New Footage Friday: If Anyone Says Tracy Sucks Everybody is Going to Die

Tracy Smothers/Tommy Rich/Dougie Gilbert vs. Sabu/Ricky Morton/Bobby Blaze CAPW 2/11/01

MD: The first thing Smothers does in this match is berate the crowd on the mic. The second thing he does is stomp and try to get a clap going. It's beautiful stuff. This was really good stuff, actually. Blaze worked a lot of it for his side, both in the shine and as face-in-peril and he looked more than solid. Smothers did most of the heavy lifting for the heel side, stooging all over the place during the shine, including some good comedy bits and a really believable pissy fit dive set up for Sabu. The heels did what they were supposed to, cutting off the ring well. The comeback was basically all Sabu vs Smothers and they did some inventive things with a chair that seemed perfectly natural. I would have liked to see a bit more Rich and Morton but this was pretty much rose to the level of the talent and the time.

PAS: This a match with five all time greats, and we get a match built mainly around a tubby Bobby Blaze, not how I would have laid it out. We do get great moments from everyone else though, Tracy was heatseeking even while teaming with all time heatseekers like Rich and Dougie, I also loved getting to see Sabu as a hot tag which is a role he is great at, but not something he does a ton. Getting a hot tag and flinging chairs at heads is a great way to play that role. I could have used more Morton, Rich and Dougie, but that is pretty much always true. 

ER: We hate Bobby Blaze now? I don't think I could describe this match as "worked around Bobby Blaze" as it felt more like "Bobby Blaze was involved more than necessary because Ricky Morton, Doug Gilbert, and Tommy Rich looked like they didn't want to get involved in any way whatsoever". So we did get a lot of Bobby Blaze and 2001 Blaze doesn't look as good as 1998 Blaze, but I get actual laughter and enjoyment out of seeing he and Smothers work a juniors strike exchange like they were doing a weird southern old guy version of Liger/Kanemoto, ending with a Blaze rolling kappo kick. Smothers does maybe my absolute favorite bit of his, which is when he tries to start a clapping chant for himself and his clapping slows down as he realizes people aren't going along with it. Really this is the perfect kind of match to uncover and memorialize Smothers, because this match felt entirely focused on Smothers to me. He takes on Blaze and gets the match to the point where his boys are working him over, he sets up the brawl to the floor that leads to a huge Sabu dive into everyone, and then he's the one in there for the finishing stretch as Sabu runs wild. This felt like a match that Smothers was controlling front to back, and doing fun Tracy stuff all throughout. He busted me up throwing total doofus karate chops at Sabu in the corner, does little dances after getting reactions, and does all his wild eyed bumbling as hot tag Sabu is running wild on everyone, finishing with a nice triple jump moonsault. 

Tracy Smothers/Chris Hamrick vs. Eddie Kingston/Blackjack Marciano IWC 7/17/04 - GREAT

MD: Wildly different performance from the others we're watching this week. Here, Smothers plays it almost completely straight, easy and fun at times, but mostly reserved, doing what works in his role and letting Hamrick bring more flash, yes, but also letting Kingston really have all the rope he needs to get himself over. He gives him room to jaw and stooge and argue with the crowd, just giving him an effective, solid, credible straight man to help establish himself against. Kingston takes it for all its worth, constantly entertaining and fully committed to who he is, even if all of the physical smoothness wasn't fully there yet. This probably had a bit too much goofing and needed a bit more time with the heels on top but everyone had a good time with it and even in a loss, I think the heels looked better coming out of it than they came in.

PAS: It is fun to watch Tracy work straight man. He is usually such a force of personality, here he hangs back and lets Kingston take the lead. Lots of fun heel shtick from Eddie, trying to change a Go, Tracy, Go chant to a No, Tracy, No chant, flexing his flabby arm, and covering his ears. Hamrick doesn't take either of his two craziest bumps, but does hit the turnbuckle really hard with his crotch, and hits a cool springboard moonsault to the floor. We get a hot tag where Smothers breaks out his Tennessee Tae Kwon Do to take down both Wild Cards. I agree it could have used a little more straight wrestling, but it was enjoyable stuff for sure. 

ER: This was mostly an awesome Hamrick/Kingston showcase, and I am totally fine with that. Hamrick looked really vicious here (he and Kingston have a punch exchange on the floor that I wish I could have been sitting front row for) and I loved Hamrick showing off all the super athletic things he could do while Kingston showed off all the great ways he had of entertaining a crowd. I loved King getting boring chants and then just hitting a bodyslam on Tracy and a "Who's boring now!?" knowing that any other move would have gotten a bigger reaction. Hamrick had a really impressive split legged moonsault to the floor (making sure to shift his body right before landing so he landed sideways into both Wild Cards and not plow through a few fans). Hamrick is arguably the best non-Chris Hero thigh slap wrestler of our day, someone that doesn't abuse it and knows when to use it, and has the kind of perfect timing that really adds to a superkick or him kicking Marciano in the chops from the apron. There were things I didn't like: Hamrick's Indian deathlock/standing dragon sleeper took way too long to be interesting, and I wish there was a longer heat segment from the Wild Cards (I thought what we got was really good, and didn't mind so much great Hamrick action, but it would have made the match structurally more sound), but you can't much cooler with Hamrick's bananas finisher. Marciano flips into a sliced bread and Hamrick just drops him with an over shoulder seated piledriver, just a nasty explanation point to end a man. 

