*Enough tv & territory matches. Binged the good stuff for once- 8 Big Two PPV matches ranging from 93-00. Shooting for 4 today and 4 tomorrow.

Barry Windham (c) vs. Arn Anderson- WCW Slamboree 5/23/93- NWA Championship Match

Sad to say I did not care about this match back in the day. The whole Horsemen thing didn't mean as much to me in 93 as it would by 95-96. Arn had only been cool when he teamed with Tully in WWF and I'm pretty sure I didn't even know he was supposed to be a good guy. This would be Double A's only shot at the NWA Championship. In hindsight it's sad and a little tragic that he never even held the US Title. 

This didn't live up to its on paper potential. There were a few nice moments, but just as many uncharacteristically sloppy ones, and the crowd never really got into this encounter despite a good build and years of history between the two former Horsemen. Arn busted Barry open, and Barry bled well, but they didn't get as much out of it as they could/should have. And the finish was awfully contrived. There was a ref bump, a belt shot, and Windham retained to end an ultimately disappointing 11 minute match. Interesting to note Arn broke out the fake punch-DDT spot two years before I thought he invented it vs. Alex Wright, but even that didn't come off smoothly.

Edge (c) vs. Jeff Jarrett w/ Debra- Fully Loaded 7/25/99- IC Title Match

Edge upset JJ at a house show the previous night in Toronto to win his first WWF championship of any kind.

This started out being all about Debra's puppies. The Buffalo chanted for them. Lawler fawned over them on commentary leading to some amusing banter with JR. But the boys won over an indifferent crowd with solid good guy vs. bad guy wrestling. JJ got heat. Edge must have been working a Master of the Rollup gimmick because he got multiple nearfalls off several different variations of the move. JJ targeted the leg but switched to the arm after Edge went shoulder first into the post. Then the booking kicked in...

Gangrel & Edge had just broken up. Lights went out. Gangrel appeared. Only to be beaten up by Edge in the dark! But that Jezebel Debra distracted the ref just long enough for Gangrel to interfere leading to JJ catching Edge with a Stroke to get his IC Title match. This was a solid meat and potatoes 13 match marred a bit by excessive shenanigans. Surprisingly better than AA/Barry though.

Konnan (c) vs. Jushin Liger w/ Sonny Ono- WCW Slamboree 5/19/96- US Title Match

Something of an international dream match here for Apter Mag readers such as myself and smart fans in general. Not sure I had seen Liger in a high profile match yet, though I probably had seen him on WCW tv by this point, and had certainly heard Liger hype from the Three Brothers. This is my favorite Konnan period, though I'll still admit his US Title reign was a flop, and he wowed me a little less every time I saw him. Still, I'll take early 96 Konnan over 97-Today Konnan every day of the week.

They start out with some cool mat stuff. Then they go into the big moves. It's a fun 10 minute 1996 workrate match that filled a niche. Commentary is a trainwreck though. Tenay is doing his wrestling nerd thing and Heenan keeps cutting him off with jokes Lawler would have rejected while Tony tries and fails to get things back on track. Fascinating to hear this chemistry fail right after listening to JR & Lawler bounce off each other so well. Back to the match, Konnan is great on offense! But he doesn't take things well. Not at all. There are a few sloppy moments and one great nearfall where Konnan hits an Alabama into an Owen Hart pin for 2.9. Ono slips in a kick to give Liger a modicum of heel heat, but Konnan ultimately wins with a sitout Razor's Edge. I'll actually put this a hair over JJ/Edge. 

British Bulldog (c) vs. Ken Shamrock- Summerslam 8/3/97- European Championship Match/LOSER EATS DOG FOOD~!

Summerslam 97 had HYPE as this was peak Hartamania but I didn't get to see this show for reasons I forget. Probably parents being party poopers. Missing this one hurt. Don't even recall getting over the phone play by play from the cousin. Remember riding around in Matt The IRS Fan's new black pickup truck earlier that day with the caveat that I HAD to be back no later than 7:30. Alas, it mattered not for there would be no pay per view watching that night, no joy in Mudville Baltimore.

I never did take to Shamrock. Still think he was a bad fit for late 90s WWF. But immediately beefing with the Hart Foundation got him on my bad side from the get go. Only way to get heat quicker with 1997 me would be defecting to WCW. This feud was built around...dog food. Yep. Bulldog had stuffed some into Shamrock's mouth on an episode of Raw.

This was more angle than match and it was effective on that front. Match itself went around 7-8 and had some awkward moments. There were a few weird irish whips that went awry with the opponent not wanting to go where they were supposed to. Felt like Bulldog was the one directing, or at least trying to direct traffic. And there was a real bad botched suplex on the floor. But Bulldog busted Shamrock's lip and business picked up from there. Ballsy move by Bulldog as Shamrock is the last guy I would stiff. Bulldog eventually shoves dog food into Shamrock's mouth again...

Shamrock snaps for the first time. This would become his WWF calling card. He gets DQed for shoving the ref and chokes out Bulldog with a sleeper. The New Jersey crowd didn't get why this particular sleeper was supposed to be dangerous any more than 1997 me would have. Bulldog turns colors in the sleeper. A bunch of refs and agents come out to pry Shamrock off Bulldog. Kenny finally releases the hold. Then he starts suplexing agents and refs. Interesting to note Patterson & Brisco are the only agents to get 'plexed. The crowd, which had been dead for the match aside from one "USA" chant, finally comes alive. They endorse Kenny's bad behavior with a loud "SHAMROCK" chant. Once again proving Bret right that 1997 American fans were bloodthirsty savages who only supported fellow brutes. This was a better overall package than Barry/Arn, but below the other two bouts.

Match also gave us what had to be one of the last appearances of the all time great JR/Vince/Lawler commentary trio. Interesting to note they were already referring to what Shamrock did as "Mixed Martial Arts." I don't remember hearing that term until the early-mid 2000s. Before then it was either "UFC" or "real fighting" here in these parts.

Buff Bagwell vs. "Positively" Kanyon- WCW New Blood Rising 8/13/00- JUDY BAGWELL ON A FORKLIFT MATCH~!

Thinking about Arn never winning the US Title got me to thinking about these two popular latter day WCW stars who never won a single singles championship between them in WCW proper. Stumbling upon the infamous Judy Bagwell match was just a happy accident. Popped when I found out. Genuinely had no idea it was this match. I didn't even know who Buff's opponent was. 

"Positively" Kanyon is Kanyon doing DDP cosplay. Kanyon sounds just like Vince Russo. Judy Bagwell looks like an old school Baltimore "hon."

You know what? This match doesn't deserve the hate. It's a perfectly cromulent ** affair. I'd even rate it a notch above Davey/Shamrock and two notches above Arn/Windham. Even the notorious stipulation isn't as bad as it looks on paper. If commentary, including Mark Madden who is very much the poor man's Jerry Lawler, is to be believed, then Kanyon's whole deal was being a delusional DDP wannabe who wants to make Judy his "Kimberly." Kidnapping a middle-aged dame and making her son fight for her freedom is just the sort of thing a madman would do. So Judy Bagwell on a forklift even makes sense in a roundabout sort of way.

Anyway, Kanyon hits one "innovative" move- a super Russian Leg Sweep- but mostly gets heat with basic offense and heeling. The Vancouver crowd is into the face/heel story. Some jabroni who looks like a fan wearing wrestler gear wanders out late in the match. The ham & egger turns out to be David Arquette. OF COURSE David Arquette would have a cameo in the Judy Bagwell On A Forklift Match. Most natural thing in the world. Most WCW thing in the world. Buff valiantly fights off Kanyon & Arquette, simultaneously taking them down with a Double Blockbuster. Then he pins Kanyon to free his mother from the clutches of the evil DDP cosplayer.

Verdict- Perfectly fine midcard match in front of a good, receptive crowd. Nothing wrong with it in the slightest. Bagwell came off as a popular babyface with star potential.

Sycho Sid w/ Ted Dibiase vs. Henry O. Godwinn- In Your House 9/24/95

How could I not watch a Sid Vicious match after that Other Sid Vicious shirt post the other day? This was part of the great HOG face turn storyline. For months Dibiase had used HOG to do his dirty work with the promise of one day making him a full-fledged Corporation member. HOG eventually realized he was being used and turned on Teddy Wrestling, likely with a bucket o' slop. HOG also slopped Sid on Superstars a day before this match. But Sid would get revenge later in the show by powerbombing the Hog Man on the floor. So our HOG hero is coming in with a bad back. 

This was pretty good and I'm sure I've gone on record before, but if not, allow me to say HOG was officially a Good Wrestler. He starts off fast and furious. Even suplexes Sid, but his back gives out on a bodyslam. Sid takes over. He mostly works the back. It's not very interesting because Sid is not a very interesting wrestler. But they do get something out of a Camel Clutch because HOG is good at selling and Sid had some good facial expressions. HOG makes his come back. The Saginaw, MI crowd is really into it. SLOP DROP! 1-2-NO! That scoundrel Dibiase pulled HOG off before the ref could make the 3 count. HOG gives chase leading to Sid taking over again. Dibiase would later trip Godwinn leading to a big air Sid leg drop. Teddy Wrestling’s cheating was well-timed and well-executed. Powerbomb finishes the HOG man

I wasn't 100% convinced Sid went over here because I remembered Sid doing some unexpected jobs around this time. Turns out I was probably thinking of the time he did the honors for Holly on a house show.

Postmatch sees Sid add insult to injury by "hog rolling" the HOG man out of the ring. OK, that was some good heel work. Oh no! Dibiase & Sid have the slop bucket. They're going to slop HOG when Bam Bam Bigelow makes the save. Heck yes!  That scoundrel Kama runs out to beat up BBB. Oh no! Now the MDC is about to slop Bigelow. But wait? HOG snatches the bucket from Dibiase and slops “The Million Dollar Man.” Hell yeah! HOG man! SOOEY~!

Verdict- Solid match, great postmatch. Good stuff all around. Henry Godwinn is undeniable at this point. Great seller. Good offense. Good size. Over with the crowd. This was the best total package of the 8 matches I watched for this binge, and that's taking into account THE Total Package is still to come! 

Lex Luger vs. Randy Savage w/ Elizabeth- WCW Souled Out 1/24/98

Real star-studded matchup here between two of the biggest names of the past decade+. Michael Buffer does the introductions, so you know it's a big match. NWO theme hits (BOO!) to herald the arrival of Savage. Luger's generic rock theme sounds like the background music to every DVD menu.

Not much to this one. Luger will get control. Then Miss Elizabeth will interfere. Luger gets distracted. Savage hits a Pearl Harbor Knee to take over. This happens a few times. Hogan & Hall wander out down the stretch. Commentary tells us Hall & Savage have had issues of late. Hall gets up on the apron. Luger reverses an irish whip. Savage ends up bumping into Hall. Luger Racks Mach for the insta-submission victory. Hell yeah! Flexy Lexy for the win. Suck it, ya NWO jerks!

BOO! NWO are sore losers so more members of the gang swarm Lex after the match. It's like 8 on 1 when STING runs out to a big pop. Sting then singlehandedly clears the ring with simple strikes and it's a bit too ridiculous even for this NWO hater. But the ending is cool when Sting puts Hogan in the Scorpion as Luger simultaneously Racks Nash to send the fans home happy. It's always nice to see two of the biggest jerks in wrestling get their comeuppance.

Verdict- More feel good moment(s) than match. The whole shebang would have made a great Nitro closer. Unfortunately, this was the PPV main which means it must be held to a higher standard. It's cool to send the fans home happy. Especially since WCW so rarely did during this period. But the match was like a *1/2 affair that only went about 7 minutes and even this sports entertainment leaning McMahonist wants more from a main event. 

Headshrinkers (c) w/ Afa & Lou Albano vs. Yokozuna & Crush w/ Fuji & Cornette- King of the Ring 6/16/94- Tag Title Match

Going into this show I figured Yoko & Crush were a lock to take the tag titles. Yoko was a former WWF Champ already stagnating in the midcard while Crush had been flirting with upper midcard status for a long time. Figured crowning them tag champs would give them something to do for a while. Plus I just wasn't a Headshrinkers guy...

