February 24th - The Day In Wrestling History

1971 - Birth Of Sean O'Haire

Sean O'Haire wrestled for WCW from the year 2000 until its demise just over a year later and was part of the "Invasion Angle" to the WWE in 2001 where he had two runs with some high profile matches and even higher profile wins.

In WCW, he was mainly a tag team specialist with Mark Jindrak and then Chuck Palumbo. At the WCW Sin 2001 PPV O'Haire and Palumbo (aka The Natural Born Thrillers) defeated the mega team of Diamond Dallas Page and Kevin Nash to lift the WCW Tag Team Titles. They would then successfully defended the belts against DDP and "Big Sexy", as well as KroniK and Mike Awesome & Lance Storm. 

O'Haire and Palumbo were WCW Tag Team Champions when the company folded and brought the titles to WWE, where they were defeated by Undertaker and Kane - The Brothers Of Destruction. O'Haire later wrestled for OVW before returning for a final run with WWE (being managed by Roddy Piper) that ended in the fall of 2003.

Sean O'Haire is not a name that stands out in wrestling history, and he could be describe as a forgotten star. However, for somebody that is not widely recognised amongst casual fans, he holds an impressive list of wins over huge stars including:

- Lex Luger - March 5th 2001 Nitro

- The Hardy Boyz - with Chuck Palumbo, at the August 2nd Smackdown

- Rikishi - Backlash 2003

- Hulk Hogan (as Mr America) - May 22nd 2003 Smackdown

- Chris Benoit - May 29th 2003 Smackdown

- Eddie Guerrero - June 19th 2003 Smackdown

- Bobby Roode - July 8th 2003 Velocity Taping

1977 - Birth Of Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Possibly the greatest pound for pound boxer ever, Floyd Mayweather Jr. had only one wrestling match, pitting himself against the giant Big Show as one of the main events at Wrestlemania 24 - which Mayweather won!

1997 - Monday Night Raw

ECW invaded Monday Night Raw in February 1997 as Stevie Richards defeated Little Guido, Tommy Dreamer defeated D-Von Dudley and most notably Taz defeated Mikey Whipreck after interference from Sabu that included him diving (/falling) of the giant "R" of the Raw stage setup. In WWE action on the show, Undertaker defeated Faarooq via disqualification.

2003 - Monday Night Raw

A huge night for Booker T, not only did he team with Scott Steiner to defeat the team of Randy Orton & Batista, but he also won the main event battle royale that included major superstars such as The Rock, Jeff Hardy, Chris Jericho, Rob Van Dam and Kane. By winning this battle royal, Booker T earned the right to face Triple H at Wrestlemania 19.

February 23rd - The Day In Wrestling History

1999 - The Death Of Rick Wilson (aka WCWs "The Renegade")

Hulk Hogan, in early 1995, began promoting an "ultimate surprise". Despite hinting heavily that it would be the Ultimate Warrior who would be joining WCW, it was instead Rick Wilson as The Renegade a "fake" Ultimate Warrior) that Hogan was referring to.

Wilson had a very successful start to his WCW tenure, defeating Arn Anderson for the WCW World Television Title at the 1995 Great American Bash, and then defending it twice against Mr Wonderful Paul Orndorff at Bash At The Beach 1995 and Clash Of The Champions XXI.

Wilson lost the Television Title to Diamond Dallas Page at Fall Brawl 1995 and picked up few notable wins after this time. He wrestled his last match for WCW on the December 7th edition of Nitro against Wrath.

Rick Wilson took his own life on February 23rd, 1999. His death was very premature at the age of only 33.

He will forever be remembered in wrestling history as a man who wrestled the Television Title away from WCW legend Arn Anderson, and defended that title twice against Wrestlemania 1 main eventer Paul Orndorff.

2003 - No Way Out

A stacked card that included The Rock defeating Hulk Hogan in a rematch from Wrestlemania 18, Steve Austin defeating the man that fired him from WCW - Eric Bischoff, Chris Jericho defeating Jeff Hardy and Triple H successfully defending his World Heavyweight Championship against Scott Steiner.

2004 - Monday Night Raw

On this edition of Raw the main event was an earth shattering Vince McMahon vs Eric Bischoff with Steve Austin as the referee! It only went around 3 minutes though, as Brock Lesnar F5'd Austin to end the programme.

February 22nd - The Day In Wrestling

On this day in 1993...

Monday Night Raw was only in its 2nd month and was held at the Hammerstein Ballroom, it featured a 6-man tag match pitting The Nasty Boys and Tatanka against The Beverly Brothers and Shawn Michaels (HBK was on the losing team) and a main event of Undertaker vs Skinner.

