WWE Network Conversation

[odessasteps]

Someone recently posted an NWA card from Baltimore 1985 and it had Funk vs Slater. 

insert Spider Man meme. 

[zendragon]

On 2/23/2024 at 4:42 PM, RazorbladeKiss87 said:

That site has a lot of wrestling on it but also a lot of content that would fit into the old board's pants free section.

not the only video of a muscular man dominating a blond?

[Curt McGirt]

[Technico Support]

In my quest to rewatch the Flair-Steamboat 89 series and figure out why I didn't really like the 2nd or 3rd matches, I rewatched match #2 last night.  Here's some writing about it:

 

• This is the 2 out of 3 falls match.  Why did this need to be 2 out of 3?  Was there a booking thing I can't remember?
• It's 1989 and WE HAVE LASERS!  Flair's name is laser-projected on the wall behind him as he enters.  Of course, it's WCW so it's spelled incorrectly.  Hiro Matsuda is nowhere to be found; apparently Flair traded him for some fine 80's ladies.
• Terry Funk is on commentary -- long-term planning for the angle that comes out of match 3!
• Flair is at his big pimpin'est as he gets frustrated and literally beckons Tommy Young out of the ring to chide him for his calls.
• Comments that aged like milk: JR and Funk have a conversation about the old guard vs the new guard and how that guy Steve Young isn't replacing Joe Montana any time soon.
• This thing is slower-paced, really telegraphing that they're going long.  The first fall is essentially just like the shine from match 1.  Flair gets a little more offense but Steamboat is pretty much turning him back and winning more than he's losing.
• Flair wins the fall by showing he learned from the first match, reversing the sequence that won Steamboat the belt.  Flair goes for a figure four, Steamboat small packages him, but Flair reverses the cradle to win.
• There's a spot where Steamboat elbowdrops Flair's leg like 32 times before going for the figure four and it just felt excessive.
• I love Flair's selling where's he's just yelling OH GOD OH GOD
• My notes say "aimless 50/50" at some point in the 2nd fall.  Yup.
• My notes also say "contour ruling?" and I have no idea what that means.  It's my "covfefe," I guess.  I was drinking while watching this.
• The 2nd fall ends when Steamboat submits Flair with a lifted double arm chicken wing.  Was there a story behind Steamboat adding that to his arsenal between the first match and this one?  I can't remember it.
• Tommy Young has that sad affliction that strikes all the great refs, where he seems to have lost his peripheral vision.  He's counting a pin while Flair's feet are on the ropes and if he just moved his eye 2 degrees, he'd see it.  We should take up a collection.
• The third fall features a figure four that lasts like a full minute and a half or so and that's my +10 moment of the night (TM Deadlock)
• Flair hits a Flair flip into a successful crossbody and that's probably the only time that ever worked when he was a heel.
• The finish to the third fall, and the match, comes when Steamboat hits another elevated double chicken wing, this time suspiciously close to the ropes.  His knee buckles from the damage of the aforementioned marathon figure four, so he ends up essentially tiger suplexing Flair into a pin.  Flair gets his leg under the rope but Tommy Young misses it because, as we've established, he's blind (WHAT ARE YOU, BLIND?  JEEEEEEESUS!).  Steamboat gets the win and, on replay, you do see that his shoulder was up.  At first, it looked like he'd pinned himself, which would have been a doubly bad call.
• So the rematch should be an iron man match.  Or 3/5 falls.  Or maybe a cage.  Or...just a one fall match?  That'll do I guess.

My general impression is this: it's a good match but I didn't love it.  2/3 falls can typically be booked to follow a normal one fall match formula, where the first fall is the shine, 2nd fall is the heat, and 3rd is the finish.  This match sort of followed this, but flipped the wins, so Steamboat took most of the offense in the first fall but lost it, Flair took the majority in the 2nd but then lost, and then the 3rd is more even leading to the finish.  That's fine but I don't know what the story was supposed to be.  In the first match, the story was that Steamboat was just better than Flair.  I guess the story here is that Flair learned from the first match (seen in how he wins the first fall) and gets more offense in this one, but that's not a strong story.  A lot of this match was so unfocused, just a lot of trading offense until the finish with not a lot of psychology.  I don't know.  It feels like Flair just wanted to have a long match but man, this just did not hit with me.  It felt dragged out.  There was so much aimless offense just to kill time.  I ask myself, "could they have done a one fall match that ended with the 3rd fall's finish, using that to get to the blowoff?"  I don't see why not, except they needed to show, via the first fall, that Flair can beat Steamboat.  But then again, it was just a rollup, while Steamboat cleanly submitted him in the 2nd, so what did that prove.  I don't know, man.  It wasn't bad but it just felt like a long match just for the sake of having a long match.

