Lord Regal and September Spawned a Monster

Lord Steven Regal/Stunning Steve Austin/Mongolian Mauler vs. Dustin Rhodes/Sting/Flyin Brian Pillman WCW 1/31/94 - GREAT

PAS: Totally WAR six-man tag match with five of the greatest wrestlers in history and the Mongolian Mauler for some reason.  I kind of liked the Mauler in this he had a nice chop to the throat and both a back rake and the lesser seen but equally effective front rake.  The other five were as great as you expect them to be. Regal and Sting have a couple of exchanges and those guys always work great together. Dustin was the face in peril, and he is an all time at it, he takes a great bump on a blocked monkey flip, and does a 360 on an Austin clothesline. It all leads to a hot tag with both Sting and Pillman, and those guys can heat up a tag. Great Worldwide main event, the kind of thing that would put a smile on your face on a Saturday morning.

MD: 1994 WCW is a bit of a blindspot for me, actually. I've seen some of the biggest stuff (both in general and in our circles) but the idea was that I always wanted to keep that one specific year, especially the first half, in my pocket for a rainy day. I had this ridiculous notion that there was going to be a limited amount of old wrestling out there and I never knew when I was going to need a bunch of it that I knew I'd probably love. There are a couple of things like that for me (The prose version of The Big Sleep is another actually). My rainy day media.

So I haven't seen this before. "From Mongolia, the Mongolian Mauler" is a pretty ridiculous billing. They should have probably just called him the Mauler. The black contacts are gold for 1994 though. I immediately like the camaraderie of the babyfaces. The unity and shared vision they all seem to have must have made Hogan's arrival a few months later feel all the more jarring. My favorite shot in all of this is probably the shift from Mauler chewing the scenery (figuratively but just barely) on the floor, to Regal making faces on the apron. You would get random few week/months runs with guys in WWF (Lance Cassidy or Battle Kat or what have you) but the nature of WWF TV meant that there were less name vs name matches and a lot less random tags/six-mans in general, with only the more established guys selected for Coliseum Videos, so it's less likely you get a situation like this with a guy who was in and out.

The match itself was what you'd want out of 8 minutes of this grouping. Sting got to take about forty seconds of the Mauler's offense and you get the sense he was absolutely into it, to the point where I'm amazed the didn't work more during this short run. Sting knew what he could do with an opponent like that. The real heat came after Dustin contorted himself impossibly for a bump on an Austin clothesline out of the corner. He didn't just hide his size as a FIP but he also went over big for things like Regal's butterfly suplex. When he actually used the height was when he futilely reached for the corner which was always an effective visual from Dustin. That's another side of this. By 94, most of these guys knew each other so well that they could do a match like this in their sleep. You add the Mauler into the mix as an X factor and you get a fun bit of televised chaos.

William Regal vs. Bubba Ray Dudley WWE Raw 5/20/02 - FUN

ER: These two matched up for months in tag matches, with Regal and Lance Storm having a long feud with the Dudleys. This is the only singles match they had though, and the first half is exactly what you'd want. Regal worked really stiff, roughing up Bubba with hard elbows and punches, hard knee strikes, both collided with different shoulderblocks, all of it shaping it to be a classic. But things get unnecessarily derailed when Molly Holly interfered and Bubba chased her, and the timing of things gets thrown off a little bit. They started with a nice violent flow and interrupted the rhythm. Regal kind of whiffed on a punch that was supposed to land and they kind of wound up standing in the wrong spot. Regal gets things back to where we were by just throwing Bubba throat first against the middle rope, my favorite moment of the match. It looked practical - like the way Finlay integrated the ring into his offense - and really violent, and I fully bought into Bubba's choked selling. But then Brock came out and interrupted the rhythm they had regained and it didn't really get it back. It had too many distractions away from the ass kicking, and for a 3 minute match ending in a DQ, it still could have been great if the 3rd minute was like the 1st minute.

PAS: This had a couple of fun moments, which is pretty good for a short TV match to set up a run in. Bubba's opening offensive run was stiff enough to bruise up Regal's chest, and the post Molly Holly interference spot where Regal threw Bubba's jaw into the rope was super nasty. Bubba needing to get in a running man set up for a splash, a flip flop and fly, and a "Bubba get the tables" in a three minute match was shtick overkill. You have three minutes, pick one thing. 


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE REGAL

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New Footage Friday: 1994 WCW House Show (+ Bonus Lawler vs. Bock!)

WCW House Show El Paso 7/14/94

Lord Steve Regal vs. Johnny B. Badd - GREAT

MD: 94 house show Regal obviously brings a lot to the table. He stalled a lot early, but paid it off by bumping himself on the way back in for high comedy. The chain wrestling, when they got to it, was good, though everything along these lines, even the good stuff, feels a little low rent after watching so much French Catch. When Regal took over, it was with a brutal variety of offense. Badd really needed a couple more meaningful hope spots, even if he was going to get the reversed banana peel win.

PAS: I thought this was nifty stuff. Any chance to see new Regal is tremendous, and I thought he was awesome here. He had some fun stooging stuff at the beginning, really riling up the crowd and doing the job of a opening match wrestler. When he lays a beating on JBB it was appropriate, Lots of of those nasty left handed forearms to the side of Badd's head, and an incredible counter of a sunset flip where he shifts his weight and drops a knee right on Badd's eye. I really liked Badd's comeback, really worked the heavy bag with his body shots, and hit a very cool looking flying headscissor. Finish was a bit lame, but what you would expect from a house show. Regal really elevates everything he does. 

ER: House show Regal during this era would have been such a treat, and his performance is the kind that makes house show handhelds such a joy. Regal is the TV champ here, and just watching his haughty mannerisms as he reacts to the El Paso fans would be enough to make me love this match. He makes a ring attendant hold the ropes open for him, circles Badd several times while making fake lunges toward him, then when the crowd finally gets excited about Badd laying his hands on Regal...why of course that's when Regal rolls to the floor to avoid the action. Regal keeps grabbing the house mic and asking the fans to please be more quiet so he can concentrate on his wrestling, threatens to leave until he begins being counted out, runs back to the ring and trips on the ropes, landing in his face. This is the kind of stuff that house show dreams are made of, a style that we're getting further and further away from to the detriment of all wrestling joy. 

And once Regal does start wrestling he lays a great beating on Badd for over 10 minutes. He leans full body weight behind European uppercuts, works cool knuckle lock exchanges that end with Regal kneeing his way out, blocks a sunset flip by dropping a knee down onto Badd's face. I thought Badd sold Regal's shots so well, loved the way he always looked off balance, the way Regal would uppercut him into the ropes and then headbutt his stomach to get him back into the ropes, Badd had a nice organic way of selling Regal's offense exactly as it was delivered. Badd's punch comeback looked really cool, highlighting how silly modern stand and trade exchanges look, as Bad is landing body shots while Regal and him aren't really focused on each other's timing. It looked like two guys each trying to land strikes while on defense, not like two guys waiting out their turning in the timing to strike. Regal is a slime and tries to put his feet on the ropes for the win just because he can, and it works! Until the ref notices the feet and reverses the call, leading to Regal getting schoolboyed. This was a tremendous Regal performance around a popular but limited performer, but I thought Badd's selling was incredibly strong and only added to Regal's hilarious mannerisms and brutal strikes. 

Brian Pillman vs. Diamond Dallas Page

MD: It's great to see visible proof of Austin sitting and watching matches. I'd guess in this case that Page asked him to for critiques but maybe the guy just liked wrestling and was a student of the game. Pillman here, came off like the world's smallest Hansen, constantly fighting back, constantly making Page fill space with his size and his offense. It meant Page had to take every moment of this with nothing given and that made for a more compelling experience than you might think coming in.

ER: I'm never going to be too into those matches where babyfaces hit arm drags and then hold arm wringers as a big portion of the match, as it always just ends up making me more interested in the heel eventually breaking through and that shouldn't be the goal. But that's what happened here as I wound up being far more excited for DDP bumping around for Pillman, and really loved his hard forearms to Pillman's jaw. I thought he was good at working a big man against a hot babyface, liked how he took the crossbody, but just found myself far more interested in seeing DDP throw those elbows. Maybe the most interesting thing was our cameraman panning the crowd (or well, panning hundreds of empty folding chairs) to catch Steve Austin sitting by the entrance watching the match. I love seeing things like that. 

Stars & Stripes vs. Pretty Wonderful

MD: The highlight of this came early when Roma bumped himself out of the corner on a clean break and declared victory by claiming Patriot took out his eye. Pretty funny stuff. Pretty Wonderful cut off the ring well, but a lot of their offense was more focused on containing Patriot than doing damage to him and that'll only take you so far. The finish worked though, giving us just enough Bagwell and not too much of him.

