On August 30th of 1999 the WWE was in Boston, Massachusetts for Monday Night Raw. It featured the insanely over duo of The Rock and Mankind winning the Tag Titles from the usual suspects in the Undertaker and Big Show. It's long been a tradition of the WWE to take two huge wrestlers, in this case Taker and Show, and put the tag titles on them for little or no reason at all. At some point they just quit devoting time and energy to the tag team division. Which is a shame because when I was growing up the tag team division put on the most entertaining matches by far.

The Rock-N-Sock Connection was actually a brilliant bit of booking. The Rock was in the process of becoming the second biggest star in the company and Mankind was giving him more and more credibility. The 8.4 rating that the "This is your life" segment did on Raw is still one of the most watched segments in the show's history. It seemed like every other sentence out of Rock's mouth became a catchphrase. The match was decent at best but it's still amazing to me that the People's Elbow, for as horrific a move as it was, managed to get so insanely popular. You can see in the video below that just seeing the Rock set up for it makes the crowd go crazy.

By the way, when is the last time you heard the crowd pop that loud for the finish of a match? Some of the crowds the WWE was drawing during this time were amazing. Here is a video of the match from Raw.

Ted DiBiase recently did an interview with The Courier in the UK in which he discussed his life in the wrestling business. He talks a lot about God and family, including his son Ted DiBiase Jr. One thing that he touched on was that he wanted to finally admit to steroid usage. Here is what he had to say:

"I took steroids (during my WWF career) for a very short time. It should be obvious by looking at me that I didn't take them regularly because I was in good shape, but I was never massive. My strength was my ability to talk and my work in the ring. I always looked like an athlete but I didn't look like Charles Atlas.

"The thing about the steroids was I was always afraid of them and I finally had a doctor tell me about the effects and that warned me right off them - that was it for me with that stuff. The only other drug I took for a while was cocaine. Now this doesn't sound like the Million Dollar Man, but I stopped doing that because I was cheap - I didn't want to spend the money on it!"

This should happen way more often. The only way to get it out of the conscious of the media and fans alike is to binge and purge. Expose the belly of the beast and let's just see it for what it is. He makes a great point about the fact that his steroid usage did nothing for his career. He looked pretty normal and that was fine because he was a genius on the stick and he could work better than many of the top guys at the time.

I was always a big Ted DiBiase fan and still believe that his Million Dollar Man gimmick and the way he played that character is one of if not thee best there ever was. I loved it when he was doing the whole schtick of calling members of the audience to do a seemingly mundane task for large amounts of money only for DiBiase to find a way to screw them over and keep them from completing said task. Here is a video of one such instance.

On this day just 5 years ago the WWE held their annual summer time event Summerslam. I know I just did one of these on Summerslam '96 but I wanted to do one for this one too because of how significant it was, for a variety of reasons. It was a loaded up card from top to bottom that didn't pull through as well as was hoped. There were some really interesting things that happened though and we'll get to them in the extended entry.

The main thing that I wanted to get to out of this was my favorite wrestler of all time, Shawn Michaels, and what he did to Hulk Hogan in the main event. No one can deny that Hogan is one of, if not the, most popular pro wrestler of all time. He was the original house hold name. You don't have to be a fan to know who he is. For as much fame as he gained his ego got just as big. Known as a ruthless political player in the back, Hogan would do anything to keep his spot at the top. He also had an aversion to smaller wrestlers who actually had more than a Hulk-up, punch and leg drop moveset. Throughout his career he routinely buried guys like that. And who is THE guy like that? HBK.

Hogan, having never been a very good worker, was completely shot by this time. His knees were gone and so was his back. But if there was anybody in the WWE who could carry him to a great match it was Shawn Michaels. So of course Hogan was in. Now comes the political part where Hogan wants to dictate the feud and how it plays out. He says he wants it to be the traditional babyface vs heel build up where Michaels is the heel and Hogan is the babyface who goes over in the end. This made no sense at all, as Michaels would wrestle another 5 years for the WWE and Hogan would be gone after trying to bury Randy Orton and then trying to play Vince McMahon for a fool. That's a story for another time though.

Throughout the course of the feud, Hogan reportedly wanted Michaels, who had become a devout Christian in his time away from wrestling after his back injury at Royal Rumble '98, to revert back to his 1997 form on the mic. HBK said he didn't like it but decided to roll with it. He wasn't as vicious as he would have been back in '97 but he was still doing some great stuff including the infamous spoof of Hogan appearing on the Larry King show. Here's the video and it's just as great now as it was then.

