Oct 30, 2024 1:49:37 GMT Kilgore said:

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?

Should have known you were scouring FULL WORLDWIDES and not just finding already isolated matches on YouTube.

Oct 30, 2024 2:55:09 GMT Kilgore said:

Should have known you were scouring FULL WORLDWIDES and not just finding already isolated matches on YouTube.

 Oh yeah. I will jump through hoops to find some random two minute squash match from 30 years ago. It gets better. You may have had trouble finding it even if you were looking for full Worldwides because I use my own singular dating system- when it aired here- which doesn't always match up with dates provided by the uploaders. For example, this one is listed on Youtube as 2/11/96 (Sunday), but Worldwide aired here on Saturdays, so I used the 2/10 date in my review. What can be said other than I'm a madman?

*Long one tonight because I want to wrap up this journey through 1986 asap since I don't think I'll have time for posting over the next few days.

Bad News Allen (c) vs. "Strangler" Steve DiSalvo- Stampede 6/7/86- North American Title Match

DiSalvo was big, jacked dude who somehow never caught on in mainstream wrestling. He had a cup of coffee in 1991 WCW as The Minotaur where I, an idiot, was convinced he would be WCW's answer to the Undertaker and have an epic main event feud with Sting. I saw him once, maybe twice. BUT that one squash did stick with me for decades. Minotaur no sold a missile dropkick! That was still peak high flying to 1991 me! And therefore, peak badassery on Minotaur's part. So strong was my memory of that squash that I undertook a mission to track it down and make it one of my earliest Match Reviews on Old PW. Anyway, DiSalvo's other claim to fame is being an early IWC meme. The joke being every new wrestler was Steve DiSalvo. Pretty sure it started with people thinking he was Razor Ramon. This was all long before my time, but Scott Keith would frequently make mention of it.

Bad News is working face! Weird at first glance but makes perfect sense if you think about it for a second. It worked for Austin. Why wouldn't it work for his predecessor? Reminds me of something I recently heard about some wrestlers needing to be villains before they can be heroes. Think Piper, Savage, Flair, Raven, etc. Bad News fits perfectly. He'll do all the things you hated, only now he'll do them to the wrestlers you hated! Yeah, I think there was money in Bad News as a good guy.

This is joined in progress as all Stampede matches seem to be. We get about 5-6 minutes of forgettable slow brawling (this is the match from this binge I remember the least) until the stretch run. News gets a rare 1986 nearfall off a clothesline and then finishes DiSalvo with a nice powerslam dubbed "the African Avalanche" in a post-match News promo.

Verdict- Somewhere between average and bad since it was not memorable enough to be either

Bill Dundee (c) vs. Tracy Smothers- Memphis 1/25/86- Southern Title Match

Dundee was on top of the world at this point. He had just done the unthinkable by beating Lawler in a Loser Leaves Town Match and was killing it every week as a sports entertainer. Truly a guy at the peak of his powers. Smothers is a rookie in his early 20s who could pass for 40, basically looking the same as he would a decade later during his Freddie Joe Floyd run in WWF.  

This was a fun Dundee carry job. 2nd best match of the binge. Dundee was ON, Zbyszkoing like a champ, toying with the young upstart, and getting one fan so riled up that he HELD HIS CHILD OUT TO BILL! Wtf? Was this fan hoping his very young child would be able to get away with taking a swing at Dundee? Was he the world's biggest coward, putting his kid between he and "The Superstar" as a shield in case Dundee took a swing? I am so confused. Might have to gif this one. Dundee wins in a little over 8 minutes with a cheap chain punch. Not because he needed to, but because he felt like it. Lance was also great on commentary, selling the possibility of an upset. "We've seen overconfident champions lose before." Tracy was fine as the broomstick.

