Tag: unforgiven

September 20, 2004 Observer Newsletter: WWE Unforgiven review, TNA developments

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

Normally, one show, particularly like Unforgiven, is here today and gone tomorrow. There have been worse shows, although most WWE PPV shows were better. But there are some scary signs, and more people than ever before seem to be picking up on them.

The product is stale. Without some badly needed switches of key talent, there are no new match-ups. On the Raw brand, they came up with the scenario in the summer of 2002 to build up HHH vs. Randy Orton as a top program. Orton seemed to be the most improved character of the year, with his superstar look and improving ability. He came off like a superstar in matches with Mick Foley, Chris Benoit, Edge and Chris Jericho, in building to the big angle. The angle was rushed. The wrong guy turned. The first match took place too soon. And the people didn’t care.

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September 29, 2003 Observer Newsletter: Unforgiven review, HHH taking time off

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

Unforgiven on 9/21 at the Giant Center in Hershey, PA, was one of those nights where the elementary mistakes bit WWE in the ass.

The show was supposed to be the coronation of Bill Goldberg as WWE Raw champion. Well, in wrestling, dating back to such luminaries as Lou Thesz, Strangler Lewis and Stephanie McMahon, there is the saying “We can do it the hard way or the easy way.” Well, in this case, nobody was whispering that before a title change, but they could do it the smart way or the dumb way. Well, the dumb way was going to pacify the ego of the boyfriend, and few thought anything different would happen.

HHH, still bothered by a slightly torn groin, gutted his way by carrying Goldberg for 14:57 before dropping the title clean to him. Unfortunately, it was more guts than brains. The match was too long and dull. The crowd, hot for Goldberg at the start, cooled off watching him sell. 

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October 1, 2001 Observer Newsletter: WWF Unforgiven review, more

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

The World Wrestling Federation’s Unforgiven show on 9/23 in Pittsburgh was highlighted by Kurt Angle, in his home town, with a family celebration and wrestler party in the ring, capturing the WWF title from Steve Austin.

The show, largely well received because most of the matches were good, was different from the usual WWF PPV product. The crowd was flat for most of the show, making a lot of good matches come across as worse than they really were.  Even for the main event, which was awesome most of the way, the crowd enthusiasm waned as the match went on. Partially because of it, even with the perfect home town clean submission win, it didn’t come across as good as their SummerSlam match.  It was a straight wrestling show, with clean finishes up-and-down including by heels. 

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October 1, 2000 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Disappointing WCW ratings, WWF Unforgiven reviewed, more

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

Whatever changes in the landscape temporarily that would result from the WWF going to a lower rated network appear to have been overstated.

It was thought that this would be the week for WCW to capitalize, as viewers, used to WWF on Monday nights, would switch to WCW when finding other programming on the USA Network. Even though, due to the court decision coming in late and Viacom not getting nearly the amount of publicity they had planned to hype the debut of Raw, the fact is WWF was able to push it all week on its own programming, there was still more advertising for Raw over the weekend mainstream then ever before, and the return of Steve Austin didn’t hurt.

The result was a number well under what was the Raw average, but had to be considered a good sign overall since it was better than most had predicted for the first show on the new station without nearly the promotion they had originally planned for.

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October 4, 1999 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWF Unforgiven and UFC 22 reviews, tons more

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

The workload stemming from increasing the television demands of the WWF started to show through on 9/26 with a disappointing Unforgiven PPV show.

The show featured some sluggish performances inside the ring, mental errors outside and weak crowd heat except for the main event before a crowd of 15,779, a few thousand shy of capacity, paying $505,477 and another $93,006 in merchandise at the Charlotte Coliseum.

Hunter Hearst Helmsley left the ring as WWF champion for a second time after a six-pack match which also included Kane, Mankind, Rock, Big Show and Davey Boy Smith, and had Steve Austin at ringside as an enforcer. Austin, who did color commentary most of the match, got physical in the finish, beating up some referees, counting the pinfall of Helmsley over Rock, largely due to a chair shot by Smith, and then made the attempt to send the crowd home happy by giving HHH a stunner.

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