 
 

Who Is The Greatest Ever Intercontinental Champion? Part 1

The Intercontinental (IC) Championship is a title steeped in history and prestige. It is almost a "proving" belt, awarded to those deemed capable of holding a World Title one day. Many present and future Hall Of Fame members have held the Intercontinental Title, including Steve Austin, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Mr Perfect and The Rock (the list goes on...).

But who is the greatest ever Intercontinental Champion? Let's begin with listing every wrestler, all 70 of them, who have ever held the title (in chronological order) along with the cumulative number of days they held the title for:

Pat Patterson - 233
Ken Patera - 231
Pedro Morales - 619
Don Muraco - 541
Tito Santana - 443
Greg Valentine - 285
Randy Savage - 414
Ricky Steamboat - 65
Honky Tonk Man - 454
The Ultimate Warrior - 432
Rick Rude - 148
Mr Perfect - 406
The Texas Tornado - 84
Bret Hart - 290
The Mountie - 2
Roddy Piper - 77
British Bulldog - 59
Shawn Michaels - 406
Marty Jannetty - 20
Razor Ramon - 437
Diesel - 138
Jeff Jarrett - 298
Dean Douglas - 0
Goldust - 168
Ahmed Johnson - 50
Marc Mero - 28
Triple H - 196
The Rock - 339
Owen Hart - 132
Steve Austin - 65
Ken Shamrock - 125
Val Venis - 83
Road Dogg Jesse James - 14
The Godfather - 43
Edge - 171
D'Lo Brown - 26
Chyna - 64
Chris Jericho - 318
Kurt Angle - 35
Chris Benoit - 142
Rikishi - 14
Eddie Guerrero - 114
Billy Gunn - 19
Jeff Hardy - 329
Kane - 57
Albert - 27
Lance Storm - 27
Christian - 192
Test - 13
William Regal - 126
Rob Van Dam - 211
Booker T - 34
Randy Orton - 210
Shelton Benjamin - 354
Carlito - 90
Ric Flair - 155
John Morrison - 209
Umaga - 118
Santino Marella - 162
Kofi Kingston - 266
CM Punk - 49
John Bradshaw Layfield - 27
Rey Mysterio - 128
Drew McIntrye - 161
Dolph Ziggler - 160
Wade Barrett - 132 and counting
Ezekiel Jackson - 51
Cody Rhodes - 257
Big Show - 28
The Miz - 85

Next, the average length that each champion has held the title for is calculated (169.84 days - as of 13th February 2012)) and eliminate any wrestler falling into the "lower than average" bracket, which leaves 26 wrestlers in contention but also eliminates some notable champions including:

Ric Flair - The Nature Boy's IC title reign came in 2005, during the twilight of his active career. The Ric Flair Intercontinental Championship reign lasted 155 days and was ended by Shelton Benjamin on an episode of Raw. However, before his title loss Flair had made numerous title defences including two PPV wins as Intercontinental champion - against Edge and Triple H. Ric Flair was the oldest Intercontinent Champion aged 56.

Chris Benoit - The only wrestler eliminated at this stage of proceedings that held the title more than a couple of times, in fact four times, is Chris Benoit. The former World Heavyweight Champion dethroned a dominant Kurt Angle at Wrestlemania 16 for the IC Title, and had a classic Intercontinental rivalry with Chris Jericho in which his took the title away from Y2J twice, as well as competing with him at Royal Rumble 2001 in a ladder match for the IC Title.

Owen Hart & Steve Austin - The legendary "Black Hart" and "The Rattlesnake" had an explosive Intercontinental rivalry that lead to a distinct turning point in Steve Austin's career at Summerslam 1996 where Owen broke his neck performing a reverse sit down piledriver. As explosive as the rivalry was, it was too brief for either to be considered the greatest Intercontinental Champion.

"Rowdy" Roddy Piper - The only singles title reign that piper had began at Royal Rumble 1992 and lasted 77 days where it was ended by Bret Hart in a definite contender for match of the night at Wrestlemania 8.

Chyna - The first and only ever woman to win the Intercontinental Title did so not only once, but twice. Defeating possible candidates Jeff Jarrett and Chris Jericho. Ultimately, it was The Ninth Wonder Of The World's inability to keep hold of the title that lead to her early elimination.

The British Bulldog - Davey Boy Smith defeated his brother-in-law Bret Hart in front of 80,000 of his countrymen in what is ofter described as the greatest Summerslam match ever at Summerslam 1992. Shawn Michaels ended the Bulldogs one and only IC Title run.

