On Brand Segunda Caida: Bob Cook in WWF Pt. III

Bob Cook/Howard Nalley vs. Tekno Team 2000 WWF Wrestling Challenge 6/4/95

ER: I never saw Tekno Team 2000 during their brief run, but I really loved this match. Cook and Nalley (who did job work in WCW as Butch Long) are a cool team, as Nalley is basically a smaller Cook. And this wasn't worked as a squash, instead worked fairly even. TT2K clearly came off like the team that should win, but Cook and Nalley kept after them the whole match and the whole thing was very go go go. The first minute was just a bunch of cool exchanges between Troy (Erik Watts) and Cook, both men joined at the arm and chaining together a really nice sequence. Cook really buckles people with his stomach kick, arguably the best stomach kick of the era (and for something that was so commonly used as a set-up to bigger offense, you'd think more guys would have worked on theirs), grabs and arm to set up a drop toehold, and the two keep rolling through into new things. TT2K worked a lot of armdrags and Cook/Nalley are good guys to make armdrags look good, and I especially liked Cook whipping over for their tandem Japanese armdrag. The bit of Cook/Nalley on control was so great, with Cook waiting on Travis (Chad Fortune), who turns around right into Cook's perfect right hand, eats a couple more, Travis turns and slumps over the top rope to shield himself, leading to Nalley snapping his neck down over the top rope from the apron. Great sequence. Watts works a nice superkick out of a wristlock, and the tag team sunset flip is a fun if odd finisher for a big tag team. This might be the best overall match from the WWF Bob Cook that we've watched, this was just so much fun.

Bob Cook vs. Man Mountain Rock WWF Raw 6/12/95

ER: One minute of perfection. One minute of pure wrestling perfection. Man Mountain Rock is a star that never was, with such a weird specific charisma, but a charisma that fans were clearly responding to. He works this quick as hell, voluntarily running the ropes hard to build up speed to absolutely level Cook, then launches Cook with a backdrop. Cook's comeback is swift, powerful, and violent, as he gets the drop on Rock and throws 5 all time perfect worked punches in the corner. Cook throws one of those aesthetically sweet worked punches, a punch where you really appreciate the steps he takes to work it. The camera knows what gift Cook has and doesn't cut away, framing Cook punching Rock towards the camera, then finishing with a shot to the appendix. He runs to go on the attack, and Rock catches him and sticks him to the mat with the Whammy Bar. This was wrestling boiled down to its basics, and it should be seen.

Bob Cook vs. Bam Bam Bigelow WWF Raw 7/31/95

ER: This was far and away the most generous squash match of Cook's run, as Bigelow gives Cook half of the match and makes him feel like the underdog babyface. Just like the Cook/Droese match from a couple months before, this match *also* features a babyface chinlock spot and this is getting really weird for me, as this was not happening to any other squash match guy in 1995. 1995 WWF TV has a lot of squash matches, still the bulk of the TV output, and I've now seen two different babyface monsters put Bob Cook in a rear chinlock during their own feature match. I have not seen ANY other babyface from this era work a chinlock into their own squash match. It's so weird! You guys are the ones being featured, why let Bob Cook be the one fighting back from a hold? I mean, I love it, but it's weird! And Cook really goes toe to toe with Bigelow here, and if someone watching had no idea who either guy was, but they somehow knew what a jobber was (this is quickly becoming a unicorn hypothetical), Cook came off like Bigelow's equal. He probably threw more punches in this match than in any of his other WWF appearances, and Bigelow sold them like Cook was caving in his eye socket. Bigelow treated Cook like a threat and the match was so much more interesting for it. Cook even turns that bizarre chinlock into a chinbreaker (again, so many babyface hope spots for a guy supposedly getting squashed)! This match was 70/30 Cook! Cook outstruck Bigelow in many of the standing exchanges! Cook's offense was all great punches, that chinbreaker, and kicks to the stomach, and Bigelow sold like he was getting taken apart by Sycho Sid. Really Bigelow "only" gets some nice headbutts, a great vertical suplex, finishes things off with his diving headbutt. But the fun of the match is seeing the promise behind Cook as an actual regular roster member, and it was an absolute blast.

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On Brand Segunda Caida: Bob Cook in WWF, Part 1

Bob Cook vs. Bob Holly WWF Wrestling Challenge 2/19/95

ER: This was a brisk 3 minutes with a great long section of Cook totally outshining Holly. They were pushing Holly as a kickass young part of the New Generation, and Cook gave him a cool grizzled vet beating actually made Holly feel like a young upstart babyface (even though Holly looked like a freedom rock Walton Goggins). Cook buries a great low knee in Holly's gut, throws several great punches, drops a beautiful kneedrop, and just makes a snapmare look the way a snapmare is supposed to look. Holly hits a big elbow off the top for the win, but this was a cool showing for Cook.

Bob Cook vs. Man Mountain Rock WWF Superstars 2/25/95

ER: This is barely a minute, but it is a great minute. Cook's stretch of offense is a kick to the stomach and 5 punches, but they are 5 excellent punches perfectly thrown to the Rock's jaw. Rock is a huge guy, a guy whose offense correctly consisted of him running into and falling onto people. It's a damn shame he didn't get to mix it up with many people on the main roster. There were a lot of potential great big man matches, and the crowd was clearly into Rock squishing guys. He threw a heavy elbowdrop, big shoulderblocks, and landed and missed avalanches with big speed. Cook sidesteps him on a fast avalanche and just lobs the most perfect pro wrestling punches at his face. It would be tough to rank these 1-5, they're all keepers. God they could have done Cook vs. Lawler for 10 minutes and it would have been one of the great gems of 1995. Alas.

Bob Cook vs. Doink WWF Raw 2/27/95

ER: This was the final Doink, Ray Apollo, and Bob Cook did not get a lot of play versus Doink. Dink had some nice moments, running across Cook's stomach while he was in a sub and then hitting a rolling senton, bouncing on the bottom rope to liven up the crowd during some long Doink matwork. A lot of this was grounded, but I liked Apollo's amateur approach to a jobber squash. He was working hammerlocks and drop toeholds, and there was one brief competitive moment where Apollo got his own really great drop toehold - the kind where you really force your opponent somewhat slowly down to the mat once you scissor his legs - but Doink quickly reverses. Doink muscles through a cool gutwrench suplex and drops the Whoopie Cushion, but this was a missed opportunity. Cook is a guy who could work simple compelling mat sequences, but also work compelling sequences with a midget, but they wouldn't let him get too involved in either.

Bob Cook vs. 1-2-3 Kid WWF Superstars 3/4/95

ER: These two were natural opponents for each other, a guy with some whip fast kicks and big bumps against a guy with perfect bunches and a desire to bump fast for whip fast kicks. Kid throws out some nice ones, and we get a famous gif sequence of Cook wheeling around and punching Kid in the face right out of the corner. Sadly the only video of this online appears to be from a garbage YouTube account who zooms way in on their videos and intentionally adds glitches (for effect?). I'm unsure why some people take so much time to upload completely worthless files, but it's a thing.

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