Blue Bloods, Bruisers, Giants and Men In Robes

Sting/Lex Luger v Ric Flair/The Giant (Nitro 22/4/96)

--This, in some way, was like the Road Warriors vs. Steiners tag from March, but unlike that, this was interesting, and, for under ten minutes, was pretty damn good. There's ususal sequences that you might expect, like the Ginat dominating, then getting double teamed and chucked out, then Flair getting his, etc. etc, but it's the 80s style stuff that you never get tired of, and no one needed to be lead/carried to anything. Lex is way less sarcastic and tweener-some here, and it looks like they just nuked the idea of him turning heel because he just seemed like regular ol' babyface Luger. Wight was surprisingly good around this time at showing off size differences. There was this one really awesome segment where he had Luger in the chokeslam position, and Sting gets up on the top turnbuckle to so these chop block things, and he sells the both of them differently. Flair's reaction to Wight getting knocked over was one of total disbelief. I still maintain the opinion that Flair in 1996 is a totally awesome character and just an excellent heel. His entrances in particular are too fucking sweet. Then once it boils down to the point where he doesn't think he can win, Woman hands him a cup of coffee and he ends up hurling it in Wight's face, who gets real pissy afterward and wants a Title match. You can tell how green Wight was on the mic post-match. I'm so loving this stuff.

Steven Regal v Fit Finlay (Saturday Night 27/4/96)

--I'd already seen this, but it's one of the most superb pieces of five minute wrestling matches I've ever seen. Finlay was in WCW as some sort of intruder; tracking down Regal because they fought all over Europe and he wants revenge or...something. Either way, he's pissed that he didn't get to completely wipe Lord Steven off at Uncensored and he goes balls-to-the-walls gritty on offense here (to no surprise, obviously), and Regal brings just as much (see the previous sentence in parenthesis). arm shots, crossface grinding, those chest-on-aprons blasts, basically, you name a gritty move, and they likely did it in these five minutes. They get into outside/barricade/chair territory soon enough and Finlay eventually gets disqualified for piledriving Regal on the mat outside. I loved the look on his face, and his whole demeanour; like, "don't give a flying shit what the fans like, don't give a flying shit what referee wants, don't give a flying shit if I get sent to jail." Man oh man I dig this.

Steven Regal v Fit Finlay (Nitro 29/4/96)

--The parking lot brawl which others actually seem to like more than I do. Still dig it, though, and I think the only argument I can have against it is it's lack of length. Starts off real nasty, with Fit basically plating his leg through a car window after Regal hopped his arse out of the way. That may actually be my favourite spot in the match, but after that it does nothing to go downhill. The face-in-concrete chunk spot s one I fund particularly nasty. Fit's selling in general here was pretty nasty; some of the head bumps he took on car hoods looked a lot more like he actually launched his own cranium into it instead of subtly blocking t with a part of his arm(s). There's the shots with the car bumper and that AWESOME seatbelt choke as well. The final piledriver on the top of one of the cars was great, which was even greater because in some way it kind of plays off to the Saturday Night match (which, I'll be 100% honest, I only just noticed writing this). I really love how Eric Bischoff on commentary was almost wanting to not let anyone at home see this because it was so vicious, and I remember watching WCW match from even up to 1999 where they reference this. I'm still note going to put it on my list, but this really is something else.

Ric Flair v The Giant (Nitro 29/4/96)

--Not sure I enjoyed this as much, as the first, maybe because they did some of the same things *too* similarly (like, Flair tries failed shoulder block, chops, forearms- the Giant poses, etc.). here were some new things; I don't remember Wight taking a hefty shoulder bump into the turnbuckle the other match, for example. Even if this was completely different, though, the finish was pretty out-of-nowhere bad. I know the Giant is, well, a giant, but surely they can come up with something better than him sitting up from the figure four and chokeslamming Flair to win the World Title. That's not even a problem to me because of "no-selling" or anything, but it all seemed, out of place, I guess. Not going to say I didn't have fun with this, though; definitely not a bad match.

