Hey there everyone. To those who followed SmarKDown’s YouTube videos covering the full HHH/Batista feud in 2004-05, thank you very much. Here’s their full match for the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 21. Enjoy!
Taped September 1, 1992 (aired September 14, 1992)
WWF Prime Time Wrestling
Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Bobby Heenan
Savage is defending the title literally limping on one good leg. Mr. Perfect reaches out for Macho Man’s injured leg, making his presence felt right off the bat. Flair smartly goes to work on the leg in the corner, with Savage very cautiously fighting back. Flair takes Savage down by the leg and seems to be thinking Figure Four already, but Macho kicks him off and goes to the corner. Naitch takes the vulnerable champion back to the middle with a snapmare, dropping one of his classic knees right on Savage’s bad leg. Savage scores with a quick gorilla press slam, but the leg gives out and he can’t capitalize on it. Bobby Heenan: “I’m not nervous anymore, I’m excited WOOOO“!! Randy still manages a running clothesline out of the corner and gets two, but Flair sets the pace with a vertical suplex for two. Backdrop suplex gets two. Ric goes for a half crab, but Savage rapidly makes the ropes to save the gold. Naitch switches to a classic Flair kneedrop instead. Flair gets cocky and gets Savage back up slowly by the hair, allowing Macho to nearly steal it with a cradle. Flair responds by dumping Savage over the top onto the floor, landing right on the bad leg, as we take a break.
Commercial break
We come back with Flair throwing Savage back to the ring, where Macho Man starts making his big comeback with a baaaaaaack bodydrop! He dumps Flair with a clothesline to the outside, where he follows it up with a second baaaaaack bodydrop, this time on the floor. Vince just can’t resist calling a backdrop this way! Savage throws him back inside for a flying double axehandle, but the move hurts himself just as much. Razor Ramon makes his way down to ringside, while a Perfect distraction allows Flair to dump Macho Man with a dropkick to the back. Razor cheapshots Savage with a kick to the leg while Flair has the ref distracted, before applying the Figure Four back inside. Savage fights it and fights it for nearly two minutes. However, he passes out from the pain and gets pinned while in the hold to give the WWF Title back to Flair at 15:53 shown.
Written by:
Tomás Cunha
“To a nicer guy, it couldn’t happen!” Most people nowadays only know Buddy Rogers as the first man to hold the WWE Title as well as the first to use the “Nature Boy” moniker. What they didn’t know, however, was that Rogers was an exceptionally fantastic worker inside the ropes, having influenced hundreds of wrestlers from future generations. If you’ve seen the original Nature Boy in action at least once before, you can clearly see the traits and qualities of his being adopted and borrowed by the likes of Ric Flair, Buddy Rose, Buddy Landell, and many, many more.
In this article, we will take you through the absolute best matches from Buddy Rogers’s long and illustrated career, which will include classics against legends like Lou Thesz, Pat O’ Connor, Killer Kowalski, and many, many more. Please note that matches that lacked a severe amount of footage won’t be included. So don’t you be expecting the 1979 Clash of the Nature Boys against Ric Flair! With all that said, it’s time we move on to the top 10 best matches of Buddy Rogers’s career!
The existing footage of this match only consists of a few images with Vince Jr.’s commentary in the background. However, the picture you see above is more than enough to paint a thousand words. Without this, there would be no Hulkamania. Without this, there would be no Attitude Era. Without this, there would be no WWE today. Rogers was forced to submit to Bruno’s crushing bearhug in a mere 48 seconds to reportedly keep him safe from his heart issue. And with that, we have a rising new star, Bruno Sammartino, standing tall over the fallen Nature Boy, Buddy Rogers, in one of the most impactful moments of our industry. I was skeptical about putting this one on the list at first. But looking back, its historical impact simply cannot be understated.
The exact date of this one is unknown. But what we do know is that this was Rogers’s first-ever match caught on tape. This is presumably the only time we will get to see the original Nature Boy as a babyface before his heel turn, and it was indeed a fascinating watch looking back. Rogers was presented as the exciting youngster here, whereas Ash seems to be the more experienced competitor. Although the younger of the two, Rogers wasn’t reluctant to land some nasty blows on the bigger athlete, showing that he can play rough even at a younger stage. The clever finish saw Buddy patting Mahoney’s back while in a pin to trick him that he won the match before blasting him with a barrage of offenses for the win.
Buddy Rogers’s last-ever match to be telecasted, and I don’t think the man himself even knew it at the time. This was a fairly generic tag formula, but I would be lying to say it didn’t work. They smartly positioned Rogers as the face-in-peril to save his energy, but he sure wasn’t afraid to throw a dropkick or two when given a chance. Stevens & Albano kept him in their corner for the majority until he made a hot tag to Snuka that triggered one hell of a pop! It was a simple story but effectively told. And I bet Rogers must be having the time of his life in there, working a match this long and participating this much in what was probably forever.
