WWF Raw 7/8/96: Three On Paper Bangers

So I threw on this episode of Raw because I wanted to see the main event, a big ol' hoss battle of Vader and The British Bulldog vs. The Godwinns. But then I saw the whole episode was comprised of three matches, all of them intriguing on paper. The whole episode ran 48 minutes long, and I figure watching three intriguing matches in under an hour was a decent enough use of my time. The episode was famously the last WWF in ring appearance of Ultimate Warrior, with Gorilla Monsoon opening the show talking about his suspension, and how he now has to put up a performance bond to guarantee he'll appear. Now, obviously this show was taped before Warrior no-showed one show too many, but it's interesting that they were basically negotiating with Warrior on air, and Vince ends up spending much of his match with Owen saying things like "well we hope we'll get to see more of The Warrior..."


Owen Hart vs. The Ultimate Warrior

ER: This was a real impressive Owen performance, because Warrior gassed hard during his ring entrance. I know that's kind of a thing Warrior is known for, but it seemed especially bad here. The fans liked the entrance, and Owen was really good at filling the recovery time well. He took two big Warriors clotheslines to the floor, ran hard into a powerslam (that Warrior didn't even go down for, just rotated through and stayed on his feet) and got major height on a flapjack. Owen even did a super painful Bret turnbuckle chest bump and staggered back into a Warrior side slam. Warrior was realllly tired, with one incredibly long shot of him just slowly walking around the ring, mouth open the entire time, sucking wind. Owen worked real well with a super tired opponent, and still didn't half ass things like missed clotheslines, cutting low to at least make Warrior duck. Those are the kinds of things you do in a one man performance to make the other guy look like he's contributing, and it works. I liked how Owen finally transitioned to offense, with Warrior catching knees on a big splash, and it's tough work doing your run of offense against someone who can't really move a lot to take offense. Luckily, things like Owen's enziguiri work fine for the circumstances, and when Warrior finally catches his wind his comeback looks good. Owen was really good at setting up hard Warrior clotheslines and his big flying shoulderblock before Bulldog ran in for the DQ. This was 10 minutes of Owen out there catering an entire match to someone who wasn't moving great through much of it, and that's the kind of thing I'll always be impressed with.


Savio Vega vs. Justin Hawk Bradshaw

ER: This was pretty messy, and pretty free of structure, but they tried to overcome those two things by running into each other real hard and real often and that's a good strategy! There was a fair bit of miscommunication, moves that hit when they were supposed to miss, and both being slightly out of position for things. It felt like they got sent out there to fill a LOT of time and didn't have a full plan on just how to fill nearly 15 minutes. It's a lot, and so nothing really stuck, they just kept getting up and hitting each other with something new. Bradshaw had a couple big boots, a couple nice elbowdrops (and a big elbowdrop miss), both hit heavy bodyslams, just a couple guys who have no problem mixing it up. The best part of Bradshaw is when he bites off a little more than he can chew and does a move he doesn't know how to hold back on. An example of this is Bradshaw hitting a killer flying shoulderblock off the top. He doesn't know how to work the move, so he just jams his shoulder flying full force into Savio and then landing just as hard. Savio's corner spinkick is an awesome highlight here, and Vega went into Bradshaw really fast and whipped quickly to the floor. It's such a good visual. The finish is really well done too, as Zebekiah grabs Vega's foot to cause him to stumble, but it was when Bradshaw was already set to level him with the clothesline from Hell! So Vega stumbles under Bradshaw's lariat and Bradshaw does a fantastic miss as he crashes into the ropes, getting hit with Vega's spinning heel kick as he's getting up. Great, great finish. Also, throughout the match Lawler and Vince were speculating on who the mystery partner for Michaels and Ahmed was going to be, and it lead to this bizarre exchange:

Lawler: Maybe it's Anthony Quinn!
Vince: Anthony Quinn? He's 81 years old!
Lawler:...Maybe one of his sons?

Vince responded so quickly, the whole thing played like Jerry and George chatting at the diner.


