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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Cactus Knows There is Crack in Everything, That is How the Light Gets In

Cactus Jack Manson/Rick Ryder vs. Steiner Brothers NWA 1/20/90 - FUN

PAS: It's Steiner brother mauling a pair of jobbers which is always a blast. Cactus is starting to get a bit of a push, so he jumps Rick and gets a couple of shots in before the hammer is dropped. Rick hits a released belly to belly which folds Cactus in half. Ryder comes in a gets thrown around top rope belly to belly gut wrench, sick Frankensteiner, only for Cactus to beat him up post match, and hit the hipbuster. You wouldn't guess Cactus had such a stellar future ahead of him from this, but this role of punching bag who kills his partners post match was a lot of fun.

Cactus Jack/Abdullah The Butcher vs. Bill Kazmaier/Brian Pillman WCW10/12/91 - FUN

PAS: This didn't have the chaos that your best Cactus/Abby tag matches had, but had some nifty moments. I actually loved the big guy face offs between Abby and Kazmaier and I want to track down their singles match on WCWSN, Abby was a force in this, thrusting Pillman in his bad throat, knocking him off the apron with a running shoulder block, and he and Kazmaier freight train into each other. Cactus was a bit subdued, especially for 91. He is mostly on the defensive and would have ended up pinned by Kazmaier's incubatory FU at the end of the match if Abby didn't cut loose with the Kendo stick. Much more of a standard tag then a whirlwind, but plenty to like.

Cactus Jack/Larry Zbyszko vs. Abdullah the Butcher/Ron Simmons WCW 2/2/92 - FUN

PAS: Love this pair of WAR teams locking up on the Main Event. This was set up to tease the Omni Cactus vs. Abby cage match, and they did a nice job whetting the whistle but never really giving us a full taste. I actually dug the Abby vs. Larry Z interactions the most, with Zbyszko breaking out his spin kick to Abby's big guts, only to be met with some nasty karate thrusts and Abby curling his finger and trying to rip out Larry's eye (with a great bellowing sell by Zbyzko). They did a Simmons face in peril section which wasn't much, only to have him hot tag Abby, almost immediately tag back in and spinebuster and pin Cactus. Felt like wires might have been crossed there. We go right into a fun post match brawl which sees Cactus hit a hipbuster on Abby and smash him with a big rolled up piece of cage material. Release the Omni footage!!

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Lord Regal and September Spawned a Monster

Lord Steven Regal/Stunning Steve Austin/Mongolian Mauler vs. Dustin Rhodes/Sting/Flyin Brian Pillman WCW 1/31/94 - GREAT

PAS: Totally WAR six-man tag match with five of the greatest wrestlers in history and the Mongolian Mauler for some reason.  I kind of liked the Mauler in this he had a nice chop to the throat and both a back rake and the lesser seen but equally effective front rake.  The other five were as great as you expect them to be. Regal and Sting have a couple of exchanges and those guys always work great together. Dustin was the face in peril, and he is an all time at it, he takes a great bump on a blocked monkey flip, and does a 360 on an Austin clothesline. It all leads to a hot tag with both Sting and Pillman, and those guys can heat up a tag. Great Worldwide main event, the kind of thing that would put a smile on your face on a Saturday morning.

MD: 1994 WCW is a bit of a blindspot for me, actually. I've seen some of the biggest stuff (both in general and in our circles) but the idea was that I always wanted to keep that one specific year, especially the first half, in my pocket for a rainy day. I had this ridiculous notion that there was going to be a limited amount of old wrestling out there and I never knew when I was going to need a bunch of it that I knew I'd probably love. There are a couple of things like that for me (The prose version of The Big Sleep is another actually). My rainy day media.

So I haven't seen this before. "From Mongolia, the Mongolian Mauler" is a pretty ridiculous billing. They should have probably just called him the Mauler. The black contacts are gold for 1994 though. I immediately like the camaraderie of the babyfaces. The unity and shared vision they all seem to have must have made Hogan's arrival a few months later feel all the more jarring. My favorite shot in all of this is probably the shift from Mauler chewing the scenery (figuratively but just barely) on the floor, to Regal making faces on the apron. You would get random few week/months runs with guys in WWF (Lance Cassidy or Battle Kat or what have you) but the nature of WWF TV meant that there were less name vs name matches and a lot less random tags/six-mans in general, with only the more established guys selected for Coliseum Videos, so it's less likely you get a situation like this with a guy who was in and out.

The match itself was what you'd want out of 8 minutes of this grouping. Sting got to take about forty seconds of the Mauler's offense and you get the sense he was absolutely into it, to the point where I'm amazed the didn't work more during this short run. Sting knew what he could do with an opponent like that. The real heat came after Dustin contorted himself impossibly for a bump on an Austin clothesline out of the corner. He didn't just hide his size as a FIP but he also went over big for things like Regal's butterfly suplex. When he actually used the height was when he futilely reached for the corner which was always an effective visual from Dustin. That's another side of this. By 94, most of these guys knew each other so well that they could do a match like this in their sleep. You add the Mauler into the mix as an X factor and you get a fun bit of televised chaos.

