Retro Raw & Nitro 11/30

Raw 340:
Triple H came out to the ring with random jazz music playing.
Stephanie had a bachelorette party, and only 5 people were there, 2 of which were Mae Young and Fabulous Moolah.
Mae Young did a crotch chop which was a great as it sounds.
Rikishi is now doing his dancing gimmick.
A stripper showed up at the party and Mae Young "took him to bed"
The wedding is announced as happening tonight.
Val Venis fought Kurt Angle in a good match. You know, Val Venis was a pretty good wrestler.
It helps that Kurt Angle is already one of the best wrestlers on the show.
The APA is always better with backstage brawls instead of in the ring. No idea why.
The wedding begins, Test is in a tuxedo and he is sweating a comical amount.
Triple H shows the famous video where he drugged Stephanie and married her. Since shes passed out Triple H Weekend-At-Bernies her and says "I do" for her.
Heenan was talking about Meng and said that he trains by "fighting from tree to tree."
That horrible tournament is finally over, and Benoit is the #1 contender.

Nitro:
Nitro has hit a new low. 
I counted and there was 71 separate segments on this show.
Russo is now officially an on camera character.
Brian Knobs had his mullet shaved.
Dean Malenko hates America now.
The Nitro Girls had the worst food fight I've ever seen.
There might have been a lot of stuff on this show, but all of it confuse me so to not confuse you I wont mention it.

Retro Raw & Nitro 11/8

Raw #337
Unbelievably boring show.
Kurt Angle is wrestling on Sunday!
The Tag titles have changed hands 10 times in 4 months. I don't care who is champion at this point.
Big Boss Man cut a promo about Big Shows dead father.

Nitro #226
The worst show I've ever seen.
Goldberg called for an I Quit match against Sid.
Norman Smiley came out and did the Big Wiggle on the Nasty Boys.
Sting came out and molested Miss Elizabeth.
David Flair snuck into Kimberly's hotel room and proceeded to rape her.
Chris Beniot fought Medusa in a tough match to watch in hindsight.
Jim Duggan cut a promo on a toilet.
Kevin Nash came out and did the Carnac bit from Johnny Carson,  who had been off the air for over 5 years at this point. 
They did a Falls Count Anywhere match where the finish was a count out.

Retro Raw & Nitro 11/1

Raw #336
Big Show is now clean shaven.
Big Bossman used tear gas on Big Show.
Edge stole Terri from Matt Hardy so there was precedent for the Lita incident.
Stone Cold trapped Road Dogg's leg in a bear trap.
Stone Cold then trapped Billy Gunn in a snare.
X-Pac then gets crushed to his assumed death by the roof falling.
Jim Ross got married, its pretty sad hearing about how much he loves his wife now that she's no longer with us.
Stephanie's memory is back from a month ago (who even knows at this point) and she is now gonna marry Test.
Kurt Angle had a video package. I'm convinced he's the reason this show turns around. Kurt was so great. Oh, man. I can not wait.
Raw had an 18 minute overrun because USA Network would let them do anything at this point.

Nitro #225
Goldberg comes out and says that he has proof that Sid is a quitter. We never see the footage.
Medusa, who got eliminated last week, competed in the tournament this week.
No Randy Savage this week.
The Misfits showed up, as in the actual band.
Billy Kidman was filming Luger and Liz in the locker room when WCW forgot to cut away so Liz just store at the camera and started laughing.
Kevin Nash came out dressed up as Vince McMahon and it was so painfully unfunny.

Retro Raw & Nitro 10/25

Raw #335
I have no idea who the Tag Champs are.
Viscera cut a promo saying he wanted Godfathers hoes, but his mic kept cutting out, so it went like "I want... Godfather...sexy...want hoes."
At one point Jerry Lawler referred to Bubba Ray Dudley as "Bubba Ray Douglas"
Too Hot (Scotty 2 Hotty and Grandmasta Sexay) debuted.
Ron Simmons is in a bar and a random guy calls him a "darkie." The random idiot takes one of the most brutal beatings I've ever seen.
Billy Gunn pinned The Rock in the main event. 
A pretty boring show tonight. Unlike Nitro.

