Found Footage Friday: THE MALENKO-GUERRERO CLASSIC~! LORD NORMAN~! COLLINS~!

MD: We've been doing this for years now, pulling together whatever we can find from the connections we have and just on the internet in general. In parallel for a lot of those has been https://x.com/krisplettuce who has a patreon where he pulls all sorts of things together. Where we focus on matches specifically, he focuses more on whole TV shows and spans of shows. He's recently organized thirteen episodes of Malenko GWA from 88, hosted by Bob Roop and while none of the matches go too long, we're highlighting a few of them. 

Lord Norman vs. Steve Collins GWA 6/25/88

MD:  Collins was the Party Animal with the Party Girls (two valets) with him, and the fans chanting "party" basically the whole way through. He was the promotion's light heavyweight champion. Dropkicks, headlock takeovers including using the turnbuckles. That sort of thing. It's kind of amazing watching Smiley here knowing that he'd be on a few UWF 2.0 shows the back half of the year standing up to guys like Yamazaki and even Maeda completely believable and dominant. Here he was the newly crowned TV champ and had a chip on his shoulder. He was a few years into the business and you wouldn't know it was the same guy in UWF past the physique. Oh yeah, he also came out with a pipe, because of course he did.

I'm not sure he was always entirely on the same page as Collins but there were some little positioning things that were pretty interesting. Other things, like them setting up him missing a stomp onto Collins only to get his hands stomped himself didn't seem entirely plausible in the set up. When he took over, he had pretty credible offense, a few suplexes and a really nasty hotshot where he seemed to lose control of him. His entourage (including Dr. Red Roberts) menaced the girls and Collins went out. Norman went to post him but got posted in return and just missed the count back in. Post match they did a challenge where Collins would put a Party Girl up against the TV title. 

Lord Norman vs. Steve Collins GWA 7/23/88

MD: By the time the challenge happened, Norman (and Death Row) was managed by Reverend Johnson and he lost the match due to distraction and had to give up a party girl. He'd also given up the light heavyweight title since he wanted to move up weight classes so as to better face Norman and others (which was put interestingly as they noted he might lose some of his speed/agility in doing so).   

Right before this one, Johnson broke into the TV show with a pirate feed to announced the formation of the Black Wrestling Alliance which does, as a gimmick, feel at least five years before its time. Collins is down to one Party girl as Dominique had chosen to be with Smiley and crew. This was probably a stronger overall match than the last one and Smiley showed a lot more both while taking stuff and working from underneath and through his offense. There was a bit where he got clowned trying to get out of a headscissors I liked quite a bit. 

Collins was favoring a knee though he didn't really target it. He did his nice off center double underhook suplex though and stayed on him pretty aggressively. They ran a spot where he distracted the ref while Death Row crushed Collins and that made me think it was probably a good thing Maeda didn't see this match or else he would have never made it to UWF. Finish had Death Row rush the ring once Collins put on the sleeper and the Party Girl slipping Collins a chair so he could "break bad" as the commentary put it and hit everyone with it. You do get the sense that Smiley, even a few years in, might be progressing week to week but maybe it's just a data point issue.  

Joe Malenko vs. Hector Guerrero GWA 8/20/88

MD: Hey, this was really good. We only get about ten minutes of it before Rusty Brooks comes in while Joe has the flying octopus hold on and everything devolves from there, setting up a Joe knee injury for whatever would come next. This was for the Jr. Heavyweight Title that Collins had given up and what a trade up to either Joe or Hector. 

The early feeling out process was great, a lot of tricked out technique but always with an attempt of one-upping your opponent and getting an advantage. Hector started clean but leaned heel very quickly and that helped underpin everything here. He went from shaking hands to start to going over the top to point out his feet were on the ropes as Malenko had him in a hold to really selling big and whiny to faking a handshake for an eyepoke and he never looked back from there. The fans were more interested at chanting Porky at Brooks (who was seconding Hector) but I'd say they got into it as it went on. I want to know how Eric thinks this compares to the WCW matches between Dean and Eddy almost ten years later. 

ER: I thought this was just fine, and honestly pretty comparable to the (mostly awful) Dean/Eddie WCW matches. This match was nothing like those, but had similar pluses and minuses. The worst thing about the never-ending Dean/Eddie feud was that it was almost always a lot of very fast work with no real goal. Everything was fast, most of it was crisp, some of it was insanely impactful, none of it led to anything at all and none of it was treated as "something that happened". They moved on from offense so quickly that they could have gaslit anyone into thinking that nothing at all had even happened. I've seen multiple brainbusters that were sold for less time than most people sell a hiptoss, endless limb work than nobody sells, sequences blown through for speed rather than any lasting impact, finishes fully disconnected from anything that happened in the match proper, etc. It was wrestling made for a 2 minute highlight video to be posted 25 years later by an Twitter engagement account saying "Nobody talks about how Eddie Guerrero and Dean Malenko were two of the best to ever do it". 

Dean modeled himself nearly entirely after his older brother. He moved almost exactly the same as Joe, but did not retain half of the weight Joe put behind his move execution. Dean was good at move execution, but he had no clue how to let a move sink in or mean anything at all. He saw what his brother was doing, but didn't seem to understand what he was doing or why he was doing it. Dean's only takeaway seemed to be "do it faster, get through exchanges faster, move on to new exchanges immediately". Seeing Joe's inset promo, we know Dean did retain his brother's terrified eyes, emotionless promos straight into the camera, but couldn't even do those as well. I don't think this is Joe or Hector at their best, though there were moments. Momentum blocking is one of my favorite things in wrestling, from refusing to be pushed off a headlock or dead weighting a move, and them each blocking a hiptoss by gluing their boots to the mat looked real good, in a way that Dean never understood. The important thing Dean never understood is that both men actually looked like they were trying to throw a hiptoss when the other blocked it. Dean always thought too far ahead to the inevitable reversal, so "the move that never got completed" always looked like a move designed to be reversed. Joe selling his knee after Rusty Brooks' interference was really great. His fall to the mat and his second fall after struggling back to his feet to cross chop Brooks in the throat looked like someone who actually blew out their knee and there has been no point during Dean's career where his leg selling looked this good. Now that I think about it maybe Rusty Brooks - somehow only 30 years old!!! - might have been the best thing about this. 

For what might be the best version of Malenko vs. Guerrero, please see Hector Guerrero's WCW matches against Dean on the 4/4/97 Nitro and the 6/8/97 Worldwide. They are each about 3 minutes long so none of your time will feel wasted. 

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New Footage Friday: GUERREROS! PANTERA! APACHE! CASAS! FIERA! PIERROTH!

Los Guerreros Del Futuro (Damian El Guerrero/Guerrero del Futuro/Guerrero Maya) vs El Pantera/Filoso/Triton 9/7/93 - FUN

PAS:Solid workman like trios match and a chance to see Black Terry under a mask work this style. Pantera add the flash to the match with a bunch of flips and ranas. Terry(Maya) threw some big overhand chops and clotheslines. Felt more like a time filler then a standout match, but a pleasant way to fill some time.

MD: Perfectly fine trios here, from the Back to the Future music at the start to a motion-heavy finish. As Pantera pops up in this footage, I consistently like what I see. He had the best primera exchange with Futuro, though it also had the most time too. They started with a fun little head-to-head shoving match and moved onto solid matwork with good bridges from Pantera. He also had a nice moonsault press and unique step up wheel kick during the comeback. We didn't get much Maya (Black Terry) there, which was a shame. Really, past a few hard shots, his biggest contribution to the match was being in the right place for the stooging spots later on. The beatdown was fairly subdued, as they kept one rudo in the ring for most of it and kept things in their corner. The match never really exploded but it always kept moving.



El Mestizo/Gran Apache vs Escudero Rojo/Reyes Veloz 9/7/93

MD: It feels good to watch something with stakes and emotions and a hot crowd. This had a lot going for it, three heel control segments (which means three comebacks), Apache putting it all out there, his punches, an exciting, high-stakes finishing stretch, blood and guts. I really liked the end of the primera. The rudos had ambushed at the start and it looked like they were going to get the nod on a double stretch, but Apache came in with a dropkick on both guys. He then laid out one with an awesome punch and teased a dive outside only to turn it into a moonsault back into the ring as Mestizo hit a flip dive off the apron. The second beatdown came after an errant Apache punch which fed into the end of the segunda where once they got the rudos held for the shots, they just didn't stop and get DQed. One nitpick here is that I would have liked some color on the rudos here to help justify the weight of the DQ. Apache and Mesitzo bled (and got their wounds worked over) but the rudos never did. The tercera ended up as a one-on-one fairly quickly and had some pretty exciting post-dive countout teases and near falls, before the finish, where after a couple of missed leaps off the top, Apache had to chase his opponent down before hanging on and dropping him with a German. This is pretty much what you can reasonably hope for when a lost mid-card apuestas match shows up.


