Hallowen Havoc '91

Legacy Review

Halloween Havoc '91

October 27, 1991 from the UTC Center in Chattanooga, TN

Commentary: Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone. Eric Bischoff and Missy Hyatt are on roving interview duty, both dressed up for Halloween. One is a creature of the night that will go after any warm body in sight. The other is Eric Bischoff dressed as a vampire.

JR and Tony cue up a clip from the afternoon of Bischoff stationed at the entrance as wrestlers arrive, trying to figure out the identity of the WCW Phantom. Barry Windham and Dustin Rhodes pull up. Arn Anderson and Larry Zbyszko run in and jump them! Zbyszko smashes Windham's hand in the car door! This is what lead Zbyszko to getting the nickname "The Cruncher". Classic Four Horsemen style stuff.

Chamber of Horrors Match: WCW United States Champion Sting, El Gigante, and the Steiner Brothers def Abdullah the Butcher, The Diamond Studd, Cactus Jack and Big Van Vader in 12:33- This is one of the most infamous matches in history. So what exactly is a Chamber of Horrors match? Well, it's in an oversized steel cage, like Hell in a Cell it allows some floor access inside the cage, but with no roof. I believe it's the same structure WCW previously used for the Thundercage matches. However there's one addition: The "Chair of Torture" (sounds like something from the BROKEN Universe, and not to be confused with Monty Python's comfy chair), an electric chair that's lowered into the ring during the match. The only way to win the match is to get someone from the opposing team into the chair and flip the "fatal lever" that's located halfway up one of the sides of the cage. Really. They promoted this like someone was going to be literally murdered on national TV. At least it's on PPV I guess. The entrances for this match are mixed, with members from both sides coming out at random to generic music. Only Sting gets his entrance music. Top star perks. As if the match concept wasn't crazy enough, WCW chose this match to debut the REFER-EYE cam. That's right, a helmet with a camera worn by the referee. And to pour even more diarrhea on this turd, there's coffins propped up inside the cage that masked jobbers come out of to harass everyone! Trying to do a blow by blow recap of this match is completely impossible and pointless. The main problem is with all the insane crap scattered all over the cage the wrestlers have absolutely no room to work, especially after the CHAIR OF TORTURE is lowered down and takes up most of the ring. So they all just lumber around trying to look like they know what to do and get some shots in with the random weapons all over the playpen. Some try more than others. Foley looks like he's desperately trying to find someplace to do a big bump off of but can't, so he settles for bleeding like a stuck pig instead. Sting and Abby also blade. A closeup shot of the FATAL LEVER clearly shows that it's in the ON position halfway through the match. You can spot a referee climbing up and trying to fix the switch just before the finish. The heels get Rick Steiner into the chair, and Foley climbs up to PULL THE LEVER. Rick pops up and belly to belly suplexes Abby into the chair, then takes forever tying him down, leaving Foley to stall on the switch like an idiot. Finally he gets the cue to go, and the activation of the CHAIR OF TORTURE, seriously, has to be seen to be believed. Lights out, pyro, sound effects, the works. Just go watch it with a bit of popcorn. And then the pyro sets the ring mat on fire. How fitting. DUD match, ***1/2 unintentional comedic entertainment, like watching a movie you know should be on MST3K/Rifftrax.

 

The Young Pistols lay down a challenge for the US tag titles and foreshadow their coming heel turn by saying some very not nice things about the Patriots.

Big Josh & PN News def The Creatures in 5:16- A lumberjack that's OK and a white rapper with no rhythm walk into a bar....The Creatures are your usual generic PPV themed one off masked tag team. Sadly neither of them are Jack Victory. Creature 1 goes heel 101 immediately, running away from Josh and getting a cheap shot on the ropes. Josh whips News into an avalanche on Creature whichever it is. News strong arms a whip reversal and lets Creature 33 1/3 run into him. A "belly bump" JR calls it. News with a headlock suplex. Creature 0.5 dodges an avalanche. Josh belly to belly suplex for 2. After one last punchy kicky Creature flourish Josh hits the northern exposure and News comes off the top with a big splash to win. An extended squash that was twice as long as it needed to be. 1/2*

"Beautiful" Bobby Eaton def Terrance Taylor (w/Alexandria York) in 16:00- Gotta say, the York Foundation music is pretty good. JR says neither of these guys get the respect they deserve. Damn right. Two of the best workers ever in the ring right here. Lots of shoving at the start. Eaton offers a free shot. Taylor declines. He gets an armdrag instead and taunts after. Eaton responds with a series of armdrags and Taylor powders. Eaton gets the better of a straight right exchange. Taylor tosses Eaton to the floor and whips him into the guardrail. Eaton backdrops Taylor over the rail into the first row! Well, not INTO. Just in front of. Back in Eaton blocks a hiptoss into another armbar and works a hammerlock for a bit. Taylor jawbreakers out and they go out to the ramp. Eaton slams Taylor on the ramp. He goes up top....Eaton big splash off the top onto Taylor on the apron! That's a huge spot for 1991. Taylor grabs Eaton's tights to throw him to the floor again. When Eaton gets back on the apron Taylor runs his back into the turnbuckles, and a running knee sends Eaton flying into the rail! Corner clothesline and kneedrop from Taylor for 2. Eaton tries to come back. Taylor uses his momentum to send him back out to the ramp. Taylor with a gutwrench powerbomb on the apron! Big splash off the top in the ring from Taylor for 2. Eaton gets a sunset flip off the top for 2. Taylor hooks in a sleeper. Eaton takes his turn to jawbreaker out. He goes for a splash but Taylor gets his knees up. Taylor goes to the second rope. Eaton gets his knees up! Backdrop. Mounted punches. Taylor tries to counter with an inverted atomic drop. Eaton blocks it and hits a suplex! Swinging neckbreaker! Eaton goes up top. Taylor shakes the rope and Eaton falls. Taylor tries the superplex. Eaton fights him off. Alabama Jam! 3 count! Just two of the best getting the time and doing what they do. ***1/2

Johnny B Badd (w/Teddy Long) def Jimmy Jam Garvin (w/Michael PS Hayes) in 8:16- It's not often you see someone out-peacock the Freebirds, but early days heel Badd does it. Hayes is on the shelf with an arm injury, or so we think. The Birds are all decked out in Braves gear for their first playoff run in forever. JR talks a bit about signature moves in wrestling, which is a pretty nice setup for the WCW Phantom reveal later in the night. An extended speed run lead to a series of blocked hiptosses, with Badd finally going over the top to the floor. Hayes takes his "hurt" arm out of the sling and punches Badd with his signature straight left! Once heels, always heels. Garvin with a powerslam and a HUGE running forearm that sends Badd to the floor. There was a little mistiming there as Garvin had to hit the ropes several times waiting for Badd to get set up. Badd goes to the eye rakes and lays in some of his Golden Gloves punches. Leaping clothesline and Badd works a chinlock. Long distracts the ref, tosses his towel in and Badd chokes Garvin with it. HUGE sunset flip off the top from Badd. They didn't stick the landing 100% but that was serious elevation. Badd hits an elbow off the top for 2. He tries coming off the top again and Garvin catches him. Garvin dodges in the corner and Badd flies over and all the way to the floor! Badd is flying around like a maniac trying to make an impression. Midring collision as Badd goes for a leapfrog. Garvin ducks a punch and hits the DDT! Long has the ref distracted. Badd pops Garvin with the Tutti Fruiti I'm So Pretty Punch and gets the pin. Hayes tosses the sling out and takes out Long. **

WCW World Television Championship: "Stunning" Steve Austin (c) (w/Lady Blossom) and "The Natural" Dustin Rhodes go to a 15 minute time limit draw- This is Dustin's first major title opportunity. After a hammerlock swap Dustin hits a bionic elbow. Austin runs Dustin over with a shoulderblock. Speed run and Austin runs into a clothesline. I'm always amazed how fast Austin was before he destroyed his knees. He could fly across the ring in practically one second flat. Headlock/headscissors exchange and some solid mat wrestling. Austin blocks a roll up but Dustin runs right back up and clotheslines him to the floor! Back in Austin back suplexes out of a headlock for 2. Dustin counters a backdrop. He goes for the bulldog but Austin blocks it. Some headlock work by Dustin with Austin trying for leverage pins with tights pulls to slow things down a little after the furious start. Dustin crossbody for 2. He goes for another one. Austin ducks and Dustin bounces off the mat and flies all the way to the floor! Damn! Austin goes to the floor and pummels him with punches, busting him open. Austin double ax handle off the top to the floor. Gutwrench suplex from Austin back in the ring for 2. Austin works a chinlock with illegal rope leverage as we hit the 5 minutes left mark. Dustin punches back. Austin blocks a monkey flip and hits a huge flying clothesline for 2 with 4 minutes left. Dustin rolls up a small package and they roll around reversing it for near falls. Dustin lariat for 2. Austin dodges a dropkick. Dustin is draped over the rope and Blossom gets some slaps in. 3 minutes left. Dustin dodges and Austin bounces off the ropes. Atomic drop and another lariat. Austin gets a boot on the rope. They go outside again. Austin is posted. Now he's busted open. 2 minutes left. Dustin powerslam for 2. Dustin pummels Austin's cut with ground and pound punches. Bionic elbow for 2. One minute left. Dustin mounted punches and elbows. Austin flop! 30 seconds. More Dustin punches for 2. Lariat off the top rope! Time expires as the ref's counting! Austin survives, barely. Damn good early career match from two future legends. They especially did a good job of not doing much obvious stalling as the time limit closed in. ***3/4

 

Ad for Starrcade '91, featuring the first ever Lethal Lottery and Battlebowl.

