Found Footage Friday: Universal Pro Wrestling 1992~!

Bulldog KT (Gedo)/Pat Tanaka/Villano IV vs. Coolie SZ (Jado)/Lightning Kid/Jerry Lynn Universal Pro 8/18/92

MD: It's important you know that Lynn and co. come out to Don't Cry by Asia. Also that Pat Tanaka is a huge jerk in this match and I'm all for it. They did a lot in 20+ minutes over three falls. It was fun to see Villano work with Lynn (bounding fast exchanges) and Kid (hitting him really, really hard and then taking all of Waltman's karate bs). The heels worked together well, lots of setting a babyface up for a double team or single shot. There were some nice pushes by Tanaka, on a suplex to give it extra oomph and then to set up the finish by basically shoving a victory rolling Lynn and Villano out of the ring. Gedo and Jado generally worked together but their stuff looked practiced, solid, and usually pretty mean. After coming back from a relatively long, cycled beatdown, Lynn broke up a hold on Kid and they hit a tandem missile dropkick/Northern Lights. Second fall had some funnier stuff from Lynn as he tossed Tanaka into the corner and Tanaka twisted twice on the way and then got down on his hands and knees and dog barked Gedo out of the ring. But it came back together for the fireworks down the stretch. 

ER: I was pretty blown away by this, a frenetically based long three falls match where every guy is working fast and hitting harder. Everyone had standout moments, with Jerry Lynn being the guy who blew me away the most. Lynn looked ready to work any promotion in the world, breezing into Japan and working smoking hot dodging and tumbling sequences with Villano IV, throwing perfect snug execution on everything he attempted. His offense makes extravagant bumps look necessary. When he hits a dropkick to Villano IV, it makes sense that it sends him flying out of the ring; when he blasts Pat Tanaka with a clothesline, he swings it so hard that it makes Tanaka's inside out flip bump seem like the natural way to get eaten by that clothesline. Everything Lynn did was crisp, established the pacing of the match, and followed through to logical match building conclusions. When I say I was blown away, I mean it. Jerry Lynn is a guy who I view as a known quantity. We've all seen many JL matches, we all know he's talented, the industry respects him, he's worked everywhere, etc. But seeing Lynn here is like seeing him for the first time, seeing things he was capable of that never defined his style. Lynn really could do it all...but I don't know how often I've seen him doing It better than he does here. 

The thing is, everyone kind of comes off that way. Jado and Gedo as beefed up Mr. Perfect Singlet Boys is the most interesting version of them in the 90s. I love the wave of T&C Surf Designs inspired Japanese indy wrestlers of the late 80s/early 90s, from the surf punks surrounding the ring in the most violent late 80s FMW Different Style bouts, to these two beefy Malibu boys in their mullets and surf suits. It's unfathomable to me that 1992 Jado and Gedo had great clotheslines, but video doesn't lie. Jado throws a top rope clothesline as hard as Ikeda ever threw, and that's arguably the toughest clothesline to throw well. Gedo blows up Jado with a clothesline that would get Tenryu's attention, and it's a wildly more interesting version of themselves than all their bad juniors wrestling the rest of the decade. 

If Pat Tanaka was a real jerk - he was! - then Villano IV might have been an outright sadist. This man was in his late 20s and a physical danger. If I praised Lynn's execution, then V4 deserves the same praise. Everything he does has such force behind it. He has these cool kneedrops, where he starts from a kneeling position and drives a knee into his opponent's temple, and I'm not sure I've ever seen legdrops thrown with more force. I didn't think you could get such impact from a standing legdrop, but Villano made them look like real finishers. 

But the thing that really stood out in a match filled with standouts, was Villano IV and Lightning Kid starting off the third fall with a literal shoot fight on the floor. I couldn't tell why it escalated, but they clearly start throwing increasingly harder and harder shots during a routine sequence. I don't know the exact moment it turned unprofessional, but Villano knocked Kid to the floor and Kid came up throwing elbows meant to crack jaws, and Villano recognized the intent behind those elbows immediately and landed five straight punches to Kid's face and head. This all happened within 15 seconds, where a hard Villano club to the back turned into a Kid shoot elbow, and suddenly Kid was fleeing while wisely shielding his face as Villano finds every uncovered part and lands every punch he throws. No idea what happened, but there's no mistaking those punches for worked, and whatever might have happened didn't affect Kid's big comeback in the tercera, which played as great retribution. Villano IV stood in for spin kicks and cooperated to make it look like a strong comeback, taking all of his kicks and making the decision to not punch him directly in the face, again. 

