WWE Classics Report 5-30-02
Submitted by Segaboyno on Thursday, May 30, 2002 at 8:05 PM EST



Hi once again and as you may have noticed, WWE Classics has been given a new timeslot of Thursday here in the UK, so like myself, you too will have to adjust your lives accordingly. It's been a while since the last report, so without any further hesitation i'll skip right to it.

This weeks show emanates from the Wicomico Youth and Civic Center in Salisbury, Maryland, and Bob Wagner, the events manager, sends along a warm welcome to the WWF. To make a change, Vince McMahon is commentating, and is going to be joined by Bobby "The Brain" Heenan momentarily. This is the only time I remember watching Classics without Gorilla Monsoon commentating - I don't know if it's a one-off though, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see. The opening introduction package plays as per normal, and we find out that scheduled for this weeks show is the Ultimate Warrior against Hercules, along with the Young Stallions, Butch Reed, Jim Duggan, and Demolition. Let's head down to ringside.

Match #1
The Ultimate Warrior vs. Hercules (w/ Bobby Heenan)
Just after the Warrior enters the ring, we go backstage where Bobby Heenan is hyping his man up, and making sure that's he's ready to go. Hercules comes down to the ring thereafter, and the bell sounds to get this match underway. The stare each other down for a while, with each man posing in the face of the other. Hercules removes the chain from his neck, and apparently wants to challenge Warrior to a tug-of-war! The Warrior kneels down slowly and lifts it up, and Hercules makes sure he has his grip on the other end. They begin pulling, with both men remaining relatively equal. They get closer towards each other, which leads Hercules to take the underhanded tactic, of kicking the Warrior down to the canvas. He gets right back up moments later though, and yanks the chain right away from Hercules - the impact sends him flying down into the bottom turnbuckle pad. Hercules grabs his chain and attacks the Warrior with it, prompting the referee to signal for a disqualification. He continues assaulting the Warrior with the chain, and the footage is seen to be to brutal by Sky Sports, who revert to showing shots of fans in the crowd. And most of them have "Y2J" shirts on! In the end, a whole host of low key superstars come out to try and stop the assault, and succeed in doing so, as Hercules takes off down the aisle. Moments later though, the Warrior's music is playing and he chases Hercules down the aisle, presumably gaining some revenge. A rather uniquely interesting way to kick off Challenge, it must be said.
Winner - The Ultimate Warrior via DQ, at 01:57

Craig DeGeorge is now standing by for this week's special report, which will be focused on Wrestlemania IV. It has been confirmed that it will be on March 27, 1988, at the Trump Plaza in Atlantic City. DeGeorge says the show promises to be as entertaining and as exciting as last year, and footage from the previous event is shown, in which allegedly 93,000 fans were present. As of this moment tickets are still available, and you can order them by calling 1-800-233-4050.

Vince McMahon informs us that the Ultimate Warrior and Hercules are causing as much havoc backstage as they were in the ring, and issues a timely reminder that there is an article on the Warrior in the upcoming issue of WWF Magazine, released this Tuesday.

Match #2
The Bolsheviks (w/ Slick) Jerry Gray & Rex King
As anticipated, Slick grabs the microphone before we can go any further, and starts demanding respect. He demands everyone to rise from their seats, for the singing of the Soviet national anthem, by both Nikolai Volkoff and Boris Zhukov. Just before the bell sounds, Bobby Heenan finally joins the commentary position, and claims that Hercules is chasing the Ultimate Warrior around backstage, and that he's trying to run away from him! Volkoff nails King with a kick to the midsection followed by a gut wrench suplex, and then another. He whips King to the ropes and send him back down with another stiff kick to the midsection. Zhukov tags in and pounds away with right hands, but King gains some offence of his own, and evens manages to climb to the middle rope and nail Zhukov with ten consecutive shots to the head. King then whips Zhukov to the opposite corner, but it is reversed, and instead King gets thrown in upside down to the turnbuckle, and out over the top rope. Zhukov pulls him back into the ring and then nails him on the apron, before delivering a bodyslam. Gray tags in but takes over where King left off, as he gets badly beaten by Zhukov. Volkoff tags in and does further damage, and when he whips Gray to the ropes, Zhukov nails him behind the referee's back, tags in, and scores the three count.
Winners - The Bolsheviks via pinfall, at 02:13

