On Brand Segunda Caida: Bob Cook in WWF Pt. III

Bob Cook/Howard Nalley vs. Tekno Team 2000 WWF Wrestling Challenge 6/4/95

ER: I never saw Tekno Team 2000 during their brief run, but I really loved this match. Cook and Nalley (who did job work in WCW as Butch Long) are a cool team, as Nalley is basically a smaller Cook. And this wasn't worked as a squash, instead worked fairly even. TT2K clearly came off like the team that should win, but Cook and Nalley kept after them the whole match and the whole thing was very go go go. The first minute was just a bunch of cool exchanges between Troy (Erik Watts) and Cook, both men joined at the arm and chaining together a really nice sequence. Cook really buckles people with his stomach kick, arguably the best stomach kick of the era (and for something that was so commonly used as a set-up to bigger offense, you'd think more guys would have worked on theirs), grabs and arm to set up a drop toehold, and the two keep rolling through into new things. TT2K worked a lot of armdrags and Cook/Nalley are good guys to make armdrags look good, and I especially liked Cook whipping over for their tandem Japanese armdrag. The bit of Cook/Nalley on control was so great, with Cook waiting on Travis (Chad Fortune), who turns around right into Cook's perfect right hand, eats a couple more, Travis turns and slumps over the top rope to shield himself, leading to Nalley snapping his neck down over the top rope from the apron. Great sequence. Watts works a nice superkick out of a wristlock, and the tag team sunset flip is a fun if odd finisher for a big tag team. This might be the best overall match from the WWF Bob Cook that we've watched, this was just so much fun.

Bob Cook vs. Man Mountain Rock WWF Raw 6/12/95

ER: One minute of perfection. One minute of pure wrestling perfection. Man Mountain Rock is a star that never was, with such a weird specific charisma, but a charisma that fans were clearly responding to. He works this quick as hell, voluntarily running the ropes hard to build up speed to absolutely level Cook, then launches Cook with a backdrop. Cook's comeback is swift, powerful, and violent, as he gets the drop on Rock and throws 5 all time perfect worked punches in the corner. Cook throws one of those aesthetically sweet worked punches, a punch where you really appreciate the steps he takes to work it. The camera knows what gift Cook has and doesn't cut away, framing Cook punching Rock towards the camera, then finishing with a shot to the appendix. He runs to go on the attack, and Rock catches him and sticks him to the mat with the Whammy Bar. This was wrestling boiled down to its basics, and it should be seen.

Bob Cook vs. Bam Bam Bigelow WWF Raw 7/31/95

ER: This was far and away the most generous squash match of Cook's run, as Bigelow gives Cook half of the match and makes him feel like the underdog babyface. Just like the Cook/Droese match from a couple months before, this match *also* features a babyface chinlock spot and this is getting really weird for me, as this was not happening to any other squash match guy in 1995. 1995 WWF TV has a lot of squash matches, still the bulk of the TV output, and I've now seen two different babyface monsters put Bob Cook in a rear chinlock during their own feature match. I have not seen ANY other babyface from this era work a chinlock into their own squash match. It's so weird! You guys are the ones being featured, why let Bob Cook be the one fighting back from a hold? I mean, I love it, but it's weird! And Cook really goes toe to toe with Bigelow here, and if someone watching had no idea who either guy was, but they somehow knew what a jobber was (this is quickly becoming a unicorn hypothetical), Cook came off like Bigelow's equal. He probably threw more punches in this match than in any of his other WWF appearances, and Bigelow sold them like Cook was caving in his eye socket. Bigelow treated Cook like a threat and the match was so much more interesting for it. Cook even turns that bizarre chinlock into a chinbreaker (again, so many babyface hope spots for a guy supposedly getting squashed)! This match was 70/30 Cook! Cook outstruck Bigelow in many of the standing exchanges! Cook's offense was all great punches, that chinbreaker, and kicks to the stomach, and Bigelow sold like he was getting taken apart by Sycho Sid. Really Bigelow "only" gets some nice headbutts, a great vertical suplex, finishes things off with his diving headbutt. But the fun of the match is seeing the promise behind Cook as an actual regular roster member, and it was an absolute blast.

