My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Saturday Night 5/16/98

Road Block vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan

ER: This was pretty great, maybe my favorite Duggan WCW syndicated match. That's not super high praise, as Duggan was a fairly selfish syndicated worker, prone to no selling punches and kind of gobbling up lower totem pole guys. But Roadblock didn't get gobbled up at all, and got an extended run here as a great 60s style big man. Roadblock wasn't going to move much of a needle in 1998, a guy born way too late. I like his clumsy but heavy kicks to the stomach, high elbow drop, he really gets to beat Duggan around the ring, and he gets a long and awesome bearhug. He's really squeezing Duggan, holding him up in the air, and the camera clearly keeps it above the waist on tight shots, especially when Roadblock starts shaking him. "Nobody needs to see these two violently rubbing mons pubis, keep it high and tight!" Duggan fights out of it with punches and a headbutt, but Roadblock hangs on so we get a cool extended bearhug on television. Duggan works stiff on his comeback, throws a nice "back up" shot, hits this killer and big corner punches. Roadblock misses a huge splash off the middle rope to set up Duggan's clothesline and big kneedrop. This was really competitive for a Duggan match, became an unexpectedly fun big boy banger.

Barry Horowitz vs. Marty Jannetty

ER: Man 1998 Jannetty always looked such a decade behind the times. Horowitz is a guy I really appreciate on these shows. He was beyond the "dependable" tag that gets hung on him, he was a guy who always found a different way to fill 4 minutes. He would experiment with offense, and be entertaining in matches where he dominated (like this one) or ones that he gets worked over. I thought this match was fantastic, Horowitz has nice strikes and dominates the action, throws hard stomps to Duggan's head and drops a leg, comes up with a cool rolling cradle out of a stump puller, a guy who really looks good in control of  a match. But the Jannetty comeback is incredible, as Horowitz comes up with a crazy way to transition Marty back to offense: Horowitz climbs to the top while Jannetty is laid out, but Barry flies balls first into a waiting atomic drop. That's the best transition, totally precision landing, cool concept. Jannetty wins with an absolutely gorgeous fistdrop off the TOP ROPE, truly one of the finest fistdrops I've ever seen, and a fine fistdrop is something that can truly warm my pro wrestling heart. This show could just be one 2 hour GIF.

Mean Gene gives an unfortunate interview with Fit Finlay where they hype his upcoming Slamboree match against Chris Benoit, and Gene says how Benoit is someone who can "really tie you up". What did Gene know?

Horace vs. Juventud Guerrera

ER: My favorite matches on these shows tend to be the ones where the result is somewhat in doubt. And this is a fun example of that. Horace is a guy I seem to be a highish vote on (I like him as a well above average big thug type), but he's not super high on the WCW totem pole. and big guys did mostly steamroll over non Rey Mysterio small guys in WCW, but Juvy was a guy who had been treated as a potential future Mysterio. So this was a fun match with a rare mystery outcome. Horace was great at tossing around Juvy early, and only made Juvy's big comeback more exciting. Juvy looked really explosive on the comeback, even got to hit a big plancha. And Horace does actually win the match, but it big interference from Reese. So Juvy loses, but takes on a full heavyweight and only loses because a freakshow giant crushes him. '98/'99 Juvy was really great.

Johnny Swinger vs. Jerry Flynn

ER: This episode is a real classic so far, full of fun and kind of unexpected gems. Swinger here plays the really underrated role of "overly cocky small guy", and seriously who is the crowd supposed to cheer for in this one? Flynn looks like a meathead doofus karate guy who would be a traitor working as a karate guy for the Vietcong in a direct to video Christopher Mitchum movie. And Swinger is a greasy punk who wears just-sleeves instead of a full ring jacket and grinds his hips in between moves. So you get two stubblemugs working a stiff match, and it's great. Swinger really comes off like an under a under the radar tough guy, always able to eat a beating from tough guys, always seems to get matched up with tough guys and leans into strikes, and always works snug when he gets to work offense, despite a usual size discrepancy. Flynn gets a lot of nice big kicks, Swinger makes those kicks look great, but Swinger also gets a hot start and gets to look on Flynn's level. I'm not sure I've seen Swinger win a match in WCW, but he's a guy I appreciate the more I see.

Len Denton vs. Disco Inferno

ER: Here's a rare bird indeed! A 1998 Len Denton sighting! I really liked 1998 Len Denton. Almost a best case scenario Jim Neidhart. He hits hard on shoulderblocks, throws his body into a lariat, sets up a good backdrop, a good workmanlike body slam. Len Denton is the kind of guy you get excited to see on a Saturday Night. Disco Inferno is the world's most successful Ken Marino character, and for those reasons this easily works. Denton really flies into a missed elbow drop off the middle rope, drops fast on the Chartbuster. It was short, but it was what you wanted.