While Haystacks Calhoun was never known for being a technical wizard inside the ring, his size and visual are more than enough to make him go far in the business. Here, he went one-on-one with the original Naitch for the US Title in what was a decently fun match overall. Rogers knew exactly how to work around Calhoun’s limitations, and he possibly gave him the best match of his career. There was one spot where Rogers tried escaping a headlock by shoving Calhoun to the rope, but he ended up getting his head hauled over instead! Rogers had to be extremely smart in order to outwit his much-larger opponent, and we got a scrap of those brain v. brawn bits here. This was lengthened out to a little over 10 mins, and it definitely benefited Haystacks by preventing him from gassing out first. Buddy won this oddball contest after firing away two frenetic dropkicks to send Calhoun out to the floor (and breaking the ring ropes!) for a cheap count-out victory.
Now here’s a match you might not think of. A six-man tag team bout contested under a best two-out-of-three falls rules! There’s a fascinating pool of talents in this one, and they actually got to mix and match very well too. Rogers, in particular, stood out in this one, though you have to give credits to Dixon as well; the man was flying all over the place like he was a WCW cruiserweight! The action here was certainly way ahead of its time, even featuring a headscissors (IN 1963!!!) from Bobo Brazil that literally had my jaw dropped. The finish was unfortunately anticlimactic, but so it goes in this era. Granted, it’s the only multi-man match on this ranking (and the only multi-man match involving Rogers, for that matter), but it was still a pretty darn great one. Give it a look, it’s worth it.
Looks like we found ourselves with another best two-out-of-three falls bout. Don’t be surprised if you see this a lot, though, as this stipulation was used frequently for most of the 20th Century. This was a very mat-heavy contest, but the mat wrestling that was presented is more than worth your time. These two worked holds quite like no one else, and you can see them trying to crank it on with as much pressure as possible. Cyclone won the first fall via a Cobra Twist submission after a fast-paced action sequence. However, Rogers retaliated with a nasty-looking piledriver that unfortunately forced a referee stoppage, as Anaya couldn’t continue anymore. Buddy’s piledriver was put over huge as a result. Both men put in a great effort, but it was Buddy Rogers who really shined in this one with his incredible mat-game and star aura. Afterward, Rogers showed a (surprising) sign of sportsmanship by helping Anaya up to his feet, signaling that he’s not a full-fledged heel… at least not yet!
This was a 2-out-of-3 falls match with only 12 minutes of runtime, but they managed to fill in all the action and falls without ever making it feel rushed. Kowalski went to town on Buddy’s leg right from the get-go, and he immediately scored a fall with a stacked pin. From there, Rogers was extra careful after the development of the first fall, working cautiously before coming back with a forearm smash to win the second fall. After Kowalski missed a flying knee drop on the last fall, Rogers quickly hit a brutal piledriver to wrap things up. The dynamic played out between the two was a real treat to watch – Rogers as the smug, unsportsmanlike sleazebag; Kowalski as the pissed-off, no-nonsense killer. Rogers could’ve sold his leg a bit more, but he made up for it with his feeding of Kowalski’s offensive onslaught. All in all, a great match that took place just a few months before Buddy’s unfortunate heart attack in May.
This is a rematch from their June 1950 encounter – more on that one soon – and it’s definitely a step down from that one. The matwork was full of struggle, extremely rugged and forceful. The transitions between each sequence were very rhythmic and compelling. The actual work was very good for the most part. With all that said, however, the meat of the match couldn’t grab much of my interest, by association with the aforementioned match. The pacing was off as they spent too much time in holds. It was a great idea to let things breathe, but this felt a little too much. God bless Buddy for always trying to keep things interesting with his heel shenanigans. And God bless Thesz for upping the intensity when needed. But this was easily underwhelming to me. Thesz won the first fall with an airplane spin, while Rogers bounced back with a piledriver. They went to a full-hour time limit draw and shook hands afterward, which seems like diminishing returns. As great as this was, I can’t help but feel disappointed by it, especially when compared to their 1950 classic. Hence, the relatively “low” ranking on this list.
Buddy Rogers’s increasing popularity amongst fans allowed him to get voted into winning his first and only NWA Heavyweight Championship by the booking committee. Dubbed “The Match of the Century“, this famous title change took place at the Comiskey Park in front of over 38 000 fans, setting a new record for professional wrestling attendance that wouldn’t be broken until 1984. There was a big-match feel to this one right off the bat. The first fall was highlighted by Buddy’s continuous cheating and dirty tactics throughout. He blocked a charging Pat with a knee to score the first fall. The second fall, on the other hand, was the Pat O’Connor match. He controlled in large part with a toehold before tying the score up with his signature O’Connor roll. The third fall was more competitive than the two prior falls, with a more competitive back and forth nature. Rogers constantly getting his feet on the ropes to escape getting pinned was a nice way to put his ring awareness over, and it perfectly played right into the finish. Pat lost his cool after multiple failed pin attempts, went to the well once too often, and paid his price by missing a dropkick and crashing to the rope, giving Rogers the victory and the belt as a result.
