The History of WWE Survivor Series (1994)

Back to sub-standard Survivor Series fare.....

Survivor Series 1994 - Freeman Coliseum - 11/23/94

Here's an ugly bit of business.  Survivor Series '94 saw the return of 5-on-5 elimination matches, which sounds like it'd be great.  Unfortunately the WWF didn't seem to care about making them seem at all important, so they came off as a jumbled mess.  The two main events on the show were singles matches (this began an infuriating trend of every major feud on a Survivor Series card being settled in a singles match while the elimination matches were treated as obligatory filler), neither of which really delivered.

Far too similar to the first match on the 1991 card, the opening match here had all the hallmarks of a classic.  The Bad Guys - Razor Ramon, 1-2-3 Kid, British Bulldog, and The Headshrinkers vs. The Teamsters - Shawn Michaels, Diesel, Owen Hart, Jim Neidhart, and Jeff Jarrett.  A bunch of good workers and a bunch of future main eventers.  What could go wrong?  Well, much like its 1991 counterpart, this match started out great, establishing Diesel as a killing machine, and then about twenty minutes in, ended with five - FIVE - men getting eliminated at the same time, with one guy left standing as the winner.  This was so unbelievably stupid.  It all happened after Shawn accidentally superkicked Diesel (the third time this had happened), leading to Diesel chasing Shawn out of the ring and back to the dressing room.  The rest of their team went with them to try and break up the impending melee, and the referee counted the whole team (yes, the WHOLE TEAM) out of the ring.  Umm, shouldn't only the legal man be counted out?  And then the next legal man would get counted out?  So like, shouldn't the referee have had to count to fifty to eliminate the entire team?

Hey look, it's the Kliq......and Davey Boy.

Look, dummies.  Here's what you do with this match.  The main objectives were obviously to break up Shawn and Diesel, turn Diesel face, and position Diesel as the next main event guy.  So instead of wasting everyone's time with a 20-minute match without a third act and a totally nonsensical ending, how 'bout you have Diesel run through Razor's whole team (like he did), tag Shawn in (like he did), hold Razor for the superkick (like he did), have Shawn miss and hit Diesel (like he did), and then have Razor roll Shawn up for the pin.  Then Diesel (now the legal man) realizes what happened and angrily chases Shawn back to the dressing room, thus getting counted out and making it a 3-on-1 match.  Razor gallantly battles Owen, Jarrett and Neidhart, eventually eliminating "The Anvil," befor Owen and Jarrett's heel tactics become too much and Jarrett covers Razor for the win (thus setting Jarrett up as the #1 I-C contender, which they were gonna do anyway!).  Would that have been so hard?  Then you'd have an epic, dramatic elimination match that elevated Diesel and Jarrett, set up the Shawn-Diesel feud, and painted Razor as a courageous fighter who never gave up despite the long odds.

Nope, let's just throw out another potentially awesome Survivor Series match.  Next?

The History of WWE Survivor Series (1993)

After three pretty bad editions of the Thanksgiving Night/Eve Spectacular, the show returned to its roots in 1993...

Survivor Series 1993 - Boston Garden - 11/24/93

Well that's more like it.  The '93 Series PPV was something of a return to form after the format had been watered down and then abandoned completely over the three previous years.  This show marks the first time a wrestling PPV had ever been held in Boston, so it has some sentimental value for me.  I was tempted to buy a ticket, but since it was Thanksgiving Eve and I'd have to travel home to the 'burbs anyway, I opted to watch on the tube.

This show not only put the focus back on the elimination matches, but for the first time since 1990 the main event was one of them.  The company made the most of a terribly depleted roster and put on a pretty damn good show, all things considered.  This would sadly be Bobby Heenan's final WWF PPV, as he would soon leave the company and wind up in WCW.

The History of WWE Survivor Series (1992)

Oh look, a non-Survivor Series show.....

Survivor Series 1992 - Richfield Coliseum - 11/25/92

Survivor Series '92, or as I like to call it, Generic Wrestling Show '92, returned to the place where it all started, the Richfield Coliseum.  This was the first Survivor Series after Hulk Hogan's departure and featured a host of brand new main event stars.  The WWF had moved away from the superhuman power wrestlers due to mounting steroid allegations, and focused on smaller grapplers and more athletic action.

Sadly they also moved away from a Survivor Series format for this installment and it became just another PPV event.

The show opened with the newly-signed Headshrinkers (or Samoan Swat Team as they had been called in WCW) vs. High Energy (Owen Hart and Koko B. Ware, who for some reason both wore Jim Neidhart's old MC Hammer-style pants).  This was a serviceable kickoff tag bout but little more than a showcase for the Wild Samoans: NextGen team.

Next up was The Big Bossman facing Nailz (a "former convict" whom the former prison guard Big Bossman had allegedly mistreated in the clink) in a Nightstick on a Pole match.  Nailz was comically evil and had a digitally enhanced speaking voice to make him sound more monstrous.  This was his final televised WWF match, as he was later fired for physically assaulting Vince McMahon.  Probably not the smartest move to beat up your boss, but then again Steve Austin made a great living that way.

The History of WWE Survivor Series (1991)

Consider this ugly little number, which ended up a sleazy sales pitch for another PPV...

Survivor Series 1991 - Joe Louis Arena - 11/27/91

Wow.  Not only was Survivor Series 1991 not a good PPV, it was little more than a hype show for the newest WWF PPV offering six days later, This Tuesday in Texas.  This was such a cheap-ass bait and switch, and had I actually paid to see this show I'd have been LIVID.  In an odd way this PPV was ahead of its time in that it essentially accomplished the same thing as every PPV in the Vince Russo era - hook the paid viewers into watching an upcoming show.  Just mystifying.

The opener looked fantastic on paper.  Ric Flair, The Mountie, Ted Dibiase, and The Warlord vs. Roddy Piper, Bret Hart, Davey Boy Smith, and Virgil.  This was Ric Flair's first major feud in the WWF, and the heat between him and Piper was fantastic.  Piper had been an announcer for a while and got put on probation for getting physically involved with Flair, to the point that President Jack Tunney threatened suspension if it happened again.  Flair then took advantage, taunting Piper repeatedly and slapping his headset off, hoping to provoke a fight.  Piper snapped, was fired as an announcer and reinstated as a wrestler.

