WCW Bash at the Beach 7/13/97

I can't believe they had under 8,000 fans in attendance for this show. I thought the build was great and the lineup on-paper is really strong. This really feels like the kind of show that should have drawn 20,000+, but a hot smaller crowd could be a great thing. 

1. Wrath/Mortis vs. Glacier/Ernest Miller (9:47)

If you found out that WCW was going to essentially have a karate division, with nothing but arcade fighting game characters, this is the best possible version of the kind of matches that attempted to fuse fighting games and pro wrestling. These guys all had varying levels of training and in ring backgrounds, but I don't think you could have laid out a better match for this specific combination of wrestlers, and it resulted in an insanely fun PPV opener. It's 10 glorious minutes of shockingly good spin kicks and crazy double teams, like a cartoon version of a Low Ki/Red match several years before that was a match. I'm not sure Ernest Miller or Glacier ever fit so naturally into a match again, Wrath and Mortis doing a great job of being in all the right places to take some complicated kick landings. This was much more snug than other Glacier/Miller matches, everybody really tightened up their punches and so many of the kicks looked genuinely explosive. The US was still in a big martial arts craze in 1997, and this match fit so well into that, and the crowd reactions showed that. There were some crazy spots here, all using some impressive timing. Mortis and Wrath hit their great powerbomb neckbreaker, Wrath hits a big cannonball of the apron, Miller is trying springboard attacks, and Glacier looks like he gets a concussion on the floor when Wrath hold a chair for Mortis to superkick directly into Glacier's ear. His left ear eats chair, right ear gets smashed into the ringpost. There is a little slow down before the finishing stretch, but when Miller tags in and is hitting spin kicks and James Vandenburg gets superkicked off the apron you won't care. The finish is the best possible Memphis Mortal Kombat, when Vandenburg wraps a chain around Mortis's boot for a loaded karate kick win. Pure brilliance, one of my favorite PPV openers of the 90s. 

2. Ultimo Dragon vs. Chris Jericho (12:55)

This was a pretty good embodiment of a lot of the 1997 WCW juniors matches. There's a lot of great spots that get big reactions, a couple of ambitious spots that look blown, they lose the page a bit and try to make up for it with big bumps, and it works! The best stuff makes up for the worst stuff, they mostly keep a good pace, and throw in some genuinely memorable spots. A lot of it is fairly typical 90s juniors wrestling: some engaging but meaningless matwork, a mirrored move, some cool backdrop reversals (Dragon landing on his feet, Jericho cartwheeling through), a stand off, we all loved it in 1997. It was the reason we traded for WAR tapes before all collectively realizing that the lumpy old sumo main events were the reason to be trading for WAR tapes. The best stuff here is very good, with a couple of very nice Jericho moonsaults and fun Dragon kick combos, a big double powerbomb from Jericho, great Asai moonsault to the floor, and some fun reversals. They get off the page a little bit when both men fall on a top rope spot, Dragon basically leaping to the floor while Jericho leapt back into the ring, and Jericho feels like he's trying to make up for that spot by taking a couple of really big bumps to the floor. It doesn't ever quite seem like it's anything other than a nicely laid out collection of spots, but the effort being put in elevates things. 

3. Steiner Brothers vs. Great Muta/Masahiro Chono (10:37)

This was filled with a lot of miscommunication, but still came off great to the crowd thanks to some huge Steiners throws and a fantastic stooging heel performance from Chono. He yelled at the crowd the entire time he was on the apron, and continues riling them up any time he was in control. He easily crossed any language barrier just by having no problem throwing the sole of his boot into heads with his great yakuza kicks, while also rubbing the crowd’s nose in it before inevitably getting smashed by the Steiners. The match is pretty formless, but the nWo Japan control is very fun and it’s cool seeing them dominating the Steiners and not being eaten alive like has happened. Scott looked absolutely massive here, which only makes it cooler when he is throwing Muta across the ring with his hip switch belly to belly or nailing the Frankensteiner. Muta hits his own big top rope Frankensteiner and Rick hits dangerous overhead belly to bellys on both. Chono also took some big backdrops from Rick, just a great house show main event heel performance. The match was a mess, but a cool mess, with big charisma and big highspots. The finish is dangerous and made everyone in the building get to their feet, with Muta taking an electric chair DDT. It looked as safe as possible, meaning it looked like a man taking a vertical dive off another man's shoulders. Those kind of things made it feel like a bigger, better match than it was. 