William Regal vs. Bubba Ray Dudley WWE Raw 5/20/02 - FUN

ER: These two matched up for months in tag matches, with Regal and Lance Storm having a long feud with the Dudleys. This is the only singles match they had though, and the first half is exactly what you'd want. Regal worked really stiff, roughing up Bubba with hard elbows and punches, hard knee strikes, both collided with different shoulderblocks, all of it shaping it to be a classic. But things get unnecessarily derailed when Molly Holly interfered and Bubba chased her, and the timing of things gets thrown off a little bit. They started with a nice violent flow and interrupted the rhythm. Regal kind of whiffed on a punch that was supposed to land and they kind of wound up standing in the wrong spot. Regal gets things back to where we were by just throwing Bubba throat first against the middle rope, my favorite moment of the match. It looked practical - like the way Finlay integrated the ring into his offense - and really violent, and I fully bought into Bubba's choked selling. But then Brock came out and interrupted the rhythm they had regained and it didn't really get it back. It had too many distractions away from the ass kicking, and for a 3 minute match ending in a DQ, it still could have been great if the 3rd minute was like the 1st minute.

PAS: This had a couple of fun moments, which is pretty good for a short TV match to set up a run in. Bubba's opening offensive run was stiff enough to bruise up Regal's chest, and the post Molly Holly interference spot where Regal threw Bubba's jaw into the rope was super nasty. Bubba needing to get in a running man set up for a splash, a flip flop and fly, and a "Bubba get the tables" in a three minute match was shtick overkill. You have three minutes, pick one thing. 


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE REGAL

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New Footage Friday: 1994 WCW House Show (+ Bonus Lawler vs. Bock!)

WCW House Show El Paso 7/14/94

Lord Steve Regal vs. Johnny B. Badd - GREAT

MD: 94 house show Regal obviously brings a lot to the table. He stalled a lot early, but paid it off by bumping himself on the way back in for high comedy. The chain wrestling, when they got to it, was good, though everything along these lines, even the good stuff, feels a little low rent after watching so much French Catch. When Regal took over, it was with a brutal variety of offense. Badd really needed a couple more meaningful hope spots, even if he was going to get the reversed banana peel win.

PAS: I thought this was nifty stuff. Any chance to see new Regal is tremendous, and I thought he was awesome here. He had some fun stooging stuff at the beginning, really riling up the crowd and doing the job of a opening match wrestler. When he lays a beating on JBB it was appropriate, Lots of of those nasty left handed forearms to the side of Badd's head, and an incredible counter of a sunset flip where he shifts his weight and drops a knee right on Badd's eye. I really liked Badd's comeback, really worked the heavy bag with his body shots, and hit a very cool looking flying headscissor. Finish was a bit lame, but what you would expect from a house show. Regal really elevates everything he does. 

ER: House show Regal during this era would have been such a treat, and his performance is the kind that makes house show handhelds such a joy. Regal is the TV champ here, and just watching his haughty mannerisms as he reacts to the El Paso fans would be enough to make me love this match. He makes a ring attendant hold the ropes open for him, circles Badd several times while making fake lunges toward him, then when the crowd finally gets excited about Badd laying his hands on Regal...why of course that's when Regal rolls to the floor to avoid the action. Regal keeps grabbing the house mic and asking the fans to please be more quiet so he can concentrate on his wrestling, threatens to leave until he begins being counted out, runs back to the ring and trips on the ropes, landing in his face. This is the kind of stuff that house show dreams are made of, a style that we're getting further and further away from to the detriment of all wrestling joy. 

And once Regal does start wrestling he lays a great beating on Badd for over 10 minutes. He leans full body weight behind European uppercuts, works cool knuckle lock exchanges that end with Regal kneeing his way out, blocks a sunset flip by dropping a knee down onto Badd's face. I thought Badd sold Regal's shots so well, loved the way he always looked off balance, the way Regal would uppercut him into the ropes and then headbutt his stomach to get him back into the ropes, Badd had a nice organic way of selling Regal's offense exactly as it was delivered. Badd's punch comeback looked really cool, highlighting how silly modern stand and trade exchanges look, as Bad is landing body shots while Regal and him aren't really focused on each other's timing. It looked like two guys each trying to land strikes while on defense, not like two guys waiting out their turning in the timing to strike. Regal is a slime and tries to put his feet on the ropes for the win just because he can, and it works! Until the ref notices the feet and reverses the call, leading to Regal getting schoolboyed. This was a tremendous Regal performance around a popular but limited performer, but I thought Badd's selling was incredibly strong and only added to Regal's hilarious mannerisms and brutal strikes. 

Brian Pillman vs. Diamond Dallas Page

MD: It's great to see visible proof of Austin sitting and watching matches. I'd guess in this case that Page asked him to for critiques but maybe the guy just liked wrestling and was a student of the game. Pillman here, came off like the world's smallest Hansen, constantly fighting back, constantly making Page fill space with his size and his offense. It meant Page had to take every moment of this with nothing given and that made for a more compelling experience than you might think coming in.

ER: I'm never going to be too into those matches where babyfaces hit arm drags and then hold arm wringers as a big portion of the match, as it always just ends up making me more interested in the heel eventually breaking through and that shouldn't be the goal. But that's what happened here as I wound up being far more excited for DDP bumping around for Pillman, and really loved his hard forearms to Pillman's jaw. I thought he was good at working a big man against a hot babyface, liked how he took the crossbody, but just found myself far more interested in seeing DDP throw those elbows. Maybe the most interesting thing was our cameraman panning the crowd (or well, panning hundreds of empty folding chairs) to catch Steve Austin sitting by the entrance watching the match. I love seeing things like that. 

Stars & Stripes vs. Pretty Wonderful

MD: The highlight of this came early when Roma bumped himself out of the corner on a clean break and declared victory by claiming Patriot took out his eye. Pretty funny stuff. Pretty Wonderful cut off the ring well, but a lot of their offense was more focused on containing Patriot than doing damage to him and that'll only take you so far. The finish worked though, giving us just enough Bagwell and not too much of him.