Anyway what a great lineup - Flair, Dibiase, Piper, Bret and Davey Boy all in the same match!  And for about 22 minutes this was a pretty damn good elimination match.  Took its time, didn't rush to get to the end, had all the markings of an epic harkening back to the '87 and '88 shows.  Aaaaaand then a wild brawl broke out where five guys all got disqualified at once, leaving Ric Flair as the sole survivor.  Get the fuck right outta here.  FIVE-MAN DISQUALIFICATION.  This had to be the cheapest and laziest booking of the decade.  There was no discernible reason they couldn't have gone the traditional route, made this a 27-minute match that came down to Flair vs. Piper, and had Flair win using a cheap rollup while hooking the tights.  Then this could've been one of the best WWF matches of the year.  But no.  Let's just toss the whole thing out.  Unbelievable.

What a promising match this was....

Next we had, for the second year in a row, a pointless match involving Sgt. Slaughter, as he led Jim Duggan, Kerry von Erich, and Tito Santana against Col. Mustafa, The Berzerker, Skinner, and Hercules.  Slaughter had finally lost his feud with Hulk Hogan and once again embraced America, turning on his Iraqi sidekicks.  So the guy around whom they had built most of 1991 as a traitorous, flag-burning terrorist-type was now begging the fans to take him back.  This is reason #387 why the US-Iraq angle was a terrible idea: once you have the villain publicly side with a murderous totalitarian with whom America was actually at war, it's a little tough to get the fans back on his side later on.  Not surprisingly this new Slaughter-Sheik feud didn't exactly light up the wrestling world.  Also they had the babyfaces sweep the heels here, immediately negating the novelty of 1990's Visionaries-Vipers sweep.

The History of WWE Survivor Series (1990)

Sadly the WWF followed up its first three good-to-excellent Survivor Series PPVs with a totally phoned-in edition...

Survivor Series 1990 - Hartford Civic Center - 11/22/90

Dear God this show sucked.  For the first time (and certainly not the last), the WWF took the amazing Survivor Series concept and diluted it beyond all recognition.  The 4-on-4 format was still in effect from 1989 but they added the wrinkle that the survivors of each match would meet at the end of the show for a "Grand Finale" match.  A very cool idea in theory, but a terrible one in execution.

For one thing it resulted in six elimination matches - far too many for a three-hour PPV.  For another, the company also added a Mystery Egg segment - the climax to a weeks-long series of teasers where at the TV tapings they would show this giant turkey egg in the arena and let everyone know it was due to hatch at the PPV (How did they pinpoint the exact date, might I ask?).  At the Series, the egg hatched, and it was a man in a turkey suit, known as the Gobbledy Gooker.  The Gooker ran down to the ring and danced with Mean Gene Okerlund, and that was it.  That's what this whole angle was built around.  Just a colossal waste of everyone's lives.

Anyway, the show opened (OPENED!!) with the match involving WWF Champion The Ultimate Warrior.  This was the match I was most looking forward to, mind you; the hyped main event, and it went on first.  Warrior captained a team of Kerry Von Erich and the Legion of Doom, against Mr. Perfect (with whom Warrior was NOT feuding at the time) and the three members of Demolition.  Nevermind that Warrior was actually feuding with Randy Savage (who I presume wasn't medically cleared to wrestle, being that the two never fought until the following March), the lineup still looked intriguing.  And then it only went fourteen minutes.  Wait.  Thus far the shortest-ever Survivor Series match was almost 18 minutes, while the others were well over 20.  The MAIN EVENT of this Survivor Series PPV lasted fourteen minutes??  Something ain't right here.  Warrior won, incidentally.

Hmm, which of these four guys doesn't belong?
Incidentally only one of these men is still living.

Next was the Dream Team of Dusty Rhodes, Koko B. Ware, and The Hart Foundation against the Million Dollar Team of Ted Dibiase, Honky Tonk Man, Greg Valentine, and mystery partner Kane the Undertaker (that's right, his first name was originally Kane).  This match was pretty good partly due to the intrigue of Taker's introduction, and partly because of the later stretches of the match when it came down to Bret vs. Dibiase.  Ted won the whole thing.

The History of WWE Survivor Series (1989)

Wait, it's not five-on-five anymore?  And the tag team match is gone??  WHAT THE DAMN HELL??

Survivor Series 1989 - Rosemont Horizon - 11/23/89

Here's a Survivor Series I went into just eager to hate the whole thing.  When I found out they had changed the format to 4-on-4 and done away with the 20-man tag team-based match I was livid.  This felt like it would totally water down the concept and ruin what had been one of my favorite gimmick matches.  Instead of putting all the tag teams in one supermatch, they paired two singles wrestlers with each tag team, and in the case of the Hart Foundation, actually split them into separate matches (something I still find baffling).

Fortunately though, Survivor Series 1989 was still a fun show to watch and featured some very good elimination bouts.  This was also the first Series where each team had a name - a silly touch, but it added a sense of officiality to the whole thing.

The opening match featured The Dream Team - Dusty Rhodes, Brutus Beefcake, Tito Santana, and The Red Rooster vs. The Enforcers - Big Bossman, Bad News Brown, Rick Martel and Honky Tonk Man.  On paper this looked like a yawner but it was actually pretty good.  Rhodes and Beefcake outlasted the Bossman team.

Second was the match I was initially looking the most forward to, as Randy Savage captained The King's Court, with Dino Bravo, Greg Valentine, and originally Barry Windham, who had jumped to the WWF as The Widowmaker.  I loved Windham at the time and had high hopes for his WWF run.  Unfortunately Windham only spent about six months in the company, for reasons I still don't understand, and was replaced by the WWF's newest monster heel Earthquake.  Savage's opponents were the 4x4s (a name that makes little sense since Jim Duggan carried a 2x4, not a 4x4): Jim Duggan, Bret Hart, Ronnie Garvin, and Hercules.  This match was solid and featured some rare televised Bret Hart vs. Randy Savage interaction (why they never had a major feud with each other I'll never know).  Savage's team was dominant thanks largely to Earthquake's involvement.

