Opinion
Matt’s Retro Review: WWF Championship 1994
Matt brings you another Retro Championship Review, focused on the WWF Championship in 1994!

Matt brings you another Retro Championship Review, focused on the WWF Championship in 1994!
Welcome to the eighth edition of the Retro Review on The Chairshot! This will be a biweekly article here on The Chairshot because we have a lot to discuss! In starting, my question for you is; have you ever had a discussion with a friend or in a group online about who is the greatest champion of all time? What is your defense of your claim? Wins? Quality of matches? Length of reign? In this weekly article, I will be looking back one year at a time and evaluating one specific championship in each article, with a yearly grade ranking and overall grade ranking and as we progress through the years, I will reveal who I believe is the best champion of all time.
To start us off, I am going to discuss the most recognizable championship in the history of wrestling, the WWE Heavyweight Championship. These articles will not discuss the “Big Gold” World Championship, Universal Championship, or any other recognized heavyweight championship in WWE, those will be discussed in other articles. During these reviews, I will count matches aired on weekly television, PPV, and matches also released on VHS and later on home media.
Bret Hart (March 20th, 1994 – November 23rd, 1994)
- Record: 10-1
- Clean Losses: 1
- Successful Defenses: 5
Recommended Matches to Watch
- Bret Hart d. Owen Hart, March 20th, 1994, WrestleMania X**
- Bret Hart d. Yokozuna, March 20th, 1994, WrestleMania X
- Bret Hart d. 1-2-3 Kid, July 11th, 1994, Monday Night RAW
- Bret Hart d. Bob Backlund, July 30th, 1994, Superstars
- Bret Hart d. Owen Hart, August 29th, 1994, SummerSlam
- Bret Hart d. Owen Hart, October 23rd, 1994, Action Zone
- Bret Hart & British Bulldog d. Owen Hart & Jim Neidhart, November 7th, 1994, Monday Night RAW
- Bob Backlund d. Bret Hart, November 23rd, 1994, Survivor Series
Thoughts: Wow! Check this reign out! I am not a Bret Hart fan, I’m more of a Macho Man/Shawn Michaels guy, but this reign is absolutely amazing. He wrestled in eleven televised matches as champion, 5 successful defenses, but what’s better than that is the 63% rate of matches to Recommended Matches! Every single one of those matches is different in some way, and are amazing stories, with great work rate, psychology, stories, and fan reaction. There’s a ***** match in there, the opening match of WrestleMania X against Owen Hart (okay, so he wasn’t champion and didn’t count in the 63% ratio, but it happened the night he won the title. Watch it if you haven’t.), another **** star match against Owen Hart at SummerSlam, which many regard as one of the greatest Steel Cage matches of all time, and a **** technical masterpiece against Backlund at Survivor Series. I notched that as a clean loss, even though Bret didn’t officially submit himself. He wrestled on RAW, Superstars, Action Zone, and PPV, the first time since Hulk Hogan from 1984-1988 that a WWF Champion wrestled on so much weekly television, and these matches are by far better than Hogan.
Grade (A+ through F ): A
Bob Backlund (November 23rd, 1994 – November 26th, 1994)
- Record: 1-1
- Clean Losses: 1
- Successful Defenses: 0
Recommended Matches to Watch
- Bob Backlund d. Bret Hart, November 23rd, 1994, Survivor Series
Thoughts: Excellent match at 45 years old by the former WWWF Champion, drawing a ****+ match against Bret Hart as mentioned above. It truly was a remarkable moment for traditionalists who enjoy technical wrestling, selling, and psychology. Backlund’s reaction to winning was amazing. But he was about to be run over by a steam engine… sorry Bob!
Grade (A+ through F ): D-
Overall WWE Champion Ranking
- Hulk Hogan (January 23rd, 1984 – February 5th, 1988) – A
- Bret Hart (March 20th, 1994 – November 26th, 1994) – A
- Yokozuna (June 13th, 1993 – March 20th, 1994) — B+
- “Macho Man” Randy Savage (April 5th, 1992 – September 14th, 1992) – B
- Bret Hart (October 12th, 1992 – April 4th, 1993) — B-
- “Macho Man” Randy Savage (March 27th, 1988 – April 2nd, 1989) – C+
- Sgt. Slaughter (January 19th, 1991 – March 24th, 1991) – C
- Hulk Hogan (April 2nd, 1989 – April 1st, 1990) – C
- Hulk Hogan (March 24th — November 27th, 1991) – D+
- Ric Flair (January 19th, 1992 — April 5th, 1992) — D
- The Ultimate Warrior (April 1st, 1990- January 19th, 1991) – D
- Ric Flair (September 14th, 1992 – October 12th, 1992) — D
- Bob Backlund (November 23rd, 1994 – November 26th, 1994) — D-
- Hulk Hogan (April 4th, 1993 – June 13th, 1993) — F
- Yokozuna (April 4th, 1992 – April 4th, 1992) — F
- Undertaker (November 27th, 1991- December 3rd, 1991) – F
- Hulk Hogan (December 3rd, 1991 – December 4th, 1991) – F
**Speaking of championships, I am currently designing custom made championships and shirts for your wrestling figure collections! Over the weekend my page passed 500 Likes, and I am hosting a free giveaway trivia game! One lucky winner will receive of these one of a kind custom championship belts of their choosing! Check out the page at Grand Slam Creations – Custom Wrestling Belts & Accessories on Facebook, give us a like and a follow and share with your friends! (If you find the page due to this article, please let me know and you will be given a extra entry into the giveaway!)**
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Opinion
Steve Cook’s Fave Five: April 2021
It’s a little more than halfway through April! You know what that means…

It’s a little more than halfway through April! You know what that means.