Tracy Smothers vs. New Jack Money Mark Productions 5/7/16

MD: When consuming a match like this you almost have to unlearn everything you've been conditioned to think about pro wrestling and look at what's before you instead of some generic star rating rubric. Smothers here (as an effective and engaging character, not as the actual person) reminded me of George C Scott in the Film Flam Man or the King and Duke from Huck Finn. Old southern confidence man, trying (and failing) to get the fans to believe in something that simply wasn't real. I've seen plenty of heels appeal to the crowd on a pull of the hair or tights that didn't happened, but it was more elemental here, weightier somehow. He started the match by conning New Jack into wrestling instead of brawling, and they wrestled like two broken down guys, maestros moving at one-sixth the proper speed. Because both of them were attuned on the same level, the go behinds and late match whips somehow managed to feel like two old wrestlers barely able to move but still operating under the norms and rules of pro-wrestling physics. None of it looked nice, but it all felt somehow valid within the broader reality they exist in. It's to Smothers credit that despite being such a legend and a character, someone everyone in that crowd knew like family, he was still able to get them so thoroughly behind New Jack.

PAS: It is pretty strange to see New Jack of all people, work a no bumps match. This reminded me a bit of 2000s Jimmy Valiant matches, where you have two pros who know all the tricks but are really fragile. New Jack retired in 2013, and while he has wrestled a handful of times since, his body is clearly broken. Tracy is a guy who is  great at coasting on shtick, although a bad house mic and questionable HH recording means we can't hear a lot of the mic work. Charming to watch, although the actual stuff in the match is pretty bad. 

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WCW Worldwide 8/22/98

Saturn vs. Mark LaRoux

ER: This must be an early Lash appearance as I don’t remember him being called Mark LaRoux. It’s usually a tough draw when you pull job duty against Saturn, and LaRoux earned his payday here. Saturn, the guy doing high arcing half nelson suplexes at noon on Sundays. Hard clothesline, that suplex, and the best death valley driver in wrestling, this was quick.

Bobby Blaze vs. Brian Adams

ER: This is a full Adams squash, Blaze gets nothing whatsoever, but Blaze makes all of Adams big slams and backbreakers look good. Adams has his big tilt-a-whirl backbreaker which looks good, drops a nice leg, hits a big press slam into a gut buster, all of it looks good. But Blaze is good enough that we could have had an interesting match. Really the best thing about this was Vincent as Adams’ second. That guy was a great hype man and knew how to carry himself with braggadocio, proud to be the bottom rung on the nWo ladder. When Adams went for the press slam Vincent came running around the ring holding both his arms up, like he was sitting on the sidelines when Steph did a no look pass leading to a Klay 3.

Jim Powers vs. Mark Guthrie

ER: Man Mark Guthrie? I had no idea how many randos WCW was using around this time. This must have been right before the next crop of Power Plant guys came through. Guthrie has a real bad dirtbag kid mullet, looking more homemade than styled, the kind of cut that was looking dated in 1995. Powers tries to bring energy to this, hits a nice shoulderblock, decent kneelift, good enough powerslam. This was another short one, kind of a dull couple weeks of WCW syndie TV here. We need a little help on this episode.

Roadblock vs. Mike Sanders

ER: Roadblock heard my plea and answered my prayer! I barely recognized Sanders here, he had a shaved head and wore a plain black singlet. I guess with Sanders and LaRoux showing up here, we ARE in the period were new Plant guys were getting called up. Roadblock works a fun squash, throws a big lariat and hits a big powerslam, misses a huge elbowdrop off the middle rope (really crashing the landing), and he does cool stuff like sticks his knee up in the corner when Sanders tries to ram him. The rope flip moonsault is nice and squishing, always a finisher I love. After the match some dad with a bad mustache is angrily booing Roadblock, but…was he cheering for Mike Sanders? That’s weird. Cheer Roadblock, he’s an awesome big fat guy!

Los Villanos vs. Doc Dean/Manny Fernandez

ER: So, you know by now, this is not THEE Manny Fernandez, but I do like this Manny Fernandez leaning into the camera on his entrance to say “I’m back, baby!” Another fan is doing the “We’re Not Worthy!” bow to the Villanos as they come out, and I now want to meet that man. It’s always going to be a fun watch when you spot a Villanos tag in the wild where you're practically guaranteed their victory. Doc and Manny didn't have ZERO chance, but I'VE never seen either of them pull a win, and we've at minimum seen Villanos beat Disorderly Conduct. So we get to watch a match where the Villanos are showing off their offense and getting to act like the bigger team, like the bullies, and it's a rare treat. Villanos threw a bunch of nice lariats and it's cool seeing them control a team that aren't other luchadors. It's not a total squash as Manny has a brief quick run where he shows off a tight 5 seconds of material, but you want this because it's the Villanos main eventing a taping and cutting off the ring on a couple white guys as the babyfaces. The Doomsday Device crossbody was a great finish, with Manny strongly missing an avalanche chest first, and I thought it was cool that they opted to do their finish on the larger of the two opponents. Nice flex that they earned.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE WCW B-SIDES

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Dan Severn Turned Away From it All Like a Blind Man