AEW WrestleDream 2025: Moxley Quits Quickly

Hey everybody, sorry for the lateness of this review, but I was on vacation last week and didn't have my laptop with me.  I did however get to watch AEW WrestleDream 2025, and while it wasn't a blowaway show by AEW standards, it was nonetheless very enjoyable, particularly when it came to tag team wrestling.  This show was missing that one must-see match, and instead just had a slew of very good stuff.  It marks the first AEW PPV since World's End 2023 that for me didn't contain a five-star match.

The show opened unconventionally, with a pre-show match already in progress.  FTR vs. JetSpeed kicked off only a few minutes before the Tailgate Brawl ended, and thus the PPV jumped right into the rest of the bout.  And man was this crowd nuclear at the start of this show.  That would change about halfway through unfortunately, but St. Louis brought a ton of energy at the start.  This match, though incomplete if you only saw the PPV, was pretty great.  Super high energy, all action and loads of creativity.  FTR ended up winning when Stokely Hathaway did the Bobby Heenan-Ultimate Warrior spot, holding Mike Bailey's leg while Dax pinned him.  Great opener.  I wouldn't do this "match in progress" thing all the time but it was something different.  ****1/4

AEW WrestleDream 2025 Preview & Predictions

It's almost Saturday and you know what that means....  I feel like I didn't do that right.  Anyway, it's time for AEW WrestleDream!

Oddly AEW decided not to return to the Seattle market this year and opted for St. Louis, which is apparently one of the worst AEW markets in terms of ticket sales.  Sales for this show finally crossed the 5000 mark over the last week but they're still well down from Dynasty 2024 in the same building.  Given that Darby Allin is in one of the top matches they'd almost certainly have fared better in Seattle.  Regardless, the lineup looks very good on paper - a lean eight-match card with a couple pre-show bouts on TBS (I'm sad FTR-JetSpeed isn't on the actual PPV, that match should slap).

Let's get after it....

Tornado Match: The Hurt Syndicate vs. The Demand

Not sure why we're getting this yet again.  I guess Lashley and Benjamin REALLY like working with Gates of Agony.  They just did a street fight on Dynamite so this will either be less chaotic than that or roughly the same.  Since GOA beat THS this week I imagine THS gets their win back again and hopefully that's the end of this feud.  THS have really limited their options by insisting on looking so dominant.

Pick: THS

Awesomely Shitty Movies: Death Proof

Welcome to another edition of Awesomely Shitty Movies, here at Enuffa.com, where I pick apart a guilty pleasure film, or a movie that has most or all of the ingredients to be great but can't quite get there.

Today's subject is a little of both.  It's the 70s exploitation/slasher film throwback, Death Proof, aka Quentin Tarantino's Worst Movie.  Originally released as half of the double-bill Grindhouse along with Robert Rodriguez's zombie pastiche Planet Terror (a bona fide ASM in its own right), Death Proof follows the slasher formula but with a crazed stunt driver committing vehicular homicide on groups of women.  Oddly split into two halves, the story begins with an Austin, TX radio DJ and her friends going out to celebrate her birthday.  Along the way they run afoul of Stuntman Mike, and it ends badly.  In the second half Mike has relocated to Tennessee, stalking a new group of women, two of whom happen to be stunt drivers themselves, and it ends badly again, this time for Mike.

That's really all there is to the plot; like many horror films, particularly the slasher variety, it's all about style over substance.  Fortunately Quentin Tarantino is the quintessential expert on imbuing a film with style and immersing the viewer in his detailed little worlds.  There's a lot to like about this movie, and I find myself needing to rewatch it every few years to spend time with some interesting characters and see if there's more to this film than I remembered.  There isn't really, but it's still a fun little romp and a lovingly created crappy 70s drive-in flick.

So let's look at the pros and cons of Death Proof...



The Awesome


Kurt Russell

Kurt Russell has to be one of my favorite actors who's done very few films I like.  Sure there's The Thing, Backdraft, Tombstone, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, and three Tarantino outings, but he's also done a lotta crappy movies.  Regardless though, Russell improves every film he's in.  He oozes natural charisma and whether playing a hero or a villain you can't take your eyes off him.  That's most certainly true in Death Proof, where he starts out charming everyone in the bar and making Tarantino's quirky dialogue jump off the page, and then morphs into a murderous maniac.  Russell as Stuntman Mike is absolutely perfect casting.

Careful, or in his book you'll be filed under Chickenshit...

Jungle Julia

Speaking of "can't take your eyes off" someone, Sydney Tamiia Poiter as local DJ Jungle Julia absolutely commands the screen whenever she's on it.  As Mike himself observes, "she is a striking-looking woman."  Poiter is statuesque, effortlessly sexy, and bursting with sass.  Why Tarantino never cast her in anything else after this is beyond me; I could watch her all day long.

Sweet Jeezus....

NJPW King of Pro-Wrestling 2025 Preview & Predictions

Time to look at the other wrestling PPV coming up this weekend (I use that term loosely, the show is actually on Monday), NJPW's King of Pro-Wrestling 2025!

New Japan is still looking to find its footing again, and lineups like this one are a step in the right direction.  There are potentially major implications for WrestleKingdom 20 taking place on this show, so we'll see if it ends up being impactful or just another stop on the road to the Dome.  The main event in particular could have very significant ramifications.

As usual I'll only do picks for the major bouts on the show, which means skipping the two trios matches.

No DQ Match: Drilla Moloney vs. Sanada

I thought the whole War Dogs-House of Torture feud was finished but we're back to it here.  HoT matches are full of nonsense as it is, but since this match has no disqualifications I reckon it'll be dialed up even more.  Moloney is a future star, Sanada is past his prime, so that should tell you who I'd book to win this.  With HoT matches all bets are off, but I'll stick with logic.

Pick: Drilla

NJPW TV Championship: El Phantasmo vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi

Welp, Tana's retirement match on January 4th has led to the fastest 20,000 tickets sold maybe in Tokyo Dome history, so the guy clearly has to get some momentum before then to maximize interest.  Winning a midcard title in a match that can't go past 15 minutes will do nicely I think.  Then at the Dome he can put someone over, ideally.

