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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Mini Complete and Accurate: Big Boss Man in Japan!

A wrestler whose career work keeps looking better and better the further we are removed from it, Big Boss Man spent 95% of his long career in the states, but every time he showed up in Japan he looked like an absolute legend. You see him in an All Japan ring, and the thought of him as the #1 or #2 gaijin seems not just possible, but probable! It seems crazy to think of him as on the same level as Hansen, and then you see the tape. This will cover any and all matches Ray Traylor had in Japan, and matches will be ranked as Skippable, Fun, Very Good, Great, and Epic.

1988

Big Bubba/Tom Magee vs. Jumbo Tsuruta/Tiger Mask II AJPW 4/4 - FUN
Big Bubba/Jimmy Snuka vs. Genichiro Tenryu/Yoshiaki Yatsu AJPW 4/15 - VERY GOOD
Big Bubba/Jimmy Snuka vs. Genichiro Tenryu/Ashura Hara AJPW 4/19 - EPIC
Big Bubba vs. Jumbo Tsuruta AJPW 4/22 - GREAT

1990

Big Boss Man vs. Jake Roberts Wrestling Summit 4/13 - EPIC

1993

Big Boss Man vs. Mighty Inoue AJPW 7/2 - FUN
Big Boss Man/Johnny Smith vs. Dr. Death/Terry Gordy AJPW 7/18 - GREAT
Big Boss Man/Dr. Death vs. Kenta Kobashi/Mitsuharu Misawa AJPW 11/24 - EPIC

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On Brand Segunda Caida: More Bubba in Japan!

Big Bubba/Jimmy Snuka vs. Genichiro Tenryu/Ashura Hara AJPW 4/19/88

ER: This is the kind of pure uncut Bubba you wanted to see when you dive into the existing Bossman in Japan footage. This hit the exact tone I wanted it to, with Tenryu and Hara not holding back but also not just treating a new gaijin with disrespect. From the moment you see Hara slamming full force into Bubba with shoulderblocks and neither man budging, then saw Hara attempt a ton of shoot bodyslams without Bubba fighting him on them, you knew exactly what it was going to be and it is the best. Bubba looked like a real threat here and the native stars took him really seriously. Bubba was already a very expressive and smart salesman, and it especially shone through in the way he took a couple Tenryu enziguiris: we've gotten used to some fairly dramatic and also psychics-breaking sells of an enziguiri, here Bubba sells it like taking a stunning blow to the back of the head; drops to a knee, shakes his head out like he got loopy, blinks more, grabs at the back of his neck, a really mature sell that you don't see enough of. Any time Bubba was in the ring was exciting, he knew how to miss a strike or bit of offense (watch him swing his axe handles really low to miss Hara, and watch how fully commits to his missed standing splash to Tenryu), his Bubba Slam looks like it crushes Tenryu, he hits a big ol' lariat on Hara, and he roots Snuka on late in the match from the apron while casually buttoning his dress shirt. He really stood up to beatings nicely, took full force lariats from two guys who can throw really mean lariats (although Hara's sleeper/lariat on Snuka takes the cake), takes some murderous shots from Tenryu (I mean you know Tenryu's chops and these were some legendary Tenryu chops), and lets Tenryu stick him with the falling elbow to end things. Snuka had some pretty bananas moments in here, from throwing his own sharp knife edge chops, to doing a treacherous springboard splash, and surprising I think everybody by breaking out a cannonball off the top, landing all of his weight on Tenryu. I don't remember seeing Snuka break out a cannonball before and it looked crazy with 2019 eyes. This whole thing ruled.

