Borga Stepped Into My Life from a Magazine

Ludvig Borga vs. Tatanka  WWF Superstars 10/30/93 - EPIC

ER: It's crazy that this match was on Superstars, because this match felt like something that easily should have taken place on the upcoming Survivor Series PPV. Borga was positioned as the #2 heel at this point and Tatanka was at worst the #4 babyface (behind Bret, Luger, and Razor). Both had undefeated streaks, with Tatanka's now at 20 months, and it would have made way more sense to give this match a PPV platform. I love the Rock n Roll Express but there's no reason they needed a match at Survivor Series when this could have been positioned 2nd from the top. This was really Borga's first big singles match (outside of house shows, he dominated Marty Jannetty at Summerslam, so really the only opponent TV viewers would have seen give him even minor trouble would have been Virgil), so the first real opportunity to see a star get actual offense against him. 

Tatanka was a popular attraction at this point, a popular babyface who did nothing but win matches. But this match is probably the first time I ever heard him get a USA chant, and this match was really the first time the WWF heavily billed him as "An American, Defending America". Despite calling him a Native American often, I am sure many fans viewed him as a foreigner, because wrestling fans don't always have a firm understanding of race and cultural heritage. But here Tatanka was An American, Defending America, after having only previously served as The 4th Most Patriotic American At Best. Now a Proud Native American, Tatanka was never before treated as American as Hogan, Duggan, or Randy Savage - specifically during the 11 summer weeks of 1993 when Savage presumably lived in and slept in his stars & stripes sequined tuxedo and matching cowboy hat. 

Ludvig Borga's hands down best quality is that the second he comes through the curtain until the moment he's out of sight (and assuredly beyond), he looks like he is absolutely disgusted by every person he sees. Borga is filled with revulsion at this life that chose him, and loathes the sticky handed children and mustachioed north easterners who surround him. His scowl is iconic. The match plays out as a satisfying house show main event, with Borga goading the fans the entire time and getting loud heat and playing to all sides of the ring. Watching Borga with a full push behind him really highlights the things he was great at, and by now he was second in WWF only to Lawler at working the crowd. Heels played to crowds more at house shows, but Borga and Lawler were the only ones doing it in all of their recorded matches. Borga works over Tatanka's midsection with punches (finding specific people in the crowd to threaten before and after every one), and they milk a lot out of Tatanka knocking Borga off his feet. Borga misses a big avalanche and Tatanka goes wild with multiple clotheslines to finally knock Borga down, and the man challenges Tatanka to do it again! Borga works this match as if he's 7' tall and 400 lb., dropping down to one knee after a dropkick and getting knocked off balance but not down by chops and clotheslines and eventually gets knocked down by a nice crossbody. 

The USA chants are coming in steady when Borga hits one of the greatest body shots my eyes have seen, when Tatanka ducks a Borga lariat but Borga catches him with a whipcrack full arm shot to the belly that I guarantee was the loudest strike on this show. It's a loud enough sound to stop the USA chants cold and Borga gloats about that, rubbing that punch into the collective faces of Worcester. Borga hits a big vertical suplex and works a long but effective side headlock. This was not an IRS chinlock in the middle of a squash match for reasons nobody could ever know, but instead an actual worked headlock with both making it build to something. There's a surprisingly dominant Borga spot where Tatanka powers up out of a headlock and plants Borga with a hard back suplex, and Borga ROARS to his feet and plasters Tatanka with a lariat right under the chin. You didn't get a lot of no selling in late 1993 WWF so this stood out as some Zeus level shit. When Tatanka starts his war dance, Borga tries cutting him off with punches to the kidneys (which Tatanka has been selling the entire match) but Tatanka powers through, and we get into our finish - my only real fault with the match. Mr. Fuji had come to ringside to act as foreign distraction, and Fuji's distraction allows Borga to waste Tatanka with a folding chair. WWF wasn't using a lot of chairshots in this era, and while it wasn't to the head it was still a loud shot. Borga lunges at and scares a kid in the front row on his way back into the ring, and then pins Tatanka in the middle with only one finger. 

And with that, Ludvig Borga has once again pantsed America in front of the girl he has had a crush on for 3 years, pointing and yelling to all of the other countries about America's baby dick as America scrambled to pull their pants up. We get a post match finish that is greater than any angle that has finished an episode of Raw to this point, with Borga and Yokozuna manhandling and flattening Tatanka while the Quebecers keep Luger tied up. Luger gets to run off the heels, but the Steiners were supposedly locked in the dressing room and Luger was - AGAIN - too late. I think for the angle to have really worked they needed to really wreck Tatanka. Borga needed to do way more cheating to win, and Yokozuna needed more than one banzai splash. But the fans HATE Borga and Yokozuna and the heel side feels incredibly strong right now. This could have given us an excellent Borga/Yokozuna vs. Tatanka/Luger TV tag, but they only used that match a handful of times on house shows...two months later. 

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Borga Became a Legend in My Life

Ludvig Borga vs. Scott King WWF Wrestling Challenge 10/24/93 - FUN

ER: Poor poor Scott King. He doesn't even get his name announced before his beating, as Borga shoves Mike McGuirk (holy shit, Ludvig) out of the way just as she's about to. I've seen Borga shove Finkel out of the way before, but this has to be the first time Borga has physically moved McGuirk before an ass kicking. Ross is appalled and Heenan says she just shouldn't have been in the way, and should have instead been doing the announcing from the kitchen and they work a great bit around that, with Ross ignoring Heenan as Heenan keeps apologizing and then continuing the joke ("I should have said laundry room because we all know she can't cook!"). This probably reads extremely offensive but it played more like a good Charles Nelson Reilly bit about Bret Somers than an anti-woman screed. The fact is, Ludvig Borga is the world's most aggressive Roomba, just shoving his way over anything that gets in the way of his primary directive: Murder that man standing in the corner. Borga shoves a woman, a Roomba drags a cat blanket around the house. These are the same killing machines only with different strength. 

Borga goes after King's ribs with punches, and King is really great at selling rib injuries. He has a way of clutching his left arm close to his body and holding that left arm with his right, the best visual way to put over an internal injury. Hands to stomach looks too dainty and reads more like diarrhea. Clutching an arm to your body through clenched teeth and one closed eye is the kind of thing Tenryu would do to sell a rib injury. Scott King took several punches to the body, and I love how Borga mixes the angles he throws them at. My favorite punch this match was Borga standing to King's 5 o'clock and wrapping a right hand underneath King's ribcage. The flapjack uppercut looked great, and Borga has the most effectively painful looking Torture Rack these eyes have seen. 

Ludvig Borga vs. Mike Bucci  WWF Raw 10/25/93 - GREAT

ER: This was one of the best squash matches of 1993. Most memorable squash matches are remembered for their violence. If a job guy lands on his head, it's typically part of a memorable squash match. This match was one-sided and Borga has great looking offense, but Mike Bucci didn't wind up in traction. What made this so memorable was Borga's full commitment to being a sincerely hated heel. The Narcissist and later Doink face turn really left Borga as the only vocal heel on the brand who could do strong crowd work. Borga is a heel who wrestles like he openly hates the fans he's wrestling in front of, and this match was the best he's pulled that off yet. He picks one guy in the crowd, a big mustachioed guy in the front row behind camera that we don't get to see until after the match, and he rubs this guy's face in it after every single shot he takes at the future Super Nova. It plays incredibly on camera, because Borga is walking right toward the ringside camera between every move, yelling past it at this unknown object of ire. 

Borga hits a spinebuster on Bucci, lifts and drops him with a double handed choke, hammers him with beautiful rights to the body, and in between every shot he's walking over to this guy and telling him to kiss his ass. Borga runs down everything a man from Poughkeepsie might hold dear, all while effectively pounding away at Bucci. Bucci's inexperience adds to the heel heat as he looks kind of off balance when he gets thrown into the ropes, so every time Borga wasted him it felt like he was taking advantage of a man in over his head. Borga is the biggest heat machine in WWF at this point, getting even more heat than Cornette can get for Yokozuna by shouting 20x the words Borga does. The 1993 WWF crowds were responding far louder to Ludvig Borga as a heel, than they were Lex Luger as a face. Borga was getting real modern reactions, as the hatred was clear, but he looked cool delivering his hateful beatings and some fans were naturally reacting to him throwing guys like Bucci into the air and then punching them to the mat. The face reactions were loud and competed with the louder heel reactions, but this man was drawing LOUD reactions like few. He taunts the crowd like an absolute pro. He has the same annoying smug European qualities as some of the best heels in French Catch. When you see him singling out fans while not forgetting to spread plenty of hate to the rest of the fans, while also taking the time to smugly acknowledge someone's hand-drawn Finnish flag, he comes off like one of the great heels of 1993 American wrestling. Borga was a much hotter act than given credit for at the time, and this match was the hottest the act has looked in WWF so far.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LUDVIG BORGA

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No Expectations, Borga Just Drifts and Drifts

Ludvig Borga vs. Gary Jackson  WWF Wrestling Challenge 10/10/93 - FUN

ER: Effective squash with a cool opponent. Gary Jackson worked USWA for a bit as Night Train Jackson, and does great wobbly legs selling for all of Borga's awesome body blows. Borga throws several punches under the ribs and into the kidneys, and Jackson buckles his knees for every one of them. You don't really get to see a ton of personality from 2/3 of the guys doing job work, so a guy who wobbles will stand out every time over the jobbers who just lie there. There are a shocking amount of jobbers who just lie there. Take a move, lie motionless on the mat, and occasionally do one of those full body heave sells. And here's Night Train out there going spaghetti legged on vicious punches. Sometimes Borga works with it, like when he grabs a tight side headlock after a dropped-to-his-knees Jackson is still selling and at perfect head squeezing height. Borga hits a big spinebuster, drops the point of his elbow into Jackson's chest, and finishes with the torture rack after punishing this poor man's midsection. 

