Braun & Goldust's European Vacation

Goldust vs. Braun Strowman (WWE House Show 9/9/16)

Last year Goldust and Braun fought on three overseas house shows. I think this is the best of those three matches (the other two were shorter, with the same spots done in the same order). Goldust doesn't get to work singles matches on TV anymore, so usually the only time we get to see him is teaming with one of the worst wrestlers on the roster. House show Goldust is always a marvel, and while I wanted a couple more minutes out of this, it's still a great 4 minute sprint. Goldust comes hot with a yakuza kick and starts punching Braun into the corner, and fans always get so behind Dustin at house shows. He starts throwing leg kicks that he never does, then hits a nasty face wash to knock Braun to the floor, and follows up with his rolling senton off the apron. He slaps him around some more and Braun maniacally crushes him into the ringpost in gross fashion. But back in the ring Goldust goes right back to kicking him in the face, but Braun takes over with a big back elbow and avalanche and works a cravate, and Dustin knows how to work sympathy in a long hold. Every time Goldust gets a chance to fire back, he makes it count, he pulls off that style of punch so well. They hit an awkward cross up moment in the ropes, but Dustin makes up for it by absolutely blasting Braun with a lariat. Braun wins shortly after with the standing side choke. Take 4 minutes out of your day and watch the house show master at work, who knows how much more we'll get.

Read more!

2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

37. Usos v. Brotherhood v. Wyatt Family WWE House Show 6/13

PAS: One pretty cool thing about the 2014 wrestling landscape is since everyone has cell phone cameras it is becoming easier to get your hands on WWE house show matches (although for some reason lots of people just record entrances.)  This is a very fun 3-way tag between three great teams who have really good chemistry with each other. We get a long Goldust face in peril section, where he gets beaten on by the Wyatts. Goldust is one of the greatest Face in Peril's ever, and the Wyatts are really great clubbers. After he makes the hot tag, we get an extended WWEDG finish run, with a bunch of dives for a house show. I really liked how they kept using surprise roll ups as near falls, that really sold the roll up finish when it happened. Roll ups make a lot of sense in a match like this, when you have a bunch of different guys to keep track of, it would be easy to get confused and loose sight of someone

ER: Man I loved this. This is also maybe the most cell phone-y thing I've ever watched. This was one step away from being that pulsing neon blob that your buddy says is video from the Daft Punk show he was at. This may be tough if it was a young lions black trunk match, but I know all the shapes and colors of these guys, and I don't know which Uso is which when watching in HD anyway. This was arguably my favorite WWE tag match of the year, which means it was arguably my favorite tag match of the year, which means who knows how many of these awesome stretched out house show matches are taking place every year that still aren't being documented in any way. WWE, you have a WHOLE NETWORK now. Do a single hard cam and record this shit NOW. So I think it can be stated at this point that house show Goldust is just the best. This was the Goldust show here. When I saw him a few years ago on a house show against Ziggler he knew how to milk the crowd for every single desired reaction. Here he breaks out all the awesome moves in his arsenal including his implausibly great rana off the top (though gets cut off in a smart save spot before he can hit his rolling senton off the apron) and then builds all the way up for Cody's hot tag which is really great with him hitting his rope walk spin kick in an awesome spot amongst other scrambly squirrely offense. WWE has conditioned me well as they did so many roll up finishes during the 2000s that I have a Pavlovian response to them now and they always work as a false finish for me. Harper seems like another guy made for house shows as everything he does really resonates, and thanks to him and Goldust's timing I think this match actually worked better as a 3 way than if it had been a tag between any combo of the teams. And that is not something I will often say. The timing in this was great and guys regularly found logical ways to not be in the ring and it all led to awesome saves and nearfalls. Seriously this was great. Go watch these colored blurry blobs and soak it in.


2014 MASTER LIST

Read more!

2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

38. Shield v. The Wyatt Family WWE House Show 3/7/14

PAS: This is a house show version of my favorite match up of the year, and had a bunch of the fun elements I loved in their more high profile stuff. We started out with a cool staredown and brawl which included Rollins doing a super fast, really crazy for a house show dive. Two long face in peril segments one with Rollins and one with Ambrose, Wyatt's were a really great bully trios team, cutting off the ring violently working over someone with a mix of simple violent slams and throws and some very quick high impact stuff. Ambrose was the star of the Shield team, he was at his best during their brief run as a face trios team, he had an awesome crazy man hot tag, and followed it up with a great Terry Funkish face in peril where he keep begging the Wyatts to hit him harder. They kept Reigns on the apron until the end where he unloaded all of his cool offense in the crazy bang bang finish. Such a bummer we never really got a big blowoff to this feud, as even in this format it was some of the best stuff all year.

