Ep. 86 – Jordan Garber Interview, Goldberg vs. Lesnar, the Demise of TNA, and More

Ever wondered what it was like when the Dirty Dawg and Mr. Beverly Hills were like when they talked wrestling when they were in college together?

Join Main Event Status radio hosts Mr. Beverly Hills and the Dirty Dawg Darsie as they are joined by Jordan J. Garber to talk about Bruce Hart and Jordan’s experiences on the road of a ref and journalist, hear Mr. Beverly Hills’ thoughts on Goldberg vs. Lesnar from WrestleMania XX and their rematch at Survivor Series 2016, the possible demise of TNA, and so much more!

Download on your way to Winnipeg!

Jordan J. Garber :: @JordanJGarber

Beverly Hills :: @beverlyhillsMES

Dirty Dawg :: @DirtyDawgMES

You can listen to us on our Sound Cloud page and our website!

http://maineventstatus.com

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Brock Lesnar vs. Goldberg – WWE WrestleMania XX

Wanna hear about a match that was pretty horrible?

Join the Dirty Dawg Darsie as he’s joined by Joe Drilling to talk about Brock Lesnar vs. Bill Goldberg from WWE WrestleMania XX back on Sunday, March 14th, 2004! Hear the guys rant about themed WWE pay-per-views, about the botched ECW/WCW invasion storyline in 2001, Stone Cold’s popularity in 2004, could anyone be in the WWE, NFL, and NLB nowadays at the same time, booking vs. performance when it comes to fan reaction, and so much more!

Download the episode before you get hit by a Military Press Slam into a Spear!

Joe Drilling :: @Shake_Well & @what_a_maneuver

Dirty Dawg :: @DirtyDawgMES

You can listen to us on our Sound Cloud page and our website!

http://whatamaneuver.onthestick.com

http://maineventstatus.com

Listen to us on iTunes!

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/main-event-status-radio/id950992452?mt=2

Like us on Facebook!

https://www.facebook.com/maineventstatusradio

WWE SummerSlam Tour

WWE SummerSlam Tour

One of the perks of where I work, I’m able to listen to my iPod and usually listen to podcast, to help past the time. I listen to a lot of wrestling podcasts, talking news and reviewing classic events, among listening to different podcast of interests I have outside of the industry of professional wrestling.

Anyways, one of the wrestling podcasts I listen to discusses wrestling events that’s ten years old or older. The podcast I listen to is called the Old School Wrestling podcast (found here) and on their 99^th episode, the host discussed the National Wrestling Alliance’s 1987 Great American Bash tour (podcast can be found here). Pushing a three hour show, I enjoyed listening to the Black Cat and Dre from start to finish. While listening to their show, I thought of something that inspired this blog.

What if Vince McMahon takes the World Wrestling Entertainment on a similar tour that Jim Crockett took the Jim Crockett Promotions on the Great American Bash tour for a few years in the late-80s? Could a professional wrestling tour be successful in the 2010s?

With SummerSlam being the WWE’s summer WrestleMania, why not give it a different taste than your normal wrestling pay-per-view feel and combine what the Jim Crockett Promotions did and capitalize on a summer tour?

Here’s my idea for the WWE SummerSlam tour: eliminate the June and July pay-per-views and after the May show, build up SummerSlam by the winner of a summer tour gets a shot at the WWE Champion. To go with the SummerSlam DVD sales, why not make it a two-disc sell and on the second disc, put together all the matches of the summer tournament tour, for we receive a snapshot of why the challenger was facing the WWE Champion in the main event.

One thing I enjoyed from my teenage years was when the WWE did for one year only when building up Brock Lesnar in 2002, having him win the King of the Ring tournament and challenge for the Undisputed WWE title at SummerSlam and used the July pay-per-view as a stepping stone between the July PPV and the August PPV to continue building “the Next Big Thing.”

Monday Night Raw and Friday Night Smackdown, as well as WWE’s Wednesday Main Event should host a few of the matches, but shouldn’t be the focus of the three WWE weekly shows. Why not add in a few summer specials on television, similar to what they did in the late-80s and early-90s with Saturday Night Main Events, only for the summer. Maybe call it the “WWE: SummerSlam Special Tour, Episode (insert a number here)” and limit those shows to a couple a year, to make it something special, and make the SummerSlam build mean more.

Could the WWE use their June and July pay-per-views to build up properly to SummerSlam? They hadn’t in years and I don’t have the faith for them to try again. So if they eliminate two pay-per-views and schedule only ten PPVs a year, having three months between the May show and SummerSlam, SummerSlam would mean more since, if booked properly, would mean more since there were months between the paid shows.

I guess you, the reader, might be yelling at your screen, telling me that I answered my question in the paragraph above, saying that even eliminating two pay-per-views, WWE would crap on my idea since their bookers can’t write the storylines that a lot of us loved when we were kids. I’ll give you that. WWE has guys like Zeb Colter (Dutch Mantel) and Paul Heyman, who the books could be given to after WrestleMania and let them book the storyline and let Triple H or Vince McMahon, whoever, guide them and approve and disapprove on where the storylines go.