PAS: I think the work in this match was pretty basic, although the drama of the hair stipulation and the blood really brought the entire presentation up a big notch. I agree the technicos getting DQ'ed in the segunda was a little weird, this is an apuestas match, the ref has to give them a bit of rope. The third fall was an extended Apache vs. Rojo singles match, which had some real drama to it, interesting to see Apache here, as he really would go on to great things, he wasn't exactly a youngster but this is definitely some of the earliest footage we have of him.

Chamaco Valaguez/Faraón Jr/Oro vs Arkángel de la Muerte/Cachorro Salvaje/Drako 9/10/93

MD: Drako was some mysterious and short-lived North American in the gimmick. We're not sure who. I don't have an answer after watching this but I thought he had solid presence and size with a fairly potent knee shot. They built up a mystique of him going at it with Faraon, Jr. too with some pretty engaging pre-match theatrics. Guys eat falls in CMLL due to the 2/3 structure and he did fall to a German in the segunda but got his heat back (I guess) by getting DQed by wrenching Faraon's head on the top rope in the tercera. It was pretty unfulfilling. Oro was pretty over and had good energy. I liked how big a jerk Cachorro was. Arkangel hit an amazing sit out Rock Bottom to help end the segunda. Drako seemed competent enough that they could have run further with the gimmick. Maybe someday we'll know the story there.

Atlantis/La Fiera/Pierroth Jr vs Black Magic/Mano Negra/Negro Casas 9/10/93


MD: Fantastic stuff. This was building to the Anniversary show, where both Fiera and Casas and Mano Negra and Atlantis would have apuestas matches. They billed Casas, Magic, and Mano Negra as La Ola Negra, which I hadn't heard before. They do tag a handful of times between 92 and 94. This constantly entertaining with the fans very much into it. Fiera is such a perfect Casas opponent, gritty and tough, but with so many different kicks, all of which look good and Casas is so good at dodging one only to eat the next, that sort of thing. Atlantis and Mano Negra brought plenty of hate too, all the way to the mask ripping at the end. The beatdowns were glorious, the comebacks were earned and heated. There was an awesome bit where they picked up Fiera and drove him head first into the first row chairs before tossing Atlantis into the crowd and post match Fiera got revenge on Casas by doing the same. Pierroth and Magic were ok as bit players but this was really about the other four and made me want to go back and watch the 93 Anniversary show again.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE BLACK TERRY

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New Footage Friday: PATTERSON! VALENTINE! FUJINAMI! SAKAGUCHI! SCORPIO! MERCURY! BLACK MAGIC! VAMPIRO!

Seiji Sakaguchi/Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Pat Patterson/Greg Valentine 1/1/79

MD: Obviously, one element of what we do here on Fridays as we delve into rare and lost footage is see wrestlers that not a lot of footage exists of. It's hard not to compare them against their reps. Sometimes they live up to the rep, sometimes they fall far short, and sometimes they far exceed it. Patterson's rep is amazingly high and he always lives up to it. He was great in the early eighties when he was obviously past his prime. He's fantastic in what bits of him we have in the 70s. You can only imagine were we to stretch back farther. I wouldn't say that's the case with the Ray Stevens footage we have, actually. You can see vague glimpses of the sort of heat he might have gotten once, before his body broke down from his in-ring style and his out-of-ring lifestyle. But with Patterson, there's just so much he brought to the table that everything you add on to the capabilities we see in his post-prime footage is just that, an addition to the greatness.

We come in at the 3 minute mark here. First half of the match is Valentine and Patterson getting advantages on Fujinami with Sakaguchi coming in to clean house. Second half, they take out Sakaguchi's leg and demolish it until the DQ finish and the continued demolishing post-match where they alternate bombs aways and elbow drops onto the leg. Valentine and Patterson make a really solid unit, both laser focused. Patterson is able to go from stooging and bumping to absolutely beating the crap out of someone on a dime. He was legitimate and tough while also being entertaining (lots of jawing with the ref or his opponent) and creative. Sakaguchi really used his size well here. Just huge presence which made it mean all the more when he played vulnerable towards the end.

PAS: The more I watch of him, the more Greg Valentine moves up my list of all time favorite wrestlers, what a vicious grinding killing machine he is at his best. Patterson and Valentine make a great team, giving when they need to give and taking all that they can take. Patterson could bring the violence as well, and had a more theatrical bumping style. The finish run where they destroy Sakaguchi's leg was some truly brutalizing stuff, it really looked like the kind of thing which would send Seiji out of the territory for six months. I am not sure how much Patterson and Valentine teamed, but man were they badasses, I could really see them running roughshod on a territory for a year laying out all comers. 

ER: This really gave us the look at an all time team that never actually was. Valentine/Patterson wasn't a team I've ever thought about before, but seeing them together here (and they didn't really team or face each other that many times other than this New Japan tour) and they are a really natural, vicious team. Patterson is just as savage as Valentine, which I wasn't totally expecting. I've seen plenty of Patterson, but he seemed especially mean here, coming off like a bigger bumping Valentine. When the match started I thought it would be Valentine throwing leather while Patterson took the bumps, instead we basically got two Valentines. Patterson did bump big, taking Fujinami's armdrags faster and harder than any junior heavyweight, and hitting back way harder. Patterson was really great at taking offense, loved how he worked under Sakaguchi (like running neck first into a strong chokehold), and I was really into the hell Patterson and Valentine unleashed on Sakaguchi's leg. Patterson's top rope kneedrop looked incredible, and I was really impressed by the go go go pace they all kept up. This felt like more of a modern indy tag structure worked by tough dudes, kind of anachronistic but impressive to see such a fast pace from some bruisers. We get 15+ minutes of tag team wrestling, but the tags from both sides come so quickly that it felt like we got twice as much action as we actually did. Patterson and Valentine also added Dusty to their team a couple of times on this same tour, and the thought of those three killer blonds on the same team makes my head spin. What a great find. 

Vampiro Casanova vs. Black Magic 10/93

MD: A rarity here, a lucha cage match where you can actually tell what's going on. There are basically two things going on here. One, young ladies love Vampiro. Two, Black Magic fills his time fairly well by beating him around the ring and slamming him into the cage. Look, Vampiro garnered a lot of support without a ton of talent. I think he's fairly good at writhing about in his selling here and he bleeds when he's supposed to, but his bumping is stilted and his offense more so. Smiley is a guy who disappoints me as much as not in 90s lucha matches, but overall, this worked. And full credit to Smiley, because he did the heavy lifting. He kept things vicious and compelling. He gave Vampiro hope spots that worked in the cage and then cut them off. The girls were going to pop for literally anything Vampiro managed to do, so that helped matters along. For the most part, they avoided big spots and kept it to Smiley laying things in (which looked really good half the time and less so the other half) and making use of the cage. When they went big, like Vampiro's bump off the top, it didn't go nearly as well. Vampiro should have built to using the cage more in his comeback too. That would have maybe made the finish - which was a little too opportunistic and banana peel for a cage match - probably work a little better. It's lucha, so the end goals could be different. If this was like a supre libre match on the road to a hair match, that'd be one thing, but I don't see any results along those lines. Still, as a stand alone experience, I'd put this in the "almost worked" category, mostly for Smiley. But don't short change the girls in the crowd.

PAS: I thought this was legitimately awesome, huge disconnect between Matt and me on this match. Vampiro isn't any great shakes as a wrestler, but he had a monster superstar presence and wasn't afraid to take a big beating and bleed a bunch, and what more do you need in a cage match. Smiley was really vicious pounding him with hard punches and kicks and grinding Vampiro's face into the cage. When it came time for Vamp to make his comeback, Smiley really flew around the ring bumping for him, he eats an awesome looking released vertical suplex (which may have just been Vampiro losing him on the move but it looked great), and we have a big triumphant Vampiro climb over the top of the cage. This was like the best version of a Bruno WWWF cage match, and it is wild to see Vampiro at his rock star peak. Might be my favorite lucha cage match ever, which is not a giant bar to clear but still says something. 

