Found Footage Friday: VALENTINE VS. MURACO~! ARMSTRONGS VS. STUD STABLE TEXAS DEATH MATCH~! COWBOY LANG IN SUN CITY~!

Greg Valentine vs. Don Muraco WWF 7/24/88

MD: This was in the Toronto Network dump from last year, and it's a bit of a miracle match. There wasn't a lot else new on the show so we're just getting to it now though. This was a grudge match between face Muraco and Valentine after Valentine took out Billy Graham's leg. It was Muraco's last WWF feud. He was jacked to the gills here (which was probably necessary considering how drenched he was before he even did anything). Valentine had the brace already. The crowd had Bulldogs/Warrior vs. Demolition/Fuji and Savage vs. Dibiase to come, but so far had sat through Terry Taylor vs. Scott Casey, Powers of Pain vs. Bolsheviks (a uniquely terrible pairing) and Haku vs. SD Jones, and they were absolutely up for a match with some heat and guys they considered to be stars. They were buzzing the whole way through.

Muraco gave them something to buzz about, too, believe it or not. He charged forth before the bell and spent the first many minutes of the match absolutely dismantling Valentine's arm. The best parts here were when he smashed it into the announcer's table (giving us a great look at the little TVs Monsoon and Mooney were using to follow along with the action) and when, after doing a stepover dislocation, Valentine decided to take a flop bump for absolutely no reason, one of three or four in the match. Muraco messed up on a corner charge and Valentine hit a series of desperation elbow drops and went straight to the leg. While he made sure to use his good arm primarily, you'd still like to see some lingering grimacing as he was transitioning. It wasn't a dealbreaker though. Valentine eventually flipped the brace and went for the figure four but Muraco blocked it three different ways. He was doing a better job favoring the leg in his hope spots: falling on a slam, having to really pull the tights to only half get a pile driver. This all lead to a big hulking up (the Jerry Blackwell stoic style) which the crowd absolutely went up for, but they timed a ref bump in the set up for the tombstone and one brace shot later, it was all over. Some of Muraco's stuff looked a bit airy but he brought a huge intensity in the beginning and the end and Valentine covered the rest. Great last gasp for a guy who hadn't had much of a deep breath for years. 

ER: This was a late July summer show and you know NYC was hot as hell because this was one of the wettest shows you've seen. Every boy on this show was as wet as you've ever seen them, and Muraco and Valentine were downright soaked with meaty summer sweat. Click on any minute of this file and you will see some gassed dudes burning through electrolytes. You haven't seen wetness like this before. This is just two big wet boys hammering on each others' limbs right after the crowd had watched SD Jones take a back bump after getting kicked in the back of the head. This is totally different, as Don Muraco breaks out some of the coolest arm work of his career while Valentine does a bunch of fun stunned selling, like he was going into shock from having his arm demolished. Muraco bounced the arm off the turnbuckle, rammed his arm and shoulder into the ringpost, and hit a great shoulder breaker. Those were somewhat expected, but I was not expecting his cool legdrop onto the arm or even his stuff over to butt bump the arm. Now, sadly, he worked over Valentine's left arm, which meant that Valentine could still fire back with his right arm, and he really dished some shots. The arm work didn't come into play in the finish in any way, but it was a cool way for him to control until Valentine was working over his leg with the shin guard. It was a great way to take Muraco down the stretch as he was good at fighting Valentine off and also burly enough to walk through some wicked Valentine chops and other offense to build to a big comeback. Muraco's piledrivers were disgusting, adding insult to injury by giving Valentine a wedgie on one, then clutching him for an awesome Gotch lift tombstone that was one of the gnarliest finishers of the era. Can't hold up to a shin guard to the head though. 

Pepe Gonzalez/Little Mr. T vs. Cowboy Lang/Bad Jim Brown South Africa 1980s?

MD: A whole bunch of South Africa stuff got dumped around a year ago and we played it safe and just watched the Matt Borne match, but hey, they give these guys twenty minutes in a 2/3 falls match and someone has to watch it, right? Cowboy Lang was one year off from working in five different decades. We've seen him in a bunch of territories over the years.  It meant that he knew every trick in the book by this point and considering they had a bunch of time to kill, they used a bunch of them. Gonzalez worked at least one or two WWF shows. I'm not digging in to see if he worked as Pepe Gomez as well, but if he did, he worked even more than that. He could kind of go too. Some good rope running spots with him, especially with Brown basing. He took a beating well too. Little T was there for the big payoffs to the comedy spots, but they were good. His introduction to the match was in a great full nelson bit where Lang kept breaking free just as Pepe was going to position him in the corner for a shot from T and then finally gloating and turning to get it put on again. But T gets him instead and this builds to a bunch of heel communication bits with punches. What made this work better than a lot of similar matches I've seen was the amount of time it had. That meant that they could get some real heat on Pepe, sneaking shots in, controlling the ring, working a missed tag by the ref, all the good stuff. It made the comedy comeuppance resonate just a bit more when it came. It's amazing what a few extra minutes, well used, can do for a match.

ER: I don't have much to add other than to bring up the possibility that Cowboy Lang might have actually made it to that 5th decade of wrestling. His last listed matches online were from 1999, but I know I saw him live more than once on APW shows, and I was not in attendance for any of the shows listed on cagematch. I was definitely in attendance for matches against Bobby Dean and Lil Nasty Boy, which would have happened in either 1999 or 2000. I remember Lang being a real hit with the crowd as he was the only cowboy wrestler on the card, on shows that happened in or adjacent to farming areas. A little person in his mid 50s working line dancing spots in an opening match is going to get a big reaction in a town with multiple cowboy bars. I say the guy made it to 5 different decades. 

