On Brand Segunda Caida: 600 Words on Hardwork Bobby Walker vs. Ice Train, By Request

Ice Train vs. Hardwork Bobby Walker WCW Worldwide 2/19/00

ER: Here we have a match requested by David Bixenspan, featuring two workers who presumably nobody reading this even realized were employed by WCW as late as the year 2000. It's WCW, so it's possible this match was taped in 1996 and didn't make it to air until early 2000. I remember the MI Smooth character, somehow, but I do not remember Ice Train AS Ice Train this late. And I also presume that it is not an accident that this aired during Black History Month. Ice Train has great braids, like he's an updated Iceman King Parsons; Walker has a sensible mustache and doo rag, and they both have undisputedly great wrestling gear.

And this match is entirely Up. My. Alley. This is an example of a Great Wrestling Recommendation for me. You guys telling me "okay, you haven't liked these other Orange Cassidy matches at all, but *this* one you'll like" need to realize that I want to watch a 4 minute match with one great punch, one big bump, and one unexpectedly gigantic spot. That's it. If your recommendations are not that, then you are just pranking me. This match was extra special because both men were at peak In The Year 2000 Levels Of JUICED WRESTLER. This was essentially John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar and I don't believe I've seen either man looking this large, ever.

This match consists mostly of so-so kicks to the stomach, except that it's great. These two jacked guys slam into each other, the crowd goes absolutely bonkers the entire time (save for one racist man wearing a garish tiger striped all over print button-up, arms crossed up, refusing to clap for these black men while everybody else in Oklahoma was losing it), and it's wild how WCW was drawing this big of a crowd in Oklahoma City IN 2000 and yet the whole thing would be shuttered within a year.

Walker whiffs on a punch in the corner and drops down on his butt hard - a great sell for a decent Ice Train jab - and the meat of this is Ice Train having no problem running his massive frame (and again, he was never more massive than he was right here in this match) as hard as he could into Walker, and that is always going to come off great. Train runs into Walker hard, Walker bumps hard, that's just a winning formula. Walker does his (frankly incredible) rope walking, getting an appropriately loud reaction. He jumps backwards onto the middle buckle, steps to the top rope, and takes several large steps out onto the tope rope before flying off with an axe handle. Oh, but one tiny detail: he does all of this with no hands. It's amazing. He also hits a kind of slick armdrag out of the corner, while appearing to get tied up in his singlet straps. He did a move while also accidentally gets trapped inside his own singlet. That happened!

And when you boil this match down, outside of that top rope flash from Walker, it's as simple as you can get. There are a couple shoulderblocks, a couple punches, an axe handle, a leapfrog, a few kicks to the stomach, and Ice Train wins with a bodyslam followed by a standing splash. And yet it had a real explosive energy, some hard bumps from Walker, and I honestly thought both guys exuded total star potential.

This was Walker's last match with the company, and Ice Train would disappear for six months before returning as MI Smooth. This was WCW at its best and worst.