I didn't even care enough to be a Headshrinkers hater. They were just blah. Face or heel, they inspired apathy in me. The Samoan Savage gimmick did nothing for me. Probably needed blood to make that work, and 1994 WWF wasn't about that life. They didn't cut promos, and it took them over a year and a half to finally capture the Tag Titles. Meaning even in kayfabe they were mid. Pairing them with drunk uncles Afa & Albano certainly didn't help matters. Afa & Captain Lou reminded me of those burned-out crazies in the city who would hang around street corners shouting their pet issues at the normal passersby crossing over to the other side of the street because they're just trying to live their normal little lives without being harangued by the local nutjob squad.

I wasn't a Crush guy either and even Yoko, the one guy in this match I still kinda sorta liked, had fallen off hard since losing the title. It's safe to say June 1994 me couldn't have cared less about this match. Real bathroom break material.

Highlight was honestly drunk uncle Art on commentary. Jeez, imagine Art Donovan, Captain Lou, and Afa in the same segment. Feel like I lost a few brain cells just thinking about it. Yoko does a lot more here than he would a year later teaming with Owen. He takes like 5 bumps! OK, so 3 of them were the same 'through the ropes to the floor' bump, but at least he's still moving, still out there trying. Headshrinkers do their hard head schtick. I don't mind it once per match as it was a big part of their gimmick, but they just keep doing it. No selling actual moves to the head is taking an already bad joke too far. One of the 'Shrinkers hits a boss piledriver on Crush. Then Crush hits a real wimpy one on a 'Shrinker....and the 'Shrinker sells it? I guess their heads are selectively hard? Crush almost botches a superplex by inadvertently hitting the Austin Aries super brainbuster, but they somehow manage to save the 'Shrinkers life by turning it into a proper superplex at the last split second. We get a brief "USA" chant. Well, the 'Shrinkers were announced from "AMERICAN Samoa." Luger comes out to distract Crush as Crush recently did the coolest thing of his career by costing Luger a KOTR slot against Double J in a match I well-remember watching on my little black & white tv in my room. A 'Shrinker rolls Crush up off the distraction. I think this was supposed to be the finish, but it didn't come off well, so Crush wisely kicked out. Then the other 'Shrinker superkicks him barely on camera and pins for the win. Thank goodness this trainwreck is over, though I still wish the bad guys had won.

Verdict- Weakest match of this binge. * range. So why did I remember this one the most? Likely because it was the last one I watched.

Going to bury this here rather than the Official Smackdown thread because people are going gaga for WWE these days and for once I don't want to be That Guy.

Smackdown 4/5/24 was the first SD I watched in 4 1/2 years. It sucked. The matches sucked. The promos mostly sucked. Show was boring and poorly paced. There are way too many commercials. I don't like the set. I don't like the themes. I don't even like the way it's filmed. I don't get it, period. But then I only watch like 3 times a year and couldn't care less about most of these people.

*Logan Paul is out to good heat. His lackeys are looking for Orton & Owens in the empty stadium next door. Swerve! Owens & Orton were hiding under the ring. They hit their finishers on Logan Paul. Philadelphia rejoices. This was fine dumb sports entertainment.

*There was an angle where Rey's masked buddy got beat up by a mystery attacker. Carlito was there.

Electra w/ Andrade vs. Zelina w/ Rey was awful. After many minutes of watching a wrestling show with no wrestling, the first in ring action I see is forearm trading. Shoot me now. Zelina looked fresh out of wrestling school. Electra hit a Catatonic and..I think she won? Let's find out...Yep. Elektra won with a Baldo Bomb. Nicest thing I can say is at least it was short. 

*Another angle. Elektra's friends beat up Rey. Andrade turns on them to save Rey and offers to be his partner at Wrestlemania. Andrade is filling in for the guy who got attacked earlier. But wait! Carlito wanted to be Rey's partner. Ooh jealousy. I smell a 'Lito turn coming.

*Bianca, Jade & Naomi cut a promo on their Wrestlemania opponents. I think they're a new stable. This seemed to drag on forever. I'm already regretting my choice to watch 2024 Smackdown when there are Henry Godwinn matches just one click away. It ends with all 3 of them pointing at the sign.

New Catch Republic vs. Austin Theory & Other Lawler was another stinker. Theory & Lawler were Logan Paul's goofy lackeys from earlier. New Catch Republic do a bunch of goofy ass CHIKARA offense. Stuff happens and once again I don't even remember who won. Let's find out… It was New Catch Republic with the *sigh* Birminghammer. D'oh. And Lawler is actually Waller. Now I feel used and abused.

*Judgment Day beats up all 4 guys after the match. This was cool because it meant a DIRTY DOM sighting. He has a world class mullet and hit a Frog Splash.

*Very long video package recapping Bayley's feud with... *checking again* Iyo Sky. They'll be fighting at 'Mania.

*LA Knight promo. Automatic win. He's facing AJ Styles at 'Mania. This was the best part of the show. And it wasn't even that great. LA better win at WM.

Jey Uso vs. Solo Sikoa- Hopefully I can finally remember which Uso is which now that one is good and the other bad. Just need to remember "Jey=Good, Jimmy=Bad." Sikoa is unintentionally hilarious because he's a chubby 250 pounder they're pushing as a monster heel so he no sells everything like he's 6 inches taller and 50 pounds heavier. There are superkicks and lousy strikes all over the place until Solo gets DQed when Bad Uso Jimmy interferes. Solo & Jimmy beatdown Jey until Cody & Seth run in for the save. They run Sikoa off and whip Jimmy a time or two with Cody's belt so Jey can hit the Superfly Splash. Cody cuts a promo and that's that. TIL Solo Sikoa is the Usos younger brother. So that's interesting. At some point Cole calls Uso vs. Uso "a battle of yeet vs. no yeet" and I am obviously Team No Yeet. That means I have to root for Jimmy even if he is the bad guy.

*Oh, and there was another promo segment where some guy dropped a bunch of insider terminology on Lashley. Too lazy to look up this guy's name, but they'll be fighting at 'Mania as well.

Verdict- I have never felt more like a grumpy old wrestling fan than I do right now. Think of all the ground THAT covers. I've been a grumpy old wrestling fan for 15 years! I thought this show was awful. None of the 3 matches I saw were over *. All 3 matches had similar post-match shenanigans. It honestly made me not even want to check out 'Mania over the next two days. But people are loving this stuff! I don't get it.

I'm sure I'll tune in for LA Knight, Dirty Dom, and I am curious to see what happens in the main events, but there's a good chance I zone out during the rest of it.

This was a filler show.

If you were to tell me and my little brother in 94-95-96 that there would be a Ken Shamrock vs British Bulldog match we would have shat our pants, that would have been like an ultimate dream match, the fact that they pulled it off and made it about smearing dog food in each others faces is exhibit A. that 97 Shamrock was one of the biggest balls WWE ever dropped in their history.

Apr 7, 2024 3:36:12 GMT Baker said:

Going to bury this here rather than the Official Smackdown thread because people are going gaga for WWE these days and for once I don't want to be That Guy.

On one hand you couldn't have picked a worse show. On the other it wasn't like the show was a huge departure from what they usually put on.

The big difference between now and four and a half years ago is that they have stars. All the guys that they were pushing a decade ago have grown into their roles and the crowds have turned out in droves. It was like AEW weeded out all the hardcore fans, so the WWE are free to lay everything out organically and deliver on all their big PPVs.

Still, all this talk of a brand Attitude era feels premature. If anything Wrestlemania IL feels like Wrestlemania X-7 and once they start shifting gears from The Bloodline I question whether they can top themselves.

Apr 2, 2024 2:12:01 GMT Baker said:

Match also gave us what had to be one of the last appearances of the all time great JR/Vince/Lawler commentary trio. Interesting to note they were already referring to what Shamrock did as "Mixed Martial Arts." I don't remember hearing that term until the early-mid 2000s. Before then it was either "UFC" or "real fighting" here in these parts.

Interesting for sure that you pointed that out, I believe that was a brand spanking new term at that time and it took years for it to really set in as the name for that sport. I remember still calling it NHB until like 2008

Wrestlemania XL Matches I Watched

Jey Uso vs. Jimmy Uso was shockingly bad considering the year(s?) of build. It was slow mo swing dance wrestling with superkick spam. Literally the worst. Jey is the good guy. He went over with a Superfly Splash. But I was rooting for bad guy Jimmy just because Jey's whole thing is "yeet" and I am not a teenager on Tiktok. Going to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume one was injured. Even if true I've seen enough Usos (3 matches in a year lol) to conclude they were waaaaay better as a midcard babyface tag team a decade ago. Main event Usos are decidedly not for me.

Jade/Bianca/Naomi vs. Damage Control was a solid midcard match. That sounds like lukewarm praise, but I actually mean it as a compliment. It was what it should have been. Bad girls got heat on weak link Naomi. She made the hot tag to Bianca who hit her cool offense. Then they got heat on her for a minute or two before she made another hot tag to next big thing Jade who subsequently cleaned house and scored the clean pin. This whole thing was well booked, smartly laid out, and they wrestled appropriately for their spot on the card. Jade & Bianca are going to make the company a lot of money either as partners or opponents. Preferably both. 

Gunther vs. Sami Zayn was a mixed bag. walter is the best offensive wrestler I've seen over the past 5-6 years and he really does give off ring general vibes. But I was disheartened to see even medium walt succumb to the dumbest tropes of the day, like selling back-to-back half nelson suplexes by immediately hitting a clothesline. Ugh. Plus I totally called Zayn's victory once he survived a sleeper/powerbomb sequence, and the camera kept focusing on his family in the crowd. They just laid it on a little too thick for my liking. Overall walt held the belt 213 days too long and I've never been a Sami Generico guy. Final Thoughts: HTM > WALTER > Gunther > Zayn.
==============
Drew McIntyre vs. Seth Rollins- Seth's mummers entrance was a nice deep cut ECW reference. Drew grew on me during the last two Rumbles and now he hates CM Punk so he's officially a Baker Guy. Match sucked a big one though. It was a 10 minute button mashing finisherfest. Or as I wrote in the Official WM thread "Nuclear Bomb Drops. 2.9 kickout. This Is Awesome chant." Hogan/Warrior really is the most influential match of all time. Every big Wrestlemania match takes inspiration from that true classic. Only with regular Joe ham and eggers in place of larger than life superheroes. Oh well. Drew won Seth's bogus title after hitting his 7th finisher of the match. But I can forgive this dumb dumb match more than the dumb dumb Usos match because Drew kept being a dick to Punk on commentary. Hell yeah! Speaking of cool wrestlers who won me over in Rumbles, where was Nia Jax on this card?

The Philadelphia Screwjob-  Stupid Cry More Punk hit my man McIntyre with two cheap shots like the low class good for nothing scoundrel he is as Drew was celebrating his hard-fought victory. PW's least favorite modern WWE superstar Damien Priest then cashed in his MITB to steal the title from poor Drew in a travesty of justice on par with Montreal. Drew McIntyre is now the biggest non-LA Knight babyface in the company for me. Will watch when Drew ends CM Puke once and for all. Somebody tag me when that match happens.

Lashley's Team vs. Other Team was dumb hardcore fun even if 5 of the 6 guys gave off real Sunday Night Heat vibes. Bubba Ray was special guest ref. Always nice to see him. Snoop was fun on commentary. It was sloppy, and predictably more a WWF Hardcore match than a true ECW bloodbath, but stuff that was set up early paid off late, and the crowd enjoyed it. Similar to the 6 woman tag from the previous night, it was fine as a midcard match that knew its role. No complaints.

LA Knight vs. AJ Styles was MOTW for me. Styles worked Knight's leg and played the heel role well. Knight definitely has enough flash to headline. That pop up super round and round German was sweet.  *** minimum. I won't argue if you want to give it another * for the right finish (LA Knight going over) and yet another * for the first finisher hit actually ending the match. That's a miracle in and of itself. So anywhere from ***-***** works for me. YEAH! 

*There was an insanely long gap between matches here. Swear it was like 20-30 minutes. I got bored. Would have watched more had the pacing of this show not been so poor.

