Mike Reviews WWF — page 2

Happy Rumbling Friday Everyone!

As it’s Royal Rumble season, I thought I’d take a look at a classic Rumble pay per view from the days of yore, in the form of the 1997 event. I actually reviewed this one nearly 20 years ago for a website that no longer exists, and the review was pretty awful anyway, so let’s see if I can have a better stab at it all these years later.

In the Royal Rumble itself; Bret Hart, Undertaker, Vader and Steve Austin are all potential winners, whilst in the Main Event we’ve got hometown hero Shawn Michaels going for the WWF Title.

I seem to remember enjoying Royal Rumble 1997 back in the day, even though I’m not sure that sentiment is shared elsewhere amongst the fanbase at large. I’ve not watched the show in full for many years, so let’s see how Royal Rumble 97 stacks up 28 years on from the event.

You can view the card for Royal Rumble 1997 by clicking below;

WWF Royal Rumble 1997 Card

Pictures come courtesy of IMDB

Happy Friday Everyone!

In keeping with the theme of “Great TV Main Events” that we started two weeks ago; we’re going to look at an episode of Raw from December 2003 that features Triple H and Shawn Michaels going at it in a famous match. I’m not sure how the rest of the show will be, as Raw wasn’t great in 2003, but maybe there’s some good stuff elsewhere on the show to go alongside the strong Main Event?

You can view the full card for this episode of Raw by clicking below;

WWE Raw #553 card

Pics come courtesy of Pro Wrestling Wiki

Happy SmackDown Friday Everyone!

We’ve got a review of a SmackDown episode from 2002 today, as it features Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Eddy Guerrero and Edge all going at it in the Main Event, and you’d have to TRY to make that one boring. I’ve already reviewed Armageddon 2002 as well, so we might as well just review this episode of SmackDown seeing as the Main Event ended up being a DVD extra when Armageddon 2002 was released.

You can view the full card for this issue of SmackDown below;

Smackdown #173 Card

Pics come from the Pro Wrestling Wiki

Happy Survival Friday Everyone!

We’re looking at Survivor Series 2014, partly because the Main Event is good and partly because I don’t really remember whether the rest of the show is any good or not. We’ve got The Authority Vs Team Cena in a Survivor Series match, where if Cena’s team lose then they all get fired. Elsewhere, AJ Lee puts the Diva’s Title up against Nikki Bella and Dean Ambrose seeks vengeance on Bray Wyatt.

You can view the card for Survivor Series 2014 below;

WWE Survivor Series 2014 Card

Happy Survival Saturday Everyone!

We continue with our journey into 2002 WWE with Survivor Series. Back at No Mercy; Triple H and Brock Lesnar retained their respective World Titles, but they’ve got to put them on the line again here at Survivor Series, as Tri steps into the inagural Elimination Chamber match with a bunch of folk that hate him, whilst Lesnar has to contend with The Big Show.

Will either Champ be able to leave Survivor Series with their belts still around their waist? Let’s watch on and find out! You can view the full card for Survivor Series by clicking below;

WWE Survivor Series 2002 Card

Happy Spooky Friday Everyone!

The WWE Vault channel on YouTube has uploaded a special video on the evil era of Doink the Clown, which makes sense seeing as we’re approaching Halloween on the horizon and that version of the character was known for being genuinely quite unnerving and a bit scary. I’ve always been a fan of that version of the Doink character, so let’s take a look at what they’ve put together!

Happy Saturday Everyone!

We continue our journey through 2002 WWE today, by looking at No Mercy 2002. This event came at a time where the WWE’s product was cooling off significantly following the Attitude Era, with WWE desperately trying to get people to re-engage with the product by going for a more “edgy” presentation.

We’ll get into WWE’s attempts at that as the review goes on. No Mercy did feel like it would have some historical significance going in at least, as we’ll be unifying the World and IC Titles, as well as crowning SmackDown Tag Champs for the first time. We’ve also got a Hell in a Cell match to close things out, so there should be enough gore and violence in that one to keep fans of that genre happy,

You can view the full card for No Mercy 2002 by clicking the link below;

WWE No Mercy 2002 Card

Happy Saturday Everyone!

