The Random Wrestling Review- Podcast!

What else could the world need more in 2021, than yet another podcast featuring 3 white guys in their 30’s talking about wrestling?! Actually a lot more, but we’re hoping you’ll settle for this. Ben, Tom and Sam are 3 long-time friends who have each been watching wrestling for the last 30 years and here, each week, they will select a wrestling show from the past at random and then talk about it. It’s a heady mix of in-depth analysis, juvenile humour and everything in between.

WCW Halloween Havoc 1997

By October 1997, WCW had such a commanding lead in the Monday Night War that it seemed like they would never be caught by their rivals. WWE could present the first ever televised matches between two of the best wrestlers in the world if they wanted, but the WCW powerhouse could simply trot out the umpteenth meeting between two men in their 40s and easily trump the buy rate managed by WWE. That is exactly what happened during this month as WWE put on the first ever Hell in a Cell match (chronicled here in my review of In Your House: Badd Blood) which would see Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker go at it in what must go down as a true classic. That same month a few weeks later, Roddy Piper and Hulk Hogan would have a match that was accurately described by Jim Cornette on WWE television as the ‘Age in the Cage’ featuring sub-par in-ring action, nonsensical rules and copious amounts of needless interference and yet still outdraw WWE in a big way with their main event at Halloween Havoc 1997.

WWE Unforgiven 2003

In the years immediately following the end of The Attitude Era, WWE didn’t do a whole lot to create new stars to fill future main events on their shows. Instead they relied upon a number of names that had drawn big numbers either in the past or elsewhere to carry the future business of the company. This began with the Invasion angle, where the two biggest names that were brought in were the initials ‘WCW’ and ‘ECW’, with few of the men and women who represented those companies (and were therefore new to a WWE audience) given a chance to genuinely grow into main event acts. In 2002 the company shifted their emphasis even further into the past with the return of Ric Flair to the company, the invasion of the NWO and the latest revival of Hulk Hogan’s career. Then Shawn Michaels, having been on the shelf for four years, made a comeback that had at one time seemed improbable. Within the space of 18 months, any upper midcard talent that was waiting their turn in WWE was all of a sudden at the back of a much bigger queue. The brand split did go a little towards easing this issue but in late 2002 and early 2003 another two big name stars from WCW’s past arrived in Scott Steiner and, more importantly to Unforgiven 2003, Bill Goldberg.