Gran Hamada/Panterita del Ring vs. Shu el Guerrero/Scorpio Jr. Universal Pro 8/18/92

MD: Shu and Scorpio come out to Simply Irresistible. Good for them. Anyway, I struggle a little with matches like this. There's just not a ton to say. There were 12+ minutes of bits/spots to start, and they were good! A lot of them were really good. But do I just list them? There wasn't a lot of rhyme or reason to them. There was a little bit of progression with early matwork, but after that, it was off into bit-land. Yes, Shu based well. Yes, Scorpio had some moments of stooging, including a great one where Pandrita was able to roll through on something, drive him out, and force him to walk down the ramp hands up in retreat so there was no dive. There was a great bit where Shu swiped away a Panterita dropkick and slapped his chest repeatedly only to end up in the corner for a knee driving headscissors takeover. Hamada in general looked like a million bucks. Then they had a few minutes of beatdown which was, again good (really liked a catapult where Shu choked Hamada down onto Scorpio's knees), and a comeback with a strike exchange and some big dives, before Shu scored a clutch powerbomb and a pretty swank tied up pin. Definitely good action. A lot of character and personality. Super entertaining. I'm sure DEAN would have been able to write the hell out of this. But all I can do is bear witness.

Kendo/Great Sasuke vs. Rocky Santana/Super Delfin Universal Pro 8/18/92

MD: This was the main event, 2/3 falls. By the way, the first match on the show, that we don't have, is Black Magic vs Rey Bucanero. Though it's 92 Bucanero so he was like 12. Ah well. Kendo comes out with a soccer type shirt with himself on it. The fans are immediately behind him.

The initial Kendo vs. Santana and Sasuke vs. Delfin exchanges (two times) are a lot of fun. Nice tricked out back and forth with Kendo and Santana where they both hit the mat hard and Sasuke being insanely flexible against Delfin. Some nice comedic bits in there as well, like Santana getting skidded out and Kendo sliding out to invite him back in and Santana faceplanting a few times. It's mostly friendly though Delfin takes (and misses) a swipe at one point. The fall ends with the pairings getting switched up and Sasuke flying off the top on both Santana and Delfin leading to a funny bit where they toss Kendo off and Sasuke tosses him back on until he finally sits on all of them for the pin.

Second fall switches the pairings for real, with Delfin falling for all of Kendo's tricks and Santana feeding for Sasuke. The rudos take over though and run a beatdown on one than the other than the first again. They tease a comeback but Delfin gets a tornado DDT and locks up Kendo for the pin. After that, Kendo gets rolled out of the ring hurt, and I thought this was going to turn into a different sort of match. It lets the de facto rudos control for a bit but Kendo just comes back in pissed a few minutes later and he gets into the most ridiculous kneeling strike exchange with Santana that I've ever seen. They whack each other, then fall over backwards then get counted and pop back up and do it some more. It goes on for quite a while and it is a crowd pleaser. After that, they pop right into dives with Sasuke knocking everyone out with the Space Flying Tiger Drop to get the countout win. Definitely fun. Might have been interesting to see it take a more grisly turn but that's not what they were doing here. 

ER: I love these proto-MPro matches where you can see the style almost fully gestated, the lightheartedness with the stiffness, the innovative movement with the strong lucha inspiration. I love Rocky Santana within this world. He understood the kind of regional lucha comedy that would crossover well to Japanese Indies, while also working stiff enough to capture the attention of the rest of the crowd. They laughed when Santana charged into the ring and tripped on the bottom rope, face planting into the ring and crying to the ref for support. When he did the exact same thing in the second fall, they ate it up, fully understanding his vibe. He bases as well as Hamada and moves the same, but he'll also break down and start punching people. The whole match building to a long stretch where Kendo and Santana kneel in front of each other and do several minutes of stiff punches, comedy punches, and exhausted punches, is brilliant. We've all seen enough "two men throwing strikes with no defense" at this point, but it's crazy how many innovative versions of that exist on small lucha shows and Japanese Indies. This exchange starts normal...until the strikes start becoming unexpected, sometimes silly, sometimes mean, thrown in a totally unpredictable rhythm. It looked like Kendo and Santana were playing some kind of memory game that nobody else knew the rules to, and this memory game involved being punched in the jaw, ear, and neck. I've never seen an exchange like it, one that had multiple goals and just kept going until everyone in the building was on board. That's wrestling, baby. 

