Found Footage Friday: 1991 WWF TAPING~!

WWF London Ontario 2/16/91

MD: This is all new save for the Crush vs. Butch match, and therefore, we'll cover the rest.

Koko B. Ware vs. The Barbarian

MD: Early on, Lord Alfred talks about seeing a young, young Barbarian in Puerto Rico when he was wrestling there with Monsoon and I wish we had 70s Lord Alfred in Puerto Rico. Ah well.

This was very good, especially the early feeling out process. They framed each and every exchange well, Barbarian's early strength (holding him up in a one-handed choke, which you never seen), and then Koko chipping away at him with dropkicks, until he went sailing over the top and menaced the camera man. Back in the ring, Koko was able to fire back with shots to the face, but Barbarian hefted him over the top and then crushed him against the post on the outside and that was that. 

Pretty good face-in-peril with some nice hope spots (including a sunset flip in). The nerve hold could have been a little more active, maybe, but the crowd came up for Koko getting the elbows in on his comeback. That got cutoff but then Barbarian missed an elbow drop and Koko was back in it. They actually had me on a couple of the nearfalls even though intellectually, I knew there was no way Koko won this one. Barbarian won it with a hotshot out of nowhere, which really did feel like the ultimate match-ender for this time period. A guy ends up with his throat draped over the top and it's over.

ER: I was impressed with how well Koko overcame the size difference here. 1991 is some Peak Gas WWF (see how fucking jacked Bushwhacker Butch is in the match after this) and Barbarian looks immovable. Well, Koko moved him real well and threw babyface punches so good that they believably kept moving him. I love Koko, a great sympathetic babyface seller who knew how to take bumps that garner even more sympathy. His low fast backdrop to the floor made the bump look more tough and his selling once he was on the floor built it more. Barbarian will slam your spine into the ringpost but a great salesman like Koko will make it look truly backbreaking. Koko has two strong nearfalls: an inside cradle that was pulled off quick, and his missile dropkick which was done well enough that I bit on it as a finish. He took Barbarian's hotshot finish so exuberantly that the top rope practically touched the bottom. Frankie wasn't there to see the loss. 

Ted Dibiase vs. Jimmy Snuka

MD: Pretty interesting point in time and space here as Snuka actually got on the mic and brought out Virgil to Dibiase's horror. Virgil was super over as you can imagine. Once this got going, it didn't wear out its welcome. Dibiase got sneak attacked by Snuka while distracted and then everything he tried for the next couple of minutes backfired on him. Honestly, this is as good as I can remember seeing Snuka look in this run and so much of it is due to the set up. Dibiase did take over by getting a gutshot up to counter a double axe-handle, and they built to Dibiase trying to suplex him in and Virgil grabbing the leg to set up the upset. Dibiase got rocked by him post match. Very effective, crowd-pleasing stuff to help get over what they were doing with Virgil.

ER: Agree that this feels like the best 1991 Snuka, but a lot of that felt like the best 1991 Dibiase. This was a basic 1991 Offense WWF match that Dibiase was working like an All Japan match. He took extra, probably unnecessary, snap off every surface Snuka bounced him off. Dibiase made every connection an impact, dedicated to making every slam into a turnbuckle look brain scrambling. He could have gotten away with going lighter on the 2nd night of a week straight of house shows. Snuka had timing and Weird Buff Old Guy energy, using simple offense like clubbing hands, and "grabbing Dibiase to shove him into a thing". I can't recall when I've been so impressed by someone getting their head bounced off the ring apron. Jimmy Snuka was in his late 40s and moved older than that, but Dibiase made him feel like a fighter. 

The camera doesn't film his fistdrops from the best angle but he does three of them and we keep seeing each one from a slightly different too close angle, and by the third it felt like a cool look at the up close magic form of his fistdrop. He was a guy whose Ace Worker status dipped after we watched the Mid South footage, a guy who plays incredibly in the greatest matches of all time but doesn't hold up in the weekly TV. But I'm quite high on 90s Dibiase. He started working more like Arn Anderson and I thought he was great. I love '93 Dibiase. He stands out in unique ways from the other strong WWF heel workers from that year (Doink, Michaels, Headshrinkers, Yokozuna) and takes his impact bumping to All Japan and locks it in until his injury. Ted Dibiase is destined to become one of our wrestlers whose discourse constantly waffles between overrated and underrated until we die, but I think any unearthed 90s footage has only added to his case as a great worker. 

Gen. Adnan vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan

MD: I don't remember seeing a singles match between these two make tape during this run but I could be wrong. It's one of those things you'd see in house show results and wonder how they did it. Now we know. A lot of "Back to Iraq" chants by Duggan. Adnan snuck up on him with the turban, choked him, got slammed, and ate the three-point stance clothesline. Another crowd-pleaser but now we know what it'd look like at least.

ER: To think, looking like a reasonable facsimile to Saddam Hussein would get you a certain death gimmick as a decoy in one part of the world, while in another part it could net you a plum late career WWF gig. I have a ton of respect for Adnan Al-Kaissie's 90s WWF run. You're in your early 50s, haven't worked WWF since your 30s, and you happen to look like a dictator from the country you're from and don't have to get in actual shape for the gig. You get to have one minute matches on house shows where fans watch Saddam Hussein get no offense in on America (OR Canada!!) before quickly losing. It all ends with a main event PPV gig opposite Hulk Hogan. Also you get to wear incredible boots. It's one of wrestling's greatest gigs ever and should be celebrated as such. How many wrestlers get the chance to work in front of 20,000 people in a main event, ever, in their careers, let alone in their 50s? I wonder what his Summerslam paycheck looked like compared to Virgil's. 

Rick Martel vs. Jake Roberts

MD: Martel on the mic with just a few words about how everyone was jealous to ensure he wouldn't get any Canadian cheers. Jake had the blue and gold cobra crotch tights. Important everyone knows that. 

Very fun early. Martel ambushed but crashed into the post on a shoulder block attempt. Jake started on the arm, including lifting him up and holding him there for a second, and punches. Best part was when he faked high, causing Martel to duck, and then kneeled down to punch the model in the face. Big sell of the nose. Big pop. Jake really bathed in the DDT chants too, milking them.

Martel's control, after using the ref as a stalking horse, wasn't as interesting, but he had some good cut offs at least. Jake ended up trapped in the ropes as Martel went for Arrogance, but he got out while the ref was fighting with him and hit the DDT. He took forever, absolutely forever, to creep over and pin him. 

ER: It was truly stunning to watch how long Jake took to pin Martel after the DDT. They were both down so long that the ref started counting both down. I have no idea why Jake was down so long. He set up the DDT with a long stretch of being stuck in the ropes just like Andre, doing great physical work of stretching out his body as he tried to pull both arms out of the ropes. His physical work was so good, his selling for Martel so emotive, and his post DDT crawl was the slowest thing you have ever seen. 

Undertaker vs. Tugboat

MD: I don't have a lot to say about this but it's a great example of how the initial heel run Undertaker had total commitment to his character. He moved like a lurching zombie, ever creeping forward. It was a great act and has been rarely emulated. You could push him back but he'd keep coming in a way that was sort of unnerving. When they shoot to the audience for Superstars/Challenge matches and show scared kids, they were scared for a reason. And then, when least expected, like in the finish here, he'd do something extra quick or agile and it'd go from creeping doom to jump scare. Here it was vaulting over the top rope so he could climb up, take a few steps and hit an elbow drop to beat Tugboat. 

ER: Marvel at the front row of Very Canadian Men who all seemed amused/confused by the Undertaker. None of them understood what it was they were supposed to be seeing and silently stared accordingly. Imagine if zombie heel Undertaker actually worked like a heavyweight and hit like he was a big man. He could have been one of the scariest heels of all time. By the time he learned how to strike 15 years later he was incapable of ever being a heel. He had a kick to the ribs that was so light he may have confused people into thinking he was portraying a ghost who is incapable of making physical contact with our realm. His backward leap into the ringpost is a cool bump in theory but he doesn't know how to give it weight or impact. Tugboat is the one of the two who felt like a guy with potential. His powerslam has rotation that makes it feel big but a controlled landing that safely drops a 300 pound zombie. When Tugboat hit and then missed his leaping avalanche I was thinking how much more agile he was than Taker, but just then Taker leapt over the top rope to the apron and got to the top rope so fast that it was like I was watching a wrestler I'd never seen before. Taker's rope walk elbowdrop finisher was a cool piece of his arsenal that felt like a dead man falling off a roof. 

Brooklyn Brawler vs. Virgil

MD: One thing I appreciate about the Brawler's act is that they let him come out with Yankees gear. My guess is that if he came around today, he'd have Brawler written on his shirt instead. 

He did a good job of showing fear of Virgil early, which only helped him be over with the crowd. They had a nice bit of rope running with multiple leapfrogs too. In general, this went longer than it should have. Virgil took some big bumps including one through the ropes to the floor, but I do think this was set up to give him some ring time selling. The match was sacrificed to prep him for future matches which makes total sense. He won it with a power slam which is not a move you usually associate with him. 

ER: This era of Virgil's work was so weird. This match was smack dab between his babyface turn on Dibiase at the Rumble, and their big WrestleMania match next month. It is the only match Virgil worked in February. No matter your thoughts on Virgil's in ring, it is undeniable how well his babyface turn got over. Listen to the response he gets from the people of Ontario! This is a man they are rooting for! He hasn't wrestled as much as you might think for being on WWF TV for so many years, but he wrestles like a guy who is barely trained while also wrestling like a trained wrestler who is wrestling as an untrained wrestler. You see glimpses of a man who can't run the ropes, who throws clotheslines like he's only seen them portrayed in children's drawings, but also see a man who throws himself into big babyface bumps and knows how to use them to draw sympathy. His bump flying through the ropes with nothing slowing him down, back bump past the mats and onto the London Gardens floorboards, was the best bump on the show and kept his reaction peak. But he also took a "hard way" bump back into the ring that I thought was among the best of its kind. His powerslam looked terrible. 

Brawler is a worker I like more whenever I rewatch him. Any era. Virgil gets a great reaction for a bizarrely scarce post-turn match, but Brawler is great at keeping them interested in Virgil all match. What's the best Lombardi match? Is there a consensus? I think Tom once sold me on an Abe Knuckleball Schwartz/123 Kid match.  I don't think this one would be in the discussion for Best Lombardi match but it's a great showing and a professional handling of the green veteran Virgil. 

Hart Foundation vs. Power & Glory

MD: These two teams were very well matched. Bret started with Roma, lots of rope running ending with him catching him on a leapfrog and then hitting the inverted atomic drop/clothesline combo. Herc outpowered him but didn't outpower Anvil. He did catch Bret off the ropes and took over accordingly. They worked over Bret's back including some nice Roma backbreakers. We rarely get close up footage without commentary like this and you could hear how vocal Herc and Roma were in rooting for one another. To set up the hot tag, Bret climbed across the mat on his back using the ropes. Great stuff. Finish had Roma cut off the Hart Attack and Neidhart cut off the Powerplex and then everything spill out to the floor for a double countout. Post-match Harts ran P&G off but it mostly set up a second encounter. 

