Vote! 'Restling Rewind

As some of you may already know I make a living working as a core driller's helper. And of course that means I travel to Red Dog Mine for 4 weeks. I work 12 hours a day if not more.

Obviously that means I don't have a lot of down time. I came to Red Dog with the mind set that I was going to try and do two weekly 'Restling Rewinds, as that's the only thing I'm putting on this blog that has really been commented on. Well I knew that the internet was slow here but it's to long to do one of these.

Rest assured I still want to do this but to do it the way I want to it's going to take at least two or three days for each show I do. So I'm going down from two shows a week to one. I'll still try to do my DVD reviews when I can. 'Restling Rewinds just takes so long because I like include pictures, something I don't really do for anything else.

So here's what I want you to do. Go on XWA Universe using the link below and vote for which show you want me to review each week. I got three I have gotten ready.

http://www.xwa-universe.com/t2142-vote-restling-rewind#18359

TNA iMPACT from mid 2006.

Christian Cage is NWA World Heavyweight Champion. The likes of Jeff Jarrett, Scott Steiner, Raven, Ron Killings, Abyss and Monty Brown are all targeting The World Title. Also Kevin Nash is burring the young talent!

ECW on TNN from late 1999.

Taz is the dominant World Heavyweight Champion of extreme wrestling. Jerry Lynn is chasing Rob Van Dam and The ECW World Television Title. Raven has also made a huge return to win The ECW World Tag Team Championship with his nemesis Tommy Dreamer!

Mid-South Wrestling from late 1981 into early 1982.

Ted DiBiase is The North American Heavyweight Champion. Skandar Akbar and The Iron Sheik battle with "Precious" Paul Ellering.

The poll will last a week. I'll try to do one on Mid-South Wrestling in that time to show everyone what it is all about. Don't forget to cast your vote here!

Fuck Hogan and Easy E

I try to like TNA. I really do But they make it so hard. So very hard.

Zema Ion couldn't get a surgery but at least those cock suckers Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff get away with taking TNA's money and giving nothing back.

If you're wondering why I'm so pissed off at Hogan and Easy just take a look at this video.

All Hogan needs is Carter money and support from Spike TV? What a joke. Who does he thinks he's kidding. Either Hogan is stupid or he's being dishonest. Well I don't know how hard it is to trick Dixie Carter into throwing her dad's money away but I'll just assume that Hulk is being dishonest here.

Truth is other then the very first night Hulk Hogan appeared on Impact Wrestling he has added nothing to the product. In fact with lower ratings and Impact devolution into Hogan Knows Best he has been making the promotion worse.

I know Hogan and Bischoff are egomaniacs and suck each others cock but what Hogan said at that Q & A just set me on fire. I tried to convince myself that it was a good idea for TNA to get Hogan because he did have name value but it more clear then ever that Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff are a cancer to TNA.

It was only weeks ago fans started talking about how TNA could die. They had to release a lot of talent and couldn't pay for Zema Ion's sugary. In fact a several good wrestlers were released before TNA decided to drop that useless Broke Hogan. And now TNA is having trouble keeping AJ Styles. And there's Hogan, who makes far more then anyone on the roster while adding nothing.

We all know TNA has tried a majority, if not all, of Hogan and Bischoff's ideas. We got rid of six sided rings and we got the joy of seeing The Nasty Boys in 2010. Plus TNA is on the road, which has really hurt them financially. And what has Eric Bischoff ever do creatively other then loose Ted Turner a lot of money? Well I guess lose Robert Carter's money.

And have Spike TV support them? If you don't call playing for Sting and Kurt Angle's contracts support you're out of your mind.

Don't forget the bullshit Easy E tried to lay down on us with not competing with WWE. The disaster duo tried that and they failed on a massive level.

Thing is these two cock suckers will never blame themselves for anything. Hopefully Dixie Carter will see the light and drop the dead weight.

Ring of Honor Wrestling 8/24/13 Report

It's been forever since I tried to watch Ring of Honor's TV show. My internet has really improved and I was able to watch with no problem.

The rules for the first match didn't make since. If you need to tag in to be a legal man it's not fair that it's not elimination. Well all 4 guys were indy guys and they did alright. With WWE looking to grab up more indy guys its a good idea for ROH to get unknowns onto TV. Brain Furry won the match to get a World Television Title match next week. The House of Truth acted like he was a real nobody.

