Found Footage Friday: 1991 WWF TAPING~!

WWF London Ontario 2/16/91

MD: This is all new save for the Crush vs. Butch match, and therefore, we'll cover the rest.

Koko B. Ware vs. The Barbarian

MD: Early on, Lord Alfred talks about seeing a young, young Barbarian in Puerto Rico when he was wrestling there with Monsoon and I wish we had 70s Lord Alfred in Puerto Rico. Ah well.

This was very good, especially the early feeling out process. They framed each and every exchange well, Barbarian's early strength (holding him up in a one-handed choke, which you never seen), and then Koko chipping away at him with dropkicks, until he went sailing over the top and menaced the camera man. Back in the ring, Koko was able to fire back with shots to the face, but Barbarian hefted him over the top and then crushed him against the post on the outside and that was that. 

Pretty good face-in-peril with some nice hope spots (including a sunset flip in). The nerve hold could have been a little more active, maybe, but the crowd came up for Koko getting the elbows in on his comeback. That got cutoff but then Barbarian missed an elbow drop and Koko was back in it. They actually had me on a couple of the nearfalls even though intellectually, I knew there was no way Koko won this one. Barbarian won it with a hotshot out of nowhere, which really did feel like the ultimate match-ender for this time period. A guy ends up with his throat draped over the top and it's over.

ER: I was impressed with how well Koko overcame the size difference here. 1991 is some Peak Gas WWF (see how fucking jacked Bushwhacker Butch is in the match after this) and Barbarian looks immovable. Well, Koko moved him real well and threw babyface punches so good that they believably kept moving him. I love Koko, a great sympathetic babyface seller who knew how to take bumps that garner even more sympathy. His low fast backdrop to the floor made the bump look more tough and his selling once he was on the floor built it more. Barbarian will slam your spine into the ringpost but a great salesman like Koko will make it look truly backbreaking. Koko has two strong nearfalls: an inside cradle that was pulled off quick, and his missile dropkick which was done well enough that I bit on it as a finish. He took Barbarian's hotshot finish so exuberantly that the top rope practically touched the bottom. Frankie wasn't there to see the loss. 

Ted Dibiase vs. Jimmy Snuka

MD: Pretty interesting point in time and space here as Snuka actually got on the mic and brought out Virgil to Dibiase's horror. Virgil was super over as you can imagine. Once this got going, it didn't wear out its welcome. Dibiase got sneak attacked by Snuka while distracted and then everything he tried for the next couple of minutes backfired on him. Honestly, this is as good as I can remember seeing Snuka look in this run and so much of it is due to the set up. Dibiase did take over by getting a gutshot up to counter a double axe-handle, and they built to Dibiase trying to suplex him in and Virgil grabbing the leg to set up the upset. Dibiase got rocked by him post match. Very effective, crowd-pleasing stuff to help get over what they were doing with Virgil.

ER: Agree that this feels like the best 1991 Snuka, but a lot of that felt like the best 1991 Dibiase. This was a basic 1991 Offense WWF match that Dibiase was working like an All Japan match. He took extra, probably unnecessary, snap off every surface Snuka bounced him off. Dibiase made every connection an impact, dedicated to making every slam into a turnbuckle look brain scrambling. He could have gotten away with going lighter on the 2nd night of a week straight of house shows. Snuka had timing and Weird Buff Old Guy energy, using simple offense like clubbing hands, and "grabbing Dibiase to shove him into a thing". I can't recall when I've been so impressed by someone getting their head bounced off the ring apron. Jimmy Snuka was in his late 40s and moved older than that, but Dibiase made him feel like a fighter. 

The camera doesn't film his fistdrops from the best angle but he does three of them and we keep seeing each one from a slightly different too close angle, and by the third it felt like a cool look at the up close magic form of his fistdrop. He was a guy whose Ace Worker status dipped after we watched the Mid South footage, a guy who plays incredibly in the greatest matches of all time but doesn't hold up in the weekly TV. But I'm quite high on 90s Dibiase. He started working more like Arn Anderson and I thought he was great. I love '93 Dibiase. He stands out in unique ways from the other strong WWF heel workers from that year (Doink, Michaels, Headshrinkers, Yokozuna) and takes his impact bumping to All Japan and locks it in until his injury. Ted Dibiase is destined to become one of our wrestlers whose discourse constantly waffles between overrated and underrated until we die, but I think any unearthed 90s footage has only added to his case as a great worker. 

Gen. Adnan vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan

MD: I don't remember seeing a singles match between these two make tape during this run but I could be wrong. It's one of those things you'd see in house show results and wonder how they did it. Now we know. A lot of "Back to Iraq" chants by Duggan. Adnan snuck up on him with the turban, choked him, got slammed, and ate the three-point stance clothesline. Another crowd-pleaser but now we know what it'd look like at least.

ER: To think, looking like a reasonable facsimile to Saddam Hussein would get you a certain death gimmick as a decoy in one part of the world, while in another part it could net you a plum late career WWF gig. I have a ton of respect for Adnan Al-Kaissie's 90s WWF run. You're in your early 50s, haven't worked WWF since your 30s, and you happen to look like a dictator from the country you're from and don't have to get in actual shape for the gig. You get to have one minute matches on house shows where fans watch Saddam Hussein get no offense in on America (OR Canada!!) before quickly losing. It all ends with a main event PPV gig opposite Hulk Hogan. Also you get to wear incredible boots. It's one of wrestling's greatest gigs ever and should be celebrated as such. How many wrestlers get the chance to work in front of 20,000 people in a main event, ever, in their careers, let alone in their 50s? I wonder what his Summerslam paycheck looked like compared to Virgil's. 

Rick Martel vs. Jake Roberts

MD: Martel on the mic with just a few words about how everyone was jealous to ensure he wouldn't get any Canadian cheers. Jake had the blue and gold cobra crotch tights. Important everyone knows that. 

Very fun early. Martel ambushed but crashed into the post on a shoulder block attempt. Jake started on the arm, including lifting him up and holding him there for a second, and punches. Best part was when he faked high, causing Martel to duck, and then kneeled down to punch the model in the face. Big sell of the nose. Big pop. Jake really bathed in the DDT chants too, milking them.

Martel's control, after using the ref as a stalking horse, wasn't as interesting, but he had some good cut offs at least. Jake ended up trapped in the ropes as Martel went for Arrogance, but he got out while the ref was fighting with him and hit the DDT. He took forever, absolutely forever, to creep over and pin him. 

ER: It was truly stunning to watch how long Jake took to pin Martel after the DDT. They were both down so long that the ref started counting both down. I have no idea why Jake was down so long. He set up the DDT with a long stretch of being stuck in the ropes just like Andre, doing great physical work of stretching out his body as he tried to pull both arms out of the ropes. His physical work was so good, his selling for Martel so emotive, and his post DDT crawl was the slowest thing you have ever seen. 

Undertaker vs. Tugboat

MD: I don't have a lot to say about this but it's a great example of how the initial heel run Undertaker had total commitment to his character. He moved like a lurching zombie, ever creeping forward. It was a great act and has been rarely emulated. You could push him back but he'd keep coming in a way that was sort of unnerving. When they shoot to the audience for Superstars/Challenge matches and show scared kids, they were scared for a reason. And then, when least expected, like in the finish here, he'd do something extra quick or agile and it'd go from creeping doom to jump scare. Here it was vaulting over the top rope so he could climb up, take a few steps and hit an elbow drop to beat Tugboat. 

ER: Marvel at the front row of Very Canadian Men who all seemed amused/confused by the Undertaker. None of them understood what it was they were supposed to be seeing and silently stared accordingly. Imagine if zombie heel Undertaker actually worked like a heavyweight and hit like he was a big man. He could have been one of the scariest heels of all time. By the time he learned how to strike 15 years later he was incapable of ever being a heel. He had a kick to the ribs that was so light he may have confused people into thinking he was portraying a ghost who is incapable of making physical contact with our realm. His backward leap into the ringpost is a cool bump in theory but he doesn't know how to give it weight or impact. Tugboat is the one of the two who felt like a guy with potential. His powerslam has rotation that makes it feel big but a controlled landing that safely drops a 300 pound zombie. When Tugboat hit and then missed his leaping avalanche I was thinking how much more agile he was than Taker, but just then Taker leapt over the top rope to the apron and got to the top rope so fast that it was like I was watching a wrestler I'd never seen before. Taker's rope walk elbowdrop finisher was a cool piece of his arsenal that felt like a dead man falling off a roof. 

Brooklyn Brawler vs. Virgil

MD: One thing I appreciate about the Brawler's act is that they let him come out with Yankees gear. My guess is that if he came around today, he'd have Brawler written on his shirt instead. 

He did a good job of showing fear of Virgil early, which only helped him be over with the crowd. They had a nice bit of rope running with multiple leapfrogs too. In general, this went longer than it should have. Virgil took some big bumps including one through the ropes to the floor, but I do think this was set up to give him some ring time selling. The match was sacrificed to prep him for future matches which makes total sense. He won it with a power slam which is not a move you usually associate with him. 

ER: This era of Virgil's work was so weird. This match was smack dab between his babyface turn on Dibiase at the Rumble, and their big WrestleMania match next month. It is the only match Virgil worked in February. No matter your thoughts on Virgil's in ring, it is undeniable how well his babyface turn got over. Listen to the response he gets from the people of Ontario! This is a man they are rooting for! He hasn't wrestled as much as you might think for being on WWF TV for so many years, but he wrestles like a guy who is barely trained while also wrestling like a trained wrestler who is wrestling as an untrained wrestler. You see glimpses of a man who can't run the ropes, who throws clotheslines like he's only seen them portrayed in children's drawings, but also see a man who throws himself into big babyface bumps and knows how to use them to draw sympathy. His bump flying through the ropes with nothing slowing him down, back bump past the mats and onto the London Gardens floorboards, was the best bump on the show and kept his reaction peak. But he also took a "hard way" bump back into the ring that I thought was among the best of its kind. His powerslam looked terrible. 

Brawler is a worker I like more whenever I rewatch him. Any era. Virgil gets a great reaction for a bizarrely scarce post-turn match, but Brawler is great at keeping them interested in Virgil all match. What's the best Lombardi match? Is there a consensus? I think Tom once sold me on an Abe Knuckleball Schwartz/123 Kid match.  I don't think this one would be in the discussion for Best Lombardi match but it's a great showing and a professional handling of the green veteran Virgil. 

