Getting Tired of Writing Titles with "Split" In It

Brian Knobbs/Jerry Saggs v Cactus Jack/Maxx Payne (WCW 17/4/94)
--Ten minute this-is-how-ECW-should-have-been match. Nastys don't even wait for Foley & Payne to get in the ring, they just come at with bloody pool cues. POOL CUES. Maxx Payne was a brute. Using the table from the concession stand (or whatever) and trying to suffocate Knobbs with a t-shirt was a freaky looking moment. Saggs and Foley were beating the crap out of each other while the other two were. They were using a different table to hit each other with, Foley even used it as a partner and suplexed the thing onto Saggs. Eventually here comes Knobbs to the rescue and drills Cactus into the face with a shovel. A SHOVEL. Foley then gets pushed by Saggs and takes one of the most sick bumps I can remember off of the ramp onto the flat concrete, where Saggs decides to hit him in the face with a shovel one more time when he's down (and I mean *hit*, there wasn't any face protection or anything, he hit him in the face with a shovel) to pin him. Ridiculous brawl and I doubt I've even highlighted all of the best parts of it.

Split.Split.Split.

Ric Flair v Hulk Hogan (WCW 17/7/94)
--Wow what a great match. Really, great match. It wasn't anything in terms of "icon vs. icon epic", not that I'm one to be suckered in to that anyway, but everything came out great and then culminated full circle with Hogan winning the belt. Flair had some great ones in 94 (I love vs. Steamboat Spring Stampede), but this wasn't a carry job at all, I thought. Hogan was taking a lot of Flair's moves well and bumping a bit more than he would even a few years before this. He had aorund three tries at Hulking Up before getting it successfully done, like Flair was wise to his power up and stopped him every chance he got. Sherri (Flair's manager) was excellent, she did a top rope dive after she pulled the ref into the barricade and knocked him cold. Tried again later on and missed, and it really felt like something out of 87 WWF. Mr. T takes here away nevertheless in WCW Nitro style fashion but what can you do? Hogan finally getting the Hulk Up done was a no-sell fest obviously but fuck you he's Hulk Hogan.

Chris Jericho v Eddy Guerrero (WCW 14/9/97)
-Always thought this was really great and at worst a top 5 for Jericho's whole career; haven't change my opinion. Jericho can get some crap for his WCW run and rightfully so, he was a bit green and kind "slop" like, but I really thought he brought it well here. Guerrero was obviously better, but Jericho was keeping him down with holds a decent part of the match, making sure all his high-flying stuff couldn't come into play. Eddy would best him on the anyway, but when he'd hit a headlock or twisted armlock or something, Eddy'd have a hard time breaking it out it, if ever breaking out of it. Once Eddy did get on a small high-flying binge it they kept the spotty stuff under control, as well, not that I really expected it to be overdone with Davey Richards stuff, but that's some of the criticism I can see for Jericho around this time. Guerrero is one of the best in the world here though so he was having great stuff all over the place. Back work on Jericho was worth mentioning as well and Jericho sold it. Great, great match.

Eddy Guerrero v Rey Misterio Jr. (WCW 26/10/97)
--"Everything just clicked" in an understatement for how in-sync these two were. Thought this might go down, and it probably did just that leeetle bit, but I still think it's a classic and a match of the year contender in a year with an inordinate amount of high-end stuff. Opening seconds were even awesome with Rey ducking Guerrero's swinging arm after some berrating and going to work on him immediately. Eddy's get-back-in-control move was sweeping Rey's leg when he was on the apron, where Rey DIDN'T decide to land and instead chose to do an insane bump to the outside. Loved Eddy's control segments as well, they didn't last too long, but he got the most out of every move (stole that from Heenan ) and made it look as vicious and damaging as he could. Twirling backbreaker was intense in particular and Rey sold it like he was giving brith. Once Rey got on the offense for a while, the crowd went, kind of, "deadish", where they needed something after a hurricanrana to give them a big pop. So, Eddy got the control back so he could demolish Rey with a powerbomb only for Rey to come back so the crowd would have something to pop for. GENIUS! Finish was as good as a lucha move in the US is going to get.

