WWE Vintage Collection TV Report #26 – November 30^th, 2008

Shown on Sky Sports 3 in the U.K.

By Stephen Lyon.

This Week: The look back at previous Survivor Series ppv’s concluded, with focus placed on the 1995, 1996 and 1997 ppv shows. All Japan women, Rocky Maivia’s and Kane’s debut matches, and Sid winning the WWF title from Shawn Michaels featured this week.

Introduction:

Mean Gene Okerlund opened the show. This week, the look back at previous Survivor Series pay-per-views continued, with one match from Survivor Series 1995, held on November 19^th, 1995, from Landover, Maryland; Survivor Series 1996, held on November 17^th, 1996, from Madison Square Garden, New York; and Survivor Series 1997, held on November 9^th, 1997, from Montreal, Quebec.

First up was a match from the 1995 Survivor Series. The announcers for this match were Vince McMahon, Jim Ross and Mr Perfect.

1) Bertha Faye & Aja Kong & Lioness Asuka & Tomoko Watanabe (w/Harvey Wippleman in their corner) defeated Alundra Blayze & Kyoko Inoue & Sakie Hasegawa & Chapparita Asari, in an elimination match, when Kong pinned Blayze to become the sole survivor. Only the last few minutes of this match aired, focusing on Blayze vs Faye & Kong & Watanabe. In introducing this match, Okerlund described it as a ‘Divas’ match, which I guess is the first time anyone has ever described Aja Kong as a Diva. This was during the time period when the WWF were willing to try new things in order to catch WCW, who were of course on fire at the time. This match featured WWF Womens Champion, Alundra Blayze and her rival, Bertha Faye, and 6 of the top All Japan Women wrestlers of the time. None of these women would even get a foot in the WWE door nowadays, but most of them could really work. In a ‘my, how times change’ comment, Vince McMahon on commentary said of Aja Kong (no relation to Awesome Kong by the way, although same build and same monster heel wrestling style), “She’s not the most handsome woman we’ve seen, but that doesn’t matter. It’s about competition, it’s not about looks”.

The eliminations came quite quickly here. Blayze pinned Watanabe after a piledriver. There was miscommunication between Faye and Kong as they tried to double team Blayze, which led to Kong accidentally punching Faye, and then Blayze pinning Faye after a German suplex. Blayze then squared off against Kong, with Blayze getting several nearfalls after a dropkick and a standing moonsault. Kong won the match though with a spinning back fist and pinned Blayze. This was an interesting match, as the finish of Kong winning was supposed to lead to her winning the WWF Womens title from Blayze. However, days after this match, McMahon decided to pull the plug on the whole womens’ division and fired Bertha Faye and WWF Womens Champion, Alundra Blayze, which led to her making her infamous appearance on Nitro under her old name of Madusa, throwing the womens title belt into a trash can.       

Next came a match from the 1996 Survivor Series ppv – The Rock’s debut as Rocky Maivia. They re-aired several of the Rocky Maivia vignettes that were used to build up his debut, including showing him talking to Kevin Kelly about how excited he was to be debuting, training in the ring with a blonde-haired Tom Pritchard at the WWF gym, and even airing a video of him inducting his father, Rocky Johnson, into the Cauliflower Alley Club Hall of Fame in the fall of 1996.

2) Rocky Maivia & Marc Mero & Jake Roberts & Barry Windham (w/Sable in their corner) defeated Goldust & Crush & Hunter Hearst Helmsley & Jerry Lawler (w/Marlena in their corner). The announcers for this match were Vince McMahon, Jim Ross and Sunny. Lawler mocked Roberts for being a drunk, before Roberts gave him a DDT and pinned him. Goldust quickly pinned Roberts, then squared off against an out-of-shape Barry Windham, and gave him the curtain call to pin him. Mero squared off against a very slim Hunter Hearst Helmsley next. So funny to see HHH booked as a mid-card wrestler and not really standing out as anything special. Mero pinned him after a Mero-sault to eliminate him. Mero dropkicked Crush to the outside, but missed a somersault splash to the outside, and both Crush and Goldust put the boots to him, causing Mero to be counted out. Sunny was funny on commentary here, yelling for Crush to attack Sable as well. This left Rocky vs Goldust & Crush. Goldust held Rocky, so that Crush could use his heart-punch finisher on him, but Rocky moved, and Crush punched Goldust by mistake. Rocky then splashed Crush and pinned him, then gave Goldust a running shoulderbreaker to pin him and win the match. The announcers put the rookie Maivia over very strongly in his debut match.