The Bullet/Brad Armstrong/Scott Armstrong vs. Robert Fuller/Jimmy Golden/Elix Skipper Wrestle Birmingham 8/12/05     Part 2

MD: We don't often get to highlight the stuff our old friend over at Armstrong Alley posts, due to the show vs match set up of FFF, but this was a good one to pull out and take a look at. The sound comes in a minute or so into the clip, so don't worry about that. This was a Texas Death match but didn't have Texas Tornado rules. That meant the ten count gimmick was integrated into more of standard tag format. During the shine, you had Elix Skipper taking a lot of stuff, eating early pins, and then stooging/selling big as he got back to his feet. Some of the pins weren't entirely believable but when there's no actual consequence in getting pinned, maybe there was just no reason for him to kick out and jump up at one? Once you got past Brad's early Russian Leg Sweep it worked a little better. They drew in Fuller with some taunting too, very Br'er Fox trickster folk hero stuff (more on that later) and Fuller is the most offendable guy in wrestling history so it worked. 

When they took over on Brad, they worked in the ten counts as bits of hope that would then be cut off. Brad can work from underneath as well as anyone and the heels kept it moving and compelling. The finish was the sort of BS one might expect, with the Bullet getting the sleeper on fuller, interference causing a distraction, Golden KOing Bob with the knucks and then the ref calling the first man to his feet the winner. Again, they went back to the rustic trickster aesthetic: as the ref was admonishing Golden for trying to help Fuller back to his feet, Brad and Scott pulled Bob up. Classic Americana, out cheating the cheater. Everyone looked pretty spry in this except for Bullet Bob who was more than a half step slow, but even he was still pretty credible just for who he was and the mask to make him look a bit younger. The gimmick made things interesting, though even with the history and animosity it was weird to see a Texas Death Match that wasn't an outright hate-filled brawl.

ER: There are a few important takeaways from this. The first is that Robert Fuller and Jimmy Golden - in their mid 50s - still looked good enough to be tagging regularly on much bigger shows than this. Fuller hardly worked over the previous decade, and Golden hadn't been a featured TV performer since 1997, but they had better energy, better timing, and better bullshit facial expressions than most of the tag teams WWE was trotting out in 2005. You watch the Stud Stable here and tell me you'd rather see a Road Warriors team with Animal/Heidenreich, or the Heart Throbs, or Charlie Haas/Rico. The Stud Stable may have been in their mid 50s but goddamn was tag wrestling looking bad on the main stage in 2005. 

Second takeaway is that Brad Armstrong looked incredibly good for a guy who had worked about as many matches as Robert Fuller ever since WCW's closure. Not only was Armstrong the most jacked I've ever seen him, but he was worked fast and hard and taking big bumps any time he was in the ring. I'm not really a high vote Brad guy. I think he's one of the 5 best Armstrongs* but I don't think I could put him higher than 5. But if he worked most of his career the way he worked this match, he just might have been my favorite Armstrong. Look at how hard he gets run into the turnbuckles! Look at how great his spit sells are whenever he gets punched! Why is 2005 Brad Armstrong so good and so gassed?? 

Third takeaway is that Elix Skipper, youngest man in the match, looked like total shit and had all of the worst offense. What was his spin kick ever supposed to be? Bullet was an old man still in incredible physical shape, but couldn't really move even half speed any longer, but it really wasn't that noticeable when Elix Skipper's offense was also thrown at half speed and wouldn't have even looked good at full speed. Fourth takeaway is that it was insane how much effort Wrestle Birmingham put into wraparound comedy sketches in their programming. I'm not sure if any of them were actually funny but damn did those guys go out there with actual planned material when they really did not need to do any of that. 

*Expanding on putting Scott over Brad, a request: Depending on the night, I think it would be possible for any Armstrong to be 1st and any Armstrong to be 5th. On this night Brad was first, Bullet was last, Brian was second**. Scott vs. Brad is admittedly a tough comparison, as we have so much more Brad footage available. Brad worked longer matches in WCW and got all of the New Japan tours, Scott mostly worked Smoky Mountain and pulled job duty in WCW. So the Brad vs. Scott WCW comparison is mostly made on Brad working offense vs. Scott taking offense, and I prefer how Scott takes offense more than I prefer Brad doing offense. Brad has strong execution but I don't think he really uses it in imaginative ways. Scott is great at taking bumps as a heel or babyface, knowing which bumps to use depending on his role within the match (e.g., you won't see him take backdrop bumps as a babyface but the man will get some height as a heel). I also think Scott's personality blossoms as a heel, whereas Brad supposedly had this great personality that never managed to show up meaningfully on film. Perhaps the biggest reason I prefer Scott over Brad at this point in my life, is that I've simply seen more Brad and know what to expect. Scott still has the capability to surprise me, and that's more exciting to me now than Brad working an armdrag sequence. This match though? Brad looked like the all time greatest Armstrong. You find me Brad performances like this and I'll start reviewing the best of the jacked to the gills Brad footage. 

**check out the Road Dogg vs. Raven match that took place after the Stud Stable/Armstrongs match, which made me want to seek out a bunch of 2005 Raven. Raven looked like shit any time he wasn't wrestling, but between the bells this man could still work! I have limited memory of 2005 Raven in TNA but I guess now I need more 2005 Raven. 

