Dark Pegasus Video Review: The Most Powerful Families in Wrestling

The Most Powerful Families in Wrestling by J.D. Dunn In the interests of full disclosure, this is an advanced copy of a WWE release that they were nice enough to provide 411 (and me specifically). I only point it out so that you can take it into account when reading. After all, if Roger Ebert had to pay to see every other movie, and one distribution company sent him free tickets, and then he gave a positive review, you’d probably say, “Well, sure. I mean, if he gives negative reviews he won’t get any more free tickets.” On a personal note, special thanks to Christopher Spagnuolo of the WWE promotions department who probably had to go out on a limb on this one, considering the frosty relationship between 411 and the WWE over the past few years. I’m not saying Ashish, Larry, Vince and Shane are all going to sit down to dinner together, but peaceful relations are always better than fighting. Onward… Your host is Carlito (son of Puerto Rican superstar Carlos Colon). Weighing in on Family Ties: Kind of self-explanatory chapter really. Everyone weighs in on the pressure, the perks, and the reality of being in a wrestling family. Mike Graham says it’s the same in any other industry. Doctor’s sons are likely to be doctors. Chavo says it helped him to learn the backstage etiquette, which can be just as important as the in-ring work. Rock jokes about going to school and bragging about his dad winning the tag titles. The downside: all the regional travel breaks up families. You either moved from school to school when you were a kid, or you didn’t see your father for six months at a time. The Orton Family: Bob Orton Sr. was an usher, but when he was introduced to pro-wrestling, he knew that’s what he wanted to do. He introduced Bob Jr. to the legendary Karl Gotch who stretched him and humbled him (although not in the Iron Sheik style). The Briscoes took Bob Jr. under their collective wing, and the rest is history. Roddy Piper gets in a good comment about Bob Jr. being so good that he advised him to make a mistake once in a while to let people know how great he really was. Bob Jr. encouraged Randy to wrestle amateur and then made a few calls and got him into OVW, and a lot of people think that may be part of Orton’s backstage disciplinary problems, but I have a different theory on that one. That’s for another article, though. Eric Bischoff makes a rare appearance and notes that it’s highly unusual for someone to come out and dominate the business if they don’t have a good 10 years under their belt. He also makes an unintentionally hilarious comment when he asks where Steve Austin was four years into his career. Well, let’s see. He started around 1990 in the USWA. Four years later, uh, he was being released…by Eric Bischoff. Randy calls the Ortons the premiere wrestling family and says he sees it going on for a fourth generation when all of his bastard ringrat spawn decide to enter wrestling. Well, okay, he says he’s eventually going to reproduce, but given all the travel and ringrats, you gotta think there are some little Randies out there. The Guerrero Family: The Guerrero Empire stretched from the border towns in Mexico like Juarez up to El Paso. They were like royalty in South Texas. It’s interesting how different the Guerreros story is from the Ortons. With the Ortons it was all about how great they were and how much easier it made it to get into the business. With the Guerreros, it’s all about how they lived in the shadow of a legend. The Guerreros innovated a lot of moves: the Gory Special (obviously), the Camel Clutch, the moonsault block, and the German Suplex. Everyone talks about the tremendous influence they had, which is probably more true than they’re given credit for, given the high-impact, flying style that you see today, compared with the ground-and-pound style of the seventies and eighties. The McMahon Family: Vince’s grandfather Jess went into promoting boxing, which got him disowned by his father. Steph jokes that she’d probably be disowned if she didn’t want to be in the business. Vince said he used to write down matches on paper and show his father. He actually gets a little choked up, which is very powerful when you’re used to the strutting, ‘do-rag wearing character. Vince Sr. turned over the tiny territory