On Brand Segunda Caida: Barry Houston

Barry Houston/Todd Morton vs. Terry Funk/Bunkhouse Buck WCW Saturday Night 7/16/94

ER: This was such an incredible idea that I'm quite frankly an idiot for not writing about something like this sooner. This is a pretty spectacular "What if Segunda Caida booked a random WCW tag match" lineup right here. And this is one of the greatest Barry Houston showcases we have, a long tag match that is essentially an extended Barry Houston beatdown with some nice comebacks. Todd Morton is in only for about one minute, still working his Ricky Morton underling look with his Morton mullet and bandana boots. Morton comes in, takes a couple shots from Buck, takes a great backdrop bump because that's what he does (this one doesn't have his usual height, but it takes a flipping bump the way Jannetty takes a clothesline and it's amazing, never seen a guy take a backdrop like this before), and then eats a nasty Funk piledriver. That's all we see of Morton. The rest of this tag match is Buck and Funk destroying Houston. Houston was just so damn good at eating a beating, he relegated himself to a career of eating a beating. He gets a couple fun mini comebacks, the rolling prawn hold was a solid nearfall, but it's so much of Funk and Buck just manhandling him. 

The whole thing starts with him eating a lariat right in the back of the head and goes downhill from there. Buck and Terry are so damn mean here, Funk just tosses him around and his a hard bodyslam, Bunk slams him and stomps his head, Houston takes two huge back bumps from the ring to the floor (landing with a real slap), Funk and Buck hit loud chops and slaps, Funk hits a hard shoulderblock, freaking powerbombs Houston on the floor AND gives Houston a nasty DDT on the floor....it's a freaking massacre. The finish of this is bananas: Funk drops True Man Barry Houston with THREE straight piledrivers. And Barry Houston takes a piledriver as well as ANY man who has ever taken a piledriver; Houston always whips his legs and knees towards the mat instead of keeping his body stiff like most. It really creates the illusion that his neck is snapping, just looks absolutely stomach turning. It's the perfect example of how his gift is his biggest curse: Picture Terry Funk voice saying "Barry - I like that name, sounds like my name - Barry, I remember how well you can take a piledriver. Tonight you're gonna help us out by taking three of 'em." Each one looks better than the last, and this video has a whole highlight reel after the match showing Houston taking 8 different nasty bumps. This is the match that secures Barry Houston a place in the eventual Segunda Caida Hall of Fame.

Barry Houston vs. Steve Austin WCW Worldwide 8/6/94

ER: Man this was a savage beating. Whereas the Funk/Buck tag was a total asskicking that saw Houston get a couple nice comebacks, this was 3 minutes of Austin showing just why he's an all timer. Houston gets not one split second of any kind of offense against Austin, this is just a freaking bear attack. Houston barely got a chance to breathe throughout this as Austin just fired on him the entire time. Austin backed Houston into a corner and threw a fantastic right hand to the jaw and an elbow that really used his whole body. Really every single thing Austin did in this match was with his whole body, looked like he was throwing all of his weight behind every shot. It was 3 minutes of Austin just being the meanest bully, doing everything so explosively. He drops a great knee, throws great body shots, and then does some of the meanest legwork I've seen. He spends the last 2 minutes just yanking and stomping and doing incredible butt drops on the inside of Houston's knee. The amazing thing was all of Austin's attacked looked completely worked, it didn't look like he was just stiffing the shit out of Houston, but I don't think it's possible for anybody to throw worked shots that look better than any of Austin's here. The leg work was great, every shot to the inner knee was brutal, and the stump puller figure 4 that he finished with was disgusting. God bless Houston and all he's done, but my god was this the Stunning Steve Austin show. This man was never not a star.

Read more!

My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Worldwide 10/8/95

Bunkhouse Buck vs. Ric Flair

ER: My god this is what you LEAD OFF an episode of Worldwide with? And this 100% delivers as an all time syndicated classic. This is a straight up asskicking. Buck beats the absolute hell out of Flair here. This is honestly the stiffest I've ever seen Buck work and Flair leans into a pretty mean beating. Buck is throwing hard back elbows, hard forearms shots to the chest, big punches, a real great corner clothesline, he rips at Flair's nose and mouth, kicks him in the face, drops a boot right down onto Flair's head in a way that Flair looks like his brains rattled, just a total mugging. This looked like Buck got underpaid for a couple of Birmingham, Alabama NWA title opportunities against Flair a decade before, and he's said nothing about it until this match. Flair takes an absolute beating here and it's great. Flair puts on this great big bumping sympathetic performance, with Buck as a real imposing monster. Flair takes three different bumps over the buckles, and they're escalated in a real satisfying way and important to the match: First time he's whipped into the buckles and goes upside down, falling hard back into the ring; second time he goes upside down and falls down the apron and takes a nasty spill out onto the Worldwide stage (with Buck hitting a kickass forearm off the apron); third time is during his comeback when he goes upside down in the corner, but runs the length of the apron to hit Buck with a top rope axe handle! An awesome usage of a signature bump to escalate the story of the match every time it's done. And to put the absolute most perfect cherry on top of this delicious Sunday, Flair wins this match with a running elbow, like he was dispatching of Donovan Morgan on a house show. This was perfection and one of the all time greatest matches in syndicated WCW history.

Kamala/Zodiac vs. Scott D'Amour/Terry Morgan

ER: This completely, unironically RULED. This was total chaos in front of a bunch of Florida elderly people and 12 year old kids in large size t-shirts, and that's kind of when pro wrestling is at its best. Kamala is shrieking around the ring throwing overhand chops and big stomps, Zodiac is running around babbling and fishhooking Scott D'Amore while Kevin Sullivan keeps stomping on D'Amore's fingers. This felt more like a crazy cult doing a home invasion than a wrestling match. Terry Morgan has this great jobber mustache, and Kamala picks him up over his head doing a two handed choke and it looked like he was lifting him up 10 feet in the air before dropping him. This whole thing was ugly and ridiculous and completely great.