Ric Flair/Randy Savage v Arn Anderson/Eddie Guerrero (Slamboree 19/5/96)

--"Lethal Lottery", meaning random partner choosing, basically. Not much of a match, but it was a fucking supreme angle. Eddie and Arn come out how they do, and once Flair's theme hits, he doesn't come out and Savage rolls out instead. Arn's jumped him and Flair's in a hurry to get out, while Eddie's trying to get Arn off of him. Macho lays down for a while and Guerrero gets his shine on Flair. There were brilliant spots like Flair tagging Savage in then making a groggy Guerrero tag in Arn, then Arn gets fed up with Eddie's willingness to fight back and gives him the DDT of his life. One thing I have to say, Eddie Guerrero, honestly, just seemed pretty "okay" around this time. He wasn't bad, but he hadn't found "it" yet. Getting the upper hand on Ric Flair Southern-style clearly was not his calling in life. Even when he tapped Arn on the shoulder and poked him in the eye, Tony Schiavone's all, "well how 'bout that?" as if it were something uncommon for him to do anything but wrassle~~ Reading this makes it sound like my opinion of pre-97 Eddie is way lower than it actually is, but there it is. Anyways~~~~~ this as a whole is pretty awesome.

More '96 WCW - Nitro 25/3

Fit Finlay v Randy Savage (Nitro 25/3/96)
--Six or seven minutes, but it's FINLAY and SAVAGE going six or seven minutes. This was the night after Uncensored, where Fit had smashed up Regal's nose with a forearm (I remember it being a fist, though, they're building it as a forearm anyway) and he controls most of the match. When he lays in the forearms it's great, the commentators fly off like "there it is, the forearm that got Regal" or something, and Macho was selling it like a total drunk. Savage's winning comeback almost came out of nowhere since he got almost no offense in, but Finlay was wiggling during the three count instead of laying there dead so it looked more believable that way. Fun match.

Sting/Lex Luger vs. Marcus Bagwell/Scotty Riggs (Nitro 25/3/96)
--Any interest I could have had in this (which was pretty much zero- American fuckin' Males) was squashed when I saw Bagwell in the ring sing along to his team's song (American fuckin' Males). Luger was pretty great in this, though. he comes out and the way he's high-fiving the fans and shoving his arms in the air comes off as really sarcastic, and he seemed to stop doing that sort of fan-pleasing when Sting turned his back. Bagwell was basically Sting's protégé, and when they got in the ring together Sting got the upper hand at every point and Bagwell clapped and gave him dues, and Sting played the role of respectful mentor. Luger was a prick. He pounded the ever-loving shit of Bagwell and Tony Schiavone wondered whether it was to get under Sting's skin, who was confused and disgusted an the apron. Sting/Luger winning was pretty priceless; Lex almost runs off with both tag belts and Sting's in the ring raising the American (fuckin') Males' arms. What else? Oh yeah, Scotty Riggs.... he was.....pretty shitty, actually. American fuckin' Males.

Ric Flair v The Giant (Nitro 25/3/96)
--This was fun, and Ric looked as good a heel as just about ever. The size difference is shown SO well; Flair can chop all he wants, but big Wighty just throws him and does these humungosaurus poses. One pose the ref backs up like three feet because he thinks he's about to be digested or something. The Giant goes to the top rope and misses a cool looking splash. Ric rolled out of the way, but he could have legitimately laid still and Wight would have still missed him by five feet. Wight takes this ridiculous-for-big-man bump over one of the turnbuckles and flops over to the outside as well. Arn comes with a chair after Elizabeth and Woman distract the ref and when he swings it there's Kevin Sullivan there and Arn blames him and he's pointing and laughing like a school child when Sullivan gets done. He gets done as well, obviously. I think this ended in a no contest, but my memory's not pulling for me right now. Looking forward to the match in April regardless.

Some '96 WCW

 Going through all the WCW on the 1996 yearbook for a top-100-matches-of-WCW poll. Enjoy. Or don't. I don't care.

