WCW. From 1992.

Brian Pillman v Tom Zenk (WrestleWar 17/5/92)
--Liked this a lot, especially for a former partner match where neither guy is full-fledged heel. Zenk seemed to be the guy that was going heel; by the time Pillman had the majority of the match he'd go to the lnegths of faking injury. Pillman had the leg worked and Zenk would fall in a pile when he tried an Irish whip, so Pillman goes airbourne to finish him off. Zenk was milking it and he comes off as a bit of a dick. Which was great since babyface Zenk isn;t my (or anyone else's, from what I gather) cup of tea. Nothing to shove on a ballot for me, but another gem in the belt of WCW's '92 year.

The Steiner Brothers v Tatsumi Fujinami/Takayuki Iizuka (WrestleWar 17/5/92)
--This was better than Pillman/Zenk, if even basically a glorified spotfest. I thought there were enough nifty transitions and ground-and-pound for this to sidle away ever-so-slightly from the territory of a "spotfest", but what you remember about this one is the spots. And there were some really good spots. I particularly liked the one where Fujinami & Iizuka were attempting some sort of doomsday device with Rick on top, only for Rick to counter it with a suplex. It was a little sloppy, which is unsurprising given the move actually pulled off, but it made for a hell of a visual regardless. Iizuka's nose exploded somewhere in there, and i thoguht that added to whatever role he was playing...which I saw as "underdog". Sort of. Won't put this on the list either, but it goes in that '92 WCW belt.

Sting v Cactus Jack (Beach Blast 20/6/92)
--Watched this again because I thought it's drop a few places, and while it did, it's still awesome. I think I've seen this like 6 times now since first watching it 2008, and pretty much every time it holds up way better than I thought it would. Cactus takes more concrete bumps than I had remembered, the vertical suplex within the crowd barriers and the backdrop suplex where his head connects with the legs of the railing look nastier with each viewing. That sunset flip from the apron to the floor does as well. Totally makes him look like the looney shit-smahser that will do anything to inflict pain. him rubbing the chair after swinging it was bone-chillingly great as well, and I think he even apologized to it. Sting was pretty great in this, as well. I loved when Cactus had a leg-scissors around his waist and he was fighting off the crossfaces and giving a really good Herculean comeback. By the end of it it really felt like he had endured a flat out fight to the end. Shit's still awesome.

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.

And I Still Didn't Do It Justice

Rick Rude/Arn Anderson/Bobby Eaton/Larry Zbyszko/Steve Austin v Sting/Ricky Steamboat/Barry Windham/Dustin Rhodes/Nikita Koloff (WCW 17/5/92)

