For anyone that wants to watch the greatest squash of all time.

Raven vs. Simon Diamond w/ Entourage- ECW Hardcore tv 1/15/00

I stumble upon enough Raven/Dreamer/Sandman matches from this period that I actually feel burned out on the whole "Raven keeps getting screwed over for doing the right thing!" storyline Styles is constantly banging on about. This time Raven choosing to save Francine from a caning caused he and Dreamer to lose the tag titles to the Impact Players at the recent PPV. 
 
Simon takes the first 3/4 of this short match with the lone highlight being his "Simon Series" suplex sequence (even if Raven bumped poorly in the style of Kane on the front suplex finale). Unfortunately, the Atlanta crowd was deader than their home promotion during Simon's control segment. Props to his entourage for getting them into it. First with a few sentences from Simon's personal ring announcer Mitch and then when Simon's big Dick interfered. This naturally leads to a bunch of tired, recycled dick jokes from Styles that were already groan inducing back when he was using them for Big Dick Dudley. Anyway, Raven fights off Big Dick II with the patented drop toehold onto a chair and hits a "Mr. Wrestling II kneelift" on Simon before finishing the Diamond man off with a DDT.

Verdict- A generous *. Real basic stuff. Nothing to see here.

Sid Vicious (c) vs. Goldberg- WCW Halloween Havoc 10/24/99- US Title Match

Sid tribute match. RIP.

This is, I believe, a major showdown months in the making. Casually following from afar on the internet, my main memory of this feud is WCW hot shotting Sid's phony undefeated streak to a hilarious degree so that he would have the same record Goldberg once did by the time they got to this match. Another "lol WCW" moment to us WWF diehards.

Sid is sporting a nasty gash on his head from a previous Goldberg attack. It's so gruesome and over the top that I assumed it was makeup. Wrong! The wound is legit. As we would soon learn...

Goldberg gets his big dramatic entrance with all the bells & whistles. He's the face. But wait! Those scoundrels Hall & Nash jump him from behind. BOO! Umm....what's the point of that entire security team Goldberg comes out with? They should all be fired! You had one job! Sid capitalizes on the Outsiders' dirty deeds. We get some floor brawling. Sid hilariously pulls up a good foot short on three 'head to stairs' shots in a row. Oh, Sid. Never change. Finally in the ring, they collaborate on a great Sid big boot.

OK, this match is something else. It's actually kind of awesome. But also kind of dumb? I'm actually leaning more awesome than dumb. But it's definitely bass ackwards. 

So, remember I mentioned Sid's nasty forehead gash? Well, Goldberg works that bad boy over for most of what turned out to be a 7-minute mauling with only the occasional headbutt breaking up the punch after punch monotony. And get this. Sid's selling is AWESOME. Wtf am I watching? This is like the early stages of Rocky/Drago. Only with Goldberg, the face, in the Drago role and Sid, the heel, as Rocky. Goldberg is awesome as a monster heel! He's Vader. He's Borga. He's Brock. I never saw that one famous Brock/Cena massacre, but I imagine it was kind of like this. Sid is wearing a 10/10 crimson mask. But he keeps fighting back! Only to be put down again by more Goldberg punches to the wound. This is more "Magnum sticking a spike in Tully's eye" 'gritty' violence than the 'showy' violence of Mankind getting flung from the Cell. I'll even confess to wincing a few times. There were very few 'moves' in this match. It was mostly just Goldberg punching Sid in his wound until the ref lamely calls for the bell, claiming Sid is unable to defend himself/continue. Not crazy about that finish. But you've never seen Sid take such a beating! The weirdness continues when Rick Steiner run in after the match and....just sort of stands around talking to Sid. Ok then.

This match was something else and I don't really know what to think about it. If Goldberg were the heel and Sid the face it'd easily be in that ***1/2 range. And maybe even bump it up to **** with a double turn. And higher still with a more conclusive finish! But, as far as I know, they remained in the same roles. So, this was just a weird case of a face dickishly beating a gutsy, bloody, valiant HEEL until he was incapable of continuing. I dunno. Call me crazy. But with different booking, under different circumstances, you could have got a poor man's (but still very cool!) Bret/Austin double turn out of this.

Verdict- Recommended if only for the bizarre nature of this genuinely unique encounter. Among the best work of either man's career despite the layout being all backwards. I dunno. ***? Unratable more like it. If nothing else, it does feel like a genuinely unique match which should be discussed much more than it has been. 

I wanted to find the match that culminated the Sid and Diesel feud that I vaguely remember from this time but alas no dice. I basically remember this big sympathy piece on Diesel after Sid injured Big Daddy Cool's elbow with a powerbomb. Anyway I went into my own footage and found this...


WWF Intercontinental Title Match- Shawn Michaels (c) vs. Sycho Sid (w/ Ted DiBiase)- Monday Night Raw Sept. 11, 1995

Right off the bat we get Vince's over the top and uncomfortable gushing over Shawn as he makes his way to the ring. Shawn gets the upper hand early and we get another example of Sid selling really well for HBK, he even takes a pretty good bump over the top to the outside. It's typical Shawn offense as he plays cat and mouse with Sid until hitting the Flying Burrito that results in said bump over the top.

Sid tosses Shawn outside where DiBiase gets some good shots in. We also get an impressive spot from Sid as he nips up and choekslams HBK.



Feisty Shawn though makes a comeback and it takes three superkicks (still not proper Sweet Chin Music) to take the big man down. Sid was really solid in this match bumping well and showing some unheralded athleticism.

WCW World Heavyweight Title Match- "Commissioner" Kevin Nash (c) vs Sid Vicious- Monday Nitro January 25, 2000

I have very fuzzy memories of this time in WCW, I think I was more full on WWF, so Commissioner Nash doesn't really ring a bell. Anyways he banned the powerbomb for this one and still has the nWo in his corner so it's an uphill climb for our plucky babyface.

Not much to this one moves wise other than Sid hitting two nice leg drops, though he doesn't have the hops he once had. Fun ending though despite Jeff Jarrett coming out with his guitar. Sid takes care of him and nails Nash with the guitar after the mandatory ref bump. Sid then feigns being the one who was hit fooling the ref and scratching and clawing his way to cover Nash and get the three. Sid used his half a brain to outsmart everyone and capture the WCW title, and Heenan was fantastic at selling that fact (minus the half a brain part, lol) on commentary.

Alex Shelley vs. Taka Michinoku- NJPW 6/9/13- Best of the Super Juniors Tournament Match

What a glorious matchup on paper. Pure fanfic come to life. Kicking myself over never having fantasy booked this myself. I associate these guys with completely different eras. They're a decade apart in age, but it feels like an even bigger gap in my head.

And this was the quality 10 minutes of wrestling you'd expect from these two pro's pros. They do some rapid fire 'even' exchanges on the mat. Then Taka, ever the cad, gains advantage after faking a knee injury. He's still hitting his patented no hands leap to the top dive at the age of 40. Yet he's much more submission oriented than I remembered and also incorporates a whole lot of (actually good!) knee strikes. Poor Shelley tweaks his knee 'for real' (kayfabe) on a missed dive to give us a clear face vs. heel story. Taka works him over for a while. Shelley sells well UNTIL it's time to come back with some superkicks and back brain kicks that all make a nice POP (remember kids: thigh slapping is good). Then they go into a rapid-fire finishing sequence with Shelley getting the upset via Krytonite Krunch aka: the move Modest used in Beyond The Mat. Man, it is so Michael Modest Week here on PW.

Verdict- Classic, solid NJPW/WCW style Cruiserweight Wrestling. The hurt/not hurt knee stuff gave it a story/ foundation while these two cool wrestlers also brought the cool moves you would expect. Shelley conveniently stopping the sell to get his kicks in has to drag it down a little, but this was still an overall good time. *** range.

Blackjack Mulligan vs. Nick Bockwinkel w/ Bobby Heenan- AWA 4/19/84?

Talk about going from one world to another... Bock is NOT the AWA Champion for once, having recently dropped the strap to Jumbo Tsuruta. I haven't seen much Mulligan over the years. Have long known he was a big star back in the day. But only recently (like within the last year) did I learn he was considered a mediocre worker. I had just always assumed he was considered a good worker chock full of old school grit.

This is such Dad Match. Meaning the majority of Baltimore area dads in the 80s & early 90s resembled one of these two guys.

Bock is a Cathedral dad. Lives in Homeland, Roland Park, or perhaps the tony suburbs north of Baltimore. Drives a BMW. Works in finance. Either as a stockbroker or a corporate lawyer. Drinks expensive wines and whiskey. Smokes cigars. Mostly listens to classical music but will slip in a bit of Sinatra when he really wants to cut loose. Is really, really into lacrosse. It's the fastest growing sport in America, don'tcha know? And you do know this because he tells you literally every single time he sees you. It's going to break through into the mainstream any day now. Trust him. He knows. Votes Republican. Wife is a tall, willowy blond who always wears dresses. Usually white or floral. Smiles a lot. Doesn't say much. Minds the mansion and does the shopping. They've been happily married for two decades. They have two vacation houses- one down in beach country outside of Ocean City and the other a faux rustic cabin in mountainous Western Maryland. Two kids as well. The son will go to high school at Boys Latin and the daughter to Maryvale. Then it's off to the Ivy League. Perhaps Duke, Virginia, or Johns Hopkins if one has a rebellious streak.  Both play lacrosse. Duh. Of course they do.

Mulligan is more universal. He could live almost anywhere in the greater Baltimore area. Drives a beat-up old pickup. He'll let you ride in the cab. Always a treat. Works for BGE. Drinks beer. Lots of beer. Too much beer. Has been in the occasional bar fight and gets in trouble at work from time to time. But he always manages to stay just on the Productive Citizen side of the line. Also smokes cigars. But cheap ones, and only on special occasions. Likes the Orioles, but his true sports love was the Colts. He's still not over them leaving. When he's had a few he'll even whisper to you the only time he ever cried as an adult was when the Colts left down. Not a week goes by without him publicly wishing for Bob Irsay to suffer a slow, painful, agonizing, death. Started his voting life as a staunch Democrat before voting for Reagan twice and then becoming a wildly unpredictable swing voter. Has 4 or 5 kids (you're not sure of the exact amount due to stepsibling confusion) through 3 ex-wives. All 3 are chain-smokers and 2 are drunks. He's loud. His music (classic rock & country rock) is loud. His borderline feral kids are loud. But I like the two I go to public school with. Why? Because they're wrestling fans. Duh. Of course they are.

This is such a Hogan Match. Which has me thinking- Did Bock create the Hogan formula? Did Mulligan?? Because Mulligan wrestles this exactly how The Hulkster would. Well, ok, maybe not 100% identical. Because Hogan would have done a clothesline rather than that unexpected early jaw jacker. But, like, 99% the same!

Bock is really good here. Great punches. Great bumping and selling. Mulligan is a decent enough Hogan stand in. He's bigger than Bock and wrestles accordingly. He no sells. He fires up. He interacts with Heenan. He fights out of a (too long) sleeper. He even hits a Big Boot! Punches aren't the best though. But Bock covers for them well enough with his awesome selling. Big Blackjack wins by DQ when Heenan interferes. Then he fights off the baddies just like Hogan would. 

Verdict- An average, middle of the road Hogan SNME match.