Ludvig Borga vs. Tony Roy WWF Superstars 10/16/93 - FUN

ER: Tony Roy never had a chance. Borga shoves him hard into the corner during the introductions and begins a punishing series of body shots (lefts and rights, but mostly rights) and a healthy number of excellent kneelifts. Borga has gotten really good at yelling at fans while dishing out a painful beating. The fans respond to him in ways they don't respond to other heels, because he's good at keeping them engaged and - while he doesn't have a deep moveset - he mixes up his offense between matches enough that he's not just going out there working the same thing in the same order (and this sets him apart from guys like Mr. Perfect or IRS). He throws Roy up with a flapjack and then uppercuts him in the stomach on his way down, and while it doesn't really read as cool as sounds, it's still a cool ass thing to put in a match. His elbowdrop looks great, and I really love how he uses the hard shots to the body to directly set up the torture rack. The fact Borga looks so unpleasant and angry through all of his squashes only makes them better. 

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No Destination in This Life Borga Lives

Ludvig Borga vs. Phil Apollo WWF Raw 9/27/93 - FUN

ER: Borga is one of the few squash match workers during this era of WWF TV to work different style squash matches. Not Different Style, but he doesn't work every one of his squashes the same, and there's some offense that he doesn't use every match. Here he hits a great spinebuster and hard side slam, which he didn't use at all in his match on Challenge the day before, and here he doesn't use his diving clothesline finisher that he typically uses. He storms his way to the ring, shoves Finkel out of the way during the ring intros and just bullies Apollo into the corner with knees to the ribs. He throws body shots, hits a 12 second vertical suplex (that would have gone longer had Apollo not started to tilt), and throws Apollo hard to the floor. Apollo takes a fast bump through the ropes and Borga makes sure to point out a Finland flag sign that someone has in the crowd. Borga's squashes at this point are cool and violent enough that he's getting heat from most of the crowd, while clearly drawing supporters who just like to see ass kickings. That's like the perfect wrestler storm right there. 

Ludvig Borga vs. Sonny Rogers  WWF Superstars 10/2/93 - VERY GOOD

ER: This was going pretty normally for a Ludvig Borga squash. He entered the ring, walked directly over to Rogers and shoved him with both palms into the corner, then spent the next couple minutes working over Rogers' midsection with punches. Borga's body work is a really cool feature for a WWF heel to have, and since arriving here he's only been getting better at making them look more punishing. Rogers is a fun floppy bumper, going legs in the air on clothesline bumps. Borga hits his longest vertical suplex to date (16 seconds)...and comes up bleeding from the hairline. I have no idea how he got busted open, but it's weird to see someone bleeding out of their head on a 1993 episode of Superstars! Borga wipes it off and flings some at the camera, then goes back to work hard on Rogers with more body shots and a big elbowdrop. In addition to the very surprising color, there's another little wrinkle as Borga misses a corner charge, takes a dropkick from Rogers (but doesn't go down), takes a lariat from Rogers (but doesn't budge an inch and flexes and yells his way through it). Rogers actually goes up for a crossbody but Borga catches him and plants him with a powerslam. Borga is really standing out as a presence at this point, and they're doing a good job of making him feel more special by keeping him mostly separate from any big names. He feels more like a rogue free agent and I'm excited to see him run everything Luger stands for into the ground. 

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If It's Rest Borga Needs, He'd Rather Be Dead

Ludvig Borga vs. Rich Myers WWF Wrestling Challenge 9/19/93 - FUN

ER: A nice simple meat and potatoes Borga squash, working slowly with more trash talking. He's good about not using the exact same movesets in similar order (you can pick up a lot of habits from watching specific guys working squashes), and instead makes small offense changes depending on how he's going to finish. That's really the quickest way a good big man can become a great big man, and was instrumental in Mark Henry's leap to great worker. Here, Borga works a lot of hard kneelifts that believably lift Myers off his feet, and he didn't go to one knee lift in his Superstars match that aired the day before (against PJ Walker). The kneelift is one of his best strikes and it's cool that he has enough of a repertoire to know what things he can keep or drop match to match. Myers is game to be hit in the ribs a bunch, the high elbowdrop looked great, and all of the knees to the ribs lead to the cool torture rack finish. 

Ludvig Borga vs. Rod Bell WWF Wrestling Challenge 9/26/93 - VERY GOOD

ER: GREAT squash match. This was the most cocksure Borga has looked in a WWF ring. A man really owning the ring and getting the exact reaction a top heel should be getting. He gets in the ring and quickly walks straight up to Bell and clotheslines him hard, then holds him by the arm a few times to land several uppercuts to the kidneys and ribs. He jams his knee in Bell's stomach in the corner and holds him up in the air for a 15+ second vertical suplex. Great high elbowdrop, and nails him with the diving lariat but interestingly opts to keep the match going for more punishment. He does some great trash talking throughout this whole beatdown, and is practically strutting around the ring drawing heat. It's brilliant, a truly great, confident, powerful heel performance. He lands more body blows and puts the (good sport) Bell away with the torture rack. This is the kind of memorable heel squash that makes fans want to see you get your smug bell rung, and you love to see it. 

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Borga Wakes Up in the Morning and He Feels, the Pain in His Head

Ludvig Borga vs. Virgil  WWF Superstars 8/28/93 - GREAT

ER: This is Borga's first match against someone who occasionally records wins, and it plays perfectly as a Borga showcase while also giving Virgil a nice little walking tall babyface performance. It's a 3 minute match so it's not a full valiant Tito Santana performance, but he makes a little dent in Borga and the fans are into him. This was a great coming out performance for Borga, his first match against someone the crowd responds to, and he really ups the personality and stiffness. Borga is great at selling contempt for Americans, a raised eyebrow every bit as expressive as The Rock's. Virgil gets a little too hyped up by the crowd's enthusiasm, and decides to shadow box with Borga. Borga is a huge man who boxed professionally, so I got very excited by Virgil's decision to throw hands. And, it's great. Borga has no problem absolutely slugging Virgil several times, the closest he has come by far to giving us Different Fight Halme in WWF. He lands organ punishing body shots in the corner and boxes Virgil's ear, but Virgil is a guy who works stiff and Borga leaves openings for return fire. 

Virgil boxes back and it made me want a 2 Cold Scorpio/Virgil match real bad. Virgil hits hard enough that it looks cool when Borga shoulderblocks him to the mat, like even the larger Borga had to earn it. Virgil lands a clothesline full force to Borga's chest, and throws a couple of sick shots to Borga's throat (Borga sells them like a man who just got punched in the throat), and Virgil's standing dropkick has real impact. Both guys hit smashmouth back elbows and Borga ramps up his impact when moving to finish. I haven't seen his flying lariat look better than it looked here, including his matches against Norton and Vader. This was far more effective than having him murder Ricky Ataki before Summerslam. Virgil was a popular guy who looked tough and credible against Borga, while getting murdered by Borga. This really made Borga look like a killer who could withstand 1993 babyface offense to land his own big shots. They had Jannetty take down Bastion Booger in a few credible ways, really gave a nice lowkey build to what is probably the least important match at Summerslam. But damn if I'm not more excited to see Borga/Jannetty. 

Ludvig Borga vs. PJ Walker WWF Superstars 9/18/93 - VERY GOOD

ER: Total asskicking, great squash, a perfect highlight reel of Borga's best offense, and a great reason why PJ Walker was a full time employee a year later. Walker takes two minutes of hard punishment, and Borga gets to sneer and show off. He starts by lifting Walker into the air with a choke, hits a sick headbutt upon releasing the choke, then starts the body shots. Borga has awesome body shots and here he got to throw off some footwork, give Walker an unexpected left to the body after faking right, then whip him hard into the turnbuckles after softening up his insides. He hits a great vertical suplex after holding Walker up for 10 seconds, then leaps as high as possible on his standing elbowdrop. His elbowdrop is so it it even makes Macho Man exclaim that it's higher than he lands on HIS elbowdrop, and Macho Man was never in the business of praising heels. Walker leans into Borga's big flying clothesline and turns on the landing, making it look like a nice rag doll layout. Borga's specific kind of heel offense is ahead of its time and behind the times, but I don't think it was appreciated enough in 1993. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LUDVIG BORGA

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WWF Summerslam 8/30/93

Ted Dibiase vs. Razor Ramon

ER: I have been watching through a lot of 1993 TV, really enjoying the 2+ month build to Summerslam, but when the show finally got here I wasn't actually sure what would open the PPV. I haven't seen this show in a couple decades (shout out for the millionth time to New Release Video and their excellent pro wrestling selection growing up), and I love how little I remember about the actual card. This makes sense as an opener when you look at everything else on the card that needs to take place, so starting with a popular guy like Razor makes sense, and when Razor comes out in his outstanding hot pink gear it's clear they made the correct choice.

Razor was one of the most over guys of 1993, but when you step back and look at his last 6 months it was kind of a miracle. 1. He has the most unnecessary WrestleMania match, short, and with Bob Backlund throwing off his timing. 2. He loses to the Kid, then loses 10 grand to the Kid, then gets made fun of by another heel for both losing and getting outsmarted out of money by the Kid (properly setting up this very match). 3. He loses in the first round at King of the Ring, and while it was a great match against the eventual winner, it's still Razor not on a PPV past the 20 minute mark. He got over by his sheer This Is Very Cool for 1993 charisma, and that is cool. So here he is again, opening a PPV. Dibiase isn't totally the best in ring match for Razor, but it gives him a larger opponent, and that means people are actually seeing his offense hit against someone with size. Dibiase lands heavy on bumps, so while Razor's offense looks cool when a smaller guy is bumping around the ring for him, here he got to look like he was muscling around someone substantial. It's a fun slugfest, and they ran into each other in satisfying ways. Dibiase took a big bump over the top from a lariat, and puts Razor down with a very convincing sleeper. Everything in this felt honest, but it wasn't quite the pace or explosiveness the crowd wanted to see. But it built to the finish the fans wanted to see, with Razor planting Dibiase with the Razor's Edge after Dibiase was run into the turnbuckle (after removing the pad himself). I really liked this Edge too, as Razor really had to work to get Dibiase up in a crucifix, and Dibiase was excellent at selling panic while getting hoisted. So even though it took Razor a bit to get him up there, Dibiase made it look like it was because he was struggling to get out of it, really made the finish. Three days later, Dibiase would win the All Japan tag titles with Stan Hansen, and a couple months after that he would be retired. 

