Borga Wakes Up in the Morning and He Feels, the Pain in His Head

Ludvig Borga vs. Virgil  WWF Superstars 8/28/93 - GREAT

ER: This is Borga's first match against someone who occasionally records wins, and it plays perfectly as a Borga showcase while also giving Virgil a nice little walking tall babyface performance. It's a 3 minute match so it's not a full valiant Tito Santana performance, but he makes a little dent in Borga and the fans are into him. This was a great coming out performance for Borga, his first match against someone the crowd responds to, and he really ups the personality and stiffness. Borga is great at selling contempt for Americans, a raised eyebrow every bit as expressive as The Rock's. Virgil gets a little too hyped up by the crowd's enthusiasm, and decides to shadow box with Borga. Borga is a huge man who boxed professionally, so I got very excited by Virgil's decision to throw hands. And, it's great. Borga has no problem absolutely slugging Virgil several times, the closest he has come by far to giving us Different Fight Halme in WWF. He lands organ punishing body shots in the corner and boxes Virgil's ear, but Virgil is a guy who works stiff and Borga leaves openings for return fire. 

Virgil boxes back and it made me want a 2 Cold Scorpio/Virgil match real bad. Virgil hits hard enough that it looks cool when Borga shoulderblocks him to the mat, like even the larger Borga had to earn it. Virgil lands a clothesline full force to Borga's chest, and throws a couple of sick shots to Borga's throat (Borga sells them like a man who just got punched in the throat), and Virgil's standing dropkick has real impact. Both guys hit smashmouth back elbows and Borga ramps up his impact when moving to finish. I haven't seen his flying lariat look better than it looked here, including his matches against Norton and Vader. This was far more effective than having him murder Ricky Ataki before Summerslam. Virgil was a popular guy who looked tough and credible against Borga, while getting murdered by Borga. This really made Borga look like a killer who could withstand 1993 babyface offense to land his own big shots. They had Jannetty take down Bastion Booger in a few credible ways, really gave a nice lowkey build to what is probably the least important match at Summerslam. But damn if I'm not more excited to see Borga/Jannetty. 

Ludvig Borga vs. PJ Walker WWF Superstars 9/18/93 - VERY GOOD

ER: Total asskicking, great squash, a perfect highlight reel of Borga's best offense, and a great reason why PJ Walker was a full time employee a year later. Walker takes two minutes of hard punishment, and Borga gets to sneer and show off. He starts by lifting Walker into the air with a choke, hits a sick headbutt upon releasing the choke, then starts the body shots. Borga has awesome body shots and here he got to throw off some footwork, give Walker an unexpected left to the body after faking right, then whip him hard into the turnbuckles after softening up his insides. He hits a great vertical suplex after holding Walker up for 10 seconds, then leaps as high as possible on his standing elbowdrop. His elbowdrop is so it it even makes Macho Man exclaim that it's higher than he lands on HIS elbowdrop, and Macho Man was never in the business of praising heels. Walker leans into Borga's big flying clothesline and turns on the landing, making it look like a nice rag doll layout. Borga's specific kind of heel offense is ahead of its time and behind the times, but I don't think it was appreciated enough in 1993. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LUDVIG BORGA