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New Footage Friday: Waltman's Sampler

Lightning Kid/Jerry Lynn vs. Masa Saito/Brad Rheingans PWA 11/9/92

MD: What a weird match to exist. I don't have a great sense of Waltman's 1992, where he was done with Global early in the year and not into WWF until 93. There was one tryout match with Bob Cook in WCW and some shots in Japan. I could go back through old WONs but it doesn't seem worth it. If there were more PWA tags with Lynn, I'd be curious to see them. This was set up with Saito and Rheingans as monsters and Lynn and Kid as specialists, with the announcers really hammering the underdog status. Brad played de facto heel (and Saito more thorough heel) and it's such a great role for him. I've seen him on 90s undercards from Japan doing the same and he was very good at it. It almost makes you wish they paired him with Patera and Blackwell in early 80s AWA, but that was never going to happen.

PAS: Kid and Lynn were working as underdog blowjob babyfaces against a team of barrel chested murderers, and everyone played their role well. Rheingans hit a couple of big suplexes and a nasty powerbomb and Saito chucked Waltman with a Saito suplex. There was some nice moments of babyface fire, Waltman getting hyped up and throwing all of his karate at Saito was cool, and Saito sold it an appropriate amount. These makeshift teams worked well together and against each other and I would have been interested in a longer arena version of this TV tag.

ER: This felt like a syndicated WCW match in the very best way, with two teams that nobody realized had crossed paths all behaving the exact ways you'd expect them to behave. Rheingans and Saito are like stockier Steiners, and I loved the ways they tossed Kid and Lynn while also loving the believable ways Lynn and Kid fought their way into it. Saito is arguably the most brick house wrestler to ever walk, and I love how Kid goes off on him with cool kicks and Saito leans into every one of them looking like Thing deflecting bullets off his rock hide. Every time Kid or Lynn would hit the mat because of Saito, it looked and sounded like their skeletons were being rearranged. Saito hits a snap suplex on Lynn that should be a finisher, his dragon screw on Kid sent him most of the way across the ring, and his stiff arm lariats look savage. I love his Saito suplex on Kid, looking like one of those rollercoasters that keeps lifting you up higher and higher until the bottom drops out and you freefall. Kid's kick variations looked great, especially impressed at how damaging he made every dropkick look. Being vaulted into a dropkick is a tough spot to pull off, and not only did he do it several times here, but he used them to smartly set up Rheingans finally catching him and hitting a killer powerbomb. I really loved this, and would have loved a more fleshed out version of this pairing.


1-2-3 Kid vs. Diesel WWF 1/15/94

ER: This was worked how I expected, how I wanted, and most importantly how the fans in the building wanted. The whole match was Kid getting launched and tossed from high angles, big biel throws, gutbusting kneelifts, big sideslam, just picking Kid up by the neck and dropping him. Kid did not get a night off working Diesel, he was going to be taking some bumps, and he even took a doozy to the floor when Diesel pushed him away with a boot when Kid was going for his other leg. Kid bumps hard backwards into the ropes, flops around in them, then lands stomach first on the floor (luckily Diesel was cool enough to press slam him back into the ring). The moments where Kid took over were great, as there was no such thing as a wasted second. Kid attacked with speed, and legsweeps, and a ton of spinkicks. When Diesel would go down Kid would pounce immediately, attacking the leg by driving his knee into it. Kid worked like a guy who knew he was about to get caught, so he was just doing as much as he could until he got clobbered again. Growing up we would have a taco night every couple weeks, easy dinner, mom would make the taco meat on the stove and then we'd add our own fixings. Pretty normal family thing. One time I walked into the kitchen to see our cat Inky furiously eating as much taco meat off the stove as it could. She clearly knew she was going to get caught, but she just wanted to eat as much of that spicy taco meat as she could before getting caught. 1-2-3 Kid was just eating all that taco meat, before getting unceremoniously dumped over the top buckle with Snake Eyes. Inky did not have to take any kind of finisher.

MD: Diesel was a week away from his big Royal Rumble push and for Kid, this was during his week of getting to hold the tag titles with Jannetty. Quite the moment in time for these two. There was a lot to like here. Diesel was pretty giving, but not too giving, letting his legs get beat up but never in any real danger. Waltman bumped huge for him as you'd expect. They had some smart spots, like Kid losing the advantage because Diesel repositioned himself away from a top rope move; when Kid tried to follow up with a figure four instead, he got booted out of the ring; also, the big comeback spot of Diesel going for a second side slam off the ropes and Kid turning it into a headscissors take over. The crowd really appreciated it when Kid was on top here and got heavily behind him. Everyone loves an underdog but these two worked the match in a way that kept them engaged. Nice, short encounter that played to each's strength.

PAS: This was fun stuff, Waltman was such a crazy bumper for this era of WWF, and that bump he takes to the floor off of Nash's leg push was some Jerry Estrada level insanity. I thought Diesel was really good in this match too. He bumped and sold well for Waltman's moments of offense and when it came time to hurt him, he hurt him.