Dan Severn vs. Bobby Blaze SMW 5/20/95 - GREAT

ER: I had no clue that there were these awesome Pancrase indy matches happening in North Carolina or New Jersey in the mid 90s. This was such a cool scrap. We had never seen Tajiri break out shootstyle before, and I'd never seen Blaze work that style either. Blaze was a guy who always had cool suplexes and wore kickpads when a lot of guys didn't wear them, but I've never seen him do what he did here. Just like the Tajiri match this is a 5 minute, violent scrap. Severn backs Blaze into the ropes and throws him with a belly to belly 45 seconds in, and we're off the races from there. Blaze is fighting from underneath in most of this, but he never looks too far out of the race. After that throw he goes more on the defensive, throwing distance keeping kicks and locking on a cool choke in the corner, which Severn reverses by judo tossing Blaze over his head. The whole match is breathless, quick breaks leading immediately back into both men scrambling, Severn constantly targeting Blaze's arm and Blaze always rolling through looking for any kind of opening. Blaze is tough but as it goes on he shifts a bit more into survival mode, conscious of the ropes, knowing he probably doesn't have the tools to take apart this steamroller. This is another match I probably would have been tricked into thinking was a shoot. The scrambling on the mat felt just unpolished enough that it wouldn't be farfetched. All the mat rolling was cool, Severn breaks out a deadlift snap gutwrench at one point that was Karelin-esque, we get a great dual ankle lock moment with both guys really twisting and wrenching it in and  refusing to let go (was Don Frye cosplaying Dan Severn in that 2002 Shamrock fight!?), the whole quick match was awesome.

PAS: I had no idea that there was an underground RINGS on random US indies. This show had a Thugs v. Gangstas race riot and a Al Snow/Unabomb v. Rock and Rolls cage match main event, and before that Dan Severn is throwing Bobby Blaze around the ring and working armbars from the guard. I did like Blaze catching Severn with a kick when Severn went for a second shoot, but Severn is just relentless. I don't remember UFC Severn being this explosive, but he just explodes into suplexes and throws. That deadlift gutwrench was awesome looking. A little more from Blaze I could see this joining the Tajiri match in the EPIC pile, it was easily GREAT though.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DAN SEVERN NWA TITLE 

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What Happened to Berzerker? We Can't Look Away! The New Look is Mesmerizing...

23. Berzerker vs. Bob Smedley - Prime Time Wrestling 10/1/91

Smedley is Bobby Blaze, using a name that is more amusing, and decidedly less "1991" than Blaze. We were an American Gladiator loving people in 1991. Names like Blaze made sense and felt safe to us. He leans nicely into kicks and snaps back from them on the bump. This could have been a really fun competitive match just a few years later. This was not that.

24. Berzerker vs. Eric Freedom - Superstars 10/21/91

Freedom looks EXACTLY like Todd Pettengill, when Pettengill had a mullet. He also has bushy armpit hair. IMPORTANT: He is the smallest wrestler that Berzerker has faced thus far. He is similar in size to Scott Taylor, but I think Freedom is smaller. Freedom ain't free, though, and Berzerker stiffs him up. Freedom bumps like a maniac, looking and bumping similar to this era Sean Waltman. After getting whipped hard into the buckles and bumping great off it, Lord Alfred cackles about how he's probably paralyzed. He keeps laughing. He's laughing really hard, at his own comment that Eric Freedom is paralyzed. Berzeker mixes up his move order a little bit, dropping Freedom with the falling slam, immediately hitting the big legdrop, then following right up with the kneedrop. I dug the combo. Freedom takes a great rolling bump after getting tossed to the floor. Supposedly this guy still works, wouldn't mind seeing some of this 90s work.

25. Berzerker vs. Bret Hart - MSG 10/28/91

They had another match a year later that was really disappointing, really short, and maybe the least giving Bret Hart match of the 90s. Hart worked competitive matches with every single member of the roster so it was a bummer to see such a non-match against Berzerker. Thankfully I found this one from MSG, which was fleshed out and really good. It goes a bit differently than I expected, with Hart starting out going toe to toe and really throwing everything at Berzerker. Berzerker's three bumps to the floor all came consecutively, with Hart sending him to the floor with a dropkick, clothesline and then an atomic drop. Berzerker would bump over the top, then immediately rush back into the ring and get knocked over again. It was great. His 4th time rushing into the ring he just dives at Bret and catches him with a headbutt to the stomach. And from there we get the Berzerker control segment which I've really come to enjoy. He throws lots of clubbing forearms, big slams, big boots, a perfect piledriver, and he smartly gives Bret hope spots off of his own missed offense. 

He misses a big kneedrop that allows Bret to land a couple shots, and later he misses a weird and ambitious dropkick from the middle rope, while Bret Hart is lying down. He clearly wasn't going for a leg drop, it was like he wanted to dropkick Bret's face from the middle rope. When Bret does come back it's good, as we get a couple convincing roll ups, Berzerker doing his awesome splits bump off leg kicks so Bret can set up the Sharpshooter (it's a really fun bump, but this was easily the most logical use of it since it tied directly to the sharpshooter), plus a real logical escape from the sharpshooter that seemed like it never happened: Hart went to turn him, and Berzerker just punched him in the face from his back. I really liked the finish, with Berzerker going for a clothesline and Hart landing a snug crucifix for a flash pin, with Berzerker getting up and flipping out postmatch. This is probably the best overall Berzerker match we've seen, and likely the best we'll get. Bret knew how to keep things tight, so instead of the bloated-but-fun 16 minute Bulldog match we get a more snug and satisfying 11 minute version of that. Really good stuff.

