WWF Superstars 2/27/93: Three Maulings and an Under 5 Minute Classic

1. Yokozuna vs. Brian West

ER: This started with Brian West getting run right fucking over with one of Yokozuna's greatest clotheslines, and things didn't get any better for him. Yokozuna had two minutes to look like an unstoppable physical force, and he did it without breaking a sweat. He looked amazing in his white tights and black mawashi, and Brian West looked disgusting in his inverted singlet. West gets his ass kicked pillar to post while wearing a singlet where the straps go on the inside of the nipples. You never want to be out there in a dickey singlet top while a 500 pound man is throwing punches and headbutts at you. When the coroner is having your family identify the body, you don't want to be wearing something as stupid as Brian West. Yokozuna's legdrop is a thing of all time wrestling beauty: the form, the impact, the way he rolls off, the impressive safety of it all. He throws West with his belly to belly and sets up the banzai splash perfectly, running into West with another clothesline that drops him on his back, right into position. This was Yokozuna working with Terminator efficiency. Imagine a 500 pound Terminator chasing a kid through an arcade. Different ballgame. 

2. Nasty Boys vs. Mark Ming/Jim Gorman

ER: You always see people talk about the bad luck of showing up to your job duty and finding out you were opposite the Steiners, and that's valid. But the Nasty Boys are right there with them for most unfortunate gig worker opponent. Sometimes Knobbs and Sags show up with a literal lip licking intensity and desire to beat a couple guys up. It usually isn't unprofessional, and this match wasn't either. But there are levels of "professional" and a lot of them don't include elbowing a guy in the eye socket to start a Saturday morning. Maybe Mark Ming is a master salesman. There are several examples of Mark Ming doing weekend job work and maybe it would be worthwhile to examine his selling in those matches. So maybe Knobbs pulled his shot and Ming's selling is just so good that he slumped into the middle rope looking like a man who suddenly feared for his safety and was not expecting to be hit in the eyeball on this day. 

Knobbs looks so excited to beat Mark Ming's ass that he really had one of his best back alley ass kicking performances here, just a couple months before the Nasties' WWF exit. There are a lot of guys on this 1993 roster who are really busting their asses and wreaking hell on jobbers before the major spring roster transition. I love when the Nasty Boys throw out all civility and just fall on guys. Knobbs and Sags each do elbowdrops in this match that are real asshole older brother elbowdrops. They are big guys who just flop full weight onto other guys, leaping off one bed and onto the other with no regard for their younger brother or their bed frames. Sags hits an elbowdrop off the top so crushing that I would have rather had a couch thrown onto me. There's a shot of Knobbs standing on the apron at one point, leaning forward on his tippy toes over the top rope, wide eyed in almost childlike glee, licking his lips while Sags beat some dude's ass, and that shot kind of sums up the Nasty Boys. What's the proper term for an occasionally annoying asshole? Ask Rob Dibble or Norm Charlton. 

3. Doink vs. Big Boss Man

ER: This match is insane. It's Boss Man's last taped match of this WWF run, and it's a generous performance that helped Doink look like a very real threat. There's an alternate timeline 1993 where Vince doesn't panic after Hogan's long-forecast exit, and held steady through the year with Bret/Crush/Tatanka/Perfect/Duggan as the top babyfaces, and Yokozuna/Luger/Doink/Bigelow/Razor as the top heels, and every single person would have been better for it. Crush's feud with Doink killed his potential big run, but that's on WWF for unnecessarily keeping both men mired in it for half the year. If Luger stays heel, Crush slams Yokozuna, and Doink continues working amateur shootstyle matwork against guys 100 pounds heavier than he, THEN you have a promotion with a thriving summer. Heel Doink was an incredible role that Matt Borne played to perfection. People fondly remember the series with Mr. Perfect, the PPV gem against Bret, and weekend gems like his technical sprint with Bob Backlund, but I think this match against Boss Man was Borne at his aggressive bulldog matwork best. It being Boss Man's last WWF TV match for 5 years, and how dominant Doink was at the front end, looked like they were destroying Boss Man at his going away party. But the comeback came and showcased how at his best Boss Man was always just Dustin Rhodes, if Dustin was carrying an extra 100 pounds. I mean I don't remember Black Reign being anywhere near as good as Boss Man, but in theory.

