Rocktober- Day 3

A new day of Rock stuff.

Compliment Sandwich: i-Generation Superstars of Wrestling (aka Rodman Down Under)

Rodman Down Under (better known as i-Generation Wrestling Superstars of Wrestling, referred to here on as iGW) took place at the Sydney Superdome in Sydney, Australia on July 30, 2000. This was the only filmed event on iGW's tour of Australia, bringing together some wrestling legends. But at the time, getting competent legends was a tough task, as North America had a fully functioning WWF, a fully functioning (though slowly dying) WCW, and a fully functioning (though also slowly dying) ECW. Though the name i-Generation Wrestling suggested something new and innovative, the youngest male performer on the roster was Johnny Grunge at age 34. i-Generation? Try Baby Boom Generation.

The show is considered among wrestling pundits and fans as among the worst in wrestling history. And to think, people paid $24.95 for this back in 2000. Though the show took place on July 30, it didn't air in the United States until December. In fact, the weekend it aired, two of the three championships changed hands again.

So can i-Possibly say anything nice about this bargain bin PPV? Well, I found video of it, but the commentary is in German. Looks like I'll be watching this one on mute, which may not be a bad thing.

• Opening video package is mid-1990s WCW awful. But it at least establishes Dennis Rodman as the heel. So there’s that.
• The matchup screen looks like it could have been for a 16-bit fighting game.
• Vince Mancini and Ted DiBiase (yes, THAT Ted DiBiase) are doing commentary…for the American audience. But I’m watching the German version. And the announcers refer to themselves as Vince and Ted. Oh, and they’re in a studio. Green screen. What is this, 1986?
• Hey Worm! You’re Ugly! At least the creativity bar is low. BTW: many of the signs from the show were handed out.
• iGW champion Curt Hennig (aka the late Mr. Perfect) calls out Dennis Rodman to start. Set by the way is a weird hybrid of Nitro’s 1997 and 2000 sets.
• Why we’re starting the show with a promo? Time is money. Shut up and fight.
• Rodzilla killer in the front row, by the way. Nice.
• Public Enemy versus the Road Warriors for the iGW tag team titles. Public Enemy apparently are the tag champs heading in. Match was set up by PE jumping said Road Warriors in a press conference. This is a tables match.
• Way to finish that roll, Johnny Grunge. Grunge, if you missed the last post, is the youngest male performer on the show at age 34.
• Road Warriors (or Legion of Doom if you prefer). It saddens me that they’re coming out to some dance pop type music. It makes their 1998 theme tolerable.
• Grunge is hungry. Or something.
• Louie Anderson look-alike does not seem amused.
• I believe the hard camera shot is similar to that of No Mercy, WWF Attitude, and the recently released (at the time) WWF Smackdown. BTW: the game play difference between Smackdown and Attitude are night and day. But No Mercy blew them both away. I’d still take Smackdown over Attitude though.
• Ok, this is a tables match. Why do the teams have to tag in and out?
• Things I don’t miss about the Attitude Era: the crotch chop.
• Is Hawk going for a pin in a tables match?
• Hawk and Rock are the first two out. So it’s just Animal and Grunge for the belts. Rock with a chair, not that there are rules or anything.
• Animal battering rams Public Enemy into the table, and that’ll do it. Well, Grunge walks toward the table, but whateves. Road Warriors win the tag titles.
• Get used to those belts, by the way. They appear again on this show.
• Seriously. Road Warriors with techno music: no. Just… no.
• The i-Generettes appear for the first time. The Generettes are iGW’s answer to WCW’s Nitro Girls. I know a lot of smarks hate these little dance numbers, but they’re a harmless diversion if nothing else. The Nitro Girls are way better though. Just saying.
• Barbarian out first for this hardcore match. Barbarian was of course, one half (or one third) of the Faces of Fear in WCW.
• His opponent: Brute Force, aka Ed Leslie. You may know him as Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake, or The Butcher, or Zodiac, or The Booty Man, or The Man with No Name, or the Man with No Face.