Road Warrior Hawk/Road Warrior Animal v Rick Steiner/Scott Steiner (Nitro 11/3/96)
--I didn't look forward to this, and although it wasn't bad, there was nothing to it. Some matches suck, and some are just uninteresting. I wasn't sure who the faces/heels were supposed to be. Seemed like they were going for face vs. face, then Steiners as heels, then Warriors as heels when they won by whacking one of the Steiners with something. Looked like a thermos to me. I'm sure it wasn't. Either way, nothing of real interest to see here, but the Steiners doing a Doomsday Device (unsuccessfully I think, I remember a rwally bad down period where Animal took too long to get Scotty down) was a nice touch.

Sting/Booker T v Road Warrior Hawk/Road Warrior Animal (Uncensored 24/3/96)
-- "Some matches suck, and some are just uninteresting." Meet the suck. This was joined in progress, and I tend to check the time of the chapter of the DVD when it first starts, and this had 15 minutes left, and I thought "no way it lasts 15 more minutes." It. Fucking. Did. And it was painful. It's a Chicago Street Fight, and it's a lot of bad brawling and more confusing heel/face stuff. Sting's a clear face obviously, but Booker walks out on him at one point and gets together with his brother and some others (fuck if I remember who) in the back and tie up Animal. Then he come back to help Sting, then some more bullshit happens. I checked the length of entire match on Wikipedia, and it apparently ends up at over 29 minutes. To hell with enduring that shit. This was not good. No siree.

Hulk Hogan/Randy Savage v Ric Flair/Arn Anderson/Lex Luger/The Ultimate Solution/Z-Gangsta/Meng/The Barbarian/Kevin Sullivan (Uncensored 24/3/96)
--Ahhh. Tower of Doom. I didn't see this is full either, but I saw less than Warriors/Sting & Book I think so I endured less pain. Either way, I didn't/don't know the rules of this and don't really care; this wasn't good either. There's a gigantic cage with supposed "levels" and Hulk and Savage get the crap beat out of them by a bunch of guys. Z-Gangsta is better known as WWF's "Zeus", and was still the maniac cross eyed yelling sasquatch he was years before. The Ultimate Solution was, well, a fat man. It was great watching Hogan lose a couple of shoulder-pushy-whatevers to him. Luger's seemingly full fledged face turn on Flair was pretty nifty, even if they teased it as an accident. Finish had Hulk and Macho going outside the cage to the ring and Savage turning around and pinning Flair to win. I don't get it either.

Found a lot more...

Pardon whatever spelling errors there might be..Blush smiley.

Riki Choshu v Shinya Hashimoto (NJPW 2/8/96)
--Just became one of my favourite matches ever, so damn HARD HITTING and STIFF. It had a certain atmosphere like these two were evenly matched or something and they started off with a few collar & elbows tie ups which lasted not a minute before they started belting each other with palms and chops, to say the very least it was great. I was surprised by how much these two took in, seemed like they had made some mutual agreement to not hold anything back at all because from what I remember every hit landed stupidly hard, no thigh-slapping, no dumb stomping, nothing. The lariats near the end were one of my favourite sequences of any match ever, Choshu keeps laying them in to take Hashimoto down, and Hahsimoto wasn't going down after like five of them. When I say "lay them in" I don't mean "they looked awesome" I mean he honest-to-God swung at him and hit him borderline as hard as he could. Finish wasn't long after that; Hashimoto gets ready for the last lariat and yells "CHOSHUUUU" and finally goes down. 1996 match of the year contender.

Tiger Mask v Black Tiger (NJPW 26/5/82)
--Nothing special but as far as Tiger Mask matches go it was good. First few minutes had the usual TM formula where he'd squeeze in as many spinny arm reversals and stuff as possible, and as usual his opponent sells it like a punch to the face. Black Tiger tried working the arm after that and Sayama seemingly shurgged some of it off but still managed to not ignore it and make it look hurtful.Small finishing stretch was neato with Sayama winning with a crooked looking moonsault. If you like Tiger Mask's style a lot then definitely watch this, otherwise it's nothing above "good".