Doink hits Boss Man upside the head with a cardboard box, which we are lead to believe was loaded, but either way Boss Man sells a box across the head as if someone cheap-shotted him with a pipe. It was almost shocking how dominant Doink was, but after a win over Tugboat and his mauling of Boss Man, this was the time to show how Doink could dismantle an opponent of any size. As I said up top, this match is insane. You don't often get to see a guy dressed up like a Spirit Store policeman working shootstyle amateur matwork with a clown, so this match had a deranged "technical street fight breaks out at a southern states Halloween party" feel to it. Doink twisted Boss Man's neck into a neckbreaker and dragged him to the mat with a drop toehold, then worked his legs into a fought for STF. It's so surreal watching a man in slightly rubbed off clown makeup work snug hammerlocks and half nelson grapevines against a man as large as Boss Man, and there's a moment where Doink traps Boss Man's arm and shoot turns him into a pin like he was Jack Brisco. Doink even plants him with a high back suplex and a tremendous fireman's carry takedown into an armbar! Doink completely eliminated the size difference while in control, making it look like Boss Man couldn't break these holds or stop these takedowns even if he knew they were coming. 

But Boss Man's comeback is believable and loudly received, as he press slams Doink off the top and goes on a real tear. I love when Boss builds speed and hits the ropes harder and harder, pushing the pace and throwing punches the entire time. He thunders into Doink with a corner clothesline and throws heavy corner punches, short uppercuts under the chin, a big boot, and slides to the floor with an uppercut after using his weight to see if he could break the ropes with Doink draped over them. Does the Georgia lawman get green spray paint sprayed into his eyes at the finish? Yes, but this was a fucking fight and it deserved to end dirty. 1993 Boss Man still had so much left in the tank. In his last couple weeks under contract he worked house show singles matches against Flair and Lawler, which I wish we had. We left a lot of fun potential Boss Man matches on the table that year, but in exchange we got the All Japan run that was probably the biggest gift his career gave us. Watch this match immediately.

4. The Narcissist Lex Luger vs. Jim Powers

ER: Luger and Powers matched up several times in short WCW singles matches a few years after this, Luger a major babyface and Powers with 40 extra pounds of muscle. Their March 1997 WCW match was their best competitive match, an entertaining babyface vs. babyface match. This one is a totally different dynamic obviously, with Luger as a freshly debuted top heel and Powers a babyface who was mostly working house shows. Powers looked like early career Rick Martel here, and four years later he looked like an American Gladiator.  Luger's work as the Narcissist was far and away the best work he ever did in WWF. His offense never looked better, his timing was better utilized, and it was a much more natural fit. He looked more at home taking apart Jimmy Powers in 90 seconds than he did in any 90 seconds of his All American Lex run. Powers was given some good offense in their 1997 encounters, but in 1993 it was all Luger, and he had a tight 90 seconds of material. 

I loved how they started this with Luger flipping out over Powers stealing a pose in his trifold mirror, blindsiding him with an awesome lariat and never letting up. He beats Powers up, and Luger is cool when he's smugly beating people up. He throws Powers chest first into the turnbuckles and lifts him high up for a back suplex, and the bionic forearm he hits would look like one of the sickest match finishers of 2022. Whoever was in production realized this, and we got to see that elbow from several different angles. Luger got up a real head of steam to hit the killshot, and it's a moved that looks as good in real time as it does in slo motion. The best slo mo replay showed Luger holding that elbow in tight to his body, fist to ear, Powers bumping it at the last possible split second. We got robbed of a two year Narcissist run, for nothing. Doctors get in the ring to attend to Powers after the match, Powers selling like he was knocked cold. They could have had Luger murdering men like this all year and built to a huge Bret/Luger title match at Summerslam. What might have been. 

Read more!

WWF Handheld Boston Garden 1/9/93

Our brave director missed the Crush/Skinner match that I really would have wanted to see, and also missed out on the Terry Taylor/Jason Knight match (which feels like a really weird match to be happening on a 1993 WWF house show), but managed to get the rest of the show:

Most of the Show

The Nasty Boys vs. Money Inc. 

