QnD Reviews #5

More random musings from yours truly. This time I might even edit them a bit so they make a bit more sense and don't read like message board posts (which, of course, they are)...

-I'm working through a disc of World Class from '82 that's boring me to tears, quite frankly. It's mostly focused on Bugsy McGraw, who I've never seen in a good match. His matches at this point are mostly just shtick because he'd been around for like 20 years and he's also working a gimmick where he just does random, goofy stuff for no apparent reason. The kids LOVED him, though. Getting ready to watch a match with King Kong Bundy and Harley Race.

-David Von Erich was truly fantastic and would have only gotten better, since he seemed to be the one who not only wanted to wrestle the most, but the one that was willing to branch out from Texas and learn from people outside of his family. Every single match I've seen him in, from squash to main event, has made him look like every bit the star he was pushed as.

-Not sure how many people the Sportatorium held (wiki says 4000), but the heat produced by the crowd was just insane. It must have been deafening to be there live.

-They were crazy over, but the Freebirds as the happy go lucky babyface duo (no Buddy Roberts because, really, who could like him? He comes across as the biggest douchebag lush you'd never want to meet.) just doesn't compute. I'm glad that I've reached the point to where they were the biggest heels in Texas and concerned themselves with nothing but women, booze and crippling anyone named Von Erich.

-Checkmate is amazing. He doesn't get featured a lot on what I'm watching, but he's a European guy who just works circles around everyone. I (and most others, apparently) always thought this was Les Thornton, but apparently it's a guy named Tony Charles under the mask. At any rate, if he were working today, people would be going bonkers over him.

-They hype a match between Brody and Bam Bam Bigelow, which isn't shown. There's one of those dream matches that I never thought of until that point.

-Lots more Brody/Abby stuff on the discs I'm watching. Fun brawls, but they really run together at this point. There is a spot I loved, though, where the idiot ref gets into Abby's face to make him break a choke. Abby looks at him, casually pulls a fork from his tights and stabs him right in the face. He never even changed expression. It was tremendous.

-Another day, a few more hours worth of WCCW in the bag. We've inexplicably jumped ahead to '88 and yeah...I really wish we'd get back to '83 already, because there's a whole bunch of crap here. I did mark out for a completely random Masa Chono run in, but that was one of the highlights of what I watched over the past few days. He's rail thin and looks to be all of 20 years old. If even.

-There are some fun matches between Chris Adams and Terry Taylor, but they'd already run this exact feud for Bill Watts, so I'm sure they'd worked each other hundreds of times by this point. This is where the Chono interference comes in as well, as he's one of Taylor's stooges.

-The other big angles of this time period flow together, as you have the Freebirds breaking up and KVE feuding with Iceman Parsons for the world title. Steve Simpson gets blinded by Freebird hair cream (an angle that needs to make a comeback pronto) and that leads to Terry Gordy being the greatest ass kicking tweener ever. He hates all of the heels and he hates all of the faces, but he feels responsible for Simpson being blinded, so he decides to team with Shaun Simpson and go after Tatum/Victory.

-I also watched the first disc in Goodhelmet's Dick Murdoch comp. I don't know that I've ever watched this much wrestling from the 70s in one sitting and it was pretty phenomenal. Other than being a flippy dude, I don't think there's one style of wrestling that Dick Murdoch wouldn't have been the best in the world at if he wanted to be. What a great stooging ass of a heel who would turn around and throw the greatest worked punches I've ever seen. He had great timing with comedy spots as well, which is something you didn't see a ton of in those days. It really made him stand out as something different.

-Going back and forth between Goodhelmet's Murdoch and Windham comps at the moment. Mostly Windham at the moment. I'm entirely through his original NWA run. While he wasn't quite as amazing in the ring as he was the 18 months prior, his first run with the Horsemen is my favorite section of his career. He was pretty much born to be a Horseman. He just fit in so perfectly. It's funny...I've seen (and already own) almost every match on this set, but I'm happily watching it all again because he's just so goo. In my mind, Windham at his best is what every pro wrestler should aspire to be. As we move on, there's only one match from his Widowmaker run (vs. Tito Santana) and a match versus Jumbo in All Japan, then we're into the WCW era with his second go as a Horseman and tagging with Dustin Rhodes. You just can't go wrong with this set.

As far as Murdoch goes, I've reached the 80s and his first run through Mid South. That people don't sing his praises on a daily basis is almost criminal. There's some fun matches versus Pat O'Connor and maybe the best Kevin Von Erich matches I've ever seen. It wasn't usually the case with Kerry, but I'm starting to think that the other Von Erichs were at their best when they *weren't* wrestling in Texas. This makes me want to pick up all of the St Louis stuff that's ever been released as well, as I'd only seen individual matches before this. Here, you get some interview segments and see some angles play out and it seems like Sam Muchnick was every bit the promoter that he was always been hyped to be.

-Watched the first disc of the Mr. Perfect set. The doc wasn't up to their typically amazing standards, but it's still worth a watch if you're a fan. Even if it's just for the behind the scenes look at his vignettes. Joe Hennig kinda looks like Matt Morgan. No idea how big he is, but I can see him riding the family name to a great deal of success. If he's actually talented, well then all the better...

-I watched all of the Lawler/Kaufman stuff on the Memphis set (as in the DVDVR Best of the 80's Memphis set) as well. 90 minutes of some of the best worked shoot stuff that you'll ever see. I'm blown away more and more every time I see it. I need to find out if "I'm From Hollywood" ever got a DVD release. Comedy Central used to show it from time to time, but I haven't seen it in ages. You couple that movie with the footage I watched and I don't think you could get a more comprehensive look at the feud if you tried.

-Finished off the Windham set. Can't stress enough as to how worth it this set is. Some amazing matches/angles. I had forgotten just how great the team and eventual split with BW/Dustin was.

-Watched the second disc of the Hennig set. First time I saw the broadway match w/ Bock since it originally aired. Just a remarkable match. Both in the ring, where it went back and forth at a great pace the entire time and even on commentary, where they really managed to put it over as something special.

-Rodman Down Under. This wasn't very good, though I wasn't expecting it to be. Any entertainment it offered was usually for all the wrong reasons. I'm still trying to figure out why the commentators buried Johnny Grunge, basically cracking fat jokes about him throughout the entire match. Funnier yet is that Road Warrior Animal actually looked fatter, but they claimed he was in great shape. At any rate, I got it at Wal-Mart for a buck, so at least I got my money's worth. Heh.

-Raven/Sullivan shoot. Lots of fun stories and it would certainly be educational in terms of building a gimmick, but Raven talks too much and doesn't let Sulli get his stories out.

-Ian Rotten Roast. A lot of inside jokes that you'd have to be a big IWA fan to get. King is pretty funny, though, and this footage would be a decent example to site if you find yourself in the "is Mickie Knuckles attractive?" argument, as she cleans up pretty nicely.

-Finally, went back to the Murdoch set. I really want to finish this before I dive into the Memphis set. Last disc I watched was focused around Adonis/Murdoch versus the Samoans and versus Inoki/Fujinami in New Japan. I've not seen much early 80's NJPW, so I was astonished at how popular Inoki was. Anyone who thinks that Japanese crowds sit on their hands should watch some of these matches, because it would be hard to find a crowd any louder for such a prolonged period.

-Down to the last 2-3 matches in the Murdoch set. Much like the Windham set, I don't think I could give it a higher recommendation. I went in being familiar with Murdoch and knowing that he was awesome, but not really familiar with a lot of his best work. I'm coming out of it convinced that he's one of the best workers who ever laced up a pair of boots. The guy was a machine in the ring. He could tear it up on the mat if that's what the match called for, but the old standard of punching dudes in the face worked just as well. That he was a great talker and had some of the best facial expressions in the business was just icing on the cake.

CHIKARA - Grit & Glory - Disc One

This kinda blew my mind, as it was the first show (other than the current WWE/TNA shows) I've watched in about a month and a half that occurred since '99. Made it come off a bit sloppier than I'd normally notice, but it made all of the lucha stuff look state of the art as well.

-We open with a great Haze/Chucky T promo, as Daizee rambles on about beating Death Rey 5 times in one second and Taylor cracks me up with a line about KoT, saying that the entire crowd must have been Bobby Dempsey's parents that night, because no one loved him. Heh.

-The mixed tag itself was pretty bad, but I loved the bit where the women wrestled straight up, but when Chuck Taylor tagged in, he proceeded to engage in a catfight with Dempsey, with the ladies having to pull them apart. Oh, CHIKARA, how I've missed thee.

-ONST/Super Smash Bros. was pretty fun. Lots of innovative stuff from the SSB, though this match was largely built around Donst being heelish and Hydra being ignored by Mantis.

-This is pretty much the year of Vin Gerard. How ridiculous is that thought? Yet it's all been awesome and it turns out that he doesn't totally suck after all! He picks apart Lince's knee in this match. Lince even remembers to sell it, except for all of those times when he's springing to the top doing wacky lucha stuff. *sigh*

-Six man w/ Quack/Skayde/Turbo vs Claudio/Pantera/Dutt was friggin' amazing. One of my favorite matches this year, actually. Really fluid tandem stuff from the rudos and just some ridiculous spots all around. My first thought was that one of those names wasn't like the others, but even Sonjay stepped it up here.

-King/Storm II wasn't as good as the first, but I'm predisposed to like matches featuring Kingston pummeling masked dudes in the face, so this was still pretty great for me. You also get the requisite chilling promo from King before the match as well. Really, though, getting to watch Shane Storm's nose gush blood should make this a keeper for everyone. Heh.

-Fab 3 versus Colony was nothing special. Pretty standard CHIKARA trios action. Postmatch, Fab 3 continue their split. Great, great, great bit with Sweeney suggesting that they "hug it out," at which point Shayne Hawke leaps into Mitch Ryder's arms and practically starts dry humping him. Tremendous.

-I'm all caught up with the CHIKARA shows that I own currently. Time to put an order together, I guess. At any rate, you want both Anniversario shows from this year. Both of them are *fantastic*. I'd go as far as to say that they're two of the top five shows in CHIKARA history. From the astoundingly great matwork clinic with Skayde/Pantera and the Increibles match at MA to the Portal vs. Quack/Storm, Brodie/Claudio and FIST/Colony matches from CT, it's just nonstop awesome. You even get some Kaiju goofiness, including a game of chicken conducted on Big Wheels.

PWG - All Star Weekend 6, Night 2

-Anderson/Koslov is a pretty standard opener, but Koslov gets in a bunch of nifty spots and keeps it from getting boring. Anderson's running comments through the match were entertaining as well. He hadn't shown a ton of charmisma the previous times that I've seen him, so I was surprised that he was so funny.

-King/Hero is outstanding. These two don't wrestle so much as have a straight up battle of wills. We get possibly the sickest headbutt of the entire feud from King and these two just whale away on one another, including some chops across the face that had me wincing. Not slaps...actual chops. It's not as good as the Loser Leaves CZW or TPI matches, but they also have to cut it short because Hero injures his knee. It was well on it's way to being another classic up to that point.

-Age of the Fall vs. Young Bucks probably stood out because it was entirely unlike the prior match, but yeah...really fun spotfest. And the more it fell apart, the better the match got. The final few minutes were awesome, as you had the Young Bucks trying to throw out everything in their arsenal, but they keep getting stuffed by the more experienced Jacobs/Black.

-This is my personal favorite Evans/Strong match ever. Not really a fan of Strong, but he delivers quite a beating here and what more can you ask for? Jack is on with his spots as well, so there's no big blown spots to comment about. How long has Strong been using that Kondo Clutch w/ body scissors? It looks way better than the Stronghold.

-Tornado/Candace is the best possible intergender match you can imagine. Lots of silly stuff and Tornado sells some really weak offense, but this was layed out really well and they made it look entirely believable that Candice could win at any time. She even manages to crack the balls of steel!

-This segues directly into Claudio vs Necro. Not a great match, but watching Claudio working completely out of his comfort zone was interesting. He's not a brawler at all, but Necro basically goaded him into it because...yeah, he's Necro friggin' Butcher. Absolutely *loved* the giant swing on the floor, where Claudio managed to basically wipe out the chairs on one side of the ring with Necro's skull. Fun match.