Heavenly Bodies vs. Steiner Brothers

ER: This was the match I most remembered from my video store rental, a super exciting 1993 WWF tag match (a year not really known at all for WWF tag wrestling), featuring a team I was completely unfamiliar with. If you were not watching the TV right before Summerslam, the Bodies literally debuted just a few weeks prior, and barely got any real showcases while getting thrown immediately into a PPV title match. It really does not feel like a thing WWE would do with a team today, and that's cool. The match ages like something that felt really great in 1993, and still has a ton going for it. This match feels like a modern AEW match that would get a lot of stars, playing out as a 10 minute sprint with a ton of moves. A ton of the moves were cool, but there were also a ton of hitches and gaffes, guys going up for suplexes too early or getting crossed up but running through with a move anyway. So exactly like an AEW tag, really. Bodies jump the Steiners before the bell and run a cool stretch where they keep knocking Scott to the floor while double teaming Rick. The double teams all look vaguely dangerous, like everybody is too hopped up and the timing is slightly off. Rick leaps into a double vertical suplex before either Body is suplexing him, then they shoot him into the ropes for a double flapjack but he fights it the whole way down to make it a backdrop (instead it looks like a flapjack that splats him right on the shoulder). But Scott can't be kept on the floor for long and is soon back in, leading to Steiners throwing both Bodies around, and it's always fun when Steiners throw people around. Bodies roll to the floor after getting thrown, and upon reentering the ring they get completely worked over again. Prichard gets press slammed, Del Ray gets backdropped, both eat Steiner lines, both eat atomic drops, and this was really looking like it was going to be an easy Steiners win. 

I loved how the Bodies took control, with Del Ray leapfrogging Scott and Prichard nailing him with a bulldog once he ducked. It gave us a nice Bodies control segment on Scott (which really should have been longer), with Del Ray hitting a cannonball off the apron, then his 'round the world DDT and a superkick in ring. But almost immediately after, Scott launches Del Ray after another DDT attempt, launches Prichard with a double arm suplex, and then Rick is back hitting Steiner lines on everyone. Bodies took some real punishment in this match, with hardly any recovery time. Del Ray is out here taking the top rope bulldog, takes a wild powerslam from Rick (he took Scott's tilt a whirl slam earlier while looking like he knew he might die), then took the Frankensteiner at the finish. I'm not sure you can find a 1993 WWF match that contained more moves performed per minute, and that is the kind of thing that would stand out and get star ratings in 90s American wrestling. It would have really benefitted from some breath, as this was as go go go as you can get and was filled with moves you really weren't seeing from anyone else on TV. Now that every single popular indy and AEW tag match is formatted exactly like this match, it doesn't come off as special. I would have liked to see a follow up match on Raw, see how they worked a match that wasn't a sprint in front of the Steiners' hometown crowd. But if you're into seeing a ton of cool moves thrown out in an economic runtime, you can't really miss with this match. 

Shawn Michaels vs. Mr. Perfect

ER: Champ enters first, which is something that always feels wrong to me, and it curses the first part of the match. Because this is a match with a mostly bad first half and a mostly great second half. I kinda hated the start of this, with a bunch of mapped out running exchanges that played too mapped out. A lot of leapfrogs and missed clotheslines and a couple of quick rope running moves where you couldn't really tell who was taking the move and who was delivering it. It looked like a couple of yarders doing a move for move reproduction of a better match they had seen. There was just too much disconnect and it felt too much like the horse shit Michaels wants to see from Adam Cole and Johnny Gargano. 

The match got good when Michaels started working over Perfect's back. Michaels dropped elbows and whipped Perfect into the turnbuckles a couple times, and Perfect took really painful violent looking bumps getting flung into those turnbuckles. It built to an exciting comeback (with Perfect's back perfect again, oh well) where Michaels' bumps felt much more connected to what Perfect was delivering. There was some nice timing on a big explosive Perfect dropkick that Michaels bumped on his shoulders, and he did a fun pirouette bump for an atomic drop. Michaels also had some strong super late kickouts, tricking the fans at least 3 different times that they were seeing a title change. The finish was pretty weak, as Perfect hits the Perfect Plex but Diesel just drags him out of the ring. Perfect actually lands punches and knocks Diesel's sunglasses off (Heenan: "Perfect is hitting a man with glasses!!"), and catches Michaels with a punch when he tries to get involved. Diesel had been around a long time as Shawn's heavy, and this was the first time anyone really landed a punch on him. But Perfect lost by a count out, which means that Earl Hebner somehow missed every single thing that happened over the prior 10 seconds, somehow counting Perfect out while also not noticing that he was in a fight with Diesel. That's just lazy and makes everyone look like an idiot. 

IRS vs. 1-2-3 Kid

ER: 1-2-3 Kid's eyebrows have finally grown back and he looks so much more normal. But this match is one of the most baffling decisions of 1993. This sounds like an extreme comparison, but just as the sudden Luger face turn really fucked up a ton of much better 1993 plans, having IRS beat Kid on his first PPV appearance feels insane to me. Who could have possibly thought this was a good decision? They had booked his arc perfectly up to this point, getting him real grassroots reactions and chants from crowds. This match felt like the exact 100% correct match to be having, right up until the moment that IRS quickly and easily pinned Kid. Kid got to do his crowd pleasing audience in front of his biggest crowd, against a large opponent, and it was going great. He hit a couple of different spin kicks and was good at avoiding IRS's offense...until getting knocked silly to the floor. IRS is good at knocking Kid down, and Kid is good at finding fun ways to come back. IRS hit a predictable chinlock and we all knew Kid would start to break it once the 1-2-3 chants started. Those started 10 seconds in, Kid fought out of it. Again, everything was going exactly as planned. 

Kid hits his moonsault press, which beat Razor Ramon, but IRS kicks out. Kid immediately ties him up with a majistral cradle, which beat Ted Dibiase, but IRS kicks out. Kid throws a spin kick, IRS catches it, and Kid throws his knee right into IRS's face. IRS kicks out of THAT! And then, they get up, IRS jumps over a dropdown, and then hits his big lariat for the cleanest possible victory. Of all people, they had IRS kick out of both moves that earned Kid his two big TV victories, withstanding more damage than any Kid opponent so far. And then he just gets up and hits his finish! Money Inc was over, Dibiase was gone, and they have Kid - the guy getting bigger and bigger organic reactions with every TV appearance - lose to IRS in his first PPV match. I am actually shocked. Kid beating IRS at Summerslam was literally the most easy to pick result on the entire card...and it didn't happen. I have absolutely zero clue why it did not happen. 

Bret Hart vs. Jerry The King Lawler/Doink

ER: This was a tremendous segment. Lawler comes out on crutches with his left knee heavily wrapped with a hot water bottle. He runs down Detroit's auto industry by talking about how beat up his rent-a-limo was due to the lackluster Detroit auto quality control, how he got into a bad accident and had to crawl through the flames, how he hopped on one leg to get to the arena to gallantly face Bret Hart. And there is nothing more IN THIS WORLD that Lawler wants, than to get into that ring and face down Bret Hart with just one leg. But these damn doctors refuse to clear him to compete, even though - again - there is nothing he wants more than to take Bret down a peg or two. Alas, as he cannot compete with this leg, no matter what his heart says. So, in his proxy, he has chosen Doink as Bret's new opponent. This was a really well done Memphis bait and switch, giving the babyface an opponent that he hasn't been preparing for. It was a great way to get Doink into a surprise spot on the PPV (along with Crush and Duggan, he would have felt like the biggest snub from the card), and it was the only look we ever got at the naturally great pairing of Bret and Doink. It's criminal we didn't actually get a TV feud between them

They have a great 10 minute match, Hart throwing some of his greatest worked strikes, and Doink putting in an excellent physical performance with some great cut off spots. It's a physical match and both guys are so good at a physical but theatrical style, throwing excellent worked punches and great stomps to the face. Doink comes out smoking a cigar, carrying a couple of buckets. He throws one bucket of confetti on some kids, trying to scare them like an evil Harlem Globetrotter. Then he throws an actual bucket of water on Bruce Hart (sitting ringside with Owen) and Bruce does a real great "hold me back" crazed fight eyes reaction. Doink turns right around into a great Bret right hand and then proceeds to stumble around ringside and the ring while taking punches and losing grease paint. He eats a big clothesline and gets crotched on the top rope, and he's really vicious when Lawler's distraction leads to his sneak attack takeover. He throws Hart into the ring steps and hits a knee breaker, rams his knee into the ringpost, even working Bret's leg over with a nasty stump puller. Doink lands ass to knees on a Whoopee Cushion and Hart goes into kill mode. Hart hits some of his best ever downward strike elbows, including a Bret highlight reel worthy 2nd rope version. Bret locks in the sharpshooter with his back perfectly turned to Lawler, and Lawler breaks one of his crutches over the back of Hart's head, hopping around on his perfectly fine knee. I really loved this era of Memphis style invading Vince's style. 