Raven & Stevie Richards (c) w/ Beulah vs. Pitbulls- ECW Hardcore TV 9/5/95- ECW Tag Title Match

This is NOT the famous booking masterpiece between these two teams that I rated as my 2nd favorite ECW match, but the one that set it up.

This one is a tale of two matches. First half rules. Then it falls off the rails.

Stevie has a glorious 80s mullet and is afraid to fight the Pitbulls. Crowd chants "Stevie is a pussy." So, Raven is forced to fight the 'Bulls. He tries his best, but the Pitbulls are too much for him. Highlight being PB1 catching him with a karate kick to the face that I'm pretty sure landed for real. Raven keeps going to tag and cowardly Stevie keeps NOPEing out to big heat. Raven finally has enough and socks his lackey for being a coward. Crowd pops. Raven tags Stevie in. 

Now it's massacre time. Stevie takes a DOOMSDAY DEVICE CACTUS CLOTHESLINE!!! OMG WTF Stevie is DEAD. How that not make every ECW highlight package over the next 2 years? Stevie then takes this sick sort of Suplex-Superbomb-Neckbreaker combo that is a much, much better version of a move I only saw once before during an Eliminators/Pitbulls match. Two immensely gifable spots back-to-back. Awesome. If the match ends here, it's a 5* master squash, and now one of my favorite ECW matches, period. Pitbulls look like the coolest, most badass tag team in the world. A Road Warriors for the 90s. 9.9/10 'Eliminators at Barely Legal' vibes. Even better than Furnas & LaFon at Survivor Series 96! Stevie gets over as a cowardly wimp heel. And you have to grudgingly respect that jerk Raven for fighting the good fight against those monstrous badass Pitbulls. Everybody gets a little more over than they were coming in... 

But Raven saves and the match keeps going...and going....and going. The booking kicks in. The story falters. And I begin to lose interest. Not sure if no sell or clippage, but at some point, Stevie hits 2 with a Stevie Kick only for 2 to just continues on as if he didn't just eat Stevie's finisher. Beulah and multiple Lesser Dudleys interfere. Oh, the crowd chanted "SUPERBOMB" a few times. That move was over as 911's Chokeslam. PB2 keeps kicking out of stuff (a top rope move by one of those interchangeable early Dudleys whose name I can't even be bothered to learn and Raven's DDT) only to ultimately succumb to Big Dick dropping him throat first on the guardrail. A relatively basic move. This was all backwards! That should have come earlier and then he finally goes down to Raven's DDT. Stupid Stupid Stupid. I like PB2, but the layout of his no sells/finishes really needed some work. See the Douglas matches for further proof. He/ECW really could have used a Pat Patterson. 

Verdict- First half ruled. Second half drooled. A shame too because this could have been another all timer from these teams. 

Next Time: Extreme Lucha Libre

Super Crazy vs. Mosco de la Merced- ECW Cyberslam 4/3/99

I went to 4 of the 5 ECW Arena shows from March-July 1999 with this being the only one I missed. I forget why. Iirc WWF even loaned out a few wrestlers for this one. Mosco, like the guy I always lump him together with- Antifreeze del Norte, was a luchador who worked ECW for a while without catching on the way Crazy had. I was curious about his name. His mask resembled a mosquito, so I thought Mosco=Mosquito? WRONG! Mosco de la Merced translates to "Fly of the Mercy." Meh. Mosquito. Fly. Close enough.

This is, for better or worse, a very modern match. It's a go-go-go actionfest the crowd is into without caring about who wins or loses. They start off with fast-paced flipping leading to a stalemate and standing o. Cool opening! Then we get some dives. Crazy works a Master of the Moonsault gimmick as we get 4 or 5 from him. And he's a good moonsaulter! Now I'm tempted to do a quickie Moonsault Hierarchy. Let's see....Angle & Scorpio are your tippy top tier. Then you have D'Lo & Snow. Then Crazy? Yeah, that looks about right. Anyway, his first moonsault, "The Crazy Special" dubbed by Styles, was the best of the bunch- a turnaround springboard moonsault into the crowd. A later moonsault saw Crazy's knee land hard on Mosco's face. OUCH! Serious injury was somehow averted. Mosco later hit what was basically a Swanton to the floor. Crowd counted along in Spanish to Crazy's 10 punches in the corner. I always got a kick out of that gag. Oh, these two were "arch-rivals in Mexico" according to Joey. Didn't wrestle like it though.

We get some clippage. Then we go into a move trading finish. Told you this was a very modern match! Mosco hits a flippity doo for two. Crazy hits a sick powerbomb for two that really should have been the actual finish. Mosco comes back with a so-so sunset flip powerbomb. Then Crazy wins with a surprisingly wimpy Frog Splash and an even wimpier cover that poor Gorilla Monsoon would still be criticizing to this day if he were alive. 

Verdict- Mindless, run of the mill high flying actionfest that would have played a lot better with me back in 1999.

Super Crazy is my personal favorite moonsault of all time. Unique rotation. The first quarter, say to 3:00 is almost violent, then suddenly the rest of the rotation becomes a time shifting slow rotation. It's like speed ramping in a movie, when an action starts in real speed, then ramps down to slow motion within the single action, but like, it's just a guy doing that in mid air somehow.  

I understand why Angle's moonsault is considered the GOAT. It's that perfect rotation that almost seems to float. Plus huge hops. I would never dispute his being the GOAT. But I just like the Super Crazy moonsault better.

Regardless, Super Crazy's moonsault gotta be in the Top 3. On top of the aesthetic beauty, in an era where the moonsault had become almost ordinary, Super Crazy had somehow made it back into a signature move. Plus all the variations. Then the balcony versions. Super Crazy is basically the human form of a moonsault. 

Eddy Guerrero w/ Chavo Guerrero vs. Ultimo Dragon- Slamboree 5/17/98- Fight For Chavo Match

More than once Kilgore has put over Jericho's stunning transformation from boring white meat babyface to heel god in early 1998 WCW. Well, I'm here to do the same thing for Eddy Guerrero. 95-96 Guerrero was the prototypical bland good wrestler guy babyface. He slapped hands. He smiled. He had pretty moves. He got golf claps. And he was BORING! But 97-98 Eddy is a different story. That sneer! That mullet! Sooo punchable. And he brings it in the ring just as well as 1998 Jericho did that night against Juvy.

Anyway, Eddy is in full heel mode. Sneering as he saunters down the aisle to a slow theme that fits him and treating his lackey Chavo not unlike the way Raven treated Richards. The always cool looking Ultimo Dragon is fighting to free Chavo from the clutches of evil Uncle Eddy. Dragon couldn't have had much time left. Let's find out...
He was, for all intents and purposes, done in July. Story here seems to be Chavo made a deal with the devil by verbally agreeing to be in Eddy's corner and now Eddy is holding it over him like a Doctor Who villain. Pure pro wrestling. You love to see it.

I don't like ragging on 80s & 90s wrestling crowds. Best people in the world. My people. But I have to do it here. These two wrestled a good match! This wasn't some tone deaf snoozefest like Benoit/Malenko at Hog Wild. Nor did it suck like *insert the Shawn Stasiak match of your choice* Yes, this match had some kewl movez. But it wasn't just cool moves for the sake of cool moves! There was a story here. It was classic good guy vs. bad guy pro rasslin'....with cool moves!  Should have been awesome! But this Worcester, Mass crowd just wasn't buying what they were selling. I think there was one real light "Eddy Sucks" chant that was probably like 3 people. The only real noise came when there was some commotion in the crowd. Was the dead crowd simply a case of running in WWF country? Nah. I'm not buying that. Not in 1998.

They start with some good solid 'technical' wrestling the way these matches typically started out. Then Eddy went into full heel mode. Dragon would come back. Hit the Himself Moonsault at some point. They traded Dragon Sleepers down the stretch. Eddy hitting Chavo's own signature Tornado DDT was made a big deal of on commentary. Closing stretch saw Chavo about to finally snap and attack Eddy when Dragon accidentally kicked him off the apron. Eddy followed up with a suplex and Frog Splash for the win. Poor Chavo. Post-match saw him once again about to attack Eddy...only this time to turn around and attack Dragon! Eddy is breaking Chavo's brain.

Verdict- There were a few hiccups/timing issues, and this was not the Eddy/Ultimo match of your dreams, but it was still a solid 11 minutes of wrestling brought down by a dead crowd.

Christian Cage vs. Monty Brown- TNA Turning Point 12/11/05- #1 Contender Match

Christian had just arrived one month earlier and was TNA's biggest signing to date. He's the face. Monty is the heel. My initial reaction was "it would be better if the roles were reversed." And I still believe that. But both guys played their role well. Monty played a better heel than I remembered*, taunting, trolling fans, etc. You love to see it. 

*I liked him as a face, and even once thought TNA should build around his as a babyface champ, before losing interest pretty quickly after a bizarre and stupid heel turn.

This was good, solid, meat and potatoes wrestling with both guys playing their roles well in front of a receptive audience which chanted for Christian and against Monty, showing both guys were over in their roles. Monty was stronger, but Christian wilier. Stuff was built to that paid off later, most notably an exposed turnbuckle that led directly to the finish some five minutes after the pad was first unsheathed. The Pounce was teased, but never hit. One highlight was Monty Brown painfully landing on his head off a sick Tornado DDT. That actually elicited a verbal response from yours truly. CC got the win around the 12-13 mark with an Unprettier after Monty ran into the exposed turnbuckle.

There were a few awkward moments of excessive punching or sitting on the top turnbuckle while waiting for the next spot. And the punches were weird as they ranged from what looked to be proper potatoes to real softies. Christian, the face, once did some unprovoked cheating on a rollup. That too was weird. 

Verdict: Solid professional wrestling

Caged Heat vs. Beckie The Farmer's Daughter & Bronco Billie- WOW tv 1/20/01- Tag Title Tournament Match

Over here chuckling at WOW's incredibly in-depth Wikipedia page. They have complete results and original air dates for every single 2000-01 tv episode! You'll sometimes see a similar deal where these super obscure indie wrestlers have longer entries than famous people like Einstein or Napoleon where it's obviously the wrestler themselves edited the page. Nobody else would care! In this case I assume it's David McLane or some other old WOW employee reliving their glory days. To this person I say, "Thank You!"

Caged Heat were one of the better WOW acts. They were convicts who were allowed to wrestle on prison release because reasons pro wrestling is the best and they actually had some cool double teams and came off as just the slightest bit badass which nobody else in the promotion really did.

Beckie & Billie were interchangeable filler who left no lasting impression on turn of the century me. Giving myself a kick in the pants for sleeping on Beckie back in the day. It's only within the last year or two that I discovered she was a crazy good athlete who was doing stuff nobody in mainstream women's wrestling would for another decade. Girl was breaking out picture perfect 450 Splashes in turn of the century WOW! And Billie....has a theme reminiscent of The Texicans/Silver King. So that's cool too! Caged Heat rap their own theme. 

This was above average for a WOW match just because they tried some cool things and none of those things were terribly botched. Beckie really was crazy athletic. She could have been something with a little bit of polish. Here she did a bunch of turnaround leaps to the middle turnbuckle and hit a bunch of dropkicks. Ok. Too many dropkicks. So many dropkicks... Billie took a nice bump off a double gorilla press drop and showed she has a better Bulldog than Sting and Jericho. Caged Heat were relatively subdued beyond the finisher and an Oklahoma Stampede I certainly wasn't expecting. Said finish came when vowel hating Jungle Grrrl ran in and pushed Beckie off the top to set up their Splash Match next month at the PPV. Beckie took a nice cannonball bump and was then finished off by an outta control Harlem Hangover(!) from a member of Caged Heat where it looked like her boots came perilously close to landing dangerously. 

