Found Footage Friday: PANAMA~! KING MIKE RAPADA~! SANDOKEN~! EL SATANICO DE PANAMA~! GEMELOS INFERNALES~! EL BARON~! CHRISTOPHER~!

El Barón y Jaguar Kuna vs. Satánico y Gemelo Infernal 3 Panama 1985

MD: I wouldn't say this held up quite as well as the matches we've seen so far out of Panama. These guys were lithe, wiry, and they had some tricked out armdrags as you'd expect but other exchanges felt downright clunky. Satanico is a pale reflection of the one we know and love, just some guy in a mask. I haven't talked up the Gemelo Infernales' maskes, which are these cool goblin type deals in black and white. #3 here used his knee fairly well. Baron here had a skull match which was pretty solid too, even if he was a scrawny tecnico. His best stuff were the flying driving headbutts. Jaguar had a neat front flip he did for absolutely no reason, one great dropkick and a dive that has to be seen to be believed to end the third fall. Overall, these guys were game and occasionally things got wacky in a good way (like when Gemelo Infernal 3 kept hitting spinning tombstones on everyone which led to some uninspired head-selling by Jaguar), but didn't come together like some of the other Panamanian footage.

Sandokan/Ricardo Díaz/Antorcha 1 vs. Kronos 2/Gemelo Infernal 1/Gemelo Infernal 2 Panama 1989

MD: Back when we were all doing the AWA 80s set over ten years ago, I had the distinct feeling that Verne was terrified at the idea of overheating the crowd. Heels rarely won and they even more rarely got their heat back after the match. After seeing a decent amount of this Panamanian lucha, you really, really get the sense that they wanted to cause a riot each and every time out. Sometimes, they even manage it. Here they didn't but it was sure a surprise to me.

The first two falls were pretty much as you'd expect. The exchanges are a bit more flowing, with a lot of tosses out of a head and shoulder sort of grab. Sandoken has the most tricked out, even if not particular swift, variations. I really liked when he continued the motion through on one of these to get to his feet. Everything was smooth and kept moving, with the tecnicos winning the fall with these fun assisted victory rolls into sunset flips. They're kind of hard to explain but it was all pretty neat and you could imagine some more athletic 2022 guys stealing it successfully. The second fall was more of a beatdown with the rudos winning with submissions.

Then things really opened up. First there was a great comeback with Sandoken coming back with headbutts on everyone, Diaz with fun sweeping punches, and Antorcha with shoulder throws/back body drops, a whole bunch of the. The rudos took back over though, all leading to the Gemelos bloodying up Sandokan and Diaz on the inside and Kronos absolutely crushing Antorcha with a chairshot on the floor. We're talking an all time chairshot here.He got carried away by some of his buddies leaving things with a 3 on 2 numbers game for the rest of the match. There were a couple of comebacks, including a sort of unbelievable 3 on 1 Sandoken comeback towards the end with Sandoken kicking out of a bunch of stuff, but the numbers won out and, like I said, somehow there wasn't a riot. Just another really complete look at this regional subgenre. It remains well worth diving into.  

Brian Christopher vs. King Mike Rapada USA Championship Wrestling 6/9/01

MD: This was a TV match to heat up a feud for the No DQ match live that night. It was Brian Christopher going in to Nashville to try to take the crowd back from (now heel) Rapada and defend his dad's honor. I'm not exactly rushing to watch Rapada matches or anything, but the idea of Christopher defending Lawler and being a stand-in babyface is kind of interesting. Of course he does it in the way that Jerry would love most, blatant homophobia on the mic to start. Rapada's heel act isn't bad, as he has Honest Ernest playing a trumpet on the way down, and he keeps control during the match using the usual chicanery. Here, I think he used the "hidden object" too sparingly, just really once or twice to cut Christopher off instead of really leaning into it. Christopher had a lot of fire to start, beating Rapada around the ringside area including a bulldog on the floor. This was to set up the later match so it ended in a ref bump and trumpet shots (see, it was a good part of the act), but it was a nice look at Big Star Christopher coming home right after his WWF run ended defending the honor of the Lawler name.