26. Berzerker vs. Fred Morgan - November 1991

Oh, Fred Morgan, you're the worst. I cannot explain why I laughed so hard at the way Morgan bumped for the opening club to his back, just dropping to the mat in a belly flop; or, how hard I laughed at how he bumped the next chop, just rigidly dropping to his back and lying motionless. Morgan just seems clueless, with his egg shaped torso in red and blue singlet/tights. He runs nose and mouth into a big boot, and tumbles all the way into the entrance way after getting tossed to the floor, but the guy just looks like the biggest hump. He won't ever get a rematch.

27. Berzerker vs. Russ Greenberg - Wrestling Challenge 11/12/91

I wonder why Greenberg never got more of a shot with WWF. He worked tons of jobber matches in 1991, and had a nice physique. Nice physique and tan is typically enough to get you a shot in early 90s WWF. Here he has bubblegum colored trunks, and admirably goes for a different strategy against Berzerker: He charges him! He runs in trying to lock up! I mean, Berzerker just pump kicks him in the chest. But at least he tried something! Berzerker mixes things up here, swinging Greenberg around in a front headlock, hitting a chokeslam (that Greenberg doesn't get up for) and hitting his awesome missile shoulderblock (that he should use more, as it looks great when it hits AND when it misses). After flubbing the chokeslam I didn't expect much out of the toss to the floor, but Greenberg got launched. Good for him. Still, wonder why he never got a shot. IMPORTANT: Greenberg should have at MINIMUM been brought into 1998 WCW when Jericho kept using that as a nickname for Goldberg. Jericho promising to beat Greenberg at Fall Brawl, and then beating Russ Greenberg, would have been a pointlessly fun moment.

28. Berzerker vs. Tito Santana - Superstars 11/13/91

Strange match, as Tito takes probably 70% of it, and overpowers Berzerker on several occasions. That's not what I was expecting at all. The first couple minutes see them lock up a few times, with Santana backing up Berzerker each time. On the fourth lock up Santana rushes in and Berzerker just drops to his knees, headbutting Santana in the dick. Awesome spot. But weird that the 320 lb guy had to use his speed and smarts to get the duke on Tito Santana. Santana overpowering Berzerker kind of continues throughout the match, with Santana reversing a couple of Irish whips. It's weird. Berzerker doesn't bump like crazy for Santana, the way he has for other stars. Santana does run into a big boot nicely though. Fuji tries to cheat to win by hooking Tito's ankle with the cane, and it genuinely doesn't seem like Tito expects the spot. He's running the ropes and Fuji hooks him, and Santana trips so hard that it yanks the cane out of Fuji's hands. Berzerker gets DQ'd, Tito beats him with the cane, and this was just a weird, unsatisfying match. Neither guy really wanted to take control, Tito works better as comeback babyface.

29. Berzerker, Skinner, Hercules & Col. Mustafa vs. Jim Duggan, Tito Santana, Sgt. Slaughter & Texas Tornado - WWF Survivor Series 11/27/91

I hadn't seen this match in years, probably since I rented the tape from the video store, so I first turned to the foremost authority on WWF star ratings, Scott Keith. Not only did he describe 6 of the participants as "jobbers" (odd, since Berzerker had only lost one match at this point and Duggan was always protected), but also called Slaughter a traitor and Von Erich a "suicidal drug addict". That's some level 7 edgelord shit right there. He didn't like the match, guys. But let me be the first to say, that Scott Keith may not be correct. 

First, pre match we get a wonderful gift, of Berzerker really being the only person enforcing his gimmick on the building, and the other wrestlers. All the heels come out together, but all the faces get individual entrances, and they kept cutting back to wide shots of the ring during these entrances, and Berzerker was just Hussing around, stomping all around the ring, figure 8ing around his teammates and his opponents; Just stomping and hussing and everybody in the ring was completely ignoring it. It's like when a guy hits a HR to break a slump, and the whole dugout ignores him. It was amazing. Gorilla has a great line before the bell, "I have little doubt in my mind who's coming out on top in this match." Fair statement. Skinner slaps Santana hard to start, then bumps fast for him, really selling a shove and going down to a snap headlock takedown. It also makes me laugh hard seeing Skinner do leapfrog/dropdown spots, for whatever reason. Skinner cuts low on a missed back elbow, and then bails so Santana misses a big crossbody, really crash and burned. Berzerker tags in and ridiculously goes for some sort of double stomp/leg drop on Tito, that misses. Kerry comes in and throws some bad punches that Berzerker no sells, and then Berzerker misses a dropkick. Berzerker missing offense is so much damn fun. I even dig the Hercules/Duggan shoulderblock and stompy punch exchange. Iron Sheik was pretty toast at this point (he even tags in and goes straight to a chinlock, come on) but he threw a cool double chop to Duggan's throat that someone should steal. 

Berzerker's apron work is tremendous, just hiking the length of the apron, back and forth, wandering into the wrong corner, occupying himself by untying a turnbuckle pad while Sheik is eliminated. THINK OF HOW SMART THAT IS!! Herc and Skinner just stood 8 feet away not saving Sheik from elimination, Berzerker meanwhile became the only heel I've seen logically kayfabe occupy himself during a pinfall, that didn't involve selling an injury. Amazing spot that was completely missed. Berzerker is really pulling his kicks this match, which is odd. But now that turnbuckle pad comes into play as he runs Slaughter into it. Man that undoing the pad stuff was so amazing in its placement in the match. I'm never going to get over this. Brilliant. Killer run where Berzerker brings back the splits bump off a Slaughter leg kick, then takes two insanely fast bumps over the top to the floor, really awesome bumps. The first is Duggan clotheslining him over the top, and Berzerker lands on his feet, charges right back in, and eats an insanely high backdrop bump to the floor on the other side. Santana has a nice hot tag opposite Hercules, even hits a kind of superman punch for the pin. Skinner eats a pin off a Slaughter blind tag roll up, and Berzerker is the last heel. He immediately charges in but misses a dropkick. The bumps on this guy! That turnbuckle pad comes back AGAIN when Slaughter gets revenge on him for it. Slaughter whips him into Duggan's clothesline to end it, with Berzerker taking a huge bump off the 3 point lariat. For a total throwaway, this was a really fun match, with Berzerker clearly working harder than anyone in the match. Not a great match, but a great performance by him.