Craig DeGeorge is standing by backstage, and is questioning as to whether or not Billy Jack Haynes and Ken Patera will be able to stop Demolition. Axe and Smash then enter the frame, and Smash says there is not a chance they can be stopped, as they are have a harsh training regime by Mr. Fuji, who wakes them up at 4am and gets them to climb up mountains, and run up flights of stairs. Axe then says that despite what fans think, Mr. Fuji is leading them the right way, and that no team can withstand their punishment. In conclusion, they add that Strike Force have been hiding for some time, but they will be coming after their belts in the very near future.

Bad News Brown is standing by with some good news, which is that this week, he is not wrestling. But next week, he will be back in the ring. His words, not mine.

Match #3
The Young Stallions vs. Gino Carabello & Brian Costello
Powers locks up with Costello, and after the latter runs the ropes, he gets hiptossed, and so tags in Carabello. Powers winds up his left arm several times, and then sends him to the ropes before a kick to the midsection. Roma makes the tag and slingshots himself over Carabello, but can only roll him up for a two count. He then works on the arm likewise, before Powers tags back in. Roma finishes with an atomic drop, and Powers then delivers a high cross body. This also scores a two count, and then Powers goes to work on the other arm of Carabello. Roma tags in, and nails Carabello with an elbow to the back of the head, after a neatly executed drop toehold from his partner. Roma then scores another two count, and then locks in another armlock. Powers tags in and they deliver a double elbow to Gino, and score a two count on him. Powers is backed in to the wrong corner and gets choked out by Costello behind the referee's back, and he then tags himself in. Costello backs Powers into the corner and retags Carabello, but he gets sent to the ropes, and Roma executes a belly-to-belly suplex for the finish.
Winners - The Young Stallions via pinfall, at 03:12

WWE Confidential host Mean Gene Okerlund is standing by, alongside Slick and the One Man Gang. Slick says that 1987 was not a complete disaster, as they made a lot of money and beat a lot of people up. But the ultimate goal is the heavyweight championship, and they hope it will be reached sometime in 1988. They sat down the other night and had a long talk, and Slick says that he doesn't let him speak in public because he goes on the warpath, and ends up getting into trouble. At the end of 1987 when he opened his mouth, he was given a $10,000 fine.

Vince McMahon says that the British Bulldogs are standing by, with an update on Matilda. They're wearing matching Matilda shirts, and Davey Boy Smith says that she is getting worse all the time, and is continually losing weight. Dynamite Kid says that he thanks all those fans who have sent in greetings, and McMahon then gives out the address for those yet to send a message along.

Match #4
Ravishing Rick Rude (w/ Bobby Heenan) vs. Brady Boone
Rick Rude grabs the microphone beforehand, and asks for his music to be stopped. He then says that he'd like all the fat, ugly little boys in the crowd to keep the noise down, whilst he disrobes his ravishing body for the ladies. The match gets underway and they lock up, with Rude backing Boone into the corner. He then nails Boone with rights and lefts, before sending him to the opposite corner. Boone jumps up to the middle rope whilst Rude follows through underneath, and nails Rude with a kick to the spine, but runs right into a powerslam. Rude decides not to score the pinfall, and instead lifts up Boone and drops him onto the top rope. He then bodyslam Boone, and sets him up for the rude awakening, which signals the end for Boone.
Winner - Ravishing Rick Rude via pinfall, at 01:39

Craig DeGeorge is standing by in the arena, and brings in his special guest, Hacksaw Jim Duggan. He won the recent Royal Rumble match, and says that it was one of the biggest nights of his life. He goes on to say that if you set your goals high, and don't give up, then you can achieve them. Duggan then says that King Harley Race is garbage, and adds that wherever he goes, his 2x4 isn't too far behind.