Verdict- Classic Memphis fun orchestrated by one of the masters

The Bullet vs. Dutch Mantell- Alabama 8/2/86?- Loser Leaves Town Match

I've never been able to get into the Alabama territory. It's just endless Armstrongs and Fullers and few things put me to sleep faster. I get sleepy just typing those names. The Bullet is Bob Armstrong under a mask. Bob was like the Lawler/Von Erich/JYD of Alabama. I've never been a Dutch Mantell guy either. Going all the way back to childhood when I dismissed him as one of those interchangeable "yeehaw wrestlers" who would show up in those rinky dink promotions we'd get on DC Channel 50 for a few months here and there. Then he became Uncle Zebekiah and that sucked too. Even his "OMG GENIUS BOOKING MIND~!" just comes off as the most basic bitch takes imaginable to me. Idk. I'm sure he's a nice enough guy. I do often listen to his shoot interview excerpts that are forever showing up in my Youtube feed. But he's just never done it for me as a performer.

This was fun wrestling minimalism. 3rd best match of the binge. It's built around Dutch working a foreign object. Crowd is into it. Bullet gets a believable nearfall I buy into right off the bat. Weird how I buy into 1986 nearfalls way more than post-2008 nearfalls. Anything can end a match at any time in 1986! Dutch has Bullet beat but his hubris gets the better of him when Bullet reverses a cocky pin into a 1-2-3 of his own, forcing the dirty Dutchman to leave the great state of Alabama.

Verdict- Solid minimalist match

Rocky Johnson vs. Rip Oliver- Portland 6/28/86

Portland joins Alabama as another territory I've never been able to get into. Their issue is looooong matches and an overabundance of bleach blond heels with lovehandles....like Rip Oliver! Who resembles a chunky Ted Dibiase from certain angles. An old DVDVR poster called Old School John (Pelan) grew up on Portland Wrestling and Rip Oliver was his guy. Years later I would actually stumble upon a horror anthology edited by this old DVDVR poster while browsing at a bookstore. How very interesting.

Think I've only seen one match featuring Rock's dad prior to this. It was on an ancient Era Before Pants WWF tape my friend Original Baker had that I watched at his house in late 95. Remember Mr. Fuji also being on it as a proper wrestler! That blew my mind. The wrestling cut out in the middle of some match to be replaced by porn, henceforth scarring the virginal, unsuspecting eyes of my youth.

Rocky is in good shape, and is sporting some sweet sideburns, but this sucked. It's soooo slow and lazy. Rip does a lousier version of Dutch's foreign object schtick from the previous match. Rocky does a lot of dancing and throws these comical punches that somehow have the shock power of Bo Jackson in Tecmo Super Bowl. Rocky IS a good athlete as evidenced by a sweet forward roll-dropkick sequence, but this was not good at all. Then this crapfest ends with a whimper as we get a real wet fart of a finish when Rip is DQed for choking Rocky on the top rope for a few seconds. Give me a break!

Interesting to see the upcoming schedule list 10 days in a row of shows though. At least dying day Portland provided steady work. 

Verdict: 1/16* for that sweet evasive forward roll-dropkick sequence. Other than that, this was among the most boring 10 minutes of my life
=================
Overall Thoughts On This 1986 Binge

1 good match. 3 average ones. 6 subpar bouts.
I'm sorry, but every time I do one of these, I'm reminded why the territories died. It might be harsh to say the territories deserved to die....but they kinda did. It isn't even that the matches are usually boring, bad, or both (though they usually are). It's the entire presentation. The low budget, bushleagueness of it all compared to the glitz and glamor of WWF. I can't imagine any kid (or adult tbh) preferring these rinky dink outfits to big time, big league feel of WWF. 

Lightning vs. Dementia- Glow Summer 1988?



When this very interesting thumbnail appears in your feed, you watch. Simple as. Pure Pro Wrestling. That's a Zombie Miss Havisham about to deliver a piledriver. Or maybe even a GLOW Piledriver! And how cool is an Undertaker-meets-Miss Havisham gimmick? And how cool is it that just by looking at that thumbnail you know exactly which one is Dementia and which one is Lightning?? My brother, who grew up on Golden Age WWF and considered it the pinnacle of pro wrestling, understood the beauty in this even before I did. And that Kittys Killers sign is just the cherry on top.