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My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Worldwide 5/8/99 & 5/15/99

5/8/99

Frankie Lancaster vs. Disco Inferno

ER: In the WWE/WCW mirror universe, Lancaster is Bob Holly. A tag team of Holly/Lancaster would have been amazing. They could have done the Killer Bees switcheroo, unmasked. And this is a quality enough match, constant action and some nice overall work by Lancaster. I hadn't remembered Lancaster still in the company this late, but he worked there for a year after this match! I like him. He's big enough that it looks impressive when he takes offense, and he's surprisingly good at taking offense. He takes a bunch of armdrags and hip tosses to start, eats a backdrop, and doesn't gas even though he looks like someone who would definitely gas. He also hits a really great left arm lariat, really straight arms Disco. The finish is one I don't love, but couldn't have been handled better by Lancaster: He goes up to the middle rope to do something onto Disco, who is on the mat, and Disco gets his boot up. I hate guys jumping off the ropes and landing on their feet, face to boot. What move would they have been doing had that boot not been there? But Lancaster takes it on the chin and does a great stagger while holding onto his chin, the kind of knee knocking stagger that Rick Rude would do after taking an atomic drop. And while Lancaster is stumbling he gets hit with the Chartbuster, continuing to sell that chin. All well played.

Silver King vs. Horace Hogan

ER: For a match that's 85% one guy in control, this is plenty fun. Horace is out with Stevie Ray and Vincent, and what's great about this is the nWo cheat the entire time. I love they come out here against Silver King, a guy who was rarely even on the winning team during trios matches in WCW, and felt the need to cheat to win. But here's Horace choking King with his nWo belt, throwing King to the floor so that Stevie can put the boots to him. Horace has some nice shots to the body, King takes a big bump into the guardrail and a ringside chair off an Irish whip, and King gets a nice mini run after landing on Horace during a Horace back suplex attempt. Vincent is really good at ringside, that guy really knew how to act (?) like a chump, loved when King hit a kick to a grounded Horace and ran up top, backing Vincent off with a kick from the apron. Vincent acts tough a charges towards him and then does this huge flinch when King barely even threatens to kick him, then Vincent acts like he did everything to stop him once King easily gets to the top. There was no way King was winning this, but since it is WCW you knew we'd be getting 4 solid minutes, which is part of the joy of these.

In an ad after this episode, I find out that Home Movies actually debuted on The CW. It's a show so associated with Adult Swim, and a show I watched from the beginning on AS, and I had no clue until now that it had a remarkably unsuccessful run on CW before getting scooped up by AS.

5/15/99

El Dandy vs. Erik Watts

ER: This is the kind of match up you're going to get in syndicated '99 WCW. Dandy is wearing bright purple gear that I've never seen, and Watts as you know is wearing those gigantic Jnco jeans with legs wide enough to completely engulf his boots. I had no memory of Watts being so muggy. He worked half this match like he was Hugh Morrus, cracking jokes with Charles Robinson, mugging to fans, working like a real jokester for some reason. "What can I do to get noticed? Maybe do some Hugh Morrus shtick? Watts goofing off is what gives Dandy openings to offense. There is a little miscommunication early. Dandy likely carried some luchador loads, but a 6'6" guy tripping over his own jeans is another story. Once they're on the same page it gets pretty decent, with Dandy laying in a nice kick to Watt's jaw and flashing that big right hand that always makes Mike Tenay rightfully swoon. Watts has a lot of indy offense that looks somewhat out of place, but also effective. He kicks Dandy in the stomach and hits an amusingly aloof Rocker Dropper, shrugging before stepping over Dandy to drop the leg over the back of his neck. He also hits a buckle bomb before that was a thing, and his finisher is some kind of weird Flatliner/reverse chokeslam, where his left arm is over Dandy's chest and wrapped around his neck, while his right hand is grabbing the back of Dandy's neck. Erik Watt's: Late 90s imitator. If I could have remixed these episodes I would have much rather seen Dandy vs. King and Horace vs. Watts, but we know how this goes.