If this episode were closer to Halloween I would assume that Gene was doing some kind of killer Stop Making Sense costume but this is in May. Mean Gene looks like a man dying before our eyes.

And then we get one of those batshit insane but also smug as hell baller Eric Bischoff promo where he keeps casually and "calmer than you are" challenging Vince to show up at Slamboree to get a shitkicking. What a lunatic concept, just trying to challenge your competition to some kind of shoot. And you just know it actually got under Vince's skin and he probably had to be talked out of showing up. There has to be some good stories behind that angle right?

Disorderly Conduct vs. High Voltage

ER: This episode is a thing of marvelous beauty. This match is sweet heroin rushing into my veins, two dudes with mullets and purple singlets versus two guys with on paper better hair but neon green singlets just doing a hot moves sprint. This is the stuff you want. You want Mean Mike breaking out a chinbreaker and body slam double teams, you want Robbie Rage hitting a huge butterfly suplex and Kenny Kaos hitting a huge powerslam running Tough Tom into the turnbuckles. This was the kind of fast paced short tag match that WCW syndicated shows did so much better at than similar era WWF.

Lenny Lane vs. Kidman

ER: Lane is a fun cruiserweight comedy stooge that probably doesn't get enough credit for being a fun TV performer during this era. Lane's stuff is a little telegraphed, but he has a fun roll up, really great headscissors, a couple unique slams. Kidman is game as a bumper but seems a little uninventive in getting to his spots, kind of awkwardly grabbing his bulldog off the ropes when it looked like he wanted to just end things. The shooting star didn't crush Lane's windpipe, so that's a relief. This was at minimum a nicely paced cruiserweight match, unique in its lack of luchador (it was almost always luchador vs. white guy in the weekly Saturday Night showcase match), this added to the episode's already high bang for the buck factor.

Evan Kourageous vs. Saturn

ER: Seeing Evan Karagias (I used the actual spelling they used onscreen up above) run out for a match makes my heart sink a little. The show had been doing so well. BUT, Saturn comes out, and he's a guy who could be a jerk sometimes, so you instantly think this pretty boy with the bad goatee might get roughed up! Kidman gets on the mic before the match and asks Karagias if he wants to get beat by the Rings of Saturn, or the Death Valley Driver? And this is a tremendous beating from Saturn, total great squash. Karagias gets a somewhat sold dropkick, and Saturn bumps for a flippy DDT, but the rest is Saturn throwing high kicks to the face, a big overhead butterfly belly to belly, hard dropkick while vaulting off a chair, Psychosis level height guillotine legdrop, and sticks him with the dvd. Saturn looked like the most fun wrestler in WCW in this match, he really went through some fun bursts.

Yuji Nagata vs. Goldberg

ER: If you asked people when this match happened "Which of these two guys will be in the Observer Hall of Fame in 20 years?" how many people would have met Nagata. Goldberg was a nuclear megastar here. The crowd goes absolutely mental the entire match. Nagata starts throwing fast high kicks and Goldberg shrugs them off, starts with his weird shit like his rolling knee bar and his backflip and catches a Nagata kick to whip him with his cool dragon screw, and the fans are just losing their minds. When he levels him with an absolute battering ram of a spear, these people can't contain themselves. Goldberg holds the Jackhammer for exactly 7 seconds, and Goldberg had to be the most popular man in all of Springfield, Illinois that afternoon.

Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Fit Finlay

ER: Earlier in the episode they announced this match but I thought it was Finlay vs. Chavo, which I'm sure would have been good, but Finlay vs. Eddie is way more legendary sounding. Oh, and it IS Finlay vs. Chavo, because Eddie is so generous that he opts to give his nephew the TV Title opportunity. So that means that WCW blew its own reveal earlier in the episode where at the very beginning of the show they announced Finlay vs. Chavo. I knew I didn't mishear that shit. Why would they film an angle and then blow the surprise 90 minutes earlier? And sometimes Finlay really comes off like a cold-blooded assassin in matches. Here he gives a joyless beating at Chavo, not wanting to get involved in the uncle/nephew drama, and really showing off some great hard wrestling offense. Chavo doesn't get a lot of extended action but doesn't totally allow himself to be swallowed up. Even if he's not getting a string of moves he still would do things like throw body blows when getting picked up off the mat, at least giving us some struggle. Finlay is busy as usual, tossing constant stomps to a downed Chavo, hitting the hardest forearm to the back, lifting him up for an absurdly high bodyslam (he was holding Chavo by his head and shoulders! Like a vertical suplex almost but just yoinked up like a bodyslam), really buries that shoulder to the gut on the rolling fireman's carry, and Eddie is playing faux concerned the entire time on the floor. Eddie even puts his white towel over his head so he doesn't have to see poor Chavo take a nasty as hell tombstone.