Ricky Morton/Robert Gibson v Tom Pritchard/Stan Lane (WCW 21/2/93)
--RnR were a older wee-bit sloppier version of themselves in 1984, and I loved it. If this WAS 84 in Mid-South or somewhere, the crowd would've been an all-time hot one, and even though here they were just satisfyingly loud, it didn't matter at all because I still got that mid-80s vibe. For however many minutes they were giving their "routine" (can't exactly call it a "routine" since they mix up spots and don't do the same thing every match), it was all good fun. They would Irish Whip Lane into the turnbuckle a few times until Pritchard tried to jump onto the turnbuckle to block it, then sent Lane into the opposing corner and gave Tom a good ol' kick in the gut. Then Morton would allow himself to be cornered into their side of the ring so he could have punches at both of them, and when Pritchard fired at him, he ducked and Tom hit Lane on the apron. OH THE FUN. Cornette throwing mild tantrums on the outside adds to any match he's managing in so this was real easy to sit through, and he takes a shoulder block you just NEED to see. Cornette's of course the son of a bitch that costs RnR the control of the match, and Morton may be the greatest FIP of all time so it's pretty great little part of the match. He knows when the ref's back is turned the crowd will pop when he hit s a sunset flip that isn't being counted, he knows how to get sympathy from anything that breathes, and he knows Kevin Nash is a worthless piece of shit. Hot tag is something a little different along the way but interesting nonetheless. BOBBY EATON interferes and RnR continue to kick arse and win. It's pretty great that this happened the same night as the great Scorpio/Benoit match and the Sting/Vader strap match which I think is seriously the best US match of 1993. DUBYU-THSEE-DUBYA'S WHEYER DEM BIG BOYS PLEH, DADDEH

Just Splitting A Post In Two

Owen Hart v The 1-2-3 Kid (WWF 19/6/94)
--Really fun 4 minute sprint but nothing more than that. The opening dropkick looked like it came literallt out of nowhere since the lights were dimed for Waltman's entrance, probably my favourite dropkick. Had some okay stuff after that but half the match seemed like a small bunch of nothing (and half the match was 2 minutes). Owen countering the spinkick into a German was great, though. Finish came pretty much DURING that whole middle part. Wouldn't say this is ***1/2 like I thought it was before, or even close, but it was pretty cool.

Rey Misterio Jr v Jack Swagger (WWE 11/6/10)
--Wow what a great match. I wouldn't with anyone if they called Rey the best seller ever, he can make the most stupid obvious spot look legit and unpredictable. There were few times in this match where that happened, like Swagger *almost* countering Rey's swingy arm drag thing, and not doing it, and the old "make the heel run towards you so you'll pull down the rope for to fall out of the ring" trick. Match started off with Jack trying to cripple Rey in a headlock, which was great, and the 619 being hit early was cool too, it created a "that it? good booking, fuckheads" moment that got killed when Jack got his foot on the rope. Got weary when i saw Jack put Rey on the top rope, I was convinced it was gonna be some dumb spot, but they mad eit awesome. Rey went for headbutts, and Swagger sold it really well, falling on his feet instead of flying to the canvas like an overselling idiot. That set up probably the best top rope german I've ever seen, because, y'know, Swagger actually made it look like he *could* recover from what he got hit by. Best part in the match came after the commercial break, when Swagger had Rey wrppaed around the fucking ring post like a snake. Double 619 spot thingy was pretty nifty. Again, great match, maybe better than Rey/Punk 12/2. One thing that mostly annoys me about current WWE, though, is their fuckign camera amgles. They just HAVE to move the camera up and down whenever someone does a suplex or top rope jump. That's WHACK.