Fwiw, though I watched my fair share of GLOW in real time, it came on Sunday afternoons here, either 4 or 6, I do not remember either of these women. Oh wow. A quick search reveals Lightning is the real life Cheryl Rusa. I know that name because she had a cult follow... ok, let's be honest, it was more of a fetish following around the turn of the century. 

Unfortunately, this is GLOW, so the usual GLOWisms are there. Like their trademark negative star comedy. This time in the form of a pre-match segment with *cringe* "MTV" Melody Trouble Vixen. Then we go to the generic rapping intros. Lightning is a poor rapper, but I'll give them props for going all the way with Dementia's gimmick. She can't speak, so the other girls have to rap for her while she stands in the middle holding an ax! Then she comes down the aisle in a cage. As I mentioned earlier, pure pro wrestling. Lightning is a superhero btw. She teams with Thunder. Duh. Of course she does. This is the 3rd tag team I'm aware of called Thunder & Lightning btw. But it predates the other two and predates Nova in terms of superhero gimmicks. So that's interesting! The motormouthed commentator is one pinch Joey Styles, several cups Tom Talker from Tecmo World Wrestling, and more than anything, reminds me of AI. David McLane: AI pioneer?

The match is sloppy and littered with annoying GLOWisms like Dementia finding a stuffed Big Bird, strangling it with a handkerchief, throwing it in the air, then getting upset and stomping it because it wouldn't fly. Wait. Why'd I put that in the bad category? Because that's awesome, actually. They do a big/little match since the heel Dementia dwarfs the diminutive babyface Lightning. Psychology! In GLOW! Dementia commits to the character by keeping those big googly eyes we saw in the thumbnail throughout the match. She isn't very good on offense though. Lightning does 5 cool things in this 3.5 minute match- two forward roll evasions on par with Rocky Johnson's in the last match, a frankensteiner(!), this cool leaping headlock takedown thingie that came off flawlessly, and finally a picture perfect victory roll for the win. Not gonna lie. Lightning probably did more cool things in this match than I saw in the entire 10 match run from 1986 that I covered last week. There was more action here too! Now if only Powerbombs & Chokeslams had been popularized because Lightning was in those positions multiple times. 

Verdict- Yeah, it was sloppy, but they tried hard, Lightning did some cool athletic stuff, I love Dementia's commitment to the character (her inset promo was just her making big googly eyes whilst blowing bubbles), and they worked at a fast pace with little to no downtime. Honestly had more fun watching this than most of last week's matches. 

WWF King of the Ring 1999

WWF World Championship Match

The Rock vs. The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer) (c)

Had a blackout last night and for whatever reason I had this and Fully Loaded 99 saved on my phone.

That's a crazy desert island choice come to think of it.

I remember hating this match during the project. Standard kick-punch brawl around the arena and eventually Taker wins. Boring. That was 10 years ago, now, I find it to be a perfectly acceptable Attitude Era main event.

They jump-started the match which brought the crowd into it early. Taker in full heel mode decks out the referee only to eat a Rock Bottom. They do the replacement referee spot but in a nice wrinkle they don't have Taker kick out of the move, rather Bearer interferes. Taker counters with a huge chokeslam and follows up with his signature pin, only for The Rock to kick-out and the fans are in raptures.

Then the match descends into a brawl around the entrance way and they take it down a notch. This used to be fast-forward material for me, but now I accept it was just a part of the era, to sell a more intense version of Pro Wrestling.

They return to the ring, Taker is in firm control of the match as they slow it down for The Rock's big comeback off Taker's attempt at an old school. It just occurred to me that Triple H stole The Rock's water spit spot he only started doing around this period. I think HHH only started incorporating water when he went from tights to trunks in the Spring of 99.