Nitro #224
Halloween Havoc was last night, but you would never know because they never tell you what happened. It's even worse when you remember that the PPV's at this point were only getting about 100,000 buys while Nitro was still getting around 3 million viewers (1 million more than raw in 2018).
There's now a 32-man tournament for the WCW World Title.
There was a graphic for the tournament that included "Luger vs. Steiner." Which Steiner? Who knows!
The Filthy Animals literally buried Ric Flair in the desert. No one helped him, including the camera man on the scene, the thousands of fans in the arena, any of the guys in the back, or the millions of fans watching the show.v The Filthy Animals then chase around Torrie Wilson trying to "molest" her.
Randy Savage came back in a glittery red suit and talked about how he's "well hung"  and won't be "punked out by punks."

Retro Raw & Nitro 10/18

Raw #334
Kane has new gear now it's awesome.
Fabulous Moolah and Mae Young had a rap battle.
Mark Henry had another sex therapy session that was worse than last time.
Foley has his book coming out soon.
Al Snow tricks Foley into thinking that Rock threw away the copy of the book that Foley gave him in an awful segment.
Al Snow had the best match of his career with Van Venis of all people.
Last night was the first of the many Ladder matches involving a combination of Edge & Christian, The Hardyz and the Dudley's. Edge and Christian and the Hardyz came out barely alive.
This was the best Raw in a long time.

Nitro #223
Vince Russo is officially booking the show now. It is the most exciting Nitro since the peak of Goldberg.
Goldust is coming over as "Seven" soon.
This week marked the first appearance of Stacy Keibler.
Sid came out and asked to be called Mr. Viscous from now on.
Kimberly Page is trying to seduce David Flair for some reason.
A lot of stuff happened here, but none of it was worth remembering.
Jeff Jarrett is now on Nitro this week, which means that Sunday was when Ol' Slap Nuts held up Vince for more money.
Shane Douglas did commentary, and at least he's a better talker than a wrestler.
A random backstage segment where Leg Luger found an unconscious Miss Elizabeth occurred, that didn't age well.

Retro Raw & Nitro 10/4 and 10/11

Raw #332
Russo leaves Raw over the weekend, while McMahon and the rest of the company was in the UK, without writing a show, so thats the excuse for the show sucking this week.
X-Pac and Kane broke up for the second time now.
I think the Rock N Sock connection broke up.
I think Terry Taylor wrote the show because during his interview of Jeff Jarrett he mouthed along with Jarrett's answers.
Foley came out and made jokes about the Catholic church.
These shows just keep getting worse.

Nitro #221
Goldberg arrived to the arena in a run-down Sedan.
Everyone's favorite, Shane Douglas is now here.
They announce on TV that Russo and Ed Fararra are the writers now, telling everyone that wrestling is fake.
Also how many people knew who Russo was in 1999?
Scott Hall is back, but knowing how history goes, it's not for long.
Goldberg and Sid are the only stars they have right now.
Bret Hart and Chris Benoit had the Owen tribute match this week. An amazing match, goes about 25 minutes.
The plan has not been stated yet, but Sid is trying to bamboozle Goldberg.

Raw #333
Gorilla Monsoon passed away this week.
Stephanie now has memory loss and forgets about her love for Test. Remember Russo didn't book this show.
X-Pac and Kane are a team again.
Rock was interviewed by Kevin Kelly and it was surprisingly bad.
X-Pac was getting beaten by two guys when Kane comes out to save him, only for X-Pac to yell at Kane for trying to help him.
Mark Henry is in sex therapy now.
Chyna fell 5 feet into a laundry hamper and came out bloody for some reason.

Nitro #222
Russo officially takes over next week.
The opens with Bobby Heenan broke down in tears saying goodbye to Gorilla. Absolutely heartbreaking.
Perry Saturn had a great match with Rey Mysterio
Meng and Konnan had a great match.
I just realized that Hugh Morris's name is supposed to sound like "humorous"

Retro Raw and Nitro 9/27

Raw #331
This is the last Russo Raw.
Triple H is champion again.
Undertaker is gone until Judgement Day 2000.
On one of the other shows The New Age Outlaws are back together and are tag champs.
Kane and X-Pac are also back together. Neither of these were explained.
Test went Tuxedo shopping with Stephanie. It was worse than it sounds.
Big Show fought Jericho in a good match.
On an October 5 episode of Smack Down Droz has that match with D-Lo Brown where he is paralyzed.
Foley comes out and does the infamous "This is your life" segment. Some random losers come out, Rock ridicules them. Then Foley gives Rock a matching "Rock N Sock" jacket. This was the highest rated non-wrestling segment Raw ever did.
Chyna beat Jarrett so they will fight at the next PPV.
Triple H fought Rock in a great match. 

Nitro #210

Nothing of any substance happened on this show sho this week has a short review, sorry.