--It’s War Games and it’s one of the fieriest matches ever. I’ve never *really* seen the 1991 War Games as a match that’s really a super classic or anything, but this sure as hell was and I hope it got me warmed up for yet another 1991 re-watch (which I’ve watched probably four or five times). Maybe the build up to 1991 will help since I got a ton of the references in this one because of the rest of the Dangerous Alliance set. Austin starts for the Alliance and that prompts Sting’s team to get Windham in their since they’re feuding over the TV Title and Windham would love to get Austin alone in a cage to tear him apart. And he does, using that taped fist he’s had the whole year from being crushed with a car door, running Austin’s head into the cage and chewing on Austin’s bleeding face for five really quick minutes. I was thinking the whole beat down how cool it would be if the Alliance get desperate and set Rude in their early, and to my damned surprise they did, and Jim Ross’ reaction was great; “aw the heavy hitter; it’s the Unites States Champion”. It’s obvious the heels were getting the coin toss but for Rude to come in was just perfect. They obviously even the playing field as well. Well, 2-on-1 isn’t even, but Austin’s on the floor trying to gather himself so it works. Rude’s nailing away at Windham who’s still got enough fire power to strike back at certain points but there’s not enough he can do to keep them both down when Austin gets up. You get what’s expected after the next two minute period, Steamboat comes to *literally* even the playing field and is running through both Rude and Austin and then Windham recovers himself and the crowd just swallow every second of it. Enter Arn Anderson, who I thought was pretty much the star player in this thing, he comes in and DDT’s Windham and plants Steamboat and, naturally, the DA are in control again. Arn and Rude have a cool-looking double Boston Crab on Steamboat and then Dustin’s in and of course he’s whooping everyone and swapping the control over, there was an awesome spot where he gives Austin an atomic drop and Austin’s head hits the roof. Crowd were still burning hot and the two minute periods don’t give them much time to cool down. Zbyszko’s next and he’s having trouble with the rest of the Alliance, and that’s a terrific angle going into this, along with “Is Nikita really one of us; what will he do?”, and it’s so far so good until everyone’s in the ring. I’m not exactly sure where the part where Madusa got up on top of the cage was, but I remember Sting following her up there so it was before he got in. Either it was tremendous. She drops a phone down to Arn and he starts beating it on people’s heads. That phone got lost in the mix somewhere and I don’t know how, but it wasn’t seen from again after that. Sting getting in was particularly awesome, he picks up Rude in the gorilla press and pushes him upward continuously into the cage roof. Nikita’s the final guy for Sting’s team after Eaton comes in with a Madusa-taped fist, and after clocking a couple of DA’s guys, he looks Sting square in the face and you get this certain teased hostility that’s just unspeakably brilliant. Paul E’s yelling something in the background and he seems super excited that Nikita might be a turncoat. Then Arn and Austin try to get Sting from behind and Koloff pushes Sting out of the way so they hit him instead. Koloff still knocks those two over and then goes to Sting and instead of teased hostility we get hand clasping and hugging and a fiery, fiery crowd. So everyone’s in and it’s like your natural battle royal but there’s tons of blood, two rings, two cages, people coming off the tope rope, and spots like Arn’s head being put between the two rings by Windham and bounced up and down. Rude actually gets his head shoved there as well and he’s getting his legs pulled in different directions like a pair of scissors. I loved the spot where Zbyszko was throwing punches and he gets so exhausted that after getting the guy down he just collapses himself. The Dangerous Alliance spend some amount of time trying to take out one of the turnbuckles, and when they eventually get it off, you get Zbyszko holding the metal rod of it and Eaton holding Sting for Larry to hit him. And with Zbyszko having heat with the Alliance already, you KNOW what’s coming. Sting sways and Eaton’s arm gets plastered. Larry’s down and Sting makes Eaton submit with the armbar. With all the shit going on the crowd don’t even realise it until the announcement that Sting’s team won was made. The Dangerous Alliance are riding Zbyszko’s arse for costing them the victory and he gets shoved by a couple of people a couple of times, and Dangerously even goes to strike him from behind before Larry turned around. When it comes right down to it I’d probably have some matches above this one that other won’t, but that takes nothing away from the fact that this is an excellent, excellent match and arguably the best match for a company in a year where they were the best company in the world. Words won’t do this sort of match justice.

Every member of The Dangerous Alliance is your father and Madusa gave birth to you

Arn Anderson v Dustin Rhodes (WCW 4/1/92)