• That bell is unnatural sounding. I meant to point that out in the first match. Sounds like the bell from Jerry Springer.
• For those thinking there’s no such thing as a bad hardcore match, I present Barbarian versus Brute Force as the contrary.
• Swing and a miss on the steps that couldn’t weigh more than like six pounds.
• Crowd is super dead for this one, and I can’t blame them.
• And there’s your obligatory low blow. (The first match had quite a few. This is a recurring theme in this show.)
• Worst. Diamond Cutter. Ever.
• An awful diamond cutter, DDT, and piledriver don’t finish the match, but a boot to a trash can lid does. Okay.
• And would it kill you to sell the effects of the match on the way back, Bruti? Fuck.
• Wild Generettes appear.
• Women’s match next. Brandi Wine with Sugar Daddy (real name: Fred Ottman, best known as Tugboat, Typhoon, and…The Shockmaster). Sweet Destiny with Aussie Joe Bugner. Bugner, by the way, was born in Hungary. A side nugget about Aussie Joe: Bugner was the last man to defeat Britsh boxing legend Henry Cooper in 1971. The decision was quite controversial. Bugner also had a small role in the movie Street Fighter.
• And yes, it did sound like one of the German guys called Sweet Destiny Philadelphia Cunt.
• People seem to love Sweet Destiny and not Brandi Wine. This is probably the most alive this crowd has been since the show started. To quote KB’s Wrestling Reviews, in terms of looks, nothing to see here, especially with Trish Stratus at the peak of her hotness around this time.
• Hungarian…err…Aussie Joe puts the Shockmaster on his ass.
• Wait, the match is still going on?
• Yikes. Superplex looked bad.
• But it ends things, as Sweet Destiny, the “Philadelphia Cunt”, wins. Crowd approves.
• Once again, the Generettes.
• There’s still 45 minutes left in this video and only two matches left.
• One Man Gang vs. Tatanka for the iGW Australasian Championship. I guess that’s their term for Eurocontinental. Or something. In the video, it’s referred to as the International Heavyweight Championship. The belt looks suspiciously like the tag title belts from earlier in the show. Note how quick they cut away from said belt.
• At around 68 minutes, fans looks like are turning on the show. Trash is being thrown on the ramp in the direction of One Man Gang.
• And now they’re showering the ring with garbage. Yeah. They’re checking out.
• The match goes another 13 minutes (and a ref bump) before One Man Gang wins with an international object. That’s two out of two champions to lose tonight so far.
• Again, they quick cut from the championship belt.
• One last appearance by the golden-clad Generettes before we head into the main event, Mr. Perfect versus The Worm.
• How did two future Hall of Famers end up in Australia fighting for a title no one cared about? Hennig’s deal with WCW expired earlier that summer, and Dennis Rodman retired following a brief stint with the Dallas Mavericks, one that saw him get ejected twice in just 12 games. That takes some real talent.
• For those saying Curt Hennig was never a world champion, there ya go. Hennig was the iGW world champion. Hennig was also world champion in the dying days of the AWA, holding the title from May 1987-May 1988.
• Australian Outback rules by the way. Whatever that means.
• Rodman throws the referee out the ring, and somehow, that ends the match. The main event ends on a disqualification. Of course. Pull-apart brawl between the two post-match.
• There’s a post-match interview with Hennig and a highlight package to end, and that’s that.

The hook of Rodman Down Under was seeing Dennis Rodman in a wrestling match. I’m not sure why anyone would want to see Dennis Rodman in a wrestling match. But for those that did, well, you got him for ten minutes. Hope it was worth whatever money you spent on it. In my case, none. And it wasn’t. Perhaps the nicest thing I can say about Rodman Down Under: at least it wasn’t Heroes of Wrestling. And the Generettes were alright. I’d still take Kimberly, Stacy and the Nitro Girls crew though. Hell, I’d take the two beauties that walked out with Curt Hennig over the Generettes.

