Found Footage Friday: WWE in Melbourne, Australia 8/29/04

8/29/04 Full Show


Funaki vs. Rene Dupree

MD: Fun opener that outside for one big German cut off to set up the finish, could have happened almost spot for spot fifteen years before. This followed Teddy Long opening the show by flubbing a half dozen lines, but the fans were happy to see him and to be getting a show in general. Funaki came out with a valet who immediately went to the back and I can't place what was going on there and the internet is no help. Early chain wrestling worked. Lots of little tricks like Dupree pointing to his hair to draw the ref off so he could do a hairpull himself, only to have Funaki hold on to the wristlock. Things like that. Dupree got a knee in off the ropes and took over with things very first match and simple, but the crowd was eager to cheer and especially eager to see Dupree hop around with his trademark comedy bit of the month. That let him get rolled up for a banana peel Funaki win. Simple, straightforward, effective. I think the blog's covered maybe two Rene Dupree matches ever so I have no idea what his 2010s in Japan are like but I'm sort of curious. Regardless, it's hard to tell with a crowd this eager to see wrestling, but he seemed to be over, down to kissing the hand of a woman on the way out and getting a big pop. 

ER: "Tajiri!!" some little kid near the camera yells excitedly. Sorry, that's the other guy. Hopefully the kid doesn't get the exact same letdown during the Kenzo Suzuki match later on. This match is clipped up a bit, but what we got was really good. Rene Dupree was an majorly under-appreciated act in WWE, and would make an interesting project for me to go back through searching for gems. He was a fully formed act in 2004 and you could see that better on house shows than on TV. He knew how to get heat from this crowd, who granted, were excited to give that heat. They're like the perfect crowd for everything Dupree does, and they seem in on the joke without being annoying about it. I am not familiar with Australian sports, so I am also not familiar with the rhythm of Australian wrestling chants, which do not follow the NEMA standard four syllable/five clap timing. 

Dupree has very funny body language and is good at getting reactions with just his movement, or just his posture. When he's flopping in funny ways to sell Funaki's wristlock, falling over himself when Funaki just won't let go, it's like classic Regal. It builds really nicely from wrist control into some tough Dupree offense. He hit a hard shoulderblock, backbreaker, and a knee lift, and he flat out levels Funaki with a hard clothesline after punching mat on a Funaki sunset flip. They took it further than I was expecting, because I was not expecting Dupree to bounce Funaki off his face with a huge release German suplex. And the finish is great, as Dupree saves the French Tickler dance for the very end, giving the crowd exactly what they wanted (somehow the section with our cameraman were the biggest French Tickler fans in Melbourne), and as Dupree is bouncing his bulge for each side of the ring, he falls victim to a Funaki schoolboy. The crowd loved seeing Rene Dupree lose, but most importantly: They loved seeing Rene Dupree. I think Australia might have been right. 

Spike Dudley vs. Rey Mysterio

MD: A lot to like here too. Smart stuff right from the get go where Spike let Rey chase him around the ring so that he could ambush him on the inside, only to get a quick comeuppance and feed for a steady shine. That built to him taking a powder and threatening to leave only to really eat Rey's baseball slide on the way out and catch his flip dive over Charles Robinson, who had tried to stop him from diving a moment before. Real crowd-pleasing stuff. Nice transition where Spike jammed Rey off the ropes causing him to bump stomach first out of the ring. The heat was them working in and out of bodyscissors with the comeback just a foot up by Rey on a leap from the top by Spike. In the stretch it was all about wondering how Rey was going to position him for the 619, and he did manage it after kicking out of an Acid Drop, but by then the Dudleys had come out and one foot grab and roll up later (second roll up in two matches, so that's some iffy agenting), Spike's retained. They did a good job of making it seem like the fans might see a title change for a while there though.

ER: Heel era Spike was really great, and I was so excited to get another singles match from that run, let alone another Rey singles match. The only singles matches they had on TV was Spike's title win and Spike's title loss, so it's cool seeing the literal first singles match after the title win. Spike always had good offense but wasn't always in the role to show that offense. His heel run was his chance to show his bruiser side, the side he probably hadn't played since his Incredibly Strange Wrestling. This was the match I was most excited to see on this handheld, and while it probably wasn't as good as Rene Dupree vs. Funaki, it was still so good. The crowd was into heel Spike, and Spike is a great base for Rey's best. Spike takes a sick bump into the ringpost and later threatens to walk out, then walks back the hard way directly into a Rey baseball slide, then adeptly catches his slingshot senton. Spike is real precise worker on offense and defense, good at catching crossbodies and nailing his flying forearm and torpedo headbutt. His set ups are really strong, and Rey has precision as good or greater than Spike's so it's a super pairing of the two smallest guys on the roster. 

Dawn Marie vs. Torrie Wilson

MD: I went and watched this. Might as well write it up. They had probably wrestled each other fifty times by this point, right? They had the act down. The fans clapped Torrie up while in the chinlocks but barely reacted at all to her spear and her actual comeback, which is always a sign that something isn't quite right. Korderas brought out a hankerchief for after he got rolled upon during the catfight bit and that was kind of funny, I guess. Prop comedy. They came back and did this exact same match up the following April and I'm vaguely curious to see what that would have looked like. I don't know. This was fine for what it was and Dawn Marie gets a few extra points for her post match selling, even if she lost a few for never leaving her feet on the catapult into the corner. I'd never seen someone take a catapult as an Irish Whip before. Torrie won with a DDT. Something on this card needed a clean finish so I guess this was as good as any.

ER: Maaaaan I think Matt is being a bit of a curmudgeon here. I was actually excited for this one, because Dawn Marie is a really great thing. I became a big fan of Dawn Marie since seeing her at the 1/3/03 WWF Cow Palace card, where she had a standout match on an absolutely stacked show. It was a Bra & Panties match against Gail Kim, where she worked arm based offense to weaken Kim's clothes-ripping abilities. Both women played into the story and it was definitely the most technical match I've seen worked around a Bra & Panties gimmick. Dawn Marie bringing arm work into a match for the sole purpose of delaying the panty payoff is the mark of a brilliant heel worker who knew exactly what she was doing, impossible for me to not be a fan for life. And I think this match a year and a half later was really good, painting the picture of a real strong house show worker. 

Dawn Marie's selling is strong, she throws hard forearms, and works really tight headlocks. She's honest on offense, making good contact and selling that impact. Look at the way she runs into and staggers out of Torrie Wilson's boot in the corner. I don't think she ever got enough credit for how well she took offense and excelled at the basics. I thought the Jimmy Korderas comedy spot worked really well toward the end of the match. It's not the kind of spot they were doing on television, and based on all of the people audible around our cameraman, this section was clearly familiar with all of the TV. You could tell by the big reaction and genuine laughs that the crowd hadn't seen two women steamrolling a bald ref with their cat fight, and it felt like a moment unique to a house show. Also, I loved how they set up the spot right after, where Torrie cut LOW on a clothesline that almost hit Korderas! Torrie threw that with more violent form than I would have expected, and I love a miss thrown like a HR swing. Dawn took the DDT right on her head, in the way that looked like a finish. I don't know man. I hate to say Matt is wrong but House Show Dawn Marie speaks for herself. 

Billy Gunn vs. Heidenreich

MD: So far, past a little blip here or there, this was a wrestling show in front of a crowd that wanted to see a wrestling show. Here, that meant Heyman came out and got some real cheap heat on the mic and Gunn came out and got just as cheap a pop. I spend a bunch of time watching 2022 Billy and he stands out in a way now that he didn't back then, but we probably didn't give him enough credit as a community for what he did do well. Not just the punches either. Here, he bumped like crazy to get over the transition (wiping out on the post on the outside) and then to put over the cutoffs. Heidenreich could lean on some simple armwork and wasn't asked to do too much. The finish was, again, straight out of 1989 with Heyman (who had just sold a crotch chop like death on the outside) up on the apron as Billy was going for his finish and he walked right into Heidenreich's kind of weak Boss Man Slam. Again, everything so far has just been hitting the right buttons for the crowd, just like a house show should. 

ER: I thought this was really good too. I must be in some kind of mood. Some of these house shows just really hum. The pacing on this show has been really good, and perhaps it's been helped out a bit by our cameraman's selective in-match editing. Everything has been 5-10 minutes and it's a reallll comfortable window for this roster to hit. I've had a lot of fun going through Big Boss Man's 2002 run, and I bet there are some unheralded gems in Billy Gunn's 2003-2004. Those Gunn/Holly vs. The Bashams matches probably look a lot better in 2022 than they felt in 2004. Shit I should probably do a Bashams C&A too. That one's been overdue.  

This match was a great Gunn showcase, but Heidenreich had a couple real high notes. He took a crazy fast bump over the top to the floor on a missed charge, then a big tumbling bump off the apron after getting up into a hard Gunn forearm smash. Their floor work was really inspired, with Heidenreich taking a big spill into the guardrail (in the days when there was still a big metal guardrail for a 270 lb. guy to sprint into) and Billy Gunn wrapping himself around the ringpost like 1983 Lawler in the Mid-South Coliseum. Heidenreich throws a nice running clothesline, and Gunn takes a real nice flipping bump from it, flipping from the contact and not before it. All of Gunn's punches looked great, from his early match jabs in the corner to his woozy stumbling rights to build to the finish. Heyman's theatrics are incredible house show bullshit, reacting to a Gunn crotch chop by getting literally hopping mad. If he had a hat he would have slammed it to the ground like Boss Hogg. He takes a really big bump off the apron when Gunn punches him off, and I actually thought Heidenreich's high side slam looked pretty good. It didn't have the impact of the Boss Man Slam, but it's not really controversial to say Heidenreich wasn't as good as the Big Boss Man. But the height was actually high, and his control through the move was really good. 

