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Editorial Jones over here

Hey all So this is Matt Griffin - the CEO of ACTION Wrestling. FKA Jacey North of DVDVR 500 and Road Report fame I'm the promoter of ACTION. Thought I'd drop some things in as to how you can help us out First off, DEAN~!!! will stream live on IWTV. It's a $9.99 subscription service. If you sign up, please use code "ACTION" to give a referral credit We will be discussing sponsorships soon. You can sponsor or adopt a match, advertise your website/blog/podcast or whatever you like. No pressure, and I'm not a huge fan of asking fans for extra money We also will have a t-shirt designed and for sale on ShopIWTV.com Lastly and most importantly, if you're close, you can buy a ticket and attend. Doing a show in this weekend environment is always a risk. And thanks to Phil & Eric for having this idea. I started on DVDVR ............ a long time ago and enjoyed having the crew do Road Reports on shows I worked on. Hopefully we can honor the memory of Dean Rasmussen well

Joe does rule:

For the record, I think Hook works wonderfully as a heel to us over-40 dudes who look at a slice of pizza and get fatter. He's out here flaunting his metabolism with his pizza and his chips. Just wait, man! One day that'll all catch up with you!

I'm the best booker to come from the DVDVR board, right?!?!?!

"That Commie"

“This man. Was locked in Soviet prisons. Where you have to fight. To survive. He learned. Moldovan Bare Knuckles fighting. The Russians knew. He was too dangerous. And they sent him. To America. To lay waste to their enemies”

Moldovian bare-knuckles fighting sounds like something Gary Hart would claim that his latest charge used to compete in before coming to World Class to finally take out the Von Erichs once and for all.

Looking forward to this match, and I’m sure they’ll go all out on Hook’s presentation. that’s Hook right there

Wait, is there anyone at all that believes that had the Punk/Perry shit not happened that thin-skinned Phil would still be happily working for AEW and having no problems to this day? I mean sure, believe whatever you like, but I feel like Dr. Strange viewing all the possibilities in the multiverse when I consider 14 million eventualities for Punk getting offended and perceiving betrayal or transgressions. I don't think there's any possibility for anything to have worked with Punk and AEW in the long run, Perry's dumb bullshit notwithstanding.

Toni Storm is a goddamned treasure, during the commercial break she said that Deonna Purazzo had "A fat ass and a bad attitude. Just like Orson Welles."

Let this show be a reminder that any time a company positioned Joe in the mid card in the last 20 years they were absolute fools. Half of why his RoH world title run was so legendary was how he carried himself as champ. No man in the US has been a better true ace of a company then Samoa Joe this century.

Hell yeah, glad I checked the page during Dynamite commercials, got a pair of second row reserved for me and @Greggulator!

HOOK teasing a Luigi Primo appearance. This is huge.

Stan Hansen vs Terry Funk, Sumo Hall, 1983 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2pH7B_NoK0&ab_channel=PavelDurak Just a fight between two hard hitting Texans and one of my favorite uses of the spinning toe hold ever

my vote is, as always, for the Hobo Army.

I feel like they missed the boat by not having the trios division work exclusively under trios rules (by that I mean no tags, more action packed...still one fall, though, not the captain's rules or whatever, which are a little convoluted). I'd rather have this division be something interesting and different instead of "tag matches you're used to, but with one extra dude."

Man, the Jay Briscoe tribute on the first anniversary of his passing with Mark Briscoe and Jay's kids was so moving. Jay's daughters were badly injured in the fatal accident that killed Jay.

I'd actually reverse the opinion and say they've hurt the titles by leaning way too much into being a comedy act since winning them, along with rarely defending them.

"nice finisher marty can't wait to kick out of it"

It's like someone (John Silver I'm guessing) explained to Mox what a "Fursona" was and somehow from there he learned that furries tend to "have disposable income" that "he wants".

Man, I didn't want to bring this back to boxing but this popped into my mind instantly. One of the biggest WTF moments (outside the sheer violence and inhumane amounts of punishment dished out) whenever I watch the infamous and spectacular James Toney vs. Vassiliy Jirov fight is when Jim Lampley specifically in the 7th round when the action heats back up goes on and on about Jirov's training in the old Soviet Union as a teenager. He talks about how Jirov's trainers use to lock him in a hallway with attack German shepherds and force him to fend for himself. Then, they would take him out on a boat miles from the shore and just drop him off in the water so he could swim back. I'm asking myself how did this man several years later end up training in Arizona under the tutelage of two old school black dudes like Tommy Brooks and Thell Torrence. He was born 20 years too late cause that is an amazing pro wrestling origin story.

Drew Gulag?

I wouldn't mind them doing something like making trios matches all captain's fall matches to separate them from the other matches on the show.

