about as bit of a downgrade, as you could imagine, the highlanders were some of the nicest superstars I could remember. They asked us if we were ready for the Rumble that night and if we were going. I said “I’m afraid not, we can’t get any tickets”. I remember Rory specifically encouraging us and saying don’t give up you can make it and telling us to go to the venue and sometimes tickets were released prior to the show.

Before we got to that point, there was a wrestler impression contest where five people were picked from the crowd to do impressions and the winner got two tickets to the Rumble while second place got the new Steve Austin DVD. (This reminded me of a similar contest that the WWF did for Wrestlemania 13 but that’s a story for my Mania retrospectives) In any event I was chosen to participate in the contest and after three people were awful, I got up and did my very best Jim Ross. The crowd loved it and ate it up. My friends were going bananas mouthing ” Holy Shit you’re going to win”! Then the final contestant went up and did a picture perfect Joey Styles that he couldn’t even finish his impression without people going absolutely nuts for him. He won the contest and I got the Austin DVD for my troubles.

Upon the completion of Axxess, in which HillBilly Jim refused to take a photo with me and only took one with my buddy’s girlfriend. It was off to the races as we raced to Madison Square Garden to hope for the best in getting tickets for the Rumble.
It was absolute torture waiting on that line, as we waited for about three hours with tickets getting released little by little up to the show. To add insult to circumstance, we all noticed one of our friends at the show passing us by who had stopped watching wwe years earlier. Finally tickets were released, for $156 a pop. My friends were excited but I knew I couldn’t pay for it. I had left my debit card at home and didn’t have enough cash.

Dejected, I made my way back to the train and called my parents to order the show. I waited on the train about five minutes feeling like I wasted the whole day and all I got was a highlanders autograph. Just then my phone rang and it was my friend, he explained that while he didn’t have the money to cover my ticket, his girlfriend did and couldn’t let me watch from home. I couldn’t believe it, it was truly one of the nicest things someone had done for me and so I ran off the train and all the way back to the arena. I was so excited I forgot to tell my family to cancel the event order on ppv. I was finally going to the Royal Rumble!

What a Rumble this was too, I remember the great Rumble commercial and poster that took place in a New York City subway. The big story other than the Rumble that night was Jeff Hardy challenging for the world title against Randy Orton. I loved the story going into this match as Jeff was finally getting a shot at the big title. Unfortunately, Jeff lost that night and I honestly thought he could have been given a run with the title. He was had a ton of momentum going into this match and I think a moment on this show at MSG would have been great for him. It sadly was not to be and to add insult, this was the night Mike Adamle called him “Jeff Harvey”.
As for the Rumble, this was probably my favorite Royal Rumble match. The talk before the match amongst my friends were we had no clue who was going to win the Rumble because John Cena was injured at the time. As for surprises that year, this Rumble had some of the best ones ever when you consider the MSG connection. You first had Mick Foley who grew up going to shows at the Garden. From there you had back to back surprise entrants as SuperFly Jimmy Snuka came out followed by Rowdy Roddy Piper who were on opposite sides of the first Wrestlemania which took place at MSG and then came time for Number 30.

The big rumor of the night was that the Big Show was returning after an 18 month absence. We were so prepared for Shows return that we were prepared to do the big chokeslam hand as we counted down with the countdown. When the clock struck zero it was huge pause and then a familiar rattle. It was John Cena! Now typically, the MSG crowd was pretty hard on Cena booing him time and time again during his run on top. Well, on this night it became clear that everyone forgot they were supposed to hate John. This was by far the biggest pop of the night and the biggest I’ve heard in my history of attending shows at MSG. The crowd went nuts as it was a huge return as Cena was supposed to be out of action another nine months. Cena went on to win the rumble to celebrations from the crowd that included grown men hugging each other. Such a great live experience.

After the show, we went to the area where the superstars were leaving and it was a who’s who of people we saw. Anyone from John McEnroe to Darryl Strawberry to Mean Street Posse’s Pete Gas to R Truth who didn’t re debut for WWE until later that year. Then as Ric Flair exited the building, a small child ran under the barricade right at the Nature Boy. Flair put his hand out to stop the youngster and said “control your child” while walking passed the kid no selling the kid entirely. The crowd began to boo Ric until he let out a signature “Whoo” and got a huge pop. Only in wrestling!

Well that’s gonna do it for now but next up I’ll be traveling live to Atlanta, Georgia for the Royal Rumble 2010.