Kevin Kelly being alone on commentary is just really weird. I think he did alright by himself at Killer Instinct but talking down #PartyBoys before they have an open match with C & C Wrestlefactory was stupid. And unless ROH has plans for #PartyBoys they should have just let C & C just squash them.

Steve Corino walking in on Kevin Kelly during Inside Ring of Honor was funny. Kelly didn't announce that reDRagon won The World Tag Team Titles back.

The main event was the opening match to The ROH World Championship Tournament, which was between Sonjay Dutt and Jay Lethal. This match was fun to watch and I think it would be cool to see more of Sonjay in ROH. The crowd did give him a good reaction. Before the match they pushed that ROH was returning to its roots.

This show was alright. We got a good main event for TV and this show is only and hour long so it didn't take too much of my time to get through. I hope they make Death Before Dishonor a live IPPV but with the problems they been having I don't really see that happening.

'Restling Rewind: ECW on TNN Episode 2

That's right boys and girls! Rants of Wrestling is back with some extreme action. My understanding is that unlike the last show this one was tapped so hopefully this week is better then what we got last week.

Right away he have Taz defending The ECW World Heavyweight Championship against "The Japanese Buzz Saw" Yoshihiro Tajiri!

Tajiri has Steve Corino and Jack Victory in his corner. The crowd begins a "TNN" chant. I thought that was funny. I highly doubt ECW fans see Spike TV in the same light today.

Despite being so short this match is really fun to watch. The crowd is super hot and that just makes everything even more fun. Taz puts Tajiri away with The Tazmission. The Extreme Replay returns and without music! They must have gotten the hint that it was dumb to play music over the announcer. Things are really looking up.

Joey Styles is in the ring introducing everyone to ECW on TNN.

It isn't long before he's joined by "The Quintessential Studmuffin" Joel Gertner who announces that he's the new color commentator for ECW on TNN. Joey is not at all thrilled by the news and stomps his feet and Gertner enters the ring. Of course he comes with all his sexual jokes and rhymes.

Styles announces that they're interviewing Jerry Lynn! Lynn comes out to bash WWF and WCW before demanding that Rob Van Dam come to the ring and defend The ECW World Television Title.

Bill Alfonso comes out and gives credit for taking Van Dam to the limit but there's no way he's going to challenge him for the title yet again.

Well Fonzy slaps Lynn and Lynn going to kill him untill...

Van Dam makes the save and the two brawl it out before we take a commercial break.

Back from commercial we get Team 3D!!! We're told by Styles that this is going to be their last night in ECW.

And they're facing ECW World Tag Team Champions Balls Mahoney & Spike Dudley in a title match!

We get Joey Styles "Oh my God!" moment right away when Balls presses and throws Spike right onto his half brothers.

The match is very fast paced. Balls gets a table and spreads some thumbtacks onto it.

Balls gets ready to put Buh Buh throw the table the the tables get turned on Balls as Devon interferes and The Dudley Boys but Balls throw the table!

Spike saves Balls from being pinned but soon after finds himself a victim of The Dudley Death Drop and being pinned! We have new World Tag Team Champions!

Joey and Joel talk about how horrible it is that The Dudley Boy winning the titles and taking them to WWF is before plunging ECW events.

We get another music video this week. This time it's Rob Zombie who the featured artist.

This week we get Lance Storm's entrance music. We get various clips of Storm and his manager Dawn Marie.

Joey and Joel plug Roller Ball before The Dudleys make their way back to the ring to talk down ECW and say how they're going to become legends in WWF and then become gods. He also states that if god could be a heel he'd be The Dudley Boys. Before leaving they want to finish old business and call out Tommy Dreamer to fight them.

Dreamer is held back by Paul Haymen and Francine as Styles puts over how injured he'd been in the past. Buh Buh claims to have raped Dreamer's wife while she was in the hospital. I could have lived without that. Dreamer storms the ring and attack The Dudley Boy, quickly getting the advantage using a tazer on their groins.

Tommy takes out both Dudleys with a ladder.

While Francine takes out Sign Guy Dudley with his own sign.