Now Lawler takes the match over for Doink, but the beaten down Bret surprises Lawler with awesome punches. Lawler soon cheats to transition, and works a great long stretch of sneaking nasty crutch shots into Bret's throat behind the ref's back. He works a long slow drama out of these crutch shots, with Bret staggering to all sides of the ring. And they kept cutting to Owen in the crowd reading these terrible lines like "Beat his behind, Bret!" in his screeching, cracked voice copy while wearing loose leather pants tucked into cowboy boots. Lawler soaks up boos while throwing the most disgusting crutch shots to Bret's throat. It's a great bunch of bullshit and a perfect way for a smug heel to work a match he was forced to participate in. The only weak portion of the entire half hour segment, was when Hart makes a comeback with a low mule kick. I don't really like the idea of Hart coming back with a kick to the balls, but even worse was the kick not connecting. Hart was offline and it came off clunky, clearly hitting Lawler in the leg. But the Hart offense it *lead* to was fantastic. Hart's punches rocked Lawler in the corner (Lawler is the best in wrestling history at selling punches in the corner, falling all over the ropes while using them to prop himself up), he hit a high backdrop and hard backbreaker, STUCK Lawler on a piledriver, and hit a middle rope elbowdrop as fine as any fistdrop Lawler threw in his career. The finish wraps things up a little too easily, with Bret basically just tapping him in the middle with a sharpshooter with no real fight. Now, we did get a great post-match twist, as Hart refused to break the sharpshooter and got his win reversed to a Lawler DQ win. I think that's a tremendous bit of horse shit, giving Lawler more trash to talk as he remains the true king of WWF. 

Ludvig Borga vs. Marty Jannetty

ER: There's a huge sign right on hard camera that says "Lardwig's Hate Section!" I honestly don't know how Borga could have made a big enough impact at this point to even HAVE a hate section. He had a handful of weekend squash matches, but no Raw matches. There were a couple of Borga vignettes that played on Raw, highlights from his squash matches played over the Finnish national anthem. On this very PPV he had a previously taped promo, walking around the rubble of a bad Michigan neighborhood while listing some reasons America is terrible, and none of his points were really wrong. But, he's got a hate section, and they think he's fat. Marty Jannetty is dressed like cocaine. 

And this is one of the most one-sided squash matches to ever make it onto PPV. Marty Jannetty went from winning the IC title three months earlier on Raw, to getting wrecked on PPV for 5 minutes and losing so definitively that you'd think Jannetty was being disappeared. Borga went right at Jannetty's ribs with body blows (with Jannetty doing these almost silly bunny hops that feel too disconnected from the punches "lifting him off his feet") and kept leveling him with stiff arm clotheslines, even tosses him WAY up into the air with a sky high flapjack, uppercutting Jannetty in the stomach on his way down. This is so completely one-sided that the crowd seems audibly confused, waiting for a Jannetty comeback that was never going to come. This is all about Borga punching Jannetty in the ribs, clubbing him in the back, and knocking him down with lariats. Borga misses a great avalanche (landing fast, chest first into the top buckle) to give Marty and opening, but then literally turns around and just lariats Jannetty coming back off the ropes. This had to be Vince punishing Jannetty, right? Jannetty's only real offense in the match looks great, two superkicks that Borga takes to the throat, excellently timed, and Borga sells like a dumb Bond villain henchman trying to let the table know he was choking (in other words, an excellent way to sell two superkicks to the throat). But he catches Jannetty's crossbody and drops him with a powerslam, then - gets this - lifts Jannetty off the match and finishes things EASILY with a nice torture rack. Brutal loss for Jannetty, no idea how you even begin to rehab your character after a loss like this. Even though it's not mentioned on commentary, I wonder if the Borga torture rack is being subtly used as a way for Borga to challenge Luger next (even though Luger hasn't really used the torture rack in WWF at this point in time).

The Undertaker vs. Giant Gonzalez

ER: I really do love that they spent literally 3 months hyping this match as a Rest In Peace match, without ever ONCE defining what a Rest In Peace match is. They hinted that they were going to, Mean Gene said we'd be finding out, but at no point in any of the build up to this match and at no point in the match itself do we ever find out what makes this a Rest In Peace match. 1993 still had a lot more connection to the carny days, and blindly billing a match as a Rest In Peace match is like a drive-in poster billing some shitty horror movie as "The bloodiest movie you will EVER see!" And I miss that carny connection that is in hindsight so much more wholesome than our current Modern Social Brand Discussing Their User Interactions. 

The Giant Gonzalez fur suit was a Great Thing. It was really off-putting when I was 12. Maybe it made every puberty-bound 12 year old watching at the time uncomfortable too and that's why everyone thought it was terrible. Except now the fur suit is so clearly the 100% correct choice for his ring gear that it's insane that the gear wasn't universally praised at the time. Wrestling needs freaks, and the tallest wrestler ever wearing a flesh colored muscle suit kicked insane amounts of ass. Big Show has spent his entire career looking like the Most Normal Giant, and it is an indisputable fact that Big Show - during literally any portion of his career - would have been better wearing this exact same fur suit. You cannot argue against that point. Instead we mostly got him cracking jokes while wearing Kirkland Signature jeans and comfortable white New Balance walkers. 

Also, WWF never understood how to film Gonzalez, the Easiest Pro Wrestler to Film. They ALWAYS film Gonzalez for underneath, the way they film guys to make them look bigger. They were so in their heads, so used to making 6'6" guys look 6'10" filming them underneath, that they flush the easiest slam dunk of Giant Gonzalez's run. The key to filming Gonzalez is simple: Just show him from far back. When you zoom in close on Gonzalez, it looks exactly like a zoomed up shot of me, a person 1/3 the size of Giant Gonzalez. You need to film him from far away, so viewers can see how large he is compared to every single thing around him. It's such an easy thing to understand, and they never understood it. You need to film him flat footed, dead on, to show how much taller he is than the tallest person near him, to show how tall his is when standing on the floor next to the ring. Once you see him towering over the crowd as he walks to the ring, it's a tough visual to forget. Stunning how not one person in the production truck ever figured this out. 

The Rest In Peace match was very similar, it turns out, to the other Undertaker/Giant Gonzalez matches, and it really showed that Gonzalez would have been an actual successful wrestling giant if he had just learned to throw decent downward clubbing arms. If you are an 8 foot tall man in a fight, you will be primarily throwing downward clubbing arms. Gonzalez never learned how to make his connect. If he learned to make a little sound with those clubbing arms it really would have added a lot to his limited offense. The size difference between Gonzalez and Undertaker will always be impressive to me, just dwarfing a very large man. The match is mostly Gonzalez clubbing and choking Undertaker until Paul Bearer makes his big return. The Bearer return is handled great, he runs through Wippleman with a clothesline and gets the urn back, and Undertaker regains his powers, hits several very soft clotheslines and a nice throat thrust, then wins with a clothesline off the top (because there was zero chance anybody was ever going to try to hit any kind of piledriver on Gonzalez). The fans reacted big for the Paul Bearer return and actually jumped to their feet when Gonzalez finally got knocked on his back, and that's really all you want from a big match like this. One of the all time great Rest In Peace matches we have on tape. 

Tatanka/Smoking Gunns vs. Bam Bam Bigelow/The Headshrinkers

ER: Great six man that really showed off the chemistry of the two pairings, and it's kind of crazy they didn't continue running this trios around the house show circuit. We have several Tatanka/Bam Bam matches and we know their chemistry is real, but this was a great use of all six guys. Bigelow has the best shape in wrestling history, and he looks big and awesome here. He works quick exchanges with Tatanka that are nearly identical to their house show exchanges, although the crowd here reacts quieter to them than on any of their house show matches (especially shocked at the quiet reaction for Bigelow cutting off the war dance with an enziguiri, which is a great spot). But the fans are into the match, really into Tatanka, and again everyone is used well. Gunns are able to come in and work either quick takedown spots (lariats or bulldogs) or leave the ring quickly (like a nice Bart pescado or Bigelow hitting a fucking BEAST of a lariat to break Billy's body over the top to the floor). Billy looked really good while using all his cool rodeo offense, like the hooking bulldog lariat or the guillotine takedown, and Fatu had the best possible timing on all of his thrust kicks, knowing exactly the right moment to stop an advancing Gunn. I also loved every single Head Shrinker headbutt, and the Gunns were excellent at whipping themselves into the mat at the exact right time to make them look devastating. The finish is fun, with the heels all nailing standing headbutts on Tatanka, but then missing on all three of their top rope headbutts, leaving Samu to be rolled up by Tatanka. Perfect kind of house show pleaser multiman. 

Yokozuna vs. Lex Luger

ER: This is a good match, sometimes a very good match, and briefly a great match. And it's a really interesting science experiment if you focus on the things fans are really reacting to. Because based on the reactions for the bulk of this match it is difficult to see the Proud American Lex Luger decision as anything but an early call disaster. Because the fans in Michigan react louder to all of Yokozuna's offense, and all of Yokozuna's missed offense, than almost anything Luger hits. Even more notably, the crowd is quiet on every single one of Luger's kickouts. There were several moments where it looked like Yokozuna would be walking away with this one, and the crowd just did not react to Luger NOT losing. Macho Man has been decked head to toe in the American flag for two months, Luger has been driving around the United States in an American flag bus for two months, and this crowd does not sound like a crowd who cares about Luger winning the title. Perhaps the most dire omen for Luger's Proud American run is that there isn't even a USA chant we're 15 minutes into the match. How insane is that?? This match has been built ENTIRELY on the fact that Lex Luger is an American and Yokozuna is, for all intents and purposes, not.

And this crowd couldn't even bother to chant USA until Luger was trapped in a nerve hold, DEEP into America's triumphant war with the Japanese. And it was pretty clear that a lot of that was because Luger didn't do anything to play up his babyface status. I will never understand WWF's strategy of suddenly turning Luger babyface, and then never having him wrestle as a babyface to get the crowd used to this sudden hero's mannerisms. They just did not react to Luger here, and it's weird to not hear a crowd get excited when Yokozuna's big belly to belly and legdrop gets kicked out of. 

