Hey there and thank you for checking out this, the first edition of The Atomic Hiptoss, this will be a weekly review and opinion based look at the weeks WWE and TNA programming and also throwing it back to the clossic days of WWF, ECW and WCW.
First of, allow me to give you some information and background on myself. My name is Ste Maddock, im 28 and from Liverpool, England and I have been watching wrestling since 1991 with WrestleMania 7 being my first big event watched, since that moment I was hooked and didnt miss an event shown on SKY TV that they had, since watching wrestling I have only missed one event due to my own fault and that was Fully Loaded 1998 as I was on holiday and didnt program my VCR to record it, when WWF started the In Your House PPV's, us in the UK didn't get them on SKY until April 1997 with Revenge Of The Taker and Armageddon 2003 wasn't broardcast in the UK. I have always been a Mark for WWF/WWE, I watched some WCW and ECW when it was possible but if they was ever on at the same time then WWF/WWF was always going to win. Even with today and the growth of TNA, WWE will always be the number one choice of mine to watch but I am a pro wrestling fan first with WWE being the best product around, in my opinion.
My earliest wrestling memories was with WrestleMania 7, first match i clearly remember of that event was the Blindfold Match with Rick Martel 'The Model', a great wrestler and one I thought could've been a singles champion in WWF sometime between 1189-1993 and his apponent was Jake 'The Snake' Roberts, a man with great ring psychology and the ability to tell a story so well, but as a 7yr old watching this, you remember the big snake!!! Jake was one of the very few men who when in WWF never won a title yet he had the ability to be the main guy in WWF when he was there before he first left in 1992 but unfortunately he was there with people Like Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior whose matches were all basic and similar in content an their entrances and exits to and from the ring lasted longer than the matches they had!!
I remember hearing or reading a comment from Rob Van Dam, when reffering to his reign as ECW TV Champion that his matches were the main event on PPV'S and not the ECW Heavyweight Title becasue RVD's matches were so much better at the time and that can be used in relation to the WWF and WWF Intercontinental Titles between 1989-1993 i'd say, Hulk squashed his challenges when WWF Champ except for Warrior at WrestleMania 6 but when Warrior had the belt, he did the same as Hogan, the only possible time I can think of in the late 80's that the WWF ititle was better quality matches than the Intercontinental Title is when Savage was WWF Champ and Honky Tonk Man/ Ultimate Warrior held the I.C. belt. I often wonder how Honky held that belt for 14 months as I never considered him a great wrestler watching past matches, and Warrior is always Warrior.
Moving forward a few years now to 1996 and the begining of some of the best matches/stories in WWF history in my view, The Undertaker/Mankind feud, if you hear these two guys mentioned in a match, you will automatically think of King Of The Ring 1998 and the Hell In A Cell match but rewind 2 years to the 96 edition and this was the first 1-on-1 match and for a regular match with no stipulations this was high impact and hardcore so to say, this match was the catylist for a brilliant feud with the turn of Paul Bearer on The Undertaker at Summerslam following the Boiler Room Browl leading to Burried Alive at the October In Your House which introuced us to the Executioner and then at the December In Your House he and Undertaker had the first Last Man Standing match, to my knowledge, in WWF but was called Armageddon Rules. When in the ring together Mick Foley and Mark Calloway gave you a match that you would be talking about for some time, many of us still do to this day.
1997 arguably has to be the best year for the WWF, as it launched many feuds, stables, new matches and an era, the attitude era. Many will remember 97 for the Montreal Screwjob at Survivor Series, and rightfully so as it was the biggest robbery of its kind and I dont think we will never know the truth of it all but what happened happened, but also from 97 we got the new RAW stage set, many factions 'Gang Rulz' if you will, the start of the Austin/McMahon rivalry, the launch of The Rock, the birth of DX, Rick Rude appearing on WWF and WCW TV on the same night, Mick Foley's 'Alter Egos', Hell In A Cell, the debut of Kane, Ken Shamrock and theres many that i've probably missed out but at the top of my head they were the most noticable to me.
I want to talk about the present day now and talk about the WWE Tag Team division, or more importantly the lack of it, we're approaching the 2nd longest PPV in WWE history, the Survivor Series, an event that was built on 5 vs 5 or 4 vs 4 elimination tag team matches where every superstar featured, in the past few years we have only had a handful of these which upsets me as it gives the lesser featured people on the rosters time to shine and a chance to impress the writers in the back which could possibly result in a title program. The tag divion is not there at the moment, only teams that are there are the Uso's, Hart Dynasty and Dudebusters at the moment. Nexus could be included in this as they are a unit, many other teams are put together in haste and broken up weeks later, It bothers me this as I am a tag team wrestling fan because there can be lots of dynamics to it and moves can be innovative with fresh matches and new moves but it seems to me nowadays that WWE only have tag teams to break them up and launch singles carears for both men, which is sad to see.
This blog is a test to see if people are interested in my writing but its also somethin ive wanted to do for a while but never had time so I am going to close it off now but before I do, there have been some vile championship belts in wrestling history, the spinner belts, the Divas belt, the WWE tag team championships but Jeff Hardy's TNA title takes the biscuit, it looks like a melted down Optimus Prime, there must be a reason for it looking like it does, but in the UK we don't get TNA Reaction so if the explanation was on there, I'd ask you guys to let me know.
Any feedback to this is great, you can leave comments here or find me on Twitter (@steve_o_v1). I have had fun writing this and would like to continue writing for people to share my views.
Thanks for reading.
I want to talk about the present day now and talk about the WWE Tag Team division, or more importantly the lack of it, we're approaching the 2nd longest PPV in WWE history, the Survivor Series, an event that was built on 5 vs 5 or 4 vs 4 elimination tag team matches where every superstar featured, in the past few years we have only had a handful of these which upsets me as it gives the lesser featured people on the rosters time to shine and a chance to impress the writers in the back which could possibly result in a title program. The tag divion is not there at the moment, only teams that are there are the Uso's, Hart Dynasty and Dudebusters at the moment. Nexus could be included in this as they are a unit, many other teams are put together in haste and broken up weeks later, It bothers me this as I am a tag team wrestling fan because there can be lots of dynamics to it and moves can be innovative with fresh matches and new moves but it seems to me nowadays that WWE only have tag teams to break them up and launch singles carears for both men, which is sad to see.
This blog is a test to see if people are interested in my writing but its also somethin ive wanted to do for a while but never had time so I am going to close it off now but before I do, there have been some vile championship belts in wrestling history, the spinner belts, the Divas belt, the WWE tag team championships but Jeff Hardy's TNA title takes the biscuit, it looks like a melted down Optimus Prime, there must be a reason for it looking like it does, but in the UK we don't get TNA Reaction so if the explanation was on there, I'd ask you guys to let me know.
Any feedback to this is great, you can leave comments here or find me on Twitter (@steve_o_v1). I have had fun writing this and would like to continue writing for people to share my views.
Thanks for reading.