ER: I have friends who went to a WCW house in Oakland, CA maybe three months after this house show, and they both said that Pretty Wonderful vs. Stars & Stripes was the worst match they had ever seen live, both with memories of the match going 30 minutes and being dreadfully boring. They both acknowledge that they might feel differently now, how their tastes may have changed, and I think it's possible that they might have hated it due to the unnecessary length and the probable amounts of bullshit in the match. The bullshit in this match is really great, but I know I had less tolerance of stalling and drawn out cheating and those sorts of things when I was younger, and now it's something I actively seek. I didn't like those Rockers/Rougeaus matches that started with 15 minutes of them doing showoff poses and playing games of H-O-R-S-E by doing backflips off the buckles, and now I would kill to see wrestling matches like that. 

This match had a lot of bullshit, and it was nearly 20 minutes (with several minutes cut out when the guy stopped recording) of Pretty Wonderful cutting Patriot off from Bagwell. Patriot is one of the more supremely uninteresting wrestlers of the era, and a match focused on PW containing him and his weird punches is a good thing (he throws hooking right hands with nice form, but frequently aims them them so his mid wrist is connecting with the side of his opponent's head, so his fist always lands behind his opponent). Orndorff is great bumping around the ring and begging off from Stars and Stripes, and things get really great when Roma starts using hand claps behind the ref's back to make it look like Patriot is taking cheap shots. Roma backs Patriot into the corner a couple times, and claps his hands right when the ref can't see, bumps backwards holding his face and complaining about Patriot's poor sportsmanship. The first time Roma did it, a woman near our cameraman began loudly, hoarsely CACKLING with laughter. God I wish I could have watched wrestling with that woman. Roma was great at being the batter who is trying to work a hit by pitch, and what really makes the match is how deeply upset the crowd gets with every single cheat utilized by PW. When a crowd is this angry at a heel routine, it's the easiest thing to love. Roma is a guy I never think of, a wrestler I've seen so much yet has made such a small impression on my memory that watching this house show version of Roma gives me a new appreciation for him. This guy knew how to draw excellent heat on an undersold Texas house show, and that's a cool thing. The match builds smartly to a quick Bagwell hot tag, which is the best possible use of 1993 Bagwell. There's a good chance I would not have had the patience for this match in 1994, but in 2020 this was just what I needed.

Guardian Angel vs. Ron Simmons

MD: This was short and weird. You have to call it a disappointment. I've never seen Simmons work heel like this, almost like chickenshit, falling out of the ring and running away from Angel. He had a nice face first corner bump/rope assisted mule kick as a transition move but it didn't go anywhere as Bossman took right back over a minute later (though there was what felt like a small cut which maybe made a difference). Really the best part of this was how the ring shook whenever they hit the ropes.

ER: I thought this kicked ass, and based on the timekeeper's call I think we actually got closer to 4 minutes cut out of this, and I think that was an important cut. I'm pretty positive we missed the 4 minute entirety of Ron Simmons' offense, as the match cuts right after he knocks Traylor to the floor with an awesome falling headbutt/Bret Hart diving elbow, and then joins us back with Simmons missing a big headbutt off the middle rope. What we're left with does indeed feel incomplete, but I loved the match we did get. Simmons/Boss Man really wasn't a singles match that was run a lot (I don't think we ever would have even got a singles match between them 5-6 years later in WWF), and who knows maybe they intentionally did not want to run this match because Traylor so large and it's a tough spot to put some heels in working with a large dominant babyface. 

But large dominant babyface Ray Traylor is some of my favorite wrestling, so I loved seeing him uppercut Simmons around the ring, roll to the floor and uppercut him some more. We get big shoulderblocks and nice collisions, and obviously the big mystery is just what did Ron Simmons do to control Traylor during that missing time. Traylor's comeback after the Simmons missed headbutt is great, a few big clotheslines and a finisher worthy crossbody that Traylor got great big man height on (and Simmons took in a way that landed HARD). We get a hilarious bit at the very end that feels completely out of place (enough that I assume this was played up a lot during our missing time) as Traylor hits a headbutt and then drops to his knees selling Simmons' hard head...only to roll him up in a small package when Simmons tried to capitalize. It's REALLY hard to do a "sell hard head of opponent spot" literally 10 seconds before winning the match, so this had to have been the focal point of the missing time, leading to Traylor exploiting it for the surprise finish. Loved this pairing, glad we finally got to see a nice length singles. 

Dustin Rhodes/Arn Anderson vs. Bunkhouse Buck/Amarillo Slim

MD: We don't get a ton of this. In fact, we lose it right when it's getting good, but I'm sick of hearing Arn say how terrible a babyface he'd be because he has no "babyface skills." He could punch. He had great timing. That's literally all you need.

ER: Oh, how cruel handheld wrestling can be. This was the match I was most excited to see, and what portion of the match clearly showed it to be the best match on the show. Alas, we don't see the finish of the match, and it felt like there still could have been 5 (or 10!) minutes left. The match still could have gone in several ways and we cut out after jumps the gun on the hot tag. It wouldn't be a shock to find out they worked another 5 minutes of Buck/Slim keeping Arn away from the tag. As we finish, Arn has run into the ring throwing punches before getting tossed hard to the floor, and Buck/Slim are just about to start working over Dustin again. We'll never know, but what we do get is as good as its on paper promise. 

There are cuts throughout the match, but those appear to be our cameraman cutting "out of ring" time. Obviously, all of that out of the ring time involves Robert Fuller, so cutting that out of the handheld is a crime. When Bunkhouse Buck takes a huge bump over the top to the floor and Fuller gives him some air by waving his cowboy hat over his face, you know we're missing out on other versions of that. But we do get Fuller on the house mic directing traffic and telling Buck and Slim to keep putting the boots to Dustin. Buck is great at laying in the boots and taking offense, loved how he sold Dustin's atomic drop but also loved how he kept backing Dustin up with a bearhug. At first I thought it was silly that Erik Watts was working as "Amarillo Slim" (I had no idea this was a gimmick he worked at the end of his first WCW run), but heel cowboy Erik Watts is way more interesting than tall clumsy babyface Erik Watts. He takes his own fast bump to the floor and could have really been valuable as a heel patsy who apes Buck and Fuller. Arn as a fired up hot tag babyface is something we didn't get enough of, and something he's great at. He's a powerhouse on the apron, and between his babyface apron energy and Dustin's excellent FIP work, it's not shockingly a great fit. So, watch and love this for what it is, and not for the missing parts we have no control over. We have Amarillo Slim footage now, and for that we should be thankful. Imagine if Virgil had only worked a few house show dates as Curly Bill and had never been on TV under that gimmick. Watts as Slim is not as exciting as that, but it hits the same spot. 

Stunning Steve Austin vs. Sting

MD: Austin was in transition here, no longer the TV champ of 91 or the Hollywood Blonde of 93 but not yet what he'd become a couple of years (and injuries) later. I love watching him squash guys in 95. Here he was still full of stooging and bullshit but had a way that he threw himself into all of his offense that was a portent of what would come. Sting did what he had to, emanating power and authority, a straightman that let all of Austin's manic energy just wash around him, waiting for him to feed into gorilla press slams and back body drops. This had enough time to be fun, but given the number of roll up finishes so far, there was probably no harm in giving Sting something more definitive to end it.

ER: I love Steve Austin, and I really love this era of Austin. I don't know if anyone on the roster at this point delivered offense better than Austin. He wrestles the way 1994 Bret Hart would have wrestled as a stooging heel. Same perfectly executed offense, delivered as if to look like he's really throwing his full weight behind everything. Hart and Austin have very similar styles but tweaked in ways that made them unique and complementary opponents (instead of the parity battle their series could have been), and 1994 Hart was a guy that would have been able to have a great match with Sting. House Show Austin is one of my favorite things, as every time we get to finally see WCW handhelds or unreleased post-Raw dark matches, Austin shows himself to be one of the more engaging crowd work guys in history. I mean, *obviously* Steve Austin was someone who could connect with crowds, but he never really stopped working the way an old 50 year old bullshit artist territory guy would work a 35 person crowd. He clearly relishes getting in people's faces and doing full routines with people in the front row, and the crowd was here for ALL of it. He knew when to be vicious to Sting, he knew when to get his ass kicked, and you get the sense that Austin could have had a match this good with a babyface of any ability. 

