My Favorite Wrestling! WCW Saturday Night 9/25/99

1. El Dandy vs. Lenny Lane

This is arguably the biggest "Dandy showcase" match that Dandy ever had in WCW. It was 4 minutes, but almost the whole thing was controlled by Dandy. He had more offense in this one match than probably all his matches in '98 put together. Lenny wasn't very good, but it was really fun seeing Dandy dominate a match and repeatedly cut ANYbody off. There were a bunch of nearfalls that actually looked like Dandy would be getting the pinfall (which shows what a rube I am since Lane was  Cruiser Champ at this time). But Dandy had all sorts of cool leverage roll-ups that looked really impossible to kick out of, and he got to work in his awesome punches into a few (never had the chance to be) "trademark" spots. The best was when Lane was "punching" him in the corner (man did Lane have bad punches) and Dandy calmly told him to stop, then when Lane went "Huh?" Dandy belted him. Tenay tried his damndest to put over Dandy but it just wasn't ever going to work. Still nice to see him getting this kind of match.

2. Alan Funk vs. Kid Romeo

It's cool that WCWSN was around back then to give guys like this time to have actual matches. The matches usually weren't very good as most of the Power Plant guys had no idea how to build matches or transition or string together moves properly, but it at least gave them 6-7 minutes in front of live bodies. All the matches always end up your move my move kinda stuff, but the moves usually look pretty crisp. Funk was always a guy I dug more than most as his stuff usually had a good snap, he would break out a couple cool gutbuster suplexes and he knew how to work hell better than the others. Finish was a total abortion with Funk rolling up Romeo and Romeo being too much of a goon to keep his shoulders down. Literally had both of them up. Tenay and Hudson are wondering why the ref is even counting and then when that wins the match both of them try and act like they must have been down from another camera angle.

3. Bobby Eaton vs. Jim Duggan

USA wages a war on Huntsville, Alabama!! This...wasn't that good. Duggan could not give less of a shit here, walking around the ring slowly and missing shots by a mile. Eaton tried but this was a couple old guys moving slow for 3 minutes before Duggan wins with the slowest loosest clothesline you've seen.

Scott, Steve and Brad Armstrong come out for a quick interview calling out the Faces of Fear. Sounds like a fun six man. Madusa led the interview and looked horrific. Gross fake tits, way too much body glitter for someone on the wrong side of 30, poorly done extensions. I mean they're based out of Atlanta. You'd think there would be SOMEbody in the company that could rattle off ten places that do decent extension and weave work in the greater ATL area. Shoot there is probably a weave competition going on RIGHT NOW at an ATL mall. Unacceptable.

4. Erik Watts vs. Steve Regal

This was actually really fucking awesome as Regal works a whole bunch of mat slickness all over Watts and Watts breaks out his fun and goofy big guy offense, like his step up rana. But damn did Regal look insanely good. All the mat stuff is blatant show off stuff, but it's the kind of thing I could rewind and watch over and over. Cool leg trips and arm drags and flashy leverage moves. Dave Taylor was with him at ringside looming over things like a background extra in Long Good Friday. Taylor starts cheating to win and Duggan comes out to even the odds. Duggan's 2x4 shots looks horrible but if anybody has the facials to put over bad strikes, it's Regal and Taylor. I assume this sets up a tag team match at some point. 

5. Disco Inferno vs. Spyder

That's right! You KNOW you were all clamoring for the one or two Spyder matches that exist. Spyder is kind of a great guy to point to if you're arguing that WCW had too many guys on the payroll. The Latino World Order disbanded in JANUARY! And the guy who was the non-wrestling guy in the faction is still around working random matches 8 months later. How many shows before this was he flown into? Match went like 90 seconds and Spyder looked pretty not good. Threw a clothesline at Disco's lower chest, couldn't throw a punch. Glad they kept this guy around.

6. Norman Smiley vs. Scotty Riggs

Fun match between two underrated guys. Rachel thinks Smiley looks like the worlds most ripped History teacher. I liked all these pre-Screamin Norman matches where he would bust out weird clotheslines or just front kick somebody in the nose. He really knew how to put over offense, too, making Riggs' elbow strikes look nice. 

7. Chris Benoit vs. Lash Leroux

Benoit looks like he is going to murder this guy. I do not know what Leroux did, but Benoit dealt him a furious fucking beating right here. Leroux got one piece of offense in: Benoit charged him in the corner and Lash got the boots up. That was it. Right after that Lash charged out of the corner into a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. The rest of the match was Benoit punching him, chopping him, suplexing him insanely fast, grabbing him by the nose and slapping his face, and locking in the crossface with Leroux's back bent backwards into a gross angle. Afterwards the rest of the Revolution comes out and Douglas and Saturn are wearing above-the-knee jean shorts with their Revolution shirts tucked in and looking like the Revolution was about to have an "End of Summer BBQ Bash".

8. Little Jeanie vs. Mona

Mona's gown singlet is one of the coolest wrestling looks ever. This was a real go go go 4 minutes with neither girl coming up for air. Mona was real great at building sympathy (wish I could hear the crowd's actual reaction, but the Stars of the Lid ambient noise machine was working in full effect this whole episode, just constant whirr of sounds approximating "Yay" and "boo") and she was good at running her offense together. Her finishing run was really great with a lightning fast handspring elbow into the corner followed by a bulldog to plant Jeanie, and finishing her off with an awesome surfboard cradle that has me and Scott Hudson marking out.

9. Scott, Steve and Brad Armstrong vs. First Family (Barbarian, Jerry Flynn, Hugh Morrus)

We get 7-8 minutes of this and it's all at worst decent wrestling. For whatever reason I was hoping for a bit more as most of it felt like time filling as opposed to building to something. Flynn looked really good here with a couple nice spin kick variations and big presence. Morrus (aside from his obnoxious ayuk yuk mannerisms) threw some nice elbow drops, including a big one off the top. Armstrongs were as dependable as usual, with Steve having a cool mat takedown/punches from mount segment with Flynn. And the Armstrongs fucking WIN! I'm sure all of you were expecting that result.


So many Surge commercials.