X-Pac vs. Bryan Danielson NWA 11/23/07

PAS: This was a real fun tournament match, which had a little more bite then a normal tourney match. I liked how it started almost genial with Waltman and Danielson exchanging armdrags and taunts, but then Danielson got pissed off and really beat the crap out Waltman, and then ended up brawling into the crowd. Finish run was a bit weak, I would have liked to see Waltman break out something a little bigger then an X-Factor, still this was good stuff and they matched up surprisingly well.

MD: This felt like a really good TV match to me, with Waltman really happy to be in there. The moment that will stick with you is when Danielson got the best of Waltman and did the crotch chop, because it's so out of character and because it cracked up Waltman (whether he knew it was coming or not). I think there are certain endemic issues about late 00s Waltman, whereas he's too trapped by the Syxx/X-Pac stuff and some of those moves and mannerisms. They tease and then pay off a bronco buster which really didn't fit the match or the character he was portraying but was sort of inescapable for anyone in the crowd who was more casual given how big a star X-Pac had been. One aspect of "TV matches," as a classification, is simplicity of a finishing stretch. Here, given the scope and the setting, they could have gone around once or twice more.

ER: I had never seen this pairing before (apparently they were on opposite sides of a big FIP elimination match, but seeing this distilled in a singles match is way more satisfying) and I loved how they matched up. I'm with Matt in that I wish Waltman didn't feel so locked into specific X-Pac mannerisms and moveset, though at the same time it lead to a couple of genuinely funny moments: X-Pac breaking an early test of strength to motion for Danielson to suck it, with Danielson doing something similar later in the match gave us the announcer - calling it like an actual sport - to say "and now a suck it from Danielson!" Also, when Waltman was bumping his crotch into Danielson's forehead, Danielson staggered back into the corner selling them like actual strikes, and I appreciate that. I did like the build up to the bronco buster, as it lead to moments of Waltman flying crotch first into the turnbuckles and lead to our finish of him getting boosted up onto the top buckle, but I liked Danielson beating him around the ring even more. X-Pac getting crotched on the guardrail and then clotheslined off looked real painful, as did Danielson's big bump that got them out of the floor to begin with. I love how many wrestlers were inspired by 1-2-3 Kid because they finally saw a smaller wrestler making it on a big stage, only to find out later how much larger Waltman was than they realized. Seeing how much Waltman towers over Danielson is a real sign of one thing wrestling has at least taken a step forward on in the past 15 years.

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My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Worldwide 6/23/96

J.L. vs. Brad Armstrong

ER: So like...nobody really knew who Jerry Lynn was...and he's under a mask...so why were they married to acknowledging what his shoot initials are? He's under a mask, fucking call him anything. Bobby Heenan, on JL: "I...I don't really know anything about this guy." Brad Armstrong's mullet is the embodiment of "business in the front, party in the back". The front looks so damn professional, a nice high and tight, and a one millimieter turn to either side makes him immediately look like a total degenerate. Like, straight on he's a nice guy your sister met at church, then he turns and he's that nice guy's speed dealing ex-friend from high school. And this is pretty great as Brad doesn't actually work heel, but he gives JL most of the offense, takes some nice rolling Tim Horner armdrags and eats a tough missile dropkick (man I can never spell "missile" right on the first go through. My fingers just move in all the wrong directions), Lynn really shotgunned him to the chest. But they do that spot I hate where JL hits a flush crossbody off the top, Armstrong splats on the mat fully 100% taking the crossbody, hits the mat hard...and then rolls it through for a 2 count. That takes me so far out of the match. The Russian legsweep does look nice, but they took a dumb route to get there.

Arn Anderson/Taskmaster vs. Leroy Howard/Bill Payne

ER: Ohhhhhhh shit Leroy Howard is Rastaman from BattlArts!! IS THIS THE ONLY TIME ARN ANDERSON HAS FOUGHT A BATTLARTS GUY!?!? He somehow only has ONE listed match opposite Valentine? None against Backlund...There's got to be a really obvious one that I'm forgetting or a completely bonkers one that nobody would know ("oh yeah I think he wrestled Urban Ken on a charity show"). This is history! I had also forgotten all about an Arn/Sullivan tag team. And this match was kind of weird. Howard is only in this match for the first 20 seconds, and the rest is basically Arn and Sullivan stomping Bill Payne. Sullivan gets all rowdy when he tags in, and goes for a fucking headscissors! Like a Ricky Morton/Marty Jannetty style headscissors where you pose for a bit with your legs around your opponent's head while your body is jutting diagonally away from his torso. There's a major problem, which is that Kevin Sullivan has zero hops, so when he comes running in, his legs make it somewhere around Payne's waist. And BLESS BILL PAYNE because he grabs onto Sullivan's leg and is holding Sullivan upside down, and still manages to take a bump as if he had been headscissored. Sullivan kicks him in the eye as a thank you. Later Arn would hold him in a Boston Crab and drag him to the ropes so Sullivan can kick him in the head a bunch. I liked Arn in this, which shouldn't be a shock. He dropped a nice knee and obviously hit a great spinebuster. I do wish we could have seen more of Leroy Howard though.