ER: I'm definitely closer to Phil than Matt on this one, I thought this was great. Lucha cage matches are some of the worst matches in wrestling, and this may be the only one I've seen that is actually better than its on paper potential. Often, lucha cage matches nearly eliminate the most interesting aspects of any luchador involved, but this match enhances both men. Black Magic's strengths are his strikes, Vampiro's strength is getting girls to cheer for him. It's a format that plays to their strengths and that's all you need for a strong match. Smiley is a known tough guy (basically anyone who worked UWF is clearly a tough guy) but you don't usually get to see him in ass kicker mode. Here he really kicks Vampiro's ass around the ring, push kicking his head a couple dozen times and throwing great right hands to bust Vampiro open. Smiley really kicks him around for 10 minutes, with my favorite being a sliding kick from his back right into Vampiro's jaw, looked like something cool Inoki would do. Smiley sells big for Vampiro's comeback, right after scraping Vamp's face across the cage (I might be reading too much into it, as Vamp had already been bleeding at that point, but his comeback had a fun "not the face!" energy to it). This really did feel like Pedro Morales working an MSG cagematch against Blassie, which was not a comparison I was expecting to make going in. The girls screamed as Vampiro tossed Smiley around (loved how Smiley took a teeter totter, flinging himself across the ring), and I don't recall a lucha cage match having a beginning/middle/end as satisfying as this one. 


2 Cold Scorpio vs. Joey Mercury PWU 9/15/07

PAS: The actual parts of this match that were wrestling, were pretty cool. They started off with some grappling, including an awesome spot where Scorp breaks a side headlock, by throwing an uppercut right to Mercury's knee. They also did some fun leverage stuff around a knuckle lock. Dan Severn is seconding Mercury for some reason, and the really lay in the interference thick in the middle of the match. Leading to a ref bump and run ins by DDP, Devon Moore and Sandman. These two have another match and I imagine with less mishigas it might be a lot better.

MD: A lot to enjoy here. Mercury just seemed very sure in his skin here. A lot of confidence, a lot of antics. I'm not sure I'd say he came off like a star, but he absolutely came off like a pro wrestler who really understood the power of his actions. Who wouldn't want to have Dan Severn out there as his hired gun/coach? He made the most of it, stalling to get advice, having him choke on the outside, utilizing some submission stuff he might not do otherwise, etc. Scorpio, like always, had the fairly unique ability to make offense that shouldn't work on paper look really good and make complete sense. Living in the late 90s/00s, it was really easy to get sick of finishes like this, but when you don't have to deal with them multiple times a month, you can appreciate them for their merits. It would have been even better if this set up a six man tag the next month.

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WCW Monday Nitro 2/7/00 from Tulsa, Oklahoma!

Wrestling feds never spent more to swirl the drain than WCW did in 2000. For a fed I loved throughout the 90s, I couldn't stand their main product (Nitro, PPV) in 2000 and avoided it almost entirely. I wasn't alone or unique in that stance, as attendance and buyrates were dropping rapidly. In fact, by the time Nitro came to Tulsa, Oklahoma's Convention Center in 2000, they pathetically only drew 6,358 paid. A few months before they drew nearly 7,500 at this same arena for a house show. Can you imagine a hot, popular act drawing less than 6,500 in Tulsa? Clearly an act on the downswing, if you can't put 6,500 butts in the seats in the Tulsa Convention Center.

Evan Karagias vs. Norman Smiley

ER: This was plenty fun for a 90 second match, with 3 Count all trying to interfere and Smiley running Karagias into them, with Moore taking a bump into the ring and Helms getting bumped off the apron. Smiley punched Karagias in the face a couple times, Karagias threw a nice leaping back elbow, and I liked how Karagias kept scrambling away from the wiggle. This would have been good had they given it just 3 minutes. Low end Nitro matches going from a 3 minute runtime to 1-2 minutes was one of the worst parts about this era WCW. There's just not much that can be done in 90 seconds. 

Jesus, poor Danny Hodge is in attendance. 

The nWo comes out and cuts a long and horrifying promo, although Scott Steiner was in typical Scott Steiner form. He goes on the mic hard after Ric Flair, saying that he stole the gimmick of the legend Buddy Rogers ("I know, I know, Buddy Rogers is dead, rest his soul") and says that Rogers is rolling over in his grave and that Flair won't ever have the class of Rogers. And speaking of class, he calls Flair an ass kissin', back stabbin, butt suckin' bastard and also runs down the people of Tulsa. Mark Madden asks Schiavone if he knows what Tulsa spelled backwards is. Good lord. 

Booker vs. The Wall

ER: The Wall was raw as hell at this point, and it's kind of surprising he was put on TV. He didn't really know how to sell punches or bump, but Booker is professional and makes this mostly work. Booker's punches looked really good and he made sure to fly hard into Wall so Wall would know when to fall over. Wall had a great high kick, and that was his only real asset at this point. He kicked like a Rockette, and Booker was smart and clearly had Wall use that kick for a couple of misses (to lead to Booker spin kicks) and then once to land. Wall did fly off the top into a Booker spin kick, which looked cool and also looked silly because again, Wall didn't know how to bump and bend his body. So he just kind of falls over like a mannequin. Booker took a big bump to the floor and really slammed Wall with his rock bottom, then we got some interference because of course. 

Barbarian vs. Tank Abbott

ER: How hard is it to just let these two stiff the hell out of each other for 3 minutes? This doesn't even go 1 minute, which is just cruel. The 1 minute goes as you'd want it to go, with Barbarian throwing big clubbing hands on Tank the second Tank gets on the apron, he and Tank throw blows (literally the easiest pairing to book), Tank backs him in the corner and throws some mean back elbows, and then the moment they start throwing again Barbarian just goes down from the first clean punch. After, Tank blows off Big Al who has come to see him in person!

Oh cool, Oklahoma is out and brings out a plastic surgeon (Dr. Jeter) to talk about all the work Madusa has had done, and the crowd seems into the misogyny at first but it goes on a bit too long for their liking. Madusa comes out and kicks everyone in the balls and also stands on Dr. Jeter's balls. Cooooool. 

I Quit: Terry Funk vs. David Flair

ER: I think David Flair is the worst wrestler to get any significant run in a major wrestling company. This guy didn't even know how to STAND like a human, let alone move like a professional wrestler. This man had no instincts for STANDING! His face was the face of a man who looked like he constantly had to be thinking "stand normal stand normal stand normal" and whenever he had to think about anything else he would naturally revert back to forgetting how to stand. David Flair's movements were so wooden that before his matches he would oil up with Minwax. This match starts with Funk taking 6 straight chairshots to the head, and Flair doesn't know how hard or soft to throw them but also has a hard time because he doesn't know how to bend his arms. If you've seen David Flair stand badly, you've also seen how weird his arms look. They don't quite dangle, but they don't look usable. They look locked in place like old action figure arms, no points of articulation. He's all hunched over with possibly not working arms, and a loose as hell stretched out t-shirt collar. He has dead eyes and rosy cheeks and looks like he's a day away from shooting up a church in the south. 

Terry Funk somewhat works a miracle here, because he takes those chairshots and then starts throwing Flair around ringside, while trash talking Ric Flair on he mic. He tosses David into the guardrail and then pulls back the ringside mats and hits a nice piledriver on the floor, and a hard DDT. "You better come and get your kid, Flair. While he's still alive." Funk piledrives David through a table (Madden makes sure to remind us three different times while this is happening that Funk piledrove Ric through a table at Music City Showdown). Funk goes on a long and awesome old man Terry rant, calling Flair banana nose and then quitting, giving David the technical win. Funk really made this far and away the most entertaining segment on the show. Even though that's a super low bar so far this episode, that shows that 55 year old Funk can still have the best segment on a wrestling show while paired with the worst wrestler of all time. 

Disco Inferno vs. Stevie Ray 

ER: I forgot Ahmed Johnson was here at this point, as Big T. And he's at least 40 pounds heavier than his WWF days. I always thought he looked cool as hell in WWF, and here he's still a different kind of cool. He's wearing a green windbreaker suit, leather fanny pack, chain, and looks like a sinister cookout uncle who is always the first to initiate an altercation. Totally forgot the cool Big T vibe. This was certainly a 2 minute Disco/Stevie Ray match, and none of the match looked as cool as Big T looked at ringside. 

Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Brian Knobbs

ER: Finlay is the ref for this one, and even though this only goes a couple minutes it's still got a lot of asskicking. Knobbs took a bunch of nasty shots and spills and Bigelow happily continued to hit him with stuff. The match starts with Bigelow throwing a trash can at Knobbs from the ring, then hopping down and bashing him with the lid. Knobbs really takes some hard bumps, working way harder than I remember, really running hard chest first into the guardrail, gets his cast smashed into the ring steps and hit by a crutch, gets run into a ladder and then the ladder falls over RIGHT onto his face. Guy is taking a beating. We get a funny moment where Finlay hands Knobbs a trash can to use without Bigelow seeing (well timed by Finlay) and Knobbs uses it, but then Finlay hits Knobbs with a chair to give Bigelow the win. These guys sure take a lot of headshots.