Hulk Hogan v Abdullah the Butcher (NJPW 26/5/82)
--Oh man I liked this a lot. Hogan's been one of my favourites ever since I first watched him, and this is good for an example of how he can put a really good little match together. His execution isn't too sharp but it's satisfying enough. Abdullah, despite looking exhausted after the first five minutes, put a great effort in right down to the awesome post-match brawl. He did his usual routine, poking and jarring Hogan with a spiky foreign object, leaning outside to run his head into the post, etc. then Hogan retaliates by chewing parts of his head so the both of them are bleeding good. Unsurprising double count-out finish aside, I could watch this over and over, I think.

Dick Murdoch v Tatsumi Fujinami (NJPW 6/7/82)
--If Murdoch kicking the flowers given to him into the crowd isn't the best thing I've ever seen, then his grounded shots on Fujinami are. He was laying his knuckles straight into the corner of his forehead, and without trying to sound evil, it was awesome. Fujinami's a guy I can really get into as far as coming back from huge amounts of pain goes and he was tops here as usual. Really well put together match. Little surprised after everything Murdoch had done he got face reactions, though.

Tiger Mask/Kengo Kimura v The Dynamite Kid/Bret Hart (NJPW 16/7/82)
--TM and DKid are a hit and miss to me, and Bret sucks shit in Japan, so I wasn't planning on paying close attention to this at all. I got the basics of it, it looked to be almost a little version of the No Mercy 2002 tag or something (which I'm not a fan of at all), with plenty of big moves and stuff. Didn't look bad or anything but this making the NJPW 80s set over Inoki/Fujinami 8/8/88 is a real head scratcher.

I'll find more as well, you watch. Actually I know for a fact I wrote something on Fujiwara/Choshu from 87, Danielson/Strong Vendetta (which was actually my longest one ever, WarGames 92 is probably bigger, though), and more Santito stuff. I have others from earlier years but I don't plan to post them anytime soon. Another blush smiley.

Starrcade has two R's and I have three write-ups

Ricky Steamboat/Shane Douglas v Barry Windham/Brian Pillman (WCW 28/12/92)
--First five/seven minutes of this are a little...weird, I guess. I don't want to complain about anything they did, because it isn't anything complainable, but they almost put Windham in a hot tag role (he and Pillman were heels). Babyfaces getting offense at the beginning of a tag match is given, but it was different here. Again, nothing to complain about but I didn't think it *really* picked up until after Douglas was trying to get the hot tag on Steamboat. And when it picked up it motherfuckin' PICKED UP. Douglas isn't my cup of tea, and truthfully I can't stand him, but he's fine and dandy in a babyface role with three great wrestlers, and he played a really, really good FIP. Pillman caught my eye a fair bit, and the match made me re-consider  Pillman as a heel worker (re-consider him for....nothing, really), because everything he did here was awesome, he pretty much directed the cheating and double-team stuff with Windham and he was busting out some babyface-looking stuff without looking for a babyface reaction. When the ref had his back turned he'd chuck someone over the top rope or hang them in he ropes. The transistion spot from babyface offense to heel offense was really good as well; a top rope dropkick to the outside is about a lethal and dangerous move as you'll get in a 92 WCW tag match. Hope spots were excellent, I especially loved when Steamboat got fired up and whacked Windham with a chair, which would make you think Douglas would have enough time to tag himself out, but he's stays in for longer and I thought that was such a terrific teased tag. The eventual hot tag seemed "all for nothing" or something since Steamboat ending up giving Douglas a hot tag, but it was all built tremendously with all the intereferences and Steamboat's crossbody on Windham leading to him holding Winhdam down so he couldn't interrupt the final three count. Always loved this and it won't ever go down, fantastic match.