4. La Parka/Villano IV/Psychosis vs. Juventud Guerrera/Hector Garza/Lizmark Jr. (10:08)

This was the same kind of fireworks that made the opener so much fun, although the Daytona crowd didn't react as loudly to this as they did to that. It wasn't for lack of effort, and all kept working so hard to impress for 10 minutes that eventually the crowd finally had to respect it. It started a little slow with some nice Psychosis/Lizmark maestro match up, and the crowd reacted kind of confused to it. Even Tenay had to explain to Schiavone and Heenan that it was common for lucha matches to start with matwork. From there they build to some huge flying spots that come mostly at the end of the match, and they build to those big spots with hard bumps and stiff strikes. I don't think the crowd was looking for the luchadors to beat the hell out of each other, it's as if it isn't even happening right in front of them. Villano IV especially just comes in murdering everyone with chops and punches and lariats. La Parka does the same (he hit an amazing clothesline on Juvy in the corner, running down the length of the apron to land it), and Psychosis throws maybe the two hardest lariats in the match. 

La Parka is an excellent base for Juvy's headscissors, even catching a nice one through the ropes to the floor, and Psychosis took hiss missed corner bump on the back of his head. The crowd didn't react to any of Psychosis's bumps, even though he was killing himself. Seeing that, you really got the sense of how well Juvy and La Parka understood the timing of spots and how to hit them for the maximum crowd reaction. But the crowd got more involved after a series of misdirections, every member of the match missing consecutive top rope splashes, and it's like it suddenly woke everyone up and reminded them that bodies were crashing for their amusement. The dive train was tremendous, all started by Lizmark flattening V4 with a plancha. Psychosis got backdropped by Garza into a tope con giro, Garza acted as a tabletop for Juvy to get *incredible* height and distance on Air Juvy, just soaring beyond the ropes, building to the big Garza tornillo. A match that deserved to win the crowd over, and eventually did. Very memorable PPV lucha trios, one of the best. 

5. Chris Benoit vs. Kevin Sullivan (13:10)

A tremendous swan song performance for Kevin Sullivan, a real fight feel for its duration with some great use of non-participants and a ton of violence. The violence never dips and it's a painful pace to keep up, things beginning with a punch exchange that makes it clear Sullivan will be throwing fat fists square at Benoit's face. Benoit keeps everything entirely professional the full match, always working snug but clearly working elbow strikes and kicks. Sullivan, however, has no interest in worked shots and beats Benoit up the way someone fighting for their career would. Every punch is thrown to hurt, every kick to the stomach looks upsetting, he stomps Benoit in the balls, double stomps him in the stomach, throws him through a display of surfboards and even throws Jacqueline at him. Sullivan was an expert at taking advantage of Jacqueline and Jimmy Hart's interference, and both of them are great additions to the match. 

Jacqueline is relentless when things spill to the floor, getting flung aside by both Sullivan and Benoit but always screaming back into action. Benoit lifts her up for an atomic drop and instead launches her at Sullivan; Sullivan shoves her at Benoit while immediately following up with a fist to Benoit's eye. Jimmy Hart climbs a lifeguard's chair only to ride it into some fake palm trees after Benoit shoves it over, and the fight continues. Sullivan hangs Benoit in the tree of woe and delivers three hard running knees, and they cool things down a bit with a long crippler crossface. I really liked the long application, Benoit locking his hands right underneath Sullivan's nose, and Sullivan getting a long hard fought rope break and a nice reaction from the crowd after fighting to his feet. The ending pays off the weeks of Sullivan shoving Jacqueline around as she brains him with a wooden chair and leaves Benoit to fling himself straight down with a headbutt off the top. Great fight, worked with the importance of the stipulation in mind, stands out as a stiff brawl in a promotion full of them. 