CM Punk - The "Best In The World" defeated William Regal for the Intercontinental Title and held it for 49 days, before being dethroned by John Bradshaw Layfield.

Kurt Angle - One of only 3 men to be "Eurocontinental" Champions (simultaneously holding the IC and European Titles), the Kurt Angle Intercontinental Title reign culminated at Wrestlemania 16, where he unsuccessfully defended it against Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho.

And so the remaining 26 contenders for "greatest Intercontinental Champion" are:

Pedro Morales
Don Muraco
The Honky Tonk Man
Tito Santana
Razor Ramon
The Ultimate Warrior
Randy Savage
Shawn Michaels
Mr Perfect
Shelton Benjamin
The Rock
Jeff Hardy
Chris Jericho
Jeff Jarrett
Bret Hart
Greg Valentine
Kofi Kingston
Cody Rhodes
Pat Patterson
Ken Patera
Rob Van Dam
Randy Orton
John Morrisson
Triple H
Christian
Edge

In Part 2...

...The arguments for the remaining 26 wrestlers are presented, and the final 5 contenders are identified.

Who Are The Greatest WWE Champions?

Throughout the course of this blog, the greatest champions throughout the history of the WWE will be discussed and hopefully identified. Of course, all opinions are simply those of TheWrestleReview and reflect the views identified in theWWE PPV reviews on the site, and obviously all opinions are subjective.

However, some opinions carry more weight than others, and those weighty opinions are usually the ones that come from considered views and are well formed. So here goes, how do you decide what makes one champion better than another? Lets try and put together some criteria...

Length Of Title Reign(s) - Obviously the longer you hold a title the more successful you have been (sorry Mountie, your chances of being named greatest Intercontinental Champion are slim, blame Rowdy Roddy Piper and for that one - read the Royal Rumble1992 Review for more info), however this is cannot be the only criteria as if that were the case then Bruno Sammartino would be the greatest (a possibility) and nobody would every have the chance to dethrone him due to the current and evolving nature of the industry, not only that, nobody would even come remotely close. And so length of reign alone cannot be the only deciding factor.

Quality Of Title Matches - Some matches are better than others, and the better ones undoubtedly feature superior wrestlers. Better wrestlers make better champions. Bret Hart had classic Intercontinental Title matches with Mr Perfect (Summerslam 1991), Roddy Piper (Wrestlemania 8) and The British Bulldog (Summerslam 1992). Road Dogg Jesse James had none.

Quality Of Opponents - Some wrestlers pride themselves on becoming "fighting champions", taking on all challengers regardless of the threat to their title reign. The higher the quality of opponents while holding a title, the better the champion.

Legacy - With the WWE Championship and World Heavyweight Championship you would expect that the greatest ever champion went on to have numerous reigns, possibly avenging any title defeats and having numerous Wrestlemania and other high profile matches. As for championships such as the Intercontinental Title and the US Heavyweight Title, you would expect that the greatest of these champions would, once they have relinquished or been defeated for the title, go on to bigger and better things. For example, Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho went on to win the WWE and World Heavyweight Championships, thus adding integrity and prestige to any titles they previously held, The Godfather reached his potential with the Intercontinental belt, and so is doubtful for the moniker of "greatest".
There will unquestionably be other intangible factors in the deciding of who can be named "the best".

Please feel free to make your opinion heard!

@wrestle__review

First WrestleReview Blog Post!

Welcome to the first blog entry for TheWrestleReview!

The plan is to provide a running commentary on my thoughts while reviewing (eventually!) the whole catalogue of WWE PPV releases and other releases such as wrestler profiles and documentary style programs.

So far I've managed to review about 20 different events so far (with about half of them uploaded to the site), and considering the amount of time since I started you would have to say i'm making very slow progress! If you consider that WWE are producing events faster than i'm reviewing them then you could say that i'm going so slow that i'm actually heading backwards!

So far i've encountered a few issues and discussion points which I will hopefully address in future blog posts, these include setting a consistent scoring method for WWE PPV reviews, the problems with Wikipedia WWE PPV reviews, who are the greatest WWE champions? What is the best WWE PPV event? Who is the best WWE wrestler? The possible discussion points are virtually endless.

As mentioned earlier I have uploaded around ten events, ranging from excellent (One Night Stand 2005 review) to the decidedly average (Summerslam 1989 review). I hope to review at least 2-3 events per month, just so that the site can stay ahead of the curve!

Make sure you add this blog to your favourites and follow @wrestle__review on twitter for updates and notifications of new reviews.

Hope you enjoy the site!

Dan from TheWrestleReview.