Dustin Rhodes v Steve Austin (WCW 27/12/93)
--Man Austin's hair is so distracting here, it looks so goofy and stupid how it just flopsand wiggles atop his head like a mohawk pushed to one side. About the match, I have honestly never liked it very much at all. Dustin Rhodes vs. Steve Austin in 1993 with 2/3 falls sounds awesome, but this? Eh. I can't call this a bad match because they did enough to make me think it wasn't, and even though I contemplated skipping this half way through I wanted to see the rest, so that counts for something. This still does almost nothing for me and I think it's just..*too* basic, I guess. Dustin wants revenge for get hit with...something, at some point earlier in the feud, and Austin getting out the ring because he can't take it is great, but I kind of,  I don't know, waited for something great to happen and it didn't. The first fall goes like 15 minutes and the finish was good, with Dustin sending Austin into his manger, making Austin go over the top rope, but the second fall was just pointless really. Dustin busts him up before it starts, and can't put him away, so Austin gets this cheap win with the tights pulled, and I didn't really, you know, "care". The only thing I can say I really, really liked about this was Dustin sending Austin over the crowd railing and Austin give a dazed look as if he doesn't know how that could've happened. I should really watch Halloween Havoc 91 again because I remember liking that a lot more.

Rey Misterio Jr. v Jushin Liger (WCW 29/12/96)
--Wasn't expecting to think much of this because the past times I've watched it I thought it was disappointing for a Rey vs. Liger match, but shit, I really enjoyed it. Liger had a brain tumour operation four months before this and I can attribute him being slower to that, but if you're going to be slow in any match it should be in a match opposite Rey. I think Liger wanted the fans to kind of be 50/50 or something, and when they weren't, he goes "fuck it; Monster Killer Heel Liger time", and Monster Killer Heel Liger was awesome. Spends a chunk of time punishing Rey, and not "I need to win this match with these moves" punishing, he opts for "you little shit I like seeing you cringing" punishment. He's complainign to the ref about how Rey gave up in a surfboard and giving a Shawn Michaels-pose when dunking him and stuff. The Rey of 96 isn't the best Rey but he was great at taking stuff, especially powerbombs where he'd be holding his head and giving this high-pitched whelping. Liger's first powerbomb was a son of a botch of a powerbomb as well, and it gets annoying when the crowd are so crappy. I seriously would have settled for a 2011 SmackDown crowd over this, it was awful. They popped for Liger catching Rey in a mid-air dropkick and gave some "Rey" and "USA" chants, but during Rey's comebacks they were as hot as...something cold. Like ice cream.

Whole lotta WCW

Lex Luger v Ricky Steamboat (NWA 23/7/89)
--Luger around this time is generally good to great, but here he was ....well, not that *bad*, just, kind of sloppy I guess. A little. Steamboat around this time is pretty much no short of Flair around this time so this had to be good either way, and it was. Always love when Steamboat starts off a match on fire, with high dropkicks, atomic drops, chops, the whole deal, maybe getting everyone thinking that the match might end early. Love it an equal amount when he gets cut off in his tracks by something like a Lex Luger knee to the face. The segment where Luger's control is where he gets a little sloppy but it isn't a Raja Lion deal or anything. Steamboat has those "I'm coming back" moments where he slips a chop in after Luger hits something, again, maybe getting the crowd to believe he's coming back, then Luger stops him. Lexy himself was a pretty great complimentary dominate-your-ass heel to Steamboat's fight-for-what's-right babyface, and Steamboat's drunken-punching here was nothing short of Arn Anderson or Terry Funk level drunken punching. Steamboat's comeback was how you'd expect. CHOP FROM THE TOP. Luger refused to stick the belt up if the match was no DQ so the rules were swapped around to a regular match and that was a bit of a head-scratcher since he decided to try to make it a no DQ by brining the chair in and stuff. Steamboat getting disqualified for using the chair justifies that, I guess.

