My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Worldwide 10/23/99 & 10/30/99

10/23/99

Scotty Riggs vs. Adrian Byrd

ER: I hate when WCW episodes have the ambient noise vacuum running throughout matches. There's no way the live crowd sounded worse than this static. This was a decent match until a couple clunky moments during Byrd's brief comeback caused a flat ending. There was a fun story going on (that likely only existed on commentary) that Byrd had just won a match on the previous episode, and this was his chance to put an actual winning streak together. Riggs had some nice controlling offense, I liked his crossface shots in a chinlock and he had a nicely timed dropkick. But Byrd's comeback was too brief and his dropkick was a less interesting version of the same dropkick Riggs already did in the match. Riggs looked like he was trying to throw punches Lawler style, those low rising angle looping righthand uppercuts. I don't totally remember Riggs punching that way all the time, wonder if it was something cool he had picked up in USWA years before and was airing out. Finish didn't look great as Riggs went for the Showstopper (a Rocker Dropper) and Byrd dropped early. They still showed a replay of it.

Barry Darsow vs. Luther Biggs

ER: Darsow is in his Blacktop Bully gear and comes out yelling how he doesn't know who Barry Darsow is, he's the Blacktop Bully! And who was Luther Biggs anyway? Was he a Power Plant guy or some producer who got to do an occasional onscreen role like Big Dick Johnson (who was never a guy I actually saw but remember reading about in the Observer). Biggs' onscreen roles coming in WCW and TNA make me think he was some kind of writer or something. He had size (he wasn't much smaller than Darsow, and Darsow is a big guy) but no kind of good look. But you know what? This match was a ton of fun. Biggs is really good at playing a non-wrestler learning to wrestle. Darsow worked over his arm in fun ways, and Biggs finally came back with a great eyepoke and two nice body shots (the first one with his bad arm - which he then sold - before switching to his good arm). The whole thing was very satisfying and you could tell Biggs was actually pretty decent. Darsow hits a nice lariat, falling to his knees similarly to a Dustin lariat. He also gets Biggs up high for a nice backdrop suplex. Finish was a well executed 1999 finish, with Johnny Boone getting bumped and taking a really fast folding back bump across the ring, then Bully getting cracked with Coach Buzz Stern's clipboard so Biggs could get the pin. A weird match I didn't know existed, a couple different angles that existed only on WCW's C and D shows.

ER: Also, we may have only had two matches this episode, but that means every match was able to feature a Riggs or a Biggs. That some agent didn't feel the need to swap opponents for two meaningless matches, shows the cruel insides of a truly joyless human. Imagine having the opportunity to give me, 20 years into the future, Riggs vs. Biggs and not taking it.


10/30/99

Hardbody Harrison vs. Chuck Palumbo

ER: During the entrances to this match Larry Zbyszko drops a real gem:

"Hardbody Harrison's a mean guy, he could really hurt someone."

Boy, when Larry's right, he's right. Palumbo would later become a favorite of mine in WWE. His WCW jungle boy persona is a lot more raw, but in hindsight you could see the big potential there. My buddy Jason was an early Palumbo backer, got him some bragging points by the time Palumbo was throwing everybody's favorite big right hands up north. Palumbo was more about showing off his vertical leap in this portion of his career, so we got more leaping spots than ass kicking spots, which aren't as interesting. Several times his leap actually detracted from his offense: He hit a light crossbody that could have landed heavy, but he opted to float over Harrison; later he hit a flying shoulder tackle that focused way more on how much hang time he got on the tackle than how good the tackle looked. But he still had good punches this early on, and his shoulder tackles looked like they would improve with time (and they did). He had a great powerslam here and a cool Booker T spinkick that finished it. Harrison wasn't ever very good. His best feature was that he looked like a total sleaze, and thinking of that as his best feature now just reminds us all how awful pro wrestling is.