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My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Worldwide 10/1/95

Disco Inferno vs. Barry Houston

ER: Did you know that Disco once got a Goldberg-type security entrance? I sure didn't, but it happened here. His music played for awhile, and he wasn't coming out, and we cut to the back to see Doug Dillinger knocking on his dressing room door. The door opens and Disco is combing his hair in the mirror like Tony Manero, and then he breaks out a hilarious "Ayyyyyyyyy, I'm not done combin' muh hair ova heeya", and then he does some dancing in the mirror, and then we get the long walk of Disco from his dressing room to the ring, where he takes forever to fully undress (he is also wearing the Tony Manero white suit during this era) and the music has been playing for minutes on end and Rachel calls from downstairs "What are you watching up there?" and I yell back "I'm watching WCW and it's an extremely long Disco Inferno entrance obviously!" Barry Houston is always a guy you want to show up on TV, and this is no exception. The match honestly wasn't much, all Disco quickly running through some simple spots and winning with a swinging neckbreaker. But it really made me go on an outloud tangent about how Barry Houston should have got some kind of larger role somewhere. He was too talented to wind up where he wound up, as occasional WCW TV wrestler. He got a lot of WWF attention and I remember reading about him being in their Dory Funk dojo, he was a guy clearly on everybody's radar, who never broke through. Do we know why? Is Barry Houston the best non-Gambler surprise choice for SCI? I want answers!

Kurasawa vs. Scott Armstrong

ER: I love the idea that some WCW writer took a film class in college that showed Rashomon, and a few years later gave the newest evil foreign heel the name, presumably because he couldn't remember   the name Mifune. And my god I was in. to. this. Kurosawa was really cold here, and then explosive in the right moments. He oddly had a kind of Jake the Snake vibe, but replace more of the mind games with bullying. And Armstrong is a great guy to be a bully against, because he'll fight back believably and have nice babyface comeback punches. Kurosawa caught a crossbody that wasn't easy to catch, low around his knees, and then hoisted up Armstrong in one clean and jerk, really no help from Armstrong, just yoinked him up over his shoulder. Kurasawa hits a nasty shoulderbreaker, and it's a move he could have finished with. Instead he throws Armstrong into the ropes and catches him in a great Fujiwara armbar, and holds it for 7 seconds after the ref calls for the bell. There was something incredibly satisfying about seeing that shoulderbreaker set up --> Fujiwara finish.

Alex Wright vs. The Grappler

ER: I don't think I know who the Grappler is here. I think it might be Vern Henderson, but it could be someone younger. I don't remember Grappler as a regular, so it has to be someone pulling double duty. This is kind of messy, but they pulled out some things I didn't expect, and the crowd was amped for Alex Wright, which was fun to see. Also, Bobby Heenan kept making amusing jokes the entire match implying that 19 year old Alex Wright was wearing a hairpiece.

Bobby: "How do you think he keeps his rug on when he does those armdrags?"
Tony: "He's 19 years old! He's not wearing a piece!"

It was a genuinely funny bit they were doing. There are a couple cross ups in the match, at one point Wright just runs into Grappler and get tangled up as Grappler just falls over. But he whips off fast armdrags, gets incredible height on his nice hooking heel kick (crowd especially reacted to that), he  front suplexes Grappler onto the top rope in super impressive fashion, then plants him with a great superplex. It was cool that WCW gave Wright the shot that they did.

Goddamn there have been three commercials for Jade during this episode of Worldwide and I've NEVER SEEN IT and I now really want to make it a point to watch Jade. The 90s was filled with that steamy crime trash, and it's all bad and always makes me want to see more. And Jade was like the penultimate 90s trashy detective romance sleaze, and I know that I will be watching straight to video Jade ripoffs before I ever watch Bicycle Thieves or Tokyo Story.

Big Bubba vs. Johnny Drayton

ER: This goes about 40 seconds, and is the kind of beatdown that makes me proud that this guy was one of my childhood favorites. He was a big fat guy whose belly hung over his pants in the exact same way my dad's belly did, so Bossman to me looked like my dad as a big cool wrestler instead of as a smart, polite dentist. It makes me so happy that Bossman holds up. We've all liked a ton of things at various points in our life that do NOT hold up. I'm sure we've all enjoyed things within the past 5 YEARS that don't hold up today. So 38 year old me still enjoying a wrestler that 8 year old me enjoyed? That's a special thing. I am not familiar with Drayton, but he gets attacked pretty early by a grizzly and we don't recognize the body afterwards. Bubba throws some great uppercuts and a heavy lariat, hits that polo punch lariat you wanted to see, then absolutely STICKS Drayton with the Bubba Slam. You work a 40 second match, you work it like this.

Arn Anderson vs. Sting

ER: Arn is wearing a cool gray/black scheme that I don't remember seeing him in. Looks awesome. He comes out like the best version of "guy bringing cups to a cookout" meme, just raising his hands and apoplectic at the Worldwide crowd's boos. This feels like a really big match to have on Worldwide, and there's a ton of time left in the episode. Now, this doesn't wind up going 15 minutes. Pillman runs in and jumps Sting 5 minutes in, and then Flair comes out to run them off. But up to that point we get the greatness you'd expect, with Arn being someone you couldn't take your eyes off. He stooged and fell on his butt, traded Beat It punches with Stinger, dropped a great elbow onto the top of Sting's head, and the feeling out process alone would be something you'd be into. We even get the great spot where Arn goes for the DDT but takes a hard back bump as Sting holds onto the ropes. Sting hits one of his most joy filled leaping elbowdrops afterwards. He was like a kid jumping into his swimming pool at his already-deemed-kickass 10th birthday party.