Pick: Tanahashi

WWE Crown Jewel 2025 Preview & Predictions

It's time once again for WWE to throw together another lackluster PPV and call it a classic.  Unlike most Crown Jewel shows though, this one is in Perth, Australia (a country that ISN'T run by an oppressive, murderous regime desperate to sports-wash away its abysmal reputation), so I can in good conscience provide my thoughts and predictions rather than just ignoring it entirely.

They brought back the champion vs. champion gimmick they used to do at Survivor Series, but now the winner gets a meaningless Crown Jewel Championship instead of just bragging rights.  One of those belts and some bragging rights'll get you.....well, bragging rights.  Elsewhere on the card we continue the John Cena's Greatest Hits Tour, where he half-assedly repeats much better matches he had a decade ago instead of using his final run to help make some new stars.  Because planning ahead is for pussies.

Let's take a look at the lineup (the second in a row with no black wrestlers).....

Australian Street Fight: Roman Reigns vs. Bronson Reed

It's another Roman Reigns Bells & Whistles special.  They'll have chairs, at least one table spot, probably some kendo sticks, and for sure a spear through the barricade.  Rinse, repeat.  Roman wins, they set up a WarGames match, Roman disappears from TV until Rumble time.

Pick: Roman

Awesomely Shitty Movies: Starship Troopers

Welcome to another edition of Awesomely Shitty Movies, here at Enuffa.com, where I'll examine a movie I have mixed feelings about and separate what works from what doesn't.  Today's entry is the monstrously violent political satire from Paul Verhoeven called Starship Troopers!

The 1997 film was based on Robert Heinlein's 1959 militaristic, rather pro-fascist novel about a group of high schoolers who enroll in the military to wage war against an army of alien "bugs."  In the novel the main character Johnny Rico goes through a fairly triumphant arc, becoming a respected officer and leader as the war wages on.  The film however has a decidedly satirical thrust, mostly poking fun at the very subject matter on which it was based.  On the surface this movie seemed like the usual alien invasion sci-fi/action tripe, but as he did with Robocop, Verhoeven created something much more substantial and sociopolitical.  He got a lot of things right with this film, but while Robocop is basically perfect, Troopers unfortunately leaves some things to be desired.  So let's take a look at this Awesomely Shitty Movie....



The Awesome


Satire

The militaristic tone and pro-meritocracy slant (having to earn full citizens' rights) of the novel are cleverly satirized by director Paul Verhoeven in a way that rides the line between honoring and lampooning Robert Heinlein's work.  In fact Verhoeven found the novel unreadable and still managed to make a capable film adaptation.  The officer uniforms are also clearly inspired by those of Nazi officials, and the propaganda films shown throughout are flagrantly a riff on Nazi indoctrination such as Triumph of the Will.  Structurally this film is strikingly similar to All Quiet on the Western Front, following a group of high school kids (who in this case seem lifted right out of 90210) who get duped into enlisting and have horrible things happen to them.

Who designed these space suits, Michelin?

Ultra-violence

Like with Robocop, Verhoeven sprinkled (or more accurately slathered) this movie with over-the-top, graphic violence which becomes both disturbing and oddly amusing.  There are countless battle scenes with humans being stabbed through various body parts by the bugs' spear-like legs, and plenty of scenes depicting bugs being inefficiently blown to gooey pieces by the soldiers.  Plus there's the climactic scene where the brain bug sucks Zander Barcalow's brain out through his skull.  It's not for the squeamish, but man is it entertaining for us sick folk (fucks).

Dammit Paul, I wanted to see what happened to the cow!

AEW All Out 2025 Review: Stat Is the New Champ, Kyle Is In Fact Ready...

AEW All Out 2025 is in the books and as expected it was a helluva show, with a slew of good-to-great matches, a ton of variety, some surprise returns, and an epic main event that cemented its challenger as a new top star.

Despite WWE's best efforts to cockblock AEW again, All Out was a creative and commercial success, pulling in around 13,000 live fans for a $1 million-plus gate, and apparently drawing a strong PPV buyrate (exact numbers aren't in yet but at the post-show media scrum Tony Khan made it clear he was happy with the early metrics).  Last year's 105k is the number to beat, as it would mark the first time since 2021 that three consecutive AEW PPVs outdrew their counterparts from the previous year.

The show opened with the much-hyped Adam Copeland-Christian Cage homecoming, as the two longtime friends teamed up to face FTR.  The match was a good solid tag bout with a lot of false finishes, wherein Cope paid tribute to John Cena with a Five Knuckle Shuffle/AA combination.  Late in the match Cope hit a Killswitch on one FTR member while Cage hit a spear on the other.  Stokely Hathaway pulled the referee out of the ring, which prompted the surprise involvement of Beth Phoenix Copeland.  Beth speared Hathaway and carried him to the back.  Cope kicked out of a spike piledriver and Shatter Machine before hitting a very sudden spear (too sudden I thought) to win the match.  Beth came back down to celebrate but Nick Wayne and Kip Sabian ran down and laid out Cage before handcuffing Cope to the ropes.  Beth, knowing she was outnumbered, kissed Cope before attacking FTR, but they got her up for a spike piledriver and ran away.  Very good match, excellent angle afterward.  This feud is clearly not over.  ***3/4

AEW All Out 2025 Preview & Predictions

The other half of this Saturday's wrestling PPV double-shot is AEW's All Out!  While there are arguments to be made both ways about Tony Khan's decision to move this show to the afternoon and avoid WWE's cockblock, I'd say it was overall the right move.  Had WWE tried to counterprogram a lineup as big as All In with a main roster show, that's an easier gamble to take.  But All Out, while a loaded show in terms of wrestling quality, doesn't have the company's biggest possible marquee bouts (not to mention Will Ospreay, Swerve Strickland and Kenny Omega are all on the shelf).  Still, as I said in my Wrestlepalooza picks, I think All Out would've drawn around 100k buys even head-to-head.  With the 3pm start time I'll predict 120k.  But we'll see....

Anyway, this show has several potential Match of the Night candidates, perhaps too many multi-man bouts, and a big Toronto reunion, plus they're building for the future by putting 26-year-old Kyle Fletcher in the main event.  Let's take a look.....

The Hurt Syndicate vs. Ricochet & Gates of Agony

Lashley, Benjamin and MVP have fully turned babyface and are now feuding with Ric's crew.  The two singles matches from this feud featured on the last couple Dynamites have been very good and amazingly Lashley actually sold for Toa Liona!  I could see MVP eating the pin here but back-to-back PPV losses for THS seems unlikely.