ER: This should have been better but there was a really great Bret/Roma match in the middle of a good enough tag match with a bad finish. I don't know if I've watched the Bret/Roma singles matches but now I'm going to, but if there are Hercules/Anvil matches I can probably skip them. This was two FTR teams that are better than FTR working a so so FTR match. I wonder what Bret's thoughts were about he and Anvil working over Herc's shoulder only for it to build to a Hercules gorilla press slam? That's the kind of backwards set up that Bret never wants to take part in, while feeling like a sequence Bret was mapping out. Bret matches don't build to the heel press slamming the babyface after getting his shoulder pummeled. 

Is P&G the best era of Paul Roma? Has to be. It's crazy they kept trying to make him a babyface. He looks so untrustworthy. He'd assault your girlfriend at a party while you were in the bathroom. Power & Glory Roma was fully in his element. The Bret/Roma stuff works so well because he's essentially working a heel Bret style, if Bret were a greasy forcible sexual assaulter. The snap was the same, the heel bumping was the yin to Bret's baby bumping yang. He's a great punch taker, a truly hateable piece of scum like Tully Blanchard who moves similar to Tully as well. I loved the work from everyone when Roma ad Hercules were tying Bret up in a bearhug; Bret's selling was compelling, Roma's bearhug was even better than Hercules', and Roma worked a false tag far better than you'd ever think from someone who teamed with Jim Powers. I don't remember the last time I saw a team work a modern false tag spot without also doing it with a I'm A Heel wink. Roma wasn't out for glory, he had business to take care of. 

The finish stunk, but there was a tremendous reveal while setting up the late match Hart Attack: The way it was filmed, you couldn't see where Roma was. He got knocked off the apron into the guardrail but his location couldn't be seen. As Bret started his run into the opposite ropes, he was expertly kept off camera to preserve the mystery behind whether Bret would hit it or whether Roma would make it back in time to grab his ankle. It was the latter, but until Bret went down it looked like he was gearing up to take Hercules' head off. 

Sgt. Slaughter vs. Ultimate Warrior

MD: I know we already had one or two of these Sarge w/Sherri matches but I haven't seen them for a bit so I couldn't tell you how similar this was. All I generally remember is Sarge bumping all over the place and Sherri dying at the end. This starts with her doing a saluting ceremony with Sarge on the floor after Warrior runs in, including putting the title up to her waist to taunt him, and it's good stuff. Warrior gets Sarge's helmet and goes nuts with it which is also good stuff. 

Warrior chases Sherri around including the usual 1991 high culture bits of them coming out from under the ring with him having undressed her. That lets Sarge take over though and there's a pretty long heat which is well done. Sherri works her ass off helping and cheering on Sarge, especially in a never-ending Camel Clutch. That's going to end with him shrugging Sarge off of course. What's surprising is that the cut off has Sarge getting his knees up. They really make Warrior work for the comeback, which makes it all the more frustrating when he shoves the ref for basically no reason once he does come back. Post-match, he continues to cause havoc including the press slam on Sherri. It's impressive how much they got out of this honestly. 

ER: Sherri was looking THIS hot on Canadian house shows!? That's the major takeaway from this match, which was such a "should have been better" match that I feel I was too quick to give Hart Foundation/Power & Glory that title. Sarge looked more washed than I remember - great bumps still, including his classic over the ringpost that I love so much - with sludgy offense where he looked afraid to fall over too fast. His stomps and some of his other offense looked like he was working a kid with progeria, not as gassed up freak sporting his dumbest haircut in a lifetime of dumb haircuts. Warrior comes as close as humanly possible to hitting a 50 yard head of steam Pounce on a ringside cameraman who sprinted out in front of him like a wild rabbit. Warrior was only going to do so much to avoid him and this guy came about 3 inches from being driven brutally into the guardrail. It would have been the highlight of this event. The Canadian crowd clearly had no idea how they were expected to react to Warrior assaulting Sherri both physically and sexually, but they rightly sat in uncomfortable silence while he hit his hardest offense of the match on her, dropping her from his gorilla press with a real flop, then actually stepping on her as he exited the ring. I wonder how many in attendance had actually seen a woman this hot before. A satin pink teddy with black thigh highs? Girl, Detroit is thataway. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE 305 LIVE

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Andre the Giant Enforces Carpool Rules

Andre the Giant vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan WWF 5/21/88 - GREAT

ER: Heel Andre is one of the most perfect Jim Duggan opponents we ever got. Nobody is better prepared for Duggan's strengths, weaknesses, and idiosyncrasies. He is impossible to gobble up so there's no danger of Duggan lazily walking through the hits. Duggan wasn't really doing that in '88 anyway, but he certainly wasn't going to do that against Andre. Andre forced Duggan's selling to be at its best, and he paid off Duggan's selling with some incredible work of his own. All of Andre's work here is incredible. He puts on such a show. There is something so damn funny about the largest man in the country steadfastly, calmly refusing to wrestle if the referee doesn't remove Duggan's 2x4 from the ring. Andre acting as a lawyer is some of his best work. He's not losing his temper, he's just acting like a kid who is perfectly fine waiting at the dinner table if he can wait out his parents making him eating his vegetables. Andre is resigning himself to sitting at that table until bedtime if it means he doesn't have to eat them. He hears the threats and does not care. He has drawn the line and made up his mind and everyone in the Spectrum hates him for it.

Andre holding out his hands, palms down, to quiet down some of the threats is so fucking funny. I had to keep skipping back to watch him do it. Look at his face man, look at his face, turning over his right shoulder when one of his young twin sons verbally crosses a line during carpool. Andre's son just said the S-word and Andre is trying to get control of the situation. "Hey, Jace? We don't say that okay? Hey...we don't say that." Andre is riling up the Spectrum, a man who has just paused the movie for the 4th time so he can use the bathroom again. Nobody else has even gone once! 

Dick Graham, as really only Dick Graham can do, starts imagining what he thinks a typical Andre the Giant breakfast might consist of, but he's clearly speaking of some mythical Andre who has a specifically Philadelphian palate. "Imagine what this Giant might eat for breakfast. Couple pounds of bacon, couple dozen eggs, scrapple, pancakes, cinnamon milk..." I have never heard of cinnamon milk as a Philadelphia thing. I always assumed cinnamon milk was what homeless people made at the Starbucks straw and lid station without having to buy anything. No doubt it was also a treat Dick Graham's mother made him in the 30s and Dick assumed a French countryside giant also grew up drinking it. Dick Graham presumably thinks broccoli rabe is Andre's favorite side and that his mother made milk pie for dessert. 

My Scrapple Breakfast with Andre. 

The match is great. Andre beats the damn bricks off Duggan. His closing speed when he "starts" the match is the most imposing and unavoidable attack. He closes distance so fast and goes from not being next to Duggan to choking the life out of him in short seconds. He comes off like a lumbering ogre but that distance disappears quick man. But how about the way Andre responds to punches? How Andre sells punches? The way Andre takes a big right hand, wipes at his nose with the back of his hand multiple times to check for what has to be blood, taking another punch, finally throwing judo chops because he is tired of taking punches to the nose. Andre going to his bearhug sure shuts people in the Spectrum the fuck up. House shows are great places to work bearhugs, especially ones this good. Duggan is so good fighting through his various stages of pain and grief while in a Giant's grasp. His only chance is to go for nose. 

Andre shoves Duggan off and starts holding his nose and yelling at him through the pain. When Duggan fights back he starts targeting Andre's End of Level blinking red nose and the way Andre unsteadily staggers in response is wrestling. Andre keeps taking three point stance charges - FIVE of them! - and is walking uneasily while using the ropes for guidance, a giant walking on mousetraps out of the corner, the ropes acting as his guide and support. Duggan finally bumps Andre him by kicking the ogre's support ropes to send him flying, a tortoise flipped to his back. It's everything I want.

The only thing I did not want was The 2x4 Finish (pronounced "TUBA-four" by Dick Graham). This is one of the weaker Andre finishes of the 80s, sadly. Andre swinging a board into Duggan's back looked nowhere near as dangerous as any of the times Andre swung his arm at him. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE ANDRE THE GIANT

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Found Footage Friday: LOST 1990 WWF HOUSE SHOW~!

WWF House Show Wisconsin Fieldhouse 10/28/90

ER: I love these "undocumented" WWF house shows so much. It's like they never existed, WWF out here running secret shows in podunk towns. Matt and I wrote about a WWF Boy Scout Fundraiser show from '92, which is one of my favorite show reviews we've ever done for Segunda Caida. These shows are special. The WWF showing up in some nothing central Wisconsin town with $9 tickets sold at the local hardware store, like when some mudshow Harlem Clowns barnstormers played members my small childhood town's fire and police departments in our high school gymnasium. I was $9, my dad took me and a couple friends, and we laughed when this one Healdsburg, CA cop kept getting Clowned. I had no idea who the Harlem Clowns were before but saw the ads in our local paper, the Healdsburg Tribune, and Healdsburg wasn't a place that got "events". We were going to a town event, like when the fair would come to town. That's the best part about a show like this: It's not filmed as a wrestling show. It's filmed as a Town Event. WWF sold cheap tickets to a show at Marshfield, Wisconsin's high school gym and we get to watch the home video. My dad didn't bring the camcorder to that Harlem Clowns game, the way he would to my baseball games or recitals, but somebody's dad did. If there are a few guys out there who run a Barnstorming Basketball blog, I hope they find it. 

1. Shane Douglas vs. Black Bart

MD: This is amazing footage to have in the first place as we'd never even had the card for this, just the date. This is clipped, but you still get probably half the match. Tail end of 1990 is when I first got into wrestling as a kid (a little bit of a late arriver) so seeing Black Bart and Shane Douglas in a WWF ring is just natural for me. As an opening match on a B or C show, things could have been a lot worse. Bart was a well-oiled machine by 91; he knew what to do. He knew what not to do. He knew when to do it. He could still execute it well enough. He was never going to be the star that he claims he was going to be if you listen to him do interviews now but he could be just as valuable on an undercard as he was in 85 when he was feuding with Ron Bass in JCP. He was solid enough here that it makes me want to go back and look at his WCW and GWF stuff the following year. It's funny to think that your real bottom of the card heels in 90 WWF were Buddy Rose and Black Bart. Your bottom of the card faces were Powers and Brunzell with Douglas just a bit above them maybe as a real up and comer. Bart worked Dustin a lot around this time as well.