in Bangor, Maine to Vince Jr. and told him to make it a success or stop bothering him about getting into the business. Bangor was a success, which led to Vince eventually buying out his father via a series of payments. Actually, the way he tells the story, it really sounds like Vince Sr.’s partners wanted Vince Jr. to fail so they’d have both his money and the business back. Vince tells the story about devouring all the other territories, which was roughly akin to uniting all the Mafia families. Triple H tells a story about his first dinner date with Steph at the McMahon’s house. Pretty funny. We get a look at family life McMahon-style. Hunter puts over McMahon as a rags-to-riches story. Father and Son: Lots of people talk about trying to escape the shadows of the patriarchs. We get the stories of Dustin Rhodes, David Flair and Brian Christopher (Lawler). They were solid, but they never could get out of the shadows of their fathers. Jerry Lawler says he told his son not to use the name Lawler so he could become his own man. It’s actually kind of silly because the first angle they put him in was the “father/son” angle with Jerry. The Windham Family: It all starts with Blackjack Mulligan, father of Barry and Kendall Windham. Mulligan played for the Jets and Broncos before breaking his leg and entering wrestling. Eventually, he formed a tag team with Blackjack Lanza (uncle of John Bradshaw Layfield). He wanted Barry to be a boxer, but Barry met up with Dick Murdoch and decided he wanted to wrestle. Dusty Rhodes teamed up Barry with Mike Rotundo. Mike married into the family and then turned them in for being tax cheats. Kidding. Windham and Rotundo went on to success in the WWF before Barry kind of flaked out and went back to Florida, leaving Rotundo to partner with Danny Spivey. In the dying days of WCW, Barry and Kendall formed a tag team and won the tag titles. The Graham Family: Although they weren’t actually brothers, the Graham Brothers (Eddie and Jerry) were a big tag team in the Northeast. Eddie decided to go to Florida and open his own territory. That led to “Crazy” Luke Graham and “Superstar” Billy Graham. I think Eddie and Mike are the only two who are actually related in all this. Eddie Graham became one of the most innovative and influential names in wrestling, training Dusty Rhodes and Bill Watts as bookers. The Anoa’i Family: Oh, boy. I hope they don’t try to do a family tree. It’ll take up both discs. Vince says Samoans always play a part in wrestling because they’re so tough. It started with Afa and Sika, “The Wild Samoans.” They actually got their start in San Francisco by beating up the wrestlers. The San Francisco promoter hired them as wrestlers and then shipped them off so he didn’t have to deal with them. Yokozuna, who was a Samoan playing a Japanese man, became the first Samoan world champion, and a source of pride. It all trickles down to Umaga, who everyone puts over. Oddly enough, Rosey is ignored. The Gagne Family: Everyone puts over Verne as the Hulk Hogan of his day. In the 1950s, when network TV started, wrestling was a cheap source of programming, so Verne became a great star. He was a hard-nosed disciplinarian. Ricky Steamboat says Verne’s training camp was the hardest thing he’s done, physically. It worked, though, because his camp is like a who’s who of great 1980s wrestlers. Bischoff credits the Gagnes for coming up with much of the stuff the McMahons later capitalized on. The Hart Family: Stu came over from the old country as a legitimate stretcher. He became a promoter in Western Canada. Unlike many other promotions, there was an emphasis on becoming a great worker. JR calls Bret and Owen the best of the bunch. Bret was paired up with his brother-in-law, Jim Neidhart, and the Hart Foundation made history. Bret became a singles star, which led to a FANTASTIC match with Davey Boy Smith (another brother-in-law) at Summerslam ’92. Later, Bret and Owen had one of the great rivalries. They briefly touch on the tragedies of the family before shifting the focus to the next generation – Nattie Neidhart (who is SMOKIN’ hot by the way) and Harry Smith. No mention of Teddy Hart, though. Eric Bischoff rightly notes that their real lasting legacy will be their style, which you can see in Chris Benoit, Bryan Danielson, Josh Daniels, Harry Smith, and just about every