ER: I have friends who went to a WCW house in Oakland, CA maybe three months after this house show, and they both said that Pretty Wonderful vs. Stars & Stripes was the worst match they had ever seen live, both with memories of the match going 30 minutes and being dreadfully boring. They both acknowledge that they might feel differently now, how their tastes may have changed, and I think it's possible that they might have hated it due to the unnecessary length and the probable amounts of bullshit in the match. The bullshit in this match is really great, but I know I had less tolerance of stalling and drawn out cheating and those sorts of things when I was younger, and now it's something I actively seek. I didn't like those Rockers/Rougeaus matches that started with 15 minutes of them doing showoff poses and playing games of H-O-R-S-E by doing backflips off the buckles, and now I would kill to see wrestling matches like that. 

This match had a lot of bullshit, and it was nearly 20 minutes (with several minutes cut out when the guy stopped recording) of Pretty Wonderful cutting Patriot off from Bagwell. Patriot is one of the more supremely uninteresting wrestlers of the era, and a match focused on PW containing him and his weird punches is a good thing (he throws hooking right hands with nice form, but frequently aims them them so his mid wrist is connecting with the side of his opponent's head, so his fist always lands behind his opponent). Orndorff is great bumping around the ring and begging off from Stars and Stripes, and things get really great when Roma starts using hand claps behind the ref's back to make it look like Patriot is taking cheap shots. Roma backs Patriot into the corner a couple times, and claps his hands right when the ref can't see, bumps backwards holding his face and complaining about Patriot's poor sportsmanship. The first time Roma did it, a woman near our cameraman began loudly, hoarsely CACKLING with laughter. God I wish I could have watched wrestling with that woman. Roma was great at being the batter who is trying to work a hit by pitch, and what really makes the match is how deeply upset the crowd gets with every single cheat utilized by PW. When a crowd is this angry at a heel routine, it's the easiest thing to love. Roma is a guy I never think of, a wrestler I've seen so much yet has made such a small impression on my memory that watching this house show version of Roma gives me a new appreciation for him. This guy knew how to draw excellent heat on an undersold Texas house show, and that's a cool thing. The match builds smartly to a quick Bagwell hot tag, which is the best possible use of 1993 Bagwell. There's a good chance I would not have had the patience for this match in 1994, but in 2020 this was just what I needed.

Guardian Angel vs. Ron Simmons

MD: This was short and weird. You have to call it a disappointment. I've never seen Simmons work heel like this, almost like chickenshit, falling out of the ring and running away from Angel. He had a nice face first corner bump/rope assisted mule kick as a transition move but it didn't go anywhere as Bossman took right back over a minute later (though there was what felt like a small cut which maybe made a difference). Really the best part of this was how the ring shook whenever they hit the ropes.

ER: I thought this kicked ass, and based on the timekeeper's call I think we actually got closer to 4 minutes cut out of this, and I think that was an important cut. I'm pretty positive we missed the 4 minute entirety of Ron Simmons' offense, as the match cuts right after he knocks Traylor to the floor with an awesome falling headbutt/Bret Hart diving elbow, and then joins us back with Simmons missing a big headbutt off the middle rope. What we're left with does indeed feel incomplete, but I loved the match we did get. Simmons/Boss Man really wasn't a singles match that was run a lot (I don't think we ever would have even got a singles match between them 5-6 years later in WWF), and who knows maybe they intentionally did not want to run this match because Traylor so large and it's a tough spot to put some heels in working with a large dominant babyface. 

But large dominant babyface Ray Traylor is some of my favorite wrestling, so I loved seeing him uppercut Simmons around the ring, roll to the floor and uppercut him some more. We get big shoulderblocks and nice collisions, and obviously the big mystery is just what did Ron Simmons do to control Traylor during that missing time. Traylor's comeback after the Simmons missed headbutt is great, a few big clotheslines and a finisher worthy crossbody that Traylor got great big man height on (and Simmons took in a way that landed HARD). We get a hilarious bit at the very end that feels completely out of place (enough that I assume this was played up a lot during our missing time) as Traylor hits a headbutt and then drops to his knees selling Simmons' hard head...only to roll him up in a small package when Simmons tried to capitalize. It's REALLY hard to do a "sell hard head of opponent spot" literally 10 seconds before winning the match, so this had to have been the focal point of the missing time, leading to Traylor exploiting it for the surprise finish. Loved this pairing, glad we finally got to see a nice length singles. 

Dustin Rhodes/Arn Anderson vs. Bunkhouse Buck/Amarillo Slim

MD: We don't get a ton of this. In fact, we lose it right when it's getting good, but I'm sick of hearing Arn say how terrible a babyface he'd be because he has no "babyface skills." He could punch. He had great timing. That's literally all you need.

ER: Oh, how cruel handheld wrestling can be. This was the match I was most excited to see, and what portion of the match clearly showed it to be the best match on the show. Alas, we don't see the finish of the match, and it felt like there still could have been 5 (or 10!) minutes left. The match still could have gone in several ways and we cut out after jumps the gun on the hot tag. It wouldn't be a shock to find out they worked another 5 minutes of Buck/Slim keeping Arn away from the tag. As we finish, Arn has run into the ring throwing punches before getting tossed hard to the floor, and Buck/Slim are just about to start working over Dustin again. We'll never know, but what we do get is as good as its on paper promise. 