Bill Kazmaier def Oz in 3:59- Former World's Strongest Man Kazmaier was getting a sizeable push well beyond his actual wrestling ability in the form of a mini-feud with world champ Lex Luger. Amusingly, Kevin Nash has given up completely on the failed Oz gimmick and is pretty much just acting like himself. Oz would be out and Vinnie Vegas in before too much longer. Shoulderblock standoff and Kazmaier hits a clothesline. Test of strength that goes on. And on. And on. Oz tries to direct Kazmaier where to go and takes a hiptoss. Back suplex from Oz for 2. He pummels Kazmaier to the apron. Kazmaier skins the cat back in and hooks Oz in the torture rack as a message to Luger. Oz submits. 1/4*

Van Hammer def Doug Somers in 1:13- This is Hammer's PPV debut after making his initial debut at the last Clash a couple of weeks prior and doing the near impossible- having a bad match with Terry Taylor. There are guys working jackhammers during Hammer's entrance. But I thought he was "heavy metal", not "union street worker". Hammer was greener than any of JR's favorite football fields at this point. WCW was using him to try to capture the same magic as the Ultimate Warrior, having him win a bunch of squash matches. Spoiler: didn't work. He and Somers can't seem to figure out who's supposed to hold the headlock at the start of the match, then Hammer completely fucks up whatever they were supposed to do next and hits a clothesline to cover. He then proceeds to wedgie Somers' tights all the way up his colon while barely hitting his slingshot suplex finisher. Somers isn't selling at the end, he physically can't stand after getting his testicles squashed in a spandex vice. DUD

Inaugural WCW Light Heavyweight Championship Tournament Final: "Flyin'" Brian Pillman def Richard Morton (w/Alexandria York) in 12:45- REFER-EYE camera match #2. Nick Patrick looks, well, pretty ridiculous in it, but its use on TV in this match is actually not that bad. Slow "hit a move, stop, circle and stare" start, in contrast to the high octane light heavyweight style JR is trying to put over. Morton slides under Pillman's legs and goes all the way to the floor to check the computer. He flips out of a blocked hiptoss but gets slammed by Pillman. A spinning heel kick sends Morton to the floor again. Pillman flips over Morton in the corner, springboards to the second rope, Morton anticipates the crossbody, so Pillman waits and hits him with a double ax handle. A few rapid fire near falls follow. Japanese armdrag from Pillman. Morton catches Pillman with a back elbow but misses an elbow drop, and it's back to the headlock. Pillman runs into an inverted atomic drop. Morton rakes his eyes and throws him out, but Pillman bounces right back in with a roll up for 2. Morton cuts off the momentum with a clothesline. He spends the next little bit working Pillman's arm as the pace continues to be on the pedestrian side. Pillman ducks a clothesline and hits his own. Morton goes to the eye rake again. Back suplex for 2. Pillman hits an enzuguri! Bit of a chop exchange. Midring collision and both guys fall to the floor. Pillman is posted. Morton gets back in normally, Pillman sneaks up top behind him. Pillman crossbody off the top! That gets the pin and the title! Really disappointing, especially after Pillman and Brad Armstrong as Badstreet put on a great match in the semifinals the last Clash that showed what this division could do. As I've mentioned so many times before, Morton never being comfortable in a heel role was certainly a part of it. To quote the great golf announcer David Feherty, Morton's heel turn was poor planning, poor execution, poor everything. Other than that it was perfect. *

The WCW Halloween Phantom def "The Z Man" Tom Zenk in 1:27- Gee, this Phantom guy looks kind of familiar......Wait, that neckbreaker he just used to finish off Zenk, I know that, I just can't quite put it together......Then Tony Schiavone ruins all the fun by saying point blank that was the Rude Awakening. Spoilers, Tony. Next thing you know he'll be telling us when Mick Foley wins a world title before he actually does it. 1/2*

WCW World Tag Team Championship: The Enforcers (c) def WCW United States Tag Team Champions The Patriots in 9:51- The Patriots are from the "WCW Special Forces" but I can't for the life of me remember if anyone else was supposed to be in that group or not. Maybe Ranger Ross in his occasional appearances. Zbyszko and Chip start. Zbyszko goes for an early abdominal stretch. Chip reverses it and Zbyszko hiptosses out. Chip backslide for 2. Zbyszko is pissed at being outwrestled. Arn tags in to a bit of a pop, and in a non-smarky town to boot. He gets a waistlock takedown but Chip rolls him around to the point Arn falls to the floor. The faces work Arn's arm for a bit. Arn grabs Champion's tights to back him to the ropes and gets some shots in. Arn tries for a piledriver on the floor but Champion backdrops out. Champion hooks Arn in a bear hug. Zbyszko gets him out but Champion double clotheslines both heels. They roll out to regroup. Zbyszko slaps Champion and runs. While getting back in he tags Arn in and he hits Champion from behind. Champion is thrown to the floor and takes a rail shot, going patriot in peril. Zbyszko swinging neckbreaker for 2. Champion ducks an Arn punch and lifts him up for an atomic drop, but as he does Arn tags Zbyszko! Genius. Zbyszko nails Champion from behind again. Watching the veteran Enforcers constantly outsmart these guys is really hilarious. Champion reverses a Zbyszko suplex and tags. Chip has slams and dropkicks for everyone. I think he was supposed to powerslam Arn but can't swing him over and settles for gradually working him over. Donnybrook! Arn hits the World's Greatest Spinebuster and it's over. Arn and Zbyszko did the best they could with who they were working with. *3/4

Bischoff interviews Paul E Dangerously. Paul E says that WCW fired him as an announcer because he was "too controversial", but they forgot he also has a manager's license. He vows to "take away your heroes" and use the power he gains to take control of WCW and fire everyone who's ever crossed him, and he's going to start right at the top with Sting. He's hired Madusa, and Madusa went and found the one man that can do the job: the WCW Phantom. The Phantom comes out, unmasks, and it's GASP SHOCK Rick Rude! Paul Heyman was born to cut wrestling promos. This was the opening shot in what would become the red hot Dangerous Alliance angle.

2 out of 3 Falls Match for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship: "The Total Package" Lex Luger (c) (w/Harley Race) def "The All American" Ron Simmons (w/Dusty Rhodes) in 18:59- Mr. Hughes also comes out with Luger but Nick Patrick sends him back to the locker room. Dusty is with Simmons to try to keep Race from interfering. 

FIRST FALL: Cautious start. JR gets through all the football history, including that these guys were teammates at one point on the USFL's Tampa Bay Bandits. Exchange of basics. Slowly, with a lot of Luger stalling. He dodges a Simmons dropkick and does some high impact clubbing blows. Simmons counters a backdrop with a faceplant. Powerslam. Big Simmons spinebuster, and that gets a quick pin!

SECOND FALL: 60 second interval between falls in this match. Luger's back is still hurting as they resume. Simmons blocks Luger's suplex and hits his own. Backdrop and Luger begs off. The ol' eye poke turns things around, until Simmons gets a back elbow and faceplant for 2. Simmons small package for 2. Luger grabs Simmons' tights and tosses him to the floor. Simmons comes back in with a sunset flip for 2. Luger sidesteps a charge and Simmons flies out to the floor. Typical slow 1991 Luger offense follows. Powerslam on Simmons for 2. Simmons reverses a corner whip but Luger gets a boot up and hits a clothesline for 2. Tony says Luger is slow because he's "winded". Nah, just completely unmotivated. Luger plays the rope leverage game with a chinlock. Simmons powers out, dodges a corner charge and rolls Luger up for 2. Simmons backslide for 2. Race grabs Simmons foot. Dusty tries to take care of bidness but Race fights him off. Luger goes for a crossbody near the ropes. He falls over to the floor, but Race grabs Simmons' tights to keep him in the ring. To Patrick it looks like Simmons threw Luger over the top, and Luger gets the fall by DQ.

THIRD FALL: Luger's gotten cut open under his eye on the crossbody fall. He gets a cheap shot on Simmons over the ref. Simmons hulks up and no sells. Luger backs off quick. Simmons mounted punches. He blocks an inverted atomic drop and clotheslines Luger for 2. Simmons with an inverted atomic drop. Superplex! Luger kicks out! A tackle off the second rope sends Luger to the floor. Luger dodges a charge and Simmons runs right into the post. Luger hits the piledriver and it's over. Simmons' inexperience at the main event singles level plus Luger's completely broken give a shit is not a pretty combination. In a lot of ways this match is the epitome of Luger's lackluster first world title run. *1/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS: Two good matches in the middle and the Chamber of Horrors being hugely entertaining crap means this isn't the worst show of the Jim Herd era. The pairing of Rick Rude and Paul E would be a creative spark that would turn into a wildfire, but not until after Herd was long gone.
OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C-

AWA Super Sunday

Legacy Review

AWA Super Sunday

April 24, 1983 from the St. Paul Civic Center in St. Paul, MN

 

Commentary: Ron Trongard

 

This should have been Hulk Hogan's grand coronation as the face of the AWA. It turned into the night the AWA blew their biggest chance to stand against the WWF and NWA in the coming war for the nationalization of wrestling, though it took them years to realize it.

There's no opening, the Network copy jumps right into intros for the first match. Mean Gene Okerlund is handling the ring announcing duties as well as postmatch interviews with the winners.

 

Brad Rheingans def Rocky Stone in 7:00- Rheingans is a local boy and two time Olympian so the crowd is on his side. He's most "known" (relative term) for a decent stint in New Japan in the early '90s teaming up with Vader and other gaijins against the home Japanese talent. Code of Honor handshake to start. The crowd gets mad at Stone for going for quick rope breaks. On a speed run Rheingans leapfrogs, catches and slams Stone, and gets an armdrag. He leaps over a Stone backdrop attempt and grabs another armdrag. Lots of arm work, which will be a theme throughout the night. Rheingans tries to leapfrog again but Stone runs his head right into his gut while he's in midair. Stone works a chinlock for a while. Kneedrop for 2. Stone cuts off a comeback with an eye rake and tosses Rheingans to the apron. Stone runs him back and forth across the apron for buckle shots. Rheingans shoulderblocks back in and hits a backdrop. A gutwrench suplex gets the pin. Meh. *1/4

 

"Rock N Roll" Buck Zumhofe def Steve Regal in 8:37- Once again, this is not Steven "William" Regal the pride of Blackpool, it's the American Steve Regal that also wrestled in a couple of early Starrcades. He and Zumhofe are in the early part of a feud that would last for a couple of years. Zumhofe's gimmick is a babyface blend of the Honky Tonk Man and Disco Inferno with maybe a bit of Jimmy Valiant mixed in. He carries around a giant '80s boombox. Also, before we start I'll get out of the way right now that Zumhofe is currently serving 25 years in prison following a 2014 arrest on sexual misconduct charges that involved his daughter. He also served time for similar crimes in the late '80s. So if you want to skip this one, go right ahead. They start with Regal outwrestling Zumhofe and Zomhofe outpunching Regal. Regal pushes Zumhofe into a monkey flip, but Zumhofe lands on his feet and hits a dropkick. Body slam exchange. It's 1983 so that's still a relatively high impact move believe it or not. Regal gets a cheap shot on a rope break. He runs Zumhofe into the buckles and does some heel 101 hair pulling shenanigans. Zumhofe tackles Regal to try to come back. Regal kills it with a knee to the gut. Regal elbow off the second rope for 2. Zumhofe crawls around the ring on his ass like a dog trying to clean itself off after taking a shit to try to get out of a chinlock. Buckle shot exchange. Zumhofe goes into full comeback mode and dropkicks Regal to the floor. Regal gets a knee up in the corner. Zumhofe reverses a corner whip, slams Regal, and hits a Vader bomb for 3. *1/2

 