ER: There's a Mean Gene promo segment promoting the upcoming (June 30th) WCW house show at the MSG theater. This feels like a big deal, and BRUNO is on the card as a guest ref. I'm sure there's a 6 hour Between the Sheets pod that covers this house show in detail. WCW touring into New York City feels like a big deal (even if running at "The Theatre at the Garden" feels like a pretty good self-own, like laughing about doing a merely passable job at ironing your exes' clothes), and a quick check shows that this upcoming house show will only be the 2nd time WCW ran NYC in the 90s. AND they only ran NYC *FOUR TIMES EVER*! And the two shows in 1998 were free PR events, one of them a free show with a few matches in Bryant Park and the other an event in conjunction with MTV called MTV Ultimate Video Bash, which was a flat out absurd event. It was an outdoor event in the pouring rain, maybe a hundred fans in attendance, with the original idea that wrestlers would represent bands whose videos would play throughout the show (Barry Darsow represented Run DMC!) in a tournament. But it was pouring so hard that the only match that happened was Public Enemy, representing LL Cool J, which...I...you ARE ALREADY NAMED AFTER A LEGENDARY HIP HOP ACT. Anyway, PE fought High Voltage (representing Will Smith, which feels like a MAJOR missed opportunity to not be representing Public Enemy) in the rain, while we got the (probably?) never again commentary team of Shiavone, Zbyszko, and Matt Pinfield. The match is a couple minutes long, but High Voltage are great in it. This two minute match would have given them a standing on a DVDVR500. The ring is soaked and slippery as hell, and there are no mats around the ring, and they both go full speed on a spot where they get Irish whipped into each other, Rage bumps big to the floor, then takes an awesome tumbling bump into the barricades (remember, no mats) AND gets a Drive-By through a table. High Voltage owned this event.

Anyway, yeah, WCW only ran 4 times in NYC, in their entire history, and only two were "real" shows. This upcoming show on 6/30 was the realest, as the other was from 1993. This show was when they were much bigger as a company. The show looked good on paper, but it feels like a weenie move to only run the Theatre. Run MSG, even if you "only" get 4,000 people in there. Was there a deal in place where only WWF could run there? This whole show feels like a major moment in the promotion's history, and it's treated in this promo like just another house show. You'd think they would be advertising Bruno's name more. They bring it up and Mean Gene sounds like he thinks it's a big deal, but it only gets a quick mention. Before this I had zero idea that Bruno had ever done business with WCW in the mid 90s. I can't believe they didn't even have an onscreen graphic.

Chris Benoit vs. Eddie Guerrero

ER: I know it's easy to make these kind of statements after the fact, but my god can Benoit look like a dead-eyed soulless psychopath. Here he came out with Arn and Arn promo'd to the camera while Benoit just vacantly stared. Yeesh. I have a real hard time focusing during this one, but Eddie was a machine here. Benoit came off really sadistic - my perception or real, not sure - with some casually tossed off violent dead eyed offense; suplexing Eddie onto the top rope gut first a couple times, mean chops, hard knees to the stomach, all with this joyless killer face. Eddie bumps huge for all of it, but his comeback is a little bit too convenient. He just kind of snaps and then comes back with a snap suplex and hits a knees to the ribs frog splash. Kind of unsatisfying but it was hot as hell with the crowd. I don't like crapping on something the crowd is clearly hot for, and Eddie had great fire, just thought Benoit went from ice cold killer to overwhelmed a bit too quick. Arn Anderson had a great ringside cheat by pulling the top rope down to send Eddie flying to the floor. This was hot but I guess I just wasn't in the mood for it, but nobody could have any arguments with the move execution here.