La Parka/El Dandy vs. Kendall Windham/Curly Bill

ER: It really doesn't get more exciting on paper than this, for me, when I throw in a disc of WCW. These are four of my syndicated WCW favorites, and it's such a fantastic styles clash that winds up being nothing like a styles clash in the least. And that is because Kendall Windham is a man and treats Dandy and Parka as his equal. This is among the highest in ring respect I've ever seen a heavyweight treat Dandy with in WCW, with Kendall going toe to toe in and excellent punch exchange, Dandy rightfully standing with the big Texan. Kendall is straight fire in this match, maybe his greatest match in WCW. He puts on a total clinic. He felt like CW Anderson working more like Barry Windham, and if that doesn't make you want to see this match then I have no idea why you would be reading this review. His punches all look great, he hits a real bulldog, a big diving lariat, kicks guys right in the gut, looks like a total star. The bulk of this is Kendall/Dandy, and it's awesome to see Dandy not eaten alive and treated like an actual big punching brawler. But this is the Kendall show, he works like someone slipped truckers speed into his beer and he whipped around the ring like this was a handicap match. It was everything I ever could have wanted.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE WCW B-SIDES

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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 Main Event 6/23/96

So CubsFan requested I write up some 1996 WCW Saturday Night, but I couldn't find any in my stacks. SOOOOOO to make up for that I'm gonna write up a whole batch of 1996 Main Event, WorldWide and Pro. Hopefully that makes up for it.

1. Squire David Taylor vs. Sgt. Craig Pittman

Oh damn on paper this is like a WCW dream match for me. Taylor is a guy I like more than probably anybody else, and you can probably say the same about Pittman. Sadly we only get 150 seconds and neither guy gets a chance to stretch out. I could see an 8 minute match between these two achieving Legendary Syndicated Status. Still what we get is fun. Taylor is the third wheel of the Regal/Finlay gang, but like those men knows how to make some mundane spots seem colorful and meaningful. Here Taylor locks on a chinlock at one point, but also yanks at Pittman's nostrils. We start with about 45 seconds of mat scrambling, with Taylor taking long looping bumps to put over Pittman's arm drags , even taking a nice face first pratfall of an abandoned test of strength. Finish is smart as Taylor starts lacing in European uppercuts and Pittman catches his arm on one of them to get a backslide. But damn if they just got even TWO more minutes it could have at least been some degree of special. As it was, it was just a fun tease.

2. V.K. Wallstreet vs. Scotty Riggs

And just like that first match is an on paper dream match for me, this match on paper could not be further away from that. Rotunda is the Friday afternoon impromptu office meeting of pro wrestling. But he isn't really the problem in this as Riggs breaks out the airiest, lightest, weakest offense imaginable. Wallstreet had some nice looking stuff, threw some cool short uppercuts that I didn't remember him having, and really Riggs should have just stuck to bumping. He was one of those classic bad-offense-nice-bumps workers, which meant he looked great taking bumps to the floor, but when it came to his comeback offense it was cover your eyes bad. He barely makes contact on a dropkick, throws punches 6" below Wallstreet's face, and hits one of the worst crossbodies I've ever seen. It makes so little contact on Wallstreet that V.K. literally has to hold Riggs on the landing to keep him from just bouncing away painlessly. To top it all off, Bagwell has to interfere to help his fellow American Male win. Just a couple of good ol' babyfaces, cheating to win. To the surprise of everybody, Rotunda works in a spot where he locks on an abdominal stretch and holds the ropes for leverage. This match got 6 minutes. Taylor/Pittman got 2.5. That's just...cruel.

Okay, that's a rough episode. I'll keep reviewing more 1996 syndicated WCW until I feel Cubs' donation is justified. Still, thank you for the donation. Like Carl Lewis singing the National Anthem, I'll make up for it.


***I'm still desperately trying to raise money for my friend and coworker whose home burned down. I'm matching every contribution and will continue writing above and beyond for those who donate. This means a lot to me, guys***

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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 Pro 8/17/96

1. Chip Minton vs. Diamond Dallas Page

This wasn't much and I'm kinda shocked that WCW never tried to push Minton at all. I mean, how often does an actual US Olympian get into pro wrestling? He was pretty raw but had some obvious talent. Instead we get a bunch of Larry Z griping about how bobsledding won't make him a better wrestler and acting as if Minton was leading a bobsledding invasion against WCW wrestling.

2. Jim Powers vs. The Gambler

Alright, I'll be honest with you: Jim Powers is not very good at pro wrestling. But what's even worse is that he's not very good in a completely boring way. He does hip tosses. He rams guys' heads into the turnbuckles. He throws a super light dropkick. He has just nothing going for him at all. You can't laugh at him for being horrible, your brain just goes blank for 4 minutes. So thank god for The Gambler, who tries his damndest to have a fun match with Jim Powers. He doesn't succeed, but he tried. This was at least notable for being one of the few matches where The Gambler controlled the match and took most of the offense. Powers was working comebacks most of the way through so Gambler got to control with Arn Anderson-meets-Chris Elliott charm. I wish actual good wrestlers would try and work a competitive match with him.