ER: I was never a big Nasty Boys guy, but I think I might really like babyface house show Nasty Boys? Their face run was only about 6 months at the very end of their WWF run, but the Boston crowd being loudly into them and believing a title change could happen really made this match. It was a simple tag that didn't really have a lot of offense but built to a couple of very clever moments. Dibiase was good at running control, and things settled nicely into Money Inc. keeping Sags away from Knobbs by working over his back. Sags got knocked to the floor, got his back driven into the turnbuckles several times, had his back worked over with bearhugs from both guys, and the longer it went the more fans wanted to see Knobbs. There were two very unexpected beats in the match, cool ideas that Knobbs executed perfectly. 

We get an actual Nasty Boys pinfall that looks like a surprised house show title switch. Sags and Dibiase collided and both went down, referee included. Knobbs, instead of dragging Sags closer for the tag, just drags Sags out of the ring, wakes up the ref, and pins Dibiase. Crowd loses their minds, Jimmy Hart is on the apron freaking out, and of course the match gets restarted. Later in the match, Dibiase is still wearing down Sags, has him locked in a sleeper, and Sags is already down on his knees unresponsive. The ref lifts Sags' arm  twice and drops it lifelessly back down, and as the arm is getting lifted a third and final time Knobbs just sprints into the ring straight at Dibiase, who drops the sleeper to focus on Knobbs *just* before Sags arm would have dropped for the third time. The timing on the spot was excellent, and without the timing it would have looked bad for everyone involved. Sags' arm was clearly going down for a third time and if Knobbs was late it would have looked like an awful botched kickout. Instead, the visual was awesome, with Knobbs charging in and immediately taking the focus off the split second from loss Sags, who drops straight to the mat in a heap, no longer being held up by the ref or Dibiase. It's wild hearing a crowd of children chanting "NASTY! NASTY!" but these kids fucking love getting nasty. There's a good nearfall for the Nasties with a nice pin break by Dibiase, and just as we're about to see Sags get his revenge (awesomely dragging IRS up to a seated position by his necktie) Dibiase bashes him with the Halliburton to retain. My brain never thinks of the Nasties as a babyface team, but I really liked the vibes here. 

Undertaker vs. Papa Shango

ER: I love the theatricality of 1993 Undertaker, reaching back practically to the mat just to throw his big uppercuts, and I love how far Papa Shango bumps for them. Undertaker threw hard stomach kicks (never think of 1993 Taker when I think of great stomach kicks, but he throws them with a great downward angled shove) and some Kent Tekulve release point uppercuts, and this is almost entirely Shango bumping around for everything Taker does. I kept wondering if Shango was going to go on offense at all after Taker misses an elbowdrop as Shango rolled out of the way, but when Papa Shango  got up he walked right into a hotshot. I think my favorite part of the match was Shango bumping that hotshot all the way across the ring, winding up with his boots over the bottom rope. Papa Shango finally does take over on the floor (after maybe hitting Undertaker with the urn or his top hat or something in the corner) and hits Taker with a chair, then drops a couple nice elbows in the ring, finally gets to throw punches of his own (nice ones, too), and lands hard on his butt after a missed legdrop (great timing too, with Undertaker sitting up to avoid it). Undertaker powers up to his feet from a chinlock and hits a Stone Cold Stunner, which was not a thing I was expecting. The match wrapped up a little too simply after a Taker chokeslam, but I really liked the moments where you really got a sense of how large both guys were while slugging it out.  

Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Typhoon

ER: This was an awesome Bigelow house show performance, and one of the best Typhoon singles match performances I've seen. They do a few things I wasn't expecting, and kept managing to surprise the people recording the show with cool exchanges (yet didn't get them to stop complaining about the lack of "highspots"). It starts with Bigelow being unable to budge Typhoon with shoulderblocks, so he tries a running crossbody and gets caught WAY high up by Typhoon and then planted with a front slam. Typhoon catching, holding, and slamming Bam Bam felt like a really big spot to go to so early in the match, and honestly felt like something they could have used as the finish. They work some surprisingly quick exchanges, with the best being Bigelow missing a hard charge chest first into the corner and getting slammed, then rolling to dodge a Typhoon elbowdrop, getting to his feet and dropping a headbutt, only to faceplant when Typhoon rolls out of the way. Great stuff. They tussle a bit, and Bigelow grabs Typhoon by the waist and flings him forward into the bottom buckle, and let me say that I LOVE when someone gets grabbed by their waistband and yanked into something and more people need to do that now. 