Big Bubba vs. Jumbo Tsuruta AJPW 4/22/88

ER: Damn this is good. This was real exciting for me, as it's his first big Japanese singles (and he'd be in WWF just a couple weeks later), so it's really cool that on the final night of the tour they throw him into the semi-main opposite late 80s hoss Jumbo. Bubba is in the all black gear with white suspenders  (which admittedly looked a little prohibition gangster cosplay), and for whatever reason I really got the sense of size from Jumbo hear. There was a lot of back and forth between them, and maybe it was just Bubba being head to toe in slimming black, but I really got a sense of what a big guy Jumbo was here. The stand and trade throughout was really cool, as they were wear down shots off the big guy, and he knew it, so Jumbo would hit a leaping knee and Bubba would recoil into the ropes and then come off smothering with a slam or other attack. All Bubba's selling of the knee strikes was cool, and he did his killer knee dropdown sell as Jumbo was assaulting him with uppercuts only to spring back up and throw his great leaping headbutt and a shockingly good worked right hand straight to the forehead. Neither guy was going to have a super easy time throwing the other around, although we do get a killer Bubba Slam out of a bearhug that really shook Jumbo into the mat. Jumbo added extra force to his big boots and the placement of the leaping knees throughout the match was really well laid out, allowed the match some specific touchstones to monitor Bubba's condition, letting you know if Jumbo was able to exploit some armor cracks. Bubba gets a big flurry before the sudden finish, throwing a punch of punch combos in the corner. But the finish is a little sudden, with Jumbo grabbing an abdominal stretch and then turning that into a kind of heel hook when they toppled. It was a sensible finish, because beating Bubba by wrenching his ankle makes tons of sense, but I wish they had gone a little longer before going to it. Still, the match packed a lot of story and action into 7 minutes, and even with the abrupt ending was as good as I hoped it would be.

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On Brand Segunda Caida: Bossman in Japan!

Big Bubba/Tom Magee vs. Jumbo Tsuruta/Tiger Mask II AJPW 4/4/88

ER: It's kind of amazing how much one guy can drag down a match with three legends, but there really isn't much you can do with 1988 Jumbo. Hey folks, we have a lot of fun here. Magee was truly one of the most clueless wrestlers in history, a clearly athletic guy who couldn't get up for a move to save his life. He's like if David Flair had enough athleticism to get himself into trouble. But this match is entirely worthwhile for every single second of Bubba and Jumbo in the ring together. It's fantastic. We get some fun work around shoulderblocks, with Bubba absorbing a couple before taking down a suspender strap, and while he preps to absorb a third that's when Jumbo surprises him with a leaping knee right to the face. Hell yeah. Watch the awesome moment late in the match where Bubba whips Jumbo hard into the ropes, hitches his pants up like a big fat guy does, and is right back in position just in time to yoink Jumbo up into a bearhug. Bubba was so good with barely a full year under his belt, and '88 Jumbo was really great, my favorite Jumbo time period. Bubba's positioning throughout the match is impressive as hell, and he had this great way of bumping expertly right to the spot he needed to be. This whole thing is worth it just to see Bubba whip off his XL belt and start choking the life out of Jumbo. What an absolute monster!! Bubba also has a bunch of impressive tricks for a guy still under 25; my favorite is his missed clothesline. He whips his huge arm so low and fast but it's 100% safe. He holds his arm out for a big lariat and the split second someone passes it he swings it hard, guaranteeing a miss but making the miss look great. So, Tom Magee. Well, Magee throws a nice dropkick and a couple surprisingly nice body shots...and the rest of the time it's almost impressive how completely baffled he looks. He had no idea how to stand, no idea how or where to fall, there's a beyond embarrassing mat section with Misawa tries grounding him and works a figure 4, but Magee is arguably more clueless on his back than on his feet. Jumbo tries his best with him and the guy can't even get up for a bodyslam. At one point Bubba seems like he accidentally tags Magee in and instantly regrets it, like he just stumbled into a carefully arranged stack of plates. The frustration from everyone is palpable, though Jumbo and Misawa keep it pro and don't rough him up, in a way that seems like they just felt bad for the guy. Before this match Magee was a relatively protected gaijin, winning more often than losing. After this match he lost every one of his last 14 matches on the tour, and never returned to Japan.

