Best of Saturday Night/Worldwide/Pro

[kafkonia]

 

 

I am still looking for this Meng vs T.Rantula match I saw in 1997. Makes me wish I downloaded that Saturday Night 97 torrent years back.

 

Fortunately, I did

 

 

Now, we just need the Kaz Hayazhi vs. Raven craziness. 

 

I remember a tag match with Rantula and either Rick Fuller or Road Block vs the Faces Of Fear. Could you look for that?

 

Rick Fuller - whatever happened to him? He seemed pretty decent for a guy his size.

 

And was he related to Robert?

[Victator]

I don't think so, otherwise he would have been all over Memphis TV. 

[cool arrow]

Ron and Robert's real last name is Welch, and Rick Fuller really is a Fuller, so no.

 

Rick still works around New England and even worked New Japan in '08.

[Infinit]

From that first Armstrong/First Family clip...who were the 2 that teamed for the first time on next week's WCWSN?? I'm curious now lolI

[Charlie M.]

The tag matches from the next week were Eddie & Rey vs Disorderly Conduct and Duggan & Watts vs Regal & Taylor.  So Duggan and Watts?

[Territorial]

 

Brad Armstrong vs. Jushin Liger

Brad Armstrong was such a fearsome JTTS. He had a crap win loss record, but he was able to do stuff like go 60 minutes with Flair. Like a proto-Ziggler in a way. Only I could believe it if Brad held the world title.

 

 

Brad was little more than a JTTS in JCP/WCW, but he had several good runs in the southeast before that, particularly in Georgia and SECW/Continental.  Had a great feud with Jerry Stubbs in Continental.

 

Granted, he the promotions that pushed him well tended to be places wehre his dad was massively over and all the Armstrong kids got good pushes to keep Bob happy.

[cool arrow]

Didn't Brad have a run with the NA title in Mid-South?

 

EDIT: Looked it up.  He did, but only for about a month and a half.  Still, he beat Ernie Ladd for it, so that's something.

[Overly Critical Man]

Brad was the ultimate utlity guy. They'd make him be Arachnaman and he'd wrestle some weird vaguely lucha/high flyer style. They'd make him be Badstreet and he'd heel it up as the Freebird's gimp. Or he could just be plain ol' Brad Armstrong...who was something of a big shot in the WCW cruiserweight division despite being billed at 250 lbs.

[cool arrow]

Brad was the ultimate utlity guy. They'd make him be Arachnaman and he'd wrestle some weird vaguely lucha/high flyer style. They'd make him be Badstreet and he'd heel it up as the Freebird's gimp. Or he could just be plain ol' Brad Armstrong...who was something of a big shot in the WCW cruiserweight division despite being billed at 250 lbs.

 

I like to think that was a subtle tribute to Mick Foley's reign as WCCW light heavyweight champion.

[Charlie M.]

I feel like someone needs to go through and revisit Jimmy Hart's entire run as WCWSN booker.

[SovietShooter]

I feel like someone needs to go through and revisit Jimmy Hart's entire run as WCWSN booker.

 

WCWSN was really strong when he was booking.  He would take a handful of the decent guys he could book (Benoit, luchadors, Alex Wright, Disco, etc) and mix them with the Power Plant/development guys, which led to some pretty decent matches given some time.  This was why the "Natural Born Thrillers" came on the scene so strong when they were all repckaged and pushed. 

 

Plus, Hart knew he was never gonna get any title matches on WCWSN, so he got control of the TV title, and he booked Duggan as an old-school tv champ that defended the title on tv each week, and they built feuds with guys like Fidel Sierra and Emory Hale over it.

 

It was a consistently entertaining show when Nitro/Thunder were at their worst. 

[goodhelmet]

One of the best 6 minute matches I have seen. 

 

[Curt McGirt]

Dandy/Finlay is pretty fucking great.

 

Here is your Cactus/Vader Worldwide Texas "Tornado" (nee Death) Match. 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9ezcJdWQB8

[Big Rob]

That Finlay vs Dandy match was great, thanks for posting it!

[kafkonia]

I just watched five Above Average Mike Sanders matches, and I think he's an overlooked gem of the WCW end times, at least on the C shows. He lost every single match I saw, and I'm pretty sure ate the pin in the tag match he was in, and yet he struck me as the best part of each of those matches. He was competitive, sold well, and had an in-ring charisma that was fun to watch -- in my opinion, one of the better late-generation Power Plant graduates. It's a shame he never really caught on after the WCW buyout - it looks like he suffered some injuries in HWA, then got released, spent some time in TNA and Ring of Glory, and is now a stand-up comedian and motivational speaker.