WWE had everything at their fingertips (or in their hands, depending on how old school they really are) on booking this correctly. I don’t have much faith in their booking abilities nowadays but the little faith that I do have in them, if they treated this like something special, they could make this mean something.

To conclude, this was a fun idea for me to kick around and I hope you guys enjoyed reading it. Let me know if you guys think my idea could work, or what changes you would cause, or if you could simply rewrite my blog and add in your own ideas, what are they? I’m more than happy to hear your thoughts and opinions. Thanks for reading and have a great rest of your day!

WWE WrestleMania XXIX Review and Opinion

WrestleMania 29 Review and Opinion

By Eric Darsie

Sunday, April 7^th, 2013 – East Rutherford, New Jersey – MetLife Stadium – 80, 676 people jam packed the MetLife Stadium, located on the outskirts of New York state, where the Undertaker continued his streak to 21 and 0, Alberto Del Rio retained his World Heavyweight Championship, Triple H came out of retirement to defeat Brock Lesnar in a No Holds Barred match to continue his couple-match-a-year career, and John Cena defeated the Rock to capture the WWE Championship for the record-setting eleventh time.

I had several old college buddies and a handful of co-workers head over to my place tonight for WWE WrestleMania XXIX and for a few of us; we made it an all-day event. Three of my co-workers and I got up early to head over to our local Godfather’s Pizza chain and had their lunch buffet, catching up since we normally don’t work next to one another and discuss the 29^th installment of Vince McMahon’s SuperBowl of wrestling. It didn’t dominate our conversation, which I enjoyed, since I’d be making it an all-day shindig anyway.

Came home and we all separated for a few hours and I listened to Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, talking Saturday night’s WWE Hall of Fame and tonight’s pay-per-view. Enjoyed their Hall of Fame discussion, since Alvarez was there live, and was excited for their discussion on WrestleMania. Only thing they mentioned was, everything other than the Ryback/Mark Henry match remained the same. I scratched my head, knowing that Ryback had a lot of PPV loses under his belt, thinking that it’d make sense if Ryback won in regards to rebuild him for the future, if McMahon and the Creative Team wanted him to be the future of the company.

Knowing that you can easily find the results to Mania (to go to WWE’s official site, click here, which I used for this blog, or Wikipedia, which was the second site I used for this blog), I won’t talk much about the results of the event, rather, I’ll let you readers know about what I thought of the show.

As a whole, I thought it was decent, better than WrestleMania XXVII, but not as good as WrestleMania XXVIII. I say that in regards to the fans not seeming interested in the No Holds Barred or the WWE Championship matches, since they came after the Undertaker/CM Punk match. Once the DVD comes out, I’ll be re-watching the Lesnar/Helmsley match and the Rock/John Cena match, to see if it was coming directly after the emotional Streak versus Punk match.

Something that I was surprised at was the four billed main events were all consecutive for this year’s WrestleMania, since the last few years, that wasn’t the case. I figure that’s why the fans seemed a little down for the two matches that followed the Undertaker’s win, I feel that’s something needed for this year’s WrestleMania and future Mania’s, since filler matches, in my opinion, really don’t add anything to the show, other than taking time away from matches, or giving the fans a bathroom break, which I’m sure McMahon doesn’t want.

Several surprises came for my buddies when Fandango defeated Chris Jericho in 9:13. I mentioned that I learned through listening to the Wrestling Observer Radio that Jericho was back only through Mania, wanting to come back for short sprits over being gone for long periods of time. I, as with everyone in my living room, was happy for Jericho, to seem him back, and to see him put over the new-comer in Johnny Curtis.

Another surprise came when Mark Henry defeated the Ryback. I mentioned it a few paragraphs above, and I’ll write it again, I am surprised much-so that Henry went over Ryback, since the end of 2012 and the early weeks of 2013, it seemed that the Ryback was the future of the WWE and a future main-eventer of WrestleMania. Maybe he will be, have to wait to see, I suppose.

For the first time ever in WrestleMania history, the Rock and John Cena main-evented consecutive years. For me, the Rock and John Cena outshined last year’s match and both guys put on a better show this time around than last. How so?

The WWE Championship helped me keep interest in the match. Yes, Rock missing two Raw’s a few weeks back and Cena missing the first Raw the Rock missed, but I feel like tonight’s match was our “sorry for that” kind of receipt. Granted towards the end of their match, the crowd at my place and I felt it was too much when Cena kept going for the Attitude Adjustment and Rock countering and trying to Rock Bottom him.

The torch was passed tonight in the middle of MetLife Stadium after Cena reclaimed the WWE Championship when the Rock shook Cena’s hand and hugged him. Cena let the Rock take center-stage to soak up the fans’ appreciation for coming back, mouthing, “Thank you, I love you.” Even if the Rock is done wrestling, I do appreciate him coming back and having the tag match at Survivor Series 2010, last year and this year’s WrestleMania, and the Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber from this year.

If the Rock is done with this run-through, thank you Rock for taking time out from Hollywood to compete a few more times.