Todd Bowles was asked if Tampa was going to do any special preparation to play in cold weather Detroit, LOL. https://x.com/JomboyMedia/status/1747466213788094699?s=20

Would it really be so hard to turn one of the BOTB shows into a Survivor Series 01 type event where all the unnecessary belts are consolidated? Booking wise, there is no need for The Acclaimed, Starks/Bill, Christian, or Toni Storm to hold belts right now. Not every good character needs a belt! Even Eddie's is pretty worthless since it's indistinguishable in function from the TNT and International. The CC should've been a trophy. AEW would still have a ton of belts if they only kept the useful ones: World Title - Self explanatory Secondary Men's singles title (I prefer the Int'l with the idea it can be defended against non AEW wrestlers) One set of Tag Titles - Tradition One set of Trios titles - This division is a good way to cram a lot of people on TV. Women's World Title - Self explanatory Women's Tag Titles (Roster isn't deep enough to warrant a secondary singles, but the tag serves the same purpose as men's trios) Pure Title - It's ok to have one low-card gimmick belt, just please stop reading the rules before every match. FTW only if it's an official hardcore/death match title, otherwise it should just be a prop for Hook and never defended. ROH needs to be completely re-booted as a Dark/Elevation type show.

I just put in for vacation time and this morning my work announced that we're all getting bonuses this week. That's my plane tickets. So I will be going .

I was crying as well in the early hours of Thursday morning my time.

Didn't really watch/care about any of the tags, but liked the open and the close just fine. Dustin is moving pretty damn slow these days but he can still hit his marks and work a great match. Lots of false finishes in that one. Maybe they went one too long at the end there, but the crowd was eating everything up so they probably thought "why not". Christian is still the scummiest of the scumsters; adjusting the collar at the start was great. Nick Wayne wasn't afraid to take the Code Red right on his head, too. Joe ate Hook for breakfast but it was a valiant looking squash. Hiroshi Hase would have been proud of the full-on rotation Uranage into the table. I kinda wish Hook had choked Hangman to get some heat back on himself, but we gotta play nice now I guess. Toni was absolutely hilarious. I wanna go back and watch the match just to catch all the jokes I didn't the first time. The roll-ups were a wee slow and sloppy, but the match seemed to work well enough. The snarl on Luther's face also killed me. And of course the Briscoe part... well, it tore me up. What a kick in the nuts, despite the good news. God knows there wasn't a dry eye in that crowd.

Mustache Hangman is Magnum TA as shit and I’m here for it

For what it's worth the House of Black defended the titles 9 times in the 170+ days they held them, Acclaimed have defended them 10 times in 140-some odd days. So It's more a 'these are part time titles' issue than an Acclaimed issue.

he'd say it "that Russian defector I saw on the news 2 weeks ago" even if he wasn't on the news any time in recent memory

I'm sure if @Marty Sugar were around, this sentence would be enough for a match.

Then when the Soviet career criminal gimmick goes to Mid-South, Bill Watts would tell the audience about the Gulag Archipelago and he would call it a Goo-lag to remain consistent with how he says Duggan. Which is probably the right way to say Gulag but.

I agree with everyone. We need a hard brand split where the titles are separate, but ultimately loose and they travel back and forth between shows.

I still think the idea of the Continental Classic prizes being belts from a lower tier sister promotion, a dead show from a partner company and a brand new belt is dumb. It should have just been a trophy + #1 contender’s status for the World title at the next PPV. It was effectively just a tool for Kingston’s continued story arc, plus some good ‘rasslin every week.

The thing that gets me, is that even if you're ignorant of all the stuff you mentioned - it doesn't take a genius to figure out that anybody who did in fact "cure cancer" would be set for life. So the idea that scientists are financially motivated to not cure cancer is impressively stupid as well as being grounded in ignorance.

The HOB/FTR+Garcia match pretty much was like this. About the only thing that took me out of the match was how selective the ref was being with the rules and in the whole last half tags and the legal person were just kind of a suggestion. If they were to do full trios rules then fine, but either commit to the bit one way or another.

That's not actually true - Edge had his 1st from WM through New Year's Revolution 2006. Over 9 months total. MITB last year was July 1. It is semi-ridiculous given he basically has 5 ppl to help him - my guess is that they're going to do the cash-in and Balor is going to screw him. But if Rollins can't go, perhaps they do just do the cash-in & have the screw job later. It's been rumoured that HHH hates the MITB cash-in. The wider issue with Priest is that he's 41 and, whilst they clearly like him, they probably don't see him as a real main-eventer...and we're coming into a WM season that feels very full.

Dan Campbell, a few wins, and "Hard Knocks" have transformed Detroit crowds into madhouses, even on the road. It's been awesome to watch.

Enjoyed the battle royal with a legit feel that a ton of different choices could actually win and a bunch of different stories/rivalries ongoing throughout. Cool to see Madi Wrenkowski (now Wren Sinclair) in her first NXT match go all the way to the final 6 or so. Lyra's my fav and a big fan of Rox as well so that's a fresh match to look forward to.

Well I'm not going to have a guy nicknamed Mr. Delicious and not have that be his member title. Good luck with the show. If I cannot make it (family stuff already planned for Mania weekend) I will definitely order.