From what we see here, it's paint by numbers, but the numbers add up and the paint is vibrant and the kids in the crowd are into it. Douglas is snappy in his shine, including a nice headscissors takeover and Bart sailing across the ring on an armdrag. We don't see the actual transition but we come in with Bart dropping Shane over the top rope. They then work a chinlock up and down but Shane gets the crowd behind him and he's dynamic enough in the rope running out of it. The finish is a sunset flip back out of the corner and it gets a big pop. Douglas had some legs as a babyface here and they could have done something with him. There are probably dozens of shoot interviews I'm not going to listen to for why they didn't. 90-91 Bart is the one that might get another look from us though.

ER: I thought this was a great opener, and I don't think I realized how good Black Bart would be for Shane Douglas. I have seen more than enough early 90s Douglas and I don't think he typically looks as good as he did here. Bart is a big guy, the kind of big guy that dads in the crowd look at and think "yeah now that's a big guy" and the perfect kind of big guy to take Douglas's babyface fire. There were hundreds of guys working matches just like this and Bart and Douglas were doing it better than most of them. Bart really was a (for me at least) much better Ron Bass, but I don't think I ever thought of Shane Douglas as being a potentially great Ricky Morton. He looked like a great Ricky here. His two headscissors were incredible. Everything Douglas did, Bart made look better, but those headscissors would have looked great against anyone. They were the classic Robert Gibson/Marty Jannetty style and Bart is a big sold guy who is able to "stand" with them longer. Those style headscissors are always more satisfying to me when you can see the babyface actually working to take their opponent over, so Bart being able to hold Douglas up for that pause before getting slid across the ring just makes them pop. The crowd is wild for everything they do (a beautiful running theme on the afternoon) and it made the simplest things sing. 

2. Warlord vs. Tom Stone

MD: This is more like it. Tom Stone has a windbreaker that fits 1990 perfectly. Warlord is lacking Slick but has the full half helmet and armor and staff. I watched some 87 Warlord in New Japan recently where he was the Dangerous Violence Warlord and very green. That Warlord would have given Stone half of the match. This one did not. It was worked like an enhancement match. Real Immovable Object vs. Stoppable Force stuff. Stone tried some clotheslines and punches and staggered Warlord a little but he did a good job portraying how shocked he was that things weren't working instead of doing what Duggan or Bossman would do and build up momentum. That meant he ran into a clothesline eventually. Warlord was really good at setting his stuff up, a bit lift of the arm before coming down with it, that sort of thing, but the impact never lived up to the preamble. Stone's big comeback was two eye rakes and the biting of the eye which seemed to confuse the crowd more than anything else. Then he ran into a lovely big boot and ate the running power slam. This didn't try to be more than what it should have been because of the setting. That meant no lengthy nerve hold. Unless Stone's family was in the crowd, I don't think anyone was disappointed at its absence.

ER: I'm a big Tom Rocky Stone guy, even though he's someone we barely write about. He's a guy I kept trying to get on the DVDVR 80s AWA set, just because I wanted him represented somehow. What's the best Tom Stone match? I have no idea. He didn't get anywhere near the same match length opportunities as the similar-but-different Iron Mike Sharpe, was never used by WWF as a job guy who would put up a fight or could occasionally win. Stone had to do things to stand out while rarely getting out of 2 minute losses. Here, we get 5 minutes of Stone and while none of his offense is really sold, it's a much broader picture of the kind of personality Stone could bring to a loss (that looked like it was headed towards a loss every second of the match). I love his windbreaker, love his dedication to the job guy singlet (the one with the horizontal strap joining the shoulder straps), and love how he still knew how to land offense that looked good while knowing it wouldn't be acknowledged. His clotheslines looked great, his punches looked even better - grabbing Warlord's head with his left and throwing heavy shots with his right - but his perplexed looks in the corner took the cake. He had no entry point into Warlord, he knew he had no entry point, and knew he had no shot. 

Everybody in Marshfield knew that Tom Stone had no shot. He was Mr. Belding in a way that is necessary but now completely unrepresented in wrestling. I don't think any wrestler projected School Principal than Tom Stone. If you didn't know better, you'd think he actually was a teacher at Marshfield High. We have all watched and attended wrestling shows where a teacher from that gymnasium's high school got into the ring. I went to a show at Antioch High School to see Greg Valentine and Sabu and Antioch High School's football coach wrestle. Tom Stone is the most subtly, skillfully acted goofball science teacher wrestling at his school's fundraiser. He's made for this show. He's the fucking Bruno Sammartino of this specific kind of show. His frustration at his own ineffectiveness, a great "here it goes" shake of the head, and a total surprise when he raked at Warlord's eyes and actually bit his eye! A reminder that Tom Stone is a bad guy who actually wants to win. A great pro wrestler. 

Warlord looked like trash. I've watched a lot of Maxx Muscle matches and Warlord was not as good as Maxx Muscle. He has no weight of any kind behind anything he did. His big boot was light, his clothesline soft. That's not really important. If Warlord had walked by me in my town's high school gym when I was 9 years old, my jaw would have been dropped. Gassed out guy in a helmet and Conan weapon would impress the hell out of 9 year old me. Warlord looks huge in a high school gym. You've never seen a bigger person in that building. His match ending powerslam was a real powerslam, an important lesson for wrestlers in "ending the match on a high note". Save your best thing for your last thing. Marshfield will remember Warlord's size and powerslam and nothing else he did. That means it worked. 

 

3. Sgt. Slaughter vs. Nikolai Volkoff

MD: Legitimately shocking. Slaughter came out to huge, huge heat with Adnan and the flag and singing the Iraqi anthem and calling people maggots. Volkoff had a huge pop and the US flag. I do like how this is an inversion. By that I mean, if you ever see a parody of pro wrestling, you'll never see the foreign guy as the face and the American as the turncoat, and Volkoff was super super over during the summer of 90. The whole bit he did with the scouts made him something like the third or fourth top babyface in WWF, at least for a few months. It really did set up the heel Slaughter character well and this was a mauling. Slaughter ambushed Volkoff from behind as Adnan was waving the flag at him and he never let up. His stuff was pointed and credible, mean, just rubbing Volkoff's face in the ground, plastering him with shots from every angle, just being relentless. Warlord is supposed to be slow and methodological, but the difference in the actual perceived impact was telling. You keep looking for Volkoff's comeback and it never gets there. He just eats a bunch of elbow drops and the camel clutch, followed by a post match beating.

ER: When Matt sent me the card for this show it hadn't crossed my mind that Sgt. Slaughter would be bringing his Iraqi Sympathizer routine to this high school. It would have been so fucking wild if someone came flying an Iraqi flag into my school when I was a kid. How could people in central Wisconsin process a guy coming into their town and rooting for Iraq? Do they know the formula? Could they understand it was all part of the show? What's the percentage of Believers? The Gulf War was fresh in 1990. I, a child, would not have been permitted to show any kind of allegiance with Iraq on school grounds and I wish I could have seen the reactions from my town's adults. Sgt. Slaughter praising Iraq and shouting a G rated Tracy Smothers promo at the unexpecting crowd is an incredible sight on its own, but, even as a child, I would have expected Sgt. Slaughter's comeuppance to be arriving any minute. 

Matt's not wrong about how loved Volkoff was that summer, but even if he hadn't been, it was a man waving a large American flag in the face of a man waving an Iraqi flag at what was basically the onset of the Gulf War. Everybody in that building knew that America would come out of this looking good. 

And then Sgt. Slaughter just fucked Volkoff up for several minutes and got him to tap without ever absorbing a single shot, then continued fucking Volkoff up after winning. I and everyone in Marshfield knew that it was only a matter of time before one of Slaughter's constant barrage of kicks to the ribs and big man shots to the body got turned back against him, and instead American got run the fuck over and buried like if the first 15 minutes of Red Dawn had been the whole movie. I don't know if I have ever seen America fare worse in a high school gymnasium. This might be our greatest document of America in the role of Yoji Anjo flying to America fight Rickson Gracie. 

4. Rockers vs. Power and Glory

MD: Really good tag. Great Michaels performance too but everyone was on here. It started with Jannetty hitting a top rope fist on Hercules who was swinging his chain in the middle of the ring for an awesome visual to start and never really let up. Rockers kept outquicking Power and Glory's attempt to cheat to take over to keep the shine but it was overall pretty brisk. Nothing wore out its welcome. When Jannetty was in there (and getting a chant), Shawn was engaged on the apron. It took a fairly complex series of three or four cheating attempts to finally take over on Michaels. They mostly worked over his leg. There was a great hope spot where Roma was stepping on the ankle to prevent him from tag and so he could taunt Jannetty and Michaels worked himself halfway up and did a sort of falling punch which looked perfect given the HH quality. They were drawing a bunch of heat by attacking Jannetty on the apron and focusing on the leg, building to Michaels kicking Herc into the corner on a spinning toe hold. Jannetty came in hot setting up the finish where Michaels, having been tossed outside, pulled Hercules away allowing Jannetty to duck the double clothesline and hit a cross body on Roma. Fans were into this and if anything, I could have used an extra minute or two.

ER: Great tag match from two of the great WWF tag teams. Power and Glory were so good. Of course the Rockers were good but Power and Glory were so good. Hercules and Paul Roma are each guys who don't give enough credit. Hercules' as a worker keeps looking better and better the more I revisit that era. He's another act that plays huge in a high school gym. Look how he swings the chains, knowing exactly how close he can stand to Marty Jannetty to not actually chain whip the man while still swinging the chains at full extension. Paul Roma, meanwhile, holds up tremendously, as he's the greasiest slimeball around and looks and acts like someone who should be the greasiest slimeball around. He was born into being an asshole. You cannot look like Paul Roma and not be a jackoff. This building understood that on sight, and they also understood that the Rockers were the coolest boys in town. Marty Jannetty especially got a huge reaction, and the opening of this match should have been the way a classic PPV match happened. Hercules swinging chains in Marty's face, Marty climbing to the top rope and leaping off with a fist to the face. 

I love watching southern tag formula in American gyms. Bad versions of it usually work, great versions of it lead to ear splitting joyous reactions. When Marty tags in after Michaels has been getting his leg kicked and stomped over? It's impossible to picture anything or anyone getting a louder reaction. Power and Glory did nothing over the top to work over Michaels' knee, other than look exactly the way Power and Glory look and simply kicking and stomping at his leg. They didn't need to do anything else, the energy was perfect. It could have gone on another 10 minutes and it only would have gotten better with each minute. This crowd would have been along for every stomp and every close tag. I do wish Michaels had been cut off from a tag one or two or three more times, but this deserved every scream of that hot tag. The Marty chants are calorific icing. 

5. Koko B. Ware vs. Boris Zhukov

MD: Koko looks like a million bucks here. Most entertaining, compelling, engaging babyface in the world. Zhukov does his part to start, stalling early while Koko keeps the USA chants going and holds court in the ring, and then walking right into a whole lot of stooing shtick. The best bit was when Koko would headbutt him and Zhukov would stagger and then Koko would mock the stagger. Legitimately funny stuff. Eventually Zhukov dragged him down into that nerve hold I was worried about in the Warlord match, but it worked here far better. Some good hope spots and cutoffs before Koko came back and eventually won it with a missile dropkick so high that he basically bounced off the top of Zhukov's head. I'm not doing this one justice but it was very good for what it was.