Bigelow tries to hold Typhoon down and work a front chancery, but in a wild spot Typhoon powers up and attempts a vertical suplex, but Bigelow shifts his weight and lands on Typhoon. It looked really dangerous and almost like Typhoon dropped Bigelow, but Bigelow went for the pin so quickly that it had to be the actual plan. Bigelow really bumps around for Typhoon, getting whipped hard into the buckles a few times and getting flattened when he tries to slam Typhoon and Typhoon just drops on him. Typhoon ran wild with lariats (including a big corner lariat), and really my only gripe is how sudden and tidy the finish is, with Typhoon catching boot on a charge and then Bigelow hitting the top rope headbutt. They really just went home with it and the match really could have soared with a Typhoon kickout and a couple extra minutes. Still, this match delivered and really showed the kind of impressive stuff Bigelow was doing when the TV cameras weren't watching. 

60 Minute Iron Man: Bret Hart vs. Ric Flair

ER: I have never actually watched any of the house show Iron Man Bret matches. I am a huge Bret fan, a guy whose work so far holds up better than almost all of his contemporaries, and huge iron man matches against Flair and Owen have existed on tape since before an old tape trader like me had ever traded on tape. However, the Bret/Shawn iron man match is one of the worst Great Matches in history, an opinion that is far less controversial today than it was 20 years ago. I can't imagine there is a Bret match in existence that I would not watch before watching that WrestleMania main event again, and that alone has probably been the main reason that - until now - I have never seen the other available Bret iron man matches. It's far easier - and more interesting - to see how many 8-15 minute gems Bret had with literally every member of the WWF roster over a decade plus stretch, than spending 60 minutes on one potential gem. But here we are, no turning back now. We've reached the monster at the end of the book. 

One thing this match has over the 1996 match is how bizarre it is that it even happened. 1993 WWF was focused directly at the eyes of 8-12 year olds. A match *guaranteed* to go an entire hour is the literal last thing 8-12 year olds would want to see at a pro wrestling show, and I imagine there were some parents who got dragged to a wrestling show against their will who suddenly found themselves faced with a full hour of one wrestling match. Shows what I know, as over the course of this hour long match the crowd only got louder, only hated Flair more, and only rooted harder for Bret. This match really blows up the theory that people were leaving the Shawn/Bret match in droves because they "just weren't ready for a match that was advertised to be an hour long". I assumed that old talking point would apply here, but the crowd interest did not dip the entire match, growing loud for all if Bret's comebacks but staying invested during limb work and submissions. I would love more insight into the mindset of running this gimmick at house shows, seeing it succeed, and then not ever using the stipulation for a Coliseum Video taping. 

This was a strongly built 60 minute match that felt shorter than its one hour, which is a strong point in its favor. The first 30 was simple house show work, strong body selling from both, and the kind of attention to crowd work that you'd expect. Bret even started things chippier than normal, slapping Flair to break in the corner, which I thought was notable as Flair had done nothing untoward to earn that slap. I could just hear Jesse Ventura griping about this on commentary. There's strong work around hammerlocks, with Flair wrenching one in before reaching down and picking Bret's ankle to loud WHOOOOOS. The pro-Flair contingent was quite loud through the first 20 minutes, never really turning on him but eventually getting drowned out by the louder pro-Bret fans. Flair is good about begging off in good spots peppered into this hour, with the first (and maybe my favorite) when they go back to standing hammerlock exchanges and Flair snaps Bret to the mat by pulling his hair, but backpedals quick when Bret kips up immediately. Bret had some great selling around being whipped into the turnbuckles, but not from his usual chest first bump (which came much later). Flair had taken over with stomach kicks and whips, and Bret hit the buckles and slowly dropped to his knees like his arms went temporarily numb. Bret had small touches like that through the entire match, and it felt like Flair's selling was stronger as well (and I've seen plenty of long Flair matches where that gets thrown out the window). 