Eddie Guerrero vs. Kurt Angle

MD: It's been a long time since I've revisited any of the Angle vs. Guerrero feud from earlier in 2004, but this was really good. I think it benefited from being a house show, from having lower stakes, from having more time to breathe, from being in the middle of the card. They started with more time on the mat than I remember Angle usually taking at this point in his career, competitive and scrappy. They moved into a headlock sequence with a big payoff then a top wristlock back and forth with all sorts of comedy that was actually funny, all capped off by Eddy pantsing Angle (which the crowd loved but it followed Gunn doing it to himself because it was his gimmick so again, agenting). When Angle finally got to throw a suplex, it meant something, because there was a place for the match to build to. He wasn't working like Mark Rocco but instead let things breathe and build. It all led up to a pretty exciting finishing stretch with one really great nearfall. These two might have had bigger matches earlier or later in the year, but I doubt they had a better one. It was one of the best, most balanced, most measured and meaningful WWE Angle matches I've seen.

Dudley Boyz vs. Paul London/Billy Kidman

MD: Another attempt at cheap heat to start with the crowd getting behind Kidman's Ralph Macchio delivery and overall solid sense of comedic timing. They got on Bubba and seemed to really enjoy chanting at D-Von later so who knows. They were just happy to be there. London worked the brunt of this until the hot tag and the finishing stretch, even most of the shine. D'Von fed for them but Bubba made them work for everything early. It made for a good combination since there was some gravitas due to the size differential while still letting them hit some of their flashier stuff. Heat was well set up with London getting a shot in on Bubba on the apron and then immediately paying for it. Finishing stretch called back to the Cruiserweight match earlier with Spike and then Rey coming out and it all ending with heel miscommunication, another DDT pin, and Spike taking the 619. Good piece of house show business overall.

Rob Van Dam vs. Kenzo Sukuzi

MD: You can't say that these two didn't match up well. They both had stupid, stylized offense, but in some ways that was better than only one of them having stupid, stylized offense. Both took one big bump too, Suzuki taking one from the top rope to the floor off a kick to the rear and RVD going hard into the steps to start the heat. Cutoffs were ok but the actual comeback move was just a kick out of nowhere and felt anti-climactic. As did the finishing stretch. Suzuki probably would have done better to stall more at the start. It was getting a reaction and he had Hiroko at ringside to help get heat. 

John Cena/Charlie Haas vs. Booker T/Luther Reigns

MD: Cena felt like the biggest, most electric star on the show so far, and that's saying something when Angle vs. Eddy was earlier in the night. When I'm watching a random house show tag like this, what I'm really looking for, as much as anything else, are the wrestlers interacting with one another. Cena brought that in a big way, pulling Jackie Gayda in to pose and clapping up Haas after the initial stalling. Delaying of gratification meant that the match started with Haas vs. Reigns instead of Booker vs. Cena, playing around with them post-match. You got the sense that Cena was trying to elevate them for the crowd. There was a bit of Booker hyping Reigns to start the match that was good too. We lose a chunk of this, most of the heat but Haas looked pretty good in there with Reigns for the minute or so we got. Booker exuded this oozing sliminess when he came in to work Haas over. Past that, it was a little paint by numbers in giving the fans what they wanted, but Cena made sure all the numbers were at least high and vibrant and it ended up feeling like a big celebration. 

JBL vs. Undertaker

MD: Really strong house show main event here. JBL cut a good, deluded promo trashing Australia and asking the fans to support him like he was 1983 Tommy Rich. I liked the early loop a lot where they bypassed the initial stalling, teased Old School, had JBL hit a great neckbreaker and Russian leg sweep, had Taker sit up, then did the stalling/leaving, and finished it with Taker dragging him back and actually hitting Old School. The match hinged upon JBL taking out Taker's leg and he really worked to get it early, first capitalizing on a missed knee in the corner by punching it out, then turning a Taker move on the stairs around, and finally tossing a chair into the ring to distract the ref so he could whack it with another chair. He had a nice (in theory though maybe not execution) Gagne-style deathlock on for a while and then they were able to use it to justify all of Taker's comebacks getting cut off. The finish was full of ref bumps and Dupree coming back to cause trouble before the groggy ref saw JBL use the belt for the DQ. Post match, Taker destroyed half the roster as the crowd chanted for Cena to come out to save him, but ultimately they were probably more than ok with what they got.

ER: I thought this was an excellent JBL outing and a kind of lacking Undertaker outing until all of the push to his big comeback, balancing out to a very good house show main. For the first 10 minutes of this long match, I swear Undertaker was throwing every single strike 3" short of his intended target. You could clearly see every JBL shot (and I do mean every kick, punch, chop, and elbow) land, and here's Undertaker throwing punches at a fly a few inches in front of JBL's forehead. JBL and Undertaker's star do the work of two men here, but JBL is the guy taking big bumps and attempting to lean into Taker's strikes, and it's just a great JBL match. I loved early when he wasn't budging Taker with shoulderblocks, then rushes in with even more steam only to get sidestepped, crashing over the top to the floor in a really big bump. JBL is good at bumping into the ring steps, but leg control JBL was a different kind of fun than I was expecting this match to be. When JBL dodges a Taker running boot in the corner and Taker's balls hit the buckles, that's JBL's time to work over that leg.

I love his kneebreaker, a really vicious move for a guy his size to do, trapping Taker's shin in his legs and jumping down to his knees. Taker has an amusingly loose set up for his own rolling kneebar, but JBL is good at dropping tons of elbows on Taker's knee, trapping it in his own legs, applying pressure to the actual knee, and recoiling from all of Taker's strikes to break that hold. Taker is very good at limping around and paying lip service to that knee, though seemed to be selling it better when his leather pant leg was hiked up his leg. JBL set up all of Taker's comeback offense really well, and leaned right into that Snake Eyes/Big Boot combo that a lot of fans bought as the finish. The crowd seemed genuinely surprised when Taker kicked out of the Clothesline from Hell, and I loved Rene Dupree's big bump off the apron when Taker kicked away his distraction. You can't have JBL - even as champ - pinning Taker on the main event of Melbourne's only show of the year, and I thought all the bullshit at the finish was more than enough to send a crowd home happy. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE 305 LIVE

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On Brand Segunda Caida: 2002 Big Boss Man

 Big Boss Man was brought back to WWF in late 2001 in what I can only assume was a classic WWF "Hey it's December and we probably need a couple more options to flesh out the Rumble in a month" move. After returning in a Smackdown feud against Steve Austin he was almost immediately relegated to the syndicated weekend shows. This would be how his final WWF run would play out (while being there just long enough to bridge the gap from WWF to WWE). Metal was on at 1 AM Saturday nights (right after WCW Worldwide at midnight) and it felt like I was the only person watching these shows. My college radio show was midnight to 2 AM, so I would record Metal and Worldwide, get Taco Bell on the way home, and soak in the syndicated wrestling while wolfing down double decker tacos. I had fond memories of this little 2002 Boss Man run and wanted to see how it held up.

Big Boss Man/Booker T vs. Steve Austin/The Rock WWF Raw 1/7/02

ER: Boss Man came back and was put immediately into a pretty high profile program opposite the two biggest stars in wrestling, but would be found exclusively on the weekend syndicated programs just a month later. And Boss Man is clearly the glue of this fast paced, crowd pleasing match. Now, a match with the two biggest stars in wrestling shouldn't really need much glue, and this packed MSG crowd would have been happy just having both of them out here saying catchphrases, Stunner, People's Elbow, middle fingers, Steveweisers, etc. Instead we get 8 super fun minutes where the winners were never in doubt and the winners took 80% of the match, while Boss Man worked to make sure the momentum didn't die down. When Booker came in, he was mostly doing exchanges with Rock; Boss Man was the one trying to tie everything together, taking all the big bumps (he ate a clothesline to the floor from Rock, got punched off the apron by Austin and did a tremendous sprinkler spit spray as he was falling, then got knocked down again when he tried to get up on the apron shortly after). 

2002 Boss Man was really great at credibly playing a big man getting his ass kicked. He went up for two different Austin spinebusters, flew hard into the Thesz press, went over on a heavy Austin backdrop, and had better timing than anyone in the match. I had forgotten how sloppy Rock was during this era, really hitting a lot of his moves at 50% and expecting his opponent to make it work (Booker has to belly to belly suplex himself and had to bump a crossbody that looked like Rock couldn't decide between clothesline or crossbody so just did a terrible version of both combined), but Booker and Boss Man were good at making it work! Boss Man was great at getting heat from a crowd who wanted only to cheer Austin and didn't so much care about heels, but Boss Man was good at making sure those face reactions were even louder. It's hard to work interesting Heel in Peril segments, but he did, and his punches on Rock in the corner were among my favorite parts of the match.

Big Boss Man vs. Edge WWF Smackdown 1/10/02

ER: This was so awesome, Boss Man was the master of 3 minute matches with unique structures during this era. This was a one sided massacre, Boss Man one step ahead of Edge, and it was a smart match. He launched Edge with two different beals, cut off every offense Edge tried (catching a nice crossbody and dropping him with a great backbreaker), bullies him around the ring with several perfect punches, throws in a kneelift and chokes Edge down to the mat. We get the cool as hell Boss Man slide, an impossibly perfect baseball slide for a 300 pounder, before belting Edge. I love the way Edge's comeback and win is set up, with Boss Man totally dominating and then going to the floor for his night stick. The timing on this next spot was so well done, as Boss Man gets back into the ring with the stick, Teddy Long reaches out to grab it, and while the baton is being held by both Long and Boss Man, Edge nails him with a spear. Boss Man is so smart about setting up those kind of timing spots, always nails the mark. Even better was how he gets knocked into the ropes, bouncing back into an Edge spinning heel kick. Boss Man gets knocked and bounces off the lower ropes, springing back in time to eat that kick. He doesn't always go to that low rope bump, but when he does it always makes sense for the move he's selling. He's able to make Edge's silly "I grab your head and pull you backwards" look plausible, and the Edgecution on the night stick is a neat twist on the finisher.