Logan Paul vs. Randy Orton vs. Kevin Owens was a better mixed bag than Gunther/Zayn from Night One. First half ruled hard. Paul, a natural, played the heel role to perfection while Owens & Orton were fabulous as cheeky bro babyfaces one upping each other at Logan's expense before their inevitable falling out over who would score the pin. Double O would make a great tag team. Would watch them in a buddy comedy. 2020s "just happy to be here" babyface Orton is soooo much better than overrated 2000s heel Orton. Unfortunately, it fell apart during the second half as all my least favorite modern wrestling tropes reared their ugly head. We had finisher kickouts and even brass knucks kickouts (after a great Orton sell) in a 3 Way. The beauty of multi-matches is one guy can sell for ages on the floor before swooping in to make those last second 2.9 saves. But they're not even bothering with protecting finishers anymore. Then some "famous streamer" (I'm too old for this nonsense) who was dressed up as Logan Paul's drink bottle mascot (again, too old for this crap) saved Logan from an Orton punt before unmasking, and he too came off as a natural heel before Orton ended him in amusing fashion. Logan then retained his US Title by swooping in for the pin. First half was **** fun but the second half was more like **.

Wrestlemania Matches Ranked

1. LA Knight vs. AJ Styles
2. Logan Paul vs. Orton vs. Owens
3. 6 Woman Tag
4. 6 Man Tag
5. Zayn vs. Gunther
6. Drew vs. Seth
7. Uso vs. Uso

Been on a 2000s kick this week with a bunch of average **1/2 type matches.

Christian Cage vs. Alex Shelley- TNA Impact 5/4/06

Christian is NWA Champion, but this is non-title, and Abyss has stolen the physical belt. Shelley is an evil camera man which somehow worked despite looking awful on paper. I was a big fan of his during the mid 2000s and he immediately justifies my faith in him by holding up the Embassy diamond. These two have heat over Shelley filming something to do with Christian's wife. It worked as an old school Main Eventer vs. Midcarder 8 minute tv main event. Shelley got enough offense to look credible in defeat. He mainly worked Double C's neck. Low point was Christian doing some poor man's Rock mic work leading to the commercial break. CC would ultimately prevail with a rather anticlimactic Unprettier. 

Kid Kash w/ Abyss vs. Jerry Lynn- TNA Weekly PPV 7/9/03

Lynn finally won me over in 2003 TNA as the elder statesman of the X Division while Kash hit his career peak as a great sleazeball heel. This match was pretty sloppy and featured some awful refereeing though. It was basically Lynn in a de facto handicap match against Kash & Abyss. Mr. JL could just barely hang in there during the 1 on 2 situation, but the numbers game proved too much when that scoundrel Justin Credible showed up around the 7 minute mark with a Singapore Cane shot to Lynn's dome. Kash then rolled into an Owen Hart Pin for the cheap win. Kash showed more personality and more flash than Lynn which only furthers my belief in Kash > Lynn as an overall talent. Under **.

Jimmy Rave w/ Prince Nana & Jade Chung vs. Matt Sydal- ROH The Final Showdown 5/13/05

Punk & Ace Steel (BOO!) are still in the ring following a previous match when your hero and mine Prince Nana eviscerates stupid CM Puke on the mic. Hell yeah! Give him the business, Prince! Our other hero Jimmy Rave jumps Cry More from behind. Unfortunately, that jabrone Sydal ruins all the fun by making the save. Boo! Rave could have ended CM Punk right then and there so now I have to hate on Sydal as well for forcing the wrestling world to put up with Controversy Magnet Puke for another 19 years. Thanks a lot, Evan. Punk's jobber students and some local guys serving as one off Embassy members get involved so Sydal has a bunch of bodies to cushion the fall on his big dive. It was so transparent.

Match is one of those standard 21st Century "first half good, last half bad" bouts. Rave is great working over Sydal's midsection and getting heat. Nana is gold on the floor. Crowd is involved. But chickenshit heel Rave survived waaaay too much down the stretch. Sydal hit both his finishers- the Convoluted Driver and Moonsault Belly To Belly. Rave, the cowardly heel, kicked out of both. Ugh. Finish ruled though. Rave kept going for the Rave Clash. Sydal kept escaping until one escape left him vulnerable to a killshot knee strike. That hit and now Sydal was easy prey for the dreaded Rave Clash.  Match worked in elevating Sydal in defeat while still keeping Rave strong for his big showdown with Punk the next night, but I could have done without all Matt's kickouts in this 12-13 minute encounter.

Alex Shelley vs. 2 Cold Scorpio vs. Ace Steel vs. Jay Lethal- ROH Testing The Limit 8/7/04

Saw this one live but don't remember anything beyond Scorp's involvement and 2 Cold putting Lethal over after the match. The latter allegedly being an unplanned spot. Scorp was just THAT impressed by Lethal according to the official ROH line in 2004. I remembered so little about this match that I thought Colt Cabana was in it lol. I do remember Colt calling Scorpio his all time favorite and getting to wrestle him somewhere around this time. Scorp looks old from the neck up, but still wrestles young. Shelley stands out as the lone heel. He has beef with Lethal over Jay rejecting Shelley's offer to join Gen Next. Lethal was a really good up and coming babyface around this time. Scorp wrestles smart, playing the others against one another. Ace Steel...is there. Shelley steals it after hitting Shell Shock on Lethal around the 15 minute mark. Prazak & Punk, maybe my least favorite commentary team of all time, were actually alright here as they stuck to calling the match, and did a good job of keeping their natural obnoxiousness in check. Average match.

Victoria (c) vs. Trish Stratus- Raw 11/25/02- Women's Championship Match

This was the first WWF women's feud I ever cared about. I was a Victoria Guy. She had just won the Women's Title from Trish a few weeks earlier at Survivor Series. I was a Trish respecter. She tried a lot harder than she needed too to become Officially Good. But I honestly never thought she was anything that special. Feel like my view was the general consensus when I left the IWC for a few years. Then I come back to a lot of "Trish is one of the all time greats!" chatter and I was like "wtf? when did this happen?" I bring this up because Trish ruled in this match with excellent selling and legit great bumping and now I'm thinking "maybe Trish really is an all time great?" But Victoria doesn't care about Trish's legacy! And ends up wasting her with an awesome Widow's Peak around the 8 minute mark (long for a 2002 women's tv match) for the surprising clean as a sheet heel win. Victoria got a busted lip during the match and would use said bloody lip in biting Stevie Richards' ear at the top of the ramp. Victoria ruled. 

Robert Roode w/ Traci Brooks vs. Jeff Jarrett- TNA Sacrifice 5/13/07

Jeff Jarrett as a white meat babyface! Hell yeah! JJ getting cheered by the TNA crowd after....everything is proof of his greatness. Never thought I'd see the day when the TNA faithful would cheer Double J, but my man pulled it off. Absolute legend. Remember this match happening back in the day. I was even hyped for it. But I think this is my first time actually seeing it.

Roode is real average. Best thing he ever did was have that Glorious theme. He basically wrestles this match as Jarrett by using a bunch of his moves and tricks. That, coupled with the hot pro-Jarrett crowd, Traci's well-timed interference, and Jeff Jarrett's white meat babyface fire are enough for ***. That scoundrel Roode gets the biggest win of his career up to this point after a series of nearfalls by bumping Jarrett's head into a turnbuckle that had been exposed minutes earlier and following it up with a Perfectplex (called as such by the great Don West) around the 13 minute mark. BOO! Post-match sees JJ and his new buddy Eric Young save face by locking Roode & Brooks in stereo Figure Fours to a big pop. YAY!

Scott Steiner vs. Hugh Morrus- WCW Thunder 2/21/01

Remember reading about Hugh Morrus finally getting a push as a respected veteran babyface in dying day WCW. I was happy to hear about it and rooted for him from afar. It's weird what stuck with me during those 4.5 years keeping one eye on the Evil Empire without daring to watch. I no sold countless NWO moments. Basically any time they weren't getting humiliated. But a throwaway Hugh Morrus push when everybody had stopped caring stuck with me for 23 years. TIL Hugh Morrus had his own shirt. Nice. Wonder if anybody actually bought Hugh Morrus merch? I certainly hope so.

Know who I was NOT rooting for? Stupid head case and locker room cancer Scott Steiner from joining the NWO on. Let's go Hugh! This is non-title. They ran an angle earlier in the night where both Steiners tried jumping Morris only to be foiled when all the undercard faces came out to back up their beloved mentor. Aww how sweet.

Steiner scores early with a big powerbomb and later hits a nice Chuck Deluxe. But he mostly works Hugh over with punches and chops that look pretty crummy because his arms don't bend right due to him being so insanely jacked. Scotty does heel on the crowd well. I'll give him that. But the match is a snoozer until Hugh scores with a sick German Suplex more reminiscent of Steiner's own glory days than one of those sawft Germans you'd see in same era WWF. Huge then hits a big flying elbow 2/3 of the way across the ring. He's going for the killshot with his "No Laughing Matter" Moonsault when Steiner moves Super belly to belly and Camel Clutch follow for the win. The Clutch looked awful and the ref instantly went into the arm raise deal rather than just having Hugh submit. It's 2001. There's no need to protect Hugh Morrus. He can cleanly tap to a dominant heel champ. Last few minutes bumped this up to decent. Both big boys hit some bombs. You could get a good highlight package out of this.

Rick Steiner, looking rough- think a young Balls Mahoney, joins his brother after the match. They're looking to end Hugh once and for all with a pipe shot when Steiner's next PPV opponent, DDP, makes the save. Assuming this led to a Steiners vs. DDP & Hugh match on the next Nitro.

Tyler Black & Jimmy Jacobs (c) vs. El Generico & Kevin Steen- ROH Driven 9/19/08- Tag Title Match

January 2006 was the last full ROH show I saw for many years. I still followed them pretty closely online for another year or two but was deeply checked out by the time this match took place. Crazy to think three of these guys would have prominent roles at Wrestlemania 16 years later. Nobody could have predicted that. Including Black, Steen & Generico! Looking at this through 2008 eyes, only Black strikes me as a potential WWE signing. Wrestling is wild, man. Black & Jacobs have been tag champs for a while with Steen & Generico as a perennial thorn in their side. Steen has promised he would win championship gold before 2008 was over. Thanks for the backstory, commentary.

This was a good match bolstered by a great Boston crowd who were deeply invested in seeing the good guys dethrone the bad guys. Steen & Generico got to shine early. Age of the Fall took over when Black bodyslammed Generico from the ring to the floor. Then we went into a long finishing stretch of big moves, timely saves, and high drama as the crowd reached a fever pitch. The Canadians finally dethroned the bad guys when Steen hit a package piledriver on Jacobs and rolled him into a Generico Brainbuster. Now THAT's a finish. I could nitpick it. Jacobs' sore back stopped being a thing halfway through. There was probably one false finish too many. Timing was a little off here and there. But I wouldn't argue if I saw somebody go **** on this. Good stuff!

Chris Jericho vs. Ricky Steamboat- Backlash 4/26/09

Watched this a day or two after it happened on Youtube. Remember liking it a lot. Was happy to see Steamboat back and Jericho was just killing it in the midst of his career peak which began with the Michaels feud in mid 2008. Funny thing is I was far more into old man Steamboat than I had ever been with regard to young man Steamboat. Making up for a wasted youth, brother. Also wild to think more time has passed from this match to today than Steamboat's previous last match in '94 to this match. Time really has sped up.  Anyway, let's see if it holds up. 

Yeah. Didn't think it was going to get there, but it did. Jericho showed no emotion on his way to the ring to take on a known idol of his. Like I said, he was killing during this period. Steamboat's ugly bald spot added to story of his old man-ness. A lesser man would have hidden it with a head shave or even tried a combover. But ultimate babyface Steamboat had no vanity so he goes out there with multiple bald patches in his head. 

Crowd was surprisingly dead early. You could have heard a pin drop. And it wasn't for a lack of effort. Steamboat hit his arm drags, skinned the cat, and even hit a dive. Jericho tried to get them involved with trash talk and jawing with the ref. But nothing. Crowd just wasn't buying it. Which made it all the more impressive when they DID get this awful crowd into it down the stretch. Steamboat hit a bonkers back superplex and got 2.9 off his patented crossbody. Jericho caught Steamboat coming off the top with a Codebreaker for 2.9. Steamboat got one last hope spot by recycling the old small package off a bodyslam from the Flair & Savage matches for 2.9 before Jericho finally put him away with the Walls. Steamboat did awkwardly bumble his way to an attempted Figure Four, but this was a lot of fun. Put a smile on my face. Must see for fans of either guy. Over ***.