Jerry "The King" Lawler def John Tolos in 7:53- Lawler's national profile is still pretty high as this is soon after his famous Andy Kaufman worked shoot feud. Okerlund even mentions the episode of David Letterman Lawler was on is going to be repeated on NBC this weekend. Tolos was a regular in the territories for over two decades, but might be best known for his WWF stint as one of the shortest running managers there, Coach. Really the only reason anyone would remember Coach at all was he was Mr. Perfect's manager for his classic IC title match with Bret Hart at Summerslam '91. Tolos attacks Lawler from behind after instructions and the match starts with no bell. Tolos is the bell. He picks apart Lawler's arm. After a lot of thinking and teasing Lawler finally punches out. Lots of standoffs. Lawler cranks a headlock with the crowd counting along to like 25 cranks. Tolos is wobblelegged and Lawler drops him down with a punch. Lawler sunset flip for 2. Collision and both guys are down. A Tolos punch sends Lawler over the top to the floor. There's a bit of confusion as Okerlund rings the bell thinking it's a DQ for the dumb over the top rope throw rule, but the ref waves it off and lets the match continue. THE STRAP IS DOWN! Lawler pounds away. Fist drop off the second rope for 2. Tolos dodges and Lawler posts his shoulder. Tolos tries a kneedrop off the second rope but Lawler dodges, hits the piledriver, and good night. Trongard says the piledriver is a controversial, dangerous move that should be banned. Give Vince about 20 years. **

 

NWA Women's World Tag Team Championship: The Texas Cowgirls (c) def Judy Martin and Velvet McIntyre in 13:46- The Cowgirls are Wendi Richter and Joyce Grable and they're the heels in this one. Everyone in this match would go on to work in the Rock N Wrestling era women's division in the WWF to one degree or another. McIntyre and Richter start. Grable cheap shots McIntyre from behind and Richter throws her outside. When McIntyre gets on the apron Richter shoulderblocks her off. She tries it again, but McIntyre dodges and Richter crashes to the floor! No pads out there either, it's the early '80s. Back in Richter tries a tiltawhirl but McIntyre blocks and falls on her for 2. This is already the best thing on the show. Grable comes in and bitches with the ref about rope breaks. The faces work Grable's arm. Martin with a slam and kneedrop on Richter. Now the faces pick apart Richter's arm. Arm work is definitely the theme of this show so far. The Cowgirls work the ref and take the upper hand back. McIntyre is whipped into Richter's knee and flipped around by her hair, a mandatory spot in '80s women's wrestling. McIntyre gets a couple of punches in and tags. Martin *pops* Richter with an elbow to the jaw as she's coming off the ropes. Big gasp from the crowd on that. Diving clothesline from Martin. Grable breaks the pin up. Martin's had enough of Grable's lip and pops her on the apron. A headbutt in the gut from Richter sends Martin into the heel corner. They tie Martin up in the tree of woe! The Cowgirls work her over while McIntyre occupies the ref with her protests. They continue to work the ref for double teams and chokes. Martin ducks a clothesline, hits one, and tags. McIntyre cleans house. Flying headscissors! DONNYBROOK! The faces try to battering ram the heels into each other. The heels push out, but the faces counter the counter and the heels still run into each other. Double cover for 2. They do a run where everyone misses big splashes. The crowd boos hard for that. Grable hits McIntyre from behind while she's hitting the ropes and Richter puts her in a Canadian backbreaker. Cowgirls double team backbreaker. Power bomb! That gets the win and retention for the Cowgirls, relatively clean too. Not too shabby. The end run could have used a bit more polish, but it's a fun match. **3/4

 

Wahoo McDaniel def Dizzy Ed Boulder in 7:06- It's hard to tell behind the bleach blonde hair and mustache, but Boulder is in fact the future Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake, AKA Brother Bruti AKA The Zodiac AKA The Man with No Name AKA The Booty Man AKA The Man with No Face AKA The Disciple AKA you get the idea. Boulder's clearly the heel but he offers a sincere handshake to McDaniel, who accepts. Jerry Lawler joins Trongard on commentary. After some mic issues they agree to use the same headset. So much for personal space. Nothing interesting happening in the ring while that's going on as Beefcake was just this side of godawful at this point and McDaniel wasn't much interested in making it work so there's a lot of arm flailing around out there. Boulder drops some knees and does an arrogant cover. McDaniel chops the bejeesus out of him (possibly some teaching the kid stiffness in there) and hits a suplex for 2, the first proper suplex of the entire show. McDaniel does do a nice upside down bump in the corner. After some around the world buckle shots for Boulder a wild chop finishes it. 1/4*

 

Jesse "The Body" Ventura, Ken Patera and Blackjack Lanza (w/Bobby Heenan) def AWA World Tag Team Champions The High Flyers and Rick Martel in 17:03- The High Flyers are future WWF Killer Bee Jim Brunzell and Verne Gagne's son Greg. They've been AWA tag champs nearly two years at this point. By the following year Martel would be AWA world champion. Martel and Patera start. Quick armdrags by Martel. A Brunzell armbar keeps Patera from tagging. Atomic drop from Brunzell. The faces work Ventura's arm. Ventura lifts Gagne into a fireman's carry and carries him into the heel corner. Gagne fights off Lanza and tags. The heels are selling like crazy. The Flyers bounce on the ropes while Ventura is reaching for a tag, causing him to fall into the ring! Nice. Patera tosses Brunzell around. Ventura hooks in a bear hug. Brunzell bell rings out and tags. Donnybrook! The match had been threatening to break down since the opening bell and it finally does. Lanza and Patera are run into each other while Ventura is posted. Gagne hooks a sleeper on Patera. Ventura hits him to release the hold. Lanza with a backdrop as Gagne goes in peril. He goes for the claw (or "brain buster" according to Trongard) and Gagne gets to the ropes. Ventura runs Gagne into the corner. Phantom tag to Martel while the heels have the ref distracted. Gagne reverses a whip and Lanza does a Bret bump. Real hot tag to Martel! Lanza dodges a dropkick and Patera follows up with a quick elbow drop for 2. Suplex. Brunzell breaks the pin up. Martel gets choked in the heel corner. He counters a backdrop and tags. Brunzell with a hiptoss and dropkick on Lanza. Figure four! Or "Indian Death Lock" per Trongard. He had his own names for a lot of holds. Everyone back in the pool! Heenan gets on the apron and you can see him taking something out of his pocket. After things calm down Brunzell goes for the figure four again on Patera and everyone runs in again as the ref might as well give up and go home. In the confusion Brunzell goes down and Patera pins him. Trongard doesn't know what's happening and thinks the heels have been DQ'd until Okerlund announces them as the winners. The faces protest, saying Brunzell was hit by a foreign object and run the heels off. Heenan takes his shots. The slow mo replay shows more clearly Patera taking the international knucks from Heenan, stowing them in his tights, and hitting Brunzell with them while others were partially blocking the camera. That one is more on the camera crew and production staff than the wrestlers. Not much action to write home about, but it had good grudge match heat. **1/4

 

To lead into the world title match- Nick Bockwinkel was in his third reign as champion and had held the title the vast majority of the time since 1975, cementing him as the company's biggest star following Verne Gagne's retirement. Hulk Hogan, after working as a top heel during his initial WWF run and becoming a huge star in New Japan through his matches with guys like Tatsumi Fujimani and the god of Japanese wrestling Antonio Inoki, went to the AWA soon after filming his role in Rocky III. He was turned face not long after and quickly became the most popular wrestler in the company. This match is supposed to be the culmination of a long title chase that had already featured multiple screwy finishes.

 

AWA World Heavyweight Championship: Nick Bockwinkel (c) (w/Bobby Heenan) and Hulk Hogan go to a Dusty Finish in 18:12- There's a great all-arena shot for Hogan's entrance with the crowd going nuts. Hogan steps in the ring and gets right in Bockwinkel's face. His shirt says "We want the belt!" on the front and "Now or never" on the back. Well.....Lord James Blears is the special guest ref. As soon as the bell rings Bockwinkel pulls a Jay White and rolls out of the ring, then gets back in, teases forever, and rolls out again. After he gets back in again there's a cautious hand lockup. Hogan pulls and Bockwinkel goes down. Trongard says Bockwinkel's fee was so high for this show and to get in the ring with Hogan again the promoter had to raise the ticket prices. Now that's heel work. And a hell of a cover to jack up ticket prices. Hogan easily wins a full lockup. Bockwinkel runs into Hogan full speed and goes down. After a second time he rolls out and gets consoled by Heenan. Bockwinkel with rapid fire knees while Hogan's against the ropes. Hogan counters a backdrop and returns the knee favor while Bockwinkel's in the ropes. Hogan double stomp and backbreaker. Bockwinkel gets more knees to the gut and covers. Hogan's kickout sends him to the apron. Hogan backdrops out of a piledriver. Bockwinkel with crawling headbutts while both guys are down. Hogan gets a knee up in the corner, hits a clothesline and elbow drop for 2. Bockwinkel dodges a legdrop. Both guys are slow moving like they've gone 45 minutes already or something. After a slugfest Hogan hits a powerslam for 2. Running elbow and elbow drop for 2. Bockwinkel dodges in the corner and locks on a sleeper. Hogan flips him over and Bockwinkel falls on the ref. He puts the sleeper back on. Hogan backs into the corner, squashing Blears in the process. The crowd boos, almost sensing a screwjob on the horizon. Back to the sleeper. Hogan flips Bockwinkel over the top rope to the floor. When he gets back on the apron Hogan suplexes him back in. Legdrop! Hogan gets the pin! The crowd goes INSANE. BUT WAIT! The AWA president at ringside confers with Blears. Blears confers with Okerlund. Okerlund announces that, in the determination of the AWA president, Hogan threw Bockwinkel over the top rope and is therefore disqualified. Bockwinkel is still the champion. All the air goes out of the arena. Big "BULLSHIT" chant. And this is polite near Canadian Minnesotans getting pushed to the point they're chanting bullshit, that should really tell you something. The ring is pelted with popcorn and drinks. Hogan takes Bockwinkel and Heenan out, refuses to give the belt back to the gaggle of refs now in the ring, and leaves. Screwjob aside the match was still not that great, mostly because they were moving in slow motion almost the whole time. *1/2

As always there's two sides to the story. One side says Gagne was using the promise of being champion as a lure to keep Hogan in the company without intending to ever actually put the belt on him. The other side says Hogan didn't want to give up time in New Japan (an argument somewhat countered by Hogan's WWF signing), and being AWA champion would mean having to work with their partner All Japan, breaking the all important loyalty bonds in Japan. Whatever middle the truth lies in, the end result is indisputable: soon after this Hogan left the company to return to the WWF, was instantly made the champion, became the face of the WWF's national expansion boom of the '80s and the biggest star the sport ever saw until at least Attitude Era Steve Austin. AWA got nothing.