When you think of literally EVERY other babyface on this roster, who was winning TV matches, and picture them in Lex Luger's exact same position, it's difficult to imagine ANY of them getting the quiet reaction Luger gets here. Duggan and Crush got sustained loud noise for the duration of their good matches against Yokozuna. There is no doubt either of them would have gotten even louder reactions challenging for the title on PPV. But Tatanka, Razor Ramon, Bret Hart, the Undertaker, all would have gotten the crowd more interested than Luger did here. I'm convinced Virgil could have gotten more noise, as Virgil new more tricks than Luger at getting good babyface reactions. Honestly, if they would have let 1-2-3 Kid beat IRS clean with an actual finisher instead of making the braindead decision to already beat Kid, they EASILY could have built to an excellent 1-2-3 Kid/Yokozuna title match at Survivor Series. 

They give Kid a good win over IRS, no schoolboy rollups, but let the fucking Kid beat the 2nd member of a tag team who isn't going to have any more matches together. He beats IRS with an earned finish, actually putting him down, and then in a few weeks you give him a strong Raw match against Bastion Booger. You show he can beat big guys. Then the next month you give him a good 10 minute Raw match against Doink and you have him beat Doink. You set up the WWF's "smallest" guy vs. Yokozuna, a real Rocky situation. Yet for some reason they instead treated Luger like HE was Rocky against Yokozuna! How idiotic is that? 1-2-3 Kid would have been an excellent Rocky, and him lasting against Yokozuna would be an actual feat that would grow his legend. But Luger is the man presented as having *the best chance* at beating Yokozuna! He's not Rocky, he's America's Greatest Hope. 

This match has to be considered one of the biggest failures of the 90s, a campaign that completely fucked up the trajectory of what had been an excellent and well-balance mix of over babyfaces and heels. Luger immediately clogged up the progression of everyone else. There was a natural way to turn Luger babyface, but it would have taken until 1994, and Vince panicked. 

The actual finish of this match is spectacular, a well peaked moment of excellent timing from several people, and the only time the match got the reaction it deserved. Fuji gets accidentally hit with the salt bucket, Cornette causes a distraction, Luger pulls off the protective arm band and wallops Yokozuna with a killer forearm, Yokozuna takes the incredible King Hippo bump through the ropes to the floor for the KO....and then Jim Cornette makes Luger look like the biggest dummy in the world by getting on the apron to stall for time and eat a punch (bumping big to the floor in the process), delaying Luger long enough to get Yokozuna counted out. Lex Luger not winning the title, and yet still getting an in-ring celebration COMPLETE WITH BALLOON DROP is one of the ultimate neutering moves in pro wrestling history. Having a balloon drop to celebrate winning the popular vote is about as cool as slipping in a massive pile of shit and then taking a victory lap around the block because you didn't tear your rotator cuff after everybody saw you fall into that pile of shit. 

It would go down as one of the strongest contenders for saddest and most pathetic ways for a babyface to finish a PPV...and it somehow only gets worse. After cutting to an incredibly long Lex Luger victory music video - which is really laying it on thick to an audience who is being goaded into celebrating a man who didn't complete his stated task IN HIS ONLY CHANCE - we cut to Luger celebrating backstage. Luger is celebrating with Randy Savage, the Steiners, and Tatanka (who all would have gotten the crowd more involved in their hypothetical main event PPV match against Yokozuna) and Luger proceeds to give the flattest concession speech. He really goes into "what an honor it was to perform for the great Michigan fans and represent his country" and manages to sound more and more like a loser the longer he speaks. 

And then Ludvig Borga shows up and immediately comes off like the coolest fucking gunslinger in this piece of shit town. Borga steps right up to Lex Luger's face, surrounded by Randy Savage, Tatanka, and the Steiners, and tells Luger what a fucking loser he is, tells him how shitty America is, and tells Luger he is going to destroy Luger until he represents the crumbling infrastructure of the shittiest parts of the Failed State of America. 

And nobody does a single fucking thing. Borga runs down their accomplishments, their upbringing, their country, and their identity, and then he walks out of the room with all of their dicks tucked into his jorts pocket. I can only assume the cameras cut away because Borga was seconds away from shitting on their couch while none of them made a single step toward stopping him. Luger did NOT win the title for America, in his only chance to do so. And then the most foreign man on the roster just waltzed into his locker room minutes later, proceeded to rub Luger's nose into every single one of his failures, and then just walked out without a scratch. 

I am not sure I have ever been more shocked by the finish of a PPV. Proud American Lex Luger had absolutely NO chance.

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And When You Bite Me Borga, Love is Hurting

Ludvig Borga vs. Mike Khoury WWF Superstars 8/14/93 - FUN

ER: This was the longest WWF squash so far in Borga's short WWF run, and it was a good showcase for a cool set of offense. His first two matches had great spots but did feel rushed, and this was him taking his time and putting a couple extra big slams into the rotation. This is also the most comfortable and cocky he's looked in a WWF ring, and was getting good at spending time smirking at the camera and scowling at the crowd. His big flying clotheslines connected, and he powered Khoury into a couple of lifts that looked good with Khoury's extra mid section. It still hasn't been explained to any of us why we're supposed to hate this guy, other than he is from a country that is not the United States. Borga does not have, in any way, the kind of face someone should ever cheer for. But we don't know why he's a bad guy, and despite being told he's a bad guy he is still someone who has totally wrecked three different men on weekend television at this point. He is a threat, and seems to know it. We have not seen him on Raw yet, though we have seen a video package on him, comprised entirely of every spot from his first two matches. On this episode of Superstars they formally announced his debut PPV match, against Marty Jannetty. Tough draw for Marty, as he has been moved deep down the card ever since losing the IC title on a house show. Jannetty is part of a genuinely strong IC title scene, as he, Tatanka, Bigelow, Perfect, Razor, and even Doink feel like strong IC title contenders. Jannetty is going to get leveled by Borga, but it doesn't have to knock him out of the IC title picture. I think a big strength of 1993 WWF is how well the keep several active contenders within all of the hierarchies. There were mistakes in who got what shot, but keeping this many balls juggling makes for good television.  

Ludvig Borga vs. Bert Centeno WWF Wrestling Challenge 8/22/93 - FUN

ER: We get our first actual Borga promo, an inset promo that plays during his match, with him talking about crushing Marty Jannetty in the squared circle. I think it's the first time we got to hear Borga's voice and see his signature raised eyebrow that all the most popular wrestlers in the 90s used. I really loved him in this match, as he stalked quickly out to the ring just like in his prior matches, walked straight at Centeno, shoved him into the corner, then landed one hard right underneath the ribcage to drop him. I would have given this match 5 stars if that had been the finish. Instead, Borga lifts Centeno back up and hits him with a hard left under the ribcage (5 star rating still would have been awarded had that been the finish), and then whips him hard a couple times into the turnbuckles, nailing him with a nice clothesline. Borga really gets into it with a couple fans in the front row waving their USA flags, menacingly pointing at a woman right after hitting Centeno with a headbutt. This was a pretty simple Borga squash to build him up for Summerslam, but he showed the most in-ring personality that we've seen from him in WWF so far so I think it did the job. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LUDVIG BORGA

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It's Maybe Cold Outside, But in Ludvig Borga the Fire is Burning

Ludvig Borga vs. Tony DiMauro WWF Superstars 7/24/93 - VERY GOOD

ER: This was Borga's WWF debut, and he shows up with no hype whatsoever. There's mention of his debut at the beginning of the show, and when it's time for his match he's just described as a new wrestler from Helsinki. There was no inset interview, no coming soon videos, not even his name on the entrance screen; just Borga coming out and Vince telling the TV audience that he's from Helsinki. They do the exact same thing to the Quebecers on this same episode, debuting them with no features or word that The Mountie was coming back with a chubby friend. I'm pretty sure I couldn't have told you too much about Finland when I was 12, and I'm not sure how it related to pro wrestling or why it was important. But this was a great debut, and it's kind of cool how it came with no warning. DiMauro doesn't get an introduction, because Borga fast walks to the ring and without slowing down storms up behind DiMauro and deadlifts him into a hard back suplex. DiMauro is a big guy with a good build, and it's smart to debut Borga against a big guy, as it just made him look more badass quickly demolishing this guy. He is efficient and violent, hits a hard back elbow and a truly great headbutt (one of the finest I've seen hit in WWF), swings hard for DiMauro's head on a missed clothesline, really comes off like a monster. He also misses a fast avalanche and takes a fast bump on a DiMauro clothesline, which felt like a generous thing to do in his debut. But, then he absolutely wastes DiMauro with a diving clothesline, capping off a super explosive debut. 

Ludvig Borga vs. Jason Headings WWF Wrestling Challenge 7/25/93 - FUN

ER: I don't know who Jason Headings is, but he certainly earned his keep here. Borga would have been a total stranger to this crowd, but it's kind of cool to give a guy two weekend showcase squashes with no prior TV build, kids at home watching a giant angry faced Finnish man on Saturday, then seeing the same guy wreck someone else on Sunday. Borga does this great thing where he storms out and immediately goes after his opponent, not waiting for the bell. He lifts Headings up by the throat and drops him flat, clubs him, then picks him up in a vertical suplex and holds it for at least 15 seconds. Headings lands a stiff lariat that doesn't budge Borga, and when Headings gives it another shot he gets folded in half by a Borga clothesline. The bump looked like it surprised Headings more than anyone else, as he was clearly going to do a folding bump off the clothesline, but I don't think he was expecting Borga to hit him so hard, so his momentum got carried in an unexpected way. It's not like Borga swung for the fences, but he really hooked him and the fold looked awesome. Borga DOES swing for the fences on his next clothesline, but it is meant to miss (luckily Headings ducked), but Borga turns around and hits his flying clothesline for the quick win. If I was a kid and saw these two Borga squashes on back to back days, I would have immediately thought this guy was a main event threat. Curious to see how they handle him on Raw.  