Tim Horner vs. Diamond Dallas Page

ER: I always forget Horner got a little WCW run around this time, lots of singles and several matches teaming with various Armstrongs. He's an always fun classic babyface, and he milks a few different convincing surprise nearfalls in this one, a guy who never wins who always has an energy level that feels like he just might win. There was a rolling prawn hold in this that was held super snug, really looked like Horner was going to get the win even though that was obviously not happening. Kimberly  Page was a flat out absurd babe in October of 1995, oh and Tim Horner threw a great babyface dropkick. DDP gives Horner 4 different nice pinfall almost wins here, and then simply puts him away with his nice tilt a whirl slam. I wish Horner was around a year later so we could have seen him against some of the luchadors.

Dick Slater vs. Randy Savage

ER: This show was so going so great that you just knew this wasn't going to let you down, and it does not. This a similar kind of asskicking to Buck/Flair - not as good, but same spirit - and made me really hope for a Savage/Flair vs. Buck/Slater tag that gets more than 10 minutes. Seeing what the 4 of them did on this episode makes that tag a lost classic, they could have worked a legendary street fight as evidenced here. Slater and Savage throw nice 80s street fight punches, Savage takes a big bump to the floor, takes hard flat back bumps around the ring for Slater, and the finished has some inspired silliness: Slater puts Savage down and then tries to cheat to win, by removing his cowboy boot to give Savage a good clonking. The Corporal has the ref distracted, and Slater CANNOT get his boot off. He's yanking at it with both hands, kicking at it with his other foot, shaking is leg to get this damn boot off of him, getting more and more desperate to beat Savage with it. He finally shakes it off and Savage gets it and hits a wicked shot right off Slater's forehead. A picture perfect flying elbow finishes it.

This ranks up with my all time favorite episodes of Worldwide that I've watched. A ton of fun from top to bottom, and my review doesn't even cover the genuinely terrific Flair, Johnny B. Badd, and Kevin Sullivan promos that aired throughout, NOR did I cover the three different commercials for 1995 sexpot potboiler JADE, produced by Robert Evans, written by Joe Eszterhas, starring David Caruso fresh off of quitting one of the more lucrative gigs in TV history (which would have been far more hilariously tragic if he didn't somehow land an even more lucrative TV gig a decade later). This episode is what all syndicated WCW should aspire to. And YOU need to watch the Bunkhouse Buck/Ric Flair match linked above. It's genuinely one of my favorite matches I've watched out of allllll the syndicated WCW landscape.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE WCW B-SIDES

Read more!

RETRO Segunda Caida- DUSTIN OF THE DAY #19 Bunkhouse Buck v. Dustin Rhodes Slamboree 94

Eric is on a cruise with his parents and I am in a NYC hotel room with not great internet for streaming so I am posting a TOMK Dustin of the Day from back in the day

Dustin Rhodes vs. Bunkhouse Buck-Bullrope Match (Slamboree 94)

In the last Dustin vs. Buck match I reviewed, Buck won by DQ when Dustin was caught with the knucks. Parker gives Buck the knucks, Dustin atomic drops Buck, Buck drops the knuck, Dustin starts hitting Buck with knucks only for ref to see and Dustin to be Dqed. Pretty classic finish really well done as Dustin is really good at milking the crowd pop for “you guys want me to hit him with it???” before punching and Dustin instead of going to head just hits a bunch of really narsty looking bodyshots with the knuckledusters. The PPV Bunkhouse match before that had a knucks finish. Now we have a bullrope match where both wrestlers are tied together so that neither can bail and both share opportunity at same weapon, cowbell in the middle of ring.

Last time I reviewed a Buck vs. Dustin Rhodes match I talked a lot about Bunkhouse Buck's Darkness Muga and his great abdominal stretch work in the context of a brawl. There will not be any abdominal stretches here. This is a bullrope match and is about old style American lynching spots, ain't gonna be none of them Frenchified standing guillotines here.

Just as an aside, no one I’ve contacted who have the 1990 Dustin vs. Gary Young bullrope match from the Sportatorium listed has gotten back to me yet. So, if anyone has it, please, either contact me or put it up on the matches board. Thanks

This Bunkhouse Buck match is on the 94 Slamboree, Legends Reunion Show. The other really memorable things from this show was an opening match between Terry Funk and Tully Blanchard and the teasing of a possible Hogan vs. Flair match. The Funk vs. Tully match really has the feel of being Tully's ECW audition in front of a Philly crowd as the two work a real ECWish match with Blanchard channeling Kobashi (taking a DDT on the ring apron, among other places, multiple piledrivers both on chairs, floors, etc and keeps on coming).. The teased blonde wolrd champion turned out not to be Hogan but instead a really fat out of shape Barry Windham. If I was treated to a fat out of shape Windham, when I was expecting Hogan...I would have been stoked...but still it is a stupid booking and the crowd really turned hard on the bait and switch.

I am going to split this Bullrope match into four parts:

First part: the hot opening.

Dustin comes in with the bullrope attached to his hand. Buck, the heel of course wants no part of the bullrope. Dustin stands in the ring swinging the bullrope around his head, and buck comes in charging Dustin hoping not to get hit by rope. Bullrope knocks Buck to the outside and Dustin just wraps the thing around Bucks neck and they do a whole series of hanging and dragging by neck spots. Philly crowd thinking they're gonna be treated to a lynching is stoked. Dustin eventually straps the rope onto Buck's hand. and Dustin stays in control with a bunch of pulling the Buck into strikes spots (spots that otherwise might require opponent to run ropes). Buck still sells being out of it after escaping the hanging.

They do the big formula bullrope spots here early in the match. The face crotches heel with rope, the face smashes the cowbell on heel's penis, etc. I was talking about how good Dustin is at milking the crowd in the "should I do it???" spots and he does that really well here for the early formula bullrope spots.

Second part: Body part work.

Again, I wrote earlier about the knuckles exchange section in the Pro match between these two...Dustin instead of going to the head deviates from formula and took the knuckles to the body and it looks more violent than the normal formula.. Again he does that here as, we expect a bullrope match to have lots of cowbell shots to head...and instead Dustin uses cowbell to work over Buck's leg and it comes across like Dustin really wants to hurt Buck.

Dustin just starts slamming buck in the leg with the bell, grinds the edge into leg, and just really work the leg with the cowbell. 