What a perfect little episode of 1998 syndicated WCW. I've somehow written up more 1999 Saturday Night episodes than 1998, and that feels like a misguided mistake. 1998 was really my sweet spot at the time, and this episode really backed up my emotions and memories. Total front to back banger right here.


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My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Saturday Night 7/25/98

Bobby Eaton vs. Scott Putski

ER: And at 3:05 Pacific Standard Time on this Saturday afternoon in the middle of Summer 1998, Bobby Eaton was given a task that would have turned away most men. Show opener, tone setter, just do it with one of the bigger stumblebums on the roster. Scott Putski is truly putrid, and had I gone to a Saturday Night taping perhaps I would have brought a poster board sign stating Putski is Putrid, or as long as I was using MAD Magazine type humor on my sign, Scott Pukeski. He being Bobby Eaton, wearing his shiny and sequined ring jacket that looked like a torn open King Cake, wearing that jacket that I’m sure was sold on eBay for much less money than I would have paid for it, he being Bobby Eaton, he has a nice little match against Scott Putski. Until Scott Putski makes his usual conscious decision to cease having a good match. Eaton goes over for some short arm drags, Putski grinds his knee in Eaton’s left arm, Eaton makes it look like Putski can semi-convincingly work an arm and Eaton also rubs this left arm out occasionally after. Eaton throws punches you like and walks directly through a Putski right to the body, Eaton refuses to break stride and silently makes an agreement with the audience that nobody was to acknowledge that punch thrown by Scott Putski. At this point it’s time for us to go home, and Putski runs for that finish line like a man with his boots tied together. He almost drops Eaton on his head during a backdrop where he can’t muscle him up properly, he barely lifts Eaton up for some kind of spinebuster type attempt, and then he almost gets Eaton up for an ugly Lo Down style powerbomb. Putski made everyone sad at the end of this.

Stevie Ray vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan

ER: Boy serves me right for trying to watch 1998 WCW on an early AM plane ride. But this match keeps threatening to get good, and keeps eventually swerving back into not good territory, but maintains its threat of being good. One major thing WCW matches like this have going for them, is the short TV match structure works so much better than WWE’s current structure. Here were two water oxen clubbing at each other and working strikes and slams, and not once did Stevie Ray grab a chinlock for 20 seconds to build to Duggan’s comeback. Once you notice that every 4 minute WWE match has a babyface comeback out of a chinlock, it’s disheartening, and it’s refreshing seeing two meaty guys just clonk each other for the duration of their allotted 4 minutes. Duggan doesn’t always have great punches, but his fists read well; they are round, and he balls them up tight, so the visual of him throwing a heavy hand at your jaw set a high floor for him. Stevie Ray takes an incredibly slow bump over the top to the floor, gets a couple nicely timed eye pokes in on Duggan at different times, grabs a terribly bearhug that Duggan sorta does an okay job of fighting out of….but we get heavy punches the whole time, back elbows, a couple slams, and it all felt like something constantly moving forward without stopping. One thing I was genuinely excited for the entire match was finding out who was taking the pinfall. I always love establishing WCW hierarchies among B-show competitors, and wasn’t sure who outranked who at this point. Amusingly, this match goes to a double DQ when they both shove the ref, and 6 other refs hold them apart as Stevie Ray and Jim Duggan have a pull apart brawl.

Doc Dean vs. Rick Fuller

ER: Rick Fuller is your proto- Rhyno/Albert big man who somehow never got the opportunities those two got. Doc Dean didn’t get much here, and due to him being a foreigner he got roundly booed while not getting much. The match went on a little longer than I anticipated, especially since Dean only got a couple quick corner punches before getting shoved off, and then only got a sunset flip attempt, which was blocked. Fuller owned this match and Dean was there to bump all around for him, and he did. Fuller hit a big chokebomb, and caught a crossbody attempt from Dean and just walked around with him for awhile before planting him with his unparalleled over shoulder piledriver, always a killer.

Barry Horowitz vs. Chris Adams

ER: You know who's really great in '98/'99 WCW? Chris freaking Adams! Until watching several of his '98'99 WCW matches I had no clue that he would have worked really well in similar era BattlArts.  He's really vicious with all his offense, from tight headlocks and a stiff shoulderblock, to hard elbows to the jaw, to a hard kneelift and cool rolling kneebar. Horowitz really gets nothing in this, Adams just roughed him up for 3 minutes. Adams really came off with this badass shooter charisma during this era, it was a really cool coda for his career that was sadly almost over. Honestly a Chris Adams in  WCW C&A is a pretty great idea. I bet there are some awesome gems in there, with nearly two years to pull from. I think it's on!