ER: Fun match and really it's matches like these that made me not care about going to TV tapings when WWE rolls through town, only the house shows. House shows seem to bring out more excited screaming kids, less people trying to get over with their signs. And the crowds seem hotter because there's no down time for commercials or promos. Here the crowd was hot before the bell, as a "This is Awesome" chant started while the teams were just staring each other down. I could see that kind of thing annoying me most of the time, but here I was kinda with them as in my head I was like "*squeal* a Shield/Wyatts trios I haven't seen!" so I can only imagine how much I would be flipping out live. And, sure enough, this ended up being a Shield/Wyatts trios. We do lose a lot with the fancam aspect as these are all guys who add stuff with their facial expressions, so seeing just white blurs for faces isn't as engaging, but since it means we actually get to see this match instead of never seeing it then I'll obviously take it. There's still enough high end work in here that shines through without the mugging. I thought Harper looked fantastic here. The crowd seemed to respond to him more than any of the Wyatts, and his stuff with Ambrose was great. I loved them trading blows, Ambrose getting repeatedly knocked back into the ropes. All the strikes looked great, and Ambrose is such a house show pro because you know he was teasing the rebound clothesline every single time. Harper would uppercut him, Ambrose would stagger backwards into the ropes, the whole crowd expecting the rebound...and then he ends up hitting it several minutes later when people aren't expecting it. Bray was good with the house show crowd and he even added a new little wrinkle to the crab walk, flopping to his back for a couple of beats before springing up on all fours. It looked creepy and the crowd was delighted. It's weird seeing Wyatt in brown sweatpants instead of white slacks. He looked like Mick Foley at an autograph signing. The finishing run was really hot with a couple great saves and nearfalls, and all the guys seamlessly running in one after the other and believably cutting the others off. Wish I could have seen these teams live. At least we have this.


2014 MASTER LIST

Read more!

Some People Read Idea Books, And Some People Are Kings

Jerry Lawler v. Toru Tanaka CWA 5/19/79 - FUN

Really enjoyable short studio match, with the slim trim 70's Lawler. Tanaka is very much a 70s/80s Japanese heel, lots of nerve holds and judo chops, he did put on a cool submission hold where he drove the top of his head into the back of Lawlers neck. Lawler squirms in and out of the holds and unloads with really pretty rapid fire rights and lefts. Finish has Tanaka try to throw ceremonial salt, hit the ref, which leads to Gorgeous George Jr. and Mongolian Stomper run ins. Basic heel vs. face stuff and neat to see just to get a sense of the era.

Jerry Lawler/Bill Dundee v. Eric Embry/Tom Prichard USWA 7/27/91 - GREAT

This is a studio match, so it isn't very long, but man did I enjoy every minute of it. Embry is just a heel whirlwind. Constantly in motion, whether it is on the apron talking shit to the fans, diving into the ring with a flying headbut for a save, unloading punches and stomps to Dundee, bumping around for Lawler, making faces. Just a tremendous workrate southern heel performance. Mostly Dundee in the match, with the Texas bunch working him over. He gets a great fired up comeback, before going for a rolling tag, and rolling right into Lawler in an amusing botched spot. The match spills to the floor and they brawl around the studio a bit. Not much of a Lawler showcase, but he was good when he was in, and everyone else ruled.

Jerry Lawler v. Bret Hart 11/5/93 - GREAT

This is a cage match handheld from a WWF house show pre-Survivor Series. Lawler is one of the most logically consistent wrestlers ever. This is the first time I have seen him work an escape the cage match, and he does what makes sense. Immediately try to bail out of the door, during the whole match Lawler would take the opportunity to skip town. There wasn't huge spots here, lots of nice looking punches from both guys, and Hart unloading a piledriver, but the match was consistently exciting. Lawler works the chain and really unloads on Bret. We get interference from a masked guy (I am assuming he is one of Lawlers Knights) and the masked guy takes the biggest bump of the match flying off the side of the cage to the floor (did they bring in Foley to work house shows?) We get a Bret win and big Lawler post match beat down. Cool opportunity to see what a touring cage match between the two looks like. Good shit


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE KING

Read more!