Hart Foundation vs. Power & Glory

MD: These two teams were very well matched. Bret started with Roma, lots of rope running ending with him catching him on a leapfrog and then hitting the inverted atomic drop/clothesline combo. Herc outpowered him but didn't outpower Anvil. He did catch Bret off the ropes and took over accordingly. They worked over Bret's back including some nice Roma backbreakers. We rarely get close up footage without commentary like this and you could hear how vocal Herc and Roma were in rooting for one another. To set up the hot tag, Bret climbed across the mat on his back using the ropes. Great stuff. Finish had Roma cut off the Hart Attack and Neidhart cut off the Powerplex and then everything spill out to the floor for a double countout. Post-match Harts ran P&G off but it mostly set up a second encounter. 

ER: This should have been better but there was a really great Bret/Roma match in the middle of a good enough tag match with a bad finish. I don't know if I've watched the Bret/Roma singles matches but now I'm going to, but if there are Hercules/Anvil matches I can probably skip them. This was two FTR teams that are better than FTR working a so so FTR match. I wonder what Bret's thoughts were about he and Anvil working over Herc's shoulder only for it to build to a Hercules gorilla press slam? That's the kind of backwards set up that Bret never wants to take part in, while feeling like a sequence Bret was mapping out. Bret matches don't build to the heel press slamming the babyface after getting his shoulder pummeled. 

Is P&G the best era of Paul Roma? Has to be. It's crazy they kept trying to make him a babyface. He looks so untrustworthy. He'd assault your girlfriend at a party while you were in the bathroom. Power & Glory Roma was fully in his element. The Bret/Roma stuff works so well because he's essentially working a heel Bret style, if Bret were a greasy forcible sexual assaulter. The snap was the same, the heel bumping was the yin to Bret's baby bumping yang. He's a great punch taker, a truly hateable piece of scum like Tully Blanchard who moves similar to Tully as well. I loved the work from everyone when Roma ad Hercules were tying Bret up in a bearhug; Bret's selling was compelling, Roma's bearhug was even better than Hercules', and Roma worked a false tag far better than you'd ever think from someone who teamed with Jim Powers. I don't remember the last time I saw a team work a modern false tag spot without also doing it with a I'm A Heel wink. Roma wasn't out for glory, he had business to take care of. 

The finish stunk, but there was a tremendous reveal while setting up the late match Hart Attack: The way it was filmed, you couldn't see where Roma was. He got knocked off the apron into the guardrail but his location couldn't be seen. As Bret started his run into the opposite ropes, he was expertly kept off camera to preserve the mystery behind whether Bret would hit it or whether Roma would make it back in time to grab his ankle. It was the latter, but until Bret went down it looked like he was gearing up to take Hercules' head off. 

Sgt. Slaughter vs. Ultimate Warrior

MD: I know we already had one or two of these Sarge w/Sherri matches but I haven't seen them for a bit so I couldn't tell you how similar this was. All I generally remember is Sarge bumping all over the place and Sherri dying at the end. This starts with her doing a saluting ceremony with Sarge on the floor after Warrior runs in, including putting the title up to her waist to taunt him, and it's good stuff. Warrior gets Sarge's helmet and goes nuts with it which is also good stuff. 

Warrior chases Sherri around including the usual 1991 high culture bits of them coming out from under the ring with him having undressed her. That lets Sarge take over though and there's a pretty long heat which is well done. Sherri works her ass off helping and cheering on Sarge, especially in a never-ending Camel Clutch. That's going to end with him shrugging Sarge off of course. What's surprising is that the cut off has Sarge getting his knees up. They really make Warrior work for the comeback, which makes it all the more frustrating when he shoves the ref for basically no reason once he does come back. Post-match, he continues to cause havoc including the press slam on Sherri. It's impressive how much they got out of this honestly. 

ER: Sherri was looking THIS hot on Canadian house shows!? That's the major takeaway from this match, which was such a "should have been better" match that I feel I was too quick to give Hart Foundation/Power & Glory that title. Sarge looked more washed than I remember - great bumps still, including his classic over the ringpost that I love so much - with sludgy offense where he looked afraid to fall over too fast. His stomps and some of his other offense looked like he was working a kid with progeria, not as gassed up freak sporting his dumbest haircut in a lifetime of dumb haircuts. Warrior comes as close as humanly possible to hitting a 50 yard head of steam Pounce on a ringside cameraman who sprinted out in front of him like a wild rabbit. Warrior was only going to do so much to avoid him and this guy came about 3 inches from being driven brutally into the guardrail. It would have been the highlight of this event. The Canadian crowd clearly had no idea how they were expected to react to Warrior assaulting Sherri both physically and sexually, but they rightly sat in uncomfortable silence while he hit his hardest offense of the match on her, dropping her from his gorilla press with a real flop, then actually stepping on her as he exited the ring. I wonder how many in attendance had actually seen a woman this hot before. A satin pink teddy with black thigh highs? Girl, Detroit is thataway. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE 305 LIVE

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Found Footage Friday: WWF IN MLG~! IRON MIKE~! HARTS~! ROUGEAUS~! CHARLAND~! WARRIORS~! BAD NEWS~! SAVAGE~!

WWF House Show Maple Leaf Gardens 10/9/88 

1. Richard Charland vs. Scott Casey 

ER: Something about WWF Network on Peacock doing a big upload of several unseen Maple Leaf Gardens shows, and giving people a long-awaited glimpse at gassed up Scott Casey and Richard Charland, a man I once wrote about after seeing Rob Naylor call him the most nondescript wrestler ever. Charland is not the most nondescript wrestler ever, of course. That honor belongs to Ted Dibiase Jr., of course. Casey is GASSED and Charland  has almost the same torso, looking bigger. Not as defined, but bigger. I didn't plan on writing this much about Richard and Scott's bodies. Casey simultaneously works this as both a strong man and a fast undersized opponent. He knocks Charland onto his ass with a shoulderblock, but then works fast armdrags, but then gets out-knuckle locked. Charland draws actual heat by complaining about how much his hand hurt after Casey reversed that knuckle lock. Charland actually walked over to the ropes and showed off a small bruise on his hand, and I think I might really like Richard Charland as a worker. 

The Sean Mooney/Gorilla Monsoon commentary team is realll comfortable listening here. Gorilla is telling amazing stories about working in Canada and starts talking about a wrestling bear. There's a Yukon Eric story with a great punchline, and I fell out of my chair when Mooney asked him how he did against the bear and Gorilla matter of factly replied "Nobody beats the bear, Sean." Charland is great at working a side headlock and not letting for when Casey tries to push him off, occasionally unlocking it to quickly felt at the ref and crowd. When he does get knocked off he makes to leave the building, then walks back to the ring and gets brought in the hard with, landing right on his face. Segunda Caida is about to be adding Richard Charland to our "We're the Dumb Guys Who Like" display case. Tell me we have his singles matches against Haruka Eigen and Joe Malenko. Charland even takes a big bump over the top to the floor, then stalls around before coming in to slam Casey's knee and face into the mat a bunch. Scott Casey doesn't have great punches to comeback (his headlock punches looked good) and the bulldog finish is ugly, but it's the kind of ugly where it looked like a guy dragged a man down by the neck in a suddenly touch football game. Shocked by how much I liked this. 

2. Iron Mike Sharpe vs. B. Brian Blair

ER: Canada's Self-Proclaimed Greatest Athlete almost politely chastises the "small pockets" of fans who booed him, before going out to find a sign proclaiming him Canada's #1 Greatest Athlete and cutting off the ring announcer to show everyone the sign. Sharpe is incredible, running from turnbuckle to turnbuckle to show off the sign like Stone Cold cracking beers, even doing a dead sprint toward the turnbuckle the ring announcer and ref were standing in front of, sending them scattering. By the end of the whole routine the crowd is laughing and cheering for Sharpe, building to a real Iron Mike chant. It's 5 actual minutes of crowd work before Sharpe's opponent is even through the curtain. When his actual routine is finished, it takes forever for Blair to come out, long enough that the crowd gets restless. Sharpe wins them back immediately by doing jumping jacks and push-ups to stay fresh, then yells on the mic about what lousy treatment they were giving him. 

Sharpe taking over after two minutes with one big headlock punch, then another, and he hilariously uses the ref John Bonello as a human shield when Blair gets too fired up. Just two years later, Bonello would attempt to pay $5,000 to an undercover cop to use his wife as a human shield, but the crowd didn't know that Sharpe was actually in the right in 1988. Sharpe is good in control and great at stumbling around like a big goof for every in-road Blair makes. He gets caught in the ropes like Andre (though it doesn't really lead to anything) and staggers around after getting back racked, then comes up blinded and swinging at ref Bonello after getting his eyes raked across the top rope. Blair's finishing run is okay enough, but he's more interesting when he doesn't work like Brad Armstrong. Also, considering how BIG Sharpe sells every move ever done to him, it's almost startling how subtly he sells an atomic drop. If you were shown how he sells an armdrag, and then told the next move is him getting dropped ass first on someone's knee, you'd expect him to shoot up in the air like Yosemite Sam falling into the fire pit. Still, essential viewing for Iron Mike Heads (read: anyone with taste). 

3. Blue Blazer vs. Steve Lombardi 

MD: Watching this felt like watching an episode of AEW Dark with Excalibur and Taz. Obviously, it's kind of the other way around, but still. Monsoon went on about how he found a mask backstage once and hated wearing it, suggested that Mooney get in the ring with him to better call the action, positively expressed how much Lombardi learned from Terry Garvin and Pat Patterson, and compared Blue Blazer to Killer Kowalski because of their constant motion. The match itself was ok. My most recent Blue Blazer comparison point was his tryout match which was just a lot of noise. This was worked pretty much as you'd expect but they worked in some fun spots, like Blazer getting caught backwards in the ropes on the way back in to get clubbered. It was more or less exactly what you'd think, but unlike the tryout match, had some build and payoff and Blazer worked the crowd well both in his shine and from underneath.