-Generico/Yokosuka was pretty disappointing. I've not seen a ton of Yokosuka, but I definitely expect more out Generico singles matches. It was really just two guys going out there and performing spots on one another. No build, nothing meaningful. The crowd was pretty much dead the entire night (as PWG crowds usually are) and even these two running through every head droppy sequence they had didn't pop them.

-I liked the last half of the Dynasty vs. Doi/Yoshino match, but the opening was almost an extension of the previous match. Just 4 guys hitting spots at random. When it tightened up down the stretch, though, it got really good.

-Supes/Taro was garbage, but even in the midst of all of that, you get a glimpse at how great a heel SD is. There are few guys in the business today that can have the crowd just eating out of their hands quite like he can. At any rate, Taro hasn't wrestled in years, but still manages to kick out of every crazy head drop SD pulls out, until finally being killed with the most ridiculously dangerous looking move I've possibly ever seen. I assume it was a blown Psycho Driver of some sort, as I just can't imagine Taro agreeing to essentially being driven headfirst into the ring like a dart. From the second rope, no less.

-I haven't seen the first CIMA/Danielson match to compare, but this one is pretty great. Really slow paced, with lots of matwork. It's never boring, though, and it actually ties in to the finish, so huzzah to that. The postmatch stuff is pretty stupid, but I have beef with the match itself. And CIMA asking for "five more days," then correcting himself with "six more seconds," was pretty funny.

DVDVR Mid-South set ballot

Actually, I do have one more post left in me tonight. Here's my ballot for the Watts set. If you weren't arare, the Death Valley Driver board is currently running a series of "Best of the 80s" polls where they're putting together DVD sets with all of the notable matches from each territory and sending them out for nostalgic suckas like me to watch and rank. The Watts set was tremendous, as this is what I grew up watching. Definitely a trip down memory lane. The next set is Memphis, which I've seen very little of, so that will be fun as well. I'll finally get to see some stuff that I've only read about in the past and see how Lawler stacks up against the all time greats...

Anyway, here's my ballot:


1. Ted DiBiase vs. Hacksaw Duggan (No DQ, Loser Leaves Town, Coal Miner's Glove, Tuxedo, Cage Match) (3/22/85) [BR-14]
2. Dick Murdoch vs. Barry Windham (7/11/87) [BITUSA-13]
3. Ted DiBiase vs. Ric Flair (11/6/85) [BW-8]
4. Butch Reed vs. Dick Murdoch (9/22/85) [BW-1]
5. Ric Flair vs. Butch Reed (8/10/85) [TSGDIA-10]
6. Hacksaw Duggan vs. Buzz Sawyer (11/11/85) [BW-10]
7. Ric Flair vs. Terry Taylor (4/28/85) [BR-17]
8. Junkyard Dog & Mr. Olympia vs. Ted DiBiase & Matt Borne (Loser Leaves Town) (10/27/82) [PTB-8]
9. Ted DiBiase vs. Dick Murdoch (No DQ) (12/31/85) [JGP-9]
10. Butch Reed vs. Dick Murdoch (10/14/85) [BW-6]
11. The Fabulous Ones vs. Chavo & Hector Guerrero (Mexican Death Match) (1/24/86) [JGP-16]
12. Buzz Sawyer vs. Butch Reed (Dog Collar Match) (12/31/85) [JGP-10]
13. Terry Gordy vs. Dr. Death (12/26/86) [BSUSA-17]
14. Ted DiBiase vs. Jim Duggan (No DQ) (3/8/85) [BR-13]
15. Chris Adams vs. Terry Taylor (5/3/87) [BITUSA-9]
16. Buzz Sawyer vs. Jim Duggan (Dog Collar Match) (12/27/85) [JGP-6]
17. Terry Taylor vs. Ric Flair (6/1/85) [RNRIK-7]
18. Mr. Wrestling II & Magnum T.A. vs. Midnight Express (2/10/84) [PTB-16]
19. Ted DiBiase & Terry Taylor vs. Michael Hayes & Buddy Roberts (Country Whipping Match) (10/12/86) [BSUSA-14]
20. Magnum T.A. vs. Ted DiBiase (No DQ) (Tulsa 5/27/84) [SDM-2]
21. Terry Gordy vs. Dr. Death (9/28/86) [BSUSA-13]
22. Dick Slater vs. Jake Roberts (No DQ, Dark Journey In A Cage) (2/28/86) [TB-9]
23. Chavo & Hector Guerrero vs. The Fabulous Ones (Texas Tornado Cage Match) (2/28/86) [TB-8]
24. Mr. Olympia vs. Chavo Guerrero (6/24/83) [PTB-13]
25. The Fantastics & Terry Taylor vs. The Sheepherders & Jack Victory (Barbed Wire Cage Match) (5/25/86) [TB-13]
26. Magnum T.A. vs. Ted DiBiase (No DQ) (OKC 5/27/84) [SDM-1]
27. Terry Gordy vs. Dr. Death (12/28/86) [BITUSA-1]
28. Chris Adams vs. Terry Taylor (4/19/87) [BITUSA-8]
29. Kerry Von Erich vs. Ric Flair (5/4/85) [RNRIK-4]
30. One Man Gang vs. Big Bubba Rogers (4/19/87) [BITUSA-7]
31. Rock N Roll Express & Hacksaw Duggan vs. Midnight Express & Ernie Ladd (6/8/84) [SDM-3]
32. Terry Gordy vs. Hacksaw Duggan (8/3/86) [BSUSA-6]
33. Ted DiBiase vs. Hacksaw Duggan (Street Fight) (7/29/83) [PTB-14]
34. Jake Roberts vs. Ric Flair (11/24/85) [BW-12]
35. Midnight Express vs. Bill Watts & Stagger Lee (4/22/84) [PTB-19]
36. Ted DiBiase vs. Bob Sweetan (Taped Fist) (10/11/85) [BW-3]
37. Kerry Von Erich vs. Ric Flair (4/28/85) [RNRIK-1]
38. Rock N Roll Express vs. Chavo & Hector Guerrero (2/13/85) [BR-11]
39. Dirty White Boys vs. Terry Daniels & Bill Dundee (5/11/85) [RNRIK-6]
40. Butch Reed vs. Ric Flair (11/8/85) [BW-9]
41. Terry Gordy vs. One Man Gang (9/21/86) [BSUSA-12]
42. Ric Flair vs. Wahoo McDaniel (7/12/85) [TSGDIA-3]
43. The Fantastics vs. Dr. Death & Jake Roberts (4/14/85) [BR-15]
44. Mr. Wrestling II & Magnum T.A. vs. Butch Reed & Jim Neidhart (Cage Match) (12/25/83) [PTB-15]
45. Butch Reed vs. Ric Flair (10/11/85) [BW-4]
46. Rock N Roll Express & Hacksaw Duggan vs. Midnight Express & Ernie Ladd (7/2/84) [SDM-4]
47. Ric Flair vs. Terry Taylor (5/3/85) [RNRIK-3]
48. Terry Gordy vs. Dr. Death (9/15/86) [BSUSA-11]
49. Dick Murdoch vs. Dr. Death (9/20/85) [TSGDIA-12]
50. Ted DiBiase vs. Dick Murdoch (12/27/85) [JGP-5]
51. Terry Gordy vs. Dr. Death (6/22/86) [BSUSA-3]
52. Rock N Roll Express vs. Midnight Express (6/30/85) [TSGDIA-1]
53. Ted DiBiase vs. Jake Roberts (7/22/85) [TSGDIA-7]
54. Ted DiBiase & Dr. Death vs. Michael Hayes & Buddy Roberts (Lumberjack Match) (8/31/86) [BSUSA-9]
55. Dick Murdoch vs. Dr. Death (6/13/87) [BITUSA-11]
56. The Fantastics vs. Chavo & Hector Guerrero (10/12/84) [SDM-13]
57. Terry Taylor vs. Jake Roberts (2/11/86) [TB-3]
58. Eddie Gilbert & Dick Murdoch vs. Lightning Express (7/21/87) [BITUSA-14]
59. Ted DiBiase vs. One Man Gang (No DQ) (2/6/87) [BITUSA-5]
60. Rock N Roll Express vs. Midnight Express (1/21/85) [BR-8]
61. Eddie Gilbert vs. Dr. Death (5/17/87) [BITUSA-10]
62. Rock N Roll Express vs. Ted DiBiase & Dr. Death (5/3/85) [RNRIK-2]
63. Dick Slater vs. Butch Reed (No DQ) (12/13/85) [JGP-2]
64. Ted DiBiase vs. One Man Gang (11/18/86) [BSUSA-16]
65. Butch Reed vs. Dick Slater (11/22/85) [BW-11]
66. Magnum T.A. vs. Ted DiBiase (7/6/84) [SDM-5]
67. Mr. Olympia vs. Bob Roop (7/15/82) [PTB-5]
68. Ted DiBiase vs. Terry Taylor (7/3/85) [TSGDIA-2]
69. The Fantastics vs. Midnight Express (No DQ) (9/28/84) [SDM-11]
70. Dick Murdoch vs. The Nightmare (7/14/85) [TSGDIA-5]
71. Hacksaw Duggan, Terry Taylor & Bill Watts vs. The Fabulous Freebirds (8/17/86) [BSUSA-8]
72. The Fabulous Ones vs. Chavo & Hector Guerrero (12/27/85) [JGP-4]
73. Junkyard Dog & Mr. Olympia vs. Ted DiBiase & Hacksaw Duggan (8/18/82) [PTB-6]
74. Ted DiBiase vs. Butch Reed (7/25/85) [TSGDIA-8]
75. Ted DiBiase & Dr. Death vs. Hacksaw Duggan & Terry Gordy (Texas Tornado Match) (1/21/85) [BR-9]
76. Dick Slater vs. Hacksaw Duggan (4/11/86) [TB-10]
77. Midnight Express vs. Rock N Roll Express (No DQ: Tag Titles vs. $50,000) (5/23/84) [PTB-20]
78. Jim Duggan, Dick Murdoch & Bill Watts vs. Kamala, Kareem Muhammad & Skandor Akbar (7/28/85) [TSGDIA-9]
79. The Fantastics vs. Midnight Express (OKC 8/9/84) [SDM-7]
80. Dick Slater vs. Jake Roberts (2/14/86) [TB-5]
81. The Fabulous Ones vs. Chavo & Hector Guerrero (12/29/85) [JGP-7]
82. Ted DiBiase vs. Brad Armstrong (2/10/85) [BR-10]
83. Stagger Lee & Mr. Olympia vs. Ted DiBiase & Matt Borne (12/18/82) [PTB-9]
84. Dick Slater vs. Hacksaw Duggan (12/31/85) [JGP-11]
85. Ted DiBiase vs. Bob Sweetan (10/13/85) [BW-5]
86. Hacksaw Duggan, Terry Taylor & Bill Watts vs. The Fabulous Freebirds (7/20/86) [BSUSA-4]
87. The Fantastics vs. Buzz Sawyer & Dick Slater (10/27/85) [BW-7]
88. Mr. Wrestling II & Junkyard Dog vs. Matt Borne & Ted DiBiase (2/16/83) [PTB-10]
89. Buzz Sawyer vs. Dr. Death (1/28/86) [JGP-17]
90. Terry Gordy vs. Terry Taylor (6/13/86) [BSUSA-1]
91. Dick Slater vs. Butch Reed (1/1/86) [JGP-13]
92. Terry Taylor vs. Buddy Roberts (6/8/86) [TB-15]
93. Dick Slater vs. Dr. Death (12/18/85) [JGP-3]
94. Ted DiBiase & Dr. Death vs. Dick Murdoch & Masked Superstar (2/14/86) [TB-4]
95. Rock N Roll Express vs. Terry Gordy & Buddy Roberts (6/24/85) [RNRIK-9]
96. Michael Hayes & Buddy Roberts vs. Ted DiBiase & Terry Taylor (5/25/86) [TB-14]
97. Dick Slater vs. Jake Roberts (1/24/86) [JGP-15]
98. Dick Slater vs. Jake Roberts (1/1/86) [JGP-12]
99. Ted DiBiase, Dr. Death & Jim Duggan vs. Masked Superstar, Dick Murdoch & Buzz Sawyer (1/31/86) [TB-1]
100. Ted DiBiase, Dr. Death, Terry Taylor & Hacksaw Duggan vs. Dick Murdoch, Buzz Sawyer & The Masked Superstars (2/28/86) [TB-7]
101. The Fantastics vs. Bill Dundee & Dutch Mantell (9/22/85) [TSGDIA-13]
102. Terry Gordy vs. Terry Taylor (6/17/86) [BSUSA-2]
103. Eddie Gilbert & Dick Murdoch vs. Terry Gordy & Buddy Roberts (6/25/87) [BITUSA-12]104. Rock N Roll Express vs. Ted DiBiase & Dr. Death (6/19/85) [RNRIK-8]
105. Hacksaw Duggan & Dick Murdoch vs. Kamala & Kareem Muhammad (7/14/85) [TSGDIA-6]
106. Buddy Landel, Chavo & Hector Guerrero vs. Rock N Roll Express & Jose Lothario (Elimination Match) (1/18/85) [BR-7]
107. The Fantastics vs. Sting & Eddie Gilbert (9/7/86) [BSUSA-10]
108. Chris Adams & Terry Taylor vs. Eddie Gilbert & Iceman Parsons (3/20/87) [BITUSA-6]109. Chavo Guerrero vs. Buzz Sawyer (6/13/86) [TB-16]
110. The Fantastics & Terry Taylor vs. The Sheepherders & Jack Victory (5/9/86) [TB-12]
111. Ted DiBiase & Dr. Death vs. Terry Gordy & Michael Hayes (Badstreet Match) (1/25/87) [BITUSA-4]
112. Buddy Landel & Butch Reed vs. Rock N Roll Express (3/28/84) [PTB-17]
113. Gustavo Mendoza vs. Brett Wayne Sawyer (5/9/86) [TB-11]
114. Bob Roop vs. Mike George (12/16/81) [PTB-1]
115. Rock N Roll Express vs. Dirty White Boys (5/11/85) [RNRIK-5]
116. The Fantastics vs. Dutch Mantell & Bill Dundee (10/4/85) [BW-2]
117. Brad Armstrong vs. Ted DiBiase (1/16/85) [BR-5]
118. The Fantastics & Hacksaw Duggan vs. Midnight Express & Jim Cornette (7/20/84) [SDM-6]
119. Adrian Street vs. Chris Adams (10/10/84) [SDM-12]
120. Killer Khan vs. Chris Adams (9/9/84) [SDM-9]
121. Ted DiBiase & Dr. Death vs. Terry Gordy & Michael Hayes (Badstreet Match) (1/9/87) [BITUSA-2]
122. Buddy Landel, Chavo & Hector Guerrero vs. Brickhouse Brown, Bill Dundee & Jose Lothario (Elimination Match) (11/16/84) [BR-2]
123. The Fantastics vs. John Tatum & Jack Victory (11/4/86) [BSUSA-15]
124. Koko B. Ware vs. Eddie Gilbert (2/28/86) [TB-6]
125. Terry Taylor vs. John Tatum (8/17/86) [BSUSA-7]
126. Dick Murdoch & Masked Superstar vs. Brett Sawyer & Al Perez (1/19/86) [JGP-14]
127. Rock N Roll Express vs. Dirty White Boys (4/15/85) [BR-16]
128. Chavo Guerrero vs. Steve Keirn (no DQ loser is painted yellow match) (1/31/86) [TB-2]
129. The Fantastics & Dr. Death vs. The Fabulous Freebirds (1/18/87) [BITUSA-3]
130. Dusty Rhodes & Jim Duggan vs. Butch Reed & Hercules Hernandez (8/19/84) [SDM-8]
131. Midnight Express vs. Bill Dundee & Porkchop Cash (4/6/84) [PTB-18]
132. One Man Gang vs. Buck Robley (Lumberjack Match) (9/15/82) [PTB-7]
133. Ted DiBiase & Dr. Death vs. Jake Roberts & The Barbarian (7/14/85) [TSGDIA-4]
134. Kevin Von Erich vs. Chris Adams (1/18/85) [BR-6]
135. Butch Reed vs. Iron Sheik (4/8/83) [PTB-11]
136. Rock N Roll Express vs. Jake Roberts & The Barbarian (6/28/85) [RNRIK-10]
137. The Fantastics & Missing Link vs. Eddie Gilbert, John Tatum & Sting (8/3/86) [BSUSA-5]
138. Ernie Ladd & Butch Reed vs. Magnum T.A. & Master G (Street Fight) (11/4/84) [BR-1]
139. Al Perez & Wendell Cooley vs. Dr. Death & Bob Sweetan (8/30/85) [TSGDIA-11]
140. Rock N Roll Express vs. Midnight Express (Scaffold Match) (12/2/84) [BR-3]
141. Butch Reed vs. Skip Young (9/23/84) [SDM-10]
142. Nick Bockwinkel vs. Dusty Rhodes (5/20/83) [PTB-12]
143. Eddie Gilbert & The Nightmare vs. The Bruise Brothers (12/31/85) [JGP-8]
144. Bob Roop vs. Ted DiBiase (4/2/82) [PTB-3]
145. Mr. Olympia vs. Paul Orndorff (2/3/82) [PTB-2]
146. Junkyard Dog vs. Nick Bockwinkel (6/11/82) [PTB-4]
147. Rock N Roll Express & Butch Reed vs. Dr. Death, Kamala & One Man Gang (2/25/85) [BR-12]
148. Adrian Street vs. Terry Taylor (Loser Leaves Town) (12/7/84) [BR-4]
149. Brickhouse Brown & Master G vs. Butch Reed & Ernie Ladd (10/21/84) [SDM-14]
150. Jake Roberts vs. Lord Humongous (Cage Match) (11/29/85) [JGP-1]