Austin is a great bumper, and here we get to see him give the balcony fans in El Paso a great look off at him as he flew into a sky high backdrop, and not long after went up just as high for a quick Sting press slam, and Austin works so fast his bumps look even better. He's one of the best all time at being perfectly in control while working at a speed that makes it seem like things are about to run off the rails. It's like a 2 year old who has been walking for awhile, but still falls down when running too fast, as if the body isn't quite catching up to the desire. Maybe the best thing about his bumping is how hard his landings look, or how hard he makes his landings look. He hits heavy on the mat for every back bump, which makes suplex landings or falls feel always consequential. His offense all looks so good, and I can't get enough of his kneedrop, his diving elbow off the middle buckle that might be the best version of that elbow ever thrown, and one of the coolest things I've ever seen him do: when he unrolls Sting's arm like he's about to hit a Rainmaker and just assaults him with a back elbow. Honestly, it looked so great it should be a finisher. It all builds to a quick, simple Sting comeback. Austin bumps for three decent clotheslines, holds the ropes on a sunset flip only to have them kicked off by the ref (sincerely one of my most hated spots in wrestling history). Austin kicks out but comes up shoving the ref for kicking his hands, leading to Austin getting shoved into a schoolboy. The finish really felt like the kind that some WCW agent saw Flair use for a couple decades, but Austin pulls off that kind of thing with aplomb. 

Jerry "The King" Lawler vs  Nick Bockwinkle CWA 8/21/78 - GREAT

MD: A Thanksgiving miracle, even if one with a ten minute clip through a lot of the good stuff. I'm pretty certain this was the first time Bockwinkel fought Lawler and some of the only footage (if not THE only footage) we have of Heenan in the Mid-South Coliseum. Heenan had amazing purple and gold California pajama gear that could have only existed in the 70s. Bock wrestled Lawler early on the same way he'd wrestle Chavo Guerrero in Houston a few years later, that Hollywood over-confidence in wrestling a local yokel in front of a crowd that loved him for whatever reason. Even Lance picked up on it on commentary a few minutes in (which is why Lance is so great). It led, of course, to Lawler stooging him with his own offense and looking like a million bucks without diminishing Bockwinkel in the least. Heenan and Bockwinkel spend the first few minutes complaining about hairpulls that don't exist only for Bock to take over for a bit with a hairpull of his own. It's that attention to detail that made him so great. The cut comes just as you can tell they were about to move into something better, so it's frustrating, but when we come back for the finish, it's in the midst of a ton of great Lawler punches and Bockwinkel's full body selling that really got over the weight of what had happened so far. The finish is typical Heenan running in when his guy is doomed, but it's to show that Lawler can beat the champ and set up the rematch the following week, which I bet drew. It's a shame we don't have all of this, but we've got 15 minute more of it than we did last week, and I won't complain about that.

PAS: Odd presentation of this match, we get the first 12 minutes or so of this, which is a lot of feeling out and cat and mouse stuff. Lawler suckering Bock into a side headlock, Heenan grousing at the ref, etc. All prologue. These are two masters, so minor key stuff is going to be well worth watching, but just as Lawler starts to pick it up with big forearms to the ribs and a couple of right hands, they jump right to the last two minutes. I obviously want it all, but if you are going to clip, clip the appetizer, not the main course. Finish is Lawler rolling, and we get an absolutely classic fist drop. He is the best ever at it, and this is one of his best, before Heenan just runs in for the DQ (his Laker's jumpsuit was maybe the highlight of this match, he looked like Jerry West on the prowl for the ladies). A little frustrating, but still this was something we didn't know existed until Wednesday.

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New Footage Friday: HAMBURG!! LASARTESSE! VAN BUYTEN! REGAL! RUDGE! ANACONDA?

Rene Lasartesse vs. Franz van Buyten Hamburg 9/19/84

MD: It's the contrast that makes these matches. Lasartesse is stagnation and Van Buyten is motion. Lasartesse is the immovable object controlling the center of the ring and Van Buyten is a dervish of momentum leaping in with blows. Lasartesse is entropy, the old regime drawing heat just by taking off his cape, reminiscent of death with his odd physique and how you can almost see his spine as he moves. He lumbers forward with measured steps and a certain inevitability. Van Buyten is energy, a representation of life and its perseverance, renewing and regrowing even in the face of unimaginable oppression. There is a cost to all things and thus Van Buyten is also prone to over-exuberance: Lasartesse is able to take over mid-match, turning a vaulting leap across the ring into a bump to the outside. Subsequently, he dissolves the ring itself, turning the corner into a weapon to pick apart Van Buyten's back. Even the bell calling for the end of a round can't stop his creeping assault. Van Buyten's comeback is spurred by a reversal to a tombstone, energy flowing through his body to emit almost spasmatic kicks to break the hold. His resurgence, even in the face of the healthier Lasartesse's consistent clubbering blows is the triumph of chaos and rebirth over unchanging order. The finish, where an out of control Van Buyten drives his body into Lasartesse, knocking him over the top and drawing the DQ, is yet another manifestation of its ultimate consequence.

SR: We had this before, but the version we had was black and white and like 20 minutes worth of clips. This gives a much more complete image of the match, and it‘s nice to have that. These two, at least in the 80s, had damn great chemistry together. This also has the advantage that it‘s 1984. While Lasartesse was already crusty and looking like your grandad, Franz was still a stud rather than an aging maestro. Aging maestro is cool, but stud is really compelling. This was fast paced but also had a lot of gravitas, with Lasartesse leaning in on nasty chokes and Van Buyten decking him almost immediately with resounding uppercuts. Van Buyten is incredibly compelling doing basic stuff. He makes the spot where he struggles for a snapmare to Lasartesse awesome like it‘s a real sport. He is also predicably great selling the inevitable beatdown where Lasartesse jabs him in the throat a bunch. One of the cool things that happens in these small arena 80s Euro matches is when the heel removes the turnbuckle pad, the fans will try to put it back up to protect the face. Lasartesse sure had people made as hell at him. We also get Lasartesse working over van Buytens back resulting in a typically great selling performance and some really fun Tombstone reversals.

PAS: Nifty match. I loved the early snapmare fight, Lasartesse is a great stonewall, refusing to go over and barreling forward like a Rhino. Van Buyten was at his prime and moving like a dervish. I loved the multiple in ring topes leading to the huge for an old dude Lasartesse bump. It is really cool that this feud has been unearthed in the last couple of years, and we get to see so many versions of it. This was one of the oldest versions and it was great to see Van Buyten with a fresh face.

Rene Lasartesse vs. Franz van Buyten Hamburg 1991

MD: Familiarity and expertise drives this match. These two are old rivals, old enemies, archetypes. Lasartesse is the villain, a hamming, hammering Snidely Whiplash in the twilight of his years, still smug, still prideful. Van Buyten is evergreen, ever noble. Lasartesse is a master of utilizing space, of using the ring as a palette, always framed in the right place as he lays in his punches and chokes and stomps. Van Buyten is a master of using his own body, sweeping blows from every angle, throwing his full self into a dropkick or a bound back off the ropes, assisting the overall effect even with his prone form in a drag across the ring, arching his body either to invest the crowd in his attempt at the flag or attempt to pull Lasartesse off. And they're with him all the way. It all sort of devolves into an unsatisfying chaos in the end, but what we had before that was pure and distilled, a type of wrestling familiar and primal yet also alien to what many of us grew up with. We're fortunate that the world eventually became small enough that we were gifted it as well.

SR: Lasartesse was 63 years old here. Van Buyten is 50. You see a corpse-like Rene Lasartesse entering the ring and then you notice that this goes 30 minutes. But this was, honest to god, the best Piratenkampf I‘ve seen from 1991 so far. That is not to disparage the South and Wallace matches, but this simply stepped up to a different level of intensity. Lasartesse despite being barely mobile was still really over and to make up for his state van Buyten was super fired up. Lord knows why van Buyten was beating the shit out of Lasartesse worse than anyone else in 1991 so far, but I guess having a 2 decade long rivalry will make you do that as you really get the sense Van Buyten was going to finally put the pillow on his evil old bastards face. Van Buyten was smart enough not to sell a ton for his corpselike opponent and instead beat the shit out of him while scrambling away from any possible chain related awrygoings. Needless to say that didn‘t work out the whole match as Lasartesse acted very savvy and soon found his openings. Lasartesse did some cool chain related shit – raking the chain across the back, chain punching the kidney, but mostly he was about working over Franz with nasty punches and stomps. He throws his punches like a guy with no hip, just straight fists and uppercuts, he looks like his knuckles are hard as stone, and Van Buyten sells getting unexpectedly punched in the eye extremely well. I have no idea how but it builds to a really great crescendo with head stomping galore and some Kill Bill level nasty chain choking, and Lasartesse takes an incredible „I just blew the entirety of my legs out“ bump off the top. For some reason this one has a time limit and they do one entire damn minute of tugging on the chain with Franz balancing on the rope before the time runs out which feels like one of the definite excruciating spots in wrestling ever. After the match Lasartesse challenges van Buyten to another Piratenkampf and van Buytens response is to jump him and beat the shit out of him some more. There actually is the beginning of another Piratenkampf between these two at the end of the video so keep your fingers crossed that will drop eventually as I‘m totally on board for another 30 minute match between a 63 year old Lasartesse and a 50 year old Van Buyten because these guys are the absolute masters of this stip and they showed here that age won‘t stop them from killing each other.

