This Week In WWE Vintage Collection History: An Ode To My Favourite Arena

VINTAGE COLLECTION #182
We cold open with a LONG video of memorable moment in the history of Madison Square Garden. Way too many to list, but it wruns to 2 and a half minutes. It covered all the years they've had cameras in the arena, and all the huge-name stars, both from inside and outside wrestling, title wins, major returns and just about every damn-well else in between.

After the credits, we join Mean Gene and Rowdy Roddy in the studio. And Roddy had just noticed a MAJOR issue. He was a founding father of the WWE. But there was not one picture of him hanging. Gene snapped at him there wasn't a picture of him either. They sent it to our first match, with a Hall Of Famer in Bret "The Hitman" Hart in one of his earliest singles matches against The Barbarian on November 24th 1990.

As it goes, Bret was one half of the Tag Team Champions in this match (more on the title situation later) and this match both aired on the MSG Network with Sean Mooney, Honky Tonk Man and Jimmy Hart on commentary, it also featured on the "2nd Annual Battle of the WWF Superstars" VHS release.

After the break, we had something of a "MSG Moment" vignette, as we looked back at how Mick Foley brought back Cactus Jack for a Street Fight against HHH and the iconic Stone Cold Stunner to Vince McMahon, both happening on the same night. Indeed, they were back-to-back segments, with the Stunner and then Foley. That said, for such an iconic moment that very arguably was the ignition for the changing of the the tide on the Monday Night War, that was a shitty stunner and shittier sell job by Vince, the way he shakes with his eyes wide open.

Back in the studio, Gene and Roddy opined on MSG some more before sending it to our next match, from just a couple of weeks before the very first Wrestlemania as Andre The Giant, Jimmy Snuka and Junkyard Dog faced Jesse Ventura, Ken Patera and Big John Studd. This match happened on March 17th 1985 (although listed on screen as March 15th), airing on the MSG Network with Gorilla Monsoon and Okerlund on commentary, later appearing on the "Best of the WWF Vol. 9" release.

Back from break, we went to the WWE RAW of October 4th 2004 and a backstage promo by Christian (conducted by my boy, The Coach) ahead of his match against Shawn Michaels. I would tell you what Christian said, but it's in the videos below... They then went right to the video itself.

Back from break, it was another "MSG Moment" style video, this time featuring Rocky Maivia's debut in Madison Square Garden at the 1996 Survivor Series, ending the match as the Sole Survivor. Back in the studio, the boys set up this week's main event, as we again saw a shot of Rock in 1996 and then a shot of HHH's big return from his first quad injury in January of 2002. Piper told a funny story of him and Don Muraco watching HHH early on, wearing a "Paul Revere" hat on and carrying a candle and the pair of them both thought that he'd never get anywhere, only now he owns the damn company.

We saw a clip of the Thursday RAW Thursday match where Maivia shocked HHH and won the IC Title. This rematch was from a month later at a live event on March 16th 1997 that, once again, aired on the MSG Network, with JR & Jim Cornette on announcing duties. This show also held the bizarre distinction of being the first event to be broadcast on the MSG Network in 5 years and also the very last event to be broadcast on the MSG Network. Why this one show aired, I have no idea...

Back in the studio, Gene noted that while Goldust didn't let us have a winner, this wouldn't be the last time Rock and HHH met. During this speech, Piper pulled out a little picture of him and an action figure of him, to get himself in the studio. Gene asked for an autograph, but Piper told him to take a hike and left. I friggin' love Roddy Piper in this. Even if Gene is talking, I watch Piper. Never stops reacting to stuff and is funny when he talks.

Epilogue
Bret was in the middle of his second and final run as Tag Champion as part of the Hart Foundation. However, it wasn't without recent controversy. Only a couple of weeks before this match, The Rockers had actually beaten Bret & Anvil for the belts. However, the change was reversed by Jack Tunney because a rope had come off the turnbuckle during the match but the change was never acknowledged on TV, robbing The Rockers of a WWE Tag Title reign.

There are conflicting stories as to why, one being that it was too screwed up to feature on TV and the other being HBK's claim the Foundation politicked the reversal, counter-claimed by the notion that at the time, Neidhart had been fired, requiring the title change to happen, only to come to terms with the WWE afterwards. The match does appear on HBK's Heartbreak & Triumph DVD. As for Hart, the renewed reign lasted until Wrestlemania, wherein afterwards the team split up and Bret started on his main singles run.

Barbarian himself was, at this point, just beginning a singles run under the management of Bobby Heenan. However, his only real feud was with The Big Boss Man. At the Survivor Series not long after this match, they were on opposite sides. While Barbarian outlasted Boss Man, Hogan pinned Barbarian to become Sole Survivor. Boss Man then beat him at the Royal Rumble in 1991.

Andre and Studd were, of course, set to meet in the Bodyslam Challenge at Wrestlemania, with Andre, obviously winning the match, throwing the money to the crowd. After Mania, Studd formed an alliance with King Kong Bundy to go after Andre, injuring Andre's sternum. Upon return and for the rest of the year, Andre teamed up with a variety of folk to face the pair. The only real blowoff with at Wrestlemania 2 when Andre won the NFL/WWE Battle Royal that Studd was also involved in.

Not long after Wrestlemania, Jimmy Snuka would find himself fired from the WWE at the peak of his popularity, turning up (after a rehab stint that clearly didn't work thanks to Mick Foley's story in his stand-up routine) in the AWA for some time there. Meanwhile, Junkyard Dog won The Wrestling Classic tournament, the WWE's first actual PPV on (well what other date could it possibly be?) November 7th 1985 (my 4th birthday).

This six-man tag was actually a rare match for Jesse Ventura at this point. Blood clots on hi lungs had seemingly ended his career in 1984, but he did wrestle some matches, before settling down on the path of commentator and segment host of the Body Shop. As for Patera, previous demons would soon come back to haunt him. In April of 1984, he played a part in an incident where after being refused service, he threw a rock through a McDonald's window before assaulting the police officer sent to arrest him while he was part of the AWA. This obviously didn't go away just before he was now in the WWE, and in the summer of 1985, he was convicted and sentenced to two years in prison for it.

This match in 2004 was around the time for Christian, where he began with the nickname "Captain Charisma", also starting with the idea of having Peeps, his Christian Coalition and the Peepulation, as well as debuting the original version of "Just Close Your Eyes" at that year's Survivor Series. However, the Captain Charisma thing would somewhat bite him on the ass when rival Chris Jericho, as GM for the night on December 6th, would force Christian to wrestle as "Captain Charisma" in full superhero costume.

The WWE was on the verge of the first Taboo Tuesday event, and Shawn Michaels was selected to face HHH for the World Title. The problem was that between this match here and the PPV match, HBK tore a meniscus. The PPV match ended with Edge spearing HBK and HHH picking up the win. When HBK returned, he competed in the 2005 Rumble, eliminating Kurt Angle and starting the feud with him that would take them to Mania.

Rocky Maivia was more often being referred to as "The Rock" by this point in 1997. However, it wouldn't be long before the fans started turning on him in a bad way. He ended up losing the IC Title to Owen Hart in April and was, somewhat fortunately, injured as, upon his return, he turned heel and joined the Nation Of Domination, honing the "Rock" persona.

As for HHH, he would win the King Of The Ring tournament later in the year (one year after he was supposed to win, but thanks to the "Curtain Call" was punished and plans changed, catapulting Stone Cold in the public's mind) before he ended up forming DeGeneration X in the autumn/fall of 1997 as the attitude era well and truly kicked into gear.