Diamond Dallas Page vs. Kensuke Sasaki

ER: A kid mugging for the camera by the entrance gets surprised when suddenly large thick Asian man with a mullet and leather jacket walks by an inch from his small head. DDP’s gear seemed so dated in 1996, I still think it is completely unfathomable that he became as big a star as he did. Two years after this he was huge, and here he’s coming out in lime green tights with a shiny pink vest, smoking a cigar and wiggling his fingers at the camera. Who was this look based on? What type of person was he mimicking for his character? I love how well it ended up working out for him. And this match rules. It has an unexpectedly hot start that it can’t really maintain, but DDP knew exactly what he was doing and how to work through with a Japanese guy who Florida tourist fans would automatically boo just for being Japanese. DDP made Sasaki the clear face despite Sasaki not being great at playing to fans, at all. DDP takes a nice amount of time to get Sasaki to agree to a handshake, then as their hands have barely touched DDP is already booting him in the stomach and throwing hard elbows, Sasaki hits a sharp back elbow right under the chin, DDP eats a fast lariat that sends him to the floor, and he writhes on the floor on his back, comically. It’s a great start to the match. DDP’s basics are nice, throws a good kick to the stomach, nice stomp to he gut, a couple nice short elbow drops high on the chest, and his long gangly limbs almost whip around when he takes offense. Sasaki was a short little bull, hits a nice big rotation powerslam, and takes the Diamondcutter really well. His sell was one of the best I’ve seen, landing normally, but slowly lifting his face off the mat like he was a cat running into a sliding glass door. He naturally rolled over for the pin, really expertly getting into position after the cutter. Very nice.

The Mauler vs. Sting

ER: The Mauler is Mike Enos, not called Mike Enos on the onscreen entrance graphic, but instead called The Mauler. His hair is breezy, chin length and flops when he walks. He has a small mustache, and looks to be the inspiration for Buck, who likes to Fuck. And this match is an absolutely perfect 3 minutes of wrestling. Flawless. It crams everything you want to see into 3 succinct minutes. These two (three, with Col. Robert Parker out with Mauler) could have worked much longer than that, but a perfect 3 is sublime. Sting gets to shine early and Enos bumps big all around for him, ending with him being tossed hip tossed and stumbling and bouncing through the ropes to the hard stage, then having Parker hold him back for running recklessly back into the ring. He eventually does, and he ends up taking an even bigger, more spectacular bump over the top to the floor, onto that hard freaking stage, and the fans are flipping out for Sting. Sting even grabs Parker’s cowboy hat and sees which side of the crowd is loudest so he could throw it to them. Every time Sting pretended to throw the hat, ref Randy Anderson would jump in front of him like he was Secret Service jumping to stop a bullet from hitting the president. Sting then threatens to stomp the hat and Parker is flipping out, but Mauler has snuck quietly around the ring and sneaks in and lariats Sting in the back of the head, a hard backbreaker, then hits a HUGE powerslam that gave him a nice strut as he walked by Kensuke Sasaki later that taping. THAT’S how we do powerslams in Florida, motherfucker. We end quick but it's a quality ending, as Parker gets up on the apron to cheat by Mauler gets reversed into him, then Sting kicks Mauler’s leg out and locks on the Scorpion Deathlock. This was aces, 3 minutes of the best stuff.

Faces of Fear vs. Sgt. Craig Pittman/Jim Duggan

ER: Weird, disappointing match. It’s almost entirely Duggan and Pittman, and Duggan is working pretty light, Meng acts afraid of Pittman, Barbarian fights with Teddy Long over Duggan’s 2x4 for way too long, just an unsatisfying match. There is early intrigue in the Meng/Pittman sections, Pittman goes for a couple cool amateur takedowns, and the best part of the match was the two of them getting tangled in the ropes, but neither wanting to break. So Meng had gone to the ropes to break a hold but then had a standing grapevine on Pittman’s leg and neither man was budging. It could have gone somewhere interesting, but it didn’t. Faces of Fear kind of looked like doofs here which just isn’t totally what I wanted to see. I bet there’s a cool match between these two teams. Duggan isn’t always a lame, and the potential for some amateur tough guy shenanigans seems high.

COMPLETE & ACCURATE WCW B-SIDES

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My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Worldwide 10/27/96

1. Kevin Sullivan & Konnan vs. John Peterson & Johnny Boone

Well this was a sloppy massacre. Sullivan drags Boone into the MGM crowd and throws him over the top row railing into the entranceway. Boone later takes a splash mountain powerbomb on his shoulder and took a big flip bump off a Sullivan clothesline. No idea who Peterson was but he took a big snap bump off a lariat. You knew what this was.

2. Juventud Guerrera vs. Eddie Guerrero

Oh shit yeah this was great. I cannot imagine more stuff being crammed into 4 minutes. Juvy does every single move he knows and Eddie makes them look amazing. Both guys were fast and violent, and say what you will about MGM crowds but they literally screamed "Go Eddie!" the whole time. Juvy pulls some wild stuff out of his ass for '96, hitting a springboard rana into the ring and with Eddie on the top rope, and then breaking out a 360 corkscrew springboard splash. Eddie gives Juvy tons of offense here, even getting dumped with a snap brainbuster. Juvy is constant motion here, never letting up, dropping Eddie and following up with elbow drops, leg drops, always throwing punches and elbows while standing; Eddie hits a mean slingshot senton and huge superplex before just planting the frog splash. When you see this match on paper you hope for something as spirited as this. These guys were great.