other indy wrestler. The Vachon Family: Maurice “Mad Dog” Vachon is probably the most famous Vachon, but there was also Paul, who was bigger but lacked the same drive. That led to Luna Vachon, Maurice’s niece. I take that back, Luna might actually be more famous than Maurice. See, now THAT’S a pro-wrestling family if I’ve ever seen one. The Colon Family: Carlos Colon Sr. headed to New York and went to a wrestling school. He worked for a number of promotions, but he made his big mark by bringing wrestling to Puerto Rico. Patterson mentions that Colon had help from Vince Sr. and Gino Marella (but he doesn’t mention who Marella is, which is strange). We even get some WWC footage. Carlito says he’s more of a flyer while his father was a brawler. The apple thing started in the vignettes and took off from there. Vince says that, while Carlos is more driven, Carlito is more laid back. Carlito mentions that his little brother Eddy is an up-and-comer. I believe Edward Colon is getting ready to start with the WWE. The Von Erich Family: Steve Austin says the Von Erichs might be the most influential wrestling family. At one point, WCCW was the hottest wrestling promotion in the country because of the Von Erich sons. Kevin, the only remaining son, says they were given so much that they just crumbled under the pressure. Call it “Lindsay Lohan” Syndrome. The Rougeau Family: While the Harts dominated Western Canada, the Rougeaus promoted out of the East. Most of the talk is of Jacques and Raymond, of course. Ross calls Raymond one of the toughest men to get in the ring, which I never would have thought. That makes their backstage rivalry with the British Bulldogs that much more interesting. The Funk Family: The Funks ran their promotion out of Amarillo. In those days, Texas was so big there was room for the Blanchards, the Funks, the Guerreros, the Von Erichs, and Paul Boesch to run successful promotions. Dory Jr. says it was always fun wrestling with Terry, but not necessarily easy because Terry was…well, crazy. Dory and Terry could not be more different. Dory was the technician, cold and calculating. Terry was the loose cannon. Questionable Family Ties: We take a break to talk about the families that actually weren’t. The Godwinns. The Valiants. The Garvins actually weren’t Garvins. Nor were the Smoking Gunns. Ivan and Nikita Koloff weren’t brothers. The most surprising one, though, was the Andersons, none of whom were related. Talk turns to crazy non-families, which leads to the Hollys beating the crap out of each other. Regal was surprised to find out Edge & Christian weren’t family. Joey talks about the Dudleys. Dick Dudley. Little Snot. Little Spike. Bubba Ray. D-Von. Sign Guy. Dances With Dudley. It was all supposed to be a joke, but people start to think of them as brothers. The Brisco Family: Speaking of brothers, we have the Briscos. Jack was an awesome amateur wrestler who went pro to support the family. He became one of the great NWA champions. Eventually, Jack and Gerry formed a team and had great rivalries with the Funks and Steamboat & Youngblood. Ross says the Briscos were great heels because they cheated even when they didn’t have to. The Maivia/Johnson Family: The Rock is like some sort of chromosomatic eugenic chosen one of wrestling. His grandfather on his mother’s side was Peter Maivia. Rock relates the story of how he got his ceremonial tattoos. I’ll give you hint: it involves a mallet and bone, not a needle. When Peter died, his wife actually took over as a promoter. She seems like a really cool lady in her interview. I was kind of hoping she’d bust into a promo Rock-style. “Medic Alert bracelet? More like Medic Alert monkey anus!” Rock’s father was Rocky Johnson, former WWF Tag Team Champ along with Tony Atlas. Rock asked his father to train him, and his father agreed. They put in a call to Pat Patterson, and Rock was in the WWF farm system almost immediately. Rocky Maivia sucked, but they tweaked the character and turned him into the greatest star in wrestling history – so big, in fact, that he became bigger than wrestling. Extras: “High Chief” Peter Maivia & “Chief” Jay Strongbow vs. Ali Baba & Baron Mikel Scicluna (09.27.77). You think Strongbow is envious that Maivia is the “high chief” while he’s only “chief?” Before the match, Maivia serenades the audience. Hey, it’s the