The Good:
The Punk angle is awesome though Cena has proven to be a liar by hitting Punk with a lead pipe for threatening him. I hope the Ryback-Punk staredown after Punk laid out Mick leads somewhere, preferably a back-up if Cena's elbow isn't ready to go in 5 weeks. There was a great Dolph Ziggler vs. Kofi Kingston match but that was the only good thing in the ring. As I will do in a longer form blog, I love the depth the tag team division looks to be getting. I will not say anything about the Jerry Lawler segment other than this, get well and take all the time you need, even if you cannot do the same full-length tours anymore, I'll accept you once a month.
The Bad:
Now for the rant so be forewarned. I hope Beth was not written off that way, I know she is leaving but jeez getting laid out by a woman half your size, JEEZUS! She was only Diva's champ what 3/4 times? At least show her class on the way out. If it wasn't for the situation that would happen with Punk later, I disagree with having Ryback crush Miz the way he did, I know Ryback is a monster but still Miz is a big name and a huge step from anyone Ryback has beaten so far. Then we have Big Show killing Tensai and Brodus Clay and what does it do, show that he still is a monster? Big Show was only gone a month, I doubt we'd think he went soft already...
Now to make Wrestling Fun, here is the latest Top 10 list, the Top 10 Wrestler Tribute Videos in WWF/WWE. If you ask me, the WWE should use these rather than RAW recaps to promote talent. Whether it was for little reason think of the various ones for Creed's My Sacrifice, returns from injuries, videos highlighting recent success, promoting a wrestler's character (Matt Hardy's Desire,) a goodbye or a Hall of Fame induction, my opinion is that these videos do more for the fans than people realize. I realize you can't show the surgeries like Triple H's and Kurt Angle's desire videos did but you can show the initial injury. Once again like in other Top 10s, this is based on my ideas. It can be wrong, it can be right the fact is it is my view. I can be wrong and if you think I am, please let me know it.
Now before I am criticized for not mentioning these two videos, I will not include them in my top 10 because quite frankly these two videos are not specific to a wrestler:
Firstly is Creed's "My Sacrifice" which was the first in the series of the then WWF Desire videos. The problem was they did these for at least Steve Austin, Edge and The Undertaker as well as one for the entire roster. I decided to only embed the one for the whole roster. The individual videos do not make this list. If you want to check those out, just click the links.
The next is quite possibly the best WWF/E video of all-time. This was originally made as a plan to pull at Vince McMahon's heart-strings. In January 2002 Vince McMahon and Ric Flair were joint-owners of WWF due to Shane McMahon and Stephanie McMahon selling off their ownership in WWF so they could fund the alliance between WCW and ECW. This is the first and hopefully last time I talk about the Invasion storyline as is. Vince got tired of the power struggle between him and Flair and decided to bring in the New World Order or n.W.o. who were a group of invaders in WCW that use to work for the WWF including Hollywood Hogan, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall. To get Vince to stop this, Flair got the production team to create a music video set to Kid Rock's "Lonely Road of Faith" to get Vince to reconsider. Vince did not and we still got the nWo and three good things to come from that, the return of Shawn Michaels, Hogan-Rock and this music video.
Now let's get started shall we,
10) The Rock set to "Alive" by POD
This was a great video that was meant to build to the aforementioned Hogan-Rock match at WrestleMania XVIII. The main problem with this video was that it was a forgotten video. I happen to like it and forgot how good it was until I was researching these videos for this list.
09) Steve Austin set to "Cult of Personality" by Living Colour
In 2012, you recognize this song as CM Punk's theme but not when Austin was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2009. In 2009, CM Punk still had "This Fire Burns" as his theme music and Austin was a cult of personality. He changed the way WWF fans thought about wrestling. (Unlike WWE, I recognize that the Austin type existed if not only in ECW, elsewhere.) This song and video fit Austin to the t.
08) Kurt Angle set to "Clocks" by Coldplay
In 1996 Kurt Angle injured his neck and then won the Olympic gold medal for freestyle wrestling in the heavyweight weight class. In 1999, he debuted in WWF. In 2000, he won the WWF European, WWF Intercontinental and WWF World Titles. By 2003, his injured neck has taken its toll on the Olympic gold medalist and he went in for neck surgery after WrestleMania XIX. In June he returned to the WWE and showed his trials of returning through this music video set to Coldplay. This was a very fitting song for a man returning from that threatening of an injury. Ultimately, Kurt would need several more neck surgeries over the next year because unlike others (Austin, Rhyno, Edge, Lita and Test,) he did not get fusion.