ER: This was the weakest match of the show so far. Lombardi works like a more boring version of Charland and Sharpe, Owen works like B. Brian Blair without any kind of personality or fire. Lombardi really looked like a swarthy foreign heel during this era. He looks like Tiger Jeet Singh. Meanwhile, Gorilla is calling out Jesse Ventura for stealing every mannerism and article of clothing directly from Superstar Billy Graham. Mooney tries to laugh it off and Gorilla says, seriously, "I was there, Sean." This is a literal GREAT commentary duo. Owen has some individual things that look nice, but he's so dry about connecting anything, just has no flow at all. His leaping kneedrop looks good but he never strings anything together, and he goes to chinlocks more often than any babyface ever should (hint: no babyface should do a chinlock). The best thing Owen does in the match is a great version of the Bret chest first turnbuckle bump. He hit the buckles really hard, and I love how Gorilla explained that Lombardi whipped him into the corner so hard that Blazer didn't realize how close to the buckle he was, having no time to go in back first. He also takes a nice bump halfway across the ring when Lombardi holds onto the top rope to block a monkey flip. Blazer's belly to belly to set up the finish looked great, but then he won the match with an ugly ass Superfly Splash. It never makes me feel good to be a low voter on Owen. 

4. Bad News Brown vs. Koko B. Ware

MD: I've been spending a lot of time with 1986 Brown wrestling the UWF guys and Inoki in NJPW, primarily as Steve Williams' second fiddle and the guy directing traffic, so this was a little jarring. It's one of the better WWF Brown matches I've seen, very back and forth but with transitions that were believable and made sense. Both Brown and Ware are guys who really knew how to milk something, how to create a big visual, how to get the most out of the anticipation. Early on, that would be Brown letting Ware get one up on him but with only one move at a time, and they built to where Koko was able to string 2-3 together. That's not much different than having a superheavyweight who needs 3-4 shots to get knocked down instead of one, just more complex and created a similar effect. As the match went on, Koko would really play to the crowd before hitting a shot to the breadbasket or tossing Brown off the top, and Brown would take a big pause after bumping himself ridiculously after an errant headbutt. For a guy with such a tough guy rep who might be difficult to work, Brown wasn't afraid to look like a fool. He knew exactly how far to go and exactly what he needed to do to get his heat back. I found that true of his NJPW stuff as well, that he understood his role and his place, knew when to put his foot on the gas and when to let off.

5. Randy Savage vs. Dino Bravo

MD: If this was the only 1980s blonde-haired WWF Dino Bravo match you saw, you'd come off thinking that he was probably a pretty good hand for the run and it might be interesting to see him against Tito or Duggan or whomever else. He was in Canada, in the main event, up against Savage, going for the title. That meant that he put a little extra oomph into everything he did and threw his head back a bit more on each shot. He fed with some extra effort and seemed more engaged while in the holds. He hit both the pile driver and the side slam and didn't spend forever in a chinlock or bear hug. This was part of a two match series where Bravo won here with a count out and Savage would win later in the month. Savage kissed the belt as he handed it off before the match, but the finish was all about Savage going after Frenchy Martin (who had interfered once or twice) and Bravo coming out and shoving Liz. Savage tended to her, going so far as to carry her to the back, and Bravo, gloating, took the count out win. Post-match he held up the title belt while Savage focused on Liz, a nice bit of character considering Savage kissed the belt and basically ignored Liz at the start of the match. It was only a mid-level Savage title defense and the crowd didn't seem particularly up for Bravo until the end when he was holding up the belt (a terrifying image, really), but it was a top-tier WWF Bravo performance, for whatever that's worth.

6. Hart Foundation vs. Fabulous Rougeaus

MD: The Rougeaus had a corny but kind of hilarious promo with Jimmy Hart earlier in the night about deflecting to America. Then, before this one could start, Brother Love was introduced as the special referee and had a long monologue. The idea was that it'd go on so long that the tension and pressure and heat would build so that when Neidhart grabbed the mic and went nuts, the fans would erupt, but I don't think it entirely worked. The match was the dirty ref special. Slow counts. Fast counts. Most importantly, he completely ignored the double teaming, so it was almost all heat on Neidhart and the Rougeaus were great in making the most of it. The hot tag was tremendous with Jacques cutting of a Neidhart comeback and it looking like the heat would continue, him gloating in front of Bret, and then Neidhart sort of spasming the rest of the way there in a sudden motion and Jacques stooging to high heaven with his reaction. Beautiful stuff. They eventually tossed Love and a second ref came in to count the three after the Hart Attack. A pretty unique match for the WWF at the time, and it stood out more because of it. The Rougeaus were meant for this sort of thing.

ER: I thought Brother Love's time killing was more engaging than the Rougeaus, and somehow more confident, and this might be the earliest I've seen WWF do a full heel ref slow count match. I'm sure there's a famous one I'm forgetting, but heel refs weren't something they were doing until the Attitude era a decade later. I love how every single match to this point had at least one Canadian in it, but Bret and Owen were the only two Canadian babyfaces out of all of them. Well, Iron Mike Sharpe was a heel that got a ton of laughs, and the laughs are what's going to be remembered on the drive home so I guess he should count. I'm with Matt that this is the exact kind of match the Rougeaus excel at, their perfect role. Jacques and Bret are a great match, that's no secret. This has little things you don't see a lot, like the way Bret dropped the Hitman elbow onto the back of Jacques' neck on a dropdown, to Anvil playing the face in peril to Bret's hot tag. Brother Love cheats so much for the Rougeaus that Gorilla says that Helen Keller would be doing a better job. And, sure, to be fair, Helen Keller was a bad referee based on all available footage, but it felt like an unnecessary cheapshot to bring up her early territory work. There's a reason she got out of wrestling and into public speaking and activism, we don't need to throw dirt on her grave. Bret's hot tag inverted atomic drops really crushed some balls, and when Hart Foundation threw Brother Love out of the ring, Love looked like he was really resisting being thrown. It didn't really help him, he flew really fast through the middle rope to the floor holding the middle rope. Great bump. 

7. Haku vs. Hillbilly Jim

MD: This was taped for international Wrestling Challenge but it has one of the absolute best Monsoon-isms I've ever heard. "Hillbilly’s biggest problem in this match is making mistakes... That’s Hillbilly’s big fault. That’s been his big fault in his career: Making mistakes.” I wish there were more places in my daily life I could use that. The match itself was okay. Between this and the Hogan match that we saw previous, it's striking just how credible Haku's offense was. He had graduated from being King Tonga and out of a tag team and was put over with the win over Race as he was on the way out for surgery but between how tough he really was and how dangerous he presented himself in the ring, it's a shame they couldn't have found a way to push him even higher. He could have held down a role like that if presented in that manner.

ER: This wasn't great, but man was Gorilla tearing into Hillbilly Jim hilarious. I agree Gorilla, the ones who make mistakes are the ones who don't succeed. He even talks about how Hillbilly Jim isn't smart and never goes into a match with an actual strategy or plan. Sure, Haku may be the one in the match with a crown, but to Gorilla, Hillbilly Jim was a royal fuck up. Jim overpowered Haku on a long knucklelock, Haku threw a dropkick right under Jim's chin. Haku outpunched him but I did like Hillbilly's comeback right hands after Haku was ripping at his face. Haku is really good at being run head first into turnbuckles, Jim missed a high elbowdrop, Gorilla commentary far and away the highlight (and has been entertaining in literally every match). 

  

8. Honky Tonk Man vs. Ultimate Warrior

MD: A rematch for the IC title. It went a few minutes before Honky Tonk Man used the guitar and got DQ'd. Warrior caught it as he kept swinging it at him and smashed it. I think they had some longer matches with more heat and a build up to HTM getting his comeuppance but this wasn't one of those. Warrior was over and the fans were pretty happy anyway though.

ER: I liked this a lot more than Matt and thought it was a great use of, and great showing for, Warrior. It was a 4 minute sprint with no down time, and everything that was supposed to look violent did. I thought Warrior's right hands looked good (better than Honky Tonk Man's all match), and press slamming Honky back through the ropes into the ring came off a lot better than that spot usually looks. Warrior went hard into the buckles on a missed avalanche to give Honky a stretch of control, and I liked Honky working over Warrior's ribs with a megaphone shot and boots. Warrior's big comeback had a couple of great spots, including one of his best flying shoulderblocks, torpedoing right into Honky. The DQ finish was gnarly. Honky Tonk's guitars looked heavy and he blasted Warrior right in the stomach with a full shot. Warrior's chest was fully open, leaning in the ropes, and that shot had to HURT. I get why Honky Tonk got the hell out of the ring right after. 

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The Odd, Different Greatness of the Other Andre/Warrior Match

Andre the Giant vs. Ultimate Warrior WWF MSG 9/30/89 - FUN

ER: This is the first of the two "real" Andre/Warrior matches we got. They feuded singles for the entire back half of 1989, mostly working really short house show matches. This match and their Saturday Night's Main Event match a couple months later were the matches that actually got enough time to be interesting, AND were actually recorded. That later match was voted the Worst Match of the Year in the WON, which is another example of how bad Meltzer opinions have poisoned and influenced some bad takes on what makes a good wrestling match. It's impossible for me to watch that match and see what people thought was so bad about it. I get that to Meltzer acolytes and whatever constituted a "smart" fan in 1989, Warrior was the wrestler you had to hate, and Andre was viewed as an old broken slug. But it's clear 30 years later that the match was viewed with extreme prejudice and people wanted it to be much worse than it actually was. The match is incredibly smart, and easily one of Andre's best singles match performances in WWF. If you missed my review of that match, read my review here, and if you've never watched it and only know of it as the Worst Match of 1989, see for yourself how wrong they were. 

This match was not as good as that criminally underrated SNME match would be, yet managed to have several different cool moments that match did not have. It's built differently and could have been the better match, but Warrior was better and more stiff in the SNME match. Here, Warrior throws every strike as if he has no idea where the biggest man in the country is standing, and he botches the execution of a few moments so badly that, if you didn't know how bad Warrior could be, it would be easy to think he was trying to sandbag Andre. Warrior slams into Andre with shoulderblocks that Andre ignores, until Andre catches Warrior by the throat with his left hand. Andre shut down prospective Warrior offense a couple times by just reaching out that left hand, and a lot of the early parts of the match were Andre swatting Warrior away after Warrior came in swinging blind. Andre sets things up for later in the match that may or may not pay off (like quickly undoing a turnbuckle pad that was only attempted to be used briefly, towards the end of the match), and drags Warrior into a bearhug with that left hand choke. Warrior breaks and then hits a big bodyslam, which was not a part of the SNME match. 