Seeing two wrestlers continuously doing everything in their power to win is literally my cup of tea, and that’s exactly what I got here. Rogers was the man in this match. His heel work was spectacular, doing little things like adding a closed fist while in a headlock, faking a clean break only to sucker-punch Thesz, bickering with the referee, etc. Thesz, on the other hand, was the badass defending champion, not hesitating to fight dirty too if the situation called for it. I’ve never seen a collar-elbow tie-up being done in a manner as violent as Rogers and Thesz; it was like two bulls locking horns in a wrestling ring! These two worked super-stiff here, as can be seen from Buddy’s vicious uppercuts and Thesz’s brutal knee lifts. It all came down to the third and final fall in the end, which saw Buddy being sidestepped by Thesz, crashing and burn into the rope, hanging himself out in a spot which Mick Foley would go on to replicate a couple of decades later. This was absolutely stellar, possibly one of my all-time favorite matches ever, as well as Buddy Rogers’s greatest match of all time.
And that will be it for today’s post. Thank you very much for reading, and make sure to stay tuned for my next work right here on the blog. Until then, have a wonderful day!
Written by:
Runn
Would you like to gain a free ticket to WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event? Participate in our special giveaway by just following a few simple steps, and you might be the lucky one!
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Unfortunately we weren’t able to upload the full feud or the PPV match on our YouTube channel due to copyright. To make up for it, here’s the full match from No Mercy 2005.
Check out the full match here:
Thank you for enjoying and supporting SmarKDown. See you next time!
Written by:
Tomás Cunha
Welcome everyone to the third and final part of this special fantasy booking piece, where I’ll try to change WWE’s anonymous RAW General Manager storyline from 2010-11, and make the most of it. If nothing else, at the very least make it more than just a hilarious Vince McMahon joke, and try to elevate some potential new stars out of it.
Big shout out to Justin Leeper for the idea, that he pitched directly in a meeting with WWE’s creative team back in 2011. Justin is known for his work with WWE’s videogames SmackDown vs. RAW 2009, 2010 & 2011, as the writer and director of the “Road to WrestleMania” mode in the aforementioned games. Check out Justin’s original booking sample, and make sure to follow his Twitter and subscribe to his YouTube channel for fun stories and to keep up with his current endeavors.
Please enjoy! Make sure you leave your feedback down below.
Did you miss the previous parts? Check them out here: part 1; part 2.
As you saw in part two, Zack Ryder is our new United States Champion. And with him basically in charge due to the association with John Laurinaitis, being able to do everything he wants to, this reign has to be different. We need to make it unique, memorable and above all else, since he’s a heel… f*cking annoying, in order to create a star in the end.
Laurinaitis can’t exceed the 30-day championship clause, but Ryder never defends the belt at all on television. You like your mini-classics over the US Title on TV? Too bad, Ryder is a heel and we’re going to get your 50 bucks to watch him defend it exclusively on pay-per-view every month.
The first shot, at Extreme Rules, goes to the incredibly underrated Tyson Kidd, after winning a No. 1 Contendership tournament, beating R-Truth in the first round, veteran William Regal in a highly-intense semi-final, and Cody Rhodes in the final, winning all the matches with the Sharpshooter. Ryder knows Tyson is a terrific technical wrestler, the last graduate from the physically-demanding Hart Family Dungeon, and he’s aware that it won’t be an easy task.
So what does Ryder do? He convinces Johnny to bring back the concept similar to the “Duchess of Queensbury Rules” from Chris Jericho vs. William Regal at Backlash 2001. For those not familiar with it, basically Regal (the heel) brought a duchess to ringside and she could change the rules at any time, as it was technically “her match”. In this case, we’re calling it something like Big Johnny’s Rules, or maybe The People’s Rules, something along those lines.
After about ten minutes of a solid hard-hitting match at Extreme Rules, Kidd connects with a vicious knee to the jaw, knocking Ryder’s lights out. He makes the pinfall, but just before the ref’s hand hits the mat for a third time… Laurinaitis rings the bell. He tells Justin Roberts something. Roberts: “Ladies and gentlemen, I have just been informed by Mr. Laurinaitis that round one of the Big Johnny Rules Match has ended”. Say what!
The “second round” begins with Ryder still out of it, and Kidd dominating things. Not long after, Ryder cheats with a thumb to the eye, setting Tyson up for the Rough Ryder. Kidd, however, catches the charging Ryder into the Sharpshooter in mid-air, making Zack submit. Laurinaitis signals for the bell, and hands the belt to the referee. Roberts walks up to John for the official result, and after a short talk, Roberts announces: “Ladies and gentlemen, round two of Mr. Laurinaitis’ Big Johnny Rules Match has no submissions“. Ugh, come on now really!? The furious Kidd starts yelling at John and the referee, sick of this joke of a match. Laurinaitis orders the ref to ring the bell for “round three”, but then immediately climbs up on the apron with a mic in hand. “Hey Tyson, don’t worry, round three of my special match has submissions. But do you know what it doesn’t have? DQs“… WHAM! As soon as Laurinaitis says this, Ryder knocks Kidd out cold with a title belt shot to the back of the head, retaining his US Title!
The following night on RAW, Vince McMahon himself comes out and personally asks John Laurinaitis backstage to keep title matches fair, effectively banning the Big Johnny Rules Match from the rulebook. Furthermore, at Over the Limit, Zack Ryder will defend the gold in a normal wrestling match against the winner of tonight’s 20-man battle royal. Finally, Vince adds to that bout a man who Laurinaitis spent the last number of weeks tormenting, The Big Show!
