Found Footage Friday: CROCKET CUP 87 NIGHT 2~!

Crockett Cup 87 Night 2 JCP 4/10/87

MD: We had a lot more of Night 2 than Night 1 but some of that was still handhelds or pieced together and this is a big VQ upgrade regardless, so we're just going to go through this as much as possible on the idea that a lot of this is very much Found even if not entirely New.

Round 3

Bob & Brad Armstrong vs. Tully Blanchard/Lex Luger

MD: Really great stuff here. That's not a surprise. There's an extended (almost ten minute) heel-in-peril shine to begin where Tully gets a few moments but mostly gets clowned over and over. What makes this work is how he constantly tries to drive to the corner and everytime things go really wrong for him is when he tries to stretch the rules, like using his foot to make a tag. JJ complains and the Armstrongs do a phantom tag while the ref is dealing with that. I love the wrist control by Bob here. You get such a great look at how he's holding Tully's hand and the torque involved. So simple but so good. Eventually Luger does get in but the Armstrongs come back only for JJ to pull down the rope and send Brad flying.

The FIP isn't as long but they get a lot done quickly, using the guardrail and working over the back. Brutal stuff with Brad on the floor reaching not for the fans, but for his dad even though there's no way to make a tag, just trying to drag strength and power from his love. The hot tag is great too with Bob coming in fiery as can be, laying into the Horsemen with basically machine gun chops in the corner. I got a kick out of the finish which had the ref miss a pinfall due to the chaos and JJ and Tully do a double clothesline with JJ on the apron to pick up the win. It's funny to think that would add so much but it had symbolic value so it totally worked. Good tag and great to see it in this level of video quality.

ER: I thought this was tremendous, 8 perfect minutes of tag team wrestling. Also, 8 minutes reminding us of what a perfect wrestler Tully Blanchard was. Tully was the primary highlight of this, but I think the whole thing was highlights. Every single second of Bullet preventing Tully from tagging out is pro wrestling perfection. Every second. The cameras catching the perfect angles of the inches Bullet was letting Tully get from Luger, the cut to the hand-on-brow disappointment and disgust from JJ Dillon looking like Robert Prosky in Thief, Luger's teenage quarterback hands on hips frustration when the tags keep being prevented, the way Tully's legs dragged and floated when Brad held onto a side headlock, it was all perfect. Luger was a great partner for Tully. This was Luger's best hair era, by fair. It never came close to looking this good again. His fringe, his gentle approach to being a jacked Ramones superfan. I loved how all of Tully's long build to the hot tag was more about Bullet tagging in his son to square up to Luger, who looks like Asshole He-Man. 

Tully Blanchard has the same kind of physical bumping style as Bobby Heenan. Heenan's bumping gets talked about more because it's flashier and one of the greatest bumping styles anyone has ever attempted. Tully doesn't use the same physical movement as Heenan, but he bumps with the same physicality. Tully has the ability to work these inches and near misses as well as he works big looping O-face back bumps when tugged and pulled and thrown by the Armstrongs, in a way that only makes the Armstrong Family Biceps look like main event power. I don't think there's a more perfect bump than Tully ping ponging perfectly onto his belly into the corner right on his mark, after leaning into Brad's missile dropkick. It's that kind of precision that people see in Chris Candido, the things is that Candido is just 0.7 Tully. Candido was tan, shaped, modeled. Tully looked like your friend's dad who was the asshole orthodontist accused of touching a girl under the gas. The guy in your church denomination you don't want to talk to in the lobby after service.

Road Warriors vs. Midnight Express

MD: The feeding early on, especially by Bobby Eaton, is all time great. The way he's able to rush in and take things and contort pro wrestling physics and make it all look good is up there with the very best ever. He somehow hits the guardrail after getting tossed out and you buy it. He makes a press slam into a snake eyes look like a move that people should be doing weekly now but it's something I've barely seen this century and that if anyone else took wouldn't look nearly as good. Likewise, he took a chop (looked like to the chest to me) and then sold his face, pointing to his jaw repeatedly like he just lost three teeth. Lane does okay too, going head over heels just bouncing off a Warrior, but it's not quite the same as Bobby.

When the Express take over on Hawk, it's from going to the eyes again and again and again and double teaming at every point. They just have a few frenetic minutes in charge, but the sheer amount of varied and interesting cheating they're able to do in believable ways is just remarkable. You buy that the ref just didn't see it because they were so good and Animal was so frustrated. Eyerakes, tossing Hawk over the top illegally, using the racket, again and again. When the hot tag comes, everything becomes chaos and the ref goes down. Cornette threw a fireball at Animal and I thought Animal no sold it but on the replay you see that Ellering pulled Cornette's arm so he plausibly just missed. It's a dangerous thing to devalue though so I'm not sure I loved that. To the crowd, it must have looked like Animal just no sold it. Still that infuriated the Roadies and they took the racket and got themselves DQed the ref came to. This was another really good one as they matched up well and everything had the perfect weight to it, save maybe for that fireball at the end.

ER: This is a famously great tag that has never looked or sounded better. The sound on these new uploads is so key, it makes every bump seem like an impossible physical feat to maintain. There's so much good about this, including Bubba, Cornette, and Ellering at ringside. They all got reactions and none of the reactions took away from the others, just an insanely hot match where everything clicked. Bobby Eaton in 4K is truly something to marvel. He and Hawk are a perfect combination of wrestling physicality. Eaton was so gifted, another guy who moved all in his own way...and Hawk wrestles like the ideal jacked cool guy to be knocking Bobby Eaton around. Bobby was such a ham here, in a way that totally works when selling for the Roadies. Hawk hit a short hard chop that was so loud, Bobby improvised on the spot that it him right in the mouth, backpedaling all the way across the ring to tag in Stan. Sell it to the 18,000 people who couldn't see that it hit chest. Lane took some big shots too, getting whipped upside down into the buckles by Hawk and then calmly begging off as Hawk approached, like hey easy man we got other towns to make. Lane getting yanked by the arm from the apron into the ring was such a great bump, the athletic grace of the Midnights combined with the power of the Roadies. Bobby and Stan get great reactions for their bumps, but probably not as big as the reaction Bubba gets when he steps to the apron and removes his coat and hat. Huge. 

The finish is incredible, one of the great chained together bullshit finishes I've seen. The Midnights throw Hawk over the top to the concrete with full distraction, then Bobby hits Hawk in the ribs with the loudest racket shot and kicks him straight in the guts. It completely breaks down into chaos and pandemonium after the bell and it's fucking pro wrestling baby. That's chaining it all together. That's what we used to do. We used to cut off the ring and drink a case of beer and we used to chain bullshit together without reversals of reversals of reversals. A Cornette fireball to endless racket shots to bodies going every direction in perfect chaotic order. The Roadies murder Bobby with a Hart Attack to cap it off. Bubba takes a hit through the ropes that sends him crashing to the apron and down to the guardrail. He looked humongous and the fall was grand. Incredible pro wrestling. 

Rick Rude/Manny Fernandez vs. Superpowers (Dusty Rhodes/Nikita Koloff)

MD: The #1 seed vs. the biggest babyfaces in this. While the first round had its share of fairly lame teams (especially compared to the year before), now in the quarterfinals you see the breadth of the talent here. This was a huge match. They'd only run it once before at a show at the Great Western Forum. It was a way to put the tag champs up against these guys with the belts not on the line. Rude vs. Nikita was such a natural pairing too and they leaned into that early with some fun strength stuff including Nikita breaking out of a full nelson.

Dusty played FIP after taking a post shot on the outside, with him gradually working back towards a comeback and these guys all knew how to milk it of course. Things broke down after Dusty hit a leaping clothesline off the ropes. Rude came in and then Nikita. Manny went for a flying body press but Dusty rolled through for the wins as the fans went nuts. 

ER: This was short but hot the entire way. I love the Raging & Ravishing team. Everyone in Crockett is so physical. I keep using various forms of that word because everyone is so physical in a totally different way. Manny Fernandez doesn't even look like someone who exercises, he looks like the most dangerous man in a bowling alley, but then he's throwing these impressively controlled kneedrops and holding back his body to keep his shots worked, and it's crazy how dangerous he can make himself look while being this safe. Rude is so good at working with Nikita and Manny knew exactly how to work as Rude's partner, I just love how these men fell around the ring. 

Round 4

Giant Baba/Isao Takagi vs. Tully Blanchard/Lex Luger

MD: Baba/Takagi had a draw as Ricky Morton was out (what a shame to lose that weird match). This was a kind of weird one too. Lots of leglocks early. It looked like things would open up when Luger slammed Baba but then he missed an elbow drop and Baba just beat up Luger and Tully. Novel pairings at least and fun to see them take his stuff (chop, big boot, Russian leg sweep). Takagi looked strong in there, good strikes and the fans really got up when he mowed through both Tully and especially Luger. Takagi missed a corner charge and weirdly Luger couldn't get him up for the rack. He hit an elbow drop for the pin instead. Up until the finish I could see there being interest in a Takagi vs Luger match back in Japan but after that, nah.

Dusty Rhodes/Nikita Koloff vs. Midnight Express

MD: This was a blast really, the whole shine especially. There was an early bit where Koloff broke clean on Eaton, Eaton refused to break clean on Koloff, punching him in the face, Koloff gave chase, Eaton dodged a shot back in the ring and pointed to his brain, Koloff slingshotted him back into the ring and then dropkicked him, which was absolutely perfect pro wrestling. Beautiful stuff. Then Lane got thrashed about and claimed it was a tights pull and Eaton got caught in the ropes as Dusty pinballed him again and again in a teeter totter only to fall outside and immediately get hiptossed onto the floor. Pure Eaton right there. He does the silly painless bit to pop the crowd and decides to take the huge bump anyway. Dusty finished it by giving all of the Express and Bubba elbows and basking in the glory of it all.

Heat was on Nikita and they did what the Express did best, fit a ton of egregious offense into a very small amount of time. They focused on the neck cheated in both large ways and small, and made use of numbers and ring-positioning. They pushed it just a little too hard, had just a bit of miscommunication and Nikita used that to hit the Sickle, no hot tag needed. Given all the different finishes at play, it worked. It also felt a bit like a banana peel, definitive as it was, because of the lack of the hot tag, so that almost protected the Express in loss in a weird sort of way.

Ric Flair vs. Barry Windham

MD:A lot to cover in a paragraph or two. This match, given how it was preserved/presented over the years and that it was going back to a relatively dry well, has traditionally not been thought highly of. But I do think it was very good. There are individual bits that I love, and I honestly do think they come together. 