Billy Kidman vs. The Demon

ER: So The Demon isn't very good, and the crowd chants for Torrie Wilson for the entire match, but things aren't all bad. Kidman takes a nice bump to the floor off a so so Demon clothesline and he makes a Demon DDT look like a credible finisher. Kidman's match winning frankensteiner looked really great.

Sid Vicious vs. Scott Hall

ER: Sid was such a megastar, and as they show Hall and Sid walking backstage before the match, it appears that Sid is chanting his own name. He's doing it the exact same way as the Yes! chant, arms over his head, just chanting his name. When he comes out for his entrance he gets a huge reaction, and is just lighting up the fans with fistbumps on his way to the ring. This guy had charisma and anyone who has badmouthed Sid is clueless. I think Hall has always been a good Sid opponent, as he has size but knows exactly how to bump for Sid, goes down fast for Sid's punches and weaves his head just right to cover for Sid's weird corner punches. He stooges and stumbles for Sid but doesn't come off like a joke at all. The fans go wild when Sid grabs Hall for the chokeslam and drags him all around the ring so everyone can get a glimpse. We get a great ref bump when Hall does a killer fallaway slam that clips Nick Patrick, and really for an era that did constant ref bumps this was one of the well orchestrated ones. Patrick was standing in the right spot, Hall didn't awkwardly change direction with his throw, it looked real good. Then Jarrett runs out and wrecks Sid, and Hall hits an awesome Razor's Edge on Sid, but then Jarrett turns on Hall for trying to win (what was Hall expected to do in his title match? I don't understand any of this) and the nWo disbands.


This was not a good episode of wrestling television, but it's kind of amazing how enthusiastic the whole crowd remained the entire time. It's cool that a crowd of under 7,000 could maintain that kind of enthusiasm for something that is clearly falling apart right in front of them. They're watching this promotion that looked damn near unstoppable just three years prior, and now they're looking at this offensive, lumbering, wounded, leaking monstrosity. And you'd think it would leave the arena awkwardly quiet in the wrong spots and leave a bunch of embarrassing photos which show how empty large sections were, but we don't get any of that. We get to witness a crowd of about 6,500 Oklahomans actually having a good time, regardless of the sad presentation they were witnessing. I'm glad the people of Oklahoma got that, at least. 

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WCW Saturday Night 4/10/99

This felt like kismet. I made a sazerac and pulled a complete random disc of WCW out of the stack, and I pulled an episode almost 20 years ago to the date. Out of the couple hundreds of episodes I could have snagged, I get one with a near perfect round number anniversary. My mood is always up when I crank up some 90s WCW, but this feels like a Close Encounters level sign. This episode is guaranteed to rule.

Rick Steiner vs. Fit Finlay

ER: What did I say!? Finlay vs. a Steiner motherfucker! Send these two out to lead off an episode? I'm totally fine with that. It's predictably great, and it's a treat to watch Finlay eat more of a beating than beat up a junior. Finlay is a guy really great at putting over offense but his syndicated matches are most often him dishing the beating. Steiner hits a great lariat, and a fun powerbomb with Finlay holding onto the ropes to try to escape but just getting lifted and dropped. Finlay even eats a nasty hot shot on the guardrail, really crashes down onto it. And obviously Finlay isn't going to be eating a beating the *entire* match, so his makes the strikes count on his comebacks. He's going to hit some full force uppercuts and this is going to rule. What a predictably great start to things.

Norman Smiley vs. The Cat

ER: Six frat guys in the crowd are wearing no shirts and have SMILEY spelled out individually across their chests. Smiley was "men painting on their bodies in adoration" level. And this was a weirdly good bad match. I’ve never been very high on the Cat, although I know he has his fans. Sometimes you get Cat where his strikes look like they land, other times you get a bunch of really pulled sidekicks. Here we got a mix of that, so he’d crack Smiley in the jaw with a low kick, but then later hit a soft kick to the side, but then later he’d hook a crescent kick under the chin. Smiley’s offense looked great consistently throughout, so it was tough seeing him throw out some cool stuff and have Cat only half return the favor. Smiley always has a surprise, and we got classics like his awesome rollercoaster bodyslam, but he also used a trippy escape to get out of a waistlock and tossed out a couple of neat armdrags. We got Sonny Onto interference, things kept threatening to get real good - and then they would get real good - and then they’d go a little soft. Weird match, but felt like Smiley was a good opponent for Cat. Really if they tightened up a couple of hinges in this one, it would have delivered.

Juvy comes out with a tallish guy dressed as Konnan (complete with top buttoned flannel) wearing a Mil Mascaras match, billed as La Cucaracha. Juvy acts as Cucracha’s translator, with the masked man (definitely not Disco Inferno) whispering into Juvy’s ear and having Juvy say things like “This is definitely not Disco Inferno” and “This is a guy who can definitely beat Konnan”. Juvy wasn’t working overtly cocky heel like his excellent Juice run later in the year, he was playing it all more coy. Konnan comes out and does his catchphrases, but does drop a real nice G rated diss, which is a special skill to use and not sound silly (like a Nitro where Hogan said “Fe Fi Fo Fum, the Giant is a big dum dum”. It was fucking brutal.). He makes fun of Juvy’s promo and said nobody could understand him, and then says:

"Your English is as good as La Cucaracha’s Spanish which is as good as Disco Inferno’s wrestling”

It’s not mean, but like I said it’s a quality G rated diss. We get a not very good impromptu match and Konnan unmasks Disco. Fans got into the match portion, really wanted Disco humiliated. It’s an impressive reaction for an upcoming match that I hope I never see,

Barbarian/Hugh Morrus vs. Meng/Jerry Flynn

ER: I could have guessed these four matching up, but I don’t recall the Faces of Fear splitting up. Was this some pre-Russo “split up two regular-to-semi-regular teams and have them switch alliances and feud” thing? Definitely seen a tag with these guys, but haven’t seen it with the established teams scrambled. This is definitely a feud I don’t remember but damn was it great here. This is falls count anywhere and they work 80% of the match on the floor and in the aisle way, and they build it really great to peak it at what fans want to see. This whole thing goes barely 6 minutes, but it’s laid out flawlessly. We start with Flynn/Barbarian and Meng/Morrus pairings, both pairs brawling around the ring, and it’s all engaging stuff, but they knew just went to splinter off into the money pairing of Meng/Barbarian and Flynn/Morrus. It’s a trip seeing Meng and Barbarian go at it, but it’s a trip people want to take. When they splinter back to original pairings that’s when we up the fan factor by getting Jimmy Hart involved. Hart draws the incredible task of jumping Meng, and Hart actually starts kicking at Meng! Meng grabs Jimmy Hart by the fucking head…..

and the camera cuts away. It cuts away to Flynn and Barbarian who are literally just locked in a collar and elbow. It stays on them. Eventually we see Meng walk into frame and we realize that whatever Meng did to Hart was long over and long off camera. This was a porn producer missing the money shot because he was opting for a lingering still frame of the bedside table. Somebody should have been red-faced screamed at for this error. Unforgivable. We get a couple nice bumps into the ring steps (Flynn really flies into them), Meng hits a nice low blow on Morrus AND a really high leap standing dropkick, Flynn gets backdropped into a brutal Barbarian powerbomb (can't believe we got that spot!) and we get an awesome extended Hart chase after the match. Hart got involved again and does an incredible sequence running away from Meng and Flynn, working some amazing shtick and getting an actual loud laugh for me when he escapes down the aisle….but the pod bay doors on the Saturday Night set aren’t open! So we get the genuinely hilarious shot of Hart banging on the doors to be let in before Meng and Flynn catch him. Great segment to end a show on.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE WCW B-SIDES

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MLJ: Recent Uploads: Black Magic & Negro Casas vs Brazo de Oro & Brazo de Plata [CMLL Tag Title Tournament]

1997-02-21 @ Arena México
Black Magic & Negro Casas vs Brazo de Oro & Brazo de Plata [CMLL Tag Title Tournament]

I've seen a lot of Porky. I've seen a lot of Casas. I haven't seen a lot of them working together. I could be way off but I think Porky, in comedy situations, even when positioned with Pesta Negra, is more likely to be paired with Felino or Niebla (and even that feels rarer than you'd think).

