WWF Wrestling Challenge 5-27-89

Another day another episode of WWF Wrestling Challenge.This one is from 5/27/89. We start off with a match featuring Jake "the Snake" Roberts vs Tom Burton. Not as good as the Jake match on the other episode I watched,but even with a crappy jobber Jake can entertain. Next up is Big John Studd Vs an unnamed Jobber. Well first off I have never been a fan of Studd,he has to be one of the most boring big men in wrestling history. Yeah I know he was better than Giant Gonzalez,but at least Gonzalez had the "Freak show" factor. Anyway boring match,I am sure Big John Dudd won. Now it's time for a tag team match up first is Akeem and Big Bossman AKA the Twin Towers.I never got that name as a kid or even now,it ain't like either of them are really tall. They are facing a jobber team of JT thomas,who isn't that annoying kid from Home Improvement,and Red Tyler. Bossman is one of the few "fat" men that I found enjoyable. And Akeem who is a much better worker than Bossman is great,with all his mannerism and just his whole gimmick of being a black man trapped in a big fat pasty white body. The Twin Towers win,and so far this has been the best match on the show. JT Thomas takes nice bumps,and Red isn't bad for a late 80's WWF jobber. Great we hear music that sounds like rooster's crowing so that means the Red Rooster is on his way to the ring. Growing up in the Mid South/UWF territory I saw a bunch of Terry Taylor. And I was majorly dissapointed when he came to WWF and became one of the worst gimmicks ever. Well this match has him fighting Tim Stock. Even though Taylor is a good worker,you can tell he just doesn't care. The match was total shit.Now on to Curt "Mr Perfect" Henning vs Frank Delfalco. Curt is as always amazing. Delfalco is kinda a Northeast indy "legend". IIRC he also goes by Frankie "the Thumper" Defalco. Good match ,that Curt wins with the Perfectplex. I forgot to mention that earlier we get Mean Gene interviewing Zeus. And there has also been 3 different segments talking about "No Holds Barred". Time for the main event, and just like the last Wrestling Challenge I watched it is a shithole of a match. We get Hillbilly Jim vs another unnamed jobber. Match starts off with Jim wanting to shake hands. Does Jim think this is the early days of ROH? This match like all other HillbillyJim matches I have seen is horrible. Thankfully it is very short. This episode is noticeably better than the last one I watched and gets a B-.

WWF Wrestling Challenge 8/30/87

The other day I was going thru a stack of discs. And found one that had the 8/30/87 episode of Wrestling Challenge. Back in the day before cable was in my area this and Saturday Nights Main event were the only way to see WWF. Later on I have found out that Wrestling Challenge is considered the "B" show of all the syndicated WWF shows.

OK first match,we got Jake "the snake" Roberts vs Steve Lombardi. This is from before Lombardi became the Brooklyn Brawler,and at this time he was one of the more well known jobbers in the WWF. Decent match and of course Jake wins. After the pin he goes and gets his snake outta the bag and puts it on Steve. The second match has Killer Khan vs Jack Milliman. I am pretty sure Jack Milliman is the same guy who went by Jake Milliman in the AWA. Pretty crappy match,but I really don't think I have ever seen a good Killer Khan match. Third match has Butch "the Natural" Reed vs Brady Boone. This is Boone before he became Battlekat. Why hasn't there ever been a Battlekat action figure,he deserves one more than Shockmaster? Boone is a decent worker,and Reed is way under-rated. Sadly the match is short. But still it so far has been the best match on the show. Next up is George "the Animal" Steele vs Rick Gantner. Typical Steele match,lots of brawling and of course he rips open the top turnbuckle. I think Gantner was a guy who appeared a bunch on the various WWF syndicated shows. Usually he lost,actually I don't think I have ever seen him win a match. Time for the 5Th match of the show,and it's a tag team match. In one corner we have "The King" Harley Race and Hercules Hernandez vs a team of jobbers. The announcers never mention who the jobbers are. Race is decent in the match,but Hercules and the jobbers are just huge bags of suck. Now it's time for the WWF Wrestling Challenge main event. Koko B. Ware vs Dave Wagner,which confuses me cause that sounds more like an opening match than a main event. Koko is OK here,he was so much better back in Memphis. And Wagner,well he is total shit. Boring match that gets way too much time. The show ends with previews of who will be on the next weeks show. Overall a below average show,that wouldn't work at all today with the average wrestling fan. I give it a C-.

Smackdown vs Raw 2010 DS

A few years back I picked up the 2008 DS version of this game. And was one of the worst games I had ever played. For some unknown reason the developers made all the controls based around the stylus. Which made for a very annoying game. But when I saw on the back of the 2010 version that this time it used the basic d-pad and buttons control scheme I figured it would be worth buying. And it so far has been. The Create a wrestler feature is fairly detailed,and so far I have created 3 different CAWs. The storyline feature seems to have some depth and replay value. The graphics look really good for the DS. The roster is pretty large when you consider this is a handheld version. Now I haven't finished the storyline mode,I think I am about halfway through it so far. But so far their has been plenty of humor and just plain strange stuff in the story. The only real negatives to the game are first the annoying mini games you have to play to increase your stats. Most of them are button mashers,that get pretty old pretty quick. The music is mostly shit,well besides the various superstars entrance themes. But overall the game is worth what I paid for it. Smackdown vs Raw 2010 gets a B+.