Verne Gagne and Mad Dog Vachon def Sheik Adnan El-Kaissey and Jerry Blackwell in 12:23- This is getting the main event slot because Gagne is coming out of retirement for one night only. Or, put more cynically, Gagne booked himself in the main event. Take your pick. Sheik Adnan is the same guy as General Adnan during Sgt. Slaughter's Iraqi sympathizer heel run. Gagne's big goal here is to hurt the heel team so bad they can't challenge his son and Brunzell for the tag titles. Yeah. The faces charge the ring before intros and the heels bail. So does Okerlund, gently easing himself over the top rope. After everything calms down Blackwell charges in and Gagne chops him down. Both the heels have wrapped up casts on one arm. The first five or so minutes of the match is the faces easily staying on top. Blears joins commentary for a quick interview and basically says he did what his boss told him to do. I can sympathize with that. Adnan turns things around by hitting Vachon with his cast and Vachon falls to the floor. He grabs the bell and whacks Adnan with it. Then he throws a mic stand, but Adnan catches it and hits him with it. Vachon is busted open. A chair gets in the ring and Gagne hits everyone with it. It's total chaos, and not the good kind of chaos. Match is a complete mess. Adnan and Vachon get in a slugfest. Blackwell powerslams Vachon and Gagne breaks the pin up. Then he breaks up an Adnan abdominal stretch. Vachon ducks a punch and tags. Gagne dropkicks. Another Blackwell powerslam on Gagne for 2. Gagne dodges a splash and an avalanche. He hooks in a sleeper. Vachon cuts Adnan off and uses Adnan's cast to hit Blackwell. Gagne rips Adnan's cast off and Blackwell takes a chairshot to the head from Vachon on the floor. The faces pick apart Adnan's exposed hurt arm, with Gagne kicking it coming off the second rope to get the pin. Ugly as hell. Also the faces cheated way, way more than the heels. 3/4*

OVERALL SHOW THOUGTS: It's 1983 AWA so you can excuse the very 1970s (or even earlier) wrestling style. No one touched the NWA, specifically Jim Crockett's Mid-Atlantic, when it came to in-ring innovation in the early-mid '80s, at least until Randy Savage hit the WWF. The Hogan title screwjob is a historical curio that should be checked out at least once for anyone interested in wrestling history, a mistake the AWA never recovered from.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D-

Clash of the Champions XXI

Legacy Review

Clash of the Champions XXI

November 18, 1992 from the Macon Coliseum in Macon, GA

Commentary: Jim Ross and Jesse Ventura

We've got a new graphics package for this Clash. It looks like someone in the Turner graphics department thought the show was just "Clash of Champions" then after realizing shoved a "the" in there with no thought of rebalancing the whole image.

 

The show opens with footage of the weigh in for the "Battle of the Sexes" match. To no one's shock it ends in a brawl before a quick cutaway. Bill Watts does his mandatory TV hit and says absolutely nothing important. Jesse Ventura is with Brian Pillman on a crutch. Irony of ironies, the last Clash it was Brad Armstrong with a hurt knee, now it's Pillman. Armstrong comes out with a "WTF bro?" look on his face. Pillman offers a public apology for running Armstrong down for his knee injury the last Clash and offers Armstrong a free slap. While Armstrong's making up his mind Pillman attacks his knee with his crutch! IT'S A RUSE! The ref argues with Pillman and he says "You can't DQ me, the match hasn't started!". Inarguable point. Armstrong crawls onto the apron and insists the ref ring the bell.

"Flyin'" Brian Pillman def Brad Armstrong in :25- Armstrong fires up with punches and gives Pillman the slap he offered to take. Pillman begs off, as soon as Armstrong lets his guard down he clips the bad knee, and gets the pin. Good piece of business to get Pillman over as a heel. NR

Recap of the Paul E/Medusa feud following her firing at Halloween Havoc. Sadly we don't get the "the other hooker I had in mind for your job was otherwise engaged" line again. There's a funny bit where Paul E has a training session with a jobber in the ring. He punches the jobber, then when he turns around Steve Austin punches the jobber again behind Paul E's back to actually knock him down, and Paul E turns around and celebrates like he did it. After that is a live interview with Paul E. Said jobber shows up again and complains he was never paid for the workout. Won't be the last time Paul E stiffs a wrestler on a paycheck.

 

Kensuke Sasaki and Erik Watts def Arn Anderson and "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton (w/Michael Hayes) in 6:06- Erik Watts is of course the son of Bill Watts, who had no business being on any TV for any wrestling promotion but was the son of the boss. Paul E has a bounty out to take him out of wrestling that Arn and Eaton are trying to collect. Eaton schools Watts a bit. Watts slaps back and armdrags out of an Eaton abdominal stretch. Eaton dodges and Watts files over the top but lands on his feet and springs back in. OK, good athleticism. Then he completely ruins it by horribly mistiming a sunset flip off the second rope. He tackles Eaton and starts throwing some pretty straight looking punches. Dial it back a bit, kid. If Watts saw any other rookie doing that to a veteran he'd probably punch him out himself as soon as he got to the back. Sasaki land on his feet on an Eaton monkey flip and hits a dropkick. Big Sasaki chops in the corner. Eaton dodges and Sasaki crashes in the corner. Hayes gets a couple of shots in. Eaton runs into a Sasaki powerslam. Tag. Watts monkey flip and ground & pound on Eaton. Donnybrook! Watts punches Eaton as he's coming off the top rope, hooks in the Chono-taught STF, and Eaton submits. 3 guys that knew they were only there to get the boss' talentless son over and couldn't care less. 3/4*

 

Boxing Match: Scotty Flamingo (w/Diamond Dallas Page and Vinnie Vegas) def Johnny B Badd (w/Teddy Long) in 3:01- Flamingo is the future Raven. Badd is reuniting with his old manager Long but is still the face here. The only reason I can think of for this to be a boxing match was Badd's legit Gold Gloves background. Round one, Badd comes out firing with quick jabs and Flamingo falls to the floor. Badd avoids Flamingo's punches and knocks him down. Vegas distracts the ref and Flamingo eye rakes and clotheslines Badd. Hard shots from Flamingo. Badd jabs back. These punches are miles away from actually hitting anyone. Flamingo goes down again as the round ends. Between rounds the heels fill Flamingo's glove up with water. As the bell rings for round two Flamingo can barely stand. DDP distracts the ref and Flamingo hits Badd with the water loaded glove. Badd can't get up and it's over. 1/4*

Preview for the Lethal Lottery and Battlebowl returning for Starrcade '92. In the ring the drawing is held for the first match's pairings: Cactus Jack and Johnny B Badd vs Dan Spivey and Van Hammer.

 

Handicap Match: WCW World Heavyweight Champion "The All American" Ron Simmons and 2 Cold Scorpio def Cactus Jack, The Barbarian and Tony Atlas in 5:52- Simmons and Scorpio charge in and jump the heels before their intros are barely started. Commentary has no idea who Scorpio is, not even his name. As the heels are on the floor regrouping Scorpio hits them with a plancha! They settle in with Simmons and Barbarian. Simmons runs through the whole heel team. Scorpio slips out of a Jack suplex, springs up to the top rope, and unleashes a moonsault that completely misses. Jack sells it anyway. JR covers by saying Scorpio hit him with his foot. Atlas grabs Jack to keep him from running into a Simmons dropkick. Simmons goes face in peril. After some very not interesting heel offense Simmons gets a boot up on Jack coming off the second rope and tags. Scorpio unleashes dropkicks and everyone gets in the pool. Simmons dodges and Barbarian big boots Atlas. Scorpio goes up top and hits Atlas with a 450 splash! That gets the pin. Huge pop for a move no one had ever seen before. JR goes absolutely nuts calling it. Nothing match, but botch aside an electric debut for Scorpio. *1/2

Ventura grabs Simmons and he introduces 2 Cold Scorpio to the world.

 

Medusa and Paul E Dangerously (w/Michael Hayes) go to a 5:00 time limit draw- Paul E is supposed to have an arm tied behind his back for this match but it doesn't actually happen. While a Medusa graphic is up someone blonde runs in and Paul E nails them with his phone. Everyone thinks it's Medusa. Paul E says he wants a kiss while "she's" unconscious. He pulls and the blonde wig comes off. It's the workout jobber! The real Medusa runs out and kicks Paul E from behind. Body slam by Medusa! She hits knees in the corner and Paul E falls to the floor. Paul E tries to walk. Medusa chases, they go behind the curtain, and come back out with Medusa carrying Paul E back to the ring. Hayes trips Medusa as she's getting back in. Paul E hits a double ax handle off the second rope. He gloats to the crowd and Medusa hits him from behind with a clothesline. Missile dropkick off the second rope. She pulls Paul E's pants off. OK then. Ventura gets miles of lines out of that. Paul E runs to the back again as the time expires. If you're going to do this crap there could at least be a definitive finish. That's five minutes of my life I'll never get back. DUD

Ironically both of them would leave WCW soon after this. Medusa headed to the WWF to be the face of the revived women's division, while Paul E took a position with one of the few remaining NWA affiliated promotions, a little company in Philadelphia called Eastern Championship Wrestling.

Because King of Cable is a single elimination tournament WCW has their usual gimmick of judges lined up to decide the next match in case it's a time limit draw. They're mentioned so often by commentary during the match it's pretty telegraphed what's going to happen. The judges are Larry Zbyszko, Ole Anderson and Hiro Matsuda.

 

King of Cable Tournament Semifinals: Sting def WCW United States Heavyweight Champion "Ravishing" Rick Rude by judges' decision in 20:00- Rude goes right for an eye rake and hits some measured shots. Sting reverses a whip, they mess up the gutbuster spot, so they change direction and do it again. Sting goes after Rude's ribs and mocks the hip swivel. Two front suplexes from Sting. He works a chinlock then hooks on an abdominal stretch. Rude hip tosses out and does another eye rake to get some space. Forearms to Sting's back. Sting blocks a suplex and drops Rude over the top rope. Rude dangles from the ropes and Sting kicks him in the abs from the floor. Rude dodges the Stinger Splash on the floor! Sting crashes into the guardrail. Back in Rude hits an ax handle off the top rope. Rude works a chinlock with some more measured shots as the match resumes it's *ahem* methodical pace. Rude hits a delayed suplex. Sting dodges and Rude plants his ass on the mat. He goes for a slam but his back gives out and Rude falls on him for 2. Sting gets whipped around the corners. 5 minutes left. Rude with a bear hug. 4 minutes. He rams Sting into the buckles. Sting fights out of another bear hug with 3 minutes left and hooks in a sleeper. Rude jawbreakers out. 2 minutes. Rude goes up top. Sting springs up and slams him off all the way across the ring. Atomic drops and Rude does his classic sells. Faceplant for 2. One minute left. Sting hits a crossbody off the top. Rude kicks out! Sting goes up again. This time Rude counters. Stall, stall, and he goes for the Rude Awakening. Sting blocks it. Stinger Splash! As he's hooking the Scorpion in the bell rings for the time limit. It goes to the judges, and they decide 2-1 for Sting (Matsuda and Anderson for Sting, Zbyszko for former Dangerous Alliance teammate Rude). The match was fine, but they were capable of so much more. The time limit stalling was obvious from the start, and for most of the match it felt like they were going in slow motion. I smell Bill Watts shackles again. Sting would go on to defeat Vader in the tournament final at Starrcade in another legendary match between the two. **1/2

 