6. Steve McMichael vs. Jeff Jarrett (6:56)

Very entertaining US Title match, with a crowd loudly against Jarrett. Jarrett knew exactly how to get heat from this crowd, and knows how to rub it in every time he's in control against Mongo. I love how Jarrett bumps and gets upended by McMichael's offense and has to keep spilling to the floor, yelling at fans, then pointing smugly to his head at those same fans whenever he would lure Mongo into a trap. Mongo looks good on offense, hitting a big powerslam and heavy knee lift, but was even more effective bumping for Jarrett. McMichael misses an awesome kneedrop into the corner, patella straight to the top buckle, and Jarrett immediately begins mocking him as he goes after the knee. The crowd hates it when Jarrett goes into a three point stance and takes out Mongo's knee, and just when it seems that Debra is about to step in and save her husband, she instead gives the Halliburton to Jarrett! The finish looks great, with McMichael blocking the first briefcase shot with his forearm and grabbing at it in pain, opening himself up to take the briefcase to the head. The crowd seemed genuinely surprised by Debra turning on her husband, and the announce team all seemed just as shocked. Everyone played their role really well and it lead to a great 10 minute segment. 

7. Randy Savage/Scott Hall vs. DDP/Curt Hennig (9:35)

This show has been really great at keeping every match within a perfect time window, giving everyone long enough to work an interesting and memorable match while not risking them losing the audience. It keeps the audience up the entire time, and this match had a good TV build. A lot of time was spent on who DDP's mystery partner would be, with Hennig and Raven being the ones not so subtly hinted at. In fact, it was hinted at so strongly that it felt more likely it would be neither of those two, so I was actually surprised when Curt Hennig came out as the partner. But even then the announcers had the appropriate reaction when they said "Oh so it IS Curt Hennig!" The match itself doesn't actually build much, as it turns out to be more angle than match, but the rare match ups elevated things and got us nicely to the angle. Hennig and Hall were a strong AWA tag team a decade prior and only fought on house shows and one PPV tag in the WWF.  And, outside of a few possible Royal Rumble interactions, Hennig and Savage is a first time match. So those are fun pairings, and to add to that DDP always works well with Savage so the floor on this one is high. This was an inspired stretch for Savage, always loved the energy between he and DDP. Hennig and Hall square off and it feels new, even though it's not, ahem, perfect. It all builds to DDP skinning the cat which causes Hennig to get slowed by a low bridge, but then he attacks DDP and leaves him prone to the Outsider's Edge/Elbow. I think Hennig made more sense as a heel during his comeback, so I liked the turn and thought it came off unexpected. 

8. Roddy Piper vs. Ric Flair (13:26)

I loved this match. Piper vs. Flair hadn't faced off against each other since 1992, and most of their early 90s WWF feud was house show only. Their interactions in the 1992 Rumble were arguably the best part of one of the most legendary Rumbles, and this match immediately brought back the energy of those Rumble interactions. Whenever I think of the 92 Rumble I think of Piper going after Flair every chance he got, running in and flinging himself onto Flair, and that's exactly how the first several minutes of this match go.  Piper's strikes all look classic, throwing hard overhand right chops, mixing up punch combos, big knife edge chops, Flair off balance the whole time and only making his way into the match by landing a chop block after Piper briefly gets tied up with the ref. Both men are good at both sides of the match, Piper looking like a crazed lunatic going after Flair, but also doing an impressive job selling the damage Flair was doing to his knee. 

Flair stooged and bumped and flopped for Piper's strike barrage, then looked near sadistic every time he would kick or stomp at Piper's knee or ring one up below the belt. Flair takes a couple bumps to the floor and Piper not only kept up the brawl energy at ringside, but he managed to limp around on his worked over leg the entire time. We get a couple of dramatic figure 4 moments, and a great twist when Piper has to deal with Benoit and Mongo. It's a bunch of chaos all at once, with ref Randy Anderson suddenly very easily distractible while people are crashing behind his back, but the payoff is worth it. Piper suckers Benoit into hitting a flying headbutt on Flair, but Mongo absolutely spikes Piper with a tombstone. There's a lot of great Flair/Piper drama as Flair crawls to cover Piper after Mongo's tombstone, and it really felt like it could have been the finish. Flair takes just enough time getting to the pin that it feels like there's a chance of Piper kicking out, and when it does it gets a huge reaction from the crowd. These two knew how to build to convincing pinfalls, with Piper also getting a reaction from a swinging neckbreaker that looked good enough to be the finish. But everyone wanted to see Piper drag Flair to the mat with the sleeper, and it was great seeing Flair's arm drop. This would have easily played as a strong main event a decade prior, and it was great to see both really go at it. 