Zack can’t believe this, and immediately finds a way to prevent Show from winning. In a short segment that same night, he finds a staff member in the back, and hands him an infected burrito to be delivered in Big Show’s dressing room, much like Eddie Guerrero did to him.
Show laughs in the guy’s face before rejecting, telling him he’s not falling for this one again! Later on, Ryder pays off Tensai to place something huge in front of Big Show’s door, locking him inside right before the battle royal.
The battle royal starts without Big Show, who’s shown trying to break free from his locker room. Twenty start, and Show’s locked. Fifteen left standing, nothing achieved. Ten left, the door’s still resisting. Finally, with about six participants, Show spears the door and rips it off its hinges. Zack Ryder, sitting at ringside watching it develop on the titantron, is livid! WEEEEEEEEELL… IT’S THE BIG SHOW starts playing in the arena, and out comes the giant. He cleans house like a French maid, hitting big moves on everyone before winning the whole thing, earning the right to challenge Zack Ryder at the PPV. Ryder is fuming!
Over the Limit rolls around, and Ryder gets the beating of a lifetime. He gets thrown from pillar to post, he gets whipped into the turnbuckle, he gets clotheslined, he gets big boots, he gets everything. Finally, Ryder manages to avoid Big Show’s spear, and scores with a quick dropkick that dumps Show to the floor. Zack follows him to the outside for a few shots, but he’s unable to throw Show into the post, who quickly overpowers him and hits him with the KO Punch at a count of seven. However, Show’s not exactly the quickest person in the world, and while he manages to get Ryder back to the ring, Show himself fails to get back inside in time. Zack Ryder defeats The Big Show! Later in that night’s main event, Big Show turns heel by assisting John Laurinaitis like in real life, revealing they had been working together all along.
John Laurinaitis broke the deal made with Vince the previous month, which brings the Chairman back to put Big Johnny’s job on the line at No Way Out. Vince also demands Laurinaitis to book a US Title match for the pay-per-view between Zack Ryder and the last person eliminated by Show in the prior month’s battle royal, Tyson Kidd. Wanting to prove he’s a fair GM, Laurinaitis suggests adding Tyson’s tag team partner, Justin Gabriel, to the title match. Ryder’s not happy about this.
In the title match at No Way Out, the US Champion tries everything in his power to turn the friends against each other, constantly running away from the action and making them fight one another. Ryder runs in during the bout’s final stages trying to take advantage, only to get knocked to the floor by the faces. Back inside, Gabriel tries the 450 Splash but finds no water in the pool, as Kidd quickly applies the Sharpshooter on Gabriel for the submission, winning the championship.
During Tyson Kidd’s celebration, John Laurinaitis comes out looking worried. “Tyson, first of all, I would like to congratulate you on your huge submission victory. Now, as you all know, this is a huge night, a big pay-per-view event with epic implications, including my own job as the General Manager of both RAW and SmackDown being on the line later on. It’s safe to say it hasn’t been easy managing this show, with all that’s happening tonight. With that said Tyson, again, congratulations on your submission win over Justin Gabriel. What I forgot to tell everyone, due to my grueling schedule, is that this… this… I’m really sorry, Tyson. This is an elimination match.” Big Show immediately delivers a KO Punch from the apron, leaving Kidd groggy and open for a Rough Ryder, as Ryder again manages to escape with his title. However, in that night’s main event, Show loses the steel cage match to John Cena despite Ryder’s interferences, and John Laurinaitis is fired as the General Manager. Uh oh!
With No Way Out in the books, John Laurinaitis is no longer around and Zack Ryder no longer has control over things, but still holds the WWE United States Championship. Ryder qualifies for the World Title Money in the Bank Ladder match with a win over R-Truth, but he’s unsuccessful at the pay-per-view, with Dolph Ziggler claiming the blue briefcase.
On RAW the next night, the new General Manager AJ Lee finds Ryder in the back: “hey Zack, you’re just the guy I was looking for.” Ryder, looking worried: “what, AJ?” AJ: “damn, what happened to you? Where’s the smirk? Where did all the catchphrases go? Even the spiked hair has disappe...” Ryder interrupts her: “just get to the point, AJ.” Lee pauses, and with an ironic smile on her face, says: “more than anyone else, you should know that interrupting your boss isn’t a good idea. Now onto business. I know there hasn’t been a US Championship match on television ever since before WrestleMania. That changes next week Zack, on RAW 1000. Next week, you defend your United States Championship against… RYBACK!”
For the first time since the match with John Cena at TLC, Ryder’s desperate and actually has to put in effort in his work. Everyone expects a squash heading into this match, much like Ryback has done to all of his opponents so far, and this is how we elevate Ryder. He’s struggling to find flaws in Ryback’s matches, because he’s never had a match that has lasted more than a couple of minutes. So Ryder takes it to another level. He’s been on the road with Ryback for a few years, and he thinks back to his short time with The Nexus, and what took the then-Skip Sheffield off WWE programming for over a year – a broken ankle.