As much as it pains me to quote Kevin "The Jerk" Nash, these girls needed to SLOW DOWN. It's just move-move-move with nothing, not even the simple stuff these ladies do, having time to breathe. UNLESS it was edited that way? Which is also possible! Because this 4-minute match featured more cuts than a Kevin Dunn production on crack. Y'know, I really hate the internet sometimes. WWE production never bothered me until somebody mentioned Kevin Dunn's constant cuts and since then I have been unable to unsee it. 

Verdict: Beckie & Caged Heat had some potential, and somebody should have hired Billie just to teach Sting & Jericho how to do a proper Bulldog.

Attention Baker

Sept 21, 2024 19:33:32 GMT Kilgore said:

Attention Baker

I always love little oddities like this. What was the thinking of this try-out? What would he do if they liked him? He was mainly a shoot-style worker up to this point but feels too small to be working with Shamrock and Severn. A pal for TAKA against Kaientai? Or was it just a favour for someone?

----------------------

1998 WWF is a wild year for names that wrestled on WWF shows. You still get the likes of Funk, Vader, Barry Windham, Rock 'n' Roll Express. With Super Astros, you have El Hijo del Santo and Negro Casas.


I always get surprised by how long some people hung around for.

- Scorpio last wrestled in Jan 1999 (a match that aired in Feb; the same taping as the Halftime Heat match).
- I don't remember LOD coming back in for a couple of weeks around Mania XV in 1999 and being in the Heat battle royal to determine the tag challengers and then challenging Owen/Jarrett a couple weeks later on RAW.
- Vader almost made Nov 1998, last match at MSG on Oct 25th. And he was working house shows with Rock in that October. 3 weeks before he first became World Champ, Rock was working house shows with Vader. Never would have thought that.
- John Tenta, as Golga, made it to late Feb 1999.

Sept 22, 2024 7:22:25 GMT Strobe said:

I always love little oddities like this. What was the thinking of this try-out? What would he do if they liked him? He was mainly a shoot-style worker up to this point but feels too small to be working with Shamrock and Severn. A pal for TAKA against Kaientai? Or was it just a favour for someone?

Found a mention of it in the Aug. 10, 1998 edition of WON, hoping for context, but only a brief sentence on the match being "good." Thanks for nothing, Dave.

This was the same episode of Raw where Kaientai appeared to castrate Val Venis, so leaning towards Kaientai related. If it was totally random, and maybe it was, it's odd that Tanaka would go over, as Daniels was more on their radar, at the time. Whatever was going on, truly an oddity. 

Nice Kilgore . That Minoru/Daniels match popped up in my feed as well. Obviously watched it asap. But I'll have to cover it next time since I already had a few matches on the docket...

"American Dragon" Bryan Danielson vs. Tiger Mask IV- NJPW February 2004

Tiger Mask IV is the internet equivalent of the Apter Mags calling Dirty White Boy "Tony Anthony." SMW never called him that! Just as this Tiger Mask is rarely, if ever, called "4" onscreen. He's wearing red karate pants. I miss the blue & yellow (GOAT color combination) pants he wore in Michinoku Pro.

Back in the day Benoit & Malenko were the usual points of reference when ROH/Indie fans (including myself) tried explaining Danielson to the unwashed masses. Yet there was a rogue faction of elite super duper smarks who used Regal as a reference point. I didn't get it back in the day. Regal sucked in ring! But did have charisma. Whereas Danielson was the then-modern-day poster boy for bland Good Wrestler Guys. But now I understand. Danielson opens the match with some very Regalesque mat wrestling. He wears simple, plain trunks reminiscent of His Lordship. He even has Lord Steven Regal's hair! Danielson's Regal cosplay is glaringly obvious nowadays.

This is a solid meat and potatoes match, albeit a bit on the bland side. Danielson opens with mat wrestling. TM comes back with kicks and flying, including some moves I associate with Bryan like rapid-fire kicks, snap Butterfly Suplex, and diving headbutt. Did Bryan borrow them from TM? Likely. Danielson sells two of those kicks very well. Then he comes back to ultimately scores the upset with a high and tight bridging back suplex the internet called "the Regal Plex" despite me never seeing Regal do the move until the 2010s lol. 

This is a good time to play compare and contrast with recent matches. Christian/Monty was good face vs. heel wrestling in front of a crowd buying what they were selling. Eddy/Ultimo was good face vs. heel wrestling chock full of what should have been crowd pleasing set pieces that ended up bombing in front of a lousy, unreceptive crowd. This was good pure back and forth wrestling in that the moves were cool, and everything hit well, but they little to engage the crowd. It was wrestling in a vacuum. Therefore...

Christian/Monty > Eddy/Ultimo > Bryan/Tiger 

Hayabusa vs. Masato Tanaka- FMW 3/13/98

If I had been slightly less smartened up and somebody told me Hayabusa was Sabu wearing a mask I would have believed them. Of course, this is all highly theoretical since only smarks knew who Sabu was, let alone Hayabusa.

I got waaaaay too excited when Hayabusa started off working Tanaka's arm and then Tanaka came back to work 'busa's leg. These two actionfest nutters doing an armwork vs. legwork match would have 4* floor. Sky's the limit. The best possible Bizarro World match. A much, much better version of that (still very cool!) time Kane/Show did a technical match. Alas, I should have learned my lesson by now. "Work the body part" openings inevitably go nowhere and seemingly exist solely to tease me.

But I was still digging this as an actionfest despite the complete lack of arm & leg selling. Hayabusa gets an extra half second of hangtime on every aerial move. Tanaka took suplexes on his head no fewer than four times. Hayabusa really was a cross between Sabu & Taz to use an old Kilgorism. But it eventually crossed the line into overkill. Tanaka sold a Superkick by hitting a Forearm. Tanaka hit three Death Valley Drivers. Hayabusa hit two Falcon Arrows with the second finally ending this thing despite being like the 12th coolest move of the match.  

Verdict: Coulda been a contender. Though, to be fair, late 90s me would have been much more receptive to this braindead actionfest than the theoretical WORK THE BODY PART match 2024 me is always so keen on seeing. Odd for an FMW match, there were no weapons, let alone any ultraviolence. I found that part refreshing.

Addendum: Days after watching this I discovered I only saw the second half of the match. Oh well. Don't feel like going back. 

Minoru Tanaka vs. Christopher Daniels- WWF Dark Match 7/28/98

What a delightful little oddity. I'm just happy this exists. Popped when I saw Minoru Tanaka's name in the title and then popped even harder upon discovering his opponent was none other than the great CHRISTOPHER DANIELS. 

I had no knowledge of this match existing despite being hyper plugged into all things WWF in 1998. Truth is it just wouldn't have registered with me when I inevitably read the result. My brain would have immediately moved on. It would be another year, or more likely two, before Tanaka was even slightly on my radar due to DVDVR hype, and while Daniels had already wrestled a few Shotgun matches, we just started getting the show in my area the previous month, he hadn't been on yet, and he had yet to garner an internet cult following. Though you would think I'd have come across this match existing somewhere given the oddity of Minoru Tanaka (who was still a complete unknown in '98) working a WWF show.

Did some digging and can only assume Tanaka got this tryout on the recommendation of Taka and/or Funaki given he worked with those guys a bunch in Japan. And agree with you guys that Tanaka's only possible role at the time would have been as a friend or enemy of Taka. 

LOL @ Attitude Era WWF crowds watching dark matches. Brutal! Like a PG version of a hostile ECW Arena crowd. Loud, long, and lusty "BORING" chants are the norm and, sure enough, we get them here. Tanaka was your stoic yet flashy babyface. He kicked and did armbars. Daniels was the star here imo. He did his best to get the crowd into it by jawing with them after most moves. He even popped them with a sick Angel's Wings! Of course, seconds later they were back to chanting "BORING." Man, Daniels was the real excellence of execution. Check out that textbook belly to belly. And he didn't even use that come the 2000s! Tanaka gets the win around the 5 minute mark with a German. 

Anybody else notice the two botches from the ref and/or timekeeper? First the ref does a pin count on Tanaka's armbar submission attempt. Then they botch a 3 count and the bell rings. I'd have kept Daniels & Tanaka over ref & timekeeper! Although there's a chance those were intentional botches to...

A. Mess with the new kids looking for a job because that was the style at the time. Jerk move, but entirely possible. Or...
B. Mess with the new kids to see how good they are at thinking on their feet. Harsh, but accidents do happen, and it might be wise to see how they adapt to mistakes. 

There was also a sloppy atomic drop from Daniels.

Kazuchika Okada vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan w/ Satoshi Kojima- NJPW G-1 Climax Match 7/31/16

This is a neat venue. I like it. I'm an Okada moderate. Not a hater. He's fine. But am I the only one who thinks his look doesn't fit his character? He's long and lanky like some sort of shorter (but still tall!) 1987 Barry Windham. And his hair is too well kempt. Honestly looks like he should be playing Ricky Morton in a babyface tag team, NOT playing a cocky heel(ish) Ace with JBL bucks falling during his entrance. It's probably just a Me Thing. Kudos for Tenzan for still rocking that hideous Nasty Boys style mullet 20 years later. Ya gotta love the commitment to a bit.

This was pretty good. Great beginning and good closing stretch compensate for an admittedly lackluster middle. This crowd is hot hot hot for Tenzan so Okada leans into heeling. Tenzan keeps going for Mongolian Chops* only to be foiled time and time again by Okada forearms so the crowd is THERE for it when Tenzan finally does land a Mongolian. Pro Wrestling 101. You love to see it. But it's Okada who scores the first big blow with a sweet Ortonesque draping DDT on the floor. First few minutes ruled.

Then it bogs down a bit. The veteran Tenzan kind of sucks tbh. He doesn't bump well, and his offense is pretty sloppy, BUT he does play his role well. So does Okada. And the crowd is into it. So these things keep it from getting too boring. Both guys take turns on offense. Stuff is hit, including Tenzan's Tombstone Driver and Anaconda Vice. Then we go to the typically cool Okada finishing stretch...

He keeps going for the Rainmaker only to be foiled time and time again by Tenzan headbutts. Hell yeah! Unfortunately, Tenzan is too slow at climbing the ropes, so he gets caught with a Super German followed by a super weak Rainmaker (because Tenzan is twice as thick as Okada and doesn't bump well) for the 3 count.

Verdict- Fun story-based face vs. heel match. Tenzan's "suckiness" even plays into the story since he's SUPPOSED to be a past his prime veteran. 

Fun Fact: the Mongolian Chop was a signature move of mine in the old Smackdown video games. It was the right kind of stupid. Friends hated it. So naturally I loved it. It would turn my opponent around and leave them susceptible to the dreaded Round and Round suplex. Props to Low Ki for making those goofy ass Mongolian Chops actually look legit.

Davey Boy Smith & Jim Neidhart vs. Alex Wright & Disco Inferno- WCW Fall Brawl 9/13/98

SUCKED. For starters, it's a heel vs. heel opener. Why would you ever do that? Even Godwinns/Quebecers wasn't the opener! Secondly, it just isn't very good. Third, it goes an-already-too-long 11 minutes that feels more like 22.