The Dudley Boys are able to take control when Buh Buh reverses an Irish whip and Tommy's injured back hits the ladder. Sign Guy tries to stop them but Buh Buh hits him out of the ring. Tommy is able to reverse a 3D and DDT D-Von. 

The crowd goes insane when Raven storms the ring to make the save! Raven DDTs Buh Buh and pins him to crown new ECW World Tag Team Champions!

Tommy finds out that he's now a tag champion with Raven and he's not happy at all. He gives Raven the finger while Raven goes into the crowd.

A show like this wouldn't fly with today's wrestling fans but we did get a huge return with Raven and he has won The World Tag Team Championship with his nemesis Tommy Dreamer! I think maybe the only problem here is that new fans wouldn't know the history between the two guys but I bet we'll get a extreme history lesson on next week's ECW on TNN.

Wrestling Respect Inductee #1 Eric Embry

First off let me start off saying I wish I could have come up with a better name then Wrestling Respect. I’m not calling it a hall of fame. First of all there’s no physical hall but whatever. The real reason is that you don’t have to be famous or a superstar to get into Wrestling Respect. Well WWE’s Hall of Fame doesn’t have those requirements either but we care about not BS’ing our readers here at rants of wrestling. All we want is to inform pay respect to those who deserve it.

Is Hulk Hogan going to get in? No. Does Eric Bischoff have a chance? Hell no. What about Vince McMahon? Just because a guy earns a lot of money on the backs of others doesn’t earn my respect. I’m open to someone doing a guest post if I don’t want to induct someone. But let me tell you who I’ll induct before all those guys…

"The Flamboyant One" Eric Embry!

Eric Embry is from a small town in Kentucky. His grandmother was a wrestling fan and he became one as well. He paid several hundred dollars to be trained in wresting and like many to come after him he was screwed. Thankfully Embry had some political pull and was able to get his money back and more. He was able to breakout in wrestling after a phone conversation with Jerry Jarrett's wife.

Early in his career Embry had a fateful encounter with the wife of the legendary Lou Thesz which lead to Embry becoming his protegee and gave him a reputation that would follow him for the rest of his life.

Embry was also a very intelligent businesses man a booker. He took promoted his home town where wrestling have never been before. He was also able to take The NWA Tri State Tag Team Championship and get the money he felt he was screwed out of when leaving for Championship Wrestling from Florida.

Eric Embry had his first taste of the main event spot when Thesz got him booked to wrestle in Mexico. Finding himself unable to work lucha libre he asked a Mexican worker to work the American style with him. Well because Embry had introduced psychology to the Mexican fans he found himself becoming a major heel in the country, where he became UWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion.

He traveled to many territories. From Canada to Hawaii. From Memphis to Portland. Embry would find himself being booked in a major program with Tully Blanchard in Southwest Wrestling who had programming on The USA Network. In fact it would be Embry who made the call to Vince McMahon telling him they would never sell their TV slot before financial troubles lead to Vince buying it.

Embry would become a booker for The World Wrestling Council before tiring of pro wrestling and went into retirement.

World Class Championship Wrestling was in dire trouble in 1986 and Bruiser Brody had begged his friend Embey to wrestler in the promotion. It wasn't long before Brody was fired and Gary Hart was made the new booker with Embry as his assistant. While in WCCW Embry had promoted a sell out show and had made a business deal to split the profit with Fritz Von Erich. This had really impressed Von Erich.

Once Jerry Jarrett took over World Class he made Eric Embry the head booker. With Embry was head booker World Class began selling out arenas again and saved the promotion for extinction. Jarrett told Embry that he must book himself at the main star of the promotion. With his great ring psychology and his knowledge of what fans wanted Embry was able to headline sold out shows without a Von Erich on the cards.

After a falling out with Jarrett "The Flamboyant One" left pro wrestling for a second time. Having trouble drawing houses it wasn't long before Jarrett called Embry to book his Memphis territory. Ultimately without Jerry Lawler's cooperation Embry was unable to do what he had done for Jarrett in Dallas. It wouldn't be long after that Embry would be in a car crash. Even though he was able to heal from that injury Embry decided it was best that he left the wrestling business all together to be home with his family. He would not surface again until an RF shoot interview a few years ago.