That is pure brilliance. HBK was shooting under the guise of a work and needless to say, Hogan didn't like it. I don't mean that in terms of just the storyline either. Apparently Hogan wasn't happy with Michaels making a mockery of him like that and bitched about it but what could he do? That's what he asked for. So they made their way to the match and the only thing that HBK could do to mock him any further was what he ultimately ended up doing. Another video to show what I mean.

If I ever were to meet Michaels I would have to shake his hand just for this alone. More about Summerslam '05 in the extended entry. 

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On this day 14 years ago the WWE held their annual summer time event Summerslam. WCW was just starting to take over the scope of the wrestling world at the time as the NWO was born a month prior. The WWE was still in what many call the dark ages of wrestling. Shawn Michaels was doing everything he could to carry the promotion at the time giving everyone in sight nearly 5 star matches every time he went out to the ring. He was the main event against Vader in what was another classic if only for HBK being so damn good at the time.

2 other notable events happened at Summerslam that year. Stone Cold Steve Austin, who had just won King of the Ring and cut his Austin 3:16 promo a couple months before, had a match with Yokozuna on the free for all. The result was this:

The other notable event was Undertaker taking on Mankind in a boiler room brawl. It was a brutal match that saw Paul Bearer infamously turn on Taker at the end and join with Mankind. Mick Foley was also reminiscing on this on his twitter account today:

Memories of Summerslam 96 -14 years ago today. Taker nearly died from staph (really) and my back was never quite the same.

Some of the bumps taken in this match were insane but were overshadowed throughout the years due to the increasing insanity of bumps taken by guys in the coming few years. Here's a clip of Bearer turning on Taker. Seeing him in that ring attire feels odd.

Today is Friday the 13th. There is no significance to this day, no matter how much Hollywood wants us to think there is. But there was an infamous event that happened on this same day; only 16 years ago. God that makes it seem like a long time although it doesn't feel that way at all. The event was ECW Hardcore Heaven '94 (the video title is inaccurate) after Public Enemy interrupted a match between Terry Funk and Cactus Jack.  The good guys ask for a chair.  You can see how that turns out.

Ahhh, the ECW of old. Can you imagine if something like that happened today? Hell, it never could. Not that I'm saying I would want it to or anything like that. It's fun to look back on it though. I absolutely love how Funk gets hit in the back of the head by a chair at the 19 second mark and sells the shit out of it. Beautiful.

On January 29, 30, and 31^st, California will play host to the state’s largest wrestling convention to date, WrestleReunion 4.  Event organizer and promoter Sal Corrente was kind enough to sit down with Cageside Seats for an interview in the week leading up to the event. 

Earlier in the day that I interviewed Sal, the wrestling industry received the news that a longtime fixture of the pro wrestling community, journalist Georgiann Makropoulos had passed away.  Sal wanted to open with some remarks about her passing.

Sal Corrente:   The wrestling world got a little bit more bad news tonight.  Around 6:30 Easten time, I got a call from Bob, a guy I’ve known for my entire time in the wrestling business.  He was a photographer for Georgiann Makropoulos, who was a journalist as well, and known throughout everybody, pretty much, in the wrestling business.  We heard she passed away tonight at the age of 69.  It was extremely sad and shocking to hear.  Of all the wrestling deaths, that was actually the one that cost me the most off-guard, because I spoke to her about every day, and I just wasn’t thinking about it. 

That’s generally not the way you start off an interview like this, but I did want to mention it, and I think you’ll be hearing about it for several days through the industry.

But to get back to the WrestleReunion convention, this is the first time, really, that a convention like this is being held in Los Angeles.  The other WrestleReunion conventions were on the East Coast, which is where most wrestling conventions are, so this is kind of a new thing for you folks out there on the West Coast.  We hope that it’s well-accepted.  We’ve got RVD wrestling [which is a] rare occasion in the US.  We’ve got legends like Bruno Sammartino.  We’ve got guys from Japan and guys from Mexico.  The Great Muta and Jushin "Thunder" Liger and Super Crazy.  We feel like we’ve got a great mix of people.  Demolition and Scotty 2 Hotty, Larry Zbyszko, Stan Hansen. 