Unified WCW and NWA World Tag Team Championship: Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat and Shane Douglas def "The Natural" Dustin Rhodes and Barry Windham (c) in 15:52- This is face vs face. Dustin and Steamboat were tag champs together earlier in the year, now they're on opposite sides. Dustin and Douglas start. Flash Douglas small package for 2. Dustin backslide for 2. Armdrag exchange. Really good intensity early here. Dustin ducks a clothesline and gets a roll up for 2. Simultaneous armdrag and dropkicks spots! Both sides tag. More intense back and forth between Windham and Steamboat. They keep blocking each other's hiptosses and end up falling to the floor! It breaks down into shoving and their teammates run in to calm things down. Windham/Steamboat chop exchange in the ring. Steamboat with an atomic drop and DEEP armdrag. Quick tag work on Windham. He tries to fight back but keeps getting shut down. Double backdrop. Windham ducks a dive and Douglas flies into the top rope throat first. Tag to Dustin. Now Dustin and Windham roll through double team near falls as Douglas is in trouble. Windham back suplex for 2. Lariat for 2. Douglas runs Dustin into the corner and hits a springboard reverse crossbody for 2. Dustin cuts off a tag. Douglas dodges a dropkick and finally gets the tag. Rapid fire Steamboat pin attempts. Dustin stops the momentum with a hiptoss and rolls through rapid fire covers of his own. Steamboat leapfrogs and Dustin accidentally headbutts him in the groin! Steamboat's down in just a small amount of pain. Dustin wants to let him recover instead of going for a pin and Windham screams at him from the apron. Windham tags himself in and covers. Steamboat kicks out! Dustin and Windham continue to argue. Windham hits inverted atomic drops and a lariat. Dustin pulls him off a cover! Windham punches Dustin! While that was going on Steamboat tagged out. Douglas with a belly to belly on Windham! He gets the pin and the titles! Dustin is furious with himself. He congratulates Steamboat on his way out. Fantastic, high intensity nonstop action match. The great angle work turning Windham heel is just icing. ****1/4

Windham screams at Dustin and Dustin comes back to the ring. They argue for a bit and Windham turns his back on Dustin. He turns back around with a kick to the gut! DDT! He superplexes Dustin! After commercial Ventura is in the locker room with the new champs. Windham attacks them with a chair! Heel turn complete.

 

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- When your most hyped match is Paul E Dangerously vs Medusa you should know you need to have a serious re-think about the direction of your company. The great match and angle in the main event saved this from being one of the worst Clashes ever.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C

In Your House 5

Legacy Review

In Your House 5: Season's Beatings

December 17, 1995 from the Hersheypark Arena in Hershey, PA

Commentary: Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler

Hart family drama is back! Amusingly, Season's Beatings was also the subtitle for Clash of the Champions IV in 1988. I'm assuming no one told Vince that.

WWF Intercontinental Champion Razor Ramon and Marty Janetty def The 1-2-3 Kid and Sycho Sid (w/Ted DiBiase) in 12:22- I guess doing a straight up Kid/Ramon grudge match made too much sense. Goldust is in the crowd watching. Janetty and Kid start. Kid jumps out quick. Janetty hits an enzuguri. After a speed run Kid flips out of a hiptoss but eats a Janetty clothesline. Hebner's been doing his super duper ultra quick count early. I hated that during this period. Kid keeps fighting away from the face corner to get away from Ramon. Janetty atomic drops Kid and tags Ramon in with his back turned. Kid tries to run away. Ramon gives him the toothpick flick and a slap. Kid gets a blind tag and Ramon runs into a Sid clothesline. Once Ramon gets worn down a bit Kid comes back in. Kid chops in the corner piss Ramon off but Sid quickly beats him down again. Ramon/Sid double clothesline. Tags. Janetty powerslam for 2. He kills time with a chinlock while Todd Pettingill interviews Goldust. Goldie sounds a little too admiring of Ramon in a very personal and detailed way and asks Pettingill to deliver a gold envelope to him. Kid hits a spinning heel kick. Janetty tries coming off the top but Sid catches and powerslams him, then he runs into a Sid big boot. After a bit more face in peril work Janetty dodges and Kid crashes into the corner. Hot tag. Kid is whipped into Sid and takes a fallaway slam. Sid backdrops out of a Razor's Edge attempt and Ramon dodges the follow up legdrop. Ramon hits the bulldog off the top rope and that's enough to pin Sid. After the bell Sid saves Kid from taking the Razor's Edge. That was a wrestling match that happened. *3/4

We get an uber Lillian Botch from the not Howard Finkel ring announcer. First he says the following contest is "skeddled" for one fall, then introduces Buddy Landel, who no one knew was going to be here tonight. Lawler's music hits and he comes in for the interview segment he was supposed to do, introducing the returning Jeff Jarrett after about five months away. Lawler presents Jarrett with a gold record for "Ain't I Great?". Jarrett says a new tour and album are coming, and he's also the first wrestler to declare for the 1996 Royal Rumble. Afterward he joins commentary. Then Dean Douglas, Ahmed Johnson's scheduled opponent, comes out. He says due to a back injury the doctors won't let him wrestle and Landel (in the one and only WWF PPV appearance of his long career) is his replacement. Douglas' back injury would be the final catalyst for his WWF departure and return to ECW.

 

Ahmed Johnson def "Nature Boy" Buddy Landel (w/Dean Douglas) in :45- Douglas distracts Johnson by slapping him. Landel hits him from behind with kicks and chops, all no sold. Johnson lifts Landel up in the corner by the throat. Spinebuster, Pearl River Plunge, good night. NR

After the match Lawler calls Johnson down for an interview. He and Jarrett run him down, then Jarrett hits him in the head with his gold record, which doesn't break. After a couple of chairshots to the head Johnson hulks up and chases Jarrett off. Time killing. We go to the back and Pettingill delivers the gold envelope to Ramon. He reads the note, crumples it up and storms off.

 

Arkansas Hog Pen Match: Hunter Hearst Helmsley def Henry Godwinn in 8:58- Hillbilly Jim is the special guest ref. The rules are the only way to win is to dump your opponent into the hog pen. Godwin chases HHH with a slop bucket but some poor ringside attendant gets it instead. I didn't catch the face but research says it's a young Tony Chimel. HHH gets tied in the ropes and Godwinn gives him a face full of slop. That enrages HHH and he beats Godwinn down in the corner. Swinging neckbreaker. Harley Race high knee. They go outside and HHH is run into the stairs (with a poor camera angle that shows his head was nowhere close to hitting). They work toward the pen. Godwinn gets whipped into the gate. HHH hooks up the Pedigree. Godwinn tries to backdrop him into the pen but HHH lands on top of the fence. He hits an elbow drop off the top of the fence. Back to the ring. Why? Lawler runs through a whole bunch of Jeff Foxworthy lines and ruins pretty much all of them. Godwinn hits a wheelbarrow slam. Trips flip in the corner. Slugfest as they work back to the pen again. HHH blocks the slop drop but gets whipped into the gate. Slop drop! HHH's back is busted open, likely from the gate. Godwinn charges and HHH backdrops him into the pen to win! After the bell Godwinn dumps HHH in with the pigs to get his heat back while HHH sells it like crazy. Vince McMahon humor, but all in all not the worst gimmick match. **

Vince promises "people you would never expect" at the Rumble. We'll keep an eye on that. Recap of Diesel's tweener turn. This is also during the tremendously done angle where Owen Hart hit Shawn Michaels with an enzuguri on Raw, then a couple of minutes later Shawn collapsed in the middle of the ring and medics spent a long time working on him. It all looked like a legit scary injury but was 100% worked. Diesel challenged Owen to a match tonight to get revenge for his best friend, who commentary still says it's up in the air whether he'll ever wrestle again.

 

"The King of Harts" Owen Hart (w/Jim Cornette) def Diesel by DQ in 4:34- Owen is cautious. Diesel says eff your caution, shoves him into the corner by the throat and hits the Nash corner elbows. Side suplex. The pyro smoke is awful after Diesel's big pyro. Owen tries mounted punches. Diesel shoves him off. Owen flies across the ring and lands on the back of his head. A clothesline sends Owen 360 and out. Diesel follows and throws him right back in. Owen ducks a boot and hits a spinning heel kick. He starts working the same leg Bret did at Survivor Series. Enzuguri! Diesel kicks out! They didn't play that as well as they could have after the Shawn angle. Owen starts hooking in a figure four. Diesel pushes out with his good leg and Owen goes all the way into the post shoulder first. Snake eyes. Big boot. Jackknife! Diesel shouted "For Shawn!" as he hit it. He covers Owen with one foot.....then lifts up at 2! He cinches up another jackknife. Ref Tim White tries to stop him because Owen is defenseless and Diesel shoves him away. The bell rings as Diesel is DQ'd. Second jackknife! Diesel leaves Owen laying. Good match for the short time with great character work for this new version of Diesel. **1/4

Pointless should be on Raw time killing talking segment with Ted DiBiase, Savio Vega and Santa Claus....until DiBiase's money CAUSES SANTA TO TURN HEEL! DIBIASE BOUGHT SANTA! Wonder if he got the Ice Cream Bunny too. I'd give him back. While attacking Vega Santa's hat and beard come off and we can see it's future ECW star Balls Mahoney.

 

Casket Match: The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer) def King Mabel (w/Sir Mo) in 6:11- Jeff Hardy is one of Mabel's throne carriers. Taker is still Facemask Taker. Mo has the remains of Taker's urn that were melted down into a necklace like three feuds ago. Back and forth punchy/kicky/chokey start. Mabel hits a rock bottom. Zombie situp. Clothesline. Zombie situp. After a slam Taker dodges a splash off the second rope. Mo distracts and Mabel hits a belly to belly suplex. Legdrop. Taker tries to sit up but can't. Big splash. Mo drags Taker out and carries him into the casket (one more appearance for the old XXXXXL Yokozuna casket). He drops Taker in, but walks away without closing the lid. He and Mabel celebrate. Idiots. When Mabel finally gets around to going for the lid Taker blocks it. A Taker diving clothesline takes Mabel down. Choke slam! A running knee in the back sends Mabel into the casket. Mo distracts again and gets choke slammed too. Taker rolls him into the casket, retrieves the urn necklace, and closes the lid on both to win. Unlike previous casket matches they kept it short, plotted it tight, and it was so much better as a result. Not good, but much better than it could have been. *

That last match was a very definitive end to a long and, match quality wise, often painful to watch chapter of Undertaker's career, years spent having to work with one immobile giant slug after another. Look at the list of guys he'd had major matches with the last few years: Kamala, Giant Gonzales, Yokozuna, King Kong Bundy, Kama, Mabel. Not a lot you can do with that. He'd open up '96 feuding with Bret Hart and Diesel before changing the course of not one but two careers with his legendary feud with Mick Foley's Mankind.