Jerry Lawler vs. King Mike Rapada USA Championship Wrestling 7/28/01 

ER: This was maybe 5 minutes long including the post-match, and it wasn't very good, and also it was very good. Mike Rapada is the ultimate example of a guy who did the absolute least with the most, the Renegade von Erich, a man who never got good at wrestling despite constantly working with some of the smartest workers in wrestling history. But I actually like him in his King Mike persona, playing the aloof dumb heel with a stolen crown. He's the best dressed in the ring, but that's also because Lawler is wearing this sunny side up gear that I've never seen him wear, with white tights and yellow singlet. Jackie Fargo is wearing one of those confusing shirts that some 70 year old white men have, the kind that don't fit their personality or body. It's pointless to ask these men about these shirts (or their car dealership hats) because they won't have much of an answer about a) where they got the shirt, or b) why they ever thought it looked like a normal shirt that you would wear in front of people. 

Fargo's shirt is a hideous NBC Sports shirt-jersey, with NBC SPORTS as the name across the shoulders, a big N as the jersey number, and a big Peacock logo on the front. It doesn't resemble anything at all related to sports, and looks much closer spiritually to a toddler's onesie with a baseball playing elephant and the words Lil Slugger across the shoulders. While wearing this shirt, he calls King Mike a "little asshole" for turning on these fine people. Fargo is 70 here, so when he gets down to count a 2 count he needs to pull himself up by the ropes to stand back up, and there is zero chance he's getting back down to count another 2 for King Mike. Jackie literally just stands next to the pin with his hands on his knees waiting for them to take the hint that no count is coming. Lawler picks up on it and rakes Rapada's eyes just to move things along.  Lawler takes the strap down maybe three minutes in and throws four great right hands, also takes a big back bump on a double shoulderblock collision. Billy Joe Travis comes out and gets into the ring only to get punched by Fargo (great punch too) and in the chaos Rapada hits Lawler with a chain, Fargo gets the chain, Travis threatens Fargo, and King Mike kicks the ring announcer. Some hot matches happening an hour east at the Lebanon Airport Armory later tonight, be sure to check em out. 

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Found Footage Friday: LAWLER~! ROOSTER~! COLORADO~! REJECTS~! SLIM J~! ROCKWELL~! HAWKINS~! OKUMA~! EIGEN~!

Haruka Eigen vs. Motoshi Okuma AJPW 9/15/89

MD: Another recent Classics drop and it's a great thing to pop up because while we have a lot of Eigen and Okuma in this era, and likewise, a decent amount of All Japan comedy, it's always with them as foils for Rusher and Baba. It's rare to see the two of them one on one and really, comedy without Baba or Rusher. This was certainly something. They wrestled a bit before building to the comedy but once they got there, it never went away. It was a mean sort of thing though, Okuma headbutting Eigen in the mouth, both guys holding the other in the ropes like Sheamus and laying in a huge shot that would cause spit to go flying into the front row and everyone to go running, Okuma stepping over Eigen to hit the falling headbutt and then having it countered by Eigen tripping him. Okuma had somewhat more dignity here, with Eigen spitting farther, getting headbutted, having to run around the ringside area to try to find a way back into the ring without getting nailed, but Okuma got his comeuppance too. Very unique, very stylized, but interesting and worth watching at least once. The crowd was certainly into it and they should have been considering the effort, timing, and expert expressiveness of these two, all while being just hard-hitting enough to belong in 1989 AJPW. 

Jerry Lawler vs. Mike Rapada vs. Terry Taylor NWA Worldwide 11/13/99

MD: This was for Rapada's NWA North American title, with the appeal, as much as anything else, that it was a WWF announcer vs. a WCW office guy vs. a NWA wrestler, in 1999. The Nashville crowd was pretty big and fairly hot. Both guys had been feuding with Rapada and Lawler's promo setting it up was that Rapada thought beating him would let him get into WWF but that he'd never get there. The real appeal of this one, however, was seeing Lawler in a Triple Threat match. They'd been around for a chunk of the decade, obviously, and Lawler had called his share by November 1999, but you could see the wheels ticking even in the promo setting it up. 