--I totally expect to have this higher than anyone else because I damn LOVE IT. Pretty much everything in here’s basic and there’s no defining moments of the match or anything but I adore the way it’s built and everything. Rhodes keeps cutting Anderson’s attempt at offence off with a little bit of arm work that isn’t too heavy so it makes you think it’s a long-term thing, but you can tell it isn’t painless and useless either. Arn creates probably the best possible counter for a hammerlock, backing Rhodes into a corner and head butting some hairs off of his head. None of AA’s attempts pay off and Dustin decides he’s given him too much offence and goes to the leg instead, banging it against pole and everything, the whole shebang. I can only think of Kawada in the ‘93 AJ tag and Kobashi in the ‘95 tag as being more favourable leg sells then what Anderson’s doing here as well, especially for the figure four Dus put on. Paul E’s expression of pure hopelessness on the outside are a thing of beauty as well (would word that differently but whatever) because he looks like he’s thinking there’s not a hope Arn will get back from all this. Eventually does, obviously, with a fuck of a spinebuster. Got to note how he takes a short while to actually show signs of improvement in his leg as well, he doesn’t just hop up and sell the leg the same the rest of the match and then just “decide” it’s okay. He gradually sells it less and less. Paul figures this all isn’t enough so when the right time comes he blasts Rhodes with his chunky arse 1992 telephone on the outside. AA throws Dustin’s shoulder into the post and goes to the shoulder, and uses pretty much the “classic Anderson strategy” of targeting a part until the wrestler is half dead. During this entire part you don’t see a sign of Dustin using anything that might put him at an unfair advantage, Anderson can use Paul E, he can rake the eyes, use the ropes, Dustin wants to win this fairly.  Match is ruled a disqualification anyway once we get a thousand interferences and a TV cut off from WCW’s trustiness, but the whole “Dustin never cheated” thing was a cool little side-story. Don’t expect to like this more than I do, folks.

Steve Austin v Ricky Steamboat (WCW 18/1/92)

--Ten minute time limit and these two don’t fuck around so this should be real fun, and it was. Five star stare-down after Steamer’s collar & elbowed into a turnbuckle, then a six star set of pin holds when Steamboat tries to end it early. And this is all real fast, Steamer’s coming from every direction like he’s his own army and Austin’s all by himself trying to dodge a million bullets. SEVEN STARS. After eight or ten Steamboat gets tired of it himself and using his “aerial tactics” as some like to call it. And this is all fast, totally damn fast, like Jeff-Hardy-match-on-fast-forward fast. Neither guy makes a screw-up either and both guys are in-sync to THE MAX. Steamboat isn’t giving Austin a milligram of offense either (the good way not the Liger vs. Otani 9/2/97 way). They pack it in after a ref push, a Madusa interference, Austin actually using some attack and a time limit draw. Just way too fun for a ten minute TV match, and to think this was the norm in WCW around this time is just……damn.

Bobby Eaton/Rick Rude/Steve Austin v Ricky Steamboat/Sting/Marcus Bagwell (WCW 18/1/92)

--Not even Bagwell can stop these matches from being fun (and he really fucking blows). He obviously isn’t the centre point of this or really any of the matches, but I obviously would’ve preferred Dustin Rhodes or Ron Simmons be in there. Match is real good with piles of re-watch value (like just about anything in 92 WCW). These matches rarely start off slowly either, this one was no different with Steamboat ducking Rude to get to the other DA members and clock the both of them. He then gets the shit on Rude and Rude’s selling an armbar and an atomic drop just incredibly. Bagwell comes in and gets punished for existing. Well lookey there he is good for something. I said Bagwell was obviously not the main focus, and here comes the main focus; Sting vs. Rude. Rude tries to go directly for him and you have the other members holding him back, there’s a huge big fight environment and everyone in the arena NEED to see them go at it. You just KNOW after Steamboat’s FIP that he’s tagging in Sting so he and Rude can blow it up. Too bad he tagged in Bagwell instead and created the most disappointing moment in tag team history. Still one fuck of a nine minute match, yeah that was all in nine minutes.

Bobby Eaton/Steve Austin v Sting/Marcus Bagwell (WCW 18/1/92)

--Eaton starts this one by slapping Bagwell’s face. God I love Bobby Eaton. Bagwell punches him in return which I thought was actually kind of neat...I guess. For Bagwell. My hate for Bagwell then sky rockets when he puts on the worst looking headlock I’ve ever seen. The FUCK do you not know how to put on a headlock?!?!? I’ve probably never even seen a worse headlock at my high school. It was just flat out BAD. *breathes out*….Ok Sting gets in and the match got a whole lot better (fucking Bagwell, man). Not long before Bagwell’s back in only to tag Sting in again. Sting gets caught in what looks like will be an FIP segment, but he thinks realistically that the top babyface in the company tagging in Bagwell isn’t going to look so good so he stops Austin’s offence and tags in Bagwell. Austin goes to start an FIP on him and of course Bagwell screws it up. Screwball. The other three try to save it but Bagwell eventually becomes the guy who gets a “hot” tag (wasn’t exactly “hot” but they wanted it to be, I blame Bagwell. Screwball). Bagwell’s shittyness aside this wasn’t terrible.