 

WWF Championship: Bret "Hitman" Hart (c) def "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith (w/Diana Smith and Jim Cornette) in 21:09- Bulldog is supposed to have the big advantage here because he beat Bret at Summerslam '92 in Wembley Stadium. Unlike last time Diana Smith is firmly in Bulldog's corner. Bulldog has the obvious power advantage in the lockups. Bret wrestles him down to the mat. They trade some arm work. Bret crossbody for 2. Bulldog's kickout sends him to the floor. Bret slides under Bulldog's legs coming back in and hits an inverted atomic drop. Bulldog knee to Bret's gut. He ties Bret in the tree of woe and stomps away. He accidentally legit hits Hebner. Bulldog spends the next few minutes working chinlocks as the intensity is slowly ratcheted up. Bret tries a crucifix but Bulldog slams him down. Vince gets a note saying the Undertaker will face the winner of this match at the Rumble. Cornette gets a racket shot in and plays super casual after. Bret bump! Bulldog covers and Bret gets a foot on the rope. He pulls Bret's hair to keep him in a headlock. After a speed run Bret gets a monkey flip. Bulldog on Bulldog for 2. Bulldog goes for a backdrop but Bret turns it into a piledriver for 2! Bret sets up a superplex. Bulldog lifts Bret up and drops him down on the top rope! Bret falls to the floor. Stair shot. Bulldog posts Bret's back, and when Bret falls we can see there's huge pools of blood on the floor. He bladed like a son of a bitch after that stair shot. I mean he's gushing. The ECW fans that drove over from Philly get excited and do a small "He's hardcore!" chant. Bulldog piledriver for 2. Vintage Bulldog delayed suplex. Vince says to keep the cameras wide because of the blood. Chicken. Press slam for 2. Headbutt off the top rope to Bret's back, hi Dynamite Kid. Bret kicks out again! Bulldog hooks up a bow and arrow. Bret twists out and starts hooking in the Sharpshooter! Bulldog powers out before it's locked in. Midring collision and Bret slides all the way to the guardrail. There's blood everywhere. I mean EVERYWHERE. All the white on Bulldog's tights is red now. He tries to suplex Bret off the apron. Bret slips out and hits a bridged German suplex for 2! Double clothesline. Bret backdrops Bulldog to the floor! Plancha! He tries to jump off the ropes but Bulldog catches him and powerslams him on the floor! Bulldog pulls some of the pads up and sets Bret up for a suplex. Bret blocks it and drops Bulldog crotch first on the guardrail! Back in Bret hits a backbreaker for 2. He whips Bulldog into the corner and Bulldog flips over upside down into the buckles. He landed pretty rough on that one. Bret sets him up on the top rope again. Superplex! Bret's slow to cover and Bulldog kicks out! Bret argues with Hebner and Bulldog rolls him up, but Bret rolls through it for a 2 count. They do....something. Bret swung a punch but Bulldog sold it like it was supposed to be some kind of throw. Not sure what that was supposed to be. Bret hits European uppercuts in the corner. Bulldog reverses a corner whip but Bret gets a boot up. He cradles Bulldog. Bulldog kicks out just a hair too late and it's a 3 count! Phenomenal match, in lots of ways even better than Wembley Stadium. It lacked that match's special atmosphere, of course. The blood added a lot, yet another thing Bret was at the forefront of as Vince would soon get more comfortable with it for the Attitude Era. The last minute or so was a bit rough, and when you're dealing with ratings this high that's enough to bump it down just a small peg. ****1/2

 

Pettingill is in the back with Taker. Diesel interrupts, furious that he should be number one contender. He and Taker face off while dollar signs roll through Vince's eyes.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS: The slow recovery continues. Most of the show is nothing special, but none of it is super horrible and the main event is must watch. 1996 would turn out to be a solid foundational year as most of the main pieces were put in place for the legendary run that was the Attitude Era.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C+

Clash of the Champions XX

Legacy Review

Clash of the Champions XX: 20th Anniversary

September 2, 1992 from the Center Stage Theater in Atlanta, GA

Commentary: Jim Ross and Jesse Ventura

No, they're not trying to claim the Clash has been around for 20 years. They're using the 20th Clash to also celebrate the 20th anniversary of wrestling being broadcast on TBS, and so this show is as much celebrity nostalgia as it is matches. The Center Stage Theater was the regular home of WCW's flagship weekly show in the pre-Nitro years, WCW Saturday Night, and was revisited by Triple H in early 2018 for a series of NXT weekly show tapings, back when NXT was still NXT.

 

The show opens with Tony Schiavone and Missy Hyatt doing the red carpet thing. Gordon Solie and Andre the Giant are here. This was Andre's final US TV appearance before he passed away in January '93. A bunch of limos roll through with a clown car full of WCW execs, world champ Ron Simmons, Bruno Sammartino (who takes a shot at the WWF) and Ted Turner buddy Hank Aaron. Sting shows up on a motorcycle. JR and Ventura open up saying there's a "problem" with Brad Armstrong's scheduled Light Heavyweight title defense against Brian Pillman tonight, more details to come.

No DQ Match for the WCW World Television Championship: Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat def "Stunning" Steve Austin (c) (w/Paul E Dangerously) in 10:43- Save a 26 day cup of coffee by Barry Windham in the spring of '92, that TV title belt has been bolted to Austin's waist for almost a year and a half. Paul E is being suspended in a cage for this one. Love the "Paul E/Perot '92" sign in the crowd. Steamboat's ribs are padded up from damage he got during the NWA tag title tournament. Austin goes right for it. Steamboat chops back, hiptosses Austin and works a headlock. They do a speed run. Steamboat slides under Austin's legs and does a drop toe hold. Austin counters whips and gets a hiptoss of his own. More Steamboat headlocks as the opening part of the match is super slow. This would be fine groundwork laying if they were going 25-30 minutes, but they're not. Austin tries to back suplex out but Steamboat flips out of it. Finally Austin pulls Steamboat's hair. He throws Steamboat off the second rope and his ribs are hurting again. Austin tears the pad off. Backbreakers for 2. Steamboat tries to come back, Austin cuts it off with a clothesline. Abdominal stretch. Steamboat starts going down then manages to make it to the ropes. Steamboat crossbody off the second rope. Austin rolls through it and gets a 2 count. Steamboat slingshots Austin into the corner for 2. Austin tries a leverage pin the corner for 2. Steamboat hooks up a tombstone, they counter each other, and Steamboat hits it for 2. Austin goes for a superplex but Steamboat blocks it and drops Austin. Steamboat tackles for more near falls. Austin pushes Steamboat over the top rope. He tries to skin the cat but Austin elbows him and he falls to the floor. Steamboat crawls under the ring, comes out behind Austin, and hits the crossbody off the top rope for the win and the title! This match reeked of Bill Watts' artificial handcuffs. Both guys were capable of so much more. Austin was originally only dropping the title to move on to bigger things (a US title run), but those plans were quickly Meltzered and he'd be thrown into a tag team with Brian Pillman you may have heard of. **1/2

We get a video package of great tag teams that have wrestled on TBS the past 20 years, followed by an ad for Halloween Havoc and "Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal". The huge "OOOOOOOOOH" from the biker gang when the wheel starts spinning is Rifftrax level unintentional hilarity.

Arn Anderson and "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton (w/Michael Hayes) def "Dirty" Dick Slater and Greg "The Hammer" Valentine (w/Larry Zbyszko) in 5:42- Hayes is retiring from wrestling and moving toward managing and commentating. He says this unit is a combination of three of the greatest teams ever: the Midnight Express, Four Horsemen, and Freebirds. Both teams are still heels but Arn and Eaton had gotten into a beef with Zbyszko and broke his arm. The crowd doesn't care for anyone in the ring. Valentine and Arn start. Eaton gets a quick cheap shot in and soon all four guys are in the ring. After they settle down Slater cheap shots Arn and everyone goes in the pool again. Reset. Slater gets a Russian leg sweep on Eaton and tries a leverage pin. Eaton and Arn get Slater in their corner. Valentine hammers (see what I did there) Arn in his corner and hits a suplex for 2. Slater snaps Arn's knee on the apron and Valentine hooks in the figure four. Eaton breaks it up. World's Greatest Spinebuster! Slater breaks the pin up. Zbyszko tries to get a cast shot in but Valentine eats it. Eaton hits the Alabama Jam from the second rope because Bill Watts stupidity and that's that. As messy a tag match with Arn Anderson involved as you'll ever see. Everyone was on autopilot here. *3/4

Bruno comes out and runs down the WWF some more. More legends parrot Watts' talking points about WCW going back to wrestling "the way it should be". Tony is with Watts himself, who's holding the Light Heavyweight belt. Watts says Armstrong hurt his knee wrestling The Great Muta in Japan, and as a result they must strip him of the title. He says a tournament for a new champion will take place "at a date and time to be announced". That tournament never happened, and this was the end of WCW's original Light Heavyweight title. Afterward Armstrong is with Ventura. Pillman comes out and runs Armstrong down as a pathetic coward and slaps him, officially turning heel. After that is another video package of legendary singles wrestlers that have been on TBS. Several current WWF stars are included, including Ted DiBiase, Roddy Piper, and the biggest wresting star TBS, the NWA or WCW ever had, Ric Flair.

 

WCW World Heavyweight Championship: "The All American" Ron Simmons (c) def Cactus Jack in 8:51- This is Simmons' first major title defense after pulling a massive upset on Vader on weekly TV in August to become the first black world champion in wrestling history. Ole Anderson is reffing. Great. Simmons flashes his power. Jack hits a flying forearm. Both guys go to the floor, Jack's territory. Simmons dares Jack to dive off the apron. Jack backs off. Back in Jack takes over with back rakes and bites. Ole pulls him back at one point. Simmons lifts Jack up on his back and backs him into the corner, then does a little ground and pound. Cactus Clothesline! Jack hits a swinging neckbreaker on the floor. He goes for the double underhook DDT but Simmons runs him into the corner again. Simmons powers out of a chinlock and they exchange headbutts. Simmons faceplant off the second rope for 2. He hits two 3 point stance tackles but Jack kicks out. They go back outside. Jack slams Simmons on the floor and hits the Cactus elbow. Simmons sells it for about .75 seconds, gets back in and hits his spinebuster. Simmons powerslam and it's done. *1/4

We get footage of Masahiro Chono winning the revived NWA World Heavyweight Championship (they got the Big Gold Belt back from Flair) by winning the 1992 G1 Climax. We also get a few highlights of the finals between him and Rick Rude. Cactus Jack then joins commentary and re-introduces Butch Reed back to WCW. Because he's Ron Simmons' old tag partner he holds the key to victory over him for the world title. If he did, shouldn't you have gotten all that info before your match with him earlier tonight?

