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Welcome to KB’s Old School (and New School) Reviews. I’ve been reviewing wrestling shows for over twelve years now and have reviewed over 6,000 shows. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I’ll be posting a new review here on Wrestlingrumors.net. It could be anything from modern WWE to old school to indies to anything in between. Note that I rate using letters instead of stars and I don’t rate matches under three minutes as really, how good or bad can something that short be?
Bash at the Beach 2000
Date: July 9, 2000
Location: Ocean Center, Daytona Beach, Florida
Attendance: 6,572
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Scott Hudson, Mark Madden
Oh boy. After all those nice weeks of no Russo and/or Bischoff to screw things up, tonight we’re back to the old ways because this wrestling and storytelling stuff must be stopped at all costs. It’s a double main event of Goldberg vs. Kevin Nash for Scott Hall’s contract and Hulk Hogan challenging Jeff Jarrett for the World Title. Let’s get to it.
Cat s..

There is a history there. Wrestling has a history of bringing in athletes from other sports and seeing how much success they can have. It is something that has worked well for decades and will continue to do the same for years to come. One of the sports with a solid track record is mixed martial arts, and now WWE is trying their hand with another fighter coming over to wrestling.
According to Fightful Select, WWE is expected to sign Bellator fighter Valerie Loureda. This comes after Loureda, a fighter with a 3-1 career record, spent a week at the WWE Performance Center and impressed the company. WWE is hoping to have Loueda start her official training at the Performance Center in July. There is no word on when she could start regularly appearing in WWE.
Opinion: It makes sense for WWE to try signing another mixed martial artist as they certainly have a history of success with them. Why not see what you can find out there? WWE has found stars such as Riddle, Brock Lesnar, Shayna Baszl..

The interest is there. The wrestling world has been around for a very long time and there have been all kinds of larger than life characters throughout. Several of these people are worth looking at again as you can find some fascinating stories. Some of those stories have been looked at many of them and now we will be seeing even more of them in the near future.
A&E has announced the second season of Biography: WWE Legends, which will begin on July 10. The second season will include episodes on:
Undertaker
Bella Twins
WrestleMania
Goldberg
Rey Mysterio
Kurt Angle
Lex Luger
Edge
D-Generation X
A pair of new series were officially announced as well. First up is WWE Rivals, which will feature a look at famous WWE rivalries throughout history. Second is WWE Smack Talk, which will feature a look back at the two episodes from earlier in the night. All three shows will air in a weekly block.
There is a lot here. Check out the trailer for the three series:
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That’ll get people talking. There are certain wrestlers who are a lot better at talking than anything they can do in the ring. This can make them extremely valuable as they can stir up the fans’ emotions like few others. That is the case with a top AEW star and he certainly went on a rant this week. It turns out that there was even more than what you saw watching on television.
This week’s edition of AEW Dynamite featured a promo from Maxwell Jacob Friedman as he ranted and complained about his unhappiness with the company and President Tony Khan. The speech saw parts of Friedman’s speech being censored before his mic was cut off. According to PWInsider.com, during the commercial break, CM Punk came out to confront Friedman, who ran off through the crowd.
This was a fired up promo. Check out the uncensored part (contains strong language):
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Opinion: This is the kind of a promo that is going to be a huge deal for a long time to come and I’m cur..

He has earned it. Commentary is one of the most important things a wrestling promotion needs. The broadcasting team is tasked with telling the fans where the story is supposed to go and guiding them in the right direction. That can make all the difference in the world and give fans some very necessary information. Finding the right lead voice is key, and now WWE is paying tribute to someone who has been around for a long time.
WWE has released a video tribute to SmackDown broadcaster Michael Cole in honor of his twenty five years with the company. The video features a variety of current broadcasters talking about what Cole means to him and how important he has been to the company. Over the years, Cole has done commentary for Monday Night Raw and SmackDown, plus pay per views, as the voice of WWE.
This is rather nice. Check out WWE’s tribute to Cole:
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Opinion: I know he might not be the most popular name, but Cole is someone who has been aro..

Flashback? There are all kinds of ways to present wrestlers and many times it is with a rather specific gimmick. You might see something that is more or less serious, but there is often an idea there that is different than others. That idea can often need to be tweaked though, and that might be the case again, as a WWE star may be needing to change things up entirely.
SmackDown’s Xia Li has released a video on Twitter showing her training. During the video, there are glimpses of a woman with her face painted like Tian Sha, Li’s former character in NXT. This could be a hint that Li will be returning to her old gimmick after she was drafted to SmackDown in October 2021. Since then, she has only wrestled one televised match, defeating Natalya in February.
This might be a hint. Check out Li’s training video:
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Opinion: I mean, why not? I don’t think you could make Li’s time on SmackDown that much worse so far, so why not see what else she can do?..