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New Footage Finlay: TAYLOR~! KNIGHT~! UNDERTAKER~! LASHLEY~! BATISTA~! BOOKER~!

Fit Finlay vs. Dave Taylor Portsmouth 3/14/95 - GREAT

MD: Say what you will about 21st century UK crowds, but these fans were pretty great on this night in 1995. I would have loved to be in there with them taunting Finlay and chanting for "Rocky" Taylor, all with this amazing familiarity. If the crowd was the star, the wrestlers more than held up their own. Finlay was opportunistic and unafraid to stooge but hit hard and riled the crowd up accordingly. Taylor was fiery and sympathetic with big comebacks. The finish was abrupt, a missed charge in the corner and a lightning-fast Fujiwara Armbar which is not something I usually think of as a finish to Finlay matches but it worked and it's almost a shame he didn't use it more often as a way to keep everyone on their toes.

PAS: This was a blast, a chance to see what these two could do with a big of time on a house show. Finlay was a big hitter as usual and Taylor keeps right up with him. That Taylor press slam was a killer spot, and I loved the flash Finlay Fujiwara armbar as a finish, can you imagine how much your shoulder would hurt with Fit fucking Finlay yanking up on it. 

Finlay/Mr. Kennedy/King Booker vs. Batista/Bobby Lashley/Undertaker WWE 10/22/06 - GREAT

MD: Batista's dad is the son of Filipino immigrants and this was a huge homecoming for him. There were moments (like the entrances) where it felt like WWE thought Undertaker might be the bigger star, and I do sort of wonder if Taker switched a few things around mid-match. In general though, it was a fairly big bomb house show main event with a heel side that was outmatched by the face side and that stooged accordingly. Booker, during this period, had such a unique, pronounced way of doing, while Finlay was able to draw upon some of his timing and tricks from his heel run twenty years earlier. We saw less of that in his "I love to fight" 00s run, but it makes complete sense against these opponents. The heels didn't want to get in there against any of them, and while there was begrudgingly loyalty to Booker, there wasn't respect or real deference. They worked in mini-heat segment on Batista, just to get the crowd riled, but most of this were the heels feeding and stooging, and then some heat on Taker (including Finlay being very effective at believably keeping control through constant grinding) to set up the big hot tag to Batista and the finish. The post-match, with Dave hamming it up, including that one last run into the ring, was great pro wrestling.

PAS: These kind of house show matches are so entertaining. Just big stars working a tried and true formula and sending the crowd happy. I was surprised at how effective Undertaker was at working face in peril, you wouldn't think that would be a skill he would have a lot of time to practice. Booker and Finlay were especially good at working him over, and I dug Booker teasing the Spinaroonie and flipping off the crowd. Batista wasn't as good a heater as I was hoping he would be, but I did love how over he was, and it would have been fun to see a Manilla territory built around him as Carlos Colon.

Fit Finlay vs. JD Knight 4FW 2/25/12 - GREAT

MD: Hey, it's Finlay mauling some poor jerk in front of a UK indy crowd in a No DQ match. All in all, a pretty satisfying beating, though I'm sad they never paid off Finlay picking up the expensive light to hit him with at the top of the ramp. That wasn't even a transition moment, and it led to some other solid brutality, so it's fine, but that would have been a real satisfying thud. Knight did ok working the desperation cheap shots in from underneath and he got to show some toughness in there, and the big affront of hitting Finlay with his own shillelagh to set up the final comeback and the finish, but this was primarily about Finlay beating the heck out of him, down to the insult to injury post-match shot, as it well should have been. Anyone know if we have that bloody Dick Togo match from a prior 4FW show they were talking about on commentary?

PAS: I thought this was an excellent version of the Fit Finlay touring ass kicking show. Little stuff which makes Finlay so class, like grabbing Knight by the chin, or cracking him with the broken chair piece. I wasn't completely enamored by Knight's offense (although the shillelagh shot looked great), but he took some monster bumps, including a big Psicosis corner bump, and a tope directly into a Finlay chair shot (and Finaly really wound up and swung for the fences too).  I do think that ring light was an unshot Chekov's gun, but otherwise this is what you want for a Finlay indy showcase.

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WCW Monday Nitro 2/7/00 from Tulsa, Oklahoma!

Wrestling feds never spent more to swirl the drain than WCW did in 2000. For a fed I loved throughout the 90s, I couldn't stand their main product (Nitro, PPV) in 2000 and avoided it almost entirely. I wasn't alone or unique in that stance, as attendance and buyrates were dropping rapidly. In fact, by the time Nitro came to Tulsa, Oklahoma's Convention Center in 2000, they pathetically only drew 6,358 paid. A few months before they drew nearly 7,500 at this same arena for a house show. Can you imagine a hot, popular act drawing less than 6,500 in Tulsa? Clearly an act on the downswing, if you can't put 6,500 butts in the seats in the Tulsa Convention Center.

Evan Karagias vs. Norman Smiley

ER: This was plenty fun for a 90 second match, with 3 Count all trying to interfere and Smiley running Karagias into them, with Moore taking a bump into the ring and Helms getting bumped off the apron. Smiley punched Karagias in the face a couple times, Karagias threw a nice leaping back elbow, and I liked how Karagias kept scrambling away from the wiggle. This would have been good had they given it just 3 minutes. Low end Nitro matches going from a 3 minute runtime to 1-2 minutes was one of the worst parts about this era WCW. There's just not much that can be done in 90 seconds. 

Jesus, poor Danny Hodge is in attendance. 

The nWo comes out and cuts a long and horrifying promo, although Scott Steiner was in typical Scott Steiner form. He goes on the mic hard after Ric Flair, saying that he stole the gimmick of the legend Buddy Rogers ("I know, I know, Buddy Rogers is dead, rest his soul") and says that Rogers is rolling over in his grave and that Flair won't ever have the class of Rogers. And speaking of class, he calls Flair an ass kissin', back stabbin, butt suckin' bastard and also runs down the people of Tulsa. Mark Madden asks Schiavone if he knows what Tulsa spelled backwards is. Good lord. 

Booker vs. The Wall

ER: The Wall was raw as hell at this point, and it's kind of surprising he was put on TV. He didn't really know how to sell punches or bump, but Booker is professional and makes this mostly work. Booker's punches looked really good and he made sure to fly hard into Wall so Wall would know when to fall over. Wall had a great high kick, and that was his only real asset at this point. He kicked like a Rockette, and Booker was smart and clearly had Wall use that kick for a couple of misses (to lead to Booker spin kicks) and then once to land. Wall did fly off the top into a Booker spin kick, which looked cool and also looked silly because again, Wall didn't know how to bump and bend his body. So he just kind of falls over like a mannequin. Booker took a big bump to the floor and really slammed Wall with his rock bottom, then we got some interference because of course. 

Barbarian vs. Tank Abbott

ER: How hard is it to just let these two stiff the hell out of each other for 3 minutes? This doesn't even go 1 minute, which is just cruel. The 1 minute goes as you'd want it to go, with Barbarian throwing big clubbing hands on Tank the second Tank gets on the apron, he and Tank throw blows (literally the easiest pairing to book), Tank backs him in the corner and throws some mean back elbows, and then the moment they start throwing again Barbarian just goes down from the first clean punch. After, Tank blows off Big Al who has come to see him in person!

Oh cool, Oklahoma is out and brings out a plastic surgeon (Dr. Jeter) to talk about all the work Madusa has had done, and the crowd seems into the misogyny at first but it goes on a bit too long for their liking. Madusa comes out and kicks everyone in the balls and also stands on Dr. Jeter's balls. Cooooool. 

I Quit: Terry Funk vs. David Flair

ER: I think David Flair is the worst wrestler to get any significant run in a major wrestling company. This guy didn't even know how to STAND like a human, let alone move like a professional wrestler. This man had no instincts for STANDING! His face was the face of a man who looked like he constantly had to be thinking "stand normal stand normal stand normal" and whenever he had to think about anything else he would naturally revert back to forgetting how to stand. David Flair's movements were so wooden that before his matches he would oil up with Minwax. This match starts with Funk taking 6 straight chairshots to the head, and Flair doesn't know how hard or soft to throw them but also has a hard time because he doesn't know how to bend his arms. If you've seen David Flair stand badly, you've also seen how weird his arms look. They don't quite dangle, but they don't look usable. They look locked in place like old action figure arms, no points of articulation. He's all hunched over with possibly not working arms, and a loose as hell stretched out t-shirt collar. He has dead eyes and rosy cheeks and looks like he's a day away from shooting up a church in the south. 

Terry Funk somewhat works a miracle here, because he takes those chairshots and then starts throwing Flair around ringside, while trash talking Ric Flair on he mic. He tosses David into the guardrail and then pulls back the ringside mats and hits a nice piledriver on the floor, and a hard DDT. "You better come and get your kid, Flair. While he's still alive." Funk piledrives David through a table (Madden makes sure to remind us three different times while this is happening that Funk piledrove Ric through a table at Music City Showdown). Funk goes on a long and awesome old man Terry rant, calling Flair banana nose and then quitting, giving David the technical win. Funk really made this far and away the most entertaining segment on the show. Even though that's a super low bar so far this episode, that shows that 55 year old Funk can still have the best segment on a wrestling show while paired with the worst wrestler of all time. 