Eric Embry is known for not having the best body for wrestling. But he was great in the ring and was able to tell great stories in the ring. In was very over with fans before his major push in World Class and The USWA. In fact he gotten very over when he was being beaten. He was a very smart businessman and a great booker, saving World Class Championship Wrestling from demise. He was complimented by both Fritz Von Erich and Jerry Jarrett.

Maybe most wrestling fans won't recognize the name but without a doubt Eric Embry had left a mark on pro wrestling in Dallas, Texas and was a great in ring performer and I'm more then happy to make him the first inductee into The Rants of Wrestling's Wrestling Respect list.

DVD Review: Old School With Eric Embry

I watched Eric Embry's RF Shoot Interview and this High Spots interview was way better. The RF video goes into a whole lot more detail while we get a lot more stories on this interview. Also Steve Corino does a better job of interviewing Embry then the RF guy. Its also a hour longer so we get more fun stories.

Embry talks about entering wrestling and how he became Lou Thesz's protegee. He's got road stories that are fun and interesting. You think of regional stars when you think of old school wrestling but listening to Embry you find out guys did travel and he's been to a lot of different territories. He talks about speed and drug use today a bit and an added bonus he has some good advice for indy wrestlers.

Eric Embry is an honest man and he gives us his opinion on people. He talks about The Von Erichs, Jerry Jarrett, Jerry Lawler, Tully Blanchard, Mike Graham and so many others. He doesn't pull no punches. My last shoot interview review was Bill Mercer and he was a family friend and there were things he wasn't going to talk about. Eric Embry gives more insight about what was happening in World Class and The USWA and how he was able to book the territory from extinction to drawing sell out shows and out selling The Memphis Territory.

Steve Corino threw a few hardballs and Embry didn't have a problem with answering anything. He talks about why Jerry Jarrett wasn't able to make money in Texas after he kicked Embry off the booking team and why Embry wasn't able to book big crowds in Memphis like he did Texas.

Embry is a extremely smart man but he does tell us a few mistakes he made in this interview.

I do recommend this DVD. It's a whole lot more fun to listen to then Embry's RF shoot interview. If you love good road stories you'll enjoy this. Plus you need to get this if you're a WCCW fan and want to hear about why it became The USWA and why Embry booked himself to the top of the card.

This DVD is available at High Spots
https://www.highspots.com/p/embry-shoot.html

Impact Wrestling/Hardcore Justice 8/22/13 Report

I said years back that TNA should do less pay per views and do more Clash of Champions like shows. Well that's happened and results are mixed. I had it in my head that these shows would be like The Whole F'N Show. Well they're not but that's understandable I guess. I guess the plan was to just have normal Impacts until show attendance got really low so they're bringing back the old pay per view names for free on Spike TV.

The only thing that makes this show different from a normal Impact is the main event and I understand that. The Whole F'N Show was supposed to be a pay per view that ended up on TV. Hardcore Justice '13 was an Impact that was quickly changed to being named after an old pay per view.

I liked what TNA did with Aries and Styles this show. Austin Aries decided to be a lone wolf in The Bound For Glory Series and we get a good story going forward. AJ Styles was a good surprise. Styles had a good lone wolf thing going for Styles but TNA messed it up. I'm just happy he's not in any crap storyline anymore.

Devon again proved to be the biggest surprise from Aces & 8s. Everyone was expecting Knux to take the pin but it was a better idea for Devon to take the fall. It's a surprise because he has done more and an actual name guy for the stable but if you had a real nobody take the fall there would have been little point to be excited about future matches like this from TNA.

Well this show didn't make want to buy a pay per view but I'm interested in what happens next. Aces & 8s seems to be crumbling and Aries has decided to make himself a lone wolf against three other workers.

I'm going to try and not nit pick when it comes with TV shows that you can see for free. This was good for what it was. Bound For Glory is not for another two months so they still have time to try and hype you up for that.

'Restling Rewind: TNA iMPACT 5/18/2006

Welcome back everyone to 'Restling Rewind! So each week I'm going to try and so two episodes of old shows. Right now I'm doing ECW on TNN and since my Mid-South Wrestling DVDs have yet to arrive in the mail I'm going to look back at Impact in 2006. I was going to try and go all the way back to the first episode but it's not on iTunes.