On RAW 1000, the bell rings and Ryback just runs over Zack Ryder like he did with everyone else. Less than two minutes in, he’s already doing the “feed me more” signal for the Meat Hook Clothesline. Ryback charges, but Ryder drop toeholds him and holds tight onto Ryback’s feet, making him land right on that leg. Ryback sells the pain and grabs the ankle to get the point across, and Ryder immediately goes to work on the leg. He drops elbows on it, drops knees, legdrops, takes off Ryback’s kneepad and squeezes his elbow on Ryback’s bad ankle.
Zack Ryder applies an Indian Deathlock and Ryback’s clearly in pain, but he uses his upper body strength to take Ryder off him. However, he’s too beat up, and when he gets back up to his feet, Ryder charges for the Rough Ryder… Meat Hook Clothesline! FINISH HIM! Ryback picks him up for the Shell Shocked, but his leg gives out. Zack unloads on Ryback’s leg even more aggressively immediately. Ryder takes Ryback to the corner, leaves the ring and applies Bret Hart’s ringpost figure four for more pressure, with Ryder keeping it on until the count of four. With Ryback crawling on the floor, Ryder picks Ryback’s bad leg and applies an Ankle Lock, even adding Kurt Angle’s heel hook. Zack Ryder, is that you!? However, Ryback uses his upper body strength to get to Ryder’s head, and just slams it repeatedly onto the floor to cause the break. Now Ryder is a bit out of it as well.
Ryder somehow manages to place Ryback back inside the ring, wanting to be able to say that he was the first to defeat the monster. Ryder’s a bit groggy but he signals for a second Rough Ryder. Ryback uses the ropes to get up, turns around, Rough Ryder. One, two… nearfall! Ryder can’t believe it. He wants to hit another one straight away to end this. Ryder charges and goes to connect, but Ryback literally LAUNCHES him into the air, and then takes him down with a vicious Meat Hook. Ryback limps around the ring, looks down at his leg, shakes it off, and does the “finish him” taunt. Can he? Ryback picks Ryder up anyway, limps around the ring using just the good leg, and hits the Shell Shocked to win the United States Championship. Ryback limps his way up the ramp with his new belt in hand, looking back in a respectful way, while Ryder gets back to his feet and nods his head yes, almost as if he’s telling himself “you’re not as bad as you think you are“. Kicking off a babyface run for Zack Ryder in the future.
We’ve reached the end of the story, I hope you liked it. If you were expecting me to turn Zack Ryder into a five-time World Champion in one year you’re disappointed, but this is not what this story is about. We took someone who was literally doing nothing before this story began, slowly introduced him to television, gave him a featured role, a solid run with a midcard title, a couple of noteworthy matches with names like John Cena and Big Show, and even gave him two wins at the same WrestleMania!
The character of Zack Ryder is someone who is desperate to get noticed, using the internet to try to get himself over with the fans, then hacking the anonymous GM system to force his way to television. Once he was there, I feel it made sense for him to stay desperate, insecure and hiding behind Laurinaitis, not wanting to go back to his previous position on the card. Despite losing to Ryback, he was the first to even take him to his limit, and that matters. It should get him over. I also tried to elevate some other underrated workers along the way during the story, notably Tyson Kidd. And Ryback getting a run with the United States Title is a healthier way to push him rather than just shooting the guy straight into a WWE Championship feud.
Please comment down below to let me know what you think of this fantasy booking. Thank you very much for reading. See you next time!
Written by:
Tomás Cunha
Welcome everyone to the second part of this special fantasy booking piece, where I’ll try to change WWE’s anonymous RAW General Manager storyline from 2010-11, and make the most of it. If nothing else, at the very least make it more than just a hilarious Vince McMahon joke, and try to elevate some potential new stars out of it.
Big shout out to Justin Leeper for the idea, that he pitched directly in a meeting with WWE’s creative team back in 2011. Justin is known for his work with WWE’s videogames SmackDown vs. RAW 2009, 2010 & 2011, as the writer and director of the “Road to WrestleMania” mode in the aforementioned games. Check out Justin’s original booking sample, and make sure to follow his Twitter and subscribe to his YouTube channel for fun stories and to keep up with his current endeavors.
Please enjoy! Make sure you leave your feedback down below.
Missed part 1? Check it out first before reading this!
Now hold on, hold on. I know, #cenawinslol, but let me explain! One of the best things about wrestling results being pre-determined is that wrestlers can get over with a loss, it just depends on how said loss happens and how it affects the storyline going forward. For example, I would argue that the first awesome thing that happened to Kurt Angle’s wrestling career was being murdered by Tazz at Royal Rumble 2000. The Miz feuding with John Cena in 2009 did wonders for him. Damn it, Steve Austin passing out in that Sharpshooter might very well be the best thing that happened to wrestling – these were all losses that hurt absolutely no one.
As mentioned in part 1, Ryder’s spot as the General Manager is on the line against John Cena at December’s TLC, in a No Holds Barred Match. Ryder can’t stay as the anonymous GM for long, not only because the gimmick has been around for over a year at this point, but also because we need to open the door for a new authority figure arriving soon.