9. Lex Luger/The Giant vs. Hulk Hogan/Dennis Rodman (22:30)

Buffer really adds to the big main event feel for this one, although he gives the nWo a way cooler intro than our two babyface heroes, saying that Rodman is a bad boy because he's good enough to be as bad as he wants to be. This tale of the tape feels very opinionated, but it does get the crowd buzzing. The match itself is long, but expertly laid out like a Memphis arena main event. It's classic Memphis, with a charismatic heel teaming with an athletic superstar and a charismatic face teaming with a green Giant. Sometimes the athlete is a babyface and sometimes the giant is a monster heel but the Memphis feel is strong. Hogan adds to that vibe by working as total chickenshit heel, and while the match had a purposely slow build, they knew exactly what they were doing as the crowd built along with it. They hide weaknesses and bullshit around strengths, with the Giant not tagging in until over 11 minutes into the match and Rodman being celebrated for every single wrestling move he managed to pull off. Hardly anything happens for the first several minutes and the crowd is along exactly where they need to be the whole time. Hogan takes forever to lock up with Luger, it builds nicely to Rodman entering the match, and the match works as a real impressive way to frame Rodman's first pro wrestling match. 

Rodman has a high floor as a wrestler. His size is impressive, and it makes his slow hesitant movements come off like a dangerous giant, not a tentative celebrity newcomer. Macho Man is the nWo's second, and he and Hogan are perfect cheeseballs who celebrate Rodman's every move as a feat of wonder. He locks up and armdrags Luger, and Macho and Hogan come screaming into the ring like Rodman had just grabbed a rebound to seal a playoff win. A Rodman leapfrog exchange leads to a reaction typically reserved for gold medal sprinters breaking the tape, and it's all great. The fans cannot stand Rodman and hate the idea of giving him credit, so we begin to get loud Rodman Sucks chants, and Rodman knows exactly how to soak it up. But they also can't help getting excited when he got more and more involved, and by the time he was hammering a trio of very nasty looking back elbows into Luger in the corner, he no longer felt like merely a celebrity attraction. They built well to everything the crowd wanted to see, and they especially reacted big whenever Rodman took damage. Rodman's size made his bumping more impressive, the crowd loved seeing him knock Luger down with shoulderblocks and also leap into a huge Giant bearhug. Giant is still real raw here, does a lot of Giant Gonzalez wide eyes swinging arms selling and comes off clumsy and unsure, but Hogan and Rodman are both good at working around him. It's all basic southern house show, but those connect with crowds and these reactions kept getting bigger. 

Not only did we get a steady stream of wadded up garbage thrown at the nWo, but the big spots all felt big. Rodman and Hogan did a double hip toss on Giant that felt shook the building, and the fans reacted like they had just been through an aftershock. Rodman violently manhandles ref Randy Anderson and headbutts him in the back of the head, and it leads to a chaotic finish that works for the match. Sting (a man who is clearly not Sting and instead a 7 footer who steps over the top rope entering and exiting the ring) hits the Giant with a baseball bat but WCW still gets to triumph amid the confusion, with Luger torture racking Hogan, Rodman, and Savage one after the other. It's a strong main event to one of WCW's best PPVs, a match that felt like a main event and properly navigated the egos of two top wrestling stars, one star rookie, and a major mainstream celebrity. It's not necessarily an easy match to book, but they made it look simple. 

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On Brand Segunda Caida: Stan Hansen in ECW

How awesome would it have been to see Stan Hansen wrestling in a small building with only 500 or so other lunatics cheering him on? Stan Hansen was not a guy you could just go out and see on the indies working old man faded glory matches. He was a guy who started making a name for himself immediately and then just stayed in major feds right up until his early 50s retirement. The only opportunity anyone had to see Hansen work a small indie was a few dates in 1993, when he worked a handful of ECW shows. Seeing Stan Hansen at the ECW Arena would be like getting a straight injection of pure uncut joy, so I figured I would take a quick look at Hansen's quick look at the east coast independent wrestling scene.