Some of those bits:

• After the initial feeling out, Flair chops Barry in the corner. Barry puts on a grin and storms out. Flair backs off but struts it off. They repeat the process and this time Flair falls down before strutting. Then Flair gets in a knee and does it one more time. This time Barry sells it big but still storms out and threatens to do a ten punch on Flair. He backs down. Flair goes for a cheapshot and Barry fires off on him. It was such a great exchange in part because how it escalates.
• Late in the match, Flair, who has been knocked around both inside and outside the ring, gets an advantage and scales the top. We all know what's coming, but the execution is so different than what we'd see in the years that would follow. Flair slows himself down to jaw with the fans. Once he reaches the top, he does it again. Barry gets up and waits for him to turn. When Flair does, he's shocked and begs off. Barry shoots a punch to his gut before grabbing him. Flair shakes his head repeatedly. Barry goes to throw him. They struggle over it. Flair grabs his hair. Barry finally gets him over.
• The biggest tease of the match is Barry hitting a one legged missile dropkick which looked so out of the norm for 87 that it felt like a big deal. He pins Flair for 3 but flair had his foot on the rope and got his hand there too at the last second. The hand drew the ref's eye to the foot and after he made the count, he had to restart the match. He was beside himself over it.  Barry immediately gets his finisher, being the leaping clothesline off, only for Flair to get his foot on again. The moment had passed.

Structurally, they go from Flair getting a hotshot and taking over and working the arm to Barry coming back and Flair taking back over to work the leg and getting the figure-four. They got in and out with advantages switching, throwing in plenty of high spots and building to some of the big moments above. When Flair wins it after a series of back and forth pin attempts and holding the tights, it's acceptable but not exactly satisfying, but it didn't need to be given the victory that would follow.

Dusty Rhodes/Nikita Koloff vs. Tully Blanchard/Lex Luger

 

MD: Ok, so I'm running out of time on this one and it's definitely been out for years. One thing I do want to point out that you get watching the show in context is how people controlled Nikita and had a chance by targeting the next throughout the show but the whole show builds to this one where they tear the brace off of his neck. So I really did appreciate that in context. 

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Found Footage Friday: ABBY~! KIMALA II~! RUSHER~! INOUE~! ORTON~! TAKER~! OMNI~!

Abdullah the Butcher/Giant Kimala II vs. Rusher Kimura/Mighty Inoue AJPW 12/1/90

MD: Big IWE stars vs. monsters energy here, even if Rusher and Inoue were up in the years. This overachieved from my expectations, which were set in part for seeing Abby in so many short, abruptly ending tags from this era and from seeing Rusher in so many comedy matches. I love those matches by the way, but that wasn't going to work here.

What we got instead was pretty gruesome actually. Rusher bled early and they worked over the wound with headbutts, chops, and Abby just sticking his finger in the wound awesome. When Inoue got in, he turned the tables, sitting up on Abby's shoulders and poking him repeatedly with the fork until he dropped back. Then he kept it going with a bunch of awesome headlock punches until Kimala broke it up. The kept things rolling with a couple of chairshots from the outside in. Pretty valiant stuff.

Even the finish had one or two more rotations than I was expecting as Abby hit his cool Angle Slam type suplex but Inoue survived it only to get crushed with the throat shot/elbow drop combo. Post-match, Abby and Kimala bowed to all four sides. Not a lost classic but I'd say still well worth your time.

ER: This was disgusting, extremely violent, not far off from Great. Matt said gruesome and that's a good word for it. This wasn't a Fork Stabbing Abby match, this was built around punching and bleeding and digging into cuts. The match is helped by the HD of these new episodes of AJ Classics, as the second Abby is stabbing his fingers into Rusher's head I knew they weren't going to hold back. Abdullah's stiff fingered thrusts and jabs looked so painful, and it is 50-50 whether or not he had some kind of blade in his finger tape, because Rusher's head bled quick and Abby's fingertips were soon soaked red. Kimura's blood ran in rivulets down his chest and Abby dug his fingers into Rusher's cuts and the rest of his face. It was disgusting and the cameras zoomed in close on it to show the savagery. 

But these IWE guys are tough, so when Rusher finally tags in Might Inoue, Inoue shoot punches Abby in the head a couple dozen times and it's incredible. Inoue enters the ring climbing onto Abby's shoulders and just punches and stabs away at his head. Did we know Inoue was hiding a sharp object that he was going to use to scrape and stab at Abby's head while throwing shoot hammerfists? Abdullah the Butcher doesn't stab a single soul in this match with a fork, but Mighty Inoue introduces a weapon with no warning? Maybe this match is actually greater than great. When they both go down, Inoue grabs him in a headlock and throws sick blood wet splat punches repeatedly as the camera is again right on top of these slasher movie visuals. Every time Inoue ran and flew at Abby with a headbutt, you could hear his head actually smacking into Butcher's chin! He hits one in the ropes to knock Abby to the floor, and more in the ring. Great spot. Inoue's flipping senton is always so cool. It hits with impact but has the flourish and showmanship of French Catch. Abby rolling just out of the way of a senton and leading to him massacring Inoue's throat was a great late match sudden turn. Abby's Angle Slam is a really great spot and I love when he breaks it out. Using his bulk to perform weight physics is an Abby we don't get to see as often as Stabbing Abby. 

Kimala II was the odd man out in this, and he usually is, which is why I always look forward to Kimala II matches. He is the weirdest All Japan regular during their extended run of high expectancy ring work. He is clumsy, he doesn't work anywhere near as stiff as the style demands, he falls weird on offense, and despite being in his mid 20s he moves about as well as Abdullah the Butcher. But he torpedoes into the action at fun times, including a big bump thrown through the ropes to the floor. He's probably the thing holding this match from being legitimately great, but you can't deny the crowd excitement when he started slapping his belly. 

Dustin Rhodes/Ricky Steamboat/Shane Douglas vs. Steve Austin/Brian Pillman/Barry Windham WCW 2/7/93

MD: We get the last eight minutes of this and then a big post-match brawl. On the one hand, it's a shame we lose out on the elimination match because it sounds amazing on paper, but we're better off for what we do get here than nothing at all. Part of that is because Steamboat looks like the best babyface in the world here. Some of it is the way this is shot with no commentary. It just feels closer up, right in the midst of the action, and Steamboat working from underneath here is just transcendent. The way he moves his body, expanding and contracting, hanging on to the ropes, finding strength within, expressing pain and writhing emotion, is just over the top great. 

And Austin, in his own way, is almost as good. He's put upon, frustrated, aggravated that Steamboat refuses to quite, that he paints himself as so sympathetic a figure, that he dares to appeal to his humanity. At one point, Steamboat ... it's not begging off, I wouldn't say he's begging off, but he does seem to call for some level of mercy, maybe just to get things back on a more even playing field, but Austin, framing it perfectly, timing it as dramatically as possible, cinematically in a way that would only work in footage like this, that would be overwrought or overproduced on TV, literally spits on the effort. That makes it all the more poignant when Steamboat, in the midst of his big comeback, blows a mist of spit himself later on. Just really primal stuff.

That stays through into the chaotic post-match, bodies flying and violence ebbing and flowing and ebbing again. Weirdly enough, Shane Douglas might have stood out the most here, as he came off as a real powerhouse. Still, this post match, as good as it was and with a real sense of consequence for matches to come, comes off a little like a consolation prize for the elimination match we didn't get. Still, what a look at Steamboat and Austin.

Kurt Angle vs. Undertaker vs. Randy Orton vs. Mark Henry WWE 3/3/06

MD: House show match from the vault from Australia. I was expecting to see Henry assert himself. That was the draw, but really this was all about Randy Orton, especially but not only him reacting to Undertaker. It's a bit clipped and we come in after entrances with him preening in the corner only to turn around and find Taker there, going for a handshake before he gets rocked with punches. It's easy to joke about the Kyle Fletcher parallels but he was around 26 here and they're clearer here than at almost any other point of his career as best as I can remember.

This is not a version of Orton I remember well, but he was pretty effective even if I did see the strings at times. Plus it was a house show so they really played into it. There was a bit where he teased getting knocked into the crowd three or four times before finally landing on a fan's lap and thanking her after the fact. It was all pretty funny stuff. Plus he was flying around as a menace throughout, including dashing from one opportunistic pin to the next.

Angle was a bit of a non-factor overall, in part due to his current persona, I think, but just because Undertaker and Orton were taking up so much air. And then Henry just seemed there to cut people off at times. He did it effectively but his role could have been much more interesting. Still, this was fun for what it was, but it would have probably worked just as well as two singles matches. 

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Dirtbag Era Barry Windham Concludes; Dirtbag Era Vader Commencing?

Barry Windham vs. Vader WWF Raw 5/11/98

ER: You wanna talk dirtbags, kid, then you're going to want to talk about this match. Barry Windham and Vader were each ensconced in their own individual dirtbag eras, riding out contracts neither seemingly wanted to be underneath any longer. Windham doesn't so much look like a dirtbag as he looks like a man who is permanently sleeping one off, forced to come into work on his day off after a night spent as a man who didn't have to work the next day. Vader still has that unmistakeable Vader charisma - you watch him burst out on that entrance stage and throw in an unnecessary-but-Absolutely Necessary twirl as he's hyping up fans in several sections of the arena with V hands and tell me this man isn't the greatest big man ever - but he is also wearing Vader gear that is tantamount to those old Halloween costumes that had a picture of the character you were supposed to be on the pajama shirt that came with the plastic mask. Obviously I am C-3P0, you can tell by my shirt that has C3P0 on it and also says "C3P0". Vader is not so much in dirtbag mode as he is in Pajama Jams Vader mode, wearing the sleeveless t-shirt version of his own Vader Time singlet. Vader is a man wearing his own character's pajamas. Barry Windham was just woken up from a 7 hour nap minutes before this match. Vader has just finished brushing his teeth before bedtime, and for two guys visibly mailing it in they sure do have a cool match. 

Vader and Windham had several years of overlap in WCW and WWF, more than enough time to give us a Vader/Windham singles match, but somehow this match is it. The only one! We got several instances of them teaming in 1993 WCW, but can you imagine a 10 minutes singles match between them in 1993? My god. This 2 minute singles match in 1998 is not that 10 minute match in 1993 that I made up and got upset about, but I like this era of clock punching big men in their own Spirit Store costumes. Windham looks like a man who wouldn't be able to keep food down but moves as fast as his 1988 self. He weathers Vader's attacks and ducks fast under a super low Vader clothesline swing, throws his diving lariat with real impact and I love that despite a physique that looks like he hasn't lifted a weight since Clinton's re-election, Windham actually holds Vader up and drops him with a back suplex. Windham also absorbs a ton of Vader's weight in really painful ways, pulling Vader butt first onto his chest with a misguided sunset flip and apparently not learning his lesson in any way and trying it again later, this one Full Ass and punctuated with a Vader eye roll. Vader is either tired of This Shit, or recognizes how foolish Barry was to try that exact same thing a second time. Vader flattens him with a standing splash and drags him over for the Vader Bomb, which Windham sells perfectly. Barry rolls to his side clutching his guts as Vader lands, the way a man would reel when a 400 pound man just laid out from 5 feet up, like the world's heaviest mattress just got thrown onto him from the window of a three story walk up. 

