Opinion
Steve Cook’s Top 5: Wrestling Upsets!
In the light of NHL hockey playoffs being filled with upsets, Cook had an epiphany! Take a look at his Top 5 Wrestling Upsets!
In the light of NHL hockey playoffs being filled with upsets, Cook had an epiphany! Take a look at his Top 5 Wrestling Upsets!
I’m not sure if most of you have been paying attention to the NHL Playoffs. I have. I’m a big Nashville Predators supporter, and I write a lot about them when I’m not doing the wrestling. The Predators won the Central Division and were one of the top two seeds in the Western Conference, so I was looking forward to a deep playoff run for them.
That didn’t happen. It didn’t happen for any team that won an NHL division this season. Nashville, Calgary, Tampa Bay & Washington all found themselves among the first round losers, leaving a bunch of underdogs to settle the Stanley Cup among themselves. That’s hockey! Well, not really, as it’s the first time in NHL history that each of the division champions found themselves crashed out after one round of playoff hockey.
Upsets are widely celebrated throughout sports history. They are also celebrated in sports entertainment history. Here are the five that I think have had the most impact on the history of the business and were the most shocking at the time they happened.
5. Chris Jericho over Triple H (WWF Monday Night Raw 4/17/00)
I don’t like upsets that result from referee abuse. It seems cheap and doesn’t really help the person winning get over. But check out the pop when Jericho pins Triple H on the Lionsault…
Legend has it that this is when the WWF higher-ups realized that Jericho was a pretty big deal. If they didn’t know it before, they had to know it after that reaction. Our man Y2J had many doubters within the company during his first few months there, but that helped to silence them. Gotta give the Penn State people credit for that, if nothing else.
4. Mikey Whipwreck over Steve Austin (ECW November to Remember 1995)
Mikey had already scored a number of upsets prior to this match. He had somehow become an ECW Triple Crown Champion, holding all of the championships for one reason or another. The guy he beat for the TV Championship was a schmuck. Cactus Jack carried him to the Tag Team Championship. Sandman was drunk when Mikey won the ECW Championship. But Steve Austin? This was a veteran of the business, a man who had won the WCW United States, Television & Tag Team Championships. Surely he would run Mikey over in short order.
Apparently not.
Booker Paul Heyman wanted to give Austin the strap on this night. Austin was smarter than him. He knew that Mikey getting the win would give his character that much more motivation to take the strap later. He probably also knew that he wouldn’t be in ECW for very long. A win in this match meant 100 times more for Mikey Whipwreck than it ever would have meant for Steve Austin. Mikey’s finisher in his later years was the Whippersnapper, which was a version of the Stone Cold Stunner. Mikey can tell his grandchildren that he beat Steve Austin. That’s a story worth telling.
3. The Mulkeys over The Gladiators (NWA World Championship Wrestling 3/28/87)
Randy & Bill Mulkey lost matches on NWA World Championship Wrestling for so many years it’s easy to lose count. They were jobbers in the day that jobbers were king, and the idea of them winning a match was pretty crazy. The Gladiators had been built for weeks as an indestructible dup, and were expected to roll over the Mulkeys on their way to the Crockett Cup Tournament. Things went awry…
The Mulkeys went out in short order in the tournament, but their win still led to MulkeyMania, and a match with the Midnight Express in West Virginia that sold the joint out by gawd.
2. Barry Horowitz over Bodydonna Skip (7/9/95 WWF Action Zone)
Barry Horowitz was a very solid worker. He had a knack for making other wrestlers looking good, so he got put in that spot. Over and over again. Didn’t matter where he worked, that’s what he did. He got a random win in GWF & got the nickname of “The Winner” because he rarely won. I didn’t see that, so it was shocking to me when Barry scored the win over good ol’ Skip.
Unfortunately, I don’t think this was so much a boon for Horowitz as it was a bust for Skip. Sure, he & Zip still won the tag team championship on the WrestleMania XII Free-For-All. But I feel like this was the point where Sunny realized that she had to do better. And she certainly did better if you know what I’m saying.
1. The Kid over Razor Ramon (5/17/93 WWF Monday Night Raw)
People that were in the know at the time knew that Sean Waltman, AKA The Lightning Kid, AKA The Fill-In-The-Blank Kid, was supremely talented. Us young WWF fans had no idea at this point. He was a guy that’d lost a few matches in short order. We figured Razor would have no problem handling him, but we were in for a surprise.
This particular episode of Raw also featured Marty Jannetty defeating Shawn Michaels for the Intercontinental Championship, and if I did a “Top 5 Raw Episodes” column it would most likely be included. The Kid would eventually befriend Razor & the Clique, which helped his career immensely. That shouldn’t take away from his ability though. If anybody deserved to get bumped up from the ranks of the jobbers to the eventual Hall of Famers, it was Sean Waltman under whatever name you’d like to give him.
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Opinion
Chris King: The Wyatt Sicks’ Wasted Potential By WWE
Chris King takes a look at the WWE and their wasted potential of Uncle Howdy and the Wyatt Sicks faction.
Chris King takes a look at the WWE and their wasted potential of Uncle Howdy and the Wyatt Sicks faction.