Random stuff #4!

This is it for the night, I think. I'll try to cross post things to the blog more often. It is why we have it, after all!

ROH - Reborn Again

This was an interesting show. Obviously booked as a complete filler show the night before the first PPV taping, I ended up liking it more than most shows, because it didn't have that stupid "every match is going to be a MOTYC!' feel that the worst ROH shows do. A laid back ROH would be so much better that I can't even comprehend it.

(I'm typically unusual when it comes to my ROH fandom. I like the shows that the fanboys hate and usually dislike the heavily hyped shows. Their product just isn't booked with someone like me in mind. Still some great wrestling to be found if you're willing to st through a lot of filler that just pretends to be great wrestling...)

-Haze/Nikki Roxx was pretty awful. The SHIMMER showcases so rarely provide us with something other than minutes filled on a disc. Not sure why they're still done on the main show.

-Steen/Generico had a really fun extended squash versus Blade/Edwards. Steen is like the perfect ROH guy. He has a ton of huge spots that just kill guys and yeah...he's not afraid to use them. He's not always the best at making stuff work in any sort of context, but he doesn't have to be with that crowd. Generico picks up the slack at making everything work and he's certainly not afraid to kill guys, either.

-Who's Bobby Fish? I know he's worked NOAH, but where is he from? Is he a Harley Race guy? He didn't seem too bad.

-I was on board with Danielson's return right up until I had to watch the NRC wrestle. Ugh. The finish of this match was so blown that it was downright laughable. It made Matt Cross look like a complete moron and Davey didn't look much better, standing there waiting for him to get into position.

-Tank Toland delivers the goods once again. He hits a *sick* waterwheel slam here, then follows up with the most vicious looking BT Bomb (actually, he flips it more into a Dominator) I've ever seen. They pretty much need to scrape Mitch Franklin up at the end.

-Marufuji/Sydal was what you'd expect, just at 3/4 speed. I wouldn't say that they "phoned it in," but they were obviously saving themselves for the PPV taping. Still a fun match, but nothing that'll blow you away.

-I had a lot of hope for Delirious vs KENTA, but that went unfulfilled. KENTA looked bored and didn't sell a thing. He worked as if he were Vader in '92 going through a job guy. Don't get me wrong, Delirious got to hit all of his stuff and, on the surface at least, it was worked as a competitive match, but KENTA just bulled his way through most of this.

-Briscoes vs. Morishima/Whitmer was pretty much just Briscoes-style overkill from start to finish. If you like that, then you'll be right at home here. It was certainly never boring, at the very least.

-Jimmy Jacobs presents "Love to Spare." Great stuff. Loved the Office style cutaway promos with both of them through the night and you have to love how ever suffering Jacobs is rewarded for defending Lacey's honor...with a *wave* goodnight. God, how I love this angle.

(I have a total man crush on Jimmy Jacobs and I haven't even reached the Age of the Fall shows yet. Pretty much the perfect pro wrestler, as far as I'm concerned. For what I'm into, anyway.)



-Finally finished up the New Japan 1/4 Dome show. Pretty solid throughout, but I wasn't really overwhelmed by anything on the show. Probably the most notable moment was Scotty Steiner practically killing Bernard trying to get him over for an Exploder. Bernard comes down at a sick angle and I was shocked that he got back up.

I thought the IWGP title match was good, but if Tanahashi had dicked it up and went after the shoulder from the start it probably would have helped the match, since it didn't really kick into gear until he did so.

At any rate, there's some tremendous camera work here. Easily the best produced show outside of what WWE puts out. They manage to build emotion just through camera angles (I'm specifically thinking of the great shot during Tanahashi's intro where we see him coming out, all smiles, while there's a tight shot of a solemn Nakamura in the foreground), which is no small feat.

(I don't follow puro closely at all, but I really enjoyed this show. Can't wait to pick up this year's G1 shows. Just so many great names that I don't think I can pass it up. I should also point out that Togi Makabe is the best heel in the world right now.)



CHIKARA - Deuces Wild

-Fun opener between the Osirian Portal and the Colony. The chick that Ophidian terrifies before the match was pretty cute. Err...standard CHIKARA opener otherwise.

-I was kinda hoping for a little more shtick from the Ellis/Ice Cream match. It didn't bring as much funny as I thought it would. But really? How can you be disappointed by a Robbie Ellis match? He does take a ridiculously stiff powerbomb for a guy his age, though, so there is that.

-The Bull Pain angle was great, because Bull can lay in a beating that looks legit and he absolutely murders Worker Ant here. He also lets some foul language slip, which is possibly the easiest way to draw heat in CHIKARA. Heh.

-Am I the only person left who digs Icarus? He was great in this match. He wasn't all angry Icarus like normal, though. He seemed like he was trying to out-shtick Chuck Taylor. Not going to happen, but fun to watch nevertheless. I don't like Uno much, but CAW actually looked pretty good in this match. Wonders never cease!

-Lince blows a bunch of spots in the match with Helios. In other news, the sun rose today. He tried to pull off a quebrada that had been completely blown (because he missed the ropes) and ended up spiking himself headfirst. Not a bad flippy match overall, but yeah...not a great night for Lince.

-Akuma manages to majorly blow a springboard spot as well. Not a good night to be a flyer for anyone, apparently. Why did I never notice how good Jimmy Olsen is? He looks like he's banged up after delivering a German, but up until that point he looks pretty great. Also good on commentary, for what it's worth.

-UMB/Donst is a fun match. Also the start of the big angle, as Donst is concussed after a particularly sick Praying Mantis Bomb. Mantis leads him to the back as Donst tries to figure out where he is.

-Brodie Lee friggin' ANNIHILATES Shane Storm and I loved every single second of it. The big boot at the end just looks fatal, even by Brodie standards.

-Mitch/Hawke put on a heel clinic, figuring out 1001 different ways to cheat in the match with Cheech & Cloudy. Really simple, old school stuff, but the crowd (and me!) was eating it up. This is where I would interject the rant about how wrestling has gotten too complicated, but I don't have the energy for it right now.

-Quack/Pantera was awesome. Just an exhibition of Lucha matwork, with both guys just busting out hold after hold. Not much story to speak of (Pantera busts out a bunch of Quack's holds, but they never really follow up and even the announcers barely mention it), but in terms of just a flat out technical match, this was aces. Looked like Bryce blew the finish, as Quack had Pantera in the CHIKARA Special. Pantera started banging on the mat to get the crowd behind him and Bryce called for the bell. Quack just glared at him for a few seconds before selling it as being surprised about getting the submission out of nowhere. I'm sure that conversation in the locker room was humorous.