This was the first round of the February 1997 tag team title tournament. The Headhunters were stripped after their title win. I have no idea if that's because of kayfabe reasons or not but you sort of have to assume not. The tournament ended with Silver King and Wagner, Jr. beating Dos Caras and Ultimo Dragon which sounds light and fun and worth tracking down at some point. It's 1997 so they basically had to do it all again in August after Silver King jumped to Promo Azteca.

Anyway, this is that amazing creature, that was probably far more likely in 1997 then it will be in 2017, good tournament lucha. IT was right around ten minutes and felt much more like the Brazos in Japan than more of a CMLL style 2/3 falls match but everyone was in their thirties, all of them were pretty athletic, and it's the Brazos and Casas. Ten minutes of that ended up being just the right mix of shtick and spots, even if it was ultimately going to feel fairly disposable no matter what they did due to the fact it was an early round match that was only going ten.

In many ways, it was a tale of two Brazos opponents. Negro Casas was serene. He bounced off of Porky. He flailed and spasmed whenever a Brazo put him in a hold. He was plucky in bouncing up and charging in again. There was one exchange where he got Flair tossed off the top rope in a manner that was just tighter and more stylistic than you're used to. And for those keeping count about Casas' ability to do new things in almost every match, he locked in a Cavernaria late in the match, which is something I'm sure he's done plenty but I'm not sure I've ever seen him do personally. Of course, it wasn't the Cavernaria in and of itself that made the moment, but instead Casas kicking and grinding upon the back of Porky's leg in order to get it on. It's that attention to detail which makes Negro Casas one of the best, most believable, most engrossing wrestlers ever.

It's also what Smiley absolutely did not bring to the table here. I was, at first, going to give him a pass like I usually do, but then I remembered it's 97 and not 93. He just didn't have it here. There is one or two really good things, execution wise, like a really nasty cravat on Porky, but he's terrible at portraying consequence. Best example of this is him trying to slam Porky early and failing. Normally, this is a transition where someone sells the back, sometimes to set up the slam as a big moment later in the match. He just put him down as if there was no cost to the attempt and when he did hit the slam later on, it really didn't matter. That's Smiley in Mexico in a nutshell. Meanwhile, Casas is stuck in holds and doing the most brutal looking kicks to try to get out, in pure desperation. Night and day.

Just look at this gritty as hell Porky/Casas exchange that ends with the aforementioned top rope toss:

Or how Casas sells the armbreaker:

So past Casas lawn darting and Smiley being stronger, there wasn't much complex storytelling here, but there was plenty of character, some surprising grit and struggle (And killer clotheslines) and all the fun you'd expect.

Like this every person sub:

And Porky doing a twisting senton off the ropes (!):

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MLJ: King Haku, Pegasus Kid, Vampiro vs Black Magic, Mocho Cota, Pierroth Jr.

1993-10-01 @ Arena México
King Haku, Pegasus Kid, Vampiro vs Black Magic, Mocho Cota, Pierroth Jr.

This was probably the most high profile of the Cota return tour trios. It was the top trios match in the 93 Anniversary show (the 60th for CMLL), which, though Meltzer reported it as disappointing at the time, had this match, Casas vs Fiera, and Mano Negra vs Atlantis in apuestas matches on top, both of which I think I've looked at before. It was up against an AAA show with the Vulcano/Huichol/Misterioso apuestas match which I ALSO think I've looked at before. Worth noting is Meltzer commenting that people found the Fiera vs Casas match disappointing because it was all brawling with no dives. Ah 1993 lucha fandom.

Story here was that Pierroth had just turned on Vampiro a week or two before. Also Cota had jumped not long before this, apparently, screwing up the payoff of a Latin Lover hair match over in AAA. This is just two falls with Sangre Chicana interfering with a foul on Haku on the outside, which, unfortunately, didn't lead to an awesome Chicana vs Haku singles match, but instead to Rayo Jr's return from AAA (looking kind of fat with a tie on).

What we have is just awesome though. Occasionally people would make broad statements such as "If you don't like X, then we'll never agree on wrestling." Something like that. They're generally silly, but look, if you don't like Mocho Cota bouncing off of Haku, then I don't know what to tell you. It's amazing. I love 93 babyface Haku in Mexico. He was just such a force, and as good as Negro Casas was as a foil for him, I think Cota might have even been better.

That's just gold, and the match is full of stuff like that, coupled with everyone beating the crap out of Vampiro, which is absolutely the best use of 1993 Vampiro. I think he may actually be just a little bit underrated in that role, to be honest. There's something lanky and awkward about him, but it generally worked in context. The end to the initial beatdown, with Benoit and Haku just having enough and rushing in, felt like one of the better frustrated tecnico brawling comebacks I've seen in ages too. It makes sense given who was involved.

This was a feel good, palette cleanser with a huge amount of entertainment value and a big return right before the two apuestas matches. Haku vs Cota was the greatest match up that we never knew we wanted.

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MLJ: Recent Uploads: Love Machine, Último Dragón, Vampiro vs Black Magic, Negro Casas, Pirata Morgan

1992-09-18 @ Arena México
Love Machine, Último Dragón, Vampiro vs Black Magic, Negro Casas, Pirata Morgan

I really meant to get back to Sombra and I will soon but Dataintcash has been uploading so I wanted to give some of these a look. There's another Robin Hood match up and an Estrada vs Fiera match which I'm going to give my vaunted colleagues a few more days to get to before I look at, but it sounds great on paper. This, though, took me by surprise. I'll watch any Negro Casas match that comes down the pipeline, but I didn't really have high hopes for this one. I was wrong.

It was one of the craziest lucha brawls I've ever seen. It didn't have the sort of brutal fury you get from the 80s rudos vs rudos wars, but it was just constant action, with all of the rudos playing their roles so well, and all of the tecnicos as endlessly spirited and fiery, even as a framing device, which I'm not sure I've ever seen before. Usually, when the rudos are beating on one tecnico, it's because they've managed to neutralize the others. Here, it was often two on one because one of the other tecnicos was chasing the third rudo around the ring. Crazy stuff with a lot of visceral hatred.

Morgan immediately felt like the best possible Vampiro opponent here. All Vamp really needed to do was bleed and sell and occasionally dive across the ring at whatever rudo last wronged him, using his height to make that visually striking. It didn't often go so well for him, save for one big revenge spot where he got to suplex Black Magic outside of the ring. Morgan was just awesome at bullying him and bleeding him, with all three rudos constantly cutting him off. There's a hair match between Morgan and Vampiro and I actually want to watch that now; it's nothing I've ever really thought of seeking out before.

I think this was shortly after Magic's turn and he and Barr got the very most out of that, with Barr first frustrated and then increasingly furious and deranged in his attacks. Casas was glorious, both as the rudo getting chased around the ring the most and as the guy taking the most sheer enjoyment from the beating they were giving out. He was always in the right place at the right time to help with a cut off or push someone off the ropes or get in an extra shot for good measure, and he made Dragon look like a million bucks by bumping for his kicks. I value old Casas just as much as young Casas, but I'll also freely admit that physically, he could do things well above and beyond when he was younger. He never had to, but they almost always add something unique and special to a match.

This was one of those vaguely unsatisfying two fall matches with the rudos controlling most, the tecnicos getting a comeback win in the middle, and then the rudos getting disqualified in the end. Of that sort, you either have the desperation DQ foul because the tecnicos are too much or when the rudos get DQ'd because they're just beating on the tecnicos too much. Both build heat for another match, but I kind of like the latter since it allows for more face saving on the rudo side. That's what we had here. I'd suggest watching this just for the breathless energy of it and Morgan and Casas playing their roles so well. This was really the way to manage Vampiro at this stage.

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MLJ: Recent Uploads: Black Magic vs La Fiera

1992-04-19 @ Arena Coliseo
La Fiera vs Black Magic (mano a mano)

If I wasn't sold on early 90s rudo Fiera before this match, I am now. I can't say the same for Smiley, though I do think he brought a lot to the table here. A quick note to begin. The video for this match is 23 minutes, but the match itself is probably ten minutes less between a pre-match Fiera promo and post match posturing and replays and credits. I expected a much longer tercera than we got. In some ways, it's good. One of the downsides in watching matches on youtube is that you usually have a good sense when they're going to end, and more importantly when they're NOT going to end. This one took me by surprise. I just wanted to manage expectations by pointing it out.