Off the Muta spot, they go for another out-side brawl this time through the crowd. I'll fast-forward, but I do want to highlight a nice chair spot they had where The Rock went for a big swing, only for Taker to block it with the Timekeeper's bell and the chair rebounding into The Rock's face.

They work another big comeback spot for The Rock. However since we're in Greensborough, Paul Bearer brings out an ether rag. I get the feeling these weren't THAT uncommon back then, but did they use the ether spot at all in 97-98? Either way, the move backfires on the Taker and it's the catalyst for The Rock's big comeback. Big People's Elbow, but the match quickly descends into a farce as HHH interferes and Taker hits a quick and sorry Tombstone for the win.

JR puts over The Rock huge in defeat saying he had the match won three times. King re-itirates the McMahon pre-match vigentte for the upteenth time - not tonight, not any night!

Ladder Match

Steve Austin vs. Vince & Shane McMahon

The whole premise of the match is that there's no Corporate Ministry interference, so you're trying to figure out how Stone Cold is going to get screwed. It's a who dunnit in real-time, but before that you have to watch Vince and Shane flail around for 15 minutes as Austin rams them into every part of the entrance way.

The major difference between this and Rock/Taker is that this match meanders. There's no real build-up, it's just a long drawn out ass whoopin' till Austin decides it's time to win the match.

So all this build-up and in the end, it's just to watch the briefcase get pulled further into the air. Austin isn't going to take some crazy bump during all of this, so the finish has Austin chew out the ring-side crew as Vince makes his way up the ladder. Austin intercepts Vince, but Shane tips the ladder over, quickly puts it in place and climbs it to win the match in a flat finish.

I may have only been paying half-attention as well because at one point it appeared the ladder broke so it looked like the McMahons had to fillerbuster at one point, with Shane getting on Vince's shoulders to try and reach the belt. It was a decent piece of improvisation, but that spot among others made it come across like a train wreck.

Needed some background noise, so I flicked on the WWE Channel only to be subjected to NXT circa 2010. I don't know what it is, but without fail it's either that or Total Bellas when I flick on. So I decided to take matters into my own hands and loaded up some '95 Nitro.

WCW was in such a weird spot at the time. On one hand you have this cutting edge show like Nitro with all these big stars and up and coming talents making appearances. Then you get to the main event and they're stuck with this Dungeon of Doom storyline that's something of a bygone era when they could easily hop off and go with Lex/Hogan.

I wonder why they didn't return to that match at Starrcade '95? That was easily the biggest match they could have thrown together and while they blew their wad by booking it for the second episode of Nitro, they gave themselves enough room where they could have returned to it. Did Hulk just want to spend Christmas with the kids?

Nov 21, 2024 6:44:06 GMT Big Pete said:

Needed some background noise, so I flicked on the WWE Channel only to be subjected to NXT circa 2010. I don't know what it is, but without fail it's either that or Total Bellas when I flick on. So I decided to take matters into my own hands and loaded up some '95 Nitro.

WCW was in such a weird spot at the time. On one hand you have this cutting edge show like Nitro with all these big stars and up and coming talents making appearances. Then you get to the main event and they're stuck with this Dungeon of Doom storyline that's something of a bygone era when they could easily hop off and go with Lex/Hogan.

I wonder why they didn't return to that match at Starrcade '95? That was easily the biggest match they could have thrown together and while they blew their wad by booking it for the second episode of Nitro, they gave themselves enough room where they could have returned to it. Did Hulk just want to spend Christmas with the kids?

iirc he actually was making Santa With Muscles around Starrcade '95. I agree that throwing Luger into that Dungeon of Doom mess was a mistake. I also think they catered a bit to long time fans with the "is he with or against Sting?" angle.

Nov 21, 2024 18:13:13 GMT Shootist said:

Nov 21, 2024 6:44:06 GMT Big Pete said:

Needed some background noise, so I flicked on the WWE Channel only to be subjected to NXT circa 2010. I don't know what it is, but without fail it's either that or Total Bellas when I flick on. So I decided to take matters into my own hands and loaded up some '95 Nitro.