Lawler and Taylor were de facto allies here, and this ended up pure Memphis. Lawler would use a sharpie (a real one, not an imaginary one), that Stacy handed to him into Rapada's throat repeatedly, but he'd have Taylor there in the ring to distract the ref. It allowed for a slightly different execution for hide the object but was effective through it's blatantness with Lawler being more blatant than ever. They built towards dissension between Taylor and Lawler as only one party could win the title, leading to a miscommunication headbutt to the groin and Rapada coming back. Finish was Taylor kicking out of all of Rapada's big moves and then stealing the win as Lawler was gloating after hitting Rapada with the pile-driver. This had its ceiling considering who was in there with the King, but it was great to see him experiment with the possibilities of a new form (and find ways to work all of his time-tested stuff in). 

Devil's Rejects (Azrael/Shaun Tempers/Patrick Bentley) vs. Slim J/Adrian Hawkins/Ace Rockwell NWA Anarchy 9/27/07

MD: As always, you can drop in to almost any of these Rejects matches and it feels like... well, home is probably not the right word, but certainly somewhere familiar and, for us at least, welcome. The Anarchy announcers are always the best at getting you up to speed too. They didn't know it but they were commentating for immortality. Here, things start out as 3 on 2 (really 4 on 2 given Wilson, the Staff of Righteousness, and that this was a streetfight). Hawkins had just refused membership in the Rejects and while he and Slim J meshed in look and style, and even had an early advantage by striking first, the numbers were against them. I liked Bentley a lot here, bumping huge out of the ring for Slim J to start, later on dragging his elbow over a wound when they were in control, playing his new character overtly in his elated reactions while still seeming menacing. When things seemed darkest and Hawkins was about to hit a pile driver off the top onto a chair on Slim J, Rockwell rushed out to even the odds which was a big moment and a bigger pop. That led to a great comeback highlighted by a Slim J diving reverse DDT on 2/3rds of the Rejects and a Coast-to-Coast by Hawkins. Eventually, as it so often happened the superior chemistry and teamwork (and sheer brutality) from the Rejects won out though, building and building and building it to a bigger payoff down the road and keeping these insatiable fans ever hungry.

PAS: I just love this stuff. I really should have been watching Anarchy weekly back in the mid 2000s, it is very much my kind of wrestling. The Rejects are a swarming gang of creeps as always, although it is a different vibe without either of the monsters Tank and Iceberg. Damn Slim J is a great brawler. I say it every time one of these matches come out, but it just blows me away how great he is at throwing hands, timing comebacks, bleeding, all of it. Really almost a 21st century Tommy Rich, and it is a shame he never got a chance to really have that kind of match on a bigger stage. Loved Rockwell coming from the back, he is an amazing brawler too, and that is a trope which always works. Rejects win felt earned and that double team reverse DDT that Azreal and Tempers did was awesome looking. Great match, but basically any time these guys matched up it was tremendous. 

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Found Footage Friday: LAWLER~! DUNDEE~! TAYLOR~! RAPADA~! GORO TSURUMI RIP~! LLPW vs AJW~!

Goro Tsurumi/Animal Hamaguchi vs. Great Kojika & Motoshi Okuma IWE 11/3/77

MD: Goro Tsurumi died last week and the IWE tribute channel released a match that we hadn't had before, for the All Asia Tag Team Titles. I'll admit that I've seen all of these guys older but not necessarily a ton of their 70s work. There was a lot to like here, though. It was a long 2/3 falls match and that's with us coming in at the ten minute mark. My guess is that we primarily missed a lot of matwork because for a title match, this didn't have much. Kojika and Okuma were in green and Hamaguchi and Tsurumi in red and both felt like real teams. Kojika and Okuma were heels, de facto or otherwise. They tried to cut off the ring and were quicker to go to eye rakes, for instance. Hamaguchi had big energy and a very pronounced way of wrestling, with Tsurumi maybe scrappier. There was a sense that they had the general idea of what they were trying to do but the execution didn't always work. You got the idea though.

