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.

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

I Think We Should Split Up

La Parka/Psicosis/Villano IV v Juventud Guerrera/Hector Garza/Lizmark Jr. (WCW 13/7/97)
--Thought this might be nothing more than a pile of moves (which admittedly I probably wouldn't have had a problem with), but I thought the little sub-stories involved were good. Started with Psicosis trying to get the upperhand on Lizmark but being foiled every time, and that kind of thing only lasted like 90 seconds, but it's kind of thing I can get into for that short time. Garza comes in to get Psicosis and Villano gets in and just cleans everyone and starts punishing Garza. Didn't think that would last long since I expected a whole lotta tecnico domination, and I was right. I could tell they going to win and control most of the match, but if knowing who wins is going to bother me in a match I wouldn't enjoy 75% of the stuff I watch. Just enjoyin' the ride. A fair bit of this felt a little choreographed, but I kind of got the impression if it was a Mexican crowd with Mexican commentary and shitty VQ I wouldn't have criticized it, so I won't. And actaully i thought some of the "you know this is coming" shit was really good. I knew Psicosis was going to miss that bump (love his bumps, btw), I knew Sonny Onno was going to accidentaly hit La Parka, I knew everyone was going to miss the top rope splashes after the second person, but it's all great. Didn't like the spinning top rope-to-the-outside-jump-on-everybody spot though, reminds me of Money in the Bank ladder stuff. Thought the rudos might have actually had a chance at winning after Villano V came out, which was a nice cherry on a tasty lil' sundae. Won't be surprised if this is somewhere from 90-100, and at the same time I won't be at all upset if it fell off completely. honestly when it comes to lucha in WCW I can be a guy who says sarcastically "lucha libre is short matches on Nitro", but this isn't actually at all far off from what AAA would be doing, and about as good an example of lucha libre in the US that I can think of.

Eddy Guerrero v Chris Benoit (WCW 20/10/97)
--I love how Guerrero comes to ring all mopy and curve-mouthed only to be yelling his fucking head off at his opponent when the match goes on. Thought Eddy himself was fantastic here, I mean there's onyl so much you can do in the amount of time they had, but they nailed it and Eddy was the star. It's awesome how he's been eating everything Benoit's got and after actually get into offense he taunts the crowd to make it look like Benoit's recovery was because of wasted time on Guerrero's part instead of Benoit being superman. I really, really doubt Benoit would have put himself off a superman, or anything similar, but in under six minutes to work with there's only so much offense a shitcocky heel shoudl get in whether he's reatining or not. Love how Benoit's chops played a role throughout, like in getting Eddy from the apron to the barricade so he can dive on him. Finish made Guerrero look like a dickhead who could've won without giving Benoit more punishment but he does anyway because he's Cruiserweight Champion and you piece a shit will count his shoulders down. What was the longest match these two had in WCW?

Steve Austin/Brian Pillman v Dos Hombre #1/Dos Hombre #2 (WCW 23/5/93)
--Okay Cage match that I've never really loved. Dos Hombres are apparantly Ricky Steamboat and Shane Douglas, but one of them is injured or something so they put the both of them in masks so the crowd couldn't tell, or something, I'm not sure. Either way it was stupid and I'm calling them both Hombres. So, basic face > heel formula to begin, Austin was the best guy in the match by far I thought, taking bumps intot he cage and yelling offensive slurs all over the place. Hombre #1 "Steamboat" was all right, and Pillman & Hombre #2 just felt kind of "there". There was a spot where Austin had his leg hooked on the top of the cage and Hombre #1 goes for a crossbody and Austin drops (as if he's supposed to avoid it, and drops too late or something so they both fall on each in a big messy heap. Dumb spot anyway. By the offence on Hombre #1, I knew it wasn't Steamboat and he was the one replaced by some guy with the same eyes as him or whatever. Then Steamboat's replacement climbs to the top of the cage to do a crossbody on both Blondes, takes off his mask, and, it IS Steamboat. Shit. So he hits this gigantic crossbody, the refs counts Austin or Pillman or both down for two, and WCW moron on the outside decides it's three and dings the bell. Blah blah blah Austin gets the pin on the guy who's still masked. *******1/2