Villanos vs. High Voltage

ER: Man this was a pretty great little scrap. High Voltage were a super fun tag team with a bunch of fun tricks in their bag. They did a lot of things really well and were always open to ideas, a team that worked really hard and that was probably harder than they needed to. They were always breaking out weird double teams that you'd only see them do once, always looking for something vaguely dangerous that would never stick. Here they make up a couple suplexes (two different times they hold a Villano in monkey flip position but then just throw them into a backdrop), and Kaos drops a leg off the middle rope while Rage holds a Villano in a Boston crab. Rage hits a cool springboard crossbody Doomsday Device, Kaos hits a genuinely great flying double lariat, Villanos are super stiff breaking up pinfalls and hitting a cool missile dropkick, dropping nice elbow drops. Both these teams would be great to see in a series, would be nice to see Villanos get a bit more. But this match was the kind of thing you want to see when you pop in a WCW disc.

Steve McMichael vs. Julio Sanchez

ER: What a weird shitty on paper match that somehow totally works in execution. Julio Sanchez was an indy darling when indies didn't have many darlings, and McMichael was a guy who was no good but had a lot of energy and tried, and that means something. There were some things that sucked, McMichael throws bad clotheslines (a couple variations of bad clotheslines!); but then there are those cool moments that surprise you like Sanchez hitting a nice kneedrop (when have you seen Julio Sanchez drop a nice kneedrop??) and Mongo hitting a big back suplex, great running tackle, cool tombstone piledriver, and then you're taking a look in the mirror over how much you enjoyed a Mongo vs. Julio Sanchez match.

Road Block vs. Lash Laroux

ER: "Hey Eric, you wanna see a Roadblock squash to guide us into your MLK day off?" Obviously I want that to happen. Lash looked exactly like current Adam Devine only ginger, and he gets absolutely worked by the gigantic Roadblock. Roadblock turns up on a disc and brother it's like when I bought a 25 cent pack of Donruss baseball cards in the Raley's checkout line with my mom, and found an Elite Series Jose Canseco card. Some dude offered me $250 for that card at a local baseball card show. I did not take that man up on his offer. I don't think I know where that Jose Canseco card is today, and if I did I likely wouldn't be able to sell it for the 25 cents that the pack originally cost me. Unless it turns out the fucking Melendez brothers were sitting in the background in one of those situations that makes day to day life bearable and worth waiting around for. I don't know where that card is (parent's garage?) but I got Roadblock on this disc, squishing the hell out of a cajun who would have a kind of impressive status leap within a year. Roadblock crushing him with huge right arm chops, a great lariat, big boot, leaping elbow drop, just the best Son of One Man Gang. Roadblock was a decade too late. He throws a great powerslam and hits his Dead End, just flipping backwards over those ropes like Charlotte, but belly flopping like Louie Anderson. There really is no 90s finisher more damn fun than the Dead End. This match is pure undistilled joy.

Jerry Flynn vs. Fit Finley

ER: Well you knew this would be a cool asskicking. It was Flynn early and Finley down the stretch, both guys landing shots throughout. Flynn even opens the match with a hard as hell spinkick to Finley's chest that Finley sells like a brick hit him in the chin. He sells it for the next couple minutes of match too. Flynn hits kicks to the head, nice kneedrop, an awesome big left hand in the corner, tosses him around ringside; Finley is really cool in how he sells offense based on how much a guy's offense deserves to be sold. Flynn had nice offense, Flynn gets his offense sold. Finley takes over by getting the boots up and runs through the greatest Finley hits. Hard shots with none wasted, sticks the rolling senton, snaps off the tombstone. Just was the exact kind of asskicking you wanted, that these two always deliver.

Scott Hall vs. Konnan

ER: I really dig this era Scott Hall. The guy had so much personality. He was like an actual tough version of John Tatum. I love coward sniveling pretty boy John Tatum, but Scott Hall is Tatum with stubble and posturing. If you know you know. And Hall is in the driver's seat for a ton of this. Hard short arm shoulderblocks, great stomps to the back of the head, choking Konnan over the middle rope (and also allowing my boy Vincent to sneak in shots), and all the while making all these great expressive faces, totally nailing his character. We even get Vincent helping Hall lock in an extra tight abdominal stretch because that was a THING and the WCW crowds always responded to things like that. Konnan is sluggish on a lot of his eventual offense, but at least he throws some pump behind his seated dropkick. Barely bends on a snapmare, but can throw a dropkick. Konnan goes down kind of shockingly easy here. Sure you had Vincent with some interference on the floor, but Konnan didn't have any kind of run here, not even putting two moves together at any point. Hall and Konnan were both guys who would show up in main event "big name" squash match on Saturday Night, but it's a rare thing to have them together, let alone with one being so dominant. WCW hierarchies are just one of my favorite things in pro wrestling.

I live for this.