30. Berzerker vs. Kerry Von Erich - MSG 11/30/91

Weird short match with a botched finish (though not by either of the wrestlers). It only goes about 3 minutes, and is really good for those 3 minutes. Until the stupid finish I was thinking it had potential to be his best match so far, which is impressive with the Valentine and Hart matches. He hits a stiff boot on Kerry, gets clotheslined over the top and the backdropped over the other side, just like the Survivor Series match, then suckers KVE into a missed corner charge and yanks him to the floor. Berzerker gets his head bounced off the steps, and the a couple seconds later the bell rings. Fans boo, Vince has no clue what happened on commentary, the count out win is announced; but Berzerker was only on the floor 7 or 8 seconds, and the ref didn't even seem like he was counting. It felt like someone accidentally rang the bell and Finkel improvised. Really disappointing. (Match is around the 13 minute mark of the link)

31. Berzerker vs. Scott Baizo - Superstars 12/4/91

So this match tricked me, as the file had a 6 minute running time, but it turns out 4 minutes of that is interviews with Virgil, Repo Man and High Energy. So you come for the hilarious jobber name of Scott Baizo (I hope he at some point teamed up with another man, maybe a man working an Indian gimmick, named Chaw-Chee, and that their tag team name was Charles & Charge, and that 25 years later he became a shameless shit pile with the same asshole haircut he had when he was relevant, decades before) and you stay for the disgusting match finishing bump. Yes this is a Berzerker squash, with him hitting the flying shoulderblock, a nasty kneedrop to the chest, his big boots with opponent tied up in the ropes, and then the finish which is him throwing Baizo over the ropes to the floor, practically past the ringside mats. Gross fall. Berzerker pillages on.

32. Berzerker vs. Barbarian - December 1991

Before the match Berzerker throws a high kick at the black ring announcer I don't recognize, who goes scrambling out of the way, and I already love this. Two giant dudes beating each other while wearing fur loincloths and boots. This match. HAD. TO. HAPPEN. It's like a Manowar album shoot gone horribly, tragically wrong. This starts off great with Berzerker throwing an impossibly stiff thud of a chop and Barbarian hitting him in the throat. We get more of Berzerker's super fast rope running, his big flying shoulderblock, and awesome missed flying shoulderblock into the corner, a couple big boots from both men (Barbarian's landing right under the chin), Barbarian clearly showing Berzerker he wasn't going to gas out and could work just as fast, big clubbing arms, and two crazy looking dudes shouting at each other after a count out.

More Berzerker tomorrow!!

COMPLETE & ACCURATE BERZERKER!

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My Favorite Wrestling! WCW Saturday Night 2/7/98

WCW Saturday Night 2/7/98


1. Glacier vs. The Cat

I always have a soft spot for the WCW karate matches. Most of them aren't very good but they're always just 3 minutes and have enough dumb fun. Cat doesn't move early enough for the planned missed Cryonic Kick spot, so he ends up "dodging" it by just swatting it away, which looked hilarious. The Feliner actually always looks really good, though, and Glacier leaned into it. Can't ask for much more than that I guess.

2. Scott/Steve Armstrong vs. Public Enemy

This was awesome because it was Armstrongs working as heels which is soooo great. Armstrongs are always great, but their heel offense is awesome. Tons of cool double teams, uppercuts and stooging. PE do their thing, which is OK. Grunge takes a bump into the stairs really nicely. Rachel says Rocco sells a body slam like a turtle flipped onto his shell, and she's 100% right.

3. Bobby Blaze vs. Barry Horowitz

Cool short match that had Horowitz working really stiff and Blaze tossing some cool suplexes. Finish was really great as Horowitz got thrown into the turnbuckles, stopped himself and came out of the corner and leveled Blaze with a GREAT rolling elbow. Then he picked Blaze up to finish him off with a DDT, stopped to pat himself on the back, which allowed Blaze to reverse with an awesome snap northern lights suplex for the win.

4. Chris Jericho vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.

Total 90s cruiser workrate 5 minute sprint. This was during my favorite Jericho period, when he was a total John Tatum tantrum-having crybaby. Chavo seems pretty loose here but Jericho is really great at getting into position for all his stuff and taking the offense nicely (he bumped gigantic off a dropkick). My sister and I LOVED him during this period.

5. Mark Starr vs. Louie Spicolli

I haven't actually seen tons of Louie Spicolli, maybe just a few matches. He didn't look as good as Mark Starr here, but he looked like a guy with potential. Starr threw some nice punches and took offense well, and Spicolli was a guy that had some pretty cool offense. Nice spine buster, big enziguiri, a lot of agility for a chubby guy. Are there any recommended Spicolli matches?