Edited February 26 by Technico Support

[Godfrey]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8oRqmUh9dk&ab_channel=WWE

WWE reposted Becky vs Rhea from NXT 5 years ago. I prefer this presentation of both women tbh, Becks definitely works tighter in this than recently

Edited February 26 by Godfrey

[Cobra Commander]

Things I remember from Clash 10: Texas Shootout:

Since Sting is retiring this weekend and Ole Anderson just died.

The prematch Dr. Death video is a feverdream of a feature.

Dr. Death vs Samoan Savage was a fun meat-fest. Cornette is making way too many Hispanic jokes tonight. Fun to see a backslide end this match.

edit: just remembered that Humperdink is around at this time as “Best Choice Captain Lou Albano”

So here come the Horsemen. Ole looks like a dude who beats the shit out of people at the docks. Ole has an ultimatum for Sting, which... did that come out of nowhere or did they at least tease something on TV. Eventually this leads to a fight.

The Mod Squad looks like a shittier State Patrol. Some fun moves from Pillman and Zenk, aside from a less than ideal crossbody from Zenk.

I've seen Cactus vs Mascaras before and any appearance of the Nestea Plunge is an "Oh fuck" moment.

Norman vs Sullivan... I think Norman the Lunatic probably was Mike Shaw's best US gimmick. I guess you can get Sullivan to job if it's behind closed doors.

Lex Luger has a heel promo about the Sting/Flair thing, which of course is more hilarious when you remember what's about to happen. I think they wanted to run Sting/Luger over the Summer.. instead.. well....

Road Warriors vs Skyscrapers was a fun one. The finish was a disorienting mess. But the stuff before it was pretty good.

Steiners vs Doom was an awesome bombfest. Reed gets unmasked for the finish. Then they unmask Simmons. Of course the fact that Reed/Simmons were Doom wasn't exactly a secret to the fans able to figure out that 2 of the 4-ish black wrestlers in the promotion disappeared just when Doom arrived. Pretty confident every Steiners vs Doom match was awesome.

The Wrestlewar rap is fucking awful.

The Main Event is an experience. The Horsemen are getting booed. The crowd is hot and cheering for Muta/Dragon Master/Buzz Sawyer. Sting runs out. Doug Dillinger's dumbass fucks up Sting's knee (or maybe he's just on the scene for it). The PPV Main Event goes up in smoke in the process. If not for that, this whole thing would be remembered a little better. Instead..

The thing about these notorious 1990 WCW shows is that.. yeah, there was a bit of stupidity. And money wasn't being made. But the crowd is hot and having a few thousand of the most rilled up southerners possible in the crowd is gonna make things better than they should be.

Edited February 29 by Cobra Commander

[Shartnado]

On 2/25/2024 at 11:57 AM, zendragon said:

not the only video of a muscular man dominating a blond?

Goddammit! Stop going through my search hist... I mean, nevermind!

[Shartnado]

On 2/24/2024 at 7:50 PM, Curt McGirt said:

I was also interested in Valentine/Garvin and they had a whole feud. Shouldn't I know about that? Why is that a blank spot? Is it because it was in WWF? 

The feud was stupid, the blow-off match at Royal Rumble'90 was a F'n classic, especially given the time and the place. If you get the chance, check it out.

[SirSmUgly]

7 hours ago, Shartnado said:

The feud was stupid, the blow-off match at Royal Rumble'90 was a F'n classic, especially given the time and the place. If you get the chance, check it out.

That Rumble match made me finally "get" the appeal of Greg Valentine.

[Stefanie Sparkleface]

On 2/29/2024 at 11:24 PM, SirSmUgly said:

That Rumble match made me finally "get" the appeal of Greg Valentine.

As a noted Greg Valentine fangirl, I always point to the Rumble match with Garvin as a good starting point. "It's a surly dude slugging another surly dude. Have fun."