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Dirtbag Barry Windham Dispatches Milksop Michinoku

Barry Windham vs. Taka Michinoku WWF Raw 2/23/98

ER: What a great Barry Windham look. Taka is already waiting in the ring, Windham comes down the ramp flanked by his boys, points at Taka the way a man points when he knows he has somebody's number, while perfectly swathed in his vest, chaps and bandana. He goes on to wrestle the entire match wearing the vest and chaps, and it's a look I love on him. I do not like that they did this match, and I did not like how they worked this match, even though it was probably the best Windham showcase of the last several month's of his final WWF run. This was the first time - since introducing the Light Heavyweight Title - that they went out of their way to show that the best light heavyweight would get absolutely run the fuck over by anyone on the roster who weighed 50 lb. more than them. The whole match was presented as a real travesty, that poor defenseless, tiny, weak, overmatched, frail  Taka Michinoku was tricked into signing a contract to a match he had zero chance of winning, probably because he is stupid and doesn't understand the language of contracts. And, since the poor little light heavyweight champ has zero chance of winning, he just works the match like he is scared and tentative and the entire thing is Windham showing off all of his awesome offense. I don't think people on the roster were even acting this scared of Kane, but here's Taka knowing he has absolutely zero chance of defeating Barry Windham.

AT LEAST all of Windham's offense looked great. He throws his right hand from his hip, tosses Taka way up into the air with a gutwrench suplex, is always doing eye rakes and back elbows, and even throws a Bruiser Brody style high one-armed bodyslam (don't remember anyone else ever doing a bodyslam like that in WWF). Taka hits two total moonsaults as the entirety of his offense: one quebrada and one moonsault press off the top, but he hits them in a way where he barely grazes Windham...yet it seems like that's how he intended to throw them?  He connects with each of them the exact same way, with his right arm connecting with Windham's left arm. Barry is there to catch them, but Taka appears to do them to intentionally graze him. I can't explain why. Windham's superplex looks awesome and the diving lariat is about to be the sure finish before the lights go black and Kane comes out. Lights out means the ref has to legally cease all counting, even if he's already counted 2 and his hand is coming down for 3. Lights go out, everyone inside the ring ropes has to freeze. Refs don't work in the dark, thems the rules. Don't like it? Take it up with the union. 

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Dirtbag Barry Windham, Slumming It with Tom Brandi

Barry Windham vs. Tom Brandi WWF Shotgun 2/21/98

ER: This is the Company Man era of Dirtbag Windham, as his thick blonde hair is now long enough to stay slicked back and his black trunks now have "NWA" across the butt in white letters. He's still wearing the leather vest of a wrestler from Texas, but he's cleaning up. I really like heel Barry when he acts all chummy, just hanging with the boys and cheapshotting and playing innocent. As he's circling Brandi at the start of the match, he throws out a low 5 to Robert Gibson on the floor. So fucking cool. This was a really fun scrap, with Brandi throwing a lot of punches and Windham pushing pace and then backing off and then pushing pace again. Brandi's standing punches looked surprisingly good, but they're more exposed when he's throwing 10 count punches in the corner or mounted punches on the mat. When you see him throw from a standing position, he has nice form. When you see him punch from any other position, you see that he only moves his arm, and has no follow through with the rest of his body. Your body needs to react to you punching someone too. Striking a fine pose on a standing punch is one thing, but you need more movement on a mounted punch because it's all you, your opponent can't physically react to the punch as much because he's on the mat. 

Windham took a big high backdrop bump after backing Brandi into a corner and slapping him, so great at playing the larger more imposing man who also cheats and then runs directly into trouble. Windham might have *looked* out of shape in this era but he moved with quick approach speed, so he's good at running into bumps and doing last second dodging. A nice dodge sends Brandi into the ringpost, and there was some great stuff around the Rock n Rolls holding Brandi so Jarrett could show off his punches. This weirdly felt like one of our best Tom Brandi performances, which isn't actually a thing anyone was going out of their way too look for, but it's probably the best I've seen him look. He had to play off several moving parts with the NWA standing all around the ring, and I guess that might not be as difficult when all 5 guys you're playing off (Rock n Rolls, Jarrett, Windham, Cornette) all have elite wrestling timing, but still. Barry has a nice high back suplex and a really great vertical suplex that looked like 1988 Windham. The finish was cool, with Brandi punching Ricky and Robert off the apron (each taking their own big bumps to the floor, quite obvious in retrospect how much they were busting ass during their weird late WWF run) and then getting held up a bit by Jarrett, Windham instantly setting up a lariat off the opposite side ropes. Windham and Brandi worked a week of house show matches a couple weeks after this match, and I don't think I've ever wished someone had taken Tom Brandi handhelds until now. This match was only a few minutes, and a Windham/Brandi house show match with twice as much time could be really good. 1998 house shows in general have a lot of great matches that never got worked on TV, but at least we got the bones of this one. 

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The Continuing Saga of Dirtbag Era Barry Windham

 Barry Windham/Jeff Jarrett vs. Legion of Doom WWF Raw 1/26/98

ER: The was a little scruffy, but I thought a lot of this was real good. I love this era of uncertain Windham looks, vacillating among different levels of dirtbag. Cowboy, biker, lazy pool guy, man who offers to wash office building windows and also smells, etc. This week he's still got the Blackjack hair, but now has a freshly shaved smooth fat face. He looks like a guy who wears a clip-on tie and makes fake IDs and licenses. Most notable about this was what I thought was a strong Hawk performance. I really liked his selling while getting repeatedly cut off from Animal, and I thought the pace pushing in his sequences with Jarrett were the best parts of the match. Windham works this like Buddy Rose and gets better the longer the match goes and Animal works a nice hot tag, but Jarrett and Hawk elevated this. There was a killer little sequence where Hawk stops Jarrett's sunset flip and punches him right in the forehead, and Jarrett instinctively trips him by the ankle and drags him down to keep control. 

This was the first of only *three times* that Windham and Jarrett teamed, and it's too bad. They had real chemistry and would have been a real upgrade to the tag division over the summer, and I loved the Aztec ring gear for Jarrett. I liked their ring control and simple things like a Windham vertical suplex followed up by a Jarrett elbowdrop. Both Road Warriors had some big long arm lariats and Animal's high rotation powerslam looked great, and I liked Hawk's role in this even before he hit his leaping fistdrop. The finish is messy but in kind of cool ways, with Hawk leaping recklessly off the top rope with a clothesline while he should have clearly seen that his target, Jarrett, was *not* facing him. Because of that, Hawk basically hooked Jarrett's neck and crashed himself, while Windham gave a weird but kind of cool short piledriver to Animal. The finish had Windham at his asshole heel best, blasting Animal with the tennis racket and then bat flipping it way out of the ring, back to Cornette. I need a GIF of Barry tossing that racket. 

Barry Windham/Jeff Jarrett vs. Bradshaw/Flash Funk WWF Raw 2/2/98

ER: If Windham was a low key document forging dirtbag last week, this was more of him as a guy talking too much shit at a birthday kickball game. He had a smooth smug look on his face and kept obnoxiously flashing peace signs, a cheap shot artist even though he was the biggest guy on the field. Not coy about it, just smiling and getting away with it, with two improbably 40 year old Rock n Rolls laughing and helping him cheat. The match was better on paper than it was in execution, but only because Flash gets taken out of the match early, and his exchanges with Jarrett showed uncharacteristic hesitation. Most of the Windham talk from this era was about how out of shape he was, but this match shows that this man can flat out work regardless of what his body looked like. I guess that's always been something said about him, though. His crowd work during his brief WWF NWA heel run showed that he could still connect to the crowd as a heel, he was just doing it in a way that WWF didn't like looking at. He taunts the crowd from the apron the entire time he was not officially in this match, and only enters the match after the Rock n Rolls distract Bradshaw, allowing Barry to sneak around the ringpost with a western lariat. 

When Windham tags in, he hits two excellent punches, long uppercuts that started from behind his right lovehandle, and continued to mock the crowd any chance he got. It surely wasn't a good sign for the NWA angle that Bradshaw still managed to win this match despite having no partner and going against 5 people, but it was worth it for the post-match beatdown. Cornette blasted Bradshaw with the racket and Bradshaw completely ignored it, before being jumped by Ricky and Robert. I loved the visual of the Rock n Rolls holding Bradshaw by the arms while Jarrett ties up his legs, Windham hitting standing splashes on Bradshaw's bad leg. I wish we would have gotten a Blackjacks Explode PPV match instead of just a 3 minute Raw match two months later. The whole feud could have been so much more. 

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On Brand Segunda Caida: More Dirtbag Era Barry Windham

Barry Windham vs. Owen Hart WWF Raw 3/9/98

ER: This match shouldn't have been as underwhelming as it was, the only Owen/Windham singles match that ever happened. There were several Hart Foundation/Blackjacks tags in 1997 but this was the singles match. And I don't know how else to describe it, other than as a hard worked match from two men who worked like they were on muscle relaxers. Is it possible to lazily work hard? You watch this match and ask that question. Barry Windham takes so many bumps during this match and they didn't stop for a single hold, 5 minutes of exchanges that kept the same pace front to back. At the same time, they both had this thousand yard stare and it's like they were doing moves to each other without making eye contact, making it feel like a hyper-realistic THQ/AKI demo. Windham looked tired and sluggish, but his timing was right on point and he was active the entire time. He threw suplexes and a nice DDT, had a great looking dropdown into his diving lariat, got up for back suplexes and backdrops and bumps to the floor. But he also throws his punches at half speed and just walks into offense multiple times. You watch Barry Windham slowly walk directly towards an Owen Hart dropkick and then tell me these two aren't actually a simulation. This was during the three month stretch where Owen got his nuts bashed in every week by Chyna, and that gives Barry Windham the count out victory, his last ever WWF win. We were this close to a Dirtbag European Champion. He could have worn black and white striped shirts and change his name to Beret Windham.

