2005 Year in Review
At midnight tonight, 2005 will officially come to a close. It is time to sit back, relax, and reflect on the year that has just past us by. I will take this opportunity to write about the five biggest events that happened in the world of wrestling this year.
I had planned on counting down from the fifth spot to the first spot, but I was having troubles prioritizing these events, so I decided to list them in no particular order.
Have fun reliving what was 2005.
ECW – One Night Stand
On June 12th, wrestling fans got a chance to chant “ECW” on more time. It was on that day that ECW got to run a live PPV event – the first event since their untimely demise in 2001 – with a little help from the WWE.It has been said that the mastermind behind the event was none other the “Whole F’n Show” himself – Rob Van Dam. He suggested to Vince McMahon that he should promote an ECW PPV. McMahon, at first, had no interest in doing it. However, after the release of The Rise And Fall of ECW DVD in November of 2004 – which became the #2 best selling WWE DVD of all time – McMahon had a change of heart, thus One Night Stand was born.
I applaud the WWE for allowing the PPV to take place and allowing ECW stars both from their roster and elsewhere to compete on the card. TNA, on the other hand, refused to allow some of their ex-ECW stars, such as Raven and Shane Douglas, to appear at the show. This led to the start of another ECW event – Hardcore Homecoming – that was put together by Douglas and took place just two days before One Night Stand. Many ECW stars ended up working both events.
One downside to the event, though, was the fact that since the WWE was footing the bill for One Night Stand, McMahon took it upon himself to promote his brand of wrestling. At the event were many WWE stars, most of which had never even been a part of ECW. They were part of the crowd and took opportunities to stir it up with the ECW stars. With the exception of that, the whole PPV had a very ECW like feel to it.
One Night Stand must have been a financial success for the WWE, as they plan on making the PPV an annual event. Look forward to seeing another ECW PPV take place on June 12, 2006.
The Big Television Shakeup
At the beginning of 2005, the major wrestling shows took place on Monday, Thursday, and Friday. Those shows were Raw on Spike TV, Smackdown on UPN, and Impact on FSN. All three of those shows would either change channels, days, or both.
Raw: At the beginning of the year, Raw was airing on Monday nights on Spike TV. In March, however, Spike TV announced that it would not extend their agreement with the WWE once their contract expired. A month later the WWE announced that they had reached an agreement with NBC and they were returning to their roots on the USA Network. To hype the move, the WWE staged a 3-hour “homecoming” event with many stars from the past taking part in the show. The plan worked and Raw scored its highest rating in 2005 with that show. Six weeks later that record was broken when the Eddie Guerrero tribute show aired.
Smackdown: Since the debut of the show in 1999, Smackdown has always aired Thursday nights on UPN. However, in September, UPN decided to move Smackdown to Friday nights and air a brand new sitcom in its place – Everybody Hates Chris. The name of the show has now been changed to Friday Night Smackdown and the ratings have been on a steady decline since. One of the highest rated Friday Night Smackdown this year came on November 18th, which, like Raw, was an Eddie Guerrero tribute show. 
Impact: In May, FSN decided not to renew their year-long contract with TNA, which left them without a TV deal. After many unsuccessful attempts at getting their show on a cable network – they did come close to a deal with WGN – they came to an agreement with none other than the channel that had no interest in the WWE anymore, Spike TV. Impact began airing on Spike TV on Saturday, October 1st - just six days after the WWE had their final Raw broadcast on the station.The Death of Eddie Guerrero
The wrestling world went into a state of shock on November 13th as news of Eddie Guerrero’s death quickly spread throughout the Internet. Guerrero passed away in his hotel room in Minneapolis, MN.
At the time, the cause of Guerrero’s death remained unknown. Autopsy results have shown the Guerrero died from acute heart failure as a result of an undiagnosed cardiovascular condition and an enlarged heart due to steroid abuse. Since then, the WWE has started a new drug testing policy for their stars.
On the night of Guerrero’s death, I wrote an entry for the Squared Circle as a tribute to Guerrero. I feel that post says it all.