Arn Anderson/Bobby Eaton/Larry Zbyszko v Dustin Rhodes/Barry Windham/Ron Simmons (WCW 21/1/92)

--Windham’s over-anxiety and thirst for revenge costs him control at the beginning and I loved how it was already shaping out. No Marcus Bagwell this time either. The whole “Windham lost control” part was thrown out the window after the babyfaces get a triple figure four spot but I’m not complaining, I could watch this all day. Rhodes using a lariat to send Eaton over the top rope so he lands on that ramp-way thing was particularly great. Bobby is one of the top “heels getting chewed up by babyfaces” guys ever so this is all of course better than the Bagwell matches already. Watching this Dangerous Alliance stuff makes be shocked at how many babyface-chews-up-heels spots and segments can be done as well, and how these guys manages to mix it up wrestling more than once a week (and I’m sure they use some different stuff at love events as well). I love that “vintage” stuff as well (shut up I had no other word for it), like Windham’s flying lariats which he uses to level everyone. Complete disaster until Eaton takes one fuck of a fist before losing. Watching guys in tights touch each other just shouldn’t be this fun.

Rick Rude/Steve Austin v Sting/Ricky Steamboat (WCW 21/1/92)

--Rude slaps Sting in the face and you just WANT them to explode into a brawl. Rude played the hesitant role really really well here too, and Sting mocking Rude’s sexy pose might be the highlight of his career. Well, it was awesome anyway. Watching the Alliance freak the hell out when Steamboat and Sting start revenging there way by cheating and no-tagging was just a sight to behold. Pretty basic match apart from that, but I’d still rather watch this over mostly anything that’s happened in wrestling over the past four years. DA destroy security post-match.

Arn Anderson v Dustin Rhodes (WCW 25/1/92)

--Another match that doesn’t exactly have too much going for it in terms of being really great, but it’s just too fun to leave out. I don’t have any intention of writing about every match on the Dangerous Alliance set, and I haven’t, but there’s just *those* matches you can’t miss out. They keep it real simple to begin especially, then Anderson has enough of trying to shove on an unsuccessful headlock and now has a new goal of forcing some teeth out of Rhode’s mouth. Rhodes was nice here trying to keep it ground-based, and even when it gets a little faster Arn resorts to fake-blowing out his knee so Paul E. can call a time-out and he can fuck Dustin over. Plants a DDT on him and stomps on him just because. These matches tend to end with a Dangerous Alliance interference but they’re not important title matches or anything so more power to WCW.

Bobby Eaton/Larry Zbyszko v Rick Steiner/Scott Steiner (WCW 25/1/92)

--Eaton gets Zbyszko as a partner after Austin can’t wrestle because of a Barry Windham assault during the Anderson/Rhodes match (looked pretty nasty btw). Bobby’s the man, I liked his work in The Midnight Express before I *truly* sunk my teeth into DA, and he was probably better there, but something like failing to outclass Scotty Steiner on the mat then scurrying for the ropes and complaining about a hair pull is still must-see TV. The Steiners are two guys who to me need the right opponent otherwise they’re just okay. Believe me Eaton and Zbyszko are the perfect whiny little shits for them. The show of giving their opponent limited offence in a “we’re babyfaces and we love out fans and they hate you so we gonna whoop you up for them”. Eaton and Zbyszko sell the “can’t get the upper hand” stuff good, obviously. I remember them getting pretty pissed when Rick gives a Steiner-Line on the outside when he isn’t the legal guy and the way they complain in this or any match just gives you rewind button a hefty using. Another disqualification finish.