Golddust debuted. 

Hogan gets hes leg "broken" by Sting.

David Flair is back and he is trying to track down Torrie Wilson. She doesn't want hm because he's a loser.

Retro Raw & Nitro 9/20

Raw #330
I was mistaken, Russo doesn't leave until October 3.
On Smack Down, Vince beat Triple H for the World Title (with a copious amount of cheating.)
Vince comes out and vacates the belt.
Jericho had his first match on Raw, beating Billy Gunn.
Rock cut a promo saying that he talked trash in his sleep.
Jeff Jarrett is still assaulting random women.
Undertaker did commentary, he is better than anybody on the main roster now.
There was just a lot of meaningless stuff happening on this show. That's why this is so short.


Nitro #209
Nash is still booking, and it’s a pretty good show!
Goldberg comes out and says that he will fight Sid... in FIVE WEEKS! This kind of stuff is why the company died.
Chris Benoit fought Sting. This may come as a shock to you, but when two amazing wrestlers are allowed to fight they have a great match. The match does have a stupid finish with guys running in, so that put a damper on things.
DDP comes out and cut a great promo. He says that he's done more for wrestling than anyone else in the company. At the time he's totally wrong, but now, after helping Jake Roberts and Scott Hall, he might be right.
Sid came out and accepted Goldberg's match at Halloween Havoc. He goes on to say that Halloween Havoc is the "scariest night in the world" even though Halloween Havoc is not on Halloween.
Hogan talked about having "the lord on his side," as if God has nothing better to do.
SCOTT STEINER CAME OUT. He said that he wants to break Wilt Chamberlain's record for having sex with 20,000 women. Actual women start screaming in the crowd begging Steiner to have sex with them.

Retro Raw & Nitro 9/13

Raw #329
Russo left this week. Jim Cornette and Pat Patterson book the show this week, still doesn't stop Raw from being awful.
Down the road (no idea when) WWE brings in a guy who used to plan out soap operas and plans out the entire year of 2000. That's why 2000 was such a good year for WWE.
The story line now is that everyone wants to kill Triple H.
Linda McMahon is now a character on TV. 19 years later she is a member of The White House Cabinet.
At one point Rock fought with Undertaker backstage, both wearing sunglasses, and their sunglasses didn't fall off once. (that's one of the highlights of the show)
Jeff Jarrett beat up Mae Young. In hindsight this is such a distasteful idea. At least the world knows that Mae Young was a total badass, and could've beat most of the roster back in her prime.
There is so many story lines on this show that you know aren't going anywhere.
Undertaker cut another one of his "hangin' and bangin'" promos. Since Biker Taker sucks we're not gonna see cool Undertaker until 2004. (or 2023 if these reviews keep going)
They announce the Kennel from Hell, where there is a steel cage inside a hell in a cell with dogs in between.
Joey Abs said that he is Stephanie's ex boyfriend. Preposterous.
Austin is back temporarily. 



Nitro #208
Bischoff is officially gone so Nash is in charge this week, and that means that next week is the debut of VINCE RUSSO.
Russo will kill the show, but in killing it, it will be so bad that it'll become watchable.
Flair is back.
A whole lot of nothing happened on this show.
The fans hate Sid now.
Goldberg is now in a feud with Sid.
The ICP are the best part of this show, that's how bad it is.
Chris Benoit cut a promo talking about "the demons in his mind." This was bad. It was really uncomfortable.
Rick Steiner fought Chris Benoit in a great match.
Eddie Guerrero fought Perry Saturn in another great match.
Berlin fought Buff Bagwell in a third consecutive great match.
It's almost like Kevin Nash knew had to make a wrestling show.
Sting is a heel now, and it surprisingly works.

Retro Raw and Nitro 9/6

Raw # 328 - Raw isn't trying.

Jerry Lawler is running for mayor of Memphis. (He doesn't win.)

Jeff Jarrett is now assaulting random women. Maybe it was cool then, but it sucks now.

The Dudley's debuted. 

There is so much stuff on SmackDown that isn't shown on Raw that half the story lines are baffling. If Raw doesn't explain the Val Venus and Steve Blackman story line (who even cares anyway) then I'm not gonna try.

I think Howard Finkle is feuding with Lillian Garcia now.

Crash and Hardcore Holly are in The Brood now.

The only clip from SmackDown is shown is the famous one where Big Bossman fed Al Snow his dog. Abysmal.