Barry Windham vs. Eric Sbraccia NWA New England 9/20/98

ER: Here's a fun glimpse at Barry Windham - same age as my present age - wrestling an indy show in between his WWF and WCW stints. Erich Sbraccia was a Good 90s Indy Wrestler, coming out with goons like Tony Rumble and Knuckles Nelson, all of them looking exactly how all Late 90s East Coast Indy Wrestlers were supposed to look. And man I wish this match went longer. It's only 7 minutes, a real shame, as they clearly had material to work longer. The crowd was hot and reacting to Barry like it was 1993. Sbraccia throws some armdrags to surprise Windham, then slams him (looks like Barry came in expecting an armdrag so Sbraccia had to muscle him into a slam, which looked impressive). And of course then Barry comes back with the same and it's great seeing Windham throwing fast armdrags. I said Sbraccia was good, and he did a lot of basic things I like out of my guys: There's a fast rope run exchange where he really swings low and for the fences on a missed lariat, and he takes a really great backdrop bump; later he eats a couple nice punches from Windham and takes a wonderful pratfall bump onto the apron, his boot getting hung up on the top rope. Windham was really hustling too, taking a fast bump to the gym floor and landing with a thud, and really whipping off the ropes with his diving lariat. The finish is all mumbo jumbo run in from Knuckles, and it was annoying in that way you can tell a match is going home a minute before they arrive home. This delivered as a 7 minute match, but it really could have been a great match with 14 minutes. Both guys seemed game, but this was just about the end of Indy Windham. Indham.

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On Brand Segunda Caida: Dirtbag Era Barry Windham

Barry Windham/Jeff Jarrett vs. Legion of Doom WWF Raw 2/9/98

ER: How did I not remember the killer fast working cutthroat big bumping tag team of Jeff Jarrett and Barry Windham? I very much remember the bad NWA reboot, but forgot we got an actual cool tag team from that, where Jarrett looked flat out the best he ever looked (work wise, look wise, everything). This is a straight up 1985 NWA style tag match taking place on 1998 WWF TV, and it's great. Windham and Jarrett were an awesome team that didn't get enough of a chance, and this whole tag played like a stiff old guy brawl. LOD and Windham are all 38 and up, which was old for this era WWF. But Hawk worked stiff the whole match, dropping Windham with a heavy Thesz press and punching him right in the ear, and later throwing chops to Jarrett that looked like backhands right across Jarrett's face. Windham bumped around for LOD but also gave right back, hitting a couple great lariats and his best punch of the match right on the floor while close to some fans. The crowd was lit up for LOD the whole match. Neither Hawk or Animal were working any complicated power spots here, but they were working quick and throwing themselves into punches and shoulderblocks. Two big dudes in face paint running into people is almost always going to be enough. Cornette comes out and we get a hard racket shot, and Bradshaw runs out and looks as pissed and dangerous as peak Stan Hansen. This was great TV tag wrestling.

Barry Windham vs. Bradshaw WWF Raw 3/23/98

ER: THE BLACKJACKS EXPLODE!! WWF bringing back the NWA for a few months in early '98 was really weird, and I'm pretty sure I remember that it was all just to make fun of Cornette, so who's to say who the bad guy is here. We get a pretty cool mini video package before this match, something they don't do now as interestingly as they did here, and definitely not as efficiently. Within a 20 second video they had already explained why the Blackjacks broke up, how Barry was jealous of Bradshaw, showed several clips of Bradshaw murdering people, Bradshaw chasing Barry up the ramp after interference, and then we cut back to a smug dirty blonde Windham waiting in the ring. They had me at Hello. This feels like a match that would have fit nicely onto the WM14 card, though I get why it was not on the card. Windham seems pretty broken down by this point, which is weird as he was somewhat resurgent not too much later in WCW. Still, this was 3 fun minutes with a dozen different moments of two giant dudes smacking each other with vests and chaps. Seriously, I'm pretty sure half of this match was them removing their respective vests and chaps, and smacking the other a few times with each removal. Take off a vest, smack your opponent with it. Get them chaps off, smack your opponent with them. It's the 2019-present LA Park formula and it works, as documented here 20 years prior. Barry is moving a little slow and those knees seem to be barking, but he takes a couple of awesome bumps into the ring steps, getting run knees first in nasty fashion, eats a big boot from Bradshaw and falls into them again. Windham hits a cool DDT in the ring and we get a goofus roll up finish. You have Windham and Bradshaw in there, at least let one of these two hit their diving lariat! 

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RIP Butch Reed

Butch Reed vs. Junkyard Dog Mid-South 7/29/83

SR: Really epic, insanely heated match and a total battle of superstars, like a blue collar working mans version of Rock/Hogan if that was an actually great match. If you ask me, US wrestling never got better than two guys just trading great punch combos with the heel bumping all over the place. Junkyard Dog opens this match coming forward like an offensive truck, hitting a bunch of great punches (yup). Loved how he made a basic hip toss exciting by immediately following up with a punch in the face. Butch Reed is just perfect in that section, trying to fire back but being overwhelmed, really great escalating bumping from him. Reeds comeback looks really violent as he basically just punches JYD in the throat and then follows up with knees and boots to the throat. Instead of a standard heat segment/comeback they do this great battle of attrition segment with Reed going for a choke and JYD coming back punching him in the face from mount and gouging his eye. Normally chokes are pretty trite in wrestling matches but these two make it look like two men really trying to strangle each other to death. 5 minutes in and this feels like an epic battle. I didn’t even have a problem with the chinlock, as it didn’t go long, and JYD had seemingly punched himself out setting up another Butch Reed comeback. Down the stretch we get JYD headbutting Reeds bandage off, bloodying him, more great punch exchanges and another barfight attempted strangulation which lead to both guys trading punches from their knees. The finish was great as the referee gets bumped, initially it didn’t seem to affect the match as they just continue beating on each other, but then another ref bump happens. King Kong Bundy comes in but JYD takes him out (because JYD was god that night), only to get caught with a beautiful Reed dropkick to the back of the head. Reed then lands a clothesline off the tope (were top rope moves illegal at this time?) for the 3 count. Really a way cooler finish than some serious of crazy death moves and a great way to cap off a great great match.

PAS: This was an all time legendary feud, which the late lamented NWA Classics services allowed us to finally see matches of. Both of these guys were just huge, Reed's chest looked like a dinner table and JYD was a slab of granite. JYD had some of the heaviest hands in wrestling history every shot he landed has such heft to it, and he bounced Reed around the ring early. Reed had great looking shots too, and there were some incredible looking exchanges, which with the rabid crowd, felt like Ron Lyle vs. George Foreman. I love how powerful all of the Dog's kickouts were, he presses Reed off like a powerlifter throwing off a bench press. JYD blooding up Reed was great, as was the interference finish. The couple of glimpses we have of both guys, this feels like one of the great pairings in wrestling history.

Butch Reed/One Man Gang vs. Don Muraco/Bam Bam Bigelow WWF 3/12/88

PAS: Six man tag team match with a lot of big WWF characters. This was the odd period where Oliver Humperdink was a babyface manager (can't believe anyone saw that freak and thought he would be sympathetic or relatable), and he was seconding Bam Bam along with Superstar Billy Graham while the Doctor of Style Slick was managing the heel team. The opening punch out section was pretty fun stuff, although the match bogged down a bit during the Muraco in peril section, with two long chinlocks in a 12 minute match (Muraco was about as lazy as it gets). Bigelow takes a pretty big bump to the floor and Reed takes a big bump into the ropes for the banana peel finish. Loud colorful stuff.

Butch Reed/Barbarian vs. Dustin Rhodes/Barry Windham WCW 9/2/92 

PAS: This was during the Ron Simmons title run when Cactus Jack was compiling a gang to take Simmons on. Rhodes and Windham were an all time great tag team, and Reed and Barbarian were a fun pair of heel powerhouses as opposition. Dustin starts his face in peril role by taking an absolutely insane Psicosis shoulder post bump, he must fly 10 feet on the floor. Reed and Barbarian clubber him around a bit, before Windham makes the hot tag, which includes Barbarian taking a superplex and Butch getting Flair pressed off of the top rope. Some legal man confusion however, leads to Barbarian hit the kick of fear on Windham and getting the relatively clean pin. 1992 WCW was an all-timer year and this brief Reed return was fun stuff. 

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New Footage Friday: DUSTIN! BARRY! SGT. CRAIG! BILLY BLACK!

NWA 7/11/98


Dustin Rhodes vs. Barry Windham

MD: You'd want this to have a few more minutes at least, or maybe a finish, but it's pretty interesting for what it is. The intimacy stood out as you can really see the grin on Barry's face or hear him jawwing to Dustin. He messed with him a lot to start, engaging and disengaging, teasing a test of strength, refusing to shake the hand until he actually did, which was probably to get Dustin's guard down for when he started to punch. They went to the blood almost immediately thereafter, with Barry tossing him to the floor and slamming him headfirst into a table at ringside. That made the match feel longer and weightier than it was. Dustin had a hope spot and they at least gave lip service to the idea that they might do a superplex in front of this crowd, but that led to Dustin's comeback and the DDQ. This was worked to the level of the show, but by two masters who still weaved in an element of the personal and the visceral despite it all.

PAS: We never really got any matches between these two when they broke up in WCW (at least on TV, they ran Texas Death and Bullrope matches on house shows which I am sure were incredible) , so it is cool we got to see them match up a couple of years later. This match felt like a throw back for sure, with Windham not doing much besides punching but landing some nasty looking punches. They had some really great exchanges and Dustin really opened it up for an indy show (pretty crazy that he was doing this kind of nostalgia indy show 22 years ago and is still main eventing Cable TV shows today), we didn't get a real finish and this felt like it was setting up a big time gimmick blow off match, and while they did run this on a three show circuit, they never came back to this town for a big finish.

ER: I love this era of WWF or WCW guys showing up main eventing a southern indy show during a time they were under contract. It's cool seeing big TV names at the time showing up in super appreciative gyms. We've seen Eddy headline indy cards and put on PPV quality matches, and here's Dustin - another who has done plenty of interesting things over several different indy runs - bleeding all over a North Carolina gym. Windham was done with his WWF run and would join WCW in a few months, and this felt stronger than anything they were doing on TV around this time. Dustin was still making PPV and having nice longer matches with Val Venis, and this felt like a good 1998 house show version of something like that. Windham knuckle punches Dustin in several nasty ways, some great kneeling punches to the brow and temple, and it makes Dustin's color look even more authentic. Dustin is popular with the crowd - a cute kid even hugs him during his ring entrance - and getting juice on a show like this gets them even more into his comeback. This was almost entirely no back bump wrestling, lots of punch exchanges. But these are two guys I love seeing do punch exchanges, and this is a cool era to see them do it.