There are cuts throughout the match, but those appear to be our cameraman cutting "out of ring" time. Obviously, all of that out of the ring time involves Robert Fuller, so cutting that out of the handheld is a crime. When Bunkhouse Buck takes a huge bump over the top to the floor and Fuller gives him some air by waving his cowboy hat over his face, you know we're missing out on other versions of that. But we do get Fuller on the house mic directing traffic and telling Buck and Slim to keep putting the boots to Dustin. Buck is great at laying in the boots and taking offense, loved how he sold Dustin's atomic drop but also loved how he kept backing Dustin up with a bearhug. At first I thought it was silly that Erik Watts was working as "Amarillo Slim" (I had no idea this was a gimmick he worked at the end of his first WCW run), but heel cowboy Erik Watts is way more interesting than tall clumsy babyface Erik Watts. He takes his own fast bump to the floor and could have really been valuable as a heel patsy who apes Buck and Fuller. Arn as a fired up hot tag babyface is something we didn't get enough of, and something he's great at. He's a powerhouse on the apron, and between his babyface apron energy and Dustin's excellent FIP work, it's not shockingly a great fit. So, watch and love this for what it is, and not for the missing parts we have no control over. We have Amarillo Slim footage now, and for that we should be thankful. Imagine if Virgil had only worked a few house show dates as Curly Bill and had never been on TV under that gimmick. Watts as Slim is not as exciting as that, but it hits the same spot. 

Stunning Steve Austin vs. Sting

MD: Austin was in transition here, no longer the TV champ of 91 or the Hollywood Blonde of 93 but not yet what he'd become a couple of years (and injuries) later. I love watching him squash guys in 95. Here he was still full of stooging and bullshit but had a way that he threw himself into all of his offense that was a portent of what would come. Sting did what he had to, emanating power and authority, a straightman that let all of Austin's manic energy just wash around him, waiting for him to feed into gorilla press slams and back body drops. This had enough time to be fun, but given the number of roll up finishes so far, there was probably no harm in giving Sting something more definitive to end it.

ER: I love Steve Austin, and I really love this era of Austin. I don't know if anyone on the roster at this point delivered offense better than Austin. He wrestles the way 1994 Bret Hart would have wrestled as a stooging heel. Same perfectly executed offense, delivered as if to look like he's really throwing his full weight behind everything. Hart and Austin have very similar styles but tweaked in ways that made them unique and complementary opponents (instead of the parity battle their series could have been), and 1994 Hart was a guy that would have been able to have a great match with Sting. House Show Austin is one of my favorite things, as every time we get to finally see WCW handhelds or unreleased post-Raw dark matches, Austin shows himself to be one of the more engaging crowd work guys in history. I mean, *obviously* Steve Austin was someone who could connect with crowds, but he never really stopped working the way an old 50 year old bullshit artist territory guy would work a 35 person crowd. He clearly relishes getting in people's faces and doing full routines with people in the front row, and the crowd was here for ALL of it. He knew when to be vicious to Sting, he knew when to get his ass kicked, and you get the sense that Austin could have had a match this good with a babyface of any ability. 

Austin is a great bumper, and here we get to see him give the balcony fans in El Paso a great look off at him as he flew into a sky high backdrop, and not long after went up just as high for a quick Sting press slam, and Austin works so fast his bumps look even better. He's one of the best all time at being perfectly in control while working at a speed that makes it seem like things are about to run off the rails. It's like a 2 year old who has been walking for awhile, but still falls down when running too fast, as if the body isn't quite catching up to the desire. Maybe the best thing about his bumping is how hard his landings look, or how hard he makes his landings look. He hits heavy on the mat for every back bump, which makes suplex landings or falls feel always consequential. His offense all looks so good, and I can't get enough of his kneedrop, his diving elbow off the middle buckle that might be the best version of that elbow ever thrown, and one of the coolest things I've ever seen him do: when he unrolls Sting's arm like he's about to hit a Rainmaker and just assaults him with a back elbow. Honestly, it looked so great it should be a finisher. It all builds to a quick, simple Sting comeback. Austin bumps for three decent clotheslines, holds the ropes on a sunset flip only to have them kicked off by the ref (sincerely one of my most hated spots in wrestling history). Austin kicks out but comes up shoving the ref for kicking his hands, leading to Austin getting shoved into a schoolboy. The finish really felt like the kind that some WCW agent saw Flair use for a couple decades, but Austin pulls off that kind of thing with aplomb. 

Jerry "The King" Lawler vs  Nick Bockwinkle CWA 8/21/78 - GREAT

MD: A Thanksgiving miracle, even if one with a ten minute clip through a lot of the good stuff. I'm pretty certain this was the first time Bockwinkel fought Lawler and some of the only footage (if not THE only footage) we have of Heenan in the Mid-South Coliseum. Heenan had amazing purple and gold California pajama gear that could have only existed in the 70s. Bock wrestled Lawler early on the same way he'd wrestle Chavo Guerrero in Houston a few years later, that Hollywood over-confidence in wrestling a local yokel in front of a crowd that loved him for whatever reason. Even Lance picked up on it on commentary a few minutes in (which is why Lance is so great). It led, of course, to Lawler stooging him with his own offense and looking like a million bucks without diminishing Bockwinkel in the least. Heenan and Bockwinkel spend the first few minutes complaining about hairpulls that don't exist only for Bock to take over for a bit with a hairpull of his own. It's that attention to detail that made him so great. The cut comes just as you can tell they were about to move into something better, so it's frustrating, but when we come back for the finish, it's in the midst of a ton of great Lawler punches and Bockwinkel's full body selling that really got over the weight of what had happened so far. The finish is typical Heenan running in when his guy is doomed, but it's to show that Lawler can beat the champ and set up the rematch the following week, which I bet drew. It's a shame we don't have all of this, but we've got 15 minute more of it than we did last week, and I won't complain about that.