Heading into TLC, everyone is expecting Ryder to get little offense in before eventually losing within minutes. But actually, Ryder tries his best, being shown on RAW watching tapes of recent John Cena matches, and taking notes. During the PPV bout, The Long Island Iced-Z surprises everyone in attendance by having a reversal to each and every one of John Cena’s classic moves of doom. This forces Cena to pull out unexpected new moves from his arsenal to keep up with Ryder, until the GM cuts him off by hitting him with the laptop to the face on the outside. Ryder rolls Cena back inside and gives him the Rough Ryder for a close nearfall. Ryder snaps and destroys the laptop on poor Cena, setting up John for a second Rough Ryder… but Cena picks up Ryder on his shoulders in mid-air like the big freak he is, and connects with an Attitude Adjustment onto the laptop. Three seconds later, Zack Ryder is no longer the anonymous RAW General Manager.
With Zack Ryder no longer in control of Monday Night RAW, he deserves to get his ass handed to him by a few people. And no, that doesn’t mean we’re immediately putting him back in jobber purgatory. Far from it. If you think about it, Ryder spent the last year or so making pretty much every babyface’s life miserable. In the next number of weeks, he regularly loses semi-competitive matches against big names like Randy Orton and Big Show, booked by the newly appointed GM of both RAW and SmackDown, Teddy Long.
One of these losses forces Zack Ryder to enter the Rumble Match as number one. Ryder lasts longer than anyone would expect, even managing an elimination or two in-between, before eventually getting thrown out later on. Ryder opens the following night’s RAW, asking if his performance in the Rumble isn’t enough to be one of the top ten challengers for either the WWE or World Heavyweight Championship at Elimination Chamber. Teddy Long comes out and admits that his Rumble performance was indeed impressive, yet that doesn’t change the fact that he’s still on a losing streak ever since TLC.
Ryder can fight for a spot in the Chamber on that week’s SmackDown, but first, tonight he must go through the man who Long believes was the MVP of the whole Rumble Match – Kofi Kingston. Ryder wins a fun 10-minute match against Kofi, earning a chance to qualify for the Chamber Match for Daniel Bryan’s World Heavyweight Championship. That qualifying match? A triple threat… against The Big Show… and Mark Henry! Show and Henry (who’s also tired of being Ryder’s babysitter during his GM days) work together and just kill the poor guy, and in the end Big Show pins the injured Henry to qualify.
Ryder has had enough of this, he’s tired of getting beaten like a drum, so he starts looking for help. That’s when he reaches out to a man who, in this storyline, has just arrived on the scene. A man who’s looking for something that Ryder also wants back desperately: power. Power, as in…
He sides with John Laurinaitis, and is soon named captain of Team Johnny at WrestleMania 28, where they’ll be facing Theodore Long’s team for the right to (either Teddy or Johnny) be the General Manager of both brands.
The WrestleMania matchup is a normal multi-person tag team match, not unlike the one in real life. Near the end, all hell starts breaking loose as everyone gets involved in a mega slugfest, while Ryder and Santino are the legal men for their respective teams. During all of this, Ryder hides from all the action near the apron, until eventually Santino gets rid of the last heel left standing with a clothesline over the top on the other side of the ring. Ryder quietly gets back in while Santino’s back is still turned, and then simply finishes with the Rough Ryder to win the match and make Big Johnny the GM.
After the match, while everyone is walking back to the dressing room, Ryder grabs Laurinaitis’ arm on their way up the ramp, and pauses. He grabs the mic, saying:
“We just won at freakin’ WrestleMania, Johnny! But speaking of WrestleMania… I can’t help but notice one thing. One of the many things that was wrong in the previous administration. The US Title is one of the most prestigious titles in our industry, boss! I grew up watching the Austins, the Steamboats, the Rick Rudes, the Eddie Guerreros holding it. How come it’s not on the line at WrestleMania? I just pinned the US Champion, Johnny. You know what to do, bro!”
Johnny: “Woo woo woo, you know it, Zack! Ring the bell.”
Ryder walks back in, simply hits another Rough Ryder, pins Santino once again, and leaves WrestleMania with the United States Championship.
Just like that, Zack Ryder won two matches at his very first WrestleMania, won his first singles championship, and got back what he lost at TLC: power.
To be continued…
(Standby for part 3)
Thank you so much for reading once again. What do you think of the story so far? Share your thoughts in the comment section down below. Until next time!
Written by:
Tomás Cunha
Welcome everyone to this special fantasy booking piece, where I’ll try to change WWE’s anonymous RAW General Manager storyline from 2010-11, and make the most of it. If nothing else, at the very least make it more than just a hilarious Vince McMahon joke, and try to elevate some potential new stars out of it.
Big shout out to Justin Leeper for the idea, that he pitched directly in a meeting with WWE’s creative team back in 2011. Justin is known for his work with WWE’s videogames SmackDown vs. RAW 2009, 2010 & 2011, as the writer and director of the “Road to WrestleMania” mode in the aforementioned games. Check out Justin’s original booking sample, and make sure to follow his Twitter and subscribe to his YouTube channel for fun stories and to keep up with his current endeavors.