WCW was in such a weird spot at the time. On one hand you have this cutting edge show like Nitro with all these big stars and up and coming talents making appearances. Then you get to the main event and they're stuck with this Dungeon of Doom storyline that's something of a bygone era when they could easily hop off and go with Lex/Hogan.

I wonder why they didn't return to that match at Starrcade '95? That was easily the biggest match they could have thrown together and while they blew their wad by booking it for the second episode of Nitro, they gave themselves enough room where they could have returned to it. Did Hulk just want to spend Christmas with the kids?

iirc he actually was making Santa With Muscles around Starrcade '95. I agree that throwing Luger into that Dungeon of Doom mess was a mistake. I also think they catered a bit to long time fans with the "is he with or against Sting?" angle.

Could you imagine Vince letting Hogan miss a Wrestlemania so he could film Suburban Commando?

Digging into this, filming a Christmas movie in December seemed bizarre so I looked it up and according to IMBD it was filmed in May of '96.

I couldn't find anything in the Observer either. A quick google search suggests that WCW had already blown through their dates with Hogan. I'd imagine if they were serious about promoting Starrcade they would have worked around it better, but they didn't and I'm sure Hogan would have rather spent his time at home.

Nov 22, 2024 0:32:03 GMT Big Pete said:

Nov 21, 2024 18:13:13 GMT Shootist said:

iirc he actually was making Santa With Muscles around Starrcade '95. I agree that throwing Luger into that Dungeon of Doom mess was a mistake. I also think they catered a bit to long time fans with the "is he with or against Sting?" angle.

Could you imagine Vince letting Hogan miss a Wrestlemania so he could film Suburban Commando?

Digging into this, filming a Christmas movie in December seemed bizarre so I looked it up and according to IMBD it was filmed in May of '96.

I couldn't find anything in the Observer either. A quick google search suggests that WCW had already blown through their dates with Hogan. I'd imagine if they were serious about promoting Starrcade they would have worked around it better, but they didn't and I'm sure Hogan would have rather spent his time at home.

Maybe Hogan doing Halloween Havoc, but not Starrcade in 1995, is evidence that Bischoff really did value Halloween Havoc more than Starrcade after all. I dismissed it when he said it, but it certainly seems true in 1995, at least. I mean Hogan AND Sabu on the same wrestling card is obviously aiming to be the biggest show of the year.  

It was never going to work out, but it would have been interesting to see WCW get behind Sabu. Sabu would never had made it to the top and worked Hogan, but Savage is a genuine possibility.

Was Sabu responsible for bringing RVD into ECW? It wouldn't have been anywhere near as good, but I could see a Sabu-RVD program in '96 WCW.

Nov 22, 2024 1:35:49 GMT Big Pete said:

Was Sabu responsible for bringing RVD into ECW? It wouldn't have been anywhere near as good, but I could see a Sabu-RVD program in '96 WCW.

Yes. In typical Paul E. fashion, Sabu would talk up RVD, and then Paul E. would promise Sabu that he was going to call RVD "next week" to get him on the next show. Then Sabu would call RVD, all happy, with an enthusiastic, "Get ready for the call!" And then Paul E. wouldn't call. This happened at least a few times before Paul E. finally made the call to RVD. Don't know how early into ECW Sabu was talking up RVD to Paul E., but he definitely was by 1995.

Nov 22, 2024 0:32:03 GMT Big Pete said:

Nov 21, 2024 18:13:13 GMT Shootist said:

iirc he actually was making Santa With Muscles around Starrcade '95. I agree that throwing Luger into that Dungeon of Doom mess was a mistake. I also think they catered a bit to long time fans with the "is he with or against Sting?" angle.

Could you imagine Vince letting Hogan miss a Wrestlemania so he could film Suburban Commando?

Digging into this, filming a Christmas movie in December seemed bizarre so I looked it up and according to IMBD it was filmed in May of '96.