 

The Barbarian and Butch Reed def "The Natural" Dustin Rhodes and Barry Windham in 8:13- Dustin and Barbarian start. The faces hit a sunset flip/lariat combo. Barbarian tries to press slam Windham. Windham slips out and rolls him up for 2. Reed dodges and Dustin flies through the corner down to the floor, and goes face in peril. The heels work a lot of power moves on Dustin. He keeps trying to fight back to keep it moderately interesting. Reed swinging neckbreaker for 2. Dustin backdrops out of a piledriver. Double clothesline. Hot tag. Windham runs wild. Superplex on Barbarian, with that sweet floatover into a seamless cover. He sees Reed about to come off the top rope to break the pin up and slams him off. After getting Reed out Windham turns around into a Barbarian big boot and gets pinned. Gotta keep Barbarian looking strong here because, against all sanity and logic, he's getting a world title shot at Halloween Havoc. The whole Reed giving up Simmons' secrets angle would fizzle out as Reed left WCW again in short order. Probably didn't want to deal with Bill Watts again after working for him so long in Mid-South. **

 

Elimination Match: WCW United States Heavyweight Champion "Ravishing" Rick Rude, Big Van Vader, Jake "The Snake" Roberts and The Super Invader def Sting, Nikita Koloff and The Steiner Brothers in 15:57- Survivor Series comes to WCW. Super Invader is Hercules with a red stocking on his head. It's so thin on this show you can clearly see his face in close up shots. Vader and Rick start. Hell yes. Vader goes right to the potato shot to the headgear. Great back and forth stiffing. Vader hits a short clothesline and an avalanche. Rick with a belly to belly suplex! Vader slides all the way to the floor. Koloff crossbody on Invader for 2. After Rude tags in Koloff tries to pull his arm out of its socket. Scott double underhook powerbomb and belly to belly on Invader. He goes for the Frankensteiner, but Invader got a blind tag to Rude, who clips Scott's knee while he's in the air mid-move. Nice. Vader pounds Scott down in the corner. While Roberts has his back turned on the apron Scott legit knocks him off while hitting the ropes. Roberts pops back up and looks like he's laughing about it with his teammates. Scott tiltawhirl slam on Rude. Tags. Koloff pillar to post beating on Roberts. Rude knees Koloff from the apron and Roberts rolls him up to eliminate him. Sting beats Invader around like a jobber and pins him with zero fuss or fanfare. Rick with a huge Steinerline on Vader. RICK GERMAN SUPLEXES VADER! He tries coming off the second rope but Vader catches and powerslams him. Vader big splash off the second rope. Rick kicks out! Rude works a front facelock on Rick. Rick pushes him into the corner and tags, but the ref was distracted and didn't see it. Vader gives Rick another stiff punch in the headgear and comes off the second rope again. Rick catches and powerslams him! Rick tries to lift Vader up for a doomsday device. He can't quite hold him up, but Scott still hits it. No cover because the ref's getting Scott out. Rick with a Cactus Clothesline on Vader! Scott gets DQ'd for coming off the top rope. Weak sauce. Rick backdrops Vader on the floor. While Roberts and Sting fight in the ring Rude gives Rick a Rude Awakening on the floor. Rick is counted out. Sting with a sunset flip on Vader, and dodges the counter. Stinger Splash on Roberts. He starts to hook in the Scorpion but Rude clotheslines him from the apron. Sting and Rude do some placeholder moves while Vader slowly works up to the top rope and Roberts distracts the ref by putting his cobra handling glove on. Sting with a slinghsot suplex on Rude. Vader comes off the top and splashes both Sting and Rude! The ref still saw it and DQ's Vader for a top rope move. Super weak sauce. Roberts pulls Rude into the corner to tag, plants Sting with a DDT, and gets the win for his team. WCW wasn't counting but the survivors were Roberts and Rude. The end stretch was pretty messy and bleh but everything before that was fun, especially Vader and the Steiners tossing each other around like sacks of potatoes again. Never gets old. ***

JR gives us the results of the fan poll on the Hotline about eliminating the off the top rope ban- 88% want it gone. No shit. The other 12% were probably paid off by Watts. After that is the full Halloween Havoc mini-movie promo for the Sting/Roberts Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal match. Once again, it's mostly Rifftrax level awful fun. Roberts is really and truly a good actor. Sting, not so much. Roberts' "Sting, I KNEW YOU'D COME" is hilarious in this post-BROKEN Universe world.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Seeing a whole bunch of legends at one show is fun in an era when it was rarely done, but the wrestling itself is buried deep in Bill Watts' crap.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C-

Survivor Series '95

Legacy Review

Survivor Series '95

November 19, 1995 from the Capitol Centre in Landover, MD

Commentary: Vince McMahon, Jim Ross and Mr. Perfect

After reviving the 5v5 format last year we're back to 4v4 for the traditional Survivor Series matches. The show opens with Mr. Perfect's introduction, his first WWF appearance since Wrestlemania 10. He would serve as a commentator for the rest of his WWF run as his chronic back problems were still playing up.

The BodyDonnas (Skip, Rad Radford, The 1-2-3 Kid and Dr. Tom Pritchard) def The Underdogs (Marty Janetty, Hakushi, Bob Holly and Barry Horowitz) in 18:45- Hilariously, all of the face team runs in instead of Hakushi, who can't be bothered and sticks with his slow walk. Kid is a surprise last second entrant into this match. Jean-Pierre Laffitte was originally scheduled to be on the heel team, but DiBiase bought his spot to get his newest hire in. Kid had turned on Razor Ramon the week prior on Raw to finally complete the heel turn that had been simmering for months. After Kid's intro Ramon runs out supremely pissed off at him. Officials have to drag him back to the locker room. Pritchard and Janetty start. Janetty gets stuck in the heel corner and knocks them all off the apron. Holly gets a hurricanrana on Radford (called a Frankensteiner by Vince even though the Steiners had been gone a long while). Radford tries a hurricanrana of his own but Holly blocks it and powerbombs him. Radford hits a nice spinebuster on Hakushi. Kid follows up with a splash off the top for 2. Skip tries a back superplex. Hakushi rolls over on him in midair and tags out. The crowd starts chanting "Barry" for Horowitz, the only guy that hasn't been in the match yet. Holly dodges a Pritchard moonsault, then hits a crossbody off the top to eliminate Pritchard. While Holly's celebrating Skip grabs him in a flash roll up for 3. Hakushi rolls through some flippy kicks. Skip gets his knees up on a Hakushi Vader bomb. Skip top rope hurricanrana on Hakushi! But Skip landed wrong (kayfabe) and he delayed flops down too. Kid comes back in and gets booed out of the building. Hakushi hits the handspring elbow and top rope tackle on Kid. Kid dodges a springboard splash and tags out. While Hakushi's back is turned Kid wallops him with a spinning kick in the back of the head and Radford covers to eliminate Hakushi. Horowitz finally gets in the match and is instantly in peril. Radford pulls Horowitz out of multiple pins because Skip wants him after Radford's worn him down a bit, remembering their Summerslam match. Radford gets a northern lights suplex for 2. He does some arrogant push ups (his whole gimmick at this point was he was trying to get into the Bodydonnas stable but he didn't quite have the body for it). Horowitz crawls up and cradles him for 3. Skip is furious and goes face to face with Horowitz again. That mistake would cost Radford Bodydonna membership. After a blind tag Kid knees Horowitz in the back and legdrops him for 3. Janetty dodges Skip in the corner. Skip counters a backdrop. Janetty tries a German suplex, Skip does a standing switch, tries a powerbomb, but Janetty rolls it over into a sunset flip for a long 2. Janetty hits the Rocker drop and goes up top. Sunny shakes the rope. Skip joins him. Janetty hits an avalanche powerbomb! That's it for Skip. It's down to Janetty and Kid, former tag champ partners. Kid hits a legdrop off the top for 2. Janetty dodges a senton off the top and gets some rapid fire offense. Sid comes out to support his new Million Dollar Corporation teammate. Janetty hits another Rocker drop but Kid gets a foot on the rope. While DiBiase's distracting the ref Sid pops Janetty and Kid covers to win the match. Afterward Kid and Sid celebrate in the ring while Ramon smashes a monitor in the back. The match was mostly a spotfest, but a good one, showing off the athletic high spot style wrestling was slowly trending toward. SOLE SURVIVOR: The 1-2-3 Kid ***1/4

 

Bertha Faye, Aja Kong, Tomoko Watanabe and Lioness Asuka def WWF Women's Champion Alundra Blayze, Kyoko Inoue, Sakie Hasegawa and Chaparita Asari in 10:01- Thank goodness JR is here to call this one, and to his credit Vince lets him take over most of the match. Perfect has zero interest other than making the occasional "man watching women's wrestling" joke. Asuka and Asari start. Asuka gives her a giant swing. Blayze and Asuka can't get on the same page on a whip spot, and Asari's standing there the whole time waiting for the cue to hit her big spot. She does, nailing Asuka with a sky twister press! Blayze hits Asuka with a German with a bridge to eliminate her. Watanabe misses a moonsault and rolls to the floor. Blayze dives off the top rope onto her on the floor! Hasegawa rolls through multiple butterfly suplexes. That temporarily wakes the crowd up. Watanabe hits a vertical splash off the top for 2. Kong comes in and swings in Hasegawa's general direction. She flies across the ring to sell it anyway. Hasegawa gets an exploder suplex on Kong for 2. Kong kicks Haegawa in the gut coming off the top rope, hits a suplex, and Hasegawa is gone. Little Asari (think Riho's size) tries to crossbody Kong and bounces off a figurative brick wall. Fantastic. Kong hits a splash off the second rope and Asari is gone. Blayze hits an enzuguri and tags Inoue in. Inoue tries a sunset flip but Kong sits on her and gets a pin. Thanks for coming Inoue-chan. Blayze is the only one left on her team. All three heel women back her into the corner and pound on her. It settles down with Blayze hitting a suplex on Watanabe and getting a near fall that it looks like should have been a pin. Blayze piledrives Watanabe and pins her for real. Faye finally gets in for the first time and hits an avalanche. Faye and Kong collide and Blayze Germans Faye for 3. Down to Blayze and Kong. Blayze flips over in the corner and goes up top. Kong joins her and superplexes her for 2. Blayze hits a hurricanrana that Kong barely gets over on for 2. Standing moonsault for 2. Kong body blocks Blayze down a couple of times, hits the spinning back fist, and that wins the match. Kong gets the old Orient Express music. Blayze vs Kong was supposed to be the next big women's feud. However, Blayze didn't want to work with her, which was one of the reasons for her WWF departure soon after this and reemergence on WCW as Medusa, where she famously dropped the WWF Women's title belt she still had possession of in a trash can. After that WWF put the whole women's division back on ice for a few years. The match itself swung wildly between solid and sloppy. It doesn't hold a candle to the Jumping Bomb Angels' '80s WWF performances. SOLE SURVIVOR: Aja Kong **1/4

The Bill Clinton impersonator is here again. Bigelow's pyro goes off and a bunch of "secret service" guys dive in to protect the president. It's worth a chuckle.