Fly-High Eddie vs. Thunderfoot #2

MD: Without actually watching more 1998 footage, I have no reason to think Thunderfoot #2 wasn't Ligon but also no reason to think it was. He came out with Ronnie P. Gossett Jr. who was not of relation but was working the gimmick. The video lists this as Mike Maverick but it's Fly High Eddie who is working a stoner gimmick instead of a high-flying gimmick. He starts a Porky chant for Gossett to start which shifted the heat to him instead of either Eddie or Thunderfoot. Whoever Thunderfoot was, he knew what he was doing (which again leans it towards Ligon) completely over the top in celebrating the smallest things and selling so big on everything that you could see it two states away. Eddie really doesn't do anything but he probably didn't have to with Thunderfoot working and emoting for a half dozen people. We probably need more matches like this in joyless 2020.


Big Daddy D vs. "Joltin" Brad Holtin

MD: I have no idea who Big Daddy D was but he had a good look, a certain awkward swagger where he'd stumble out of a move and turn it into a cocky little mannerism, and some fun vocalizing as he was wrestling. This lasted about a minute and a half before he won with a weird standing half crab. Then he cut a promo, winded, after the match. Post match, Maxx came out to save Holtin and D hit him with maybe the slowest kneelift ever but then took a gigantic bump through the ropes when Maxx moved so we'll call it a wash. This was a fine squash but I'm kind of glad we don't have to see the Maxx vs. D match it set up.

ER: I like seeing big fake Power Plant indy guys from this era. It's great because there were guys in the Power Plant who were worse than Big Daddy D, but he was in this North Carolina gym and not many other places. Power Plant guys always brought something pleasant and unexpected to their matches, a nice bump or a great kick, and Big Daddy D had that. His single leg crab looked good, and Holtin put it over strong with his screams. Holtin takes a high backdrop and Daddy takes a disgusting and wonderful Hamrick bump, doing a feet first tope and splatting on his back. That's the kind of bump and risk taking attitude that would have made Daddy a favorite of mine on Worldwide or Metal. Wrestling ain't fair.


Rikki Nelson/Brad Anderson vs. David Isley/Colt Steel

MD: Pretty straight forward southern style tag. Nelson made cocky heeling look natural and effortless and got the job done but it was nothing that will stick with you for long, though I really liked how he was able to menace from the floor when the ref wasn't looking. Anderson came off more like a Power Plant guy than anything else: good look, OK power moves, not always in the right place at the right time. Steel had sort of a poor man's Ronnie Garvin vibe and played face-in-peril well. Isley wasn't really in there long enough to show much, but it all more or less came together with a format that can do no ill.

ER: What I wouldn't give to see this exact same match at the next indy show I go to. I don't mean that  like, "The idea of not being in my house sounds so appealing that even this match would feel like manna from heaven." No, I just wish this was the kind of wrestling I could go see, instead of modern indy style. I wish we had more Rikki Nelsons on the indy scene. He looks like a snotty younger brother of Pat Sajak, brings a real veteran performer's professionalism with him, and it's the kind of thing that is really memorable on a show like this. He's someone who is always filling time, he's always selling something that happened, he's reacting to fans, he's frustrated with the ref, he's giving instructions to Anderson. He's the kind of guy who is always on, but he's not always making the match about him. He just knows how to fill time with a deep bag of material. He had a great top rope elbowdrop and threw out a lot of offense (Hitman elbow and diving clothesline off the middle buckle, slingshot splash, front suplex) while filling the empty spots with glue. Brad Anderson looks like a guy who would have gotten an extended look from WWF, and is the son of Gene Anderson so he's one of those 3rd generation guys they like. But what's crazy is that Anderson was in WCW nearly a decade earlier as Zan Panzer, and here he just doesn't seem to be nearly complete enough as a worker. He got tryout matches with him, and it's possible that they had just experience the 2nd gen letdown that was Scott Putski, that they just opted to pass on Brad Putski. David Isley somehow got an All Japan tour, and he might officially now be the weirdest guy to have gotten on. That tour was 1992, and in 1998 David Isley looks almost completely untrained. His hot tag is stunningly bad and he looked lost through all of it. His ring entrance gear was a old faded neon windbreaker and a backwards dad hat, and he was the one guy in the match who looked like he didn't exercise. Colt Steel looked like Ronnie Garvin's dad, meaning he looked like the Crusher's son, and he was fine. But this tag was all about getting heat, keeping the fans involved, and I wish I could be there now.  


Sgt. Craig Pittman vs. Billy Black

MD: I always kind of liked Pittman in WCW. He brought something different to the table. Watching this, I half wonder why they didn't bring him in to WWF to work that Shamrock/Severn/Blackman contingent when almost everyone was getting signed. He was a little older by this point, almost 40, maybe not in as good a shape as he had been a few years earlier. He was super charismatic here though. If this was fifteen years earlier, he could have been an attraction somewhere, probably. He worked pretty broadly here, less precision and more of just throwing himself at Black. He wrestled for the crowd, with lots of shouting and push-ups and they got into it well enough, with a USA chant at some point. He also did a flip bump off a punch, though admittedly, it was pretty early in the match. Black, as always, had a lot of stuff, big and small: a handspring elbow in the corner, a missed moonsault, mixing it with plenty of heel tricks to get back on offense. Again, this all felt broad and loose. Black took over with a low blow out of the corner but when he tried another one mid match, Pittman just shrugged it off (which doesn't feel like the sort of thing one ought to do unless it's in the final comeback). I'm not sure this ever came together but it was probably a lot of fun for the crowd. I basically want to see Pittman's entire 98 indy run, and I doubt much of any of it is available. Bunkhouse Buck. One Man Gang. Dan Severn for the NWA title. Teaming with Valiant against the Fultons. Ah well. This showed up after all.

PAS: I dug both guys in this match a lot. Pittman has a ton flash and a really well developed gimmick which connected with the crowd. He's kind of a mix between face AWA Slaughter and JYD. Black has a ton of big offense for 1998 but also bumps huge for all of Pittman's stuff. I loved all of the in-ring topes by Pittman and it always looked cool when he broke them out to cut Black off or go on offense.

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New Footage Friday: NWA GREAT AMERICAN BASH TOUR 7/10/87!!

Misty Blue vs. Kat Laroux 

PAS: Surprisingly fiery 3 minute women's match. Laroux comes in with a crutch (fishing rod?) and starts pounding on Blue with it. That sets the tone and it ends up being a nasty little brawl. Blue finishes her off with a superfly splash which is a big move in 1987, and then wears her out with the same crutch.

Chris Adams/Sting vs. Barbarian/Thunderfoot #1

PAS: Weird tag, as you have a bunch of biggish name and then Thunderfoot #1. The sections where the Barbarian was in with either Sting or Adams was pretty cool, and then you had the parts with Thunderfoot. Barbarian vs. Sting was an especially neat match up, I would have liked to have seen that be a feud at some point. Barbarian has to be one of the most underused wrestlers of the 80s and 90s.

Italian Stallion vs. Black Bart

PAS: This was another fun short match. Stallion was really good at what he did, undercard dancing babyface who is going to put up a fight. Bart isn't a guy I normally have a ton of time for, but he was good here too, nice clothesline, bumped well on a monkey flip and the second rope legdrop in a heck of a finisher.

Buddy Roberts vs. Jerry Jackson 

PAS: I am not sure who Jerry Jackson was, he had the feel of WCW's Tom Magee, a roided up guy who they put in with a veteran hand to see what they could do with him. The answer here was not much, there is a reason we never heard of this guy, he was really tentative with his movement, there is a point where he triple clutches before trying a knee drop, and the stuff he hit looked really bad. Magee at least had some highspots, this guy didn't even have that. Roberts is going to do his thing, he is as professional a guy as it gets, but nothing was going to be salvaged here.

MD: I really don't have a lot to say about the undercard. The best thing was the 3 minute Laroux vs Misty Blue sprint. The Sting/Adams tag had the two of them very over in the entrances and at the finish but not during the body of the match itself. I liked Barbarian skulking around the ring weirdly at the start and the clash of the titans opening bit with him and Sting was good but it suffered from too many tags later in the card so the couldn't give it heat. Plus Thunderfoot had no credibility. Stallion vs Bart was fine but I would have rather seen them added to the Sting tag to make it a six man, maybe? I don't know what the Buddy Roberts match was about. He gave way too much if he was the face there. 

Lightning Express vs. Rick Steiner/Eddie Gilbert

PAS: Fun if kind of oddly paced match. The Express take about 75% of it, with a short face in peril section which is mostly a Rick Steiner bearhug. Steiner does have a really nice lookin bearhug though, that is a rawbone strong dude to be squeezing your ribs. Quick hot tag and a finish. Felt like it needed a couple more minutes to really work, but Gilbert is a fun bumper and I enjoy Rick Steiner.

MD: This felt more like a TV match than a house show match. It really didn't have any room to breathe. It was a good match of its kind though. Eddie was maybe a bit too over in front of this crowd. He worked like a competent manager more than anything else, which made Steiner's athletic strongman work seemed all the more potent. I liked how they went the extra mile on the transition: Gilbert drew Armstrong out of his corner which distracted the ref and let Gilbert catch Horner with a knee from the outside coming off the ropes. If they did that spot today (EDIT: Or you know, elsewhere on the card in a match with less thought), they'd ignore the ref distraction and just let the knee happen in plain sight. Most of the heat was a Steiner bear hug with no real hope spots, so there wasn't much there, but the finish was nice and chaotic, if pared down like everything else.


Big Bubba Rogers vs. Jimmy Garvin

MD: Really enjoyable 4 minute match that felt like it could have been a taping dark match main event and the fans wouldn't complain too much. You got all of the hoopla of Garvin getting his entrance, super over as a face. Bubba coming out to the theme from Peter Gunn was so perfect. WWE should have licensed that for his 99 heel run. The match was basically two minutes of Garvin throwing these great punches up at Bubba, Bubba cutting him off, Garvin getting some low blows, Bubba cutting him off, and then after Garvin's last comeback, going into a BS DQ finish that you knew was coming. It was obvious by this point just how much Bubba got it, just in the way he paced things and how he would really milk the selling/bumping on the low blows, etc.

PAS: This was a bunch of fun, super babyface Garvin isn't someone I have seen a ton of, but man he was great. Loved the double strap drop on the suspenders and the energy he had. Bubba had to be 70 pounds heavier then he was during his Bossman days and he really used that girth menacingly, but still had really surprising agility.