That Nigel ep might be my favorite of the show by a wide margin. It's the kind of batshit insane I was hoping the show could be and I loved every second of it. And yeah BTDO is the best. I'm hoping it leads to them getting more success with the show and also in their AEW careers. They've proven to be reliable in whatever you put them in and I really hope it all pays off for them. The only thing is they are technically supposed to be heels yet I always want to cheer them.

Bash at the Beach 1998 Notes: This opening video is very bad in a distinctly ‘90s way. It’s hard to explain. Just, you’d know what I mean if you saw it. Maybe it’s like if one of those AKI WCW or WWF intros was directed by Craig Leathers. San Diego, the location of this show, does have some dope beaches. Coronado. Mission. La Jolla is okay, I guess. You know, the Bash at the Beach PPVs have a really good hit rate, now that I look at the list. I have fairly high hopes for this show. They do this thing where Gene Okerlund explains all the main storylines and shills the hotline, but I just want some hot pro wrestling action, man. Yeah, Saturn/Raven is quite the opener! Saturn meets Raven in the aisle, per what usually happens lately when Saturn spots Raven standing anywhere near the ring, and a good ‘90s brawl begins. Raven takes some excellent bumps into the guardrail. Is Raven the best “’90s wandering brawl” guy? It’s got to be him, right? No offense to ol' Stone Cold. Anyway, we even get some wrestling moves in there, like Saturn hitting a leg sweep into an ankle lock that was smooth as hell. Saturn finally whiffs on a guillotine legdrop to allow Raven some offense. Actually, we don’t get much wandering brawl for the middle part of this, as most of ths match is in the ring. Saturn takes a beating, with only a little space after crotching Raven on the ropes. Finally, Saturn breaks a Raven sleeper with a jawbreaker. Saturn throws strikes, hits a capture suplex, and then grabs a chair and just waffles Raven with it. We also get a springboard legdrop onto the chair, which is on Raven’s face, but that somehow only gets two. That should really get three, come on now. Lodi and Riggs figure that they’ve waited long enough to get involved, but Saturn suplexes both of them at the same time. He then lines up Raven for a springboard move, but Raven moves the ref into the way and Saturn springboards a boot right into Nick Patrick’s face. That signals the re-start of the wandering brawl. Saturn bulldogs Raven into the stairs, then puts Raven on a table…and stands a table above Raven. So, in what is a fucking STUPID spot, Saturn tries to drop an elbow on the top table, sandwiching Raven between the tables as he hits it, but Kanyon runs out and pulls Raven off the table; Saturn splatters himself on the floor. Kanyon pretends to be helping Raven and raises his arm in the ring, but then he hits Raven with a Flatliner into a chair that’s in the seated position. Raven’s out, but the recovered Flock members roll Saturn back in and roll Raven onto Saturn, and it gets a surprising 2.9. I thought that was the end. After some more violence, Saturn looks like he’s going to win after superkicking a chair into Raven’s face, but Riggs breaks the pin up. That leads to the finish; Riggs sacrifices himself by getting DVD’d (no VR’d), but this gives Raven time to run up and immediately Evenflow Saturn for three. That match fucking RULED, man, it was GREAT. I love a good opener that gets me fired up for some more hot pro wrestling action. Gene Okerlund talks to Eddy Guerrero before Eddy’s hair match against Chavo Jr. Okerlund notes that Chavo Jr. has to fight Stevie Ray first, which they did set up on Nitro, but which must have been cemented on a tertiary show because Eddy says that he knows Chavo is whacked in the head for challenging Stevie to a match before his match with Eddy. I did not see and have no recall of said challenge being made. Eddy is certain that he’s going to beat the crap out of Chavo after Stevie is done with him, basically. We get a Kidman/Juventud Guerrera match that wasn’t advertised ahead of time. This is going to be good because these two can’t have a bad match together as far as I can tell. They actually start this one throwing fists and fighting over a headlock, which is a nice little change to the usual “Juvi starts jumping around immediately” deal. They do fly around and stuff, but there’s more physicality to this match than their past matches. It’s unfortunate that Juvi hits some chops that get WOOs and then the crowd immediately starts a WE WANT FLAIR chant, but you know, it happens. Lodi grabs a rope-running Juvi and drags him outside, but when he holds Juvi for a Kidman plancha, Juvi moves and then hits a springboard plancha on both guys. Kidman digs himself out of trouble by killing a Juvi rollup attempt and gets to work on his opponent. Kidman does a fine job of hanging Juvi over the guardrail by flipping him backward out of a powerbomb. These fellas have their own little brawl outside, but it feels different from the one that happened the match before. Juvi successfully hits a sunset flip powerbomb, or as Tony S. calls it, “a sidewalk slam from the inside out” because everything is a fucking sidewalk slam to this guy, I’m not a "NAME THE MOVE CORRECTLY Nazi," but come on, man. Also, wow, Kidman got powerbombed. Back in the ring, Kidman low blows Juvi as Juvi sets up for a top rope rana and then hits a super spinebuster for 