Stan Hansen vs. Jimmy Snuka ECW 8/7/93 (Hardcore TV #19)

ER: This was only about 4 minutes, but really great. How cool must it have been to see *this* era Stan Hansen at Viking Hall? I would have been losing my mind. He's a big loud bully and I could have watched him shove Snuka around the ring for another 10 minutes. Snuka was 50 at this point but still unexpectedly a bump freak, as right out of the gate Hansen hits a hard shoulderblock, and then without any running momentum just hits a standing shoulderblock that sends Snuka backwards over the top to the floor, a cool way to integrate the Harley bump. Snuka obviously realizes who he's working - not that he had a choice - and throws punches at Hansen as hard as he's getting them. He is someone with enough guts and career clout that he can walk right through a nasty chair shot and keep fighting, and not get punished for not selling it. The chair shot was great, Hansen hitting him with an already unfolded chair and wrapping it perfectly around his head. Hansen drops perfect elbows and even wrecks Snuka with the western lariat! I wasn't really expecting that. Some of these older guys were getting good paychecks once Eddie Gilbert got the purse strings, I didn't actually expect Snuka to work so hard. Eddie runs in to break up the surefire finish, and then Hansen ragdolls "Freddie" Gilbert (which was Jerry Lawler's son Kevin playing Eddie's kid brother), and there's not much in wrestling I love more than Stan Hansen disposing of a dweeb.

Stan Hansen/Tito Santana vs. Don Muraco/Shane Douglas ECW 8/8/93 (Hardcore TV #21)

ER: Short but fun tag that may have actually been much longer than we actually saw. The match - as several of these Hardcore TV matches are - is interrupted with an "emergency announcement", which is a nice excuse to show Abdullah the Butcher highlights leading up to his tag match opposite Hansen. But they weirdly opt to just clip the match right in the middle, and I have no idea how much we missed. What we got, was good. Muraco is a fun stooge for Hansen (and it's amusing to see such a big guy beg off, but I get it), and I was really looking forward to Hansen just mauling Douglas, but we don't really get that at all. It's possible we got it during the break, but alas. What we do get is a fine FIP Tito performance, with Hansen doing a great job coming up with a couple ways to miss a potential hot tag. Hansen somehow always finds a way to surprise me, and he breaks out a really cool tragic timing spot: He comes in to rescue Tito, but Tito manages to surprisingly break free on his own, except now Hansen is getting admonished by the ref for getting in the ring just as Tito is actually getting to his corner. Hansen rushes back to the apron and swipes for the tag just as Muraco grabs Tito and tosses him back across the ring. Muraco throws an awesome headlock punch in this, but Tito's fired up comeback punches are really great. Sadly the whole damn locker room interferes at the exact moment of Hansen's hot tag, starting with that damned Eddie Gilbert. This match clearly had the bones of a really good match, and what we got was good, but it really feels like we missed out on a large chunk of the middle.

Stan Hansen vs. Don E. Allen/Herve Renesto ECW 8/8/93 (Hardcore TV #22)

ER: Tough draw for Twisted Steel & Sex Appeal. Hansen is an all time great squash match or handicap match worker, as he works fast enough to bounce back between two different guys, and he hits hard enough that whichever guy isn't eating a beating is still convincingly selling his prior beating. This is all a tornado of hard kicks, nasty stomps to the head, big beals, lethal back elbows, none of them by Twisted Steel OR Sex Appeal. Renesto threw a dropkick at one point, but it didn't slow down Hansen one bit and only made Renesto more of a target. The whole arena was flipping out for this massacre, and I love how Hansen throws his back elbow as a charging move, running at his opponent like he's hitting the lariat but instead decapitating him with a back elbow. Neither feels like a good option to take. Allen eats a nasty elbow shot while standing on the apron, and Hansen graciously brings him into the ring with a damn quick snap suplex. Allen came into the ring so fast it looked like he was thrown from a car. Allen almost wimps out of the lariat, flinching hard as Hansen grabs him by the ponytail and starts swinging the arm, but it landed. From the ring, Hansen grabs for Renesto on the floor after the match, but Renesto dodges, which just enrages Hansen who rushes to the floor and strangles Renesto with his bullrope, tying him to the ringpost by his neck.

Stan Hansen/Terry Funk vs. Abdullah the Butcher/Kevin Sullivan Ultra Clash 9/18/93