We reviewed WCW Nitro last week, so let’s take a look at an the episode of Raw that aired the following week seeing as I’ve never seen it before, featuring Rock, Mankind and Ken Shamrock going at it in the Main Event. Back before the days of WWE Network/Peacock, I had all of the 1998 Raw is War shows on DVD, but this episode never worked for whatever reason, so let’s scratch the long running itch once and for all.

You can view the full Raw card by clicking the link below;

Raw is War #278 card

Happy SmackDown Saturday Everyone!

This week we’ve got the second ever episode of SmackDown to watch, which was also the first episode of SmackDown’s run as a regular weekly WWF/E offering. We’ve got Triple H, The Rock, The Undertaker, Mankind and many others, so this episode should Smack a whole lotta Down!

You can view the card for SmackDown #2 by clicking below;

Smackdown #2 Card

Happy Vengeful Saturday Everyone!

Let’s jump back into 2002 WWE, with Vengeance. There’ll be no SummerSlam 2002 review in August, because I’ve already done one, so we’ll pick things up again later in the year.

Vengeance 2002 is mostly remembered for the Undertaker Vs Kurt Angle Vs Rock Main Event and little else, but let’s see how the rest of the card holds up.

You can view the aforementioned card for Vengeance by clicking the link below;

WWE Vengeance 2002 Card

Happy Monday Everyone!

I’m off work today and Heatwave comes in at around 2 hours 20 minutes on the Network, so let’s have a look at it as some of the matches sound intriguing. I don’t really watch NXT at all, so let’s see how good a job they do of taking a non-regular/first time viewer and easing them into things.

Thomas has also reviewed Heatwave for the Blog, so give that a goosey gander!

Our Main Event is a Fatal Four Way for the NXT Title, featuring two Canadians going for the belt in Canada. You can find the full card below;

NXT Heatwave 2024 Card

Happy Smackdown Saturday Everyone!

Next week the Stinker Review is going to be King of the Ring 2000, so I thought I’d get us all warmed up for that one by viewing the go-home Smackdown episode.

Smackdown in 2000 was usually decent because it tended to be more in-ring focused and the WWF had a good roster at the time, so hopefully this episode of Smackdown will be decent.

You can view the card by clicking below;

https://www.cagematch.net/en/?id=1&nr=3061&page=3

Happy Royal Saturday Everyone!

We continue our journey into 2002 WWE, with King of the Ring 2002. Feel free to catch yourself up on what happened at Judgment Day and Insurrextion before we move ahead with King of the Ring. As the name would suggest, the big issue to be dealt with on this show is the King of the Ring tournament itself, but we’ve also got Triple H Vs Undertaker and Kurt Angle Vs Hulk Hogan to enjoy!

So, find your favourite pair of regal slippers and let’s settle in for King of the Ring 2002! You can view the card for the event by clicking below;

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=2308&page=3

Happy Saturday Everyone!

We continue on with our journey into 2002 WWF/E today with Judgment Day, the first pay per view event to officially use the WWE initials,

Judgment Day 2002 was a show I actually watched a lot back in the day, as a friend was able to acquire the tape for me as I didn’t have satellite television at the time. The big match on Judgment Day is Hulk Hogan defending the Undisputed Title against The Undertaker, but there should hopefully be enough good action on the under card to offset that.

You can view the card for Judgment Day by clicking the link below;

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=2297&page=3

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

I’m trying something new for the Wednesday column where I take a look at a recent episode of television from the previous week and give my thoughts rather than a full on review, because we already have great folk who review the current day wrestling on here in the form of Thomas, Peacockery and Scott, so I’ll try a little something different. This week it’s going to be Smackdown from last Friday, but I might mix it up each week depending on what I get to watch

I’ll be eschewing regular star ratings here and I’ll be reviewing each match and/or segment on a scale of Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down or Thumbs in the Middle

So yeah, let’s move onto Smackdown from last week, with Thomas’ review being on offer if you want a more detailed recap, as this is designed more as a companion to that than as a full-on review in itself

Happy Saturday Everyone!