So the show begins with some monologue about how there's no great gain without great sacrifice. It's a cool entrance unless they continue to do this each week.

Of course iMPACT starts off with The NWA World Heavyweight Champion Christian Cage who just retained his title at the Sacrifice pay per view. I guess that's what the introduction was all about.

Cage does something cool and goes into the crowd and says that The NWA World Heavyweight Championship belongs to his peeps as much as it does to him. It would have been awesome if he cut the rest of his promo there but he demanded to see to his opponents that he'll face in the upcoming King of The Mountain match so it made scene that he return to the ring

Real quick Christian talked about how going into The King of The Mountain match every champion has lost the belt. So Cage said screw that tradition he's retaining the title. I just thought it was funny that The NWA World Heavyweight Champion said screw tradition... well at least we didn't see throw the belt.

So we get Monty Brown. Apparently this is him coming back. He tells Christian to prepare for the pounce.

Former ECW World Heavyweight Champion Rhino.

Former NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ron Killings. A lot of you will know him as R-Truth.

Former ECW and NWA World Heavyweight Champion Raven.

The Monster Abyss.

The man Christian beat for The NWA World Heavyweight Title and a man who has never lost a King of The Mountain match Jeff Jarrett. He calls everyone else unworthy.

Former NWA and WCW World Heavyweight Champion Sting tells Jarrett he's gonna get got or however that gangsta stuff goes. And Stings says Samoa Joe better watch out as well.

Larry Zbyszko yells at the kids for waking him up.

Okay really he says there's 8 challengers and he only needs 4. So he makes 4 contender matches and no one knows who they're going to face.

So our first match of the night is a tie breaker in The World X Cup Tournament. Representing Team Canada is Captain Petey Williams.

And representing Team USA is future TNA World Heavyweight Champion Chris Sabin.

Right away we get an announcement that Larry Zbyszko not only wants all the team members outside the ring to leave but will be locked out of The iMPACT Zone.

During the match while Sabin is in the tree of woe Petey takes a step on his groin! I guess you need to strike it to be DQ'ed.

During this match we get sidetracked with LAX refusing to wrestle.

And Kevin Nash gently pushing a security guard to knock him out. Seriously you'll laugh your ass off at how slow this "attack" went.

After a commercial break Chris Sabin enacts his revenge on Petey Williams and applies pressure to his groin! Someone really needs to get DQ'ed for this.

The match ends with Sabin reversing a diving hurricanrana into a cradle piledriver.

Sabin receives a big ol' trophy for winning the tournament for Team USA...

And Kevin Nash attacks him and destroys it because... He's Kevin Nash? He just does this short if stuff. Stupid stupid shit.

Nash gets on the microphone and says size matters before some goofy music plays as Team USA comes to check in on Sabin as Nash and Alex Shelly walk to the back.

After a commercial break Scott Steiner comes out to attack Don West making a huge babyface turn.

But it was a swerve and Big Poppa Pump only destroyed his stuff and left West intact.

Samoa Joe comes out and the two have a stare off.

Afterward Joe beats a Chase Stevens in a squash. Joe attacks Chase post match and his partner Andy Douglass comes out to save him.

And Shane Douglass watches.

Team 3D does a promo on how The James Gang, better known as The New Age Outlaws, attacked them and how they better watch out if they want to take it to the extreme. Also they comment on WWE's upcoming ECW revival and that they can't have ECW there when the heart of it is in TNA.

So our King of The Mountain qualifying match is between Abyss, who is missing his manager James Mitchel.

And Rhino!

Near the end of the match Team Canada members Bobby Roode and Scott D'Amore come out to interfere. Roode finds himself being speared by Rhino and D'Amore get tossed by Rhino. All the interference gives Abyss to hit a Black Hole Slam on Rhino and win the match. Abyss gets into The King of The Mountain match.

iMPACT ends with Scott D'Amore slapping Rhino.

Not a very good episode of iMPACT. There matches and the only good one was The World X Cup tie breaker and the winner was attacked by Kevin Nash after the match. I did like where all the challengers for The World Title came out in the beginning and Scott Steiner is always entertaining. There's nothing that makes me look forward to the pay per view though.