Vader/British Bulldog vs. The Godwinns

ER: This was a slightly better put together version of the Savio/Bradshaw match. It really felt like none of these guys knew exactly how much time they were going to be filling with their match, making it tough to construct a beginning/middle/end. Owen/Warrior was clearly mapped out for its entire 10 minutes, but this tag was so similar to the prior match in that it had no direction, but with clearly planned finishes. So in both matches they knew exactly where they were going to wind up, but it's as if they weren't told how long they had to get there. That would be really tough to do! But these are all big guys, and so while there was some aimlessness and a little repetition, it's still a ton of beef slamming into everything. Vader and Bulldog felt like they could have been a really awesome team, even thought they only wound up teaming 5 times. Bulldog as the (much) smaller member of a team was a cool vibe, and they had good team chemistry right off the bat. Bulldog would do power spots and Vader would be all about the smashing and flattening. That's such a cool combo. Their finisher here was Vader hitting a lariat to the back of Phineas's head, sending him right into a Bulldog powerslam. Before that we got a lot of these four crashing into each other in cool ways. Dickhead heel Vader is so good, this mammoth man who takes cheap shots without needing to. He gets into the match by throwing a knee from the apron, then comes in and starts throwing body shots. Vader throws one of my favorite elbowdrops in wrestling history, second probably only to Stan Hansen, and he drops a couple of beauties here, the best one to break up a pin. Poor Phineas just eating a Vader elbowdrop to the middle of his back. Vader also throws a mean as hell clothesline, but he also takes a great Henry vertical suplex (probably a little early in the match to eat a big suplex, but that was Vader). This would have been better with a tighter story arc, but I love these four together here and I am saddened at the prospect of so little Vader/Bulldog. Cherish what we do have.

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New Footage Friday: CWA THE FINAL WAR '95

CWA Final War 12/14/95

Joe-Joe Lee vs. Rod Price

PAS: This was a US rules match, which I assume means no rounds. Price is a Global guy who is probably best known for accidentally getting his hair weave ripped out by Chris Adams. I was kind of surprised he never went anywhere, he had a good 90s roid belly look and had pretty solid execution. Joe Joe Lee is Satoshi Kojima during his excursion. This was pretty good without ever moving into great. I really liked Lee's jumping elbows, and the finish was some fun BS with a chair.

MD: I concur that it's strange Price never ended up somewhere else. I have fond memories as a kid of watching him team with Tatum in Global and he's perfectly fine here a few years later. They had a more than solid opening exchange, just good action. As the match went on, I could have went for some transitions/cutoffs that weren't so grab-and-arm-and-kick, even if it did make the hotshot towards the end more memorable. It was the first iffy finish on a night of them.

ER: I thought this was great, and was my favorite thing on the show. I was not expecting that to be the case, even though I really like Rod Price and Kojima. Rod Price is like if Candido went through the Power Plant instead of Tennessee indies. Price bumps hard and strikes hard, takes a couple different big bumps to the floor (one through the ropes and one over), and comes off like a proto Luger. Lee isn't as charismatic as he'd become a little later, but his repertoire was solid; I really liked his mule kick (and the way Price sold it), and was impressed at the way he flew into a brick wall like Price. Their scrap on the floor was good, with Price really planting a hard chair into Lee's back, a nice cherry to all the genuinely great stand and trade we got in the match. these two went it and had a top to bottom cool match.


2 Cold Scorpio vs. Jim Neidhart

PAS: I thought this was great. It is a streetfight and all you need to have a great streetfight is two guys willing and able to throw heat, which we had here. Neidhart has great looking clubbing forearms, and was really laying them in, while Scorp would use more fast and sharp combinations, including going body to head. Most of Scorp's flying backfired, as he crashed and burned on a couple of bodypress attempts, he also takes a great bump where Scorp basically does a Flair Flop off the apron to the floor. Weird to have a DQ finish in a streetfight, but Neidhart trying to choke Scorp to death does warrant one.

ER: The layout to this was a strong way to handle a style clash like this, as Neidhart is a limited guy in singles matches whose limitations were turned into strengths here. All he had to do was lay in hard forearms and kneel on Scorpio's throat, and Scorpio was in charge of moving the action around the ring and ringside. Neidhart has big forearms, and he did almost nothing but smash Scorpio in the chest and face with them, coming off in a 0.7 Vader in the process. Scorpio eats those shots and throws quick strikes back, but routinely gets smothered and bullied by Neidhart. In fact the longer I think on it the more I wish we got at least two bigger Scorpio comebacks before the brutal choke DQ. Scorpio really got smothered for 80% of this, and he's someone who can believably go toe to toe with Anvil. The finish looked great, with the tree of woe choke bending back Scorpio's neck, but Scorpio needed a couple more of his violent impact moves.