very first “sing-along with the Rock” night! This is a very old-school match, with Baba and Scicluna playing “hide the foreign object” while working over Strongbow. The storyline is that every time it’s a fair fight, the faces control, so the heels keep using foreign objects (in Baba’s case, a piece of rope; in Scicluna’s case, a pencil). A heel doubleteam backfires, though, and Maivia is able to slam Ali Baba off the top. The faces hit double shoulderblocks, and Strongbow covers for the win at 10:34. This style has not aged well, but I do wish some ambitious heels would bring back the whole “cat-and-mouse” game with the referee back. * AWA World Title: Curt Hennig vs. Greg Gagne (5.15.88). Damn. I really wanted that Hennig/Bockwinkel one-hour match. This’ll work, though. We’re JIP to Curt holding an abdominal stretch. During the documentary portion of the disc, they make a point of putting over Gagne as a great wrestler, which he was, but they only did so because he gets *so* much criticism. This is one of the reasons. Hennig was also a fantastic wrestler, and more charismatic, but everyone knew Vince would try to hire him away, so Verne decided to make his son the big babyface, turning Hennig heel and possibly squandering his drawing power. Greg gets out of the abdominal stretch, so Curt slams him on the floor. Back in, Greg hulks up and hits a dropkick. He grabs a sleeper, drawing out Larry Hennig to argue that it’s a choke. That distracts the ref long enough for Verne Gagne to run in and punk Hennig out. Greg turns around and gets the pin at 6:28 (shown). The title would be returned to Hennig who later lost it to Jerry Lawler. [**] The Rougeau Bros. vs. The Bushwhackers (02.20.89). Oh sure. The Rougeaus have hundreds of great matches with the Rockers and Harts, but we get this? I guess it’s the “kill two birds with one stone” theory because the Bushwhackers are supposed cousins. The Rougeaus try to wrestle, but the Whackers don’t appreciate their style. Raymond tries an abdominal stretch, but it bites him on the ass…or rather, Butch bites him on the ass. Finally, order is restored to the universe as the Rougeaus take over using actual skill and technique. Luke plays face-in-peril after getting hit from behind by Raymond. The Rougeaus show off their fun offensive moves, which are just begging to be stolen. Jacques stops to do a kip-up exhibition. They work in a false tag spot with Raymond distracting the ref so he doesn’t see the tag. A Rougeau doubleteam backfires, though, and Luke is able to get the tag for real. The Whackers clean house, but Raymond trips up Butch. Jacques covers, but the ref is admonishing Raymond for interfering. That allows Luke to hit a double ax-handle on Jacques and turn them over. The Bushwhackers pick up the win 12:15. The Rougeaus dominated most of the match, making this better than your usual Bushwhackers match. ** Barry Windham & Kendall Windham (w/Hiro Matsuda) vs. Michael Hayes & Lex Luger (03.18.89). This was during the period when they were considering adding Kendall as a Horseman, but they dropped that idea. Luger had just defeated Barry for the U.S. Title a year after Windham had turned on him and joined the Horsemen in the first place. Windham calls out Luger and gives him a gutbuster, but Lex has abs of steel, so it doesn’t hurt. He pays him back with a press slam. Luger continues to dominate before tagging in Hayes. Hayes and Barry go at it for a bit without actually doing anything to each other. Luger storms back in prepared to take on both of the Windhams at once, but Hayes clips him from behind as Kendall hits a flying clothesline. SWERVE! Kendall gets the pin at 5:16. This would lead to Hayes challenging Luger for his U.S. Title and then doing the unthinkable by actually winning it. That would lead to Luger’s heel turn and awesome run in 1989 before he was forced to turn face again due to Sting’s injury. But I’m getting ahead of myself. This match was all about the angle. *1/2 Deuce: Being Jimmy Snuka’s Son. A choked-up Deuce talks about how hearing Jimmy’s fans say what an influence he was in their lives led Deuce to become a wrestler. Jeff Hardy: Trampoline. Matt and Jeff got a trampoline for Christmas and used it to set up a makeshift ring so they could run shows. Matt liked it so much that he went on to date a human trampoline. What? He