We end the show with an absolute barnburner of a promo from Flair. Flair is up on the Worldwide stage with Sting and Okerlund (and they rarely did promos from the Worldwide stage this late, in fact I don't think I've ever seen it on Worldwide after this), begging Sting to be his friend. Sting doesn't trust Flair for a second and Flair is doing all of this incredible foot stomping and demanding Sting shake his hand, begging from his knees, jumping to his feet to have a fit that Sting won't shake his hand. Flair even tries to settle for a high five and Sting won't let him have it, and we fade out with Flair finishing one of his all time great moments in comedic timing. This was no hyperbole one of the best Flair promos I've seen, total megastar. He knew the right amount of seriousness, bombast, and comedy.


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My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Pro 6/15/96

Jushin Liger vs. Eddie Guerrero

ER: Sheesh you throw on a disc of Pro without looking up match lists ahead of time (pro tip: if you're looking at match lists before popping in ANY TV wrestling from 20+ years ago, you're doing it 100% completely wrong. Not knowing what's next is almost all of the fun). Liger is wearing his sick black/gold/silver gear, and tons of fans in fannypacks are super excited by Eddie. And this completely owns. They start off with a bunch of quick stuff, and then Liger takes over with a great rolling capo kick, fat somersault senton, an actual fast and violent looking handspring back elbow, big powerbomb, throws nasty palm strikes to back Eddie into the corner, really dishing out a beating. Fans are amped for an Eddie clothesline but Liger plants him tailbone first over his knee with a backbreaker. Liger is a total dick in this and it's great. Sadly we cut to finish shortly after that, with an Eddie frog splash. That's the one micro downer about syndicated WCW, the finishes are usually pretty sudden and/or predictable. But all of this was awesome. This kind of thing isn't really a hidden gem, as any time someone like Liger turned up on TV, that was going on comps and getting traded. This was a match an internet wrestling fan would have booked in 1996.

Kensuke Sasaki/Masa Chono vs. Steiner Brothers

ER:  Well this episode hit banger status pretty quick. The layout of this was cool, as the evil Japanese team jumps the Steiners and gets an early advantage by being sneaky and cheating, but the Steiners each hit painful belly to belly suplexes on them and Scott hits lariats. So we start with a bunch of big dudes crashing into each other, and then Chono tells everybody to calm the hell down and we start working a nice southern tag with Team NJ cutting off the ring, Chono working a nice cravate. I dug things slowing down and driving the Florida white shirts crazy, and it built to a nice Steiners comeback. Rick catches Chono up top and hits a big suplex, Scott hits the Tiger Driver and an awesome Frankensteiner, fans go nuts. Steiners against a team who has no problem taking a beating is always gonna be fun. Chono was a real hoot in this, stooging around holding his back, bumping for stiff Steiner stuff, crazy episode so far.

Scott & Steve Armstrong vs. Public Enemy

ER: I swear Public Enemy is on every fucking episode of Pro. But then I always end up kind of enjoying them. So many people in the crowd have fannypacks, it's insane. But this is fun. Armstrongs throw a zillion dropkicks, and PE kind of suck but they also have no problems trying stupid shit. Some of their stuff doesn't work, but they try it and shrug it off pretty well if it doesn't. Scott takes a big bump to that hard Pro stage, and they tease Rocco giving him the Drive By through a table on the floor, but Scott scrambles away and Rocco does the Tiger Mask feint, and I bet if I was a little younger when Public Enemy came into WCW I would be WAY into them. If I saw them putting someone through a table one time, single digit age me would flip out. Rocco does do the Drive By to Scott, but not through a table, just on the mat, and he protects him really well which was something I didn't realize PE did. So that's pretty cool. I liked this.

We get a big WCW Motorsports infomercial, with Sting and DDP hanging out in a pit crew, an announcer running down how Car 29 has done in some recent races, how cool Diamond Ridge Motorsports Inc. is, and the WCW pit crew getting face paint like Sting. I bet when WCW bought (leased?) a racing team, one of the pit crew guys made a joke about how they'd all have to wear face paint, and the other crew members laughed because how stupid would that be? And then a month later nobody was laughing.

Scotty Riggs vs. Ric Flair

ER: I always love seeing Flair working small studio matches, though it is an eternal drag to see him accompanied by Woman and Elizabeth. The whole match you have Cruise, Dusty, and Zbyszko selling the Great American Bash (airing the next day) with a main event of Arn/Flair vs. Kevin Greene and Steve McMichael, and Larry is going on and on about football players with big mouths who think they can be wrestlers, and brings up Alex Karras getting beat by Dick the Bruiser and crying and limping all the way home, and Dusty cuts him off with "You're still talking about that 20 years later!?" You know he is. And this match rules. It goes 11 minutes, and Flair bumps around the whole time for Riggs, and any momentum Flair gets is because he cheats or has Woman cheat. It's so ridiculous and so awesome. Flair takes two big backdrops, tons of back bumps off shoulder blocks, flops on his face after getting punched, works the mat with him, gets beat in a knucklelock, basically a guy in the main event of the next PPV giving 80% of a long TV match to someone who doesn't get on PPV. It's great. Woman claws at Riggs' eyes after he takes a super fast bump to the floor, Flair jabs a thumb into his eye and throws great headlock punches, and Flair drops a clean kneedrop. Riggs gets some pretty great nearfalls, the best coming from a roll-up when Flair attempted the figure four. And the finish was fantastic, with Riggs going up top and Flair falling into the ropes, causing Riggs to take this painful as hell looking Hamrick bump where he falls off the ropes and catches his knee on the way down. Flair immediately goes in for the kill. This was a tremendous TV main event, easily comp tape worthy, and totally surprising. I had no thoughts on Riggs before this match, and suddenly Flair gives me an affinity for him in 11 short minutes. This is a total WCW syndicated classic.

