New Footage Friday: 1994 WCW House Show (+ Bonus Lawler vs. Bock!)

WCW House Show El Paso 7/14/94

Lord Steve Regal vs. Johnny B. Badd - GREAT

MD: 94 house show Regal obviously brings a lot to the table. He stalled a lot early, but paid it off by bumping himself on the way back in for high comedy. The chain wrestling, when they got to it, was good, though everything along these lines, even the good stuff, feels a little low rent after watching so much French Catch. When Regal took over, it was with a brutal variety of offense. Badd really needed a couple more meaningful hope spots, even if he was going to get the reversed banana peel win.

PAS: I thought this was nifty stuff. Any chance to see new Regal is tremendous, and I thought he was awesome here. He had some fun stooging stuff at the beginning, really riling up the crowd and doing the job of a opening match wrestler. When he lays a beating on JBB it was appropriate, Lots of of those nasty left handed forearms to the side of Badd's head, and an incredible counter of a sunset flip where he shifts his weight and drops a knee right on Badd's eye. I really liked Badd's comeback, really worked the heavy bag with his body shots, and hit a very cool looking flying headscissor. Finish was a bit lame, but what you would expect from a house show. Regal really elevates everything he does. 

ER: House show Regal during this era would have been such a treat, and his performance is the kind that makes house show handhelds such a joy. Regal is the TV champ here, and just watching his haughty mannerisms as he reacts to the El Paso fans would be enough to make me love this match. He makes a ring attendant hold the ropes open for him, circles Badd several times while making fake lunges toward him, then when the crowd finally gets excited about Badd laying his hands on Regal...why of course that's when Regal rolls to the floor to avoid the action. Regal keeps grabbing the house mic and asking the fans to please be more quiet so he can concentrate on his wrestling, threatens to leave until he begins being counted out, runs back to the ring and trips on the ropes, landing in his face. This is the kind of stuff that house show dreams are made of, a style that we're getting further and further away from to the detriment of all wrestling joy. 

And once Regal does start wrestling he lays a great beating on Badd for over 10 minutes. He leans full body weight behind European uppercuts, works cool knuckle lock exchanges that end with Regal kneeing his way out, blocks a sunset flip by dropping a knee down onto Badd's face. I thought Badd sold Regal's shots so well, loved the way he always looked off balance, the way Regal would uppercut him into the ropes and then headbutt his stomach to get him back into the ropes, Badd had a nice organic way of selling Regal's offense exactly as it was delivered. Badd's punch comeback looked really cool, highlighting how silly modern stand and trade exchanges look, as Bad is landing body shots while Regal and him aren't really focused on each other's timing. It looked like two guys each trying to land strikes while on defense, not like two guys waiting out their turning in the timing to strike. Regal is a slime and tries to put his feet on the ropes for the win just because he can, and it works! Until the ref notices the feet and reverses the call, leading to Regal getting schoolboyed. This was a tremendous Regal performance around a popular but limited performer, but I thought Badd's selling was incredibly strong and only added to Regal's hilarious mannerisms and brutal strikes. 

Brian Pillman vs. Diamond Dallas Page

MD: It's great to see visible proof of Austin sitting and watching matches. I'd guess in this case that Page asked him to for critiques but maybe the guy just liked wrestling and was a student of the game. Pillman here, came off like the world's smallest Hansen, constantly fighting back, constantly making Page fill space with his size and his offense. It meant Page had to take every moment of this with nothing given and that made for a more compelling experience than you might think coming in.

ER: I'm never going to be too into those matches where babyfaces hit arm drags and then hold arm wringers as a big portion of the match, as it always just ends up making me more interested in the heel eventually breaking through and that shouldn't be the goal. But that's what happened here as I wound up being far more excited for DDP bumping around for Pillman, and really loved his hard forearms to Pillman's jaw. I thought he was good at working a big man against a hot babyface, liked how he took the crossbody, but just found myself far more interested in seeing DDP throw those elbows. Maybe the most interesting thing was our cameraman panning the crowd (or well, panning hundreds of empty folding chairs) to catch Steve Austin sitting by the entrance watching the match. I love seeing things like that. 

