Welcome back shellheads to another interview on the first TMNT podcast – What the Shell!
This time we have our first female on the show thanks to the passionate Michele Ivey. Michele was a tremendous person to talk to and had plenty of stories to share with the hosts thanks to her brilliant blog on Cowabunga Corner. Unfortunately Mike Lacey couldn’t participate in the interview but fear not as Dylan, Chris and Suine have a few questions for Michele to answer. How did she become so obsessed with TMNT? How did Michele obtain the two Turtle costume heads that she proudly owns? What is her least favourite aspect of the Turtles?
You will find out this and much more in the jam packed with information interview. If you would like to keep up to date with the ongoings of Michele on Cowabunga Corner, head over to www.cowabungacorner.com and watch some old interviews and stay tuned for new ones! Also if you enjoy what you see there, please hit the donate button and help Michele keep the blog going. It would mean a lot to the hosts and to Michele as well!
Do you have Twitter? Great then you can follow Chris @Vinto316, Suine @Suine_Hallock, Dylan @happymonkeyshoe, the podcast is @Whattheshell and also Michele @Iveyangelo. If you have Facebook, follow Michele’s Cowabunga Corner by heading over to www.facebook.com/cowabungacorner and the What The Shell facebook page is www.facebook.com/tmntclassics.
Stay tuned for more What the Shell goodness heading your way very soon! Send the hosts your thoughts on what you would like to see done on the show!
This week I’m going to be discussing the top five factions in Raw history, well in my opinion anyway. There have been loads of factions throughout the years but these five are the five which I believe to be the cream of the crop in WWE history.
5. Nexus
I was unsure whether to put these guys into the mix, but then I remembered the impact they made on the WWE when they came in. You had nine fresh young guys coming in and dismantling The Straight Edge Society, John Cena and everything and everyone around them! No wrestling fan in the world was expecting it to happen at all. I was surprising, it was fresh and it was great to watch.
The nexus took over both Raw and Smackdown, interrupting matches whenever and however they wanted. This was great viewing when they first game on the scene because you literally had no idea what this rogue group were going to be doing next. Within their time they managed to have John Cena within their group as a member through Wade Barrett defeating him in a match and even being able to capture the tag team titles on three separate occasions.
Unfortunately due to injuries and other reasons The Nexus lost several members and eventually was diluted down to a smaller group which CM Punk took over and exiling the leader Wade Barrett to Smackdown. When this happened CM Punk’s New Nexus was just a watered down version of the original and didn’t even nearly reach the heights that was expected from the group. But in other notes, CM Punk’s role as the leader was often compared to the Manson family leader Charles Manson.
The Nexus weren’t around for a great length of time and the storyline didn’t perhaps go as well as it should have. But the impact his group made within its first few months is more than enough reason for them to make it into my top five.
4. Evolution
Evolution are exactly what a faction is all about in wrestling, Domination! The best thing about the group was the fact that it was taking two seasoned veterans in Ric Flair and Triple H and putting them together with two prospects in Randy Orton and Batista.
These guys literally dominated Raw for the best part of two years where they held every title that was on Raw within that time. They feuded with some of the biggest stars in the business throughout their tenure. Evolution were going through guys like Mick Foley, The Rock, Goldberg, Chris Benoit, Shawn Michaels and of course the future hall of famer… Eugene. These guys are the definition of what a faction should be doing in the WWE and in any wrestling promotion.
While you had Triple H on top they were slowly building Randy Orton and Batista to be future stars. I’m sure both of those guys could easily admit that Evolution was the thing that began their push to being superstars. They may have began Orton’s babyface push a bit prematurely but they definitely were onto something with Orton, who as we all know is one of the most successful stars in WWE at the moment but Batista’s push to the World Heavyweight championship at the time felt perfect, it was done at the right time and you had a feud where the guy at the top didn’t want to move aside for his prospect and then Batista went onto winning the title and became a huge star.
Evolution done exactly what they were needed to do, they jump started the career of two guys and WWE should look back on this as a way to build some future stars.
3. The Ministry of Darkness
The Ministry of Darkness scared the hell out of me when I was younger. I would have been around eleven when these guys came about and I can remember just thinking that I didn’t want them to turn all my favourite stars into members of theirs. Fortunately they only got a hold of Dennis Knight and Mabel, phew!