CHIKARA - Passion & Persistence

Don't know if it's just because I haven't been sleeping well this week or if it really is just a lackluster show, but I just couldn't get into this at all. Took me a few days to get through it and I had to rewatch a bunch of stuff because I kept zonking out. It was a typical CHIKARA funfest, but that just wasn't clicking for me this time.

-The opener with Vin & Bull killing the Colony was all sorts of fun, but I'm a really big Bull Pain fan, so I'm predisposed to digging his stuff.

-Chucky T versus Hydra was every bit as goofy as it sounds. Hydra swallows the grenade! Bryce has to perform the Heimlich and, luckily, tragedy is averted. You can certainly ignore this in terms of the wrestling, though.

-Young Timothy Donst CHEATS TO WIN! Really loving this angle so far.

-This is where the show just died for me, as the Amasis/Helios put me to sleep *twice*. I adore the Portal, but this match was definitely a reminder of how inexperienced Amasis is.

-The Fab 4 8-man wasn't all that great outside of the last minute or two and the postmatch shenanigans w/Sweeney and Mitch (and Shayne Hawke stirring up crap the entire time).

-Pantera/Sabian was just flat out bad. They didn't mesh well at all.

-Show picked up a bit with the first Claudio/Brodie match, but the finish was pretty crappy. At least Brodie makes up for it by kicking Claudio's face clean off after the match.

-The Incoherence/F.I.S.T. match was...off. That most of the match is worked around Icarus' fanny pack tells you all you need to know. Not a bad match, but Delirious, in particular, looked like he was a half stap slower than everyone else in the ring for some reason. I also wasn't a fan of Delirious being killed, but being magically revived by 'Wicked ringing the bell spot. There was some cool stuff in this one, though. Delirious chops Akuma in the back of the head, HARD, and Akuma doesn't look like he was expecting it. He looked a bit miffed and proceeded to take it out on 'Wicked, who was the legal man.

Speaking of 'Wicked, he must be in a big boot competition with Brodie, because he lays in a shot to Icarus, I think, that was wince inducing.


CHIKARA - Cafe Culture

Guess I'm back into the CHIKARA groove, because this was a fantastic show.

-In any other promotion, Louden Noxious would be tremendously friggin' annoying, but he somehow just fits into the CHIKARA family. I mean...that's exactly the sort of ring announcing that you'd expect a company like this to have. I wish he wouldn't talk over the music quite as much (though the sound system was dead through most of this show), but that's my only gripe.

-I love Shayne Hawke as he slowly morphs into Mitch Ryder's shadow. He has a great line during the ONST match where he's talking about Donst's facepaint and says that if Mantis asked him, he'd wear paint too...but he'd have to clear it with Mitch first. You don't think of Mitch as a shit kicker or anything, but Hawke just stands behind him and needles the crowd/opponents/whoever with total confidence that Mitch will save his ass. It's great.

-The crowd sure loves them some Bobby Dempsey. He's not very good, but he connects with the crowd and works some decent fat guy spots. He also smears Ophidian in the corner after a somersault splash.

-Hallowicked/Amasis was better than expected. I prefer Amasis in tags at this point. Nothing against him, as he's pretty much still a rookie, but I do think he sort of meanders from time to time in singles, as if he's not sure how to fill an entire match on his own.

-Pelle, as always, is a great underdog babyface. That doesn't necessarily work versus Icarus, who isn't the guy to lay in the beating that you need to work from underneath, but this was still a fun match. Icarus has been awesome this year. People always talk about guys who you couldn't turn heel because the fans love them so much. Icarus is pretty much the exact opposite of that. I don't think people would like him even if they went the Money Mayweather route and had him throw cash into the crowd. I think people would toss it back at him. Heh.

-First Rey De Voladores 4-way (Helios, TJ Cannon, Lince & PSYCHO) was pretty decent. Just nonstop action and all sorts of interesting flippy spots. Not sure why they brought in PSYCHO, as he barely got to do anything before being eliminated. I don't recall Lince blowing any spots, so huzzah for him.

-Kingston returns here, telling us that he's not booked for the show. If he was, he probably wouldn't have shown up. He lays out an open challenge, which sets up him killing Storm for the second time. Or so I'm hoping, at any rate.

-ONST vs Pantera/Colony was fun, with Donst and Hydra jockeying for position as Mantis' golden child. Donst shoves Hydra out of the way and steals one of his spots. At any rate, everyone leaves without him and he's all bummed. We get a Vin Gerard run in here as well. And to show how dedicated he is, he actually sits in the crowd with his Spider-Man mask on for the entire show and no one even realizes that it's him until he hits the ring. Good stuff. Who knew that *anyone* would give two craps about friggin' EQUINOX, of all people?

-F.I.S.T vs QuackenStorm is mostly shtick, but it's fun shtick. Not really any foreshadowing of the Storm turn at this point

-Skayde vs. Claudio was AWESOME. Just a ton of tricked out matwork by both guys. There wasn't much of Claudio as base, but I guess they wanted to leave the flying to the Voladores tourney. At any rate, if you dig the llave style, you'll probably like this.

-Main event 4-way (Stupefied/Sonjay/Turbo/Incognito) was pretty much the low point for me. Turbo didn't kill any cameramen and Sonjay didn't do much but Fargo strut through the entire match. Incognito looked okay, but Stupefied was the only real standout. So, of course, Incognito won...

Random stuff #3

We're rolling now! Though it occurs to me that I should have posted these in reverse, since they'd make way more sense that way. Meh.

-Took me ages to get through, but I've finally watched the IWA 500th show from TLC through King/Scorp. There's some truly godawful wrestling to be found here. The TLC match is just 45 minutes of absolute hell. No one sells a thing, it's just random flip after random flip after random flip after random flip (broken up only by blown spots or people landing on their heads in an awkward manner) and it just drags on forever. I can't stress enough just how brutally bad this is. Don't watch it. Ever. Seriously, if you buy the DVD...skip this match. Trust me. The Conflict of Interest match was nearly as bad, actually. Just a total nonsensical cluster of a match. When the announcers have to put over that none of the participants know the rules to cover the absolute stupidity happening in the ring, you know you're in for a mind scorching good time...

(I can't stress to you enough how bad these matches are. You rarely see me shit on pro wrestling, as I can find a redeeming moment in pretty much anything, but this? This was just flat out insulting.)

On the other hand, Kingston/Scorpio was really good. Really slow build, with lots of early matwork that you wouldn't expect from King. They ramp it up pretty quickly, though, and when they go into the striking sequence it's pretty much just a sprint to the end. Scorpio has been criminally overlooked. One of the best talents of the last 15 years or so, though you'd be hard pressed to find more than a handful of people outside of the business who'd agree.


-Watched the first disc and a half of the new Rock set. I had forgotten how genuinely enjoyable he is in the ring. People go on and on about the shtick, but the only conversation you really see about his work is about his crappy Sharpshooter. The guy was a really smart worker and timed his comebacks perfectly. And since his matches actually generated heat, every big match he had came across as being epic. Been great fun to watch some of this stuff over again.

(I miss the Rock like crazy. I imagine the stuff that could have happened with him still in the picture and it just blows my mind. That we'll likely never get to see Rock/HBK and Rock/Cena is tragic.)


-I don't throw around snowflakes very much, but I think ****3/4 is a tad high. I didn't quite enjoy it as much as the match at 'Mania 13, but I'm a sucker for a high level brawl. This was much more mat based, though the brawling segments are friggin' great. Bret looks great after being off for months and Austin hangs with him the entire way. I'd seen the finish 1000 times, but when you watch the entire match, you see how well it plays into everything else they'd done to that point. Extra points for some phenomenal commentary by Ross and Vince. People forget that Vince was great in that role. He didn't know the names of the moves or anything but he was so underrated in his ability to drive home the point of the match and where things would spin off to in the future.

(This is referring to the Bret/Austin match from Survivor Series, by the way...)


-Started watching IWC's "Super Indy VII" show. Pretty fun so far.

-Michael Facade versus CJ Sensation never had a chance to build to anything, as John McChesney comes out and just annihilates both guys. Really sick chairshot to Facade here.

-Shiima Xion vs. Luke Hawx was pretty good. I was kinda distracted by Xion's new bald look, though. He's just not the same without the hair. At any rate, this has the problem that all one night tournaments have, as the early round matches are too short to really mean anything.

-Jason Gory versus Jerry Lynn was, err...a Jerry Lynn match. If you like the things that scenario entails, you'll probably dig this. I'm not as big a fan of nearfall-laden exhibition wrestling, though, so yeah. This was just sorta there for me.

-MCMG vs. Sexual Harassment could have been *great* with an extra 10 minutes or so. Lots of really nifty stuff. It ended up being compressed as they raced from spot to spot, though. Seriously, there's no better team (in terms of tandem offense) than the Machine Guns right now. And there hasn't been since the Midnight Express, actually.



-Finished Super Indy VII. Fun show, but nothing overwhelming. I kinda think that knowing Lynn was going all the way took me out of it. The match versus Davey Richards in the finals was way too short but, amazingly enough, came off pretty well. I imagine that to someone who likes either guy, it would be even better.

I will say that the Sandman/Dennis Gregory bootcamp match is probably the worst match I've seen in several years. Just brutally, brutally bad, as Sandman was so bombed that he could barely stand up. Totally embarrassing.

I also watched the TNA: Year One doc. Not much that someone who follows the business doesn't already know, but it's a fairly interesting watch. Even if you do have to look at Bob Ryder's giant pumpkin head.


-The Flair/Race match (8/31/83) on the new Flair set is amazing. Far better than the match at Starrcade. Tons of back and forth action with Flair avoiding all of Harley's big spots like they were death. Really basic offense, but both guys are so believable (Harley as the legit badass, Flair as the wrestling machine) and they both sold so well that it worked really well. Bob Orton/Dick Slater also try to fracture Flair's skull with a sick spike piledriver at the end, so I guess there's at least one nasty spot, for those of you who require such things to enjoy a match.


-Just watched the Mecha/Kiku Lyger vs. Lyger/MMA Lyger (don't know the name offhand) match from the Minoru Suzuki show. First puro I've watched this year aside from the New Japan Dome show and a random Hero/Briscoes 6-man tag from NOAH. Missy Hyatt, of all people, linked it and since it was so short, I thought I'd check it out. This is a short (sub 10 minute) comedy match with some funny Lyger-centric spots. I *loved* MechaLyger's palm strike flurry and the MMA dude trying to pull guard every time he got into the ring, only to be pummeled was hilarious as well.


ROH - The Battle Of St Paul

Really fun show. They totally lost me with the 4-way and the mind numbingly boring Strong/Daniels match, but the main (Aries/Morishima) more than made up for it. Really, really hot match and the brainbuster/450 nearfall sequence was incredible.

-Women's tag (Death Rey/Danger vs MN Homewrecking Crew) was world's better than the average SHIMMER showcase match, but really, nothing special overall. Del Rey certainly likes laying in the stiff kicks, though.

-Jimmy Rave makes his return...to a huge face reaction? That doesn't compute. He's friggin' awesome in destroying Michael Elgin, but people cheering for Jimmy Rave makes Jesus cry.

-Shingo/Whitmer is exactly what you'd expect from these two. Lots of hard strikes and guys being randomly dumped on their head . You'll love this if that's your thing.

-I hate the Ultimate Endurance gimmick, but this was the debut of the CHIKARA crew in ROH, so I find it difficult to hate on this. Actually, this was pretty great. Not quite as much overkill from the Briscoes as usual. I don't know if they needed to take all three falls, but yeah...whatever.

-Pearce/Albright vs. 'Cide/Cabana was a really fun arena spanning brawl. 'Cide is wearing a goofy smiley face bandana here, which is the only positive to come of the ridiculous team with Cabana.

(I still can't believe that, after Homicide had *literally* tried to MURDER Cabana on multiple occasions, they did the stupid repect thing and had them hug at the end of the feud. Totally retarded in every way. To me, this is the single dumbest thing Gabe has ever booked, actually.)