The first two falls were fairly back and forth, with the champions cheating and taking an advantage and the challengers coming back and then punishing them for their transgressions. The first fall ended in a Hamaguchi airplane spin and then the second started with a great near-fall off of one from Tsurumi. The end of the second fall was Tsurumi getting stuffed on a roll up due to cheating and eating a diving headbutt from Okuma. The third fall wasn't long but it was pretty great, as they opened up Tsurumi with a posting on the outside and really targeted the wound with chops and punches and especially headbutts as he desperately tried to fight from underneath. Good blood, good fire, great woundwork. Good hot tag and comeback. The finish was a little wonky as Kojika broke up a pin with a knee off the top and immediately scored a pin of his own when there was no way he was the legal man, but no one seemed to blink at it. The great stuff here was really great and the rest was good in concept even if not always in execution. It's a good tribute match for Tsurumi for some of the dominant offense and that bit of fighting back bloodied.

Suzuka Minami/Bat Yoshinaga vs Rumi Kazama/Yukari Osawa LLPW 5/11/93

Sebastian covered this over at his blog and it's really worth a look. He said that this made the LLPW vs AJW feud the joshi equivalent of NJPW vs War and it's not far off. Hokuto was ringside here and this is all leading up to her facing Kazama (LLPW president) later on. As best as I understand it Yoshinaga was generally banished to weird Inoki-ism style matches against athletes on the AJW cards but as LLPW wrestlers were presented as shooters, she was brought into the limelight to face them. She certainly made the most of the opportunity and everything she does here is worth watching. Here, she's got swagger, a bullying presence, a toughness, a meanness, a chip on her shoulder. It could be anything from the way she drives in a double axe handle to set up a pile driver to the way she absorbs kicks  and stares down her opponents. Osawa, who is dressed like the world's most violent Christmas elf here, is not afraid to throw brutal, brutal kicks. At one point, Yoshinaga has Kazama in a half crab and Osawa comes in. Yoshinaga stares her down to the point where she starts kicking and absorbs and absorbs until the ref has enough and pulls her back to the corner. Later on, a real point of transition has her absorb until she gets fed up and lays in on Osawa (letting Kazama recover enough that she gets a roll up and can make a tag a bit later). Their advantage leads to Osawa putting a half crab onto Minami; Yoshinaga comes in and with one kick practically sends Osawa across the ring in a lovely moment of contrast. Kazama, shortly thereafter, put on a bit too lackadaisical a cover on Yoshinaga, so she just lifts her arm up, hand outstretched, and gets out of the pin by locking in a devastating iron claw. It's the sort of thing you wish Miro would steal. Ultimately, this does go quick and there are spots a plenty but never once do you lose the sense that they're trying to cause one another severe bodily harm so it's sort of hard to complain.

Jerry Lawler/Mike Rapada vs. Bill Dundee/Terry Taylor NWA Main Event 6/2/01

MD: It's Lawler vs Dundee so we have to cover it, but there wasn't a lot of Lawler vs Dundee here. Some weird things with this one as the audio cuts out early in the match but the announcers (including Bart Sawyer) talk over the footage. You get the whole thing but have no idea how the crowd is reacting audibly. It also has one of the weirdest, most counter-intuitively set up turns I've ever seen but more on that in a bit.

I like Taylor and Dundee as partners in 2000 because Taylor plays into Dundee's natural corniness and, at the same time, makes Dundee look more credible and like a killer. Just Dundee's punches and stomps (and one brutal double stomp) during the long heat on Rapada are great. Taylor's offense looks ok but he always had that patina of hokey; it works when he's taking Lawler's punches on the comeback but less so when he's in control. You do want to see him get punched, granted. Lawler works the apron for a lot of this but we get another example early on on how he throws his head back into the turnbuckle when taking shots in the corner, which is one of those all time great things he does. Dundee and Taylor have funny tandem bits where they'll set something up and the payoff won't be all that impressive. Again, it's a lot more impressive when Dundee's just laying it in.

The finish is bonkers with Rapada taking and taking and having a couple of hope spots and finally getting the tag but then choosing to pile drive Lawler out of nowhere when the ref is distracted after the fist drop. If they had built up tension where Rapada thought Lawler wasn't doing enough to make the tag or there was some miscommunication where Lawler accidentally hit Rapada or if it was a ruse all along and Taylor and Dundee were only pretending to hurt Rapada or if Lawler was the one playing face-in-peril it might have worked, but as it was, it just seemed bizarre that he got beat on so much by Taylor and Dundee (and so meanly by Dundee especially) only to care more about nailing Lawler for no reason when they were about to win. Match overall still probably registers as fun though just because there's a real novelty to Dundee and Taylor working together and because Lawler's really good when he is in there.