Pick: The Hurt Syndicate

WWE Wrestlepalooza 2025 Preview & Predictions

It's a head-to-head (sorta) weekend in the wrestling business on Saturday, with both WWE and AEW putting on PPV events.  Of course AEW had this date booked months in advance and WWE decided to try and cockblock them because their product doesn't have the momentum it had 18 months ago.  Thus they threw together this little number out of nowhere and even half-assedly resurrected the name Wrestlepalooza from a now-defunct promotion they bought during the first year of the Dubya administration.  Hey guys?  The whole "palooza" thing isn't relevant anymore.  Hasn't been in decades.  'Course if you've taken a look at this lineup it does feel a bit like a late 90s WCW show.  

This will be the first WWE PPV broadcast via ESPN+ and supposedly if you have cable or YouTubeTV you get to watch it for free, but apparently that part hasn't been sorted out yet.  I can't wait to hear about all the pissed-off cable viewers who either didn't get to see it or had to pay the thirty bucks.  For the record I will not be going back to spending $30 to watch a WWE PPV.  Not now, not ever.  There are some potentially good matches on this card but the main event isn't one of them.  More on that in a bit...

Side note: Zero black wrestlers on this show.

Women's World Championship: IYO Sky vs. Stephanie Vaquer

Welp, that whole Naomi push went up in smoke in a big hurry, didn't it?  Naomi announced a few weeks ago that she's pregnant, so they had to cancel her scheduled match with Stephanie and vacate the title.  This should easily be the best thing on this show, like by a lot.  Both of these women are far too talented to wrestle for a promotion that doesn't value good wrestling.

Pick: I think Steph wins her first main roster gold, and then she probably won't be seen again on PPV until the Rumble.  Nor will IYO.

Top Ten (Eleven) Things: Spinal Tap Songs

Welcome to the only edition of Top Ten Things that goes to eleven!  Today we're ranking the songs of everyone's favorite fictional heavy metal band, Spinal Tap!

Made famous of course by the 1984 Rob Reiner "mockumentary," Spinal Tap's three core members are David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer).  The largely improvisational masterpiece This is Spinal Tap lampooned the world of hard rock n' roll, taking no comedic prisoners and delivering some of the all-time great metal-related, "too close to home" comedy bits.  Who can forget Nigel's wireless unit picking up the control tower at the Air Force base?  Or Derek setting off the airport metal detector with the foil-wrapped cucumber stuffed down his pants?  Or undoubtedly the most famous bit, Nigel's custom Marshall head whose dials all go to 11?  The film is an absolutely hysterical satire of the rock industry, featuring totally authentic performances from the entire cast and a flawless script.  It's simply one of the most quotable films ever made.

But what sets This is Spinal Tap apart from other fake documentaries is the legitimacy of the musicians.  McKean, Guest, Shearer, and the rest of the band played their own instruments, and along with Rob Reiner, wrote all the songs.  And despite the lyrics being mostly tongue-in-cheek (and brilliantly funny), this band put out some pretty great hard rock tunes, including a full album's worth featured in the film, and a follow-up eight years later (which in my opinion is the better of the two records).  McKean and company are all great comedic actors but I'll be damned if they aren't accomplished rock n' rollers too.

So here are the best songs ever recorded by England's loudest band.......This list goes to eleven.... 

11. Christmas With the Devil

A title that dates back to the production of the film, "Christmas With the Devil" is exactly the type of song its moniker implies; a Satanic Christmas carol complete with jingle bell accompaniment and morbidly descriptive lyrics.  "The elves are dressed in leather and the angels are in chains," intones David to kick off this Sabbath-esque dirge.  Featured on the second album Break Like the Wind, this might be the most purely "metal" sounding of all their tracks.  Notice also the word "Hallelujah" sung backwards in the bridge.  Hilarious.

10. Rainy Day Sun

Another song from BLTW, "Rainy Day Sun" is meant to be one of the band's late 60s recordings, from when Spinal Tap were a psychedelic hippie band.  With heavy Beatles influences including some backtracked vocals and snaky string accompaniment, this song captures the spirit of the era, lending some tangible depth to the band's fictional backstory.

9. Just Begin Again

A power ballad duet from BLTW, "Just Begin Again" features a guest appearance by Cher and makes use of deliberately trite love song lyrics like "Life is just a meal/And you never say when," and "Life is just a show/Go reload your gun."  And despite the silliness of the words, this song is actually poignant and powerful, led by two strong vocal performances.

8. Rock n' Roll Creation

In the context of the film this tune is from the "pretentious, ponderous collection of religious rock psalms" known as The Gospel According to Spinal Tap.  Melding biblical elements with hard rock tropes, "RNR Creation" has one of the more evil-sounding main riffs in the catalog, mixed with simple but memorable vocal harmonies.  This song was featured in the unforgettable movie scene where Derek gets trapped in his "body snatcher" pod for the duration of the tune.

Movie Review: Spinal Tap II - The End Continues (2025)

Taking a break from reviewing films of Oscars past to review a current film in theaters now!

After forty-one long years the follow-up to the iconic rockumentary This Is Spinal Tap has finally dropped, in the form of Spinal Tap II: The End Continues!  Documentarian Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner) is back to catch us all up on what's been happening with our favorite fictional heavy metal band.  Not seen together in public since their Back From the Dead tour in 2009, the members of Spinal Tap have seemingly had a falling out and gone their very separate ways.  

We learn Nigel Tufnil (Christopher Guest) now runs a Northern England cheese and guitar shop, whose store policy includes trading used guitars for fine cheeses, and vice versa.  He's finally found love in Moira (Nina Conti), a customer-turned-co-owner.  On the other side of the Atlantic, David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean) lives alone in Morro Bay, California (His former partner Jeanine left him years ago for a surprising new career), and now composes music for podcasts and telephone on-hold lines.  Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) runs a London glue museum, having chosen this line of work because he's always seen himself as "the glue" that held Spinal Tap together.

Oscar Film Journal: Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935)

And now it's time for yet another Oscar Film Journal entry, here at Enuffa.com!