[Godfrey]

Daniel Bryan vs Kofi Kingston - WWE Title - Wrestlemania 35

Just reposted on YouTube, not sure why. This is the New Daniel Bryan when he turned heel and called the fans fickle complete with title made of vegan materials and Rowan for muscle (in a George Romero shirt). Big "Kofi" and "Kofimania" chants to start. Bryan nails him with European uppercuts and Kofi fires right back with his own. Daniel's cut offs are what make the early parts of this match, like a great counter as Kofi tries the standing double stomp but Bryan scoots under and gets a high angle Boston crab. I'd say that section goes on a little long but when Kofi fires up the place loses it. At one point Kofi lures Bryan into a kick off (to a huge reaction) and then does this wild leg lace into an inverted suplex counter. A lot of mat maneuvering in the final run, Bryan really stomps Kofi's face to get a third LeBell Lock but Kingston maneuvers out and returns the stomps. One carefully lined up Trouble in Paradise later and we got a new champ

Pretty good match although they have some off moments when their timing doesn't quite line up and Bryan makes some odd choices when he's in control like an extended waistlock. Could be that they had a number of tricky sequences in mind and the early ones were a little rough so they had to slow it down to get their heads back in it. One issue with the match is that even though the audience is behind Kingston they really want to do the Yes chant because Bryan had just taken that away from them, Kofi doesn't want to play into it and sometimes there's a bit of disconnect as a result

I wonder how history will remember Kofimania. His run never felt like it had the full weight of creative behind it and his reign was ended unceremoniously by Brock that fall in one of the many Fuck Yous the WWE would give fans on a regular basis

[Cobra Commander]

I wanna say the “underdog wins the title at Wrestlemania and languishes through his title run” thing has happened over and over in the WWE. Which is one reason why I’m a bit skeptical about a Cody title run if it happens out of WM.

[Cliff Hanger]

In advance of the new game dropping tomorrow at 11pm Central, I decided to try to watch some of the historical showcase matches I'd never seen (or in the case of Rock v Austin from WM17, only seen thru binoculars from the back row of the top deck of the Astrodome). My first stop was the first match in the game, Savage v Steamboat, and while by modern standards it was merely very good it must have seemed like an incursion from an alternate Earth at the time.

 

I had intended to skip straight to the main on 17, but find myself watching more than I'm skipping. I have literally no memory of the hardcore 3 way or the trios match between Taz/APA and Right to Censor, my memory jumps from Jericho/Regal to Benoit/Angle

[Godfrey]

5 hours ago, Cobra Commander said:

I wanna say the “underdog wins the title at Wrestlemania and languishes through his title run” thing has happened over and over in the WWE. Which is one reason why I’m a bit skeptical about a Cody title run if it happens out of WM.

Who will be his Kane?

[odessasteps]

Gunther?

[Cobra Commander]

Gunther is a little too fresh for that spot

I'd think that Cody Rhodes' Kane would be...

(thinks about the current roster)

Bronson Reed?

I guess if we're talking older wrestler with an unnecessary long feud... Randy Orton or Sheamus turning heel on Cody? those matches could be good but running Rhodes/Orton for 4 months could get old

Brock would be the Kane if he wasn't exiled to the shadow realm. Or Braun Strowman if he was healthy or Edge if he wasn't in AEW.

Cody Rhodes has never faced AJ Styles and I think those matches would actually be good.

[twiztor]

in lieu of bringing Kane/Glen Jacobs back, they could always put Doc Gallows back under the fake Kane mask/wig.

OTOH, it would be really funny if Kevin Nash made a one-off appearance as Fake Kane. 

[odessasteps]

Maybe we could Cody v Woods in a feud that goes back to their high school wrestling days in Georgia. 

[Cobra Commander]

my creative idea that would have been rejected in late 1996: Fake Diesel/Razor act as if they're the real thing, only for the people with history with Diesel/Razor no-sell those guys

[Technico Support]

I watched Wrestling Challenge, season 1, ep 3 last night.  Just a few notable things:

• The Islanders debut and are called "Hako" and "Toma."  I don't remember that at all, so maybe this was the only match before the name changes.
• The Islanders have a fun, short match with the Hart Foundation.  It ends with a double DQ as both teams brawl at ringside and Toma hits a fucking TOPE in 1986. 
• Jake does a Snake Pit with Paul Orndorff and it's notable for just the absolutely insane amount of trash the fans are throwing throughout the segment.  It starts with a huge piece of debris landing in Jake's cauldron and it JUST.  KEEPS.  GOING.  It's madness.
• These shows' formatting is all over the place.  You get individual promos with Ken Reznick interviewing Jake and Orndorff, AND a Snake PIt with the two.  They do something like this in every episode so far.
• "Put the cameraman on the apron and shoot straight down Elizabeth's top" is in full effect here. 
• Mick Foley works as a jobber vs The Killer Bees.  It's crazy that he wins with WWF title like 12 years later.  The Bees do a finisher I never saw them do, so maybe this was the only time they did it on TV.  Both guys whip Foley into the ropes, Brunzell drops down, and Blair leaps off Brunzell's back, spins, and hits Foley in the chest with his ass.  I guess it's supposed to emulate a bee stinger.  It looks like shit AND, after Foley lands, Blair comes down ass-first on his face, which had to hurt.  Fucking Killer Bees.

Edited March 19 by Technico Support

[Technico Support]

On 3/3/2024 at 9:27 PM, Cobra Commander said:

my creative idea that would have been rejected in late 1996: Fake Diesel/Razor act as if they're the real thing, only for the people with history with Diesel/Razor no-sell those guys

Better yet, everybody goes along with it like a Darren/Darren situation.

[SirSmUgly]

I'd prefer Fake Razor and Diesel to have acted like they hit a time warp and had regressed back to what they were doing when they came into the company in '92/'93.

Fake Razor tries to start beef with Mr. Perfect again and claims that he must have run Randy Savage out of the WWF since Savage isn't around anymore. Then he takes a "shocking" (only to him) loss to Aldo Montoya on a random RAW, Vince pipes in some "1-2-3" chants, and Montoya is re-named the 1-2-3 Man ('o War) and becomes friends with Fake Razor by having defeated him.

Fake Diesel keeps trying to be Shawn Michaels's bodyguard even though Michaels is annoyed by him until one night, an irritated Michaels tells Fake Diesel to "take the night off" and Fake Diesel powerbombs him in response. Bonus points if it happens at Survivor Series 1996 and, in a bit of poetry, allows Sid to capture the WWF Championship rather than the spot with Jose Lothario having a heart attack. 

Edited March 19 by SirSmUgly

[Curt McGirt]

5 hours ago, Technico Support said:

• Jake does a Snake Pit with Paul Orndorff and it's notable for just the absolutely insane amount of trash the fans are throwing throughout the segment.  It starts with a huge piece of debris landing in Jake's cauldron and it JUST.  KEEPS.  GOING.  It's madness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6TBXDqM2s4

 

[SirSmUgly]

WrestleWar '92 notes:

• Wrestling in the background really helps me get work get done, strangely. Kinda like music without lyrics does, but weirdly I guess Tony S. or Jim Ross yammering on is somehow as soothing and focusing as Chopin or [insert random Youtuber who does lofi remixes of video game OSTs] here.

 

• There are four announcers for this show for some reason. Only two (Jesse and JR) get much burn, though. 

 

• I can't believe anyone found the Freebirds to be cool and/or awesome as babyfaces. The off-beat clapping to their own music is shameful. Hayes and Garvin are always mega-heels in my house. They're wrestling Terry Taylor and Greg Valentine, so I'm pretty much in hell.

 

• The early spot with all the dropdowns was contrived, and it didn't get better for me from there. This is obviously not my kind of match. I thought Taylor won it with the Flying Steak Wrap, but no, the match unmercifully continued. After about fifteen years of "action," Garvin hooks Taylor, backdrops a charging Valentine, and drops Taylor with a DDT for the win and the U.S. Tag Championships. I think they're the penultimate champs, if I recall correctly. There really aren't enough tag teams in the company to carry these titles, especially considering that Watts is now running the show and will try to re-establish the NWA Tag Championships as well. 

 

• Tracy Smothers/Johnny B. Badd is kind of a WCW-ass WCW matchup. Badd isn't any good(d) yet since it's still only 1992. Ventura thinks that the way Badd acts, he would like to wear a pretty dress, so Ross points out that Ventura liked to wear boas. Take that, tiny little box that people try to shove others into! Badd is quite over as a babyface with this crowd. There's a surprising amount of squeeing from the ladies. I am somewhat surprised that a bunch of Southern ladies are into Badd, who is both passing as black and is presented as, um, fluid of sexual orientation. I think it speaks to Mero's natural charisma that he's somehow over as a babyface in 1992 WCW with those characteristics.