Arn Anderson/Bobby Eaton v Brian Pillman/Mike Graham (WCW1/2/92)

--Graham tries to hit the Figure Four from the get-go (he’s one of the 46829 people they call “The Master of the Figure-Four”), and when not trying it he tried a more “finesse” style, and Anderson is opposite to that (good mat worker, though) and goes for straight out sluggy FORCE. Turns into one of the bounce off the ropes sprint wars until Graham tags in Pillman without AA knowing and Pillman comes in with a flying lariat which I though was great. He doesn’t exactly have a Barry Windham flying lariat, but watching him catapult himself to get that extra “oomph” to the move is great. Eaton’s in and Anderson demands to be back in to get sweet revenge on Pillman’s arse. This is 1992 WCW so of course it isn’t too long until Pillman does something like a head-scissors which prompts Anderson to make the greatest surprise face of all time. A super FIP section and some referee-distraction stuff ends a really fun piece of work. Arn Anderson, peoples.

Steve Austin v Barry Windham (WCW 1/2/92)
--Windham’s got the hurt arm and thanks to Barry himself Austin has a hurt leg. It takes about three WCW in 1992 matches to realise the babyface is getting the offence first so obviously Windham goes straight for that leg before Austin has a chance to do anything. Ain’t nothing pretty about a pissed off Barry Windham but he manages to keep it less “evil vicious” and more “rightfully revengeful vicious”. Austin on the other hand needs no one in the crowd behind him so he’s all about the steel rail and apron usage when going straight for that arm. He undoes the bandages on the arm which gets Barry madder so he follows suit and undoes Austin’s bandages. Austin’s offence may be great but while taking the crap he put in this brilliant spot where Windham goes for an Irish Whip and he just falls over because of the leg instead of running limply. I swore I saw Windham look at him like “this kid knows what hes doing” after that. Austin was just that good in the five or whatever minutes that had to make this thing and it shows when he’s flopping everywhere like Ric Flair and the crowd of course love that stuff. Dangerously flipping out on the outside adds to any match that it’s included in so I have a hell of a time watching that as well. If some guy who’d never watched wrestling before put this on mute and watched it not knowing who’s who, they’d probably think Windham was a big a dick bully as there is.

Rick Rude v Tom Zenk (WCW 1/2/92)

--Rick. Friggin. Rude.  Man he was great, he shook Zenk’s hand, broke clean on a power struggle into the ropes, hit totally open-handed hits and was as fair as the bluest babyface. Totally reminded me of Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio from June 2005 where you could just tell this going to turn into something different and the heel’s just shoving mind-games everywhere. It doesn’t start to change when Rude’s eating a dropkick and armdrags, it takes him to nearly lose a test of strength for him to get so annoyed he’s just gotta pull that hair to win it. The match isn’t very long but it’s all about Zenk’s back following that and I thought Zenk was pretty damn good complaining about how hurt it was. Rude was Rude.

Bobby Eaton v Dustin Rhodes (WCW 1/2/92)

--I don’t know how most people rank Bobby Eaton but he just keeps climbing higher and higher on a best wrestlers list for me, and he does those little touches better than almost anyone I can think of. It takes a special kind of wrestler to come up with punching his opponent directly in the face and then shaking his valet’s (in this case Madusa’s) hand following it. He obviously took a punch for that but it’s still that little touch that’ll give your rewind button a nice exercise. Eaton’s a guy who’ll slap you so you can run after him only to be poked in the eyes as well. That doesn’t pay off either but it leads to him clubbing Dustin while being caught in an armbar. No fancy twists, no leg cut offs, no cartwheels, just a club. Paul E.’s got the idea to referee-distract so Bobby and Madusa can do all sorts of illegal things to Rhodes (yes I said that), jabbing him in the throat and all that. I like it when Eaton teases using the Alabama Jam (top rope leg drop) and uses and elbow instead. Turns out to be a mistake when he tries a swinging neckbreaker only for Dustin to hold the ropes and Bulldog his face into the floor. If I had to put any less than six minute match on my list it would be this one.