6. Disco Inferno vs. Goldberg

I love Goldberg. Disco is a pretty perfect foil for Goldberg because he knows how to stooge and holy shit do the fans go apeshit for the Jackhammer ALREADY. This was probably only 20 or 30 matches into the streak and the fans were way into it at this point. The guy just had "it".

7. Chris Adams vs. Brad Armstrong

Armstrong worked heel here and threw tons of cool shots to the neck and threw great uppercuts (hmmmm as did Scott Armstrong earlier tonight...) but this was kind of an Adams squash. He got some cool stuff in, including great forearms from the mount to the back of Brad's head and ending with an epic superkick (Brad spits at just the right time to make it look like a tooth flew out of his mouth and it looks SOOOOO GREAT) and AFTER the match we get the start of the Adams/Glacier SUPERKICK FEUD!!!! Awwwwwww yeah, baby. But holy shit did Adams' superkick look amazing here. I wish he could have kicked the shit out of Marufuji.

8. Mike Tolbert vs. Greg Valentine

I have zero memory of Mike Tolbert and when I did a google search for him the first thing that came up was a link to a blog titled "beefcakesofwrestling" and when I clicked on it, it took me to a page that asked me whether "I understood and wished to continue" or "I do not wish to continue" that the site had adult content and decided that I did not wish to continue. But now I'll forever wonder "why Mike Tolbert!?" I mean, in this episode alone I would have rather seen hunky oiled photos of Steve and Brad Armstrong and Chris Jericho, why is Mike Tolbert considered such a beefcake? I fully accept that I may not have my finger on the pulse of 1998 gay men society, so therefore acknowledge that I may not know who is a stud and who is not. I mean, I've seen the movie Longtime Companion and own a bunch of Hüsker Dü and R.E.M. records and have one gay Facebook friend I went to high school with (and shared a bed with on drama tour!! gasp!! Also, I was on the drama tour), but that doesn't really make me an authority on who is a beefcake in wrestling and who isn't. I guess I'm just disappointed in the gay community. I do hope that we get a little more gay interest traffic to the site here now that we'll boast one Mike Tolbert review. I think there's a lot of potential new readers.

A lot of readers have found the site by googling "Phil Schneider comps". A totally equal amount of people have found the site by googling "Jack Birthrider". I don't know if there was any crossover between those searches. Hell, we have one person within the week who found this site by searching for "Jack Birthrider".

I guess overall I'm just disappointed in the gay community for this whole Mike Tolbert: Beefcake fiasco. I mean, there were a bunch of Buff Bagwell nWo commercials on this episode. I just think they could set their sights way higher. Tolbert is such a bland, puffed up roids guy. So bland. That's what the gay community finds interesting!? Really!? You're telling me that if you're at an Erasure concert, and you see Mike Tolbert there, or you see Ray Lloyd or Chavo Jr., you're going for Mike Tolbert? And you're gonna tell all your friends about the beefcake you met while dancing to "A Little Respect" is some bland gassed white guy who has no idea how to run the ropes? For shame, gays.

9. Silver King vs. Eddie Guerrero

Hey, you know what two guys were good at pro wrestling? These two guys. Don't be fooled by the deceptively stocky physique of Silver King. Loved these two matched up against each other and would have loved a tag run. I'm glad King eventually got that great NJPW run as he really started coming into his own around now and became a big favorite of mine in 2001. I got nothing to add to this and yeah my write up sounds like I didn't even watch the match, but I just couldn't think of new ways to say "I enjoy how these guys run and tumble around each other".

10. Raven vs. Chris Benoit

Benoit starts with some mic work that contains this gem: "It's obvious, the book on my life has yet to be written." Uhhhhhh....yup. I fast forward through Raven on the stick. The flock does a run in about 30 seconds into this. Sick Boy spectacularly blows a springboard something and Benoit kicks him in the face.

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My Favorite Wrestling! WCW Saturday Night 2/13/99

Saturday Night 2/13/99

1. Bobby Blaze vs. Jerry Flynn

This was pretty awesome right here. Both guys threw big suplexes and big chops and this was a pretty great strike-based sprint. Flynn matches are always dependent on how much of a beating his opponents are willing to take, and Blaze is a pudgy guy who will take some kicks, throw some neat suplexes, and that all happens here. Flynn looked like a beast here and I especially loved his spinning kick in the corner. Blaze was a man and took is right on the chin. Loved how Flynn had a habit of just finishing guys with a tight armbar after throwing a suplex.

2. Johnny Swinger vs. Vincent

a 30 second Vince squash!? Swinger couldn't have felt great about himself after taking a 30 second loss to Vincent. That being said, Vincent has been a WCW B-Sides MVP contender on rewatch. I have no clue where he got good, but his late 90s WCW stuff has been killer. Here he uses a really cool single arm DDT into an Americana to get the quick tap.

3. Dave Burkhead vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.

I may be the biggest Dave Burkhead fan online . I'm pretty sure he was never involved in any classics, and he didn't have a great look, but he did a lot of small things better than most guys. Here he really made me appreciate taking a drop toe hold as he seems genuinely surprised by it and just does a hard face plant. At first I thought Burkhead was just a lumpy jobber, but now that I've had the privilege of seeing more Burkhead matches than most human beings, I can officially be called a Dave Burkhead fan. Dude was rock solid and always threw cool stuff into his jobber matches. He's like the Barry Houston of the late 90s. I showed this match to my incredulous friends who thought I was lying to them about how awesome Burkhead was, and they were all way down with Burkhead by the end of the match. Dude knew how to put over offense (he took a German suplex and tornado DDT right on the dome).