Dustin goes to post Buck's leg and as seen in the Pro match, these two guys really know how to work a crotching opponent into post section. Here Buck sits up to prevent being crotched and they work a punch exchange to set up the posting. Dustin just pastes Buck in the face, and then can post leg. Buck sells the posting by swinging his upper body forward only to be pasted by Dustin with an uppercut and a right.... and then Dustin goes back to grinding the cowbell into the leg, dropping knee on leg etc. Buck is unsuccessful at breaking this up with eye rakes, etc.

Part three: Buck uses his knowledge of clothing to go back on offense.

Buck tried to escape the leg work by pulling on back of the hair and raking Dustin's eyes, but that didn't slow Dustin down much, so Buck grabs at the back of Dustin's shirt and pulls it over Dustin's head. Dustin has to stop to undo this so he can see. But before he can get the shirt off his face, Buck is back on offense punching the blinded Dustin from different angles. Buck than takes off his own belt and whips Dustin with the belt with one hand while using the other hand to smack the cowbell across Dustin's face.

The shirt, the belt, the cowbell...and Buck is in control and can take Dustin to the floor where he posts Dustin and then ties him to the ring post. Dustin is pinned to the post by the rope...no need for guillotine. With Dustin immobilized, Buck can kick and punch him at will. Then Buck takes off his suspenders and chokes Dustin with them. I really dig the clothing use to get back to offense section. Surprisingly he doesn't take off his boot, and disappointed that he didn't shove his kerchief in Dustin's mouth.

I'm used to Dustin trying to create distance so he can hit his strikes...instead here you have Dustin tied up trying to close distance, clinch to protect himself. With his movement limited, Dustin is able to trade some on the inside and any time these two trade punches it rules. Buck is getting the better of the punch exchange and eventually one of his punches drops the tied up Dustin. Dustin drops and low blows Buck on the way down.

Buck has this great stunned low blow sell where he just lays back dazed. Dustin is able to loosen the ropes a bit and hit a bionic elbow, loosens some more and hits a nasty heart punch with the bell..loosens some more and a series of bell shots to the heart. Dustin teases the bionic elbow to the bell on bucks head but instead just knocks Buck with the bell to head...This is Dustin's first use of the bell to the head in the match and gets a big pop...but this is Philly so that’s immediately followed by We want Blood chants..

Buck was really great selling during that whole section dazed from low blow enough to be rocked by elbow...rocked by elbow enough to be knocked back and out of breath by heart blows...and eventually knocked down by blow to head which allows Dustin enough time to completely unravel himself from post.

Part Four: Finish

So we're now building toward finish as both guys are really out on their feet at this point. Dustin had taken the long section of being tied up, Buck just ate the series of Dustin offense and his leg still ain't doing too well. Buck gets off first offensive move preceded by eye rake and tries to go for a big top rope move. But Buck's leg still taken pounding and Dustin punches buck on top rope, Buck falls seated crotching himself on top turnbuckle.

And we get your face punches heel on top rope while audience counts along section. I don't know if we've talked about how good Dustin is at this spot but he's really good. Its a spot that can often times look really shitty but Dustin punching a guy on top rope is something you always look forward too, as it always looks like his knuckles are connecting with either the forehead or the bridge of the nose. Here he does a bunch of shots to bridge of nose and ends the series with a really stiff flip flop and fly.

Buck is out but instinctively keeps climbing the ropes only to be gorilla pressed Falir style into the ring. Dustin is in control and goes for a bullrope assisted Irish whip and then pulls back on the rope. Nick Patrick is caught out of place and sandwiched between Buck and Dustin as we essentially have a triple collision spot.

It is a cool ref bump that also knocks both already weakened wrestlers loopy. Dustin while loopy goes for a vertical suplex that takes both wrestlers to the mat. Dustin is consistently good at playing a guy who is out of it doing things almost instinctively…he is the natural, naturally. His instinctive offense allows him to get of stuff while not being in control of match at all. .and this is real neat instinctive attempt at offense. 

The instinctive suplex doesn't scare off Col. Parker who sees the ref out and both wrestlers out..and Parker goes into the ring to get at Dustin...this is a mistake as Dustin is first to his feet and back Parker into the corner...this of course gives Buck enough time to get up and attack Dustin from behind. Buck puts Dustin in a full nelson, Parker gets out of corner and does this really cool "yeah now I'm gonna get my licks in" face and grabs the cowbell. 

Fuller is used to working Tennessee so the first thing he does when he has the cowbell is makes sure to wave it to get the metal sound...make sure the crowd knows that its real and not some aluminum bell. He does not really need to do that for this crowd because these are not stockyard workers who understand what being hit by a cowbell means. This is a Philly crowd who accept aluminum frying pan shots as long as it makes cool noise. It is unnecessary here but cool old school thing to do. Fuller again with his "ooh now I'm gonna get to hit you" smile while waving the bell in front of his pants and....

HOLY SHIT!!!

Miss. Sylvia always looked very comfortable handling that kendo stick. But NO WAY ...

HOLY SHIT!!!

I mean HOLY SHIT!

That has to be the cut of the pants.

Although I cannot imagine why you would put a rounded vertical twisting pleat on one side of white dress pants.

I mean DAMN!! 

Dustin Rhodes has one of the more infamous big schlongs in wrestling…

We have now reviewed more than thirty Dustin Rhodes matches and not mentioned it once cause it really has yet to distract from any of the matches. I mean, I wrote earlier in this review about how great Dustin's second rope punches to heel on top turnbuckle are. The point is that they are good enough punches that you overlook the fact that his hog leg appears to be pinning his opponent down and occasionally stabbing heel in the trachea during that spot. Punches are good enough that what you remember is the punch spot not the hog leg.

But God Damn,

The Robert Fuller tripod legitimately distracts from this match. Just imposible to get past the image. I don’t want to ever see the Tennessee Stud do the ten punches spot, I imagine Bullet wore the mask to keep Fuller’s gun from busting up his chin.

Fuller swings the bell at Dustin who jumps up in the full nelson hitting a Morton style seated drop kick while weight from kick and back elbow gets escape from full nelson. Cool spot not cool enough to make me forget…

Dustin with reckless cowbell swing for the pin and post match crazy Terry Funk attacks Dustin with the brandingiron and Buck, Fuller and Funk attack the rag doll like Dustin. Its sweet old school Tennessee keep the heat on heels booking where face gets the win, but heels leave face bloody and beaten. And well Dustin bleeds and bleeds and bleeds. The image of all the blood on the mat helps you to forget the other disturbing image in the match.

