Segunda Caida Watches the Troops

It's Memorial Day, I'm a government employee so you KNOW I'm not working today. So far all I've done is eat a banana, watch Price is Right, and an episode of Wonder Woman that had Harris Yulin as a movie producer and Debra Winger making one of her few appearances as Wonder Girl, watched the Giants beat the Brewers, and ate some eggs with coffee. Phil told me that he was making a pipe cleaner diorama to honor the troops, I figured I would watch a couple things with wrestling's most popular Sergeant. I challenge you to think of a more popular Sgt. in wrestling. It can't be done.

Craig Pittman vs. Aleksandr Karelin, 1989 FILA Wrestling World Championships

Karelin had just won his first gold medal a year prior, and here he was 22 years old, going up against a 30 year old Pittman. Karelin looks like a machine manufactured to separate heads from bodies. We get a couple good minutes of grappling with the smaller Pittman showing impressive speed and not getting completely bullied around by Karelin. Things are actually pretty even for awhile, but before long Pittman gets tossed onto his stomach and Karelin latches on. Pittman tries his damndest to just sandbag his body, practically clawing at the mat while Karelin begins to deadlift him. Karelin has him held up in the air for several seconds before taking him up and over, and then immediately grabs him again - this time in a gutwrench -  and dumps Pittman straight up and over onto his head and shoulder. Karelin wins. Pittman stays down for a loooooong time.

Here is another video where Pittman claims to have "unofficially" beaten Karelin in a later match that took place in Sweden, you know, due to them only giving him only 1 point after THROWING Karelin. It's a shame no video or record or any other witnesses of that match exist. Also, Karelin was 6'8" apparently. Also not found on YouTube: video of Pittman plowing prime Phoebe Cates, video of Pittman intimidating a police officer into not giving him a speeding ticket, and evidence of Pittman ghostwriting much of Fleetwood Mac's Rumors.

Ric Flair vs. Craig Pittman, WCW Saturday Night 3/23/96

I thought this match was awesome, and a lot of things happened in it that were just perfect within the context of their characters. A lot of Flair's signature bumps made more sense opposite Pittman's offense, and a Pittman no sell made tons of sense when you think of who he was. So, let me explain. Match starts cool with Pittman grabbing a knuckle lock and Flair selling it as if Pittman were breaking his hand. My hands hurt just watching them. Pittman has really impressive throwing strength, and so whenever Flair would Irish whip him into the ropes Pittman would easily reverse it and send Flair flying. There was none of this ridiculous "Shane MacMahon out-grapples Kurt Angle" business. Every time Flair tried to throw him, it would backfire, because of course it would! This was one of the only times I've seen Flair's over the turnbuckles flipping bump to the apron make sense, as Pittman whips him so hard into the corner that it actually looked like something that would cause you to flip over the buckles. Flair is also completely powerless against Pittman so regularly has to go for eyepokes, which makes sense as something that would immediately stop the Pitbull. Flair takes a couple big bumps here, first with the turnbuckle bump and later when Pittman grabs him and does a deadlift suplex, ending with Flair getting crumpled up and landing on his side. Gross. Right before that Flair had given Pittman a back suplex of his own that got immediately no sold by Pittman, but it makes sense within the context of Pittman's character. I mean, this guy got up after Karelin slammed him into the mat! Of course he's going to get up after taking a suplex from Flair! Finish looks great and also logical, with Flair taking another nasty whip into the corner, and Pittman charging in with his flying shoulderblock. Flair moves and Pittman takes a cool horizontal chest first torpedo bump into the top turnbuckle, like Mike Modest's old Ray Stevens bump into the buckles, and then Flair rolls him up for the win. Both guys characters and styles meshed real nice here. This was easily one of the best Pittman matches. Also of note, this was the peak foxiness of Woman. Post match she takes all the focus off Flair's promo by just staring at the camera, even while Ric is taunting Macho Man by screaming about shagging Elizabeth. Just could not stop staring at Woman.