Flair works a long hammerlock with his feet on the middle rope, really milking the rope cheating to get the crowd out and angry. Heenan would intentionally cause a disturbance on the floor, and whenever Earl Hebner would go quiet him down not only would Flair continue using the ropes to cheat, but he would rake at Bret's eyes. Flair did all the tricks really well, making sure the ropes shook just enough when he would remove his feet, enough for Earl to be suspicious but not enough to get him to actually do anything.  Flair threw chops in the corner and Bret came firing out with great right hands, backing Flair into a different corner and climbing the buckles for 10 count punches, only for Flair to drop Hart with an inverted atomic drop so impactful that I have to assume Bret was working this iron man match with Iron Balls. Fantastic atomic drop. Bret finally takes over when he rolls out of the way of a Flair elbowdrop, gives Flair a big backdrop, and starts working a figure 4 to loud cheers. Flair made it to the ropes and Bret took him right back to the mat with a nice vertical suplex and middle rope Hitman elbow, then went back to the figure 4. Flair wisely goes back to Hart's eyes, and Flair going to the eyes was something that got played up the entire match, always the thing Flair could reliably go back to, always a thing that would make the crowd angrier every time it happened. After raking Bret's eyes, Flair was a real asshole and threw headlock punches right into the eye he snagged (and would hold the headlock so the punch to the eye was obscured from Hebner's view). 

They manage to do a great job shifting the momentum of this match very believably, with neither guy in control for too long and all the transitions being simple things that made sense (and most of Flair's transitions back to offense were from eye rakes). There's a great sequence where Flair nails his big kneedrop and comes up limping theatrically, but still goes for another only to miss, and find himself right back in the figure 4. Bret works a legbar and a couple rolling leg snaps, but Flair tosses him through the ring ropes by yanking on his waistband (see Bigelow/Typhoon from earlier). Bret makes it back in with a sunset flip but Flair stays on his feet walking backwards alllllllll the way to the other side of the ring, then uses the ropes for stability as he punches Bret to break, eventually leading to a huge delayed back suplex (I love when Flair works suplexes into his game). Flair seems in control but Bret gets the surprise first pin after an Irish whip and missed clothesline allows him to get a very slick O'Connor Roll around 27 minutes in.

Flair begs off and gets a cheap 1 count to restart, but nicely counters a Bret side headlock with a nasty knee breaker, then starts tugging on Bret's leg like he wants that leg separated from Bret's hip. If you wanted to rip a man's leg clean off his body, I don't see it looking much different than what Flair was doing to Bret here. Flair worked a figure 4, eventually getting Bret to tap around the 35 minute mark when Flair grabbed the middle rope for leverage. Great - possibly unintentional - when Bret taps out on Hebner's knee, but then grabs Earl's leg right after to try to get him to notice Flair holding the ropes, tripping Hebner and giving Flair time to get off the ropes undetected. Bret is great at selling the leg, bumping and crumbling in fine ways as Flair throws pointed kicks right at the patella before, locking in another figure 4 to draw ANOTHER tap less than 3 minutes after the prior tap. It's real smart psychology to go right back to a submission that just got you the fall in an iron man, but it's not often you actually see someone getting a logical tap like this and I loved that they did it to put Flair up 2-1.

Flair drapes Bret's leg over the middle rope and throws kneelifts into his inner knee and thigh, drops him hard with a headlock punch, and I love how Bret takes hard drops from corner punches the way a 1968 French Catch babyface sells uppercuts in the corner, falling with one limb draped over a rope, looking like a man who is actively being aided by the ropes. We get a nice throwback to early in the match when Bret fires back with punches from the same corner of the ring where he first tired of Flair's bullshit, leading Flair to hit another knee breaker. Bret absorbs the knee breaker and feels it, but as he's bumping the knee breaker he manages to grab Flair's head of hair and smash him with a headbutt, sending Flair down to the mat with him. They have a nice punch out and Flair gets whipped upside down into the buckles, runs the length of the apron to the top rope, gets caught with a punch to the stomach on his axe handle attempt, then dropped with a vertical suplex. Flair working with a lead is a fun thing, as he starts cheating in different ways while still keeping the classics, and a Flair mule kick gets a great angry reaction from the now loud Bret crowd. There's a firm denial to Hebner, but that mule kick to Bret's iron balls will not be enough to go up 3-1. Flair starts going for a bunch of quick falls, and there's a great bit where he has his legs over the middle buckle while going for four straight pins, Hart nudging his shoulder up each time, and this crowd is getting tired of all of this rope cheating. 