07) Jeff Hardy set to "Not Enough" by Our Lady Peace
In 2002, Jeff Hardy already established himself as a dare devil and a singles star. The superstar had his various dives and stunts on showcase in a video set to "Not Enough" a song by Canadian band Our Lady Peace. During Jeff's 2008 run for the WWE title, he had a second video set to "Rooftops" by Lost Prophets but I must say this song fit Jeff better.
06) Edge set to "When You're Young" by Three Doors Down
Sadly, sometimes these videos sometimes mean goodbye to a great wrestler. In 2011, Edge retired due to complications from his neck injury from 2003. Edge was one of the most beloved bad guys in wrestling. He was one of the cockiest and cutting edge (no pun intended) wrestlers since the end of the attitude era in 2002. He has held every (male) title in the WWF except for the Hardcore and European titles. He will be missed and this song by Three Doors Down, just puts to music several of his greatest moments during his 12 years in WWF/E.
05) Ric Flair set to "Leave the Memories Alone" by Fuel
In 2008, Ric Flair was set to enter the WWE Hall of Fame and was set to face Shawn Michaels in a career match. To promote this and Flair's career WWE unleashed one of the best videos ever. Flair retired and we thought we could leave the memories of Flair to be his days as NWA, WWF and WCW World Champion. However the problem was Flair would later would return to wrestling and ruined his legacy to a lot of fans including myself. Sadly, this video's legacy is ruined thanks to the actions Flair did after he retired.
04) Mick Foley set to "So Far Away" by Staind
In March 2000, Mick Foley retired from wrestling. Yes, yes, yes I know he has returned in the ring several times after this whether it was 2004 to feud with Randy Orton, 2006 to feud with Edge and then Ric Flair, 2007 for a WWE title shot or in 2009 when we won the TNA World title. This video came back when we really thought Mick was done in 2003. He had just returned to WWE to referee a Hell in a Cell match between Triple H and Kevin Nash. A few weeks later, he was in Madison Square Garden where former ECW talent presented him with the WWF Hardcore title and this music video.
03) Shawn Michaels set to "Tell Me A Lie"
I maybe wrong but I think that this is from the 1995 post-concussion Shawn Michaels suffered after an enziguiri by rival Owen Hart on an episode of WWF RAW. This video built up the fact that Shawn was injured and who knew if/when he would come back. Of course he returned from that because he ended up returning from a few other major injuries including a bad knee in 1997 and a bad back in 1998 that he never fully returned until 2002. If you ask many fans from this era, this was one of the most emotional video packages ever.
02) Triple H set to "Beautiful Day" by U2
May 21, 2001 Triple H had tragedy strike. During a routine break-up of Chris Jericho's Walls of Jericho, Triple H landed on his knee. Wrestlers land on their knees often, however they normally don't tear the quadriceps by doing so. Triple H would be out of action until the 2002 Royal Rumble. By December WWE was hyping his return with one of the most moving songs in the past 12 years, "Beautiful Day." By the time Triple H returned from injury, he was a full-fledged good guy or face getting a hero's welcome in Madison Square Garden on January 9, 2002.
01) Bret Hart set to "Making Some Noise" by Tom Petty
Now I am sure there are some of you wondering what is this and why I did not pick "You Start a Fire." Here is why, I was a Bret Hart fan since WrestleMania VIII when he face "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. At this point he won his second WWF Intercontinental Title. By the time I saw my first WWF live event, Bret lost that but then won the WWF World title from Ric Flair. By the time Survivor Series 1992 came around, WWF was making him a big deal and this video was part of it. This video I remember while "You Start a Fire" I do not actually. This video was then used again prior to the Yokozuna-Bret match from WrestleMania X with new footage spliced in. This video that I put up, is the original edit from 1992.
I thank you once again for checking out my blog. Please check out my friends at TwisterRat Podcast and Dan's Video Den. Dan just did a video cast on Judge Dredd which I must say I enjoyed while the guys at TwisterRat Keith and Allen recently did their 16th show and their first splitshow. Check them out, they deserve to have more followers. If you have any comments pleas post them here or e-mail me at kingmichael87@gmail.com
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