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New Footage Friday: All Hail The King

Jerry Lawler/Issac Yankem DDS vs. The Smoking Guns WWF 1/6/96 - GREAT

MD: Hey, another match with some weird legal man issues. This time, it let us enjoy a brief moment of Lawler being a WWF Tag Team Champion. I didn't love the first minute or so of this when Bart was clunkily tag-team specialist-ing against Yankem but the rest was pretty good. Billy was solid, both in reacting to Lawler's antics and as a face-in-peril, though I wish he would have gotten a few more hope spots. Lawler brought the hidden object which is sometimes smoother in a tag setting with the distraction possibilities. He hit a great bulldog mid-heat and then whiffed wildly on the second one to set up the (not perfectly timed on Yankem's cut off attempt) hot tag. They could have handled the restart better since they didn't get across to the crowd well why the disembodied presence of Monsoon was actually restarting the thing. Still, a unique match-up and a new * for Lawler's storied career.

PAS: Lawler never held a title in the WWF/E not even five minutes with the 24/7 title. I guess this phantom tag title change is the closest he ever got. Bart was really bad in this, one of the crappier hot tags I can remember seeing. Billy was a pretty great face in peril, took a big flip bump on a clothesline, was part of that awesome bulldog segment with Lawler, and landed a cool punch. Yankem was really clumsly, but in a way that worked, and Lawler was masterful of course. I always enjoy watching him work a donut hole foreign object and he commanded the ring as he always does. Finish was trash, but a great showcase from a bit of a lost period for the King. 

ER: I always get super excited when WWF house show Lawler turns up. For a guy who has been affiliated with WWF for over 20 years, we really don't have a ton of Lawler footage from up north. He's not someone who was a regular TV worker, seemingly one of the only guys allowed to work indies while also working for WWF. 1996 was his most active year in WWF and he only shows up on TV or PPV 14 times, so house show fancams are genuine blessings. Also, considering they brought Yankem in attached to Lawler, this is one of only 5 tag matches Lawler and Yankem worked together, so again we are blessed. The tag was great (until the inept finish) and I think Yankem really benefitted from being paired with Lawler. He's still a big galoot who isn't great at staggering, but his Memphis offense is way tighter. He throws an overhand right that is far better than his overhand rights even two years later, looking like he just levels Billy; later in the match he drops a jumping elbowdrop right on the collarbones, no light, totally different than his light leaping elbow he was using a couple years later. 

Lawler was a total King in this match, hiding a chain throughout and sneaking in punches behind the ref's back, whiffing on a corner punch to Billy and then getting lambasted by Billy's punch (Lawler is not only wrestling's best puncher, but he is the best at making everyone he works into the best puncher) and hits a gnarly bulldog. The best part of the bulldog is he uses it again late in the match as a comeback spot for Billy, as Billy just throws him forward right when Lawler leaps into it. Lawler selling the bulldog bump was my favorite moment of the match. Bart Gunn sees red on the hot tag and punches Yankem like mad in the corner, while juuuuust off camera Lawler cheats to win (jeez guys, I appreciate the handheld, but how are you only filming HALF of the ring during the finish) and hits a piledriver. Lawler and Yankem win the tag titles, until Finkel gets on the mic and says that Gorilla Monsoon demands the match restarted even though he respects the referee's decision and Finkel can't make the reasoning for a restart sound the least bit convincing. One of the guys filming the match sums the restart up perfectly:

"That really is lame."

Match restarted, Gunns quickly win, and it's incredibly lame. A several month run with Lawler and Yankem holding the straps would have been so much better than the Smoking Gunns. Also, I'd like to say I was there live for Lawler coming close to winning the WWE title at Elimination Chamber 2011. His Heavyweight title match against Miz is one of my all time favorite live wrestling moments, and the crowd definitely wanted Lawler to win the title. I thought it was happening and I wasn't alone. I feel real lucky to have been there for that match. 