-4 way (Delirious/Romero/Evans/Stevens) was trash, but it furthered an angle, I guess. A waste of all four of these guys.

-Speaking of a waste, Strong/Daniels feels like it's 5 hours long and then they give us a lame cop out finish? Thanks for stealing my life, ROH! Allison Danger's tiny little cheerleader skirt almost saves this, though, as she manages to wiggle her sweet little ass through frame like 10 different times during the course of this. One takes what one can get.

-The main was incredible. Can't stand Aries, but he absolutely made this match. Morishima is a top notch killing machine, of course, but without a guy who can take the bumps and sell it, it doesn't mean much. Aries makes all of this look believable. This is easily the best of the Morishima defenses that I've seen so far.


-Started Good Times, Great Memories. The opening scramble is really fun. I like the CHIKARA guys working a more ROH-styled spotfest than the CHIKARA style spotty match. It's kind of a shame at how much Quack is dumbing himself down in his first two matches here. Partially a result of the gimmicks of the matches, but yeah...spotty Quack isn't necessarily something I want to see with any regularity. The Doomsday tope he hits on Akuma and, uh...Jiggy, I think (?) was absolutely bad ass, though.


Good Times, Great Memories (cont.)

-I was all set to jump on the Erick Stevens train (no pun intended) because he was selling his ass off in the match with Daniels. He wasn't doing anything that required him to lift Daniels at all after the rib work begins. But then he flips that selling switch off and just ignores the previous 5 minutes or so. Anyway, this was wrestled like a draw from the start, so the finish was no surprise. Eh. Daniels postmatch promos was great. Nice to see him show a bit of emotion, since that's usually the thing about him that I can't stand. Also, have I mentioned that Alison Danger has a great ass?

-4CS was...better than expected. I hesitate to call it good, though. I wish Jimmy Rave got 100x more recognition for being awesome. Great heel, and a far better than average worker. As I've said before, he's actually good enough to convince the 'bots that he sucks, so that's saying something.

-You know, I can't stand Aries for the most part, but the Morishima match from the last show made me realize that if he actually sold with any consistency at all, he might be someone worth paying more attention to. He's still all flash, no substance as far as I'm concerned.

(I should have edited out some of these "I hate Aries" comments. Keep in mind that these posts span the better part of a year. I really don't go around saying that I dislike Austin Aries every time I touch a keyboard. Heh.)

-So this is the show that birthed the Toland/Dempsey stuff? Who knew I'd ever look forward to seeing Tank Toland? He's friggin' great here. I hope I don't have to watch him in matches longer than 5 minutes in upcoming shows, because I think he'll prove to be great only in small doses.

-Title match was a bunch of Fighting Spirit junk tossed out seemingly at random. Both guys are better than this.

(If memory serves, this was a Morishima/Shingo match that I'm referring to. I like how I just talk about crap without mentioning anyone who was involved. Vagueness!)

-Machine Guns/Briscoes was just flat out great and I'm totally sold on the Briscoes all over again. Nothing much I can say about this that hasn't already been stated. I know it'll change with the upcoming feud with Steen/Generico, but it's nice to see the Briscoes work against an actual *team*. I think their stuff gets a little too "Briscoe-y" at times just because they seem to work makeshift teams so often. You only get good versus good opposition and the Guns brought the best out of them here.

-Cabana's final match was nothing special, but it was everything you'd want from his farewell, so it hit on every level. Gotta love Pearce spitting in his face after the match before storming to the back. I appreciate Pearce being a heel and not stooping to the stupid lovey dovey act you usually get in farewell shows.

More random stuff!

Yeah, you'll notice that I tend to save up CHIKARA shows and then watch them marathon-style. So I sometimes go weeks without watching anything other DVDs. So be prepared, as this is probably mostly going to be about everyone's favorite little indy...

-Also watched the first disc of CHIKARA's International Invaders, Night 2. Much better than the first night so far, but most of the highlights have actually been on commentary. I loved the bit where Chikarason talks about Sleepy Hollow and somehow mentions that Hallowicked lives in a tree. Chris Hero just flips out for the remainder of the match, including wondering aloud how 'Wicked can review tapes of his opponents if he lives in a tree. Great stuff. You also get a 'Mantis riff on the state of healthcare in the US as opposed to Canada, so yeah...this can't be beat.

(Is there any doubt that CHIKARA has the best commentary in wrestling right now? A lot of stuff is played for laughs, but you have guys like Quack who do commentary when you need a more serious tone. Ultramantis Black should have replaced Tazz on ECW. Seriously...)


-I finished off the first disc of Cibernetico & Robin this morning. Olsens versus Up in Smoke absolutely brings the goods. Didn't think it could possibly live up to the praise I've seen, but yeah...I was absolutely wrong. They keep the pace quick, there's some really fluid double team stuff (from the Olsens in particular) and the funny stuff is actually funny. What more can you ask for out of a midcard tag sprint? Also, that dive into the tornado DDT on the floor was tremendous. Cheech certainly died for his sins in this match and it was awesome to watch.

(It's a shame that Colin D. Olsen disappeared into the ether soon after this. I hope Jimmy Jam can track him down!)

Didn't really care for the BLK OUT match, because, quite honestly, no matter how much I like the Colony (and I do), with the way King is being booked at this point in time, I don't buy them as being competitive. Especially when Joker is standing next to King. They might pull their tricks on Sabian, but yeah...the end result of this should have been murder most foul.


-Got through Bruised and the first disc of New Star Navigation. Young Timothy Donst sure does like to get his ass stomped, doesn't he? The first match with Kingston is more brutal overall (and probably the better match as well), but this one has possibly the sickest headbutt I've ever seen. The NSN match versus Icarus is really good as well. He has a ton of naysayers, but Icarus has kicked up the awesome in the latter half of '07. He's pretty well shattered the "Icarus sucks" myth by this point.

(Fuck my hemming and hawing. Icarus RULES. How am I the only person to see this? Or am I just ahead of the curve, like usual? Heh.)

Actually, I'm wondering why people aren't talking NSN up a bit more. It's been pretty much fantastic so far. The Osirian Portal/Incoherence match is aces. Every bit as good as the Olsens/Up In Smoke match from the Cibernetico & Robin show.


-Finished the 2007 CHIKARA season and I'm halfway through "Two Eyebrows...". Lots of fun stuff worth talking about (like Brodie Lee kicking everyone's faces off!), but I'm just going to skip over it all and go straight to the sublime Kingston/Storm match. Sweet Christ, was that ever great. Who knew Shane Storm had it in him? Brutal, brutal match and one of the rare instances where SMV's instant replays didn't annoy me. I wanted to see that backfist from both camera angles and in slow mo. Seriously, Storm must have owed King money.

(This was a beautiful beatdown. You should really check it out. Shane Storm sucks, but he takes it like a man. I'm curious to see how he comes off as a rudo, since he can focus on his strengths and cut out the fat guy lucha stuff he tries and fails at doing well.)

Also dug the stuff with Colin Olsen hiding his sordid ECW experience from Jimmy. Maybe I'll comment on the other stuff when I have a bit more time on my hands...


-Blew through King of Trios '08, officially catching up with all of the CHIKARA shows I currently own. I'll wait until this past weekend's shows come out pick up the rest.

Anyway, fabulous tournament overall. There were a handful of really good matches, but really, everything had enough of a fun quotient to make it worth watching. Somewhat unrelated, but someone in the past week or so (sorry, can't remember who and I can't be assed to find the post) was wondering why CHIKARA fans don't attack the booking of outside talent over the CHIKARA mainstays. Really, these shows are a perfect demonstration of why that is. Not to play up the ROH/CHIKARA comparison, since it's ridiculous (the only thing they have in common is being indy wrestling based in the Northeast), but the general CHIKARMY member I would say takes pro wrestling much, much, much less seriously than the general ROHbot. It wouldn't occur to me to complain about how guys are booked. You know why? At the end of the day, if I get a fun match out of it, the winners and losers really don't matter. Especially in a tournament situation, which is probably the best place, as a booker, to indulge your OMG INDY DREAM MATCH!!!!! fantasies. Anyway, enough talk of CHIKARA booking. The wrestling itself and oddball comedy has always been what matters there. I feel slightly more smarmy even putting the words "booking" and CHIKARA in the same sentence.

(Well...this was a random post. I guess the point stands, but I don't remember typing this at all and can't imagine why I cared enough to do so. Especially since I largely ignore the actual shows. Seriously, if you want to know where to start your slow descent into CHIKARA madness, King of Trios '08 is the spot. Watch it, love it.)


-All I can say about the Jacobs/Whitmer I Quit match from the IWA 500th show is WOW. What an amazing match. Jimmy Jacobs is every single thing I love about pro wrestling wrapped up in one tiny, ass kicking package. Tons of emotion, top shelf brawling, great throwbacks to the ROH matches and the single most convincing finish to an I Quit match pretty well ever.

(This ended with Jacobs using his railroad spike to stab Whitmer in the groin area repeatedly.)

Having King on commentary made it that much better, since it's exactly the sort of heated brawl that he'd work in the same situation and he manages to add that little extra touch with his commentary here, playing up that he's friends with both and concerned that they will literally murder one another in the ring. He knows exactly when to shut up as well, so yeah...a million billion stars for all of this.

(This is still possibly my indy match of the year so far.)


ROH: Take No Prisoners

I was bored and saw that the replay was on. I vaguely remember this being the show that Kingston debuted on, so I decided to order it. Sadly, King is edited out, but yeah...this is the first ROH I've watched in close to a year and I have to admit that I was kinda surprised as to how much I enjoyed the show. First half was so so, but the two matches that needed to carry the show did so in a big way.

-Claudio vs. Tyler Black vs Delirious vs. Shiozaki was decent, but I'll probably never get over my bias against the multi-man match. Lots of situations here that didn't make a ton of sense and had me rolling my eyes. Realistically, though, there's no way around it if you're going to book 4 guys in the same match. Some fun stuff with Claudio and Delirious, but not a match I'd go out of my way to watch again.

-Steen vs. Roddy is next. Pretty much what you'd expect from these two. Steen is such a great meatball dickhead. Roddy is generic as ever. But, uhh...he hits hard or something, so a lot of people dig him. Gotta love Steen..."WHO WANTS TO SEE HIM DIE!"

-Necro/Matthews vs. Briscoes earns a great big meh. Mark certainly does have a death wish, doesn't he. He bleeds quite the gusher here. Necro is probably the best brawler in the world right now, but this wasn't a good brawl. At all. I guess it was fun for the stunt show, watching dudes land on their head, unprotected chairshot crowd, but there was little flow and absolutely zero drama at all. So, the standard Briscoes match, I guess.

-Hangmen 3 get brought into the SnS fold. *yawn* Leads to Erick Stevens showing how big a moron he is, getting in Sweeney's face while totally ignoring the 5 other guys in the ring. Unfortunately, it also leads to Stevens vs. Albright. This wasn't actively bad or anything, but I almost fell asleep watching it. It was short, though, so props to ROH for at least making the crap easier to swallow.

-Pretty much loved the Davey/Romero vs Jig/Ruckus match. Really fun little tag sprint with a FANTASTIC crowd. It's saying something that I liked this, since Jig is the only one of the four that I can usually even stand. There were definitely some awkward moments, but the pace never slowed down and by the time you could dwell on something negative, they'd run through five other big spots. Not the style for everyone, but I personally find this sort of match fun from time to time. Jig looks pretty ridiculous sans mask and hell...even the name is meaningless at this point.

-I've always wondered what people saw in Austin Aries. Said time and time again that I just didn't "get" him. This might be the match that puts me on the path to being a fan. He and Danielson are absolutely fantastic here. Lots of really nifty matwork (with consequence) and even the lame headscissors sequence was palatable here.

-Main event is pretty great as well. Nigel had gotten pretty annoying when I was last watching ROH, but the heel turn definitely freshened him up and even the Lariat showcase we get here worked in context of the match. Crowd was going insane for Tyler's hope spots and Nigel was great in knowing exactly when to stuff his offense and take back control of the match. This is the first I've seen of the London Dungeon and the one at the end of the match looked absolutely sick. The arm really shouldn't bend in that particular direction. Was Tyler the first guy to kick out of the Jawbreaker? Half the crowd creamed themselves at that point.