Michael Hayes/Terry Gordy vs. MOD Squad 

MD: The first half of this didn't even feel like wrestlers going up against broomsticks. It felt like wrestlers working with the crowd with no opponents at all. Some of that was the handheld cropping which would cut out the Mods entirely. A lot of it was just Hayes (and to a lesser degree Gordy) hamming it up. When the Mods had a chance, they stooged and pinballed valiantly, but they almost didn't have to and this would have been exactly the same. Amusingly, they used the same knee to the back transition but they did it right in front of the ref. The back half of the match was actually a match, with the Mods looking fine in control and Hayes working well from underneath and really engaging the crowd. Amusingly, when you watch a whole card like this, it wasn't just the second knee to the back transition but the third "heel goes to the top" transition so far. But this was a perfectly fine look at the 87 babyface Freebirds doing their thing in front of a less familiar crowd.


Dr. Death Steve Williams vs. Dick Murdoch 

PAS: This was unsurprisingly excellent. Both guys come in with casts on their arms, so it is a battle of who can wreck the other guys arm the most. Williams does this really cool almost torture rack armbar where he hangs Murdoch over Dr. Death's back by his arm. Eddie Gilbert is at ringside for Murdoch and keeps cheap shotting Williams and allowing Murdoch to hit his arm with a cane. We had some great Murdoch stooging where Williams punched him, Murdoch fell into his arms, and Williams propped him up to punch him again. Finish was really cool too with Murdoch flying off the top rope directly into a Williams elbow, felt like a Misawa finish. I really liked how this built from a body part match into a bomb fest. A real hidden gem.

MD: The injury angle where Murdoch took out Doc's arm was in May. The TV match with Doc's comeback was in June. This was July and felt like a more refined version of the TV match that had less color and lower stakes. Doc had a cast that he wasn't supposed to use but that played into the finish. He was as dynamic as you'd expect, both in the way he worked over Murdoch's arm early in in his comeback attempts (even just trying to dart around the ring on his knees to get Murdoch after the initial shot to his arm). The counterpoint was that the early shine armwork was all sorts of loose and weird and nothing actually looked like it ought to hurt, but he was so enthusiastic and Murdoch sold so big that no one was really going to care. You get house show Murdoch in the stretch, which wasn't at all lazy, but was ridiculously over the top in the stooging about. But it's not 1985 or 1995 or whatever. It's 2020 and we're all stuck in our houses and stooging Dick Murdoch is the joy we all need.

Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton/Stan Lane) vs. Ron Garvin/Barry Windham

PAS: This incarnation of the MX was such a fun act, you had dancing Kung Fu Stan Lane, the always amazing Bobby Eaton, Cornette heat seeking on the outside and Big Bubba standing around looking menacing. Windham I though was kind of just there, but Garvin was a blast. He is a guy with some big exciting spots, and he knows how to time his headscissors or big punch for the maximum pop. I think I like the Lane MX more then the Condrey MX, Lane is such an amusing dipshit, his little dancing or strip mall karate adds so much character to the match. I loved him squaring up against Garvin's boxing stance, only to let discretion be the better part of valor, and bailing out.

MD: The difference between this match and comparable WWF Heel-in-peril matches from the same time is how many tricks they pull out. It's not just endless armwork control. It's one elaborate spot after the next and one gimmick after the next. They'll do a blind tag where Barry will get out of the way and Stan will have to leapfrog his own partner only to walk into a slam. Eaton will lose his pants and work for half a minute before realizing it. Bubba will get involved as part of the heel miscommunication that almost brought them to blows (the second of such spots; I'm surprised they didn't do one with Cornette too). Bobby will have the advantage over Garvin for a second but he'll come right back with a great headscissors takeover. When Stan finally takes over (and that takes about three steps, too - a missed elbow drop, a superkick to the gut, and Barry catching Stan's foot but Stan getting him with the other one), the Midnights start dancing victoriously. After all of that, they really needed another minute or two on top though. I love that Barry, even at his size, could still believably go through a smaller guys legs for the hot tag. He was like Dustin in that he could hide his height when he had to work from beneath. Garvin had the instinctive timing of a folk hero. He got more mileage out of pulling Eaton's pants down than most people would get with three minutes of elaborate rope running spots. For all of his eventual flaws, Hebner's timing and attitude in finding the hat in the middle of the ring really added something to the finish. Plus, the last person I was expecting to see during this match was Pat Roach! I'll take a short cut in the match for him.


Arn Anderson/Tully Blanchard/Ric Flair/Lex Luger vs. The Road Warriors/Dusty Rhodes/Nikita Koloff

PAS: What a delight this match was. Watching this you really see the charisma which is missing in today's wrestling. Is there anyone even as charismatic as Nikita in the WWE? Much less someone like Ric Flair or Dusty Rhodes. This match was all fireworks, big moments of the heels bumping, including Tully and Flair feeding into Animal press slams, and Flair taking an atmospheric high backdrop. There is a moment where Dusty tags in and he elbow smashes all four guys at once, so much fun to watch Dusty shuck, jive and jiggle. We get a couple of moments of heat on the faces, which leads to a couple of crazy hot tags. The crowd is on their feet for the entire match and it was really easy to get into the swing of things. Such a thrill to watch.

MD: Just an iconic match, with a hot crowd, where every interaction felt larger than life. The early image of the Horsemen on the turnbuckles and the faces standing tall in their corner will stick with me. Dusty in a circle with the heels launching bionic elbows and double punches is something they could get away with on a house show, but it's also the purest distillation of Dusty possible and I think it elated everyone in a two mile radius. The spot where Arn backs Animal towards a neutral corner so Tully can run up the apron and dive up the top only to get caught and set up an Arn elbow drop is one of the best possible transitions to heel control I've seen in ages, even if they didn't actually use it as such. The big problem with heel-in-peril, by the way, is that it doesn't have the same value as face-in-peril. There it's all build and payoff. There's much less value in a payoff which is the heels taking over, so all the build gets sort of squandered. There's value in a shine in general but usually only so much. Animal becomes vulnerable with the very next spot as he takes a bump out of the ring off a missed clothesline and then gets slammed, but there was really no reason not to let Arn's elbow drop be the move that turned the tide instead. That's all I'm saying. I did like Animal working from underneath as he kept going for the tag but was swarmed at from every angle due to the sheer number of heels. The second bit of heat on dusty was good too and built to a hot tag for Nikita and a that finish was nice and chaotic. You got exactly what you wanted out of this one.

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WWF Raw 2/9/98: A Good Episode of Wrestling TV

I threw on this episode of Raw because I wanted to see the cruiser tag, but I found myself captivated by what looked like a top to bottom rock solid pro wrestling card. Every match looked fun on paper, figured I would dive back into my teens.

Jeff Jarrett/Barry Windham vs. Legion of Doom WWF Raw 2/9/98

ER: How did I not remember the killer fast working cutthroat big bumping tag team of Jeff Jarrett and Barry Windham? I very much remember the bad NWA reboot, but forgot we got actual cool tag teams with them, where Jarrett looked flat out the best he ever looked (work wise, look wise, everything). This is a flat out 1985 NWA tag match taking place on 1998 WWF TV, and it's great. Windham and Jarrett were an awesome team that didn't get enough of a chance, and this whole tag played like a stiff old guy brawl. LOD and Windham are all 38 and up, which was old for this era WWF. But Hawk worked stiff the whole match, dropping Windham with a heavy Thesz press and punching him right in the ear, and later throwing chops to Jarrett that looked like backhands right across Jarrett's face. Windham bumped around for LOD but also gave right back, hitting a couple great lariats and his best punch of the match right on the floor while close to some fans. The crowd was lit up for LOD the whole match. Neither Hawk or Animal were working any complicated power spots here, but they were working quick and throwing themselves into punches and shoulderblocks. Hawk took a really nasty bump for the finish, charging into the ringpost and falling to the floor. The crowd was already into LOD, just two big dudes in face paint running into people would have been enough, but Hawk is out here taking bumps like this. Cornette comes out and we get a hard racket shot, and Bradshaw runs out and looks as pissed and dangerous as peak Stan Hansen. this was great TV tag wrestling.

Pierre vs. Henry Godwinn

ER: A slow burning hoss battle and a rare singles match appearance from 1998 Pierre, who takes several crazy bumps. Both guys hit hard, really swinging limbs into each other, and Pierre kicks things up a notch with a bonkers no hands tope that falls a little short, so the big man just does a gigantic belly flop to the floor. Godwinn takes a nice spill to the floor, too, but here's Pierre taking a big lariat over the top to the floor, missing a huge in ring cannonball, and getting super height on a backdrop. They kept a real pace here, really filling the minutes with a lot more movement than I expected from two tag guys. This was a big man's match where the misses were just important as the hits, and both landed heavy.

Pantera/Brian Christopher vs. Taka Michinoku/Aguila

ER: This show is an easy 3 for 3 so far. This match got 6 big minutes and everyone here made the most of those minutes. Pantera gets catapulted over the top and gets big air before crashing hard, and then Christopher gets backdropped to the floor, with Pantera taking a somersault bump into him after getting dropkicked off the apron. Aguila hits a killer corkscrew plancha, Taka hits one of his breathtaking no hands springboard planchas; this was a hot freaking match and the crowd was reacting well. Christopher had a long heel control segment on Aguila that was real good, and I forgot how strong the reactions were for Aguila. There's a great moment where Christopher narrowly ducks a high arcing, 2/3 across the ring Aguila moonsault press, and Aguila grazes vertically over the top of him and lands belly first on the mat. The finish was a great Memphis finish, with Christopher digging in under his balls to pull out a fake weapon, and Pantera shoving the crotch weapon into the nose of his mask. Pantera leaps off the middle buckle right into Taka, and Taka bumps as if he just got hit in the face with a sock of nickels. High end WWF cruiser match for the time. Pantera had this incredible 6 match run in 1998, bounced, then came back for more a year later. I'd love to know who was asking about Pantera every year.  

Ken Shamrock/Chainz vs. The Rock/Faarooq

ER: I really liked Chainz here, he of arguably the dumbest WWF wrestling name of 1998. But he hit with big clubbing hands to the side of Rock's ear, took a nice Nation beatdown, and took a big bump over the top and into the guardrail. Faarooq had a nice powerslam and took Shamrock's sillier MMA strikes (he still hadn't figured out punches, but his kicks were thrown nicely), and Shamrock hits a really cool standing rana. Rock stooged around nicely and took advantage of cheating with such confidence, he was really operating at peak heel power already. House show Rock was probably amazing during this period. The match ends with a DQ when Rock absolutely obliterates Shamrock's brain cells with a chairshot. Good lord. Rock swings a chair right into the flat of the forehead and this was a 19 fucking 98 chairshot indeed.