Rey Mysterio (c) vs. Tajiri- Smackdown 9/25/03- Cruiserweight Title Match

This match seemed familiar, and it turns out I reviewed it a few years back for a Smackdown project that never went anywhere. So this will be a quickie. It was good as you'd expect from these two. Tajiri displayed his stellar charisma and directed his usual cool offense towards Rey's midsection. There was even some neat mist psychology. I'm a 619 hater but you can't deny it's overness. Philly popped big for it here. Finish was a bit contrived though. They didn't need a ref bump and more referee shenanigans before Tajiri got the win with mist + kick to become the new Cruiserweight Champ. Still, 10 good minutes out of 11 is nothing to sneeze at. *** or more.

Buff Bagwell & Kronik vs. Shane Douglas/Chris Candido/Bam Bam Bigelow- Nitro 6/19/00

Who knew the Triple Threat were together in WCW?  Triple Threat is Shane's backup, so Buff hired Kronik to counter them. Candido's arm is in a sling (again), and he never officially tagged in, so I assume it was a shoot injury. Dude always seemed to have a sore arm. Chris Candido: turn of the century Bob Orton. Bigelow is mentally checked out if his gear is anything to go by. He wears a black shirt and indyriffic baggy pants. No flames in sight. Honestly looked like a bum who stumbled into the ring. Looked pretty washed as a wrestler, too. Crush out there borrowing Crow Sting's hair. He even resembles a stretched out, facepaint-free Crow Sting. Adams had more different looks than Barry Darsow. Franchise's pre-match mic work is annoying as ever, but did get him heat. Crowd chanted "Franchise Sucks" for much of the match. For 30 years I was anti-Bagwell. Best thing about him was the American Males theme. But I'm finally coming around on the Buffster. Dude was over from 97-00. And the last 3 of those times I've seen have been Buff as a babyface. I don't get it, but there's lots of stuff I don't get. Ears don't lie and I can no longer deny Buff's overness. 

Match isn't much though. Main issue is between Buff & Douglas. They tease more than wrestle. Which is fine! That's what PPV is for. Shane hits a real lousy Three Amigos. Kronik hits a nice double chokeslam on BBB and Adams press slams Shane. Candido only comes in once (illegally) to whack Buff with his sling. But our guy Buff survives the onslaught and comes back to finish Bigelow with the Blockbuster. Finish seemed a wee bit off. Under ** but Buff & Shane were good in their respective face/heel roles.

Kofi Kingston vs. Shelton Benjamin- WWECW 6/24/08- Extreme Rules Match

Kofi is in that category with Cody, Natalya, Bellas (and others) in that I only have the vaguest idea of when they debuted "sometime in the late 2000s". Turns out the answers are January 08, July 07, April 08, and August-September 08. Actually, you could probably extend that vagary back to like 03-05 in most cases. Anyway, I never had a strong opinion on Kofi one way or the other. He was...fine...average...just there. Shelton I was a big fan of from 03-05, but an ill-fated heel turn, and lack of in ring and character progression caused me to lose interest as he stagnated. Yet I remember this match being a good one. Also remember it being the first time I saw something in Kofi. Shelton is now an angry veteran heel and Kofi the young up and coming babyface. I assume this was a feud given the stip. Let's see if it holds up...

Eh, not really. First minute and a half ruled as they came out fast and furious the way one should for a grudge match. And the last minute and a half with Kofi constantly whacking Shelton in the head with trashcan lids before winning with the old Bob Boone Jr. extra rotation Spinkick was also fun. But the 5 minutes in between the hot start and fun finish were pretty snoozy. It was mostly Shelton pulling plunder from underneath the ring and being boring on offense. **-**1/2 range.

Fun Fact: Just found out Mike Knox vs. Evan Bourne followed this. That match is notable for being THE match to get me on the Knox bandwagon. Before that he was boring as a Basham. So, all in all, this has to go down as a good episode of WWECW tv.

Apr 17, 2024 2:39:42 GMT Baker said:

Buff Bagwell & Kronik vs. Shane Douglas/Chris Candido/Bam Bam Bigelow- Nitro 6/19/00

Who knew the Triple Threat were together in WCW? 

You better believe that I did. It was clear from the start that it was going to be bad. A shell of its former self, which could only work in ECW, anyway. 

Shane got a Flair match, a gift spot in The Revolution (where everyone was over except him) and a Triple Threat reunion in WCW. And he was bad in all of it. It was a bummer. Really gave credence to the Shane haters that would reduce his ECW run as "Nothing special, just allowed to curse." 

*A week or two ago I revisited an era that I barely visited the first time around. I made a half-hearted attempt to get back into modern wrestling when I joined PW in November 2012. It didn't really take, but I did enjoy a handful of guys. Today I will cover most of the wrestlers I enjoyed during that blah period.

Ryback vs. Dolph Ziggler- Main Event 10/24/12

Ryback was basically the poster boy for the type of wrestler I couldn't stand during the 87-09 glory days of my wrestling fandom. Overpushed musclemen babyfaces were the worst. But Ryback actually stood out as something special in an era of shrunken wrestlers and 50/50 booking. Even though he represented the worst part of a better era, at least he reminded one of said better era. He just worked for me as a throwback. Think an updated, poor man's Goldberg. It was easy to picture him at the top of the card during the 80s & 90s.

Dolph came to WWE right around the time I tapped out. Despite a fun debut vs. Batista (the only 08-09 Dolph match I remember) I immediately dismissed him because his name was Dolph Ziggler. Can't blame me for that. But he too hit the spot when I joined PW. He wore his influences (HBK, Perfect, Billy Gunn*) on his sleeve, and they were good influences. Plus the most annoying people on PW at the time pooh poohed him because...he took awesome bumps. I swear this happened! That's right up there with "Christopher Daniels doesn't botch enough" and "Edge never worked the minors/only succeeded in big time wrestling" when it comes to the most idiotic wrestler criticisms I ever encountered.

Match isn't much though. And the pre-match promos even worse. Despite Dolph holding MITB it's just a basic squash stretched out to 6-7 minutes. Ryback was challenging Punk for the title at the upcoming PPV so I can only assume that's why they put him over so thoroughly here. Dolph bumped big. Crowd was into it with "Feed Me More" chants. But Dolph's Zbyszkoing was half-hearted, and I wanted a more competitive match. Ryback wins with his garbage Muscle Buster, which is just a glorified Samoan Drop. One star. Skip it.

*Dolph openly being a Billy Gunn fanboy was a ballsy move. Billy was hated by the IWC for the entire 2000s. Yet Dolph was out there channeling his inner Mr. Ass. Really think Ziggler deserves at least a little credit for the reappraisal Billy underwent during the 2010s and beyond. 

Cody Rhodes vs. Damien Sandow- Summerslam 8/18/13

Sandow was right up my alley as an updated take on The Genius and Cody was his mustache-wearing Jannetty in a tag team awesomely dubbed "the Rhodes Scholars." They had a falling out over Sandow winning MITB. Cody is now a babyface sans mustache.

Sandow does some real lame pre-match mic work. Gist of it being Holmes & Watson are for tru intellectuals while Batman & Robin are for the rubes. Problem is Holmes & Watson are as mainstream as it gets. I mean at least go with Poirot & Hastings if you're going to do the "intellectual snob" gimmick. That's like the bare minimum. Rosencrantz & Guildenstern would be better still. Idk. Sandow had a habit of doing stuff like this. Great idea, but the execution wasn't always there. He was certainly no Lanny Poffo. I'm not even sure he was on par with Dean Douglas. His Alleluia theme never worked for me either.

Same goes for this match. It was like they were shaping up to go 10+ only to abruptly get the call to go home around the 7 minute mark when Cody anticlimactically hit Crossroads on his first attempt for the win. Sandow was boring on offense. Cody had a nice fiery babyface comeback and generated some good crowd support. Maybe I really did misread these guys back in the day when I had Sandow pegged as a career upper midcarder and thought Cody's ceiling was a lifelong Jannetty. ** if I'm being generous.

Bully Ray vs. James Storm- TNA No Surrender 9/9/12- Bound For Glory Series Match

Bully Ray was the best ring general I saw during this era. He was feeling it every time out. Dude was a real master manipulator who had the crowd in the palm of his hand. Which us old ECW fans already knew. AJ Styles & Austin Aries are well-known great wrestlers, but I swear it was Bully carrying them in those matches. James Storm was a guy I liked a lot in the 2000s who would have had some residual good will left over. This is a match 2012-13 me would have sought out....and maybe I did early in my PW career? But if so, I do not remember.

First half ruled with Bubba ring generaling it up like a champ. Real solid Zbyszkoing from my favorite Dudley. Storm kept one upping him and Bubba would get more and more frustrated. Classic pro wrestling goodness. But then it degenerated into 50/50 filth and the finish was even worse with three ref bumps and Bobby Roode breaking a beer bottle of Storm's head to give Bubba the cheap win. This 14 minute match was slightly better than Cody/Sandow due to the fun opening minutes.

Briscoes vs. War Machine- ROH tv 8/30/14

Briscoes are ROH legends and longtime 6/10-7/10 "pretty cool" types. War Machine are two big, bearded brutes named Hanson & Rowe. Hanson in particular just HIT for me the same way Mike Knox had 5 years earlier. A year later I had grown tired of Hanson and actually came to prefer Rowe, but Hanson was my guy for a hot minute there in 2014. 

We get a pre-match Briscoes promo and those always rule because, to borrow from Hank Hill, those boys ain't right. Unfortunately, this is the 4th disappointment in a rowe (see what I did there?). It's just a basic, run of the mill brawl that went to a draw when the ref lost control around the 8 minute mark. Forearms were hit. Many beards were seen. Briscoes had one nice double team and one of them got put through a table with a Rock Bottom off the apron in a cool post-match spot. But this was yet another match that didn't live up to its on paper promise.

Haven't been in much of a wrestling mood of late but I did scroll through a bunch of Mike Enos WCW matches, watched a bad Godiva vs. Ninotchka match from GLOW, and a blah Bill & Jamie Dundee vs. Brickhouse Brown & Sean Venom bout from November 1996 USWA. Sean Venom is the reason I decided to make this post. Let's talk about him for a minute...

He didn't stick around for long. He doesn't even have a Cagematch profile! But he got over with my brother and I (mostly him tbh) because of an Apter Mag blurb and/or pic. See, his whole deal was he brought a snake to the ring. Naturally my brother and I thought "next Jake Roberts!" But that meant more to my brother than it did to me so it would be my brother who used Venom in his (SMW) wrestling figure league where he became a solid midcard player for the next year or so as a Jake the Snake clone.

Venom has that stereotypical mid 90s indie look- undersized with a greasy mullet. Even his snake seemed lifeless! One of the commenters said it died shortly thereafter. Its corpse was then used on tv. Vintage USWA. He has a match with Lawler up on the 'tube but I'm not in the mood right now. Maybe some other time.

I had a random Rings DVD going from 1992 from my collection yesterday, I believe August 1992 show. It's really interesting how quickly this promotion improved from it's first few shows in 1991, this show was way more stiff and more intense than the 91 Rings shows I have. Some of the stiffness and realism in this show was on the level of the Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi shows that I LOVED from 91(my favorite of the Shoot style feds I got into there from 91-92 pre-UFC).

Also always will be fascinated by how interconnected it all was. You had a kickboxing bout on this card with Masate Sataake vs Rob Kaman where they were really going at it, so you were witnessing K-1 being born within Rings here it would launch a year later out of these bouts in 1993, that was the connection was the Rings pipeline to the Dutch kickboxing heavyweights that changed the sport in the 90's in K-1(which became the NFL of kickboxing and was huge maybe even bigger than Pride FC, which was a cultural phenomenon in Japan).

Also really fascinates me how the crowd reacts on this show and some other 1992 Rings DVD shows I have. Guys like Andrei Kopylov and Volk Han are fucking massively over and keep huge arena crowds white hot with the most basic of submission spots/psychology and this is pre-UFC, there is no such thing as MMA yet, fascinating crowds that gives these shows a dream like surreal atmosphere. It's crazy there was ever a time when things were like this when real wrestling was this big of a deal, love these shows for that the most. I need to complete my collection I'd like to have all the Rings shows, I have all of 1991-1992. Really interesting to see how quickly Rings evolved into what it did in 1992 from where it started with those 1991 shows, it was major league by 92 for sure. 

Getting back in the mood a little bit. Watched 4 matches over the past few days. 2 I'll write about today and the other 2 I'll save for when/if the latest fanfic draft cards finally get posted for synergy's sake.