Big Bubba/Jimmy Snuka vs. Genichiro Tenryu/Yoshiaki Yatsu AJPW 4/15/88

ER: This was not exceptional, but it was filled with near constant moments of near joy. Bubba was so massive at this point, like a giant mean teddy bear, like a guy who seems like a cool fat young dad, but also a guy who would work perfectly as one of Ben Gazzara's goons in Road House. I love his swinging double axe handle attacks, and the finish with him being assaulted on all sides by Jumbo and Yatsu before being dumped by a man sized back suplex was really cool. There were small moments throughout that made this worthwhile even without a man who looks like a gigantic short order cook on a job interview, such as Snuka lying on his side with a "man, REALLY?" look on his face after Jumbo yanks him off a Yatsu pin, or Snuka hitting a great diving headbutt that kind of just looked like he splashed Yatsu's face. Inessential, but needed.

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My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Worldwide 10/1/95

Disco Inferno vs. Barry Houston

ER: Did you know that Disco once got a Goldberg-type security entrance? I sure didn't, but it happened here. His music played for awhile, and he wasn't coming out, and we cut to the back to see Doug Dillinger knocking on his dressing room door. The door opens and Disco is combing his hair in the mirror like Tony Manero, and then he breaks out a hilarious "Ayyyyyyyyy, I'm not done combin' muh hair ova heeya", and then he does some dancing in the mirror, and then we get the long walk of Disco from his dressing room to the ring, where he takes forever to fully undress (he is also wearing the Tony Manero white suit during this era) and the music has been playing for minutes on end and Rachel calls from downstairs "What are you watching up there?" and I yell back "I'm watching WCW and it's an extremely long Disco Inferno entrance obviously!" Barry Houston is always a guy you want to show up on TV, and this is no exception. The match honestly wasn't much, all Disco quickly running through some simple spots and winning with a swinging neckbreaker. But it really made me go on an outloud tangent about how Barry Houston should have got some kind of larger role somewhere. He was too talented to wind up where he wound up, as occasional WCW TV wrestler. He got a lot of WWF attention and I remember reading about him being in their Dory Funk dojo, he was a guy clearly on everybody's radar, who never broke through. Do we know why? Is Barry Houston the best non-Gambler surprise choice for SCI? I want answers!

Kurasawa vs. Scott Armstrong

ER: I love the idea that some WCW writer took a film class in college that showed Rashomon, and a few years later gave the newest evil foreign heel the name, presumably because he couldn't remember   the name Mifune. And my god I was in. to. this. Kurosawa was really cold here, and then explosive in the right moments. He oddly had a kind of Jake the Snake vibe, but replace more of the mind games with bullying. And Armstrong is a great guy to be a bully against, because he'll fight back believably and have nice babyface comeback punches. Kurosawa caught a crossbody that wasn't easy to catch, low around his knees, and then hoisted up Armstrong in one clean and jerk, really no help from Armstrong, just yoinked him up over his shoulder. Kurasawa hits a nasty shoulderbreaker, and it's a move he could have finished with. Instead he throws Armstrong into the ropes and catches him in a great Fujiwara armbar, and holds it for 7 seconds after the ref calls for the bell. There was something incredibly satisfying about seeing that shoulderbreaker set up --> Fujiwara finish.

Alex Wright vs. The Grappler

ER: I don't think I know who the Grappler is here. I think it might be Vern Henderson, but it could be someone younger. I don't remember Grappler as a regular, so it has to be someone pulling double duty. This is kind of messy, but they pulled out some things I didn't expect, and the crowd was amped for Alex Wright, which was fun to see. Also, Bobby Heenan kept making amusing jokes the entire match implying that 19 year old Alex Wright was wearing a hairpiece.

Bobby: "How do you think he keeps his rug on when he does those armdrags?"
Tony: "He's 19 years old! He's not wearing a piece!"