Bret Hart/Jim Neidhart v Shawn Michaels/Marty Jannetty (WWF 25/11/89)
--This really made me want to track down a Neidhart/Michaels match. A small portion of the match was Shawn bumping like a fuck for all of Neidhart's moves and I'd just love to see that for fifteen straight minutes. Loved how this whole match panned out though, there were pretty clear-cut sections of it that went from fast-paced/hot tag/cheating, etc. Favourite part in the match in the match happened near the beginning, where The Rockers were double teaming Bret with crazy tricks & hip locks & arm drags & shit, then Neidhart comes abruptly from the corner of the screen and wipes them both out with a clothesline. Greay visual. He got a good pop for that iirc, but HF eventually turned to the heels of the match (both teams were babyfaces) after they were both using illegal tactics and crowd mocking. They eventually got Michaels grounded in a hot tag too and they were laying it in to him pretty thick. Bret gave him the two most stiff uppercuts I've ever seen him give too, and the third was reversed into a backslide. Time limit running out was (N).

Yeah They Call Him The Natural.....

Vader v Dustin Rhodes (WCW 16/11/94)

--24 hours ago I'd never watched this before; I've now seen it three times. There's only so much two guys can do in twelve minutes, but, off of the top of my head, this might be the best twelve minute match I've ever seen that isn't Volk Han vs. Kiyoshi Tamura. Amazing. Vader's usually cocky, but here he's reached a different level of dicky, slapping Dustin and blowing saliva n his face and yelling his head of at him with Harley Race giving him a maniacal cackle on the outside. Dustin losing his shit, Tony Schiavone loses his shit, I lose my shit. Dustin's a perfect house o' fire, and you see about a million people jump on their feet when he tackles Vader down like a freight train and starts slapping away himself. He goes the Sting route and knocks him over the top rope and takes his mask and runs over Race, and only loses his own control when Big Van gets a breather outside. A Vader control segment is the control segment you WANT, and he's pummelling the crap out of Rhodes in the turnbuckle corner with those ridiculous swings. A Dustin sympathy period is a sympathy period you want, and I'd say his hope spots are as good as about anything I've seen. There's  great amount of stuff he does that would be considered almost nothing had this been the same sized opponent, but Vader's got the 200 lb weight upper hand, so when Rhodes pulls of a successful suplex or a power slam counter to a splash, you have everyone losing their mind. The DDT off of the second rope in particular was the damned greatest. Vader having to use two Vader splashes to get Dustin down was awesome, and Dustin kicked out at both which was a whole new level of him possibly being able to get a win here. Dustin had a sensational 1994, but I'd say he could have come off looking even stronger here than he did anytime else. He obviously got more control and stuff in the Buck series/WarGames, but this is fuckin' VADER, man. Two years prior (almost to the day, actually) you had Dustin scraping every bit of energy he had to even be a contender to win against Van, and here there's a lot of stuff that makes you think, "Dustin's fuckin' WINNING?!?!" Vader has to resort to throwing Dus over the rope when the ref takes his own period of pain because of Dustin overzealousness, and the idea of Vader resorting to being desperate enough to do that is awesome. And those clotheslines, man. He WIIIPPES him. Finish might be unspectacular, but, again, Dustin was made to look really strong. Once Vader's in deep shit Race gets in the ring and Dustin goes to whoop him only for Vader to cream the whole lot of them, then he lays out Rhodes with this face plant thing. This really was excellent, and I can only think how tremendous it would have been had they feuded throughout '95. I honestly cannot fathom a promoter watching this and thinking it wasn't a money feud. The crowd was molten, the match was terrific, and the performances were immense. Dustin looked like a better opponent for Vader than Sting was. Apart from Hart/Hart at WrestleMania and Blue Panther/El Mariachi, this is probably as good a match as I've seen from a non-Japanese promotion in 1994. Again, amazing.

Flair vs. Steamboat Still Rocked In 1994

Ric Flair v Ricky Steamboat (WCW 14/5/94)
--Really like the Spring Stampede match (Spring Stampede is a contender for best PPV ever, btw), but holy son of a mother this was even better. The idea of a wrestler vacating a belt and winning it back without anyone else winning it has always seemed dumb to me, but this truly felt like it was either guy's ballgame. Flair's heel shtick never gets old no matter how many times you've seen it, or no matter how many time you've seen it with the same opponent, and Steamboat is the perfect hope spot/cross-bodying/fiery fan favourite combatant for him. Loved Steamboat turning the screws and going for Flair's leg, and the figure four on him was a great spot. Flair's in "I'm better than Hulk Hogan" mode, but no matter how much he has to prove he's got to go to the ropes to get leverage and shove referees and all that and it's the Ric Flair you want. Bobby Heenan losing his mind whenever they went to a commercial break was the greatest thing ever. Finish is god-awful, and I think it actually hurt the match. After thirty minutes of grappling and outside-suplexes, Flair catches Steamboat with some demented head butt thing while Steamer's going for a leapfrog and pins him clean after waiting a few seconds. Apart from that, though, this was the business.