We're time-traveling back to the 1930s again, for what I guess could be considered the first pseudo-sequel to earn a Best Picture nomination, Broadway Melody of 1936.  Narratively unrelated to the original 1929 Broadway Melody, and actually released in September of 1935 (not sure why it was called 1936 then), this follow-up is another song and dance vehicle held together by a shoestring plot.  

Gossip columnist Bert Keeler (Jack Benny) is ordered by his editor to find an eye-catching story and he stumbles onto a juicy piece about Broadway producer Bob Gordon (Robert Taylor) and wealthy socialite Lillian Brent (June Knight), who's agreed to finance Gordon's latest play.  Gordon's high school sweetheart Irene Foster (Eleanor Powell) arrives in town hoping to land a part in the show, but Bob at first doesn't even recognize her and later tells her to go back to Albany and avoid getting mixed up in the Broadway racket.  Gordon and Keeler develop a heated feud over Keeler's gossip articles (complete with multiple physical altercations), so Keeler tries to sabotage the play by talking Bob into signing a French dancer (who in actuality doesn't exist).  When Irene catches wind of this plot she decides to take up the persona of the Frenchwoman to get Bob's attention.  It's a very complicated case, lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what-have-yous....

Oscar Film Journal: MASH (1970)

Welcome to another Oscar Film Journal entry, here at Enuffa.com!

Alright, I'm almost done with the nominees for 1970, having now seen four out of the five (Only Love Story remains, god help me).  Number four is the wartime comedy MASH, directed by Robert Altman and starring Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt, Robert Duvall, and Sally Kellerman.  Based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Richard Hooker, MASH follows the day-in-the-life screwball misadventures of two prodigious military surgeons during the Korean War, Captains "Hawkeye" Pierce and "Trapper John" McIntyre.  Both doctors and their gaggle of debaucherous colleagues are virulent anti-authority mischief-makers/party animals, but they get away with repeated insubordination, hazing, pranks and scams due to their unrivaled skill in the operating room, and the inherent chaos of being stationed near the front line.  This anarchic romp paved the way for cinematic progeny such as Stripes and Animal House, but also seems influenced by the work of The Marx Brothers (There's even a throwaway reference to Groucho's game show You Bet Your Life).  And of course it was the inspiration for the landmark TV series.

Top Ten Things: Billy Joel Songs

Welcome to another song-related Top Ten Things, here at Enuffa.com!

I recently watched And So It Goes, the new HBO documentary on the life and career of the legendary Billy Joel!  So why not do a list of his greatest compositions?

I first became aware of Billy Joel at age seven or eight, around the time of An Innocent Man, Joel's 1983 homage to the music of the 1950s and 60s, with which he had grown up.  Each song is a pastiche of a particular artist or style from that era, and even as a young boy Joel's songs immediately stood out from other early 80s radio fare.  Though I couldn't have put it into words at the time, I was drawn in right away by Joel's relatable, working-class approach to songwriting; these were instantly memorable tunes with universal lyrical themes and more often than not a rock-solid groove (Billy's longtime drummer Liberty Devitto was a monster behind the kit).  Over my subsequent childhood and adolescent years I was exposed to many more of Billy's hits, and by the time his final pop album came out in 1993 he'd racked up no fewer than 25 timeless radio standards, no small feat for a 12-album career.

Joel's discography has covered so many genres and influences (probably the most prevalent of which is The Beatles; Joel has cited them as a major inspiration on many occasions and to this day incorporates a few of their songs into his live set), giving each album its own sound and feel, and demonstrating his consummate skill in crafting robust pop-rock songs that the radio simply adores.  His live performances over the years have been wildly energetic and entertaining, but he also shows genuine humility onstage and gives each of his backup musicians ample moments to shine.

Joel decided to stop making pop-rock albums at the age of 44, after River of Dreams, but his expansive catalog of evergreen songs continues to inspire and delight new generations.

Here is a list of his finest tunes....


HM: The Entertainer

Billy's satirical take on the cynicism of the music industry and the fickleness of its audience has a peppy, upbeat sound but lyrical content bordering on resentment, with lines like "It was a beautiful song, but it ran too long/If you're gonna have a hit, you gotta make it fit/So they cut it down to 3:05."  "The Entertainer" chronicled Billy's refusal to simply churn out homogenized product to stay atop the charts, and his desire to always push himself artistically.



HM: Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)

One of Joel's working-class anthems, "Movin' Out" explores the struggles of the New York 9-to-5 crowd, spending all their energy to achieve a higher status in life rather than attaining happiness.  In the end material wealth is not a substitute for inner contentment.  "If that's movin' up, then I'm movin' out."



HM: My Life

I first became aware of this song as the intro theme to the Tom Hanks/Peter Scolari sitcom Bosom Buddies, but its late 70s keyboard groove still gets the ol' toes tappin'.  "My Life" is an ode to individuality, doing things your own way regardless what others think.  Another easily relatable song from Mr. Joel.



HM: Goodnight Saigon

Joel's seven-minute opus from The Nylon Curtain is a tribute to the soldiers of Vietnam, its lyrics covering the details of what it was like for them, their sacrifice, their fears, their comraderie, rather than taking a stance on the war itself.  It is a poignant consideration of the Vietnam experience and a touching acknowledgement to all soldiers, living and dead.



HM: We Didn't Start the Fire

Maybe the ultimate guilty pleasure song, this iconic list song chronicling major news events throughout Joel's 40 years up to that point is undeniably catchy but also undeniably silly.  Joel himself has never been all that proud of it from a musical standpoint ("The melody is like a dentist's drill"), but it put him right back into heavy radio and MTV rotation after The Bridge's somewhat lackluster reception.  Also I can't hear this song anymore without thinking of this:

Okay, now for the Top 10...

Oscar Film Journal: Fiddler on the Roof (1971)

Another day, another entry in the Oscar Film Journal.  Can't stop, won't stop....