can make jokes about her, but I can’t? Chavo Guerrero Jr.: Family Gatherings. Chavo jokes that the Guerreros were so competitive that their family gatherings were like a PPV where everyone would kind of pair off into their own arguments. Barry Windham: Teaming w/Dad. Windham started tagging with his dad against, of all people Ole & Gene Anderson. He says his father was protective of him, so when he thought that Ole was taking liberties, Mulligan started shooting on him. Disc Two: Bob Orton Sr. & Bob Orton Jr. vs. Jeff Ports & Rocky Smith (04.21.76). This is from Florida. The Ortons are the tag champions, but the titles are not on the line here. Ports is a British tough guy. Rocky Smith was, I believe, a JTTS in Florida. The injured Bob Roop is on commentary along with the great Gordon Solie. Bob Sr. doesn’t give Ports a clean break, so Ports slaps him upside the head. Bob Jr. tags in and tries to wrestle him but gets more of the same. The Ortons just get mad, though, and take it out on Rocky Smith. Bob Jr. finishes Smith with a piledriver at 6:26. Ports kept things kind of interesting, but this was just a squash. * Kerry Von Erich, David Von Erich & Kevin Von Erich (w/Mike Von Erich) vs. Wild Bill Irwin, Captain Frank Dusek & Ten Gu (12.25.81). From WCCW Star Wars in 1981. You know the Von Erichs (mostly likely Kerry, at least). The match listing shows Dusek as “Pvt.” Frank Dusek, but he was apparently promoted at some point. Irwin went on to non-fame as “The Goon” in the WWF. Ten Gu is your basic third-string generic Japanese wrestler. I don’t know who he is, but he looks a lot like Umanoseke Ueda. This is an unusual match. There are two rings with two guys fighting in one ring and two guys fighting in the other. The other two guys are on the outside and can tag into either ring. Most of the early focus is on Kevin who dominates the heels on his own. Kerry grabs a sleeper on Ten Gu. Dusek and Irwin nearly collide as they run the ropes. Kerry sprints and dives from one ring to the other to hit a shoulderblock on Dusek. Lots of unrecappable action passes, and Kerry and Dusek work their way to the other ring. Dusek misses a flying kneedrop. David grabs a Clawhold on Ten Gu, and Irwin’s interference backfires, allowing David to get the pin at 10:57. Weird match. I liked it, but they could have done a lot more with the stipulations. Definitely worth a look, even as a curio. **1/2 Blackjack Mulligan & Blackjack Mulligan Jr. vs. Ricky Harris & Jim Nelson (01.13.82). From Mid-Atlantic. Blackjack Jr. is Barry Windham with dark hair and a mustache. Before the match, Blackjack Sr. gives a great interview about turning over the reigns to Junior so he can sink or swim. That leads to a clip of this match. Senior overpowers Nelson and slugs him a few times. Barry tags in and outwrestles Harris. Mulligan gets the blind tag and drags Harris back over into his corner, daring Nelson to tag in. Nelson won’t tag in while Senior is in there, waiting for Junior to tag in instead. Barry hits the flying clothesline on Harris and lets Mulligan finish with the Claw at 5:25. Another squash. *1/4 Nice to have the following match on DVD finally, but I’ll cut-and-paste my original review anyway… NWA World Tag Titles: The Brisco Brothers vs. Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood (11.24.83). From the very first Starrcade. This is the result of several quality matches between the two teams that saw the Briscos inching closer and closer to full heel status. In one match, Jack splashed Ricky Steamboat while he was in the figure-four, which was a Brisco staple but a big no-no then. A few weeks later, they had a rematch and, again, a Brisco “accidentally” fell on Ricky’s legs while he was in the figure-four leglock. Finally, Jim Crockett said to hell with it and signed this match for the biggest show of the year. Angelo Mosca is the special referee and does a little better job than Gene Kiniski would later in the evening. This match is a little calmer and more solid than their previous meetings. The faces work on Gerald’s arm but Steamboat gets dropped on the top rope to play face-in-peril. Ricky and Gerry duel at breakneck speed, and Gerald gets a backdrop. He keylocks the arm which is a good strategy against Steamer. Ricky powers up and backdrops Gerald over while still in the keylock. HOT TAG TO