ER: Was every person on this roster just the perfect High School Gym Attraction? Any child who sees Koko B. Ware dance into their gym, literal parrot on his shoulder, bronze suit glittering, looking like the coolest confident most fun person in the world. A Megastar cartoon of a man. I dated a girl my age whose connection to wrestling was watching Sunday morning WWF with her brother, and Koko B. Ware was her favorite. How couldn't he be the favorite? Do you know how wide I smiled and how my voice went up when a hot girl told me she loved Koko B. Ware at some point in her life. That's special. We'll have that. I smile when I pass my Koko Hasbro. If, instead of Koko B. Ware - a name every American should be allowed to hear once in their life, because it's a fake name that has a real chance to stick with someone after hearing it just one time. What's a better pro wrestler name than Koko B. Ware? Gorilla Monsoon? Probably. But not many. We should have been given Attitude era Koko. Lives would have changed. The charm of children asking questions on pro wrestling handhelds is one of the truly innocent and charming experiences in our scumbag obsession of choice. Suddenly every child in every part of this building had questions when Koko B. Ware appeared in their lives. 

6. Texas Tornado vs. Mr. Perfect

MD: I don't know about this one. It had some weird, weird structural things that would have made more sense if Perfect had the belt and wasn't the challenger. He attacked Kerry on the way in, but Kerry came back, hit the tornado punch on the floor, and then started play King of the Mountain, keeping Perfect out of the ring. It was pretty back and forth after that with Perfect able to chip away but never hold control for long. Kerry was going to Kerry. They definitely felt more room to breathe given that this was a house show that no one was ever going to see. Perfect BLOCKED the discus punch on the inside. Kerry hit it another time or two in the match incidentally, just twirling around after his punches. Kerry kicked out of the PerfectPlex. At some point, you got the sense that maybe they were just having fun with it because they were on a B show in Wisconsin? 

The finish was fun with Perfect undoing the turnbuckles but Kerry cutting him off and running him across the ring to faceplant him into the metal. Perfect did a triple gainer in the air exactly as you'd want him to in that situation but he still managed to kick out at too. It didn't matter much though as Kerry just spun around the ring at full speed to hit the tornado punch one last time for the win. Post-match, Hennig just decided to lay there for a bit. It was an entertaining house show performance (and has value along those lines certainly) but I don't it necessarily had the substance to go along with the sizzle.

ER: I wish we had sound during Kerry's entrance because that crowd looked loud and Kerry took a long time with it, slow walked it in his perfect jacket. But we have all of this full match, and I loved it a lot more than Matt. I thought this was a great match, a stiff dominating heel Perfect performance against a tough fight back aw shucks babyface Kerry performance. Kerry spammed variations on the discus punch in between a consistently dominant Perfect attack. This was really physical. When Perfect bumped for Kerry, he bumped for Kerry, but when he hit Kerry he hit Kerry. Every punch and every chop Perfect threw played directly into this camcorder lens 12 riser seats up. Perfect was an unrelenting attacker, smothering our sculpted god. Two different times in this match, Perfect flung himself over the top rope to the floor to continue an attack as quickly as possible. Our cameraman misses a huge Perfect bump to the floor that gets the gym jumping to their feet, but you can see his feet go over the top, and it looked no different than him flying out to the floor just to punch Kerry in the face. Blocking the discus punch was a legit surprise, and a heel out punching the babyface champion famous for his punches. That's a hero facing a real threat, and Perfect looked like a real threat, easily the most violent worker on the show. Kerry kicking out of the Perfect Plex would have shocked me live; Perfect flipping for a discus punch would have delighted me.  

7. Earthquake vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan

MD: Earthquake had Hart with him and Jimmy even did the introduction for him. There was some fun house show goofing here too with Duggan catching Earthquake trying to cheapshot him a number of times. Quake was one of the best ever at knowing just how much to give and exactly when to give it. He was doing all of the Hogan poses too and it got big heat. He knew how to be a monster. He knew how to accentuate the things that made him larger than life. It's not quite the same as how Andre did it, because Andre had such a unique presence that he was accentuating being Andre. With Quake it was more about running a scientific experiment to prove beyond any matter of doubt that physics actually matter. Duggan got in a lot of shots and even got close once or twice (close being making him wobble or teasing a slam). Jimmy helped him take over eventually and he had some bear hugs that didn't look like the most amazing things in the world from the HH vantage but were naturally believable enough. Duggan was able to get hope spots through dodging and firing back but he was cut off. His comeback was pro wrestling perfection as Quake wobbled more and more, including this bit of remarkable fancy footwork to really get it across and build up the drama, before Duggan finally hit the three point stance. Hart intervened but eventually got squashed in the corner as Duggan moved and they sent the fans home happy with a quick roll up pin. We have the Summerslam Fever match between these two and some tags, but I think this was a pretty rare matchup overall and unsurprisingly, they matched up well together.

ER: Earthquake looks so massive here, in ways that we will never see in pro wrestling again. I don't think people realize just how much a big fat bearded guy fearlessly running ropes as fearlessly as God himself meant to our fandom. I don't know if I've committed to anything in my life as fearlessly as Earthquake commits to running ropes, and honestly it inspires me. I've been going on and on about how every wrestler on this roster is made to shine in a high school gymnasium but will you look at how perfect Earthquake and Jim Duggan look in high school gym of a town that had a Carl's Jr. but didn't get a McDonalds until 1991. Duggan's punches all looked like shit, and it didn't matter, because when it came time for Earthquake to tease out a Berzerkeresque spot where he legs keep splitting farther and farther apart with each subsequent Hacksaw clothesline, we were somehow witnessing Earthquake putting more faith into his adductor muscles than he puts into the ropes. I was so certain he was hitting the mat on that third clothesline, plopped down on his butt, and when he went full leg spread hunch forward it was like the greatest Andre spot that Andre never did. These men knew. Some kid went into their town's new-ish McDonalds that day and told them "Nick sent me," and later that night saw Earthquake vanquished by America. What a day. 

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Jim Duggan's Best WWF Match

 

Jim Duggan vs. Shawn Michaels WWF Raw 5/10/93

ER: I think, from other wrestling writers, when reading a lead such as "Jim Duggan's Best WWF Match" you might think it was some kind of trick. Then you read the review and it's just talking about the 1992 or 1988 or 2009 Royal Rumble and Duggan is barely mentioned and you realize you have indeed been duped by Sensational Pro Wrestling Headlines That Are Technically Correct. I'm not here to trick you. You know that by now. I'm not interested in tricks. I'm just here to talk plainly about Jim Duggan's Best WWF Match, and regardless of your interpretation of that statement I think you will be satisfied. This is both a) Duggan's Best WWF Match, b) The Hardest Duggan Worked in a WWF Match, and c) The Best Duggan Ever Looked in a WWF Match. Whatever definition of "Best" you came into this with, I think I will have your bases covered. 

Admittedly I am higher on Duggan than most, recognizing the strengths and weaknesses that he brought to the last 30 years of his career. But even as a supporter of his strengths (and someone who was even a fan of his 2006-2008 WWF comeback) I can admit that often the best WWF/WCW Duggan matches were due to his opponent. That doesn't mean that Duggan brought nothing to these matches, but I would say the vast amount of "From WWF On" Duggan matches that I enjoy are due to an opponent working around Duggan as an opponent. Duggan is often more of an obstacle to work around than a guy to work with. This was even more true by the time he was in WCW. Regal vs. Duggan, Craig Pittman vs. Duggan, even Roadblock vs. Duggan, these are match-ups that were entertaining due to fun wrestlers working around a large obstruction. Jim Duggan was not someone who was interested in having Great Matches, and I love how durable and popular he remained by working a safe style. He was clearly a smart man, working as a stupid man. 

So I have no idea what got into him for this one match. I can't think of another WWF match he had anywhere close to this match, the longest recorded singles match of his entire WWF tenure. We're not really buying the accuracy of the supposed 20-25 minute house Savage matches, anyway. Until I see video evidence I think it's far more likely that whomever reported those numbers was actually watching a 15 minute match that felt like a 25 minute match. This match was an actual long TV singles match that goes through two commercial breaks, not some house show fantasy. It's a lumberjack where all the lumberjacks - Bam Bam Bigelow, Mr. Hughes, Typhoon, Terry Taylor, you know the real big guys - save Yokozuna were actually wearing flannel shirts. It's absurd, and their appearance made me assume before the match started that the lumberjacks would be heavily involved in cartoon fashion. And yet, the lumberjacks were hardly a factor, except for Yokozuna's very important involvement in the finish. 

Oh, well then surely Shawn Michaels was the one covering for Duggan! This was a long singles match that was clearly made palatable by the great Shawn Michaels slipping on banana peels! Nope, that's not it either. Michaels bumps like a normal man, still taking great bumps, but not as one bumping in service to himself as he often does. Did he take one of the highest backdrops a man could possibly take? Getting vaulted up higher into the air as Duggan shoves his already-high-in-the-air-knees up and over even higher, resulting in one of the highest non-Rick Rude backdrops in company history? Yes. Michaels was great in this match. But I think Hacksaw was even greater. 

Duggan takes an actual furious attack to Michaels and keeps the attack going nearly the entire match. It is the most energetic I have seen Duggan in a WWF ring and it's a sight. His strikes have purpose, he drops elbows with weight, he does a vertical suplex! This man doesn't just do a vertical suplex, he does a delayed vertical suplex! Think about it. Explore the Hacksaw corners of your brain, and try to recall if you've seen Jim Duggan do a vertical suplex, let alone hang onto one for awhile. This was a match for a title, and Duggan was fighting like a man who really really wanted to win that title. Michaels had shown up for the match in street clothes on crutches, trying to duck the challenge, and here's Duggan ripping clothes off Michaels back. This proves the theory that, If Jim Duggan Is Ripping Another Man's Clothes Off During A Match, You Are Watching A Great Duggan Match. He looks incredible. His Johnny Ramone shag was his best ever haircut, and his large American flag singlet-covered belly hangs down like a pregnant dog's. When he misses his Old Glory kneedrop, he misses it like a man who doesn't care about his knees. 