MD: This almost felt like a Neidhart showcase by default. He was a tank in there and it was on Scorpio and his explosiveness to figure out how to deal with him. It meant that all of the cutoffs were Scorpio basically making a desperate mistake. Again, a weird finish though it was intense enough. Just out of place in what the match was supposed to be. Also, Neidhart should have always come out to Alice Cooper.


Tony St. Clair vs. Danny Collins 

PAS: This is a Piratekampf match which is a chain match/flag on a pole match, a European specific match time which pretty much always delivers. Collins was a real nasty fuck in this match, really laying in all of the shots, and grinding the chain into St. Clairs mouth. I always love the way leverage is used in these Piratekampf matches, lots of cool looking tug of war spots with a guy trying to drag someone else up a pole. I thought the finish was great with St Clair crotching Collins on the top turnbuckle and climbing up him to the flag. This was a midcard Piratekampf so it didn't have the same of sort of gritty war of attrition qualities that the other Piratekampf matches we have seen, but it is a great gimmick and two great wrestlers performing it.

ER: This was really good, and now that I've seen a few Piratekampf matches it really feels like those working the stip treat it very seriously. This was a rough hitting match, Collins especially working this like a darker haired Finlay with awesome punishing strikes, and both guys took nasty yanks and hard bumps while going after the flag. Collins meanness really carried this through, and St. Clair was a real strong babyface, and the crowd was super into him. Collins is a guy I need to seek out more, and I'm sure we will get to more of him with this new wave of German handhelds. The filming of this match was really great, and totally added to the action. The work was tight enough that I wasn't thinking most of the time how I was watching a handheld.

MD: St. Clair coming out to Simply the Best is some glorious wrestling BS. I liked their familiarity with the gimmick, little things early on like Collins trying to cut distance by stepping on the chain only to get yanked off his feet by a ready St. Clair or towards the end when St. Clair uses the chain to make Collins lose his balance on a corner whip to shift the momentum. These tend to be the best possible "on-a-pole" sort of matches because the chain keeps distance short and allows for some nasty shots and knockdowns. This didn't quite get to that level of bloody meanness but it was fun for what it was.

John Hawk vs. Viktor Kruger 

PAS: This was a Texas Bullrope match, and had some of the flaws of that match, lots of dragging to corners and less action. The action we got was pretty good though. Kruger throws a mean running elbow, and I really liked the finish with Kruger breaking up the turnbuckle tapping by tackling Hawk to the floor, but still losing when Hawk hit the turnbuckle from the floor. There was some weird matwork at the beginning and a double kneebar spot, which I guess was Kruger bringing BattlArts to the ranch. Weird to see Bradshaw with that ponytail, the JBL persona is so ingrained with me.

ER: I am a big fan of someone being a "Master of the _____", so Bradshaw coming out to Rednex while being billed as the Master of the Bullrope Match is going to be right up my alley, even if at the end of this I much rather would have seen a straight Hawk/Kruger match. But it's almost always going to be a more interesting match if the focus is on asskicking rather than "reaching for things". These are two I want to see in a slugfest, though I still liked little things they did, like trading stomach kicks while entwined in a knuckle lock, and I am admittedly a sucker for those turnbuckle reaching spots where one guy is doing everything to hold that rope taut while the guy reaching is using all his might to stretch for the buckle. It's a fun bit of actual strength that could go wrong if one of the guys slipped just a little. The finish was the most inspired section of the match, and ending on a high note really does have the power to shine up nearly anything: Bradshaw is going for the fourth and final turnbuckle, so Kruger spears him through the ropes to the floor, then accidentally lariats the ringpost, allowing Hawk to leap back up to the apron and hit the turnbuckle. Rednex play us out.

MD: I struggled a bit with the turnbuckle count here. Bradshaw was already able to channel his inner jerk well. Kruger seemed to be almost as big as him and they played it like a clash of the titans for the most part. Both this and the piratekampf match had the wrestlers almost constantly going for the win which was appreciated but it didn't necessarily make for the most compelling match here. As Eric said, the finish was inspired. It's tough to get a good bullrope match finish and I'm surprised Bradshaw didn't steal this for later on.