Dave Morgan/Steve Regal vs. Anaconda/Terry Rudge Hamburg 5/6/91

MD: Chaotic southern style tag with clear roles that didn't settle in like it should have, in part because of the ref. Regal was the quick, technical youngster (a veteran in years but still around 21). Morgan was the tough veteran mentor babyface. Rudge was the grizzled veteran heel directing traffic. Anaconda was the traffic. They inverted it a bit by having Morgan play face-in-peril while Regal kept getting missed tags and coming in to allow for double teams, but the ref was consistently out of place which forced people to stand around too much. All the action was good and all the roles were played well. There were some good spots, comedy and otherwise, but it was all a bit too chaotic to make sense of at times. I'd be all for a Morgan vs Rudge match though. Those two seemed almost to be made for each other.

SR: It‘s a pleasure to see Terry Rudge go to work. Unfortunately, his partner was a pretty dull kick and punch type of guy and this match was marred by some confusing clipping going in. Thankfully, Rudge did almost all the ring work. Him vs. Regal is known quality and we also get to see him tear up Morgans leg a bit. That is about the one thing this had going for it as it even ends in a confusing fashion.

PAS: Regal and Rudge are two of the all time greats, and any bit of new footage from either of them is a blessing. We got a couple of fun Regal vs. Rudge exchanges, although much of the match was the heels working over Morgan. Anaconda was a big guy in overalls, possibly a lost WWF Hillbilly and kind of wrestled like that. Had some moments, but never really came together.

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Regal Swam Too Far Against The Tide

Lord Steven Regal vs. Pitbull Craig Pittman WCW 7/13/96 - EPIC

PAS: Pittman was a world class amateur and always worked a slightly different style then your average pro wrestler. Regal is the perfect guy to work an interesting match around a guy with an idiosyncratic style. I loved Pittman's amateur takedown fakes, and the arm whip take downs. Regal hit some fun palm strikes and a great forearm, and a nasty three quarters nelson. We get an Eaton run in finish, which ends with Eaton hitting flying knee right on Pittman's neck while Regal put him in the Regal stretch, which really should have been the Blue Bloods finisher. Fun syndie match which had just enough funkiness to set it apart.

ER: This is excellent. If you were intrigued by this match on paper, there is zero chance you will leave this one disappointed. It may be the best actual Craig Pittman performance that I've seen. Sometimes he could look a little rigid in the ring (and there's a chance that a certain amount of rigidity was on purpose, playing up the Sgt. aspect of his character) and a little clunky, and obviously things go smoothest for him when he has a fun foil. And Regal is almost always going to be the perfect foil for anybody in WCW. Pittman was a strong amateur wrestler obviously, but there were a ton of guys in WCW who didn't seem to know how to bump for an amateur style wrestler. Pittman had a bunch of cool stuff and Regal knew exactly what note to hit during every part of the match. Pittman goes for a ton of scrambly takedowns to start while Regal frantically keeps his distance, and when Pittman stands up Regal throws this great little tantrum telling him to cut it out. Pittman does some cool things that I don't think I've seen him use before, and if he did use it before I don't remember it looking as good as it did in this match. At one point he sweeps Regal's shins and Regal splats face first into the mat. Regal's exaggerated World of Sports flip bumps really make Pittman's arm whips look great, especially one where Pittman wrenches Regal's arm and sends him shoulder first into the mat. Regal really made it look like he was trying to dent the mat with his shoulder. When it's Regal's turn to be mean he does so with villainous precision, smacking Pittman with hard strikes, rough elbow, and a great kneelift right into Pittman's forehead. Finish is a perfectly cool syndicated finish, as Eaton runs out for the DQ and plants Pittman with a knee off the top (fully agree with Phil that Regal holding the stretch while Eaton dropped a knee from the heavens should have been the Blue Bloods' finish), but before that we get a great sequence of events: Eaton eats Pittman's battering ram headbutt and bumps off the apron, Teddy Long ends up taking an even more rough bump off the apron, Pittman awesome misses the headbutt on Regal and ends up taking that cool Mike Modest/Berzerker bump bouncing his back of neck/shoulders into the top rope while missing his torpedo. This whole thing was fantastic, and probably the best actual Craig Pittman match we have. Seems like there's a few people we can say that about when they're opposite Regal.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE WILLIAM REGAL

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Steven Regal vs. Eddie Guerrero: Something That Basically Never Happened

ER: The other day I saw that Regal had tweeted "What a fortunate lad I was to be able to wrestle, in my opinion, the best all rounder our job ever saw. Over 22 year gone so quickly." He was referring to Eddie Guerrero as the all rounder, and to a Nitro match between the two of them which is now over 22 years old. When I saw that I realized that "Eddie vs. Regal" was not a match-up I had any memory of seeing, and two of my all time favorite wrestlers going against each other sounds like something I would remember. And it turns out, they really were not in a match together very often. They were in three different WW3 battle royals together, but those matches were so stupid that I just need to dedicate an entire week of posts to those atrocities. Throwing out any matches involving three rings, these two matched up together less than 10 times. That feels impossibly low. So I figured I'd seek out all of them and take a look at this non-feud between two legends.


Eddie Guerrero vs. Lord Steven Regal  WCW Nitro 1/8/96

ER: My god what a start. Based on this match alone, Regal would have likely been my favorite wrestler in the world in 1996. He just ate Eddie's lunch in this match. Eddie got swallowed whole and got a fluke roll up on the other side. This was arguably Eddie's biggest kayfabe win up to this point in WCW, and he had to go through a helluva hazing to get there. I love Eddie. Love him. But Regal was just the total show here. Regal gave an 8 minute tour de force of nasty palm strikes, peace signs winked to the camera, hard knees, kicks to the body, disgusted smirks, just not letting Eddie up for a second. He took a couple nice headscissors, but a lot of this was Eddie getting wiped around the mat and then getting various parts of his body attacked in new and violent ways. I've never seen Regal throw this many palm strikes in one match before. He must have thrown at least a dozen of them, some out of a headlock, some while Eddie was slumped in the ropes, some on the mat, every single one of them nasty. 

Before that we got a bunch of fun mat stuff, with Regal trying old WoS tricks like trying to kick kick at the back of Eddie's knees, and Regal has the best facials in the biz when it comes to selling an arm wringer (we can probably just shorten that to "best facials in the biz"). I loved Regal doing his turtle spin to kick out one of Eddie's arms to seamlessly set up a gorgeous one-legged monkey flip. But Regal as a savage was what this devolved into, and the devolving was GREAT. Regal was so merciless that at one point he chopped Eddie right in the freaking temple, just backhanded knuckles right into the side of Eddie's head; left elbow to the left temple, pause for a beat, right chop to the right temple. Vicious. Earlier Eddie was attempting to get up from the mat just as Regal dropped a short elbow on him, so Eddie basically sat up into Regal's full weight getting dumped on his head. Eddie got smothered and for his part ran face first into hard back elbows, took a bunch of snap bumps to the mat, and paid for his win in bruises. I've seen every time Regal has matched up with Finlay, and Regal was as mean here as he was in any of those matches. No hyperbole.

PAS: This certainly felt like the start of a vicious feud that never happened. It feels like the blowoff should have been Eddie bleeding like one of those JBL matches. I love how Regal takes armdrags and headscissors, he hesitates a bit to try to stop it and then just flies over with such force and torque. Eddie reversing the double underhook suplex into an armdrag was totally off the charts. I am sure Regal didn't mind losing to Eddie, because he is a pro who respects talent, but man it felt like he was pissed at putting him over. Parts of this match felt like Kevin Sullivan working a jobber, that backhanded slap to the eye was uncalled for stuff, as was that elbow drop on the side of Eddie's neck. You get asskicker Regal and base god Regal all in the same match, can't ask for more then that.

Eddie Guerrero vs. Lord Steven Regal  WCW Main Event 7/7/96

ER: Leave it to WCW to never capitalize on that previous match. Eddie gets an important pinfall and Regal beats the crap out of him, and we get the follow up match 6 months later on their D show. Is it too short? Yes. Does it have a lousy finish? You betcha. Is everything awesome before that? Well of course. Regal looks so damn good here, with he and Eddie doing all sorts of cool grapples and take downs. Eddie lands on his feet after a monkey flip, hits a cool armdrag off a Regal butterfly suplex attempt, Regal starts lacing in elbows and then Eddie takes a super fast bump to the floor off a Regal toss. Weirdness ensues when Regal fakes a knee injury, suckers Eddie in for a double leg for what you think is going to end it. But something weird happens as Nick Patrick just stops counting at 2, even though Eddie didn't kick out. It looks like Regal was supposed to have his feet on the ropes, but he never puts them there, so Patrick just has to stop the count for zero reason instead of stop the count after witnessing the cheating. The Eddie just rolls up Regal for the win. Folks you won't see a finish worse than that one. But god that first 90 seconds of the match was all the stuff you want in pro wrestling.