PAS: Odd presentation of this match, we get the first 12 minutes or so of this, which is a lot of feeling out and cat and mouse stuff. Lawler suckering Bock into a side headlock, Heenan grousing at the ref, etc. All prologue. These are two masters, so minor key stuff is going to be well worth watching, but just as Lawler starts to pick it up with big forearms to the ribs and a couple of right hands, they jump right to the last two minutes. I obviously want it all, but if you are going to clip, clip the appetizer, not the main course. Finish is Lawler rolling, and we get an absolutely classic fist drop. He is the best ever at it, and this is one of his best, before Heenan just runs in for the DQ (his Laker's jumpsuit was maybe the highlight of this match, he looked like Jerry West on the prowl for the ladies). A little frustrating, but still this was something we didn't know existed until Wednesday.

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New Footage Friday: Rude, Blonds, Scorpio, Steamboat, Sting, Destroyer, Baba, Razor, Tito

The Destroyer/Bill Dromo/Kurt von Stroheim vs. Giant Baba/Michiaki Yoshimura/Toyonobori JWA 12/1/64

MD: Everyone who's seen any amount of Destroyer matches think that he's great, just a perfect marriage of credibility and comedy, able to provide far more of the latter than you'd expect, especially in Japan, while never, ever losing the former. The reason why we can never quite rank him higher against his peers is that we just don't have enough varied footage. Here, though, he was in his mid 30s, and he feels undeniably like one of the best I've ever seen. Baba's amazing too, with this electric alacrity that I'm not sure I've ever seen out of him. He's got this lightning throat chop that feels like Sangre Chicana's comeback punch. It's that good.

This goes forty minutes but it feels like a breezy fifteen. It tells a half dozen narratives, narratives that maybe never add up to a greater whole, but still never feels disjointed or ambling. The other four guys in the ring hold their own, with Destroyer, Dromo, and Von Stroheim amazingly on the same page for three guys who seem completely different. The finish is the best thing too, Destroyer, who stooged and gooned and grumbled the whole match, expertly escaping a rolling bodyscissors and locking in a laser-fast 1964 figure-four leglock, basically earning two falls in one. It was this great Buddy Rose moment where a guy who fed and fed transcends the normal scorn of the crowd by showing that he's an absolute killer.

PAS: This is some of the earliest Destroyer footage we have, he is an all time great who we don't have a full view of. There isn't a ton of new tricks a new Flair match will show us, but we don't know all of the Destroyers tunes. Structure of the match was interesting, they would alternate between the heels controlling with quick tags, and the native trios getting off big moves with the heels stooging and bumping. Nifty bits of stooge work by the heels, I loved Destroyer flying all around the ring for Yoshimura's drop kicks, and Baba is treated like a total monster. The match really kicks into gear in the last section with Destroyer slamming Baba on the floor, and Baba coming back like a maniac wrecking everyone.

The finish itself was totally awesome, with Yoshimura ripping off a rolling bodyscissors, and Destroyer spinning out super fast into a figure four, it was a crazy bit of athleticism, which you don't really see in later Destroyer matches. They do the super old school thing where the refs and other wrestlers need to untangle the legs to break the hold and Yoshimura lays slumped in the corner selling like he tore his patella. Destroyer struts around like a cocky dick as Yoshimura can't answer the bell for the third fall. Destroyer comes off like such a legend, a badass who can end a match in an instant. If I was a fan in the 60s I would totally would buy a ticket to see Baba or Toyonbouri try to take him down, but I would be terrified that he could break one of my hero's in the snap of his fingers.

Tito Santana vs. Razor Ramon 6/29/92

MD: I know 84-94 WWF as much as anything, with 90-92 WWF that sweet spot of nostalgia from when I was 10. So while this wasn't great, I still wanted to talk about it. Obviously, Hall had honed the Ramon gimmick as the Diamond Studd (and if I'm not mistaken, a bit in PR before that), but there's an element to his work here that is really interesting.

He feigned apathy in a way that no WWF heel ever had before him. Basically, he worked this match as a dismissive cool heel and it was something the crowd had never really seen. There's been a lot written about how cool heels swallow their opponents on the mic, but look at what he does here (and how he turns it on a dime to effect later in the match). When Tito gets him in an armbar early, he just casually walks to the ropes, putting his foot through to break it. He feigns that it's not even worth the effort to try to escape. By the second or third time he does this, the fans are irate at him because it goes against everything they know. Some heels (like a Dibiase sort) might have tried to get to the ropes, but only because they couldn't escape any other way. To Ramon, it wasn't even worth trying. Later on, while feeding for Tito a bit, he'd just sidestep him and use his side to redirect him over the top rope. He'd sell the arm, would jaw with the ref, but he was in absolutely no rush to go back after Tito. It was this 90s mentality which went against everything the fans were trained to think about wrestling. There was also an element of visual dissonance. Ramon was big, bigger than Tito, but he was just so purposefully laconic and taking shortcuts, not because he had to or because he liked to but because he didn't see any point in not taking them.