Stars & Stripes vs. Pretty Wonderful

MD: The highlight of this came early when Roma bumped himself out of the corner on a clean break and declared victory by claiming Patriot took out his eye. Pretty funny stuff. Pretty Wonderful cut off the ring well, but a lot of their offense was more focused on containing Patriot than doing damage to him and that'll only take you so far. The finish worked though, giving us just enough Bagwell and not too much of him.

ER: I have friends who went to a WCW house in Oakland, CA maybe three months after this house show, and they both said that Pretty Wonderful vs. Stars & Stripes was the worst match they had ever seen live, both with memories of the match going 30 minutes and being dreadfully boring. They both acknowledge that they might feel differently now, how their tastes may have changed, and I think it's possible that they might have hated it due to the unnecessary length and the probable amounts of bullshit in the match. The bullshit in this match is really great, but I know I had less tolerance of stalling and drawn out cheating and those sorts of things when I was younger, and now it's something I actively seek. I didn't like those Rockers/Rougeaus matches that started with 15 minutes of them doing showoff poses and playing games of H-O-R-S-E by doing backflips off the buckles, and now I would kill to see wrestling matches like that. 

This match had a lot of bullshit, and it was nearly 20 minutes (with several minutes cut out when the guy stopped recording) of Pretty Wonderful cutting Patriot off from Bagwell. Patriot is one of the more supremely uninteresting wrestlers of the era, and a match focused on PW containing him and his weird punches is a good thing (he throws hooking right hands with nice form, but frequently aims them them so his mid wrist is connecting with the side of his opponent's head, so his fist always lands behind his opponent). Orndorff is great bumping around the ring and begging off from Stars and Stripes, and things get really great when Roma starts using hand claps behind the ref's back to make it look like Patriot is taking cheap shots. Roma backs Patriot into the corner a couple times, and claps his hands right when the ref can't see, bumps backwards holding his face and complaining about Patriot's poor sportsmanship. The first time Roma did it, a woman near our cameraman began loudly, hoarsely CACKLING with laughter. God I wish I could have watched wrestling with that woman. Roma was great at being the batter who is trying to work a hit by pitch, and what really makes the match is how deeply upset the crowd gets with every single cheat utilized by PW. When a crowd is this angry at a heel routine, it's the easiest thing to love. Roma is a guy I never think of, a wrestler I've seen so much yet has made such a small impression on my memory that watching this house show version of Roma gives me a new appreciation for him. This guy knew how to draw excellent heat on an undersold Texas house show, and that's a cool thing. The match builds smartly to a quick Bagwell hot tag, which is the best possible use of 1993 Bagwell. There's a good chance I would not have had the patience for this match in 1994, but in 2020 this was just what I needed.

Guardian Angel vs. Ron Simmons

MD: This was short and weird. You have to call it a disappointment. I've never seen Simmons work heel like this, almost like chickenshit, falling out of the ring and running away from Angel. He had a nice face first corner bump/rope assisted mule kick as a transition move but it didn't go anywhere as Bossman took right back over a minute later (though there was what felt like a small cut which maybe made a difference). Really the best part of this was how the ring shook whenever they hit the ropes.

ER: I thought this kicked ass, and based on the timekeeper's call I think we actually got closer to 4 minutes cut out of this, and I think that was an important cut. I'm pretty positive we missed the 4 minute entirety of Ron Simmons' offense, as the match cuts right after he knocks Traylor to the floor with an awesome falling headbutt/Bret Hart diving elbow, and then joins us back with Simmons missing a big headbutt off the middle rope. What we're left with does indeed feel incomplete, but I loved the match we did get. Simmons/Boss Man really wasn't a singles match that was run a lot (I don't think we ever would have even got a singles match between them 5-6 years later in WWF), and who knows maybe they intentionally did not want to run this match because Traylor so large and it's a tough spot to put some heels in working with a large dominant babyface. 