Match #5
"The Natural" Butch Reed (w/ Slick) vs. Dave Stoudemiere
The bell sounds and they lock up, with Reed lifting up Stoudemiere and tossing him across the ring. They lock up again, and Stoudemiere locks on a headlock. At this point i'll point out that in the recent weeks Andre the Giant finally won the WWF Title, by defeating Hulk Hogan. Afterwards he sold the belt to Ted DiBiase, as anticipated. This sparked a great deal of controversy, and the title was declared vacant. However, the topic of what happened has been banned from conversation anywhere on WWF TV at the time, and so when Bobby Heenan attempts to speak of it during this match, he is completely censored out with a long beep! Back in the ring, Reed has Stoudemiere on the canvas, and is nailing him all over. He then delivers a bulldog, but decides to only accept a two count. Reed whips Dave to the ropes and knocks him down with an elbow, followed by a shot to the head. Reed then throws Stoudemiere over the top rope, and then slides under the bottom rope, and rolls him back in. Stoudemiere attempts to get some punches in, but has no effect whatsoever. Reed, on the other hand, delivers a press slam to Stoudemiere which presumably does have some effect, and then scores with a top rope clothesline for the finish.
Winner - "The Natural" Butch Reed via pinfall, at 02:56

Craig DeGeorge is standing by in a studio, and is discussing the past Royal Rumble event. Dino Bravo was attempting to break the official bench press record, and after several warm-ups, appeared to actually break the record. However, video evidence suggests that Jesse Ventura, who was on hand to help out, actually helped, thus setting a tag team bench press record. Clips of the match between the Glamour Girls and the Jumping Bomb Angels is then shown, and the Angels scored the victory against Jimmy Hart's duo, and became new WWF Womens Tag Team Champions.

Match #6
Demolition (w/ Mr. Fuji) vs. Omar Atlas & Rick Hunter
Smash goes after Atlas rights away, and sends him down with hard right hands, before tagging in his partner. Axe then pounds away on the back of Atlas with axehandles, and hoists him up onto the top rope. Smash tags back in and delivers a bodyslam to Atlas, who is able to make the tag to Hunter. He fares even worse, and gets demolished with right hands from Smash, followed by axehandles from Axe once again. Smash tags in and delivers a knife edge chop to Hunter, before locking in a chinlock. Axe tags in and delivers a snapmere takedown, and goes after the head of Hunter with a rather unorthodox squeezing mechanism. Smash tags in and clotheslines Hunter down, as Axe tags in, and delivers the elbow, into the backbreaker by Smash, which ends the bout promptly.
Winners - Demolition via pinfall, at 02:35

Craig DeGeorge is standing by with the Outlaw Ron Bass, who says that he won't hurt DeGeorge like he did during their last interview. He talks of how he used to kick over rocks, and talks about yellow dogs such as Hulk Hogan, Ricky Steamboat and Randy Savage, for no real reason. Apparently he thinks that they are side-stepping him, and that everyone fears the Outlaw.

We go back to the broadcast booth and Heenan is about to speak about the WWF Title situation, but is censored once again, which forces Bobby to throw his headset off and storm away from McMahon. On next week's show will be "The Rock" Don Muraco, Superstar Billy Graham (in a non-wrestling role), Bad News Brown, Bam Bam Bigelow, The Islanders, and there will also be exclusive footage from the Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant match that took place in early February.

Well the inclusion of Vince McMahon as a commentator was a breath of fresh air, as he actually focused on the match at hand, rather than spiral off onto a completely unrelated topic. I think it'd be a fair analysis to say that over the past few weeks they have definitely been trying to improve the quality of Challenge, and to an extent, it has worked. But i'm out for another week, and i'll be back here next Thursday. Thanks for reading, and take care.








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