Here, because it was one wrestler in one match, and because Ramon, once he was outwrestled by Tito (who cares as much as anyone) later on, showed cracks in the facade, it worked. The fans barely reacted to him at the start and by the time he won (after lazily getting a leg up on a flying forearm and rolling through a flying body press with a tights grab), they hated his guts. Extrapolated forwards, however, especially as he continued to rack up wins, there was a real danger that he would have torpedoed the credibility of everyone he was in the ring with, making them all look like fools for caring so much when he didn't care at all.

ER: Matt's early wrestling nostalgia lines up almost exactly with my childhood wrestling experience, so the most notable thing about this to me was that Razor *was wearing pants*. And they weren't just generic tights, they were clearly Razor Ramon tights. I have never seen a picture of him wearing tights, although I'm sure there must be one out there, so right away this felt weird. Matt did an impossibly great job of running down a match that was essentially worked like a Young Lions match (it felt like Razor went out there specifically showing what he could do in a match with zero offense, with I think his biggest highspot being a legdrop to Tito's balls), and for fans looking back I bet this came off as memorable if only because the match actually goes about 10 minutes, and this being a Superstars taping, after this they were going to be seeing 15-20 different 2 minute matches. But it's pretty impressive to me just how fully formed the Razor Ramon character was. He has a lot of mannerisms down that he would go on to use for the rest of his career, like he has it all figured out. Again, Matt does a great job of running down the subtle psychology, that cocky foot on the ropes that Razor employs throughout, but I also liked him calling his shot before the bell, indicating he was going to toss Santana the hell over the ropes. He later does so and turns to the crowd without even having to tell them "Told ya so". I wrongly assume this is because they're debuting a bunch of guys before the Rumble, which it seemed like they did, but checking the date and that's likely not the case. I appreciate guys getting mileage out of no offense, and most of this is Ramon and Santana trading holds and reacting, with the only real offense being Santana hitting a nice dropkick and the flashy flying forearm and a crossbody (which is reversed), and Razor eating knees on a Vader bomb spot. The rest is mannerisms and machismo, a cool snapshot of the next several years.

Rick Rude/Steve Austin/Brian Pillman vs. 2 Cold Scorpio/Ricky Steamboat/Sting WCW 5/6/93

MD: Looking at the Observer results on this match, it was in front of ~300 people in Terre Haute, Indiana. On a Thursday. WWE was elsewhere drawing 2500 with Giant Gonzales vs Taker and Money Inc. vs the Steiners on top. Right before this match the crowd had to sit through Orndorff vs Eric Watts and Bagwell vs Wrecking Crew Rage (they did get Rip Rogers vs RVD and Benoit vs Regal).

So here you have six guys who are stars, who were on magazine covers and in video games and had toys made of them. Rude and Steamboat wrestled in front of massive houses. Austin and Pillman and Scorpio less so, maybe. Sting was Sting. And in front of 300 people in Terre Haute, Indiana, they put on a hell of a match.

Scorpio was glad to be there, felt like such a star, and was hugely helped by all the heels begging off from him. The Blonds act was perfect for a match like this, pretending to want to scuffle with the rowdy crowd, pairing with Rude really well, feeding endlessly for the faces. Rude was at the height of his power. He was one of the best in the world in this period and he could do more with his hips alone than most wrestlers could do with six or seven full body rotations (you know what I mean).

It was an elimination match, which was fun in some ways but it meant we lost Scorpio a little earlier than I would have liked. It did mean Pillman got to shine a bit in the back half though, and meant that the finish (which was great, maybe one of the best finishes in 93 WCW) was entirely between Sting and Pillman. This was the perfect combination of star power, house show goofing, and guys actually working hard when there was no reason in the world for them to do so. Were they really putting on matches like this every night?

ER: What a special little gem of a match, the perfect mix of all six stars' abilities and terrific house show stooging and shenanigans. There's no way fans went home feeling they got ripped off after this one. This would have been a great and well remembered match on PPV, but I like the in the crowd feeling we get for this one, as while Matt pointed out there were 300 people there, those 300 people were excited for this match. Rick Rude was clearly one of the best wrestlers in the world during this era. You rarely get to see a man stalk the ring and work the match with this kind of unabashed, deserved confidence. Dude knew where he was at every step of the way, knew what would work and did it better than anyone could have. He milks the atomic drops from Scorpio like you hoped he would, pretends to be occupied on the apron so he wouldn't have to take Pillman's tag when Sting was going wild, throws a full Rude hip swivel in while holding Scorpio before hitting a spinebuster (this really popped off fans around our camera man), and there was a tremendous moment where he started headbutting Sting, then lost control and started throwing a ton of headbutts....before realizing how much his own head was now throbbing; we get great Rude stumbling around while he's selling his own forehead, with him wandering perfectly into place for Steamboat to throw a lonnnnnnnnng windup punch from the apron. If I saw a spot like that on a house show I genuinely wouldn't care what else was on the show, my spent money would be deemed worth it. Rude was an absolute force during this era, really a guy I want to go back and just watch every ounce of his WWF/WCW work.

Everyone else was great here, too; this was far from a one man performance. Blonds - like Rude - were great doofs and total badasses. We get an incredible shot before the match, total luck really, of Austin going after a fan and Pillman having to hold him back. Austin is going after a guy literally right next to our camera man, so we get to see the incensed hate in Austin's eyes and how much of his body he's really throwing into Pillman's stoppage. Obviously there was no chance Austin was going to lay his hands on some Terra Haute hillbilly, but he commits to the act and these same fans are riled up the entire match. Stone Cold is what brought me back full bore into wrestling fandom in high school after I had abandoned it a few years prior, and when I got back into wrestling I had never seen one second of WCW Steve Austin. Everything I loved about Stone Cold was right here already, 4 years earlier. Babyface team was fantastic, every bit of wild energy you could want from a babyface house show trios team (look at that big Sting press slam!!), and it was awesome seeing Scorpio treated like a star. This is a real gem, something you desperately hope there is more of, out there, somewhere.