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My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Worldwide 5/30/98

Johnny Attitude vs. Disco Inferno

ER: You wouldn't think you could get farther down the pecking order than Johnny Attitude, but that guy holds wins over The Gambler, Barry Horowitz, and Lenny Lane. That's right, LENNY LANE. Horowitz and Gambler might be lower than luchadors around this time.  Disco is face here and several moms and children in the audience do some disco dancing and I don't remember him as a beloved face in 1998. And you know who I'm wrong about? Johnny Fucking Attitude. He comes off like a 0.9 Bull Pain here, with a hard back elbow and full force running shoulder blocks, big ass powerslam, really cool body shots in the corner (plus he wears black gloves, and wrestling punches look impossibly cool when performed while wearing black gloves). He's a big guy and still makes Disco look good (though Disco worked nice hard stomps to the chest and dug in on contact moves) misses a big elbow off the top and bumps big for a Disco flying shoulderblock and runs face first into a Disco back elbow. Johnny Attitude looked like the queen of the fucking neighborhood in this match, totally turned me into an Attitude fan. Disco plants him with a great piledriver to win, and really this isn't far off from being a Worldwide classic. Maybe Attitude started to suck when he shaved his head bald? Here he had the cool mullet with baldspot, which is infinitely cooler. I believe most of the Attitude I've seen was from 1999, when he had the shaved head, so we might have a lost WCW superworker here...will do future investigation...

Jerry Flynn vs. The Cat

ER: Flynn would have been a bigger deal if he had turned that mullet into a crew cut earlier. Yeah, I know literally one second ago I was saying Johnny Attitude was better with a mullet. But Johnny Attitude wasn't going to be accepted by fans as "a guy", so he might as well have some character, and a mullet is more character than a shaved head. Jerry Flynn was good, a good heel, a good 5 o'clock shadow mug, nice kicks, nice positioning, nice kneedrops, no problem leaning into kicks; Flynn was good and his looked played too much like a Canon Films karate villain in a pre-irony/pre-nostalgia TV world. And this match is a good one. The Cat tried out a couple kick combos and Flynn knew how to make them look good. Cat had a nice springboard and the match ending Feliner looked like something that should end a match. Flynn positioned himself really well for Cat's offense, missed his own offense with aplomb (with a big missed elbowdrop, a nice missed chest-first charge into the corner), and a nice kneedrop to the temple. I wonder how much of Flynn's team with Finlay exists on tape?

Damian/Ciclope vs. High Voltage

ER: Damian is so skinny here it's insane. He's super slender and isn't wearing faceprint, and looks like Pablo Marquez (in build and in general appearance). And this whole match rules. It's surprisingly competitive and they never come up for air, so the fans are into it the entire time. Damien gets a nice run of offense after ducking some Kaos Klotheslines, hits a nice spinning heel kick, gets caught on a crossbody but gets a nice nearfall when Ciclope dropkicks him over. Ciclope lands a nice stiff missile dropkick and it's great seeing HV bumping around for the luchadors and not treating them like flippy Mexicans. But any generosity paid by High Voltage gets paid in full by Damian and Ciclope. We got High Voltage weirdly working a mat game by targeting Ciclope with half crabs and a snug if not charmingly clunky STF. High Voltage stock is going way up with me lately. I always weirdly liked Rage's early 2000s NJPW run, and liked the premise of Kaos tagging with Eaton for a bit, but I've been enjoying them a lot lately. Kaos was even doing cool little things in this match like missing low on back elbows and a lariat, a cool stop-momentum powerslam, all nice. Oh, and we got to see some crazy suplexes, as if Rage was just ad libbing ways to potentially shift a man's spinal column.

At one point Rage lifts up Damian in the most flat out pornographic, tender embrace. He lifts Damian up for what I think is going to be a bearhug, but ends up cradling Damian with both hands clasped under his buttocks. They pause there, in that accidental seeming embrace, making eye contact, Rage refusing to admit that he accidentally started holding him by his butt, cradling him like a lover he's about to lay on a bed. You give me 5 chances to open up a random page of any 70s Viva magazine, and I bet you one of those 5 will reveal a couple holding this same position. Is this the suplex version of that thing where someone misjudges a handshake and ends up punching someone in the boob while someone has a half hug on them? But Rage is gripping under those buns, and - if you want a sweeter visual - and it's almost as if now Damian is Rage's child, pulled sleeping from the backseat of the family auto, asleep after a long day driving back from grandma's. And Rage lifts him out of that backseat, and Damian isn't totally asleep, but he's tired and likes being carried by his father, who he heard adults sometimes address as Mr. Robert Rage. But then, his short but hulking gassed out dad named RAGE just throws him over his head, as far as he can! Yeah, Rage held Damian seemingly accidentally under the buns, and then said "No. I can still make this a suplex!" Maybe even briefly thought, as he was propelling Damian by the buttocks, future merch sales flashed through his head as time stood still, picturing shirts and Slim Jim style commercials where High Voltage yells "Make it into a SUPLEX!"