Highlight was Disco's AMAZING technicolor dream pants. Wright & Bulldog had a nice early exchange while Wright seemed to be the only guy trying. Even my man Disco phoned this one in. Anvil had been washed since the Hart Foundation broke up in 1991 while few, if any, wrestlers ever deteriorated more rapidly than Bulldog from 97 to 98. 1997 Bulldog is an easy Top 15 wrestler in the States using kayfabe logic. He's also an above average in ring talent still capable of greatness on the right day with the right opponent. 1998 Bulldog is a low midcarder who just doesn't have it in the ring anymore.

The North Carolina crowd opens the match by loudly chanting "USA" with the British Bulldog and German Wright in the ring. Wright must hate America more than Davey because the chant rattles him enough that he has to take a powder, making the Hart Bulldogs your de facto babyfaces. Wright & Davey do some fun European mat wrestling while the commentary team prattles on about the War Games main event and Bret Hart attacking his family members on a recent tv show. The match then dies a slow death while the crowd chants "We Want Flair" multiple times. At some point I realized this was the match where Bulldog took his infamous injury-inducing bump on Warrior's trap door. I couldn't pinpoint exactly which bump it was. Reddit has a theory, but I have my doubts since the bump posted there has Bulldog landing more on his hip than his back. Anyway, here's the worst part...

This show featured War Games which means THERE ARE TWO RINGS. So why on earth are they fighting in the trap door ring? Has to be one of the sadder "lol WCW" moments. Bulldog got wrecked because some idiot had them wrestling in the wrong ring. Did Bulldog sue? Did he win? I certainly hope so.

Bulldog is definitely wrecked by the finish as it takes him 3 tries to Powerslam Disco for the win. 

Verdict: A generous 1/4* just because this Flair fan will always be a mark for "We Want Flair" chants.

Randy Savage (c) w/ Miss Elizabeth vs. Billy Jack Haynes- Wrestling Challenge 11/1/86- IC Title Match

This was apparently a mini feud I was not aware of as commentary alludes to a previous tv match between the two. Can't speak on the other, but this was a fun 4-minute face vs. heel tv match. BJ Haynes took a cool bump to the floor. Savage hit the flying axehandle to said floor. BJH hit a nice gorilla press slam. Danny Davis is the ref, so you KNOW there's going to be shenanigans, and those shenanigans turned out to be genuinely clever...

I'm like "how are they gonna get out of this one?" when BJH is swinging Savage around in his Full Nelson finisher. They got out of it by having Davis get whacked by one of Savage's swinging arms after getting too close. Davis calls for the bell. I'm over here like "lol that was good stuff" fully expecting Savage to be DQed for hitting Davis. NO! Double swerve! Davis DQed Haynes for swinging Savage into him! Gold, Jerry, gold. They got me twice in a 37-year-old match lol. Crooked referee Danny Davis remains an all-time great gimmick. It's easy to see why he infuriated my brother and millions of others. 

Verdict: The sort of vintage WWF fare I grew up on. Ya gotta love it. 

*Probably the last one for a while as I plan on.... endeavoring hard next week after going sawft for a few days.

Jeff Jarrett w/ Mr. Fuji vs. Lex Luger- Superstars 5/21/94- KOTR Qualifying Match

When I started writing about wrestling matches all those years ago on Old PW, I quickly found my niche by eschewing The Classics that had been done to death in favor of random ass tv matches from 10-20-30 years ago that nobody other than me remembered. Sometimes they were good. Sometimes they weren't. But they were always fun to revisit. I'd slip my storytimes in and usually I'd remember to give my thoughts on the match. That once prosperous well predictably grew dryer and dryer as time marched on. Think the last match I reviewed to fit that description was....Black Tiger/Felino maybe?* So I popped hard when THIS finally turned up after years of on and off searching.

Spoiler Alert: Jarrett wins. This SHOCKED 1994 me as I had Major Superstar Lex Luger down as a stone-cold lock to advance over 'annoying' mid-level baddie JJ. And with my man JJ in KOTR, he was now my pick/hope to win. Though I wasn't disappointed upon discovering Owen did. Ok, maybe for a split second, but then Owen simply leapfrogged JJ to the top of my Favorites list.

Anyway, this match I remembered for 30 years is not very good. Luger in particular is just lazily going through the motions. Crowd is the same with only one halfhearted "USA" chant. Fuj the Stooge, a most unlikely JJ manager, waved the Japanese flag throughout. JJ does some decent heeling. There was a nice Luger press slam. But the match as a whole felt awfully rote. I struggle to even call it a total house show effort because you'd hope they'd at least kill time with some fun character work at a house show. Y'know, I'm starting to understand the hate for Luger's WWF babyface run. He was awfully lazy during that stretch. I watched this a week ago and don't remember many specifics. Crush interferes. Luger brawls with him on the floor to give JJ the upset win by countout just as I remembered. 1994 Baker marks out. 

*It was actually a pair of matches back in March of this year- Christian & Tomko vs. Tajiri & Rhyno and Angle vs. Edge in a Cage. Yes, I went back and looked. Now I just need that Mankind/Freddie Joe Floyd match with the one cool spot from a July '96 Raw to turn up on the 'Tube or DM and then I can die a happy camper.

Verdict- *ish

Billy & Chuck (c) w/ Rico vs. Al Snow & Maven- Backlash 4/21/02- Tag Title Match

Billy & Chuck were gold. Maybe not so great in the ring though. At least not if this match is any indication. Because this was total amateur hour in front of a heatless crowd. Guys were constantly out of position. Wrestlers had to run sideways to get to the next spot. It was funny. And get this...

Greenhorn Maven wasn't the worst offender. Al Snow was. If I didn't know better, I'd have guessed he was the beginner. So, so bad. Not gonna lie. Most of my 20th Century wrestling opinions aged like fine wine. But none aged worse than thinking Al Snow was any good. He sucked. He always sucked. Far from being underused in the 90s, he was lucky to have the career he did. Really feel like my only other 90s opinion that's even in the same ballpark of badness is thinking the Dean Douglas vignettes were any good.

Again, I don't remember many specifics as it's been about a week. Let's see...Billy and especially Chuck threw some nice punches. Maven's vaunted dropkick actually was pretty lousy here. Sorry Ness. Maven got a nearfall off a Steamboat crossbody. Crowd couldn't have cared less. Snow saved Maven after Billy hit the Fameasser. There was a real pointless moment of Snow fighting somebody on the apron. Finish comes when Rico distracts the ref long enough for Chuck to slip in a cheap Superkick for the win. While I justifiably rag on modern wrestling for being Superkick City, 01-02 WWF wasn't much better. It was the move du jour. Then HBK came back, and WWE wrestlers went from spamming the Superkick to spamming the Spinebuster. Can't win. Anyway, the real highlight of this stinker was hearing Billy & Chuck's sweet theme.

Verdict- Worse than the mediocre JJ/Luger match mentioned above, lacking even its memorability, as I have no recollection of seeing this in real time which I did

British Bulldog w/ Jim Cornette vs. Marty Jannetty- Raw 11/6/95

Was in the mood for some comfort wrestling the other night and this scratched that itch. Pretty much the platonic ideal of bad guy powerhouse vs. high flying good guy rasslin'. Marty flummoxed Bulldog early by using his speed for hit and run attacks. Then Bulldog used his power once he finally caught the once and future Rocker. Then we went into the finishing stretch. Just how they draw it up in the playbook. Davey's 4 chinlocks in a 9 minute match were a bit much, and he actually ran the ropes faster than the 'high flying' Marty, but this was still good, solid, meat and potatoes pro wrestling. Also earns bonus points for being tassletastic. Brother, you ain't never seen so many tassles in one ring. Oh, and Marty broke out this ahead-of-its-time reverse Blockbuster/pseudo–Diamond Dust thingie. 

The finish was never in doubt as Bulldog was in the midst of his biggest career push while the recently returned Marty was already back to his usual spot in the midcard. Jannetty missed two corner charges and sure enough Bulldog finished him off with his patented powerslam the second time. It was a real beaut of a slam too. DBS actually did a little jump into the move and finished with a nice bounce upon impact. Clarence Mason cut an inset promo about using his lawyerly ways to get Bulldog a title shot at IYH December. Golden Age, brother. The Glory Days.

Scott Norton vs. The Shark- WCW Nitro 11/20/95

It's only fair to take a look at a match from the B Show of that most glorious era. This was one of booker Kevin Sullivan's weirdo heel vs. heel feuds. They'd been beefing since Norton arrived on the scene at the 2nd(?) Nitro. I was obviously a Norton Guy, but hadn't cared about Quake in years, and wouldn't again until he became A MAN in like May-June 96. Shark was such a lame-o, dead-end gimmick. 

Norton is out first. Shark jumps him from behind to establish he's the more heelish of the two big boys. Shark works Norton over with what is honestly some pretty lousy clubberin'. Big elbow drop by Quake. Stinger splash. My man MONGO further endears himself to me by marking out for this COLOSSAL JOSTLE. Then my other man Norton starts doing some badass babyface no sells. Heck yes! Then he wins clean with a FLASH (pun intended) powerslam around the 2-minute mark. Hell yeah!!

Verdict- Vindicated again! As going all the way back to 1993, I thought Norton had great badass babyface potential in the vein of an 86-87 UWF "Dr. Death" Steve Williams and this match confirmed my theory. 93-96 Baker rarely missed. Stupid Al Snow & Dean Douglas vignettes...

Cena/Benoit/Angle/Bradshaw/BOBCORE vs. TEAM SASQUATCH (Lesnar/Show/N. Jones/M. Morgan/A-Train)- Survivor Series 11/16/03

This match is memorable for one reason- Cena dubbing the big heels TEAM SASQUATCH in a Smackdown promo during the build. Popped me something fierce. Johnny Boy had just turned face. He comes out first wearing a Joe Namath throwback jersey. Gross. That's putting him on thin ice. 2003 Cena is about the only guy I'd let get away with that fashion faux pas, but he's still pushing his luck. He cuts an edgy pre-match promo and it's wild that THIS GUY would soon become the golly gosh wow G Rated hero of the children.

Check out that babyface side. I forgot BRADSHAW was the 5th man. So you've got 4 World Champions and BOBCORE. Dark horse contender for a Top 5 Baker Approved Survivor Series team. Though in the interest of fairness I was kind of over Bradshaw & Bobcore at the time. At best they were coasting on the goodwill built up in earlier years. Michael Cole keeps calling TEAM SASQUATCH the largest team in Survivor Series history. He even namedrops Andre's 1987 team as the former biggest boys on the block. Then I do the math and realize MICHAEL COLE IS A LYING LIAR. Andre/KKB/OMG/Butch/Rude= 1950ish pounds. Team Sasquatch= 1805 pounds. It's not even that close!