The MSG crowd is really into Warrior, and the reactions get louder with each bump Andre spaced throughout. The bodyslam is a big bump, because it's likely nobody there had even seen Andre slammed in the subsequent two years since the Hogan match. It's not like he was being slammed regularly on TV, so the moment came off huge. Sadly, Warrior uglied up the moment right after, when a big splash that was supposed to hit knees instead just lands normally and they all have to pretend that Warrior missed. Andre had a smart plan in mind if Warrior was paying attention to it, including swiping at Warrior's leg on his first pass in an attempt to trip him, then putting a boot up from his back that Warrior was supposed to hit. I swear, it looked like Warrior perfectly tried to miss that boot. If Andre is holding up his leg and you are running at him, you have to work really hard to avoid that leg. 

Andre sells Warrior's bad offense really impressively, getting rocked in the ropes and standing up to Warrior's stiff arm clotheslines, then taking a big bump through the ropes to the floor, taking a cool back bump off the apron. The fans went nuts for that, and I'm sure many of them expected Andre to lose via count out. The bump was big enough that Andre not answering the 10 count would have totally worked. Instead, we get something much better. Andre gets back in the ring and immediately pulls the referee into the way of an incoming Warrior lariat, then kicks Warrior in the face when Warrior bends down to check on the ref. It's honestly one of the best heel spots I've ever seen, and it made me think of how incredible Andre could do working as heel Austin Idol. Andre dishes out two excellent headbutts and then does an incredibly hammy elbow drop, clapping his hands and stomping up next to Warrior before dropping it. The elbowdrop is completely protected too, not just Andre falling full weight onto Warrior. Andre takes a ton of weight on his hip for 1989 Andre, and I had to rewatch the elbow several times to see just how perfectly he molded it around Warrior. Andre gets DQ'd after getting a visual pin, and then cuts a truly all-time great promo to really rub it into the MSG fans. 

He gets on the mic, yells into the mic to get everyone's attention (not even a word, just makes a loud sound into the mic to be an annoying asshole), and then addresses the referee: "You know better than everybody else, I win that match, right?" As the crowd loudly boos , a huge smile spreads across Andre's face as he trolls all of them. "IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII am the NEW intercontinental champion!" he says over their loud boos, drawing out the "I" to yell over the intensity of the boos, raising his own hand in victory. He continues rubbing it in while they protest, and he keeps giving the crowd these delightful "Look, I don't know what to tell you, I clearly won" faces while repeating that he's the new champ. I've been laughing at the way he wrapped up the promo for 10 minutes now, as it felt completely out of character. He tells the crowd "Thank you, VERY much" but sounds like a French giant doing a Richard Nixon impression, shaking his head quickly to make his cheeks wobble on the "very" and then tosses the mic over his head into the ring like he was making a trick shot from the 3 point line in H-O-R-S-E. Andre just went out and intentionally bombed an open mic and then tossed the mic over his shoulder while getting the exact reaction he wanted. No bigger legend than this man. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE ANDRE THE GIANT

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On the Undeniable Greatness of Ultimate Warrior vs. Andre the Giant

Andre the Giant vs. The Ultimate Warrior WWF SNME 11/25/89

This was a special match on what is a very special wrestling show for me. I watched this match as part of my 9th birthday party, my first ever sleepover party. I had 8 or 10 friends over, which is FAR too many 9/10 year olds to be staying up watching wrestling at 2 AM while adults are trying to sleep just down the hall. I assume everybody has those memories of sleepovers where dads stagger out in their underwear, eyes mostly shut, telling the kids to PLEASE keep it down. Less than half the kids at my party were wrestling fans, and a couple of them had never even seen pro wrestling before this show. We watched this show as it aired, taped it, and immediately watched it over again once it ended. I have to think that starting a show like this with a bad gums giant fighting a gassed up maniac was exactly what the kids wanted. Just imagine a room of kids, many seeing pro wrestling for the first time, hopped up on pizza and sugar, and being introduced to Andre and Bobby Heenan. It's a beautiful thing. 

This match was voted the Worst Match of 1989 in the WON, which is a completely ludicrous, indefensible result that I'm sure was decided before most of the voters had even seen the match. Because, not only is this match far from being the worst of the year, but it's not even close to being the worst match on this show. In fact, this match is easily one of Warrior's greatest performances, and one of the great Old Andre performances. In many ways I think this is the greatest late career Andre performance, using every single part of his fading skillset and maximizing his greatest skills. He takes two bumps here and they are perfect, his selling is excellent, his facials are incredible, and his teeth make him seem like a wild animal. Warrior threw himself (often literally) into every piece of offense, threw some of his best strikes, and bumped appropriately for Andre's offense. This match was perfectly crafted around each man's skills at this point in their careers. 

I love how this starts, with Andre interrupting Warrior's posing to just start choking him, with both mixing in punches until Andre throws a headbutt that knocks Warrior to the floor. Overwhelmed, Warrior responds by immediately going desperation mode and choking Andre out with his singlet strap, and Andre is awesome at flailing and rocking in the ropes, lowering his center of gravity the longer he's choked. And even though we already got two different cool choking spots, we get another as Andre grabs Warrior from the floor and chokes him with the bottom rope by forcing the rope down onto his throat. Warrior keeps trying to bring Andre down to his size with headlocks (none of which work, and Andre is awesome at resisting all of them) and I thought it was cool that Warrior approaches the match with Andre as if he delusionally thinks he is the same size as Andre, and really that's the way Warrior SHOULD approach his matches. Andre makes a bunch of great bared teeth facials as he stretches Warrior's arms and chest, then takes a nice tumbling bump to the floor off a Warrior clothesline. Warrior is obviously not a guy known for good strikes, but there's only one punch he whiffs wide here. The rest of his strikes look like he's actually trying to hit Andre as hard as he can, and it's why his clothesline looks like something that would send Andre to the floor. 

Warrior continues working as a giant by locking Andre in a bearhug, which is a bizarre and cool sight. Warrior's arms were never bigger in wrestling than they were in this match, and the visual of him trying to keep them locked around Andre as Andre's massive hands close in on Warrior's traps, before Andre breaks the bearhug with another headbutt, is strong. Andre's hands covered Warrior's entire shoulderspan, each literally looking the same size as Warrior's head. Andre locks in his own bearhug, arms wrapped around Warrior's midsection as Andre locks it in from one knee. Warrior rains down on Andre's back with some really violent windmill shots, getting great sound by smacking full arms off Andre until Andre headbutts him in the stomach to get Warrior to stop. 

My favorite part of the match is when Warrior finally escapes the bearhug, and then catches Andre with a brutal body shot as Andre approached. Warrior threw it as hard as possible and it made a loud crack, and Andre sold it majestically. Andre took the loud body shot and let out the groan of a dying wooly mammoth, holding his stomach and contorting his face the way a man who just finished eating an entire pot of chili might. Warrior throws truly excellent chops in the corner, more great echoing sound, and in the spot of the match hits a baseball bat standing lariat that drops Andre into the ropes, trapping his arms. Andre flying backwards and getting trapped in the ropes is always a great spot, and this might legitimately be the best he ever did it. He flies backwards with 100% trust in the ropes, and you have NEVER seen ropes bend this far. I have no clue how they didn't snap and send Andre on a death fall to the floor. Andre was so good at making that spot work so well every time, but this was a spectacular version of a great spot. You really buy that Andre was trapped in the ropes, the force of his full weight hitting them looked like Godzilla getting trapped in a suspension bridge. Another great spot when Warrior does a crossbody into an Andre boot while Andre is still trapped, again really putting over the size discrepancy. Heenan gets involved as the ref struggles to free Andre, with Heenan eating some potato shots before getting press slammed into a now freed Andre (with Heenan bouncing off Andre and landing on his shoulder) and earning Andre the DQ. 

I understand why people would have been close-minded to this match due to prevailing "smart" opinions of the time, but I am failing to see how Andre and Warrior could have worked a smarter, more compelling match. This was clearly an example of a group predetermining that something was going to be eye poison, and refusing to evaluate it on its own terms. It's easy to hate something if you look for reasons to hate it, but there was so much here to appreciate and love that I feel it's due for a re-evaluation. This was a tremendous later career Andre performance, and, while the scales are different, one of Warrior's best.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE ANDRE

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The Joy of WWF Saturday Night's Main Event 7/28/90

During this era, there was no program I looked forward to more than Saturday Night's Main Event. My dad would tape it for me and I'd watch the tapes over and over, and this episode was one of my favorites. It's a loaded episode with all the belts on the line, and several memorable performances. Let's see how much I like it 30 years later. 

Rick Rude vs. Ultimate Warrior

ER: A smokin' great Rude performance in front of an unhinged crowd that loved every single thing Warrior did. Warrior's entrance reactions were at their peak here (and it's kind of amazing how loud this crowd stayed for this show considering they had already sat through THREE long Superstars tapings) and Rude was almost certainly Warrior's best ever opponent. This isn't one of their greatest matches, and Rude doesn't get much offense, but Rude stooged his way through this and built to him almost winning the belt. Rude took big bumps on Irish whips into turnbuckles, got tossed by a press slam, ate axe handles like they were dangerous projectiles, and gave us two immaculate atomic drop sells. I can't imagine having more fun as a professional wrestler than getting atomic dropped in front of 8,000 loud fans, then sticking your tailbone out and duck walking across the ring on your tiptoes before getting laid out with a clothesline. Rude's atomic drop selling is probably the greatest stooge sell of all time, and it's amazing how uniquely he treated the bump and always found new gags to add in. I love the heel aspect of Rude coming back by wasting Warrior with a belt shot, nailing him with a convincing nearfall Rude Awakening, leaping onto his back to really sink in a sleeper (Warrior hilariously getting his leg lifted by the ref like he's doing Jan Fonda glute exercises), and of course all the distraction and interference Heenan ran from ringside. I loved Heenan stopping the count and then walking all the way down the entrance way like he was just minding his own business, not interfering in a pro wrestling match. The finish is a big mess with Warrior taking it all out on Heenan (Heenan gets his face bounced off all the turnbuckles and takes a wild bump to the floor after getting tossed) and the match gets called a DQ. But what a tremendous Rude performance, the kind that keeps moving him up my list of favorite wrestlers ever. 