Please enjoy! Make sure you leave your feedback down below.
The anonymous RAW general manager storyline took place at a very interesting time. Undercarder Zack Ryder, who was barely getting any time on WWE’s main programs, was using the internet to showcase his charisma with wrestling fans, quickly becoming one of WWE’s most popular superstars online despite the lack of TV time. Thus, with the anonymous RAW GM being represented by a laptop, it’s only fitting that… you know!
We’re starting immediately after WrestleMania 27. Yes, I know the anonymous RAW GM was being used beforehand (with Edge famously fighting the poor laptop in late 2010), but I don’t want to rush Zack from Superstars straight into a ‘Mania program. We’re pretending he only hacked the system once WrestleMania was in the books.
As you all remember, and most likely would like to forget, Michael Cole was feuding with Jerry Lawler around this time, with the two wrestling on multiple pay-per-views. The heel announcer was trained for those bouts by former World Heavyweight Champion, Jack Swagger. On an episode of RAW shortly before Over the Limit, where Cole is scheduled to face Lawler in a “Kiss My Foot” Match, Cole takes all the credit for his success and adds that “nobody remembers you [Swagger] were World Heavyweight Champion“, much like he did in real life.
This takes Swagger over the limit (no pun intended), who demands a match right then and there. We immediately get a response from the annoying laptop, who agrees and sends out Zack Ryder for Jack to seemingly destroy. One would assume, right? However, Swagger is visually distracted during various points in the match, clearly more interested in impressing Cole than winning. Still, Swagger naturally remains in control and is about to finish Ryder with the Gutwrench Powerbomb, but he delays the move to show-off to Cole some more, ultimately allowing Ryder to block it and hit a quick Rough Ryder for the major upset. Jerry Lawler laughs at the humiliating loss on commentary, noting that we just witnessed Zack Ryder’s first-ever win on Monday Night RAW, and Cole dumps Swagger for good.
During the next number of weeks, Ryder starts getting booked on RAW more often, but never against stars of the caliber of Swagger. Instead, he scores easy wins in short matches against local jobbers, as well as the likes of Derrick Bateman, JTG, Johnny Curtis, etc. You get the point. After about 4-5 weeks of this, his next match against a bigger name happens against The Miz, literally after the famous angle where Alex Riley snapped and beat the living s*** out of the former WWE Champion (remember that?). With Miz destroyed and his clothes ripped, the GM puts him in a match right then and there with Zack Ryder, who takes advantage and continues his winning streak.
After two months of enhancement matches and appropriately-timed bouts with upper-midcarders, we’ve hopefully got the point across, and it’s time to take the story up a few notches before it gets too repetitive. As the spring turns into the summer of 2011, every time a babyface main eventer is getting outnumbered by a group of bad guys and needs backup for a tag team match, the GM gives him… Zack Ryder! This is where Ryder starts getting involved with bigger names, teaming with the likes of Rey Mysterio, Big Show, CM Punk, Randy Orton or John Cena. Ryder never scores any pinfall during this time, but starts getting some big wins over WWE’s biggest heels by association, with his partners getting the hot tag and picking up the wins.
By August, the still undefeated Ryder starts putting himself over in brief segments with the “Divas” and the other babyface undercarders, like Santino, calling himself a tag team specialist. He starts slowly hinting a heel turn by getting more annoying with each passing week. It might seem random to have Ryder work all of these tag matches, but if you think back to late 2011, Awesome Truth were having numerous tag team matches on pay-per-view. And our buddy Zack is desperate to get to the next level – start being a part of WWE’s pay-per-views.
During the build-up to Vengeance, when CM Punk needs a partner to face The Miz & R-Truth in a tag match at said event, the GM names the “tag team specialist” Zack Ryder as his partner. However, Triple H wants to personally get his hands on them after all the mayhem they caused in the last few months. As the COO, naturally having more power than the General Manager, he takes Ryder’s place in the PPV match. As consolation, HHH gives Ryder a US Title shot against Dolph Ziggler, with Hugh Jackman in his corner. Ryder wins by count-out because of shenanigans involving Vickie and Jackman at ringside, and he stands tall with Jackman at the end of the segment, but you can tell Ryder is not satisfied.
Then, with Survivor Series on the horizon and now John Cena in need of a partner to face the evil Awesome Truth at the show, the General Manager again names Zack Ryder as the partner. This time around, Vince McMahon changes the match and replaces Ryder with The Rock, so they can fill it with cute slogans. And sell the WrestleMania 28 match some more, of course. Despite being the anonymous General Manager and having the power in his hands, he’s still not able to get himself into pay-per-view matches. Zack Ryder is starting to get really pissed at this point in the story. Which takes us to…
On the RAW after Survivor Series, John Cena is in the parking lot arriving to the arena when he’s suddenly brutally attacked with a pipe. The attacker takes off his hood and reveals himself to be Zack Ryder. Zack immediately reaches for his mobile phone, types something real quick and, as soon as he’s finished, we hear the annoying GM sound. Michael Cole reads: “And I quote. John Cena will be in a match tonight against Zack Ryder… and Dolph Ziggler… and Jack Swagger… and The Miz… and Alberto Del Rio… and Mark Henry.” I think it’s safe to say there is no surprise as to who the GM is!