YOUNGBLOOD! The numbers overwhelm the young guy, though, and now he’s screwed. Gerald gets into an argument with Mosca and gets knocked on his ass. Steamboat tags back in and he’s fired up. Youngblood gets a Steamboat-assisted dropkick, and Steamboat presses Youngblood onto Gerald for the win about 12:00 in. Seemed longer. Good, classic tag formula. ***1/4 Hector Guerrero, Mondo Guerrero & Chavo Guerrero vs. Mike Enos, Krusher Krugnoff & Tom Burton (09.04.88). The DVD spells it “Inos.” Not sure if that’s a typo or an AWA thing. At any rate, the heels just have no idea how to deal with the Guerreros offense. Hector, in particular, looks awesome, and it’s criminal that he wasn’t a bigger star. Chavo tries a Northern Lights Suplex, but Burton has no idea how to take it so he lands on his head. The heels finally isolate Hector, but they don’t do anything more interesting than a stomp. Hector finally just stops selling and tags out. Mondo cleans house, drawing a big pop. Chavo and Hector hit a double suplex on Krugnoff and lift him up into a double Mexican Surfboard. Mondo comes off the top with a splash to the exposed Russian. That’s enough for the win at 8:32. The Guerreros were light years ahead of everyone else. A most entertaining squash. **3/4 Family Feud match: Shawn Michaels, The Red Knight, The Blue Knight & The Black Knight vs. Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Bruce Hart & Keith Hart (w/Stu Hart). Shawn picks a fight with Ross and Wayne Hart who are sitting at ringside. The Knights are Barry Horowitz (Red), Greg Valentine (Blue), and Jeff Gaylord (Black). I know the official line is that the Black Knight is Glen Jacobs (Kane), but this guy is A) too short and B) wrestles nothing like Jacobs who always wrestles the same whether he’s the Christmas Creature, the evil dentist, the truck driver, or the psycho hellspawn. Bruce starts with Shawn and does a nice rope sequence that sends Shawn in to the Red Knight. Shawn accidentally takes out the Black Knight with a high knee. The Harts dominate the Knights as the crowd starts to get bored. The problem is that the Knights can’t get in much offense without people recognizing their moveset, which works out fine for Horowitz because no one’s ever seen him get in an offensive move. Owen finishes the Black Knight with a missile dropkick at 10:48. The Harts go to work on the Red Knight’s leg. Shawn’s team isolates Keith with a nice little sequence where Shawn slingshots into a splash on his arm. The heels work Keith’s arm, which shouldn’t be this boring, given the talent involved. A Rocket Launcher misses, and Bret gets the hot tag. He locks the Red Knight in the Sharpshooter for the win at 18:10. Blue Knight drops an elbow on Bret. Hey, that looks very familiar! Too bad he doesn’t do that wind up and drop the forearm thing, or the Flair flop. He does, however, hit a headbutt to the gut. Owen and Bruce doubleteam the Blue Knight and Shawn Michaels. Shawn slips to the outside and accosts Stu, so Stu socks him one. Owen hits a pescado on Shawn and finishes the Blue Knight with the Sharpshooter at 23:47 Shawn tries to run because it’s a 4-on-1. Bret blocks his way, though, so Shawn hits Bruce with a superkick for two. Bret tags in and slingshots Shawn into the buckle for two. Shawn rakes his eyes, so Bret tags to Owen. Owen hits a nice belly-to-belly suplex but runs into Bret, who was standing on the apron and knocks him to the floor. Shawn schoolboys Owen at 27:15, making him the only Hart eliminated. He screams at Bret for being selfish and wonders aloud, “What about me?!” all the way to the back. It’s still 3-on-1, so after a quick series of beatings from the Harts, Shawn runs to the back for the countout at 30:57. Way too long for this, and it didn’t even have a satisfying resolution. The only positive point is the planting of seeds for Owen’s heel turn. Owen returns to the ring to break up the celebration and to demand satisfaction from Bret. * Dusty Rhodes & Dustin Rhodes vs. Terry Funk & Bunkhouse Buck (w/Colonel Parker & Meng — 08.28.94). From Clash 28. Dustin had been feuding with Buck throughout 1994, but the real rivalry is between Terry Funk and Dusty Rhodes – a feud that goes back nearly 20 years. Big brawl to start. Dustin atomic drops Buck into Funk, and they both tumble to the floor. Dusty briefly tags in to clean