Michaels is a guy who wears cowboy boots whenever he gets the chance, but this match is the match where he finally takes one of those boots off to do the best thing you can do with a cowboy boot in wrestling: hit a guy with a big belly directly in the head with the heel of that boot. But Jim Duggan has a similar-but-different asset to black wrestlers and islanders: His head is not so hard as to be impervious to headbutts, but it is a head that is so empty that the heel of a cowboy boot cannot began to damage it. The same goes for Michaels desperately trying to lock in a sleeperhold and chinlock: You are only expending your own average trying to cut off blood flow to the man who already has limited brain activity. This was the last big Duggan match. Duggan went on to have a US title reign the next year and a TV title reign during the Russo era of WCW, and neither of those actual title wins felt like anywhere close to as big a deal as this title challenge. The US title reign felt like something written into Hogan's contract, the TV title  run was written as "who would be the funniest guy to put a literal garbage title on"; this match was the last time Duggan felt like he was actually fighting for something. 1993 WWF is the easiest year to re-book in hindsight. This match, ending when Duggan is thrown to the floor and flattened by Yokozuna, leading to Mr. Perfect going after Michaels for the DQ, clearly set up programs that never got satisfyingly paid off. Duggan should have challenged Yokozuna for the World title on PPV, Perfect should have challenged Michaels for the IC title at King of the Ring, Crush should have slammed Yokozuna on the Intrepid after Duggan softened him up, etc. The Luger turn ruined everything that the first half of the year had been building to...

but somewhere in all that mess we got an actual great Jim Duggan WWF match.    

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WWF UK Rampage 93

 

I really like how Rampage 93 is filmed. It looks and sounds like an incredibly well produced handheld, capturing a neat up-close house show vibe. It's 12,000 loud people in Sheffield and the crowd and ring are mic'd like you were there live. It's a real house show card too, with tag guys split into singles and a 10 minute Brooklyn Brawler match. 

1. Fatu vs. Brian Knobbs

ER: Nasties were so over that Knobbs was able to go around the ring milking NASTY chants for two straight minutes without anyone losing interest. Knobbs was like a big fat sloppy Hogan to this crowd, and he is a pretty great fat sloppy Hogan. I love how Brian Knobbs runs the ropes like fat guy. Not a fat guy wrestler, just a fat guy. He runs the ropes like an overweight principal who gets in the ring at a school fundraiser to do a completely ill-advised spot. If your principal ran the ropes like Knobbs, you'd think he was just being fun dorky Mr. Wilson. But Brian Knobbs is like the school's weird janitor getting in the ring and running the ropes like a fat lunatic, and kids fucking love it. 

2. Doink vs. Kamala 

ER: Doink keeps wrestling Kamala to the mat and it's so damn cool. Nobody ever rushes in and grabs Kamala in a single leg and then start working half grapevine armbars on him. Doink is working Iowa shooter holds on Kamala and I don't know if I've ever seen anyone do that. Kamala falls in ways he doesn't usually fall, because nobody ever thought to work like Lou Thesz against Kamala. Doink runs into Kamala's comebacks really well, and there was a big time Kamala moment where he got sick of the armbars and just started swinging wildly on Doink as Doink scrambled to the corner. Kamala pinning Doink the wrong way took up too much of the runtime. 

3. Mr. Perfect vs. Samu

ER: Samu is so damn good during their opening rope running. He sticks every piece of Perfect's precise timing. He's the one doing the close call dropdown and leapfrog, and he's hitting them all while also working as careening out of control chubby guy. When they do more rope running he does another dropdown, then shuts it down with a cool clothesline. When Perfect gets thrown over the top to the floor, he REALLY gets thrown over the top to the floor. Perfect goes face first into the ring steps like he's trying to lose an eye. All of Samu's strikes look really powerful and Perfect bumps painfully for them, not doing big athletic bumps. His bumps to the floor were all really fast and I thought they had real complementary body language during their strike exchanges. Good rhythm. Perfect's inside cradle is a really great nearfall, but I do think they rushed to the finish. Needed a bit more build to the Perfect Plex. The whole match felt like a nice slow stiff build and then the finish was just bim bam boom. Bump to the floor, missed splash, Perfect Plex. This was all still really good, one of the best WWF singles matches of the year, but a finish that felt like part of the same match would have made it even better. 

4. Bob Backlund vs. Damien Demento

Why does it feel like I've seen half a dozen Demento/Backlund matches? Were these two just at the perfect corresponding place on the heel/face totem pole alignment, working low stakes face/heel back and forth, and there just happened to be some guy who followed WWF on tour to make sure and document several different Demento/Backlund matches with his camcorder? This is an official release obviously, but it feels like I've seen several Damien Demento/Bob Backlund matches and I'm just not sure how that's possible. They don't really have chemistry but they don't not have chemistry, they just fill about 7 minutes and it's fine, and some part of me has spent my life watching dozens of Bob Backlund/Damien Demento matches that were filmed by a Bad Dad, or perhaps the Greatest Dad. Demento took a big Berzerker bump to the floor and Backlund made a lot of great Popeye Whoa-Whoa-Whoa noises so maybe this was actually fucking great. 

5. Typhoon vs. Brooklyn Brawler

ER: What does it mean to the people of Sheffield, England, to see a man dubbed The Brooklyn Brawler? Had tales of the Brawler's Brooklyn Brawls made their way to South Yorkshire? Was Enzo Castellari's 1990: The Bronx Warriors been an underground UK hit, leading to a rising knowledge among UK teens of the various Five Borough Fighting Styles? Regardless, the people of Sheffield were treated to a real active Brawler performance, one that will no doubt be one of the great showcases of the best of his 1993, where he keeps running away from and running into Typhoon. He is great at getting leveled by Typhoon and building suspense by avoiding getting leveled, but things really jump a level when Typhoon finally misses an elbow and Brawler starts stomping his way through a really fun match. 

Brawler stomps away at Typhoon's head, stomps him right between the legs, stands on his throat, bites at his face, and stands on top of his back while Typhoon is draped over the bottom rope, surfing on him while pulling back the top rope reigns like Chris Elliot riding Melora Walters out to sea in Cabin Boy. He chokes and rakes at the eyes of a prostrate Typhoon, shouting out an amusing "Come on, that's a count!" while Typhoon's shoulders are down during the choke. This is among the longest Brawler control segments I've seen and I thought it was cool how he kept kicked at Typhoon's leg and really dominating this, keeping the big man down. When you knowingly go into a Typhoon match against Brooklyn Brawler, I don't think any of us would have expected it to be a mostly dominant Brawler performance with a quick and definitive Typhoon comeback victory right at the end. When Typhoon takes over, it is for good, and it is great. Brawler, who had been doing so well, makes the mistake of whipping Typhoon into the corner. Typhoon reverses that whip and follows Brawler in with a killer avalanche, then pulls Brawler by the arm directly into a perfect powerslam. I don't anticipate a better 1993 Steve Lombardi match from this one, but this is surely among his best matches of the 90s. 

6. Shawn Michaels vs. Crush

ER: I loved this. Anybody who ever got mad at me online for making fun of how terrible Shawn Michaels was during most of his last decade, should at least acknowledge how in the bag I am for 1993 Shawn Michaels. My 2000s and beyond criticisms come from a place of sadness, not glee. 1993 Shawn Michaels was a high speed John Tatum with better execution. He could push a pace without dropping the story at any point, was great at big momentum shifts, and knew how to work every size opponent instead of just mostly working the same match regardless. He was incredibly active but in ways nobody else was, flopping and stooging and bumping unnecessarily big, a great heel to get over the power of his opponent while looking like a joke, without ever looking like a joke. 

Crush and Michaels seemingly always had great chemistry as opponents. They have two big singles matches after this one in 1993: Their great King of the Ring Qualifier which is one of the great unheralded 5 minute matches, and their bloated but overall good IC Title match at King of the Ring, and there's a 1991 singles match on some Coliseum video or foreign Superstars airing. I wish we had more Rockers/Demolition matches or any of the 1993 Crush/Michaels house show matches to paint a fuller picture, but all the evidence we have paints them as natural opponents. 

This is the better version of the King of the Ring qualifier, as it had a much longer Crush control sequence before the great Crush ringpost bump, and more Michaels offense after his takeover. It's great. Michaels gets his ass beat in a non-stop sprint, getting pie-faced and pinballed across the ring, enough so that Heenan has to start bemoaning a Michaels title loss, and it's hilarious. 

"Can you imagine the embarrassment? 'Where did you lose your Intercontinental Title? In Sheffield?!' How could you ever live that down?"

Crush has a great way of catching a high speed Michaels in a bearhug - which Michaels escapes by throwing punches at his eye - and I love how he's able to go on bursts of matching Michaels for speed, then ends a quick moving exchange with something huge and forceful like a big backbreaker. There's an incredible press slam section where Crush walks Michaels around in full extension press for half a minute, walking him toward several sides of the ring and offering him up to the front row. When they saw how great Crush was at walking Michaels around the ring in a press slam, they really should have set up a Bam Bam/Spike Dudley spot with crowd plants, it would have played in Michaels highlight videos for the next 25 years. We'll settle for Michaels getting clotheslined over the top to the floor in the way that only 1993 Shawn Michaels was getting clotheslined to the floor. 

His comeback after a match-long beating is convincing, working smart spots to control a big man, like driving his knee into Crush's kidneys and then shoving him face first into the ringpost. Who remembered how great Crush was at taking ringpost bumps? Every one that he's taken in his Michaels matches has been Lawler-level great. The finish of this one is a less satisfying "Michaels just leaves" fuck finish than the KOTR Qualifier double count out, but I was really getting into the way Michaels was wearing Crush down after the ringpost bump. He just keeps coming off the ropes with axe handles until Crush gets dropped to all fours, then he comes off the ropes with an elbowdrop to the back of his neck. With an actual finish, this becomes one of the 10 best WWF matches of 1993 WWF. 

7. Lex Luger vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan 

ER: Jim Duggan was such a megastar in 1993 that he was able to drape himself in the American flag and lead the Sheffield Arena in loud USA chants. This was just a couple months after Duggan was the first person to knock Yokozuna off his feet, a moment I loved but wouldn't have thought that it would have a huge impact across the pond. Yokozuna had done an in-ring promo before this match and lingered at ringside the whole match, and when Luger's entrance music hit he was announced as "The NarCISSus" Lex Luger. Like the flower, not like the Greek myth. But they are merely afterthoughts, because the place comes unglued when Duggan's music hits. This is a 12,000 strong crowd and Duggan is wearing his USA singlet and USA kneepads, and gets the entire crowd to chant USA. Can you even entertain the IDEA of a foreign crowd chanting USA at a WWE show any time during the past 20 years?? You'd think this was in Alabama, not Yorkshire. USA chants. Loud. What a different time. Luger might as well have not even been in the ring. 