Jerry Lawler vs. Mike Rapada NWA Georgia 7/2/99 - SKIPPABLE

PAS: This was full shtick Lawler, and I think Attitude era Lawler may be the low point of his in-ring career. This was 95% crowd mic work and spots worked around the Kat. Lawler is good at this kind of stuff, but it isn't what you want to see him do. We get maybe the most inauthentic looking kiss the valet spots from Rapada ever, the equivalent of watching Ellen do straight romantic comedy roles. During the brief actual wrestling moments, Lawler did hit a nasty fistdrop to the back of Rapada's head and take a big backdrop bump, but otherwise this was about as mailed in as Lawler is going to do. And it isn't like Mike Rapada is going to pick up the slack.

MD: This wasn't much of a match. Probably a little too much Stacy, though it's not like she didn't play her role well, and Rapada had a credibility issue with the crowd and, let's face it, with the world. At times, it was the Jerry Lawler Comedy Hour. That said, if the wrestling ring was the ocean, Lawler would be able to breathe underwater. Obviously, I've seen hundreds of his matches, but he just moves from one thing here to the next with absolute ease. It doesn't matter what he's doing: taunting a fan in the third row, getting cheapshots in on Rapada in the corner, stalling and making it about Stacy again, jawing with the crowd who were chanting something he couldn't quite make out, feeding a giant back body drop for Rapada. It all just seems effortless and natural. That was one secret of Lawler's success; no matter how outlandish what you were watching was, you just had to suspend your disbelief less with him. It only helped the match so much on this night though.

Jerry Lawler/Rob Williams vs. Bad Attitude (David Young/Rick Michaels) NWA Wildside 5/22/01 - EPIC

PAS: This is from a Wildside house show and is a pretty great house show Southern tag. I don't remember Rob Williams at all, but he is a fine Ricky Riceish muscular babyface tag wrestler. Lawler doesn't do a ton in this match, Williams gets a lot of the early face shine, and is the face in peril, but everything he does is perfect. I love tagging in early and bumping the heels leading Michaels to scoot back and crotch himself on the ringpost. All of his punches look like Lawler punches and we get a Lawler piledriver. Most of the match is Bad Attitude beating on Williams, and they are pretty great at it. All of the simple stuff looks great, both Michaels and Young have good looking looping punches, and they hit some killer double teams including a drop toehold into a running knee. We get to see both Young's powerslam and his Spinebuster which are always amazing looking and the finish sends the crowd home happy. Cool discovery, so glad whoever runs the Wildeside channel dug it up. 

MD: It's been a long time since I've seen any Bad Attitude, but Young looked many degrees better than Michaels did to me here. Really solid presence and timing and yes, attitude. His stooging drew me in while Michaels' was too over the top and took me out of the match much more. Half of Williams' stuff looked good. Half of it maybe less so. Lawler was absolutely what you'd want him to be in this role, with a rule of 3 bit with Young in the shine and working of the corner until the hot tag and him clearing house. First half of the finish was weird to me because Williams was obviously not the legal man but it let fans bask in the glory of the attraction at least.

ER: This is the kind of tag match you hope you see when you go to an indy show. This was fantastic. Lawler was in the ring less than anybody in the match and yet was used perfectly, because Bad Attitude were the exact team that could get you invested in a 20 minute indy tag during this era. They know when to come hard with moves and knew how to stooge liberally while still coming off as a threat. Their heat segment on Williams was the kind of thing that gets me insanely involved at a wrestling show, they pulled it off perfectly. Williams was a strong babyface (I don't think I've ever seen him before, but he did everything a good babyface should do in this kind of match) and Lawler made the most of his time in the ring (and punching at Young from the apron), but it's impossible to watch this match and not want to go watch several more Bad Attitude matches. 