He tosses Damian FAR with this butt throw, and then, does the exact same thing the exact same way with Ciclope. I played in a few jazz combos in college, and a jokey trope I always heard was that if you play a brown note during a solo, go back to hit that sour note another time or two, make any know it alls in the crowd think that it was your intention to squawk right there and also there. It always felt like the only carny trick I was ever taught. I'd love to think that Robbie Rage was also taught this jazz con, and after chucking Damian across the ring he thought, "Well, better do it again, to this other guy, and also more dangerously close to the ropes." I love this little match! Skinny Damian taking splatty backdrop bumps High Voltage's big springboard Doomsday Device lariat, a tough Kaos press slam and powerslam, and of course, that one special moment we all got to share.

Super Calo vs. William Worthy

ER: Worthy is not a guy I remember at all, and before he was introduced (already in the ring) I just assumed Ice Train's original run went WAY longer than it actually did (before they weirdly brought back Ice Train during the promotion's death years). Worthy is smaller than Train, but muscular, and looks good. He makes Calo look really good, whips himself really fast into a sunset flip and goes over hard and low on the match winning top rope headscissors, also misses a big elbowdrop with great height. I want to see more of Worthy. Also, how many singles matches was Super Calo winning at this point? I had never heard of Worthy before this match but I figured "eh he has a good build and some symbol on his tights, probably a guy who is going to beat Super Calo in a singles match."

Brian Adams vs. Bobby Eaton

ER: This doesn't even go 2 minutes, which is a real damn shame. Because for less than 2 minutes, it was really fun. Eaton throws some big punches, Adams drops a nice legdrop (which Eaton actually shifts to bring the leg closer to his throat), Eaton almost gets his teeth kicked on on a huge Adams big boot (Adams was raising it right as Eaton was ducking and the toe of Adams boot swung up about 2" away from Eaton's swinging down face, could have been realllllllly ugly) and hits a nice powerslam, but that's it! What a drag, feels like it suddenly got the call home, but it's a taped show so who cares how long they run? This could have been so much more, and they cram a lot into a very short runtime, but under two minutes in a main event? Get out of here with that.


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

1. Harlem Heat vs. Texas Hangmen

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

2. Greg Valentine vs. Lex Luger

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

1. Prince Iaukea vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.

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

2. Hugh Morrus vs. Jerry Flynn

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

3. High Voltage vs. Villano IV & Super Calo

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

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My Favorite Wrestling! WCW Worldwide 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.

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My Favorite Wrestling! WCW Pro 8/17/96

1. Chip Minton vs. Diamond Dallas Page

This wasn't much and I'm kinda shocked that WCW never tried to push Minton at all. I mean, how often does an actual US Olympian get into pro wrestling? He was pretty raw but had some obvious talent. Instead we get a bunch of Larry Z griping about how bobsledding won't make him a better wrestler and acting as if Minton was leading a bobsledding invasion against WCW wrestling.

2. Jim Powers vs. The Gambler

Alright, I'll be honest with you: Jim Powers is not very good at pro wrestling. But what's even worse is that he's not very good in a completely boring way. He does hip tosses. He rams guys' heads into the turnbuckles. He throws a super light dropkick. He has just nothing going for him at all. You can't laugh at him for being horrible, your brain just goes blank for 4 minutes. So thank god for The Gambler, who tries his damndest to have a fun match with Jim Powers. He doesn't succeed, but he tried. This was at least notable for being one of the few matches where The Gambler controlled the match and took most of the offense. Powers was working comebacks most of the way through so Gambler got to control with Arn Anderson-meets-Chris Elliott charm. I wish actual good wrestlers would try and work a competitive match with him.

3. High Voltage vs. American Males

Hey, you know who used to be good? Marcus Bagwell. I really liked him in this, working the hot tag for Riggs. He had a really nice dropkick, cool shoulderblock and a great crossbody off the top for the win, and this was an enjoyable 7 minute tag. You know who wasn't good back then? Kaos (or "Chaos" as it was spelled here). He was just totally lost and it was a testament to how decent Bagwell was that this thing didn't fall completely apart. Kaos was totally baffled by rope running spots and got way confused during all those exchanges.