Also, we need a whole paragraph to talk about Fiera's look and feel at the start of the match. He had the chain/dog collar again. He had sunglasses. he had a cut down tank top thing and I have no idea what was on it, a band maybe? His fingers were taped up. He had some crazy aquamarine zubaz-style-on-the-side tights and white boots that went up to knee pads. I think I like his tecnico "crazy tiger shirt" look better, but this was such a spotlight of the time. So, he came down, Black Magic came down. They had words for each other, moved around the ring. When Smiley was announced, he posed around the ring a bit. Fiera used that as a chance to ambush him with the chain. The ref (who was certainly inclined towards the rudos, annoyingly so, but not as annoyingly so as in other matches I've seen), halfheartedly tried to take the chain away, which led to this utterly amazing double clothesline spot, with Fiera clapping at the end:

Even better? Fiera kept beating on Smiley for another minute or so before finally taking the sunglasses off, to surprisingly big heat. Smiley would come back and set up a ten punch in the corner only to have the ref cut him off. With both of them distracted in that position, Fiera hit an awesome low blow, setting the stage for the rest of the primera:

Fiera followed this up by forcing Smiley out of the ring and slammed his arm into the post, and here's where the real meat of the match began. We know from the Casas hair match that Fiera could mount a great, focused limb assault. He did so here, unrelentingly keeping on the arm and shoulder, even as Smiley sold extremely well, and tried to fight back with one arm even better. You'd get moments of hope and temporary rudo comeuppance like this:

but between the ref stopping Smiley's haymakers and Fiera being too focused in his attack, it was a futile effort. Fiera ended the caida with a shoulderbreaker and a submission. Good primera that really became something substantial once the limbwork set in.

It continued into the segunda too, with Smiley's initial comeback attempt stymied by some ref slow counting and a subsequent Fiera ambush as he complained. That led to Fiera going back to the arm and a very solid transition. Fiera went for another weighty-feeling stepover armbar, but Smiley, playing up the strength gimmick, lifted his opponent up out of it, placed him on the top rope, and after a few shots, dropkicked him out. On the outside, he slammed Fiera's back into apron, and we found ourselves in one of my favorite narratives in wrestling, dueling limbwork.

I'm not going to say that this was super elaborate (though Smiley got full points in the primera for trying to fight back with one arm). It was focused though, with Smiley really targeting the back for a few minutes before putting Fiera away with a half crab. Within the confines of pro-wrestling, it's one of the most believable ways in the world for a wrestler to fight back from such a deficit and it just feels right. It's paralleled and I thought it worked really well here.

It would have worked even better if they were going to continue the duel into the tercera. They only had time to play with it a bit though. Instead, Smiley went back to complaining to the ref, Fiera ambushed (and the crowd hated that), hit a really nice corner clothesline but missed the next. There'd be some lip service to the limbwork (Fiera got back on offense for a moment by driving the shoulder into Smiley's arm out of the corner; Smiley reversed a whip into a bear hug, targeting the back, but couldn't keep it on due to the arm), but after the little back and forth, they'd rush to a pretty good finish of Smiley going for the German, Fiera blocking, and Smiley reversing the reversal attempt into a Nothern Lights.

This was another great Fiera performance. Smiley's selling was top notch, but his offense was a little over the top. It's what would help him stand out later in WCW, but as of yet, I just haven't seen it fit right in Mexico. This also had probably the least painful heel ref work I've ever seen. The match itself is less than fifteen minutes and well worth watching though.

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MLJ: Recent Uploads: Espectro Jr., La Fiera, Satánico vs Black Magic, Love Machine, Último Dragón

1992-04-10 @ Arena Coliseo
Espectro Jr., La Fiera, Satánico vs Black Magic, Love Machine, Último Dragón

I don't know about you guys but my favorite lucha themed holiday isn't Dia de Muertos but "whenever dataintcash posts new lucha." I realize that there's a near endless amount of lucha I haven't seen. I realize I never exactly finished the DVDVR 80s set. I realize this, but it's still kind of a blast when something previously unavailable online pops up.

I like nice tight little series, a trios or two and a singles match at the end of it. Here, we've got a Coliseo mini feud, a trios match, a singles match. Nice and neat. Norman Smiley is a guy who got good at some point but I'm not convinced in the least that 1992 was that point. I haven't been impressed yet as he seemed to almost be working a strongman gimmick with lots of posing. I have a feeling his rudo work is stronger than his tecnico work (which is true for just about everyone, it seems) but I haven't seen much of that. Frankly, I'm more interested in this as a Fiera showcase. It's another singles match for him from the early 90s. We've just got to get to it through a pretty crazy trios.

I've seen very little Art Barr in Mexico. This seems early for him there and he was a tecnico which also seems wrong somehow. This was just a week after the Panther mask match, and yeah, how have I not seen that? Just looking online quickly, most of the build isn't online so that'd be frustrating but I have to still check it out at some point. I go around looking at random Panther lightning matches and not that? Anyway, yeah, this was a week after that, and Panther was hanging out with the rudos selling the piledriver that finished it, neckbrace and all, well-appreciated in an age of Rush doing package piledrivers and what not. Also appreciated was Love Machine bursting out to attack Panther. Hell of a way to start the proceedings. Here's the newly unmasked Barr sort of basking in it all:

Probably the best part was that right after the assault, after the other rudos batter him away from Panther, Fiera, who had a dog collar and a chain around this time, immediately smashed Magic with it and hung him over the top rope. They didn't waste any time getting into it while still building off of the giant match that had just happened between Panther and Machine. So we had a more than solid rudo beatdown. Rudo Fiera certainly was spirited, blasting Magic and Dragon with the chain, and finishing the fall off with a foul while the ref was distracted.

The match never really settled down into something that felt controlled or structured. There was always something wild about it, as if it'd get thrown out at any moment. I think that's an energy Barr brought to the table really, even when he was getting swarmed. In the segunda, the tecnicos kept trying to fight back but couldn't get traction until Magic reversed a whip. Dragon was happy to blow mist all over the place (though never at his opponents); it's funny how that part of his gimmick disappeared over the years. Eventually things ended up as Magic vs Fiera again, finishing with a German from Magic. I have no idea what happened, though, as while it was a nice suplex, Smiley couldn't hold the bridge. I think he might have landed on his head. The ref just gave it to the tecnicos.

Segunda was a bit of a reset, with the highlight being Satanico and Dragon having a short but really good exchange. Satanico never disappears in these matches. Here, he seemed to be directing traffic, like always, with the express intent of getting revenge on Machine for what happened to Blue Panther. I love watching Satanico do his stuff: just little things like his mannerisms here as they were triple goozling Magic in the corner:

It's hard to say that this broke down at the end, since it had never really come together except for as a slightly focused brawl, but it became even more chaotic in the end, with Dragon hitting the Santo corner tope on Satanico, and Espectro (who did pretty much disappear in the match) just rolling around with Barr for far too long in order to distract the ref and allow Fiera to crotch Magic to set up the match for the following week.

We end up watching plenty of matches that are ultimately a mess. This was one of them but it was heated with some great punches from Fiera and Satanico and a lot of energy from Dragon and Barr. I'm real curious what Smiley is going to look like in the mano a mano match and we'll look at that next time.

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My Favorite Wrestling! WCW Saturday Night 3/11/00, Part 1

1. Harris Brothers vs. Disorderly Conduct

Pretty fun squash as Mean Mike and Tough Tom are game enough to bump around for these two. The teams pair off and one combo rolls to the floor and the other stays in the ring. I can tell that Mean Mike is on the floor and Tough Tom is in the ring, but I won't be able to tell the Harris Bros. apart. Whichever one is in the ring actually looks pretty decent, throwing a cool uppercut and tossing Tom around nicely. The H Bomb works real well as a finisher, and both members of DO have to take it (with both getting great height). This was a fun enough squash, but is there such thing as an actual good Harris Bros. match? There are 12+ years of these guys on tape, certainly there has to be something good?

2. Norman Smiley vs. Scotty Zappa

Wow, Scotty Zappa. I saw Dweezil's Zappa Plays Zappa show a few years back and it was really awesome. Not sure what Ahmet or Moon Unit are up to these days. I feel bad for Scotty as he got little of the family talent, didn't get to marry Lisa Loeb or Selma Blair, clearly rebelled against his father by not even attempting a career in music. I imagine if he ever worked ECW that Joey Styles gave his finisher some name like "Weasels Ripped My Flesh" or "Chunga's Revenge". This was a weird period for Smiley as he's still billed as "Screamin" Norman Smiley, except he doesn't scream anymore. And he still dresses like he's the hardcore legend, with football pants and minor league hockey jersey, but he wrestles like his weird hybrid World of Sport/UWFi self. Match is not helped much by Zappa, who stinks. Norman still does his awesome scoop and twist bodyslam and has some slick leg kicks. It always stuns me how over the Big Wiggle was. People just jump out of their seats screaming whenever he does it.