To conclude, hands down, the Undertaker defeating CM Punk was the best match of the night. The World Heavyweight title defense was better than I imagined, so Del Rio and Swagger put on a great showing. The No Holds Barred match between Lesnar and Triple H wasn’t as fast paced as I expected, but hard-hitting, and I appreciate them putting their bodies on the line for our entertainment. Granted the fans live didn’t seem as into as the match last year, I enjoyed the WWE Championship match between current champion John Cena and former champ, the Rock.

Match results (and times, thanks to Wikipedia):

John Cena defeated the Rock – WWE Championship – 24:01

Triple H defeated Brock Lesnar – No Holds Barred – 24:00

Undertaker defeated CM Punk – 22:08

Alberto Del Rio defeated Jack Swagger – World Heavyweight Championship – 10:30

Fandango defeated Chris Jericho – 9:13

Team Hell No defeated Dolph Ziggler and Big E Langston – Tag Team Championship – 7:19

Mark Henry defeated Ryback – 8:03

The Shield defeated Randy Orton, Big Show, and Sheamus – 10:35

The Miz defeated Wade Barrett — Intercontinental Championship

To the WrestleMania Haters: Stop Complaining and Watch

To the WrestleMania Haters: Stop Complaining and Watch

By Dirty Dawg Darsie

One thing I’ve been hearing a lot for this year’s WrestleMania is a lot of complaining since the build-up for the WWE Championship match between champion the Rock versus his challenger John Cena haven’t been “up to par for the die-hard fans.” I even heard people comparing this year’s WrestleMania to WrestleMania IX in 1993. I’m writing to those people who are down on WrestleMania XXIX: quit complaining!

I want to bring attention to last year’s WrestleMania, WrestleMania XXVIII, with the main events being Triple H versus the Undertaker inside Hell in a Cell, the WWE Champion CM Punk defending the title against Chris Jericho, the World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan facing Sheamus, and the Rock taking on John Cena – deeming that match “once in a lifetime.” Okay, why bring up those four main-events and why bring up last year’s WrestleMania? Everyone wanted to watch those matches yet after the show, only match they liked was the “End of an Era” Hell in a Cell match.

After the show last year, I remember people crapping on the show since it didn’t live up to their expectations. For me, WrestleMania lived up to my expectations, and I had none. Why? I listen to podcasts, recapping the shows and discuss the main angles from the week, and I watch Raw from every week, but when I hold any wrestling show to a certain standard, it never lives up to it. Last year for WrestleMania, I didn’t hold any standards for it, so it blew nothing out of the water.

So, those who been bashing WrestleMania XXIX, stop doing so! Do what I and if the build-up for any of the matches aren’t living up to your expectations, don’t have any.

The WWE Championship build-up hasn’t tickled me in any way, with John Cena and the Rock missed a Raw a few weeks back and the Rock missed the following Raw, so I understand on how that build-up hasn’t been that great. Their promos have been hit and miss for me. Whenever both men are serious and say why they believe they can defeat each other, and obviously respond, I enjoy it. Whenever Cena goes on a long mumble or they joke around stuff that doesn’t matter, they kill the excitement for me.

Also, in regards to their match, I hate that people are complaining about their WrestleMania 2012 match was built as “Once in a Lifetime” and they’re facing each other again. What did they expect once the Rocky defeated the active, full-time John Cena? Rock grew up in the business and is back wrestling the few matches he has to give back the industry he loves and grew up in. Yes, Rock defeated CM Punk twice, but for business, that was the best thing to do. And for business, Rock losing to Cena at Mania this year is good for business (that’s what is expected).

I’m sure you, the reader, aren’t excited for the Chris Jericho/Fandango match either. I wasn’t either once that match was announced, or when those two teased it on television. We all know that Jericho’s at the end of his career and comes around whenever his schedule allows him to. With his run last year, losing to CM Punk and Dolph Ziggler, Jericho’s back to put the new generation of stars over. If you don’t believe me, look at his last run when he came back in 2007 and feuded with Randy Orton, he put over Orton right from the start!

With Triple H versus Brock Lesnar, all I can say about their match is, just watch. Yes, even I expect Triple H to go over, even though rumors already from the Wrestling Observer gentlemen, Lesnar will be facing the Rock next year at WrestleMania in New Orleans, and it’ll make sense for Lesnar to go over, but the last several WrestleMania matches Triple H’s been in, they’ve been amazing, regarding as one of the best matches on the WrestleMania card, and even for the year! I don’t think Triple H came out of “retirement” to retire from wrestling, but enjoy the ride and see what he and Lesnar have for us to watch. I know both men want to steal the show and want their match to memorable, so let’s step back, not hold any standards to their match, and enjoy what they do best, and that’s put on a show inside that twenty-by-twenty ring.

To conclude my opinion piece, if you don’t like what the WWE Creative Team has for us in regards to the build for WrestleMania 29, don’t hold any expectations and enjoy the ride that we’re on. I did that for WrestleMania 28 and enjoyed the show and don’t understand why people crapped on the matches from that card. No one likes to hear people complain, keep those negative opinions to yourself and let the wrestlers do their job and entertain us.