I couldn't find anything in the Observer either. A quick google search suggests that WCW had already blown through their dates with Hogan. I'd imagine if they were serious about promoting Starrcade they would have worked around it better, but they didn't and I'm sure Hogan would have rather spent his time at home.

Ah yes, that's why he vanished not long after the Tower of Doom debacle before coming back for Bash At The Beach to turn heel., makes sense.

Judging from Baker 's love for Paul Orndorff during this era, I presumed he was all over Nitro during this era. Curiosity got the better of me and as far as I can tell he's effectively one and done until he wrestles Disco Inferno, who seemed to be the grim reaper of this era. Disco also worked Sabu's last match in WCW.

I take it that Bake was an avid Saturday Night watcher when it was arguably as important as Nitro. Sadly, the Network still doesn't have any Saturday Nights post-94 so I'm stuck with this Johnny B Badd match. I like to think that Bake only saw this one segment and that was enough to leave a lasting impression.

The entrance was still wonderful after all these years - the music and the commentators completely on point.

Onto the road of Halloween Havoc '95. Hogan/Giant is the tale of two different storylines. Giant coming out at the end of WarGames and trying to snap Hogan's neck was the highlight of the night and I don't just say that because I have a loose relation to the Heenan family. I thought that was great, but the pre-show attack where the Giant destroyed Hogan's Harley with a Monster Truck was pure hokey WCW slop. All they needed was Cheat Em to make an appearance as a 'kid' to blind-side Hogan and it would have been complete.

And that's the big selling point of the PPV. Watch the man become the monster and then watch the monster become the man later in the night! It's this weird mish-mash where you have these older wrestlers fans grew up on, appealing to an even younger demographic.

I've liked how they've handled Lex's signing. Comes in, immediately makes it clear he wants a piece of Hogan, gets caught up in the middle of the Hogan/Dungeon feud and ends up getting on the wrong side of Savage. It's just a very natural angle, the rivalries all write themselves.

I'm enjoying Arn-Flair as well. I remember their Fall Brawl '95 match being something of a disappointment, but I thought for a friendly rivalry match, they worked it well. It's a very slow match, but the way it bubbles and slowly picks up the pace was nicely done. Pillman was one of the big benefactors here and he's having the time of his life - the guy had the psychotic smile down pat. I've never followed Pillman's career that closely, but there's times during his early years where I feel like I'm watching Brad Armstrong. Anyways they did something of a double turn, with Arn proving to be the more dishonorable member and Flair still wants to prove himself mano e mano to put this bad blood behind them and settle it physically.

I find the show fairly watchable. It's big stars, exciting young prospects and the chaos of live TV. It's just struggling to find it's demographic at this stage but that's something that would be fixed in due time.

Nov 24, 2024 16:04:06 GMT Big Pete said:

Judging from Baker 's love for Paul Orndorff during this era, I presumed he was all over Nitro during this era. Curiosity got the better of me and as far as I can tell he's effectively one and done until he wrestles Disco Inferno, who seemed to be the grim reaper of this era. Disco also worked Sabu's last match in WCW.

I take it that Bake was an avid Saturday Night watcher when it was arguably as important as Nitro. 

I remember Orndorff being a staple of WCW tv at the time. He must have been more of a Worldwide/Saturday Night guy. I was an avid watcher of both. Worldwide was actually my most frequently watched WCW show but I just started watching Saturday Night regularly (at my grandparents) right after Orndorff's career resurgence. Prior to that the only eps of Saturday Night I remember watching were ones with Cactus/Vader and Flair/Sid main events. An interesting thing about Saturday Night is it was still the only 2 hour weekly wrestling show. Well, at least outside of Atlanta Braves season. So just by length alone I probably saw more Sat Night content in late 95-96 than Worldwide or Nitro. Never bothered with Pro (once it went to TBS) or Prime and only caught the Sunday evening show (Main Event?) on the rare occasions we ordered WCW PPV. 

