Monday Night Open Mic

Howdy Blog O’Doomers!

Not much happening this week as we prepare for the final stretch before Summerslam. I actually downloaded all 28 In Your Houses (or 27 depending on whether Backlash 1999 was considered an IYH or not) to prepare to watch and possibly review. A couple of things really stood out to me.

— They tried and tried and tried and tried and tried to find something that Bradshaw could do to get over and oddly enough I think the one thing that worked (APA) really seemed to get over by chance more than anything.

— If not for Shawn Michaels, the earlier cards would easily be considered among the most boring PPVs of all time.

— If I go back and review the Austin-Vega strap match it’ll likely get five stars. I think the first time I did it it was about ****1/2 but rewatching it again it was Austin’s second best match in the WWF pre-injury, with the Survivor Series match against Bret Hart being the clear number one. Definitely the best strap match EVER.

— In the much later cards it looks like they were experimenting with a born-again Christian gimmick for Dustin Rhodes. He came out before the bikini showdown between Sable and Jackie and said a prayer. Was this the first time they tried this? I don’t remember. However, they eventually went the total opposite direction and did “The Artist Formerly Known As” gimmick.

Something else I wanted to ask but I’ve forgotten so I’ll remind myself later.

With Summerslam heading in and the high expectations for it we have a good chance at the WWE hitting a three-in-row streak for kick ass PPVs. Hopefully tonight is the big sell. So enjoy the show and come out swinging but try to keep it clean!