A virtual hell. WWE has posted a new video to its YouTube channel in which they show the full match between Drew McIntyre and Randy Orton from WWE Hell in a Cell 2020. This match was contested inside of the cell and was for the WWE Championship.
You can see the match in its entirety below:
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From WWE.com:
Orton controlled the battlefield with his signature deliberate pace, carefully calculating every move. McIntyre found a way to rally with a series of belly-to-belly throws, including a third that sent Orton crashing into a table.
But The Viper’s plotting didn’t relent, and he used bolt cutters to escape the cell and began scaling it moments later, challenging McIntyre to pursue him. That appeared to be Orton’s plan all along, as he retrieved a lead pipe atop the cage, though McIntyre ducked his wild swing to thwart this particular scheme.
While climbing down, both men struck each other repeatedly while clinging to the cell. Unable to hold..

Welcome back. AEW has a rather versatile roster with a huge mix of talent from all over the world. The company has managed to find all different levels of wrestlers and put them together in a grouping that can make for some very interesting shows. That has been the case since their inception and now another of their better signings has returned after a lengthy time away.
Former TNT Champion Miro made his return to AEW television on this week’s Dynamite. Miro appeared as a surprise opponent for Johnny Elite, who he would go on to defeat via the Game Over. The appearance marked the first time that Miro had been seen since November, as he has been dealing with a hamstring injury as well as filming a pilot for a new series on CBS.
Opinion: This is a return that fans have been waiting for over the course of several months and hopefully Miro is able to be the kind of star that he has the potential to be. Miro is someone who has made a big impact in the time that he has had in AEW and very ..

The champ has been here for a long time. WWE has announced that June 2022 will be John Cena month and that the company will be celebrating the superstar to honor the 20th anniversary of his debut.
You can see his debut match below:
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From WWE.com:
WWE was forever changed on June 27, 2002, when a then-unknown powerhouse by the name of John Cena stormed onto SmackDown for the very first time.
Answering an open challenge issued by Kurt Angle, Cena boldly declared himself an agent of “ruthless aggression” before paint-brushing The Olympic Gold Medalist across the face. The rest, as they say, is history.
Sixteen World Title reigns, countless Attitude Adjustments, and numerous Hollywood blockbusters later, Cena’s debut remains a watershed moment in sports-entertainment lore, the introduction of arguably the biggest Superstar of the modern era, if not WWE history.
In honor of the upcoming 20-year anniversary of that seminal night, WWE is paying ..

The door is beginning to open. On tonight’s episode of Dynamite, we may have gotten a glimpse of the first match set for the upcoming AEW/NJPW crossover event, “Forbidden Door.”
In the opening match of the show, CM Punk and FTR defeated the team of Max Caster and The Gunn Club. After the match, Punk cut a promo saying that it was time to begin selling the upcoming pay-per-view. He then issued an open challenge to anybody from NJPW to face him at the show.
This brought out 8-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi, who seems to have accepted the challenge and will face Punk at Forbidden Door.
Editor’s Opinion:
A lot of people think that it was going to be either Okada or maybe Jay White that would be facing Punk, but Tanahashi is an excellent choice. Widely regarded as one of the best professional wrestlers of all time, this clash of styles should make for an outstanding mean event in a great way to sell the show. I’m looking forward to seeing these two warriors go at it!
..

Dynamite
Date: June 1, 2022
Location: Kia Forum, Los Angeles, California
Commentators: Excalibur, Tony Schiavone, Jim Ross
We’re done with Double Or Nothing and for once that means that we are going to be building towards another show. This time it’s Forbidden Door, which is going to includes a bunch of special matches between AEW and New Japan. Odds are that includes new World Champion CM Punk so let’s get to it.
Opening sequence.
CM Punk/FTR vs. Gunn Club/Max Caster Caster’s rap promises to make FTR pay like Amber Heard and that FTR is only here because of Punk’s coattails. Then the Club gets the city wrong twice before Bowens gets to do it right. Harwood takes Austin into the corner to start and hands it off to Wheeler. Austin powers him into another corner so Colton can come in, only to get backdropped. Punk comes in and drops a top rope ax handle onto the arm, much to the fans’ delight.
Caster manages to send him into the corner but Harwood is right back with a powerslam. A do..

He’s back, kind of. There are all kinds of legends in wrestling and some of them are the biggest names the sport has ever seen. Even then though, there are some names who are even bigger than others, some of which are still around today. One of those names is going to be getting a special look back at his life and career, and it happens to be with a company that he left again not so long ago.
WWE has announced that they will be teaming with Fox Sports’ Tom Rinaldi and Ric Flair for a two hour documentary on Flair. The documentary is described as containing never before revealed history about Flair, though it is not clear if it will be focused on his career or life outside of the ring. No details, including the release date or platform, were given about the project.
Woooo! @RicFlairNatrBoy, Tom Rinaldi and @WWE enter partnership on an unprecedented 2 hour documentary featuring never-before-revealed history about the one and only Nature Boy! pic.twitter.com/0IZZf4J7CY
— WWE (@WWE) Jun..