The Spotlight On The History Of The Royal Rumble- 2000

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

January of 2000 was a very interesting time for the WWF. We were now entering the last full year of the WCW and WWF was in firm control as the Attitude era was at it’s peak. That said, the WWF was also without it’s top star as Stone Cold Steve Austin was out due to an injury. Thus, WWE was left with a really fun group of main eventers who were all competing to become the next top guy and the result was one of the most successful years in WWE history. To me, this was also the best royal rumble card in the history of the WWE, maybe not the best Royal Rumble match itself but as far as the card goes this is as good as it gets to me.
However, before I break down my memories of the Royal Rumble 2000, I’ll give you a bit of a personal back story. I did not attend Royal Rumble 2000, despite it being right here in New York City. That being said, I was really close and just about every single friend I had who was interested in professional wrestling did attend the Royal Rumble that year. Here’s the story, so I was 13 years old and all I wanted to do was attend the Rumble that year. Of course, the Rumble was an instant sell-out and this was before the days of ebay or stubhub where literally no ticket is unattainable. Thus, I realized I didn’t have much choice and I’d be watching the Rumble at home with my family and hear all of the stories from my friends who witnessed the show live the next day. This was until, Sunday afternoon the weekend before the Rumble when my uncle came home with a surprise. My Uncle told me (13) , my sister (10 years old) and my cousin, his son, (7) years old that there was a fax coming in for us. We answered the fax and it said “Hey guys I saw your Uncle Tony today and guess what you’re all going to the Royal Rumble!- your pal the Rock”. I figured the rock really wasn’t sending us a private fax but omg the party that commenced was unbelievable. For about five days I went through every single possible scenario about being there live. Would Edge bump into me while coming through the crowd? Would Jeff Hardy attempt a Swanton Bomb for our private suite into the ring? Would Stone Cold Steve Austin return in the rumble match? This was unbelievable, my first Royal Rumble live!

We spent that weekend getting excited for the rumble, watching Rumbles of years past and getting ready to count each royal rumble entrance down live in person! I also remember listening each night to WWF Radio. WWF Radio was something that only took place on occasion and that weekend WWF took over a station in New York each night leading up to the rumble. I remember it was basically superstar interviews hyping the matches and I also remember hearing the taz beats as the hosts wondered who he was and reminded us he would be debuting at the Rumble.

Then on Sunday morning, my Uncle showed us the tickets. Just like he said, we had a private suite live at Madison Square Garden to witness the WWF live…for Raw on February 28th! I felt my heart sink as everyone celebrated with glee because I knew my Uncle was mistaken, “The rock” hooked him up with tickets to Raw the following month and it turned out, we weren’t going to the rumble after all. Everyone ended up being pretty disappointed so my parents and uncle took us all to WWF New York (My first trip there) for lunch the day of the Rumble to make up for it. For those who don’t know, WWF New York was basically the WWF’s answer the the Hard Rock Café, it was a WWF themed restaurant filled with all things WWF! I’ll tell you this much for a 13 year old wrestling fan, this place was about as good as it got. Every TV had WWF programming on it, the store sold every piece of memorabilia you can think of, there was also a WWF museum set up and that day there was a private room for signings (only for people who had VIP tickets however). I couldn’t even tell you what I ordered that day or if I ate it because my family and I just continued to look around at everything (I’ll admit it, I’m still bummed the place didn’t work out). The only thing that was a let down for me that day was that it felt like every person there was also going to the rumble. Everyone had t shirts and signs, I even saw friends of mine attending the show asking me where my seats were. While it was tough to head home that night to watch the show, I was happy and thanked my family for making the best out of the situation.

As for the Rumble event itself that year? It was probably the greatest Royal Rumble event in history, at least in my opinion, this is the one show where I can go back and watch the entire show start to finish whereas in most other cases I just watch the rumble. On this show alone you had a great debut for Tazz, an unbelievably fun tag team tables match between the Hardys and Dudleys (I still love the visual of the Jeff Hardy Swanton Bomb off the entrance with the New York City taxi) a fun miss diva swimsuit competition with hot divas and Mae Young ripping off her top (c’mon it was good for a laugh!) , an amazing Triple H- Cactus Jack Street Fight for the world title that stands the test of time, and the Royal Rumble which featured surprises and everyone being featured pretty well with the Rock at his peak!

All in all just a really fun show and as you can see here a fun time to be a WWF fan. Sure, I was a little bummed that I’d have to wait another 8 years to attend my first Royal Rumble event live, but, at the end of the day I had a great experience. Oh, and that live Raw I attended on February 28th, 2000? That was the raw where Mae Young gave birth to a hand live, so who am I to complain when I was there live for such a great moment!
That does it for the Royal Rumble 2000, next up we’ll return to the Garden for the Royal Rumble 2008!