Our latest subject is the 1971 adaptation of the uber-popular stage play Fiddler on the Roof, directed by Norman Jewison and starring Topol, with choreography by the legendary Jerome Robbins, and an adapted score by the even-more-legendary John Williams (who won his first Oscar for this film).  Fiddler is the story of a family of Ukrainian Jewish peasants - a middle-aged couple and their three adult daughters, all of whom have reached marrying age.  The parents are deeply traditional, expecting all their daughters to marry nice Jewish men of means, but of course none of them is interested in having her prospective husband chosen for her on the basis of wealth or security.  The father Tevye (Topol) is of course a big teddy bear despite his propensity for angry outbursts, and ultimately can't say no to his daughters' wishes (except in the case of the youngest, who wants to marry outside the Jewish faith).

Oscar Film Journal: Funny Girl (1968)

Time for yet another Oscar Film Journal entry here at Enuffa.com!

We're swingin' back to the 1960s for a look at Barbra Streisand's breakout performance, the one that won her an Oscar and made her a household name.  It's the 1968 Best Pic nominee Funny Girl, directed by Academy favorite William Wyler, based on the Broadway play.  Funny Girl is a very loose musical biopic about the rise of Vaudeville star Fanny Brice, a song and dance girl who made her fortune by leaning into her natural comic talents before marrying a rich gambler named Nicky Arnstein.  But his addiction to the card table coupled with his predilection for bad business deals led to his downfall and the eventual dissolving of their marriage.

WWE Clash in Paris Preview & Predictions

It's the end of an era once again in WWE, as this Saturday marks the final PPV to air on Peacock.  Yes, the ESPN+ deal is kicking off four months early due to ESPN reeeeellly wanting something big to offer during their launch.  And what better way to ring down the curtain on the Peacock-WWE era than a half-assed five-match show where their top champion is absent?

Saturday is WWE Clash in Paris, and once again the company has assembled a largely skippable show featuring mostly 40-plussers.  I'm not sure there's been a PPV field as old as this one since the men's Royal Rumble 2021 where the median age was 39 and a 47-year-old won the whole thing.  There are twelve wrestlers featured on this card and only four of them are under forty.  And aside from thirty-year-old Logan Paul, the remaining three are 37, 38 and 39.  Keep in mind the massive main event they have planned for Wrestlepalooza next month (Why are they recycling an ECW name of all things?) to go head to head with AEW's All Out features two 48-year-olds.  Man does WWE hate elevating young people again.  

There was supposed to be a Naomi-Stephanie Vaquer match for the women's title but Naomi had to vacate the belt after discovering she was pregnant, and the match was scrapped.  Given that they cut the match entirely rather than pit Stephanie against someone else for the vacant title I seriously doubt she was slated to beat Naomi. 

Update: Up until today's Smackdown episode there were zero black wrestlers on this show, but they just announced The Wyatt Sicks vs. Street Profits for the WWE Tag belts.  Is this Ford and Dawkins' first PPV match in 2025?  Remember when Ford was being primed for a big singles push?  Good times.

Side note: The poster for this PARIS-based show is a reference to The Starry Night by DUTCH painter Vincent Van Gogh, and the subject of said painting is the view from his St. Remy-de-Provence asylum window in the SOUTH of France (over seven hours away from the capital city), thus it has nothing to do with Paris.  Cultural illiteracy in action.

Side note 2: With WWE moving to a $30 a month service starting in September it's highly unlikely I'll be watching any more of their PPVs for the foreseeable future.  So unfortunately my reviewing their shows will largely be a thing of the past.  I already had a Peacock subscription prior to the existing deal, so I wasn't giving WWE any additional money.  But I sure as shit ain't shelling out thirty bucks a month to watch a subpar wrestling show from a company that openly embraces fascism, accepts blood money, or covers up human trafficking scandals.  WWE and everyone in charge of it can get fucked.

Alright, let's look at this thing....

WWE Tag Team Championship: Wyatt Sicks vs. Street Profits

As I said, this match just got added today.  Nothing like waiting till the absolute last minute.  Wyatt Sicks just won the belts a month and a half ago from the Street Profits, so I think they probably hold onto them here.

Pick: Wyatt Sicks retain

Women's Intercontinental Championship: Becky Lynch vs. Nikki Bella

Really, we're going with Nikki Bella as a challenger?  When was she last relevant, 2015?  Nikki was pretty good by 2013-14 women's roster standards but was rendered pretty obsolete when the Four Horsewomen were called up and the Divas Title went away.  Why are we pushing nostalgia acts from one of the company's lamest periods?  Is Adam Rose coming back too?

Pick: Becky retains

AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2025 Review: Lights Out Bedlam!

The fourth annual AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door PPV is in the books, and as expected it was a pretty excellent night of wrestling in front of a sold out O2 Arena crowd that apparently broke the wrestling attendance record for that venue.  The main show ran just over four and a half hours but because of the match order it never felt like it dragged.  AEW should always arrange the lineup like this, with the three or four most important matches saved for the end.  NJPW has done this for years and it makes the shows fly by.  We got some great wrestling, a couple big returns, and a show-closing injury angle to allow Will Ospreay the time to get a much-needed neck surgery.

After four very fun multi-man pre-show matches the PPV proper kicked off with Adam Copeland reuniting with Christian Cage for the first time in fifteen years or so, taking on Kip Sabian and Killswitch (subbing for an injured Nick Wayne).  The match was fine, if a little sloppy in spots, but the bigger story was that neither team fully got along.  Christian still hasn't fully bought in to teaming with his best friend again, and Killswitch wanted nothing to do with Kip.  Not sure where the Killswitch thing is going, unless he ends up back together with Jack Perry to feud with Cope and Cage later.  I wouldn't be sad about that.  Team ACCC won the match when Sabian tried to hit Cage with a Killswitch but Cage vaulted him into a Cope spear and pinned him.  ***

AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2025 Preview & Predictions

It's crossover time once again, and for us sickos that means the fourth annual AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door!

This year FD is a couple months later than usual, and it's also in London instead of All In.  So instead of a hard-to-fill Wembley Stadium, the show will emanate from an absolutely packed O2 Arena.  Since AEW is still struggling with US ticket sales for their weekly shows it's always a treat to see a show take place in a full large-scale venue to give the PPV that extra atmosphere.  It's also neat that this FD has outsold the previous three.

The Forbidden Door concept is definitely losing its novelty due to NJPW not at all being a hot promotion right now, coupled with my not wanting to see AEW's storylines interrupted for special one-off stuff.  But this year feels much more like an AEW show that happens to feature a handful of NJPW talents.  Most of the matches do involve ongoing AEW content, so it should fit right into their continuity.  The card is quite loaded up, albeit with a few caveats, and on paper looks like the strongest Forbidden Door lineup to date.  Let's take a look....