It was a genuinely funny bit they were doing. There are a couple cross ups in the match, at one point Wright just runs into Grappler and get tangled up as Grappler just falls over. But he whips off fast armdrags, gets incredible height on his nice hooking heel kick (crowd especially reacted to that), he  front suplexes Grappler onto the top rope in super impressive fashion, then plants him with a great superplex. It was cool that WCW gave Wright the shot that they did.

Goddamn there have been three commercials for Jade during this episode of Worldwide and I've NEVER SEEN IT and I now really want to make it a point to watch Jade. The 90s was filled with that steamy crime trash, and it's all bad and always makes me want to see more. And Jade was like the penultimate 90s trashy detective romance sleaze, and I know that I will be watching straight to video Jade ripoffs before I ever watch Bicycle Thieves or Tokyo Story.

Big Bubba vs. Johnny Drayton

ER: This goes about 40 seconds, and is the kind of beatdown that makes me proud that this guy was one of my childhood favorites. He was a big fat guy whose belly hung over his pants in the exact same way my dad's belly did, so Bossman to me looked like my dad as a big cool wrestler instead of as a smart, polite dentist. It makes me so happy that Bossman holds up. We've all liked a ton of things at various points in our life that do NOT hold up. I'm sure we've all enjoyed things within the past 5 YEARS that don't hold up today. So 38 year old me still enjoying a wrestler that 8 year old me enjoyed? That's a special thing. I am not familiar with Drayton, but he gets attacked pretty early by a grizzly and we don't recognize the body afterwards. Bubba throws some great uppercuts and a heavy lariat, hits that polo punch lariat you wanted to see, then absolutely STICKS Drayton with the Bubba Slam. You work a 40 second match, you work it like this.

Arn Anderson vs. Sting

ER: Arn is wearing a cool gray/black scheme that I don't remember seeing him in. Looks awesome. He comes out like the best version of "guy bringing cups to a cookout" meme, just raising his hands and apoplectic at the Worldwide crowd's boos. This feels like a really big match to have on Worldwide, and there's a ton of time left in the episode. Now, this doesn't wind up going 15 minutes. Pillman runs in and jumps Sting 5 minutes in, and then Flair comes out to run them off. But up to that point we get the greatness you'd expect, with Arn being someone you couldn't take your eyes off. He stooged and fell on his butt, traded Beat It punches with Stinger, dropped a great elbow onto the top of Sting's head, and the feeling out process alone would be something you'd be into. We even get the great spot where Arn goes for the DDT but takes a hard back bump as Sting holds onto the ropes. Sting hits one of his most joy filled leaping elbowdrops afterwards. He was like a kid jumping into his swimming pool at his already-deemed-kickass 10th birthday party.

We end the show with an absolute barnburner of a promo from Flair. Flair is up on the Worldwide stage with Sting and Okerlund (and they rarely did promos from the Worldwide stage this late, in fact I don't think I've ever seen it on Worldwide after this), begging Sting to be his friend. Sting doesn't trust Flair for a second and Flair is doing all of this incredible foot stomping and demanding Sting shake his hand, begging from his knees, jumping to his feet to have a fit that Sting won't shake his hand. Flair even tries to settle for a high five and Sting won't let him have it, and we fade out with Flair finishing one of his all time great moments in comedic timing. This was no hyperbole one of the best Flair promos I've seen, total megastar. He knew the right amount of seriousness, bombast, and comedy.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE WCW B-SIDES

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All Japan Motherload - Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Big Bubba - AJPW 4/88