However, Guerrero wasn’t the only wrestling star that left us this year. Let’s not forget all of the wrestlers who passed away in 2005 - Reggie “The Crusher” Lisowski, Moondog King, Lord Alfred Hayes, Chris Candito, and "Pistol" Pez Whatley. You will all be missed.
TNA has its share of stars. While most of the veterans are established stars, they are all there for one reason – the WWE doesn’t want them. Kevin Nash, Raven, Jeff Hardy, Kip James (Billy Gunn), B.G. James (Road Dogg), Team 3D (the Dudley Boys), Rhino (Rhyno), among others, are there because they had either burned their bridge with or were released by the WWE. With no other major wrestling option in the U.S., most have gone on to find work with TNA. However, that all changed on Halloween.It was on that day that the WWE web site reported that Christian had quit the company. Two weeks later, Christian – going by his original ring name, Christian Cage – appeared at TNA’s Genesis PPV. This marked the first time a WWE wrestler left the company on his own to join TNA.
Christian has been quoted as saying that the WWE did not “lowball” him with a smaller contract offer, in fact they offered him a hefty sum to stay with them. However, due to a lack of direction with his character, he decided to go to a company that would use his talent to its fullest potential.
The Rollercoaster of Love
In a 2004 storyline, Lita announced that she was pregnant. However, it wasn’t with her longtime boyfriend, Matt Hardy, it was with Kane. Kane later defeated Hardy at the Summerslam PPV in 2004. As a result of the victory, Kane got to marry Lita. Maybe that is what sparked Lita’s infidelity.
It was no secret that Matt Hardy and Lita had a relationship behind the scenes. It had even been brought into the storylines. Unfortunately, their six-year relationship came to an end in February. Hardy had found out that Lita had been having an affair with one of his best friends, Adam Copeland, who is better known as Edge.Since Hardy and Lita’s relationship was public knowledge, Hardy took it upon himself to make sure her affair was also public knowledge. He posted hateful comments towards both of them on his personal web site, which must have rubbed the WWE the wrong way. Hardy was released from the company in April.
The fans let Edge and Lita know what they thought every chance they got. Chants of “You screwed Matt,” or “You screwed Edge,” or “We want Matt” filled areas when Edge or Lita were in the ring. Since you can’t buy this type of heat, the WWE decided to just pair the two together.
The fans also let the WWE know that they wanted Matt Hardy back. They got what they wanted. In July, Hardy made a shocking return to WWE television to attack Edge before and during one of his matches. The crowd erupted. As Hardy was being dragged out of the arena by security, he shouted that the WWE could “kiss his ass” and that he would be performing with Ring of Honor, an independent wrestling promotion, on Saturday night.
A few weeks later, Vince McMahon announced that he had rehired Hardy and that he and Edge would have a match against each other at Summerslam – one year after he lost the match to Kane which brought Lita to be “married” to Kane. During their match, the referee stopped their contest due to Hardy’s excessive bleeding.
After a couple of other matches – a street fight and a cage match – the two met a final time in a “Loser Leaves Raw” match at the WWE’s Homecoming show on USA. Edge came up victorious and Hardy was sent to Smackdown.
There are some that have said that the whole situation had been a story concocted by the WWE from the beginning. If that is true, then they pulled the wool over my eyes and the eyes of many fans around the world. At any rate, it turned both Edge and Matt Hardy into bigger stars than they were at the beginning of the year.
That sums up the biggest events of 2005. I hope you enjoyed reliving the major events that shaped the year in wrestling. Hopefully 2006 will bring us more exciting action. Just remember to come back and check up on my thoughts about what is happening both inside and outside the squared circle.
Finally, best wishes to all of you and yours in the New Year. Here’s to 2006.
Posted by: starman on 12.31.2005 at 11:03 AM | Comments (1) | Permalink
Starman's Christmas Haul
The Starman sure must have been good this year because Santa left him a ton of goodies under the Christmas tree.
I got not one, not two… but three wrestling DVD's this year. I am now the proud owner of The Ultimate Ric Flair Collection, Jake "the Snake" Roberts – Pick Your Poison, and the Rise and Fall of ECW.
If you add it all up, that is a total of seven discs that span 22 ½ hours of pure viewing pleasure. I have been giddy ever since I opened my gifts. Look for reviews of all of these in the upcoming weeks – 22 hours of video is a lot to watch.