It’s time to talk about my current five favorite wrestlers like I’m Booker T. Let’s break down the Fave Five!
5. Samoa Joe
A gentle reminder that Samoa Joe is one of the greatest talkers in the game pic.twitter.com/p4TZeZIAV7
— Kenny Majid – A Kenny For Your Thoughts Podcast (@akfytwrestling) April 15, 2021
I figure what happened between Samoa Joe & WWE was the following: WWE offered Joe an announcing contract since either they didn’t want to use him in the ring or their doctors wouldn’t clear him to wrestle. Joe looked at the contract, noticed the financial discrepancy, realized he could probably get NJPW to let him train young boys in California for that kind of money and said “thanks but no thanks”. Nothing else really makes sense to me.
Unfortunately, those who thought that WWE wouldn’t utilize Joe to their fullest potential were right. It wasn’t all WWE’s fault though. Joe had a lot of miles on his tires when he got there. Injuries are always more of a concern with larger wrestlers the older they get. And when Joe was healthy, he did get to do some good stuff and show people a glimpse of the Samoa Joe that people like me raved about back in the mid to late 2000s.
In any event, Joe got his WWE run. It was a thing that happened. I’d be shocked if he doesn’t wind up in AEW because he seems like the kind of guy Tony Khan would throw all the money at. Should be fun!
4. Kris Statlander
Like she never left 👽 #AEWDynamite pic.twitter.com/rlNgLBAFoU
— All Elite Wrestling on TNT (@AEWonTNT) April 15, 2021
AEW does have a pretty insane number of factions right now. It risks the possibility of all of the groups blending together, with none of them really capturing the attention of fans. However, there are positive things about AEW’s faction warfare that shouldn’t be overlooked. It makes booking fresh matches to fill cards pretty easy. You can have groups facing off each week, but in different combinations that keep it fresh.
Another good thing: It can help us decide how we feel about characters that we might be on the fence about. Kris Statlander’s character was a topic of discussion from the moment she entered AEW. A lot of people weren’t sure how to take her. Wrestling aliens, or wrestlers who think they’re aliens, aren’t exactly common. Its the kind of thing that gets over in the indies, because those feds attract fans that are more willing to buy into unique concepts. Mainstream is a tougher sell.
Aligning Kris with the Best Friends makes sense to those in the know, since she came up working shows with them. It also helps people that don’t know about her figure out more. The Best Friends are a happy go lucky group that are the whitest of white meat babyfaces you’ll find in AEW, and that’s a good thing. They’re welcoming to people with unique personalities, as Orange Cassidy’s presence establishes. A friendly alien couldn’t ask for a better group to surround herself with, and from their appearances so far she seems like a perfect fit.
Add in the fact that the time on the shelf helped her get into better shape and refine her look & presence, and the sky’s the limit for Statlander. As long as she can stay in the ring, I’m expecting big things from her in 2021.
3. Tay Conti
Sometimes, all one needs is a change of scenery to approach their true potential. Tay spent a few years at the WWE Performance Center learning how to be a professional wrestler. During her time there, Tay never showed much in the way of potential. Even though she had a combat sports background and had the type of physical appearance that gets attention, Conti’s TV time was very limited and uneventful. She seemed like one of those wrestlers that was bound to stay in developmental until WWE gave up on them, then drop off the face of the earth without most wrestling fans noticing.
Tay’s story took a different route. She ended up being one of the cuts that AEW took an interest in, and was brought in for the Deadly Draw Women’s Tag Team Tournament. Her teaming with Anna Jay worked well on & off-camera, and she pretty much fit right in with the group immediately. She started training with Dustin Rhodes, and pretty much immediately started looking better in the ring & figuring out what worked for her. Now, she’s one of the people helping AEW’s women’s division go to a higher level.
This isn’t meant to denigrate WWE’s Performance Center or its methods. There just isn’t a wrestling training center out there that’s going to work for everybody. Tay had to find what worked for her. The people that recently got cut will have to do the same. Hopefully, the people that recently got signed by WWE will thrive in that environment.