During this handicap match in that night’s main event of RAW, John Cena gets absolutely destroyed by the heels, especially the dominant World Champion Mark Henry. In the end, Ryder asks for the tag and gets the win. Read this carefully – Zack Ryder just pinned John Cena! Over the next two weeks, John Cena gets put in similar situations and gets beat up every single time, until Vince McMahon himself has to step in and put an end to this. Just look at the millions of dollars that will be wasted in case Cena has to miss WrestleMania 28 due to injury because of what’s been happening.
At the end of that week’s edition of RAW, Vince books a match for TLC – John Cena vs. Zack Ryder. In case Ryder wins, he gets to be the actual General Manager of RAW. But in case he loses, the anonymous RAW General Manager is gone for good, and a new GM will be named the next night. Just like that, Zack Ryder has found himself in a big time PPV match against none other than John Cena.
To be continued…
What do you think of the story so far? Make sure to leave a comment in the comment section down below. I hope you’re enjoying. See you next time!
Written by:
Tomás Cunha
Cody Rhodes made his much awaited WWE return a few days back at WrestleMania and wrestled in an outstanding match against Seth “Freakin” Rollins. However, this wasn’t the first time we saw Cody wrestle at WrestleMania. In fact, Cody in total has competed 7 times on the Grandest Stage of Them All. Today, we will take a look at every match he has wrestled at WrestleMania and rank them from worst to best.
This match was Cody Rhodes’s first title match at WrestleMania. The build up was centered around the fact that Big Show had never won a singles match at WrestleMania and Cody would make fun of him for this every week which was really funny to see. The match however ended up being a huge disappointment. I can’t blame the two for not trying though as you can only do so much in a 5 minutes match. Big Show won the match and it was a nice moment for him winning his first singles match at ‘Mania but it really hurt Cody’s momentum and overall, a pretty forgettable match. **
This match was the WrestleMania debut of Cody Rhodes. The build up of this was pretty much a handicap match but halfway through the match it turned into a triple threat though Dibiase and Rhodes didn’t fight each other much. The match is alright but should have been way better and much more personal. Also I believe the end of Legacy should have been about the two younger talents, Dibiase and Rhodes getting over instead of the already established star Randy Orton. **3/4
WWE’s first ever Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. The match was fun to watch and Cesaro was a great winner. However when it comes to Cody, he didn’t play a huge part in the match. He did last for more than 8 minutes but didn’t really do a lot in that time and was there just as a body for most part. It would have been cool seeing him in the final four. ***
This match was Cody’s first singles match at WrestleMania and it turned out to be a big success. The story behind this match was that Rey Mysterio had broken Cody’s face due to which he had to miss Royal rumble and Elimination Chamber. Rhodes returned with a new gimmick wearing a mask and attacked Rey to set up a match at ‘Mania. The match itself ended up being great in the ring. It had some cool sequences and near falls. The ending with the Knee brace was also a nice touch. Cody Rhodes won the match which was great to see and actually this was his only win at WrestleMania before WrestleMania 38. ***1/2
Cody Rhodes was part of the opening ladder match at WrestleMania 32 as “Stardust”. This was a great ladder match with every participant getting time to showcase their stuff. Stardust wasn’t featured a lot but he had one great moment where he paid tribute to his father, Dusty Rhodes with the polka dot ladder which the fans went wild for. Other than that, we didn’t see a lot of Stardust in the match but it was a really enjoyable match which also had a great winner in Zack Ryder. ****
This was Cody Rhodes’ first WrestleMania appearance as Stardust. The ladder match was really good with many crazy spots and in fact, was one of the best matches on the card. Daniel Bryan was the winner and it was a great moment seeing him hold the title. However if we talk about Stardust, he barely had any moments during the match. The only times he got featured were him getting hit by other opponents. The match was very good like I said earlier, but Stardust not being involved a lot was sad. ****
Onto his best match at ‘Mania ever, and in fact his most recent one. After having failed to get a match at WrestleMania, Vince McMahon booked Rollins in a match with the opponent of Vince’s choosing. At WrestleMania, the mystery opponent turned out to be none other than Cody Rhodes. Cody being the mystery opponent was very predictable yet the moment when his theme song hit and he made his entrance felt so unreal. It was nice seeing Cody back in a WWE ring and the two put on a great match. Great reversals, great moves, great storytelling, I especially liked Rollins constantly mocking and trash talking Cody Rhodes. The finishing sequence was also well done with the great tribute to Dusty and the multiple Cross Rhodes. Great come back for Cody and definitely deserves to be recognized as his best ‘Mania match so far. ****1/4
And that’s all for today’s post, thank you all for reading. Stay tuned for further updates. Have a nice day!
Written by:
Rishabh Singh
Thanks to everyone who participated in the predictions league for this year’s WrestleMania. Check out the results here:
Drop a comment down below. See you all next time!
Written by:
Tomás Cunha
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