Easily one of the best episodes of Pro you'll ever see, the 4th most important WCW show at this point of 1996.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE WCW B-SIDES

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My Favorite Wrestling! WCW Worldwide 5/4/97

1. Buddy Lee Parker vs. JL

Fun little match. I wish there was more singles work (or work in general) as he always works stiff and bumps big. Lynn had a couple sloppy headscissors here that BLP made look better than they were. Also took a crazy fast bump to the floor and ended the match by taking a DDT off the top rope. I actually didn't realize JL was a guy they were pushing, but Schiavone/Heenan put him over the whole time.

2. Scott & Steve Armstrong vs. Public Enemy

I love when Armstrongs work heel! They can work babyface comebacks but they really seem to thrive in cheating behind the ref's back and taunting opponents on the apron. Plus neither guy really has much offense so the minimalist heel stuff plays to their strengths. Plus that also means that PE gets their offense shut down until the end comeback and less PE offense can only be a good thing. Since the PE offense was kept to a minimum the end run actually felt hot, with Grunge slyly ducking out of the way of a corner clothesline leading to a fun double sunset flip spot. Steve also found a way to believably stumble into a Rocco Rock moonsault press.

3. Super Calo vs. Konnan

Yay!! A one minute Konnan match! It's bittersweet because I would have liked Calo to get SOME offense, but it also meant only having to see Konnan for 70 seconds. I'll call it a win.

4. Bunkhouse Buck vs. Johnny Swinger

Swinger matches are usually furious beatdowns, and this eventually got there but had a surprising control section from Swinger to start. Swinger used scrappiness to avoid big shots from Buck, and did one of my favorite spots where he grabs a side headlock and keeps holding on whenever Buck tries to throw him into the ropes. He gets got going for a crossbody and Buck plants him with a nasty hotshot and then begins the shitkicking. Big time stomps, massive big boot, and get this: Buck wins with a running punch. A fucking awesome running punch. It was glorious. Afterwards he whips his belt off and starts threatening the camera. YES!

5. High Voltage vs. Joe Gomez & Renegade

One thing you can say about this, is that it was High Voltage in the ring with Joe Gomez and Renegade for 8 minutes. I have no idea what Gomez and Renegade were. They towered over High Voltage here, but because they were the faces they chose to play it up as Fantastics style babyfaces, so just did a bunch of armdrags and sunset flips. Good grief.

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My Favorite Wrestling! WCW Saturday Night 2/7/98

WCW Saturday Night 2/7/98


1. Glacier vs. The Cat

I always have a soft spot for the WCW karate matches. Most of them aren't very good but they're always just 3 minutes and have enough dumb fun. Cat doesn't move early enough for the planned missed Cryonic Kick spot, so he ends up "dodging" it by just swatting it away, which looked hilarious. The Feliner actually always looks really good, though, and Glacier leaned into it. Can't ask for much more than that I guess.

2. Scott/Steve Armstrong vs. Public Enemy

This was awesome because it was Armstrongs working as heels which is soooo great. Armstrongs are always great, but their heel offense is awesome. Tons of cool double teams, uppercuts and stooging. PE do their thing, which is OK. Grunge takes a bump into the stairs really nicely. Rachel says Rocco sells a body slam like a turtle flipped onto his shell, and she's 100% right.

3. Bobby Blaze vs. Barry Horowitz

Cool short match that had Horowitz working really stiff and Blaze tossing some cool suplexes. Finish was really great as Horowitz got thrown into the turnbuckles, stopped himself and came out of the corner and leveled Blaze with a GREAT rolling elbow. Then he picked Blaze up to finish him off with a DDT, stopped to pat himself on the back, which allowed Blaze to reverse with an awesome snap northern lights suplex for the win.

4. Chris Jericho vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.

Total 90s cruiser workrate 5 minute sprint. This was during my favorite Jericho period, when he was a total John Tatum tantrum-having crybaby. Chavo seems pretty loose here but Jericho is really great at getting into position for all his stuff and taking the offense nicely (he bumped gigantic off a dropkick). My sister and I LOVED him during this period.

5. Mark Starr vs. Louie Spicolli

I haven't actually seen tons of Louie Spicolli, maybe just a few matches. He didn't look as good as Mark Starr here, but he looked like a guy with potential. Starr threw some nice punches and took offense well, and Spicolli was a guy that had some pretty cool offense. Nice spine buster, big enziguiri, a lot of agility for a chubby guy. Are there any recommended Spicolli matches?

6. Disco Inferno vs. Goldberg

I love Goldberg. Disco is a pretty perfect foil for Goldberg because he knows how to stooge and holy shit do the fans go apeshit for the Jackhammer ALREADY. This was probably only 20 or 30 matches into the streak and the fans were way into it at this point. The guy just had "it".