But large dominant babyface Ray Traylor is some of my favorite wrestling, so I loved seeing him uppercut Simmons around the ring, roll to the floor and uppercut him some more. We get big shoulderblocks and nice collisions, and obviously the big mystery is just what did Ron Simmons do to control Traylor during that missing time. Traylor's comeback after the Simmons missed headbutt is great, a few big clotheslines and a finisher worthy crossbody that Traylor got great big man height on (and Simmons took in a way that landed HARD). We get a hilarious bit at the very end that feels completely out of place (enough that I assume this was played up a lot during our missing time) as Traylor hits a headbutt and then drops to his knees selling Simmons' hard head...only to roll him up in a small package when Simmons tried to capitalize. It's REALLY hard to do a "sell hard head of opponent spot" literally 10 seconds before winning the match, so this had to have been the focal point of the missing time, leading to Traylor exploiting it for the surprise finish. Loved this pairing, glad we finally got to see a nice length singles. 

Dustin Rhodes/Arn Anderson vs. Bunkhouse Buck/Amarillo Slim

MD: We don't get a ton of this. In fact, we lose it right when it's getting good, but I'm sick of hearing Arn say how terrible a babyface he'd be because he has no "babyface skills." He could punch. He had great timing. That's literally all you need.

ER: Oh, how cruel handheld wrestling can be. This was the match I was most excited to see, and what portion of the match clearly showed it to be the best match on the show. Alas, we don't see the finish of the match, and it felt like there still could have been 5 (or 10!) minutes left. The match still could have gone in several ways and we cut out after jumps the gun on the hot tag. It wouldn't be a shock to find out they worked another 5 minutes of Buck/Slim keeping Arn away from the tag. As we finish, Arn has run into the ring throwing punches before getting tossed hard to the floor, and Buck/Slim are just about to start working over Dustin again. We'll never know, but what we do get is as good as its on paper promise. 

There are cuts throughout the match, but those appear to be our cameraman cutting "out of ring" time. Obviously, all of that out of the ring time involves Robert Fuller, so cutting that out of the handheld is a crime. When Bunkhouse Buck takes a huge bump over the top to the floor and Fuller gives him some air by waving his cowboy hat over his face, you know we're missing out on other versions of that. But we do get Fuller on the house mic directing traffic and telling Buck and Slim to keep putting the boots to Dustin. Buck is great at laying in the boots and taking offense, loved how he sold Dustin's atomic drop but also loved how he kept backing Dustin up with a bearhug. At first I thought it was silly that Erik Watts was working as "Amarillo Slim" (I had no idea this was a gimmick he worked at the end of his first WCW run), but heel cowboy Erik Watts is way more interesting than tall clumsy babyface Erik Watts. He takes his own fast bump to the floor and could have really been valuable as a heel patsy who apes Buck and Fuller. Arn as a fired up hot tag babyface is something we didn't get enough of, and something he's great at. He's a powerhouse on the apron, and between his babyface apron energy and Dustin's excellent FIP work, it's not shockingly a great fit. So, watch and love this for what it is, and not for the missing parts we have no control over. We have Amarillo Slim footage now, and for that we should be thankful. Imagine if Virgil had only worked a few house show dates as Curly Bill and had never been on TV under that gimmick. Watts as Slim is not as exciting as that, but it hits the same spot. 

Stunning Steve Austin vs. Sting

MD: Austin was in transition here, no longer the TV champ of 91 or the Hollywood Blonde of 93 but not yet what he'd become a couple of years (and injuries) later. I love watching him squash guys in 95. Here he was still full of stooging and bullshit but had a way that he threw himself into all of his offense that was a portent of what would come. Sting did what he had to, emanating power and authority, a straightman that let all of Austin's manic energy just wash around him, waiting for him to feed into gorilla press slams and back body drops. This had enough time to be fun, but given the number of roll up finishes so far, there was probably no harm in giving Sting something more definitive to end it.