We feel like we’ve got a good, solid lineup of talent.  People will be there signing autographs, but the truth is, if you’re familiar with the WrestleReunion conventions, when we first had them, the autographs were the big thing.  We had a lot of wrestlers and you could get a lot of autographs.  Our first convention, we had 95 wrestlers, then we had around 65 at the second one, and everybody wanted autographs.  I really think in the five years [we’ve been doing this], we’re starting to see now, it’s not really about autographs anymore.  A lot of the guys – Muta and Liger – they ‘ve not done things like this.  For the regular convention-goer, getting those guys, it’s huge.  Even legends like Sammartino, Nick Bockwinkel, Demolition; these guys have been to a number of conventions, so if you’re one who travels to conventions, you’ve probably met those guys before.  I don’t think you’re going to find a lot many people, if any, who attend conventions who have met Muta or Liger, but what we’re finding, and what WrestleReunion is always trying to do, is to create an experience for people that they’re not going to get at any independent show, or pretty much any other convention.  We have some things here for the Superticket holders, where they can do video promos with the wrestlers, and we have some photo opportunities built into the packages.  But then again, if you’re more of the contemporary wrestling fan, and you really just want to see matches, we’ve got the Ring Of Honor show on Friday night, and we’ve got the Pro Wrestling Guerrilla show on Saturday night.  There’s something for everybody.  Or if you’re just a person who just wants to experience the weekend from beginning to end, you can do that and pretty much stay busy the entire time.  You know, Muta wrestling and Liger wrestling at the show is kind of going to be a big deal for some people.

I just believe that the weekend now is more about the events than the autographs.    Really and truthfully, I can remember the first WrestleReunion convention in Tampa, people lined up with bags of items to have signed.  Truth is, we got through it all, but I really do think the experience has somewhat changed.  I know there’s a lot of rain out there in California, and that’s a unique thing, and I think the WrestleReunion convention will be a unique thing as well.  If you’ve never been to one, it’s really hard to explain it, but it’s a very cozy type atmosphere in many ways.  It’s not like going to San Diego Comicon.  It really is a totally different thing.  The wrestling conventions usually are.  I don’t think anyone will come away – if you paid for something, I think you’re going to be satisfied.  If you pay for everything, I truly think you’re going to be satisfied.  Think about this: some wrestling fan could potentially – if they’re one of our VIP SuperTicket holders – they could be sitting in a video with Sunny and Terri Runnels, and having the girls fight over them, or having Jimmy Hart and JJ Dillon fight over you.  There are so many different things.  You can take that video home with you and have that for life.  It’s an interesting thing, I think, for the people that are really kind of like me; growing up, just die-hard wrestling fans.  Every week, I remember I couldn’t wait for Saturday at midnight for WOR out of New York.  I would have done a lot of things at the time to meet my heroes of the day.  At the time, that would have been Ivan Putski and Austin Idol, and now we’ve got Austin Idol coming out to this thing.  The important thing is, if this is an experience that you’d like to have, it’s there, it’s accessible.  You can go to www.wrestlereunion.com and get all of the information you need right there.  There’s an email address right there, and if there’s any question you have that’s not covered on the site, by all means you can email your question in and somebody will respond to you with an answer. 

You mentioned that California has not seen many wrestling conventions like this in the past.  Last year, I went to a convention in Fremont, California, which was put on by Big Time Wrestling.

SC: Yes, Kirk White.  He’s actually the one who’s bringing Bret Hart as a vendor to WrestleReunion.

That event was hosted by Bill Apter, who will also be hosting WrestleReunion 4.

SC: Quite honestly, I’ve known Bill Apter longer than I knew Georgiann Makropoulos, but that’s because Bill is one of the very, very first wrestling people that I ever met.  He put his name out there on the first WrestleReunion to stand behind me.  He’s known me a long time and was willing to do that, and it was kind of a big deal and I really needed that at the time, because the biggest problem I had with WrestleReunion was no one believed it was going to happen. The things that I was advertising, people said it wasn’t possible. 

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In '80s, heartthrob tag teams were all the rage with the success of the Fablous Ones and later the Rock 'n' Roll Express.  They were often hyped in music videos that were always corny and often unintentionally homoerotic.  Some were understandable as attempts at marketing dudes in the '80s, but there's one that stands out as being completely ridiculous.  After the jump, check out early Fabulous Ones copies The New Generation's initial hype video from Memphis and be amazed.

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In the Summer of 1980, Ole Anderson had been a babyface for about a year after a long feud with Dusty Rhodes in Georgia.  They ended up teaming up against the Assassins in a cage match in what seemed like the usual kind of "old rivals unite" story, only with an extra twist: Each team chose a special referee.  The Assassins chose Ivan Koloff, while Ole Anderson chose his brother Gene.  With that stipulation, you probably figured out what happened next: The Andersons turned on Dusty, so it was a five on one beatdown in a cage.  Good guys stormed the ring to try to get in the cage, the fans were out for blood, and the bad guys eventually fled.  Ole bragged about it in an incredible interview on the next week's episodes of Georgia Championship Wrestling on TBS as they showed the carnage.  Check out the video of the whole glorious segment after the jump.

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