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LUDVIG BORGA

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New Footage Friday: FINLAY!! MUTOH! 2 COLD!! RAMBO! BORGA!!

CWA Euro Catch Festival 12/16/95

2 Cold Scorpio vs. Danny Collins

PAS: This was a pretty basic mid 90s juniors match. There were a couple of nifty flourishes by both guys,  Collins had a nifty jumping rana and I always love Scorpio's standing flip leg drop. Still I thought most of this was relatively dull, I think I would still like high end 90s juniors matches, but the average ones are really not my speed. Always happy to get more Scorp footage, but this was mostly skippable.

MD: I'm a little bit higher on this than Phil, but just a bit. Collins got good effort marks at least, and had a lot of stuff, even if his ambition was sometimes bigger than his prowess. Scorpio was a natural in front of this crowd, coming out to his Slam Jam theme, dancing to Can't Touch This between rounds, etc. He was great at mixing his fighting from underneath with his selling, garnering both sympathy and admiration, but there's nothing new there. It's always nice to see it in a different setting. There were some stuff that felt off, both in Collins' execution, but also an arm drag or two that felt like they came way too late in the match. It was fine.


Ice Train vs. Big Titan

PAS: This was pretty fun, I am surprised that Ice Train never really went anywhere. He is big, agile and hit hard. I feel like he just got caught up in the churn of WCW, with too many guys under contract. Feels like the WWF might have been able to do something with him. I would have liked to see this run back a couple of years later with Big Titan as fake Diesel.  I especially liked Train's big second rope shoulder block, and Titan had a nice stiff clothesline.

MD: On a show with a number of big guys, Titan worked kind of small here, getting off his feet a lot on offense. I've heard him complain he was frustrated having to work like Diesel in the WWF because it neutered a lot of what he liked to do. I don't think it'd always have worked, but it did make for a nice contrast with Ice Train here. Train was still very green but charismatic with a couple of big memorable spots and a good act. I think he would have really done well ten years later, towards the end of the territories where he could go into a place for a few weeks as a special attraction tag team partner and move on before the act got stale.

ER: This was fine, but served more as proof that WCW really figured out how to present Ice Train. Ice Train matches in WCW were always 4-6 minute power sprints, so you got a big powerslam, big chops, big shoulderblocks, and then got the hell out of there. Here you see what happens with 10 minutes, and it's mostly Big Titan holding cravates and chinlocks. But this was fine! Because we also got a couple of great big man vertical suplexes, a couple of Train's big flying shoulder tackles, a beast of a standing lariat from Train, big missed splash from Titan, and Titan *did* have a nice cravat. I love the cravat variation of just pressing both palms against one side of a guy's head, rather than one hand twisting the chin. Here Titan just mashed palms into the left side of Ice Train's head, really introducing Train's right ear to his shoulder. Ice Train is a real heavy lander, one of the heaviest, and it rules. Other guys are bigger, but Ice Train lands with such weight that it really makes simple things like a standing splash or legdrop look colossal. And I also just realized that while Big E has the best standing splash of modern wrestlers, Ice Train probably had the best of his era. Big E is really working a spiritual Ice Train successor gimmick and that somehow makes me like both of them more.

Kama vs. Viktor Kruger

PAS: I thought this was a fine CWA heavyweight match. I am surprised that I liked Kama more than Kruger in this match. Kruger seemed a bit off, and Kama had a nice taped up right hand, and wins with a great looking huge spinebuster. I think I am more into C- heavyweight matches, then C- juniors matches like Scorp vs. Collins.

MD: Pre-match Kama came off like more of a star than he ever had in his career with any of his characters. He rode in on the back of a motorcycle to Thunderstruck and looked jacked (gassed?) to the gills. He juts seemed larger than life. The first minute or so worked out too, with him bumping around a bit. I think the reality of his bulk caught up to him after that, however. Kruger was disappointing. For a guy who clapped so much on the way to the ring, he really didn't seem to have any idea how to engage the crowd when working out of holds, and this match needed that badly.

ER: This was a pretty dull match with a very fun first 1 and final 3 minutes. Putting the best stuff in the first and final minutes at least makes it feel like a better waste of time, and saving big moments for the end is a smart structure for guys without a ton of big moments in them. I always forget how big Kruger is, as Kama is a huge man and Kruger matched him for size, basically Mike Awesome without any actual highspots. Kama routinely has heavyweight "pulling" matches, which are a time filler kind of heavyweight match that revolves around each guy just kind of pulling the other guy into things. Every transition is some variation of "okay I'm in the corner, now I'm going to pull you into the corner and now I am out of the corner, throwing slow punches at you, and then you kinda pull me into the corner and do the same" and you end up with a couple of giants just hitting soft shots and tugging each other around the ring for 10 minutes. But I loved Kama bumping for Kruger's shoulderblocks to start, and the big stuff down the stretch plays great: Kama's big Vader bomb into knees, Kruger's fantastic full steam lariat that sends Kama over the top to the floor, and Kama's high rotation spinebuster finish.

August Smisl/Tony St. Clair vs. Cannonball Grizzly/John Hawk

MD: The more I see Grizzly in these matches, the more I like him. He's a superheavyweight heel with a couple of good power spots that engages the crowd and that can go chickenshit and work vulnerable. That's one of my sweet spots if it works as a contrast to other things going on and here it absolutely did. This hit a lot of marks. Grizzly and Hawk controlled the ring well enough with plenty of cheating. St. Clair was fiery on the outside to screw his partner by distracting the ref. For the only tag match on the show, it was lacking a hot tag in the stretch. The first face win was off of a lightning power move reversal. The second one was off of a lightning cross body. There was a hot tag in the middle but so distanced from either of the finishes that it made the whole thing feel anti-climactic. None of the wrestling was bad. It just needed to be organized differently.

Fit Finlay vs. Franz Schuhmann

MD: This was excellent. Finlay was top notch here and Schuhmann was more than game in keeping up with him. Finlay was do-no-wrong beloved here which gave this a face-vs-face star-vs-star feel despite Fit absolutely acting like Fit, wrestling a merciless style and increasingly taking what advantages he could. He had a sort of shrugging charm that won the day. This went seven rounds with round three standing out especially as Finlay just moved from one piece of brutal business to the next, each one with purpose, always keeping the crowd engaged and active. It started with a powerbomb and ended with the reversal of one, telling a mini story within a few minutes. Schuhmann was able to get his revenge in the fourth (though it wasn't quite linear), with Finlay mounting an ambush at the start of the fifth and the two of them going back and forth until the end. The finish, with Fit stopping Schuhmann's momentum by catching him off the ropes and hitting the tombstone he was only able to attempt (and was reversed on) back in the fourth, was made all the better by Finlay waving his arms in elation right before he hit it.

PAS: I loved this too, mid 90s Finlay is pretty close to wrestling perfection and Schuhmann is a great dance partner. Schuhmann has really great looking suplexes, really popping his hips and dumping Finlay on the back of his neck. Finlay was a big bumper at this point too, he just flies over the top rope, and takes all of Schuhmann's moves in painful ways, Schuhmann applies maybe the greatest drop toe hold I have ever seen with Finlay looking like he tore his MCL going down. Of course he is an all time great offensive wrestler too, and we get some of the great Finlay signature spots, knees right to the nose, hard unforgiving bodyslams and an absolutely brutal hard tombstone finish. Rounds match can always be a bit choppy, but the actual wrestling in this match was tremendous.

ER: I honestly don't think there is another wrestler better at execution, illusion of violence, or selling than Fit Finlay. I think Lawler is his best competition, but 90s Finlay especially looks like my exact vision of perfect pro wrestling. This is one of his greatest performances (think of the ground that covers), and it's even better because this also happens to be the greatest performance I've ever seen from Franz Schuhmann. Finlay has this special ability of elevating nearly every opponent to his game, not necesarily working a match around an opponent's strengths, but actually getting his opponents to work up to him. If they don't they'll get left behind by way of cruel beating; if they're game, he rewards them by making their offense look better than ever before. In this match alone Finlay rewards a great dropkick by flying impossibly fast over the top to the floor, takes a bridged German suplex so perfectly that it should be motion captured, and takes a drop toehold and manages to make it look like Jaws was biting through his leg. This match could have been a total flop, and this drop toehold would have made it infinitely memorable. Schuhmann grabbed such a perfect grapevine of that leg, and Finlay sold it in a few nasty stages: Screaming out in anguish as it's applied, buckling a knee while fighting to stay standing, going down hard and grabbing for his leg when he realized his struggle could have injured him further. What a moment. His offense was as great as expected, one of the few men who can make a nerve hold genuinely look like the best way possible to bring a man to his knees in pain, grabbing Schuhmann's trapezius and forcing him to the mat, yanking his head back by the maxilla, and dropping a 12 to 6 elbow right across Schuhmann's nose. It's a classic Finlay sequence, and yet he never makes it look like he's going through any kind of motions. The tombstone Finlay finishes this classic with is one of the greatest I've seen, Finlay joyously catching Schuhmann and dropping hard to his knees, Schuhmann held cruelly at a bent neck angle before being left to flop dead to the mat. This was magic.

Keiji Mutoh vs. Jim Neidhart

MD: I'm not even sure how I'd classify this, maybe as an "overperforming, lost, late Neidhart performance." I really liked his presence here, coming out to Alice Cooper, chumming around with Kauroff, having Mutoh pull his beard, clubbering him on a table on the outside. It got a little hold heavy in the middle (though I was happy to see the Anvilizer, his Summer 1993 WCW finishing Cobra Clutch). This was ultimately more of a Neidhart match than a Mutoh match, though he got some of his stuff in at the end, but I'm not sure it would have worked any other way. Honestly, I think we all would have been better off with Collins/Neidhart vs. Scorpio/Mutoh.