Seeing as we reviewed WrestleMania X8 a month ago, I thought I’d stick with WWF/E shows from 2002 for a bit, at least until I reached the point where I didn’t want to suffer through them anymore. This month we’ve got the follow-up to Mania X8 in the form of Backlash 2002, where the big match is Triple H defending his newly won WWF Title against Hulk Hogan.

Elsewhere on the Backlash card we’ve got Kurt Angle and Edge doing battle, whilst The Undertaker and Stone Cold square up to decide which one of them will contend for the belt at the May pay per view. Oh, and also we’ve got Scott Hall Vs Bradshaw, and if you can’t get excited for that then you can’t get excited for anything!

You can view the full card for Backlash 2002 by clicking the link below;

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=2290&page=3

Happy Tuesday Morning Thumb Bandits!

Back with another early morning Video Game review, as we take a look at WWF War Zone. War Zone came out on both the PSX and N64, with this review being based on the PSX version of the game as I didn’t have the N64 version when I wrote this. I’ve since picked up the N64 version of WWF War Zone, and my thoughts on it compared to the PSX version aren’t too wildly different, although I think it actually looks and runs a bit better on the N64 and the additional Royal Rumble mode is a nice addition. The music is of course borked to buggery on the N64 version of War Zone, although I do like the Dude Love theme on it.

If you’d like more Video Game musings, you can find them in my archives both here on the Blog and also over at Gaming Respawn.

Happy Saturday Everyone!

Seeing as we are moving into WrestleMania Season, I thought I’d review a Mania event that I quite enjoy but which I think sometimes gets passed over, in the form of WrestleMania X8.

It’s not really as a result of nostalgia either, as I was without satellite television when WrestleMania X8 took place and I couldn’t find someone willing to lend me a tape of it, so I didn’t sit down to properly watch the show until long after the fact (although I did manage to see the bout that WrestleMania X8 is mostly known for).

The big match of WrestleMania X8 is of course The Rock taking on Hollywood Hulk Hogan, but we’ve also got Undertaker wrestling Ric Flair and Chris Jericho defending the WWF Title against Triple H, so there should hopefully be some enjoyable bouts to look forward to!

You can view the full card for WrestleMania X8 by clicking the link below;

https://www.cagematch.net/en/?id=1&nr=2279&page=3

And of course you can read Scott Keith’s review of WrestleMania 18 by clicking HERE

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

We’re continuing on with booking Shotgun. If you’ve been following these then I hope you’re enjoying them, and if you’d like to get up to date on previous editions you can do so by checking the archives. I will post a recap of last week’s show down below the break line as well.

Hopefully ya’ll have some fun whilst we book some Shotgun!

Happy Saturday Everyone!

We’re back with another classic WWF review today, as we take a look In Your House 13: Final Four. I’ve actually been meaning to watch this one again for a while as I haven’t watched the Main Event in years and it’s highly regarded as one of the best matches the WWF put on all year in 1997, and that covers some ground due to the WWF having some pretty great matches that year.

The Main Event for In Your House 13 came about because there was controversy following Royal Rumble 97 when Stone Cold Steve Austin came back from already being eliminated to win the match illegally. Thus Gorilla Monsoon (the babyface authority figure in the WWF at the time) booked a match between Austin and the three entrants he illegally threw out in the form of Bret Hart, Undertaker and Vader in order to decide who would move on to WrestleMania 13.

Of course, the Final Four show closer of In Your House 13 would have an additional twist to it due to what happened in the build-up, but we’ll cover that when we get to it. Elsewhere on the card, we’ve got Triple H and The Rock tangoing on pay per view in a singles bout for the first time, as well as Owen Hart and Davey Boy Smith putting their WWF tag belts on the line against Doug Furnas and Phil LaFon.

Scott Keith has also reviewed In Your House 13 and you can read his thoughts on the show by clicking HERE

If you’d like to view the full card for In Your House 13 you can do so by clicking below;

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=1992&page=3

Let’s see how this show shapes up after all of these years