This suffers from the rapid-fire elimination problem that plagues so many Survivor Series matches. The SurvSer formula tends to produce fun matches but rarely great ones (only one I can think of is Team Austin vs. Team Bischoff from this very show). BOBCORE gets DQed right away for shoving the ref aside in his zeal to beat up Brock. Bradshaw eliminates Albert seconds later with his famed Clothesline. Bradshaw is eliminated seconds after that with a Big Show Chokeslam. Then it settles down into more of a proper match. Benoit/Show was a better mini match than Cena/Brock. Cena moves so awkwardly, always looking like he's about to trip over his own feet, while Benoit remains one of the 10 best pure in ring competitors to ever do it. It's not even a MOVEZ thing. His intensity is unmatched, and he has few peers as a salesman. Greenhorns Morgan & Jones were honestly fine. One of them had a little boo boo the camera crew covered for so well I doubt most fans even noticed. Kevin Dunn for the win. Show hit the Hog Log and slapped on an abdominal stretch at some point in the bout.

Angle finally enters around the 10-minute mark with an all-time great hot tag. There's even a tribute to it over on Reddit. He takes Brock, Morgan, and Jones to suplex city. We get rapid-fire elimination sequence #2 when Kurt eliminates one of the big boys with an Angle Slam and the other with an Ankle Lock. Crowd is loving this btw. So am I. But then that scoundrel Brock eliminates King Kurt with a flash F5. BOO! Not even Angle lands properly on that very, very, extremely overrated move. 

Now it's down to Brock & Show vs. Benoit & Cena. Brock & Benoit display the great chemistry that made their Smackdown match a month later the best in the history of the show. Benoit makes Brock tap to the Crossface! Crowd taunts Lesnar with "You Tapped Out" chants. Then Cena finishes Show off with the FU for the win. Cena & Benoit are your winners! 2003 me was cool with those guys winning, but I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't a little bummed out about Angle not surviving alongside them. Iirc this was Kurt's most injury prone period and he would take a few months off immediately following this show.

Post-match promo has an annoyed Lesnar meet Raw Champ Goldberg for the first time thereby planting the seeds for their upcoming Wrestlemania debacle. 

Verdict- Fun 13-14 minutes of classic Survivor Series action. Honestly better than I remembered. If I didn't know better, I'd think 2003 WWE was a red hot, well-booked product. When, in reality, my entire wrestling fan clique of 00-03 had either recently stopped watching or were months away from going off wrestling forever. Too bad 🤯 isn't around anymore as I remember him being a big fan of this era. Surely, he'd have something to say about TEAM SASQUATCH.

*Goldberg was the natural match when I did my "what if Steve Austin went to 2002 WCW" brainstorm the other day. But what if you could squeeze 3 matches out of Stone Cold? Who would you have him face? Sting instantly came to mind as the next name since Hogan was already long gone in this universe. Then I needed a 3rd. This was tougher. While not completely sold, I was leaning Scott Steiner. So then I decided to check out Austin vs. Sting and Austin vs. S. Steiner from years earlier... 

Sting vs. "Stunning" Steve Austin w/ Colonel Robert Parker- WCW Saturday Night 4/8/95

I'm a fan of what I call New Generation WCW. This is the period from roughly July 91-July 94. Or when Flair left for WWF to when Hogan arrived in WCW. This match gives off major New Generation WCW vibes despite technically taking place outside the timeline. It's all here. Austin with Bill Fagerbakke hair entering to the killer Hollywood Blondes theme. Sting entering to Man Called Sting while sporting a beautiful pair of tights. A Center Stage crowd hot for the Stinger. My man Gary Michael Cappetta handling the introductions. Even ol' Foghorn Leghorn Parker in Austin's corner. Pure WCW. It's not WWF. Nothing ever was or will be. But it just might be the next best thing. You love to see it. 

Truth is I don't remember Austin being around this late. Though I know better, a part of me instinctively conflates Austin's departure with Hogan's arrival. Probably just a case of me going off WCW THAT HARD once Hogan came in. I never liked Austin with Colonel Parker either. Felt like a weird pairing even back in the day. 

This 13-minute encounter was like a poor man's version of an Okada special in that the hot finishing stretch was almost enough to trick me into forgetting the bulk of the match was slow and boring. Austin had a real bad botch off a Sting catapult, something else I'm forgetting was choppy, and Sting sold an irish whip to the turnbuckle by coming right out with a clothesline to kickstart his comeback. I did like Austin doing Sting's call as a taunt only for Sting to later do the proper version.

Finishing stretch ruled though. They teased two cheap double countouts, traded back to back missed Superfly Splashes (Air Austin~!), and did the always cool series of Tombstone reversals with Sting coming out on top. Fun Fact: I liked Taker/Faker the first time I saw it just because it had Tombstone reversals lol. Sting finally scores the win with a fancy side roll up. Think they used to call it an Oklahoma Roll. At least Austin was protected by not having to submit to the Scorpion.

Verdict- Honestly disappointing. First 10 minutes were real snoozy but at least it did have a sweet finishing stretch.

Scott Steiner (c) vs. "Stunning" Steve Austin- WCW Saturday Night 10/17/92- TV Title Match

Scott Steiner as TV Champ stuck out like a sore thumb when I first saw it in the 1996 PWI Almanac. Wasn't watching WCW at the time (I rediscovered the promotion in January 93) and had no idea Scotty had ever been a singles champ. Then I promptly forgot about it for like 25 years before coming across an article about his "Forgotten Heel Turn." He either turned heel or was in the process of turning when the Steiners bolted for WWF.

Anyway, commentary bangs on about Austin being a great TV Champ. His theme here sounds like an old movie score. It's no Hollywood Blonds theme. Steiner's theme is neither Welcome to the Jungle nor Steinerized. WCW really dropping the ball on their theme game. Austin is going with the rare no knee pads look. OMG the ring announcer's name is Rhubarb Jones. RHUBARB JONES~! That's an all-time great name. Dare I say even better than Brutus Beefcake? Any of you guys remember Rhubarb Jones? I sure don't. But what a name!

Yay! This one starts out fast and furious with a pretty sweet punch battle that Steiner gets the better of. Then he ties Austin up on the mat for about 5 minutes, continually cutting off any Austin comeback attempt. It's interesting at first, but quickly gets to the point where Steiner is gobbling Austin up in a downright uncooperative sort of way. Then we're out of time around the 8-9 minute mark. The lamest of all finishes. Match ends because they're out of tv time. Can't believe they were still doing that finish in 1992. OK, fine. I could accept it once every year or two as a flukey, faux realism sort of thing. But something tells me they were doing it much more than once every year or two.

Verdict- Another disappointing one. Though I feel like Steiner deserves most of the blame for treating Austin like a jobber. 

Oct 15, 2024 1:45:41 GMT Baker said:

*Goldberg was the natural match when I did my "what if Steve Austin went to 2002 WCW" brainstorm the other day. But what if you could squeeze 3 matches out of Stone Cold? Who would you have him face? Sting instantly came to mind as the next name since Hogan was already long gone in this universe. Then I needed a 3rd. This was tougher. While not completely sold, I was leaning Scott Steiner. So then I decided to check out Austin vs. Sting and Austin vs. S. Steiner from years earlier... 

I imagine Booker T. and DDP were in the running too as the best Dubya Cee Dubya guys of 2002, with both having significantly better hypothetical match potential with Austin. But I get the Steiner pick. Him and Austin would have more of a big fight feel, it's such a shame that it has literally 0% chance of ever being a good match, otherwise it would be almost as much a no-brainer as Goldberg and Sting.

All that being said, in this timeline, RVD is probably in WCW, and he is my third man.

Paul Diamond vs. Colonel DeBeers- AWA tv 10/23/89- King of the Hill/Team Challenge Series Match

This is from the infamous Pink Room Taping. Words cannot do it justice. It needs to be seen. I'll share the video at the end of this post. I actually remembered watching those shows when they gained a Wrestlecrap following some 15-20 years later. They were...fine...to kiddie me. I just took it all in stride. Ah, to be young and accepting again...

Paul Diamond looks like a deflated early 90s Scott Steiner while Colonel DeBeers looks like most 1989 dads. Diamond was the prototypical 4A wrestler while the evil South African DeBeers was a literal mustache twirling villain who served as a longtime AWA heel after years in Portland.

This was honestly perfectly cromulent wrestling in a surreal atmosphere. They worked hard and there was some solid psychology. Diamond hit two flying headscissors' early. Then DeBeers dodged a third attempt to take control. DeBeers broke out an unexpected diving headbutt and then Diamond dodged a second attempt. Diamond hit a nice Mr. Wrestling 2 kneelift. It got a little boring for a minute or two and then Diamond back body dropped DeBeers out of the ring to win around 6-7 minutes. Oh, ok. A King of the Hill match is like a 1 on 1 Battle Royal. Very well then. I was hoping it had something to do with propane and propane accessories. Can't pretend I'm not disappointed. 

Oh, and AWA showcased their super duper new technology- slow motion replay. The commentary duo was very excited about this. But it only served to show how fake wrestling can be when DeBeers bumped for a very sawft dropkick that may not have made any actual contact. It only looked slightly bad at normal speed, but in slow mo you can really see the strings being pulled. Why would you do this? Vintage AWA!

Verdict- I'll give it to 'em. They worked harder than I was expecting...harder than I would have lol... and every wrestling fan needs to see Pink Room Wrestling once in their life. Now I just need the Milkman/DeBeers match to surface. Clips were up once upon a time but even that tantalizing teaser seems to have disappeared. Sad!

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}

 Nova vs. Mikey Whipwreck- ECW Hardcore TV 1/22/00

Taking this time to offer Mikey an apology. I should have been a HUGE Mikey Whipwreck fan in 1998. He was the coolest wrestler on AOL. Always happy to talk some wrestling with me and the WKO boys. He subscribed to our newsletter. Pretty sure we even made him an honorary WKO member. He never big leagued us like that little name/big ego hack Dave "The Dick" Prazak. Best of all, Mikey once offered me free tickets to an ECW Arena show. All I had to do was get there and pick them up at the door. Alas, I had no way of making the 90 mile trek to Philly. A quick investigation reveals that would have been the 5/16/98 ECW Arena show because I "remembered" Mikey wrestling a guy named Mike Lozansky at the show in which I didn't go....and he did on 5/16/98! So that has to be the one. 

But the truth is, despite ECWWHIPPER being a super nice, cool, friendly dude, I just wasn't a huge fan of Mikey Whipwreck the wrestler. I wasn't a hater, mind you! Just not a fan. He was...fine. A 5/10 type. Certainly more tolerable than his replacement, Spike. I liked Mikey's matches with Shane, Sabu, and Cactus (some [all?] of which I may not have seen yet), but the Rey Mysteriosque "underdog who usually wins" thing just wasn't my cup of tea. Sorry, but you cease to be the underdog when you win your promotion's Triple Crown at a Dieselesque pace. Mikey was this super small dude lacking even the otherworldly athleticism of a prime Rey Jr. who usually won. It was a bit much for this guy. Anyway, the main point of this rant is I should have been a bigger fan of the guy OFFERING ME FREE TICKETS TO AN ECW ARENA SHOW and nowadays I regret not being a late 90s Mikey Whipwreck superfan. Sorry, Mikey! Fwiw we lost touch when I lost the internet at home around August 98. Then he went to WCW. And I was only an occasional AOL chatroom visitor during my internet at home comebacks in 99 & 2000. 