house. Buck uses his boot to turn the tide toward the heels, but he tries it again, and it backfires. Finally, Arn Anderson runs down and trips Dusty up to allow the Stud Stable to take over for real. Dustin tags in, though, and cleans house, drawing an irate Arn in for the DQ at 7:19. Dusty elbows Arn to the floor, but Meng walks up on him and dares him to try the same thing on him. Dusty grabs a balsa wood chair instead and hits him with it, but Meng no-sells. This is an almost shot-for-shot remake of an angle with Big Bubba Rogers from 1986. The match was okayish, but the heels could barely get anything going. *1/2 Non-Title: Terry Funk & Dory Funk Jr. vs. The Public Enemy (06.24.94). This is from ECW’s Hostile City Showdown. Wow, Dory sticks out like a sore thumb. This is the result of PE going after Terry at the behest of Paul E. Dangerously. The crowd is all over PE early. As with a lot of ECW brawls, it’s a formula of one wrestling move, brawl on the outside, one wrestling move, brawl on the outside. Most of the entertainment here is from Dory (rightly) giving the PE no respect. They toss PE into the crowd, and that leads to a chair duel. Grunge and Terry brawl out into the stands, and then they switch off with Grunge returning to the ring to fight Dory. The PE tries a doubleteam, but Rocco Rock wipes out Grunge. Back in, Dory applies the spinning toehold on Rocco, but Grunge breaks it up. Terry is stuck on the outside trying to recover from a beating. Paul E. Dangerously and 911 run down for moral support – in the form of chokeslamming the ref. Paul E. gives a quick count at 13:35, so Terry makes the save and counts Dory’s pin. The brawl continues, and no one really cares about the result. Terry and Rocco brawl up to the Eagle’s Nest where Terry ties up Rocco and hangs him off the balcony. No real flow to the match, not a lot of wrestling, and not even a lot of contact made really. About average for an ECW match. ** And from the second version of my WrestleMania 13 review… Intercontinental Title: Rocky Maivia vs. The Sultan (w/The Iron Sheik & Bob Backlund — 03.23.97). This was the WWE hitting rock bottom (no pun intended). The crowd had already turned Rocky at this point thanks to a sickeningly sweet babyface act. The Sultan, on the other hand, is indicative of the lame xenophobic formula that was outdated in 1991, but Vince didn’t know it yet. If you didn’t already know, Sultan is (Rikishi) Fatu under a silly mask, playing an evil Middle Easterner — and that was supposed to be enough for people to boo him. Something like that may have worked in 2002 (but would have been in poor taste), but in 1997, no one cared about foreign policy. Communism had ceased being a threat a decade earlier, and no one took radical fundamentalist Islam as a serious threat. No, our problems in this country were racial (Rodney King & OJ trials), generational (Woolworths going out of business), and cultural (Donahue out, Springer in). Is it any wonder that the Nation of Domination and Hart/Austin feuds were the ones that drove the WWF resurgence? Anyway, the fans absolutely HATE Rocky here, even booing him as he tries to hulk up. He hits a crossbody, but the Sheik has the ref distracted. Sultan delivers a thrust kick and a piledriver, but Rocky pops up and gets a cheap win off a schoolboy at 9:47. All of the heels jump Rocky, but his daddy Rocky Johnson makes the save for him. 1/2* Brian Christopher & Jerry Lawler vs. Ivan Putski & Scott Putski (07.14.97). Scott had the body of a superstar, but he looked way too much like Yanni. Scott takes on both Lawlers, and does so quite well, until Jerry trips him up from the outside. Jerry delivers the piledriver, but Christopher wants to deliver the coup de grace. Of course, his legdrop misses. The Lawlers try a doubleteam, but it backfires. Ivan tags in, and the Putskis use POLISH POWER to destroy the Lawlers. Ivan hits Jerry with the Polish Hammer (running double ax-handle) for the win at 4:55. Fun, inoffensive little match. It would have been interesting to see what Scott could have accomplished had injuries not derailed his career. ** WWE Tag Team Titles: Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin vs. Eddy Guerrero & Chavo Guerrero Jr. (09.18.03). This is from an episode of Smackdown (the one with the Angle/Lesnar Ironman Match). Eddy is already