 

• This match isn't very good, either - I am somewhat lower on Tracy Smothers than most DVDVR readers, I would guess. Smothers is a man of dualities. He hits a terrible, goofy double-thrust that he learned from the Stan Lane school of martial arts, but then he goes up top and hits a gorgeous diving back elbow. Whenever I see Smothers, he comes across as just a bit too goofy for me, specifically when he's not in a position where goofiness is called for. But at least this match is shorter, and the Kiss that Don't Miss is a nice worked punch, so I was ultimately okay with it. 

 

• No, please don't let the Freebirds cut a victory promo. Aw, they let the Freebirds cut a victory promo. There is absolutely nothing likeable about Michael Hayes, and I am baffled that anyone would ever let him be a babyface. Honestly, even just Dok Hendrix hitting a WEEEEEELLLLLLL is a punchable offense.

 

• Raven vs. Buff Daddy Scotty Flamingo vs. Marcus Alexander Bagwell seems like it could be good because I am extremely high on Flamingo as a worker. I am less high on Bagwell, but it's okay. Ross and Jesse bickering on commentary is excellent because both guys are pretty quick thinkers and Ross can hang with Ventura. Flamingo and Bagwell just stand there and slap each other at one point, so that's cool. I think they do a decent job of making things feel a little heated. The rest of the match is a little boilerplate, and I'm not sure Bagwell was ever better than adequate as a singles worker, but I didn't hate it. Anyway, Flamingo cheats his way to a flash pinfall victory. 

 

• JYD and Ron Simmons vs. Mr. Hughes and Cactus Jack is definitely a WCW-ass WCW matchup. JYD is physically cooked, so of course Cactus does whatever he has to do to make this match work. Or the pre-match, as it were, because before the bell even rings, Foley eats some punches, but runs the Dog into the side of the ramp and then drops a Cactus Elbow from the ramp to the concrete. It was as awesome as it reads. Dellinger's useless ass is out here. Sorry, there aren't any nWo members around to push through your ineffectively-led security, and you're not a paramedic, so hit the bricks, Dellinger. I think that's Chris Benoit out here working security, though, so maybe they'd actually be effective for once. The Dog gets led out and Ron Simmons wrestles this as a handicap match. Big Cat is worthless; could we not have just had JYD and Hughes second their partners, who are actually good workers in 1992, for a singles match instead? Even worse, this match actually is a singles match, but the officials decide that Hughes will be the one to wrestle it, with Foley on the outside. Come on, now. Well, at least Foley doesn't have to kill himself tonight. Simmons finagles a win by hitting a spinebuster, shoulderblocking an interfering Cactus, and then, um, clipping Hughes's knee for three. Simmons should have reversed the last and first moves in that sequence. 

 

• Todd Champion vs. Super Invader is the epitome of a cooldown match. I really like Mid-South Hercules, but by this WCW run, he's not particularly good. After a lot of really dull work, Super Invader hits a powerbomb. Well, if they call Kevin Nash's Jackknife a "power drop," that's also what this Invader finishing move was. 

 

• Ricky (excuse me, Richard) Morton vs. Big Josh is a confounding match in that I'm not sure why it would be on this show. I mean, it should be no worse than solid, but is this a PPV-quality matchup considering that we've also just seen Todd Champion vs. Super Invader? I guess it really is slim pickings for the WCW undercard. I always forget that '92 WCW took awhile to heat up. Still, this is pretty pacey, and Morton is able to control the match when he baits Josh into running and flying with him. It's too bad that Morton also does some bad, and occasionally immersion-breaking, arm work in there. When they're not running, things get positively dull. Josh eventually hits a sitdown splash for the win, but it's not even from the top rope or anything. It's so lame that it doesn't get a cool name like the top-rope version. Bombs Away? Cool. Whoopee Cushion? Cool. But this non-aerial version is called the Northern Exposure. I guess surreal-ish light dramas starring Janine Turner were hotter than I thought at this time. 

