Am I Tough Enough?

I almost let it happen again.

A massive amount of stuff happened since SummerSlam both on and off the screen. I watched it live on the WWE Network (for only 9.99/mo), which is becoming more and more difficult with my schedule lately. I missed watching Money in the Bank and Battleground live, so this was kind of a big deal.

I can’t even begin to talk about everything so I’m going to touch on a few things.

Heath Slater is the hottest free agent in sports today. And if everything goes his way at Backlash, he’ll finally land a contract with Smackdown Live. That’s if he and The Man Beast, Rhyno, can become the first ever Smackdown Live Tag Team Champions. After being offered a contract if, and only if, he found a partner,  AND together they go on to win the entire tournament, Heath was a man on a mission. Slater trys the Miz and Arn Anderson until finally Rhyno agrees to be his partner, telling Slater he bets a Tag Team Champion can make payments on an above ground pool.

Kenny’s KayFabe Classic – KKFC #FlashbackFriday

Shane McMahon vs Test – SummerSlam 1999

As the wrestling world prepares to head into SummerSlam weekend, I thought it would be a great time to debut what will likely be a biweekly series in conjunction with #FashbackFriday here at Kayfabe Kenny…

Kenny’s KayFabe Classic or KKFC

In this ongoing series I will highlight various matches and feuds that really epitomize professional wrestling and the magic wand that can sometimes be kayfabe. Most feuds will make the list because of how “real” the story feels, while others will fall somewhere in the middle and may require a little more suspension of disbelief.

The first feud I’d like to highlight features a classic SummerSlam bout and one of Shane McMahon’s finest matches. It’s a feud that was fairly simple in execution and I think that speaks to why it was successful. But, before I get to the match I need to lay in the back-story for this time in the company

Early on in 1999, Stephanie McMahon made her debut as “daddy’s little girl” in one of the most elaborate storylines in WWE history. After being stalked and subsequently kidnapped by The Undertaker, Stephanie was about to marry the Phenom against her will. The ceremony was interrupted by the redneck knight in shining armor, the Texas Rattlesnake, Stone Cold Steve Austin.

Let’s try this again.

It’s been almost 3 months since I decided to start this blog. It’s also been almost 3 months since my last post. I didn’t really take into consideration all of the other things I had coming up in my life around that time and boy did I get slammed. I’m not going to bore you with why I haven’t been active because frankly you don’t care.

Moving on…

In these 3 months I have stayed true to my purpose of staying away from the IWC and, with the exception of some pretty regular podcasts that I will never stop listening to, I have refrained from any back stage rumors or wrestling news outlets. The outcome has been more than I ever could have hoped for. I am invested in the product so much more than I have been in recent years and it truly takes me back to why I fell in love with wrestling in the first place. The stories are being driven by characters, which are portrayed by phenomenal athletes, whose sole purpose is entertaining the masses. And right now it’s a good time to be a wrestling fan.

The New World Era

I watched RAW but don’t really feel compelled to talk about it, especially since it’s Friday and I’m just getting around to this. Some big news first.

On Wednesday, May 25, 2016, WWE announced via WWE.com, as well as social media, starting this July Smackdown will be moving from Thursday nights to a LIVE show every Tuesday Night. This is exciting news and a big win for the new era of WWE. Not only will the show be live on Tuesday nights but we also learned that the roster draft is going to be reinstated. Some time in the near future all of our favorite superstars, including active veterans as well as the NXT call-ups and new era superstars, will be split between RAW and Smackdown. The only thing that is for certain, courtesy of this video, is a McMahon will definitely be in charge of this new era of Smackdown and that’s at least one thing Stephanie and Shane can agree on.

Personally I’m interested in what effect this will have on the future of the new era of WWE. The competition will likely be good for the two shows to really push these competitors to make us want to tune in live for at least 5 hours a week, not including the monthly ppv/Network event. The first time this happened in 2002 I had already kind of faded away from watching professional wrestling so to be actively watching this draft will be pretty exciting for me. The possibilities of matches and rosters with the amount of talent currently in WWE and scheduled to return from injury this will be a huge step and could be a defining moment for the new era.

I was reminded today that May 27, 2016 marks the 20^th anniversary of Scott Hall, aka Razor Ramon, showing up on WCW Monday Nitro. This was a crucial part of the “Monday Night Wars” as it was the beginning of a story that lead to the creation of what is arguably one of THE best factions in modern wrestling. So naturally I decided to look it up on the WWE Network.

 

I remember being almost 9 and watching wrestling that Monday night with my dad and my brothers. My dad always controlled the remote and also always switched back and forth between Raw and Nitro. We were on of those families. That being said I remember my dad marking out then like I will when Finn Balor makes his main roster debut. He just couldn’t believe that Razor Ramon showed up announced on Nitro and proclaimed, “You want a war, we’ll give you a war”.

Scott Hall had that kind of power back then. He got in that ring and did what he did best. His promo that night is still so fucking cool even this far removed. He calls out Ted Turner and the Macho Man and as stated earlier perfectly alludes to being sent by the competition. The show closes with a chaotic ending and as Eric Bischoff and Bobby Heenan go to wrap up the broadcast Hall returns. This time he officially lays out the challenge for WCW to get their three best guys. Telling Bischoff to just go head and relay the message to billionaire Ted… “We are taking over”

In that same episode you had a lot of great stuff. WCW had a terrible downfall but for a while there it was a really quality show. Double A and the Nature Boy kick things off against the American Males in tag team action. DDP picked up another win on his rise to super stardom. And Lord Steven Regal (aka William Regal), as he so often did, put on a wrestling clinic and then gave a great interview with the absolute legend Mean Gene Okerlund.

I didn’t get to watch Smackdown this week but I did read the results on WWE.com. It was a surprisingly good read with no opinion and just a straightforward description of what occurred on the broadcast, which was actually pretty refreshing. Kayfabe only has been a little more difficult than I thought this first week just because I didn’t think giving up my podcasts would be this hard. I’m going to have to wean myself off them and find new podcasts that fill in the gaps.

To close it out, a while ago I watched an old AJ Styles vs Shinsuke Nakamura match from their time in NJPW on YouTube and I can honestly say I think we are all in for a real treat in the years to come in the new era. With the caliber of matches these two athletes have already competed in there’s no telling what they could do on the biggest stage in world. And as far as this blog goes I’m going to sign off tonight with another quote from Scott Hall from that infamous night, “You know who I am, but you don’t know why I’m here.” I feel like I don’t know why I’m here either, but I’m looking forward to this new era.