Eddie Guerrero/Dean Malenko vs. Steven Regal/Rey Misterio Jr.  WCW Nitro 11/3/97

ER: Only 4 minutes, but as you might expect, a really fun 4 minutes. Nobody in the match likes each other, Eddie has fully been absorbed into the awesome Eddy Sucks era with his chopped and wet mullet and cool red/black/gold tights. Regal comes out with Misterio, to Misterio's music, doing his great shoulder shrugs on his way down the ramp. Dean comes out with Eddie, to Eddie's music and they're scowling at each other the whole time, and I have to pause it because I ended up laughing too hard: Behind them, just off camera, Wildcat Willie was watching them scowl, and stood there with his arms held out in reconciling shrug, like "Guys, come on, put your differences aside, come on." He does not understand these complex human interactions.

This is cool as Regal works more face (towards the end of the match he even does this cool crossbody into a hot tag, which I'd never seen him do), and Eddie works outright heel, and I always loved how Eddie's bumping was slightly different as a heel, snapping even faster to put over opponent offense but with a hint of stooging. Regal and Eddie tangle, with Regal taking some nice armdrags, pasting Eddie with an uppercut, Eddie getting splatted with a flapjack. Rey and Dean have some fast exchanges, I loved Malenko just outright shoving Misterio to the mat, and late in the match Dean catches a springboard rana and basically RUNS to the ropes to opt to take it all the way over the top to the floor. Nutso. Eddie takes a nice rana from Rey for a tight nearfall, and we got a fun ending filled with miscommunication as Rey accidentally springboard dropkicks Regal, Eddie plants Rey with a nasty powerbomb and heads up for the frog splash, while Dean tags in and taps Rey immediately with the Cloverleaf. Everybody looked great, this easily could have been a 15 minute WCW classic.

PAS: This was a fun short Parejas match with all the partners feuding with each other. This is a match full of guys who work really well with each other, the Rey vs. Eddie stuff especially is done with such speed and crispness. I love that Regal and Eddie seem to have a signature spot built around the reversal of the double underhook, it is crazy that guys that wrestled less the a half a dozen times have a signature spot. While the early Nitro match got plenty of time, this was a classic WCW truncated TV match, given 12 minutes it could have been incredible, instead it was more of a tease.

Eddie Guerrero/William Regal vs. Spike Dudley/Rob Van Dam  WWE Raw 4/15/02

ER: A briskly paced tag that didn't totally feel like a WWE match, comprised of teams who didn't really ever team up. This is smack dab in the middle of the peak "everybody on the gas" era WWE, as Regal is slender and ripped and Eddie is downright hulking. It feels like RVD and Regal crossed paths a LOT during this era of WWE, so it feels downright criminal that he and Eddie never did. It makes no sense how little they were put together. Spike works a lot of this tag, really gets to show off all his offense and it's cool seeing him work somewhat even with these guys. He throws a hard clothesline for someone who is my size, and I always like the smoothness of his rana that always ends with a nice snap (some people quit halfway through their headscissors and ranas and leave it up to the base to take it, his follow through is always primo). Spike mostly pairs with Eddie, meaning Regal gets paired with RVD. The RVD matches I remember liking from his WWE run were on paper style clashes, like against Regal or Scott Steiner. But RVD was sloppy and his hot tags were all lousy. He managed to fall on his own head doing a crossbody, so that's something. Regal crazily dropped Spike with a very vertical drop half nelson suplex at one point, a spot that looks even more insane in the middle of a random Raw tag. Spike took a nice beating the whole match (not a shock), and I like how after Eddie stuck Spike with a gorgeous frog splash, Regal saved Eddie from RVD's frog splash. Regal and Eddie walked up the ramp with arms draped over each other, genuinely acting like they'd be a legitimate team going forward. They teamed together one more time.

PAS: This was really brutal for a random PPV set up RAW tag. Spike gets absolutely murdered on a half nelson suplex, it was as neck traumatic as any nutty current NJ bump. RVD meanwhile was unleashing spuds, a couple of times I though he legit split open Regal with his kicks and he totally crushes him with the rolling thunder, full weight right on the ribs. Eddie's brainbuster and frog splash combo was always breathtaking, and it especially looks good on an all time bumper like Spike Dudley


Eddie Guerrero/William Regal/Chris Benoit vs. Spike Dudley/Bubba Ray Dudley/Jeff Hardy  WWE Raw 7/15/02

ER: Damn Damn DAMN kind of a lost little era classic with everybody in this working as if their job depended on it. It's an elimination match, and that first team looks like it was thrown together to make the specific little part of the wrestling internet that I frequented in 2002 collectively pee themselves. You don't get more DVDVR internet favorite than Eddie/Regal/Benoit in 2002. And it's not misguided, as Eddie was just otherworldly during this era, such a mover, really feels like a Bill Hader/Phil Hartman type that can just run into the ring at any moment and completely save any kind of akward situation. Hardy throws a kick that doesn't totally connect? Eddie is going to make it work.  I liked how they mixed up eliminations, getting Spike believably out of the way early and then going on a long tear with nobody getting eliminated. We only get a Spike/Eddie interaction but it's really good, and it's with a cool struggle over a small package that I very much buy as pinfall worthy. Bubba would have been the big surprise when this happened, as this was right around the time where his work really bumped up to the next level. 

Once Spike is eliminated he comes in with absolute intensity, sends Eddie's pelvis crashing up through his neck with a nasty seated full nelson slam, hits an awesome spear, takes a Benoit German at a really high angle, just really impressive work. Eddie felt like he was a part of every piece of the action, no matter if he was in the ring or not, at one point charging in for a double team and eating a high and fast backdrop to the floor. It was totally unnecessary, but added such excitement to the babyface comeback that you knew that guy knew exactly what he was doing. Jeff is all floppy ragdoll limbs, which doesn't always work when you need him in a specific position, but is fun to see against pros like Eddie/Regal/Benoit. He would always fold spectacularly, and was good at getting muscled into offense. I loved Regal grabbing a downed Hardy's arm and casually dropping a perfect knee right on his temple. Hardy plants Regal with a swanton, Eddie and Benoit punish Hardy once Eddie is eliminated, really this match was in no danger of losing steam when they ended it. I remember there being a lot of fun TV classics during this era, but hadn't remembered this match. Add this one to the list for sure.

PAS: This was really good stuff, I would have really loved to see the Regal, Benoit and Eddie trios run wild on the WWE at this point. I loved all of the horseshit they did to set up the final pinfall, with Eddie running in to to distract the ref, Regal sneaking from under the ring to blast Hardy with knucks and Benoit feeding on the scraps with the crossface. I hadn't seen Spike in a while, it was really jarring to see how skinny he was, especially compared to the juice monsters Benoit and Eddie. If that guy had a job, there was no reason to look like Road Warrior Hawk. Bubba was shockingly good, that spear on Benoit was awesome, and he was a big fat dude to take a german like that. This was close to the peak of Jeff Hardy's overness, while he wasn't as crisp as the other guys in the match, he was great at taking a beating and timing his comebacks, really good stuff.

ER: Well, I have no idea how Regal and Eddie didn't share more matches together - teaming or against each other. They were regularly working for the same companies, were always regarded as great wrestlers, and as evidenced by these matches they were clearly good teammates and good dance partners. And yet, we have nearly twice as many televised Funaki/Albert matches than matches with Regal and Eddie even in the ring together. Life makes no sense sometimes. And now I'm going to write up a dozen Albert/Funaki matches.

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New Footage Friday: Aoyagi, Kurisu, Kobayashi, Hoshino, Regal, Brookside

Masashi Aoyagi/Masanobu Kurisu vs. Kantaro Hoshino/Kuniaki Kobayashi NJPW 1/4/91

PAS: In a better and more benevolent universe Kurisu and Aoyagi would have had a long worldwide run as a tag team, brawling with the Moondogs in USWA, pounding on the Rock and Rolls in SMW, bleeding with the Infernales in CMLL. We didn't get that run, but we do get to see them against a fun undercard NJ team. I really dug Aoyagi in this, he really ran off some fun kick and punch combos and threw some great spin kicks. Kurisu actually spent a lot of the match selling which was a different look for him, we did get some awkward chair shots and I loved his hulking up when Kobyashi started headbutting him. Ending fell a bit flat, but I did like the post match brawl a bunch.