They play *that* Hulk Hogan tribute video, and watching it again with adult eyes I kind of forgive myself for thinking that Hulk Hogan had actually died because of Earthquake. If you showed this to someone who was unfamiliar with the angle, I can only assume that they would think Hulk Hogan died, or at minimum was seriously injured. The entire video really plays like Hogan got crushed to death by Earthquake. I liked the in ring Hogan promo and the intensity of Earthquake/Dino Bravo surrounding the ring, with a big tumbling save from Tugboat. I'm really surprised they didn't run the Hogan/Tugboat vs. Earthquake/Bravo tag match sooner (they ran it a few times on house shows, but not for several months after this aired, and this tag didn't air on TV until 6 months later), but this angle played out really well on TV. 

The Rockers vs. Demolition (Smash/Crush)

ER: Crush is kinda clumsy and doesn't have great timing, and this probably would have been better with Ax and Smash. But Ax gives a strong ringside performance and Smash puts in a great performance. Barry Darsow was a real goofball but was good at creating openings for the small Rockers and good at directing tags with Crush. Rockers looked good, had a couple nice headscissors and dropkicked both Smash and Crush to the floor. Eadie hits a great lariat on the floor to allow Demolition to take control, and the simple control segment is good. Crush hits big backbreakers on Marty Jannetty and even hits a cool press slam to throw him from the floor over the top rope. Michaels and Crush probably mix up less than anyone in the match, but Crush was fun as a big lug taking cruiser offense. The finish run is really fun with the Rockers hitting a great tandem superkick on Smash, then hitting the spot of the match with a gorgeous tandem fistdrop. Michaels hits an O'Connor roll on Smash but Ax comes in and nukes him with a clothesline, fun use of the masked heel finish. 

Mr. Perfect vs. Tito Santana

ER: This was great, a rematch of the finals of the IC Title tourney (after Warrior vacated the title), and even better than that match. Tito gets such a wonderful, loud babyface reaction throughout the match, with especially loud cheers coming from women. The cheers were higher pitch and loud, and Perfect bumped all over the ring and floor in a way that really made it look like Tito had a chance. Sure, it's not surprising to hear that Perfect bumped his way through a match, but these bumps came off like Tito was a serious threat, almost all of them felt like an actual extension of the move he was taking and not like athletic showing off. He flew to the floor two different times, really flying out past the top rope no his way to the floor; he took a couple of his signature flip bumps that land him on his head, getting his leg swept on the floor and in the ring. The in ring leg sweep bump is Perfect's signature, but I don't remember seeing him use it on the floor like this, not often. 

We get a long stretch of Earl Hebner selling a leg injury, and it takes a lot for Tito and Perfect to not let him overshadow everything. Hebner got run up on and he drags himself all around the edges of the ring as if he took sniper fire from the rafters. He's a wounded soldier in there and hilariously, Perfect has to overact just to try to combat Hebner's extreme overacting. So Hennig is selling Tito's figure 4 as if acid were being slowly poured up his legs, and we build to a nice dramatic moment where Tito hits the flying forearm and Hebner laboriously crawls over, bleeding out, leg likely already lost, and only makes a 2 count. Fans really want Tito to take this, and it's a great moment when Tito finally gets his new referee, running triumphantly down to the ring to gently nudge Hebner out to the floor. Once we get the new ref, the home stretch is brilliant. Perfect takes TWO atomic drops, meaning this show had TWO Minnesotans (the biological best bumpers on the planet) each taking TWO atomic drops and creating FOUR unique atomic drop bumps in the process (Perfect's silliest involved him getting bounced face first into the turnbuckle). The finish itself is so well executed and felt like one of those cool Arn finishes: Tito ducks down for a backdrop that Perfect scouts, Perfect stops short and grabs him for a Perfect Plex, Tito expects that and blocks it with a small package, and Perfect reversed the small package and narrowly escapes with a 3. I could easily see someone lifting this finish today, except Perfect and Tito made it look like actual logical reversals and not two dance partners over anticipating movements that haven't yet come. This is one of the more fondly remembered matches in SNME history, and it earns that acclaim. 

Buddy Rose vs. Kerry von Erich

ER: This is von Erich's TV debut, and really there aren't many cooler things in wrestling history than Kerry von Erich's long shag underneath a headband. Buddy Rose is a really fun but opponent for a debuting von Erich. Rose is gigantic and has two of the more memorable bumps on a show that had Rick Rude, Shawn Michaels, and Mr. Perfect in full title matches. He slaps Kerry to start and spends the rest of the match getting his ass kicked in and out of the ring. It's great. Kerry slams him, Buddy stumbles around and gets caught in the ropes, does that crazy huge fat guy Harley Race bump where he hangs off the bottom rope by his feet and falls on his head, and he leans right into a spins into the mat after taking the discus punch. This match and a two minute Superstars match are the only two times these absolute wrestling legends crossed paths, two stars from different worlds orbiting each other for merely 5 total minutes. 

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The Weasel Suit Matches

There were three WWF weasel suit matches that made tape, from the Spectrum, MSG, and LA Sports Arena. By memory I have only seen one, and don't remember which one it was, so I thought it would be fun to see how they match up with each other. Plus, a bonus AWA Gagne/Heenan weasel suit match, the feud that started it all.


Bobby Heenan vs. Ultimate Warrior WWF 6/18/88

ER: This is the kind of match that would have been so confusing to me had I seen it when it first happened. I was young and had just started watching wrestling, so I had no clue about anyone's history. I knew what I saw. In '89 my friends and I were all laughing at the idea of The Genius of all people getting a title shot at Hogan. To us, Genius wasn't even a real wrestler. We had no idea who Lanny Poffo was, just knew The Genius. In 1988 I would have never even considered that Bobby Heenan was a wrestler. I knew him as a doughy manager of bad guys. The thought of a manager even attempting to defeat the invincible Ultimate Warrior would have been the strangest sight to my child eyes. And luckily for me, Dick Graham and Rodger Kent on commentary sounded exactly like me and my friend doing commentary over WrestleMania VI while watching it on scrambled PPV. They approached this match with a child's innocence, wondering how this match even got signed, seemingly unaware that Heenan was also a wrestler.

The whole match has a really weird tone, and it's kind of cool. The commentary feels like people completely unfamiliar with the product, and Warrior behaves downright silly throughout. He charges to the ring wearing the actual weasel suit (commentary keeps trying to think of the word for "claws" while describing the suit, "Look you can even see the....nails.....talons.....on the suit.....What word am I thinking of? What do animals have instead of nails?") and whips the suit around his head Mystikal style. Warrior even does a funny little marching band leader march around the apron while wearing the suit. The match is short but very satisfying. Heenan has a bigger belly than he had before, but he is still super agile, sneak attacking Warrior with strikes that get no sold, begging off, and then leaping through the ropes to the floor using that muscle memory that old wrestlers retain. 

This is going to be a quick match, which even my child brain would have expected. I like how Warrior doesn't work this like a typical Warrior match. He's not running around doing shoulderblocks or press slams, he's really playing to the crowd and milking reactions in a smart way. He puts Heenan down with a sleeper after Heenan tries leveling off more strikes, and Heenan gets a long, glorious death as he slowly drifts off to sleep. Heenan swings and fights and goes down like a champ, really struggling to get out of it and fight off slumber before succumbing. Warrior ups the silliness by flat out WALTZING with the weasel suit!! And let me tell you, Warrior looked like a beautiful dancer. For an actual doofus, Warrior clearly took himself way too seriously most of the time, and it was cool to see him actually showing a sense of humor with the stipulation. It takes him an eternity to get the weasel suit on, but the crowd is into it, and Heenan looks straight out of Where the Wild Things Are when it's on. Hercules jumps Warrior, Heenan finally wakes up, Warrior lariats Heenan so he can do his awesome flip bump, and I am satisfied.


Bobby Heenan vs. Ultimate Warrior WWF MSG 6/25/88

ER: This was tremendous, the fullest and most complete version of their match. They milked their time getting to where they were going, and it was totally worth it. I love Heenan in his Andre singlet. Most people two strap it. Not many people one strap it. Lawler one straps it, but with tights. Barbaro Cavernario one straps it, but he's a caveman. Heenan and Andre are one strapping their black singlets so they can show off their white, white thighs. As it should be. The opening to this match is similar to  the Spectrum match the week before, with Warrior posing on the turnbuckles and Heenan rushing behind him to club him in the back a few times, which Warrior ignores. Heenan leaps through the ropes to the floor, and that's where this match really takes off. Heenan spends so much time running away from Warrior, with Warrior stalking him like a weird flamboyant tasseled Michael Myers. It all builds to a classic gag where Warrior drops down out of sight and hides behind a corner, naturally leading to Heenan backing his way all the way around the ring before backing into Warrior and getting choked. What makes this already even better than the prior match, is Lord Alfred Hayes (on commentary with Rodger Kent and Billy Graham) absolutely losing it at Heenan taking a beating.

But things jump up to a level I wasn't expecting, when Heenan does arguably the greatest hidden weapon routine I've ever seen. Heenan fishes a weapon out the front of his singlet, and jabs it into Warrior's throat. The ref is on him and Heenan has an absurdly quick sleight of hand to tuck the weapon so that it is perfectly poking out a couple inches out of has singlet, past his butt cheek. He then lets the ref check his legs and boots. The camera gets a great shot of the weapon poking out and Heenan taking it out the moment the ref turns. He jabs Warrior again and slips it incredibly fast into the back of his boot. Ref fooled again, Heenan jabs Warrior, and I don't see him slip it anywhere. We didn't see it, because Heenan has it hidden UNDER his left boot. It was such an incredible routine, done with actual expert quick hand skills, just a masterfully performed bit. Rodger Kent was great at running play by play over the weapons hiding, his own world class performance as it sounded like the best possible Lance Russell getting flummoxed by the weapon not being found. Heenan bites off more than he can chew and Irish whips Warrior into the ropes, and Warrior catches the hand holding the weapon as Heenan tries to tomahawk him with it. Great visual, all played the best.