Stan Hansen (c) vs. Sgt. Slaughter- AWA March 1986- AWA Championship Boot Camp or Bunkhouse Match

At least once a year for the past decade I've thought about doing a Saving the AWA fanfic project. I always end up wimping out. There are many reasons for this. Laziness being foremost among them, but one of those lesser reasons is a pesky internal head vs. heart debate. My heart wants to go with Zbyszko as the long-term heel champ while my head knows Slaughter on top is the logical thing to do. Truth is Sarge is the only guy AWA had who would have brought in that all important Hogan Demographic. Not most of it. Or even much of it. But SOME of it. And AWA needed all the help they could get. It's been discussed here before. I knew who Sgt. Slaughter was before I knew he was a wrestler. And I wasn't even a big GI Joe guy! It was the same with kashdinero iirc. We're kind of stuck with Martel in 84-85. Sarge wasn't around when he got the belt. But I'm definitely giving Sarge the title over Bock, Hansen, and even Hennig. Ideally, you'd use Stan to transition from Martel to big money Sarge. Am I saying Sarge should have won the title from Hansen here? You betcha.

This is a high octane 6-7 minute brawl between two 300-pound bulls. The selling is really good! But, though no fault of the wrestlers, the match still doesn't work for me. Because it fails as an actual production. This is from a big arena house show (likely Minneapolis or St. Paul). It's shot with a single hard cam roughly a mile away from a ring which appears to be lit by a single candle. Commentary is dubbed in Japanese which provides the double whammy of me not being able to understand what is being said and causes whatever crowd heat there may have been to be lost. So, we're left with wrestling in a vacuum. I totally no sold all pandemic wrestling for just that very reason. There's a boot shot and a posting so I'm sure both guys bled, but we'll never know for sure since the camera was roughly one mile away from a ring seemingly lit by a single candle. And whether Bootcamp or Bunkhouse (sources differ), this No DQ Match ends in the lamest possible manner- a countout- when Hansen is knocked out of the ring and lands on a 'table.' OK, I assume it's a table, but it actually looks like Hansen is floating at ringside because the production quality is just that bad.

Verdict- Match was fine, I guess. I dunno. Probably. It's honestly hard to say. Point is the production quality was such a DUD that it brings down the whole....production. AWA deserved to die. This was my least favorite of the 4 matches I watched during the past few days. Yet it's also the only one to receive a 4* rating from anyone.

Gangrel w/ Christian vs. Scorpio- Shotgun 10/24/98

Gangrel is still new enough to be getting pushed while Scorp is about to get the closest thing he had to a push in a long time by....joining the JOB Squad. I did make sure to write "the closest thing he had to a push...!"Can't say I remembered this match, but it's a great example of what I dug about 98-99 Shotgun in particular, and your 'lesser' B/C shows in general. In short, it's two hungry young guys trying to get noticed by giving it their all in an ultimately meaningless 4-5 minute match. You love to see it.

Gangrel turns into Taz for one night only. He breaks out this nifty Gangrel original...



Anybody know the name? Late 90s me jacked the Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex name for it, but now I know that's not its real name. Gangrel also broke out a Tiger Suplex and Superplex while including these slick little pop ups that popped the commenters. Scorp, never one to be outdone in actionfest, suplexed back with a German and belly to back, hit a beeyootiful moonsault for two, and made much use of his educated feet. A Christian distraction enabled Gangrel to hit the Impaler DDT for the win in this short and sweet encounter. Cornette and Kevin Kelly spent a lot of time on commentary hyping the upcoming Survivor Series tournament for the vacant WWF Championship.

Verdict- A fine way to spend a few minutes. The sort of thing that would have landed on a DVDVR deep cuts comp tape back in the day.

May 24, 2024 3:36:41 GMT Baker said:

Anybody know the name?

Double Underhook Belly To Belly Suplex.

Fun fact, the only other wrestler to use this move in Wrestlemania 2000 was Scott Taylor during his Too Hot era. Scotty would retain the move in the sequel No Mercy.

I wonder if there's any vision of Scotty hitting the move?

Big Pete don't remember Scotty doing the GangrelPlex and gave up after 10 minutes of failing to find video evidence. BUT the PumphandlePlex is a Scotty original that I always dug...



Too Much Scotty wasn't half bad. I should have left in his sweet Moonwalk into Christopher hug. Classic Too Much. But the less said about Too Cool Scotty, the better...
===========
Kofi Kanemoto & Shinjiro Otani w/ Sonny Ono vs. American Males- WCW Worldwide 12/2/95

The other day I listened to Scotty Riggs speak for roughly an hour and a half. Further proof I will listen to literally any 90s wrestler talk about 90s wrestling. Scotty had a rough go of it a few years back before getting his life back on track after hooking up with DDP and his organization. Good for him. I obviously had to watch an American Males match after listening to Scotty speak.

I stand by most of my 90s opinions. For every Leif or Dean Douglas who doesn't hold up all that well, there are a half dozen Borgas and Nortons who aged like fine wine. But I do have the occasional regret. One such regret is not being an American Males Guy. I did have the correct Buddy Landelesque reaction to their theme. From "lol this is terrible" to "Heck yes! *sings* American Males American Males American Males (repeat)" in two weeks. But the team itself still did nothing for me. Pretty boy babyfaces just weren't my thing.

Scotty's outfit here is a work of art. Males are wearing matching black & white singlets, but only Scotty is wearing is white jean shorts with said singlet. My God. What a look. I want to go back. 

Kanemoto & Otani can go. They were the #2 & #3 Juniors in New Japan and smark darlings, but they honestly look like the jobbiest jobbers to ever job. Both wear plain black boots. Otani is tall and thin. He wears tiny black trunks and goes with no kneepads. Kanemoto is short and thin. He wears black karate pants. Otani is the GOAT springboarder and a great heel. Kanemoto I've seen less of and have a hunch he's a poor man's Otani.

Schiavone and Heenan on commentary talk up the upcoming WCW vs. New Japan World Cup at Starrcade. Otani & Kanemoto will both be representing NJPW on that show.

This was a showcase for the Japanese team and not a very exciting one. Crowd knew it too as evidenced by their two or three phoned in "USA" chants. Riggs got to shine early. Hit a nice dropkick and later a flying forearm. Heels got heat on Bagwell. They didn't heel it up enough. Kanemoto totally no sold Bagwell's comeback attempt. No wonder Sabu called him a "no selling bitch" or something along those lines lol. Even Otani's usual 10/10 springboard dropkick was uncharacteristically off the mark. And it was weird to have the established Bagwell take the beating while noob Riggs landed most of the Males offense. Finish comes when Kanemoto hits a sweet moonsault on par with Scorp's from yesterday only to eschew the pin in favor of an unnecessary, and more boring, leglock for the submission win.

Verdict- Underwhelming match that did a poor job of accomplishing what it set out to do

Chinese Youtube coming through in a big way. They have a bunch of ECW & WCW up. Including 2 matches I've wanted to watch for years. Let's talk about them...

Ice Train vs. Shanghai Pierce w/ Tex Slazenger- WCW Fall Brawl 9/19/93

Can one rate a match 5* before watching it? Of course! But one shouldn't. This is a lesson I learned the hard way one week in August '96 when Benoit/Malenko and Michaels/Vader did not, in fact, turn out to be the two best matches of 1996. One of them wasn't even good! Shanghai is Henry Godwinn under a mask. The result is never in doubt. Train is the hot new prospect while Shanghai is one half of a midcard at best tag team. 

The Texicans theme is the purest Texas music I have ever heard. That should be the state anthem. They should crank it 24/7 at the state line. Neo Zeed get on this.

After all that hype, this is not a good match lol. It's a clunky and heatless 3-4 minute affair. Ice Train even looked like the clumsy, overly muscled, oafish greenhorn he had always been dismissed as by people with poor taste. There's one especially bad moment where Train runs the ropes terribly and sells a clothesline to the back of the head even worse. Real amateur hour stuff. HOG was a huge dude. He has a few inches on Train while being just as wide. Finish job comes when Train bulls through an attempted double team bullrope clothesline, leading to a cartoonish Texican collision, and Train capitalizing with a mediocre powerslam on Shanghai for the win.

Verdict- Under *. NOT worth the 28 year wait to watch since discovering its existence in the 1996 PWI Almanac. Oh well. Can't win 'em all.

Tommy Dreamer & Sandman (& Spike Dudley) w/ Beulah vs. Dudley Boys w/ Entourage- ECW Wrestlepalooza 5/3/98

The Dudleys were not an instant hit with me. The Apter Mags (accurately!) portrayed them as an undercard joke in '96. The Eliminators made quick work of the Duds the first time I saw them at Barely Legal. We're now a year beyond that and the Dudleys are "credible" only by being the last "real" team standing. Basically, the old 1995 Smoking Gunns/Harlem Heat "best of a bad lot" spot. I had a few white box ECW tapes by this point. The 3D was cool, and I liked D-Von's 1996 run where he tried beating some sense into stupid Bubba, but the Duds as a unit were still borderline bathroom break material...

until this match! Or at least that's the way I "remembered" it. See, because I thought this was the match that finally got the Dudleys over with me. But after watching it, I don't know how. It was...alright? But certainly nothing special. And the Duds didn't do anything spectacular. Maybe I got this mixed up with Heatwave 98? Entirely possible! Or maybe going toe to toe with "credible" singles stars like Dreamer & Sandman helped them? This is, after all, basically the ECW version of Sting & Lex vs. Midnight Express (and how cool would that have been?).

I have equally foggy memories of this show as a whole. RVD/Sabu I remember watching at the Three Brothers'. But this match I remember watching at Chuck's. And the awful main event I swear I watched at my cousin's. None of this makes any sense! I usually don't have this problem. The Brothers and Chuck lived a minute or less from each other and would never both order the same PPV for financial reasons while my cousin was a 15-20 minute drive and I didn't have my license yet. Or at least I don't think I got it until that summer? This is making my head hurt. Onto the match!

We get a video package chronicling this feud set to background music reminiscent of Lonely Road of Faith. Gertner & Sign Guy, like so much of 1998 wrestling, age like milk left out since 1998. But who cares about that because we've got real ECW music, baby! Enter Sandman brings out our heroes. Sandman's neck is sore from a previous 3D and he sells it during his pre-match ritual! Amazing. Putting back his head to down a cold brew hurts his neck. Smashing stuff against his own head pains him. Sandman rules and only fools think otherwise.

In a vintage ECW moment Big Dick botches the first spot of the match lol. But it picks up from there. We get the requisite ringside brawling. Sandman hits a cool apron to barricade leg drop on both Duds. But he's soon taken out of the match when the Duds throw him into another barricade. He gets neck braced and stretchered out. Now it's Duds 2 on 1 against Tom Tom. They invent the Conchairto. But actually play it safe leading to a pair of Lance Storm chairshots. This draws the biggest boos of the match. Spike runs in to replace Sandman in Tommy's hour of need. Spike is a house of fire until he flies to close to the sun. Then he gets wrecked. Next time the Duds are about to win Sandman runs back in to make the heroic save. Eventually Sandy & Dreamer get the win by double pin after a pair of DDTs. The Dudleys were robbed! It took 3 guys to beat them! Not fair! Maybe that injustice is why I finally became a Dudley Guy? Without turning on Tommy & Sandman, of course!

Verdict- Sports Entertainment, ECW-style. It was fine. Average **ish match. The heels being outnumbered was stupid, but there was also some cool stuff and some decent storytelling. Though the Georgia crowd wasn't as hot as you'd want for a star vs. star, face vs. heel blood feud. Plus their One Night Stand bout smokes this one.

Scott Taylor vs. Eric Shelley - November 11 RAW 1997

OK, so the hunt is on. Did Scott Taylor hit the Gangrel Suplex? Or was this just a bunch of Japanese developers throwing it in for a laugh.

First things first, who is Eric Shelley? According to Cornette he's a light heavyweight from Montreal. I tried to see what Cagematch had for me, but there wasn't anything before his WWF match. He looked like he was well into his 30s at this point, so I'd have to presume he's one of those independents and the Observer simply don't have the records online. I wonder if there is a Canadian Wrestling history website that sheds some more light?