Big Titan/Cannonball Grizzly/Fit Finlay vs. August Smisl/Ice Train/Rambo

PAS: This was a cage match with the cage being around the ringside area rather then the ring. The cage basically served the same purpose as a ringrails, just something to get irish whipped into. Finlay was mostly just cheap shotting guys on the outside, he is about the best guy in history to watch throw cheapshots, but I would have liked to see him in ring more. Most of the match was WCW Pro style heavyweight wrestling, lots of Big Titan vs. Rambo. I did really like the Ice Train vs. Cannonball Grizzly stuff, Ice Train had really explosive offensive, that was a WCWSN feud that we just missed by a year or two.

ER: I liked this, but with the talent involved I was expecting more. We still got plenty of good moments, but there were also things we didn't get (like Finlay vs. Train, but instead we were getting tons of Titan vs. Rambo). Finlay's huge torpedo shoulderblocks in the corner were a major highlight for me, and the Train/Grizzly culmination was another big moment. And match that has a jacked up Ice Train hitting a wooly mammoth powerslam on Grizzly is going to have a high floor. Ice Train also had a big leaping clothesline off the middle buckle that was a heavyweight wrestling dream. The rest of this has good brawling and some upper class bumps into the ringside cage, so this was still a win even though I wanted more.

MD: They announce Ice Train as choo choo Ice Train, so that was appreciated. Smisl is a guy I've never seen before and his hat will stick with me more than his seemingly fine work. Rambo was both over and pretty well protected in the match. He got to toss everyone on the other side into the cage to open the match. He was never really the guy in peril and it was only the numbers game that let Finlay's side keep the advantage. That sort of thing. I'm sort of curious to see more Cannonball Grizzly here. For a guy the fans wanted to love, News was problematic at best in 91-92. He had a lot more presence here. Finlay was mainly on the outside throwing violence around when some poor fool got too close to him. He did get to hit a couple of awesome ballistic shoulder blocks in the corner though. The finish was very weird with Ice Train getting his stuff in and Rambo having to basically shout at him to get him to run across the ring to eat a cheapshot from the apron.

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Hey, This Happened: Smothers/Savio vs. JBL/Dutch

Freddie Joe Floyd & Savio Vega  vs. Justin "Hawk" Bradshaw & Zebekiah (WWF Superstars 7/23/96, Aired 8/17/96)

ER: You look at that lineup, and there's no way you think "Of course that happened on WWF TV at some point". No, you think "That looks really terrific". And you'd be right. Smothers had just debuted in WWF a couple weeks before and was treated as a somewhat fresh faced babyface upstart, Dutch had barely been used as a worker, Bradshaw wasn't an unprofessional company man yet, it was a weird time. Smothers works this as a great fired up babyface, throwing wild fists to the back of Bradshaw's head, hitting high dropkicks and his cool whipping heel kick, taking a huge bump off the apron into the guardrail on a Hawk big boot (that the cameras almost miss) and eventually making a MASSIVE hot tag to Savio, literally leaping most of the way across the ring to make the tag. 

The real revelation was Dutch, already nearing 50, looking like the best guy in the match. Vince and Hennig dump all over him on commentary, with Hennig talking about how he's not a wrestler and Vince talking about how his best days are long behind him. Then Dutch tags in and clearly looks like the best guy in the match, tearing into Smothers with nasty punches, big lariat and an incredibly cool stomp/boot scrape on Smothers' face. Before that he was great at running distraction from the apron and floor, total killer hidden gem performance. I love that things like this match are still out there, ripe for rediscovery. Bless those two weeks where Tracy Smothers was treated by WWF as someone to watch, and bless Dutch for making the most of his infrequent WWF ring time, and bless Bradshaw for letting Smothers take a ton of their sequences, and bless Savio for his stretchy tough skins jeans. 

PAS: This was really fun, kind of makes me want to see what other weirdo matches were floating around WWF Superstars from that period. Bradshaw was great in this, just laying into Floyd and Savio with big boots, slams and an awesome senton. I loved Smothers as a hot tag, his crazy dive for the tag was great, but I also loved him crawling across the bottom rope like he was on a corporate team building ropes course. Dutch is one of the all time greats, and his short clotheslines, punches and boot rakes show what a waste he was as a manager. Zeb should have been feuding with Austin.

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