On top of all that, I got another wrestling related present and they go by the names of Afi and Sika – known together as the Wild Samoans. They sure will look good next to my George "the Animal" Steele and Jimmy "the Superfly" Snuka figures.I hope you all had a good Christmas and have a happy new year!
Today in Wrestling History: Stan "the Lariat" Hansen defeats Rick Martel in East Rutherford, NJ, to win his first, and only, AWA World Championship. 1985.
Posted by: starman on 12.29.2005 at 10:24 PM | Comments (2) | Permalink
A Cinematic Classic
As I have been reading through some of the blog entries on Area Voices, I was amazed to see that only one blog – Paulee's Straight Talk - had mentioned the fact that one of the greatest comedians of our time had passed away last weekend. At least there is one person, aside from me of course, that writes about something other than politics around here.
Now that I have that out of my system, let me get back to the topic at hand.
Richard Pryor passed away last Saturday at his home. I am going to take a moment to tell all of you my favorite Pryor movie.
Throughout his career, Pryor had appeared numerous times on the silver screen. I wasn't a fan of many of those movies, as I truly believe he was a standup comedian and not an actor. I didn't like Silver Streak, Stir Crazy, or even See No Evil, Hear No Evil. However, that could have been because of my hatred towards Gene Wilder, which stems from the fact that I never found a Golden Ticket.
At any rate, the one Pryor movie that shined above the rest was a little known gem called Moving.
Most of the people I talk to have never even heard of this movie. If you haven't, you owe it to yourself to either buy this movie off eBay or comb your local video store to find it. I wasn't able to find it available on DVD, so you may have to dust off your VCR to watch this one.
I haven't seen the movie in quite some time, so bear with me as I write a brief summary. It is a story about a man, Arlo Pear (Pryor), whose job is relocating him and his family from New Jersey to Boise, Idaho. The movie spans six weeks in which the family sells their house, buys a new home, hires a moving company as well as a man to drive his prized Saab across the country. I'll stop there so I don't ruin it for you.
If my brief review hasn't sparked your interest, Moving also stars Randy Quaid as Arlo Pear's crazy neighbor(s) and Dana Carvey as the man who drives Pear's Saab across the country.
Now I know what you are thinking, “I knew it – only 23 entries into this and he starts writing about movies.”
Oh, that's right. I forgot to mention – this movie also features the big screen debut of King Kong Bundy. Yes, the man that faced Hulk Hogan for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship inside of a steel cage at WrestleMania 2, is one of employees of the moving company that was hired by Arlo Pear.
Whether or not you are a fan of Bundy, the movie is one of those rare comedic classics that is funny no matter how many times you have seen it. So, if you are in the mood for a good comedy from the 80's, I suggest you watch this movie. Take my word for it, Moving is a lot better than another movie from that same decade that stars a wrestler – No Holds Barred.
Today in Wrestling History: The Colossal Connection (Andre the Giant and Haku), defeat Demolition in Huntsville, AL, for the WWF World Tag Team Titles. 1989.
Posted by: starman on 12.13.2005 at 8:11 PM | Comments (2) | Permalink
He Loves to Wrestle and He Loves to Party
On my last entry, I received a question from the Icon about the whereabouts of one Marty Jannetty. Jannetty, as you may recall, was part of one of the greatest tag teams in the 80’s, the Midnight Rockers (or just the Rockers depending on what show you watched). His tag team partner was Shawn Michaels.
The Midnight Rockers, who wrestled mainly in the AWA, won the AWA Tag Team titles on two separate occasions. After jumping over to the WWF, they shortened their name to just The Rockers. Their luck must have changed with their name - they never became tag team champions while they were in the company.
Three years later, Shawn Michaels walked out on Marty Jannetty and the Rockers as we knew it were over. An attempt was made by Jannetty to make amends with Michaels, but all he got was some Sweet Chin Music and a trip through a plate glass window for his troubles.
Shawn Michaels went on to become a huge superstar. He was the first ever WWF/E Grand Slam champion (World Champion, Intercontinental Champion, Tag Team Champion, European Champion). Only four other people can say that they have been on that list – Triple H, Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle and Eddie Guerrero. That feat can also no longer be achieved as the European Championship is no longer active.