Read more!

Saturday Night Digging in the Crates

We take a trip to Alabama for a wild riot of a cage match.



Tennessee Stud/Robert Fuller v. New Guinea Headhunters-SECW Early 1987

PAS: This is a revenge cage match after one of the more famous angles in the 1980s. In the first cage match between these teams a third Headhunter popped up from under the ring to massacre the face team. This time it starts out 3 on 2, however when the cage gets locked the ref whips off a black wig and it is Jimmy Golden. Really fun turn the tables angle. Everyone beats the crap out of each other, and Golden puts the ref shirt back on to count the pin. However Kevin Sullivan gets in post match and starts stabbing fools and eventually the locker room empties, craziest brawl in Alabama since Bull Conner.

ER: To me, this kind of match is just unhateable, unless you're a weenie who needs highspots. This is all wild chaos with guys taking bumps with no regard to where other guys are standing, people falling off the cage, everybody throwing blows also with little regard for who gets in the way. Headhunters all appear to be about 5 feet even and Golden and the Fullers appear to be about 7 feet tall and everybody just constantly smashes into each other for 5 minutes. And then after the pinfall nobody acts like the match is over and the brawl stays just as wild. Dudes run in with no shirts, a lot of it seemed unplanned, and this is something that if I saw this when I was a kid I'd be hooked for life (and considering I write daily rambling posts on a pro wrestling blog I don't know how much more I could realistically be hooked...but...somehow morrrre?). This felt like a fight that happens at the end of a townies-only BBQ out in the woods.

Read more!

My Favorite Wrestling! WCW Worldwide 5/4/97

1. Buddy Lee Parker vs. JL

Fun little match. I wish there was more singles work (or work in general) as he always works stiff and bumps big. Lynn had a couple sloppy headscissors here that BLP made look better than they were. Also took a crazy fast bump to the floor and ended the match by taking a DDT off the top rope. I actually didn't realize JL was a guy they were pushing, but Schiavone/Heenan put him over the whole time.

2. Scott & Steve Armstrong vs. Public Enemy

I love when Armstrongs work heel! They can work babyface comebacks but they really seem to thrive in cheating behind the ref's back and taunting opponents on the apron. Plus neither guy really has much offense so the minimalist heel stuff plays to their strengths. Plus that also means that PE gets their offense shut down until the end comeback and less PE offense can only be a good thing. Since the PE offense was kept to a minimum the end run actually felt hot, with Grunge slyly ducking out of the way of a corner clothesline leading to a fun double sunset flip spot. Steve also found a way to believably stumble into a Rocco Rock moonsault press.

3. Super Calo vs. Konnan

Yay!! A one minute Konnan match! It's bittersweet because I would have liked Calo to get SOME offense, but it also meant only having to see Konnan for 70 seconds. I'll call it a win.

4. Bunkhouse Buck vs. Johnny Swinger

Swinger matches are usually furious beatdowns, and this eventually got there but had a surprising control section from Swinger to start. Swinger used scrappiness to avoid big shots from Buck, and did one of my favorite spots where he grabs a side headlock and keeps holding on whenever Buck tries to throw him into the ropes. He gets got going for a crossbody and Buck plants him with a nasty hotshot and then begins the shitkicking. Big time stomps, massive big boot, and get this: Buck wins with a running punch. A fucking awesome running punch. It was glorious. Afterwards he whips his belt off and starts threatening the camera. YES!

5. High Voltage vs. Joe Gomez & Renegade

One thing you can say about this, is that it was High Voltage in the ring with Joe Gomez and Renegade for 8 minutes. I have no idea what Gomez and Renegade were. They towered over High Voltage here, but because they were the faces they chose to play it up as Fantastics style babyfaces, so just did a bunch of armdrags and sunset flips. Good grief.

Read more!

My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Pro 3/30/96

1. State Patrol vs. Harlem Heat

Awwwww yeah this is what I'm talking about! Harlem Heat have aged pretty horribly in retrospect, but State Patrol are one of the great lost teams of the 90s. Buddy Lee will take and deliver a beating and Harlem Heat will deliver an awkward 1996 beating. Both guys in HH were really sloppy around this time, and while that can derail other matches it kind of added to it here. At one point Stevie Ray gives Buddy Lee an accidental shoot brainbuster. It was supposed to be a suplex that Parker reverses into a crossbody, but Ray just drops him straight down. Ouch. How much of State Patrol's AJPW tours made tape? Also why did they make James Earl Wright's name so close to a famous murderer's name? Was Joe Wilkes Boothe tossed around, too?

2. Giant vs. Southern Posse

Always get stoked for some Southern Posse, or as I assume they were known backstage, "Sonny Trout and the ugly one". I always get unrealistically excited for a Southern Posse match, but I'm not sure if they're actually any good. They both look scuzzy, the announcers never know their names so they always just call each guy "southern posse" ("The Giant with a big slam on southern posse!"), one of them got a HJ at a Molly Hatchett concert*, just something about them I always get excited about. Rachel was stunned at how slim the Giant was.

3. Mark Starr vs. Ric Flair

I miss these kind of syndicated matches, where Flair would show tons of ass and give guys like Mark Starr 70/30, and then cheat to beat fucking Mark Starr. All the fanny-packed women in the crowd get all riled up and it's always an enjoyable 4 minutes. It's also odd thinking that current Mark Starr probably is living better than current Ric Flair from a quality-of-life perspective. Starr is likely at a nearby lake having some beers and doing some wakeboarding as I type this, whereas Flair is a sad, melty mess not being able to cover his tab at Q104's Summerfest.

4. Lifeguard Steve Collins vs. Bunkhouse Buck

I'll level with you, I have never heard of Lifeguard Steve Collins. You know who else hasn't heard of him? Bunkhouse Buck, so he proceeds to kick the shit out of Lifeguard Steve Collins for getting into his ring. Collins is some sort of Baywatch gimmick, wearing real awkward red swim shorts that are loose and pulled up real high. Fuller and Buck cheat like assholes and Buck was a beast here, with great punches and stomps. Great moment when Buck steps aside from a Collins dropkick, then bounces off the ropes and just lambasts with an amazing dropkick. And then, he gets the pin fall after just stomping on Collins' face. Collins was on his back, Buck bounced off the ropes, slowed down and just stomped his face --> pinfall. Then after the match Buck and Parker beat Collins with his red floatation device and choked him some more. It was all I wanted and more.