***Baseball Rambling Below***

So all through this show they've been showing an ad for an old Sega Genesis baseball game (World Series Baseball 2?) and what so odd about the commercial is Brad Radke is the guy they used as the sports star hawking the game. Now Brad Radke was one of my favorite non-Giant ballplayers of all time. He was a small market guy who played his whole career on the Twins and retired when he wanted to, while he was still a relevant player. What made me really like him was his numbers always looked worse than they actually were, and he regularly got overlooked as a really good player because of that (Matt Cain would later hold many of these traits Radke held, and Cain is one of my all-time favorites. What made me love him so early on was it felt like the Giants finally had their own Radke). I mean, in the last couple seasons before he retired, Radke had a 5+ K/BB ratio. That's great. But this was not later career Radke being featured in a commercial. 1996 was only his 2nd year, and what was notable about his first couple seasons was that he gave up more HR than any other pitcher in MLB over those 2 years, giving up 32 in '95 as a rookie and 40 in '96. His rookie year ERA was 5.32 (5.42 FIP, oooof). And this commercial was amazing because Radke was in it for just that reason: he gave up home runs. The commercial showed him giving up bombs and painted him as a bad luck loser. For a 23 year old player to make fun of himself like that just made me love Radke that much more, and even more awesome that he averaged 5 WAR over the next 5 seasons after this commercial. So not only did Radke make fun of himself, but he had the last laugh. Awesome.

***Baseball Rambling Over***

4. Scott Flash vs. Mark Starr

This could have been a really good jobber match, but Norton just absolutely refused to sell anything that Mark Starr throws. It was real bad. He just walked through punches and kicks and made it pretty clear that Starr was a doofus. It did show just how decent Starr's punches were, when they can look good even when somebody doesn't acknowledge them. Norton was a beast here, so I get it. But I felt bad for Starr. Norton's shoulderbreaker is a vicious, reckless move that looks insanely painful.

5. Chris Benoit vs. Joe Gomez

Jim Powers, why can't you be as hilariously awful as Joe Gomez? Gomez was just awful. Hilariously awful. Even Rachel noticed how often he tossed his hair back while horribly executing basic offense (did BJ Whitmer watch a lot of Gomez when he was younger?). Here he does an insanely slow backslide set-up, stopping midway to whip his hair back TWICE. By far the best part of the match was Gomez missing a running crossbody block off the ropes. What made it so great was the fact that Gomez clearly did not know he was missing the crossbody. This is what a missed crossbody looks like when Joe Gomez clearly thinks he's going to be crashing into Chris Benoit. But Benoit ducked, and Gomez flew hilariously/dangerously/awesomely into the ropes, and then rolled to the floor. It was spectacular. Later in the match Gomez goes up to the top and it looks like he's climbing ropes for the first time right here and now in front of the world. Every step up looks super shaky and he has to stop on each rope to regain his balance. Yes, he did not even climb up on the buckles, he climbed up on the ropes right next to the buckles. When he finally disastrously gets to the top, he leaps off with the worst top rope splash I've seen, coming in way forward heavy, like he was attempting to do the Worm by first leaping off the top. He just flops there hilariously, and then lies there on his face, a total failure pile. Even better, Benoit just kinda lets him lie there for awhile, face down, until casually walking over and putting on the crossface. Thank you, Joe Gomez.

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My Favorite Wrestling! WCW Worldwide 8/11/96

WCW Worldwide 8/11/96

1. High Voltage vs. Eddie and Chavo Guerrero

High Voltage do a bunch of press slam spots and I think that always makes me think they're more awesome than they actually are. Whatever. Rage doing a bunch of presses here lead to a cool Eddie roll-up reversal. But whatever, HV's springboard spots always look great. Heenan's commentary also never ceases to shit all over Mexicans.

2. Kevin Sullivan vs. Chad Brock

Brock bumped around pretty well for Sullivan, but I hate Sullivan squashes because they're always like 50 seconds and he does all his moves in the exact same order: back a guy into the corner with chops, throw him to the floor, go out and get him (if '97, insert Jacqueline vertical suplexing the guy here), tree of woe, double foot stomp. Bleh.

3. Maxx vs. Ice Train

Lee Marshall humbly talking about "powerful men feeling each other out" made Rachel laugh and filled me with wrestle shame. I think this match actually could have benefitted from more time. I think it needed more time to build up that both guys' power cancels the other's out, so the person with the better combo of power and speed will win. Instead we only get one shoulder block no-sold by both, with both flexing and screaming, and then we go into Ice Train spots. I would have liked to see more power parity spots. I did like Maxx's big missed leaping back elbow, but this wasn't great.

4. Big Bubba vs. Chip Minton

Bubba looks like a total skeet here with a week long bender beard and homemade sleeveless shirt. Minton is game here for a beating and Bubba doles out a pretty decent one with a nice big boot, GREAT headbutt from the apron, couple big time slams, although he did look like he was yawning and sleepwalking his way through this. Minton has some really impressive leaping ability and I'm shocked WCW never tried to do more with him as it seems like they could have gotten SOME publicity out of it.