3. Ron Studd vs. Rick Steiner

Match only went a minute, and had a classic WCW syndie finish where a guy kicks out on the two count and everybody is confused for a while until the bell just rings. Studd hit a pretty decent big boot and Steiner took his knee out with a chop block. He finished with the Steiner Line and Studd kicked out, but Steiner stood up holding his arms up like he won, so nobody knew what to do. How the hell did this happen so much!? Studd was even more mammoth than I remembered; he was literally tall as Steiner while he was kneeling. That's crazy.

4. Disco Inferno vs. Rey Misterio Jr.

Short little match with Rey hitting a flurry at the end to win it. Disco does some fun exaggerated punches and shakes his fist out after. Love that. Rey threw himself wildly into all of Disco's moves, taking a high speed hotshot and whipping himself into a swinging neckbreaker, gets planted on a powerbomb. Disco admirably tries to busy himself while being draped over the middle rope as Rey hits a springboard legdrop. Disco also misses a nasty kneedrop off the middle. Quick Rey springboard dropkick and rana roll up for the win. Watching this show it's kind of crazy how Juvy may have been *this* close to being the crossover superstar instead of Rey. Does anyone know what specifically made them choose Rey over Juvy for that spot?

5. Jerry Lynn vs. Chris Benoit

Some girl wearing a gigantic football jersey at ringside touches Benoit on his entrance, and he turns and just stares a fucking hole through her. What a creep. The girl looked genuinely frightened. Some really old woman is also booing him. Double thumbs down. And then Benoit proceeds to beat the shit out of Jerry Lynn for 3 1/2 minutes. Lynn gets a nice tilt-a-whirl armdrag and a rana roll-up, and the rest is all Benoit throwing brutal chops, nasty kicks to the stomach, stomping Lynn in the back of the head, hitting one of his all time brain damage causing headbutts, just really annihilates Lynn.

6. Dean Malenko vs. Chris Jericho

Wildcat Willie is warming up the crowd with some hot moves. Heenan, on Malenko: "He seems like the kind of guy who would walk you to the electric chair, and then beg to pull the switch." I mean, he'll at least make excuses for you after you murder your family. So there's that. And this match is killer. It's worked fast like a 3 minute match, except it goes almost 8. Jericho is in full on fired up babyface mode and Dean is cold calculated murder(er apologist). Dean breaks out every little trick he knows, doing all his counter wrestling porn. Some of the sequences get a little too rehearsed with Dean focusing on when to somersault bump instead of waiting for Jericho's enziguiri to actually connect. But who cares? A lot of that 90s workrate counter wrestling hasn't aged well, but this match holds up shockingly well. The pace was tight, they didn't go for an absurd amount of nearfalls, and they tossed in a couple of large unexpected bumps. Malenko at one point was out on the apron near the turnbuckles and Jericho hit a running forearm that sent Malenko sprawling. Jericho followed it up with a stiff springboard shoulderblock to the floor. Back in and Jericho got two real good nearfalls off roll ups, and they lead to a smart finish where Malenko rolls through a Jericho crossbody and only wins by holding the tights. Malenko had just the right amount of heel work here, and the crowd was rabidly behind babyface Jericho. This was not Malenko working 2.9 nearfalls and random leglocks in a silent vacuum, this was an actual competitive match with the fans really loving Jericho going tit for tat with Malenko. Awesome stuff.

Huge thanks again to CubsFan for not only donating to a great cause, but making me go back and watch some really fun '96 WCW. There's still more to come :)


***I'm still desperately trying to raise money for my friend and coworker whose home burned down, completely disappearing every single one of her possessions. The donations are coming in and the requests are getting weirder and I fear they're going to start purposely torturing me. BUT NO MATTER! I'm matching every contribution and will continue writing above and beyond for those who donate. This means SO MUCH to me and you all are making me so happy***

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My Favorite Wrestling! WCW Worldwide 9/22/96

1. Jerry Lynn vs. Juventud Guerrera

This was really fun, got about 7 minutes and both guys were just sorta throwing stuff against the wall. Lynn is wearing his absurd purple and gold puffy sleeve sequin jacket that says "Dynamic Lynn" on the back. Both guys spend the whole matches plumbing the depths of their offense, which is one of the most fun things about this era of Juvy. He does a crazy springboard somersault dropkick that looks like it should've caved Lynn's chest in. Lynn does some cool armdrags that Juvy bumps fast, as Juvy will do. This was the kind of stuff I ate up when I originally watched it. Fast armdrags, big ranas, missile dropkicks, springboard stuff, all of it. A lot of those matches have been kinda disappointing on rewatch, but occasionally you get one like this that fills the time admirably and delivers.