5. Hugh Morrus vs. Scott Armstrong

These Hugh Morrus squashes just aren't that good. Armstrong is going to be one of the unsung heroes of syndicated WCW. But there's not much to do to make Morrus matches fun. If you would have asked for a 8 word guess on how the match went, it would have been "Armstrong bumps big, Morrus misses moonsault, pins anyway." It would have been right.

6. Robert Eaton/Dave Taylor vs. American Males

Not the ideal opponents, but you can put Eaton and Taylor into the ring with two sacks of leaves and I'd still be entertained by Eaton's punches and Taylor's throws. And those things ruled here. Taylor had a powerslam that might have been one of the most amazing things I've seen in a ring. It was a powerslam that went straight up overhead from a dead lift and ended with a float over. It was downright Karelinesque. I don't think there was anything Riggs could have done to prevent it, either. If he was fighting it with every fiber of his being, he was getting slammed. Also, I'm going to say it: Bobby Eaton knows how to fake punch a man better than almost any other man. You heard it here first.

*probably

Read more!

My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Worldwide 12/10/95

Sting vs. Manny Fernandez

Talk about your let downs, but this was not THEE Manny Fernandez. The prospect of a 1995 Manny Fernandez opening match ass beating was instead rinsed down the drain by a pudgy guy who took Sting's offense, and that offense was just OK. I wish they had at least given this Manny Fernandez a nickname like "Boxcar Bertha" or something.

Bunkhouse Buck/Dick Slater vs. Scott & Steve Armstrong

Buck/Slater were so awesome as a pair of dirty prospectors. Just them doing their thing is so fun and the Armstrongs are good foils for them. This match probably could have had zero offense from either team, just Armstrongs getting the crowd pumped up while Buck/Slater jawed with the crowd, and then ended in a time limit draw, and I'd be like "This felt like a ***1/2 match."

Diamond Dallas Page vs. Buck Quartermaine

This doesn't get much time, but I don't think DDP was very good then anyway. It's kind of shocking how good he got in just a couple years. And two guys named Buck on the same show, one match apart? I assume the fans were confused, but would have been less so had he been named Milton Quartermaine.

Dungeon of Doom promo

Good lord the Dungeon of Doom. Zodiac was just running around screaming over everybody's promo, King Curtis was spilling out of his robe (just teasing you with a bunch of side boob), then Taskmaster gave his father the gift of laughter (the gift being Hugh Morrus), and I have no idea what is going on here. And they're in a cave.

Hugh Morrus vs. Joey Maggs

You know what? This wasn't actually very good. But...

Chris Benoit vs. Big Train Bart

FUUUUUUCK Yeah! Benoit vs. Big Train Bart (whom you know as Black Bart!) was fuuuuucking killer. Bart stiffs the shit out of Benoit and also bumps HUGE for him. He take a big clothesline to the floor, catches a great dive, and just really puts over Benoit's strikes. When he takes over the offense, he transitions with HEADBUTTS and they are some GREAT headbutts. THEN he starts working over Benoit's fingers! He grabs Benoit's fingers and pulls them down over the top rope (wedging the rope into the webbing) and I have NEVER seen someone do that. While he's doing this, he's headbutting Benoit in the shoulder. So awesome. This is the man who trained Necro Butcher! And he's wrestling Benoit in his late 40s!! Did YOU know that Black Bart worked WCW TV in the 90s, wearing overalls and headbutting the shit out of murderers!? I did not, but thank you TV for showing it to me! You just picture -- right now -- Chris Benoit and Necro Butcher having it out in the middle of a bunch of families who are watching wrestling at an amusement park because they wanted to beat the heat indoors and rest their dogs for an hour....How can that be anything but 9 stars? Probably the best WCW syndicated match I've seen yet.

Steven Regal/Robert Eaton vs. Harlem Heat

The main event is going nicely until the Robert Parker/Sherri storyline took center stage, then we have Eaton getting the visible pin for EVER, like a 16 count, until Stevie kicks him off and then Eaton just gets pinned. Started strong and then just sputtered to the end. Shame. The more I watch, the more I think Harlem Heat is a really bad team. I think people automatically think they're a good team just because they last a long time, but they often looked downright bad in the ring. Stevie Ray always looked bad, but I don't think people remember how Booker looked in the ring before that series with Benoit in '98, and those miracle matches with Saturn and Martel.

Read more!

To Die By Regal's Side is Such a Heavenly Way to Die

Steven Regal v. Tiger Dalibar Singh South Africa 1987 - EPIC

What a great discovery, a hell of a match and a window into a wrestling scene I had never seen before. Despite the pleas of U2 Regal decided to play Sun City. Singh is an old World Of Sport guy and the promoter of the fed. The crowd seems to be almost entirely South Asian, which isn't what I expected from a 80's South African wrestling show. So obviously Regal is working heel against a ethnic babyface and is great at it. We start with some very WOS style mat work with Regal hanging on hard to a wrist lock while Singh flips and spins him around. Singh is a solid grappler and built like a tank. Once he gets rolling, he bumps Regal all around the ring. This is the most athletic and theatric I have ever seen Regal bump, he is really at a Curt Hennig or Ric Rude level during parts of this match. Match breaks down into some pretty nasty brawling, especially after Regal grabs a fall on a missed body press. Regal goes after Sighs stomach, and the crowd got very animated, we might have gotten another Soweto Uprising if Regal had been able to pull out the win.