When they first started you had Farooq and Bradshaw kidnap Dennis Knight, this led to a quite disturbing (for an eleven year old anyway) scene where you got to see Dennis Knight chained up and eventually thrown into some sort of dungeon. This led to him coming back and running about mental talking about someone coming back. This led to The Undertaker’s return and he told us that Dennis Knight was now Mideon. Next on their list was Mabel who they all took out and returned as Viscera. Shortly after this you had the members of The Brood joining The Ministry which then made them a large force within the WWE.
The Ministry of Darkness were something new on the scene at the time and something very dark. As a young child watching it I was genuinely scared that my favourite stars were going to fall victim of them and become The Undertaker’s slaves.
The downfall of The Ministry came when they joined forces with The Corporation, which took a lot of the dark side of The Ministry away and it just showed that they were a bunch of guys working for the McMahon’s. However for the fear these guys put in me when they first came about that is exactly why they have made it into the top five.
2. D-Generation X
Now on DX, where do you begin with this lot!? DX have went through quite a few forms over the almost fifteen years since they first formed. The original DX were a heel group who were used to go against The Hart Foundation. Bret and Shawn’s real life feud was pretty much pushed to the max throughout this feud. During this time you had Shawn Michaels becoming the second ever European champion by defeating The Hart Foundations British Bulldog, this then led on to possibly the most famous match of all time in the Montreal screwjob.
The screwjob did nothing but help DX be pushed towards being exactly what they needed to be, the guys who are willing to do anything required to win and not care what anyone else thinks. This version of DX quickly came to an end when Shawn Michaels severely injured himself and had to leave WWE after losing the
Yes you read correctly, Wrestleshock had an interview with the greatest intercontinental champion of all time, The Honky Tonk Man! Hopefully this was a pure joy to listen to and both Mike and Chris are fans of the gentleman! The guys talk about his reign as the IC champ, how he dropped the belt, his time with Greg Valentine and his thoughts on WCW! A very indepth and not to be missed interview!
Make sure you head over to his website www.honkytonkman.net and follow him on twitter @OfficialHTM. Thank you very much to this legend for taking time out of his schedule to appear on the show!
Chris also announces who the lucky winner was of the blu-ray copy of the best of Raw and Smackdown 2011! Was it you?
The next full episode featuring Mike and Chris will be about YOUR top 5 intercontinental champions of all time so still email your list to vinto316@gmail.com! Follow Mike on twitter – @mlacey91, Chris @vinto316 and the show @wrestleshock316. also chris has a YouTube channel so head over there – Vintomania is his username!
I have always enjoyed watching HBK ‘oversell’ in matches. I mean, who doesn’t enjoy watching him flip head over heels when he’s thrown into the turnbuckle? So I made a comment on the photo that the Michaels’ oversell always makes my soul smile. That was it, now I have some guy who has some wrestling title out of a cracker jack box, get on my case. He started talking about how Michaels was a goof, Shawn made Hogan, Summerslam, himself AND the business look bad… What the hell is this guy talking about?! I know it’s been a few years since I’ve watched it so, I checked it out again.
Did Shawn blatantly oversell everything to make Hogan look bad? Isn’t it a better question to ask: If Hogan was so great, why didn’t he make the match look better? Over the past 30 years we have watched Hogan No sell after No sell.
And after watching SS 2005 again, I could almost see this guys point. Michaels did a slight over exaggeration of his selling of Hogan’s punches, Irish whips, clotheslines… But did he make the business look like a joke? Did he make Hogan look bad? NO! Well, the match itself was bad but, it surely wasn’t all Shawn’s fault. Let us all not forget that it’s been 20+ years and Hulk Hogan still can’t sell. He still can’t wrestle. He still can’t do much of anything.
I don’t want to take away from what Hogan gave to the business. I mean, he helped revolutionize the world. But I will say this: “Hogan can perform, Hogan can make money. Hogan can BARELY wrestle!” I’m avidly against this guy and have been for a good 15 years. But, back to his match with HBK at SummerSlam ’05….