7. Chris Adams vs. Brad Armstrong

Armstrong worked heel here and threw tons of cool shots to the neck and threw great uppercuts (hmmmm as did Scott Armstrong earlier tonight...) but this was kind of an Adams squash. He got some cool stuff in, including great forearms from the mount to the back of Brad's head and ending with an epic superkick (Brad spits at just the right time to make it look like a tooth flew out of his mouth and it looks SOOOOO GREAT) and AFTER the match we get the start of the Adams/Glacier SUPERKICK FEUD!!!! Awwwwwww yeah, baby. But holy shit did Adams' superkick look amazing here. I wish he could have kicked the shit out of Marufuji.

8. Mike Tolbert vs. Greg Valentine

I have zero memory of Mike Tolbert and when I did a google search for him the first thing that came up was a link to a blog titled "beefcakesofwrestling" and when I clicked on it, it took me to a page that asked me whether "I understood and wished to continue" or "I do not wish to continue" that the site had adult content and decided that I did not wish to continue. But now I'll forever wonder "why Mike Tolbert!?" I mean, in this episode alone I would have rather seen hunky oiled photos of Steve and Brad Armstrong and Chris Jericho, why is Mike Tolbert considered such a beefcake? I fully accept that I may not have my finger on the pulse of 1998 gay men society, so therefore acknowledge that I may not know who is a stud and who is not. I mean, I've seen the movie Longtime Companion and own a bunch of Hüsker Dü and R.E.M. records and have one gay Facebook friend I went to high school with (and shared a bed with on drama tour!! gasp!! Also, I was on the drama tour), but that doesn't really make me an authority on who is a beefcake in wrestling and who isn't. I guess I'm just disappointed in the gay community. I do hope that we get a little more gay interest traffic to the site here now that we'll boast one Mike Tolbert review. I think there's a lot of potential new readers.

A lot of readers have found the site by googling "Phil Schneider comps". A totally equal amount of people have found the site by googling "Jack Birthrider". I don't know if there was any crossover between those searches. Hell, we have one person within the week who found this site by searching for "Jack Birthrider".

I guess overall I'm just disappointed in the gay community for this whole Mike Tolbert: Beefcake fiasco. I mean, there were a bunch of Buff Bagwell nWo commercials on this episode. I just think they could set their sights way higher. Tolbert is such a bland, puffed up roids guy. So bland. That's what the gay community finds interesting!? Really!? You're telling me that if you're at an Erasure concert, and you see Mike Tolbert there, or you see Ray Lloyd or Chavo Jr., you're going for Mike Tolbert? And you're gonna tell all your friends about the beefcake you met while dancing to "A Little Respect" is some bland gassed white guy who has no idea how to run the ropes? For shame, gays.

9. Silver King vs. Eddie Guerrero

Hey, you know what two guys were good at pro wrestling? These two guys. Don't be fooled by the deceptively stocky physique of Silver King. Loved these two matched up against each other and would have loved a tag run. I'm glad King eventually got that great NJPW run as he really started coming into his own around now and became a big favorite of mine in 2001. I got nothing to add to this and yeah my write up sounds like I didn't even watch the match, but I just couldn't think of new ways to say "I enjoy how these guys run and tumble around each other".

10. Raven vs. Chris Benoit

Benoit starts with some mic work that contains this gem: "It's obvious, the book on my life has yet to be written." Uhhhhhh....yup. I fast forward through Raven on the stick. The flock does a run in about 30 seconds into this. Sick Boy spectacularly blows a springboard something and Benoit kicks him in the face.

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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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My Favorite Wrestling! WCW Pro 9/7/96

This show is being billed as a huge deal because it's the long-anticipated debut of GLACIER!! I cannot believe that people had to sit through months and months of hype vids for Glacier, and WCW debuts him on what has to be their weakest show. Were they just petrified of him botching a match on live television? Why couldn't they have at least debuted him on a Saturday Night ep? Or debut him on the next week's Pro, which was at least right before the Fall Brawl ppv. Anybody have any clue why they hyped his debut for so damn long and then just threw it out on the Pro?

1. Scott Armstrong vs. Alex Wright

Battle of a couple 2nd generation workers! But sadly this doesn't get the chance to stretch out as they seem to be held to a pretty strict 3 minute rule. Nothing at all inoffensive about this match, but this felt like a pretty standard house show run of start with some mat stuff, go into some exchanges, one guy gets advantage, other guy transitions to advantage, first guy gets win without ever really transitioning back. Here Armstrong got the knees up on Wright's little slingshot corner splash, but Wright basically just went to his German suplex moments later to end it.

2. Craig Pittman vs. Terry Davis

Terry Davis used to pop up as a jobber all the time on WWF TV when I was a kid. The guy looks like a baby faced Luke Gallows, with no facial hair and horseshoe haircut and the most unflattering singlet/tights combo you've ever seen. This was one of those awesome Pittman matches where he was basically working with a mannequin. Davis got no offense, never attempted offense, he was just like a life-sized wrestling buddy who you could try moves on. And that's what Pittman does. You get the sense from watching some of these Pittman matches that he makes up most of these moves on the fly, and it gives the moves a sense of originality.  At one point he takes Davis up into a torture rack and drops him into an atomic drop. Most of the time I got the sense that Davis was dead weight (or again, not sure at all what move Pittman was doing) so Pittman would just dead lift him and then slam him. At one point Pittman locked on a rad liontamer where he crossed Davis' legs. And I love Pittman's battering ram headbutt finisher. I'm genuinely starting to look forward to Pittman matches. This guy was the great lost worked shoot fighter of the 90s.