Lord Steven Regal v. Shinya Hashimoto NJ 4/16/95 - EPIC

Holy hell what a war! Regal takes it to Hashimoto and beats the shit out of him worse then anyone this side of Tenryu. Especially early he just overwhelms Hash, breaking his nose with a palm thrust and painfully wrenching his limbs. Hash fires back a little bit, but Regal has a bunch of nifty cut offs, stepping on the inside of his knee or catching him with a knuckle to his eye. There is a great moment where Hashimoto goes for a kimura and Regal breaks it by driving his forearm into Hash's broken nose, then on the way up he gives Hashimoto a short little kick to the eye. When Hash finally gets the advantage he lands huge, with a huge jumping kick and some shoulder separating chops. They go back and forth with Regal pounding at the smashed nose, and Hash unloading with kicks. Regal is a really underrated in ring bumper, he just gets spiked by Hash's DDT (after previously reversing twice), before going down to a cross armbar. Crossing the line potato shot Regal is probably my favorite iteration of Regal, and this was as violent as the nastiest moments of the Finlay feud. Just a treat.

Lord Steven Regal/Earl Robert Eaton v. Dick Slater/Bunkhouse Buck WCW 9/1/95 - FUN

This is an awesome looking match on paper, but instead of a great brawl or a classic Southern tag, it is mostly comedy spots. We have a bunch of Regal making faces at the smell of Buck's shirt, a little Slater and Regal brawling and then Sister Sherri coming out and trying to get her hands on Robert Fuller's legendarily huge cock. Regal is great at making bad smell faces, and Fuller is rumored to have a huge dick, but I wanted more from this match.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE REGAL

Read more!

CLASSIC TOMK: 1994 War Games

PAS: I watched this match tonight off of Will's awesome Dustin Rhodes Set, so I figured I would repost Tomk's review.


Dusty Rhodes, Dustin Rhodes, Nasty Boys vs. Arn Anderson, Bunkhouse Buck, Terry Funk, Colonel Parker 9/18/94

Hey it’s my weekly contribution to your daily dose of Dustin. And its time to whip out a WARGAMES!!!

Not just any WARGAMES but one of the most slept on Wargames out there and easily one of my favorites.

The set up to this Wargames is fantastic. Dustin Rhodes is feuding with Col Rob Parker and his charges. Dustin and Jimmy Golden (working as Bunkhouse Buck) have had a series of nasty brawls ( a bunch of which will eventually get reviewed).Parker brings in Terry Funk…Dustin goes to Arn Anderson to ask him to tag with him against Funk and Buck. Arn agrees but the turns on Dustin leading to Dusty coming out of retirement:

“I wanna ask you a favor in front of God and the whole world….at Clash of the Champions I don’t want you to look for another partner. I don’t want you to go find another man. I don’t want you to go get on your knees and beg another scum sucking pig to be your partner….I’m asking you, if you can carry this old, out of shape…old bitty…old spindly legged man. I WANT TO BE YOUR PARTNER.”

The crowd goes apeshit. Men cry.

Dusty puts hand out to quiet crowd.

“I don’t need no handshake, because out there right now there people with their borthers and their sisters and their wives. They are BLOOD. The Kennedy’s were Blood. The Earps were blood. The Rhodes are blood. I don’t need no handshake…all’s I need from you, son is just a hug and a kiss to seal the deal, babey.”

Dusty and Dustin work a tag match which ends with Meng doing an awesome job at getting over the Big Bubba gets hit with a chair angle. And Dusty and Dustin clearly are outnumbered and need to find two more guys “some bad bucks” to fill out a Wargames team. So Dusty goes to the Nasty Boys hangout to recruit them of all people. The Nasty Boys hang out is really great as instead of being in a bar surrounded by toughs they’re in a bar surrounded by the junkie graffiti artists who make the Nastys’ custom shirts. Guys are discussing the relative merits of Keith Harring and Basquait and how it applies to airbrush, while other guys are heating up spoons. Fucking great. There is this one airbrush artist with homemade tattoos and a beret who looks like he could be the dead member of Milly Vanilli, three months post death. He is completely stoked by the idea of the Dusty, Nasties team. You can watch his mind wirrr as he plans out a Jaspar Johnsish “Nasty Americans” motif. Unfortunately he ODs before Fall Brawl and his little gutter rat girlfriend steals the shirts so Dusty is left with a Rauschenberg inspired NASTY DREAMS T-shirt. Its pretty great in its own right. But still….

It’s Fallbrawl 94 WARGAMES with Robert Fuller’s Studs Stable (Arn Anderson, Bunkhouse Buck, Terry Funk, and Fuller as Col Rob Parker) vs. the Nasty Dreams (Dustin Rohodes, the Nasty Boys, and Dusty).. That’s two teams of four and the Jew in me is disappointed as he feels that you really can’t have a Wargames without a full Minion…But fuck that, even if it violates Talmudic Law this may be one of the best Wargames ever.

So I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking “Aw screw Tom…such a fucking rube wrestling vampire fan…Nasty Boys both Rhodes, Robert Fuller, Jimmy Golden, Terry Funk and Arn…this was probably a bloody mess…well blood doesn’t equal good wrestling. Any idiot can blade….I’m never gonna read another thing he writes”.

We’ll you’d probably be right when you describe me as a vampire fan…but you’d be wrong about the match. Way wrong. Because this is a Wargames with NO BLOOD. Yes, that’s right. It’s a bloodless Wargames. And not just a bloodless wargames but a bloodless wargames starring such bleeders as two members of the Fuller/Golden clan, the Nasty Boys, Arn, 94 era Terry Funk, Dustin Rhodes and 94 era Dusty (Dusty in 94 what else can he do but bleed?). Where is the blood????

So it’s a bloodless cage match.

So recently, I’ve been bitching about the WWE booking style where feud’s are blown off in TV spotfest cage matches. In WWE a feud doesn’t end on PPV it ends on TV…and it ends in a cage. That in and of itself isn’t too much of a problem. But the cage matches are used for TV bloodless spotfests. Now this has two huge problems…1) I don’t like spotfest cage matches, and 2) a spotfest as a feud blowoff is just weird booking.

But Wargames 94 isn’t a spotfest cage match. they don't work bloodless spot fest war games but rather bloodless violent wargames. I like my cage matches violent. This is a violent cage match.

Really is a classic Wargames structure: workers who can actually work a good five minute brawl sent in for first period, the rest of the periods are built around the man-up/man-down structure, last two guys sent in are the “weak-link heel” and the over hot-tagish face who doesn’t have a lot of offense or a lot of cardio. The classic structure on some level assumes blood. I’m sure the lack of blood is why this match isn’t pimped as heavily as it should be. You might think the lack of blood in that classic structure would be a fatal flaw. But you’d be wrong.