Marty Jannetty on the other hand had his career come to a screeching halt without the help of his tag partner. After a feud with Michaels, in which Jannetty actual won the Intercontinental Championship – only to lose it back to Michaels less than a month later, he joined forces with the 1-2-3 Kid (X-Pac) and finally won the WWF Tag Team titles. However, this title reign was shorter than his Intercontinental reign – they held the tag titles for one week.
Jannetty’s career floundered for a few more years until he found a new tag partner and formed the New Rockers. His partner was Leif Cassidy, who is much better known as Al Snow. After the team split, Jannetty pretty much fell of the face of the earth. He did wrestle briefly in ECW and WCW, but spent most of his days in the independent wrestling scene.
In the years to come, Jannetty’s life turned dark. He wasn’t married, had no family to care for and had very little work. In his mind he had very little to live for. On a fateful day, while Jannetty was contemplating suicide, he received a phone call from none other than Shawn Michaels. Michaels, being a born again Christian, talked Marty into going to a conference in Phoenix and became a born again Christian himself. Ted DiBiase, a minister himself, told this story to wwe.com this past summer, it is quite an interesting read.
Afterwards, Jannetty was contacted by the WWE for a one-time deal, and that was for a warm-up match for Kurt Angle, as he was scheduled to take on Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 21. Jannetty was also given a match on Raw prior to his match with Angle for his own warm-up match. He teamed up with his old tag partner, Michaels, and even came out to the ring with their old music. Quite the site to see after a 14-year absence. The Rockers defeated La Resistance that night.
A few days after his match with Kurt Angle, Jannetty was offered a contract with the WWE in which he signed. However, his demons crept back into his life and he was arrested shortly after for a DUI. A few months after signing a contract with the WWE, he was let go in one of the WWE’s mass releases. He was given his release along with Spike Dudley, Billy Kidman, Maven, Charlie Haas and about a dozen other stars.
Nothing has been said as to what happened to Jannetty after his release from the WWE – at least not that I know of. Unfortunately, his official web site www.martyjannetty.com has been shut down until further notice.
Today in Wrestling History: Billy Gunn taps out to the Crippler Crossface to lose the Intercontinental Championship to Chris Benoit at the Armageddon PPV in Birmingham, AL. 2000.
Posted by: starman on 12.10.2005 at 4:30 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
More Phenomenal: A.J. Styles or A.J. Pierzynski
Tonight, TNA is having another special on Spike TV. It was announced this past weekend on iMPACT that A.J. Pierzynski would be appearing at the show. For those of you who are not in the know, Pierzynski is the catcher for the MLB World Series Champions, the Chicago White Sox. He will be appearing on the TNA special along with Bobby Heenan as part of a ceremony commemorating the White Sox World Series win.
It has been said that A.J. Pierzynski has been a life-long wrestling fan. He has even started being referred to as “The Phenomenal” A.J. Pierzynski by commentators - an obvious play on the current X-Division Champion, “The Phenomenal” A.J. Styles.
Which brings us to my blog entry. We will find out who just is more phenomenal – A.J. Styles or A.J. Pierzynski… in a grueling best of seven series.
Why seven? Why not. The World Series is a best of seven series, and Booker T and Chris Benoit seem to always have them every five years or so. So the two A.J.’s are going to have seven.
Let’s first look at the Tale of the Tape:
A.J. Styles
Age: 27
Height: 5' 10"
Weight: 202 lbs.
Pro Debut: 1999
Current TNA X-Division Champion
A.J. Pierzynski
Age: 28
Height: 6’ 3”
Weight: 240 lbs.
Pro Debut: 1998
World Series Champion
Match 1: The Name Game
Styles:
Styles’ real name is Allen Jones. Not a bad name. What is bad, however, is the name “Styles.” Whenever I hear that name I think of a certain Michael J. Fox movie... great, now I feel like surfing on top of a van.Pierzynski:
Pierzynski’s real name is Anthony John Pierzynski. I love how his last name is a bunch of rarely used consonants with a couple of vowels put in there for good measure. If you were to pull out these letters in a game of Scrabble you’d be in for a long night. However, if you were able to use them all you would get 28 points – 84 for triple word score, and that… that is cool.