If you watch the video I linked above, or if you somehow manage to vividly remember the match, it was slow. Hogan couldn’t do it anymore. Hogan couldn’t do much of it 8 years prior but, especially not in this match. Shawn tried to make Hogan look like the powerful force he was decades ago. Were his oversells obvious? sometimes… But, maybe he was told to oversell and make Hogan look like a force NO ONE could really handle….
So, Shawn, towards the end of the above video, busts Hogan wide open. He even slammed Hogan’s head into a ring post…TWICE! Did Hogan make it look good? Did Hogan fall over, or drop to a knee? Did he sell it? NOPE! Instead he walks around outside the ring with actions that make it look like Shawn poked him in the eyes. But, Hogan is busted open…. Shawn locks in the sleeper and now there is blood everywhere. Down Hogan’s face, all over Shawn’s arm…. But, predictable Hogan emerges from the crimson stains.
The ref checks Hogan. Lifts his arm, drops….lifts his arm…drops…. The third time you can see Hogan clearly starts to raise his arm and hold it out of sync with the referee. Obviously Hogan will now make his comeback. It gets worse. Predictable Hogan then gets nailed and pinned. But, after being bloodied and almost losing to “passing out” he lays in that familiar Big Show/Mark Henry position. Arms under HBK, hands on HBK’s chest just waiting for the 2 count before he throws Michaels off of him.
And that’s it, Hogan “Hulks Up” and beats HBK…..
Now, this guy tells me that Shawn made Hogan look foolish because of his ego. Shawn was mad he had to lose to Hogan. Can you freaking blame the guy?! Hulk Hogan was a huge name in WWF. But, he bailed and he bailed HARD on WWF because WCW would give him more money! Meanwhile Shawn was up and coming. He was loyal to WWF and worked his ASS OFF! All of a sudden, Hogan needs money and he crawls back to Vince for a few huge payoffs…Like his WM match with The Rock. His SSlam match against HBK… And the guy who has suffered career ending injuries but STILL came back to WWF/E has to put this guy over?
If I was Shawn, I would have tried to make him look even more stupid than he did.
Was this the worst match ever? No, was it slow, kinda boring and OVERLY predictable? Yes.
By the way, the worst WWE match in the history of the WWE was Rock/Cena at WM 28…. Especially when I got to watch The Rock call the next move to Cena on two different occasions. Way to go guys!
It’s that special time of year, when hundreds of thousands of geeks, nerds, fanboys and fangirls descend upon the city of San Diego for the pop culture Mecca that is the San Diego Comic Con! (Officially titled Comic Con International, the movement back to the original name starts here!) But we’re not at Comic Con, or talking about Comic Con. As always we’re talking about comics. Comics like Venom #20, Spider-Men #3 and Scarlet Spider #7. Plus comics that have nothing to do with spiders like Batman #11 and Batman and Robin #11. There’s even a comic about that robotic, rampaging rooster Poyo, in Chew: Secret Agent Poyo #1. Come inside and find out who rules the roost at the Top of the Stack!
Welcome back to another episode of Wrestleshock Reviews. This is the 5th episode of the reviews and hope you are all enjoying what the show is doing!
Chris has a few reviews for you and has a very special guest to help him review another dvd. Chris first looks at the Elimination Chamber 2012 courtesy of Silvervision.co.uk – Chris goes over the good and the bad (the “great” khali) of the PPV and was this better than the previous release in the Royal Rumble 2012? What are your thoughts on this?
Hayley Stewart (hayleythetiny on twitter and xswantongirlyx on Youtube) sends in an mp3 file to review the fantastic DVD release of Trish Stratus 100% stratusfaction guaranteed. With Hayley being a big diva fan, she dissects the DVD and lets you know her thoughts on this.
Chris then has a fan request to review one dvd and that was Paul “Spanner” Yorke who asked for Ric Flair & The Four Horsemen to be reviewed so Chris obliges and goes through the set on one of the best factions of all time! Does the 2 DVD disc set do justice to the newly inducted Hall of Famers?
Follow the show on Twitter – @Wrestleshock316, Chris @Vinto316 and Hayley @Hayleythetiny. Is there a DVD that you want reviewed? Check out Chris’ DVD collection by heading to youtube and checking out Chris’ collection video. Vintomania is his account name!