Disco Inferno vs. Stevie Ray 

ER: I forgot Ahmed Johnson was here at this point, as Big T. And he's at least 40 pounds heavier than his WWF days. I always thought he looked cool as hell in WWF, and here he's still a different kind of cool. He's wearing a green windbreaker suit, leather fanny pack, chain, and looks like a sinister cookout uncle who is always the first to initiate an altercation. Totally forgot the cool Big T vibe. This was certainly a 2 minute Disco/Stevie Ray match, and none of the match looked as cool as Big T looked at ringside. 

Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Brian Knobbs

ER: Finlay is the ref for this one, and even though this only goes a couple minutes it's still got a lot of asskicking. Knobbs took a bunch of nasty shots and spills and Bigelow happily continued to hit him with stuff. The match starts with Bigelow throwing a trash can at Knobbs from the ring, then hopping down and bashing him with the lid. Knobbs really takes some hard bumps, working way harder than I remember, really running hard chest first into the guardrail, gets his cast smashed into the ring steps and hit by a crutch, gets run into a ladder and then the ladder falls over RIGHT onto his face. Guy is taking a beating. We get a funny moment where Finlay hands Knobbs a trash can to use without Bigelow seeing (well timed by Finlay) and Knobbs uses it, but then Finlay hits Knobbs with a chair to give Bigelow the win. These guys sure take a lot of headshots.

Billy Kidman vs. The Demon

ER: So The Demon isn't very good, and the crowd chants for Torrie Wilson for the entire match, but things aren't all bad. Kidman takes a nice bump to the floor off a so so Demon clothesline and he makes a Demon DDT look like a credible finisher. Kidman's match winning frankensteiner looked really great.

Sid Vicious vs. Scott Hall

ER: Sid was such a megastar, and as they show Hall and Sid walking backstage before the match, it appears that Sid is chanting his own name. He's doing it the exact same way as the Yes! chant, arms over his head, just chanting his name. When he comes out for his entrance he gets a huge reaction, and is just lighting up the fans with fistbumps on his way to the ring. This guy had charisma and anyone who has badmouthed Sid is clueless. I think Hall has always been a good Sid opponent, as he has size but knows exactly how to bump for Sid, goes down fast for Sid's punches and weaves his head just right to cover for Sid's weird corner punches. He stooges and stumbles for Sid but doesn't come off like a joke at all. The fans go wild when Sid grabs Hall for the chokeslam and drags him all around the ring so everyone can get a glimpse. We get a great ref bump when Hall does a killer fallaway slam that clips Nick Patrick, and really for an era that did constant ref bumps this was one of the well orchestrated ones. Patrick was standing in the right spot, Hall didn't awkwardly change direction with his throw, it looked real good. Then Jarrett runs out and wrecks Sid, and Hall hits an awesome Razor's Edge on Sid, but then Jarrett turns on Hall for trying to win (what was Hall expected to do in his title match? I don't understand any of this) and the nWo disbands.


This was not a good episode of wrestling television, but it's kind of amazing how enthusiastic the whole crowd remained the entire time. It's cool that a crowd of under 7,000 could maintain that kind of enthusiasm for something that is clearly falling apart right in front of them. They're watching this promotion that looked damn near unstoppable just three years prior, and now they're looking at this offensive, lumbering, wounded, leaking monstrosity. And you'd think it would leave the arena awkwardly quiet in the wrong spots and leave a bunch of embarrassing photos which show how empty large sections were, but we don't get any of that. We get to witness a crowd of about 6,500 Oklahomans actually having a good time, regardless of the sad presentation they were witnessing. I'm glad the people of Oklahoma got that, at least. 

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On Brand Segunda Caida: Heavenly Bodies! Godwinns! Vader! Craig Pittman!

The Heavenly Bodies vs. John Paul/Mike Khoury WWF All American 3/13/94

ER: The Heavenly Bodies really had some of the craziest offense in WWF (or anywhere) during this era. They felt innovative without feeling implausible, and I wish I could see them today against modern indy teams. This is a short squash and we get a Demolition Device but with a big splash, a weird and amazing spinebuster from the middle buckle, big double team suplex, Del Ray bouncing Khoury off his head on a snap suplex, Pritchard log rolling Khoury's legs out while Del Ray hits a falling clothesline, and a wild moonsault press to end it. Just a pornographic amount of creative offense that they're able to blend into a short match. Add to this that the Bodies had arguably my favorite ring trunks in wrestling history, and they certainly feel like a team we need to write about a lot. This might be the most fun 2 minutes you spend watching wrestling today.

Vader/Mankind vs. The Godwinns WWF Raw 1/27/97

ER: Here's a nice little hoss battle that nobody remembers. The Godwinns were both huge and aggressive and had no problem hitting hard, really a cool team ripe for discovery. Both of them eat Mankind up in the first part of this, Phineas was throwing straight right hands and nice headbutts, Henry carried Mankind around and slammed him right in front of Vader, Godwinns really looked on the level of two HOF guys. Of course, Vader comes in and wrecks Phineas with a dozen giant bear paw swipes in the corner and hits a lariat that would stop the heart of a smaller man. We get some wild bumps to the floor: Mankind and Phineas tangle in the ropes and so Henry just runs in and lariats both of them over the top to the floor; later, Vader and Mankind team up to slingshot Phineas from the ring, over the ropes to the floor. I don't know if I've ever seen that before. Vader is a bunch of fun in this, even dropping an elbow right on Henry's balls, and you know Vader has a great elbow drop. We even get a spirited brawl around ringside, with Henry coming in hot to save Phineas, jumping over the ring steps and almost crashing right onto Phineas' head, then Henry and Vader slam into each other and crash hard into the barricade, Mankind crashing face first into the ring steps. I think we're going to need to look for more Godwinn gems after this one...

Booker T vs. Craig Pittman WCW Power Plant 8/1/98

ER: Honestly this is mostly inconsequential, but it is a fascinating glimpse into what kind of footage WWE might have sitting around in their vault. If something like this was not only recorded, but saved in perfect quality for 20 years, who knows what else might be in the vault. Talk about a dream job. Sitting in some climate controlled building all day just watching recordings with vague descriptions and having no idea what might be on them? Tell me where I have to move, pay me minimum wage, whatever. If there is a 3 minute scrap at the Power Plant between these two, then I want a drop of just hours and hours of Buddy Lee Parker making muscleheads do burpies until they throw up. I want video of Buddy stretching Batista until he quits. Imagine being the guy in the vault who finds the footage of The Giant doing a moonsault at the Power Plant!? 

I had no idea Pittman was involved with WCW in any way in 1998, but here he is looking in even better shape than during his push a few years prior. He and Booker grapple and Booker goes for a couple half hearted takedowns, and you can see Pittman instinctively do a quick sprawl on each. Booker really would have gotten wrecked if he actually went for something. By the end of this Booker is breathing heavy and both have broken a sweat, but the true gift is the cameraman - twice - deciding to turn his camera lovingly to a different camera man and letting us soak it all in. Are we going to get an alternate camera angle of this some day? Are we ever going to find out if that twice peaked at chubby dad of a cameraman ever turned his own camera on our mystery photog, when he wasn't looking, just two grips coming to grips with their own hidden, wanton lust, spurned on by the primal grappling of two warriors. Imagine being the guy working in the WWE vault who discovered the WCW Power Plant version of Beau Travail?

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My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Main Event 7/7/96

If that date sounds familiar, it's because this is the pre-show to Bash at the Beach, where something *kind* of huge would go on to happen.

1. The Steiner Bros. vs. Harlem Heat

This match works just fine, until it inevitably turns into the continuing saga of Col. Robert Parker and Sherri, as practically every Heat tag from this era did. In rewatching a lot of this era it was surprising how terrible a lot of the Heat matches were. I remembered them as a decent team but man were they sloppy and man did their tags have horrible structure. But Booker was on during the first part of this, flying into Scott with a huge shoulderblock, working him over with a nice bearhug that Scott turned into an even nicer overhead belly to belly. Rick came in and hit a great powerslam on Booker, and things (shockingly!) slowed down quite a bit once Stevie Ray tagged in. Stevie hits a nice elbowdrop, and then locks on a neverending chinlock until the Parker interference. For his part Parker takes a big hip toss bump into the ring from the apron. On the previous show they were advertising Steiners vs. Rock n Roll Express which would have been awesome. Instead we get this. And this...was probably better than I expected.

2. Billy Kidman vs. Hardwork Bobby Walker

So let's start off by saying that this match gets 90 seconds. Let's go on to say that these guys clearly knew they were only getting 90 seconds, and proceeded to do as much as they possibly could in 90 seconds. Something seemed up right from the beginning as both guys are just working lightning fast. It looked like things were on double speed and I'm thinking "man how are these guys expecting to work a full match at this pace??" Oh, they weren't. But it was fun seeing a noted schlub like Walker going fullspeed, with both guys doing these super quick dropdowns and leapfrogs, Kidman taking a wild bump to the floor off a dropkick, and both working in kooky offense I've never seen either do before. Kidman hit a quadruple jump Asai moonsault (follow me here) starting on the apron, leaping to the middle rope, then the top rope, then the inside middle rope 90 degrees to his left, and then the moonsault. It's like a crazy Aerostar move, with about 70% of the grace of an Aerostar move. Walker jumps to the middle turnbuckle, leaps BACKWARDS from the middle buckle to the top, almost loses his balance and falls backwards to the floor (because it's fucking crazy to jump backwards from the middle to the top) and then hits a crossbody/headbutt block from the top to win. Weird little match with the circumstances dictating unique work.