David Young works like Alex Jones decided to dedicate his con gifts to pro wrestling, throws a legendarily great spinebuster and powerslam, and takes stooging bumps as good as heel Lawler. I loved how Young took a drop toehold and then held his mouth, or the way he bumped over the top to the floor off a late match Lawler haymaker. His double teams with Michaels were strong as well and made a long heat segment on Williams fly right on by. Michaels is such a pro, and I love the twists he puts on already great spots. BA did one of the best drop toehold/kneedrop spots I've seen, because Michaels dropped that knee head on, not coming at Williams at a perpendicular but dropping it straight into his forehead at a straight angle. Michaels threw great punches and shook his fist out (that's the real sign of what makes a wrestler an all timer), gave Williams brief believable openings before closing them down, backed balls first into a ringpost AND flopped around tremendously for a Lawler legdrop to the balls, and like Young knew exactly where to be at all times. Great tag match, and before tonight I had no idea Lawler even worked Wildside. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE KING

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My Favorite Wrestling! WCW Worldwide 11/9/97

1. Mark Starr vs. Goldberg

Wow, the fans are booing Goldberg as he comes out. Old ladies are giving him the thumbs down. That means that they were giving Mark Starr the thumbs up right before this. How bizarre is that taken out of context? Look into the future just a couple months and see where Goldberg is. But here he is on Worldwide getting booed by old ladies. The match isn't much but it's really fun seeing a huge era in its infancy, maybe the last time that WCW got something right. You can tell that they knew what they were doing here. They couldn't have known just how big he was going to be, but it's really satisfying knowing that they at least had a plan and were seeing it through. Brain and Tony were talking big things for Goldberg the whole match, saying how he was gonna win WW3 and fight for the title. He was already using the "Who's Next?" catchphrase after the match. They were already putting over the spear and jackhammer finish. Goldberg has a nice powerslam here, and shows some major power by deadlifting Starr a couple times...and also awkwardly stands around for large amounts of time, just waiting for...stuff to happen. But again, it's really fun to see such a major part of wrestling history in its infancy.

2. Mike Rapada vs. Scott Hall

Damn, it's kind of crazy that guys like Hall were still appearing on Worldwide at this point (and in the 2nd match of the show!). I'd bet serious money that nobody anywhere near as big as Hall appeared on Worldwide from '98 to the end. And by the way this squash was really fun. Rapada got absolutely zero offense, but bumped HUGE for Hall, and Hall and Syxx stiffed the bejesus out of him. Hall threw some of the nastiest punches of his career, threw a corner clothesline so stiff that Tony and Bobby couldn't stop talking about it, Syxx cheated constantly and played it up to the crowd great (punching Rapada and then blowing on his fist, elbowing him on the apron and then hamming it up by shaking out his elbow). This is what a jobber squash should be.

3. Scott & Steve Armstrong vs. Harlem Heat

It's been kind of eye opening how bad Harlem Heat were in retrospect. It's no revelation that Stevie Ray looks bad in the ring, but I had really fond views on Booker before starting this. I remembered the Benoit matches, the Saturn and Martel matches, and generally liked his WWE run. But boy has he looked pretty lousy upon rewatch. I don't think I could name 5 sloppier guys in the promotion. He must have just had a really great Jan/Feb '98 and that's where my brain froze. All that being said, the match was alright. HH looked bleh, but they worked stiff so it kind of made up for it. Armstrongs are always game but really they weren't given tons here.

4. Shiima Nobunaga/Sumo Fuji vs. Meng/Barbarian

Well this was fun. The FoF squash the Toryumon boys for 4+ minutes, and while they no sold their offense the whole way through, they still allowed the boys do at least do stuff. CIMA hits a bunch of slick dropkicks, Fuji gets to actually work shoulder block sequences with Barbarian (and holds his own!) and the FoF throw tons of big boots to the face, big chops and big slams.

5. Renegade vs. Steve McMichael

Yeah, yeah. You see those two names up there and you know it's not going to be very good, right? Renegade walks out first and you go "Oh. Renegade is in the main event. Huh." And then Mongo comes out and you just kinda know what you're in for. And you know? It wasn't very good. But really this wasn't *that* bad. This was probably the best match these two are capable of, and that has to be worth something. It's almost 5 minutes, and the main thing that stood out to me was that they didn't rest at all. No chin locks. I've gotten so used to 4 minute WWE matches that no matter what have to include a chinlock transition to comeback, that it was kind of jarring seeing two big guys work a 5 minute sprint. Yeah, some of the moves didn't look good. Renegade looks like he couldn't punch through paper. But for what it was, an actual fast paced match between a couple of lugs, this worked for me.

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