Rambo vs. Ludwig Borga 

MD: Midway through this match (at the point where Rambo outright missed a jumping back elbow), I had the conscious thought "Well, at least Eric is probably going to go out of his way to watch the Finlay match too." This wasn't good. Rambo was more giving than I've seen him in this footage, but it didn't really matter. This had the same sort of dynamic as Finlay vs. Schumann, just with more of a heavyweight "clash of the titans" feel, but couldn't at all follow it. Too much of the crowd was behind Borga and while he laid in the cheapshots and eased into the heel role in the match, he just didn't go far enough with it for what they were trying to do. He neither lost nor excited the portion of the crowd that had been cheering him, so Rambo could only get so much support. It built into a few good nearfalls towards the end but then just sort of ended in a way no one in the crowd would even remember the next day. It probably could have used more violence on the outside as well. It just needed more sharply drawn lines, really just more volume on everything that it tried to do.

ER: I was actually really into this, and perhaps all the HBK tribute acts of all shapes and sizes have just made me more excited for slower paced 90s house show heavyweight style. I thought Borga was great here, really played a brick wall bully who still bumped for bigger Rambo spots. If you looked at the overall match you could think that Borga dominated this one, but there were key moments at the ends of rounds that showed Rambo may have been a victim of bad timing. Borga was much slower getting up at the end of the 2nd and 3rd rounds, the first after attempting to throw Rambo with a suplex while trapped in a headlock, and the second after eating a nice vertical suplex back into the ring. After two straight round breaks of Borga being slow to his feet, it's no surprise that he ends the next two rounds with cheap shots and warnings. You get the sense that Rambo could have beaten him had his timing and placement been a little more fortunate. But Borga's performance elevated this for me, as he works slow bruiser really well, making his strikes really resonate and allowing time for them to be sold. Big Borga hooks to the kidneys or breadbox look devastating, so I love that he doesn't make them useless with overuse, instead landing one big shot at a time, one big punch to the gut, one big downward strike elbow right to Rambo's chest, one big clubbing shot across the shoulder blades, really getting across the power of his strikes.

I liked the way Borga laid out big misses that sometimes later lead to big hits, like a big missed avalanche that gave Rambo an early opening, that we later got to see cashed in when Borga actually hits this big avalanche (getting enough height to also get tangled in the ropes, which made it look like the impact of the avalanche was really drove home); or, when he got brought back in the ring with that vertical suplex, and later walked Rambo over to the same location to give Rambo his own suplex, dropping him hard across the top rope with a front suplex. I even loved how Borga handled Rambo's awkward missed back elbow, as instead of selling it (which I imagine a missed leaping back elbow would almost always lead to both guys lying on the mat figuring out how to recover), Borga immediately drops down and grabs a nice grounded side headlock. Borga also showed tons of weakness on the floor, crashing into a table that gets shoved into the crowd, then eating an awesome ringpost shot (he and Lesnar really show that 100% of the guys who look like them, also take really great post shots), always going down for Rambo's biggest shots. The finish could have been better, as I kept expecting a Rambo final comeback, but instead they just had Rambo die a slow death. But even down the stretch I was into the attention to details from Borga, like his super low swinging missed clothesline, or the specific way he choked Rambo over the bottom rope, or how he just stepped right on Rambo's face as Rambo was trying to get back in the ring. That kind of stuff will always elevate a match for me, and Borga had plenty of that.

PAS: I am sort of in the middle on this match, don't dislike it at much as Matt, but think Eric is pretty severely overrating it. Borga is a guy who is always fun to watch and I will always be down for him bulldozing someone in the corner and unloading those beautiful hooks to the body. I am someone who always loved throwing body shots back in my boxing days, and Borga is really one of the only professional wrestlers ever to make a body shot look great. Rambo was real bad in this though, the best Borga matches have been him going to war with a fellow big hitters like Hashimoto or Vader, Rambo just had nothing on his stuff, and it was tough to watch Borga try to credibly sell for bad looking corner punches or lame bulldogs. He tried his best, but this was a one man show, and as much as I enjoy Borga he isn't pulling off both sides of a match.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE FIT FINLAY

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LUDVIG BORGA

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Coliseum Video Thanksgiving: Inside the WWF 1994

ER: My great buddy Josh is over today for Thanksgiving, Rachel is downstairs slaving away on an incredible feast, and Coliseum Videos are just about Josh's favorite kind of wrestling. So as we awaited our magnificent feast (and my god was it so far beyond epic, full Thanksgiving dinner, all prepped by Rachel, completely unreal that she went through this and nailed it. I don't deserve a damn thing), we decided to pop in this fresh crunchy slab of VHS. He liked the sound of the vignettes on this one, so we tossed it into the Video Cassette Recorder instead of wasting our time watching football. And our first visual is of Bret being caught in the locker room wearing nothing but a towel. Inside the WWF indeed.

Crush vs. Undertaker

ER: I cannot think of a wrestler I ever cared less about than Crush. Every single iteration. I can't at all remember getting excited for a Crush appearance, no matter my age. It's possible that I hated his ombre mullet, without being able to formulate those feelings into words or concrete thoughts. But this is actually kinda decent. Crush hits Taker in the jaw with the edge of a chair, and does an awesome press slam spot, pressing Taker several times before slamming him, Taker misses his crossbody in cool almost Dustin Rhodes fashion, and really it was probably as interesting as it was going to be. Not a bad start.

Razor Ramon/Marty Jannetty vs. Shawn Michaels/Diesel

ER: What a weird commentary duo on this, Stan Lane and Ted Dibiase. Lane does this weird thing where he literally commentates while doing a Vince impression. He tries to make his voice sound exactly like Vince, and what's weird is that he actually DOES sound like Vince. And the match is fun as they start with Diesel/Jannetty which is really smart, as it builds right away to Razor coming in. Michaels pops in occasionally to cockily get a cheap shot and tag out, so mostly we get Diesel dominating Jannetty, and it's great. Diesel drops him with a huge backbreaker and stretches him over his knee, hits a hard big boot, locks in a tight bearhug that Marty is great at selling (even letting out an anguished "OH GOD" during a tight squeeze), and it's such a surprising layout. On paper you'd expect to see Marty and Shawn work most of this, but Diesel is in there for 90% of the match, and it builds to this gigantic Razor hot tag. The hot tag just flat out explodes Razor hits the awesome 360 punch to knock Diesel off the apron, and we get a cool moment where Jannetty drags himself back in to hit a superkick on Shawn, and Razor absolutely plants him with a like a Rock Bottom chokeslam for the pin. This was cool.

Tatanka vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

ER: This is super Tatanka heavy at the beginning, with a bunch of Tatanka offense that only starts by him reversing a Bigelow slam in some way. Like Bam Bam picks hit up in a big slam and eats a DDT. Bam Bam is really great at making Tatanka's offense look good. Tatanka crashes and burns on a big crossbody off the top to allow Bam Bam to take over for the first time. Bammer hits a couple really nice headbutts, with Tatanka selling them really great, like he got socked in the eye. Tatanka rolls to the floor to recover, and "He's been out there since the Eisenhower administration," says Johnny Polo in reference to Tatanka being wrecked on the floor, in a reference that surely seemed dated 25 years ago when this video hit stores. I like Bam Bam a lot here, splatting Tatanka with his butt off a sunset drop, nice powerslam, convincingly jaws with the crowd to give Tatanka his comeback, and damn does he bump HUGE for Tatanka's comeback. He flies so high up into the air for a shoulderblock, like he was a jobber bumping for the Pounce, and he takes this wild bump to the floor on a tomahawk chop, just flying out through the bottom ropes and flying past the apron to the floor really fast. He gets counted out, and then comes in with a pair of scissors to attack to Tatanka, which is an angle I don't remember. Bigelow keeps trying to cut his hair and I don't remember any hair match angles from this era, but Tatanks (accidentally misspelled that but I kinda like Tatanks) gets the scissors and confusedly looks at Bam Bam's smooth dome.......and then grabs Luna's mullet and the crowd goes APE. Earl Hebner runs down and fucking KICKS the scissors out of the hand, and this whole thing took a weird and awesome turn. I dug all of this.

Bret Hart vs. Adam Bomb

ER: There's a white girl with mousey brown hair and braces who flips her lid for Hart's entrance music. Had I known her, that girl would have been my world.  Boy Bryan Clark certainly was a guy who was in professional wrestling for awhile. But a guy like Adam Bomb is a pretty perfect Bret opponent, because all you need is a couple slams and a decent back elbow and Bret would work decently with that. We pepper in a couple cool brief Bret comebacks, like when Bomb goes for a forearm and hits the ringpost. Bomb isn't great, but he's fairly engaging while working the chinlock that leads to Bret's comeback. They zoom in to show Bomb's lizard eye contacts and it hits me that we hadn't got a closeup on those eyes. If I had to put in those uncomfortable fucking contacts and they didn't show me in close up I would be pisssssssssed. Like Sean Astin having to wake up an hour early on the LOTR set to get giant feet glued on, that we would rarely see on film. Hart's comeback is switched up a little: no backbreaker, but still a big Russian leg sweep, misses the elbow off the middle to give a cool tease of a possible Hart loss, overall this was about what you'd expect from a Hart vs. stiff match. But, that's a formula enjoy, a comfortable formula.

Doink vs. Randy Savage

ER: And this is actually pretty great. This is still Matt Borne, who is obviously a really good match up for Savage, and both guys work really hard. Savage takes a few totally unnecessary bumps to the floor, not even doing any moves, just doing planchas to the floor and landing on his feet to show frustration. A lot of this match weirdly happens outside, there's a lot of Savage going after Doink and Doink trying to avoid him, Savage all energy. Borne is great at his character here, and I like that he's hardly laughing like he usually did, just annoying Savage. He misses the Whoopie Cushion which is a tough move to hit and miss, and eats a great Savage lariat to the floor. A second Doink gets involved, crawls under the ring, and sneaks up on Savage and hits a nasty shot right to the back of the his head. Under ring Doink then holds Savage's leg when he spills to the floor, so the original Doink wins by count out. I thought it was a pretty awesome way to do a count out finish and the match structure was really weird, so much time spent outside the ring. Annoyingly, lamely, Savage gets the referee to come back out and check under the ring and gets the match reversed in his favor when they find another Doink. That brought it back more into Coliseum territory.