Luger works this as a stooge for Duggan, bumping around for Duggan's running clotheslines and playing into spots like trying to smash Duggan's head into the turnbuckles, only to have it reversed. Duggan was treated like Hogan and it was like I was watching this match from some weird alternate timeline. 1993 Duggan's appeal to live crowds was undeniable. 1993 Luger is a far better wrestler than Duggan, but Duggan would have drawn a far bigger number than Luger with a PPV match against Yokozuna. These two work the loosest match I've seen in 1993 WWF, leaning out of every clothesline and every strike, and it didn't matter an ounce. This was a Rick Reuschel/Mark Buehrle soft contact battle and it completely worked for the live crowd. Yokozuna sits down on Duggan's chest out on the floor and rolls him back in the ring, and there's a great show closing segment when Mr. Perfect runs out to start beating on Luger before Duggan can be pinned. As loud as the crowd was for Duggan, they react to Perfect as if he was the biggest name on the show (which was true, so that checks out). The main thing this match accomplished was making me genuinely want to see a Luger/Yoko vs. Duggan/Perfect tag match, which is a match they set up perfectly here and then never mentioned it again. All they did was run Luger/Perfect and Yoko/Duggan singles matches the rest of the tour. It's wild how many interesting workrate and fan service matches they left on the table during this era. 

Go out of your way to watch this for the great Samu/Perfect and Michaels/Crush matches, and a total surprise in Brooklyn Brawler/Typhoon. 

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What's the Best WWF Lex Luger Match? Is it with Hacksaw?

Lex Luger vs. Jim Duggan WWF UK Rampage 93

ER: I had no idea how big of a star Jim Duggan was in early 1993 UK, apparently. This would have been just a couple months after Duggan was the first to knock Yokozuna off his feet - a moment I remember watching - but I wouldn't have thought that would have had a huge impact across the pond. Yokozuna did an in ring promo before this match, and Luger's entrance was treated basically like an afterthought. Yokozuna stays at ringside and the place comes unglued when Duggan's music hits. This is a 12,000 strong crowd and Duggan is wearing his USA singlet and USA kneepads, and gets the entire crowd to chant USA. Can you even entertain the IDEA of a foreign crowd chanting USA at a WWE show any time during the past 20 years?? You'd think this was in Alabama, not Yorkshire. Seriously, USA chants. Luger might as well not have even been in the ring. 

Luger works this as a stooge for Duggan, bumping around for Duggan's running clotheslines and playing into spots like trying to smash Duggan's head into the turnbuckles, only to have it reversed. Duggan was treated like Hogan and it was like I was watching this match from some weird alternate timeline. Yokozuna ends up sitting on Duggan on the floor, leading to the DQ, and Perfect runs in after Luger lays Duggan out. As loud as the crowd was for Duggan, they react to Perfect as if he was the biggest name on the show (which was true, so that checks out). The main thing this match accomplished was making me genuinely want to see a Luger/Yoko vs. Duggan/Perfect match, which is a match they set up wonderfully here and then never mentioned it again. All they did was run Luger/Perfect and Yoko/Duggan singles matches the rest of the tour.

Lex Luger's best WWF match was not against Duggan, but this was unique and weird in a good way. 

1. Lex Luger vs. Tito Santana WWF Mania 3/20/93

2. Lex Luger vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan WWF UK Rampage 93

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WWF King of the Ring 1993

Since we're a day away from potentially getting a new forever king, I thought it would be fun to revisit a legendary monarchy based show. I haven't watched this show in at least 25 years, whenever it was that I rented it from New Release Video in Healdsburg. It's a really strong on paper kayfabe show. You look at the 8 guys who made the KOTR quarterfinals, and the choices are all strong and reflective of who was big at the time. Mr. Hughes is the one hindsight question mark, because looking back there are plenty of people who don't even remember his 4 month WWF run. But his inclusion made sense from a kayfabe perspective, as he had aligned himself with Giant Gonzalez and wrecked the Undertaker on TV. He felt like a big new threat, and stood out as physically imposing during a time there were some really large guys on the roster. 1993 Duggan feels past his expiration, but hardly anyone was getting as big a reactions as Duggan was getting in the first half of 1993. The non-tournament matches are just as logical, with Crush/Michaels the logical and anticipated title match stemming from their great double count out KOTR Qualifier, a tag scramble highlighting the top two heel and face teams, plus the big Yokozuna/Hogan rematch (that would have felt like a MUCH bigger deal had Hogan done more than what, ONE taped interview in the months between Mania and KOTR). On paper this is a real strong show, presenting all of the most popular guys in favorable pairings, and a show I remember really enjoying as a kid. Let's see how it holds up!


Razor Ramon vs. Bret Hart

ER: This was a great match, starting off this PPV better than any match on WrestleMania IX. Razor looks incredibly cool with his green gear, toothpick in mouth and one behind the ear, trying to be as unflappable as possible as the fans all chant 1-2-3. It's really impressive how quickly they got Kid over, and how smartly they played it. This stuff isn't difficult, but watching a simple angle like this over 25 years later - and seeing how they just don't have any kind of patience for this sort of thing now - it's even easier to appreciate. Kid beats him, then Razor demands a rematch while they barely even have Kid on TV for the next month, letting the crowd interest build for him and really building a strong underdog common man. At a certain point they just decided the most creative way to debut someone was to have them win a title on their first night in and then just kind of do nothing with them.

But anyway, the great match. Hart's shoulderblocks weren't effective to start, so he started playing a quickness game with Razor with some armdrags, and does some of that great Bret stuff like taking a bodyslam put not letting go of Razor's arm. Razor takes over with an eyepoke and sends Bret flying HARD into the ringpost, then acts like a real dick about it. He slaps Bret around the head, stomping on BOTH of his hands while Hart is trying to get up (love that), hits the fallaway slam, big running powerslam (that I don't really remember Razor doing), and my favorite thing Razor does all match is miss elbowdrops. Razor missed FOUR elbowdrops, and each miss looked great. The first miss was a big leaping elbow into an empty pool, and the three later in the match was total Elmer Fudd missing every shot he took at Bugs, dropping three in a row as Hart kept rolling out of the way. Every miss looked real painful. He wasn't just taking back bumps, he looked like he was really jamming his elbow right into the mat. The crowd was way into the match at this point, and were flipping out more with every missed elbow, getting really loud as Hart made his comeback with a backbreaker and Russian leg sweep (does anyone besides Bret and Brad Armstrong have a good Russian leg sweep? Who am I forgetting?). The match transitioned back and forth really well, both great at coming up with plausible ways to take over instead of just "my turn". Hart takes the sternum bump into the corner but flips through a Razor's Edge, fights for a backslide, and there is an insanely close 3 count on a Hart small package. Waaaaay too close and the crowd was losing their minds at this point (as was I). Now, the finish itself was only kind of a ding because it came immediately after that small package, and felt a little too similar. Razor was going for a suplex off the top and Hart fell on top of him for the 3. It felt like they needed one other thing in between Hart's surprise small package and him falling on Razor for a 3. I'm not sure what that is, but the near fall was such a huge moment that the fans really hadn't come down, and the very next thing ended the match. Does that make sense? Even so, the match ruled.


Mr. Hughes vs. Mr. Perfect

ER: Mr. Hughes is wearing his pork pie hat and braces and looks like the most powerful ska trombonist in history. This is not only a battle of who advances in the King of the Ring, but a battle over who retains the title of "Mr.". This is also the first and last we see of  Mr. Hughes on WWF PPV, and maybe the last time he ever turned up on PPV anywhere, which is really weird, because look at him! This match was a super fun match up, with Perfect pushing a pace meaning we get fast Hughes, and both guys bump big for each other. Hughes working speed spots with Perfect is too good, as this also had to be the biggest Hughes got. He's really quick, takes a wild armdrag that crashes him into the ropes, flies into a hiptoss, and takes a huge backdrop. Perfect obviously tries to outbump him, flying over the top to the floor off a punch, and then taking super painful looking bumps off Irish whips. Hughes looked like he was really chucking him into the ropes and buckles, and if he wasn't, Perfect was certainly making Hughes look like Andre. Perfect and Hart were both good at making a whip into the buckle look like something that should get a nearfall, that PANK sound of a buckle that they're able to make before crumpling to the mat. This could have been something special, but that's not really what this match was. Hughes grabs the stolen urn and clocks Perfect with it for the DQ. It was directly in front of the ref, and they could have milked a really good match out of a long heat segment on Perfect after the urn shot, but this was a blast while it lasted.


Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Jim Duggan

ER: Duggan had the sickest hair during this era: The perfect Johnny Ramone shag. This was the longest his hair ever got, and he had those perfect bangs. With his American flag singlet and kneepads, waving Old Glory, he looked like he should have been doing the best Freedom Rock commercials. I'm picturing him with that hair doing a rad boogie rock guitar solo, just choogling and making the dumbest guitar solo faces. JR and Macho Man say a bunch of platitudes about how Duggan isn't a quitter, and Heenan hilariously butts in "That's not what I heard. I heard this guy is a big quitter. He used to be known as the town wimp." There's value in knowing your limitations, and they work a nice 5 minute match within those limitations. Hacksaw Ramone is so damn over in 1993, far more than I remember, and he throws great big right hands to back Bigelow up. They run into each other, Bam Bam grabs him in a couple of bearhugs, Duggan fights out, simple but effective big man stuff. Bigelow sets up Duggan by missing a falling headbutt, and Duggan takes a really nice headfirst bump into the turnbuckle after missing a corner charge. The Bigelow headbutt off the top is a nice clean finish to a nice tidy match.


Lex Luger vs. Tatanka

ER: Love the smirk Luger wears on his face during his entire entrance, and I love how he jumps Tatanka the second Tatanka is through the ropes. And this match is the very definition of feast or famine, because we get a lot of Tatanka holding an armbar and Luger holding a chinlock, and the crowd is very silent during those portions. BUT, and this is an important but, the ultra hot sections where everyone is bumping and Luger is pistoning his arm up out of pinfalls at the very last possible second, those all came off great. This is overall a great match that happens to be burdened by a long armbar sequence and a shrug of a time limit draw. The time limit draw is a real dry hump in pro wrestling watching. It has its good sides, because Bam Bam Bigelow automatically goes to the finals, and I get why you don't want to have a big fat guy wrestling three times in the same night, and I think I am fine with a Bye due to time limit draw if it gets a cool fat guy heel into the finals. And it helps that Lex Luger makes Tatanka look like an absolute star here, taking hard back bumps on tomahawk chops and crossbody blocks, and a nice high backdrop bump. When Tatanka starts getting 2 counts on top rope chops and a tight schoolboy, Luger has such expert timing and I'm not sure I've seen very many high quality kickouts than the ones Luger provides here. Luger sets up Tatanka so well and is such a great bumping heel. The time limit draw is a bummer, but with a good end result. And I think Luger salvages it by grabbing the mic and DEMANDING 5 more minutes, because he came here to WIN the King of the Ring and he isn't going to let a time limit draw stop him from that. And after handing the microphone back to Finkel, he lays out Tatanka with a hard clothesline and puts the boots to him while laughing about it. I wish we got a finish, and Luger was working hard enough to deserve a good finish, but I get why they couldn't beat Luger. But a Luger DQ for using the metal plated elbow, leading to a DQ win for Tatanka, and a Bigelow/Tatanka semi final....that would have been a real great addition to an already good PPV.