3. Rock N Roll Express vs. Fire & Ice

Another 2 minute special that really could have been a good tag match if it had been given just a few more minutes. Norton rushes Ricky to start and hits some pretty stiff shots, a couple pretty big slams. Ice Train tags in and hits a rough avalanche. This Morton guy is pretty decent at playing Ricky Morton. Finish is clever but would have loved for it to come after more of a match, as Norton tags back in, picks Ricky up in a gutwrench and Ricky's legs hit Ice Train on the apron causing Norton to stumble. Gibson runs in and takes out Norton's knee allowing Ricky to hit the backslide. That's a pretty decent finish, but yeah didn't get a whole lot of match before it happened.

4. Eddie Guerrero vs. Steven Regal

Now this is the kind of thing you hope for when you pop in an old WCW disc. Is it too short? Yes. Does it have a lousy finish? You betcha. Is everything awesome before that? Well of course. Regal looks so damn good here, with he and Eddie doing all sorts of cool grapples and take downs. Eddie lands on his feet after a monkey flip, hits a cool armdrag off a Regal butterfly suplex attempt, Regal starts lacing in elbows and then Eddie takes a super fast bump to the floor off a Regal toss. Weirdness ensues when Regal fakes a knee injury, suckers Eddie in for a double leg for what you think is going to end it. But something weird happens as Nick Patrick just stops counting at 2, even though Eddie didn't kick out. It looks like Regal was supposed to have his feet on the ropes, but he never puts them there, so Patrick just has to stop the count for zero reason instead of stop the count after witnessing the cheating. The Eddie just rolls up Regal for the win. Folks you won't see a finish worse than that one. But god that first 90 seconds of the match was all the stuff you want in pro wrestling.

Okay, Cubs, that one was a whole lot more...interesting as an episode. Still waiting for an actual good match as so far we've gotten some big time potential that was cut short with bad finishes. We'll keep trying until I think your donation has been worth it for you. Again, thank you SO MUCH for your help.


***I'm still desperately trying to raise money for my friend and coworker whose home burned down. I'm matching every contribution and will continue writing above and beyond for those who donate. This means a lot to me, guys***

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My Favorite Wrestling! WCW Main Event 9/6/97 & 9/13/97

1. Harlem Heat vs. Texas Hangmen

Man, did Harlem Heat work syndicated shows more than any other team? Feels like I have seen more than enough HH for one lifetime. You know you aren't going to get much of a competitive match here, and when Stevie Ray leans into the camera and says "This won't take long," I believe him and I hate that he is so convincing with these words. Sure enough Harlem Heat takes pretty much all of this with their Harlem Heat offense. I get briefly excited when the Texans side step Booker, then come in and hit him with a double clothesline. But that's it as Booker spins his way up and hits a nice double dropkick. HH win with a Booker jumping sidekick. So much damn Harlem Heat on these discs.

2. Greg Valentine vs. Lex Luger

Really fun match that I'm not sure I ever knew happened in a competitive way. Valentine gets a tons of stuff in here which is nice to see against a big opponent like Luger. Luger treats Valentine like a real threat and Valentine plays up Luger's speed and strength. It's kinda worked with Luger evading Valentine's strikes with speed, and Valentine always trying to catch him. When he does catch him it's awesome as you get a couple big Valentine chops and his excellent elbow drops. Even his missed elbow is pretty much greater than anybody's elbow. Valentine even gets a fun fake win, when he gets the boots up on a corner charge and then pins Luger with the feet on the ropes, he ACTUALLY gets a full 3 count which makes me flip out. Valentine jumps up with his arms raised and then Mark Curtis tells him he saw his feet on the ropes. Valentine flips out and that's when Luger puts him up into the rack for the real win. Really shocked Valentine not only got a visual pin, but an ACTUAL pin, before Luger won. Good on Luger.

1. Prince Iaukea vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.

Good match, much better than I remember their regular match being (feels like I've seen these two match up a few times). We get some solid mat stuff to start with Chavo having nice go behinds. Iaukea takes a massive bump when he misses a springboard body press to the floor, bumping that barefoot onto the Pro/Worldwide stage is just crazy. Iaukea also admirably misses a springboard splash into the ring and sells his tummy but really could have sold his chin. Looks like he whipped it right into the mat (clearly he didn't hit his chin, but it would have been believably faked). Chavo looked sorta off in spots, as it took him too long sometimes to set up more of the lucha-ish spots. Like he wasn't sure what side to start his La Majistral, so he had to awkwardly walk all around Iaukea. Iaukea looked like a guy here with a lot of promise, but I can't ever remember seeing a really good Iaukea match.

2. Hugh Morrus vs. Jerry Flynn

I talk about having to see a bunch of Harlem Heat matches, but man have I seen a lot of Hugh Morrus. I've now seen more than enough to know that I normally don't like Hugh Morrus matches. But Morrus matches where Jerry Flynn gets to work equal? Okay, that's better. Flynn is really underrated, always bumps big and his strike offense always has great snap. His best matches are against the guys who don't mind getting kicked a few times, and Morrus to his credit takes a lot of kicks here. Flynn takes a big clothesline bump on the floor, landing really hard on that Worldwide stage. Back in and he dishes all sorts of cool kick combs on Morrus, even nailing his one in the corner where he holds the ropes on the way over. Morrus' offense is pretty nice here, hitting a big avalanche and dropping a bunch of nice elbows. Flynn gets set up for No Laughing Matter and looks waaaay too far away, but Morrus actually hits it. Also has a cool little finish touch as Morrus does his bit where he drapes his KO'd opponents arm over him, kicks out at two, and then pins Flynn…but Flynn mixes it up by kicking out RIGHT after the 3. I really dug how that little move showed that Morrus goofing around alllmost cost him.

3. High Voltage vs. Villano IV & Super Calo

Man this coulda been really cool. As it was it was fine, but disappointingly short. It's not a total HV squash, as Calo gets some flashes, and then when Villano tags in he wins all the exchanges against Rage. Rage throws a bunch of punches and Villano blocks all of them, returning fire with his own and backing Rage into the corner to hit a spin kick. Villano looks like a badass throughout, even charging into the ring at one point after Kaos takes a swipe at him, with the ref barely able to hold him back. But fairly quickly Calo gets dumped and Rage hits the nice springboard spinning heel kick for the win. This only got like 2:30. If it got just 5 minutes it could have been a nice little lost gem.

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My Favorite Wrestling! WCW Worldwide 9/15/96

I'm currently on a train from San Diego on up to LA to visit my buddy Will and go to an Angels/Dodgers game. It's a 3 hour train ride, and I figure what better way to tell everybody on the train "don't talk to this loser for 3 hours" than put on 18 year old wrestling with all the gassed bodies, mullets, and neon singlets that 1996 still contained. I snuck on train liquor, I got grapz on the laptop (grapz on lapz!) and I'm set.

1. Jim Powers & Renegade vs. Harlem Heat

Haven't done one of these in awhile and boy did I pick a winner to jump back in on. And you know I talk shit about these guys (for 100% deserved reasons) but this was probably better than it had any right to be. I mean, it wasn't great, but you look at those 4 names and…woof. Harlem Heat has been maybe my least favorite thing about this project, as they're both awful, sloppy, horrible long match workers. But this was probably the Heat match I've enjoyed most from the era so far. When they're in there with a more work rate team it's just always sloppy and awful and ugly looking. But here they are with a couple gassed guys trying to be athletic and it's pretty fun. Really Renegade and Powers don't seem much worse than Heat here, pretty even working level. Powers - despite his ghastly 0.5 Abyss punches - was kinda fun; had a nice go behind, stomped Booker in the face at one point, worked an arm wringer alright. Renegade looked awful but bless him for trying. He tried a sort of slingshot dropkick at one point and kinda landed one foot and almost buckled on the other..but shit it's Renegade trying to do some shit. Good for him. His body press earlier was decent enough. Booker hits a wild standing spin kick that looked cool, and match ended with a potentially grisly double powerbomb where the timing was all off and Renegade almost gets spiked. Harlem Heat: We'll almost dump you on your head at least once in a 5 minute match!

2. V.K. Wallstreet vs. Ice Train

Woman across the aisle from me has a Powerpuff Girls text alert song, the song by Apples in Stereo, and it goes off every fucking time she gets a text. Which is like every minute. I like Apples in Stereo. I do not like this trend  though. Mute yer phone! I'm watching my trash on headphones, because I'm courteous like that. She also has a shirt that says "I woke up looking this good" which is really only a shirt that can be properly worn by really fat men who are comfortable in their skin. If you have even a tiny amount of good looks in you, this shirt will make you look like a real asshole. And worse, if you're like this woman, you don't want to risk the shirt sounding 100% believable. Somebody wears a shirt that says "I woke up looking this good", and my reaction is "Yeah. That probably checks out," and that can't be the reaction they wanted. Anyway, holy shit Ice Train both looked awful in this, AND won the match in 90 seconds. Was not expecting that. Wallstreet gets a clothesline, rest of the match is all Ice Train. Was not expecting a finish this soon as Ice Train doesn't do any cool squash match offense. He does a body slam, knocks VK's head into the turnbuckles a few times, Irish whips him into the turnbuckles…and then pins him with a standing splash. Huh.

Awwww yeah a commercial for Last Man Standing! That movie was pretty awful but totally enjoyed by me. Fun Bruce Dern role, fun William Sanderson role, Christopher Walken as a villain which is always great. Total piece of garbage, but I'll watch Walter Hill's garbage before almost any other director's garbage. Love that guy's vision, whatever it is.