Arn Anderson/Larry Zbyszko v Marcus Bagwell/Sting (WCW 1/2/92)

--Arn Anderson might be the best ever at swallowing babyface punishment. When you make Mucus Bagwell’s offence even slightly entertaining you’re the best in the world. There’s no piece of offence in here from the faces worth mentioning in particular but I just have to note that. Zbyszko’s no slouch either but ARN ANDERSON. Larry slaps Bagwell and that prompts Bagwell to want to get in and when he does he starts acting all dominant as if he fits in or something. Anderson’s hitting a DDT on his worthless arse and says “BRAINS OVER BRAWN ALL THE TIME” into the camera. **********5/6. That DDT sets up my favourite part of the match where DA torture Mucus. With Mucus being the worthless piece of dung he is, Anderson needs to over-showboat and stall for Fagwell to nearly get a tag. Dumbass Bagwell doesn’t know how to sell a snapmare either. Screwball. Blind Sting tag but who cares all I have to know is Bagwell got plastered with a telephone courtesy of one Paul Heyman.

Larry Zbyszko v Ricky Steamboat (WCW 8/2/92)

--Steamboat has some masked guy out with him that’s supposedly a ninja. Okey dokey. Zbyszko sees him and yells at Steamboat to “get that piece of crap outta here” with Madusa bitching about how he has to have a licence. Madusa doesn’t even want to get down off of the apron and stand on the same floor as the guy and he’s moving less than Chyna when she was HHH’s bodyguard. Anyway Zbyszko is the best whinging baby ever, complaining about the tights being pulled afyer a backslide and having this smug look on his face while having a headlock like a little kid who has the bestestest trading card on the whole playground. He even blames the ninja for ruining his concentration when things don’t go his way. He’s on the outside and says to a crowd “you obnoxious fat slob keep your mouth shut”. I was in awe by this point. I can’t write a hefty amount on the actual “wrestling” part of the match but this was the shit.

Arn Anderson/Larry Zbyszko v Ricky Steamboat/Barry Windham (WCW15/2/92)

--The four guys involved alone was reason enough alone to be excited about this, throw in the fact they brought the ninja and that anticipation goes way high up (NINJA :mark:). There’s a good amount of talk whether Anderson or Rude was the best in WCW (or the world, for that matter) in 1992, but I have to say I’ve lead towards Arn the whole time. It’s juts a combination of everything he does in there while keeping the same formula and mixing it up, all the same time throwing in those things like pointing to his head to indicate how smart he is and then widening his eyes as far as they can go when he gets caught off guard. Rude has all of that too (not those specific things, exactly), but I think Arn was just that bit better. He’s pretty much been the star of every match I’ve seen him in here too, even if Rude’s involved. Anyway this is pretty much a standard tag from this time, as in, standard actions not standard quality. Then again the s

Rick Rude v Brian Pillman (WCW 15/2/92)

--Out of all the “Rude squashes an inferior wrestler without actually squashing him” matches, this has to be by far the best one. Rude goes for a handshake like in the match with Zenk, but Pillman doesn’t accept, and that don’t fly well with Rude who’s got Pillman’s fuzzy little head in a headlock following that. Pillman’s all about his “Flyin’” quickness and that all that so he’s running around and eventually gets to Rude’s leg. Jim Ross calls it “Pillman confusing Rude”, which in turn confused me because I think if you’re the smaller guy going for a leg is good, but whatever, he’s Jim Ross :P. One thing I’ve mentioned before about these Rude “squash” matches is how Rick makes the guy almost looks like he can win, he leaves way for all of his signature “got this in the bag” moves like Air Pillman and all that, and you get the feeling it could be a short while before they give you a Razor Ramon/123 Kid-lioke upset or something. They DON’T, obviously, but you get the feeling it could happen.