 

• Brian Pillman is going to have to try and carry human melatonin supplement Tom Zenk to something fun next. Pillman got some gold and started to break bad, which is the story of this match. They do some uninspiring limb work. I get why it exists - so they can have heated exchanges in bursts to try and ramp up the intensity slowly until it ideally reaches a pitch, at which point Pillman does some scummy shit - but that doesn't mean it's worth watching [ed. note: They actually don't tell this story anyway, but at least the limb work was sort of sold eventually even if it didn't mean much]. Pillman does a ton of ineffective leg work that Zenk immediately ignores after Pillman finally misses a move. Wow, Pillman's bad at working a limb. The finishing run is decent enough, though. Zenk gets a close call or two and, hey, he sells the leg a bit. I guess Pillman's attack finally did some damage! Pillman takes a wild bump on a Zenk top-rope crossbody, but he kicks out at two. Pillman in general flops around like a fish out of water and bumps his way into something entertaining. Pillman dodges a Zenk missile dropkick and hits a quick bridge pin to eke out a three, no cheating necessary. 

 

• The Steiner Brothers wrestle Tatsumi Fujinami and Takayuki Iizuka in a match that has a ton of promise. I can't even be mad at Scotty failing completely at doing his flipping powerslam on Fujinami early on. He's out here trying to do cool shit. This match is for the IWGP tag titles, by the way. Iizuka's aerial game is very pretty. This is just a bunch of dudes hitting dope offense and a few cool counters, is what it is. Iizuka is sporting a shiner and a bloody nose early. I mean, these fellas beat the ever-loving fuck out of one another. Did I ever mention that pro wrestling is great? It's funny because of course the EVIL FOREIGNER JAPANESE are supposed to be the bad guys or whatever, but IMO this match is worked in a way that makes them the sentimental favorites. The Steiners are as sympathetic as a pair of serial killers and Iizuka takes an ass-whipping and suffers through it to try and get a hot tag. I swear that I'm not just being a DVDVR contrarian here. Ventura is enjoying this on commentary, by the way. Fujinami boots Rick Steiner in the back of the head stiffly enough that he chuckles. At the point where Fujinami and Iizuka hit Scotty with a spike pikedriver, even I'm feeling physically fatigued. These dudes are killing one another; there's no way this match should go on much longer. And it doesn't! The Steiners take the titles after Rick belly-to-belly suplexes Iizuka off the top rope. It took a disconcerting amount of time to happen, but this was the first really good match of the show. 

 

• Hey, it's time for War Games! Sting's Squadron (Sting, Nikita Koloff, Barry Windham, Dustin Rhodes, and Ricky Steamboat) faces the Dangerous Alliance (Rick Rude, Steve Austin, Larry Zbyszko, Arn Anderson, and Bobby Eaton) in an all-time classic that I was inspired to watch again after the discussion of Steve Austin's best matches in the General Thread. Huh, everyone on the babyface side is still alive as of the time that I wrote this. Only Rude and Eaton have passed when it comes to all the workers in this thing. That's pretty damned good considering the match was 32 years ago. Bonus: Madusa and Heyman are also still alive and kicking. I thought War Games was supposed to be dangerous! (Just kidding.) Anyway, let's run it down:

 

• Barry Windham [SS1] and Steve Austin [DA1] begin the match. Now, you're not going to believe this, but Windham does a solid job of staying on top during the opening period, and his basic control over the match only ends because the heels win the coin toss. Austin is out here bumping wildly, desperately trying to convince someone out here that he's a long-term main eventer. Now, Austin starts bleeding about four minutes in after Windham launches him into the cage, and I see Austin surreptitiously blade and wonder why the heck Bret Hart made up the whole deal that Austin needed Bret to help gig him during the WM 13 match in the Hitman's book. As soon as I read that, it didn't sound right. That's because there's no way it's right. Windham bites Austin's bleeding wound. It's fucking gross. Also, it's the best. 

 

• Tails never fails, and neither does the heel team in the coin toss of a War Games, so Rick Rude [DA2] is next to enter the match. This is a one-on-one match for a little while because Austin got his ass entirely beat during the opening five-minute period, but Austin finally makes his way up and helps Rude work Windham over. 

 

• From a kayfabe perspective, would you rather have the advantage of the man advantage for four periods, or would you rather have the freshest man come in at the point where you can end the match entirely in the Match Beyond? I think it's probably better to lose the toss because wrestlers get second and third winds through the course of a match all the time, but having a fresh guy come in after everyone is bleeding and has used up their third wind, and when you can end the match with a submission immediately, seems like it's the most advantageous position to be in. 