2.9. That move had some serious impact. Tony S. calls the move spectacular and then calls it a “sidewalk slam or spinebuster or whatever you want to call it” and I’m pretty sure he’s just fucking with me from the past. I’ve been taught a lesson; it really doesn’t matter if you NAME THE MOVE CORRECTLY. I get your point, Tony. Anyway, the wrestlers in the ring exchange two counts before Juvi does a sweet Hamrick bump to the outside. This match gets five snowflakes from me just for including a Hamrick bump, I think. There are all these other moves that I think should get three, like a Juvi rana to a hung-up-on-the-ropes Kidman and then a Juvi overhead belly-to-belly that looked nasty. They fight over a backslide, and Kidman thinks he’s German suplexed Juvi, but Juvi lands on his feet and hits a Juvi Driver for two. Juvi runs into a sidewalk slam (I mean, I have to call a move that at least once, right? Hmm, do I even know what a sidewalk slam is?) and then goes up for the SSP, but he whiffs badly and has knocked out his wind, which makes it easy for Juvi to go up and drop a 450 for the victory. This match also ruled. I think these two actually had a Nitro match that I’d class as slightly better than this, but this was a whole lot of fun and really nailed the competitive back-and-forth balance that a match like this should have between two guys where one guy is just a small level above the other. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA Lee Marshall is interviewing Konnan backstage for Compuserve or whatever and HAHAHAHAHAHAHA Marshall says, at high speed, like the Micro Machines ad guy from the ‘90s, “It’s like somebody switched on a switch and it’s like everybody wants to hang with K-Dogg and everybody wants to be rowdy rowdy and ‘bout it ‘bout it but then I know everybody can’t hang with you” and he grins and looks so proud of himself for opening up with this linguistic marvel of a run-on sentence and HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I’m kind of proud of this doofus too. Bonus: Konnan seems to be about to invite Lee to a post-show party in Tijuana, just across the border from San Diego, but he isn’t a fan of Lee’s floral pattern shirt (“That’s a sweet shirt you have on, man. *scoffs* Did Skittles have a shirt giveaway?”). Lee is surprised that Konnan doesn’t recognize the shirt because he bought a bunch of them from some dude in East L.A, HAHAHAHAHAHA. Then Konnan lets us know his grandma is selling fish tacos in the parking lot, and I’ll take three, please. Anyway, this was MAGNIFICENT. I forgive Lee Marshall for every crappy announcing gig he's done, every bad Road Report joke he's cracked, all of that, just for this one little segment. This PPV is pretty much perfect so far and can only get worse from here, really, but perfection isn’t actually possible, or if it is, it’s extremely fleeting, so I’m okay with that. Stevie Ray comes to the ring ready to kill a sucka. Chavo comes to the ring wearing a floaty and holding a Super Soaker. Yeah, that seems about right. Eddy comes onto the ramp holding a pair of scissors and looking expectant. Chavo grabs the mic after the bell rings and dedicates the match to his favorite wrestler, the "lil’ trooper" Eddy Guerrero. Chavo ducks a Stevie grab and hits a double-biceps pose to a pop, and man, the comedy on this show is working for me. Chavo cabbage patches and tries to pass the move over to Stevie, who is deeply, deeply irritated. Then, Chavo offers a handshake. Stevie actually shakes it, which seems to go against his whole street code, and Chavo sells that Stevie’s handshake is so strong he has to immediately tap. That is genuinely funny. Eddy is irate on the outside. Stevie is irate that he didn’t get to beat a sucka down tonight. Eddy is mad at Stevie, but when Stevie gets in his face, he backs off. Then, as Stevie walks away, Eddy kicks and swings angrily at him, making sure to come nowhere close to actually hitting him. I repeat: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. After that, we get Chavo/Eddy immediately, and it only takes thirty seconds for Chavo to bite Eddy’s butt. Some kids in the crowd are LOVING this comedy, too, as I can hear right near at least one of the mics. I mean, if you’re going to do wrestling comedy, this is way up there. Chavo tries to have a dance contest by doing that Kid ‘n Play move where you grab your leg and pull it back. You know the one I mean. Eddy is so put off by Chavo being unserious, that he angrily kicks the bottom rope…and hurts his shin, which he grabs and pulls back in an exact replica of the dance move. This is, and I am not being hyperbolic when I say this, one of the finest comedy spots I’ve ever seen in a wrestling ring ever. I think Chavo’s joy that he somehow convinced serious Uncle Eddy to cut loose and bust a move is what caps that spot. Eddy gets a chair and puts it in the ring, but Chavo grabs it, sits down, and looks bored. Eddy’s at the end of his rope and has to try something new, so he attempts a handshake. Chavo, who has actually learned from Eddy, takes Eddy’s hand and suckers him in for a lariat. We get some spots that end with Eddy crawling over to Charles Robinson and hugging him around the waist for protection. Chavo crawls over and bites Eddy’s butt again. Heenan: “Do you know what it feels like to get bitten on the butt?” Tony S. is shocked and wonders how Heenan knows what being bitten on the butt would feel like. Tenay, in an attempt to