Random mini-reviews

It's been ages since someone bothered to update our fair blog. Because we're all far too busy lazy to be bothered with such things. It just occurred to me that I still post about stuff on various boards, though, so I might as well co-opt that junk and put it up hear since I'm sure it'll be new to some of you. If, uhh...anyone still remembers that we exist, anyway. This will have a bunch of out of context comments that you won't get and sometimes I'm just slicing bits of separate posts together to (hopefully) make sense, but when has my writing ever made sense, really? I did clean these up a bit and added some new comments. DIRECTOR'S CUT!

-I watched the rest of the King/Hero feud comp, including the Loser Leaves CZW match. God, what a match. It's been 24 hours and I don't know that I can put my feelings about the match into words. I routinely complain that I wouldn't put any match from the last 10 years in a list of my all time favorites, but this...this match is just different from everything else out there right now. It's as perfect a brawl as I've ever seen. Kingston is so far ahead of pretty much every other worker out there that it boggles the mind. From the half staggered selling to the timing of the fighting spirit spots to the way he shit talks his way through matches...just amazing. The dude just has a ton of heart and works emotion into wrestling in a way that I don't think I've ever seen. In this feud especially, Hero knows exactly when to be "Hero-y" and when to just sit back and throw strikes. He's such a smarmy, condescending ass in the ring and when he reigns himself in it comes across even more because of the cocky little stomps and whatnot. And then when he does one of his goofy tumbling routines it just makes you want to kill him.

This match (and much of the feud) is more a battle of wills than it is wrestling. I actually feel bad for the people who would look at this and just dismiss it as two guys trading strikes, since that's like 85% of this match. The art of simplicity has been lost for the most part, but damn, this match has it in spades. Can't stress enough how great this is. Actually, I'll probably watch it again tonight if I have time, back to back with the TPI match. Perhaps at that point, I'll be better able to articulate why it's the best match I've seen in years.



-Just re-watched the big Duggan/DiBiase stips (No DQ, Loser Leaves Town, Coal Miner's Glove on a Pole, Tuxedo Cage match ) from 3/22/85 for probably the fifth time. I own this match already, but this is a HUGE step up in VQ.

At any rate, if you've never seen this match, you have no idea what you're missing. The booking is completely logical and a great example of the multi-layered booking that Watts was capable of (oh wait...that's another one of those concepts that Heyman invented, right?). Every stipulation is there for a very specific reason and actually has history behind it. It 's not just a case of throwing crap at a wall and hoping it sticks. Beyond that, it's also a *fantastic* brawl. Both guys pound the crap out of one another. Great punches. Tons o'blood. You just can't ask for more out of a pro wrestling match than this. Seeing it in this quality makes me wonder if it might not actually outpace my holy grail of the Tully/Magnum I-Quit cage match.

Note: This got the #1 slot on my Mid-South ballot, which is exactly where it finished in the final tally, I believe. I'll post my entire ballot here so we can all laugh at how retarded I am!



-It's not often that I feel the need to stop watching something so I can post about it, but I'm watching CHIKARA's YLC V, N2 right now and just got through the Shayne Hawke/Tim Donst match, which is *fantastic*. I hadn't been sold on Hawke, but he rules it here, absolutely brutalizing Donst and being the biggest dick in the world in the process. Which, considering the fact that he's a fairly tiny albino dude is actually pretty odd. Heh. I was feeling bad for Donst after a while, because Hawke was just kicking the crap out of him and talking crap the entire time. Some great heel shtick here.

Donst got in very little offense, but his hope spots looked great as well. There was an amateur style facefirst legsweep in particular that looked 27 kinds of hurty. He looks like he'll be pretty decent with a bit more experience (Quack points out that, at this point, he's only worked a half dozen matches total). Not a high end match by any means, but damn, this is the sort of thing that reminds me why I love wrestling in the first place.


-For years, I'd been reading about the DiBiase/Flair match from Mid South. 11/6/85 is the date, I believe. Heard it was a great match attached to one of the best angles ever televised. I'd never seen it, until today. Been saying it a lot recently, but words fail to describe how great the entire setup of this is. I'll give you the basic rundown, but yeah...you need to see this for yourself. DiBiase (Maybe *the* heel in Mid South) gets a shot at Flair because Flair/Dick Slater killified Butch Reed the prior week and he's unable to wrestle.

Dick Murdoch (a face, in as much a redneck asskicker can be) comes out and cites the history between he and DiBiase, letting us know that he helped break Teddy into the business. He wants DiBiase to step down and give Murdoch the title shot. DiBiase refuses, so Murdoch attacks and just brutalizes him. DiBiase is just *gushing* blood. Flair gives himself the night off and we go to break assuming that the title match is off. Back from break and Bill Watts tells us that DiBiase is demanding to wrestle. Watts goes into full bore "walking tall" mode, telling us how much DiBiase is risking by wrestling and letting us know that children and anyone with a weak stomach should skip the match.

Flair and DiBiase proceed to work a short, but great match based around DiBiase's cut. Lots of little hope spots by Teddy and the crowd has gotten behind him 100%, which would have been a ridiculous notion just a half hour earlier. Flair ends up sending him over the top and DiBiase takes a nasty bump to the floor and into the barricade at ringside, getting counted out. Murdoch is back out to attack DiBiase once again and ends up just murdering him with a sick brainbuster on the floor. Watts cancels all of the standby matches and we stick with DiBiase as he's tended to. Steve Williams brings out a table that they use for a makeshift stretcher to load him into an ambulance. In the course of the show, you have DiBiase becoming the biggest face in the company and Murdoch (re)embracing the dark side and it's all absolutely spot on perfect.

Thank god for the 80's Watts set, as it's totally reminded me why I love pro wrestling. It's not even like I was souring on the business, but when you're watching stuff this great, it completely reinvigorates you. At the moment, I'm digging wrestling even more than usual, if that's even possible.



-For years, I'd been reading about the DiBiase/Flair match from Mid South. 11/6/85 is the date, I believe. Heard it was a great match attached to one of the best angles ever televised. I'd never seen it, until today. Been saying it a lot recently, but words fail to describe how great the entire setup of this is. I'll give you the basic rundown, but yeah...you need to see this for yourself. DiBiase (Maybe *the* heel in Mid South) gets a shot at Flair because Flair/Dick Slater killified Butch Reed the prior week and he's unable to wrestle.

Dick Murdoch (a face, in as much a redneck asskicker can be) comes out and cites the history between he and DiBiase, letting us know that he helped break Teddy into the business. He wants DiBiase to step down and give Murdoch the title shot. DiBiase refuses, so Murdoch attacks and just brutalizes him. DiBiase is just *gushing* blood. Flair gives himself the night off and we go to break assuming that the title match is off. Back from break and Bill Watts tells us that DiBiase is demanding to wrestle. Watts goes into full bore "walking tall" mode, telling us how much DiBiase is risking by wrestling and letting us know that children and anyone with a weak stomach should skip the match.

Flair and DiBiase proceed to work a short, but great match based around DiBiase's cut. Lots of little hope spots by Teddy and the crowd has gotten behind him 100%, which would have been a ridiculous notion just a half hour earlier. Flair ends up sending him over the top and DiBiase takes a nasty bump to the floor and into the barricade at ringside, getting counted out. Murdoch is back out to attack DiBiase once again and ends up just murdering him with a sick brainbuster on the floor. Watts cancels all of the standby matches and we stick with DiBiase as he's tended to. Steve Williams brings out a table that they use for a makeshift stretcher to load him into an ambulance. In the course of the show, you have DiBiase becoming the biggest face in the company and Murdoch (re)embracing the dark side and it's all absolutely spot on perfect.

Thank god for the 80's Watts set, as it's totally reminded me why I love pro wrestling. It's not even like I was souring on the business, but when you're watching stuff this great, it completely reinvigorates you. At the moment, I'm digging wrestling even more than usual, if that's even possible.

Note: This was #3 on my ballot. Could have easily been #1.


CHIKARA - Maximum Overdraft

-Mantis teams with the Southern Saints? In the pre-show? Okay then! His continued refusal to work with Moscow is as humorous as ever.

-King beats the snot out of Ricochet, then puts a 'Wicked mask on him and beats the snot out of him some more. Dig it. (Note: How can you possibly not like Eddie Kingston? It just seems like a virtual impossibility. Everything the man touches, or punches in the face, turns to gold.)

-I'm officially 100% on the Shayne Hawke bandwagon. He does my name proud...even if he spells it wrong. Anyway, he's goofy in that way that most Canadian indy guys tend to be, but he can also buckle down and dick it up with the best of them. I'm starting to dig Billy Roc a bit as well. He's sort of "face Hero"-lite, but yeah...if there's not at least one masturbatory matwork guy in the indies, the entire scene would implode.

-Death Rey vs. Haze 2/3 was a bit...sloppy. Wasn't a bad match or anything, but I was surprised at how off some of this looked since these two tend to work pretty well together.

-Deliriousos vs Colony was your standard, goofy CHIKARA fun. After going through the old Watts stuff, though, it was quite the mindfuck.

-The Minis match sucked. A lot. The commentary was far more entertaining than the match could have ever hoped to be.

-Chucky T/Drake Younger was pretty good. I'm starting to genuinely enjoy Chuck Taylor's work instead of having it be a bridge between segments of him doing his shtick. (Note: Not that the grenade elbowdrop isn't funny EVERY SINGLE TIME or anything)

-Ahhh...Lince Dorado. How far down my throat will you be pushed? (Note: This is as true today as it was when originally written. Of course, King is doing his best to murder him now, so soon my life will be Lince free.)

-Quack drags a watchable match out of Rocky Romero. Who knew? (Note: I hate Rocky Romero, if you weren't aware. How does this guy get so much hype?)

-I don't really remember how it was taken at the time, but damn, was that F.I.S.T./Briscoes match ever a good Briscoes match. I don't know if they toned it down because it wasn't an ROH/NOAH show or if Icarus is just way better than anyone gives him credit for (he is, actually, but I digress), but this match actually had a bit of structure and wasn't just the Briscoes flying through a zillion spots a minute. I wish they always worked like this.

(Note: This still stands. I hated the Briscoes for ages, then fell in love with them for a bit. Now I'm pretty much ambivalent. Every single match is exactly the same. Just mindless spot fu with no rhyme or reason. Which is sad, because they *can* work a different style when the mood strikes them)

-F.I.S.T. teases dissension postmatch. I don't remember them splitting at all, so color me confused... (Note: I was pretty far behind on CHIKARA at this point, so I was confused by things I half remembered from reading results, as compared to what I was seeing on the shows themselves. The moral? Spoilers suck.)

Also watched International Invaders Night 1. Came across to me as a weak show, but I was pretty exhausted when I watched it, so who knows? It *was* the birth of Brodie Lee: KILLING MACHINE, though, so huzzah to that. Ricochet/Pac was just as bad as I thought it would be when it was announced, even though people were trying to convince me that Ricochet was awesome now. Didn't buy it then...not buying it now. The F.I.S.T/Ice Creams match was pretty good, but that was the only match here I can see warranting a second viewing.

More to come!

Video Vault 25: To Be The Man...

I figure that someone should probably mention something about Ric Flair retiring. I'll admit it, I was practically in tears during his HoF speech and again at Raw. Haven't seen 'Mania yet, but I'm sure that'll have the same effect. I can't even begin to tell you what Ric Flair has meant to me as a fan of pro wrestling. I've been watching him since I was maybe five or six years old, so he's been a fixture of my entire life. Can't even imagine the wrestling business without him. At any rate, enjoy some stuff from various points in his career. Just doing this really quickly on a whim, so expect me to go back sometime this week and add more posts with even more matches, angles and promos. It's amazing how much of his work is available online. And rightfully so...