ER: Post 85/86 Jumbo is far and away my favorite period for him, where he just got surly and mean and said to me "why would you ever want to watch any other matches of mine?" and here he's a dick to Bubba and laces in all sorts of shots while shooting constant looks of scorn his way. Bubba/Bossman was always one of my favorites as a kid, as his body shape was the same as my dad's, and kids like things for stupid reasons like that. Jumbo throws all kinds of great knees here that Bubba mans into, with Bubba checking his nose for blood at one point in one of those nice "excellent selling? or real life" moments, and then he gets to the uppercuts and those look even worse. Bubba does awesome spit sells during them and you love the uppercuts even more because of them. Bubba's shoulderblocks and clubs to the back are great, as they should be. Loved his bearhug into the sidewalk slam. Jumbo locks on a side headlock at one point and it looks rough and constricting, and Bubba's face confirms this, but Jumbo shows a modicum of respect back by acting like an awesome falling clothesline knocked the wind out of him. Finish is weird and awesome and entirely unexpected as Jumbo turns an abdominal stretch into a sloppy roll up but instead of giving up on it he grabs an ankle pick and just wrenches it until Bubba taps. You know, all those Jumbo matches (and 80s/90s All Japan matches) you've seen that end in grapevine ankle submissions. THOSE matches.

PAS: Yeah this was really great, I never want to watch another 1984 Jumbo NWA title match style singles match, but I can totally dig him having a nasty little slugfest with Big Bubba. Man Bubba ruled in this, I really wish he just spent his career in All Japan like Hansen or Williams, that sideslam was one of the better sideslams I have seen, and Bubba is the master of the side slam. I also loved Jumbos jaw breaker, which really looked like it broke Bubba's jaw, that rolling ankle pick was a total WTF moment, but an awesome out of nowhere finish, Cena should finish someone in a US title match with something like that.

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My Favorite Wrestling! WCW Worldwide 4/16/95

1. Meng vs. Bill Payne

So I called out Meng recently for being a shitty squash match worker, and he still sorta is. But here he was really fun. Maybe something happened between '95 and '97. I need to do a Meng depth chart to see when he started to get lame. His squashes are usually boring because he really has little dynamic offense. He throws a few chops, then he goes to Tongan death grip. But here in 1995 he has tons of offense. He throws these awesome knees from the clinch and hits a beautiful piledriver. He also does a couple cool superkicks that are less superkick, and more front kick right under the chin. They looked great. He also dished out an awesome running clothesline that he doesn't normally do, and in general worked as stiff as people imagine Meng works. We'll figure this out together.

2. Jim Duggan vs. Sledgehammer McGill

Holy shit Sledgehammer McGill?! I've never seen or heard of this guy before, and he's a pretty unassuming black 90s jobber (Steiners reject singlet, flat top), but he bumps like a freak for Duggan by dumping himself on his dome a couple different times on Duggan clotheslines, leaning way into Duggan forearms, even bumping over the top to the floor for one of them! Match went less than 2 minutes, but I want more Sledgehammer the bump freak!

3. Frank Andersson vs. (Not Thee) Manny Fernandez

Well I have never heard of Andersson, who looks like Sting/Tom Howard/Klaus Kinski/Rutger Hauer and apparently won the bronze at the 1984 Olympics in Greco-Roman. They talk during the match about him getting a title shot but I have zero memories of ever seeing him. He's kind of like a Glacier before Glacier, complete with blonde crewcut. But instead of karate offense it's all cool wrestling takedowns and suplexes. They're all rehearsed and really set up, but Manny got dumped on his head a few times by cool leg trips and an awesome deadlift belly to belly to end it. Did this guy ever work New Japan? I'd like to see him vs. Hashimoto.

4. Big Bubba Rogers vs. Kenny Kendall

Poor KK only gets a minute here. Poor guy had a good build and was as tall as Bubba, but it looks like he only ever got job duty for a few years in the 90s. How are there guys like Scott Putski or Jim Powers that get roster spots but guys like Kendall don't get a shot? I mean, none of them are any good, so why not Kenny? Why are there people like Frank!?

5. Marcus Bagwell/The Patriot vs. Dino Casanova/Romeo Valentino

Dino and Romeo were known as The Cream Team on the indy circuit. Ewwww. Oddly enough, The Cream Team was the name of an amateur gay porn Bagwell appeared in several years before this. This was 2 minutes and Romeo/Dino bumped like crazy for Stars & Stripes. I think if this was actually given 8 minutes it would have been a good match. As it was, Bagwell threw a nice dropkick, Patriot's top rope shoulderblock looked good, Dino did a full Jannetty bump off a clothesline. It was a fine squash.