get Tony S. to fess up: “C’mon Tony, it's pay per view. You can come clean.” When a non-Dusty, non-Stevie Ray WCW announcing team is making me laugh, it’s like everything is coming together just perfectly. Finally, Eddy gets to work on Chavo, targeting his back. Eddy hits a NASTY dropkick to Chavo’s back as Chavo is draped in the corner. Chavo bent in an unnatural way. Eddy is hitting some very explosive offense, yeah, including a nice dropkick to the back of Chavo’s head after he suplexes Chavo. Eddy mauls Chavo inside and outside the ring. It’s when Eddy finally tries a suplex on the concrete (a callback to his attack on Chavo that sparked this hair match challenge in the first place) and gets reversed that Chavo gets back into things. Chavo immediately hits a slam and goes up top, but Eddy crotches him and superplexes him. After the standing ten count, Chavo gets Eddy down again and goes up top again, but he gets Eddy’s knees when he drops a Frog Splash, and Eddy hits Chavo with a Tornado DDT. Instead of just, you know, dropping a Frog Splash or pinning Chavo, Eddy goes for the scissors and tries to cut Chavo’s hair prematurely. The ref stops Eddy, which of course means that when Eddy finally tries a Frog Splash, he misses. Chavo hits a Tornado DDT and then makes the same mistake Eddy did: He goes for the scissors, and as Charles Robinson stops Chavo from using them, Eddy grabs Chavo in a desperation small package for three. Post-match, Eddy shaves Chavo’s head. No, wait, Chavo grabs the clippers and shaves his own head while laughing maniacally. Chavo’s the real trooper, dammit. He tries to get Eddy to cut his hair so they can be twins, but Eddy’s good with interacting with Chavo at this point and leaves. I loved this match, and this Stevie match, and the aftermath. I loved it all dearly. This is bolted on for my great matches list. It’s a top comedy match/series of matches as far as I’m concerned. Chavo shaves his armpit hair to laughter while the crowd chants CHA-VO. I love it. I love all of it. We should give Chavo his flowers for being awesome while he’s around to get them. What an underappreciated talent he is. On the replay, as Chavo happily shaves his head, Charles Robinson shakes his head in awe that Chavo is willingly fucking up his own hairline. It happens in slow motion. There’s something poignant about that. Bring on more show! This is legit one of the best wrestling PPVs I’ve seen at this point. Disco Inferno (w/Alex Wright) comes to the ring. Penzer: “Formerly from Brooklyn, New York, he now resides in FUNKYTOWN, the Disco Inferno!” OK, that might be one of the greatest entrance calls ever. Yes, I admit that might be hyperbole, but I love it. Oh no, Disco and Alex try to say Konnan’s catchphrases to show they’re hip with Latin American culture and botch them horribly; then Disco makes me burst into laughter by calling San Diego “San Dawg.” I’m not sure the last time I’ve laughed this much at a pro wrestling show that was actually trying to get me to laugh. So, I guess we get Disco/Konnan next, but first Disco proclaims that he “really [doesn’t] know what the hell all that [slang] means” before calling for his music and getting the Wolfpac theme instead. 10/10 pre-match mic work, no notes. Konnan (w/Luger and Nash) heads to the ring to a big pop. Nash calls it “San Dawg” and it sounds somewhat more legitimate than when Disco did it. He shouts out the West Coast and generally looks like a man who watches contemporary TV and film. And listens to contemporary music, for that matter, as he quotes a popular Big Pun song. This actually ends up being a mic battle between Disco, Alex, Nash, and Konnan before the actual match, and that was good enough that even if this match is kinda poop, I don’t care. The match is fine, however, even if I can clearly hear Konnan call half of it. Disco pretty much gets rolled, which is what the crowd wants to see. Disco does punch his way out of a 1-8-7 attempt, and Alex Wright gets some blows in on Konnan before Luger walks over and racks him. The ref is distracted by that, so Nash gets in and Jackknifes Disco; Konnan wraps Disco in a Tequila Sunrise for the easy victory. That was a nice palette cleanser where all the really over dudes hit their catchphrases and their finishers to the joy of the crowd. A dude in the front row wearing a Wolfpac shirt is having the fucking time of his life, man. I think it’s Antoine Carr, actually, a ‘90s NBA player who I hadn't thought of in years before Tony S. pointed him out. I approve of this segment and match wholeheartedly. The Giant and Kevin Greene are up next. Greene’s wearing a white shirt that says ALL PRO on it in red letters. That is a throwback "made at a shop in the mall for five bucks" t-shirt of the kind that someone in the territories would wear. I love it. Greene dodges Giant a couple times to Giant’s irritation. Giant tries to corner him, misses a strike, and then Greene disrespectfully slaps him. Greene’s cat-and-mouse game is actually pretty danged good layout. He runs Giant in and out of the ring, then kicks the top rope into Giant’s junk when Giant’s stepping over the ropes. Greene leaps onto Giant with punches a couple times, but on the third time, he gets caught and hit with a big spinebuster. Giant drops a big elbow and chokes Greene with the bottom rope. The Giant is in control and sort of relaxing a bit too much, kind of like when he thought he had Luger dead to rights at Starrcade in 