We're at the world famous ECW Arena. I skipped this show. A quick search reveals it took place on 1/15/00. Makes sense I didn't go considering my interest was really waning by late '99 after being ALL IN on ECW for most of the year. And the decline in interest may have been even more precipitous with my cousin. Anyway, Mikey is out first to a theme which is neither Loser nor Pepper. Interesting. His shirt has a ginormous skull on the front and bones on the back. He makes a bunch of goofy faces as Styles basically says he's playing a tweener without actually coming right out and using said insider lingo. Nova is out to the Beastie Boys Intergalactic. He's wearing a Green Lantern shirt and actually interacts with Green Lantern Fan. Nice! Crowd is completely behind Nova with "Fuck Him Up Nova" chants. That surprised me. I was expecting dueling chants.

This was a fun 7 minutes of action best described as "vintage ECW." They do the New Japan/WCW Cruiserweight/Indie start with fancy, fast-paced, stalemating. Big moves are teased. Golf claps are given. It's all good stuff. Then Nova takes a nutty bump from apron to guardrail that got a legit verbal response out of me. Then Mikey follows with a nutty Sabueque flip dive that sees him land half on Nova and half on the guardrail. Vintage ECW stupidity! And I mean that in a loving way. Nova kicks out of a top rope bulldog. Mikey kicks out of a Last Rites. Then Mikey escapes a Krytonite Krunch attempt only to have his rollup attempt countered into a Bret/Davey Boy deal to give Nova the upset win. Styles mentions Nova has now beaten Candido (the Hardcore Holly chant match) & Mikey at back-to-back ECW Arena shows. Looks like ECW was giving my guy Nova a slow burn push after all. Wonder why they never went all the way with it?

Verdict- Fun balls to the wall actionfest which exceeded expectations. Despite doing a lot, they still managed to leave a lot on the table for a rematch (which never happened so far as I know). Having trouble explaining why this one really hit the spot. Though maybe there was one kickout too many and I do find Nova's tryhard attempts at fancifying simple moves to be more cringe than cool nowadays. Yet this still scratched that ECW itch we all have from time to time.

Triple H (c) vs. Edge- Great American Bash 7/20/08- WWE Championship Match

This is not an era I often revisit. Nor is it an era I have much nostalgia for. BUT I was still very much plugged into my once-beloved WWE if only out of habit. Contrary to what you might think, I did very little message board posting from 01-06. I'd estimate under a dozen posts on DVDVR and maybe a few dozen over 4-5 years on the old ROH board. That's it. I was more lurker than poster in those days. Basically too wrapped up in living life to bother posting on message boards. But around mid 2007 I got back in the message board game through 411, OWW, and finally an OWW offshoot where I remained active through October 2008. During that time, I'd occasionally watch the shows on streaming sites alongside my message board pals. This was one such show. The point of all this rambling is being part of the message board scene again gave my fandom a little boost in 07-08 following the doldrums of 2006.

Yet I have no idea what put this match in my head lol. It's not one anyone ever brings up. I remember liking it in a 'pretty good' sort of way. It got a lot of 3-3.5* star ratings at the time. Then everybody promptly moved on, never again to think about it until I randomly remembered it sometime last week. Fwiw there's a HHH/Cena match from around the same time that also fits my description. That was my Plan B if I couldn’t find this one. This is the only high-profile singles match between Edge & the H's, though they did interact in some other high profile multi-mans and tags. 

HHH is the face and Edge the heel. JR plays into the longtime internet rumors with some cryptic comments about these two not getting along. For there can be only one tall, longhaired blonde at the top of the WWE mountain and you just know that evil HHH is holding Edge back. I mean the guy only won *checks notes* 11 World Titles as a HHH contemporary. Totally buried. Anyway, it took me a minute to recognize Mick Foley's voice. He's JR's commentary partner. Mick didn't last long in the booth. 

This was a slow paced yet well-worked match full of gravitas featuring some hard hits from two guys not known for hitting hard. HHH worked over Edge's head while Edge targeted The Game's ribs. H dropped some nasty knees on the back of Edge's head, but what really stood out was a forearm to the back of Edge's head that would have made Misawa wince and surely contributed an easy 6 months to Edge's future 9-year absence. Edge would later get some payback when it was his turn on offense by kicking H hard in the ribs. Another cool spot was H dodging an apron spear like a matador to send Edge tumbling to the floor. There was an Implant DDT on the floor, a regular DDT in the ring, a main event superplex, and teases of both Pedigree & Spear. Crowd wasn't that hot with only two light "Triple H" chants. In fairness to Long Island, Edge didn't do anything particularly heelish to get them riled up, and Trips has never been a good face beyond that 1998 DX run.

However, all that solid work was nullified by a real wet fart of a sports entertainment finish. "Wedding Planner" Alicia Fox came out to help Edge win the title only to be interrupted by Edge's former(?) main squeeze Vickie Guerrero. Vickie had heat with Alicia because she kissed Edge leading up to their aborted wedding. Ugh. It was a dumb angle I was lucky enough to forgot about from roughly 5 minutes after happened until 16 years later. Vickie & Alicia have a lame-o catfight. ‘Twas even called a cat fight by JR or Mick channeling their inner Joey Styles. Edge goes to spear Alicia only to accidentally end up hitting Vickie. None of this makes much sense. HHH capitalizes by swopping in to hit the Pedigree on a befuddled Edge for the win.

Verdict- Bulk of this 16-17 minute match was good, solid, meat and potatoes wrestling, but the lamebrained sports entertainment finish sucked a big one. They just burned a rare HHH/Edge encounter to further push an idiotic Alicia Fox vs. Vickie Guerrero feud nobody could possibly care about.

Addendum: I was historically the guy defending schmozzy, "overbooked" finishes. Back in the day everyone from my brother to the Apter Mags to Dory Funk Jr. to the turn of the century IWC were haters of interference-laden sports entertainment finishes. I, the voice of reason, was like "No. You don't understand. You need those kinds of finishes to further storylines. That's literally how pro wrestling works, you idiots. So either gtfo and go jerk off to your AJPW tapes or embrace proper pro wrestling, ya rubes."

But now I am again becoming the very thing I once railed against. I am becoming one of Those People. Nowadays I think there are far more bad sports entertainment finishes than good ones. And this mess has to be among the worst.

Addendum #2: Looked around for other opinions just now. * ratings ranged from *3/4 to ***1/2 with most falling in the *** range, while comments ranged from "How was this never a Wrestlemania main event?" to "There are no two main eventers from the 2000s that I care about less." Polarization thy name is HHH & Edge. 

*Watched 6 more matches over the weekend that I will cover over the next few days whenever I have the time.

Ric Flair w/ Arn Anderson & Asya vs. Roddy Piper- WCW Great American Bash 6/13/99- Winner gets to be WCW Commissioner

Brought this match I had never seen up to Pete about a year ago. My older cousin of Big Artie Dynamite fame who never talked wrestling before or since got free tickets to this show from his company and ended up raving about this one match. After a quarter century I am finally watching the only wrestling match I ever heard that cousin talk about.

We get a pre-match video package to set the stage. Flair has gone off the rails. Benoit & Malenko left him. Even loyal soldier Arn is wavering. Naitch is out first looking resplendent as ever. I usually avoid Piper. He's honestly one of my all-time least favorites. But I'll endure him this one time to satiate a curiosity one quarter century old. 

I'm with Pete rather than my lapsed fan cousin in 1999. This was pretty lousy. It was like an old man comedy match you'd see on some low level indie show. Piper did a lot of stupid Three Stooges and Bugs Bunny spots that Flair was more than happy to play along with. Flair spammed the Flair Flops and we even got a mooning. Look, this was bad. Piper was long passed it while Flair was just going through the motions. BUT these two always had an element of comedy in their game! "Funny don't draw money," Cornette? Say that to these two. Heck, say that to yourself. *rant over*

One thing I liked was Flair's blind low blow kick. It landed beautifully. That one moment proved these two, yes even Piper, still had SOMETHING left in the tank, be it ring positioning, feel, or simply having worked hundreds of matches together. After roughly 8 minutes of frankly embarrassing 'action,' Flair locks Piper in the Figure Four while reaching back to get leverage from Arn. Piper refuses to quit. But Buff Bagwell had enough of seeing his mentor tortured so he runs in to attack the heels. Arn took way more bumps (meaning > 0) than I was expecting. Buff gets the better of Flair until Piper turns on him. I think they were going for "Piper is mad Buff cost him the match so he's siding with his enemies in a fit of rage" but it kind of came off like this whole thing was an elaborate ruse to con Bagwell. That would be incredibly stupid if true. Anyway, Piper whips Buff while Flair & Arn hold him down while commentary hints at this kicking off a Young vs. Old feud (that I don't believe ever came to fruition). 

Verdict- *. More embarrassing than good. The closing angle had some promise though. And I do get where my cousin was coming from, because this crowd WAS hot for seeing two of their childhood heroes play the Greatest Hits, even if they did come off more like a pair of doddering old grandfathers to yours truly watching a quarter century after the fact.

Jushin Liger w/ Team Japan vs. Petey Williams- TNA Sacrifice 5/14/06- World X Cup Match

Liger is out first to upbeat music with Japanese singing. He's wearing a sweet all black outfit and is accompanied by his "CTU" stable from New Japan. Petey comes out alone to an electric guitar version of the Canadian National Anthem. Liger represents Team Japan and Petey Team Canada in the World X Cup Series with USA & Mexico being the other two countries participating.

Not just disappointing, but a downright subpar 8 minute match. They start with the standard fancy mat wresting, move trading, opening. Crowd is strongly pro-Liger and anti-Petey early, but instead of leaning into Liger as the face and Petey the heel, the Japanese team keeps interfering to muddy the waters. Eventually the crowd breaks into a dueling chant before ultimately going back to supporting Liger. There's also an early botched senton and a super weak lefty palm strike from Liger. Liger gets two off the Liger Bomb before winning with a back suplex thrown down into Dominator sort of deal which I don't recall ever seeing end a match before after even more CTU interference. That's doubly backwards! About the only thing I liked here was teasing the Canadian Destroyer as a death blow with Liger doing whatever it took to avoid the maneuver rather than burning through it. 

Verdict- Under **

*These were pretty easily the 2 worst bouts in this 7 match binge. It gets better from here on out. 

Hulk Hogan (c) vs. Hercules Hernandez w/ Bobby Heenan- SNME 11/29/86- WWF Championship Match

In late 95-early 96 my associates and I stepped into the role of the Houston Astros in the Glenn Davis trade by scoring a few LJN figures (including Harley "Jerry Lawler" Race) and a sweet 1987 WWF Magazine when we orchestrated an absolute steal of a swap with our lapsed fan friend Adam. I don't remember what I/we had to give up. It doesn't even matter. Because I'd still feel like I came out on top even if I gave up a Honus Wagner cigarette card. Jerry Lawler! But we've already beaten that horse to death. So this time we'll touch on that sweet edition of WWF Magazine. It profiled a bunch of WWF wrestlers in the style of the 1996 PWI Almanac and 1996 Wrestling Annual. Very cool! Herc's blurb mentioned a match he had with The Hulkster which 95-96 me viewed as a fun, unique, interesting matchup. And now I am watching it for what I believe to be the very first time.