U.S. Champion and is about to take the bump up to World Title status. The intrigue here is that Chavo is coming back from injury. While he was out, Eddy picked Tajiri as his partner, then turned heel on him, but the crowd cheered for Eddy even more. The Guerreros dominate early and hit stereo pescados as we go to break. We come back to Eddy strangling Shelton with the tag rope. Chavo slips over Haas, but Shelton sneak attacks him with a thrust kick to the bicep. The World’s Greatest Tag Team goes to work on Chavo’s injured arm. Chavo lunges for a tag, but Shelton cuts him off. The ref puts Shelton out of the ring and doesn’t see Chavo make the real tag. TWGTT tries a doubleteam, but Chavo dropkicks Shelton and tags out to Eddy. Eddy cleans house until Charlie sneak attacks him with a German Suplex. Haas and Benjamin try their atomic drop/superkick combo, but it backfires as Shelton kicks Haas in the back of the head. TWGTT grab chairs, but Chavo clips Shelton’s knee, taking him out of the match. The Guerreros drop Haas on his head (looks like they were thinking flapjack, and he was thinking backdrop). That leads to a brainbuster and frogsplash at 9:58. Los Guerreros reclaim the tag titles. Watching matches like this really illustrates how flat Smackdown has become in Eddy’s absence. The show lacks the energy and vibrancy it had when he was there. **3/4 The Undertaker vs. Randy Orton (08.21.05). From Summerslam. These two had a really decent match at WrestleMania, and Orton took some time off for injury. I know. I was as shocked as you are. Taker slaps Orton right in the face. Orton tries to come back but runs right into a boot, and Taker locks in a keylock. Taker goes up for the Old School Ropewalk Forearm, but Orton yanks him down for two. Taker comes back almost immediately and starts pummeling Orton. Orton catches Taker with a fluke DDT as he’s coming back into the ring and gets two. Taker puts his leg on the rope to break the count, so Orton splashes it and goes right at it. That was an awesome spot. Orton gets two off a powerslam and goes back to the knee with a spinning toe hold. Taker rolls through, but Orton clips the knee and goes right back to it. He drapes the leg over the bottom rope and starts splashing it, and *everyone* knows what’s coming next. Indeed, Taker puts a boot in his ass and shoves him over the top. Taker drops him with a Flatliner and tries the big boot, but he’s staggered from the knee work, so Orton is able to react quickly with a dropkick. AWESOME! Taker shoves him away on an RKO and goes for the Tombstone. Orton reverses that to a stretch backbreaker and goes up. Taker rolls through a crossbody and chokeslams Orton, but then a fan comes in to congratulate Taker and is dragged away by security. Orton uses the opportunity to pop up and hit the RKO for the win at 17:17. Of course, the fan would turn out to be Randy’s daddy Bob Orton Jr.. This was some kind of awesome before the finish. Different from, but on par with, their WrestleMania match. Unfortunately, the feud would go south once Bob got involved. ***1/2

The 411: This is like a tale of two DVDs. The documentary part is fantastic. It's like sitting around with a favorite uncle who has all these great stories to tell. Everything is very respectful, so you won't see the kind of name-calling you saw on the Horsemen DVD. Some of the families get more air time than others, which is understandable because families like the Harts and Von Erichs have enough material to justify their own discs. In fact, I wouldn't have been too disappointed had they cut out the Rougeaus and Colons and just spent more time with the other families. The match selection, though, leaves a lot to be desired. There must be a dozen Funks vs. Briscos matches in the vault, yet they pick out squash and ECW matches? The Rougeaus had tons of great matches with the Harts, but they pick a random match where they put over the Bushwhackers? It doesn't really give you a representation of why you should care about any of these people if you don't already know who they are. It earns a thumbs up for the documentary and a handful of decent matches on the extras, but if you're the type that buys these DVDs for the classic matches, I think you'll be disappointed. Thumbs up for "The Most Powerful Families in Wrestling."

Final Score:  7.5   [ Good ]