The match itself was one of those heatless back and forth exhibition matches. Just move after move after move, it's like a song that doesn't build to a chorus. In fairness this is one of the better iterations and they actually get a reaction from the crowd when Scotty hits a flipping axe kick before finishing Shelley off after going up top and spiking Shelley with the DDT on the ground.

No sign of the Gangrel Suplex, but we did see an Olympic Slam. Shelley also hit the most constipated looking Code Red I've ever seen.

Scott Taylor vs. Steve Ramsey - June 14 Shotgun 1997

The Loose Cannon is on commentary and while I didn't hear it properly, it sounded like he was still intent on getting himself cancelled before that was even a thing.

Only a four minute match, JR hypes up the burgeoning light heavyweight division in the WWF and Taylor once again scores the victory with the jumping top rope DDT. I'm sure there's a better name for it - the move was not in any of the N64 video games.

Scott Taylor vs. Tony Williams - May 31 Shotgun 1997

YouTube is really helping the cause here. Pillman back on commentary, JR puts over the light heavyweight division and Pillman voices his concerns with all the illegal aliens crossing the border. This seemed to be a real issue for Pillman, something tells me he would have been a JBL fan. Perhaps Bake and Kilgore have more in common than they'd care to admit?

This is my first time seeing Tony Williams. Williams was from the USWA, he tagged with Brian Christopher in his early years and even worked Taylor years before. He's one of those guys who was on the periphary of the WWF but was probably considered too small to get a gig - he looks like a mixture between Crash Holly and Chris Candido.

This was a largely a showcase match for Taylor who's hitting a lot of high risk maneuvers, but not particularly that match. The most noteworthy part comes right at the end where Taylor tried to roll Williams up, only for Williams to roll through and trap Scotty in the pinfall.

Scott Taylor & Taka Michinoku vs. Brian Christopher & Tajiri - November 1st Shotgun 1997

Wait, Tajiri worked in the WWF before 2001? News to me and despite how young he was, he's still really good here and this was an enjoyable all out TV tag match. Scotty hits that spinning back kick that popped me in the Shelley match and the fans are eating everything up. 0/4 on the Gangrel Suplex, I feel this is a lost cause but I'm walking away with a new found respect for this time period.

Scott Taylor vs. The Jackyl w/Kurrgan - January 10th Shotgun 1998

Cyrus in action, Canadians always have a screw loose and are willing to take crazy bumps. Sadly no Gangrel Suplex (0/5) but we do get a spinning back kick as a form of compensation. Clear babyface vs. heel match where the Jackyl acts like a weasel, gets out-wrestled before Kurrgan gets involved. Kurrgan military presses Taylor back into the ring, Jackyl winds up for a big elbow only to cover Taylor and score the easy win.

*I've been sitting on these two reviews for roughly two weeks. I pooh poohed Shin's Cody/Lynn main event in the Nobi vs. UT fanfic thread while accurately stating I'd rather watch Disco Inferno. Now I put my money where my mouth is. Disco never lowered himself to wresting Cawdy, but he has locked horns with Mr. JL. Let's check it out...

Mr. JL vs. Disco Inferno- WCW Worldwide 1/27/96

This is a typically effective 3-minute Disco tv match. The crowd is all over him. Tony says they're chanting "Disco Duck." He even namedrops Rick Dees! Tony then tells Heenan "I grew up in the 70s!" It's all good stuff. The typically great Worldwide audience was probably chanting "Disco Sucks," but whether "Duck" or "Sucks," the point is we're seeing a good heel draw heat. Pro Wrestling 101.

Disco controls early. JL lands his first offensive move, a headscissors of sorts, about a minute in, and the crowd EXPLODES for this. They do the same for the simple drop toehold follow up. Fans reacting to simple stuff like JL just hit a twisting 450 through a flaming table because they don't like Disco. It's called WORKING. Take notes, Cawdy. JL actually wins with a sunset flip out of the corner. Whoa! Big upset there. Yeah, Disco is teflon as a comedy heel jobber who is going to remain over win or lose, but I distinctly remember JL losing clean to bottom feeding Brad Armstrong a few months later because I kept that match on tape for years. So I was thrown for a loop by JL pinning Disco who was already getting a lot of tv time.

Verdict- Short. Simple. Effective. Vintage Disco. Vintage Saturday morning wrestling. You gotta love it.

Honkytonk Man vs. Brad Armstrong- WCW Main Event 11/13/94

Sublime segue. Brad beat JL in that aforementioned match. Disco was the 90s HTM*. So why not look for a Brad/HTM match. Voila! One exists. It's wild how I had zero real time recollection of HTM (or Terry Funk's) 1994 WCW run. What makes it so crazy is I was still hugely into WCW as late as May 1994. Nobody was more into Worldwide's Marquis of Queensbury Series than this guy! But just a few short months later, nothing. Even I hadn't realized how many WCW shows I skipped once it was poisoned by Hogan and Friends coming in. 

HTM has a real lousy bootleg version of his WWF theme while Brad is already coming out to the sweet Winger knockoff theme he used in that 1996 match against Mr. JL. There's a non-zero chance I kept that JL/Brad match on tape for so long JUST for Brad's Winger knockoff theme.

This is also an effective tv match and a good example of WORKING called by the interesting duo of Larry Legend and Gordon Solie. Larry puts HTM over huge as a master in the game of human chess (aka: stalling). HTM does headlocks and armbars. Then bails out to stall whenever Brad shows signs of life. Then we get payback with Brad putting Honk in an armbar. HTM must have been feeling it that day because he even takes two bumps! Brad has good punches and forearms. He escapes one shake, rattle, and roll attempt only to succumbing to a second 'outta nowhere' Shake, Rattle, and Roll.

Verdict- Good tv match. I'd even put it over Disco/JL because it was just as effective at twice the length.

*Unless you consider Jeff Jarrett the 90s HTM. A valid take. I am ok with either Disco or JJ being considered the 90s HTM.

-Watched a bunch of 2000 WCW the other day for a potential project. Maybe I'll do quickie recaps of those matches tomorrow.

*Must be a glutton for punishment because I've been watching a lot of 00-01 WCW. Think 10 matches in total. Let's see how many I can cover tonight...

Shane Helms & Shannon Moore w/ Evan Karagias vs. PG 13- WCW Saturday Night 2/5/00

Even back in real time Three Count struck me as one of the more amusing acts in 2000 WCW. Half paying attention from afar I suspected I would have been a 3 Count fan had I watched. You can't talk about Three Count without discussing the boy band gimmick...

First of all, credit where it's due. WCW having a boy bad heel faction was WCW having its finger on the pulse of their audience. Brilliant maneuver. Why? Because there was a pathological hatred of boy bands among my demographic, which also happened to be the primary wrestling fan demographic. Yet I frankly found this patholigical hated of boy bands off putting.

People HATED these boy bands with the intensity of a thousand suns. Young American males just openly wishing for the death, dismemberment, and straight up Bobbitting of your Backstreet Boys and N'Syncs. My wrestling fan cousin* was one of the worst offenders! Undertaker-loving Bryan from yesterday's post was another one. Now I didn't have a dog in this fight. I was neither pro nor anti boy band. Just didn't care. Totally indifferent to boy bands. The idea of basing ones real life personality/gimmick around a musical genre was still completely foreign to me. We're roughly a year, maybe even less, away from me being able to understand that. And you guys know me by now. I tend to zig when everybody else zags. So even though I won't be listening to N'Sync or the Backstreet Boys (I couldn't name a song from either group until the 2010s!) I'll "support" them if only in a trolling sense just because their haters are more annoying than their fans who, again, are nearly non-existent among my peers. Even today when I'm neutral/indifferent on an issue (many such cases!) I end up siding with the least annoying faction more often than not. Heck, it's practically inevitable at this stage. I still don't really care! (Unless I've worked myself into a shoot, which I'll admit does happen with increasing frequency) I just get a kick out of pissing off the people who are pissing me off with their constant piss bagging. Don't piss me off!

*He did have a boy band loving sister who I'm sure listened to those acts nonstop so I can kinda sorta see where he's coming from. But he was just so darn extreme about it!

The appeal of PG 13 has always been lost on me. They're PWO/mid 90s Apter Mag darlings from Memphis who never translated to mainstream success. They'd already washed out of WWF & ECW. JJ got them a shot here. They lasted their usual 3 months. Interesting to note PG 13 seemed impossibly small when I first learned of their existence roughly 4 years prior to this bout and now they're wrestling guys their size or even smaller in a mainstream promotion on national tv. The times they are a changing.

Evan Karagias cuts a pre-match promo. I had no idea he was just as Southern as Shannon & Shane. Turns out Even too hails from NC and OMG his shoot name is Evan Karagias?!? That...that can't be true. Can it? Karagias? Nah. Not buying it. That's just 90s for Courageous. Right? RIGHT??

Anyway, the 3 Count song plays. They sing and dance on these green circles. Commentary makes a big deal about these green circles. Like that's their thing. Green Circles. Were colored shapes big on the boy band scene? Genuinely curious. This goes on way too long. The song is barely audible and isn't even very catchy. Then PG 13 finally comes out and they're as punchable as ever. OK, maybe they are decent dirtbag heels after all. But that's the only acceptable use of P-G-One-Three.

Match isn't much. It's action packed, but sloppy, and with really bad timing at times, including the finish. Real 21st century ass wrestling. Highlight is Tenay and Hudson on commentary. Tenay has a personality! What sorcery is this? I didn't think he developed one of those until he started hanging out with The Great Don West and some of Don's overflowing personality attached itself to drab Iron Mike. Anyway, Hudson is a Three Count/boy band fan while Tenay is a hater, and their banter is actually amusing. Match ends when Karagias hits a member of PG 13 with the dreaded Green Circle after waiting...waiting....waiting on the apron in a terribly timed spot.

Verdict- Lousy match, decent sports entertainment surrounding it

*I hoped to write about 10 matches in this sitting. Knew it was a long shot, but that was my goal. 1. I got to 1. lol. Second fail in two posts. Hope to do better next time. And should! Since there won't be any Boy Band diversions. Though I imagine I'll still end up telling some barely related story or going off on some tangent. Such is life.

*Now I'm up to 15 or 16 2000 WCW matches. Basically have all the stars/interesting wrestlers covered. Let's do this...

Dark Carnival vs. Jung Dragons- WCW Nitro 8/7/00

Dark Carnival is the Lethal Lottery trio of Muta, Vampiro & the Kiss Demon bonding over...facepaint, I presume. For some reason I thought the Dark Carnival was Muta & Raven. And they were only around for a minute in 1999. Oh well. Dragons are Akio Wang Yang, Jamie Noble under a mask, and Kaz Hayashi. Match is sloppy, but still fun in its way simply because the Dragons are very tiny men willing to die on bumps for our pleasure. Muta gets the pin on one of them following a garbage backbreaker and moonsault.

Post-match sees Sting run off the Dark Carnival to probably the biggest pop of these 15-16 matches. 2000 WCW fans still loved them some Stinger. But the real highlight was Tank Abbott on commentary. He looks and sounds exactly as you'd expect. Think Jim Neidhart's brother who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. Three Count is beefing with the Dragons. And Tank is a Three Count fanboy! Yep. The barroom brawling blue collar biker is just really into WCW's resident boy band. Tremendous. Score one for the bad guys. I actually did know of this storyline, but had forgotten, so being reminded of it here was a happy little accident. 

Goldberg vs. Lex Luger- WCW Starrcade 12/17/00

This is not a natural matchup, but I do find it to be an interesting one since you could argue Goldberg ended up becoming what Luger was supposed to be back in 87-88. Yet you could also argue Luger had the better overall career despite Goldberg's star briefly burning brighter than Luger's ever had. Goldberg with a real greenhorn mistake by attacking Luger in the middle of Michael Buffer's long-winded introduction. I assume they're still paying Buffer big bucks. You want to let him get his stuff in if that's the case. Goldie should have got chewed out backstage for this breach of etiquette.

This was alright. Went about as well as it was ever gonna go. Goldberg chases. Luger stalls. Until the veteran catches Goldberg with a posting. Mark Madden, who I normally can't stand, is actually good on commentary here as the lone Luger defender fighting back against two rabid Goldbergists. We get a contrived finish involving Buff "accidentally" Blockbustering Goldberg, brass knuckles, and Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker. But the dog and pony show actually works since it's the only way I'm going to buy Luger beating Goldberg in 2000. He doesn't. But I thought he might! So call it a win. Goldberg comes back with the Spear and Jackhammer for a hard-fought victory. Then Buff turns heel for real after the match. 