Ric Flair vs. Kerry Von Erich (WCCW -12.25.82)
Wargames '87 (NWA - Great American Bash 1987)

Ric Flair v. Vader (WCW - Starrcade '93)
Part One
Part Two

Ric Flair v. Eddy Guerrero (Nitro - 12.18.95)
Ric Flair & Arn Anderson v. Rock n' Roll Express (Nitro - 6.3.96)

Random promos:

Late 70s
"Reeking of sex appeal"
Blackjack Mulligan Returns!
"Stylin' & Profilin'"
w/ Baby Doll
Re:Nikita Koloff
Training Bra promo

UWF - The week at a glance (Jan. 8 - Jan. 12, 2008)

Well, the first week of the sublime UWF show on ESPN Classic has come and gone (and by gone, I mean that this week’s shows start in less than an hour and a half as I type this. Procrastination!). I was originally planning to recap individual episodes, but that seems like it would lead to some sort of head explodey, so we’ll just cover an entire week at a time with whatever notes I bother to take while watching the show live. Should allow me to hold onto what little sanity I have left.

-First thing I have to point out is Bruno Sammartino on commentary. He could care less about any of this and goes out of his way to disagree with Herb Abrams any time he can. Abrams, of course, was insane. His commentary fully bears that out.

-The wrestling is…okay. Or okay-ish, anyway. Mostly squash matches where the job guys get in more offense than you’d really want to see. The main events tend to be decent, if not poorly booked.

-Apparently, Gary Keyes nailed Billy Jack Haynes’ wife, because one doesn’t typically open a match with a shoot-looking German suplex in most matches. Especially in 1990. Heh. He then proceeded to lay in quite the beatdown.

-Fun fact (via Abrams): "Kids love Mr. Wonderful. Girls love Mr. Wonderful. America loves Mr. Wonderful!" Who knew?

-It’s always nice to see Steve Williams kicking the shit out of people. Wonder what Meltz did to piss Abrams off?

-I marked out huge for Col. DeBeers. I have no idea why. About the only notable thing I can recall him ever doing was the feud with Snuka. I was hoping for the face first piledriver here, but got screwed over on that.

-The Cactus Jack/David Sammartino match was pretty good. It’s always cool to watch Jack at this point, where he could still move around really well. All appendages accounted for as well! He also breaks out his “I’d rather hurt a man than love a woman” line in the inset promo. Crowd digs him. Probably because he’s busting his ass while everyone else is just sitting there working a chinlock for ten minutes. No ricockulous bumps, which mildly surprised me. And yeah…if you were wondering, David Sammartino still sucks.

- Was that promo by B. Brian Blair possibly the most painful thing to watch in the history of televised wrestling? Seriously…never speak again. No wonder Iron Sheik wants to humble him.

-Abram-ism alert! Regarding Blair: “…a fan favorite…a favorite of the fans!” Heh.

-The Blair/Dan Spivey match wasn’t something that I’d want to see again, but in terms of the wrestling that we’re getting on these shows, it wasn’t all that bad. Disregarding the lame non-finish leading to an even lamer pull apart brawl, I guess.

-Holy shit! The Nightstalker (Brian Clarke) is on my television! And yes, he has the axe! Other than the brutal match with Sid on one of the Clash shows, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen him work under this gimmick. I should probably not share this memory because it will (and probably should) lead to mockery, but when I was in…7th maybe 8th grade, I had an English assignment where I had to write a poem about my biggest hobby. Said poem contained what was probably a brilliant rhyme involving, “The mighty Nightstalker.” What the bloody hell could I have rhymed with Nightstalker? Anyway, I’m glad that no one reads these things. My lame childhood memories are safe!

-Jeff Husker wears a Nebraska football helmet to the ring. That’s meta! He works a guy named Helmut Hessler, who seems to be a shaggy blonde German dude wearing amateur headgear. That’s an interesting gimmick, I guess.

-Just to show that John Tolos is just as dumb as Abrams, we get this gem: "Universal Wrestling is the best Universal Wrestling Federation in the entire world.” Well okay then! I wonder what the best Universal Wrestling in the entire *universe* would be? It boggles the mind!

-Jimmy Valiant just kissed a fat chick in the crowd and knocked her down in the process. God, I love this shit! Also, he’s shocked and/or appalled that his former protégé, Colonel RED, joined the Russians. Who could have ever seen that one coming?

-I used to read about Wet n’ Wild in the Apter mags and really wanted to see them. Now I have. The 16 year wait wasn’t really worth it. They were sufficient in a seventh rate Rockers sort of way, but really, is that what you want to put on a resume?

-Bob Orton closes the show with a promo, referencing his twelve year old son. I wonder what ever happened to that kid?

-DeBeers won’t wrestle because the ref is black. Controversial! So does that make his beatdown of said ref at the end of the match a hate crime? Someone needs to look into this.

-I wonder if Lou Albano is clinically insane or if he‘s on THE DRUGS. I mean, he always pretty much just spouted gibberish, but his interview with Bob Orton is practically surreal. He just randomly disappears out of frame for like 15 seconds before popping back into the scene. Orton looks quite confused. Also, bored.

-Herb Abrams saw Jay Strongbow’s teepee! Tremendous!

-Orndorff vs. Dr. Death was actually worth staying up for. Really fun match with both guys kicking the crap out of one another. This one is actually worth tracking down, as I’m sure some brave soul is uploading this shit on a video site near you!

-Don Muraco! This episode is already a winner!

-I fell asleep after this and apparently missed a Louie Spicolli appearance. That sucks. A lot. I missed other stuff, too, but who gives a crap about that?

-Oh! This show is being taped outside of the friggin’ Nickelodeon section of Universal Studios. Take that, TNA! If someone gets slimed, this is the greatest show in the history of ever.

-The Blackhearts had a great look. Luna is scary as ever. I’m surprised this gimmick never went anywhere. They were pretty decent in the ring as well. I question why they decide to hit their finisher (Veg-O-Matic) on the guy who must have weighed 400+, though.

-I was entirely unaware that Cpl. Kirschner worked in UWF. He looked quite a bit smaller. I have nothing else to say!

-It’s Brady Boone! But not as Battle Kat. We get “The Lynx,” instead. Oh, Brady…what sneaky, sneaky guy you are. I bet no one in the WWF even noticed what you did there! At any rate, he’s actually athletic, so this is a bit faster paced, if not good or anything. I think his opponent (Mr. V) used to be a job guy in WCW. He’s obviously got star power!

-This 6-man tag is quite the random little cluster. But we get a Boris Zhukov sighting, so thumbs up to that. His cranium? Still MASSIVE. Nice to see Bam Bam Bigelow as well. He didn’t do much here, though.

-Lou Albano must have been doing lines DURING THE SHOW. I’ve literally never heard such a random bit of commentary in 20+ years as a fan. What a nutty guy.

-The Orton/Blair match seemed like it would be the best match of the entire week, but then they went and just ridiculously overbooked the finish. It was like watching TNA, actually.

-David Sammartino’s promo is grand. He’s not the biggest guy out there, but he *is* the most fit. Also, he’s dangerous…but only when provoked. QUALITY.

-He wrestles Ivan Koloff to close out the week and they have a decent little match. Dumb finish, of course. Watch as the referee pauses his count so that Sammartino can come back in, then quickly counts Ivan out. I think someone needs to embrace his Communist masters.

See you in seven with more goofy Abrams fun!

Friday Night SmackDown! 1/4/2008: For and Against

AGAINST: Vickie with a mic.

FOR: Beat The Clock!

FOR: Coach climbing up on the announce table to salute the fans. That's a JBL move.

FOR: Is Finlay a face now or something?

FOR: Coach pointing out that Finlay's style isn't designed for speed.

FOR: Was that a real-time edit?

AGAINST: Eight minutes already? This is a bad time.

AGAINST: The double shillelagh swerve does get old.

AGAINST: Vince?

AGAINST: The hell was the point of that?

FOR: HBK in the Rumble commercial.

FOR: Michelle's pants.

AGAINST: Has Kenny missed two spots for interference already?

AGAINST: Coach doesn't think Victoria's utterly insane?

FOR: Was that an attempt at a Rocket Launcher? Ambitious if nothing else.

FOR: Nice kick by Michelle.

AGAINST: And Chavo weighs in but doesn't really.

AGAINST: Funaki?

FOR: Chavo's getting pissed.

FOR: Coach isn't doing a bad job.

FOR: Chavo countering Funaki's rollup attempt from the corner.

FOR: Whoa! 6:02.

FOR: Figured Batista'd get either Hawkins or Ryder.

AGAINST: Shouldn't he have his own tights by now?

FOR: Vickie making Teddy do her dirty work.

AGAINST: Same for Zack.

AGAINST: What happens if Ryder or Hawkins wins?

FOR: Coach wondering if Ryder and Hawkins were also told not to win in less than 6:02.

AGAINST: Pin him, Dave!

FOR: Cowboys vs greasers. Awesome.

FOR: Cherry in red, obv. (It seems too easy, doesn't it?)

FOR: Yang helping Cherry up and Domino overreacting to it.

AGAINST: See, I'd have brought Taker out second here.

FOR: The one kid's legitimately terrified.

AGAINST: Striker's the ref? Oh no.

FOR: Well, this is a little better than what I was expecting. (Big Daddy V)

AGAINST: Cole calling Vickie's management skills "unorthodox."

FOR: I wasn't expecting Striker to count at all.

FOR: Chavo was in this for a reason.

AGAINST: The hell? EDGE?

FOR: Rey throwing up his hands after Edge exits the ring.

FOR: Batista running interference on Ryder and Hawkins.

FOR: Taker's pull with the power company, apparently.

SNME times two!

More bite-sized recappery follows!

SNME #27 (7/90)

We've started getting into the heavily "themed" SNME episodes, which are hilarious for all the wrong reasons. I love how all of the promos through the night tie into the theme, which leads to some really awkward moments. This one is the "Wild Kingdom" episode, where Alfred Hayes and Gene Okerlund go on an "African Safari" and bump into various wrestlers being goofy. Gotta love the announcers randomly stumbling across the Bushwackers, for example, strutting down a set of train tracks as if it's the most natural place in the world for them to pop up. This is far funnier (mostly unintentionally) than it sounds, if you've never seen it.

-Warrior vs. Rude is the opening match. This feud goes to show how great Rude was, because this was a really enjoyable match, even though Warrior did next to nothing, except run around like a lunatic. There's a stretch! Heenan took more bumps than he did, actually. There was one truly bizarre bit that I don't recall ever seeing before in wrestling. Rude locked Warrior in a sleeper and instead of doing the usual triple arm drop thing to see if he was conscious, the ref checked his leg instead. Even Jesse Ventura on commentary was confused by that.

-They run a Hogan "tribute" video with an orchestral version of Real American that I have to track down online, if possible. This is his first appearance after Earthquake squashed him on the Brother Love show, so the video was really pushing a possible retirement. It ends with an absurdly melodramatic shot of an empty locker with all of Hogan's gear in it. Cheesy, but well produced.

-Demos versus Rockers was really good. Could have done without Crush stinking up my world, but he actually wasn't too bad here. Michaels, by this point, is really starting to break out. In hindsight, it's easy to see that being in a team was anchoring him down. I guess I'm guilty of a bit of hyperbole there. It's not like Janetty was some great albatross keeping him from the spotlight. Had they given him the hard HBK push here I don't know that it would have gone over, but you tell that he's almost at that spot.

-Hennig/Santana was awesome. Hennig's bumping in this match is ridiculous even for him. Santana would pretty much just look at him and he'd take his exaggerated backflip bump and land on his head. Tito is one of the lost great workers of the 80s for the WWF. People have really forgotten how good he was back in the day. He didn't get to show it much by this point, but he could definitely still go. This was given a bit more time than you'd usually get out of SNME matches, so both guys got to get in a good amount of offense. The ref is bumped and Tito gets two visual falls and a submission while he's down, so they really protected him here. Crowd went bonkers for it as well. When Perfect squeaked out with a quick (but clean) rollup win, the crowd lost it. Great bit of storytelling and a good example of what a hot crowd adds to the viewer at home.