Arn Anderson/Bobby Eaton/Larry Zbyszko/Rick Rude v Sting/Barry Windham/Dustin Rhodes/Ricky Steamboat (WCW 22/2/92)

--On paper this is the greatest tag team match of all time, not quite there when it comes down to it but it’s really a ball of a match. You have to love it when the babyfaces sense the crowd could have an explosion and go for the heels before the bell rings so they’ll be all hot and everything. It eventually waters down to Eaton vs. Windham but after Eaton takes a little they’re back to a little insane bulldozer segment. I’m not too a big a fan of when multi-man tags al have their own separate little feuds and all that, but when you have one big main one, namely Sting vs. Rude which the crowd is really fiery for, I can dig that a lot. Dustin Rhodes becomes the face in peril after a bit of cheating and stuff. DA working a body part over is always fun (hitting the leg this time), because they usually pull a fast one like Anderson faking a tag so Sting can come in and turn the ref’s attention onto himself while they all swarm Rhodes like a flock of Pikmin on a Red Bulborb. Hot tag was superb, Rhodes gets Steamer in while IN an atomic drop. Crowd loses their heads, I lose my head. Not taking this one off.

Arn Anderson/Bobby Eaton/Larry Zbyszko/Cactus Jack v Sting/Marcus Bagwell/Rick Steiner/Scott Steiner (WCW 22/2/92)

--I may look at Bagwell as poison but when he does something like hitting a slap in retaliation to a slap, I have to admit he isn’t a bad babyface. Just a screwball. I prefer Rick Steiner cleaning everyone up with Lariats and belly-to-bellies. You’d have to be nut to think this went any other way in the openings than faces steam-rolling heels until a cheat put them in front. Cactus menaces Scott Steiner for that, and while I think Scotty recovered a bit too early, I thought it was all right when it lead to Bagwell being dropped on his head for the pin. Yayz.

Arn Anderson/Bobby Eaton/Larry Zbyszko v Brian Pillman/Tom Zenk/Marcus Bagwell (WCW 7/3/92)

--I was hoping DA would spend the whole match wrenching Bagwell’s neck (which was in a brace…..:mrgreen:), and when I saw Arn Anderson mock Bagwell by holding his own neck, I lost my shit. Brian Pillman makes for a good hot tag guy, but he was FIP here and I prefer him in that, especially being the vanilly rookie who loves everyone and points towards the SKY. Probably my favourite parts of the whole FIP segment were Arn tagging Eaton in while in the middle of Pillman’s backslide hope spot, and tagging in Zbyszko while in a sunset flip hope spot. Bagwell’s the hot tag, and talking as an unbiased observer, I thought that was a real head-scratcher given he had a broken neck. It would have been horrible anyway because you know, Bagwell’s the hot tag, but Bagwell with a broken neck? Fuhgettaboutit. At least he got his neck dropped on the ropes for the finish. :) I’d watch this again for sure.

Arn Anderson v Ricky Steamboat (WCW 21/3/92)

--There’s those under ten minute matches that are “surprisingly good for the time given”, and then there’s *those* under ten minute matches that I’d gladly call a great fucking match compared to anything. This is one of *those* and probably my favourite >ten minute match ever. And Arn Anderson’s my favourite shtick ever. Maybe. I adore how he thinks he has the upper-hand in a match and does something to make you think he knows he’s smart, like point to his own head, and be met with a wake up call. And Ricky Steamboat’s my favourite Hawaiian ever, he’s awesome at hope spots because a lot of what he does is just that simple but effective. You can believe a chop is going to stop someone in their tracks, but it won’t derail them completely. He takes a fuck of a shoulder bump as well, and I remember the greatest sunset flip balance I’ve ever seen as well. Man for ten minutes they got a HUGE ton of back and forth stuff (and it wasn’t the “your turn, my turn” deal that I’m not fond of) in and I love how it ends swiftly with Anderson’s lifting his knees on a crossbody. Built some very good “anybody’s ballgame” stuff too. I was in awe of the spinebuster and then looked over at Paul E. and he was in awe of it and I was in awe of him being in awe of it. Little later he tries to interfere and Steamboat does the deal where he looks around the crowd asking whether he should dice him or not (he does). Disqualification wasn’t a problem at all because it came a time where I thought the match was taking a more hectic turn and Rude coming in adds to that hectic…ness…icity. Honestly ten minutes or not I’d gladly call this a “great” match. So, great match.