2. Bianca Belair
We’ve recently seen three new Women’s Champions under the WWE umbrella, all of whom are great in their own way. I’ve talked about Rhea Ripley before, she’s got unlimited potential and so far she’s done very well on the main roster. Raquel Gonzalez is doing very well on NXT and her push to the championship made perfect sense & got over. I do think the best of the title changes was Bianca’s defeat of Sasha Banks in the main event of WrestleMania Saturday. It was a special moment for Bianca, a very fun match to watch, and a great performance from both Bianca & Sasha Banks, who did everything she could to make Bianca in that match.
You see the video of the NXT segment up above, with the three current Women’s Champions under the WWE umbrella celebrating together. Apparently there was a picture taken in 2019, and there were pictures taken after this week’s NXT, with Triple H making sure to get in there as he likes to do with all new champions. I’ve never really been a fan of that sort of thing, even the “Horsewomen” celebrations on previous NXT shows didn’t do much for me.
Besides the usual complaints people have about things like that, the thing that I didn’t like was how Rhea & Raquel came off. They were all smiling & happy like they were Big Daddy Cool Diesel after beating Mr. Bob Backlund in 1994. Completely against what Raquel has been up to this point, and what Rhea has been when she’s been at her best. Hopefully this is just a one-time thing for Rhea for the portion of the NXT audience that likes their lady wrestlers crying & happy after their performances, and hopefully it’s leading to Raquel getting dismembered by Dakota Kai, who can’t be happy about her heater winning the championship and then turning into Smilin’ Diesel.
Fortunately for Bianca, it does nothing to affect her character or our opinion of her. That’s why I think her title run will go best. I’m also putting her here because I’m pretty well convinced there isn’t a wrestling move or spot she can’t do well. Insanely talented, and the more experience she gets the better she’ll be.
1. Darby Allin
Sometimes you just want to watch something that’s stupid fun. Something that doesn’t need too much thought in order to enjoy it. Just people doing crazy things to entertain an audience. Darby Allin matches are just what you need when you’re looking for something like this. There isn’t anybody crazier in pro wrestling today than Darby, which is probably for the best. I’m convinced this kid has a death wish.
The one thing that kinda gets me about Darby sometimes is how he kicks out of everything. Poor Matt Hardy wasn’t going to beat that kid unless he shot him with a gun, and apparently there’s a metal detector at Daily’s Place. (Shoutout to Matt by the way, hell of an effort in that match.) But then I remember that Darby Allin is a daredevil and constantly posting videos online where he’s jumping off high places and doing crazy things. Obviously, it’s going to take a little more to beat a daredevil than your average pro wrestler.
What’s it going to take to beat Darby Allin? That’s a good reason to keep watching.
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Opinion
NXT Minus 6: About that Cole-O’Reilly match…
It was the Takeover match that held the most promise. Where did it go wrong?

It was the Takeover match that held the most promise. Where did it go wrong?
6. I was jacked to 11 for Adam Cole versus Kyle O’Reilly. I was ready to give it a Tokyo Dome 6 stars. MOTY before the bell rang. A masterwork of storytelling. I correctly predicted it would be an unsanctioned match. Then the action started, and it quickly became “be careful what you wish for because you just might get it.”
5. After the first few acts of violence, it was apparent that the problem with the match would be the stipulation. The last NXT unsanctioned match was Johnny Gargano versus Tommaso Ciampa in 2018. That was 3 short years ago, but things move quickly in today’s world. There is very little chance an unsanctioned match can deliver the level of violence it promises as long as NXT is on the PG-13 Peacock.
4. Fans are losing their minds over all the content Peacock is leaving on the cutting floor. A lot of it was offensive and would never work today, but that’s not the point. The fact is there’s only so much violence Peacock’s parent company NBC will tolerate from wrestling. Take the chain, for example. Other than the clothesline, it was practically useless. O’Reilly tried to make it work, but it fell flat. In an unsanctioned match, 20 feet of heavy duty chain should be all you need to decimate another human being.
3. Maybe I’m a victim of my own wrestling memory. An unsanctioned match in Memphis in the 80’s would have been a bloodbath. Someone would have been hung over the top rope with the chain around his neck. Whipped across the back. Hog tied. Someone would have wrapped it around their fist for a few stiff shots to their opponent’s forehead. But that goes back to my original point. None of that would fly today even if NXT was only on the WWE network.
2. I’ll go so far as to say the only violent-promising stipulation that interests me is Falls Count Anywhere. There is zero drama in wrestlers pulling chairs from under the ring. The chance to use the naturally occurring environment as a weapon still holds a world of suspense. Someone is going through windows, walls, off the stage, over the guardrail, stuffed in a locker. Honestly, I’m tired of people getting hit in the stomach with folding chairs. Of all the ways to hit someone with a folding chair, that’s the least practical.
1. I’m sorry to say Kyle O’Reilly versus Adam Cole didn’t deliver what I expected. Maybe I’m in the minority. Maybe I don’t need over-the-top violence to entertain me. Maybe I don’t need wrestling to keep pushing the envelope. Five of my top 6 matches of 2021 are straight up wrestling matches. Maybe all I need is two (or three or four) strong characters and a good story. Damn, I sound old.
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