2002 Boss Man Crashes Into Crash

Big Boss Man vs. Crash Holly WWF Heat 2/3/02

ER: Man, Boss Man was an absolute killer here. He looked amazing, a real bully, every strike looking awesome. It really looked like he was killing Crash out there. It's pretty one sided, yet it's also longer than his other 2002 syndicated matches. Crash kind of worked his brief offense section like he was Pepe-era Chavito, more goofing off than actually going for offense, so the bulk of this was 4 minutes of Boss Man beating his ass around the ring. I am totally okay with that, because Boss Man has nothing but great looking offense, clearly a guy who could still work way above the level he was being used. He has really impressive presence and everything he throws looks lethal. He hits Crash with four different punch variations in the corner, and I have no idea how to pick a favorite. There's the overhand right and the uppercut, but I think my favorite is when he just rears back and pops Crash straight in the forehead. 

Boss Man decks Crash with his sliding punch, throws an all time great cross chop to the throat, and makes something as simple as a running stomp look devastating. He leans into Crash's nice elbow strikes, and drops a great knee right to Crash's temple. At one point he literally just stands on Crash in the corner and it's the greatest thing: One boot on the stomach, one on the throat, just standing on him like a hate filled surfer. Crash takes the kind of beating that makes it look like he's on his way out of the fed, and basically his one bit of offense is a sunset flip that ends on a one count when Boss Man pops him in the eye with his calf. Outside of looking like the best striker of that era WWF, Boss Man shows insane amounts of personality. I laughed out loud watching his reaction to loud "Boss Man Sucks" chants, not getting fired up and yelling back, but instead standing there with his hands on his hips, lips pursed, equal parts annoyance and disappointment. I love this guy. 

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Heel Tommy Dreamer: Obviously, Somebody Took Offense To It

Tommy Dreamer vs. Scotty 2 Hotty WWF Metal 9/1/01

ER: Tommy Dreamer might have been trying to hit Kurt Angle with his car, or, he was merely pulling into a parking space. This is the technical beginning of Heel Tommy Dreamer, although no turn was yet official. He would have been the default heel here as the crowd was not going to be booing Scotty 2 Hotty, but he does a great turn at the end of the match anyway. Dreamer is good at missing offense to set up Scotty's, and he gets crotched TWICE. There is nothing Tommy Dreamer loves more than being dropped balls first onto a guardrail or rope or turnbuckle, and here he gets swollen balls from the ringside barricade AND top turnbuckle! Dreamer is aggressive and keeps missing until he hits, rolling to the floor off a superkick and then taking a hard bump to the floor after getting crotched on the barricade. But he's got great right hands that he throws from a far back wind up, elevating his punches by landing them from a reared back slot. I liked 2001 Dreamer's moveset a lot: nice neckbreaker, a great Sky High that gets set up like a spinebuster, great missed elbow bump off a Naniwa elbow. 

The best part of the match is the official Dreamer heel turn, because it's so logical and makes so much sense, and is just so easy. Dreamer gets crotched on the top buckle, staggers down to his feet, and as Scotty runs the ropes to set up the bulldog that sets up the Worm...Dreamer merely ducks. Dreamer ducks, then just spikes Scotty with a DDT. The fans absolutely hate it. The crowd noise that started with buzzed excitement as they saw Scotty setting up the Worm, that transitions to hate-filled boos as Dreamer dodges the Worm and then mocks them for loving the Worm, is sublime. Dreamer does a fantastic impression of how stupid Scotty looks when he's about to do the Worm, does the shittiest/perfect one legged hops, and while doing those hops Scotty gets up and plants him with the Bulldog. Even better, is that when Scotty does hit the Worm, he immediately finishes off Dreamer with a springboard DDT that I don't remember him regularly using. I appreciate when guys try to put unique twists on played out spots, and this was a great version of that. 

Tommy Dreamer vs. Tajiri WWF Heat 9/9/01

ER: A cool 4 minute match with a surprising, earned Tajiri win. This was an unexplored ECW TV bout, but we have a ton of fancam singles matches. This is their only WWF match, and it was a tight version of their ECW house show feud. Dreamer controls and bullies Tajiri around, and I have no real memory of any hierarchies during the short Invasion window so I have no clue where either of these guys ranked in comparison to each other. Tajiri was with Torrie Wilson, Dreamer had new pants with a barbed wire design down the leg. Who's to say. Dreamer works a cool bearhug where he lowers Tajiri's shoulders to the mat for a pinfall, Tajiri tries to pull a can opener, then get a guillotine, then just opts to bite Dreamer's nose to escape. As Dreamer is stumbling around holding his nose, screaming like a man who chose the worst possible time to tell a distasteful joke about Tongans, Tajiri flattens him with the most perfect crescent kick. Tajiri gets spiked nicely on a DDT, and the crowd got into Tajiri snapping and just hauling off on Dreamer with a flurry of punches and kicks. Dreamer jaws with leather pants Torrie Wilson and gets kicked in his hamstring for it, dropping his head enough to eat a buzzsaw right. They were 4-4 in their ECW singles matches, so Tajiri goes up in the corporate rubber match. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE HEEL TOMMY DREAMER

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WWF 305 Live: Yokozuna! Kamala! Viscera! Prince Albert!

