You see, most of my employment consists of me having every aspect of my job explained to me countless times, while I then retreat to the oasis that is pro-wrestling to ease the pain. I scour the "dirt sheets" and find out what's going on, who's doing what and everything else so that I don't feel like I'm missing out by not watching the show anymore. There are 2 pro-wrestling websites that I would say gain about 50% of my attention during every day. In fact WrestleView is one of the first I hit in the mornings, and then again in the afternoon after the shows have aired.But this week I haven't been able to visit them yet, as they will have results for Summerslam all over the front of their pages.
A little history lesson...Summerslam is my all-time favourite pro-wrestling PPV. I like it more than Wrestlemania, Spring Stampede and even The Great American Bash. It all goes back to Summerslam '89; I believe it was the first actual PPV shown on NZ television (I could be wrong on this, but I don't really remember anything before it), and I couldn't have been happier. Sure, I'd watched the last 3 or 4 Wrestlemanias on video, but to watch it on TV and therefore keep up to date with the story continuity... well, that was special. Especially in the 80's, because WWF shown on NZ TV was usually around 2 - 3 months behind. But then we didn't have internet back then either, so finding out info was pretty hard. Plus we all thought it was real...
Anyway... Summerslam '89 was actually the 2nd Summerslam, and in my opinion was the best ever! It started with one of my favourite matches ever - The Brain Busters vs The Hart Foundation. This was a non-title match, because in those days title matches only happened once or twice a year. Didn't matter anyway, because The Hart Foundation lost. But this was the match that really made me realise how awesome Bret Hart was - the match was full of classic Hitman greatness; faking a knee injury to catch the wrestler off guard, kicking someone in the back from outside the ring and then looking at the ref like "I don't know what happened!". There was also the greatest of main events ever - Hulk Hogan & Brutus "the Barber" Beefcake vs "Macho Man" Randy Savage & Zeus. This was Zeus:
He was the greatest. And by "the greatest", I mean "so bad and ridiculous that watching him made me howl with laughter and he will be the biggest joke I ever make for the rest of my life"... y'know - that kind of awesome that I love. He was like watching a wrestling mummy. A really crappy wrestling mummy that does nothing but lift its arms up and down. And yes, WCW did have a wrestling mummy... but that's for another time.
Anyways, the rest of the event was awesome too. If anyone ever wants to understand why I love old school wrestling so much, they only need to watch that PPV. I really must get it on DVD...
After that, Summerslam kept rockin' every year. Bret Hart always had awesome matches (apart from in '95, which was probably the worst Summerslam ever) and it was usually one of the more consistent cards of the year. I've seen all of them up to 2003, and I can only really name a handful that I didn't enjoy. And that brings us to 2007.
As I said earlier, I spend a lot of time reading on a couple of websites so I keep up to date with what is happening with pro-wrestling nowadays. And most of the time when I'm reading these recaps of the latest shows or PPV's, I read and go "Oh man, that is so stupid - glad I'm not wasting my time watching that". But this last month, the build up for Summerslam was awesome. Sure, Vince McMahon is back which makes me want to puke (especially the whole stupid story about his illegitimate love-child), but for the first time in years the card has left me actually caring about who will win. Booker vs Triple H, Kennedy vs Umaga vs Carlito, and especially Cena vs Orton - I actually am dying to see that match. Heck, even The Great Kahli vs Batista has me intrigued, and these are two of the worst wrestlers in history! With every other match on the card, it is basically the same thing; I have no idea who is going to win so I really want to know. And not just read about - I want to see it and enjoy the suspense.
Yes, I did denounce WWE and everything associated with it shortly before the whole Benoit tragedy. And yes, I did say I would not watch their programming ever again. I guess I'm full of crap. I'm not going to make excuses about how the Benoit stuff changed my mind, because really after that the show still sucked. And Vince McMahon is still scum. But I want to watch Summerslam. It's a winter (?) tradition for me.
And I downloaded the entire PPV, so Vince ain't benefiting from it.
But yeah, I still haven't managed to find the time to watch it (it was live in the US on Sunday night - Monday lunch time NZ). At this stage I'm planning on a Saturday night showdown, much like the old days when it was on TV (Channel 2 used to play WWF on Saturday nights, as did Channel 4 back in '98) as it looks like it will be the easiest time, but that means that since Monday I have had to avoid the websites. Think of all the gossip I may have missed! And all the work I've had to do instead! (And yes, I do see how I have just opened myself up to a repeat of Wrestlemania X-7 where Eamonn found the results online and came over to spoil them for me the day before it was on TV!)
Summerslam '07 better be worth all this trouble. But hey, at least we know that if it isn't, then I will at least have something humorous to write on Monday.
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