First period starts of course starts with Arn and Dustin. Dustin is the worker of his team and the guy who can go the longest while Arn is working Wargames veteran. Since Phil has already pimped the greatness of the Arn points to head spot, I should point out that early in the match Arn gets tossed at cage, blocks hitting the cage…looks to the audience knowingly and points to his head “I’m too smart for that”…he then turns around and eats a right.

First period is worked as brawl with two both exploring just the sheer size of working in the double ring structure. Arn does a bunch of bailing from one ring to another, to heel it up and slow Dustin’s momentum. Arn crawls back and forth between the rings to lure Dustin into following. Think about every WWF Saturday Nights main event ever…where heel lures face to chase around ring only for face to get stomped when crawling back in. Dustin smartens up pretty quickly and realizes that in the double ring you give chase by go over the turnbuckles and entering each ring with top rope dive move. From there Dustin moves to using a ceiling assisted seated drop kick and eventually in the biggest spot of first period does a spectacular double ring tope style flying lariat where he covers the entire size of both rings.

Arn does the head caught between the two rings spot which is a classic wargames spot. Its odd to role that spot out in the first period but it really works well here as Dustin grabs Arn by his legs and really works Arns head into the gap. It really feels like Dustin is trying to tear Arn apart. This is a theme I probably should come back to a bunch in this review. Normally first period of a Wargames is built around who gets color first, built around working toward blood…the cage spots are built around blood, a lot of work is built around biting and working cuts. Wargames 94 is a bloodless Wargames and so the cage spots aren’t worked around blood….instead the spots are worked around guys trying to hurt their opponents. In most Wargames at one point or other Arn is going to put a face into a half crab which will eventually lead to Arn and a partner doubleing up each taking a leg putting face into two halfcrabs. Normally that spot doesn’t mean a lot within context of Wargames…it’s a nice point for announcer to remind audience that there is no DQ in the match. When they go for that spot in 94 its a lot more meaningfull than it normally is because it fits more within the context of the match where all the work is built on hurting, wearing down and tearing apart your opponent. This match has no biting…the biting is replaced by body part work.

The first period ends with Arn getting his DDT off to go on offense and then hitting a clothesline which Dustin does his great spinning clothesline sell for and then Bunckhouse Buck is in for the two on one. And at this point the whole match is built on the who is man up, who is man down structure. Arn was in control at end of first period and Buck and Arn just abuse Dustin for this period with Dustin taking a bunch of cage bumps and the two just working him over while he tries for a couple hot hope spots..

It’s the third period and the heels are in control when Jerry Saggs comes in house of fire. This is the most I think I’ve ever enjoyed Saggs in a match. Saggs comes in double lariating the heels giving Dustin time to recover. Saggs hits a really great piledriver, Oklahoma stampedes Bunkhouse Buck into wall of cage and then grabs Buck by neck and throws buck into the cage ceiling. By the end of period Dustin has recovered somewhat although still sells “guy in here longest” and the match is more back and forth between the two even teams.

Fourth period and its time for Funk. It’s 1994 so this isn’t 1970s Terry Funk or 1989 Terry Funk…this is 1994 Terry Funk. So Terry Funk mostly doesn’t do a lot of brawling so much as Terry Funk does a bunch of Crazy Funk schtick. Although it should be said that he takes what may be the craziest bump in Wargames history. Funk comes in with his boot off and hits everyone with the boot then goes after Dustin allowing Buck and Arn to double team the fresher Saggs. Dustin sells really well here as there is a bunch of boot back and forth schtick plus Dustin’s desperation attempts to save Saggs from the double teaming only to be stopped by the Funkster. Funk rubs Dustins face into the cage in front of Dusty (on the outside) and you get the only “We want Blood!” chants of the match.

I should point out that Arn is really good it getting over the bloodless face getting scraped against fence really well including kind of reverse Race bumping into ring after taking it. This doesn’t get a demand for blood.

Fourth period its Knobbs a fire to even things out and the Nasties get a hold of Terry Funks boot. Of yeah that nasty bump by Terry Funk. I should mention that. Jerry Saggs goes to piledrive Funk in the gap between the rings and somehow or other looks to gonzobomb Funk on the ring edge. Terry Funks back and neck land all nasty.

So its fifth period and its time for Colonel Rob Parker to be forced into the match. Parker had wanted Meng to be fourth member of his team but WCW was forcing him to participate. Robert Fuller is really great at playing a pussy guy who doesn’t want to be working in a match. I mean this is Robert Fuller. Robert Fuller was a great wrestler plus he is a tall motherfucker. I never understood the booking that had Fuller managing Sid. The only thing Sid had going for himself is height…you have a tall guy manage him and that hurts his only strength. I joked a bunch when they had Coach managing Lance Cade since Coach is one of the tallest people on the roster using him as manager makes everyone else look smaller. Here, somehow or other Parker really pulls off pussy despite his size. Not sure how he did it but he manages to work up a full sweat before entering ring. Dustin wants to get Parker and so waits by the door for Parker to enter only to be jumped from behind by Bunkhouse. Buck holds Dustin back while Parker goes to punch Dustin..and then Parker sells hurting his hand on a punch. If you haven’t watched that much Fuller this might not be impressive but it really impresses me.

And the match gets to be all about belt shots. Dustin and Funk trade belt shots, while Arn holds Knobbs for Parkr to whip with a belt. Fuck is Fuller great at whipping people with belt. Just really great belt shots. You watch Parker whip people with belt and you get why Sid thought his angle for Parker and the Ebony Experience was so good.

The crowd is going apeshit at this point and the countdown till the last entrant begins. Crowd just chanting for Dusty, while Terry Funk stands in front of face door dancing around taunting the Dream. The Dream bionic elbows his way past the other heels and goes straight for Parker. Parker bails to the second ring only to be met by the Nasties. Dusty smiles and then grabs his own nuts. I should point out that before the match Dusty had done mic work about how he was “going to make Parker SQUE—EAL like a pig”. And I guess that would be a submission and well it would make a lot of sense not to have any blood in a match that was building to an anal bleeding finish…and so the grabbing own balls is scary threat. Thank God for Ted Turners standards and practices folks as Dusty instead puts Fuller in a figure-four.