And then we go into the portion of the match where Heenan is just taking painful bumps into every corner of the ring. Warrior flings him pillar to post, Heenan takes a painful shoulder to ringpost bump, takes those perfect Heenan corner bumps where he manages to hit three different parts of the ropes before he hits the mat. He gets flung upside down back first into one, flies up across the corners of another leading to Warrior elbowing him down so he can hit two more things on his way to the mat, all just totally unique movements to Heenan. Warrior locks on the sleeper, Heenan goes out like a light, and Warrior is more efficient at getting the weasel suit on this time. The highlight of this portion of the segment is Hayes cry laughing throughout, while handling the play by play portion of one man dressing another man in footie pajamas. "Warrior is so precise! Putting it on so properly! Yes, that's it Warrior, get his arm in there." It was glorious. This match is a match that any fan of pro wrestling should love and respect. There really aren't many better versions of this kind of thing.


Bobby Heenan vs. Ultimate Warrior WWF 7/15/88

ER: This is merely an abridged version of the MSG match, so is redundant. Same format, same material, only rushed through and therefore not as satisfying. We get some minor differences, with the best being Heenan refusing to get in the ring to start (both our prior matches started with a Heenan ambush) and Warrior grabbing Heenan from the ring by both arms and pulls him right into the ringpost. Heenan ran from Warrior, in the ring, back out the other side, rubbing his chest and stretching his rotator cuff the whole time to sell his posting. Warrior surprises him again by hiding, lifts him up in a double choke and tosses him onto the apron, then bounces his head off several turnbuckles while the fans count. 

Heenan grabs a weapon out the front of his Andre singlet (though I think it would technically be a Heenan singlet, pretty sure he was wearing this when Andre was still in trunks) and runs through the same routine in the same order as the MSG match, but it's done far more hastily, his sleight of hand isn't as clean, and he just loses the weapon instead of Warrior catching him mid swing. It's not as satisfying, but it's still a ton of fun seeing him stab Warrior in the neck a few times. Heenan takes his gnarly upside down bump after getting whipped into the buckles, gets thrown across the ropes in the corner and elbowed down, all repeats from the MSG match, only half as many bumps. The sleeper finish is academic, only he puts up even less of a fight than in the other two matches (even Alfred notes that he's never seen someone succumb to a sleeper so quickly). If the MSG match did not exist, this one would be the one to seek out. But since the MSG match does exist, this is mostly superfluous. 


Bobby Heenan vs. Greg Gagne AWA 8/17/80

ER: This is clipped but it's cool to see the origins of this match, see how Heenan works practically the same in his mid 30s as he does doing part time work in his mid 40s. Gagne is a great babyface, and this has a ton of Heenan clobbering him with a cast. A cast would have been a nice twist to the Heenan/Warrior matches, but then we wouldn't have gotten the hidden weapon routine. I really liked the false finish of the sleeper hold, as once Gagne locked it in my brain had already been conditioned to Heenan needing to be put to sleep for the finish to work, so when Heenan managed to shake Gagne loose I actually made a WHOA sound outloud, alone. The crowd was insanely loud throughout this, as it was clearly a stipulation the fans wanted to see. I don't actually know how these matches were presented to WWF crowds, if they were actually promoted as part of house shows, if their were market specific promos for them, or if they were just thrown out there with little notice. The fans were clearly into the WWF weasel suit matches, but the fans in St. Paul were reacting to this match like it was a bloody I Quit match. Heenan bumps big, flies around for Gagne's great babyface offense, bumps shoulder first into the ringpost, does one of those great Heenan bumps where he flies into the buckles and gets his legs and arms hung up in the ropes on his way down, all of it slays. I'd love to hear the conversations between Heenan and Vince, love to know how the idea of bringing the stipulation back even came up. I imagine there are some good stories there, and I love when Vince was still willing to bring regional stipulations to his brand.

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WWF Raw 7/8/96: Three On Paper Bangers

So I threw on this episode of Raw because I wanted to see the main event, a big ol' hoss battle of Vader and The British Bulldog vs. The Godwinns. But then I saw the whole episode was comprised of three matches, all of them intriguing on paper. The whole episode ran 48 minutes long, and I figure watching three intriguing matches in under an hour was a decent enough use of my time. The episode was famously the last WWF in ring appearance of Ultimate Warrior, with Gorilla Monsoon opening the show talking about his suspension, and how he now has to put up a performance bond to guarantee he'll appear. Now, obviously this show was taped before Warrior no-showed one show too many, but it's interesting that they were basically negotiating with Warrior on air, and Vince ends up spending much of his match with Owen saying things like "well we hope we'll get to see more of The Warrior..."


Owen Hart vs. The Ultimate Warrior

ER: This was a real impressive Owen performance, because Warrior gassed hard during his ring entrance. I know that's kind of a thing Warrior is known for, but it seemed especially bad here. The fans liked the entrance, and Owen was really good at filling the recovery time well. He took two big Warriors clotheslines to the floor, ran hard into a powerslam (that Warrior didn't even go down for, just rotated through and stayed on his feet) and got major height on a flapjack. Owen even did a super painful Bret turnbuckle chest bump and staggered back into a Warrior side slam. Warrior was realllly tired, with one incredibly long shot of him just slowly walking around the ring, mouth open the entire time, sucking wind. Owen worked real well with a super tired opponent, and still didn't half ass things like missed clotheslines, cutting low to at least make Warrior duck. Those are the kinds of things you do in a one man performance to make the other guy look like he's contributing, and it works. I liked how Owen finally transitioned to offense, with Warrior catching knees on a big splash, and it's tough work doing your run of offense against someone who can't really move a lot to take offense. Luckily, things like Owen's enziguiri work fine for the circumstances, and when Warrior finally catches his wind his comeback looks good. Owen was really good at setting up hard Warrior clotheslines and his big flying shoulderblock before Bulldog ran in for the DQ. This was 10 minutes of Owen out there catering an entire match to someone who wasn't moving great through much of it, and that's the kind of thing I'll always be impressed with.


Savio Vega vs. Justin Hawk Bradshaw

ER: This was pretty messy, and pretty free of structure, but they tried to overcome those two things by running into each other real hard and real often and that's a good strategy! There was a fair bit of miscommunication, moves that hit when they were supposed to miss, and both being slightly out of position for things. It felt like they got sent out there to fill a LOT of time and didn't have a full plan on just how to fill nearly 15 minutes. It's a lot, and so nothing really stuck, they just kept getting up and hitting each other with something new. Bradshaw had a couple big boots, a couple nice elbowdrops (and a big elbowdrop miss), both hit heavy bodyslams, just a couple guys who have no problem mixing it up. The best part of Bradshaw is when he bites off a little more than he can chew and does a move he doesn't know how to hold back on. An example of this is Bradshaw hitting a killer flying shoulderblock off the top. He doesn't know how to work the move, so he just jams his shoulder flying full force into Savio and then landing just as hard. Savio's corner spinkick is an awesome highlight here, and Vega went into Bradshaw really fast and whipped quickly to the floor. It's such a good visual. The finish is really well done too, as Zebekiah grabs Vega's foot to cause him to stumble, but it was when Bradshaw was already set to level him with the clothesline from Hell! So Vega stumbles under Bradshaw's lariat and Bradshaw does a fantastic miss as he crashes into the ropes, getting hit with Vega's spinning heel kick as he's getting up. Great, great finish. Also, throughout the match Lawler and Vince were speculating on who the mystery partner for Michaels and Ahmed was going to be, and it lead to this bizarre exchange:

Lawler: Maybe it's Anthony Quinn!
Vince: Anthony Quinn? He's 81 years old!
Lawler:...Maybe one of his sons?

Vince responded so quickly, the whole thing played like Jerry and George chatting at the diner.


Vader/British Bulldog vs. The Godwinns

ER: This was a slightly better put together version of the Savio/Bradshaw match. It really felt like none of these guys knew exactly how much time they were going to be filling with their match, making it tough to construct a beginning/middle/end. Owen/Warrior was clearly mapped out for its entire 10 minutes, but this tag was so similar to the prior match in that it had no direction, but with clearly planned finishes. So in both matches they knew exactly where they were going to wind up, but it's as if they weren't told how long they had to get there. That would be really tough to do! But these are all big guys, and so while there was some aimlessness and a little repetition, it's still a ton of beef slamming into everything. Vader and Bulldog felt like they could have been a really awesome team, even thought they only wound up teaming 5 times. Bulldog as the (much) smaller member of a team was a cool vibe, and they had good team chemistry right off the bat. Bulldog would do power spots and Vader would be all about the smashing and flattening. That's such a cool combo. Their finisher here was Vader hitting a lariat to the back of Phineas's head, sending him right into a Bulldog powerslam. Before that we got a lot of these four crashing into each other in cool ways. Dickhead heel Vader is so good, this mammoth man who takes cheap shots without needing to. He gets into the match by throwing a knee from the apron, then comes in and starts throwing body shots. Vader throws one of my favorite elbowdrops in wrestling history, second probably only to Stan Hansen, and he drops a couple of beauties here, the best one to break up a pin. Poor Phineas just eating a Vader elbowdrop to the middle of his back. Vader also throws a mean as hell clothesline, but he also takes a great Henry vertical suplex (probably a little early in the match to eat a big suplex, but that was Vader). This would have been better with a tighter story arc, but I love these four together here and I am saddened at the prospect of so little Vader/Bulldog. Cherish what we do have.

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New Footage Friday: Survivor Series Showdown 1992

ER: I have a feeling Phil might sit this one out, but these kind of drops are the kind of thing I adore. Obviously there should have been a Berzerker match on here somewhere (seriously why was he booked so strongly but rarely involved in PPVs or PPV build?), but this is an era that will always score major nostalgia points with me.


Big Boss Man vs. Nailz

MD: This was actually pretty good. Bossman had complete presence by this point. It's not hard to make the argument that he has a better WWF portfolio of matches than WWF Dibiase, but you watch this and wonder if he wasn't a better "ring general" too. They'd been working since July and it showed. Very smooth all around. The long goozle in the middle was a bit much but Bossman's comebacks were good and the finish, while cheap, more or less worked. Honestly, Nailz moved around a lot better than I remembered him.