MD: I liked the change of pace here. This was pretty structurally sound, actually. It was strange to see Kurisu in something straightforward. Hoshino and Kobayashi attacked from the get go. They controlled using the numbers game. When he could isolate, Kurisu would fight back with his toughness and meanness. He'd get quasi-hot tags to Aoyagi who would then be one and only one thing (kick-based karate guy) but as much of that one thing as humanly possible in demolishing his opponents. I like it when he sneaks in the insult to injury kick to the butt. I'm easily amused. Then the numbers game would allow Hoshino and Kobayashi to take back over. Honestly, I think my favorite part of this, even more than the kicks and chair shots and headbutts and chaos as it all broke down at the end was the glimpse of camaraderie between Kurisu and Aoyagi after we've seen them kill each other in the past.

ER: This was not the match I was expecting, and I like that. As Matt said it's a more straight forward tag match, although we do get a Kurisu chair beating (that leads to a nice moment with Hoshino using the chair back on him), but the thing that surprised me most was the aggression from Hoshino and Kobayashi. Hoshino is always a fun ball of energy, but usually his job is to come in, pump his arms a bit, and then get wrecked. Here he's fired up the entire time and really fights back, and I was just expecting him to be demolished by Kurisu, not Kurisu selling for two juniors. I love how Kurisu no sells chairshots to the head as if he was Samoan, and I absolutely loved Aoyagi in this. Aoyagi had to have kicked Kobayashi in the back of the head in at least three different times throughout the match, hitting a cool spin kick, and even better axe kick, and I love how it all built up to Kobayashi catching a big spin kick in a great looking spot. I loved this new look at Kurisu, him stomping around, kicking in the guardrail, selling, really these handhelds have dramatically increased the amount of Kurisu we have out there. The finish is bizarre and pretty stupid, with Kobayashi breaking up the pinfall literally the entire 3 count, and the ref just counting 3 anyway. But the post match was great with a fired up Kobayashi ripping off Aoyagi's gi, and both teams showing nice camaraderie. I love that little tiny Hoshino is the person we've now seen Kurisu be perhaps the most generous in the ring with. Something we'd not have known without some guy recording wrestling with a no doubt giant camcorder.

Keiji Mutoh/Sting vs. Akira Nogami/Hiroshi Hase NJPW 9/21/91

MD: I see this as sort of a palette cleanser for us, a good counterbalance to the other two matches this week. It felt like a modern WWE dark match after Raw where the top babyfaces team up against some game heels. You have to love the commitment from Muta, who is 110% engaged with everything going on, and even from Sting who has a sort of over the top hero-in-a-world-he-did-not-make vibe. What'll stick with me the most are the two big spots though, Muta getting absolutely crunched due to the recoil on a powerplex and then Sting flying high on a splash with Muta actually rocket launching him out of the corner. If you don't love the ridiculous rapid-fire facebuster bulldogs or the serene handspring elbow followed by the Stinger Splash to set up the finish, I'm not even sure what to tell you. Sometimes wrestling is Kurisu jabbing a chair in your face and sometimes it's this, but it can all be great.

PAS: Really fun nicely paced tag match. Teaming with Sting seemed to light a fire under the ass of a sometimes lethargic Mutoh (who was rocking the orange Mutoh tights with Sting facepaint.) I loved the double dropkicks and Sting pressing and throwing Mutoh at their opponents. Sting is a guy who got tarred with the 90s smart fan bias against muscle dudes, but he is a super entertaining wrestler who nearly always brings something special to matches he is in. There was a bit of sloppiness, but energy can overcome a lot of flaws. Enjoyed Hase a bunch in this, I always love when he shows off his greco throws, Sting is a big guy and he gets tossed around with suplexes, by a guy 50 pounds lighter then him, and it is all core strength.

Lord Steven Regal vs. Robbie Brookside WCW 1993

PAS: What a fascinating bit of footage to bubble up on youtube. This is an hour long Powerplant sparring session worked almost completely on the mat. It is pretty unique because it isn't a match meant for an audience (unless it's Dave Sullivan and briefly Tony Schiavone), it is instead a test of endurance and technique. They decide to grapple for an hour in 90+ degree heat to see if they can, and it is pretty cool that we get a chance to see it 15 years later. Regal is such a joy to watch on the mat, I especially loved his constant limb control, in headlocks, headscissiors, pin attempts, he was constantly grabbing an arm to tighten control, he would also really attack limbs when he was countering out of Brookside's attacks. Brookside was a bit flashier, you could see the WOS inspired fast counters, to Regals more grinding approach. I especially loved all of the work they did out of Brookside's bodyscissors, just both guys having a bunch of different ways to add spice to a basic spot. While there was a bit of quick roll ups near the end of the match (counted by guest ref DDP, who just jumps in the ring at about the 15 minute mark and starts reffing), this didn't really have any sort of build, it was just two master grapplers, grappling for an hour. The most unique match that has shown up since we started New Footage Fridays for sure, and a really great bit of errata to be able to see.

MD: Regal occasionally tells the story of arriving to the US in 93 and having no idea how to work a 6 minute TV match, not even fully understanding the concept of what was being asked, because they used to go an hour every night. It's hyperbole on both ends, but that doesn't make it any less of a joy to watch him fill time for an hour.

There's a lack of build towards climax but I was never bored throughout. Here Regal really holds advantage for a good chunk of it, moving in and out of holds, always grabbing for the next limb to reestablish control but never quite focusing long enough on any one part for Brookside to rationalize long-form selling. He, on the other hand, has flashy counters and what ultimate end up as hope escapes, before finally taking over about 35 minutes in. Regal sells as loudly and emotively as if there were thousands of people out there and not just six or seven. Occasionally it picks up with forearms and uppercuts or whips, but it always goes back to the competent but theatrical grinding.

The long period of pseudo-heel control followed by a revenge-laden limb manipulation comeback reminded me a little of the long Bockwinkel matches we have. The difference is the stakes. Everything feels earned but nothing matters to an iota of the level of, let's say the Bockwinkel-Brunzell broadway we have. I think it gives a very good picture of what a genuine 60 minute Regal performance might have looked like, though. I didn't have much doubt before and I have even less now.

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Lord Regal is Driving Your Girlfriend Home

Lord Steven Regal vs. 2 Cold Scorpio 7/27/93 - FUN

PAS: Kind of an odd match, it is a 10 minute time limit draw worked about 85% on the mat. That is right up Regal's alley, but it doesn't really work to the strengths of 93 2 Cold. Regal had some great looking stuff, but Scorpio's counters and hold work looked a little tentative. Also when 2 Cold finally flies, he hits a weak looking superfly splash. Regal did enough stuff to get it to FUN, but this on paper looked like a dream match, and instead it felt like Regal imposing himself on the match.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE REGAL

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Flick of Severn's Wrist and You're Dead Baby

Dan Severn vs. Steven Regal NWA 10/24/98 - GREAT

ER: This is a fairly infamous match, as less than a month later Regal would be sent to rehab, and showed up for this match reportedly in no shape to perform, and all feedback from the show was that he put on a bad or embarrassing performance in an incredibly bad match. An oft repeated story was that he even had his boots on the wrong feet (which, at a couple different moments you can clearly see is true). But perhaps time has been kind to a match worked in this style? Matwork is a far more accepted part of indy wrestling now than it would have been in 1998.

It's a long match, 27 minutes, and there isn't a strike thrown until the 23 minute mark. Before that it's a lot of standing grappling, wrist work, headlocks, headscissors, amateur pins, and many in attendance get restless. It's strange that they get so restless, as Severn is accompanied by Dory Funk Jr. (who got a nice reaction), and if any of them had actually seen any Dory Funk Jr. matches then this match wouldn't seem too out of place. Lou Thesz was in attendance as well, so for all I know they were trying to do their representation of a throwback 1950s Thesz defense, which this felt like. It may have been the wrong match for the crowd at the time, but I think the match has aged rather nicely. Regal looks more tentative than anything, but even then I don't think there are close to any moments where he looks embarrassing. Really the weirdest thing he does is shake Dory's hand before the match, and proceeds to have a too long close conversation while Funk clearly tries to pull away from the handshake at least three times (god I so badly want to know what Regal was saying to Funk).

The match itself is a hard muga style, and it's a slow burn, but I think they do a good job of establishing the pace and building to small peaks within that pace. I found the standing grappling engaging, with Regal always trying to find advantages by stepping on the back of Severn's knee, which Severn mostly avoids (and which pays off nicely down the stretch when Regal finally just stomps on the knee to set up the Regal stretch, and Severn lets out a great anguished yell that really sells it). Severn has the strength advantage and he's able to bull Regal around a bit, but Regal is always there to force a forearm to face or grab viciously at an ear. I really liked all the work around Regal's headscissors, thought all of Severn's escape attempts came off tough, and Regal never looked like he was letting him breathe. 