The Gambler vs. Dave Taylor

ER: Well this is a WCW syndicated dream match if there ever was one. Gambler looks like old pictures of everyone's dad from when you were a kid. It didn't seem weird at the time but then you look back through photos from a camping trip and there's your dad shirtless and wearing short cut off shorts and tinted sunglasses. Dad's looked like less cool Arn Andersons, and we had no responsibilities. Oh, and this match rules - obviously - but in a way I couldn't have expected, because The Gambler takes 90% of this match, with Taylor getting 5% to start and 5% to finish. This was the most Gambler Showcase I have ever seen in a match. Dave Taylor was mentioned and talked about at the beginning of the episode and hyped up, talked about like a guy everyone was naturally excited to see, "The Bigun from Wigan", talking about him like he was an old friend of the program. And then Gambler comes out later and just eats him for lunch before losing to one move. Taylor's bit of offense at the beginning is a kick to the stomach, dropkick, and a European uppercut, and Gambler takes that uppercut by reeling back into the ropes, then firing off them with an elbow right to Taylor's throat. Gambler hits a couple really nice kneelifts and hits a huge lariat sending Taylor over the top to the floor, then flips him back over the ropes when Taylor tries to get in. This is already as much Gambler offense as I've probably ever seen, but we're not at all done. Gambler has a bunch of really great Arn Anderson offense, as well as a really great Arn Anderson hairline, throwing Taylor into the ropes just to punch him in the stomach, then kneeing Taylor in the face when he buckles from the punch. Taylor is reeling almost the entire match, Gambler wrenches on a cravate, throws in a couple stomps, hits an axe handle off the top, this whole thing is flat out bizarre. Alas, Gambler goes up for another axehandle and gets caught, and Taylor hits his gorgeous butterfly suplex/floatover pin to win it. What the hell happened here!? Because whatever it was I want it in pill form.

Johnny Swinger vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.

ER: Swinger comes out wearing his weird tinsel silver collar, looking smug, and then Scott Hudson says "Johnny Swinger, taking an undeserved bow in the ring." Damn, knocking Swinger down a peg there Hudson. Swinger always comes off well in these matches, a guy with a cool cravate, nice elbow to the jaw, nice backdrop suplex, cool running punch, and nice little things like when he really claps Chavo with his knees to kickout of a sunset flip. Johnny Swinger is really good you guys. This is a really cool Swinger showcase. The finish is really cool too, with Swinger burying a knee in Chavo's guy, then hoisting him up for a vertical suplex that Chavo reverses into a gnarly tornado DDT. He really got vertical on the suplex before  whipping straight down into the DDT, it the visual was fantastic and Swinger snapped right into it.

Barry Darsow vs. Chris Adams

ER: What a main! I don't remember Darsow wearing the World of Sport swimsuit singlet before but it looks cool. He looks like Ken Patera or something. Always like seeing that singlet, but maybe because only cool wrestlers wear it (think Finlay, Regal, most recently Dunne). Adams was treated as a real badass during this era, so it's kind of wild to see him get handled by Darsow here. Darsow is a big guy but I don't remember him always working stiff, whereas Adams had been working a cool semi-shooter gimmick. Adams doesn't get steamrolled or anything, he's too good for that, but it's definitely a controlling Darsow performance. They kept a lot of this real tight, as in they were scrapping in close quarters a lot, which is an awesome touch that you really weren't seeing a lot in mainstream 1999 wrestling. Darsow throws a cool right hand that I don't remember him using, and Adams grabs Darsow's arm and bends it a lot of ways while the two are standing, so you get a lot of them standing in the center of the ring working snug headlocks and wristlocks and it feels more like a  Nick Bockwinkel match in Japan than two olds wrestling in North Dakota (I had no idea WCW was running North Dakota tapings in '99, but this taping was two Saturday Nights and a Worldwide and had plenty of good matches, nice bang for your buck tapings). Darsow even gets an insanely dominant victory, winning by REF STOPPAGE after he locks in a nasty camel clutch while ripping at Adams face. The ref straight steps in and throws in the towel for Adams! God bless these shows.