Steve Austin v Brian Pillman (WCW 10/11/93)
--this was more like it. Nine minutes of two former partners beating and cheating each other to a piss (well Austin was cheating anyway). Crowd weren;t that great but they created a good reaction when Austin would grab the ropes only for the ref to slightly see it, so the ref tells him off and Austin goes "yeah, yeah I got it" "OKAY", and he's got that Texan I-permanently-have-a-carrot-stuck-in-my-throat voice that made him famous. Obviously he grabs the ropes again. First half of the match was the two guys crushing each others backs and stuff on the outside and Pillman trying to manually remove all of Austin's teeth with his fists, and it was awesome. Finish is one of the most bizarre things I've ever seen.

Chris Benoit v Booker T (WCW 14/6/98)
--Booker had a bothered leg that Benoit ignored the whole umpteen minutes of the match. The announcers chalk it down to a few things, Benoit going for the upper body so Booker would be weak as a whole, or Benoit targeting that to hit the crossface. WEll, I don't think he even did hit the crossface. Pretty confusing that I thought Booker might have been better than Benoit here. Benoit wasn;t terrible or anything and maybe he was told NOT to go for the leg b/c Booker was facing Finlay later on and maybe Fit had to go for it, but it kind of bugged me that he didn't even HINT at touching. I won't say this was a bad match at all though, it was pretty damn good. I liked the sub-match story (if that's what you can call it) of Booker wanting to hit his Missile Dropkick and Benoit preventing it at all costs. Benoit using a Full Nelson Suplex was awesome and they played off their previous match with this one being the 8th of the best of 7 series b/c they were tied. They had some count-out stuff, or something. Won't nominate or vote this, even if Benoit did go for the leg (did I mention he didn't?).

Bret Hart v Chris Benoit (WCW 4/10/99)
--At the moment I think I'll have this in my bottom ten and I'm glad it held up okay, but it felt like a bit of a weirdly structered match. What i'm about to write is going to make it sound like I disliked it, which I definitely didn't, but, well, just read on. First batch of minutes were great, I thought, it was a good "technician vs. technician" portion that didn't have any crap that would've been unfitting in a tribute match. I don't necessarily think Hart in his peak is as close to a "technician" as even Benoit was in 2006, but you got to look a little kayfabe to appreciate some things. After the techy stuff was where the match kind of, well I don't want to say took a turn for the worst, but it's where I was a little confused at how it was built. It was basically a match where they each took turns in offence and I liked what they were doing quite a bit, but the shifts of offence were pretty weoird, like the attacks came out of nothing. I'm not being a guy who's sitting with a pad and paper to ananlyse this either, I just noticed that t was a little off. Hart's first segment was perfect, though, target the back to get ready for the Sharpshooter, brilliant. After that though it;d be like Benoit getting in control, Hart getting in control, Benoit getting in control, with no "body" I guess. Then Hart finally goes to lock the Shooter in and it's reversed into a Crossface, which I thought was a little silly considering Benoti went for the Crossface later and Hart turned it into the Shooter. I really thought it should've been done the other way around, with Benoit being on offence, trying to hit the Crossface, and Hart reversing it to make the back-work come 360. When it's said and done this will probably be in my 97 spot or something.

El Hijo del Santo x Dos

El Hijo del Santo/Eddy Guerrero v Perro Aguayo/Leon Chino (WWA ?/?/90)
--Santo is seriously a contender for my best worker EVER. The crowd kinda, wasn;t as interested as they probably should have been (they weren;t dead at all, but, kinda, not too loud), and Santo saw that and just went totally relentless on Perro. He grabbed a chair from the crowd and whacked his head with, and stole an audience member's drink and threw it right in his face. Never knew Perro actually had a decent amount of mat skill either, all I hear is how he's such a wild brawler. Definitely worth a watch.