The Hidden Good in nWo Souled Out 1997

In the second half of 1996, on the heels of the hottest storyline in wrestling in years, the New World Order, World Championship Wrestling did what many people thought was unthinkable—surpass the World Wrestling Federation as the premiere wrestling company in North America. The renegades, led by former WWF stars Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall, ran roughshod over anyone and everyone that stood in their way. So with the idea of the nWo being the hottest act in wrestling, why not build and entire PPV around it?

Enter nWo Souled Out, which took place on January 25, 1997 from the Five Seasons Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I know what you’re thinking, and you’re right. Pretty odd choice for a PPV if you’re hoping to generate some revenue. And a pretty odd choice of day to do it too (this took place on a Saturday night, but not just any Saturday; the day before the Super Bowl). Perhaps a combination of feeling experimental and hubris, WCW executive vice president Eric Bischoff soldiered on with the concept.

For all the faults with this PPV, it was unique. The nWo combatants would get their music, but WCW guys would not. The set had a dark, grungy feeling to it. Nick Patrick refereed EVERY match on the show (here’s hoping he got overtime that night). And the opening video is pretty tight. In other words, it felt like an nWo PPV.

And that, perhaps, was the problem. Fans didn’t call their local cable companies in droves to drop $30 on the PPV. Critically, it was a disaster. Though they sold out the building, there were only about 5,100 people there. A 0.47 buyrate for the show, and the nWo PPV experiment all but ended, as the next year’s show became co-branded with WCW.

But among the garbage, which ironically is how the nWo entered, is a few good matches worth your time. If the link is bold, definitely go watch it. Otherwise, tread at your own risk.

• Like I said, the opening moments and the set reveal are pretty tight. Sure WWF always had superior production, but for WCW, this was probably some of their best stuff.
• Did ya like the nWo B-team music? You’re gonna get it a lot.
• Something else you’ll also get a lot: the nWo voice cracking on WCW’s talent.
• Chris Jericho versus Masahiro Chono is a pretty solid, but unspectacular open.
• Something you will definitely not like: the Miss nWo contest segments. I’ll spare you with the review of that filler garbage.
• You can safely pass the Hugh Morrus vs. Bubba Rogers “Mexican Death Match”.
• And the Jeff Jarrett-Michael Walstreet match.
• There’s a musical performance following this match. Feel free to skip.
• The former American Males fighting each other: nope. Not worth your time either. You can skip Scotty Riggs versus Buff Bagwell, though if you can get through the many, many restholds, you’ll see the debut of the Blockbuster.
• Diamond Dallas Page versus Scott Norton is worth it for seeing Norton getting okeydoked by Page. This was probably the beginning of the rise of DDP, legend.
• The Outsiders versus The Steiners feud for the tag titles continue here. The match is nothing special, but the ending is totally worth it. Of course, the decision gets overturned two nights later on Nitro because reasons.
• Eddie Guerrero versus Syxx for the United States Championship in a ladder match is far and away the best match on the show. The ending is unlike almost any ladder match ever. Oh, by the way, Eric. It’s not a foreign object. It’s part of the match. And it’s American. You’re welcome.
• After one last really long Miss nWo segment, we have the world title match between Hollywood Hogan and future nWo member The Giant. It was awful. Probably the worst match of the night, and that’s saying something. Why three or four members of the Dallas Cowboys were there, I’ll never know. At least the crowd reacts correctly to the ending: “We Want Sting!” chants and trash thrown in the ring.

This was a case of a good idea with a bad execution. Eric Bischoff had every intention of making the nWo not just a stable, but its own separate entity, like RAW and Smackdown were during the brand extension days. Any pretense of that ended on this night in middle America. Perhaps it was best that the idea of nWo, the company, ended about as anonymously--and as spectacularly--as it did.