Steve Blackman vs. Recon

ER: This ruled. Blackman does a bunch of karate blocks and chops and a big armdrag, and suddenly the Truth Commission's (genuinely great, almost John Carpenter influenced) music starts up and Jackal gets lowered from the ceiling speaking over the house mic from a podium. He cuts this wild Jim Jones promo about how the WWF fears him, and Blackman and Recon bizarrely have a match like they have no idea it's going on. They don't stop once to look over at Jackal's sermon, just continue having a very normal (and very fun) match. It's so weird!! Blackman comes off as a more interesting worker than Shamrock at this point (though he has no crowd connection whatsoever. He steadfastly refuses to acknowledge anybody other than his opponent), and here he's awesomely and robotically going through every single move he knows, landing weird elbow drops, high spinkicks, a fast sunset flip, and finishing with a cool rings of Saturn variation. The whole presentation of this was strange in a great way.

Goldust vs. Thrasher

ER: This is the late 90s, and so Goldust is dressed as Marilyn Manson (and really is wearing almost the exact same gear Charly Manson would later use), and we have to hear JR obnoxiously call him "Marilyn Manson Dust" the entire match. I hated how he said it every time. Mare-uhh-lenn MAN-sun Dust. We don't get too many Thrasher singles matches, and this is a unique match up, and a Goldust singles match is almost always going to work even if it's Goldust working with a stupid wig. They do oddly get mixed up on who is supposed to be the heel, with Mosh choking Goldust from the floor and Goldust getting a babyface comeback right after. But this match had Goldust throwing several great punches, Thrasher hitting a cool springboard back elbow, a nice Goldust hotshot on the barricade, the kind of stuff I wanted to see.

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On Brand Segunda Caida: The Goon

The Goon vs. Dan Jesser WWF Superstars 7/20/96

ER: Honestly, anybody who hates this gimmick is an actual fucking idiot. This whole performance was awesome and would absolutely slay on the indies (or in major feds) today with zero changes. We get a short, hilarious highlight package of Goon slashing and high sticking people on a hockey rink, and once the bell rings he literally throws his gloves off and starts hockey fighting Jesser. It's brilliant. And it's brilliant because Bill Irwin is a mean son of a bitch. He lights up and overwhelms Jesser with right hands, then throws him into the ropes and lariats him right in the back of the head. Jesser isn't a total zilch in this, working in a fun spot where he has Goon by the arm and keeps ducking right hands before flipping Goon onto his butt. The Goon's offense is simple but really tough, loved his flying knee into the corner and all of his strikes looked really good. His finisher is awesome, just flying as hard as possible into Jesser with a body check, sending Jesser bumping in awesome fashion through the ropes to the floor. For good measure, Goon runs out to the floor and checks Jesser again, from behind, right into the apron. For guys whose finishers involve sending a guy to the floor to get counted out, I'm gonna say that The Goon's body check is as good as Berzerker launching people past the ringside mats. Anybody who has ever told you that this gimmick wasn't good was not being honest with you, and you shouldn't trust them.

The Goon vs. Marc Mero WWF Raw 7/22/96

ER: This match ruled so hard. I cannot believe how wrong everyone was about The Goon! I knew I liked Bill Irwin, but The Goon is brilliant. This is also by far one of my favorite WWF Mero matches, both guys working stiff and Mero breaking out some cool highspots. The Goon throws down the gloves at the bell and throws hard hockey punches at Mero, big elbow, and sets up the body check in the corner. His hockey offense was so awesome and it will never ever get old to me. He throws rabbit punches, throws Mero into the ropes only to skate in with a low shoulderblock to the gut, steps on Mero's neck with his ice skate boots, the whole thing is amazing. Mero is a former Golden Gloves boxer who has no problem throwing blows with The Goon, and a dirty hockey fighter vs. a cultured boxer is a cool match-up that people would probably be more excited for today than in 1996. We get a couple nice nearfalls, with Mero hitting a roll-up that I thought was the for sure finish. But the match goes to even more interesting, deeper levels, really an awesomely laid out spectacle. To open the show they did a segment where Sunny brought out a big cake for Shawn Michaels' birthday, which of course babyfaces Michaels and Ahmed Johnson shoved into Sunny's face. So the ringside area was covered in cake, and here comes The Goon aiming to check Mero into the ring steps, and Goon slips on icing and flies into the steps himself! Goon was slipping around on the icing, then Mero hit his big tope con giro which Goon caught perfectly. Back in and a slingshot legdrop gives The Goon a loss two matches into the gimmick. But no matter, this was a match with tons of asskicking, and The Goon's brand of slugfest came across really cool in the middle of 1996 WWF. I wish 1996 Irwin was around to be doing this gimmick in current wrestling.

The Goon vs. The Stalker WWF Superstars 9/22/96

ER: I just might be crazy, and maybe it's because those ice skate boots were really tough to move in, but Irwin is so damn good in this gimmick that he actually MOVES like a guy starting a fight on the ice. His whole body movement is slightly off balance, but he hits with great explosive force and makes all of his shots look like big impact. Irwin vs. Windham surprisingly wasn't a match that ever really happened, which is a shame as this whipped in 1996 so imagine what it would have been like in 1989? The Goon throws his short right hand hockey punches, and they look so great! Stalker fires back with really nice, but more traditional punches, including his nice hooking uppercut. The Goon runs hard into Stalker, throws cheap shot back elbows (the gimmick is perfect!! Everything he does feels like a hockey cheap shot!!), and for the first time breaks out his full extension pump kick. Now, that's a classic nice Irwin spot, and I suppose it doesn't make as much sense to do it while wearing ice skates, as he would have just sliced Stalker's carotid, which is a bit much. Nice vertical suplex from Stalker here, and an even nicer superplex (obviously), and this was just a real nice workmanlike short match. He was clearly treated as a peer of Mero's a couple months before, but this whole match had much more of a "Stalker showcase" even though it was competitive. The Goon is still awesome.

The Goon vs. Flash Funk WWF Raw 12/2/96

ER: I *LOVE* that although The Goon's run was short, they kept matching him up with tough guys who didn't mind working stiff. Goon threw more stiff hockey punches, hard kneelifts, and sharp back elbows, but Funk is obviously a guy who isn't going to get eaten alive out there. Funk hits his slick sunset flip rollup out of the corner for a nice nearfall, then builds to a big lariat from the middle rope to the floor, and follows that with a moonsault from the top to the floor (and damn does his knee connect right with The Goon's face). The Goon is such a big bumper, taking a dropkick from Funk and doing a cool backwards butt first, through the ropes to the floor bump, and misses a leaping charge into the ringpost as nastily as I've seen anyone ever do it. He even brings some flying to counter Funk, hitting a cool elbowdrop off the middle rope and a couple variations on his pump kick. Both of them came off like tough guys in the one, and both took risks that were bigger than the reactions they were getting. But still, this was a cool match up from two awesome workers in weird gimmicks. Vince grunting and dancing to Flash Funk's theme music while imploring Funk to "get his booty up off the mat" is one of the worst things I've ever seen.

The Goon vs. The Undertaker WWF Superstars 1/5/97

ER: This match is exciting for many reasons. It's The Goon going out on top, going head to head with one of the top 3 guys in WWF in his final match. It's the end of the season, and The Goon just got told he's not going to be brought back next year. He still valiantly throws down those gloves to get into one last fight, and in a fantastic moment Undertaker becomes the first guy to successfully dodge The Goon's opening match cheap shot. Every other match saw The Goon jump his opponent at the bell and bully them into the corner with bitchin' rights to the eye sockets. Undertaker sidesteps The Goon and starts winging body shots in the corner, Goon bumping around like a doofus losing a hockey fight but who is going to keep swinging until he can't see. It's a fun match up and the cruel runtime tease was deceptive (the YouTube file of the match is 9 minutes, making me excited for a potential syndicated classic, but the match ends in 4 minutes and we get a Jim Cornette angle for as much time as the match got). Undertaker took most of the match, but The Goon didn't come off like a joke. He's a guy who looked tough even though Undertaker took 75% of this. He felt like a guy on Taker's level, and it would be a program I actually would fucking love. The Goon was a really impressive big guy bumper, and he really ran into guys, hard. I like how he took the chokeslam and the Tombstone, but man I wish this was a little more competitive and got at least a couple more minutes. What a weird little gem of a run.


ER: What do we actually know about Bill Irwin's run as The Goon? From the evidence here I thought it was a genuinely great, funny character that had potential as a popular midcard act. I don't know why WWF was bringing in 42 year old Bill Irwin, and then not rewarding him when he did the best anyone possibly could have done with a hockey gimmick. I'm not sure what more could have been expected. Whose idea was the gimmick? Why did they lose faith so quickly in the gimmick? What fault could they have found in Irwin's execution? I'm SO interested to know their expectations and reasons, so hopefully the reasons are common knowledge and someone can help me. I am a big Irwin fan, and think he's a guy more people should spend some time on. And I thought this gimmick was incredibly fun and incredibly well done. The fact we got so short of a run and so few matches from The Goon is a 100% honest to god unobjectionable shame. Take a 1/2 hour of your day to watch these matches and see why.

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On Brand Segunda Caida: Acolytes! West Texas Rednecks!

Acolytes vs. Blue Meanie/Gillberg WWF Shotgun Saturday Night 12/18/98

ER: This was Meanie's WWF debut match, and he's still probably one of the weirder WWF signings. I'm sure nobody actually remembers Meanie as a guy who was literally in WWF for an entire year during his initial run. And even before we knew what we knew about these guys, this match had Bad Idea written all over it. It was pretty shocking to see as it's not exactly unprofessional, but more that I've seen countless jobber matches where the jobbers were treated more human. You would have never guessed Meanie and Gill were actual members of the WWF roster if you used this match as your entry, as they don't get a single millisecond of offense, and often aren't even put in control of their own selling. There was no chance for these two to put any kind of their own personality on any part of the match, as they were essentially treated like heavy bags of sand that Bradshaw and Faarooq were trying to tear open. Bradshaw is one of the greatest "entrance ramp" guys of all time. That man had a presence to him as he was walking to the ring that reallllly made you know when an assbeating was about to take place. They jump on the JOB Squad the second they hit the ring and don't let up for three minutes. When I say that Meanie and Gill weren't even allowed to show personality in selling, I mean that once the Acolytes would do any kind of move, they would be picking up the JOB Squad before they could even process what move they were selling. Meanie at one point gets dragged into the ring by Bradshaw, tries to walk in on his own, but basically gives up because Bradshaw was just muscling him in anyway. Any move was immediately followed up by something mean; I think I counted 3 times where Bradshaw kicked Meanie right in the back after having already given him a nasty move, a real insult to injury match. Gill takes a Dominator on the floor as well as a big Bradshaw clothesline and some boots in the face, a cool gutbuster from Faarooq, both guys take big bumps to the floor, a definite massacre. I'm honestly not sure I've ever seen a 3 minute match where two guys got less time to shine. Quite the debut.

