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.

WWE This Tuesday In Texas

1991 was a transitional year for WWE, arguably the first they had had since Hulk Hogan had won the WWE Title for the first time back in 1984. Having ridden the ‘Hulkamania’ years for all they were worth, by the early part of the 90’s the magic was wearing off and Hogan was no longer quite as big a draw as he had once been. At Wrestlemania 6 they had attempted to put the Ultimate Warrior over as the next Hogan, and seamlessly usher in a new dawn of major business under the flag of this fresh star. Very quickly however, it became clear that Warrior was not the man to take over from Hogan in that top spot, and by the summer of ’91, Warrior had gone from the company. Not only was time catching up with them, but so was some of the darker parts of the industry with allegations of sexual abuse and widespread steroid use being levelled at the company during this period.  In July that year, Hulk Hogan made his infamous appearance on the Arsenio Hall Show, during which he blatantly lied about his own previous use of the banned substance, even before it was illegal to do so, in a denial so blatantly false it instantly made him look a fool, and by association, the whole WWE too.

WWE Survivor Series 1996

Survivor Series 1996 was supposed to be the beginning of a new dawn for the WWE following a year of losses brought on by the defections of Scott Hall and Kevin Nash to WCW and the subsequent rise of the NWO. WWE had claimed what has to be considered its first real victory in the war with their competitors since WCW had debuted Monday Nitro in direct competition to Raw, when they managed to secure the re-signing of Bret Hart after months of negotiations. Despite his dissatisfaction with Shawn Michaels’ positioning as the top star in WWE and the money that was on offer to him at WCW, Bret had elected to stay loyal to the company that had made him famous and chose the long term security of a reported $20million dollar, 20 year deal with Vince McMahon, over an eye watering $3million dollar per year, 3 year deal in Atlanta. At the time, Vince McMahon breathed a huge sigh of relief- WCW wouldn’t be getting hold of another one of his biggest stars and he now had a massive extra selling point for the Survivor Series event- the return of ‘The Hitman’. It made Bret Hart the highest paid wrestler in the company, by a long way, and seemed to suggest that things might start going in WWE’s favour for once.