And the truth is Orndorff would have been over like rover with me and the boys just on the strength of the Gary Spivey segment (which I remember them replaying a lot) and THAT theme. What a legend. The 5* 30 second Disco match from Worldwide is just the cherry on top.

Worth repeating the most universally beloved wrestlers in my neighborhood during the fall of '95 were Barry Horowitz and.....Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorff. Then it was Dean Malenko & Undertaker in Spring. Then Flair & Lawler by the Summer. And finally Bret, the Foundation, Funk & Foley in '97. 
=============
I have 8 matches on the docket- first 5 I watched weeks ago and then another 3 over the past few days. Will commence write ups tomorrow.

Money Inc. (c) w/ Jimmy Hart vs. Natural Disasters- Wrestlemania VIII 4/5/92- Tag Title Match

Iirc Money Inc. swooped in outta nowhere to win the Tag Titles from LOD and gaining Jimmy Hart as their manager in the process. This upset former Hart charges, the Natural Disasters. Voila! Insta-fued. Disasters have a real shouty pre-match promo reminiscent of AWA's Lumberjacks with the big takeaway being Typhoon looking like a supersized Steve Williams. And Dr. Death was already supersized to begin with!

Match sucked btw. Real low energy, phoned in house show effort. This is WRESTLEMANIA, not some Peoria house show, ya hacks! Typhoon foreshadows his Shockmaster future by botching the biggest spot of the match- the turning point for Money Inc to take over. It was just a whole bunch of meh and then it unceremoniously ends with Money Inc simply opting to take the countout loss at Wrestlemania. Thought long and hard about going full DUD for this one, but I'll let 'em off the hook since Irwin dropped a few nice elbows and had some amusing tie-related shenanigans. Still, this is extremely NOT recommended.

Verdict- 1/16*

Crush vs. Papa Shango- Prime Time Wrestling 10/26/92

Papa Shango was my favorite wrestler in the spring of '92 on a roster that included Ric Flair, Undertaker and The Mountie. High praise indeed. I'll even go a step further. For those few months Papa Shango was as must see a wrestler as there has ever been. I'm talking right up there with early Undertaker, early Goldust, 2000 Kurt Angle, 04-05 JBL, and, ok, maybe still a hair behind 1997 Bret Hart. But still! Papa Shango was up there hangin' and bangin' with all the greats.

Shango/Godfather has always been a polarizing figure. Perhaps the ultimate litmus test wrestler. I've seen more than one old timer say my most must see wrestler for a few glorious months in '92 was the very man who (temporarily, for they always come back) drove them away from wrestling. Tod Gordon being the most notable. Papa Shango is responsible for ECW! Another feather in his cap! And the Godfather was a love/hate figure on the late 90s internet. But real ones like 1992 me and literally every wrestling fan I knew in real life during the late 90s support Papa Godfather.

Crush, on the other hand, is somebody I never cared about outside his Demolition run. And even that only worked because he was on "my team." It's like the way I'd support some Orioles scrub for way too long just because they were an Oriole. And Crush used the Heart Punch and the Piledriver! But nope. Still couldn't bring myself to care. Kronik as babyfaces also seem pretty cool but I obviously wasn't watching WCW when they were active. Maybe he’s only good in tags?

I chuckled after clicking on this video some 3 weeks ago because it's confirmation I'm a true sicko. What am I hoping to get out of this? These two guys COMBINED have zero good singles matches. Both kicking around mainstream wrestling for roughly a decade and not a single good match between them. Yet there I was watching a match I "knew" was going to suck. WHY??

But guess what? It wasn't THAT bad. Crush hit a superkick and Shango took two nice bumps. That's honestly more than I was expecting. And I liked the camera work during the entrances. Cutting to young boys in the crowd. Some gleefully doing Crush's 'head crush' taunt and others looking terrified when Shango came out. Vintage WWF goodness.