AEW Tag Team Championship: The Hurt Syndicate vs. FTR vs. Brodido

Well the long-running tournament to determine new #1 contenders ended in a time limit draw, which feels a bit like a copout, but on the bright side the addition of Brody King and Bandido to this match will undoubtedly improve it.  It will also be held under elimination rules, so THS is either retaining the titles or actually losing to another team.  Conventional wisdom would favor FTR to win the titles and then defend them in Toronto against Cope and Christian, although I don't see why that match needs the belts involved.  I'd actually love to see Brodido win here but I think that's kind of a longshot.  If THS retains I dunno who else they have to defend against.  I guess I'll go with FTR.

Pick: FTR

Oscar Film Journal: Avatar - The Way of Water (2022)

And we're back with another Oscar Film Journal entry, here at Enuffa.com!

The slate of films nominated for Best Picture in 2022 included not one but two popcorn blockbusters, both of them late sequels, both of them made with impressive technical innovations, and both of them more or less devoid of substance beyond that.  I already wrote about Top Gun: Maverick, so now it's time to take a deep dive into the other one, Avatar: The Way of Water.

Set sixteen years after the first Avatar, this film catches us up via a narrated montage, showing us that Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) now have a family - two teenage sons, an eight-year-old daughter, and an adopted teenage daughter inexplicably birthed from the dormant husk of Sigourney Weaver's character's avatar, for some reason voiced by Sigourney herself (yes the septuagenarian actress plays a 14-year-old) - and everything is good on Pandora.  

Oscar Film Journal: Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985)

Welcome back to the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!  Even deep into August I'm still slowly chipping away at the list of Best Picture nominees....

Today's subject is the 1985 prison drama Kiss of the Spider Woman, directed by Héctor Babenco and starring William Hurt and Raul Julia.  Based on a 1976 Manuel Puig novel, the film would I guess be considered a character study of two men of very different backgrounds forming a friendship over the span a month of being trapped in a Brazilian prison cell.  Luis Molina (Hurt) is a gay man incarcerated for corrupting a minor, while Valentin Arregui (Julia) is a political prisoner who was arrested in a plot to overthrow the country's military dictatorship.  To pass the time and to take both their minds off their situation, Molina recounts in great detail the storyline of one of his favorite films, a German propaganda film (Molina confesses he doesn't care about its politics, he just likes the story).  KOTSW jumps back and forth between the real world and scenes from the fictitious movie, and we learn that Molina is a prison informant tasked with getting information from Valentin to pass onto the warden, in exchange for an early release.  

Oscar Film Journal: Airport (1970)

Welcome to another Oscar Film Journal entry here at Enuffa.com!

While perusing Netflix the other day I stumbled across one of the 1970 Best Picture nominees, the star-studded disaster drama Airport, featuring Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, Jacqueline Bisset, George Kennedy, and Helen Hayes.  Based on a 1968 Arthur Hailey novel, the film takes place all in one 24-hour period during a crippling snowstorm at a fictional Chicago airport and involves multiple story threads playing out both on the ground and in the air.  

Lancaster's character is the airport manager Mel Bakersfield, whose wife is on the verge of leaving him because he's married to his job.  His brother-in-law Vernon Demerest (Martin) is a pilot on an ill-fated flight set for Rome.  Jean Seberg plays Tanya Livingston, Mel's coworker in charge of customer relations, with whom Mel has palpable romantic tension.  Bisset is stewardess Gwen Meighan, with whom Vernon is having an affair.  There are too many secondary characters to list, so I'll stop there, but the plot is set in motion when a blizzard forces Mel to work late (much to his wife's objections) to coordinate the clearing of the airport's two runways.  As it turns out, Vernon's flight to Rome includes a passenger who plans to blow up the plane over the Atlantic Ocean so his wife can collect on a life insurance policy he's taken out.  These two main threads are woven with smaller ones involving an elderly woman who serially stows away on planes, a pain-in-the-ass passenger who constantly complains about customer service, an unexpected pregnancy, and an airport Commissioner who's considering shutting down one of the runways due to customer complaints.

WWE SummerSlam 2025 Review: Night 2 was Good Anyway....

Well we've now entered the era of two-night shows for all of WWE's Big Four PPVs.  SummerSlam 2025, probably Royal Rumble and Survivor Series 2026, and maybe even Money in the Bank will now be spread over two shows.  Thus WrestleMania is no longer all that special.

SummerSlam 2025 was another mixed bag of an extravaganza.  The first night was a bad overall show, the second night was pretty good up until the appallingly tone deaf ending.  This company has no line it will not cross, no scandal it will not gladly sweep under the rug if it gets in the way of their bottom line.  Between sex trafficking accessory Brock Lesnar being back on television and WWE just openly aligning itself with MAGA, I'm honestly not sure how much more WWE content I'll even watch going forward.

Night 1 as I said was a pretty bad show, with a whole bunch of mostly nothing matches and a dull as fuck main event that for some reason WWE's faithful have convinced themselves was some kind of Bret Hart-esque masterpiece.  I don't seem to recall Bret ever needing to stall after every move to let his gassed opponent recover for a while.  Certainly not in his good matches anyhow.

The show opened, 22 minutes in (that's TWENTY-TWO) with a solid tag match as Roman Reigns and Jey Uso took on Seth Rollins' buddies Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed.  Things started out not so promisingly as after a few moments of action Jey called for his entrance music again just to get a stupid Yeet chant going.  This company is a parody of pro wrestling.  From there they had a pretty good match and Breakker looked really good as usual.  Side note: Wade Barrett, who I find pretty insufferable on commentary, keeps claiming Bron can run up to 23 miles per hour.  I'd buy that for a dollar.  They of course had to squeeze in yet another Roman spear through the barricade (which now isn't even attached at one side so this spot looks even dumber now).  The Brons did a Steiner doomsday bulldog spot which was cool.  At the end of the match Roman shoved Jey out of the way of a Breakker spear, and Jey hit his big splash on Reed to win the match.  This show would never get this good again.  ***1/2