They fight over a real solid backslide that looks like it could tie things up, and as Hart bears in on Ric in the corner after the kickout, Flair does the most cool, casual, perfect eye poke you've ever seen, strutting out of the corner past Bret and his closed up eyes. Bret just stormed up to him and Flair poked him in the eye as easily as he slapped a thousand stewardesses on the ass. Flair hits a nice vertical suplex, but gets caught and slammed off the top when he goes up. Hart moves to recover in a corner, and when Flair throws a big knife edge Bret pulls the straps down and gets Flair to beg and backpedal all the way to the opposite corner. Fans react huge to the straps coming down, and Flair takes some of his biggest bumps of the match on this hopeful comeback, including an even higher backdrop than earlier. Bret really drags him to the mat with a neck wrenching bulldog, hits the backbreaker, another Hitman elbowdrop, but Flair will not stay down and time is getting short. Bret keeps upping his offense and hits a superplex (while also selling the damage that he took delivering the suplex so well) and evens things up 2-2 with the Sharpshooter with just 5 minutes left, causing children to literally jump up and down in the aisles. 

Bret sets Flair up for another superplex (which I thought was interesting within the match, to go back to the superplex instead of going back to the sharpshooter the way Flair went right back to the figure 4) but Flair rakes at the eyes AGAIN, then nails Bret with a loaded fist. You see, after Bret tied things up, Heenan got in the ring to cause a big stir, but slyly slipped something into Flair's hand while checking on him. Flair made strong use of the weapon, distracting Hart by going to the eyes first and then putting him down hard when Bret staggered back towards him. Bret took a hard flat back straight body bump, going down like someone who has been hit with a weaponized fist. It's not enough to beat Bret, and we get a nice throwback to that earlier blocked sunset flip, with Bret once again landing one and not giving Flair time to back out of it, instead pantsing Flair to finally get him down to the mat. This is not stooging bare ass Flair, as Ric responds angrily to having his ass bared in Boston, going right back to yanking at Bret's leg and spinning into a figure 4....which leaves him wide open for a small package with 15 seconds to go, giving Hart the 3-2 win and making a hot Garden crowd lose their minds. 

This was a really great iron man match, great enough to at least be arguably better than their title change match. I usually lean towards a tighter match, but they did a really great job filling 60 minutes and that is an impressive feat. Both men looked great on offense, and both sold compellingly enough for a crowd of all ages to stay engaged. Bret was really credible at selling all of Flair's cheating, doing some genuinely great physical acting that put over exactly how Flair was gaining an advantage. Flair's cheating wouldn't have been half as effective at drawing heat without Bret kicking his heels into the mat and really struggling through every hold, not to mention his excellent move-appropriate bumping. Flair had a great performance too, one of his best in WWF. He looked like he was in his absolute comfort zone here, knowing exactly how to work these 5,800 people into a lather while hitting all the expert notes his fans would want. He had so much charisma here and knew how and when to play it to the crowd or play it to one specific person. The match peaked in great ways and made it feel like any result was in play, and that's going to keep it above most iron mans. 

Because, for all the stories we've heard about working 60 minutes every night 8 nights a week in front of 10,000 loud fans, there are only *so many* great 60 minute matches, and this is one of them. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE WWF 305 LIVE

Read more!

Big Time Wrestling TV 8/26/16

I like the simple black polo shirts on Dragon Dave and Hank Renner Jr., comes off way less gimmicky than their previous tuxedo/plaid blazer/fedora. Man I hated that hat (and the too large striped shirt under the plaid blazer). The simple black polos with BTW's logo on them are a nice, classic touch.