3. Big Ron Studd vs. Chris Benoit

Boy the only way you can describe this is "mismatch". Ron Reis is gigantic, and also not good at pro wrestling. Match still has a couple decent Oh Shit moments, like Benoit hitting a massive German on Reis, and then Benoit finishing with an enormous superplex (which is pretty stupid since Reis went to the top rope to get into position for it, and there's zero chance the guy was going to be doing ANY sort of offense off the top, but whatevs) that Reis baaaarely gets over for and practically spikes himself. Jeez. Benoit gets the pin and then stomps Reis' head after the pinfall which Reis clearly was not expecting.

4. Brad Armstrong vs. Dean Malenko

Cool short match ruined by the stupid, rushed finish. Both guys work super quick armdrag exchanges and the fans are jacked, Larry talks the whole match about the "Armstrong curse", and Brad gets to take like 80% of this. I'm into it, fans are into it, things are looking good. Then Brad hits the Russian leg sweep and instead of going for the pin instantly goes up top. So Malenko gets up from Brad's finisher after being on the mat only 2 seconds, as he has to be up in time to catch Armstrong. Armstrong hits a full impact crossbody off the top, Dean even did that bump where he jumps into the crossbody to take a huge back bump from it with Armstrong splatting right on top of him........and then Dean just rolls him over and pins him. What. The. Fuck. So Dean takes Armstrong's finisher, takes a massive crossbody off the top...and then just wins. I get that he was supposed to roll through the crossbody and use Armstrong's momentum against him, but then you'd think he'd take more of a rolling bump instead of a SPLAT back bump. Just garbage.

5. Glacier vs. The Gambler

So it has to be said that Gambler looks AMAZING here. Usually he comes out in just a satin little league coaches' jacket with "The Gambler" stitched into the back over a deck of playing cards. You know the jacket, because you wanted that jacket. But HERE he comes out decked to the nines as a riverboat gambler and it is INCREDIBLE. I have never seen him decked like this and here he full-on out-Robert Parkers Robert Parker! He's got a white button up ruffled shirt (tucked into his trunks), suspenders, pocket watch, black coat with tails, and dressed bowler hat. Amazing. The guy is doing card tricks on the way to the ring, has a cocky swagger and looks like an actual big deal. I love the Gambler. And I cannot imagine anybody else running into Glacier offense better than Gambler did here. All of the spots came off without a hitch and a lot of the set-up was fairly complicated. It would have been VERY easy for somebody to get lost along the way (though there was no doubt tons of rehearsal put into this), but Gambler made it. He sold all of Glacier's ridiculous 5 fingers of death strikes appropriately, ran into kicks like he was supposed to, and looked downright pro. Bowler hats off to The Gambler. I wish that guy had a job in wrestling today. Any clue what he is up to at all? For a guy who was a part of a major promotion for 5 years, I haven't heard anything about him in ages. Guys less famous than him have done shoot interviews.

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My Favorite Wrestling! WCW Pro 8/31/96

1. Hugh Morrus vs. Johnny Boone

Man Morrus squash matches are just the worst. I haven't seen a good one yet. Half the moves miss and just look bad and he always looks really awkward and makes weird faces and stands around all clenched-butt. I actually don't remember Boone as a worker (just as a referee) but here he's pretty game and flies into turnbuckles and has awesome tassle tights and holy shit literally 90% of the crowd is wearing white t-shirts. How is this something I did not notice until like a week ago. When I think of 90s clothing I think of neon and shit, but the gear of the 90s was clearly white t-shirts a few sizes too large, with or without logo. It all makes so much sense now.

2. Scott & Steve Armstrong vs. Public Enemy

This was pretty cool as we had a face Armstrongs team vs. a heel PE team. I actually didn't realize PE had worked WCW as heels at any point. And really, their schtick works much better with them as heels. Instead of doing a goofy dance with a bunch of tourists, the dance instead took on an act of mockery. Hit a move, do the Cabbage Patch, get boos. That's really how it should be as PE are grown men wearing children's clothing ensembles. And I really like heel Public Enemy. They don't have much offense that looks good (although I like Rocco's elbow drop) so them cutting off the ring and working over the Armstrongs with simple punches, holds and stomps works better for them. And the Armstrongs are a great team at getting the crowd hyped for some hot tags. Great table fake early in the match where I thought the Armstrongs were toast, only for Steve to trip up Rocco to make an early comeback. End run was pretty hot as the PE get crossed up and I completely bought that Scott was going to get the win with a roll-up. Armstrongs don't really win matches though, but I was able to buy in. That means that this works, baby. What's crazy is this gets a little over TEN MINUTES which if you had told me prior to viewing that this episode had a 10 minute plus PE match, I would not have been enthused. But this was grade A tag teaming baby!

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My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Worldwide 11/5/95

1. Nasty Boys vs. Buddy Valentine/Johnny Swinger

I did not realize Swinger worked WCW this early. And here he had a mullet and mustache!!! That means for essentially 6 years in WCW, whenever a worker went to management and said "Hey, I really feel like stiffing a guy," then WCW management would say, "No problem! We'll give you Swinger!" And the Nasty Boys were guys who would stiff up jobbers occasionally. Although they don't really stiff up Valentine or Swinger here. They squash 'em good, but no real taking advantage of, which is what everybody watching at home (me) wanted.

2. The Shark vs. Vern Henderson

Rachel totally guessed that Tenta would be in the next match. She is fully immersed in WCW B-Sides now. It is a part of her. Tenta looked good here and call me crazy but I thought he looked cool with the balding up top/ponytail in the back look. Most human beings don't look cool with this look. Match was super short.