Arn Anderson/Larry Zbyszko v Dustin Rhodes/Ricky Steamboat (WCW 19/11/91)
--Steamboat's return from WWF and it's a huge favourite of mine. Anderson's yells of "NOT Rick Stemaboat..." are one of my favourite pre-match things ever, and him telling Zbyszko Stemaboat's "just a man" is one of my favourite in-match word..things.....ever..you get it. Babyfaces dominating early is classic NWA/WCW style tag formula, and unlike other certain babyface dominant crap, I adore it. I can watch a couple of WWE face guys in 2010 dominate a couple of WWE heel guys nowadays, and well, I don't "feel" it. But fuck that crap anyway, this is WCW in early 90s. Zbyszko and Anderson are one hell of a tag team, and I think their bag of tricks is about as good as anyones. Zbyszko getting into a tussle with Steamboat only to slap him in the face is like trying to rip off Jushin Liger's mask...you don't do it, man. Steamboat chases him on the outside and Zbyszko tags in Arn without Steamboat seeing it. Arn attacks when he slips back in to reveal it was all plan. The Enforcers' Steamboat beat-down section is as good as a heel-control segment gets. Them assisting each otherwith the abdominal stretches and boston crabs were awesome. I don't know how you think of pushing your partner's head back while they have a crab on but they did. One other great part was when Steamboat hit Arn with an atmoic drop, so you think he's getting the control back, until they collide heads after Arn bounces off the ropes and it make Steamboat's attack negated. Hot tag with Rhodes explodes everywhere eventually. Dustin being the guy to get the hot tag was a little "eh?" considering it was Steamboat's return, but Dustin's just SO good at being a face you just don't care. JR mentions he's 21 and I found that ridiculous, I can't think of too many 21 year olds I've seen in wrestling that were this good. In fact bar Rey Mysterio I can't think of any. Pop for the finishing Crossbody and stuff was insane.

Chris Benoit v 2 Cold Scropio (WCW 21/2/93)
--Thought this might not hold but I love the fact I was very wrong. Scorpio's a guy who's appreciated well for being a high-flying flippy guy but underappreciated for being an actual good worker. This is probably his best match, and the best Benoit match in the US for years. Liked the nice blend of mat stuff, hard hits and appropriate spots, great match. Fuck WCW for saying it went to 19:59 when it didn't even go 18:30 though.

Chris Benoit v Eddy Guerrero (WCW 16/10/95)
--Awesome for eight or something minutes, but I won't say it's a four star match or anything. Not complaining at all though, pre-ten minute matches almost don't get better. They fit the arm work with Eddy in there shockingly well with only five or something minutes remaining and Eddy sold it perfectly while they still managed to keep up the hurricanranas and dives they were doing before.

Chris Benoit v Kevin Sullivan (WCW 16/6/96)
--"Good", but I didn't think it was better than that. Sullivan was being a dick when pretty much refusing to sell borderline all of Benoit's offence while Benoit was doing bumps like the stair-throw and taking shit like toilet doors to the head. Suplex off of the table was a great finishing spot. Favourite part of the match might have been Dusty Rhodes' commentary

THERE'S A LAYDEH--THERE'S A LAYDEH IN THE MEYEN'S BAT'ROOM. WE GOTTA A WOMAN IN THE MEYEN'S JOHN HERE IN BALTIMORE.

Hulk Hogan v The Giant (WCW 10/8/96)
--Good enough, I guess. About as good as heel Hulk Hogan at 600 years old and Paul Wight in the first year of his career would get. Pretty slow, but I didn't want it any other way, they actually tried to outpower each other almost the whole thing (when Hogan wasn't doing some of the best stalling ever). There wasn't of this Hogan superman stuff either, he had to yank the gigiantic hair from the gigantic head of The Giant to even be in contention to win the Greco-Roman tie-ups. I loved when he pointed the refereee toward his head to show Wight was pulling his hair (when he wasn't), so the ref couldn't see HE was pulling Wight's hair. Nash and Hall's interference was done better than most mid-late 90s WCW run-ins as well. The Giant hulking up was something else.