Traylor of the Day: Day 3

The Big Boss Man vs. Col. Mustafa (WWF, 10/28/91)

I had forgotten that Boss Man was feuding with IRS at this point. Irwin comes out to talk shit at Boss Man, allowing Mustafa to get an early advantage before Boss Man levels him with a clothesline and chases IRS to the back. This was a pretty fun short match. Sheiky Baby doesn't have much left in the tank at this point, though he does break out what I can only describe as a primitive Exploder suplex that made me stand up and take notice. Boss Man does a good job of making the rest of his offense not look totally feeble, and his own offense is killer, including a deadlift vertical suplex and the jumping spinebuster that he uses to win the match. Not a great match, but I doubt there were too many Col. Mustafa matches better than this.

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Traylor of the Day: Day 2

Big Bubba Rogers vs. Bart Sawyer (WCW, July/August? 1995)

AWESOME competitive squash. Bubba pushes Sawyer around early, but Sawyer fires back with some swank punches to send Bubba reeling. He hits a dropkick, but Bubba swats a second one right out of the air and then plants him with a nasty jumping spinebuster. Funny moment as Bubba puts Sawyer in an abdominal stretch, and then lets out a primal scream as he grabs the top rope for leverage. The ref makes him let go, so he does the awesome thing of just punching Sawyer in the ribs while he still has him in the stretch. Seriously, Bubba is just on fire here, beating the tar out of Sawyer, shit-talking him, intimidating the ref, and giving Bart plenty of opportunities to sneak in some offense of his own, which also looks really good. Bubba is really good at timing Sawyer's comebacks. Always knows when to let him get one over on him to keep things interesting, sells him as a credible threat if he lets up too much, but also knows when to cut him off before it crosses the line from "competitive squash" to "competitive match". Bubba polishes him off with whatever they called the Boss Man Slam at this point, and I just love that move. Bubba pins Sawyer with one finger on his chest, and you totally buy it. Need to watch more Traylor squash matches, because he strikes me as a guy who may have been a great squash match worker.

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