This match could have been worked as poorly as Flair/Piper with the botched face/heel structure of Liger/Petey and end on dumb dumb interference from Alicia Fox & Vickie Guerrero and I'd still consider it a win. Why? Because of the pre-match segments. First we see Bobby buying Herc from the very underrated Slick. Always nice to see The Slickster. He has a great voice. Then we go to a backstage promo from Herc & The Brain. It's honestly a pretty mundane, run of the mill promo, but what makes it is Heenan lovingly massaging a flexing Herc throughout the interview. Youtube comments include "Bobby was rubbing on Hercules that was heka Gay" and "Is Bobby Heenan a homosexual??" Herc really does look like the typical depiction of the mythical Greek hero. Then Hogan comes on to remind us why he was The Man with a gloriously batshit promo on par with his Wrestlemania IV masterpiece. 5* for sure. Imagine being such a hater that it took you 27 years-until Wrestlemania 30 to be precise-before you gave this guy credit for being a good promo. Shame on me. 

Missing 🤯. He'd be in his glory with all the H names in this match. Miss ya, brother. Match is standard Hogan fare that worked for me this time around. Crowd is hot to begin with and the heat machine working overtime gives the illusion of the L.A. faithful being even hotter. This is what a well-oiled machine looks like. We get an early test of strength ending with Herc impressively lifting Hogan by his wrists and carrying him over to the corner. Herc hits a nice Bionic Elbow and stretches Hogan with the basement favorite BOONE BREAKER. Jesse & Vince are great on commentary. This is all very pure. Herc hoists Hogan up in the Torture Rack and drops him after about 10 seconds thinking he won. Noted conspiracy theorist Jesse Ventura says Hogan submitted. And you know what? I agree! I bet Hogan DID quit! But Dave Hebner was in the tank for Hogan just like Joey Marella and therefore refused to acknowledge the submission. It IS a conspiracy! Hebner's shadiness gives golden boy Hogan enough time to recover so he can power kick out of Herc's cover. Hulk Up. Big Boot. Leg Drop. Ballgame around the 6-7 minute mark. Hogan then chases Bobby Heenan around the ring. Hulk moves well for a big guy and Heenan moves even better for a 40something. 

Verdict- Fun. Great example of that classic WWF goodness I grew up on. Got a new conspiracy theory out of it. And I didn't really mind The Hulkster "burying" Hercules with the Hulk Up because this was always destined to be the biggest match of Herc's career. He still got 6 years of WWF pay after this. I'd say he did well for himself. Plus it even works in kayfabe since Herc would soon swap finishers by ditching the failed Torture Rack for the Full Nelson and a Billy Jack Haynes feud. 

Great Muta vs. Tatsumi Fujinami- NJPW 9/23/91

Muta freaked me out as a kid watching 1989 NWA before becoming a Baker Guy during the Great Tape Binge of 95-96. There was nobody else like him. The look. The freaky movements. Truly one of kind. Proud to say I got to see him live at ROH in December 2003. Fujinami was an old man (meaning 40something) still winning IWGP Championships when I very casually followed Japanese wresting from afar during the late 90s. I believe I'm 1 for 1 with him. That one match being a real barnburner with Genichiro Tenryu.

Muta is in full gimmick mode here. You love to see it. Fujinami starts off fast and furious by bringing the fight to Muta. Fuj's flurry culminates with a nice speedy dive. Then Muta scores big by ramming Fujinami's head into a turnbuckle that previously been exposed by "The Pearl of the Orient." Now we go to school...

Muta was in control for like 10 minutes straight. He worked this not unlike a workrate version of The Sheik or Abdullah the Butcher with lots of cheating and weapon shots punctuated by the occasional athletic move. And again, nobody moves like Muta. So herky jerky. So freaky. So original. I am officially a Fujinami Guy as he is an excellent babyface who sold well, bled, and fought back with fire, only to continually be cut off by Muta... 

UNTIL! Fujinami dodged the Handspring Elbow. Fuj finally mounts a sustained offensive flurry. But wait! Muta mist attack! NO! Fuj ducks. It hits the ref. Fujinami with a bridging German Suplex. But no! The ref is still down. Muta coldcocks Fuj with a bottle. Ref is up. 1-2-NO! Fuj kicks out again. But Muta stays on him with a backbreaker and Moonsault to end it around the 16 minute mark.

This was a good match built around a strong face/heel story, but it falls short of greatness. For starters, while the crowd did boo Muta from time to time, they were fairly sedate, especially down the stretch. NJPW should have borrowed the heat machine from Hogan/Herc! A few weeks ago, I wrote about a well-worked Eddy/Ultimo match that had a lot of typically crowd pleasing set pieces bomb in front of a lousy crowd. This was like a better version of that match. Not gonna lie. A rabid crowd could have carried this to greatness even with the other flaws. And what were those other flaws? Well, there was some back suplex spam and the mist spot was super telegraphed. Fujinami went into the corner 3 times in a row to punch Muta. I saw the mist coming from a mile away the first time. Not sure why it took them 3 tries. Did Muta have trouble loading up the mist? That's my guess. Still, this was a good match. Muta rules! You knew that. And, as previously mentioned, I now believe Fujinami rules as well. 

Verdict- Good match that was only a few tweaks away from greatness. And it gets even better with 2 WCW hidden gems tomorrow next time! 

Randy Savage vs. Arn Anderson- WCW Nitro 1/1/96

Having already watched Flair, Piper & Hogan during this binge, I thought it only natural to check out some Macho Man as well to complete the quartet of big 80s stars. And I jumped right on this when Arn popped up in my search for a Mach match. I've always got some time for Double A. Well, maybe not always...

Because I was regrettably NOT a fan of the Enforcer for most of my childhood. I loved the Brainbusters' WWF run under Heenan, but, from 87-late 95, I was indifferent at best to Arn outside that Brainbusters run. Let's face it. He was kind of bland. Boring even! to a kid raised on WWF's larger than life characters. I didn't even necessarily associate Arn with Ric Flair and the Horsemen until WCW beat it into my head during his fall '95 feud with Naitch. But something clicked with me after that feud. That renewed Arn/Horsemen push coincided with my NWA tape binge and getting smartened up just a teeny tiny bit. So before you know it, I am suddenly this huge Arn Anderson fan. Then he beat Hogan! Twice! And I never looked back after that. Arn was in my Top 20 last time we did PW's Favorite Wrestler Countdown.

At the same time I was learning to love Arn I was casually dismissing Savage as another washed up old timer...another 80s WWF relic slumming it on the Senior's Tour. My best friend Rick was still a Savage apologist. When I'd be mocking all the ex-WWF olds, he'd be like "Well, I still like Macho Man. A little. He's still pretty cool." And I'd just roll my eyes and shake my head from side to side as if to say "this guy...". Truth is I hugely undervalued Savage's contributions to wrestling from like 1993 to the mid-2010s. Another regret!

Arn it out first to the iconic Horsemen theme. So pure. Savage is out next to his classic theme made even better by that slightly underwater sound synonymous with old VHS tapes. All old wrestling should have that sound. Also pure! This is a grudge match as commentary informs us Arn's interference helped Flair beat Savage for the WCW Championship a few days ago at Starrcade. A few weeks ago, I wrote about the extreme amount of tassles in a Bulldog/Marty match. Well, we have a NEW tassle champion in Macho Man by himself! Tassles on his jacket. Tassles on his pants. Tassles tassles everywhere. So. Many. Tassles.

Arn wisely jumps Savage as Mach is entering the ring. Savage is unhinged at the best of times and will surely be more maniacal than ever with Arn having cost him the strap. However, Savage quickly turns the tide and sends Arn out to the floor. Savage throws his tassletastic clothes at Arn!

Boo! BOO!! Sleazy E informs his minuscule audience the Smoking Gunns will win the Raw Bowl. What a jerk! Mongo also sucks! Yeah, I said it. He called WWF the "kiddie league" or something like that. Boo! BOO!! So glad this company went out of business. YOU DESERVED IT! *clap clap clapclapclap* YOU DESERVED IT! All joking aside, the truth is I never actually heard Bischoff give away Raw results in real time. I am proud of myself for this....BECAUSE IT PROVES I WAS USUALLY WATCHING RAW! Hell yeah, self! *Barry Horowitz pat on the back*

Savage is wearing a bandage on an arm that had been injured since at least World War III back in November. Heenan made note of this early in the match and called it something like "a bullseye for Arn." Sure enough, back in the ring, Arn catches Savage's wounded wing and drops him with a Divorce Court DDT. Now we go to school...

Arn works over the arm with the precision only a Horseman could muster while Savage reminds us he is one of the all time great salesman when motivated (see also: Savage/Bret from the November 87 SNME). I'm not even that picky about selling. Hit a move and shake out your wounded body part and I'm honestly fine with it 9 times out of 10. But Savage goes that extra mile. His arm is DONE. It affects everything he does. Beautiful stuff. Arn does the punch fakeout DDT to a huge pop despite his heel status. Hey, cool is cool. Fwiw crowd was pro Savage beyond that with multiple "Macho" chants. Savage avoids the 3 count by getting his foot on the ropes. Arn goes to the trunks for a weapon after a ref bump but Savage ends up getting it. Savage coldcocks Double A with a loaded punch for the 1-2-3. Disappointing finish only because I'm an Arn mark. This match was so good I slipped back into 1996 mindset for a minute lol. With Double A only a month away from beating Hogan (never forget!), I was hoping they'd start his Superstar Slayer streak here with a (shady) win over Macho. But wait! Fellow Horsemen Benoit & Pillman are out to plead Arn's case! Could it be? No. The stupid ref is rejecting their honest and true pleas. Alas, it was not to be

Verdict- Ruled. Two old pros bringing their A Game for 8 minutes. You love to see it. Turns out this was the first match of WCW's breakthrough year. How cool is that? This hidden gem set the stage for their banner year. And I'll be back in a little while with an even more obscure hidden gem from a month later! 

Chris Benoit & Brian Pillman vs. Barrio Brothers- WCW Worldwide 2/10/96

Seeing Pillman & Benoit come out to plead Arn's case at the end of Anderson/Savage made me want to watch the two Horsemen in action. I vaguely remembered them teaming up a few times. Checked to be sure. Success! Turns out they had about half a dozen tag matches + a handful of multi-man tags with the other Horsemen. Their matches with the S. Armstrongs looked the most promising on paper. Alas, I could not find them. So I had to settle for *ugh* the Barrio Brothers...

I have not given the Barrios more than a few seconds of thought since 1996. To be fair, I only gave them a few seconds of thought when they were active in 95-96. They were a real bottom of the barrel team consisting of dumpy Hispanic guys Ricky (Santana) & Fidel (Sierra) who look like they should be working same era USWA. It probably isn't true, but in my head canon they wrestled fellow bottom dwellers Men At Work every single week for months on the B & C shows. Could simply be a case of me getting real life and fantasy confused again as Men At Work vs. Barrios was our go to curtain jerker when we did a WCW action figure league in late 95-early 96. That match was to our WCW league what Harry Seaver vs. Steel Sheik was to USWA/Lawlermania and Pinky Thomas vs. George South was to my brother's SMW. Anyway, Barrios & Men At Work were the 95-96 equivalent of Villanos & Disorderly Conduct for you latter day WCW fans. Funnily enough, the role of the Armstrongs was still being played by...the Armstrongs.

Fun Fact: I've heard Barrio Brother Fidel (who went by Cuban Assassin in Portland & Florida) is Bill Alfonso's real life cousin. 