Bret Hart vs. Mr. Perfect

ER: This is one of those consensus great matches, the kind of match with very few contrarian opinions. It's loved and respected by Meltzer types, 90s kids, and middle aged message board tape trader snobs. It has an easy claim as a top 5 WWF match of the 90s, the kind of match that gets cited as someone's favorite all time match. It wouldn't be controversial to call it Curt Hennig's greatest WWF performance, nor would it be to call it Bret's greatest. It's a legitimately great match and I don't think there's a misstep in the entire match. They keep an incredible pace and have the timing locked down on everything. The opening few minutes was these two showing how easily they could have instantly adapted to any style in the world. Picturing Hart working these same headlock takeover and dropdown exchanges with Negro Casas or Tatsumi Fujinami, and it's watching matches like these makes me realize just how much I love Bret Hart. It might not be a cool pick, but he's high up my personal list of best wrestlers. He and Perfect craft something special, an argument for WWF style, the best example of an extension from the Savage/Steamboat workrate. It's a nearly 20 minute match but there's no fat. The bumping is honest and tough from both men. Perfect wasn't a showoff, but instead landed hard on a backdrop, sold a knee injury through a long home stretch, fit his great ass over crown ropes bump in at the best time, and ate a huge superplex for a great nearfall. 

Hart was a perfect dancer partner for Perfect, and vice versa. Perfect got flung over by the neck a few times, and Hart plastered him with an uppercut. Jim Ross sounded downright flush and beside himself when Hart hit that uppercut. Hart moves through his offense well and blends it naturally into their movement. A great backbreaker drops Perfect, and Perfect does a twinkle toes Rick Rude sell on atomic drop, allowing Hart to get the Russian legsweep as Perfect duck walked. Hart made Perfect look like a killer, flying ridiculously hard chest first into the turnbuckle, and Perfect knocks Hart off the apron to send Hart flying really painfully into ringside gear and the guardrail. It was a painful bump that built the possibility of a count out win. When Perfect comes up limping, that's when Hart takes the chance to go after his leg, and they move around each other really instinctively. The fans sounded ready for a Perfect win as they got very excited (maybe it was a nervous buzz?) when Perfect locked on an excellent sleeper hold, dragging Hart to the mat like Bill Dundee. Both men were getting great reactions, and it was one of those matches where they got almost immediately into the pocket and knew exactly what kind of match to work. The finish was really great, with Perfect luring Bret into a small package by feinting the knee injury, and it's a great enough move that you buy the finish. But Bret reverses it and holds on for just a fraction of a second longer than Perfect was able to. Great match, a flagship match from the biggest wrestling promotion in history. It deserves the praise it gets. 

Yokozuna vs. Hulk Hogan

ER: It never gets talked about because it came directly after the excellent Hart/Perfect match, and because the uncool view of Hogan nostalgia, but just as Hart and Perfect had arguably their greatest WWF performance tonight, you could easily make a case for this being Yokozuna's greatest performance. And really, this is a great Hogan performance too. Outside of the absolutely silly and completely ridiculous finish. That finish is something that any tween with observation skills would have seen coming, just because of the comical costume and fake beard they decided to put Harvey Wippleman as the rogue photog. I can still remember my friend Dave - who saw the PPV - trying to relate exactly what happened to everyone at school the next day. "Before the match started they were showing a bunch of cameramen at ringside, and the camera lingered too long on this one guy..."

So we get a silly finish that closes the door on Hulk Hogan in WWF for nearly a decade, but even with that finish I'm not sure there are better 90s Hogan matches than this one. Shoot, even the silly finish included a fireball, so even when compared to other silly finishes it's still far better. Yokozuna turned in a tremendous brick wall performance, allowing short openings for Hogan only by missing moves (a charge into the corner, a missed big splash) but Hogan immediately gets shut down any time he tries to take fight to Yokozuna. He lands punches, then always goes for a bodyslam that ends in him getting smacked to the mat. I love the simplicity of it, with Hogan getting sliiiiightly further each time, so that when he manages to get Yoko on one leg it feels like a big deal. The crowd gets loud whenever Hogan starts to fire back, sensing his win, and cheer on as he gets some mounted corner punches and even bites Yoko's forehead. I loved Hogan fighting out of a strong bearhug by punching Yoko a dozen times in the head, crowd chanting along, but being unable to do more because of his back. 

Yokozuna just throws Hogan around, with the best moment coming off a fantastic belly to belly suplex. Yoko really flattens him and the crowd seems actually stunned by his kickout, but into the Hulking. He hits several big boots (a little weak looking, but Hogan appeared to be moving pretty gingerly throughout), and Yoko is great at selling them, great at selling the clotheslines without getting knocked over, and they spend enough time on Hogan trying to knock him down any way he can that by the time Yokozuna finally timberrrrs over it's a huge moment, leading to immediate genuine shock when he kicks out of the legdrop. Then we get the rogue cameraman, the fireball, and a big fat awesome Yoko legdrop to finish it. The postmatch destruction is the best, as Yoko drags Hogan's corpse around and hits the Banzai drop, and they do my absolute favorite thing by showing a bunch of super sad small children in the crowd. The best is that dweeb front row center dressed entirely like Hogan, looking like an outright maroon as he has to sit there and watch another man he chose to dress as get annihilated. Imagine that guy the rest of the show, walking sullenly to the bathroom, trudging to the parking lot, being approached by the dozenth person asking "What happened?"

I really do think this is the strongest WWF Hogan match of the 90s, and I'm not certain there are any WCW matches better. Had Hogan treated Vader with the level of awe he had here against Yokozuna, those matches could have been classics. Hogan wasn't as interested in letting someone play brick wall in WCW, he was far too insecure at that point. Yoko was allowed to have a monster performance, and he delivered arguably his greatest single match performance here. The timing was excellent, the build throughout was exactly what it should have been, and again, even the silly finish had a fireball to the face. This match gets roundly dumped on and I don't actually understand why. Yokozuna looked like an unstoppable killer, and looked cool doing it. The match long Hogan comeback teases were worked exactly as the should have been, and I honestly don't think they could have had a better match here. 

The Steiner Bros./The Smoking Gunns vs. Money Inc./The Headshrinkers

ER: This was too rushed which is a real shame, as I was really into what match we got. It gets over 6 minutes, but a match at minimum needs at least one minute per participant to be of much value. And it's clear from what they did in these 6 minutes that they had plenty of material to fill 15. Now, it's not a shock on a big show like this that some things probably ran long so some things may have been cut for time during this match. What we get really does smoke. Dibiase does some quick armdrags with Scott Steiner, and I am reminded that Dibiase is the same age here as I am now, and within a few months Dibiase would be retired from wrestling due to injuries. As I type this, back sore from last night's yoga, I am once again reminded of my mortality. There's a great early spot where Dibiase eats a Steinerline over the top to the floor, bumps around on the floor, gets back in the ring and immediately eats another Steinerline to the floor and bumps around again. Dibiase/Scott Steiner is such a fun pairing, and it is really weird that this match just isn't Steiners vs. Money Inc. for the belts. Bart Gunn gets separated from the pack and I like all of the ways Money Inc. and the Headshrinkers cut him off from the others, like a cool double backdrop and IRS leaping off the top rope with a punch. Bart gets a convincing sunset flip and makes a hot tag to Billy, and Billy comes in blazing with nice clotheslines. 

There is some absolutely hysterical commentary, as throughout this match Jim Ross is - as he'll do - running through every participant's college credentials, including a claim that Billy Gunn went to college on a rodeo scholarship. Finally Heenan blurts out "Do you know anyone who didn't go to school!?" I had to pause it I was laughing so hard. Dibiase hits an awesome hot shot on Gunn and then actually makes Gunn collapse with the million dollar dream. The finish is pretty lame, as Dibiase just lets Gunn collapse, brags to the crowd, and then gets small packaged. I have a lot of questions, don't know why they didn't just put the belts on the Steiners, don't know why they (presumably) cut a bunch of the match out, but I really liked what match we did get. 

Crush vs. Shawn Michaels

ER: This wasn't as great as their KOTR Qualifying sprint, was a little more bloated and had a finish that made Crush look like a doofus again, but it was more proof that the two of them have great chemistry. I'm going to have to watch the Demolition/Rockers tags and their Coliseum Video singles match to really see what they might have accomplished. They didn't have a ton of house show singles or tags, but there are a handful so maybe one is out there. Crush really comes off powerful and charismatic, and it's kind of wild that they kept him getting clowned why Doink for so long because the crowd responds to him so well. It helps when Michaels bounces all over the ring and ringside for him. Crush works sequences speed for speed with Michaels while still coming off heavy, trading leapfrogs and dropdowns while also brickwalling him with shoulderblocks. 

There's a great spot where Crush swings for the fences on a missed clothesline and his momentum makes him skid forward a bit too far, giving Michaels enough time to compose himself first and pop him with a jab. That jab gets him his ass kicked though, as Crush hits a couple big dropkicks to knock Michaels over the top to the floor, and obviously a clothesline on the floor because Michaels is going to bump to the floor. Michaels also takes a big muscled up backdrop bump and we get a cool press slam spot with Crush pressing him three times before tossing him onto the ropes! Michaels basically gets no offense until Diesel gets involved, but then he beats the back of Crush's head into the ringpost like 8 times, and the shots really looked like he was trying to crack open Crush's skull. It was a great way for a small guy to erase the size difference, and Crush sold it really well. Michaels' control segment goes a bit long, but maybe we paid for that with all of those Crush armdrags and leapfrog spots earlier. His comeback is good but I really wish we got a different finish than Two Doinks coming out to distract him AGAIN. The finish itself is strong, with Michaels hitting the superkick to the softened up back of Crush's head (a cool variation he never used) but Crush had to stand there staring at clowns for a lonnnng time. 

Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Bret Hart

ER: On paper, this was the match I was most looking forward to on this show, but I thought it underwhelmed in certain ways and was the weakest of the three Bret matches. I shouldn't complain about such a fun Bigelow showcase - he's a guy I'm happy to see in main events - and this is maybe the most dominant main event of his career. It is very one sided for a long portion of the match, and Hart also comes into the match with a pronounced limp. So the fans get quiet for a lot of it and aren't nearly as loud for Bret's comeback as I expected them to be. The match went 18, but felt more like 24, and the fans in attendance added to that fatigue. Hart really gives a ton of time to Bam Bam, and adds to his own overall very impressive total ring time for the night. The Hart/Razor match was arguably the best match of Razor's WWE run, a top 5 contender at worst. The Hart/Perfect match is a strong contender for best WWE match of the 90s. This match is well regarded but overly long, unable to grab the fans in the same way the prior Hart matches had. 