Ric Flair v Ricky Steamboat (WCW 24/7/94)
--Never really seen these two in a thirteen-minute spring environment, and it's a shame because this was five batches of fun. Flair lost the WCW Title to Hulk a week earlier at Bash at the Beach, and Sherri's by his side here and she's the greatest bitch wrestling's ever had. She gets a ton of cheap shots in with her high heel and bitch-slapping hand and Steamboat's staring her down only for Ric to catch him in the back. The referee interrogates Sherri and she's making the Sign of the Cross and promises she did nothing but stood and watched this fine pro-wrasslin' match. Then there's crowd members yelling and she's calling them fat pigs and saying they'll lose their fake teeth if they don't shut up or something. SHERRI CARRY JOB. Nah seriously this was a blast, with thirteen minutes instead of thirty five they work a lot more like a TV match around this time and have the feeling out being way cut down. Steamboat shines with his usual chop job and everything, and he gets Flair complaining about hair pulls and doing his Flair flops and stuff. Finish has Steamboat with Flair in the figure-four and getting his revenge on Sherri simultaneously. Then we get Steve Austin coming out and all hell is broken. Yeah, pile o' fun was this.

If This Feud Were A Woman I'd Be In A Chapel Saying "I Do,"

Went through a hefty chunk of the Dustin Rhodes/Studd Stable feud from 1994 and it is so the greatest thing ever. Here's basically the best of the best of what I watched in unneeded nonsensical detail. Watch all this, btw.

Dustin Rhodes v Bunkhouse Buck (WCW 17/4/94)

--Couldn't have asked for anything more in a Bunkhouse match. Buck comes out all cocky because this is his time and Bunkhouse is part of his name and how can little rookie boy even try to touch him. Minute later and Dustin's launched himself over the ropes with some sort of piece of wood in his hand. I haven't seen what lead up to this, but the announcers said "Dustin's looking for revenge", and that equals good pro wrasslin'. Typical shine period where there's no rules, and typical heelish arsehole antics from Buck, low blows and all. He grabs that piece of wood eventually (which s apparently a 1x2) and smashes it over Rhodes head. It's one of those ECW shoot hits as well, where he goes "pro wrestling's fake you bastards? FUCK IT!" Dustin's entire faces goes red with blood and it's dripped on the mats outside. You're getting two types of Dustin Rhodes here; sympathy Dustin, and enraged Dustin, and they're as good as each other. Once sympathy Dustin is out of the way, enraged Dustin takes over by shaking in the corner drawing energy from God and his Texans at home. or something. Enraged Dustin's all about that revenge, he's whipping and punching making sure Buck goes home to the trash can where he lives on a stretcher. WCW are awesome at ending a match and making you want a proper conclusion in the future and this naturally had that. This is sitting in my top quarter right now, and even if I don't think it'll stay there, it was everything a guy could want.

Dustin Rhodes v Bunkhouse Buck (WCW 22/5/94)

--They had a Bunkhouse, here's a bull-rope! Dustin's still all piss and vinegar and he doesn't even let the tie the rope to Buck before he tries to murderise him. I'm almost struggling to remember any Buck offense, because Dustin beat on his for a *long* time, but it's the kind of Mid-South-esque babyface beating that you crave in a feud as vie as this has been. There are these absolutely nasty cowbell shots where it's Dustin's turn to go ECW on Buck, and he just swings the thing straight at his head and he's content with wherever it lands. There were plenty of shots like that and I remember saying "Jesus" out loud on one of them. Buck's bumping like Terry Funk everywhere and Dustin's whooping him all over. Watching Col. Parker lose his mind is always fun as well. Then the actual TERRY FUNK comes out with a cloth on his head once this is finished after having one of the more batshit matches ever with Tully Blanchard earlier in the night (seriously watch that one) and there's madness everywhere. This definitely wasn't as good as the Bunkhouse match, but it's a great, great fight and it's laying in my top 50 right now. Two matches and I already think this feud is the greatest.