PAS: I love house show handhelds especially from the 20th century. You are going to a get a much more interactive performance in a small Indiana gym, they aren't working to the back of the arena, because they aren't in an arena. You get to see guys work shtick to the crowd, and it is just incredible to watch all time performers interact like this. Absolutely loved Rude here, we got a ton of variations of his hurt butt sell, took several atomic drops, missed a sunset flip, nothing says wrestling like Rude clenching his ass cheeks and tip toeing around the ring. Scorpio is always a treat to watch, he is constantly mixing in unique bits of offense and selling, here he broke out a flying back Super Astro tope, which has got to be the only time that spot was ever done in Indiana. Such a treat, and it is pretty great that this is just available to watch on your computer 25 years later.

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1991 Match of the Year

Ric Flair/Barry Windham/Sid Vicious/Larry Zbyszko v. Sting/Brian Pillman/Steiner Brothers WCW WrestleWar 2/24

PAS: Yes indeed this holds up really well, it had been years since I had seen it and had totally forgot that Zbyszko was in instead of Arn (was Arn hurt? Larry was fine but Arn is Arn). Opening of this is totally amazing, Pillman is the focus of this match and this is one of the great babyface performances in wrestling history. I loved him demanding to go in first even with the damaged shoulder while Ross describes how he has been and underdog his whole life. Pillman was really great at using the cage like a jungle gym, swinging into a headscissors, grabbing the roof for a dropkick ect., Windham is a big bumper, great bleeder and nasty fucker, everything you want from a heel in this match. Flair was a bunch of fun too, coming in and having a great chop exchange with Brian, taunting the other faces. Sting and Rick Steiner are both great houses of fire and the moment where the babyfaces even up the match is always one of my favorite parts of of Wargames. Sid was Sid, although turning the first powerbomb into a ganzo bomb did add to the nastiness of the finish, not sure if two regular powerbombs get us to a ref stoppage.

ER: Yes yes yes! This was what I needed after a dull day at work and lousy traffic. I'm lock step with Phil on this one, right down to wondering why Arn was hanging at ringside instead of being Arn in a WarGames. But whatever, this was an all time WarGames, filled with some great performances, and not just the wrestlers; this may very well be Jim Ross' best match call ever. You could not have asked for a better opening than Pillman/Windham, with JR saying all the right things about Pillman while Pillman unleashes every piece of offense he knows on Windham. Windham gets overwhelmed by Pillman and projects it to the back, scrambling, bleeding, bumping all over (good lord that bump into the second ring where he hits the top rope and flips over!). Then Flair comes in and they both go after Pillman's taped up shoulder. Everybody tightens up everything in this and it makes the whole thing play so well: Sting is potatoing people, Larry is working cheap shots and interference, Rick Steiner is stiff arming everybody and just when you think he can be selfish he bumps a Sid lariat right on the side of his head, Scott showed awesome fire from even before getting in the cage, having to be held back by Nick Patrick until the countdown was over. Everybody had some awesome star moments, with Pillman and Windham especially standing out throughout the whole massacre. The Sid finish was vicious, and Phil is right that after all Pillman went through it would have been kind of a downer if he had gone down to two regular powerbombs, so that ganso bomb was just an accidental high end finish. Blood, violence, theatricality, chaos, the amazing kind of wrestling that needs to storyline explanation and can be put on cold to liven spirits.


ALL TIME MATCH OF THE YEAR LIST

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Now Regal Knows How Joan of Arc Felt

Lord Steven Regal v. Brian Pillman WCW 8/13/94-GREAT

Great match up between two awesome wrestlers, and a matchup I didn't remember and never really considered. Pillman was a little subdued here, he through some cool backfists, and chops, but Regal really controlled this with his performance even when Pillman was on offense. Early Pillman controlled with a headlock and Regal was awesome as he was constantly trying different escapes and counters, he never stopped testing Pillman and looking for holds. Similarly when Regal was grounding Pillman he would be constantly adjusting his grip, applying pressure to Pillman's neck, switching grips, adjusting his weight,  just super violent looking armlocks and necklocks. Finish came a little abruptly with some Sir William interference which wasn't tied into to the rest of the match, that kept this from being an EPIC, but man it is great to watch Regal at the height of his powers, doing his thing.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE REGAL

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My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Worldwide 11/19/95

1. Eddie Guerrero vs. Buck Quartermaine

Just an Eddie showcase with Tony and Brain just blowing him on commentary. Can't really blame them. Eddie's '95 offense was really fun, with his smooth dropkick, rolling senton, brainbuster, superplex, snap back suplex and of course frog splash. Crowd loved him and was chanting "Eddie" early. Quartermaine had a nice back elbow and a decent crossbody, but you knew what this was. I miss seeing Eddie Guerrero wrestle.

2. Meng vs. Louis Astea

You know, Meng really didn't stiff jobbers in his old squash matches. I've seen a bunch of them now, and on a show with a lot of squash matches, he's usually the most gentle with his opponent. Why is this!? Why did he not just murder Louis Astea (pronounced often by Tony as "ASS-tee"). Astea looked like my childhood orthodontist, but if my orthodontist didn't have an awesome job and nice house, and instead had slacked off in high school and didn't go to college. This was over in a minute. Astea got launched on a backdrop, which was easily the best thing about this.