Severn gets a couple nice amateur slams, and I love Regal's little blocks at Severn's mat momentum, hooking an arm around Severn's leg to prevent advance, using his leg to shift weight and change the leverage, they were really satisfying in the overall match build. By the time Regal starts throwing uppercuts it feels like a huge moment, and Severn sells the uppercuts incredibly, really some of the best strike selling I've ever seen. Severn is stumbling around, staggered, dropping to a knee, falling in a natural way instead of a flat back bump; it really made it feel like Regal was beating up the champ. Severn's comeback is good and I love how Regal sold his finish, working to break the hold but knowing when he was beat. I thought this was an incredibly satisfying match, but also totally understand anybody live who might have been impatient with it. I watched it 20 years later, in a vacuum, removed from the show and removed from what wrestling commonly was at the time. But in 2017, this match worked tremendously well for me.

PAS: I really enjoyed this too, I thought Regal was pretty great and it was one of the better "in no condition to perform" performances I can remember (Jerry Estrada in his Javier Cruz hair match is and always will be #1). They grind it down and work a really deliberate pace, and Regal is a master at a deliberate pace match. I can't think of anyone in wrestling history who is better at showing every part of a hold from start to finish, and adding little micro beats to the hold. They worked holds for long periods, but they never sat in them, there was always struggle and movement. I loved Severn selling the uppercuts, too. He is a guy who has been hit with real shots and knows how your body responds. I also liked that nasty Fujiwara armbar, and Regal sold it like the pain sobered him up. They responded to the terrible Jersey indy crowd by keeping it slow, and I think there is something punk rock about G.G. Allining the audience like that.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DAN SEVERN NWA TITLE DEFENSES

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE REGAL

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Regal Snuck Into My Room Just to Read My Diary

Lord Steven Regal vs. Dean Malenko 2/7/97 - GREAT

I remember thinking back in the 90s, that these were a pair of guys who weirdly didn't match up well with each other, but I thought this was pretty great (maybe this is an idea like Dave Matthews Band and Welfare Reform which needs to be left in the 90s). This opened with a mat section which was unsurprisingly great, Regal is just a master of doing cool little things in every match, and his maximalist approach mixes nicely with Malenko's minimalism. . Here Malenko puts him in a head scissors and he does all of the these neck manipulations and adjustments to get out. Later in the match Malenko hits a couple of back elbows and Regal adjusts his jaw like they knocked out a tooth. The match ended abruptly in a time limit draw without any real dramatic near falls which keeps this out of EPIC territory, but I need to track down the rest of their matches.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE REGAL

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A World War Was Announced a Day Ago but Regal Didn't Know

Lord Steven Regal v. Ricky Steamboat WCW 8/19/93-GREAT

PAS: Thanks to our pal Beau James we get an awesome 1993 Regal handheld match. As one might expect you get a lot of shtick in a Regal house show match, including Steamboat hitting an inverted atomic drop and doing a mocking mincing walk. Steamboat also does a old time put your dukes up challenge, you don't see a lot of physical comedy Ricky, but he is pretty good at it. There is a great long Backlund/Blue Panther short arm scissors spot, and some great Regal smashing forearms. I think with a real finish this would have ended up as an EPIC, but the time limit just kind of comes without any real build.  So happy this just showed up.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE REGAL

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Regal's Mentality Catches Up With His Biology

Lord Steven Regal/Dick Slater vs. Davey Boy Smith/Sting WCW 11/28/93 - GREAT

PAS: We get a nifty chance to look at Regal work a house show tag match along side fellow classic heel stooge Dick Slater.  This is mostly the heel bumping and clowning for the faces and these are a pair of great clowns. Regal and Davey Boy had a great PPV match full of WOS spots, and they break out a bunch of those tricks here. This stuff has been spammed a lot by indy dudes lately, but it is pretty crazy to watch them do wristlock cartwheel counters in 93 WCW. Sting and Regal have a really fun knucklock sequence, with Sting doing a super impressive bridge with Regals weight on top of him. The finish came a bit abruptly after a long heel kneework section on Davey Boy, but that was my only quibble. Fun stuff and a great out of nowhere upload.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE REGAL

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Finlay is Buggered to Damnation

Fit Finlay v. Lord Steven Regal WCW 12/20/97- GREAT

PAS: This was long after their big feud, but you have to love these guys seeing their name on a call sheet for a five minute WCW Pro match where the announcers are going to talk about Larry Zybsko v. Bischoff the whole time and deciding to go out there and have a Finlay v. Regal match. It has all the uncalled for violence this matchup promises, forearms right to the mouth, knees to the temple, elbows to the throat. Not really any near falls, just a pile of violence, Regal gets a flash pin, but that felt more like a pause then an ending, like these two just went into the back and continued fighting all the way to the Orlando Days Inn they were staying at.

ER: I tend to dislike how these two matched up, but on rare occasion they would get inspired and actually work a semi decent match. Seriously though this is one of my absolute favorite Regal performances. Finlay is a constant, one of the most consistent match to match performers in wrestling history. Regal was a little more in the weeds during this part of his career, dealing with personal problems. But he was monstrous here. His palm strikes and shots in the corner were insane! Finlay grabs a chinlock and Regal gets out of it by just palm striking Finlay's nose a couple times, rushing in and catching Finlay under the chin with a dropkick after Finlay gets tossed into the buckles, and throwing beastly uppercuts. You don't normally see Finlay get outstiffed by his opponent, but this match was it.

Fit Finlay v. Bret Hart WCW 7/13/98- GREAT

PAS: Finlay is really great at these short WCW television matches. He sets a relentless punishing pace and basically drags his opponent along with him. This had to be a relatively disheartening time in Bret Hart's career, couldn't blame him for dogging it on a throw away Nitro match, but Finlay is having none of it. When Hart sinks in a chinlock, Finlay starts squirming and countering, when Hart goes into his stock offense, Finlay fires back with a shot or a counter. He hits Hart with shots and makes him fire back with some mustard, and this match gets pretty damn exciting, I especially loved the fight over the sharpshooter, with Finlay grasping for the ropes and Hart ripping him off and really sinking it in.  Really fun discovery, and it makes me want to seek out all of the Finlay TV stuff and see what other ignored gems there are.

ER: Not sure what match Phil was watching as Bret Hart looked totally awesome in this match, and Finlay was the one who used a chinlock, not Hart. Hart definitely did not dog it in this one, he went right after Finlay and hit all sorts of great worked shots, backing him into the corner and landing nice body shots, and a killer leverage choke, just palming Finlay's throat while looking like he was leaning all the way into it. He drags him out and hits a beautiful headbutt and then Finlay starts firing back. These two went right at it the whole time. Finlay is an all time favorite of mine and I couldn't say he looked definitively better than Bret in this. I didn't think Hart came off disheartened in this match, I thought he came off pissed. And yeah, he really did have reason to be pissed. He went from being one of the hottest acts in wrestling in November, to being some guy in the nWo a few months later. And that aggression really came out against Finlay. Fit is awesome as always, stomping hands, hitting two short arm lariats, dropping a great knee, you know, being Finlay. Both guys have no problem running into the other's offense: Finlay makes a Hart backbreaker look crippling, Hart runs jaw first into a corner boot and sells a nasty uppercut better than most wrestlers could ever dream of selling. These two squeeze as much as you possibly can into 4 minutes, and while I've already seen all of the Finlay WCW stuff, now I want to go looking for WCW Bret hidden gems.

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Now Regal Knows How Joan of Arc Felt

Lord Steven Regal v. Brian Pillman WCW 8/13/94-GREAT

Great match up between two awesome wrestlers, and a matchup I didn't remember and never really considered. Pillman was a little subdued here, he through some cool backfists, and chops, but Regal really controlled this with his performance even when Pillman was on offense. Early Pillman controlled with a headlock and Regal was awesome as he was constantly trying different escapes and counters, he never stopped testing Pillman and looking for holds. Similarly when Regal was grounding Pillman he would be constantly adjusting his grip, applying pressure to Pillman's neck, switching grips, adjusting his weight,  just super violent looking armlocks and necklocks. Finish came a little abruptly with some Sir William interference which wasn't tied into to the rest of the match, that kept this from being an EPIC, but man it is great to watch Regal at the height of his powers, doing his thing.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE REGAL

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It's Gruesome That Someone So Handsome as Regal Should Care

Lord Steven Regal v. Keiji Muto NJ 11/3/95 EPIC

Regal was so great in Japan, an alternative universe where he spent the 90's working All Japan or New Japan or WAR would be a universe I would like to visit. Muto really doesn't bring a ton to this match, he had some nice slaps and chops and a pretty moonsault, but this was a Regal show. Regal was such a nasty fucker here, stomping on Muto's inseam, elbow him in the eye, palming him in the temple, it was a brutal mauling and really made a match without a ton of action really compelling. The finish with Regal sort of trying a moonsault was a little silly, and it really felt like the wrong guy won. Still these are minor complaints for such a pretty bit of violence.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE REGAL

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My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Main Event 7/7/96

If that date sounds familiar, it's because this is the pre-show to Bash at the Beach, where something *kind* of huge would go on to happen.