Dustin Rhodes/Arn Anderson v Terry Funk/Bunhouse Buck (WCW 17/7/94)

--"YEAH, I'LL BE YA PARTNER!" Arn accepts Dustin's invitation to be his partner and "take them down". More enraged Dustin! He throws both guys over the top rope when the referee has his back turned and Jesse Ventura on commentary is yelling at everyone. I mentioned Buck bumping and selling like Terry Funk himself, and they're both in the ring now so you can imagine what the hell is going on in there. You don't see a huge bunch of Arn in this, likely because of the turn, but he's a crazy babyface apron. He's shaking and yelling and jiving once he gets the final tag he gets up Dustin up and plants a mega DDT on him in the mother of al betrayals. Meng's out and they're stomping on his arm like the Horsemen did to his pa in the '80s. Just more build up, fun and twists in a really great feud.

Dustin Rhodes v Bunkhouse Buck (WCW 6/8/94)

--Nothing much to write about here, this was more tame than the other matches since is the a ten minute match on free TV, but it was really good for the time given and it made me think that Buck has more stuff to his name other than the Dustin/Studd Stable feud. You obviously get your hatred and fiery punches, but there's no whipping or cowbell shots to the noggin around here. Buck pushes the camera man down before getting to ring, and that's fairly batty. Post-match is the mother load, though. Dusty was at ringside the whole match and he gets involved into this tussle with Meng and Parker and you see the sparks fly everywhere. If WWE were half as good at building matches off of little ten minute matches on TV as WCW were in this era, I'd be watching.

Dustin Rhodes/Dusty Rhodes v Terry Funk/Bunkhouse Buck (WCW 28/8/94)

--"All I need's is a hug t' seal d' deal." Dusty's really over from facing up to the Studd Stable and he can't move a whole lot but he knows what he's doing in there and is a great crowd worker. More Funk and Buck bumping, Terry tries to rip off the barricade in a ad bunch of frustration. Dustin's shine periods really are great, he has those post where he dominates both guys and they don't look completely arse-stupid like they might. the transitions posts are really good as well, I dig it when people miss stuff/opponent's evade. AA bring a DQ and post-math has Dusty swinging a wooden chair over Meng's head with the fucker not even reacting and you hear five thousand audience members dump in their pants. Meng's choking Ol' Dusty out and Dustin's grounded so it's pretty clear they need back-up in their little war. Like the Dustin/Arn vs. Buck/Funk tag this isn't a match to list, but it's really, really fun and it's a great feud-builder. Punches and elbows, man.

Dustin Rhodes/Dusty Rhodes/Jerry Sags/Bran Knobs v Bunkhouse Buck/Terry Funk/Arn Anderson/Col. Robert Parker (WCW 18/9/94)