5. Rough & Ready (Enos and Slater) vs. Harlem Heat

I actually don't remember the Enos/Slater team at all. This match gets a lot of time, 11 minutes, and is pretty decent. But good lord Harlem Heat is just not very good at all. They've probably aged worse than anybody in this span. Stevie Ray is worse than you remember him, and yes I know how badly you remembered him. Enos and Slater actually make Stevie Ray offense look good and for that they get enormous credit. Enos throws a standing overhead belly-to-belly that dumps Booker right on his head. Ouch. Stevie Ray throws a clothesline to Slater's stomach that Slater has absolutely no clue how to sell. But overall this whole match works because most of it is awesome Enos/Slater control segments, with my favorite part being Enos cutting off a tag by running and stomping over Stevie on his way to knock Booker off the apron. To the shock of everybody, Booker wins this with a shitty looking kick.

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My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Worldwide 8/10/97

High Voltage v. Robbie Brookside/Doc Dean

I wanted to like this, just because the British team was nice and tassly in it, and I think I'm kind of a closeted High Voltage fan because they are short and juiced and break out random springboard offense...but it was rather short and High Voltage didn't bring much to the table here. The Brits control section was fun and this was as good as any way to start the show.

Public Enemy v. Power Company

Oh goodness. If you polled a casual viewer and asked them to guess which team is dead today, I'd have to imagine that most would guess the team that looks like they consist only of protein shakes and pills and horse testosterone. Power Company are just ridiculous (that's Dean and Dave Power to you, though Schiavone doesn't know that so just keeps referring to them in the plural sense when one of them does a move: Power Company with a dropkick!). One looks like Joey Maggs at his most bloated (if Maggs lifted), and the other looked like a bloated Davey Boy Smith a couple days post-mortem. And to fill my quota for writing up late 90s syndicated wrestling: Bloated. There's the third. And their name is one of the more confounding names in pro wrestling history. I bet they made workout videos of each other that would make Halloween partiers in The Castro blush. As you can imagine this was not great, although Power Company had a couple amusing cheating spots, Grunge threw better punches than you remember, and the crowd shots of the yokels doing the hot steppa PE dance are always classic. Maybe this was actually good?

Steve Regal v. Billy Kidman

This was real good with it being a nice extended squash and Regal laying down a beating on Kidman. Kidman seems so scared to touch Regal, barely making contact on a headlock, a shoulderblock, and somehow barely making contact on a headscissors. Regal goes on a violent rampage of clubbing forearms, left jabs to the face, knees to the dome, takes out Kidman's knee with a NASTY chop block (tackling him to the front of the knee!) and the Regal Stretch was applied extra painfully. It was always a treat to see him apply it to a smaller skinny guy, as opposed to a larger, less-flexible juicer. Although the Power Plant juicers are their own special treat to see stretched (in a different way than skinny little guys). It's as if Regal's thinking "Let me make his back tits touch".

Dean Malenko v. Hack Myers

This was a ton of fun and I didn't realize Myers worked much WCW. It makes sense with the Florida connection and all, just didn't think it happened. I think he really could have caught on in WCW as a syndie-show face. Nobody in the crowd here knew about the Shah thing, but they could've learned real easily. He has an awesome look with his big scraggly beard and hair. He and Malenko worked a real nice match here that was as good as any Hack match I've ever seen. Hack threw a great uppercut and a badass falling clothesline and nice leaping elbowdrop. Dean looked real crisp and everything he did had a nice snap to it and this was nice and random.

Mortis v. Mark Starr

MEN AT WORK EXPLODE!!!! I don't think Men At Work ever got a blowoff match. I mean, the match here was real fun as Starr is a good worker who doesn't get his stuff featured a lot, and Kanyon was a generous worker who let guys get good runs in when they were jobbing to him. But we needed more backstory of WHY these two blue collar men at work ended up so differently just 18 months later. One is still tied to his construction roots, while the other is wearing a skeleton suit and skull mask. When Mark heard Chris was going to stop paying his union dues and "go find himself", Mark thought he was being an idiot. I mean, there was all that new construction going up for bid and they had plans to meet at the Electrical Safety and Licensing Advisory Board to see what they would have to do to take the journeyman exam. Then it all went to shit.

Barbarian v. Jeff Jarrettt

Fun individual moments in here like Jarrett's right hands, Barbarian bumping over the top, Barbarian giving Jarrett a big powerbomb, Barb jobbing to the figure 4, but it didn't really gel into a good match. What happened was fun, but this is kind of a style clash and kept Barbarian from being as ass-kicky as he normally is.

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My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Worldwide 7/4/98

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

1. Vincent vs. Marty Jannetty

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

2. Lenny Lane vs. Spike Moore

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

3. Magnum Tokyo vs. Bobby Blaze

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

4. Villanos vs. High Voltage

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

5. John Nord vs. Goldberg

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

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