HIT MY MUSIC!
First, I was born and raised in Arkansas. Before anyone even thinks it, no, I am not a hick, and even more, NO, I am NOT A Bill Clinton supporter (Sorry Bill!). I have lived here all my life and have had much contact with the local wrestling associations in Memphis such as the old United States Wrestling Association and the now WWF farming wrestling organization, Memphis Championship Wrestling. However, I started my love of the sport, like most people my age, in the mid-eighties watching the likes of Hogan and Savage wage their ring wars. I LOVE classic wrestling, so sometimes you will probably see me in my columns refer back to what I call "The Glory Days."

CUT MY MUSIC!
Well, now that is out of the way, so lets look at to has been going on in the world of wrestling lately. The World Wrestling Federation presented the King of the Ring this past Sunday, one of their best Pay Per Views. Lets look at each match in the PPV and their results.

KOTR Round 1:
Rikishi over Benoit by disqualification. Kind of upsetting. Everyone expected Benoit to at least make it to finals. Especially after Benoit lost to Rikishi at Smackdown.

Val Venis defeated Eddie Gurrerro with the Fisherman Suplex. I expected an upset with this one. Val is going to be changing a lot with the months to come in the WWF.

Crash Holly over Bull Buchanon by pin after Buchanon missed the scissor kick and Holly got the pin. WOW. Didn’t see this one coming. Go Crash!

Kurt Angle defeated Y2J after the Olympic Slam. Yep. I figured that Stephanie would get involved and she did. Y2J did get a big wet kiss on Steph if that is any consolation!

Edge and Christian defeated T&A, Hardy Boys, and Too Cool to regain the WWF Tag Team Championships. GO EDGE AND CHRISTIAN!!!

KOTR Round 2:
Rikishi defeated Val Venis with the Belly to Belly Suplex. Hmm, kind of a surprise here! Rikishi moves on to the finals. Kurt Angle pinned Crash Holly after the Olympic Slam. I was almost expecting a Crash Holly sweep of The King of the Ring, but the WWF turns heads once again!

In the Pat Patterson versus Gerald Brisco "Evening Gown Hardcore" match, Crash Holly came out in the end and pinned Patterson to win back the WWF Hardcore championship. As Jim Ross put it - "Thank Goodness, for 2 reasons, the match is over, and Crash is champ again!"

DX and Tori defeat The Dudley Boys after Tori tricked The Dudley Boys into the dumpster. – Bad Finish, but decent match and Tori got hers after the match from Buh Buh Ray, so it is all good!

KOTR FINALS:
Kurt Angel defeats Rikishi after a belly to belly suplex from the top rope. Well, I predicted a Kurt Angel win and here it is. He is in my opinion the WWF rookie of the year. Nice Job Kurt! IT’S TRUE! IT’S TRUE!

WWF CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH:
The Rock wins back the WWF title by using the Rock Bottom on Vince McMahon? Wow, I sure didn’t expect that one. Big surprise here! I expect a Triple H face turn very soon.

OVERALL it was a great Pay Per View with MANY surprises and many not-so surprises. Nice Job WWF!!

Now, lets get back to the latest news… The World Wrestling Federation has been on a roll lately with the Triple H and The Rock feud, but how is this going to measure up when Steve Austin makes his return to the WWF ring? My prediction is that Austin will make the heel turn and Triple H will end up making a face turn. This is becoming more evident as Vince lost the WWF title for Triple H. After The Rock leaves to make his movie The Mummy 2, I expect that an Austin and Triple H feud will go on for several months to main event a couple of Pay Per Views. Of course that is just my take of things, I could always be wrong! I personally loved the whole Rock vs. Triple H feud, but I am just now starting to see signs of The Great One’s popularity starting to decrease because of the repetitiveness of it. It is a proven fact in wrestling that fans do get tired of seeing matches between the same two people over and over again, no matter how the matches are repackaged. But I really agree to the fact that Triple H is setting himself up to be one of the greatest WWF champions in the history of the sport. His Pay Per View matches for the last year have been absolutely INCREDIBLE. He has proven he has what it takes to be hardcore and a hold for hold superstar. In WWF television news, The WWF did a fantastic job with Smackdown this past week from the Memphis Pyramid! It was so good to see Lawler make a brief appearance in the WWF ring. He still does wrestle regularly for Memphis Championship Wrestling, and for anyone that is interested, you can view the weekly MCW show on Jerry Lawler’s website, kinglawler.com. It is updated every Saturday Night with a brand new show. People who know me do know that I am a huge "Mr. Perfect" fan and I almost absolutely marked out when I heard that The Flawless one might be signing back up with the World Wrestling Federation. Most people today feel like Curt Hennig’s time has past but I just loved the old Mr. Perfect gimmick! Hennig could really help in the back training future WWF superstars in the business anyway. Does Shawn Stasiak’s "The Perfect One" gimmick remind you of the time the WWF tried to remake the fake Diesel and Razor? I don’t know, maybe it is just me. Speaking of World Championship Wrestling, I hear now that they are facing problems again with Vince Russo possibly leaving. I personally enjoyed this past week’s Nitro and Thunder without Russo. I am still question WCW’s idea of bringing Scott Hall back into the picture, but I guess everyone deserves a second, third, or fourth chance. Have you noticed how much of a push Kronic has been given lately? I expect this team to lead the way for WCW tag teams for a long while. And now, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, it is time for the.... (drum roll please)

FLASHBACK OF THE WEEK
This week’s flashback comes from one of the greatest World Wresting Federation Intercontinental title matches of all time. In one of the matches that is said to have helped jump start Bret Hart’s singles career It was Summerslam of 1991. Bret "The Hitman" Hart defeated "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig by submission with the Sharpshooter to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship. This was Curt’s last match for about 2 years because he dislodged some muscles in his lower back. This match is also known as one of the few times Howard Finkel botched a wrestler’s entrance by cracking his voice during Mr. Perfect’s entrance.

Please e-mail your comments, likes or dislikes of my column, stories, news events, or anything else to me at: therecklessone@yahoo.com I will always post one e-mail per week from you, the fans, so get your say-so in to me! And if you have your own great flashback of a great wrestling moment, send them to me to have them posted on my column also. You can also find me on the undernet on IRC some of the time on channel #wrestling or #wwf. I go by the nickname reckless1. Until next time.. Keep the ratings up and the arenas packed!

"The Reckless One" Bart Harrison – therecklessone@yahoo.com