6. Alex Wright vs. Arn Anderson

Boy, this finely illustrates one of the most obnoxious things about televised wrestling. The commercial break before the two guys even enter the ring, I already know the finish. As they cut to commercial after the Stars & Stripes match, Tony goes "AA vs. Alex Wright for Arn's TV Title is coming up next, and remember, TV title matches are a 10 minute time limit." I try and bet Rachel all of the money ever that this match is going to a time limit draw, but I show my hand too early and she doesn't take the bet. Back from break and they're all laying it on thick. Penzer is announcing the time limit which has clearly never happened in any other match you've ever seen that DIDN'T go full time limit, Heenan is saying "I don't think Wright could even last 3 minutes with the champ, let alone 10!" while Wright is walking to the ring. Just dogshit. Match isn't good, either, blatantly obvious finish or not. Wright seems reallllly nervous in there. It's kind of crazy. I don't recall many times seeing a wrestler and thinking, "Man this guy looks scared he's going to break something in there," but Wright seemed completely crossed up from go. You know his little trademark armlock/cartwheel mat transfer? Well they go to that, he slips, they start over, he trips on the kip-up spot and falls on his back, Arn stays with it, Wright gets up to cartwheel and ends up wheelkicking Arn across the face, Wright falls again, etc. Just unfortunate. But Arn tries his damndest and continues being a pro throughout. Who knows how much of an HBK shitfit would have occurred if he were in Arn's boots. Arn looks just fine here, doing all his cool offense that only guys like Finlay seem to do (scraping boot laces across the face, stomping hands). But holy lord the whole match is "HOW MUCH TIME IS LEFT ON THE CLOCK!?!?!?" and then Penzer does the 2 minute warning when the match is about 5:30 in and Wright botches the ending by hitting his finisher at the 10 second mark meaning Arn had to kick out instead of let the time expire. Just a total mess. To their credit the fans at Orlando Studios were going crazy with the time countdown so it worked to a certain degree live, obviously. But boy this couldn't have been more disappointing.

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My Favorite Wrestling! WCW Worldwide 8/11/96

WCW Worldwide 8/11/96

1. High Voltage vs. Eddie and Chavo Guerrero

High Voltage do a bunch of press slam spots and I think that always makes me think they're more awesome than they actually are. Whatever. Rage doing a bunch of presses here lead to a cool Eddie roll-up reversal. But whatever, HV's springboard spots always look great. Heenan's commentary also never ceases to shit all over Mexicans.

2. Kevin Sullivan vs. Chad Brock

Brock bumped around pretty well for Sullivan, but I hate Sullivan squashes because they're always like 50 seconds and he does all his moves in the exact same order: back a guy into the corner with chops, throw him to the floor, go out and get him (if '97, insert Jacqueline vertical suplexing the guy here), tree of woe, double foot stomp. Bleh.

3. Maxx vs. Ice Train

Lee Marshall humbly talking about "powerful men feeling each other out" made Rachel laugh and filled me with wrestle shame. I think this match actually could have benefitted from more time. I think it needed more time to build up that both guys' power cancels the other's out, so the person with the better combo of power and speed will win. Instead we only get one shoulder block no-sold by both, with both flexing and screaming, and then we go into Ice Train spots. I would have liked to see more power parity spots. I did like Maxx's big missed leaping back elbow, but this wasn't great.

4. Big Bubba vs. Chip Minton

Bubba looks like a total skeet here with a week long bender beard and homemade sleeveless shirt. Minton is game here for a beating and Bubba doles out a pretty decent one with a nice big boot, GREAT headbutt from the apron, couple big time slams, although he did look like he was yawning and sleepwalking his way through this. Minton has some really impressive leaping ability and I'm shocked WCW never tried to do more with him as it seems like they could have gotten SOME publicity out of it.