A.J. Pierzynski – 1, A.J. Styles - 0
Match 2: Rookie Season
Styles:
A.J. Styles started off wrestling as Mr. Olympia (isn’t that a great moniker) in the NCW (National Championship Wrestling).
Where? Even I haven’t heard of that.
Pierzynski:
Only played in seven games and had 3 hits with 10 at bats. However, all of his major league games were played with the Minnesota Twins.
A.J. Pierzynski – 2, A.J. Styles – 0
Match 3: Merchandise
Styles:Phenomenal: The Best of A.J. Styles DVD
Over five hours of action is packed on to this DVD. A total of 12 matches in their entirety are included – some of those matches include:
- NWA World Heavyweight Title Match: Champion Jeff Jarrett vs. AJ Styles vs. Raven
- Falls Count Anywhere: AJ Styles vs. Abyss
- X Title Match: AJ Styles vs. Syxx Pac
- NWA World Heavyweight Title Cage Match: AJ Styles vs. Jeff Jarrett
Pierzynski:1996 Bowman A.J. Pierzynski rookie card.
You can be the lucky owner of this baseball card for about $4. Yep, not quite the six figures you would pay for a Mickey Mantle rookie card. However, a quick look on eBay and you can find an autographed Pierzynski rookie card for $17.99.
A.J Pierzynski – 2, A.J. Styles 1
Match 4: Popularity Contest
Styles:
When TNA Impact debuted on Spike TV, TNA had a poll on their web site asking the fans to vote on who should wrestle in the first match. A.J. Styles won that contest hands down. Styles has also been voted “Mr. TNA” for the past two years by the fans and was also voted the “2004 X-Division Star of the Year.”
Pierzynski:
After being traded to the San Francisco Giants from the Minnesota Twins at the end of 2003, he was welcomed into the organization with open arms. That quickly changed for him at the start of the 2004 season as he was lambasted by the pitching staff and others in the clubhouse for his work ethic, or lack thereof. He was called “a cancer” and lasted only one season with the team before being traded to the Chicago White Sox.
A.J. Pierzynski – 2, A.J. Styles – 2
Match 5: Tag Team Partner
Styles:
For a brief period of time, Styles teamed up with D-Lo Brown. The two got to face Christopher Daniels and Elix Skipper (Triple X) for the NWA Tag Team titles. They lost the match Soon afterwards the two went their separate ways, both on a quest for the NWA World Championship.
Pierzynski:The combination of Pierzynski and Freddy Garcia make up a lethal battery for any major league hitter to face. Speaking of face, Freddy Garcia looks a lot like the Rock. That is, if the Rock threw a 95 MPH fastball. That’s enough for the win.
A.J. Pierzynski – 3, A.J. Styles – 2
Match 6: Accomplishments
Styles:
A.J. Styles is the only member, new or old, to have won the Triple Crown in TNA Wrestling (NWA Heavyweight Championship, X-Division Championship and NWA Tag Team Championship). Not only is he the sole Triple Crown winner, but he has won all three championships two times over. If Styles was ever to win the Tag Team Championship one more time, he would have won these series of title a total of three times.
Pierzynski:
Pierzynski was part of the team that has achieved the ultimate goal: win the World Series after a 88 year absence. Of course, like the World Series of 1919 – the year of the infamous Black Sox scandal - the series of 2005 was tainted. In my opinion, the White Sox should not have even been in the World Series had it not been for Pierzynski and his cheating ways. That and the umpires that were obviously paid off.
A.J. Pierzynski – 3, A.J. Styles - 3
Match 7: Career Highlight
Styles:
A.J. Styles has been and will always be called a human highlight reel. I had always heard a lot about him, figuring that when I finally got a chance to see him in action I would be greatly disappointed. Boy, was I ever wrong. When I saw him in the ring I knew I was watching something special. No one highlight can do this man justice.
Pierzynski:
The one and only highlight of Pierzynski’s career was running (and being called safe) to first base on a strike three call. Everyone has seen this play in slo-motion from every conceivable angle so I have nothing more to say about it, besides the fact the game should have went into extra innings.