Chris Benoit/Dean Malenko vs. Curt Hennig/Barry Windham WCW Nitro 2/1/99

ER: Legitimately one of the stiffest matches in Nitro history, really felt like every guy in the match had something to prove. Benoit beats Hennig like Hennig had hurt his sister, throwing some of the absolute meanest chops, elbows, and headbutts that I've seen from Benoit. And Hennig gave it right back, working this like late AWA Hennig, still with some big bumps (his trademark flip in the ropes was especially nasty, really fast and he dropped right on his head and shoulder) but a lot of stiff chops. The chops these guys were throwing weren't just hurting the skin, they looked like they were rocking through their core. Windham looked like Terry Gordy in this, towering over Benoit and Malenko and getting across the ring super quick. He throws his diving lariat here as well as any time I've seen. Malenko is always fun when he gets mean, his snaps off some sharp elbows here and while he doesn't hit as hard and look as dead eyed as Benoit, he still fits into this. Things fall apart a little at the finish, with Benoit breaking up a finish with a diving headbutt that whiffs, but this went 10 minutes and at least 8 of them are really great.

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RIP Silver King

Silver King was one of the absolute best wrestlers in the world at the exact time my love of wrestling went from love to all out obsession. When I began college and was finally on my own independent schedule, combined with finally having internet fast enough to regularly use, I dove right into tape trading and acquiring tons of lucha and puro. Silver King was a guy who would regularly be added to my WCW perm tapes, and I sought out his new Japan matches for that reason. That was a great era for him, and I wanted to look back at some matches I remember being standouts.

Falls Count Anywhere Mexican Hardcore Match: Silver King/La Parka vs. Halloween/Damian WCW Nitro 6/7/99

ER: This is the infamous match where these four guys beat the shit out of each other, while Schiavone and Heenan giggle to themselves the entire time because it's a MEXICAN hardcore match.   And it's as crazy and great as you remember. This whole match is made up of these psychopaths interrupting each other's spots by throwing chairs at each other's heads. Halloween topes headfirst into a Parka chairshot, Damian baseball slides Parka off a chair, Silver King gets a chair bounced off his head on his Silver King plancha, Park hits a dive into a seated Damian, Silver King moonsaults with a trash can onto everyone; it's constant insanity and really should have been treated with flat out awe and respect. These guys were all total asskickers here and should have been treated like gods backstage. Trash cans get bounced off heads, Silver King hits a tornado DDT off the apron through a table on Halloween, Halloween shows what a bump god he was going to be for the next several years, La Parka powerbombs Damian through a table and Damian KICKS OUT! Damian probably still regrets kicking out of the table bomb, as Parka then immediately powerbombs him through two set up chairs that DO NOT BUDGE. It's absolutely sick and Damian gets pinned while his kidneys contemplate whether or not to keep functioning. Damian had taken a couple wicked flipping bumps off lariats earlier in the match, another example of Damian under the radar stealing the show in a WCW match. Total legendary brawl during the hardcore era, as violent as it ever was.

Silver King/El Dandy/Villano V/Damian vs. Kendall Windham/Barry Windham/Curt Hennig/Bobby Duncum Jr. WCW Thunder 6/24/99

ER: What a killer little gem. The luchadors aren't treated like a joke even though the Rednecks all tower over them. Rednecks treat them like total equals which is practically guaranteed to get an awesome result. This was tremendous. The Rednecks didn't have to be this generous to the luchadors, but the match was given enough time that every single person got time to shine. This was a great complementary effort with some fantastic moments. This is a total El Dandy showcase, he gets to wail on so many Rednecks with his big time whip crack punches, and the fact the crowd was really responding to Dandy (and all the luchadors) made this extra special. There was a fun run where each member of the lucha team got to hit a big move off the top, with a Redneck bumping big for it. Silver King and Dandy each hit big missile dropkicks, Villano V hit a heavy crossbody, and when it got to Damian they added some great psychology by having Hennig sidestep it. Rednecks transitioned to offense and cashed in on all the big bumps they took. Hennig especially looked mean, throwing hot punches and hitting real stiff in general. At one point during a casual luchador corner headstand Hennig just cuts it off with a quick headbutt to the dick. I've never seen that before and it rocketed Hennig up my list of great workers. This was during Barry's absurd "pretty sure he's wearing women's jean shorts" period, but Windham was nicely motivated and moved like his body was healed, so had some nice moments. Duncum was a fun overlooked guy, I like his more John Nord slower bruiser style, kicking Silver King right in the face at one point. Kendall gets to seal the deal on this match, hitting a mammoth headlock style bulldog on King, King taking it like a total nutbar. Great showcase for 8 really fun wrestlers, really shows how well the fans would have accepted luchadors as legit guys if they were actually treated regularly as legit guys.

Silver King/Villano IV/Villano V vs. La Parka/Juventud Guerrera/Psychosis WCW Thunder 9/30/99

ER: Another one of those great WCW compact trios matches that deliver on it's on paper delicious junkfood promise. These things move quick, and it's cool when every guy in the match totally delivers during their moments. King hits some nice power and agility spots, big spinkick, big bump flipping off the top rope and landing on his stomach, always seemed at the center of the important action. Villanos looked like killers and hit one of the great tandem bits of offense here, a sky high flapjack into gutbuster on Juvy. The way Juvy's chest sticks the landing over their knees is disgusting, the whole move looked designed to kill. Parka worked like a maniacal goofball throughout, and we got an awesome spot where the Villanos caught a Juvy springboard 450 to the floor (yep) and then Parka wiped out everyone with a suicide dive. Juvy was a terror throughout, always flying into frame with a fast wild springboard attack, and Psychosis misses a couple big spots with gusto and plants his big guillotine leg for the win. This whole thing was good and even had time to take a couple pace shifts, giving us a nice Villanos control segment in the middle of some big highspots. These guys always shone when given the chance, just another of countless examples by this point.

We are planning on celebrating some more Silver King over the next several days. This one is hitting me hard and I really want to enjoy justifying my love for the guy.

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On Brand Segunda Caida: Bradshaw and Barry: To Blackjacks And Beyond

Blackjack Bradshaw vs. Philip Lafon WWF Shotgun Saturday Night 6/7/97

ER: Lafon only worked 3 singles matches during his WWF run, which is weird considering he was there for over a year. He worked a house show match against Owen in Quebec (that I would love to see), a house show match against Phineas Godwinn (that I would love to see), and this match, the lone televised singles match of his WWF run. And it's kind of a lackadaisical affair for Philip, but not really to the match's detriment. Some of the set ups were a little too weirdly telegraphed and it always seemed like Lafon was the one doing it, but who knows. I really liked Bradshaw's aggression during his Blackjack run; he was clearly trying to work like Hansen, and he wasn't as good as Hansen (obviously not, but I'm saying he wasn't as good as same-era 48 year old Hansen), but he was really big and imposing and swung nicely for the fences. Lafon is a guy who can be a real assbeater, and I was hoping for that here, two guys who could work like bullies colliding. Lafon is half asleep and lethargic throughout, though still breaks out a couple cool tricks: He had a cool yank of the tights to send Bradshaw crashing to the floor, and a cool rabbit lariat right to the back of Bradshaw's head. But there were a couple moments where he visibly sandbagged Bradshaw, not getting up on a backdrop (that makes it cooler, as Bradshaw just pancakes him to the mat instead) and coming in lazy and heavy on the powerslam that finishes the match. He also took this weird timberrrrr bump off a big boot, looked like he was bored and trying to make Bradshaw look bad. Either Lafon and Furnas had a shooter aura, or Bradshaw had none of his later asshole personality and confidence, because any one of those things looked like something that any jobber would have caught a serious beating for pulling.

Bradshaw vs. Barry Windham WWF Raw 3/23/98

ER: THE BLACKJACKS EXPLODE!! WWF bringing back the NWA for a few months in early '98 was really weird, and I'm pretty sure I remember reading that it was all just to make fun of Cornette. We get a pretty cool mini video package before this match, something they don't do now as interestingly as they did here, and definitely not as efficiently. Within a 20 second video they had already explained why the Blackjacks broke up, how Barry was jealous of Bradshaw, showed several clips of Bradshaw murdering people, Bradshaw chasing Barry up the ramp after interference, and then we cut back to a smug blonde Windham in the ring. They had me at hello. This feels like a match that would have fit nicely onto the WM14 card, though I get why it wasn't on the card. Windham seems pretty broken down by this point, which is weird as he was somewhat resurgent not too much later in WCW. Still, this was 3 fun minutes with a dozen different moments of two giant dudes smacking each other with vests and chaps. Seriously, I'm pretty sure half of this match was them removing their respective vests and chaps, and smacking the other a few times with each removal. Take off a vest, smack your opponent with it. Get them chaps off, smack your opponent with them. It's the 2019 LA Park formula, 20 years prior. I dig it. Barry is moving a little slow and those knees seem to be barking, but he takes a couple of awesome bumps into the ring steps, getting run knees first in nasty fashion, eats a big boot from Bradshaw and falls into them again. Windham hits a cool DDT in the ring and we get a goofus roll up finish (damn, at least let one of these two hit their diving lariat), and for some reason we all collectively wonder why we never got these two working a cool surfer gimmick as Barry 'n' Brad.

Barry Windham vs. Erich Sbraccia NWA New England 9/20/98

ER: Here's a fun glimpse at Barry Windham - same age as my present age - wrestling an indy show in between his WWF and WCW stints. Erich Sbraccia was a Good 90s Indy Wrestler, coming out with goons like Tony Rumble and Knuckles Nelson, all of them looking exactly like Late 90s East Coast Indy Wrestlers. And man I wish this match went longer. It's only 7 minutes which is a shame, as they clearly had material to work longer, and the crowd was hot and reacting to Barry like it was 1993. Sbraccia throws some armdrags to surprise Windham, then slams him (looks like Barry came in expecting an armdrag so Sbraccia had to muscle him into a slam, which looked impressive). And of course then Barry comes back with the same and it's great seeing Windham throwing fast armdrags. I said Sbraccia was good, and he did a lot of basic things I like out of my guys: There's a fast rope run exchange where he really swings low and for the fences on a missed lariat, and he takes a really great backdrop bump; later he eats a couple nice punches from Windham and takes a wonderful pratfall bump onto the apron, his boot getting hung up on the top rope. Windham was really hustling too, taking a fast bump to the gym floor and landing with a thud, and really whipping off the ropes with his diving lariat. The finish is all mumbo jumbo run in from Knuckles, and it was annoying in that way you can tell a match is going home a minute before they arrive home. This delivered as a 7 minute match, but it really could have been a great match with 14 minutes. Both guys seemed game, but this was just about the end of Indy Windham. Indham.

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