Back In The Saddle

Well, after a weekend of moving and getting kinda sorta settled, I'm back to making nice of the worst wrestling has to offer. Today's gonna be quite the doozy.

Today, I will try to make nice of recent Wrestlecrap Hall of Fame inductee i-Generation Wrestling's Superstars of Wrestling. Know in the United States as Rodman Down Under, the event emanated from the Sydney Superdome in Sydney, Australia on July 30, 2000, but did not air in the United States until December 1, 2000 (ironically, the same weekend, two of their three championships changed hands, but that's a different matter). This was the only filmed event of iGW's brief existence, as the group was a touring bunch that ran through Australia in late July and early August. Many of the same people behind the scenes involved in putting this show together would reunite a year later for World Wrestling All-Stars.

Now, as Wrestlecrap so astutely points out, when you think of i-Generation, probably the first thing that comes to mind is you're gonna get something new, something fresh, something outside the box. That wasn't the case. In fact, the youngest wrestler on this show at the time is 34, and two others, including main eventer/cover boy Dennis Rodman are closer to 40 than 38. As Wrestlecrap also points out, this is right up there in the false advertising department with the main event of Jerry Lawler vs. Rowdy Roddy Piper in the main event of the 1994 King of the Ring, the first PPV of the WWF "New Generation" era. But let's be honest: pickings were slim, as we were still living in a three major North American promotion world at the time. Also, as this show occurred a couple months before WCW toured the country, this was at the time arguably the biggest wrestling show on their grounds since the WWF toured there in 1986. Yeah, you could see just how starved the Aussies were for pro wrestling.

Originally when I did a list of worst PPVs not named Heroes of Wrestling (which I will do one of these days), I didn't include this show, mainly because I couldn't find any information on it at the time. The little I could find said this show was legendarily bad. Well, let's find out just how bad. 

From ArtODonnell's recent Wrestlecrap induction:

Perhaps the most damning criticism of the event I can offer, however, is that Roddy Piper vs. Lawler, last week’s induction, was far and away better than anything on this pay-per-view.

This is coming from a guy that sits through the WWF New Generation era and reviews the shows from that time. (A side nugget: his blog, "How Much Does This Guy Weigh?" is worth your time and you should check it out. You're welcome.)

KB's Wrestling Reviews:

F. Well that was horrible but I can’t say it’s in Heroes of Wrestling territory. For one thing that show was nearly an hour longer and had some of the most embarrassing “wrestling” you’ll ever see. This was terrible stuff too but it wasn’t dragging the business down to never before seen lows. At the end of the day, this was only an hour and forty minutes with nearly twenty of that being spent on dancing or video packages. It’s terrible but it’s not the worst show of all time by a decent stretch.

An hour and 40 minutes. Honestly, that makes me feel good. The less awful wrestling, the better.

Cewsh of Cewsh's Reviews:

What a wacky show. 

We review a lot of varied stuff here at Cewsh Reviews, so we generally, going in, know basically what to expect (with the notable exception of the Bread Eating Deathmatch). I was sort of expecting this to be like a WCW PPV circa 2000, but that really wasn’t what this was at all. This was an indy promotion who were running a nostalgia show with a main event way out of their depth. The show wasn’t necessarily as bad as the scores will dictate, and may even be enjoyable to someone with a good dose of nostalgia behind them. But the fact that over 50% of this card passed away between then and now, the absolutely awful ending to the main event, and the fact that brute Force is not an esteemed member of the correct 50% just dragged this show down into the doldrums. Which was a shame, because FUCKING TATANKA WOOOO!

Now I'm curious to see what the deal is with the bread eating deathmatch. (Edit: the match is real, alright. I'll watch another time.)

Two Sheds Review, Britian's longest running wrestling and MMA blog:

I think the best way to describe this show is average - and I would have described it as below average if it wasn’t for the final two matches. If someone who hadn’t read this view asked me if I recommended this show, I say no, unless you can get it at bargain basement price, or you can tape it the next time it’s shown on TV. Rodman Down Under will not go down as one of the best shows in the history of professional wrestling, just as one of the most average.

While pretty much all the people above found the show online or bought it in one of those bargain bins, famed wrestling reviewer Scott Keith paid full freight at the time of the show ($24.95 American, which would be about $34 today). He's gonna be pissed, isn't he?

Heroes of Wrestling: The Sequel. I don’t know how Dave Meltzer could give Steve Seiden time on his show the other day without drowning the guy’s incessant hype out with his laughter. Easily the worst PPV of the year, with 5 matches, all bad, and the rest filler. On the bright side, Curt Hennig looked great and I hope the WWF reconsiders their snubbing of him so far, because god knows the main event needs a fresher face right about now. Thumbs down (under) for this mess.

As it turned out, WWF did reconsider and brought Hennig back at the 2002 Royal Rumble. He was a major player for a bit. Then the whole plane ride from hell happened. And then he went to TNA. Then he died. Sad.

Thankfully, I won't have to pay full freight, or any money for that matter. That's the good news. Bad news is, I have to listen to the German commentary. Nothing against German people; I don't know German. Oh well, gonna have to actually pay attention for once.