3. High Voltage vs. American Males

Hey, you know who used to be good? Marcus Bagwell. I really liked him in this, working the hot tag for Riggs. He had a really nice dropkick, cool shoulderblock and a great crossbody off the top for the win, and this was an enjoyable 7 minute tag. You know who wasn't good back then? Kaos (or "Chaos" as it was spelled here). He was just totally lost and it was a testament to how decent Bagwell was that this thing didn't fall completely apart. Kaos was totally baffled by rope running spots and got way confused during all those exchanges.

***Baseball Rambling Below***

So all through this show they've been showing an ad for an old Sega Genesis baseball game (World Series Baseball 2?) and what so odd about the commercial is Brad Radke is the guy they used as the sports star hawking the game. Now Brad Radke was one of my favorite non-Giant ballplayers of all time. He was a small market guy who played his whole career on the Twins and retired when he wanted to, while he was still a relevant player. What made me really like him was his numbers always looked worse than they actually were, and he regularly got overlooked as a really good player because of that (Matt Cain would later hold many of these traits Radke held, and Cain is one of my all-time favorites. What made me love him so early on was it felt like the Giants finally had their own Radke). I mean, in the last couple seasons before he retired, Radke had a 5+ K/BB ratio. That's great. But this was not later career Radke being featured in a commercial. 1996 was only his 2nd year, and what was notable about his first couple seasons was that he gave up more HR than any other pitcher in MLB over those 2 years, giving up 32 in '95 as a rookie and 40 in '96. His rookie year ERA was 5.32 (5.42 FIP, oooof). And this commercial was amazing because Radke was in it for just that reason: he gave up home runs. The commercial showed him giving up bombs and painted him as a bad luck loser. For a 23 year old player to make fun of himself like that just made me love Radke that much more, and even more awesome that he averaged 5 WAR over the next 5 seasons after this commercial. So not only did Radke make fun of himself, but he had the last laugh. Awesome.

***Baseball Rambling Over***

4. Scott Flash vs. Mark Starr

This could have been a really good jobber match, but Norton just absolutely refused to sell anything that Mark Starr throws. It was real bad. He just walked through punches and kicks and made it pretty clear that Starr was a doofus. It did show just how decent Starr's punches were, when they can look good even when somebody doesn't acknowledge them. Norton was a beast here, so I get it. But I felt bad for Starr. Norton's shoulderbreaker is a vicious, reckless move that looks insanely painful.

5. Chris Benoit vs. Joe Gomez

Jim Powers, why can't you be as hilariously awful as Joe Gomez? Gomez was just awful. Hilariously awful. Even Rachel noticed how often he tossed his hair back while horribly executing basic offense (did BJ Whitmer watch a lot of Gomez when he was younger?). Here he does an insanely slow backslide set-up, stopping midway to whip his hair back TWICE. By far the best part of the match was Gomez missing a running crossbody block off the ropes. What made it so great was the fact that Gomez clearly did not know he was missing the crossbody. This is what a missed crossbody looks like when Joe Gomez clearly thinks he's going to be crashing into Chris Benoit. But Benoit ducked, and Gomez flew hilariously/dangerously/awesomely into the ropes, and then rolled to the floor. It was spectacular. Later in the match Gomez goes up to the top and it looks like he's climbing ropes for the first time right here and now in front of the world. Every step up looks super shaky and he has to stop on each rope to regain his balance. Yes, he did not even climb up on the buckles, he climbed up on the ropes right next to the buckles. When he finally disastrously gets to the top, he leaps off with the worst top rope splash I've seen, coming in way forward heavy, like he was attempting to do the Worm by first leaping off the top. He just flops there hilariously, and then lies there on his face, a total failure pile. Even better, Benoit just kinda lets him lie there for awhile, face down, until casually walking over and putting on the crossface. Thank you, Joe Gomez.

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My Favorite Wrestling! WCW Saturday Night 2/13/99

Saturday Night 2/13/99

1. Bobby Blaze vs. Jerry Flynn

This was pretty awesome right here. Both guys threw big suplexes and big chops and this was a pretty great strike-based sprint. Flynn matches are always dependent on how much of a beating his opponents are willing to take, and Blaze is a pudgy guy who will take some kicks, throw some neat suplexes, and that all happens here. Flynn looked like a beast here and I especially loved his spinning kick in the corner. Blaze was a man and took is right on the chin. Loved how Flynn had a habit of just finishing guys with a tight armbar after throwing a suplex.