3. 3 Count vs. El Dandy, Silver King and Jeremy Lopez

Apparently 3 Count are the collective hardcore champs here but this was probably taped a few months before the title change and there are no hardcore elements (which enrages Scott Hudson!). The match starts out the best way it could possibly start, with Dandy punching Karagias before the bell, then Helms and Moore each running into Dandy punches of their own. 12 stars. This match really is a WCW cruiserweight classic. Outside of one botch from King/Moore (and even that was doing a really ambitious electric chair type roll-up spot) this was 6 minutes of constant spots and cool showcases from everybody. Moore and Helms were such bump freaks at this point (though I haven't watched much pre-WWE Helms in awhile and seeing the size difference between him here and him in WWE was quite jarring) and both guys flew all over for King and Dandy. Los Fabulosos had cool double team offense (loved Silver King hip tossing Dandy into a senton) and this was just exactly what you hoped for when you saw this on paper. Jeremy Lopez was quite the unheralded early 00s junior as random Villano and Fabulosos partner.

4. Barry Horowitz vs. Allan Funk

Cool little 6 minute match that's a really good reference point if you want to throw somebody towards some high end Horowitz. Funk was one of my favorite Power Plant guys but here he had a lot of trouble stringing together moves and transitioning from offense to defense. Horowitz seems to really thrive in these types of matches, though, and he comes off as almost a Fit Finlay "let's let him train the Divas/let's put him with Bobby Lashley" type guy making the young and inexperience looked good by one parts selling big for them and one parts taking advantage of them. Horowitz does cool Finlay stuff he doesn't normally do, like stomp fingers, wrench ears on side headlocks, headbutts, elbow to the throat on the apron, even breaking out a nasty palm strike to Funk's right eye. Jesus (Moses?), Barry! This honestly may have been the best Horowitz has ever looked in a match, and I'm a pretty big Barry fan. Barry controlled for almost 6 straight minutes and Funk won by reversing a cradle and holding the trunks. This match was really awesome. It might have been better with more of a competitive pace, but an extended Barry squash with tiny Funk comebacks peppered in worked great for me.

5. Hacksaw Jim Duggan vs. Frankie Lancaster

I can't believe it took me so long to realize that '99/'00 Frankie Lancaster was just Bob Holly. I bet I could convince somebody that was true. These discs are burned from some pretty deep generation VHS tapes, so they're kinda fuzzy with muffled sound. I'm trying to think of a more selfish worker than Duggan during the syndicated years and the only guy I can think of is Sullivan. Konnan definitely has to get his moves in, but occasionally sells for other guys in between. Sullivan rarely lets other guys have offense, but Duggan is almost worse because he usually lets guys get a couple moves in and never even acts like anything touched him. It makes guys look fucking ridiculous. Lancaster threw a few shockingly nice punches and Duggan doesn't move his head one inch to even give off the impression somebody is doing offense to him. I want a Duggan vs. Sullivan match that is just a 4 minute test of strength with neither gaining an advantage, and then each just choosing to get counted out so nobody has to show any ass.

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My Favorite Wrestling! WCW Saturday Night 9/25/99

1. El Dandy vs. Lenny Lane

This is arguably the biggest "Dandy showcase" match that Dandy ever had in WCW. It was 4 minutes, but almost the whole thing was controlled by Dandy. He had more offense in this one match than probably all his matches in '98 put together. Lenny wasn't very good, but it was really fun seeing Dandy dominate a match and repeatedly cut ANYbody off. There were a bunch of nearfalls that actually looked like Dandy would be getting the pinfall (which shows what a rube I am since Lane was  Cruiser Champ at this time). But Dandy had all sorts of cool leverage roll-ups that looked really impossible to kick out of, and he got to work in his awesome punches into a few (never had the chance to be) "trademark" spots. The best was when Lane was "punching" him in the corner (man did Lane have bad punches) and Dandy calmly told him to stop, then when Lane went "Huh?" Dandy belted him. Tenay tried his damndest to put over Dandy but it just wasn't ever going to work. Still nice to see him getting this kind of match.

2. Alan Funk vs. Kid Romeo

It's cool that WCWSN was around back then to give guys like this time to have actual matches. The matches usually weren't very good as most of the Power Plant guys had no idea how to build matches or transition or string together moves properly, but it at least gave them 6-7 minutes in front of live bodies. All the matches always end up your move my move kinda stuff, but the moves usually look pretty crisp. Funk was always a guy I dug more than most as his stuff usually had a good snap, he would break out a couple cool gutbuster suplexes and he knew how to work hell better than the others. Finish was a total abortion with Funk rolling up Romeo and Romeo being too much of a goon to keep his shoulders down. Literally had both of them up. Tenay and Hudson are wondering why the ref is even counting and then when that wins the match both of them try and act like they must have been down from another camera angle.

3. Bobby Eaton vs. Jim Duggan

USA wages a war on Huntsville, Alabama!! This...wasn't that good. Duggan could not give less of a shit here, walking around the ring slowly and missing shots by a mile. Eaton tried but this was a couple old guys moving slow for 3 minutes before Duggan wins with the slowest loosest clothesline you've seen.

Scott, Steve and Brad Armstrong come out for a quick interview calling out the Faces of Fear. Sounds like a fun six man. Madusa led the interview and looked horrific. Gross fake tits, way too much body glitter for someone on the wrong side of 30, poorly done extensions. I mean they're based out of Atlanta. You'd think there would be SOMEbody in the company that could rattle off ten places that do decent extension and weave work in the greater ATL area. Shoot there is probably a weave competition going on RIGHT NOW at an ATL mall. Unacceptable.

4. Erik Watts vs. Steve Regal

This was actually really fucking awesome as Regal works a whole bunch of mat slickness all over Watts and Watts breaks out his fun and goofy big guy offense, like his step up rana. But damn did Regal look insanely good. All the mat stuff is blatant show off stuff, but it's the kind of thing I could rewind and watch over and over. Cool leg trips and arm drags and flashy leverage moves. Dave Taylor was with him at ringside looming over things like a background extra in Long Good Friday. Taylor starts cheating to win and Duggan comes out to even the odds. Duggan's 2x4 shots looks horrible but if anybody has the facials to put over bad strikes, it's Regal and Taylor. I assume this sets up a tag team match at some point. 

5. Disco Inferno vs. Spyder

That's right! You KNOW you were all clamoring for the one or two Spyder matches that exist. Spyder is kind of a great guy to point to if you're arguing that WCW had too many guys on the payroll. The Latino World Order disbanded in JANUARY! And the guy who was the non-wrestling guy in the faction is still around working random matches 8 months later. How many shows before this was he flown into? Match went like 90 seconds and Spyder looked pretty not good. Threw a clothesline at Disco's lower chest, couldn't throw a punch. Glad they kept this guy around.

6. Norman Smiley vs. Scotty Riggs

Fun match between two underrated guys. Rachel thinks Smiley looks like the worlds most ripped History teacher. I liked all these pre-Screamin Norman matches where he would bust out weird clotheslines or just front kick somebody in the nose. He really knew how to put over offense, too, making Riggs' elbow strikes look nice. 

7. Chris Benoit vs. Lash Leroux

Benoit looks like he is going to murder this guy. I do not know what Leroux did, but Benoit dealt him a furious fucking beating right here. Leroux got one piece of offense in: Benoit charged him in the corner and Lash got the boots up. That was it. Right after that Lash charged out of the corner into a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. The rest of the match was Benoit punching him, chopping him, suplexing him insanely fast, grabbing him by the nose and slapping his face, and locking in the crossface with Leroux's back bent backwards into a gross angle. Afterwards the rest of the Revolution comes out and Douglas and Saturn are wearing above-the-knee jean shorts with their Revolution shirts tucked in and looking like the Revolution was about to have an "End of Summer BBQ Bash".

8. Little Jeanie vs. Mona

Mona's gown singlet is one of the coolest wrestling looks ever. This was a real go go go 4 minutes with neither girl coming up for air. Mona was real great at building sympathy (wish I could hear the crowd's actual reaction, but the Stars of the Lid ambient noise machine was working in full effect this whole episode, just constant whirr of sounds approximating "Yay" and "boo") and she was good at running her offense together. Her finishing run was really great with a lightning fast handspring elbow into the corner followed by a bulldog to plant Jeanie, and finishing her off with an awesome surfboard cradle that has me and Scott Hudson marking out.

9. Scott, Steve and Brad Armstrong vs. First Family (Barbarian, Jerry Flynn, Hugh Morrus)

We get 7-8 minutes of this and it's all at worst decent wrestling. For whatever reason I was hoping for a bit more as most of it felt like time filling as opposed to building to something. Flynn looked really good here with a couple nice spin kick variations and big presence. Morrus (aside from his obnoxious ayuk yuk mannerisms) threw some nice elbow drops, including a big one off the top. Armstrongs were as dependable as usual, with Steve having a cool mat takedown/punches from mount segment with Flynn. And the Armstrongs fucking WIN! I'm sure all of you were expecting that result.