Dustin fights off the other heels as the Nastys splash and drop elbows on Parker while he’s caught in the figure four. Parker submits and the crowd POPS. The crowd pop is great and really reinforces the idea that the lack of blood isn’t fatal flaw in this match. Crowd demanded it during one section but really gets so caught up in the momentum that they no longer needed it…and I really think this match may be better for its lack of blood.

Read more!

XCW Midwest Legends of the Garden 3/4/08

ER: EricR
PAS: Phil Schneider

ER:Phil was in town visiting his parents, and we were able to get together to watch some wrestling. Phil recently sent "good faith" money to a wrestler, which is as bold a move as I've ever heard. However, Mitch Ryder turned out to be a good egg and sent him some XCW-Midwest shows, currently one of the most consistently entertaining indies around. This was a Legends of the Louisville Garden reunion-style card.

PAS: Eric is always a good dude to watch wrestling with, and his way out of his league girlfriend always brings tasty home made bread. Still shocked that my money wasn’t just stolen, and I am so amped that I can follow XCW-Midwest regularly, cause damn are they awesome.

Bunkhouse Buck vs. Cowboy Budd Ellis

ER: First off, Buck looked EXACTLY as you remember him from a WCW Saturday Night episode from 10 years ago. Cowboy Budd Ellis had more baby oil on his body than anybody I've ever seen working a Cowboy gimmick. Not sure if they meant the graphic to read "Midnight Cowboy" Budd Ellis, but it should have. The match itself was fun, with Buck looking really great. Ellis tried for awhile to do some legwork, which basically looked like Budd cuddling Buck's leg. Buck's offense was really great, with a fist drop from a kneeling position and some nasty stomps to the face. Cowboy takes some rad untrained Vince McMahon-esque bumps, not quite mastering the flat back bump but instead approximating a "base of spine bump". His over the top bumps to the floor are truly a marvel. Inexplicably, Budd goes over here.

PAS: Those over the top bumps were really something, the best bumps are often referred to as “reckless.” Ellis’s bumps were the most cautious I have ever seen, he bumped to the floor like he was navigating his way down a steep hill. I am not sure why Buck was working as Bunkhouse Buck on a Legends of the Garden show, clearly Jimmy Golden was the Garden Legend. Bill Dundee wasn’t working as Sir William. Buck did look really great though, it is really bizarre how little he has aged, he is 58 years old and has been wrestling since the 60’s, but easily could show up on TV today working as Bunkhouse Buck and no one would bat an eye.

2 Tuff Tony vs. Andy Douglas

ER: Not sure what association they have with the Garden, but....this match wasn't very good. Andy Douglas was quite content to do minutes of arm work on the arm that Tony had no interest in using anyway, so Tony did some OK punches with his normal arm and this went like 10 minutes. Ending was actually quite spectacular, with Tony hitting a painfully accurate somersault guillotine legdrop off the top rope.....but then Douglas no sells and they go right into a botched powder to the eyes finish.

PAS: I am not sure why XCW only books one Natural at a time, and always as singles wrestlers, it just doesn’t seem like a good use of what they can deliver. This was pretty disappointing, I like both guys a bunch, but they never got it together here. There are ways to use both guys well, Naturals v. Eaton/Smothers, or Morton/Pain would be great, as would Tony as a tag partner for a face Bull Pain, but random throwaway undercard singles was sort of useless.

Bobby Eaton & Tracy Smothers vs. Ricky Morton & LT Falk

ER: This was really really good. Morton has gotten extremely nutty in his old age. He hit a great hurracanrana here and a punch of great punches and was just flying around the ring. Smothers really put on a show with awesome stooging, some great slip on a banana peel bumps, and cool matwork. Eaton threw some not-shockingly great punches. His shots to the body were especially awesome. Really laying in some great combos. Falk was a nice surprise, too. He really was the perfect spunky babyface to play off Smothers/Eaton.

PAS: I remember Eaton looking pretty done in 2005. During your nostalgia MX reunion tour he would look like the least guy in every match. Well something changed as he looked like Bobby Eaton here, wasn’t a huge bump freak, but all of his small stuff looked great. Morton is as ageless as Buck, Smothers was a blast too, I loved the baseball slide through the corner to break the ten count, great stoogey spot. LT Falk is apparently the son of Tony Falk which is one of the more awesome conceptual second generation guys. I would love to see JC Ice as Orton mike worker of a Legacy stable of J.T. Falk, Dylan Eaton and “3G” Eric Wayne.

Doug Gilbert vs. Mitch Ryder

ER: I actually don't remember much about this. Dougie riled up the crowd beforehand and Ryder is always good on the stick. Both had a perfectly fine match....but I remember little...

PAS: Mike work was the best part of this, Dougie was very chinklocky

Todd Morton, Bull Pain, & Chris Michaels vs. Bill Dundee & PG-13

ER: This match was pretty great and held up even better upon rewatch. Morton is one of the best workers in the world. He gets amazing height on dropkicks and backdrops, throws incredible punches, plays to the crowd in a great subtle way, works great from the apron, eats hot tag offense great....basically does everything great. Bull Pain is one of the most physically intimidating dudes in wrestling, and Michaels has become quite the high quality worker since his WWE developmental days. This was the best Jaime Dundee has looked (wrestling-wise) in the last few years, Wolfie D looked about as good as you would expect the best guy in TNA 6 years ago to look, and Bill is not quite as good as Lawler in XCW, but good nonetheless. Morton needs to be signed by NJPW, thrown under a mask, and then they can watch him revitalize juniors wrestling, and wrestling in general.

PAS: Yeah this was a load of fun. There is this great spot where Jamie Dundee taunts Bull Pain into an arm wrestling contest with Bill, and of course when Bill drops down, Superstar kicks him, while Jamie looks on with pride . It was a really heartwarming moment, Tomk started singing Cats in the Cradle. I completely second everything Eric had to say about Todd Morton, he really is incredible, he takes maybe the best spinning clothesline bump I have ever seen. Even with Morton’s awesomeness, this was the Jamie Dundee show, taunting, shticking, bumping, he really came off like a total superstar, this the best non Springer performance by Jamie in years.

Read more!