Finish was both good and bad.  Shango is DQed for shooting Crush in the face with his Voodoo stick. Hell yeah! There's your big angle. You can easily get a 3-6 month feud out of that given the leisurely pace in which 1992 WWF operated. How do I not remember this? Well, it's because Crush totally no sells GETTING SHOT IN THE FACE WITH A VOODOO STICK. WHAT A HACK! But I'm pretty sure this is when I really took note of Crush's AMAZING mullet. Nice outfit too. So I guess it's not a total loss.

Random Observation: Anyone else ever notice Papa Godfather wrestles small? He's a huge dude! But he never wrestled like a 6'7 330 pound big man. Very weird!

Verdict- Not as bad as expected....but still kinda bad. Duh. It's Crush vs. Godfather. What do you expect?

That 1.5 years of Money Inc. as the center of the tag team championship doesn't get enough hate, just a horrible time to be alive. First of all, you know who hates each other? Rich assholes and tax collectors. Why are Dibiase and IRS even forming an alliance? Gimmicks aside, it was two guys on the decline who's offense seemed to consist entirely of rest holds as they sweat on their opponent like they're working at a Savage vs Steamboat pace. The belts never should been on these assholes.

^Can't argue with any of this. Money Inc. aged like milk.
============
Ultimate Dragon vs. Psychosis w/ Sonny Onoo- WCW Great American Bash 6/15/97

Holding my nose and using the heinous official WCW spellings in the header. Dragon was an Onoo charge until the two recently had a falling out and Sonny picked up Psicosis to replace UD.

Real hidden gem here. This ruled. It was basically the workrate version of a Hogan vs. one of your better Heenan Family members match and I really wish this is what wrestling had evolved into. You get the best of both worlds in the classic face/heel structure but with cooler moves. The great Jimmy Rave understood this! Ultimo was Workrate Hogan and the only thing cooler than his attire was his wrestling. That little snake Ono was a perfectly cromulent Heenan slipping in little cheapshots only to ultimately get his comeuppance. And Psicosis was like an Orndorff, Rude, or Perfect. UD did cool stuff. Ono interfered. Psicosis did a great job as a heel by slowing it down just enough and taunting frequently. All this ensured a hot hot hot Illinois crowd.

Now it is brought down to earth by a wonky finish. The timing was way off on Ono's inteference and Ultimo's Dragon Sleeper at the 14-15 minute mark was a real anticlimactic finish. So I can't call it great. But this was still a very good match. Recommended! ***3/4 sounds about right. That puts it on par with Model/Razor, Model/Perfect, and maybe just a hair above the Muta/Fujinami match I recently reviewed.

Sid Vicious vs. Sting- WCW Road Wild 8/14/99

Sid walking down a road to the ring with the South Dakota sun shining on him just right as his badass China White knockoff theme plays is now one of the great visuals in wrestling history. Just sayin'. What isn't so great is Sting coming out to a theme that is decidedly not Man Called Sting. 

OK, guys. I concede. Sid doesn't suck after all. I've seen enough decent stuff from the big man of late (vs. Bulldog, vs. HOG, vs. Goldberg, this) to admit it. This isn't a great match by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a mostly fun 10-11 minutes in front of a hot biker crowd who were all about cheering Sting and booing Sid. We get some early brawling on the floor where these two display some unexpected ring generalship by having the face Sting beat up the heel Sid on all four sides of the ring so every fan in attendance gets a nice little close up. Sting is super high energy while a surprisingly game Sid is up for taking the beating in interesting ways I wasn't expecting from the big lummox. Good stuff! It does bog down a little when Sid assumes control. Then we go into a rushed finishing stretch. They stupidly blow off a big Sting on Sid superplex. Then Sting hits a bunch of Stinger Splashes only to get caught on the 3rd attempt and planted with a Sid chokeslam....for the clean as a sheet 1-2-3. Whoa! WCW wasn't kidding about pushing Sid as a monster heel to build him up for Goldberg. And props to the always unselfish Stinger for doing the clean j-o-b. Hogan would never.

Verdict- Fun but flawed