5. Rough & Ready (Enos and Slater) vs. Harlem Heat

I actually don't remember the Enos/Slater team at all. This match gets a lot of time, 11 minutes, and is pretty decent. But good lord Harlem Heat is just not very good at all. They've probably aged worse than anybody in this span. Stevie Ray is worse than you remember him, and yes I know how badly you remembered him. Enos and Slater actually make Stevie Ray offense look good and for that they get enormous credit. Enos throws a standing overhead belly-to-belly that dumps Booker right on his head. Ouch. Stevie Ray throws a clothesline to Slater's stomach that Slater has absolutely no clue how to sell. But overall this whole match works because most of it is awesome Enos/Slater control segments, with my favorite part being Enos cutting off a tag by running and stomping over Stevie on his way to knock Booker off the apron. To the shock of everybody, Booker wins this with a shitty looking kick.

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WWE 24/7 SHORTIES -Phil and Lee Benaka

Shorties

Ron Garvin v. Big Bubba Rogers

PAS: This was easily the best match we watched on our day of ON DEMAND. Ronnie Garvin is one of my favorites, and really works best in a street fight setting where all he is required to do is throw his great punches. Even green as goose shit Bubba Rogers isn't afraid to take huge fat man bumps, like getting bealed off the top rope and flying outside the ring. Also we had some nice blood, including the visual of a spreading bloodstain on Bubba's dress shirt from Ronnie Garvin's open wound.

LB:  Bubba's weight looked more evenly distributed than his fatter-looking days as the Big Bossman.  However, if Ray Traylor were still alive today and flying from town to town for indie shows, he probably would be charged for two seats owning to his condition as a "man of size."  The opening sequence with Garvin tagging Bubba with quick punches was great.  Bubba's selling and frustration (along with that of boyish Jim Cornette) was enchanting.  I never did quite understand the rules of the Louisville Street Fight, other than it allowed managers to gratuitously interfere with tennis rackets for cheap endings.  The blood was great, and this match went on for a while but was always fun due to Garvin's manly offense.

Sweet Brown Sugar/Dizzy Hogan v. Jobber Black Bart/Ken Timbs

PAS: Short meaningless enhancement tag from Mid-Atlantic, placed on the show for the fact that Dizzy Hogan went on to be Brutus Beefcake and Sweet Brown Sugar wrestled as Koko B. Ware. Of course the Sweet Brown Sugar who wrestled in this match went on to be Skip Young, but I suppose that WWE on Demand editors have cross racial identification problems.

LB:  Phil and I had great fun as the night went on mistakenly identifying various African-American jobbers as future WWE superstars, including the future Bobby Lashley and Booker T.  Ken Timbs was the most enjoyable participant in this match in that he really seemed to care about making most every move mean something.  Jobber Black Bart didn't look much different than the James J. Dillon third-rate heel stable Black Bart who appeared on the 1985 WCW show that we watched later this night.  Was this the match that looked like it was filmed in front of two rows of spectators?  Aww, those early 1980s territory TV matches were the best.

Lord Al Hayes v. Bobby Heenan

PAS: This was a battle of the managers from AWA, and was a blast. Lord Al Hayes has a bunch of fun british escapes which work real well to frustrate Heenan. Heenan doesn't really bump big or bleed alot, but he does have surprisingly nice punches.

LB:  This match was another winner.  I actually had never seen His Lordship wrestle, although I have fond memories of seeing him manage the Super Destroyer Mark something-or-other in the Central States wrestling I grew up on.  Hayes was quite dickish with the boot grinding into the head and slaps.  Heenans hide-and-seek with the foreign object down his trunks was done pretty well.  I was surprised that Heenan was able to get his heat back so completely at the end of the match when he clocked Hayes and the referee with a chair.  And the ref got to his feet first, but I suppose His Lordship absorbed most of the impact.  It might have been better to have had Nick Bockwinkel help Heenan rough up Hayes at the end, but it's nice to see Bobby take care of himself.

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