3. Pat Tanaka vs. Rey Misterio Jr.

Goldberg's music hits and the one the only Pat Tanaka comes strolling out in his kung fu jacket. Boy that's weird. I would've loved to see this get some time, but it goes 2:15. Great. Tanaka is working a weird Kung Fu master, lots of odd tai chi poses and karate strikes. It's amusing so I get the guy trying to find a gimmick for himself. Why not? Rey is a little sloppy with some of his stuff, he kinda whiffs on a headscissors that Tanaka has to bump anyway. But this era Rey is always super watchable due to his bumps. Here he gets planted with a powerbomb off a rana attempt and does a great flip bump on a clothesline. Heenan is pretty smart on commentary saying that in the future guys will try and imitate Rey, but nobody will be as good at it.

We get a commercial for Levis wide leg jeans. "You can live your life however you want. I'm gonna live mine WIDE." Catch that wide leg fever.

4. John Tenta vs. Konan

Weird little match with Tenta taking 90% of it. Tenta had his ridiculous half shaved skullet at this point, which really seems like the next look someone like Skrillex will have (maybe without Tenta's cop mustache though). Konnan is usually pretty selfish in his matches, making all his opponents work within his sequences, but Tenta takes this whole thing. I wish he looked better as I'm a Tenta fan, but he didn't look great. He didn't look bad, still throwing a great elbow, nice legdrop and a nice powerslam. But he also had a lot of less than devastating stomach kicks and an ugly missed splash. Konna wins with a somersault senton off the middle rope to a standing Tenta. Never seen Konnan pull that one out before.

5. Hugh Morrus & MAXX vs. Nasty Boys

Wasn't expecting much from this, but whatever it was, was okay. Nasty Boys both made a point to stiff Maxx (ne Muscle) for the whole match, every time he was in. Knobbs threw a bunch of nasty punches  to the side of Maxx's head, and Sags did the same. Maxx does his part by not shying away from them, so that's kinda neat. Hugh Morrus is junk, but he hit his moonsault pretty flush here and mostly stayed out of the way. Knobbs took a nice bump after getting posted by Maxx on the floor. So much like our opening tag, 4 guys I'd rather not watch a bunch, putting forth pretty decent stuff. I'm okay with this.

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My Favorite Wrestling! WCW Saturday Night 6/13/98

1. Saturn vs. Damien

Quick match but really fun. Damien gets exactly one move (running up the turnbuckles into a crossbody) but Saturn is a total beast here, never letting up and working pretty stiff. Saturn just plants Damien with the DVD and also throws out a crazy half nelson duplex that has Scott Hudson going bonkers. Would have liked some back and forth but they were working "Saturn is mad and taking it out on some poor sucker" and it worked.

2. Evan Kourageous vs. Dean Malenko

Oh my lord Evan was so lost in the ring. Why the hell was he even put on TV so damn soon? Evan stumbles pretty early and from there it's mostly Dean stiffing him all over the ring and on the mat, so this is awesome. Dean's mat stuff looked really great, much closer to his mid 90s internet rep than you remember. It probably helps that Evan is basically a sack of potatoes that Dean just did shoot mat transitions with. Really looked like Dean had to do every move legit because if he let up a little bit, Karagias would immediately screw it up and fall the wrong way. So you get cool stuff like leg scissor takedowns where you can tell Dean is really tripping him to the mat. Karagias eventually gets his comeback run and immediately blows it, reversing an Irish Whip and then forgetting to do anything when Dean runs back at him...so Karagias just runs to the opposite ropes while Dean is still running...and eventually stops and squares off. And then Dean just says fuck it and kicks him and clotheslines his throat. Watching Malenko put the Texas Cloverleaf on Karagias was a thing of hilarity and beauty. Karagias acted like he had never seen this move applied in his life and had no idea what to do, so it ended up looking more like me struggling to get my cat in his cat carrier to go to the vet. Karagias keeps rolling the wrong way so Dean finally snaps, forces it on him and then bends the poor guy almost in half as Evan noticeably yelps and starts tugging at Dean's leg to get him to stop.

3. Booker T vs. Barry Horowitz

90s Booker has aged so badly, he really needs a quality opponent to drag him through stuff. Horowitz is a good guy to do that as he leans way in to Booker's elbows and silly side kicks and snaps hard to the mat for them. They had some nice go behind sequences to start with Horowitz getting a cool leg pick but Booker gaining leverage with a nice back elbow. Horowitz got into place for all of Booker's big moves, although Booker was rushing through everything way too fast and getting into position super early. Post match Fit motherfucking Finlay comes out in khakis and a black tank top and boots Booker hard in the side of the knee, then locks on a sick half crab. Weird to think they'd also feud in WWE almost 10 years later.

4. Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Chris Jericho

Well this was a little surprising, as Jericho wins clean in less than 2 minutes and Chavo gets zero offense in. His ribs were taped up, and Jericho went after the ribs, but you'd expect some sort of comeback or something. I think I remember a period where Chavo feuded with Eddie and Chavo went crazy and would not use offense during matches, or something. But it's odd for a guy to get completely squashed right before a PPV where he's in a featured match.

5. Kidman vs. Juventud Guerrera

Lodi is holding an awesome sign that says "Kidman vs. Juvi Best of 467 Series". These matches are basically as strong as the amount of blown spots contained within, and everything hits in this match so it's a win. It's 7 minutes of a bunch of moves that hit, with cool slams and big missed moves off the top. When Juvy is on he is my favorite non-Rey cruiserweight to watch. He bumps huge and moves so damn fast. Here he just whips all around Kidman and all his moves have some great extra oomph to them. He really makes his plancha to the floor look like full contact. Kidman is good here, too, doing something different than his usual bump machine specialty. Here he cuts off a lot of Juice comebacks and does little things like missed clotheslines really well. Juvy does his cool missed 450 spot where he lands on his feet, and then plants Kidman with the Juvy Driver for the clean win. He was facing Reis at the PPV, ya know. Really awesome 90s WCW cruiser match, one of the reasons I was so into this style when I was an innocent teen.

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My Favorite Wrestling! WCW Worldwide 11/9/97

1. Mark Starr vs. Goldberg

Wow, the fans are booing Goldberg as he comes out. Old ladies are giving him the thumbs down. That means that they were giving Mark Starr the thumbs up right before this. How bizarre is that taken out of context? Look into the future just a couple months and see where Goldberg is. But here he is on Worldwide getting booed by old ladies. The match isn't much but it's really fun seeing a huge era in its infancy, maybe the last time that WCW got something right. You can tell that they knew what they were doing here. They couldn't have known just how big he was going to be, but it's really satisfying knowing that they at least had a plan and were seeing it through. Brain and Tony were talking big things for Goldberg the whole match, saying how he was gonna win WW3 and fight for the title. He was already using the "Who's Next?" catchphrase after the match. They were already putting over the spear and jackhammer finish. Goldberg has a nice powerslam here, and shows some major power by deadlifting Starr a couple times...and also awkwardly stands around for large amounts of time, just waiting for...stuff to happen. But again, it's really fun to see such a major part of wrestling history in its infancy.

2. Mike Rapada vs. Scott Hall

Damn, it's kind of crazy that guys like Hall were still appearing on Worldwide at this point (and in the 2nd match of the show!). I'd bet serious money that nobody anywhere near as big as Hall appeared on Worldwide from '98 to the end. And by the way this squash was really fun. Rapada got absolutely zero offense, but bumped HUGE for Hall, and Hall and Syxx stiffed the bejesus out of him. Hall threw some of the nastiest punches of his career, threw a corner clothesline so stiff that Tony and Bobby couldn't stop talking about it, Syxx cheated constantly and played it up to the crowd great (punching Rapada and then blowing on his fist, elbowing him on the apron and then hamming it up by shaking out his elbow). This is what a jobber squash should be.

3. Scott & Steve Armstrong vs. Harlem Heat

It's been kind of eye opening how bad Harlem Heat were in retrospect. It's no revelation that Stevie Ray looks bad in the ring, but I had really fond views on Booker before starting this. I remembered the Benoit matches, the Saturn and Martel matches, and generally liked his WWE run. But boy has he looked pretty lousy upon rewatch. I don't think I could name 5 sloppier guys in the promotion. He must have just had a really great Jan/Feb '98 and that's where my brain froze. All that being said, the match was alright. HH looked bleh, but they worked stiff so it kind of made up for it. Armstrongs are always game but really they weren't given tons here.

4. Shiima Nobunaga/Sumo Fuji vs. Meng/Barbarian

Well this was fun. The FoF squash the Toryumon boys for 4+ minutes, and while they no sold their offense the whole way through, they still allowed the boys do at least do stuff. CIMA hits a bunch of slick dropkicks, Fuji gets to actually work shoulder block sequences with Barbarian (and holds his own!) and the FoF throw tons of big boots to the face, big chops and big slams.

5. Renegade vs. Steve McMichael

Yeah, yeah. You see those two names up there and you know it's not going to be very good, right? Renegade walks out first and you go "Oh. Renegade is in the main event. Huh." And then Mongo comes out and you just kinda know what you're in for. And you know? It wasn't very good. But really this wasn't *that* bad. This was probably the best match these two are capable of, and that has to be worth something. It's almost 5 minutes, and the main thing that stood out to me was that they didn't rest at all. No chin locks. I've gotten so used to 4 minute WWE matches that no matter what have to include a chinlock transition to comeback, that it was kind of jarring seeing two big guys work a 5 minute sprint. Yeah, some of the moves didn't look good. Renegade looks like he couldn't punch through paper. But for what it was, an actual fast paced match between a couple of lugs, this worked for me.

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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 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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My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Saturday Night 12/19/98

1. Glacier vs. Mike Sullivan

Glacier's back! And he's still not that good, but kinda better than I remembered him being. Mike Sullivan is also back, and he is even worse than I remember him being. And I don't remember Mike Sullivan at all. Glacier was weird as he really didn't bump much, and sometimes his offense looked good and stiff, and other times his kicks looked about as good as Eric Bischoff's. Here he threw some really cool jabs in the corner on Sullivan, really odd southpaw shots to the temple that looked really cool. And then Sullivan charged out of the corner with some of the WORST babyface-on-fire punches I have EVER seen. His fist was soaring right past Glacier's head, thrown at a 3/4 slot, so that his wrist was kinda grazing the side of Glacier's neck. Bleeecccch. But he bumped real big for Glacier's kicks and stuff, so...something.