--It's WarGames and in one of the more ridiculous TV snippet segments you see Dusty come to The Nasty Boys for help in some kind of goofy looking bar area. But forget about that; this is WarGames, motherfucker! First period has Dustin getting in without hesitation and trying to be more piss and vinegar against an Arn Anderson who's putting a more Wile E. Coyote strategic approach forth. That's to no avail obviously, and he eventually gets one of his classic WarGames spots where he has his head shoved between both rings and Dustin's treating him like a jackhammer.  Period 2 allows Bunkhouse to come through and give Arn a chance to rest before the both of them can double team Dustin's arm that they stomped on months back. The next two minutes is up and Jerry Sags brings it with double clothesline and cage-ramming that I swear to God looked like could tip the cage over. The Studd Stable are pissy on the outside and Funk wants in NOW; that bezerk motherfucker tries to somehow throw a chair in there, forgetting there's a roof on it and everything. Looney. Gets even loonier when he gets to legally come in with one of his boots off, wavering it everywhere and tipping himself over the ropes in the process. He's got Dustin and rubs his face against the cage of the are where Dusty's standing watching his son being treated as cheese. Then Funk gets caught in a piledriver and ends up falling between the two rings way down the floor. <3 Terry. Knobs is the nest guy in and blows every heel in sight into the cage like darts, and the revenge boot shots Funk gets are brutal lump-giving blows. More Funk lovin' when he gets so dizzy out of his mind he ends up swinging his fists at an already dazed Buck (who's his partner). Final heel period sees Parker sweating his arse off and tuggin' at his shirt collar because he thought Meng was gonna be in this thing up until a week ago. He slowly tries to creep in only to see Dustin staring him down and he takes the longest time. Buck grabs Dustin and Parker grubs up the confident to come in and lay those cheap manager shots in. Now's the point of the "I hope the cameramen get the best parts on tape" section where they have no idea what to stick on TV. We get a AA Spinebuster, Funk whipping Dustin, Colonel whipping Sags, and Dustin getting the belt and whipping everyone all in the space of a couple of minutes. The crowd blow their arse off once he gets to Colonel, and you have Meng trying to tear the cage off to get in there like originally planned. Dusty's in once the final ten count's done and before he gets triple-teamed he's shining all oevr the place with his signature elbows and is that good ol' house o' fire. The Dusty/Colonel stare-down is awesome and once Parker gets clobbered Meng decides to try to climb the cage to only be knocked down. Dusty's got a Figure-Four on Colonel and the Nastys are taking turn splashing and dropping elbows on him before he finally gives up before he becomes paraplegic. Meng's in after the match is done and head butts a camearman in madness. I found it odd that there was no blood the entire match, but apart from that, this was an insane blow-off (even if there were matches after it). Terrific stuff, probably the best WarGames behind 87, 91 and 92.

Triple Double A

Arn Anderson v Ronnie Garvin (NWA ?/4/86)
--Not even David Crockett's abysmal commentary could stop this from being a small bucket of fun. Only last around eleven minutes, but Arn's so awesome at getting you interested in what he's doing, and the match turns out pretty great in that short time. A good chunk of the match is basically slow & power-struggle...."y", but they do build it up into some captivating title chase parts. Oddly enough though the best parts in the match were the slow parts, and i'd give 100% of the credit to Anderson. At one point they're in an arm lock power struggle and Arn's losing so he complains about hair pulling, then the ref goes to check if Garvin's actually doing & AA does it behind his back & jerks Garvin to the mat in a headlock. Then Garvin pulls AA's hair in retribution so he looks like the cheater. DQ finish with Tully probably set up a good little feud so it's forgivable. Anderson's also the greatest ever at "drunk-punching".

Arn Anderson v Bobby Eaton (WCW 19/5/91)
--Probably about as good as a midcard 12 minute TV Title match gets. The whole thing going in was the fact Eaton was a tag wrestler his whole career, and was looking for his big break as a singles performer (TV Title was pretty big), while Arn was viewed as maybe the greatest TV Champion ever. It was great. Anderson started off being the "crafty veteran singles wrestler", trying to really squash Eaton and get it done quickly. My favourite part was him shoving Eaton off of the top turnbuckle into the ramp they used to have. Bobby looked like he could've fucked his knee if he landed one second earlier. Anderson works on the leg the most of the rest of the match and eaton had some pretty great comebacks. Bobby getting the win was great too.

Steven Regal v Arn Anderson (WCW 20/2/94)
--Goes nearly a half hour so of course it was great, but there was something missing, and I can't put my finger on it. Nothing to complain about overall, seeing Regal with his face only a mother could love grinding Anderson's body parts where the bones stick out is about as good as it gets. I'm going on a ledge and saying Regal's one of my favourite sellers too. I love how he scrunches his face when in certain predicaments and yells out an "AOWH" at times like when he gets caught in a leg scissors. This match was really Regal trying to keep his TV Title by going the full half hour since he figured he couldn;t beat Arn cleanly, and he didn't. His manager helped him with a cheapshot win at the end with like eight seconds remainding in the time limit. Regal having a taped leg the whole match was weird considering Anderson hardly ever touched it until the end, but whehn he did the crowd went nuts, but they didn't really...build it off from that. Awesome match though, these two are becoming two of my favourites to watch ever.