So I'm not expecting much out of this despite the presence of Benoit & Pillman because lol Barrio Brothers. But guess what? This ruled! Pillman & Benoit looked the like best tag team in the world, and I really hope there's somebody out there who reveres this team and cherishes their handful of matches the way I do with Sid & The Kid. Pillman is a great heel- such an obnoxious little shit stirrer- and the typically great Worldwide crowd EXPLODES when Barrio Brother Ricky fights back against bully boy Brian. Chopfest! Hell yeah! De facto babyface Barrio Brothers! Then Benoit comes in for some intense ass kickin' and that also rules. Then it rules even harder when the Barrio Brother fights back and turns it into another sweet scrap. What am I watching and can I have it in pill form? And the awesomeness just keeps on coming...

With a dive train! Pillman hits a slingshot dive onto Fidel. Then Ricky hits an admittedly super ugly Raven or Sandman 'drunken tumble' style dive. But still! And then Benoit wipes 'em all out with a speedy dive through the ropes. And we're STILL not done because there's another killer moment when Benoit hits a Northern Lights on Fidel only to have chubby old man Fidel with his scarred forehead pop right back up to hit a sweet belly to belly on suplex king Benoit! Yeah, that's right. Benoit just had a suplex duel with a Barrio Brother. This match is the best. Finish rules, too. Horsemen pull off a Pillman dropkick into a Benoit Dragon Suplex for the win. 

There were some selling issues, Fidel can't really bump, and the Barrio Brother had trouble keeping his shoulders on the mat for the 3 count, so I can't go all the way, but this was one heck of a hidden gem. I cannot stress enough how great Pillman & Benoit were as a team. Pillman provided the heeling/personality and Benoit brought his typically great intense wrestling. But don't sleep on the Barrio Brothers! Carried or not, they held their own, and now I am tempted to seek out more Barrios. Might those Men At Work (Kanyon & Chris Champion's brother) vs. Barrio Brother matches actually be good? 

Verdict: Super fun 6-7 minute hidden gem which is now to Worldwide what Acolytes vs. Mideon & Viscera is to Jakked. High praise indeed coming from me. Recommended alongside Savage/Arn.

Addendum: Either this match or the previous one had a guy in the crowd wearing a black & white "I'M A BADD MAN" shirt. Who knew Johnny B. Badd had a shirt? What's even stranger is how modern it looked with simple white letters on a black shirt. And by "modern" I of course mean anything from NWO/Austin 3:16-Today. Keep in mind both these shows took place in the Before Times.

*After tonight I'll likely be gone for a few days, if not an entire week. 

*Stumbled into a 1986 rabbit hole. Ended up watching matches from 10 different US promotions. Hope to cover them all over the next 3 days. 

Magnum TA vs. Nikita Koloff w/ Ivan Koloff- NWA Great American Bash 7/26/86- Match 4 in a Best of 7 Series for the vacant US Title

This was a legendary feud that got a lot of Apter Mag hype and still old timers forever waxing nostalgic about it in the AOL Wrestling Chatroom when I got online in 1998. The hype train only accelerated when WCW recycled the Best of 7 concept for Booker/Benoit.

Magnum TA was mainstream wrestling's first martyr. Before Eddie, before Owen, there was Magnum TA cut down the prime of his career by a debilitating automobile accident. Even as a dumb kid I knew he was a big deal and felt sorry for him. Nikita Koloff was basically the Evil Russian version of Goldberg. In other words, all the dimes. This feud was box office gold that still had mad hype 12 years later. I haven't seen most (any?) of their matches because I passed on getting Best of the NWA Volume 1 from Tim Rowe back in the day, skipping that one in favor of Volumes 2 & 3 due to the typical teenage problem of limited funds.

Nikita is up 3-0. It's do or die for Magnum. Makes sense to book Nikita as Drago. Oh. This is back when GAB was a tour rather than an individual super show/PPV. 

After all that hype, this sucked lol. Started cool with a desperate Magnum going for the early knockout blow with a flying forearm which only netted a 2.9 count. Then it was a lot of Nikita in control with boring rest holds, basic power stuff, and slow brawling.  Even the "USA" chants were kinda lackluster. This certainly wasn't the OMG SUPER DUPER MEGA HEATED feud I'd been led to believe. Nikita lazily throws Magnum out of the ring 3 times in a row before TA scores with a Sunset Flip outta nowhere for 3. That may very well have been his first offensive move since the opening forearm. 

Verdict- Not just disappointing, but straight up boring. What's even worse is after watching, I found a clue that I only saw the clipped version. Hard pass on the extended, director's cut if true. I barely managed to stay awake through the 8 minute version!

One Man Gang (c) w/ Skandor Akbar vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan- UWF 12/20/86- UWF Championship Match

Those aforementioned old timers also loved to wax nostalgic about the Watts UWF as a time when men were men and rasslin' was bah gawd real. After 2-3 years of hype from old timers I took the plunge on a promotion I had seen a wee bit of in its dying days as a child, catching it for the first time 5-8 weeks after this very match, and it was.....alright. Not the worst, but certainly not the best. Far from it, in fact. Overrated given that massive hype job imo.

But one thing they did really well was build up Gordy & then the Gang as strong heel champs with a murderer's row of babyfaces giving chase in Duggan, Dr. Death, Dibiase, and Terry Taylor. 11 months of this ends with....One Man Gang randomly losing the belt to debuting fellow heel Big Bubba after the Crockett buyout. 3rd heel champ in a row btw. You can't string the people along forever. At some point you have to give them what they want. 

Last week I called Piper one of my all time least favorites. He is! And so is *ugh* Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Many say he was great in Mid South/UWF but I still don't see it. Still can't stand him. Still annoys the heck out of me.

And this is the second stinker in a row. It's mostly Gang doing comedy sells and bumps for Duggan's garbage punches. Some of Gang's proto-Akeem goofiness is amusing but why is your 495 monster heel champ doing comedy spots? There were some "USA" and "Doogan" chants and it ended around 5 minutes with an Akbar run in because it's a 1986 tv match and they all end like that. Then it breaks loose in Tulsa for another 5 minutes as good guys brawl with bad guys. The weapon-wielding Duggan stands tall at the end. Maybe you had to be there? 

Verdict- Skip it

Colonel DeBeers vs. Curt Hennig- AWA 10/4/86

Now we're talkin'! Spoiler Alert: This was the best/only good match in this 10 bout series. Just good, solid face vs. heel wrestling taking place in front of a hot, hot, hot Stevens Point, WI crowd. These folks chant "USA" like they mean it and are fully behind white meat babyface extraordinaire "Cool" Curt Hennig. I've seen enough 1986 Hennig (vs. Hansen, vs. Larry, and this) to say he was already one of the best in the business. His wrestling is good and his brawling even better. Seriously, young Curt could go punch for punch with anyone to ever come out of Memphis.

First few minutes saw Hennig outwrestle DeBeers. Hennig works the arm. Colonel gets frustrated. Resorts to fisticuffs. Then Hennig out brawls DeBeers as well. The dastardly Colonel finally gains control after a cheat. His offense is basic, but all his stuff looks good, and you know Curt will bump & sell like a champ. DeBeers warms my heart by breaking out the second BOONE BREAKER I've seen in a week.

Finish is very 1986 on the surface BUT actually works given Hennig's character progression over the next few months. After an admittedly botchy sequence, Curt lands on top of DeBeers and goes to town with punch after punch, snapping on the Colonel not unlike Ralphie taking out his aggression on Scut Farkus. Ref has no choice but to DQ Hennig and award the match to DeBeers around the 9-10 minute mark. A few months later, after coming *this close* to dethroning AWA Champ Nick Bockwinkel on multiple occasions, Hennig would finally go full heel to dethrone Slick Nick. Feels like the match here was a sign of the Darth Vader lurking inside this Anakin. Verne with the good/great booking? Unlikely. I'm leaning towards 'happy accident.'

Verdict- Good, solid face vs. heel match in the *** range.

Anyone else like to play the guessing game when they see a Baker man review post? Like before it loads I think of a random Era to see if it lines up. Was hoping for 97 wCw or 08 bland split.

Love Ness playing the guessing game almost as much as I love this Freudian slip...

Oct 29, 2024 13:07:19 GMT @ness said:

Was hoping for 08 bland split.

Kerry Von Erich vs. Rick Rude w/ Percy Pringle- WCCW 3/7/86

Seems like I always hit up Kerry dream matches when traveling to World Class. Remember doing Kerry vs. Bigelow, Sid, Bundy, Gang, Kamala, and now Rude right here on PW.

This was a real average 12 minute match that did not live up to the hype of KERRY vs. RUDE~! ** range. There were hot stretches of action sandwiched between boring rest holds. Rude didn't have all his signature stuff down yet. Crowd was hot. Rude juiced for the Iron Claw. KVE had a hurt left hand which was damaged further by a dickish Pringle cane poke. The future Paul Bearer was the real MVP of this thing with his motormouthed obnoxiousness on the floor. I was never a Paul Bearer guy but I kinda dig Percy Pringle. We get the typical "lol 1986" finish when Rude is DQed for back body dropping Kerry over the top rope. All these low budget territories deserved to die. Vince did nothing wrong.

Tito Santana vs. King Harley Race w/ Bobby Heenan- Boston Garden House Show 10/4/86

Another disappointing dream match as I'd been a Harley Race fan since '87 (even if I did, and still do tbh, lol at the idea of him being a multiple time World Champ) while Tito was one of the biggest Stock Rising guys of the early Youtube era after thinking he was boring growing up. Race is introduced as both "The King" and "Handsome" which leads to some amusing lines from Gorilla & Mean Gene that are like "imagine calling that ugly mug 'handsome!' lol"

I usually dig Race's methodical style of slowly and steadily rattling off cool 80s offense, but he was sooooo slow and repetitive in this one with knee drop after knee drop, diving headbutt after diving headbutt. Imagine a Race/Valentine tag team...it would take them 2 hours just to get warmed up! Tito didn't come back enough for my liking either. It was just Race doing stuff at a snail's pace for the bulk of this 12-13 minute match until we get another garbage finish- one of my least favorites- that old NWA staple of pinning yourself on a back suplex. Tito, the suplexee gets the shoulder up while Race, the suplexer, does not. Imagine making that rookie mistake as a 28 year veteran....smh. This was a wee bit worse than Kerry/Rude.

Oh, and judging by the commentary, WWF looked to be setting up a Bundy/Studd COLOSSAL JOSTLE feud. Shame Studd left right around this time because kiddie me would have been super into that. 

Lex Lugar vs. Hector Guerrero- Florida 2/19/86?- TV Title Tournament Match

Not a lot of Florida footage floating around and harder still to find an interesting looking match from the promotion. Rookie Lex is rocking a pretty sweet beard. Surprised he never brought that back. He's jacked as ever. Really dwarfs Hector, who bears quite the resemblance to the 1995 version of brother Eddy. Speaking of Eddy, Lugar was to Luger as Eddy was to Eddie. I still see old timers calling him Lugar once in a blue moon. Drove me crazy back in the day. It's Luger, ya rubes! 

Writing a few sentences about Luger/Lugar was more interesting than this stinker of a match. Lugar is already the Florida Champ and now the rookie sensation is gunning for the TV Title as well. This was real basic and the few fancy things they tried didn't come off well. I do think these two had a good match in them, but this wasn't it. Lex was honestly really bad at this stage. Still needed some serious seasoning. Luger wins in 5-6 with a super phony rolled through crossbody block. Skip it. 

Baker really made me want to watch Chris Benoit & Brian Pillman vs. Barrio Brothers, but I couldn't find it! Where did you watch this match, Baker Man?