1996. Greene shows some fightback, but Giant stays on top. Out of desperation, Greene leaps at Giant in a crossbody and maneuvers Giant into position for a neck snap on the ropes. Greene tries to punch his way back into the match, but Giant blocks it and hits a nice headbutt that knocks Greene to the floor. Giant tries to bash Greene’s head into the guardrail, which has been getting a nice workout as a weapon tonight, but Greene reverses it and sends Giant into the rail and then the post. Giant irritatedly shoves Greene away and gets back in the ring, but Greene hits a sweet flying forearm from the top rope that gets two. That looked and sounded good. Greene next tries to clip the Giant’s knee out with three-point stances and kicks. He backs Giant into the corner, but hits the three-point stance and runs himself right into a goozle. One chokeslam later, and the Giant is your winner. Solid little match, but man, I’d be kind of kayfabe mad if I were Greene and Goldberg decided to split off to defend the gold against Hennig when he wasn’t required to. Lee Marshall talks to Hennig back at the computer room, and this is unfortunately not as good as when Marshall was back there with Konnan. I do appreciate Marshall smirking at Hennig’s insistence that he’s got a bead on Goldberg’s weaknesses, though. We get some recap of the Jericho/Malenko feud leading into whatever fuckery Jericho’s going to get into tonight. The champ comes out first, and as he promised on Thunder, he’s ready to put on a show! I mean that literally. He’s carrying a cane and wearing a top hat. This is too much for me, man. This man actually begins a vaudeville routine before J.J. Dillon shows up and stops it. Dillon admits that he’s “made a mistake and misjudged [Jericho],” which obviously means that this is going somewhere bad for ol’ Jericho. Dillon butters Jericho up by saying that all the millions of Jericho fans are sad that Jericho’s not defending. Jericho agrees. Dillon says he found a local guy who would be open to wrestling Jericho. Jericho unfortunately doesn’t know that a certain Misterio is from the area, so he agrees and even stumps for the match to remain no DQ. Misterio is pretty built! He’s not WWE-on-roids built, but yeah, he looks pretty good. He also spent quite a bit of time on the beach. Unfortunately, San Diego is not as excited as one might hope for Rey’s return, but he’s been off of television for awhile and isn’t that big a star stateside yet. Rey immediately initiates a beatdown of Jericho, getting two off a springboard legdrop early on. Rey sends Jericho into the poor abused guardrail, but back in the ring, Jericho halts on a rope run and throws a shoulderblock right into Misterio’s braced left knee. Jericho goes to work, but misses a corner charge and lands outside. This (somewhat surprisingly to me) initiates a tiny bit of wandering brawling around the beach set. Misterio gets up on the lifeguard stand and hits a leaping Frankensteiner to Jericho on the sand. Misterio follows up by throwing sand in Jericho’s eyes besides. They make it back to the ring, where Jericho takes over and hits a top-rope powerslam on Misterio that looks cool. Jericho then rips Penzer’s chair away and clobbers Misterio’s left knee with it. He then sets it up for a Pillmanizer, but Rey moves and Jericho’s knee just hits the chair. Rey grabs the chair and hits Jerich in the back with it, then sets it up against Jericho’s leg and dropkicks the chair. Misterio follows up with a facebuster and tries the springboard rana, but Jericho dumps him and locks on the Walls…but Misterio makes it to the ropes. That’s the point at which Dean Malenko walks down to view the proceedings. This throws off Jericho, who tries the Walls again, but gets reversed and rolled up for three. Misterio is the champ, but Jericho’s too busy running away to care. Jericho runs backstage where Arn Anderson (!) blocks his path for long enough that Malenko can catch up and beat Jericho’s ass. That wasn’t really the comeback match Misterio needed nor the end of the Jericho title reign that that reign needed, but it was definitely solid. Jericho’s reign has been much more about the mic work and skits than the matches since the Ciclope incident, though, so I’m fine with that. This show has been so hot that I feel like San Diego is a bit tired, and I feel a bit tired, too. That’s the best sort of “tired” to feel when it comes to a wrestling show. Bret Hart comes to the ring to wrestle Booker T. for the Television Championship. This feels like the beginning of what will be a long dark period for Booker until about two years from this show, but maybe I’m wrong and Book gets some good feud material before Ahmed Johnson shows up and takes his initial away from him. Bret is craftier but Booker has a lot of explosiveness. Book gets two off a flying forearm, then another two off a back kick; after that, he hip tosses Bret to the floor. Booker takes it outside, and would you believe it, he smashes Bret into the guardrail. Bret immediately finds a way to use the guardrail himself by draping Book’s throat across the rail when Booker takes too long to follow up. Bret takes over and starts to hit his signature moves. He drops a headbutt on Book’s abdomen and controls until Booker reverses an Irish Whip and hits a spinebuster for two. Bret’s back up and able to lariat Book to the floor, though. Bret decides that the rail is a really effective tool tonight, so he uses it again before