But this doesn't mean the match isn't plenty fun, and an important match in keeping the opinion of fat guys high against the early internet "Fat Guys Are Bad" rhetoric. Bigelow works a long match and keeps up an agile pace, working methodically over Hart while also hitting more high leaping headbutts than I've ever seen him hit. Every time he took to the air I expected the empty pool landing, except he kept crushing Bret with every. single. one. He gets an incredible false finish with a top rope headbutt, a false finish that I had honestly completely forgotten about, so it played as shockingly as the one in the Juvy/Jericho mask vs. title match for me. Bigelow's work leading up to that pin makes his performance come off like one of the most dominant main events of that era. Hart was limping, and he cannot get anything at all going against Bigelow. BBB hits some of the gnarliest backdrop suplexes I've seen, lifting Hart up soooo high before cutting the elevator cable. Hart came in limping but the match became a compelling methodical back work match. It felt much more like a big WWF late 70s/early 80s main event than a 1993 main event, and that helps the match appeal. Hart gets whipped hard into the buckles several times, getting to show off his all time great corner bump, always making the turnbuckles look rib cage shifting. 

But I do think Bigelow's control goes on for far too long. As much as I love bearhugs, we probably could have dropped one of the four trips back to a bearhug variation. Or, you know what fuck it, this should have had even more bearhug variations. It's the finals of the first ever PPV King of the Ring, have Bigelow lock in half a dozen. His bearhugs do all look great, as crushing as the best Andre bearhugs. We even get a sick over the shoulder variation that Bret sells like a crucifixion. The Luna interference was well utilized and the surprise finish is indeed a surprise to this day. Also, the restart was used well and I like that we didn't get the typical match ending 30 seconds after the restart. We still got another full match once Bigelow's win was (ridiculously) reversed, and that makes this come off like the important main event that it should have. I do think Hart took too long a beating to make the comeback he made, but Bigelow took Hart's offense really well, and the victory roll finish is a believable way to take down a big man. Bigelow had one of his best WWF performances, and it made me want to go back and watch the Hart/Bigelow match on the Bret dvd and see if I still think it's better than this one. Hart worked three very different and all very good matches in one night, and it's the kind of night that solidifies him as one of my very favorite wrestlers. It's not a stylish pick, but I think it's an undeniable one. 

After the match Hart gets a nice coronation, until Lawler comes out and interrupts and absolutely trashes Hart. Lawler smashes the chair over Hart, really bouncing it off his body, and punches the new crown right off Hart's head. I really wish Lawler had been in the KOTR proper, and against all the more freakshow opponents. I think Lawler would have been the best WWF opponent for Giant Gonzalez, and Lawler vs. Mr. Hughes around this time would have been incredible. But the King was such an excellent TV character during this era of WWF, a constant presence while working a quarter the matches as everyone else. There are so many matches I wish Lawler had over his long WWF run, so I savor angles like these that are slices of Memphis inserted in WWF main event angles. 

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The 1993 King of the Ring Qualifying Matches, Part 1

Doink vs. Mr. Perfect WWF Superstars 5/1/93

ER: I remember really liking their series throughout the KOTR tournament when I saw this as a kid, and I'm still interested to see what they bring in their other tournament matches, even though overall this match did not work for me at all. The ring work itself isn't much of a problem, but the pacing and layout and big ugly commercial break are all kinds of wack. The match is basically split in half, pre commercial and post commercial. In the 1st half it's Mr. Perfect absolutely reigning down terror on Doink, just mercilessly kicking Doink's ass around the ring and tearing apart his leg, dropping knees on his leg, trying to yank his leg out of socket, just punishing him. And Doink is selling this leg injury and literally on the mat pleading for Perfect to let up. And Perfect rips apart Doink's leg for so long that Doink clearly looks like a babyface, and the crowd gets noticeably quiet as Perfect keeps ripping at this evil clown's leg. The layout is completely baffling, because it's so dominated by the babyface that  it will then obviously lead to the evil clown valiantly fighting back on one leg. But they do us even worse than that, as they go to a commercial when Doink spills - again - to the floor, desperate to get away from the cruel Mr. Perfect.

And, of course, when they return from break, Mr. Perfect is laid out on the floor and Doink is back in the ring. They do not show us how the tide turned, all we know is that Doink got zero offense for the first half of this match, then SOMETHING happened, and Mr. Perfect was now hurt. I hate it. So then the back half is Doink going fully on offense, nobody is talking about Doink's bum wheel, and Doink is doing nothing but taking high leaps off the top rope and landing on his feet. Doink does a big axe handle to the FLOOR and another axe handle into the ring, and that whole match before the commercial break feels like it came from an entirely different match. Perfect starts pulling off nearfalls down the stretch, getting convincing falls off a small package and fighting into a backslide, but even then they come off like Doink is the babyface narrowly avoiding defeat. This match is so fucking weird. Perfect gets several nearfalls on Doink and the power structure in this match is so bizarre. Doink looks like he is valiantly surviving and Perfect looks like he's panicking to put Doink away, it's all so disconnected from the match they should have been working. The bell rings just as Perfect hits the Perfect Plex, which leads to more confusion and an angry crowd once the time limit draw is announced. This whole match was structured seemingly to confuse and irritate the crowd, the kind of match where the ring work looks strong but nothing either character does makes sense. Very annoying.


Lex Luger vs. Bob Backlund WWF Wrestling Challenge 5/2/93

ER: This was good, the proper way to work a basic face vs. heel qualifying round match, only making me wish we got way more heel Luger in WWF. Backlund flusters him to start, immediately going for a nice inside cradle and high angle backslide, sweeping Luger's legs out from him as he charges in, and the crowd is fired up by the simple heel/face formula. Luger is also someone really great at complaining his way down the aisle when he is flummoxed, really knows the level of ham to be employing on those aisle walks. We've all seen a ton of wrestlers doing aisle walks, but Luger's body language stands out in a specifically strong way. He's got the perfect posture of a man with all of the physical advantages anyone could possibly ever need, yet still finding every reason to act like he's at the disadvantage. I love how Backlund also immediately picks up where he left off when Luger gets back in the ring, immediately getting him in the corner and about to mount punches, and I loved Luger's sharp back elbow out of the corner that finally put him in control. Luger concentrates mostly on elbow strikes until Backlund's comeback, which is something I think Luger does well.

Backlund had weird timing in 1993. At first I wasn't sure where the cross-ups were coming from, but the more I go back and watch '93 Backlund the more I see guys getting crossed up by his timing. He releases too quickly on hip tosses (following through far too quickly for anyone to have completed their bump) and his dropkick positioning is too far back. He did these same two things to Razor Ramon in their WrestleMania match and it made both of them look like goofs. Luger handled it better here than Razor did there, and the finish of this one is strong for a count out. Luger pushes Backlund off to the floor after Backlund runs him into the ropes with a prawn hold - Backlund taking a real nice crashing bump through the ropes to the floor - and when Backlund gets back on the apron Luger just annihilates him with the metal plated elbow. Backlund flies deep into the aisle and there is no chance of him making it back in time to beat the count. Luger was awesome during the ref's count, acting exhausted while draping his arms over the ropes, like he had just been through a war. Big fan of this match. A well played qualifier.


Razor Ramon vs. Tito Santana WWF Superstars 5/8/93

ER: Quick match, under 4 minutes, but laid out smartly and efficiently for the time. One of my favorite things about Santana during this era is the different ways he would utilize the flying forearm. Since he wasn't winning a ton of matches in '93 he wasn't using it to win, but he would still find ways to smartly peak reactions around it. He smartly used it for crushing nearfalls, but here he went to it almost right away and got a HUGE reaction from the crowd. This era WWF fan really responded well to babyfaces. On the episode of Raw preceding this show there was a long Duggan/Michaels match, and the fans lost their minds for Jim Duggan. Here Tito got a great reaction during his entrance and the fans would get loudly behind him every time he was in control. When he hit that forearm the crowd flipped, Vince flipped, and Razor barely got his boot on the bottom rope. Great placement from everyone. And because Tito Santana is great and wrestling in 1993 wasn't a bunch of twee theater kids, Tito just starts raining down fiery mounted punches on Razor instead of looking at the ref with a "please don't piss on me" face. The strike exchanges were strong and Tito is good at working over arm wringers, plus one of Razor's great unheralded strengths is selling things like arm wringers. Razor is a strong "on your feet" salesman, the kind of guy who is better at dancing in place than most. Razor takes over with a big hotshot and throws some big stomps into the side of Tito's head. I would have liked a more dynamic finish, but the finish we got was good in terms of the characters involved. Tito had Razor reeling and went to the top for a crossbody (and the fans were reallllly buying into a Tito win here) but Razor rolled through the crossbody and held the tights. It's odd that Razor wasn't given a cleaner win, but it all made sense from a character standpoint.


Papa Shango vs. Jim Duggan WWF Wrestling Challenge 5/9/93

ER: Not great, but nobody was watching this one with Great Match Theory in mind. Shango is big and has the greatest makeup possible, Duggan is stunningly over, and they both throw strikes that aren't nearly as good as they should be. 1993 Duggan was getting big loud reactions from fans everywhere, and even though I lived through and watched this era I am still surprised at how fans were into every single thing about this guy. I like Duggan, but I just didn't remember him getting top of card reactions in 1993 (even with the Yokozuna stuff). Some nights Duggan lays in punches and comes in harder on shoulderblocks, but on nights like this he throws his punches slower and lighter and pulls way back on clotheslines. Charles Wright is weirdly one of the lighter big man workers in history, a guy who always looked like he should absolutely murder a guy but instead would hit so so axe handles and clubbing offense. Shango goes over for a nice backdrop and then lay around in a Shango chinlock for awhile, and eventually Duggan hits the 3 point clothesline for a clean win. They can't all be winners, but the fans were into this. The people in 1993 knew what they wanted, and they wanted to yell about the USA.


Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Typhoon WWF Raw 5/10/93

ER: It's really good to know Vince and I are on the same page, as he flat out says "talking about the beef". Now, I skimmed back in the episode to hear what I missed, and I'm not certain anyone was ever talking about beef. I have no idea what anyone could have been said concerning "all that beef", to get Vince to bring up that damn beef, but he's sure not wrong. This is filled with big beef slamming into each other. Some of the strikes were a little lacking (there was a miscommunication on one, other times Bigelow throws these not punches/not forearms that were disappointing), but all the good stuff was there. Typhoon hits a big bodyslam, Bigelow hits an even bigger bodyslam and a super impressive back suplex (Typhoon never looks like he goes up easy for offense, so this lift was quite a feat)...and in an amusing moment Typhoon springs back to his feet to hit a lariat that sends Bigelow FLYING out of the ring. He went through the middle ropes so quick and he just dropped out of view, swallowed by the earth. We got two different fun moments of each man trying to get back in the ring (dug Typhoon's knees first bump dropping onto the ring steps), and the finish is cool with Bigelow muscling him up AGAIN, this time for a big ass Samoan drop (which Vince points out was Bigelow sending a threat to Tatanka) and hitting the diving headbutt. This was what you'd want. Also, nobody makes mention of the fact that this was a battle of Fire vs. Water, which feels like the exact reason you have a soundbite guy like Savage out there.

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