2. DDP vs. Disco Inferno

A guy who looks a lot like Dwight Gooden is in the crowd here with his kids, and Schivaone even says that Dwight Gooden is here. Which would be weird since He would've been on the Yankees at this point, who certainly would have been in middle of a playoff push in the middle of 1996. I'm not sure when this was taped but unless it was taped over the All Star break, that's the only time I could see Gooden being in the front row here. He could have been at tons of 1995 tapings. Dude had nothing going on that year. This match was short but fun, with DDP being enjoyable as a muggy, cigarette smoking heel. At one point he drops a low elbow on Disco and gets up slapping his belly, saying "you know where that was". Disco was a pretty easy guy to appreciate looking back. He seemed like he enjoyed his gimmick and here he had nice stomach kicks, solid jabs, a nice eye poke and bumped all over for DDP's offense.

3. Super Calo vs. Brad Armstrong

Short match, with Armstrong going over! Wasn't actually expecting that as the luchadors were getting a good push at his point and Armstrong was Brad Armstrong. Calo hits a sweet back elbow after running up the turnbuckles, and then hits his awesome slingshot senton to the floor on the Worldwide stage! Crazy. Armstrong takes luchador offense really nicely, and he folds Calo in half with a clothesline and then rolls him right through for the Russian Leg Sweep. Wish we could have gotten more than the 2 minute they delivered, but both guys looked killer in the wimpy time given.

4. Meng, Barbarian, Ray Traylor & Hugh Morrus vs. Scott & Steve Armstrong, Pepe Prado & Tony Mella (?)

Boy I couldn't tell you much about the two non-Armstrong boys. Heenan clearly doesn't know their names and keeps saying things like "Hey Tony, you know this guy who Meng is beating, right? I'm just checking to make sure YOU know." I assume they're both just Florida area workers. Mella is a big dumpy guy, and Prado looks like a more Cuban Keith Hernandez. Shoot "Cuban Keith Hernandez" would have been a cooler gimmick. I normally love when Saturday Night or Worldwide throws on a random WAR multiman, because they almost always get time and then you get to see weird 10 minute matches with an entire team made up of jobbers. But this barely gets 3 which is a waste. Traylor looked good here and laced into Steve Armstrong, who then tagged out to Prado, and the rest of the match was basically the Dungeon of Doom taking apart Prado. Barbarian launches him with a belly to belly off the top, Morrus splats him with the No Laughing Matter. Mella comes in for the save and gets punted out the ropes to the floor. Scott Armstrong wisely stayed on the apron through all of this. Not a horrible payday for Scott Armstrong.

5. Rock & Roll Express vs. Arn Anderson & Chris Benoit

Needless to say I was pretty excited to see these teams hit the ring with 10+ minutes left to go on the broadcast. And the match is totally great. Both teams get to go on nice long runs, neither works face or heel, which is really best option here as they work more of a mutual respect thing but with neither team going over the top with any of the "I respect you!" stuff. Instead we get a hot match with some nice turns, and then a long heat segment on Morton  (you're shocked, I know). All of Ricky's comebacks are really good, and all the Rock & Rolls showing off offense was really fun. It's always a kick seeing Gibson break out the delay headscissors. Morton does a real slick armdrag reversal of a Benoit powerbomb that I loved. Another great moment was Gibson going in for a deep armdrag, whiffing the hook, and just getting kicked by Benoit. Everybody throws snug punches and elbows and it makes the overall work more desirable. Ricky throws some nice corner punches, Benoit elbows Ricky in the mouth. There was some real great arm work on Arn, starting with him missing an elbow to the post. Ricky and Robert tearing the arm apart was real cool, matadoring Arn into a missed shoulder-first corner charge, and Robert doing a neat little slingshot knee drop to the arm after tagging in. I mean, Arn stops selling the arm at one point, but it doesn't really matter in a match like this. Finish is cool with the RnRs getting a visual pinball on Arn after hitting the double dropkick, but Benoit drops a cool top rope elbow on Ricky and flips Arn on top. Not a match I ever realized happened, let alone on a C-show main event, and didn't know the Rock n Rolls were even signed this late into '96, but it was as good as it sounds on paper.

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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 Worldwide 11/19/95

1. Eddie Guerrero vs. Buck Quartermaine

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

2. Meng vs. Louis Astea

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

3. DDP vs. Chuck Williams

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

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

4. Chris Benoit vs. Otis Apollo

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

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

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

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