La Parka & Chavo Guerrero vs. Silver King & El Dandy- WCW Worldwide 3/18/00

Sloppy, but charming with all 4 guys going balls to the wall, Dandy throwing 2 great punches, and Parka standing out most of all. I had always been something of a Parka skeptic. To be fair, I have seen people saying he should have been WCW Champion which just strikes me as madness. But he was ON here, displaying oodles of charisma, and now I'm thinking a TV or even US Title run might not have been the worst thing in the world. Parka wins it for his team with a Whisper In The Wind. Parka playing chair guitar has me wondering whether he ever locked horns with air guitar champ Hiroshi Tanahashi. I'll have to check on that.

Sid Vicious vs. Kevin Nash- WCW Nitro 1/24/00- Vacant WCW Championship Match

Ugh. I must be a glutton for punishment. I'm a low vote on both guys. Didn't care 5 years earlier in a better promotion when these two feuded in 1995 WWF. Sid was only good in tag teams while the alleged charms of Big Lazy are completely lost on me. Yet I watched it anyway because....reasons? I honestly don't even know.

It's boring and bad as you'd expect. They hiccup on the first spot of the match- a simple bodyslam. Sid hits a leg drop or two. There's a sleeper and a ref bump. JJ runs in to help Nash (they're part of NWO 23.0) but it doesn't go according to plan and Sid ends up El Kabonging Big Kev instead. Sid then pulls a completely unnecessary Eddie Guerrero ploy because...he has half the brain you do? Sid then pins Nash for one of the most anti-climactic World Title changes in wrestling history. 1/4*. Highlight was hearing Sid's cool theme- a cross between Sabu's most famous ECW theme and the Scorpions' China White.
EDIT: I stand corrected. Blame a short-term memory fail because the REAL highlight was a "WCW SUCKS" sign clearly visible on camera for most of the bout. Amazing.

Scott Steiner vs. Sting- WCW Spring Stampede 4/16/00- US Title Tournament Finals

This is when WCW vacated all their championships for the big Bischoff/Russo reboot. Both guys get pre-match promos. Mean Gene conducted at least one of them. Steiner is jacked so he flexes a lot. Sting is honestly looking pretty rough here. He forgot to paint the sides of his forehead! It's very distracting. Speaking of distracting, "Big Poppa Pump" is still coming out to Scott Steiner's upbeat early 90s babyface theme. lmao. How long did he stick with that? It doesn't fit this character at all.

There was a lot of pooh poohing in that paragraph, but these two actually tried real hard. There's a moment, admittedly brief, early on where I swear these two heavyweights were moving like Low Ki & Red. Sting in particular had some real pep in his step. High energy, still moving around like 1992 Sting. Nothing but respect from this guy. Then the booking kicks in...

Vampiro pops up through the ring a la Undertaker at IYH February '96. He drags Sting down to bah gawd hell. Sting comes up bleeding. Steiner puts him in the Camel Clutch for the ref stoppage victory. Sting & Steiner worked hard. Certainly harder than I was expecting. But the hokey, played out finish killed it dead.

Some WCW context for Baker man.

The Dark Carnival originally was Raven's Dead Pool (Raven, Vampiro, ICP), which was put together, I think, literally a week before Raven left for ECW. Vampiro got bumped to the leader, The Great Muta joined to give some cred (and a wrestler as Vampiro might have been even worse at wrestling than ICP*), and Dark Carnival was born. Honestly, no recollection of The Demon being part of this. 

Scott Steiner coming out to Steiner Line in 2000 is very funny, which I also have no recollection of. It sort of makes sense, only in a WCW blunder way, though. Due to Steiner's heel turn being by joining the nWo, there was never any need for new theme music. He was always in one nWo or the other, for years, and would just come out to nWo music. I assumed his siren theme existed by 1999, but apparently it didn't, so in this period of reboot, no nWo, Scott Steiner has to walk out to something, and, uh, Steiner Line, I guess. The siren theme had to come very soon after.

EDIT

*I can't tell you how prepared I was to be a Vampiro Guy. So much internet hype, one of the biggest things in Mexico EVER, I was prepared for like a Goth Sabu, or some shit. And then he wrestled in WCW for a little while, underwhelming, disappears, returns for a big push, wrestles some more, and is just absolutely terrible. Shockingly bad in the ring. It didn't compute how he could be that bad in the ring. I still can't understand it.

*Got time to knock a few more out before bed.

Jeff Jarrett vs. Crowbar- WCW Thunder 2/21/01

Two 2000 WCW guys I rooted for from afar. JJ obviously, but Crowbar too because he had been the quintessential 4A wrestler going back 5 years to the birth of my hardcore fandom, so it was cool to see him finally land a spot in the big time after being on the cusp of fame for so long. 

Crowbar, like Sting in the previous match, wrestles with good energy. There's a real pep in his step. Dig that splash from apron to floor. Then he tweaks his knee on a landing. YES! We're getting a leg work match! Well, no, actually. My guy JJ lets me down as he just lazily goes about his business, barely even bothering to capitalize on Crow's bum wheel. BOO! JJ gets the win with a Stroke rather than the Figure Four despite Crowbar having just tweaked his knee again. This was fine. Because Crowbar gave a good effort. But JJ was just going through the motions. Dude had a real bad case of WCW Main Eventitis in this one.

*Might have to start a Knockoff Theme count. This time it's JJ coming out to a knockoff of Kid Rock's Cowboy. There will be more to come.

Kanyon vs. DDP- WCW Superbrawl Revenge 2/18/01

Superbrawl Revenge is the OFFICIAL, souped up name for SuperBrawl 11. I don't know why they called it that either. These two seem to have feuded for eternity. JJ is supposed to be wrestling DDP, but Jarrett opts out, instead sending Kanyon in to his dirty work. Y'know I'm beginning to understand where MarkyD is coming from. Certainly are a lot of Wild Slapnut appearances during this era.

This is the most 21st Century match of the binge thus far as it's largely built around dramatic 2.9 nearfalls. Kanyon gets one off a Cutter. DDP gets one off a Powerbomb and another off a sick Rock Bottom that Kanyon takes high and tight like a man with a death wish. 2nd sickest move of this entire binge. Kanyon hits a cool mid-rope lifting superplex and a sitout Alabama Slam. DDP hits a few clotheslines too many. Then *sigh* the booking kicks in. Again. When a Wild Slapnuts appears. Again. Stuff happens. I think DDP got El Kabonged? The endless stream of run ins honestly began blending together at some point. Probably here. Then Kanyon pulls off the upset(?) win with a Downward Spiral. DDP getting busted open off a sort of mini-Famaesser on the steel steps gave the match a hook which bumped this roughly 8 minute bout up to above average. Making it a Top 5 match of the project.

Booker T (c) vs. Lance Storm- WCW Nitro 8/7/00- WCW Championship Match

This is actually a pretty famous match. Got a lot of internet hype back in the day. Heck, it was the first WCW match to receive that much positive hype since... probably Bret/Benoit from Nitro way back in October '99. Then came the (minor) backlash. People railing against the 3* or even 4* ratings it was receiving. Saying it was only a slightly above average tv match, "good" only in context because WCW had sucked so hard for so long. I've never actually seen it until now, but can tell you this is what I assumed the 2000 WCW MOTY was from like 2001-2015 just based on how much HYPE it had back in the day (and before Goldberg/Steiner from Fall Brawl 2000 started getting over hard).

Have to admit, half paying attention from afar, I didn't buy Booker as a top guy. He was still just one half of Harlem Heat to me. Real 1992 Bret Hart "midcard World Champ" vibes over here. "Booker T? Really?? THAT's the best they can do??? No wonder they're dying!" Meanwhile, Lance had taken the company by Storm (hehe) since coming over from ECW. In that short span of time, he had already captured the Hardcore, Cruiserweight, and US Titles and given them a bunch of dorky Canadian names. They're calling it the Triple Crown. So this match had good build in addition to (allegedly) delivering. I thought Storm was also undefeated to give it yet another hook, but somebody in the comment section somewhere claimed Kidman had already pinned Lance on tv. 

Storm cuts a pre-match promo and it's all boring and Canadiany. I regrettably did a pro-Canada gimmick to troll my real life associates, all of whom were very patriotic, from 97 (thanks Bret) to 2001. The truth is I stopped after 9/11 because it just didn't seem funny anymore. But from now I'm just going to lie and say I went off my Canada phase because of Lance Storm. Don't blame Canada. Blame Lance Snooze.

Two voices I don't recognize, one male, the other female with a Southern accent, are on commentary along with the usual suspects. The guy turned out to be Mike Awesome and the girl somebody named Heidi I still don't recognize. Apparently she was Mike Awesome's onscreen girlfriend for a few weeks. OK then. Oh, and they're eating ham sandwiches. Mark Madden namedrops Mama Cass. Am I on drugs? And how am I even remembering these obscurities from like 3 nights ago? Back to Madden, he was his usual insufferable self. You know it's bad when I'd take the other famous commentary Madden over this one and all Other Madden did was say "BOOM" a lot, circle the asses and guts of fat guys with his stupid little teleprompter, and poke drunk Pat Summerall awake from time to time so he could mutter "Emmitt" before going back to sleep. Yes, even John Madden is better than Mark.

Anyway, the match itself is pretty much just DDP/Kanyon 2.0. Real 21st Century ass wrestling built around 2.9 nearfalls. This time it's Booker's ax kick and missile dropkick along with Storm's Canadian Maple Leaf half crab. DDP/Kanyon was a bit longer and got the blood bonus, but this had the hotter crowd (lots of "USA" chants in particular) and a clean finish. Call it a push. The Book Man ultimately retains with the Rock Bottom Bookend. Didn't even go 6 minutes. On par with DDP/Kanyon as a Top 5 match of this binge. But there are 2 I clearly like more. Therefore...
Verdict: NOT the 2000 WCW Match of the Year. Though I'll readily admit this would have played better had I seen it in real time.

Mike Awesome w/ Team Canada vs. Kidman w/ Filthy Animals- WCW Thunder 1/17/01

Team Canada is feuding with the Filthy Animals. Just looked it up and only 1/4 of Team Canada is actually Canadian, while "Filthy Animals" is an all time bad stable name. Good grief! Who thought up that one? Please tell me whoever it was got future endeavored. Awesome is dubbed "The Canadian Killer" and I kept thinking it meant he's a guy who kills Canadians rather than a Canadian who kills. Because he's not Canadian! The Animals' cut Awesome's mullet a few days earlier on Nitro and now he looks like a supersized Simon Diamond.

Match ruled though. Best of this 16 match batch. Really the perfect 6 minute tv match. Even has me rethinking some things. Like Awesome's WWE run. I had always dismissed the idea that Awesome was misused in the big time because he lacked A LOT of qualities needed to be a WWE superstar, but this was a real good "WWE style" match you could easily see him having with the Hardys or somebody like that. And despite some weird personnel choices and an all time stupid name, Team Canada vs. Filthy Animals actually feels like a heated, big time feud.

Kidman comes in with injured ribs which are soon further aggravated when Billy connects with a bonkers shooting star press from apron to floor. From then on it turns into a big vs. little match with Awesome controlling most of the way, yet being unable to put away Kidman, who keeps escaping peppering in the comebacks in between escaping Awesome's kill shots. It actually reminded me a little bit of the London/Styles all timer from 2003 ROH. Awesome keeps looking for the Awesome Bomb. Kidman keeps looking for the Shooting Star. But the beauty is these moves are only teased (until the end) rather than hit and kicked out of. Kidman eventually goes to the well one time too many, gets crotched, and finally Awesome Bombed (Razor's Edged) to give Awesome the clean win. Then Team Canada lays out the Filthy Animals to put more heat on what looks to have been a very good feud. Oh, and another highlight was Awesome drilling Kidman with one of the best top rope clotheslines you're ever going to see.

Recommended! This should have got the hype Booker/Storm did. VQ is terrible tho.

