My Favorite Wrestling! WCW Worldwide 9/22/96

1. Jerry Lynn vs. Juventud Guerrera

This was really fun, got about 7 minutes and both guys were just sorta throwing stuff against the wall. Lynn is wearing his absurd purple and gold puffy sleeve sequin jacket that says "Dynamic Lynn" on the back. Both guys spend the whole matches plumbing the depths of their offense, which is one of the most fun things about this era of Juvy. He does a crazy springboard somersault dropkick that looks like it should've caved Lynn's chest in. Lynn does some cool armdrags that Juvy bumps fast, as Juvy will do. This was the kind of stuff I ate up when I originally watched it. Fast armdrags, big ranas, missile dropkicks, springboard stuff, all of it. A lot of those matches have been kinda disappointing on rewatch, but occasionally you get one like this that fills the time admirably and delivers.

2. DDP vs. Disco Inferno

A guy who looks a lot like Dwight Gooden is in the crowd here with his kids, and Schivaone even says that Dwight Gooden is here. Which would be weird since He would've been on the Yankees at this point, who certainly would have been in middle of a playoff push in the middle of 1996. I'm not sure when this was taped but unless it was taped over the All Star break, that's the only time I could see Gooden being in the front row here. He could have been at tons of 1995 tapings. Dude had nothing going on that year. This match was short but fun, with DDP being enjoyable as a muggy, cigarette smoking heel. At one point he drops a low elbow on Disco and gets up slapping his belly, saying "you know where that was". Disco was a pretty easy guy to appreciate looking back. He seemed like he enjoyed his gimmick and here he had nice stomach kicks, solid jabs, a nice eye poke and bumped all over for DDP's offense.

3. Super Calo vs. Brad Armstrong

Short match, with Armstrong going over! Wasn't actually expecting that as the luchadors were getting a good push at his point and Armstrong was Brad Armstrong. Calo hits a sweet back elbow after running up the turnbuckles, and then hits his awesome slingshot senton to the floor on the Worldwide stage! Crazy. Armstrong takes luchador offense really nicely, and he folds Calo in half with a clothesline and then rolls him right through for the Russian Leg Sweep. Wish we could have gotten more than the 2 minute they delivered, but both guys looked killer in the wimpy time given.

4. Meng, Barbarian, Ray Traylor & Hugh Morrus vs. Scott & Steve Armstrong, Pepe Prado & Tony Mella (?)

Boy I couldn't tell you much about the two non-Armstrong boys. Heenan clearly doesn't know their names and keeps saying things like "Hey Tony, you know this guy who Meng is beating, right? I'm just checking to make sure YOU know." I assume they're both just Florida area workers. Mella is a big dumpy guy, and Prado looks like a more Cuban Keith Hernandez. Shoot "Cuban Keith Hernandez" would have been a cooler gimmick. I normally love when Saturday Night or Worldwide throws on a random WAR multiman, because they almost always get time and then you get to see weird 10 minute matches with an entire team made up of jobbers. But this barely gets 3 which is a waste. Traylor looked good here and laced into Steve Armstrong, who then tagged out to Prado, and the rest of the match was basically the Dungeon of Doom taking apart Prado. Barbarian launches him with a belly to belly off the top, Morrus splats him with the No Laughing Matter. Mella comes in for the save and gets punted out the ropes to the floor. Scott Armstrong wisely stayed on the apron through all of this. Not a horrible payday for Scott Armstrong.

5. Rock & Roll Express vs. Arn Anderson & Chris Benoit

Needless to say I was pretty excited to see these teams hit the ring with 10+ minutes left to go on the broadcast. And the match is totally great. Both teams get to go on nice long runs, neither works face or heel, which is really best option here as they work more of a mutual respect thing but with neither team going over the top with any of the "I respect you!" stuff. Instead we get a hot match with some nice turns, and then a long heat segment on Morton  (you're shocked, I know). All of Ricky's comebacks are really good, and all the Rock & Rolls showing off offense was really fun. It's always a kick seeing Gibson break out the delay headscissors. Morton does a real slick armdrag reversal of a Benoit powerbomb that I loved. Another great moment was Gibson going in for a deep armdrag, whiffing the hook, and just getting kicked by Benoit. Everybody throws snug punches and elbows and it makes the overall work more desirable. Ricky throws some nice corner punches, Benoit elbows Ricky in the mouth. There was some real great arm work on Arn, starting with him missing an elbow to the post. Ricky and Robert tearing the arm apart was real cool, matadoring Arn into a missed shoulder-first corner charge, and Robert doing a neat little slingshot knee drop to the arm after tagging in. I mean, Arn stops selling the arm at one point, but it doesn't really matter in a match like this. Finish is cool with the RnRs getting a visual pinball on Arn after hitting the double dropkick, but Benoit drops a cool top rope elbow on Ricky and flips Arn on top. Not a match I ever realized happened, let alone on a C-show main event, and didn't know the Rock n Rolls were even signed this late into '96, but it was as good as it sounds on paper.