Al Snow came down to the ring WITHOUT A MASK then once he got in the ring PUT ON A MASK. He cuts a promo about magnets. Al Snow is the worst wrestler ever.

Torrie and Ivory fought backstage and threw tampons at each other. I'm retroactively offended.

Out of the seven matches on this show five were with clean finishes. Delightful.

Behind the scenes around this time Vince McMahon meets Brock Lesnar for the first time while Brock is still an amateur wrestler.

Nitro #207 - Unintentional comedy gold.

This is the "special" fourth anniversary edition of nitro. they ran a 16,000 seat arena in Miami, and only drew 3,818 paid fans. They gave away over 4,600 tickets.

Bret Hart is back for the first time since the death of Owen in May.

They are looking for a new Nitro Girl, which will end up being Stack Keibler.

Hogan cut a promo talking about his multiple Hummers.

In one of the stupidest things I've ever seen, Barry Horowitz was having a match with an unnamed man when Sid ran down the ramp to random piano music while screaming "MR. EXCITEMENT IS HERE!"

Booker T comes out and says "We're here to burn this mother down, and also turn this mother up!" He then talked about Nitrous Oxide for a while. At the end of this promo Booker tried to "raise the roof" and hit Gene in the face.

Sting and Lex Luger try to talk to Hogan but the show goes to commercial. After the break the announcers say that it wasn't a commercial and that the lights went out. Mind boggling.

Tony Schiavone confused Juventud Gurrera with Billy Kidman.

Fall Brawl is this Sunday, no matches were announced on Nitro or Thunder. The PPV drew 3,347 paid. They can't even make money in Flair country.

Behind the scenes Eric Bischoff  is "fired" (he was actually sent home with full pay.)

In current news All In took place on this past Friday. Definitely one of the greatest wrestling shows I've ever seen. The highlight was Cody Rhodes winning the NWA world title while covered in blood, just like his father did. All In is also the first non-WWE or WCW show to draw over 10,000 fans since 1993, drawing 11,263.

Retro Raw & Nitro 8/30

Raw #326 - Another bad show

SmackDown debuted six days ago, there's no way that was worse than this show.
SmackDown debuting also means that Heat is totally useless now.
Raw was preempted this week, and still beat WCW in the ratings.
The highlight of the show is that this is the show where the Rock N Sock Connection begins, the diamond in the rough in this show.
It's sad looking at Foley this week. He's like, 500 pounds, he can't move, there no wonder he tries to retire by in about half a year.
Undertaker currently has a torn groin right now, so he's immobile too.
Big Show gained about 100 pounds since he left WCW in February, so he's now the third person on this show that's falling apart, and now there is another show. It's astonishing the company didn't end it's boom period earlier. Goes to show the drawing power of The Rock.
Stephanie and Test are now engaged, no build-up, nothing. Guess who his best man is? Wrong. Pat Patterson.
There was a lot of BS here, I don't hate you so I didn't bore you with it.

Nitro #206 - worse than Raw
The announcers finally admit that Sid's streak is fake, but then say that it must continue, now at 75-0.
There was, from what I can remember, 4 different Hogan promos on this show.
This show had no competition tonight, so of course here comes Scotty Riggs vs Lash LeRoux.
WCW Mayhem is coming out soon, so at least the video games were good at this point.
In one of his promos Hogan is rambling on about who knows what and then he says "I'll be in the back, eating fruit and being cool."
Berlyn (a repackaged Alex Wright) debuted on this show, sadly he did not come out to "Take My Breath Away."
Berlyn calls out Buff Bagwell, so Bagwell comes out and fights Van Hammer.
We get to see The Kiss Demon (Crush) it sucked.
I'm nearly certain that Dean Malenko always sucked because he sucked tonight, and I honestly can't remember him having a good match with someone that wasn't factually great.
Bam Bam Bigelow  called Hogan and Goldberg bald. Hilarity
Sadly, War Games is taking a year off, so we won't see it until 2000.

Retro Raw and Nitro 8/23

Raw #326 - An awful show.
Foley has the title now, but Triple H gets it from him in the main event.
Lillian Garcia made her debut. She was bad here, which goes to show how much she dedicated herself because she became one of the beat announcers ever very quickly.
They are still doing the Al Snow vs. Boss man feud with the dog.
Later, Al Snow, of all people, proposed to Stephanie in an outfit similar to Donny's in The Big Lebowski. Test then came out, gave an even shittier proposal, Stephanie says no. Terrible segment.
The Chyna vs Jeff Jarrett feud has begun.
The Rock fought Gangrel in what was a less than mediocre match, yet sadly the best part of this show.
Austin is pretty much gone until mid 2000 now.