ER: This is exciting because it's the first time we've ever written about Nailz on Segunda Caida. We wrote about him a lot on our proto-SC blog "Nailz in the Coffin" but not on here. This also feels like the best time - maybe the only time - to mention that a kid I went to school with thought Nailz was also Dauber on the TV show Coach. And this match rules because a ton of it is based around punches to the face. Nailz gets written about as a big lug, but he bumped around perfectly for Bossman, threw heavy punches back, and was right where he needed to be for everything. Bossman really came off like a force here, moving so quick, throwing the best right hands to punch Nailz into position (seriously there were at least two moments where he just threw right hands to move Nailz to where he needed him. Bossman takes a nice bump into the ring steps, sets up a fun slam dunk hot shot on Nailz, misses a big splash, gets a nice nearfall off a spinebuster slam, actually press slams Nailz off him on a kickout like Nailz was some cruiser, but you came for those big right hands and you left satisfied.

Jimmy Garvin interview:

MD: This is mildly historic, one of those things that always stood out when looking through the results, an oddball "did you know?" It was brutal. Garvin could work the crowd, but Gene kept wanting him to work the camera. He could get heat, but his means of doing so was taunting Gene's affinity for females. Add in the fact that he kept trying to get the last word in a way that killed the flow of things and that he refused to go into detail on any of his heel-specific predictions and it's no wonder (though likely a shame) that this didn't become an actual gig. The alternate reality where Garvin is an office guy twenty years later instead of Hayes is strange and confounding.

ER: I think Garvin got into the swing of the interview style pretty quickly. Early on he was definitely cutting Gene off in the wrong spots and not hitting his marks, but a couple minutes in he was picking up on camera changes and improvising his amusing support for every heel. I thought it was funny when he tossed out "Now I'm not a guy who respects many people, but..." and then of course talked up all the heels. I thought Garvin was getting smoother the longer he went, and this felt more successful than any of the sleek goofs they throw on TV today. I assume what did him in was throwing in two separate jokes about Gene hooking up with jailbait.

Bret Hart vs. The Mountie

MD: So, last month, we saw that 30 second Ron Garvin match that was absolute perfection. This isn't quite as good, but it's sure close. As I understand it, Rougeau walked out of the company after this match (in part because of it?). If he did, you'd never know it from watching. He was a consummate pro, completely into the moment and working with what they'd given him. Jimmy Hart's out with him and he does a perfect rendition of his chorus. Then, when Bret comes out, he points at him as the match is starting and says "This is going to be your shortest match in the history of the WWF because I'm the Mountie...", tries for a cheapshot a moment later, gets blocked and eats an immediate Bret German with a bridge for the three. After the match he complains about the bell not ringing yet. Perfect farewell. What a pro. This was absolutely nothing but it was probably the most special thing the fans saw that night.

ER: Big fan of every second of this. I'm also curious about the reasons behind Jacques walking out, since he was back the next year anyway with Pierre. How many guys walked out of WWF and then just came back 6 months later with a push? But we get a great Mountie sing-a-long, Rougeau hitting all the notes and really hamming up his greatest of all time theme song, tries to cheapshot Hart and gets immediately caught, eats a perfect German suplex for the pin, all of it so good. Rougeau is a guy I would have loved to see in an extended John Tatum role.

Virgil vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

MD: This was Bam Bam's first match back and he got a nice enough welcome. It was what I was looking forward to the most from the listings, and it came off as a little disappointing accordingly. It wasn't due to Virgil, who was doing next to nothing at this point, one year removed from his big Million Dollar Belt push, and primarily just killing jobbers on Superstars and Challenge. Go back and watch some of those from this era. That meant I wasn't surprised at all when he kept laying shots into Bam Bam during the arm control that was the brunt of the match. Unfortunately, the second Bam Bam took over, there was a weird ref touch and an immediate DQ, because if this thing was an actual match, it could have been pretty good. I did like Bam Bam on the way out complaining that "it was in the heat of the moment" in his over the top Jersey accent.

ER: This really was shaping up to being a cool match before the DQ which nobody could have even seen happen. Most people probably thought it was the quickest count out ever, just a confusing and messy way to end a match. Up and until the sudden and disappointing finish we had the start of something special. Virgil was really relentless and had to of bruised up Bam Bam's shoulder the way he was striking it. Virgil would wrap Bigelow's arm around the ropes, swing hard at it, get pinballed away, and come back gunning for that arm. The shots were tough and both guys were working kind of off rhythm so you saw them swinging at the same time, not really a style in WWF at the time. Virgil took a huge flapjack and Bigelow threw a dropkick right into his gut (intentionally, it wasn't just Bigelow not getting up for it), but that DQ was a bummer.

Razor Ramon vs. Randy Savage

MD: This is probably the best match I've seen between the two and the sort of thing that could have made a WWF 1992 permanent tape back in the day. The brunt of this was Ramon working over the leg, after earning it, with Macho selling huge, even in his comebacks, and Ramon utilizing some great, targeted cutoffs. The finish was novel as Ramon rolls out to avoid the elbow only for Savage, bad leg and all, to leap off the top rope after him on the floor. We miss that due to the stationary nature of the camera, but it made for a believable finish where Ramon could beat the count but Savage couldn't. The post-match assault was maybe unnecessary but they were putting heat on Ramon before Survivor Series.

ER: I really dug this too, and am only annoyed that our camera operator was asleep at the wheel, making us miss Savage's (presumed) axe handle to the floor and their earlier floor brawling. He moved the camera around the catch all of the Bossman/Nailz floor fighting, but was dozing for much of this. This was a really cool version of the "Savage gets no offense until the last move" formula Savage match, as it actually has substance to lead to Savage's one move. That's usually just about my least favorite formula out of the established big star formulas, as Savage would take a 5 minute beating and then basically get a bodyslam and big elbow to win. Here Ramon punches him around the ring and starts working that leg, and let me tell you that Razor had one of the absolute BEST, SMOOTHEST, and downright vicious leg attacks: He hits a drop toehold and all in one motion rolls through it, locks calves with Savage, and snaps it off. I don't know if I've ever seen that sequence pulled off smoother, even by someone like Eddie. Savage really sells that legwork, limping around like a lady with a broken high heel, Razor sweeping his leg in the ring, Savage chasing him on one leg around the ring, all of it great. I wish the camera had panned back a couple of times, but other than that this was house show style gold.

Bret Hart vs. Papa Shango

MD: This was during that first month of Bret's run where they put him over a bunch of guys (Kamala, Virgil, etc.). This was not the Charles Wright you remember. He started the match with a leap over the top rope to the apron and a sneak attack on Hart as he was giving the glasses away and he didn't look back. Yeah, there was the shoulder nerve hold, but he was eating back body drops and the big transition spot was him missing an elbow drop off the top. I don't ever remember seeing him so mobile. Bret came off like a champ (though maybe an IC champ?), constantly fighting back and ultimately taking it clean with a submission. I get why they'd think that someone as outlandish and monstrous as Shango submitting would be a big deal to get Bret over, but it just felt weird and out of place. Unbelievable. He just got his hat back on and did his funny walk to the back afterwards as Bret celebrated.

ER: This was no different than any Bret Hart Coliseum Video matches from this era, which means it was a match that was totally up my alley. I really loved that Kamala match that Matt mentioned, and this one is probably even better. Shango leaps off the apron at Bret to start, boxing his ears while Bret was just trying to give his glasses to a(nother) kid, and I certainly can't recall a Shango match where he leapt off the apron at someone to start a match. And we get a few smart exchanges near the ropes, really well laid out stuff: I loved Hart hitting a big running crossbody for a pin, Shango presses Bret through the ropes to the floor on the kickout, but Hart rolls right back in to hit an atomic drop, giving Shango the perfect amount of time to to a full 360 while selling his balls while Bret is sprinting off the opposite ropes to clothesline Shango to the floor. That's a great sequence and Hart barreling into Shango with that clothesline felt like a huge moment. I dug how they integrated Hart running chest first into the buckles, Hart holding his chest throughout the rest of the match, and Shango doing simple things like throwing stomps right to the chest and dropping elbows. Another layer that made that so smart is it focused Shango's attack on Hart's chest, which lead him to go for the risk of a 2nd rope elbow that he missed, leading to Hart's big comeback. That simple kind of linear chapter 1 to 2 to 3 stuff seems like it should be easy, but it must not be because guys get lost within whatever story they're trying to tell all the time. But here's Hart setting up the chest injury, here's Shango taking the opportunity and focusing wholly on the chest, and here's that chest injury somehow working to Bret's advantage. I dug how they integrated all the turnbuckles into the action, playing to every side of the arena: Bret ran chest first into the upper left, Shango ran him into the lower left, Shango missed his big elbow off the lower right, Bret came off the upper right; it's a cool performance technic and it's a professional thing that Bret doesn't get enough credit for. Bret's attack was nice, and the backdrop was cool in that he just ducked his shoulder right into Shango's waist, sending him more over as a purposeful hockey trip than a showboat high backdrop.

And, I'm glad Matt also noticed the absolutely wonderful post match visual of Papa Shango just...gathering himself. Like a vaudeville team packing up their trunk, we get the gift of seeing Papa Shango collect his garments, in a too real agony of defeat moment. "Big chunky necklace goes on first, gotta put that on before my hat, make sure to grab my voodoo stick, get my strand of skulls..." It's one of the hazards of coming out with seven different accessories and seemingly no ring boy to run all your shit to the back. So here's a vanquished voodoo priest carrying his gimmick away, stopping once to point and shake his fist at Bret, then just walking away. It was a tremendous humanizing look at performers, your favorite guitarist putting his pedals away after the lights have come up.

Nailz vs. Ultimate Warrior

MD: This was disappointing in how short it was. I was expecting something all time bad and we got a blip. Nailz goozled. Warrior spasmed. The transition was a few kicks out of the corner and Warrior hit his clotheslines and the shoulder/splash. You get the feeling that they could have had something memorably terrible and that they couldn't have anything that was at all good, but this wasn't the former; it was only barely the latter. I do foresee a time in a year or two when WWF has exhausted a lot of the Georgia/AWA footage and most of what they have left for Gems are these taping dark matches. It's nice to have one of these now and again but I wouldn't want it every week.