It’s that time of the year again, folks; it’s unfortunate and downright awful that so many WWE superstars got released today. I’m not going to list all of them, but I am going to talk about one of my favorite factions,
The Wyatt Sicks. Nikki Cross, Joe Gacy, Erik Rowan, and Bo Dallas (Uncle Howdy) were something special. After Bo’s brother Bray Wyatt’s tragic passing, WWE felt like there was a hole that needed to be filled. Wyatt was one of the most creative and brilliant characters, and Bo would be taking over his brother’s concept and bringing it to life. In 2024, at the end of an incredible documentary highlighting Wyatt’s career and struggles, Bo appeared on the screen portrayed as Uncle Howdy. The last time Uncle Howdy was seen on-screen was at the 2023 Royal Rumble, where Wyatt defeated LA Knight in a Pitch Black Match. Howdy jumped off a structure onto Knight.
This post-credit scene sparked so much speculation and excitement that Wyatt’s brother would carry on his legacy and possibly debut the faction that was Wyatt’s concept. On the June 17th episode of Monday Night Raw, The Wyatt Sicks made their dramatic debut ,destroying the backstage area as well as “murdering” Chad Gable. It was such an iconic arrival for Howdy as he made his menacing walk from the back into the audience who were chanting “Holy Shit.” The Sicks and American Made (Chad Gable and The Creed Brothers) battled for months, with The Sicks being victorious. On the September 9th episode of Raw, The Sicks defeated them, with Howdy getting the win with Sister Abigail.
The following year, The Sicks would move over to Friday Night SmackDown, and it seemed like WWE had a plan in place. They would win the tag team championships from The Street Profits and start to look dominant. Now, what should have happened next is Howdy should have won the United States title. The Sicks could have held all the gold over on the blue brand, but it never happened. The Sicks entered into a never-ending feud with The MFT’s (Solo Sikoa, Tama Tonga, Tonga Loa, JC Mateo, and Talla Tonga.) It started off exciting, and the WWE Universe was red-hot for their interactions.
After months of repetitive matches and The MFT’s stealing their lantern, the feud grew tiresome and boring. Even Tama asked Solo why they are still holding onto the lantern, as it was destroying them as a whole. Finally on the SmackDown before Mania, Tama
gave the lantern back to Howdy against Solo’s wishes. Please explain to me why both factions fought almost every single week instead of just having one final blowoff match at WrestleMania.
It should have been either a massive street fight or a falls count anywhere match on the grandest stage of them all. Instead, it turned into a meaningless week-after-week extravaganza that benefited no one. The MFTs won the rivalry, and The Sicks don’t even work for WWE anymore. This was the same criminalized creative process that Wyatt dealt with during his first run in the company.
We’ll never know how much of a dangerous force The Wyatt Sicks could have been in the WWE. For all their careers’ sake, I hope they stay far away from the company for as long as possible. Every superstar that was cut deserves better!
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Opinion
Chris King: Bloodline Saga: Is This the Right Call For WWE?
Chris King questions the WWE’s logic in setting up Jacob Fatu as the next challenger for World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns
Chris King questions the WWE’s logic in setting up Jacob Fatu as the next challenger for World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns
Roman Reigns is once again World Heavyweight Champion after his dominant win over CM Punk at WrestleMania 42. On the following night on Monday Night Raw, The OG Bloodline came back together as a well-oiled machine as The Usos stood side by side with Roman. With the WWE Universe asking who would be the first to challenge “The Tribal Chief,” Jacob Fatu shocked the world by answering the call.
Fatu is running hot after his impressive win over Drew McIntyre and feels like he is ready to become the new world champion. This bloodline segment ended Raw, and it picked right back up on SmackDown with even Solo Sikoa and the MFTs involved. This is now two shows that have been centered around The Bloodline saga, and it’s made me question whether or not WWE should be retelling this story.
The Bloodline (Roman Reigns, The Usos, and Solo Sikoa) ran WWE for over four years as Reigns’ henchmen, doing his dirty work to retain his title. Even though Roman has declared he doesn’t want Jey and Jimmy to serve him, it sure seems like WWE are spinning their wheels. Fatu could add a whole new chapter into the story, even if he’s not able to beat Roman at Backlash. “The Samoan Werewolf” could be forced to do the same thing as Jey did all those years ago and fall in line.
In my opinion, I feel like Fatu should be challenging for the Undisputed WWE Championship because that’s a title I feel like he should win. I understand standing up to your blood and trying to prove you’re the best, but I don’t think this is the right move. It feels like 2022 all over again, as The Bloodline is the central focus on both shows. If Fatu doesn’t win, what happens to all his momentum he’s been building over the last two years?
Why did WWE make this the best choice for storyline purposes? Why couldn’t creative have come up with a different challenger for Roman? There are so many other superstars that could challenge The Tribal Chief, such as Rusev, Bron Breakker, Gunther, or even a returning Sheamus.
I just can’t help but question WWE’s logic here, and it kind of reminds me of all the times The Shield reunited. Could WWE be pushing the same storyline too many times here? Could the WWE Universe get tired of this rinse and repeat cycle of The Bloodline Saga?
Are we about to see all the weekly episodes solely focused on The Bloodline again? Will it be cinema… Yes. Is there still money in The Bloodline… Yes. Was it the right call? That’s to be determined!
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Attitude Of Aggression Podcast: The Big Five Project (chronologically exploring WWE's PPV/PLE history) Unidentified History (Ufology) & Game Gone Wrong (Game of Thrones Universe)
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