ER: We get this weird and WONDERFUL 10 second segment with Earthquake, where we just bump into fun, chill, ultra casual Earthquake backstage wearing a windbreaker, who just says "Oh hey guys,   it's your old friend Earthquake, just letting you know that I'm back!" That's weird. I mean it was great, but it's weird right?

Ludvig Borga vs. Razor Ramon

ER: This is really exciting as it's the only Coliseum Video that Borga made it on to, and they make him look really strong against Razor. The early part of the match is all Borga, knocking Razor to the floor, literally just shoving Razor to the floor out of a lock up (great spot), big shoulderblock that knocks Razor on his butt, and we get an actual great knucklelock exchange that has Borga do a long build to Ramon getting powered down to his knees, but fighting back to do a cool knucklelock Northern Lights suplex. Borga gets a lot, some of it good (a nice fast wind up elbow) some of it had its heart in the right place (big flying clothesline). Borga even gets a kind of shocking pinfall, as he hits a lariat off the top and gets an actual 3 count, but Razor's foot was on the ropes. There's a really nice suplex by Razor, bringing Borga in from the apron, great tease around Borga suplexing Ramon to the floor, but both men go down selling once Razor suplexes him in the ring. We get a really weird Finnish (HA!!!!!!) when Michaels runs in and cracks Razor in the head with the belt, and after a long period of both men being down they actually let Borga get the pin. Borga celebrates all around the ring with the title and looks crushed when they take it away, and this was during that weird time when there were two IC title belts so there are just too many belts around the ring and nobody knows what is happening. Those are two weirdly overbooked finishes in a row on this tape. Borga really took 80% of the match and Hall bumped all over for him, totally delivered what I wanted it to.

Shawn Michaels vs. Lex Luger

ER: You know who was great? Lex Luger. That guy was great, loved him during all his 95/96 WCW run, and here he is looking great. Go figure. Michaels is also IC champ in this match (Ramon was IC champ in the prior match, they were doing some thing where Michaels was claiming he never lost the belt) and heel Michaels was unquestionably the best iteration of him. He's a little sluggish on offense here, does a chinlock that drags a bit, but bumps impressively for Luger's big offense run, and Luger looks fantastic in it. Luger's shoulderblocks and lariats were on, hits a great back elbow, nice powerslam, Luger looked like clearly the best babyface in the company here. Sadly Michaels immediately opts to get counted out so he won't lose his title that isn't his, and Luger used the old Narcissist forearm and really smashes Diesel with it. I didn't actually realize Luger used that metal plate forearm once he was All American. Finish to this couldn't have been much lamer, but the words itself was the goods.

Cage Match: Bret Hart vs. Yokozuna

ER: I know I've seen this match before and really liked it, and my memories were totally correct because this is awesome. Yoko was so damn good and Bret worked snug enough here that he always looked totally plausible as a guy doing damage to Yoko. Bret is smart about this as most of his advantages comes with Yoko missing big offense, like a big elbowdrop and a big legdrop or missing a charge into the cage, and Bret would take over from all of those things with nice uppercuts, with Yoko not being fazed for long. They did a bunch of really smart stuff around cage escapes, good teases, with one amusing one where Hart is almost over the top and gets yanked down by one big Yoko arm. Hart does really great with it, dropping fast onto the top rope dick first and Yoko starts laughing. Yoko is so great here, I mentioned Hart worked snug to make up for the size difference, but Yoko has a bunch of great shots I don't remember him using including just a straight punch right to the throat, also a sick uppercut. And since a lot of the match is built around Yokozuna missing big moves so Bret can work in offense, he also misses things I don't remember him ever doing, like a big splash. For as big as he was I don't remember Yoko ever just doing a standing splash. Yoko really bumps around big for Hart, loved that big flat back banana peel bump, and Hart actually hits the Russian Leg Sweep on him, except he does it exactly like the Zig Zag since Yoko would be impossible to leg sweep. Finish is complicated but it's unique because it's drawn out compared to other similar finishes of the era. Yoko brings in his ancient ceremonial salt bucket because that's a thing, and he and Hart trade using it as a weapon. Once it got brought in I assumed it was a one and done, Yoko hitting Hart and escaping, or Yoko losing and being hit and Hart escaping, but they did some more teasing with that. This match got a lot of time, 20 minutes plus, but they were so clever with how they milked everything. This match ruled.

ER: This tape was killer, one of the best Coliseum releases out there. It bookended a really special Thanksgiving, and I'm still completely full while finishing this. I have stopped typing several times to eat pie. Caramel apple pecan pie. It's impossible. Happy Thanksgiving!

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Complete and Accurate Ludvig Borga

The Complete & Accurate people were clamoring for! Up until a month ago, Tony Halme/Ludvig Borga had not made much of an impression on my life. He was a strongly pushed heel in the WWF during 6 months of an era of diminishing attendance, only made it onto one lesser seen Coliseum video, had his only action figure released during a transition between toy companies (making it impossible to find), and was fired for getting injured and being "unpleasant". Jim Ross eulogized him as "not a great guy to be around", which is an unfortunate thing to have on one's tombstone. So he is not someone who has been written about on the digital pages of the internet, yet was a guy who went to a lot of places and accomplished a lot in a short amount of time. He's probably one of only a dozen or two guys to get pushed in WWF and New Japan, fight in UFC and RINGS, appear in a Die Hard movie, become a member of Finnish Parliament (but not, sadly, a member of Finnish Funkadelic), and have a gold record. If he had appeared in an Aki Kaurismaki movie he'd be in the running for My Favorite Human. This feels like a man whose career should be written about.  

1990

The Viking vs. The Patriot  UWF 10/11/90 - FUN
The Viking vs. Kevin Benjamin  UWF 10/11/90 - SKIPPABLE

Tony Halme vs. The Soultaker NJPW 10/25/90 - EPIC
The Viking vs. Stephan de Leon  UWF 11/8/90 - SKIPPABLE
The Viking vs. Al Lion  UWF 12/6/90 - FUN
The Viking vs. Rob Allen  UWF 12/24/90 - FUN
Tony Halme vs. Shinya Hashimoto NJPW 12/26/90 - GREAT

1991

Tony Halme vs. Shinya Hashimoto  NJPW 2/5/91 - EPIC
Tony Halme vs. Shinya Hashimoto NJPW 9/23/91 - VERY GOOD

Tony Halme vs. Big Van Vader NJPW 10/13/91 - EPIC
Tony Halme vs. Masashi Aoyagi  NJPW 10/17/91 - EPIC
Tony Halme vs. Big Van Vader NJPW 10/18/91 - FUN
Tony Halme vs. Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow  NJPW 12/16/91 - FUN

1992

Tony Halme vs. Scott Norton  NJPW/WCW Starrcade 1/4/92 - GREAT
Tony Halme vs. Kim Duk NJPW 2/4/92 - FUN

Tony Halme vs. Scott Norton NJPW 2/8/92 - GREAT
Tony Halme/Bad News Allen/Scott Norton vs. Shinya Hashimoto/Riki Choshu/Keiji Muto NJPW 4/16/92 - GREAT
Tony Halme vs. Big Van Vader NJPW 5/17/92 - GREAT
Tony Halme vs. Masahiro Chono NJPW 8/6/92 - VERY GOOD

1993

Tony Halme vs. Ron Simmons WCW/NJPW 1/4/93 - VERY GOOD

Tony Halme/Brad Armstrong vs. Hiroshi Hase/Keiji Mutoh NJPW 2/13/93 - VERY GOOD

Tony Halme/Bobby Eaton vs. Road Warrior Hawk/Kensuke Sasaki NJPW 6/14/93 - VERY GOOD

Ludvig Borga vs. Tony DiMauro WWF Superstars 7/24/93 - VERY GOOD

Ludvig Borga vs. Jason Headings WWF Wrestling Challenge 7/25/93 - FUN

Ludvig Borga vs. Mike Khoury WWF Superstars 8/14/93 - FUN

Ludvig Borga vs. Bert Centeno WWF Wrestling Challenge 8/22/93 - FUN

Ludvig Borga vs. Virgil WWF Superstars 8/28/93 - GREAT

Ludvig Borga vs. Marty Jannetty WWF Summerslam 8/30/93 - FUN

Ludvig Borga vs. PJ Walker WWF Superstars 9/18/93 - VERY GOOD

Ludvig Borga vs. Rich Myers WWF Wrestling Challenge 9/19/93 - FUN

Ludvig Borga vs. Rod Bell WWF Wrestling Challenge 9/26/93 - VERY GOOD

Ludvig Borga vs. Phil Apollo WWF Raw 9/27/93 - FUN

Ludvig Borga vs. Sonny Rogers WWF Superstars 10/2/93 - VERY GOOD

Ludvig Borga vs. Gary Jackson WWF Wrestling Challenge 10/10/93 - FUN

Ludvig Borga vs. Tony Roy WWF Superstars 10/16/93 - FUN

Ludvig Borga vs. Scott King WWF Wrestling Challenge 10/24/93 - FUN

Ludvig Borga vs. Mike Bucci WWF Raw 10/25/93 - GREAT

Ludvig Borga vs. Tatanka WWF Superstars 10/30/93 - EPIC

1995

Ludvig Borga vs. Rambo CWA 12/16/95 - FUN

1997

Tony Halme vs. Boogie Commando FWF 7/27/97 - GREAT

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