Episode closes with a drunken Hak promo and he's in that hilarious to watch drunken phase of "No no no you don't understand, LISTEN." Gene is trying to corral him and Hak is wandering around stacking ladders and sighing and saying he doesn't know a wristlock from a wristwatch, and when Gene asks him about his plans he's like "Look I don't know I'm just gonna do it or whatever," while his chin is planted in his hand. Brilliant. I love that Sandman got such a great WCW run. It was only a few months, but the guy was EVERYWHERE. He made several PPVs and was on TV all the time. A major bright spot of 1999.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE WCW B-SIDES

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My Favorite Wrestling! WCW WorldWide 2/20/99

1. Steve Armstrong vs. Erik Watts

This is a rare treat as you get to hear Steve Armstrong's "singles match" theme music, which is apparently different than his Armstrong Bros. theme music. It's a guitar instrumental, that kinda sounds like a softer ballad Steve Vai may have recorded during his stint with David Lee Roth.  I assume this will be worked as a throwback to the Watts/Bullet Bob feud in Georgia, only with Jnco Jeans. Armstrong is wearing his awesome Southern Boys trunks with the crossed-barrelled pistols. Watts always has that goofy Edge trait where he's 6'5" but works matches like he's an undersize cruiserweight  making comebacks, peppering in arm drags and sunset flips and roll-ups. But then he powerbombs Armstrong into the turnbuckles and makes me shut my fucking mouth. Armstrong looks great here with  big punches and a killer front suplex. Match format was wonky with Watts gassing and wanting to go home early. This was apparently Watts return to WCW.

So many collect call ads.

2. Super Calo vs. Disco Inferno

This had so much potential as Calo blindsides Disco with a dropkick to start, hits a crossbody to roll Disco to the floor and then hits a super fast tope. 1 minute in and Disco is bumping all over the ring for Calo offense. Back in and it continues with Calo running up the ropes and hitting a sweet dropkick and following up with a spinning heel kick. But then Disco takes over, hits his nice diving elbow off the middle rope, and finishes with the stunner. Wah wah. It goes about 2:15 and really could have been special with just a couple more minutes. Instead it was fun while it lasted and, oddly, one of the best Calo "moves" showcases in his whole WCW career.

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My Favorite Wrestling! WCW Saturday Night 9/25/99

1. El Dandy vs. Lenny Lane

This is arguably the biggest "Dandy showcase" match that Dandy ever had in WCW. It was 4 minutes, but almost the whole thing was controlled by Dandy. He had more offense in this one match than probably all his matches in '98 put together. Lenny wasn't very good, but it was really fun seeing Dandy dominate a match and repeatedly cut ANYbody off. There were a bunch of nearfalls that actually looked like Dandy would be getting the pinfall (which shows what a rube I am since Lane was  Cruiser Champ at this time). But Dandy had all sorts of cool leverage roll-ups that looked really impossible to kick out of, and he got to work in his awesome punches into a few (never had the chance to be) "trademark" spots. The best was when Lane was "punching" him in the corner (man did Lane have bad punches) and Dandy calmly told him to stop, then when Lane went "Huh?" Dandy belted him. Tenay tried his damndest to put over Dandy but it just wasn't ever going to work. Still nice to see him getting this kind of match.

2. Alan Funk vs. Kid Romeo

It's cool that WCWSN was around back then to give guys like this time to have actual matches. The matches usually weren't very good as most of the Power Plant guys had no idea how to build matches or transition or string together moves properly, but it at least gave them 6-7 minutes in front of live bodies. All the matches always end up your move my move kinda stuff, but the moves usually look pretty crisp. Funk was always a guy I dug more than most as his stuff usually had a good snap, he would break out a couple cool gutbuster suplexes and he knew how to work hell better than the others. Finish was a total abortion with Funk rolling up Romeo and Romeo being too much of a goon to keep his shoulders down. Literally had both of them up. Tenay and Hudson are wondering why the ref is even counting and then when that wins the match both of them try and act like they must have been down from another camera angle.

3. Bobby Eaton vs. Jim Duggan

USA wages a war on Huntsville, Alabama!! This...wasn't that good. Duggan could not give less of a shit here, walking around the ring slowly and missing shots by a mile. Eaton tried but this was a couple old guys moving slow for 3 minutes before Duggan wins with the slowest loosest clothesline you've seen.