So many Surge commercials.

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My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Saturday Night 4/1/00

Jeremy Lopez/Tommy Rogers vs. Dandy/Silver King

Dandy/King are wearing their insanely awesome full body suits that I never realized they wore. King's is a full body suit that shows no skin whatsoever, and it is glittery silver and black. Dandy opts for gold and black, but his is sleeveless. King even works the stick to start the match, saying they are Latin America's most wanted men, and slicks his eyebrows down. Match itself was totally awesome. Lopez is a Malenko trainee who I *think* has worked Osaka Pro most of this decade, and would apparently be the worst road trip buddy ever (copied and pasted from his website, Favorite Bands: Creed, Kid Rock, 3rd Eye Blind, Uncle Cracker, STP. Live, Hootie And the Blowfish, 3Doors Down). Here he throws nice chops and gets punched by Dandy (Dandy throws like 4 awesome punches in this btw). I thought Tommy Rogers was ancient here but turns outs he was only 38. He was spry and also threw nice punches. Dandy Roll is incredibly quick and I have now seen 3 WCW matches where Dandy takes the fall!

Little Jeannie vs. Mona

Little Jeannie appears to be working some sort of gun moll gimmick, and Mona still has her awesome tear away evening gown. I don't think I could ever put down a Mona/Molly match. That's like putting down kittens or bunnies. Luckily the match is really fun with a bunch of cool mat-based stuff, and Mona winning with a neat inverted surfboard.

Kid Romeo vs. Allen Funk

This wasn't bad, but felt like two guys that were trying to throw out a whole bunch of cool moves. Funk looked better, though, throwing a big clothesline and a couple cool suplexes. Romeo came out dancing with glow sticks which I guess was an OK attempt to try and tap into a certain type of youth culture. It would have worked better had they had them work the mat and Romeo just couldn't stop rubbing on Funk.

Frankie Lancaster vs. Lash LeRoux

Frankie Lancaster is Bob Holly. I mean, especially in this match. They look like the same person, except Frankie had a mustache. Hmmmm. Same bleached hair, same balding pattern, same gassed physique, nice dropkick, same fucking face...This is also about the best I've seen Frankie look in ring, too, really playing to the crowd and working stiffer than normal. I really hate Lash LeRoux's hair. Frankie takes almost all the match before Lash hits his inevitable finish.

Steve Armstrong vs. Hugh Morrus

I never remember Steve wearing tie dye and blue jeans while he wrestled. I remember Brad worked as Buzzkill a few months before this, but why was Steve doing the same thing? Was there some sort of angle where Steve was making fun of his brother for ripping off one of their other brothers, as a wink wink within a nudge nudge? Because the announcers weren't putting any of that over. They didn't even mention that it might be odd for Steve to be working in jeans and a tie dye shirt, just business as usual. Anyway, Steve doesn't get much offense here. Morrus always takes 95% of his squash matches. He was more entertaining here than he can be (throwing some nice elbowdrops, nailing the No Laughing Matter, pulling Steve on top for the false 2.9), but it would be nice to see an actual match from him.

3 Count vs. Shark Boy/Frank Paris/Elix Skipper

3 Count was really good on a sliding scale. Helms looked really great here and threw nice strikes and was super quick, Moore took some big bumps and was also quick, and Karagias had very nice abs. 3 Count stooge around for a lot of Shark Boy biting offense, and good lord was Air Paris (Frank?) bigger than I remember. He was the biggest guy in this match! Pretty short match, would've liked to see more. A few women in their late 30s were really into the pre-match boy band singing and synchronized dancing.

Chris Harris vs. Chuck Palumbo

Harris blows a couple things and we cut to random kids in the crowd to cover it. Still, he moved quickly for a big guy and that helped. Palumbo still threw an awesome right hand, even this early on. And good gracious his two jungle kick superkicks here were brutal, the last one just blasting Harris under the chin. Palumbo wasn't as good here as he would get, but showed potential. When did he make the jump up to "really really good", like 2003?

Cassidy Riley vs. HAIL

I liked O'Reilly (Riley?) in TNA as one of the Hotshots, but here he doesn't get to do much. Announcers were putting over HAIL as a giant (6'9" 350 lb!!!) which is completely absurd since he was only slightly bigger than Chris Harris or Chuck Palumbo in the previous match. But to get over his size Hudson was pushing Cassidy as being 6'2" 220 lb. which is awesome. This match was not much, although HAIL's jumping piledriver looked really good. His finisher was called Hail's Bells, which is both awesome and horrible.

Kory Williams/Ashley Hudson vs. Vito/Johnny the Bull

Vito actually looked really good here, with the Mamalukes finisher being a Hart Attack but with Vito doing a yakuza kick (so he had to do a massive yakuza kick way over his head and it looked really great). Kory Williams threw some alright punches and some really high & pretty dropkicks. He also gets his head kicked in by Vito. Match was kinda boring when Ashley Hudson was in, which was most of it. Hudson looked a lot like Crowbar, but had a silhouette of Australia on his singlet, and came out wearing a boomerang. Since he didn't get any offense, though, it remains unknown whether or not he has Australian-named gimmick offense.

Brian Knobbs vs. Adrian Byrd vs. Dave Burkhead vs. Rick Fuller vs. Norman Smiley vs. The Dog*

Yeaahhhh! Hardcore main event 6 man, title on a pole match! Dog and Fuller disappear through large portions of this, and the star of the match is probably Dave Burkhead. This was basically 6 guys wandering around a ring filled with garbage, hitting each other with chairs and trash cans and trash can lids and ladders, all while trying to grab the title from the pole. Burkhead is always seemingly right in the way of plunder here, so he wins best in match. He takes chairshots, trash can shots, a ladder shot to the back of the head (then takes a huge running bump from the ring to the floor), then while lying on the floor gets a ladder thrown from the ring onto his face! It all made me root for him and when he climbed to the turnbuckle to reach for the title I was actually getting excited. "Will Burkhead win the title here!?" But no, Knobbs beats him with a trash can and grabs the belt : ( It was fun while it lasted.

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My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Worldwide 2/27 & 3/6/99

2/27/99

Damian vs. Norman Smiley

This was about as awesome as you can get in 200 seconds. Damian - just like the Hak match - got a lot of offense: big tope, some stiff kicks, where have these offense-heavy Damian matches been hiding? And holy lord I forgot how RIDICULOUSLY over the Big Wiggle was. A black man, in the south, simulating anal sex with another man, was by FAR the most over thing on this entire episode. Men in the crowd were jumping up and screaming and fist pumping every time he even TEASED butt sex. Touches his own chest intimately? Every dude in the building screaming. I don't think I could have ever predicted that if I were on the booking committee throwing out ideas.

Dave Burkhead vs. Jerry Flynn

This was fun because Burkhead is a guy doesn't have much offense, so it's nice seeing him against people with cool offense because he just kinda sits there and takes it with his out-of-shape Michael Chiklis body. Flynn is a guy who has a bunch of cool kicks, but his match quality gets better the lower on the totem pole his opponent is. Goldberg isn't going to take stiff kicks. Dave Burkhead though? Flynn laces into Burkhead for the bulk of the match and shows off all the cool kick variations. He hits a nasty spin kick right under Dave's chin, just FUTEN level brual and it was great.

Bobby Eaton vs. Brian Adams

This was allllllmost really good, but it had too much so-so Adams offense, and not enough Eaton. Eaton took some nice bumps and had a momentary comeback that was GREAT when Horace jumped onto the apron for interference and Eaton just whirled around and gave him the big right hand, Horace flew off the apron, but then Adams cut him off for the win.

3/6/99

Scott Armstrong vs. Kidman

This was all about Scott being awesome, and showcasing the two polar opposite sides of one Billy Kidman. Kidman has some of the lightest possible offense, like 0.7 Lance. But then Kidman takes three different awesome insane bumps. A great bumper will rank higher with me than somebody with great offense. But I challenge you to find a wrestler with better bumps, and worse offense. I think Kidman represents the largest gap between those two skills. The bumps are what saved this match, because every piece of offense looked like hot garbage. BUT the massive bump over the top to the floor was gorgeous. Scott was on fire here, trying to make Kidman's offense look credible (best take of the "can't powerbomb Kidman" reverse I've seen, really whipping his head and face right into the mat) so this was very close to being very good.

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