And the winner of the best of seven match: A.J. Styles
He is, has and always will be the “Phenomenal One.” There is no mistaking A.J. Styles, even if it is some hack from Major League Baseball.
If you have never seen him in the ring, I highly suggest that you at least see one of his matches. You owe it to yourself as a wrestling fan to do so.
And that is the bottom line, ‘cause Starman said so.
Today in Wrestling History: After a violent and bloody battle at the Degeneration X PPV a day before, Vince McMahon orders Stone Cold Steve Austin to defend the WWF Intercontinental Title once again against the Rock. Austin instead forfeits the title to the Rock, who starts his second reign as IC Champion. 1997.
Posted by: starman on 12.08.2005 at 1:30 AM | Comments (3) | Permalink
Random Thoughts
Thoughts about some of the current happenings in the world of wrestling from the mind of Starman. Try to keep up as I jump from topic to topic.
Whether you like it, or you don't like it, learn to love it, because it's the best thing going today.
As the saying goes, “To be the man, you have to beat the man.” If that is true, then I would just as rather give up, because I don’t really want to be the man.
Yes, Ric Flair is in trouble again.
Flair, who was accused last week of a road rage incident, turned himself in and posted $1000 bail. According to Flair, he states that “I didn’t do anything wrong. As usual, I will be exonerated.”
Let’s hope so, but I guess that will be up to the judge on January 12th to decide.
However, that isn’t the least of his problems.
It is now being brought to light that he is being accused of “cruel behavior” (a nice way of saying domestic abuse) towards his soon to be ex-wife. In the divorce fillings, she accuses Flair of hitting, slapping, choking, biting and spitting on her. She also stated that he abuses steroids and alcohol, exposes himself to her friends and has committed adultery. I guess he isn’t known as the “Dirtiest Player in the Game” for nothing.
Add on top of that, the IRS is seizing $20,000 per paycheck from Flair for owing $1 million in back taxes. Plus, he has to pay his estranged wife $20,000 per month for living expenses until their divorce is final.
Damn, I guess when it rains, it pours.
Be on the lookout for Flair with his buddy Latrell Sprewell in the local homeless shelters because they can’t afford to feed their families. Either there or at anger management classes.
“That thing gotta hemi?”
The new Dodge Charger comes unleashed with a Hemi, however the WWE released their Hemme, Christy. According to their web site, the WWE and Hemme, who was featured in the pages of Playboy earlier this year, have come to terms for her release. Nothing much more has been said of her release or whether she wanted it. That is too bad, she was one of the few female stars that I enjoyed watching.
Speaking of divas…
Isn’t this illegal?
Both eBay and Yahoo auctions have rules and regulations against selling used undergarments on their site. The WWE, however, must not. They are auctioning off a signed pair of panties that was worn by Mickie James during Survivor Series. The description states that since the WWE fans are unable to get their hands on her that they are offering the next best thing – her intoxicating unmentionables.
It surprises me that they are actually selling this. I guess they can do whatever they want to make money. Speaking of money, the auction as of this writing has had 23 bids on it and is currently at $302.50.
What is even more amazing is the fact that a worn pair of Johnny Nitro’s boxers is going for $452.50. Both of these auctions end on December 9th, for those of you who may be interested.
Live from New York… it’s Saturday Night!
After being off the air for 13 years, the WWE has announced the return of Saturday Night’s Main Event on NBC starting in March of 2006.
I remember watching the show in the 80’s as a kid, and they were almost the caliber of PPV’s. It would be great if they used Raw and Smackdown to build up to these shows, whenever they do air.
It won’t be every Saturday as it is scheduled to be in the same timeslot as the long running Saturday Night Live.
What would make the show even better would be if they used the same theme music as they had in their last run – Obsession by Animotion. It would then truly have a Main Event feel to it.
Don’t tell me that I am the only one that about the show when I hear that song on the radio.
Today in Wrestling History: Jerry Tuite, best known as The Wall / Sgt. AWOL in WCW, passed away from an apparent heart attack in Japan. He was 36. 2003.
Posted by: starman on 12.05.2005 at 7:36 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