1. Kikyo Nakamura vs. Dementia D'Rose (7/15/16)

This was from their very recent Dangerous Damsels show, an 8 woman tournament, and I'm really really happy they're showing matches from it. There were several match-ups I was excited to see (sadly I missed last week's TV and I think they showed other first round matches from this show). Good for BTW to be so up to date on their programming. I was excited for this one as I like Kikyo and have never seen D'Rose before, and overall I think this worked. Both are similar size but I was still surprised to see Kikyo work from underneath. I'm used to her being a kind of monster, but I think she works really well as a FIP. It's just not usually appropriate in her matches. She has great underdog babyface facials, and I dug Dementia's bombs away and especially dug her camel clutch; she really wrenched it in and Kikyo sold it great. D'Rose doesn't do Kikyo a ton of favors on her comeback, as she wasn't really expecting what appeared to be a Thesz press, but Kikyo saves it by muscling it into a kind of back leg trip takedown, and followed up with nice mounted punches. D'Rose does lean into Kikyo's yakuza kick, and Kikyo always throws a nice one. I was disappointed with the finish even though it was executed well, with D'Rose biting Kikyo's arm unexpectedly and then rolling her up with a tights grab. Kikyo sold the bite as well as someone reasonably could, and the roll up was a nice high roll up that looked tough to get out of. So it was executed nicely, but I was hoping for a little more throw down for a finish.

2. Brittany Wonder vs. Raze (7/15/16)

Fun match, I like both women and I imagine Raze is a favorite to win this whole tourney. Wonder is really fun and always tries new things. Sometimes those things don't work, but she's ambitious and has a certain charisma. I like all her butt based offense (though a normal butt bump would probably work better than a handspring version), she takes big bumps and works a fun sort of relentless, pesty style. I like Raze as a bully, and how every time she can slow down or catch Wonder then bad things happen. Wonder hits a top rope splash, tope (that Raze kinda saves her on), also throws a nice yakuza kick, bullies Raze into the ring announcer and time keeper, and Raze occasionally launches her with great throws. Raze played her part nicely, giving Wonder plenty of nice moments to shine, taking a big bump over the top to the floor, and Wonder paid her back by getting dumped a couple times on suplexes. The match ending head and arm suplex was a fitting finish, with Raze really snapping her over.

3. The Nasty Boys vs. Dustin Ardine & Vinny Poochanelli (5/21/11)

Amusing Nasty Boys steamroll. I have no clue who Ardine or Poochanelli are, but their job was to run into things the Nasties were doing, and they did that well. Ardine is kind of a loon as he lets Sags give him a powerbomb on the floor, just a straight up powerbomb on concrete. Thankfully the camera picked it up as it was *ahem* nasty. Poochanelli gets bodyslammed by Knobbs on the floor, some chairshots are thrown (at least Sags takes a couple shots), but yeah if you were hoping for any kind of offense from non Nasty Boys, you'd be leaving the match disappointed. The powerbomb was nuts, and there was another super fun spot with Sags dumping Poochanelli into a rolling trash can, and then wheeling him straight into a stiff Knobbs back elbow. I was hoping for some classic Knobbs unprofessionalism, but he seemed totally on the level.


Another fun episode, real tightly run as always. The camera work is something I don't think I've ever complimented them on but their work on their shows is very good. They have a satisfying way of filming matches and changing angles, not just showing stuff from a hard cam. It's an overall good production.

Read more!

My Favorite Wrestling! WCW Worldwide 9/15/96

I'm currently on a train from San Diego on up to LA to visit my buddy Will and go to an Angels/Dodgers game. It's a 3 hour train ride, and I figure what better way to tell everybody on the train "don't talk to this loser for 3 hours" than put on 18 year old wrestling with all the gassed bodies, mullets, and neon singlets that 1996 still contained. I snuck on train liquor, I got grapz on the laptop (grapz on lapz!) and I'm set.

1. Jim Powers & Renegade vs. Harlem Heat

Haven't done one of these in awhile and boy did I pick a winner to jump back in on. And you know I talk shit about these guys (for 100% deserved reasons) but this was probably better than it had any right to be. I mean, it wasn't great, but you look at those 4 names and…woof. Harlem Heat has been maybe my least favorite thing about this project, as they're both awful, sloppy, horrible long match workers. But this was probably the Heat match I've enjoyed most from the era so far. When they're in there with a more work rate team it's just always sloppy and awful and ugly looking. But here they are with a couple gassed guys trying to be athletic and it's pretty fun. Really Renegade and Powers don't seem much worse than Heat here, pretty even working level. Powers - despite his ghastly 0.5 Abyss punches - was kinda fun; had a nice go behind, stomped Booker in the face at one point, worked an arm wringer alright. Renegade looked awful but bless him for trying. He tried a sort of slingshot dropkick at one point and kinda landed one foot and almost buckled on the other..but shit it's Renegade trying to do some shit. Good for him. His body press earlier was decent enough. Booker hits a wild standing spin kick that looked cool, and match ended with a potentially grisly double powerbomb where the timing was all off and Renegade almost gets spiked. Harlem Heat: We'll almost dump you on your head at least once in a 5 minute match!