3. DDP vs. Cobra

Did anybody predict DDP becoming a massive star 2-3 years after this? Here he looks like an weird old dude with annoying hair and a bad singlet/tights combo, and 2 years later he was an old dude with annoying hair and tight jeans...but a totally deserving gigantic star. Just looking at these two, I would have guessed Jeff Farmer being a way bigger star. But then again I have no idea what I'm talking about. I thought Cobra had a cool look when I was 13. I love after this match when Craig Pittman comes out to distract Cobra and start a feud. The thing is, I don't remember ever seeing Cobra win a match EVER, so it's odd for a guy who is a strongly booked TV presence to come out and start menacing a consistent loser. Seems a bit like piling on. Like the Yankees bunting and doing a double steal against the Astros in the 9th inning of a game they're winning 9-1.

4. Steve/Scott Armstrong/Tim Horner vs. Brian Pillman/Arn Anderson/Ric Flair

These kind of matches are probably the best thing possible about these sets. You have three guys who nobody has ever seen take a pin on TV, vs. 3 of the bigger stars of the 90s, and 75% of the match is the Horsemen showing ass for Armstrongs/Horner. I don't know if it's because hierarchies aren't as strong today or the egos of the guys on top are just that much bigger that they don't want to look weak, but these type of matches just don't exist any more on TV. I think I was so confused by the Armstrongs running roughshod over Arn and Pillman that it took me like 3 minutes to realize Tim Horner was not in fact Bobby Eaton. I'm pretty sure for 3 minutes I was just non-stop talking about how I didn't realize Eaton ever wore trunks this late into his career. "I don't remember the last time I saw Eaton NOT wearing tights, you know? I assumed he had hideously scarred legs, but they're just normal super white Eaton legs you know? you know?!?!" Then Tim Horner came in and threw an arm drag and I was like Ohhhhhhhhh. Because only in wrestling can you have a guy with the worst haircut possible, and have there be another guy in the same room with the exact same haircut.

Anyway, the match was fucking boss because it's not the Armstrongs and Tim Horner getting squashed by Kevin Sullivan and Hugh Morrus, it's the Armstrongs and Tim Horner getting to squash the motherfucking Horsemen while the Horsemen have to desperately cheat to scrape out a victory, so who couldn't cheer like mad while watching it!?

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My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Worldwide 12/10/95

Sting vs. Manny Fernandez

Talk about your let downs, but this was not THEE Manny Fernandez. The prospect of a 1995 Manny Fernandez opening match ass beating was instead rinsed down the drain by a pudgy guy who took Sting's offense, and that offense was just OK. I wish they had at least given this Manny Fernandez a nickname like "Boxcar Bertha" or something.

Bunkhouse Buck/Dick Slater vs. Scott & Steve Armstrong

Buck/Slater were so awesome as a pair of dirty prospectors. Just them doing their thing is so fun and the Armstrongs are good foils for them. This match probably could have had zero offense from either team, just Armstrongs getting the crowd pumped up while Buck/Slater jawed with the crowd, and then ended in a time limit draw, and I'd be like "This felt like a ***1/2 match."

Diamond Dallas Page vs. Buck Quartermaine

This doesn't get much time, but I don't think DDP was very good then anyway. It's kind of shocking how good he got in just a couple years. And two guys named Buck on the same show, one match apart? I assume the fans were confused, but would have been less so had he been named Milton Quartermaine.

Dungeon of Doom promo

Good lord the Dungeon of Doom. Zodiac was just running around screaming over everybody's promo, King Curtis was spilling out of his robe (just teasing you with a bunch of side boob), then Taskmaster gave his father the gift of laughter (the gift being Hugh Morrus), and I have no idea what is going on here. And they're in a cave.

Hugh Morrus vs. Joey Maggs

You know what? This wasn't actually very good. But...

Chris Benoit vs. Big Train Bart

FUUUUUUCK Yeah! Benoit vs. Big Train Bart (whom you know as Black Bart!) was fuuuuucking killer. Bart stiffs the shit out of Benoit and also bumps HUGE for him. He take a big clothesline to the floor, catches a great dive, and just really puts over Benoit's strikes. When he takes over the offense, he transitions with HEADBUTTS and they are some GREAT headbutts. THEN he starts working over Benoit's fingers! He grabs Benoit's fingers and pulls them down over the top rope (wedging the rope into the webbing) and I have NEVER seen someone do that. While he's doing this, he's headbutting Benoit in the shoulder. So awesome. This is the man who trained Necro Butcher! And he's wrestling Benoit in his late 40s!! Did YOU know that Black Bart worked WCW TV in the 90s, wearing overalls and headbutting the shit out of murderers!? I did not, but thank you TV for showing it to me! You just picture -- right now -- Chris Benoit and Necro Butcher having it out in the middle of a bunch of families who are watching wrestling at an amusement park because they wanted to beat the heat indoors and rest their dogs for an hour....How can that be anything but 9 stars? Probably the best WCW syndicated match I've seen yet.

Steven Regal/Robert Eaton vs. Harlem Heat

The main event is going nicely until the Robert Parker/Sherri storyline took center stage, then we have Eaton getting the visible pin for EVER, like a 16 count, until Stevie kicks him off and then Eaton just gets pinned. Started strong and then just sputtered to the end. Shame. The more I watch, the more I think Harlem Heat is a really bad team. I think people automatically think they're a good team just because they last a long time, but they often looked downright bad in the ring. Stevie Ray always looked bad, but I don't think people remember how Booker looked in the ring before that series with Benoit in '98, and those miracle matches with Saturn and Martel.

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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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