2. Kaz Hayashi vs. Hole in One Darsow

Kaz has been one of the brightest spots of these shows, looking downright top 20 in the world in everything. But here he gets to do nothing. There isn't really a match. Darsow works the stick and looks awesome in his gold gear, and is pretty funny teasing the crowd. "Who's having fun to-NIGHT!?" *tepid response* "Yeah, I wouldn't like living here that much either." Golf challenge breaks down, Darsow is DQ'd.

3. Al Green vs. Wrath

Green did...not get much offense here. Wrath looks like the best possible version of Rocky Mountain Thunder. Wrestles like him, and looks like a really juiced version of him. Same haircut, too.

4. Chris Jericho vs. Booker T

Booker T was a guy that I liked in 1998, but it's pretty shocking in retrospect how bad and sloppy he looked most of the time. He has been one of the worst things about going back and watching this stuff. It's not just that he looks lousy most of the time, it's also that he was usually one of the bigger names on any given syndicated show, so his matches would get way more time. So guys like Kaz Hayashi would get 3 minutes, while Booker would get 8. Jericho looked really great in the first half of this, really getting into position nicely for Booker, and just having an insane amount of body charisma. Jericho was me and my sister's favorite wrestler in 1998. He just slayed us and this was dead smack in the middle of the top knot/kimono/Ralphus era. He was totally killing it here until Booker gassed and Jericho locked on a chinlock. AND LORDY was it a bad chinlock. Not one part of his arm was touching one part of Booker's neck. It looked like a guy posing for a picture with his arm around his mother. That happens for awhile and then Stevie Ray runs in for the DQ. Gross.

5. Barry Horowitz vs. Kanyon

Kanyon on the stick was so money. Like a bank full of money. Crowd was way into him here, and they were way into this battle of Jewish Faith vs. Homosinuality.

6. Kaos vs. Prince Iaukea

I weirdly enjoy both of these guys, probably more than most people. Iaukea seemed like a who would get good. There was always a moment in each Iaukea match where he would have a giant bump and you'd be like "This guy is going to be awesome" but then you realized you were saying that for like 5 years. High Voltage is a guilty pleasure of mine. I admit to always marking out for their springboard moves. And that's really the best part of this match, right at the end: Kaos hits a big springboard clothesline and Iaukea leans way into it and sprawls out all nasty from it. We rewound many times. I think this Iaukea guy is going to be awesome.

7. Chris Benoit/Dean Malenko vs. Vincent/Bryan Adams

Well this match was fucking awesome. People are going to pull out the "pretending to like a shitty wrestler to sound kewl" card, but holy shit is Vincent one of the best things about this rewatch project. Dude makes total throwaway matches watchable, and he really steps up his game in bigger matches like this. He is responsible for holding this one together, actually. Benoit looked good and dished a beating, but the beating was made way more fun by Vincent stooging around the ring for him. He was really weird, in that he always seemed like he was playing a guy that wasn't really a wrestler. He's probably most similar to Stevie Richards, I guess. Neither guy really has any offense, but what they do they do really well. Vincent is such an anomaly in that I don't remember him being any good at ALL in WWF. I don't know when exactly he got good, but he is flat out awesome in '98 WCW. His control segments are great, as he dishes out tons of backrakes and clubbing blows. His clubbing blows are awesome as they aren't quite punches, aren't quite clubbering, but they land somewhere around the dudes neck/throat and look awesome. He bumps great, and always makes tagging in Adams a big deal, either by desperately scrambling to him or by cockily strutting over to take him in like "Yeah you know I was just beating your ass, now here's the big man." Match gets tons of time, gets some good nearfalls, and is a great Vincent showcase. Great stuff.

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My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Worldwide 3/13/99 & 3/20/99

3/13/99

Damian vs. Hak

Well this was some damn enjoyable WCW right here. This was awesome, probably the most Damian offense I've ever seen in any of his WCW matches. He gets a couple dives (including a really nice somersault tope) and a moonsault, bunch of nasty looking singapore cane clotheslines and shots to Hak's throat, and a sick running knee to the face (using a chair to springboard off). Hak has some crazy bumps, including one where he dumps himself onto his own head geting thrown into the guard rail (which seemed to be a regular Sandman spot). One of the most fun 3 minute matches I've ever seen.

Mike Enos vs. Booker T

Well this SHOULD have been awesome, as Enos is always more than game, but Booker just threw some of the sloppiest kicks possible in this match. All sorts of goofy spin kicks and some of them just looked lame. Still, it was a long match and quite competitive. Enos looked real good. Every time he would go on offense the match would get good, then Booker would throw some sort of back leg front back spin forward jump kick and Enos would try his damndest to make it look like something that would hurt a man.

3/20/99

Barry Horowitz vs. Ernest Miller

This was disappointing as it only goes about 45 seconds. Barry was really making Cat's kicks look painful, and then it just stopped. I know my heart is in the wrong place by being disappointed by an Ernest Miller match (I mean, what is the best case scenario when you watch an Ernest Miller singles match?), but 45 seconds? That's just pointless.

Kaz Hayashi vs. Raven

Well good grief THIS is (maybe) far and away the best match I have watched for this project so far. It is insanely great and totally out of left field. I was expecting a squash just like the previous match and thankfully I couldn't have been more wrong. Raven gave Kaz EVERYthing in this match, and Kaz looks like one of the best in the world in 1999 (just checked, he was #32 on the DVD500 for that period, so maybe that notion isn't so crazy...). There is so much awesome stuff in the match, it is easily one of my favorite sub-5 minute matches EVER. Kaz takes some insane bumps, including a missed somersault senton over the top to the floor. He hits TWO sentons off the top rope (with Raven under a chair!), they both take a beating from the other, and this is just too awesome. For a guy who is a total joke these days, Raven looked pretty damn good in '99. Made me excited to see other Raven matches from this time period. This match NEEDS to be seen by everybody.

*Goodhelmet informed me right after I'd seen this and was gushing about it to him, that apparently it is on one of the earlier Schneider comps. So I'm like 10 years late to this party. But better late than never! Go buy that comp!

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Phil's Ongoing 2007 MOTY LIST

1. Nigel McGuinness v. Samoa Joe ROH 3/3
2. John Cena v. Umaga WWE 1/28
3. Nigel McGuinness v. Takeshi Morishima ROH 4/14
4. Chris Harris v. James Storm TNA 5/13
5. Jimmy Jacobs v. B.J. Whitmer ROH 3/4
6. Samoa Joe v. Takeshi Morishima ROH 2/16
7. Matt Hardy v. Finlay WWE 6/19
8. Shawn Micheals v. John Cena WWE 4/23
9. Jimmy Jacobs v. B.J. Whitmer ROH 3/31
10. Solar 1/Mano Negra v. Negro Navarro/Black Terry Lucha Libre VIP 3/10
11. MNM v. Hardy Boyz WWE 1/28
12. Briscoes v. Ricky Marvin/Kontaro Suzuki NOAH 1/21
13. Bryan Danielson/Takeshi Morishima v. KENTA/Nigel McGuiness ROH 5/12
14. John Cena v. Great Khali 5/20
15. Mitsuhara Misawa v. Bison Smith NOAH 6/3
16. John Cena v. King Booker v. Bobby Lashley v. Mick Foley v. Randy Orton WWE 6/24
17. Briscoes v. Murder City Machine Guns ROH 4/28
18. Finlay v. Undertaker 3/6 WWE
19. Briscoes v. Kevin Steen/El Generico ROH 4/14
20. Colt Cabana v. Jimmy Jacobs ROH 2/24
21. Takeshi Sasaki v. Yuki Miyamoto BJW 3/14
22. John Cena v. Shawn Michaels WWE 4/1
23. Shinjiro Ohtani/Takao Omori/Kazunari Murakami v. Kohei Sato/Hirotaka Yokoi/Yoshiro Takayama Zero 1 1/19
24. Matt Sydal v. The Man Gravity Forgo PAC ROH 3/4
25. Davey Richards/Roderick Strong v. Jack Evans/Delirious ROH 4/14

Previously on the list

Necro Butcher v. Toby Klien CZW 1/13
Chris Benoit v. Chavo Guerrero WWE 1/16
BJ Whitmer v. Jimmy Jacobs ROH 1/27
Nigel McGuiness v. Jimmy Rave ROH 3/4
Matt Hardy v. Ken Kennedy WWE 3/13
Samoa Joe v. Eddie Kingston FSM 3/17
Takeshi Morishima/Mohammed Yone v. Jun Akiyama/Takeshi Rikio NOAH 4/1
Undertaker v. Batista WWE 4/1
Chris Benoit v. MVP 4/10
Yuji Nagata v. Hiroshi Tanahashi NJ 4/13
Mitsuhara Misawa v. Takuma Sano NOAH 4/28
John Cena v. Great Khali v. Umaga WWE 6/4

7. Matt Hardy v. Finlay WWE 6/19

Matt Hardy has really developed a great TV match formula in the first half of the year. A batch of hot offense, he injures a body part, the heel works over the body part, Hardy does a great job of selling, and then he pulls out a flash win. It is pretty much a formula you can use with anyone half decent and have a good match. Hardy plays the role great, he is probably the best seller in the WWE outside of maybe Cena, and his offense is simple and looks good. When you plug a master like Finlay into the formula you are really going to have a treat. Finlay is spectacular here, going after the leg, everything he does is with force and violence and I am loving the indian death lock as a secondary finisher, maybe it is a shout out to Princess Paula.

