On Brand Segunda Caida: Heavenly Bodies! Godwinns! Vader! Craig Pittman!

The Heavenly Bodies vs. John Paul/Mike Khoury WWF All American 3/13/94

ER: The Heavenly Bodies really had some of the craziest offense in WWF (or anywhere) during this era. They felt innovative without feeling implausible, and I wish I could see them today against modern indy teams. This is a short squash and we get a Demolition Device but with a big splash, a weird and amazing spinebuster from the middle buckle, big double team suplex, Del Ray bouncing Khoury off his head on a snap suplex, Pritchard log rolling Khoury's legs out while Del Ray hits a falling clothesline, and a wild moonsault press to end it. Just a pornographic amount of creative offense that they're able to blend into a short match. Add to this that the Bodies had arguably my favorite ring trunks in wrestling history, and they certainly feel like a team we need to write about a lot. This might be the most fun 2 minutes you spend watching wrestling today.

Vader/Mankind vs. The Godwinns WWE Raw 1/27/98

ER: Here's a nice little hoss battle that nobody remembers. The Godwinns were both huge and aggressive and had no problem hitting hard, really a cool team ripe for discovery. Both of them eat Mankind up in the first part of this, Phineas was throwing straight right hands and nice headbutts, Henry carried Mankind around and slammed him right in front of Vader, Godwinns really looked on the level of two HOF guys. Of course, Vader comes in and wrecks Phineas with a dozen giant bear paw swipes in the corner and hits a lariat that would stop the heart of a smaller man. We get some wild bumps to the floor: Mankind and Phineas tangle in the ropes and so Henry just runs in and lariats both of them over the top to the floor; later, Vader and Mankind team up to slingshot Phineas from the ring, over the ropes to the floor. I don't know if I've ever seen that before. Vader is a bunch of fun in this, even dropping an elbow right on Henry's balls, and you know Vader has a great elbow drop. We even get a spirited brawl around ringside, with Henry coming in hot to save Phineas, jumping over the ring steps and almost crashing right onto Phineas' head, then Henry and Vader slam into each other and crash hard into the barricade, Mankind crashing face first into the ring steps. I think we're going to need to look for more Godwinn gems after this one...

Booker T vs. Craig Pittman WCW Power Plant 8/1/98

ER: Honestly this is mostly inconsequential, but it is a fascinating glimpse into what kind of footage WWE might have sitting around in their vault. If something like this was not only recorded, but saved in perfect quality for 20 years, who knows what else might be in the vault. Talk about a dream job. Sitting in some climate controlled building all day just watching recordings with vague descriptions and having no idea what might be on them? Tell me where I have to move, pay me minimum wage, whatever. If there is a 3 minute scrap at the Power Plant between these two, then I want a drop of just hours and hours of Buddy Lee Parker making muscleheads do burpies until they throw up. I want video of Buddy stretching Batista until he quits. Imagine being the guy in the vault who finds the footage of The Giant doing a moonsault at the Power Plant!? I had no idea Pittman was involved with WCW in any way in 1998, but here he is looking in even better shape than during his push a few years prior. He and Booker grapple and Booker goes for a couple half hearted takedowns, and you can see Pittman instinctively do a quick sprawl on each. Booker really would have gotten wrecked if he actually went for something. By the end of this Booker is breathing heavy and both have broken a sweat, but the true gift is the cameraman - twice - deciding to turn his camera lovingly to a different camera man and letting us soak it all in. Are we going to get an alternate camera angle of this some day? Are we ever going to find out if that twice peaked at chubby dad of a cameraman ever turned his own camera on our mystery photog, when he wasn't looking, just two grips coming to grips with their own hidden, wanton lust, spurned on by the primal grappling of two warriors. Imagine being the guy working in the WWE vault who discovered the WCW Power Plant version of Beau Travail?