Shane Douglas vs. Buff Bagwell- WCW Bash At The Beach 7/9/00

Me becoming Buff Bagwell tolerant has to be one of the more unexpected stories of 2024. And not even heel Buff! I've been impressed by babyface Buff!! In dying day WCW!!! Look. Facts are facts. The guy had a knack for getting those crowds behind him. Commentary informs us these two used to be partners. They were even tag champs. But one of them missed some dates and now they're rivals. Douglas comes out to a pretty sweet knockoff of Deep Purple's Perfect Strangers. That was his ECW theme and probably the best thing about him in ECW. It was either that or the sweet black & yellow outfit with the tassles on his boots. Unfortunately, there is not much yellow on the French Fries in this one.

Right on cue Buff continues to be the stuff as he opens the match by leading the crowd in a "Franchise Sucks" chant. Bagwell got it. He conducted these crowds like a maestro. Unfortunately, that is the only good thing about this mess of a match. The other 7 minutes were frankly awful. We're talking Greg Valentine vs. Brutus Beefcake on a rinky dink 2000s indie level stuff. They did a lot of weak brawling on the floor. Buff back dropped his way out of an attempted piledriver on concrete. Douglas once punched a chair into Buff's face like he was the Big Show. Shane Douglas is not the Big Show. Shane's "Pittsburgh Plunge" had devolved into an unbridged Perfect Plex. So, basically, just a regular suplex. That got 2. Then Buff hit the phoniest looking Double Arm DDT you'll ever see for another two. Then Torrie Wilson comes out to do 3 swerves in a minute because....reasons? She ultimately sides with Douglas who hits an indyriffic Rock Bottom Jawbreaker for the 1-2-3. Madden tried putting this over as a lethal new move. Dude, it's a Danny Doring move. Hence the "indyriffic" crack.

1/4* just for Buff masterfully conducting the crowd early. But these guys looked washed. Nearly everything they tried looked total amateur hour. Bad in a way that's honestly hard to describe. You have to see it for yourself. I'll stay true to form by blaming Douglas.

Kronik vs. Rey Misterio Jr./Juventud Guerrera/Disco Inferno- WCW Thunder 7/19/00

Ruled. My 2nd favorite match of the 16. And it wasn't even a carry job by my man Disco! He probably contributed the least of the 5 prior to nearly dying on an all timer of a finish. It was largely a Kronik squash, but, man, whatta squash! Kronik honestly looked like the coolest, most badass team in the world. And to take it even further into Bizarro World territory, Rey worked heel. And was good at it! Now I see where Dirty Dom got it from. Rey & Juvy were the world's best PG 13 here. Just a couple of obnoxious undersized douchebags wrestling like a pair of mini X-Pacs with their crotch chops and Bronco Busters. Even Rey's Arik Cannonesque shiny black trashbag singlet/overalls just screamed "BOO THIS MAN." Then you have Disco being his usual heel God simply by existing. And Kronik murdered these guys you want to see get murdered with all this cool badass power stuff. Heels ran and swarmed. Kronik caught and threw. A very gifable match. Press Slams. Full Nelson Slams. Double Chokeslams. And finally, the coup de grace, a Powerbomb/Top Rope Clothesline combo that just about killed Disco for the win. I was even tempted to gif it up for you tasteless Disco haters to jackoff to before ultimately opting against it because I'd hate to give a Disco Inferno hater any satisfaction at all. 

Then there was Konnan on commentary. Hated it at first because it felt like he was burying the hell out of Kronik. But halfway through the match I realized the brilliance of it. He WAS dumping hard on Kronik. But he's also the heel. And his team got wrecked. So what actually happened is Konnan, the overbearing loudmouthed heel, ended up with egg on his face. Classic pro wrestling. AND like The King, The Brain, and The Body at their best, Konnan's commentary was genuinely funny. Lots of cracks about Kronik being dated and boring. Something about "sending them back to the 80s." Calling them Kronik 1 & Kronik 2 or "the one with the mustache." Good stuff.

A million billion stars. Recommended! Oh, and Bryan "Formerly Crush" Adams still looks like a facepaint-free supersized version of same era Sting.

Your first watches of that last WCW batch mirrors my reaction while it happened.

The Filthy Animals RULED. They were all great heels! And their matches generally ruled. I think they named themselves that, believe it or not. Like I seem to recall they'd call themselves that as a clique in the back and they eventually brought it to television. But this is a vague memory from almost 25 years ago and could quite possibly be very wrong. 

Kronik is one of the biggest mindfucks in wrestling history. Everything about it was dated, Adams was washed up for years (and never particularly good to begin with), Clarke always had great flashes, but could never stay healthy, there was zero reason to ever believe they would be anything other than horrible as a tag team. And they rocked! It defied logic. It didn't make sense. Kronik fucking rocked and got genuinely over. 

Team Canada was fun! The combination didn't make sense. But it really worked. Lance was kind of a perfect, steady, TV match guy, like he's missing that last thing to be putting on masterpieces, but he's always going to be good. Awesome was not allowed to be ECW Mike Awesome, but became another solid cog in the machine as the big guy of the group, and the man simply had movez to make every match at least watchable. That's his best run in Big Two. And Elix Skipper was like when the Horseman would have a young member to be workhorse, to signify a potential future where he becomes a Guy. And just another man with movez, on that roster filled with guys with movez, and it was usually a good time. Enjoyed Team Canada. 

Look, I have affection for Shane Douglas' ECW run, although less than I used to, but it's just a simple fact that was awful in every capacity in WCW. It was sad to witness. The type of bad that makes you question if it was ever good. 

Buff was incredibly over, more over than he ever gets credit for, but he was never great in the ring, and post-neck injury, he was even worse. It's really a credit to Buff's pro wrestling savvy that he stayed as over as he did because he was bad in the ring for a long time. 

*Heavily edited yesterday's Bret Hart/Canada post because I forgot to include the payoff (d'oh!) due to the double whammy of being pressed for time to begin with and then hastily rushing through the meat of the topic because I really only wanted to get to the cape & crown girl part of the story. Also moved that entire 3 post discussion to the Random Thread.

The Dying Day WCW Project ends, much like WCW itself, not with a bang, but with a whimper. Four matches left. Two top out at 'fun' while the other two barely escape the city limits of DUDville.

Hulk Hogan vs. Dustin Rhodes- WCW Thunder 3/22/00

Popped upon seeing this matchup. Had no idea they ever locked horns. Word on the street is Dustin has heat with Hogan over Hulk's refusal to work a program with Dustin due to his "buggy whip arms." But wait. It gets weirder. This allegedly happened during the build to....Wrestlemania IX. Huh? Despite having some serious doubts about this story, if it is case, I side with The Hulkster, brother. Forget about the same league. Those two weren't even in the same galaxy when it came to star power in 1993. Then I got to thinking about the ideal time for a Hogan/Dustin matchup. It's gotta be late 95-early 96. March 1996 looks ideal. Hogan vs. Goldust representing the Dungeon of Doom. Hell yeah! Book it, Gabe.

Hogan has reverted back to his classic old school pre-Hollywood babyface schtick, American Made theme and all. It's honestly jarring to see in 2000. Feels real out of place. Dustin is wearing some interesting pants, and his face having gotten fat makes him look more like Dusty than ever before. He does NOT come out to his The Natural theme from early 90s WCW. More proof this company deserved to die. Now I want to rebook 2000 WCW with "They Call Him The Natural" Dustin Rhodes as WCW Champion. Heck, take it all the way back to their Southern roots. JJ vs. Dustin for the Big Gold Belt at Starrcade. Take my dimes. Rhodes is called "The American Nightmare" here. That's interesting. And further proof Cody is a total hack.

Match is a snoozer btw. Hogan moves even slower than usual. Dude's every movement seems as if he is wading through molasses. Crowd does chant "Hogan" though. Turning point is Dustin winning a brawl by the announce table. He punches. And punches. And punches some more. Then it's chinlock time as I suddenly long for the microphone stylings of Mr. Lance Storm. Then Dustin gets himself intentionally disqualified by hitting Hogan with a cowbell. I think it was during the Hulk Up, but don't hold me to that. It was all I could do to stay awake. But wait! Referee Nick Patrick ain't having it! He makes Dustin come back to wrestle under threat of fine. Hell yeah! High point of the match. Hogan then makes quick work of Dustin with his usual finishing sequence. Post-match sees Sid drill Hogan in the back of the heat with a SICK chairshot. Gotta give the Hulkster credit for taking that one, brother.

Verdict: 1/4* for Nick Patrick's fun babyface ref work

Ric Flair vs. Curt Hennig- WCW Nitro 2/28/00

Flair comes out in one of the most beautiful robes he has ever worn and now I want one. Sad to see these two legends and longtime rivals reduced to a throwaway Nitro match. Father Time remains undefeated. This is a 3 minute Cliff Notes version a Flair/Perfect match featuring a 50 something Flair and a 40 something Curt, but glimpses of greatness are still there. They do work hard for those 3 minutes. We get some chops, leg work, and several iconic Slick Ric sideways bumps before a blatant low blow allows Flair to pin Hennig. Call it payback for Curt's dastardly deeds back in 1997.

Verdict: Fun little quickie match between two all time greats

General Hugh G. Rection (c) w/ Major Gunns vs. Alex Wright w/ Disco Inferno- WCW Nitro 11/6/00- US Title Match

Barf at the general's dumb pun of a name. And certainly don't confuse it with the man's proper name, Hugh Morrus, which is most assuredly not a dumb pun, but a high class work of art. Dumb name aside, I did root for him from afar during the dying days of WCW because I had a soft spot for "The Laughing Man" dating back to late 95.

WCW Fail #365: 1995 Alex Wright had the PERFECT heel gimmick as a techno-loving dancing German pretty boy. They should have gone all in on that. Book him as the German guy at the end of the Flying Hellfish Simpsons episode with bits of Henri from Cheers sprinkled in. That's a license to print money. A heel so over the top hateable that even 95-96 me would have booed him out of the building. Instead, WCW booked him as a babyface. Fast forward to 2000. Now Wright is finally a heel. How does he respond? By shaving his head to unprettify himself and doing no obnoxious dancing. Meaning he's basically degenerated into Alex Basham. And that's why Wright was done by age 26. Fact! The ONE thing you could say in Wright's defense prior to the Cruiserweight movez revolution ushered in by Benoit/Malenko/Guerrero, and later taken up another notch by Rey and the Luchadors, was "at least he has some cool moves." Well, he doesn't even have that by this point. He is just a boring bald man. 

Watched this second to last, 15th out of 16, yet remember very little about it. Let's see...there were some "USA" chants and...umm... two things prevented it from being a total DUD. First was what looked to be an unplanned spot where Wright did a random backflip in an unaware Hugh's vicinity. It could have gone terribly wrong. But didn't. So it's all good. Second highlight was Hugh's "MIA" gang coming out to run off Disco and even heel Mark Madden was like "Hell yeah! Get that asshole!" Love it when there's a heel so dastardly even the other heels can't stand them. And my man Disco is the perfect guy for that role. Morrus retains the US Title with his patented "No Laughing Matter" Moonsault. Lance Storm provided commentary (he's all over these latter day WCW shows in much the same way JJ was earlier in the year) as he was feuding with Morrus at the time.

Verdict: A skippable 1/4*

Terry Funk (c) vs. Chris Candido- WCW Thunder 5/31/00- Hardcore Title Match

Probably even more famous than Storm/Booker nowadays due to the unscripted involvement of a rogue horse. This one gets brought up a fair amount, and I've seen gifs from it, but never actually watched the full match before.

Candido is wearing his striped "Terry Funk" tights from ECW Wrestlepalooza '97. They begin by brawling up the aisle. Then they brawl all the way to the back. Oh, it's an early cinematic match. Funk drives them to a nearby ranch in a pickup truck. We're in Boise, ID btw. This is very much the WCW version of a same era WWF hardcore match. They fight on the ranch. A face gets stuffed into "manure." Then they fight in a horse stall with horse nearby. Funk piledrives Candido in the horse stall. Then TERRY FUNK GETS KICKED BY A HORSE. That's what this match is famous for. They wisely leave the stall. The horse stays put. Candido climbs a structure. For some reason he already has a rope tied around his waist. Funk yanks down on the rope causing Candido to crash through a table. Funk covers for the 1-2-3.

Verdict: Dumb, violent, turn of the century hardcore fun roughly on par with your favorite Holly/Snow stuff taking place over in the big time
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Final Knockoff Theme Watch: Hugh Morrus used a knockoff of The Zoo by Scorpions and Mike Awesome (who ironically used The Zoo in ECW) came out to a ripoff of Marilyn Manson's Beautiful People.