ER: Now this ruled. This was part of one of ECW's first supercards, and this is some legitimately big talent in one match. The whole thing is worked as a chaotic brawl, no tags and no attempt at order. Funk obviously thrives in this kind of environment and drags everybody else with him. Hansen mostly pairs off with Abby, and I like them as a pair because Abby doesn't budge on strikes, and Hansen doesn't hold back on strikes, so the whole time he's just throwing knuckle punches and clubbing arms and the hardest stomps possible to the back of Abby's head and Abby just takes the stiffest shots and occasionally stabs at him. Sullivan climbs up the scaffold to escape Funk(there was a Doug Gilbert/JT Smith scaffold match right before this match) and Funk naturally follows, and Sullivan starts punching him right in the head the second Funk climbs up close enough to get his head punched. Terry is the king, so of course he finds a few ways to fall down each level of the scaffolding, holding on and hanging, limbs dangling, dropping down bit by bit as he's getting attacked, before eventually dropping into the ring and onto his head. Funk wraps a chair around Abby's head and holds it there while burying his boot in Abby's back, while Hansen punches away at Abby, there's a fork stabbing that misses it's mark and becomes friendly fire, Funk panics and takes down the ref and starts beating the shit out of him, Abby slams Funk's face into the mat a bunch, the ROPES BREAK because they can't handle big as hell Hansen and Sullivan running hard into them, Eddie and Doug Gilbert run out for the DQ, and this was literally just 8 minutes of cool old dudes punching each other really hard in the head. That's never not going to be a win, people.

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My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Worldwide 6/23/96

J.L. vs. Brad Armstrong

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

Arn Anderson/Taskmaster vs. Leroy Howard/Bill Payne

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

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

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

Chris Benoit vs. Eddie Guerrero

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

Diamond Dallas Page vs. Kensuke Sasaki

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

The Mauler vs. Sting

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

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

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

COMPLETE & ACCURATE WCW B-SIDES

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My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Worldwide 10/27/96

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

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

2. Juventud Guerrera vs. Eddie Guerrero

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

3. Ron Studd vs. Rick Steiner

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

4. Disco Inferno vs. Rey Misterio Jr.

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

5. Jerry Lynn vs. Chris Benoit

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

6. Dean Malenko vs. Chris Jericho

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

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


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

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Saturday Night Digging in the Crates

We take a trip to Alabama for a wild riot of a cage match.



Tennessee Stud/Robert Fuller v. New Guinea Headhunters-SECW Early 1987

PAS: This is a revenge cage match after one of the more famous angles in the 1980s. In the first cage match between these teams a third Headhunter popped up from under the ring to massacre the face team. This time it starts out 3 on 2, however when the cage gets locked the ref whips off a black wig and it is Jimmy Golden. Really fun turn the tables angle. Everyone beats the crap out of each other, and Golden puts the ref shirt back on to count the pin. However Kevin Sullivan gets in post match and starts stabbing fools and eventually the locker room empties, craziest brawl in Alabama since Bull Conner.

ER: To me, this kind of match is just unhateable, unless you're a weenie who needs highspots. This is all wild chaos with guys taking bumps with no regard to where other guys are standing, people falling off the cage, everybody throwing blows also with little regard for who gets in the way. Headhunters all appear to be about 5 feet even and Golden and the Fullers appear to be about 7 feet tall and everybody just constantly smashes into each other for 5 minutes. And then after the pinfall nobody acts like the match is over and the brawl stays just as wild. Dudes run in with no shirts, a lot of it seemed unplanned, and this is something that if I saw this when I was a kid I'd be hooked for life (and considering I write daily rambling posts on a pro wrestling blog I don't know how much more I could realistically be hooked...but...somehow morrrre?). This felt like a fight that happens at the end of a townies-only BBQ out in the woods.

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My Favorite Wrestling! WCW Worldwide 5/11/97

1. Alex Wright vs. Bobby Eaton

Short match that could have been really good, but was more of a Wright moves showcase. The whole thing goes only a couple minutes. Eaton's offense was one great looking punch, and then a missed punch that led to the finishing German suplex.

2. Kevin Sullivan vs. Doc Dean

This was during that period where 75% of the match was Sullivan throwing his opponent to the floor so Jacqueline could do her sequence of snap mare-body slam-suplex while the announcers flipped their shit. "She's a woman! But she's doing these moves to a MAN!" It's main purpose was to turn 1 minute Sullivan matches into 3 minute Sullivan matches, so I'd call that a fail.

Good lord there are so many ads for vacationing in Myrtle Beach. Every commercial break, Myrtle Beach ad. I've never seen these before on any other WCW episode. It's like they had an ad budget and just blew it all on one Saturday night. The ads show a lot of golfing and old people having a good time having dinner together. Sounds nice.