1. The Steiner Bros. vs. Harlem Heat

This match works just fine, until it inevitably turns into the continuing saga of Col. Robert Parker and Sherri, as practically every Heat tag from this era did. In rewatching a lot of this era it was surprising how terrible a lot of the Heat matches were. I remembered them as a decent team but man were they sloppy and man did their tags have horrible structure. But Booker was on during the first part of this, flying into Scott with a huge shoulderblock, working him over with a nice bearhug that Scott turned into an even nicer overhead belly to belly. Rick came in and hit a great powerslam on Booker, and things (shockingly!) slowed down quite a bit once Stevie Ray tagged in. Stevie hits a nice elbowdrop, and then locks on a neverending chinlock until the Parker interference. For his part Parker takes a big hip toss bump into the ring from the apron. On the previous show they were advertising Steiners vs. Rock n Roll Express which would have been awesome. Instead we get this. And this...was probably better than I expected.

2. Billy Kidman vs. Hardwork Bobby Walker

So let's start off by saying that this match gets 90 seconds. Let's go on to say that these guys clearly knew they were only getting 90 seconds, and proceeded to do as much as they possibly could in 90 seconds. Something seemed up right from the beginning as both guys are just working lightning fast. It looked like things were on double speed and I'm thinking "man how are these guys expecting to work a full match at this pace??" Oh, they weren't. But it was fun seeing a noted schlub like Walker going fullspeed, with both guys doing these super quick dropdowns and leapfrogs, Kidman taking a wild bump to the floor off a dropkick, and both working in kooky offense I've never seen either do before. Kidman hit a quadruple jump Asai moonsault (follow me here) starting on the apron, leaping to the middle rope, then the top rope, then the inside middle rope 90 degrees to his left, and then the moonsault. It's like a crazy Aerostar move, with about 70% of the grace of an Aerostar move. Walker jumps to the middle turnbuckle, leaps BACKWARDS from the middle buckle to the top, almost loses his balance and falls backwards to the floor (because it's fucking crazy to jump backwards from the middle to the top) and then hits a crossbody/headbutt block from the top to win. Weird little match with the circumstances dictating unique work.

3. Rock N Roll Express vs. Fire & Ice

Another 2 minute special that really could have been a good tag match if it had been given just a few more minutes. Norton rushes Ricky to start and hits some pretty stiff shots, a couple pretty big slams. Ice Train tags in and hits a rough avalanche. This Morton guy is pretty decent at playing Ricky Morton. Finish is clever but would have loved for it to come after more of a match, as Norton tags back in, picks Ricky up in a gutwrench and Ricky's legs hit Ice Train on the apron causing Norton to stumble. Gibson runs in and takes out Norton's knee allowing Ricky to hit the backslide. That's a pretty decent finish, but yeah didn't get a whole lot of match before it happened.

4. Eddie Guerrero vs. Steven Regal

Now this is the kind of thing you hope for when you pop in an old WCW disc. Is it too short? Yes. Does it have a lousy finish? You betcha. Is everything awesome before that? Well of course. Regal looks so damn good here, with he and Eddie doing all sorts of cool grapples and take downs. Eddie lands on his feet after a monkey flip, hits a cool armdrag off a Regal butterfly suplex attempt, Regal starts lacing in elbows and then Eddie takes a super fast bump to the floor off a Regal toss. Weirdness ensues when Regal fakes a knee injury, suckers Eddie in for a double leg for what you think is going to end it. But something weird happens as Nick Patrick just stops counting at 2, even though Eddie didn't kick out. It looks like Regal was supposed to have his feet on the ropes, but he never puts them there, so Patrick just has to stop the count for zero reason instead of stop the count after witnessing the cheating. The Eddie just rolls up Regal for the win. Folks you won't see a finish worse than that one. But god that first 90 seconds of the match was all the stuff you want in pro wrestling.

Okay, Cubs, that one was a whole lot more...interesting as an episode. Still waiting for an actual good match as so far we've gotten some big time potential that was cut short with bad finishes. We'll keep trying until I think your donation has been worth it for you. Again, thank you SO MUCH for your help.


***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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There are Too Many People Planning Regal's Downfall

Steve Regal vs. Chris Beniot WCW 5/8/93 - GREAT

This used to be my favorite match up in wrestling until..you know. This is a really early version of it, Benoit during his first WCW run, and Regal even before he was a Lord. This was worked more like a NJ juniors match than the gritty bombfests these matches would become. The execution of both guys is really great, as they did a nice looking extended armdrag and kip up sequence, which was smooth as soy milk. End was pretty cool too, as Benoit kicked out of a butterfly suplex, before planting Regal with a bridging dragon suplex which was pretty high end in 93.

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It's Time the Tale Were Told How Regal Took a Child and Made Him Old

Steve Regal v. Barbarian WCW 3/7/93 - FUN

This is another babyface WCW Regal match, not nearly the classic that the Windham match was, but a nifty little clash of styles. Basically it had Regal using his wiles to avoid Barbarians power, and occasionally failing and getting smashed. There was a cool moment where Regal went for a sunset flip, Barbarian doesn't go over, and punches Regal in the head. It is a spot we have all seen a million times except Regal does this awesome KO sell, like he was Frazier in the 15th round in Manila. Not much of a Barbarian performance, and if he had been more game this could have been something special

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE REGAL

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Poor Twisted Regal oh Hug Me Hug Me, One November Spawned a Monster

Steve Regal v. Barry Windham WCW 4/17/93 - EPIC

Man what a hard nosed nasty little battle this was. This was babyface Regal before they brought in Dundee and starting doing the Lord Steven gimmick, and Windham was the NWA champ. This was after Bill Watts was fired, but it had a very Watts feel to it, starting with gritty mat wrestling and then moving into big bomb throwing. Windham works over Regals arms, with some simple but really nasty looking holds. Regal is a great fired up babyface here, there is a moment where they are exchanging and he motions Windham to bring it on, and Barry just wipes him out with a flying right hand. Finish is pretty awesome, Regal gets a bunch of roll ups and it really looks like he might pull a huge upset, when they do the same bodypress to the floor spot Regal used with Taylor, this time Regal catches his knee in the rope in a great Chris Hamrickish accident on purpose spot, Regal fights his way back into the ring, but he is too damaged and gets smashed with a jumping DDT. This was Windhams last great run as a worker, and it is fun to see him as a bruiser, it is also great to check Regal out as a US babyface, really would have been interested to see him get a longer babyface run in WCW, as he was just awesome at it.

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Regal is his Mother's Only Son and He's a Desperate One

Steve Jones v. Dave Taylor Reslo 5/2/91 - GREAT

Blue Bloods collide! Well before they were a tag team, we get to see Taylor and Regal match up in a very cool 10 minute TV match from Wales. Match starts with some very nifty WOS style mat wrestling, with Regal breaking out a bunch of cool counters including a great leg stretch counter to an armbar, where he just scootches Taylors legs apart until he loses balance. They exchange some nasty uppercuts, and have a great double count out finish where Taylor goes for a bodypress and they both fly recklessly over the top rope. Really neat opportunity to see early Regal, and prime Dave Taylor, both of which are kind of rare

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When Regal Billed You For the Pleasure and Made Your Parents Cry

Lord Steven Regal v. Yuji Nagata WCW 11/1/97-GREAT

Pretty crazy how both guys pulled out all the stops on a random Worldwide taping with Heenan making stupid jokes on commentary. Regal was at his nasty fucker best here, lots of palm strikes to the cheeks and ears and big uppercuts. Nagata's kicks looked OK and Regal sold them like death, we also got some very nifty little pieces of grappling including Nagata reversing a full neslon into a Fujiwara armbar. Also who throws five suplexes between them in a 7 minute syndie match, including ending on a top rope butterfly. Just a great example of classic WCW Syndie goodness.

William Regal v. Dolph Ziggler WWE 4/20/09-FUN

This is a a RAW dark match in London and a nice chance to see Ziggler bump around for Regal. Regal is really over and gets a bunch of chants. Ziggler's offense wasn't much, although he did hit a a nice dropkick which Regal did the Stooges sell for. I did like Ziggler killing himself on a half nelson suplex and knee trembler. Would have been really good if it had gotten more then 4 minutes.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE REGAL

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