2. Johnny Swinger vs. Vincent

a 30 second Vince squash!? Swinger couldn't have felt great about himself after taking a 30 second loss to Vincent. That being said, Vincent has been a WCW B-Sides MVP contender on rewatch. I have no clue where he got good, but his late 90s WCW stuff has been killer. Here he uses a really cool single arm DDT into an Americana to get the quick tap.

3. Dave Burkhead vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.

I may be the biggest Dave Burkhead fan online . I'm pretty sure he was never involved in any classics, and he didn't have a great look, but he did a lot of small things better than most guys. Here he really made me appreciate taking a drop toe hold as he seems genuinely surprised by it and just does a hard face plant. At first I thought Burkhead was just a lumpy jobber, but now that I've had the privilege of seeing more Burkhead matches than most human beings, I can officially be called a Dave Burkhead fan. Dude was rock solid and always threw cool stuff into his jobber matches. He's like the Barry Houston of the late 90s. I showed this match to my incredulous friends who thought I was lying to them about how awesome Burkhead was, and they were all way down with Burkhead by the end of the match. Dude knew how to put over offense (he took a German suplex and tornado DDT right on the dome).

4. Scotty Riggs vs. Kaz Hayashi

Man Kaz Hayashi is fucking awesome. I remember digging him in 1999, but this guy is looking top 20 in the world from everything I've re-watched so far. Everything he does looks gorgeous and it's so accurate. He does that gorgeous tumbling moonsault from the top rope into the ring, and also over the top to the floor and it looks super graceful. Guys also give Kaz tons of offense in his matches even though he almost always ends up losing. Kaz takes like 70% of this match and it's awesome. Finish was Kaz leaning way into the 5-arm and holy shit Kaz Hayashi was like top 5 in WCW at this point.

5. Lodi vs. Kidman

I...truthfully didn't have much opinion on Lodi before watching this match. I don't remember seeing him wrestle much before the whole Lenny/Lodi thing, and even then I don't remember if he was good, bad, horrendous, awesome, whatever, who knows. But he seemed pretty damn good here. He took a monster bump into the guardrail and threw a really great knee lift (which is a move that a lot of guys do terribly). There was a GREAT spot where Lodi was trying to load one of his gloves in the corner, dropped it, and when he bent down to pick it up Kidman ran up and caught him in his springboard bulldog move. It was one of the greatest examples I've ever seen of "guy occupying himself while other guy sets up convoluted offense". How many times do people just bend at the waist waiting to take a move (looking at YOU Booker T axe kick), and Lodi of all people makes taking a move look entirely logical and makes Kidman look WAY better in the process. Finlay is the best at logically getting into position for opponents' signature offense, but now I'm genuinely looking forward to more Lodi!

6. The Cat vs. Booker T

Booker has aged horribly on this rewatch. I remember really liking him and now I'm starting to think the time I actually really liked Booker was like 3 months at the very beginning of 1998. I remember loving the Martel and Saturn matches from Superbrawl and some of the Benoit series, and now I'm realizing that might be it as far as WCW Booker. Harlem Heat has been dreadful. It's all sorts of sloppy kicks and posing. Cat looks pretty clueless here as well. It's not as bad as it could have been and has some pretty inspired moments (Cat got leveled on a nice short arm lariat) but then it ends in a DQ and it's like Whhhhhhhhhy!?

7. Horace vs. Chris Benoit

So as well as being the biggest Dave Burkhead fan, I'm pretty sure I may be the biggest Horace fan as well. I really dig Horace and this was a pretty good late 90s WCW dream match for me. Horace has some nice stuff in this including a great yakuza kick, a big tope (to one of the guardrail sides of the ring, not even into the entrance ramp side!!), takes all of Benoit's suplexes really well for such a large guy (reacts great to the snap suplex as well, shaking his finger at Benoit afterwards). Matches ends with Vincent running in to break things up, and then Mongo runs out and get this - doesn't look very good.

8. Juventud Guerrera vs. Rey Misterio Jr.

Classic late 90s cruiser action, and you really have to be a hardened asshole to hate on this kinda stuff. A lot of nerds nowadays will complain about "he should have sold _____ longer" and blah blah blah but whatever, this was two of the all time great cruiserweights doing tons of cool moves and reversals at a blindingly fast pace and it ruled. Cool flips and a rad Juvi springboard spinning heel kick and rad reversals and pre-shitty Rey tattoos and pre-weird Juvi stories about selling birdseed and gym bag-shitting and whatever. My girlfriend and I loved every second of this and it really brought me back to the days where I wouldn't give a shit about heavyweights and bought all my wrestling tapes based on all the rad cruiser matches on it. 90 stars.