El Hijo del Santo/Super Astro/Kendo v Negro Casas/Blue Panther/Fuerza Guerrera (UWF 4/6/90)
--I heard this was the first of Hamada's UWF and holy shit if that's true this could NOT have been any better. Nothing serious in terms of rudo v technico, but it was six guys having a shitload of fun. Crowd ate up every second, there were cheers going for like evry guy. Real awesome mat work, Negro's chop/slaps are a thing of beauty, and Santo makes having the best timing ever look easy. It being handheld quality probably stops it from being a good introduction to Lucha, but it's real, real great. In short, this the Lucha Libre version of ECW Barely Legal's 3-on-3 w/Sasuke, Hamada, TAKA, etc.

Looky what I found

Wrote these MONTHS ago and dug them up from a thread on a forum. Expect more wow-I-forgot-I-wrote-this-I'll-blog-it posts as well.

El Hijo del Santo/Solomon Grondy/Rayo de Jalisco Jr v Perro Aguayo/Mascara Ano 2000/Cien Caras (EMLL 9/9/90)
--This was just overly *too much* fun in the best way possible. Went for like twenty minutes I think and had me hooked the entire time with not a single second boring, not one second. It kind of opened my eyes to a couple thing too, like Perro being a damn entertaining guy to watch. Right when the bell was rung he had already gone straight for Santo and Santo was paying him back the whole match almost ignoring his partners and just singling him out to full-force rip him apart. I always thought Perro was a Bruiser Brody-type who was awkward with selling and barely moved, but he was pretty nimble and bumped well. Going to have to watch some of his simgles stuff. Another guy I thought was impressive was Grondy, he's fat, like, fatter than Mark Henry fat, but he was doing all he could to squash the rudo team and make the crowd cheer. He even did this neat little dropkick to send Ano 2000 to the outside and then faked a jump over the ropes. It had bezerk crazy stuff like that consistantly, hell the second fall ended in a total referee-ignoring all-over-the-place brawl with trumpet music in the damn background. Cien Caras had his mask taken off by Jalisco too which caused him to have his face covered by a black clothe and scamper out of the arena. This is the sort of "why I watch Lucha Libre" match.

El Hijo del Santo/Eddy Guerrero/El Satanico v El Brazo/Brazo de Oro/Brazo de Plata (EMLL 16/9/90)
--Brazo de Plata (I think t was him) was awesome in this here. If he wasn't jumping on Santo with his fat glutes he was doing dive presses to try to kill El Satanico. Everyone else was great, too, but he was on fire. Loved it when all three Brazos grabbed Santo in a mocking manner to pose for the video camera and then tried to take his mask off. Santo's like Liger, man he'll kick the crap out of you for trying to his mask off, then he'll dive out onto you because he fucking can. Eddy was already good in 1990 and he was doing a really good job at playing the young guy trying to make a name and stay competitive with everyone else. Felt like every wrestler had some role to play for the match and it couldn't have been much better.

El Hijo del Santo v Brazo de Oro (UWA 13/1/91)
--Yay this holds up. The first and second falls aren't anything "classic" or anything but watching Santo beat Oro bloody with the ring post after losing the first fall is an awesome way to spent a few minutes. In the first fall Oro was great at making Santo look vulnerable and almost pathetic, and in the second it was pretty much swapped around with Santito bursting into a different gear and kncoking Oro senseless. Third fall is probably what you'd expect from mask vs. hair match, switching it to "classic" levels of awesome, full with all the near falls, planchas and dives you could hope for in a match like this. Oro's no 180-pounder like Santo, either, when he dives he takes his whole gut with him and really lays into you. No fancy mat work in this one, just two pro wrestlers beating each other bad and making you forgot they're only 5'7" apiece. One of the best matches of 1991 imo.

Negro Casas v El Hijo del Santo (UWA 3/1/91)
--"Perfectly in sync" is an understatement for how good these two are together, they make everything they do look so effortless without any screw-ups or botches, they're bordering on Flair/Steamboat levels. Some the things Santo would do looks impossible for a human being to pull off, and doing it with such flow and connectivity with his other moves, it blows your freaking mind. Pretty different match from some of their others, this was almost all submission-based work with near-fall stuff near the end. No Negro being a cheat and trying to mock Santo, no Santo trying to rip out Negro's hair. They just wanted to be the better man and wrestler and beat the other cleanly. Negro getting the clean win was unexpected for me, too.

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.