13. Bryan Danielson/Takeshi Morishima v. KENTA/Nigel McGuiness ROH 5/12
This was a blow away main event of an otherwise crappy PPV. I have read people complain about Nigel just throwing lariats, but I am a Choshu fan, nothing wrong with simplifying what you do, if you do it well, and Nigel was killing people with lariats here, from all angles. Nigel's big match restarts are always fun, and I loved him coming back in with the taped up arm, and the jawbreaker with the bad arm was a great near fall. You kind of forget how good Danielson is, but he was amazing here. KENTA and McGuiness are two of his best opponents, and all of their interactions were great. The multiple reversal finish is a staple of indy wrestling, but Danielson may be the only guy who can really pull it off. The whole finish section with KENTA was completely awesome. The match wasn't perfect, for guys who trained together and work constantly KENTA and Morishima don't interact well, and the points where they were matched up were the weakest parts.


15. Mitsuhara Misawa v. Bison Smith NOAH 6/3

I was down right shocked at how much I enjoyed this match. I really loved Misawa in his matches against Sano and Sugiara. He plays the role of a broken down old Samurai trying to will his body into one more battle, he wants to pass the torch but no one will take it. It is a cool role, and he is incredible in it. Still its Bison Smith, outside of a 2001 match I saw live against Donovan Morgan, and some fun UPW tags with Luminous Warrior against Orlando and Marquis Jordan, he kind of always sucked. No real reason to think that broken down Misawa could drag him to anything. Boy was I wrong Not only was this good, it wasn't a great wrestler dragging a shitty guy to a good match (like Jacobs v. Whitmer or Cena v. Micheals), Smith was right there wrestling the match of his life. Misawa is overpowered early but uses his guile to injure Smith's leg. Smith does a pretty good job of selling this (I saw him fake a knee injury as part of an APW political play during the King of the Indies tourney, so I knew he could sell), but still is able to throw around Misawa. He press slams him from the ring to the apron, which was a totally crazy bump, and also hits some really great shoulder blocks, including a tope from the ring floor over the rail onto a seated Misawa, easily the best I have ever seen Smith look. Still this was all about Misawa's selling. They tease two countouts, one after the press slam to the ramp, and one after the tope into the stairs, and both times Misawa just lies there untill the count gets to 15 or so, then he takes this deep breath, and rejoins the battle. He wants nothing more then to lay down his sword, but something keeps him going. I also loved the finish, Misawa is able to catch Smith and reverse him into a second rope Emerald Frosion (which was the only sequence in this match which didn't look good), and then he pounces, he has been conserving his energy for this moment, and he just pounds on a weakened Smith, until he finishes him with a nasty elbow to the back of his head. Misawa is still totally awesome, but I don't think that it will translate well to his ROH stuff. Although if Misawa can have a match this good with Bison Smith, Misawa v. Joe should be insane.


16. John Cena v. King Booker v. Bobby Lashley v. Mick Foley v. Randy Orton WWE 6/24

You X division cluster isn't really my style, but when you replace interchangeable Sonjay Duttish guys with big hard hitting over heavyweights it can be pretty damn fun. Cena is the wrestler of the year, but he works well in long matches where he can sell and build to big spots, this isn't that kind of match so he really was incidental. Lashley was a monster here, chucking people around, taking big bumps and delivering an absolutely spectacular tope. Foley takes a couple of nice bumps and is over enough to not do a ton, I did love him throwing socko to the crowd and grabbing a chair to waste people. Booker and Orton were the only heels here, and were just awesome, Booker was just recking people with knees, and was the guy in this match doing the lions share of the work. Orton may the best wrestler in the world at timing big spots, and his countering of the five knuckle shuffle into an RKO was perfect. Finishing run was great, as all four guys stuff is so over, that all the near falls were big.

17. Briscoes v. Murder City Machine Guns ROH 4/28

Briscoes are guys with a pretty set formula, the formula is what it is, and you will tend to get what you get from it. The PPV tag against Sydal/Claudio was a pretty basic example of the formula. Some time killish stuff at the beginning, leading into some big crazy spots at the end, about half the time the match ends on time, half the time it goes a bit too long. If the formula is hitting on cylinders it can be pretty entertaining, but it rarely moves into excellent. What separated this match from you standard Briscoes match, was a load of quality bullshit by the Murder City Machine Guns. The first part of the match which is often the Briscoes weak point, was filled with a Shelly and Sabin homage to every cheap heat heel stooge in the book. All of that stuff got me into the match, so when they start with their big finish (and it was a great finish run) it wasn't just a collection of cool looking stuff, but I actually cared.

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WWE NO MERCY THOUGHTS

No Mercy Thoughts

I was on the fence about getting this PPV, Finlay main eventing is something I wish to whole hardily support, and I really liked the Rey v. Chavo brawl on Smackdown a couple of weeks back. Still not really enough for me to kick out the cash. Then I read Meltzer's report that we get PPV CHAM PAIN~! and Regal v. Beniot and I run and order the replay, and it was well worth it. Great PPV>

Gregory Helms v. Matt Hardy

We used to take road trips down to North Carolina to watch these guys tear it up in National Guard armories, and now they get a big chunk of time to do their thing in Raleigh on PPV. This is why you buy the single brand Smackdown PPV's, guys who can wrestle get the time to do it. Helms has turned into quite an asskicker, as he was working pretty damn stiff here. I especially loved the double underhooks into grounded knees. They broke out their big New Japan juniors finishing run, and it was alot of fun. The top rope Shining Wizard was especially great, and I can't believe I never saw it the indies during the summer of Shining Wizards. I buy 2.9 wrestling more, when they are kicking out of multiple neckbreakers, rather then tope rope brainbusters, and they really got the crowd hot for this.

Aaron Idol/K.C. James v. Paul London/Brian Kendrick

I think this was the best match of the London/Kendrick title run. Just stellar tag team wrestling, and a North Carolina crowd raised on Rock and Roll Express matches popping for every spot. First couple of time I saw Idol, he absolutely blew, but he has seasoned into a perfectly acceptable heel tag worker at this point. K.C. James has worked enough Puerto Rico to work this match in his sleep. I really liked Idol's seated abdominal stretch move for a tag rest hold, and the initial cut off of the hot tag with Kendrick getting pulled down, was great. I also love the way London and Kendrick build their crazy dives into the match. The initial double somersault senton and London's crazy tope to cut off James. I was pretty bummed initially that this wasn't the Pitbulls in this match, but I can't imagine that it would have been any better.

Hey Regal is uncut, didn't think I would find that out on PPV.

Christ the fat writer in the g-string has a name now? What is with all the male ass on this show? I much prefer the subtle gay imagery of Magnum T.A. on his bike, or the Fantastics in their little tuxes, to this really hateful gay imagery on this show. Why can't Vince admit the love that dares not speaks its name, so we aren't subject to it squirting out like this.

MVP v. Marty Garner

Cham Pain used to rule those same armory shows that Matt Hardy and Gregory Helms did. For some reason he was the one OMEGA guy who never got a break. So his PPV debut as a skinny guy for JBL to make recycled Heenan jokes about, was kind of bittersweet. I was hoping for at least one big bump. They must still be angry over the Rock leaving them behind.

Undertaker v. Mr. Kennedy

Undertaker really needs to stop thinking he is Helmsley and needs 20+ minutes every PPV. He really works best in 12-15 minute matches, I loved his recent TV match with Booker, and I got the sense this would have been good with about 8 minutes shaved off. Instead it was way too long, and sort of dull. I liked Kennedy's piledriver though.

Rey Mysterio v. Chavo Guerrerro

I have been FFwding all the build towards this angle, but the wrestling parts have been pretty good. This was a really fun streetfight, with alot of nasty bumps. Chavo giant swinging Rey into chairs and hockey boards was nasty, and the 619 around the rail was fun too. The regular brawl parts of this match was fun too, as Chavo was just laying in the uppercuts. I thought Rey's big dive was a little underwhelming, but otherwise this was what you wanted.

William Regal v. Chris Benoit

Well fuck. This might be my favorite match up in wrestling history, and it shows up on PPV. It was Regal v. Benoit and you got all that you would hope from that. The first headbutt which split Regal open was Kikuchi level nasty, it sounded like someone dropped a Mango off a 5 story ledge. I also loved Benoit chopping Regal right on the open wound to get the blood flowing again. Regal's King Kong kneedrop was a new wrinkle and a great one, one knee to the ribs, one to the neck. I especially loved all of the mat struggling, Benoit's mat work always looks like a viscous fight, and the countering of the Regal stretch here was great, as was Regal fighting the crossface like his life defended on it. I like how Regal doesn't fight the crossface, but always immediately taps, really puts over the viscousness of the hold

Batista v. King Booker v. Finlay v. Bobby Lashley

I liked this alot too, Finlay and Booker really held it together, and outside of a little awkwardness, Batista and Lashley played their roles well too. Finlay was on fire here, I loved his little moment of domination, where he tossed Booker, Fujiwaraed Batista, and then picking Lashley's knee when he came in. Finish ruled too, Lashley's spear from nowhere was awesome, he was super low to the ground, and it was almost a Pete Rose slide. When Batista won the title he was a guy in his late 30's who looked like he was in his mid 20's, now he looks like Lance Herickson, he is a guy in his late 30's who facially looks like he is in his late 50's. Lashley does Batista way better then Batista does, hopefully house show matches with Finlay could get him back to form, otherwise they need to dump him back to RAW. Booker actually won clean which was weird. I also don't know if they are turning Regal and Finlay face, but I am hoping we get a TV Booker v. Finlay title match, as their stuff against each other here was great.

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