9. Brian Adams/Vince vs. Dean Malenko/Chris Benoit

This was supposed to be Brian Adams vs. Dean Malenko, which sounds kinda shitty on paper. But it was changed pre-match to the tag you see above, which to me sounds completely AWESOME on paper and explains the earlier, shorter Vince match. Seriously, late 90s WCW Vincent is a revelation, just the perfect syndicated TV worker. Really knew how to cater his style to whatever guy he was working and he really may be the great lost late 90s superworker. His work against Malenko here was great, flying into his silly leaping flipping calf kick and once he goes on offense really begins the story of the match (working over Dean's back and building to the Benoit hot tag). He has all sorts of cool forearms and clubbing blows and an amazing elbow drop to Dean's back, with Adams then working it over with a nice tilt-a-whirl slam and just stretches Dean over his knee. Yeah it all gets no sold by the end of the match but the work by nWo was strong and you can't expect much more from a 6 minute Saturday Night tag that ends in a run-in. Personally, I thought Adams and Vince smoked the vanilla midgets in this match.

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My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Saturday Night 9/4/99

The Cat vs. Disciple

Well...there was that opener. Did you actually know Disciple of all people was still appearing on TV this late in '99? I mean, Warrior hadn't even been in WCW for almost a year at this point. Maybe WCW thought there were just too many more match-ups his fans wanted to see. They wanted to send him off properly.

Villano V vs. Lash LeRoux

This was pretty darn fun. Villano got tons of offense including a couple senton variations and an awesome Thesz press off the apron that was much more a running leaping balls to the face. Awesome. I don't care much for Lash, but he gives Villano most of the match before finishing him, so for that I am thankful.

Scotty Riggs vs. Scott Putski

OK, somebody name a WORSE major roster worker in 1999 than Scott Putski. First, I did not realize Putski was still gainfully employed in late 1999; second, I cannot see HOW he was gainfully employed in 1999. He is clearly the worst guy on this entire roster. His punches were totally absurd and even little things like running ropes were totally baffling to him. Who could have been sitting in the back justifying Putski's spot on the roster? It's a shame we didn't get Putski vs. Disciple, since I'm sure this was their last appearances with the company. They could have gone out in a real blaze of glory. And it deprived us of Putski vs. Konnan. Or Putski vs. Stevie Ray.

Brian Knobbs vs. 4x4

OK, I was insanely excited for Knobbs vs. 4x4, and for 90 seconds I was not let down. I actually didn't even realize 4x4 ever wrestled a match. His size is absolutely silly as he's fat, but also lifts, so he has these enormous arms and lats but a really flabby stomach, and he's squeezed into this awesomely goofy spaghetti strap camouflage tank top. The second he sloooowly rolls into the ring Knobbs is ON him and starts stiffing the shit out of him in the corner with some nasty front and back elbows. 4x4 doesn't really know what to do as he is clearly lost and out of his element, and Knobbs nails a nice corner charge. Knobbs bumps around nicely for 4x4 and I am beginning to really enjoy 1999 Brian Knobbs. This ends WAY too soon as Flynn and Morrus of the First Family run in, followed by a hilarious run in by Swoll and Brad Armstrong (seeing 4x4 and Swoll standing on either side of Brad Armstrong and the look of confusion on my girlfriend's face as she walked in the room was awesome. I could not explain very well to her why Swoll and 4x4 were hanging out with Brad Armstrong). Quite the spectacle of a match here.

Texas Outlaws vs. Barry & Kendall Windham

And YES! The Windhams IN ACTION! Seriously, best team of 1999 right here. The more I see of them the more I am convinced. I always thought it was the Texas Hangmen, btw, not Outlaws (assuming this is Mean Mike/Tough Tom under the hoods). Barry and Kendall cut off the ring all through this bitch and this is WRASSLIN right here. Outlaws get a great hope fall with a hooded switcheroo/roll up (which I totally suckered for, seriously. I mean, usually hooded switches lead to wins. I can't think of one that didn't off the top of my head...), and then more big ass boots from Kendall and this is just the best. Kendall and Barry had a contest to see who had a better punch (I think Kendall won), and you could tell they were having a blast just teaming together.

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