Kamala vs. Yokozuna WWF Raw 5/17/93 - EPIC

ER: This is the kind of match these projects are made for. Literal slapping meat and several staredown moments that made this come off like two walruses fighting over mating privileges. Two monsters eyeballing each other with confusion, square, and charge into each other. Then, after crashing together, both get back even farther to run in again with a bigger lead! Nearly this whole match is them on their feet, Kamala throwing hard overhand chops and Yokozuna fighting back with uppercuts and cross chops. Kamala runs the ropes a lot which looks cool with his size, and he has that way of running the ropes where he looks like he's about to lose his balance, like a toddler getting their legs and running for several steps before plopping gracelessly to the ground. Kamala flies into Yokozuna and I love the force he used to rain down chops. Yokozuna knocks Kamala to a knee, Kamala blocks an overhand chop and delivers one of his own to stagger Yokozuna, and it all plays BIG. Fans in 1993 were so damn into just the concept of a large man FALLING and you could hear that excitement in the crowd. This was already a very exciting night of Raw. There was still the upcoming Jannetty/Michaels match that was set up earlier in the show, and they got to see The Kid upset Razor Ramon, so the crowd is in a good mood. They've already seen a good simple angle and a majorly unexpected win, and now they're seeing two huge giants sprint belly first into each other and then ALMOST fall down. Who among us wouldn't be losing our shit? And they lose it, alright, enough to start a loud USA chant. Why they started a USA chant? Couldn't tell you, but they were united in it because of this match. Fuji grabs Kamala's leg to distract him and allow Yoko to hit two crushing hip attack avalanches in the corner. I wanted this to go even longer, but the visual of the Ugandan savage taking the banzai drop was great.


Viscera vs. Prince Albert WWF Sunday Night Heat 2/6/00 - FUN

ER: Quick match, not quite 3 minutes, but enough to highlight a great aggressive Albert performance. He really kept after Viscera the entire time, even though that meant plenty of things ended terribly for him. The collar and elbows were awesome, as Albert went in for one the second the bell rang and you got a real sense of these two using a lot of weight to push each other around. It's really cool when you can clearly see the power and not just guys casually getting into position. And Albert spends the whole match bringing everything right to Viscera, so the hits are cool and the misses are even better, as that means Albert gets crushed. An aggressive collar and elbow leads to Viscera putting him in the corner and backing into him, charging at Viscera leads to Albert getting dropped by a killer sitout spinebuster (think half rydeen bomb, half spinebuster), another charge leads to Albert eating a big Samoan drop, and Viscera stops *another* charge dead in its tracks by hitting another spinebuster variation (this one more half spinebuster, half belly to belly). Albert's aggression really fueled this, and I was bummed when Big Boss Man's interference on Viscera is what lead directly to Albert hitting his pump kick finisher. With not even a 3 minute runtime I was getting into the idea of where they were going to go with the finish, whether Albert would finally figure out how to not get crushed, or how many more times Viscera could have crushed him before winning. The interference robbed me of that joy, but these two gifted me with plenty of smooshing in the allotted time.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE WWF 305 LIVE

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Dick Togo is Up and Down With the Price, The Corner's Playing Pogo

Dick Togo vs. Gangrel WWF Sunday Night Heat 9/6/98 - FUN 

PAS: Short semi competitive squash, but a nifty one. Togo gets a couple of moves early including a nice spin kick, but Gangrel takes over and just chucks Togo around the ring with suplexes. I had no memory of the period where Gangrel worked as Taz, but he was a fun Taz, and Togo is an awesome Pablo Marquez. 

PAS: Dick Togo v. Rui Hiugaji MPRO 12/16/10 - EPIC 

PAS: Another excellent 2010 Togo singles match, and one worked dramatically different from either the Billy Ken Kid or Hikaru Sato matches. This really reminded me of a 80's Lawler v. Austin Idol match. The first part of the match is all about Hugaji trying to stall and avoid a punch and Togo finally landing it. Then Hiugaji takes him to the floor and busts him up with a chair shot, and then works a really simple effective beatdown based around opening up a cut. Hiugaji doesn't do anything flashy, but he is a nasty fucker, and his bumping when Togo punches his way to a comeback is great. They also exchange some really solid haymakers. Togo has been unleashing a great superkick lately and he obliterates Hiugaji with one here, and I loved the rolling around for the crossface finish. No Togo dive (outside of a flip off the apron) and no big senton, this was a match built on selling and timing not athleticism. It's a match Togo could work into his 60's, so Dick, if you are reading this, no need to retire. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DICK TOGO

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