ER: Yeah this was basically the Warrior/HHH Mania match, except there we at least got a press slam spot. This surely gave the fans at the taping something they wanted to see, which was Warrior running out to his music, shaking things, and eventually doing rope running into a couple of moves. I was excited to see what they could do in a 5 minute match - even moreso after seeing what Bossman did with 5 minutes of Nailz not one hour earlier - but this was a quick crowd pleasing Warrior match. Oh well.

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Berzerker Tried Blue Apron. What Happened Next Will SHOCK You!

48. Berzerker vs. Koko B. Ware - WWF 7/21/91

I had been trying to do this Berzerker project chronologically, but I was hoping there would be matches I hadn't noticed, or didn't know existed, that would crop up after I had "passed" them. So far, this is the only one, but it was one I was hoping made tape. Apparently this match only aired on a Canadian TV broadcast. It was taped in Canada, but this could also mean that WWF thought Vikings may have also come from Canada so were targeting that market. Or, they were targeting the niche Canadian POC ornithologist market. That market can be a tough one to crack, but brother they SPEND. Koko really wasn't getting any TV singles matches at this point, and it's kind of a wonder he stuck around on the roster long enough to land in High Energy the next year. If you look at what he was up to during '91, you would have expected him to be released at literally any point. 

But this match is super fun. Berzerker cared not about card placement when he worked guys, and Koko gets a good run during this, while Berzerker breaks out some things I haven't seen in any other match of his. Berzerker was pretty generous in this one (a running theme we've now seen a lot), doing his crazy bump to the floor off a Koko dropkick, and letting Koko get in his cool missile dropkick where he lands on his feet (which still feels like a wild spot to me). He worked in the splits bump (even though it took them longer to get on the same page, as Koko kept kicking at the wrong time. You gotta kick in a leg sweep way, and Koko didn't seem to be getting that at first). Berzerker put a pretty good mauling on Koko, showing off with his own high dropkick, locked on an absolutely brutal cravate, and won with a disgusting hotshot that really should have been his regular finisher. His cravat is rarely used but always looks awesome, and this one is probably the best one he ever did: One hand is smothering Koko's mouth while the top hand is twisting and pressing down, looks like something surly Kawada would do to a young punk. The cravat should have been a regular part of his moveset, with him twisting that head and HUSSing. And that hotshot? Fucking forget about it. Koko died. Berzerker caught him in a bearhug and just fell backwards into the ropes, and I'm surprised all three ropes didn't just snap under the weight of Koko's neck being forced down through them. The bump was so brutal, that Koko disappeared, only to emerge months later as a man with a sudden proclivity for baggy, checkered chiffon genie pants. Sad.

49. 40 Man Battle Royal - WWF Prime Time Wrestling 7/6/92

The situation in my own life, surrounding this match, could not have been any better, and I don't actually think it's possible for anybody else to enjoy it as much as I did. The stars aligned perfectly. I had several friends over, we had been playing video games, having drinks, eating snacks, some of us had special cookies, and the mood was fun. My pal Josh said he was in the mood for some 1992 WWF Prime Time. You know, that thing when your friend requests to watch syndicated 1992 professional wrestling? That thing. That may seem like an odd mood to be in, to some of you, but that mood is a familiar one for Josh. He adores 1991-1993 WWF/WCW. In fact, this Berzerker project lines up pretty exactly with his Liam Neeson-like specific set of skills. So yeah, the mood in the room was perfect. We each made our predictions, Tim chose Bulldog, Josh chose Bret, Charlie chose the Nasty Boys, and I naturally put my money where my mouth was and bet on Berzerker to take it all...

It's a short battle royal, just 10 minutes or so, but it's so good!! Not only does Berzerker win, but he puts in an amazing battle royal performance. What is second most notable, is that this is probably the best WWF performance from Skinner Steve Keirn (I should watch the Bret singles match as it's been literal decades since I've seen it). Now, half the entrants in this are jobbers, and they're all the first to go. Berzerker stays on the floor while the ring was full, and stomps around tearing up and eating signs from fans while 39 other guys are fighting in the ring. The first elimination is Berzerker just reaching up from the floor and pulling a jobber out over the top, then kicking his ass into the aisles. Kerry Von Erich then spends a minute hip tossing a half dozen other jobbers over the top, and Berzerker just waits on the floor to stomp on them right after they get eliminated! So everyone is still in the ring, and Berzerker is just meanly stomping eliminated jobbers in the back of the head and chopping them down the aisle. 

Once others start getting eliminated you notice how nasty some of the eliminations are: Kato takes a huge backdrop to elimination; the Beverly Brothers sacrifice themselves just to take out Bret, looking like they are shoot eliminating him as they yank hard on his legs and violently tug him to the floor; Berzerker gives Koko a mammoth backdrop to the floor to eliminate him. But then shit gets REAL when it's down to Skinner, Berzerker, Bulldog and Kerry von Erich. Skinner does a sick eye rake on Bulldog and Skinner/Berzerker team up to try to eliminate him, while KVE tries to pull Bulldog back in. Berzerker and KVE pull each other away and start going at it, leaving Skinner to eliminate Bulldog on his own. And this elimination HAS TO BE the crown jewel of Steve Keirn's WWF stint. Bulldog is desperately hanging on, and Skinner stomps the shit out of him, then holds onto the top rope with both hands to get leverage to push Bulldog out with his legs. Bulldog looks like he's legit trying to hold on but Skinner gets to just dominate him all the way to the floor. The entire room flipped out over that one. Shit was real. 

How tremendous is a final 3 of Berzerker, Kerry von Erich, and Skinner!?!? KVE valiantly fights them off, but Berzerker and Skinner attack with eye rakes and back rakes!! Skinner throws tons of stiff clubbing shots to KVE, really soaking in this final 3 appearance. KVE ducks a shot and Berzerker almost accidentally gets eliminated by Skinner, but then Keirn says fuck it and just tries to eliminate Berzerker! He survives, and then KVE and Skinner start fighting near the ropes, which is when Josh yelled "BERZERKER IS GOING TO ELIMINATE THEM BOTH!!!" By this point, everybody else's picks had been eliminated, and EVERYONE knew how much I'd been working on my Berzerker project. So the room was going wild for Berzerker, and when he won the bomb just went off. The whole room was flipping out. It felt like we all won that battle royal. There was literally no other day in my 36 years on earth that would have been a better time to watch this battle royal. It was perfection.

50. Berzerker/Papa Shango vs. Undertaker/Ultimate Warrior - 7/12/92

I really really liked this. It was pretty much just what you would want from this match. It was a fast 8 minutes, which meant that nobody got exposed (anybody know what is considered the best Shango/Kama/Godfather match? I can't recall ever seeing a match with him and thinking "now THAT'S a keeper", but they must exist, right?), and everybody could go go go, and they did. Berzerker/Warrior was a genuinely fun match up, and Warrior busted ass in this, as did Berzerker (I guess I had assumed that would happen though). Berzerker bumped all around for Warrior as if he was Savage or Flair, and Warrior ate a big boot really nicely. Shango and Taker were more background characters but the money was in the UW/Zerk showdowns. Another match where you can say with no argument that Berzerker worked harder than anybody else in the ring, really a super generous opponent. Considering 3 of these guys (well, really 4) weren't considered "workrate legends" during this time, this match was a blast.

"My Berzerker is at top of the WWF. He will take any opponent in ring and crush and make them suffer, including YOU Undertaker!" ~Mr. Fuji

"The people know! Now there's no doubt in the peoples' minds who the toughest wrestler in the World Wrestling Federation is! Well Undertaker, you had a taste of the Berzerker! Undertaker, how does it feel to get your cold, stinkin', white, ugly flesh beaten, dragged out and kicked on?? The Berzerker will not, cannot, and WON'T be stopped! Huss! Huss!" ~Berzerker

Undertaker vs. Bruce Mitchell ends quickly, but Undertaker doesn't get much time to celebrate as Berzerker comes stalking down the aisle. Paul Bearer is caught on the ring steps, and Mr. Fuji throws salt in his eyes! Bearer takes a sick backwards bump off the steps , rolling over and doing an awesome tumble. Fuji grabs the urn, and Undertaker grabs Fuji, so Berzerker rushes in to club Taker. Taker chokes Berzerker and Fuji hits him with a cane, which does not faze Undertaker, then Berzerkers throws salt into Taker's eyes!! They use it as a smoke screen to escape down the aisle.

51. Berzerker vs. Jason Knight - Superstars 7/20/92

Jason Knight has that sick ombre high top fade mullet. He looks like Brian Bosworth crossed with Buff Bagwell. He bumps nicely for Berzerker, springing back across the ring after Berzerker chokes him in the ropes. The rest is as you would expect. But this match is important because it is the RETURN of Berzerker throwing his opponent to the floor to win! Knight bumps it painfully by landing harder on one leg than the other.

52. Berzerker/Ric Flair vs. Undertaker/Randy Savage - 7/21/92

Look at this lineup right here! As far as I can tell this never aired on American TV, and it's all just weird. This is during Savage's reign as champ, but he's never mentioned as the champ or shown wearing the belt. Most of his time post WMVIII was spent wrestling Flair on house show runs in rematches, with a couple neat sounding matches that never made tape (or are on a Coliseum video I don't know about) mixed in. I'd love to see World Champ Savage vs. Kamala. You look at the names in this tag, and one of them is not like the other. Also of note, is that Berzerker is larger than the Undertaker, and this may be the smallest I've ever seen Savage. This was before the Zahorian steroid trial, but Savage just looked super tiny, you know, compared to pro wrestling physiques, and compared to his prior physiques. And for a long match, there really isn't a whole lot of Berzerker, or a whole lot of anything. This was almost a "night off" house show match, with oodles of charm just due to the star power of the workers, but not a lot of actual work. It IS a tremendous Flair show, and actually made me want to go back and see a lot more WWF Flair matches. The way he picks on Savage and the way he stooges for Undertaker are classic. Undertaker breaks out a couple of really great gorilla press slams, and I LOVE a great gorilla press slam. Sadly Berzerker doesn't get to do much, although he does take another one of his splits bumps, and is obviously in there to take a pin (after a nice Tombstone/Macho Man elbow combo, which is actually a nice thing to be pinned by as it showed the team thought they needed to pull out both moves to keep him down). An amusing match, and an excellent Flair performance, but something that could have been so much more.


COMPLETE & ACCURATE BERZERKER!

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