wrapping Booker’s back around the post. Back in the ring, Bret targets Book’s back. He gets a backbreaker, follows up with the second rope elbowdrop, and gets two on the cover. Bret follows up with more 5MoD, but only gets two on a side Russian. Bret eye rakes Booker and throws a few lifted uppercuts in the corner; he goes for an Irish whip, but Booker leaps over and struggles to roll him up out of the corner, which he eventually does for two. However, this starts a comeback for Book, who hits a roundhouse kick and then an axe kick. Book hits a pancake and a Spinaroonie, then goes up for the missile dropkick which he drills…but Bret’s near the ropes and gets his foot on them to break the count. Bret’s done with all this fucking wrestling shit after taking that dropkick. He rolls outside, grabs a chair, and waffles a diving Booker with it, then keeps up the chair attack post-match, bashing Booker’s braced right leg with the chair. Ooh, then we get a rare Ringpost Figure Four! I love that move. Is anyone doing that move right now? It rules and someone should steal it. Oh, by the way, I note that Stevie Ray is in the back not giving a fuck for most of this, until eventually he saunters out and Bret vacates the premises. Then Stevie waves off the doctors and makes Booker limp out. When Book accepts the support of the doctor in limping out, Stevie shakes his head disgustedly. Man, Stevie’s a real asshole! That was a solid match, by the way. Goldberg goes on second-from-the-top. There are still fifty-ish minutes left on this show, which makes me think that the tag main event will be entirely too long. I think ten minutes for each match is enough, but that would leave thirty minutes of promo time/entrances, so I know that’s not going to happen. I still think Goldberg/Hennig for the gold was a booking mistake. There’s no need to break up the tag match, and I’m certain that the tag match would have been better than these two individual matches. Bonus: You have Goldberg and Giant avoid each other for most of the tag match, and after Goldberg kills Hennig to win, you set up Goldberg/Giant on the next PPV with the Giant claiming that Goldberg dodged him in the tag match. Whatever, I shouldn’t be complaining about the booking on this show that much with how good it's been so far. Goldberg stands in the sparks, bleeding from where he apparently bashed his head into a locker before coming out, which is quite the visual. Goldberg rules, man. Except for when he kicked the HitG.O.A.T. square in the skull and legit retired him. Otherwise, though, he rules. I will give Hennig credit for doing all his typical wild bumping in this match, which is perfect for Goldberg just physically destroying him. Hennig throws a few chops, and Goldberg is like real fuckin’ irritated at that shit, man, so he rolls through on a leg bar, though Hennig escapes an ankle lock and bails. Hennig puts boots up twice on a Goldberg corner charge, but that merely staggers the big man. Hennig uncharacteristically goes up top, but is easily caught and pressed into a powerslam. Goldberg is thinking about ending it, but Hennig trips him and works the knee a bit, which is novel. So, I do actually appreciate this match indicating that Goldberg is now stepping up a level in talent and strategy with his opponents from that U.S. Championship run. The issue is that he should have been beating guys at the level of Hennig during that run, not the World Championship run. I digress. Hennig actually hits a PerfectPlex, but Goldberg kicks out, hits a lariat, spears Hennig, and drops him with a Jackhammer for three. That was a Goldberg showcase that successfully gets across that he’ll be up to the challenge of wiping out a stronger talent level than he previously had to face. I guess Goldberg killed like three dudes between Nitro and now because I’m pretty sure Tenay had him at 108 wins after Nitro and now he’s saying Goldberg’s won 112. Why does WCW insist on counting Goldberg’s wins instead of just noting that he’s undefeated and leaving it at that? I now consider that we never got a Goldberg/Stone Cold match, which I cannot state enough is one of the biggest disappointments in my pro wrestling experience. We get a hype video for the Hulk Hogan and Dennis Rodman vs. Karl Malone and Diamond Dallas Page match. Then, we cut to Michael Buffer, and I think to myself, is this match really going to go a half-hour?! Really?! We’re 38 minutes from the end of the feed! I think at least three or four more minutes should have been apportioned to the Rey/Jericho match to give more time to Rey being in danger of losing and Jericho going at his knee. We could have taken it from this. Even after the longer entrances, we have thirty minutes left on the clock. I am baffled as to why they’d book this match for that long. I think it’s got potential to be good, but there is zero chance that I’m booking a tag match with two non-wrestlers and 1998 Hulk Hogan for thirty minutes. When Rodman wrestled his last match, it was a) shorter, b) Page and Luger were the steady, solid workers as his opponents in the match, and c) 1997 Hulk Hogan was a pretty clearly better worker than he’d end up being just a year later. I’ll get over it, but this really is baffling to me. Rodman has been doing nothing but drinking and smoking in the offseason because he’s wrestling in a t-shirt. Look at Malone over on the other side of the ring shirtless and in tights, looking fantastic. That guy understands