4. Scotty Riggs vs. Kaz Hayashi

Man Kaz Hayashi is fucking awesome. I remember digging him in 1999, but this guy is looking top 20 in the world from everything I've re-watched so far. Everything he does looks gorgeous and it's so accurate. He does that gorgeous tumbling moonsault from the top rope into the ring, and also over the top to the floor and it looks super graceful. Guys also give Kaz tons of offense in his matches even though he almost always ends up losing. Kaz takes like 70% of this match and it's awesome. Finish was Kaz leaning way into the 5-arm and holy shit Kaz Hayashi was like top 5 in WCW at this point.

5. Lodi vs. Kidman

I...truthfully didn't have much opinion on Lodi before watching this match. I don't remember seeing him wrestle much before the whole Lenny/Lodi thing, and even then I don't remember if he was good, bad, horrendous, awesome, whatever, who knows. But he seemed pretty damn good here. He took a monster bump into the guardrail and threw a really great knee lift (which is a move that a lot of guys do terribly). There was a GREAT spot where Lodi was trying to load one of his gloves in the corner, dropped it, and when he bent down to pick it up Kidman ran up and caught him in his springboard bulldog move. It was one of the greatest examples I've ever seen of "guy occupying himself while other guy sets up convoluted offense". How many times do people just bend at the waist waiting to take a move (looking at YOU Booker T axe kick), and Lodi of all people makes taking a move look entirely logical and makes Kidman look WAY better in the process. Finlay is the best at logically getting into position for opponents' signature offense, but now I'm genuinely looking forward to more Lodi!

6. The Cat vs. Booker T

Booker has aged horribly on this rewatch. I remember really liking him and now I'm starting to think the time I actually really liked Booker was like 3 months at the very beginning of 1998. I remember loving the Martel and Saturn matches from Superbrawl and some of the Benoit series, and now I'm realizing that might be it as far as WCW Booker. Harlem Heat has been dreadful. It's all sorts of sloppy kicks and posing. Cat looks pretty clueless here as well. It's not as bad as it could have been and has some pretty inspired moments (Cat got leveled on a nice short arm lariat) but then it ends in a DQ and it's like Whhhhhhhhhy!?

7. Horace vs. Chris Benoit

So as well as being the biggest Dave Burkhead fan, I'm pretty sure I may be the biggest Horace fan as well. I really dig Horace and this was a pretty good late 90s WCW dream match for me. Horace has some nice stuff in this including a great yakuza kick, a big tope (to one of the guardrail sides of the ring, not even into the entrance ramp side!!), takes all of Benoit's suplexes really well for such a large guy (reacts great to the snap suplex as well, shaking his finger at Benoit afterwards). Matches ends with Vincent running in to break things up, and then Mongo runs out and get this - doesn't look very good.

8. Juventud Guerrera vs. Rey Misterio Jr.

Classic late 90s cruiser action, and you really have to be a hardened asshole to hate on this kinda stuff. A lot of nerds nowadays will complain about "he should have sold _____ longer" and blah blah blah but whatever, this was two of the all time great cruiserweights doing tons of cool moves and reversals at a blindingly fast pace and it ruled. Cool flips and a rad Juvi springboard spinning heel kick and rad reversals and pre-shitty Rey tattoos and pre-weird Juvi stories about selling birdseed and gym bag-shitting and whatever. My girlfriend and I loved every second of this and it really brought me back to the days where I wouldn't give a shit about heavyweights and bought all my wrestling tapes based on all the rad cruiser matches on it. 90 stars.

9. Brian Adams/Vince vs. Dean Malenko/Chris Benoit

This was supposed to be Brian Adams vs. Dean Malenko, which sounds kinda shitty on paper. But it was changed pre-match to the tag you see above, which to me sounds completely AWESOME on paper and explains the earlier, shorter Vince match. Seriously, late 90s WCW Vincent is a revelation, just the perfect syndicated TV worker. Really knew how to cater his style to whatever guy he was working and he really may be the great lost late 90s superworker. His work against Malenko here was great, flying into his silly leaping flipping calf kick and once he goes on offense really begins the story of the match (working over Dean's back and building to the Benoit hot tag). He has all sorts of cool forearms and clubbing blows and an amazing elbow drop to Dean's back, with Adams then working it over with a nice tilt-a-whirl slam and just stretches Dean over his knee. Yeah it all gets no sold by the end of the match but the work by nWo was strong and you can't expect much more from a 6 minute Saturday Night tag that ends in a run-in. Personally, I thought Adams and Vince smoked the vanilla midgets in this match.

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My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Saturday Night 6/26/99

Dave Burkhead vs. Van Hammer

God bless him, Burkhead and his "buff guy that got fat" body tried his damndest here, but Van Hammer. But, Van Hammer. A lot of men have tried, but, in the end, Van Hammer.

Al Greene vs. Barbarian

OK, this episode ain't starting off too hot. WCW had an odd habit of booking Al Green as a heel, then putting him against other heels. I like the Barbarian a lot, but he didn't look great here and Al Green looked better than I remember him being. TomK had a good story about a diner he goes to in New Orleans that has a wall of autographed celebrity photos, people like John Larroquette, James Gandolfini, Willard Scott...and Al Greene. I've always wondered where those pictures come from. Do the celebrities carry them around with them and hand them out to the restaurant when the owner asks? Or does the owner just have a large number of 8x10s of guys like The Dog Al Greene? I once was at the bad mall in my town, and saw Willie Nelson walking around. I went up to him and quickly found out it was NOT Willie Nelson, but it was Almost Willie, the world's #1 Willie Nelson impersonator. He had a bunch of 8x10s in his bag and signed one for me. So does The Dog Al Greene just carry a bunch of 8x10s around with him?