Bobby Eaton v Ricky Steamboat (WCW4/4/92)

--I think the match itself went four or six minutes, but it’s really the post-match stuff you want here. The match is great for however long it was, the timing and execution was just perfect, and Steamboat selling a top rope knee drop by crunching his face and shivering and vibrating his arms was just uber-awesome. The ref bump is where shit really goes down. You have Madusa being a complete bitch to Steamboat, slapping him and stuff, and Steamboat gives a demented psycho Bruce Lee look and slaps her one back. Wasn’t two seconds before she was crying like a whiny hypocritical little shit baby and Steamboat apologising his absolute arse off realising he just hit someone with boobs. That distracts him enough for the rest of the Alliance to come in and wipe him left and right, they get to the concrete area and the babyfaces come to Steamboat’s aid when he’s bleeding. WCW around this time had a no-no on televised blood so they blurred it, and I have to say I kind of liked that because it made it look more violent and it gave you the feel that this was something to really be concerned about, not “hey look it’s BLOOD GUYS BLOOD ECWECWECWECWECW”. There’s blood dripped on the concrete as well and Sting’s unsurprisingly the guy to ultimately save Steamboat. Not much of a match, or nomination, but this as a whole was just glorious.

Steve Austin v Tom Zenk (WCW4/4/92)

--Andy’s disdain for Zenk is well documented and I’ve seen Craig him a cunt a few times over, and I’m not one who’s willing to defend him in something like “Tom Zenk vs. The World” or anything, but I think he can be good, and a lot better than someone like, I don’t know, Bagwell? Just pulling a name out of the hat there. He’s “bleh” and everything but he’s the sort of guy who I think is carry-able in a match like this instead of being the guy who’d pull a match down. With that noted he was pretty garbage here. The match as a whole isn’t bad, and Austin did what he could, but if I had to choose one match to not watch on the Dangerous Alliance set ever again it might be this. It’s 2/3 falls and I thought the first fall was done well, and I would’ve been content with a one fall match and it ending there. It was basically wrestling with Austin getting the fall from pulling Zenk’s tights and being helped by Paul E’s distracting. Second fall had a teenee tiny sub-story of Zenk coming back, and Austin worked over the arm so I thought the blow-off could have been great. What was blown off was Austin’s arm work. He took Zenk to the pole and barricade and all that and Zenk basically goes into an armlock of his own, and for whatever reason goes to Austin’s arm. Huh? Austin tries to get back to Zenk’s arm but again Zenk blows it off and gets the second fall from who knows where. Huh???? Zenk’s taken a fair bit of punishment by the end of the third fall and Austin’s taken a lot less, but Zenk gets a lot more of the upperhand and sells a lot less. HUH!?!??

Arn Anderson/Rick Rude/Steve Austin v Barry Windham/Dustin Rhodes/Ricky Steamboat (WCW 4/4/92)

--You know THOSE matches that you have no idea what write about but they need to be here? There’s really nothing separating this from a regular tag match but it’s just the structure and execution of the whole thing. Normally when writing about a great match I’d mostly mention the stuff I haven’t or have rarely seen, the little additions and that. There really isn’t much I can write about here without stating the obvious or being really redundant. It’s really basic, babyface’s dominate, hot tag, Paul E’s there, he’s doin’ stuff, heels cheat, disorder, yadda yadda yadda. I’m not even trying to make it sound bad because it was fucking great and I wouldn’t have taken it any other way. I just really wanted to write something about this and had no idea what. So there.