Nitro #205 - A worthless show.
Little of note here.
Chris Benoit fought Rick Steiner, and the best match of the night.
The West Texas Rednecks have a new song.
Kiss preformed and their concert became the lowest rated segment in Nitro history. Ever.
Sid is now 70-0 despite being 61-0 last week.
Behind the scenes, this was the week that Bischoff fired Raven.

Blog 7

As a sports writer I would write an article recapping the NFL draft, and an article talking about the NBA playoffs.

If I could interview one person it would be Peyton Manning.

Blog 6

Trump pardoned Scooter Libby - criminal. trump said he doesnt know him.

James Comey had his memoir come out. - juicy deets

The Cosby trial is ongoing. - eloved childhood hero to many losing career

Blog 5

https://www.apnews.com/1edcd73fc8324e3b9285821a4c17c91e/'Pharma-Bro'-gets-7-years-in-prison-in-securities-fraud-case

12 quotes.

4 paragraphs in the quotes appear

The story will give 1-2 paragraphs of info then one paragraph of quotes to elaborate or back up info.

best quote is "There is no conspiracy to take down Martin Shkreli. I took down Martin Shkreli."

because it sums up how the trial will be approached and the mindset going in to the trial. 

Blog 4

New York Times:
compared to to other countries, America has lax gun laws
another shooting
yet another shooting

Blog 3

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/23/entertainment/ted-cruz-the-simpsons/index.html

Timeliness: 10 happened yesterday

Consequence: 0 not affecting anyone.

Prominence: 2 semi notable person

Proximity: 0 no relation to Montana

Human Interest: 5, hilariously stupid.

https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2018/2/21/17037334/mark-cuban-dallas-mavericks-domestic-abuse-earl-sneed

Cuban knew.

this isn't good.

Post 2

Good ol' Suge Knight involved with trouble ponce again. http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-suge-knight-attorney-20180125-story.html

Crazy Billionaire Vince McMahon is bringing back the XFL https://www.sbnation.com/2018/1/25/16932236/xfl-return-2020-vince-mcmahon-announcement-football

The NBA All-Star draft should have been televised https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2018/1/26/16935756/nba-all-star-game-draft-grades-lebron-james-stephen-curry-gmib

I love any article about Suge Knight. Did you know he tried to have Eminem killed during the height of his popularity DURING the Grammy's. He's insane. Speaking of insane people, Vince McMahon. He's planning on bringing back the money pit that was the XFL. And the NBA let the players draft the teams. However, the sadly did not allow the draft to be televised, which would've added to the event. Fake rumors got out that Westbrook was picked last and in response he scored 46 against the Wizards. Nothing about the writing of these articles stood out, but the topics themselves were enough to keep me interested.

Friday

. NFL teams do not practice touchdown celebrations https://www.sbnation.com/2018/1/19/16905398/eagles-vikings-jaguars-patriots-touchdown-celebrations-playoffs
. Man received stolen tortoise https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/19/nyregion/stolen-tortoise-jail-sentence.html
. LA Times has a union.

Read NYT for 10 mins, SB Nation for 10 mins.

I loved the more talking with a friend style of writing from SB Nation than the just the facts writing from NYT

Final

https://www.gq.com/story/dwayne-johnson-for-president-cover

• The Rock is the hardest working man in the world
• The Rock is the nicest person in the world
• He might run for president
• He would be a great president
• Everyone loves him

This article is an excellent example of great journalism. Just reading it is very fun. As a wrestling fan, I know a lot about The Rock, but this article was so well written that I was okay reading information I already knew. It was put together nicely. The writing is very personal. “When Dwayne Johnson meets you (and I can assure you, he would love to), the first thing he will do is ask you six thousand questions about yourself, and remember the answers forever.” That is the somewhat opening to the article. It says, in a fancy way, that the rock is the coolest dude ever. He’s a jack of all trades and he’s mastered them too. There’s nothing that he can’t do, and he’s so loved and great that he will be our next president. He’s if Reagan wasn’t an old prune that got microwaved. The article makes me wanna meet him. I’ve always wanted to meet him, but now I would fly across the country to do so.

What I find interesting about this article is how it’s written. It’s not exactly in order, but it’s pacing and transitions are really only matched by Jon Bois. You can tell that a lot of work went into this article. I love how it jumps around and how it managed to freshen things up right before I get bored. This is a great article. I might even read it again sometime.