-Final match is Kerry Von Erich's debut versus Buddy Rose. Rose was always fat, but he's just ridiculous looking here. Practically round. This is pre-Blow Away diet, since it's not mentioned at all. Tornado looked pretty good, but Rose bumped around like a freak for him so even if he was in zombie mode this would have been okay. I've been watching a bunch of post-accident KVE recently and I always find it amazing that, for the most part, it was impossible to tell that he was wrestling on a prosthetic foot. He's a bit ginger on it from time to time, but it's mostly unnoticeable 95% of the time.

Overall, this was one of the better SNME shows from top to bottom. Let's just say that when I got the full run, I discovered quickly that I remembered them far more fondly than I should have. There's usually at least one good match/angle per show, but there's a whole lot of filler as well. Nothing here made me want to shut off the DVD, which is several steps up from the last few episodes that I've watched.

SNME #28 (10/90)

This is the Oktoberfest episode. Oy. Someone was on some good drugs when they came up with the idea for these themed shows. I think this is the last of them, though. Basically, everyone who isn't involved in a match is dressed in their Bavarian finest and partying their hearts out. It's Genius, Akeem/Slick, Bushwackers, Hart Foundation, Orient Express/Fuji, Duggan, Okerlund and Al Hayes (who is hilarious here, as he misses all of his cues because he's getting "drunk" during the course of the show).

-Road Warriors & Warrior vs Demolition was a dream match to me when I was 13, but yeah...it didn't age well at all. They basically bury Demolition here. LOD weren't even involved all that much. They really FUBAR'ed that feud big time. I know you can't just abandon the Harts at this point, but having them in the mix totally blew what could and should have beenone of the bigger feuds of the early 90s. The prematch interview with Warrior/LOD is hall of fame worthy, though, as they try to work in all the lame Oktoberfest references. It ends with Warrior popping up out of nowhere and screaming BLITZKRIEG over and over. Ah...crazy people. Gotta love 'em.

-Savage vs Dusty was just there to further the angle with DiBiase and Rhodes. Dustin is involved here, as DiBiase buys out the entire front row during the match, but Dustin won't sell out! The drama! This ends with Dustin taking one hell of an ass kicking by 1990 WWF standards, including doing a really rare blade job after DiBiase whacks him with a wooden chair. Dusty is great in these angles, of course, as he lays across Dustin to shield him and is just screaming "No!" over and over again as Dustin is laying there unconscious.

-Hogan/Tugboat vs Rhythm & Blues was pretty much what you'd expect. Hot crowd helped cover some atrocious wrestling. 'Quake and Bravo eventually get involved. Tugboat goes down after one weak guitar shot. It then takes five guys to subdue Hogan. Heh. 'Quake is about to hit his finisher, but Tugger makes the save.

-Slaughter squashes Koko. Not good at all. This angle was truly tasteless, which isn't something that I find myself saying about wrestling all that often. I'm not one of those thin skinned people who take offense to everything out there, but this was pretty low. I remember the Iraq stuff being much more tame than it actually started out as. Postmatch, they hype the upcoming Slaughter/Volkoff feud. Joy.

-Tornado versus Haku would have been a fun match, had it gone over three minutes. Even ignoring all of the stories you hear about Haku that show how much of a total badass he is, it's pretty easy to tell just by watching him work. The guy was a beast when they let him. I'm surprised that he was never a bigger star in the WWF during this time period.

-I failed to mention the skits throughout the show. We get the Bushwackers at a cheese factory, just so they can do 25 bad "cut the cheese" puns in two minutes. There was also a sausage stuffing contest (at which point Genius was referred to as the "Master sausage stuffer." I'm surprised they didn't work in a Pat Patterson joke in there somewhere!), which I'm sure Bret fondly remembers as one of his finest wrestling moments. This eventually leads to a food fight with everyone, of course. If nothing else, it looks like everyone was having a blast, even doing retarded shit like this.

Overall, this was several steps down from the prior episode. The angle with Dustin was cool, but everything else is skippable, unless you're specifically looking for the inspired random goofiness that 1990 WWF serves up in spades...

Best of 2007 - The Ballot, Part 2

And since I actually vote in the Observer awards, and did this last year, and still having posting privileges...

I'll expound upon views where they're significantly different from Shane's or common sense, and I'll go deeper on the ballot when I feel like it. I do watch MMA, so I vote on those too. I watch WWE, TNA, and ROH at least somewhat regularly, and CHIKARA, PWG, puro, and lucha when recommended.

LOU THESZ/RIC FLAIR AWARD

1.) John Cena
2.) Shawn Michaels
3.) Hiroshi Tanahashi

Man, this was tough to vote for this year. Had the MMA and wrestling not been split, I almost certainly would've had Rampage and Couture in this mix. As it is, Cena was tremendous and on top of the WWE A-brand almost the entire voting period. Michaels was phenomenal but missed a lot of time. Tanahashi was the Japan ace this year, although that's not saying much. Morishima had some fine work in the NOAH upper-mid and some fine work as ROH champion, but he really didn't draw a whole lot so I left him off.

MMA MOST VALUABLE FIGHTER

1.) Quinton Jackson
2.) Randy Couture
3.) Anderson Silva

Couture and Rampage are very close for 1/2, and I may have been swayed by Randy's end of the year bullshit more then anything.

MOST OUTSTANDING WRESTLER

1.) Bryan Danielson
2.) John Cena
3.) Shawn Michaels

Danielson missed 5 months and still blew everyone but Cena away. He may actually be the best in the world at this point.

MOST OUTSTANDING FIGHTER

1.) Quinton Jackson
2.) Anderson Silva
3.) Randy Couture

BEST BOX OFFICE DRAW

1.) Chuck Liddell
2.) Mistico
3.) John Cena

Liddell had the Tito fight and the Rampage fight in the voting period, so this seems obvious. Mistico was still a super draw for at least the first half of the year. Cena carries WWE house shows.

FEUD OF THE YEAR

1.) John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels
2.) Vince McMahon vs. Donald Trump
3.) Bryan Danielson vs. Takeshi Morishima

TAG TEAM OF THE YEAR

1.) The Briscoes (Jay Briscoe and Mark Briscoe)
2.) The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin)
3.) Kevin Steen and El Generico

MOST IMPROVED

1.) MVP
2.) Candice Michelle
3.) Claudio Castagnoli

BEST ON INTERVIEWS

1.) Jimmy Jacobs
2.) Quinton Jackson
3.) Santino Marella

Watch the following five videos and tell me Jimmy Jacobs shouldn't win this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cul6TSWq4Gk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDp50GI5pnU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZv5aGlpYYI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x21MIfeGPOc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3MKZiDO0nI (promo starts at about 3:45, but watch the entire thing)

His best promo isn't even among these, that's on the Supercard of Honor show. Rampage is Rampage. Santino started out as the worst talker ever and ended up as SANTINO~!

MOST CHARISMATIC

1.) Quinton Jackson
2.) John Cena
3.) Forrest Griffin

BEST TECHNICAL WRESTLER

1.) Bryan Danielson
2.) William Regal
3.) Yuji Nagata

BRUISER BRODY MEMORIAL AWARD

1.) Necro Butcher
2.) Umaga
3.) Takeshi Morishima

Necro is the death match king, the other two are more "stiff the crap out of guys" brawlers. But this is a catch-all award.

BEST FLYING WRESTLER

1.) Jack Evans
2.) AJ Styles
3.) Mistico

MOST OVERRATED

1.) The Great Khali
2.) Big Daddy V
3.) Snitsky

Three of the worst workers in the world. Three guys Vince McMahon pushes to the moon. It's not because they're big or anything. Really!

MOST UNDERRATED

1.) Jimmy Jacobs
2.) Alex Shelley
3.) Samoa Joe

This is a tough as fuck award, because guys in WWE don't get a chance to shine unless they're on top, so it's hard to say they're underrated. Jimmy Jacobs should probably be on top in ROH, and he probably will be fairly soon. Alex Shelley should be on top in TNA, and he's going to be lucky if he gets in the mid-card mix. Samoa Joe should be TNA's ace, and he's being criminally misused. There's many ways to be underrated.

PROMOTION OF THE YEAR

1.) UFC
2.) ROH
3.) NOAH

After the first two, what do you vote for? NOAH was down, CMLL was down...I almost voted for Dragon Gate, actually.

BEST WEEKLY TELEVISION SHOW

1.) The Ultimate Fighter
2.) Wrestling Society X
3.) Inside the UFC

How bad is it when two of the shows haven't even been on in many months and got no ratings?

PRO WRESTLING MATCH OF THE YEAR

1.) Jimmy Jacobs vs. BJ Whitmer, ROH Supercard of Honor II
2.) John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels, WWE RAW, 4/23
3.) Bryan Danielson vs. Takeshi Morishima, ROH Manhattan Mayhem II

On my top ten list, only 1 more is a WWE match.

MMA MATCH OF THE YEAR

1.) Randy Couture vs. Tim Sylvia, UFC 68
2.) Tyson Griffin vs. Frank Edgar, UFC 67
3.) Nick Diaz vs. Takanori Gomi, PRIDE 33: The Second Coming

You could go 20 deep here and not have a huge argument.

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

1.) Erick Stevens
2.) Tim Donst
3.) Joe Doering

I have no idea how Erick Stevens is still eligible for this, but he is, and he's the best guy around. Santino's not, otherwise he'd have been 3. Lince Dorado was in the mix too.

BEST NON-WRESTLING PERFORMER

1.) Larry Sweeney
2.) Donald Trump
3.) Jim Cornette

BEST TELEVISION ANNOUNCER

1.) Jim Ross
2.) John Layfield
3.) Joe Rogan

WORST TELEVISION ANNOUNCER

1.) Mike Tenay
2.) Don West
3.) Todd Grisham

Tenay and West are like a parody of an announce team at this point, probably because TNA scripts everything. Grisham is horrible, but thankfully limited.

BEST MAJOR SHOW

1.) ROH Man Up
2.) PRIDE 33: The Second Coming
3.) UFC 76: Knockout

I urge everyone who hasn't seen Man Up yet to do so.

WORST MAJOR SHOW OF THE YEAR

1.) TNA Lockdown

BEST WRESTLING MANEUVER

1.) KENTA's Go 2 Sleep

I thought long and hard about Nigel's jawbreaker lariat, which I eliminated because it's actually hurting guys, and the CHIKARA Special, which I'm not sure is eligible because as I read it, it's a singular move by a singular person or team. So I went with the old standby.

MOST DISGUSTING PROMOTIONAL TACTIC

1.) WWE stages the death of Vince McMahon

I wanted to vote for something related to WWE's handling of the Benoit tragedy, but nothing in particular struck me as bad as this.

WORST TELEVISION SHOW

1.) TNA Impact

WORST MATCH OF THE YEAR

1.) James Storm vs. Chris Harris, TNA Lockdown

Has there ever been a good blindfold match? The really sad part is that these guys went out several other times and tore the house down. Fake Rosie vs. Fake Trump was up here too.

WORST FEUD OF THE YEAR

1.) Christy Hemme vs. Voodoo Kin Mafia

Not only was this atrocious (WHAT ABOUT CHYNA? WHAT ABOUT JOANIE LAURER?), it also went on forever. Do you realize that this feud went longer then the initial Kurt Angle/Samoa Joe feud? Only in TNA.

WORST PROMOTION

1.) TNA

Easiest pick ever.

BEST BOOKER

1.) Gabe Sapolsky

In some ways, the booking of ROH this year was superior to in past years.

PROMOTER OF THE YEAR

1.) Dana White

By default almost. UFC had a mediocre year, but everyone else had a horrible year. I guess Dorian Rolden (AAA) wouldn't have been a bad alternative.

BEST GIMMICK

1.) Santino Marella, heel version

Has there ever been a quicker turnaround on a guy? The original Santino was a bad indy guy doing a bad indy gimmick. He then turned into an okay worker doing an awesome, hilarious gimmick.

WORST GIMMICK

1.) Voodoo Kin Mafia

It seems so long ago because TNA does 2 years of angles per month, but most of their DX "feud" and the entire Hemme thing was in the voting period.

BEST WRESTLING BOOK

1.) A Lion's Tale by Chris Jericho

Read this!

BEST PRO WRESTLING DVD

1.) Ric Flair and the Four Horsemen

Watch this!

Back in January 2009.