La Parka vs. Kenny Kaos

Well this was just too much fun, with Parka taking some crazy bumps for a bunch of Kaos clotheslines and actually getting in a whole bunch of offense (including punching Kaos right in the face a couple times). It's been beaten to death by everybody by now, but WCW really just did not know what they had with La Parka. Crowd is crazy hot for the guy in this match. He could have made them a whole bank full of money. Shoot, here we are 12 years after this episode aired and Park is currently my favorite wrestler in the world. Weird.

Barry Windham vs. Rey Misterio Jr.

Jeez, Barry Windham's SUUUUPER tight and SUUUUUPER short jean shorts are the most disgustingly distracting piece of wrestling attire I've ever seen. I would rather seen him in (technically smaller) trunks, as these awful denim shorts just looked like the most uncomfortably ball-strangling piece of clothing possible. Every time he moved or shifted I kept expecting a testicle to rupture. His whole outfit is completely preposterous, with the nut-strangling short-shorts (they were so short the pockets were sticking out the bottom!), cowboy boots, giant knee brace, tank top, and gardening gloves. WTF? Match was fun but ends prematurely as Kendall just runs in and starts beating Rey down, leading to K-Dawwwwg, Swoll, Chase Tatum all running down and getting their swell on and just kinda....looking like shitheads.

Bobby Blaze/Lenny Lane vs. Curt Hennig/Bobby Duncum Jr.

Hennig/Duncum were almost as awesome as the Kendall/Barry Rednecks duo. They just tore Lenny and Blaze apart. Duncum was decent in the ring, but his strengths appear to be his work outside the ring. His distraction spots from the floor or apron were done really great, and he does a bunch of cool stuff (stuff that seems to just not exist in modern wrestling) from the apron to keep the babyface on their toes (grabbing at them when they get close, yelling threats, being awesome). West Texas Rednecks stuff has really aged the best out of all the '99 WCW stuff.

Great exchange from Hudson/Tenay during the 2nd West Texas Rednecks match:

MT: You know, Larry Zbyszko loves this song [Rap is Crap]!
SH: Really? I wouldn't think Larry would listen to anything made past 1912.
MT: Well he told me during Thunder last week that his favorite music is Bob Seger!
SH: Larry Zbyszko loves Bob Seger!?
MT: Yep, BIG rock and roll fan. You'll have to start watching the Thunder broadcasts more often!
SH: Now why would I want to do that!?

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My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Worldwide 7/4/98

My favorite way to watch my favorite wrestling is to just grab a random disc out of the stacks, no cherry picking, no looking up matchlistings, just going in blind. Sometimes you get bent over hard and end up sitting through Stevie Ray vs. Konnan, and other times Orion smiles upon you and you get a gloriously random mix of the most fun wrestling ever. So I went into the vaults and pulled out 7/4/98, the 222nd birthday of this great nation of ours. And WCW wished America happy birthday with one weird fucking episode.

1. Vincent vs. Marty Jannetty

First off, Marty fucking Jannetty (!) gets a clean pin over a member of the nWo halfway through 1998! WHAT!? Vincent looked awesome here, hitting an assortment of fistdrops and "Hitman" style elbow drops. Then Jannetty somehow gets the win. Insane. Did not see that coming. That's one of the great things about syndicated WCW, is that you get weird hierarchy matches between people that you've never seen win one match. Who wins a match between Van Hammer and Scott Vick? There are often no foregone conclusions with these matches. I didn't even know Marty was employed this late, let alone winning matches.

2. Lenny Lane vs. Spike Moore

Spike Moore was a guy I have NEVER seen before. He was wearing a pirate skull shirt and kinda looked like Droz. Match was close to getting the full point, before Lenny sold a roll up like a clothesline and then they just awkwardly cut to a finish. Moore hit his shoulderblocks really hard and looked decent. I could not find any information on the guy. Anybody?

3. Magnum Tokyo vs. Bobby Blaze

Blaze threw some fine suplexes and Tokyo grinded his crotch in Blaze's face a bunch, and Larry Zybszko kept calling Magnum "The Japanese". What? Really? This match could not take place anywhere else.

4. Villanos vs. High Voltage

THIS was totally awesome, with Villanos looking great as always, and RAGE and KAOS hitting their fun springboard power moves and bumping shockingly well. RAGE and KAOS were a pretty damn fun team looking back. I remember enjoying Rage's NJPW stint earlier this decade, but didn't remember if he was any good or not. For a team that jobbed constantly in WCW, the Villanos always seem to get put over strong on commentary and by their opponents. Teams always give them a bunch of offense (even if there's usually quite a size difference). Shoot, Brian Knobbs had a competitive 8 minute match against one of them, and most heavyweight workers don't get that much of a rub from Hogan friends. Good times.

5. John Nord vs. Goldberg

WHAT THE FUCK was Goldberg doing on WORLDWIDE in the middle of 1998!?!?!?!?!? Was this taped in like 1997!? Why was John Nord wrestling in 1998!? What the hell was happening here? I love you WCW!!!

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