 

He's gimmick of being a "Solid C+" would've made him a great secondary opponent for Daniel Bryan right now.

[BalancingAct]

 

I feel like someone needs to go through and revisit Jimmy Hart's entire run as WCWSN booker.

 

WCWSN was really strong when he was booking.  He would take a handful of the decent guys he could book (Benoit, luchadors, Alex Wright, Disco, etc) and mix them with the Power Plant/development guys, which led to some pretty decent matches given some time.  This was why the "Natural Born Thrillers" came on the scene so strong when they were all repckaged and pushed. 

 

Plus, Hart knew he was never gonna get any title matches on WCWSN, so he got control of the TV title, and he booked Duggan as an old-school tv champ that defended the title on tv each week, and they built feuds with guys like Fidel Sierra and Emory Hale over it.

 

It was a consistently entertaining show when Nitro/Thunder were at their worst. 

 

I always get the impression that guys would come up and ask for a match they wanted to be in, knowing it would be good.   Like Finlay saying he wanted to work Dandy and put on a show.

[SirSmellingtonofCascadia]

So, I know these matches aren't that great by themselves, but as a kid, I had never seen the British rounds system, and they did a bastardized version between Flair and Regal on Worldwide, I believe. It was a series of matches over maybe five weeks? that was best-of-five. I thought it was so cool and different and I LOVED them.

 

Then years later, I was lurking here and someone mentioned Jim Breaks, so I went to watch a bunch of his matches and put two-and-two together. So now I love British World of Sport wrestling. Thanks Flair, Regal, and DVDVR

[Ellsworth Toohey]

I still remember "The Shah" Hack Myers showing up on a couple World Wide episodes circa 1995 as a pure jobber and R.S.P.W. going nuts with half the guys saying that Hack was getting what he deserved for abandoning ECW and the other half being mad that Hack wasn't getting a push.

 

I think it was either Brett Schwann or Jim Finch (ECW webmasters at the time) who finally revealed that Hack had moved to Florida to try to catch on full-time with either WCW or WWF and that he was REALLY desperate for the money when he worked the World Wide tapings and that obviously things hadn't gone as planned for him.

[EricR]

This a pretty blatant shill but an ongoing project of mine is reviewing all the Nitro-era WCW syndicated shows at Segunda Caida.

 

http://segundacaida.blogspot.com

 

I call it My Favorite Wrestling because it's literally my favorite wrestling to watch when I've had a couple drinks and just wasting a Saturday night. I got a bunch of spindles full of WCW syndies and I just grab one at random and pop it in the player. 

[kafkonia]

This a pretty blatant shill but an ongoing project of mine is reviewing all the Nitro-era WCW syndicated shows at Segunda Caida.

 

http://segundacaida.blogspot.com

 

I call it My Favorite Wrestling because it's literally my favorite wrestling to watch when I've had a couple drinks and just wasting a Saturday night. I got a bunch of spindles full of WCW syndies and I just grab one at random and pop it in the player. 

Nice. I'll be sure to check it out.

[Victator]

Around the time that Hack Myers was working tapings, Gangrel worked a few as David Heath. As I remember they both got a decent amount of offense in. More than most job guys. There was this series in 97 on the Pro between Scott Norton and Hugh Morrus. I was really into it at the time, but they never turned up online. 

[KidKash202]

Some quick WCW matches. Nice YouTube page: http://www.youtube.com/user/lamadredequitegross/videos?flow=grid&view=0&sort=p

[Big Z]

This is a really good ten minute match between Rude and Bagwell from Worldwide in early 1994

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OrSCUpXm3k

[JRV]

I've been watching a gang of Dustin matches from Worldwide. Nothing spectacular, just a really decent way to spend 10-15 minutes.

 

http://youtu.be/-0M7LUPLyMM

Featuring a nasty elbow drop & a Jake angle at the end

 

http://youtu.be/mbUIg3WA1xU

Yes, the "Nintendo Top Ten Challenge" finals.

[HumanChessgame]

I've been trying to find a Devon Storm (while he was still working a surfer-esque gimmick with a blonde mullet) vs Sabu (in one of his first WCW matches) from Worldwide that featured a lot of crazy for the time highspots but am coming up short.  I have no idea if the match held up at all but I remember thinking it was great back when I was 14 or so.