2. V.K. Wallstreet vs. Ice Train

Woman across the aisle from me has a Powerpuff Girls text alert song, the song by Apples in Stereo, and it goes off every fucking time she gets a text. Which is like every minute. I like Apples in Stereo. I do not like this trend  though. Mute yer phone! I'm watching my trash on headphones, because I'm courteous like that. She also has a shirt that says "I woke up looking this good" which is really only a shirt that can be properly worn by really fat men who are comfortable in their skin. If you have even a tiny amount of good looks in you, this shirt will make you look like a real asshole. And worse, if you're like this woman, you don't want to risk the shirt sounding 100% believable. Somebody wears a shirt that says "I woke up looking this good", and my reaction is "Yeah. That probably checks out," and that can't be the reaction they wanted. Anyway, holy shit Ice Train both looked awful in this, AND won the match in 90 seconds. Was not expecting that. Wallstreet gets a clothesline, rest of the match is all Ice Train. Was not expecting a finish this soon as Ice Train doesn't do any cool squash match offense. He does a body slam, knocks VK's head into the turnbuckles a few times, Irish whips him into the turnbuckles…and then pins him with a standing splash. Huh.

Awwww yeah a commercial for Last Man Standing! That movie was pretty awful but totally enjoyed by me. Fun Bruce Dern role, fun William Sanderson role, Christopher Walken as a villain which is always great. Total piece of garbage, but I'll watch Walter Hill's garbage before almost any other director's garbage. Love that guy's vision, whatever it is.

3. Pat Tanaka vs. Rey Misterio Jr.

Goldberg's music hits and the one the only Pat Tanaka comes strolling out in his kung fu jacket. Boy that's weird. I would've loved to see this get some time, but it goes 2:15. Great. Tanaka is working a weird Kung Fu master, lots of odd tai chi poses and karate strikes. It's amusing so I get the guy trying to find a gimmick for himself. Why not? Rey is a little sloppy with some of his stuff, he kinda whiffs on a headscissors that Tanaka has to bump anyway. But this era Rey is always super watchable due to his bumps. Here he gets planted with a powerbomb off a rana attempt and does a great flip bump on a clothesline. Heenan is pretty smart on commentary saying that in the future guys will try and imitate Rey, but nobody will be as good at it.

We get a commercial for Levis wide leg jeans. "You can live your life however you want. I'm gonna live mine WIDE." Catch that wide leg fever.

4. John Tenta vs. Konan

Weird little match with Tenta taking 90% of it. Tenta had his ridiculous half shaved skullet at this point, which really seems like the next look someone like Skrillex will have (maybe without Tenta's cop mustache though). Konnan is usually pretty selfish in his matches, making all his opponents work within his sequences, but Tenta takes this whole thing. I wish he looked better as I'm a Tenta fan, but he didn't look great. He didn't look bad, still throwing a great elbow, nice legdrop and a nice powerslam. But he also had a lot of less than devastating stomach kicks and an ugly missed splash. Konna wins with a somersault senton off the middle rope to a standing Tenta. Never seen Konnan pull that one out before.

5. Hugh Morrus & MAXX vs. Nasty Boys

Wasn't expecting much from this, but whatever it was, was okay. Nasty Boys both made a point to stiff Maxx (ne Muscle) for the whole match, every time he was in. Knobbs threw a bunch of nasty punches  to the side of Maxx's head, and Sags did the same. Maxx does his part by not shying away from them, so that's kinda neat. Hugh Morrus is junk, but he hit his moonsault pretty flush here and mostly stayed out of the way. Knobbs took a nice bump after getting posted by Maxx on the floor. So much like our opening tag, 4 guys I'd rather not watch a bunch, putting forth pretty decent stuff. I'm okay with this.

Read more!