Scott, Steve and Brad Armstrong come out for a quick interview calling out the Faces of Fear. Sounds like a fun six man. Madusa led the interview and looked horrific. Gross fake tits, way too much body glitter for someone on the wrong side of 30, poorly done extensions. I mean they're based out of Atlanta. You'd think there would be SOMEbody in the company that could rattle off ten places that do decent extension and weave work in the greater ATL area. Shoot there is probably a weave competition going on RIGHT NOW at an ATL mall. Unacceptable.

4. Erik Watts vs. Steve Regal

This was actually really fucking awesome as Regal works a whole bunch of mat slickness all over Watts and Watts breaks out his fun and goofy big guy offense, like his step up rana. But damn did Regal look insanely good. All the mat stuff is blatant show off stuff, but it's the kind of thing I could rewind and watch over and over. Cool leg trips and arm drags and flashy leverage moves. Dave Taylor was with him at ringside looming over things like a background extra in Long Good Friday. Taylor starts cheating to win and Duggan comes out to even the odds. Duggan's 2x4 shots looks horrible but if anybody has the facials to put over bad strikes, it's Regal and Taylor. I assume this sets up a tag team match at some point. 

5. Disco Inferno vs. Spyder

That's right! You KNOW you were all clamoring for the one or two Spyder matches that exist. Spyder is kind of a great guy to point to if you're arguing that WCW had too many guys on the payroll. The Latino World Order disbanded in JANUARY! And the guy who was the non-wrestling guy in the faction is still around working random matches 8 months later. How many shows before this was he flown into? Match went like 90 seconds and Spyder looked pretty not good. Threw a clothesline at Disco's lower chest, couldn't throw a punch. Glad they kept this guy around.

6. Norman Smiley vs. Scotty Riggs

Fun match between two underrated guys. Rachel thinks Smiley looks like the worlds most ripped History teacher. I liked all these pre-Screamin Norman matches where he would bust out weird clotheslines or just front kick somebody in the nose. He really knew how to put over offense, too, making Riggs' elbow strikes look nice. 

7. Chris Benoit vs. Lash Leroux

Benoit looks like he is going to murder this guy. I do not know what Leroux did, but Benoit dealt him a furious fucking beating right here. Leroux got one piece of offense in: Benoit charged him in the corner and Lash got the boots up. That was it. Right after that Lash charged out of the corner into a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. The rest of the match was Benoit punching him, chopping him, suplexing him insanely fast, grabbing him by the nose and slapping his face, and locking in the crossface with Leroux's back bent backwards into a gross angle. Afterwards the rest of the Revolution comes out and Douglas and Saturn are wearing above-the-knee jean shorts with their Revolution shirts tucked in and looking like the Revolution was about to have an "End of Summer BBQ Bash".

8. Little Jeanie vs. Mona

Mona's gown singlet is one of the coolest wrestling looks ever. This was a real go go go 4 minutes with neither girl coming up for air. Mona was real great at building sympathy (wish I could hear the crowd's actual reaction, but the Stars of the Lid ambient noise machine was working in full effect this whole episode, just constant whirr of sounds approximating "Yay" and "boo") and she was good at running her offense together. Her finishing run was really great with a lightning fast handspring elbow into the corner followed by a bulldog to plant Jeanie, and finishing her off with an awesome surfboard cradle that has me and Scott Hudson marking out.

9. Scott, Steve and Brad Armstrong vs. First Family (Barbarian, Jerry Flynn, Hugh Morrus)

We get 7-8 minutes of this and it's all at worst decent wrestling. For whatever reason I was hoping for a bit more as most of it felt like time filling as opposed to building to something. Flynn looked really good here with a couple nice spin kick variations and big presence. Morrus (aside from his obnoxious ayuk yuk mannerisms) threw some nice elbow drops, including a big one off the top. Armstrongs were as dependable as usual, with Steve having a cool mat takedown/punches from mount segment with Flynn. And the Armstrongs fucking WIN! I'm sure all of you were expecting that result.


So many Surge commercials.

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