Next, it was on to the 1997 Survivor Series. A video aired recapping the debut of Kane, with Paul Bearer screaming, ‘He’s alive!’ and Undertaker vowing never to fight his brother.  Bearer yelled that Kane ‘will destroy everyone until there is only Undertaker left’. Footage aired of Kane attacking Dude Love on Raw. A pre-match promo from the ppv aired, with Mankind saying that he will approach fighting Kane as if he was fighting a brick wall. It sounds nonsensical on paper, but somehow Foley made it sound good when he said it.         

3) Kane (w/Paul Bearer in his corner) defeated Mankind in a streetfight match. The announcers for this match were Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler. This was Kane’s debut match, and was fought in red lighting, which was really quite distracting, and was an experiment that they dropped shortly afterwards. This was a brutal match, with Mankind throwing Kane into the ring steps and nailing him in the head with a chairshot. Mankind gave Kane a piledriver in the ring, but instead of going for the pin, put the mandible claw on Paul Bearer at ringside instead. Kane sat up and chokeslammed Mankind off the ring apron and through the Spanish announcers table. Lawler was yelling about Tito Santana being injured, as he was trapped under the table. Kane and Mankind continued to brawl around the ringside area, with Kane using part of the broken announcers’ table as a weapon. Mankind fought back, laying out Kane on the concrete and then giving him a running elbow off the ring apron and on to Kane on the concrete floor. Kane, being superhuman, popped up and chokeslammed Mankind off the top rope and on to the concrete. Mankind crawled back into the ring, where Kane gave him a tombstone piledriver and pinned him to win the match. This was a really good match.

For the main event, we went back to the 1996 Survivor Series. The announcers for this match were Vince McMahon and Jim Ross.

4) Psycho Sid defeated Shawn Michaels (w/Jose Lothario in his corner) to win the WWF title. This was from MSG, and the unrelenting New York crowd heavily cheered Sid and booed Michaels. Sid was a tweener at the time and Michaels a total babyface. Michaels received the ‘John Cena-at-his-hated-peak’ reaction. Michaels’ facial reactions screamed that he sure didn’t like being booed. He placed Sid in a figure four leglock, but Sid eventually broke free. Sid posted HBK outside the ring. Back inside, Sid tried to powerbomb him, but Michaels tried for a small package instead and got a two count. Sid powerslammed Michaels for a near fall. Michaels nipped up, but Sid nearly took his head off with a clothesline, which the crowd heavily cheered. Sid grabbed a tv camera off a cameraman, which he then hit Jose Lothario with, who fell off the ring apron and clutched his chest. The announcers, particularly Jim Ross, teased that he was having a heart attack. Michaels gave Sid a superkick, but instead of pinning him, immediately went to the outside and tended to the fallen Lothario, screaming for EMT’s. Sid nailed Michaels from behind with the tv camera and brought him back into the ring. The referee was bumped. Finally, Sid powerbombed Michaels for the winning pin, which was counted by the revived referee. Massive crowd reaction for Sid’s win. It was funny, you could see guys everywhere high-fiving each other, apart from this one teenage girl in the front row with her head in her hands, so distraught at Michaels losing. After the pin, Michaels immediately crawled to the outside, where EMT’s loaded Lothario on to a stretcher and rushed him to the back, as Sid posed in the ring with the title belt. 

Closing thoughts: Another good show this week. I always think one of the purposes of this show should be to educate the newer fans of some of the key events that occurred, say, pre-2002, and focusing on things like WWE title changes and the Rock’s debut match certainly accomplishes that. For the older fans like myself, it definitely brought back some memories.

Match Results:

1) Bertha Faye & Aja Kong & Lioness Asuka & Tomoko Watanabe (w/Harvey Wippleman in their corner) defeated Alundra Blayze & Kyoko Inoue & Sakie Hasegawa & Chapparita Asari, in an elimination match (Landover, MD: 19/11/95).

2) Rocky Maivia & Marc Mero & Jake Roberts & Barry Windham (w/Sable in their corner) defeated Goldust & Crush & Hunter Hearst Helmsley & Jerry Lawler (w/Marlena in their corner) (MSG, New York: 17/11/96).

3) Kane (w/Paul Bearer in his corner) defeated Mankind in a streetfight match (Montreal, Quebec: 9/11/97). 

4) Psycho Sid defeated Shawn Michaels (w/Jose Lothario in his corner) to win the WWF title (MSG, New York: 17/11/96).

Please note: I DO NOT sell DVDs or tapes of any of these shows. Sorry!

I hope you enjoyed this week’s report. For other reports like this one, be sure to check it out my website archive at http://www.classicwrestlingreports.com .

It’s no longer updated, but this website carries all of my previous WWE Classics tv reports that have been featured on the old WrestlingObserver.com website.

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Until next week, have a good week.

Stephen Lyon,
St Helens, England, U.K.