that wrestling is an upper-body business. Malone wants Rodman in the center of the ring, so they start, and Rodman ducks under the ropes and begs off. Malone clearly is having the time of his life, chasing Rodman and feinting punches at Hogan on the apron. The crowd actually pops when Rodman and Malone lock up. Rodman gets a headlock, but gets sent to the ropes and bails out. Rodman is actually good at stalling. Did he get in some work with Larry Z. before the show? Hahaha, obviously he didn’t because he was in Vegas doing blow with high-end sex workers. But it looks like he spent time getting in work with Larry Z. before this show! I’m not going to say much about the opening of this match, which is slow and perfectly cromulent for a non-worker working another non-worker or 1998 Hogan. The stuff like Malone slamming Hogan gets the big pops that you’d expect. Page is just here to glue all this shit together so that it works. Now, I do note that a BORING chant starts early on, which wouldn’t be so bad if we didn’t have 25 more minutes of this match to get through. Again, they should have made this match ten or twelve minutes and reversed it with the Goldberg match, whether or not they kept Goldberg's match a tag match or split them apart. It’s not horrible or anything, but the crowd is understandably a bit bored with the slower pace after all the stuff they’ve seen earlier in the night. Rodman does a leapfrog, but fucks up the spot where he crashes into DDP after he lands. I think the crowd wants to explode, but because of how the match needs to be laid out considering the participants, the action is so stop-start, they feel a little frustrated, and so do I. There are only so many hammerlocks I can get up for on a modern show. I bet there’s an awesome wrestler or three out there who can do an awesome twenty-plus minute match centered around hammerlocks, though. I love old school WoS, so if this were a WoS show, I’d be primed for two guys working multiple hammerlocks. This just comes off as action-less compared to the rest of the card, and it’s sort of killing the crowd. I must note that Rodman’s natural scumbaggery comes through nicely. Malone plays FIP for what feels like twenty or thirty years before he dodges an elbowdrop and gets a hot tag to DDP. Page’s attack gets snuffed when Hogan reverses an Irish whip and Rodman sticks a knee into his back from the apron. Hogan’s weight belt makes an appearance! Then we go back to a boilerplate heel control segment, except with Page as FIP. This match just needed massive editing. I’m not going to knock the whole show for the mistake of putting this match on last and making it so long because the rest of this show was near-perfect to me, but yeah, this just isn’t the right way to book or lay out this thing. There is finally another hot tag to Malone, who hits a few lariats and body slams on Hogan and Rodman to what is a big pop – see, these people just want to see some action – and then hits a double noggin knocker on the nWo Hollywood members. Malone calls for the Diamond Cutter, but hits a pretty nice big boot first. Then, he tags in DDP who actually nails Hogan with a rebound Diamond Cutter and covers. Rodman runs in and Malone cuts him off with a Diamond Cutter, but then, and get this – GET THIS – the GODDAM DISCIPLE runs in. No, wait, the GODDAM BOOTY MAN runs in and hits a Stone Cold Stunner on Page. Hogan covers for three because of course this fuckhead can’t lose twice in one week. DISGUSTING BOOKING. Malone hits a Diamond Cutter on Booty Man, then follows with one on Charles Robinson for not catching the interference. Yeah, that’s what we needed, nWo Hollywood celebrating to end the show. Eat a sack of diseased bull testicles, WCW Booking Committee. Also, fire Eric Bischoff. Uh, and also fire Hulk Hogan, while you're at it. BatB 1998 is a PPV maybe a small bit behind Beach Blast 1992 and Spring Stampede 1994 - IF you just cut it off before the main event. So do that. Do NOT watch this show after Goldberg rolls out of the arena still wearing the gold. But do be sure to catch what might be the best (U.S.?) comedy match(es) and bridge segment between those matches of all time.

FU*CK! is 100% still active! They've moved away from death match style but still run shows in basements in front of, like, 30 people. Current Far East Asian Champion is Lucha Master Takemaru, whom I am sure I have met, but I can't find a picture of us together. I found a picture with Moriya, who is a current FU*CK! mainstay, and with Fuke, who worked for them back in the day. Fuke is a Fujiwara guy, and Moriya was trained by Kurisu! I am connected to current FU*CK! through my close friend Kuuga/Cooger/Asian Cooger (in fact I am probably going drinking with Cooger and Moriya again soon) so, SINCERE OFFER HERE: If the fine folks promoting this show ever manage to raise enough sponsorship dough to fly some wrestlers in from Japan I would be quite happy to liaise the Osaka Indie scene for y'all. How about Bodyguard singing his entrance theme on the way to the ring? DEAN loved that. I am SURE I could convince some good people to go if it were at all financially viable. This year, or at any time in the future.

some on Reddit/SC is much meaner than me and typed this about Jack Perry's look tonight: "He looks like Danny Masterson broke out of prison and has been living on the run in an old school bus in the woods"

Davey Richards vs Davey Richard’s inside a Steel Davey Richards