3. DDP vs. Chuck Williams

In just a couple years, DDP was a major star. I would not have predicted it. I mean, seems about even money that Van Hammer would have become a big star.

~Awesome World War 3 commercial with Mean Gene tantalizing the folks at home by letting them know the big names that would be involved. The list is really weird, as the top 5 was 1. Sting, 2. Lex Luger, 3. Randy Savage (those three make tons of sense to advertise as the top 3 participants, obviously, but things get weird with) 4. Shark, and 5. Disco Inferno. Did they think that highly of Shark and Disco Inferno back in '95? I mean, it looks super bizarre 17 years later out of context, but that had to seem just as weird in '95 right?

4. Chris Benoit vs. Otis Apollo

Now Benoit was a guy who knew how to squash guys. Otis Apollo was a chubby guy with a constant 5 o'clock shadow. He also had kind of a Davey Richards way of selling offense. Benoit threw a bunch of elbows and clotheslines at Apollo's throat, and Apollo would play it allllll the way to the back row, just doing hilarious double hands to the throat "I'm choking!" signs, hacking and gagging and just looking like a victim in a Heimlich Maneuver safety video. Benoit even shows him up on bumping, as Apollo's one move was a backdrop and Benoit got great height on his bump. Then moved afterwards when Appolo went for an elbowdrop. Apollo sure looked like he didn't realize he would be missing that elbow.

5. Ric Flair/Arn Anderson/Brian Pillman vs. Dave Sullivan/Joey Maggs/JL

You know this shit was awesome. First awesome thing? Horseman entered first! You'd think the trio of Sullivan/Maggs/JL would just be waiting in the ring, but they get an honest to god entrance and everything! Of course the main awesome thing in this match was the Horseman giving tons of offense to 3 of the lowest tier guys on the roster. Was there a lower member on the roster than JL at this point? Well Arn bumps all around for JL's dropkicks, Flair gives Maggs tons of offense, and most of the offense the Horsemen get comes because they cheat. All 6 guys look like they're having fun, and who knows, maybe Flair giving Maggs tons of offense led to Maggs getting a better-than-normal looking rat (who he of course picked up by calling himself "Humpin" Joey Maggs. I hope.).

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My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Worldwide 11/5/95

1. Nasty Boys vs. Buddy Valentine/Johnny Swinger

I did not realize Swinger worked WCW this early. And here he had a mullet and mustache!!! That means for essentially 6 years in WCW, whenever a worker went to management and said "Hey, I really feel like stiffing a guy," then WCW management would say, "No problem! We'll give you Swinger!" And the Nasty Boys were guys who would stiff up jobbers occasionally. Although they don't really stiff up Valentine or Swinger here. They squash 'em good, but no real taking advantage of, which is what everybody watching at home (me) wanted.

2. The Shark vs. Vern Henderson

Rachel totally guessed that Tenta would be in the next match. She is fully immersed in WCW B-Sides now. It is a part of her. Tenta looked good here and call me crazy but I thought he looked cool with the balding up top/ponytail in the back look. Most human beings don't look cool with this look. Match was super short.

3. DDP vs. Cobra

Did anybody predict DDP becoming a massive star 2-3 years after this? Here he looks like an weird old dude with annoying hair and a bad singlet/tights combo, and 2 years later he was an old dude with annoying hair and tight jeans...but a totally deserving gigantic star. Just looking at these two, I would have guessed Jeff Farmer being a way bigger star. But then again I have no idea what I'm talking about. I thought Cobra had a cool look when I was 13. I love after this match when Craig Pittman comes out to distract Cobra and start a feud. The thing is, I don't remember ever seeing Cobra win a match EVER, so it's odd for a guy who is a strongly booked TV presence to come out and start menacing a consistent loser. Seems a bit like piling on. Like the Yankees bunting and doing a double steal against the Astros in the 9th inning of a game they're winning 9-1.

4. Steve/Scott Armstrong/Tim Horner vs. Brian Pillman/Arn Anderson/Ric Flair

These kind of matches are probably the best thing possible about these sets. You have three guys who nobody has ever seen take a pin on TV, vs. 3 of the bigger stars of the 90s, and 75% of the match is the Horsemen showing ass for Armstrongs/Horner. I don't know if it's because hierarchies aren't as strong today or the egos of the guys on top are just that much bigger that they don't want to look weak, but these type of matches just don't exist any more on TV. I think I was so confused by the Armstrongs running roughshod over Arn and Pillman that it took me like 3 minutes to realize Tim Horner was not in fact Bobby Eaton. I'm pretty sure for 3 minutes I was just non-stop talking about how I didn't realize Eaton ever wore trunks this late into his career. "I don't remember the last time I saw Eaton NOT wearing tights, you know? I assumed he had hideously scarred legs, but they're just normal super white Eaton legs you know? you know?!?!" Then Tim Horner came in and threw an arm drag and I was like Ohhhhhhhhh. Because only in wrestling can you have a guy with the worst haircut possible, and have there be another guy in the same room with the exact same haircut.

Anyway, the match was fucking boss because it's not the Armstrongs and Tim Horner getting squashed by Kevin Sullivan and Hugh Morrus, it's the Armstrongs and Tim Horner getting to squash the motherfucking Horsemen while the Horsemen have to desperately cheat to scrape out a victory, so who couldn't cheer like mad while watching it!?

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