ER: I love Steve Austin, and I really love this era of Austin. I don't know if anyone on the roster at this point delivered offense better than Austin. He wrestles the way 1994 Bret Hart would have wrestled as a stooging heel. Same perfectly executed offense, delivered as if to look like he's really throwing his full weight behind everything. Hart and Austin have very similar styles but tweaked in ways that made them unique and complementary opponents (instead of the parity battle their series could have been), and 1994 Hart was a guy that would have been able to have a great match with Sting. House Show Austin is one of my favorite things, as every time we get to finally see WCW handhelds or unreleased post-Raw dark matches, Austin shows himself to be one of the more engaging crowd work guys in history. I mean, *obviously* Steve Austin was someone who could connect with crowds, but he never really stopped working the way an old 50 year old bullshit artist territory guy would work a 35 person crowd. He clearly relishes getting in people's faces and doing full routines with people in the front row, and the crowd was here for ALL of it. He knew when to be vicious to Sting, he knew when to get his ass kicked, and you get the sense that Austin could have had a match this good with a babyface of any ability. 

Austin is a great bumper, and here we get to see him give the balcony fans in El Paso a great look off at him as he flew into a sky high backdrop, and not long after went up just as high for a quick Sting press slam, and Austin works so fast his bumps look even better. He's one of the best all time at being perfectly in control while working at a speed that makes it seem like things are about to run off the rails. It's like a 2 year old who has been walking for awhile, but still falls down when running too fast, as if the body isn't quite catching up to the desire. Maybe the best thing about his bumping is how hard his landings look, or how hard he makes his landings look. He hits heavy on the mat for every back bump, which makes suplex landings or falls feel always consequential. His offense all looks so good, and I can't get enough of his kneedrop, his diving elbow off the middle buckle that might be the best version of that elbow ever thrown, and one of the coolest things I've ever seen him do: when he unrolls Sting's arm like he's about to hit a Rainmaker and just assaults him with a back elbow. Honestly, it looked so great it should be a finisher. It all builds to a quick, simple Sting comeback. Austin bumps for three decent clotheslines, holds the ropes on a sunset flip only to have them kicked off by the ref (sincerely one of my most hated spots in wrestling history). Austin kicks out but comes up shoving the ref for kicking his hands, leading to Austin getting shoved into a schoolboy. The finish really felt like the kind that some WCW agent saw Flair use for a couple decades, but Austin pulls off that kind of thing with aplomb. 

Jerry "The King" Lawler vs  Nick Bockwinkle CWA 8/21/78 - GREAT

MD: A Thanksgiving miracle, even if one with a ten minute clip through a lot of the good stuff. I'm pretty certain this was the first time Bockwinkel fought Lawler and some of the only footage (if not THE only footage) we have of Heenan in the Mid-South Coliseum. Heenan had amazing purple and gold California pajama gear that could have only existed in the 70s. Bock wrestled Lawler early on the same way he'd wrestle Chavo Guerrero in Houston a few years later, that Hollywood over-confidence in wrestling a local yokel in front of a crowd that loved him for whatever reason. Even Lance picked up on it on commentary a few minutes in (which is why Lance is so great). It led, of course, to Lawler stooging him with his own offense and looking like a million bucks without diminishing Bockwinkel in the least. Heenan and Bockwinkel spend the first few minutes complaining about hairpulls that don't exist only for Bock to take over for a bit with a hairpull of his own. It's that attention to detail that made him so great. The cut comes just as you can tell they were about to move into something better, so it's frustrating, but when we come back for the finish, it's in the midst of a ton of great Lawler punches and Bockwinkel's full body selling that really got over the weight of what had happened so far. The finish is typical Heenan running in when his guy is doomed, but it's to show that Lawler can beat the champ and set up the rematch the following week, which I bet drew. It's a shame we don't have all of this, but we've got 15 minute more of it than we did last week, and I won't complain about that.

PAS: Odd presentation of this match, we get the first 12 minutes or so of this, which is a lot of feeling out and cat and mouse stuff. Lawler suckering Bock into a side headlock, Heenan grousing at the ref, etc. All prologue. These are two masters, so minor key stuff is going to be well worth watching, but just as Lawler starts to pick it up with big forearms to the ribs and a couple of right hands, they jump right to the last two minutes. I obviously want it all, but if you are going to clip, clip the appetizer, not the main course. Finish is Lawler rolling, and we get an absolutely classic fist drop. He is the best ever at it, and this is one of his best, before Heenan just runs in for the DQ (his Laker's jumpsuit was maybe the highlight of this match, he looked like Jerry West on the prowl for the ladies). A little frustrating, but still this was something we didn't know existed until Wednesday.