3. Mark Starr vs. Ice Train

Segunda Caida: Now with more stuff written about Mark Starr than ANY other website!! Because Mark Starr is actually really good, and ends up losing to Ice Train on these type of shows pretty often. Schiavone says Ice Train will be a "big star" in this business in a few years, which even without the benefit of hindsight seems like a bad projection. I mean, did Tony really think a 35 year old juiced up guy with a high top fade was really gonna break through and it was only experience that was holding him back? Starr looks great here bumping around for all of Ice Train's powerslams and shoulder blocks. Ice Train looks like a guy who wouldn't look very good without Starr bumping around for him.

4. Konnan vs. Johnny Swinger

God so much Konnan on these '96/'97 shows. Here he busts out a nice octopus hold on the mat (that takes him like 20 seconds to apply). Swinger has nice kicks to the stomach. And then Konnan drops Swinger right on his head with the 187. I mean good lord there has to be some vertebrae damaged there. Was there just some company directive to shoot injure Swinger whenever he was your opponent?  I'm glad he eventually got some WWE paydays.

5. La Parka vs. Robbie Brookside

I was not actually aware that Parka got any singles matches against non-lucha guys, but here he was totally dominating Brookside. So that means he was getting a minor push as early as '97, yet somehow they never pushed him any further than this, or being the guy who cleans the ring in lucha 6 mans. Obviously one of WCW's many screw-ups was not giving more of a push to Parka. A chubby, dancing skeleton who did corkscrew moonsaults and hit people with chairs. He does kip-ups, he kicks people in the face, and he would have sold tons of merchandise. I'm not saying he should have been World Champ (although really, it would have worked) but the fans loved cheering Park.

6. Jim Powers & Bobby Walker vs. Public Enemy

I know most of you are with me on this, but there are many combinations of 1997 WCW wrestlers that I would rather see show up as the main event of an episode that still has 12 minutes remaining. And you know? This isn't totally terrible. Powers is actually alright as a heel, which is a shame that he works face 95% of the time. I'm a fairly easy man to please. I know how to judge things on scale. Every match doesn't have to be Dundee/Lawler. And this match really didn't need much to exceed expectations. Walker hit a nice elbow drop, Grunge hit a nice elbow drop, Rocco tossed out an ugly asai moonsault, I fell asleep for the final two minutes...

maybe this wasn't actually that good.

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My Favorite Wrestling! WCW Worldwide 8/11/96

WCW Worldwide 8/11/96

1. High Voltage vs. Eddie and Chavo Guerrero

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

2. Kevin Sullivan vs. Chad Brock

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

3. Maxx vs. Ice Train

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

4. Big Bubba vs. Chip Minton

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

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

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

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Florida 10/12/85 WORKRATE STYLE

What Worked

-Man talk about a one man show. This was Kevin Sullivan, some Kevin Sullivan and a little more Kevin Sullivan. Sullivan spike piledriving a anorexic Jimmy Del Ray, Sullivan and Roop jumping Haitian Sensation Tyree Pride, arena clips of Sullivan throwing Kendall Windham out on to the street. The highlight though was The Devil interrupting Kendall's Wrestler of the Week award, and jumping the whole Family. When the middle aged pearls wearing sportswriter lady tries to intervene, Sullivan just smacks the shit out of her. I mean just pops this middle aged Whist playing lady right in the mush. "THIS ISN'T THE FIRST TIME I'VE SMACKED A BROAD." Ain't that the truth.

What Didn't Work

-I like Blackjack Mulligan, but man is the Florida face stable rough. Mike Graham, Tyree Pride and Kendall Windham is the world crappiest Dudes with Attitude.

-How many masked jobbers did Florida have? I could have sworn we saw a half a dozen on this show. Kind of kills the Grappler when you have five other guys doing his gimmick.

-Since when did Jack Hart have a loaded glove, kind of kills the Grappler when you have guys jacking his gimmick. What the fuck did Len Denton ever do to piss off Mike Graham?

-The opening tag was fun when it was Hector v. Grappler, but there was a fair amount of shitty Punisher (Assassinator? Killer? I can't remember that loads name) v. Coco Samoa sections too. Also ridiculous long and uneventful. Kevin Sullivan really need to run in on this one and have Bob Roop stab everyone in the head.

- Man that final tag stunk. I don't know who Prince Wakawaka was, but outside of his wavy hair he did nothing. I am pretty sure that Cuban Assassin was Gustova Mendoza not Fidel Sierra. I did like him winning with a front chancery. Still the jobber team had like five hot tags.

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