 

Goldust def Bam Bam Bigelow in 8:18- It's still early days for Goldust, at this point he's still just spouting famous movie lines and acting generally weird. That would change soon after this. After taking foreeeeeeeeever on his entrance Goldust beats Bigelow to the punch, literally. Goldust goes to the floor a couple of times, dragging Bigelow down with him the second time. Bigelow dodges and Goldust clotheslines the post. He doesn't bother selling it shakes it off and clotheslines Bigelow 360 and over to the floor again. Every time Bigelow tries to go on offense Goldust shuts it down. He tosses Bigelow out again and gives him a stair shot. Bigelow finally gets a back suplex but Goldust dodges the follow up falling headbutt. Bigelow electric chair slams out of a chinlock. Slugfest on knees. Goldust with a flying lariat and kneedrop for 2. Bigelow back suplexes out of another chinlock and hits a series of clotheslines for 2. Goldust dodges an avalanche, hits a bulldog, and gets the pin. Another indication it's early days for Goldust, he's still using all of Dustin Rhodes' big moves. Way too long for what they were offering. Bigelow had already mentally checked out, negotiating his release after getting sick of Kliq politics running everything backstage. This was his last WWF match. 3/4*

The Clinton impersonator and potential '96 presidential candidate Mr. Bob Backlund have a very lackluster debate exchange. It almost makes a Biden/Trump debate look good by comparison. After that is a recap of the Undertaker/Mabel feud.

 

The Darkside (The Undertaker, Fatu, Savio Vega and Henry Godwinn) def The Royals (King Mabel, Jerry "The King" Lawler, Issac Yankem DDS and Hunter Hearst Helmsley) in 14:21- Taker is making his big return after having his "face crushed" by Mabel and Yokozuna, and this is the debut of Facemask Taker. After the heels scurry away from Taker Fatu gets a hot start on HHH. HHH sets up a Pedigree after a backdrop attempt and Fatu squeaks out. Godwinn tags in and HHH runs away. Lawler and his gold lamê tights come in, but he's not interested and tags right out to Yankem. Yankem wears Godwinn down and now Trips wants in. Classic HHH high knee for 2. Godwinn comes back with a press slam. Lawler and Vega trade dance moves. Lawler dropkicks Vega in the back, but it sends him into the face corner. On a whip reversal Lawler runs Fatu into Yankem's knee. Fatu dodges a Mabel avalanche. Vega runs into a Mabel rock bottom and goes in peril for a while. Triple choke in the heel corner. Lawler hits him with a piledriver, but is slow to cover and Vega kicks out. Vega gives HHH a rock bottom. Lawler cuts the tag off and hits another piledriver, but the bounce sends Vega into the corner and he tags Taker! Nicely done. Lawler tries to tag out but all his teammates jump off the apron or, in Mabel's case, hide behind the post. Tombstone and Lawler's done. Flying clothesline on Yankem. Tombstone and he's done. HHH skedaddles. Godwinn cuts him off with the slop bucket. Taker choke slams Trips off the apron into the ring and he's done. Mabel comes from behind on Taker with a belly to belly suplex. Legdrop. Mabel taunts and Taker does the zombie situp. Mabel collapses in terror and runs off. Mo takes a choke slam as Mabel is counted out. Dull match, but the Taker elimination run was fun. Also a small slice of history here as Taker shared the ring for the first time on a major show with future long term rivals Kane (Yankem) and Trips. SURVIVORS: Undertaker, Fatu, Vega and Godwinn. *1/2

 

"The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels, Ahmed Johnson, "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith and Sycho Sid def WWF Intercontinental Champion Razor Ramon, Yokozuna, "The King of Harts" Owen Hart and Dean Douglas in 27:24- This is the "wild card" match promised by WWF President Gorilla Monsoon, teaming up faces and heels Lethal Lottery style. Ahmed Johnson is making his big WWF PPV debut after already slamming Yokozuna to start a massive push. No mention of the first man to slam Yoko, of course. After much discussion on both sides Shawn and Owen start. Yes please. Unsurprisingly it's a very quick start. Shawn skins the cat and headscissors Owen to the floor. He teases a plancha but lands on his feet, ducks a Cornette racket shot, kicks him away and spanks him with the racket. On another speed run Owen comes back with a belly to belly throw. Douglas hits a brain buster on Shawn. Shawn with a flying forearm and double ax handle off the top for 2. Commentary talks about the IC title drop at the last In Your House and Perfect says "I don't think Shawn was hurt that bad, he just didn't want Douglas to beat him". I'll take shoot comments that weren't meant to be shoot comments for 100, Alex. Or maybe it was. Shawn with a moonsault! Owen breaks the pin up. Johnson takes Owen and Douglas out, then tries to slam Yoko again but gets jumped from behind. Yoko pounds away as Johnson goes in peril. Ramon joins in a corner beatdown. Johnson comes back with a powerslam on Douglas, then press slams Shawn into Douglas! Douglas sees the superkick coming and bails. Ramon and Douglas fight on the floor and apron. Shawn takes advantage and rolls Douglas up to eliminate him. Owen and Bulldog are in together, both heels now. Bulldog offers a handshake and they both try a cheap shot! Owen spinning heel kick for 2. Both sides tag and now Shawn and Ramon are in. JR: "Do they know how to wrestle each other without a ladder?" After some stalling and shrugs they dive in and run through their usual (good) spots. Ramon hits the Razor's Edge! Johnson breaks the pin up. After a midring collision Shawn tags Sid's back. Sid's here to kill the match and chew bubble gum, and he's all outta bubble gum. Slow beatdown on Ramon. Yoko hits Sid from behind. The ref gets him out and they continue like it never happened. OK then. Sid goes up top and Ramon slams him off. Sid hits a choke slam but doesn't cover. Instead he tags Shawn in and holds Ramon. Ramon dodges and Sid gets superkicked. Shawn doesn't care. Ramon covers. Bulldog breaks it up. Ramon ignores it, covers again and Sid's gone. OK then. Pissed off Sid powerbombs Shawn on his way out. Ramon crawls over and covers. Shawn kicks out! Owen and Yoko work Shawn over. Vince turns to the bar attack incident in Syracuse again and says it was "nine thugs" that took Shawn out. He's like a drunk Klingon, the story gets bigger every time it's told. Next it'll be a whole platoon of Jem'Hadar he fought off. Shawn dodges an Owen headbutt off the top and tags Johnson. Pearl River Plunge and Owen's gone. Ramon wants to hit Johnson with the second rope bulldog but Johnson wanders too far away. Ramon says "screw it", drops down and hits a regular bulldog. Shawn and Bulldog run in and get knocked around. Johnson hits a spinebuster. He goes up on the turnbuckles to brag, but it's a very obvious setup for Ramon to hit him with a Razor's Edge, which he does. But Bulldog tagged Johnson while he was in the corner! Sid and the 1-2-3 Kid wander out. Kid grabs Ramon's boot. Ramon pops him, but the distraction allows Bulldog to hit him with the powerslam and Ramon's gone. That groan you heard was Yokozuna realizing he's going to have to work the rest of this match alone. Shawn plays weebles wobble with Yoko for a bit before eating a legdrop. Yoko goes for the Banzai Drop but Shawn dodges and tags Johnson. Johnson slams Yoko again. Bulldog breaks up his teammate's pin! Shawn and Johnson have had enough and take Bulldog out. Shawn superkicks Yoko, Johnson hits a splash and it's over. There was a lot of great wrestlers working hard out there and the wild card format was a neat idea, but for whatever reason the whole was less than the sum of the parts. SURVIVORS: Michaels, Bulldog and Johnson **3/4

 

No DQ Match for the WWF Championship: Bret "Hitman" Hart def Diesel (c) in 24:54- These two have had two prior WWF Title PPV matches, both with non-finishes: heel Diesel won by DQ over then-champ Bret at King of the Ring '94 after Jim Neidhart attacked Bret to continue the Bret/Owen feud, then they had a no contest at the '95 Rumble after Owen, Bob Backlund and Jeff Jarrett all interfered. It's still face vs face but both guys show that "walk the heel line" edge, especially with the no DQ stips. While they're in their corners right after the bell Diesel pulls the top buckle pad off. Bret says "OK, I see how it is" and does the same in his corner. Bret waistlocks Diesel into the corner. Diesel pounds on Bret's back to turn it around, then hits corner elbows and knees. After a lot of punishment in the corner Bret escapes to the floor. Diesel follows and drops Bret on the guardrail. It's a very, as JR says, methodical pace early on with Diesel in control. Punches send Bret out again. Diesel whips Bret into the stairs and posts his back, then nicks Mark Yeaton's chair to whack Bret with. He hits him with the padded side but whatever. Back in Diesel hits a short clothesline and calls for the jackknife to a 50/50 reaction at best. Bret grabs a leg to block it, then bites Diesel's elbow! He jumps on Diesel's back trying to hook on a sleeper, but can't and does a huge face rake instead. Bret then once again targets Diesel's knee. After some softening up he hooks on a figure four. Diesel uses his long arms to get to the ropes. After some more knee work Bret goes for the Sharpshooter. Diesel rakes Bret's eyes then pushes him back into the corner. The back of Bret's head hit the exposed turnbuckle! Bret drops down and wraps Diesel's knee around the post. He then grabs a mic cable, ties it around the post, and then ties Diesel's foot up! Diesel is trapped in the corner. Bret hits an elbow off the second rope for 2. He grabs a chair and gives Diesel a shot back with it, and unlike Diesel uses the correct side. Then he rams the point of the chair into Diesel's knee. Bret goes to the top rope with the chair, but Diesel knocks him down and Bret gets crotched, then he slams Bret off. Diesel finally gets his foot untied and the match can get out of the corner. That's pretty much the end of the knee work, but Diesel does a good job of selling the knee the whole rest of the match. Diesel side suplex for 2. Bret bump into the exposed buckle! Snake eyes into a padded corner. Diesel goes for it again to an exposed buckle, but Bret slips out and rams Diesel's head into it. Bret diving clothesline for 2. Bulldog off the second rope for 2. A clothesline sends Diesel 360 and out. Diesel dodges Bret's plancha! Bret climbs up on the apron. Diesel pushes the rope and Bret FLIES OFF AND GOES THROUGH THE SPANISH ANNOUNCE TABLE! HOLY SHIT! That, dear readers, is the first ever Spanish announce table spot in WWF history. It will not be the last. If holy shit chants were a thing in 1995 there'd be a huge one happening right now. Diesel rolls Bret back in and calls for the jackknife again to even more boos than before. Bret sandbags and Diesel hesitates. He reaches for Bret again. PAUL SMACKAGE! 3 COUNT! BRET WINS THE TITLE! Diesel goes off and buries Bret with a jackknife, fights off a group of refs, hits a second one, and drops the belt on top of Bret as he leaves. Bret joins Hulk Hogan as the only 3 time WWF Champions to date. Diesel's title reign ends at just 2 days short of one full calendar year, business wise one of the worst in company history and didn't exactly set the world on fire creatively either, but the title loss would spark an attitude shift that would lead him to becoming one of the first true tweeners in mainstream wrestling and generally way more interesting. The show ends with Bret still laid out on the canvas. ****

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- WWF continues to slowly crawl out of the hole they spent most of 1995 digging themselves into. They got the title back on arguably their biggest star (Shawn Michaels was quickly catching up, and would soon be in the title picture again), and found a new edge in what had been a rather generic babyface character for Diesel. Too bad he was already planning his WCW departure.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B-