 

• Anyway, Ricky Steamboat [SS2] comes in and just cleans house to a mega-pop. Steamboat's out here DDT'ing dudes, that's how intense he is. Steamboat beats Rude's ass in the second ring, but Arn Anderson [DA3] is next in. Arn DDT's Windham, and then absolutely buries Steamboat on a spinebuster. Arn and Rude grab a leg apiece and put on a double Boston Crab, which is a cool move, man, that was neat. Austin looks like his forehead exploded. Rude hits Steamboat with a piledriver. Then, Rude tosses Steamboat over both sets of ropes and into the other ring. It's madness, basically. 

 

• Dustin Rhodes [SS3] comes in at the next period and goes right at Arn. Austin tries to help, but he's been half-murdered and is little resistance. Dustin goes to help his partners in the other ring, but he sees that Steamboat has Rude in a Boston Crab and goes right back over to Austin and tries to pretty much end the guy. Windham chokes Anderson by putting Arn's head between the rings and pushing. You don't need me to tell you this, but this is the absolute best.

 

• Larry Z. [DA4] is next in, but Dustin is still fresh, so he meets the guy and beats the hell out of him. Madusa is entirely pressed about this, so - and bear with me, this is some WILD shit - she climbs the cell, which bends like Mick Foley and the Undertaker are standing on top of it, and drops Heyman's brick of a cell phone down to Arn so that Arn can clock Dustin with it and get the Rhodes boy to settle down, finally. Sting climbs up there and confronts Madusa, and the crowd loses their minds while Arn beats the shit out of everyone not in the Dangerous Alliance with the phone. Barry Windham has popped a gusher now. Rick Rude tries to tear Ricky Steamboat's nose off his face. Pro wrestling continues to be pretty great.

 

• Needing a big turnaround, Sting [SS4] enters the ring to try and turn the tide of the match once again. Sting's supposed to be maybe working a rib injury, but the man gorilla presses Rude into the top of the cage like ten times, so I think he's healed. Sting absolutely destroys everyone. It rules hard. Arn's bleeding now. Actually, it might be easier to note who isn't bleeding. Bobby Eaton [DA5] is the last man in for the Alliance, which is good for Rude because Sting and Steamboat do the apron choke thing to Rude, but they also pull on his legs and try to tear the poor bastard's nutsack in half. Everyone is tired enough that Eaton is a major force immediately. 

 

• As time ticks down until the Match Beyond starts, Larry Z. and Rick Rude work on one of the buckle cables in one of the rings. This, of course, is going to turn out poorly for them. But in the meantime, they are dominating until Nikita Koloff [SS5] comes in and, contrary to any concerns that he wouldn't play nice with the champ, crushes Arn and then helps Sting up. Koloff saves Sting from an attack and then they high five, and the crowd pops huge while they beat down Arn and Austin. 

 

• Now squarely in the Match Beyond, Sting hits Arn with a Stinger Splash and locks on a Scorpion Deathlock, but Arn hangs on until Eaton can save him. Eaton then goes after the broken turnbuckle to try and wrench it free. In the other ring, Rhodes tries to end the match with a leveraged Figure Four on Larry Z., but Rude is able to slip past Koloff and break that up. See, Koloff is very fresh and basically gives the Squadron a big advantage. However, he's a non-factor in the other ring when Eaton and Larry Z. try to sync up on a weapon attack. Larry Z. uses the steel pole to try and hit Sting, but Sting moves and Larry hits Eaton right in the arm. Sting jumps on Eaton, applies an armbar to multiply the damage, and gets a quick submission for the win. 

 

• Paul E. is irate at Larry Z., but look, it was war. Sometimes you get caught by friendly fire. 

 

• Now, that main event was magnificent. This is a two match show, but those were two pretty, pretty, prett-ay good matches. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Technico Support]

Oh my god early 90s WCW undercard was a desolate wasteland of crap.  Everything outside the main event scene of Sting and pals vs Dangerous Alliance was just trash.  I feel like it got bad around Bash 91 and I need to read through all the cards from that show on to figure out when they pulled out of this death spiral because god damn is that list of undercard talent BLEAK.

I watched the main event of Clash 26(?) last night, Rude & Vader vs Sting & Flair, elimination match.  Better on paper than in execution.  Absolute bullshit double elimination as Vader murders Flair's back in the ring and then Flair is carted off by medical staff, I guess, as Vader freaks out at ringside.  For the crime of holding a chair he is, I suppose, DQ'd by Commissionner Nick Bockwinkel.  So in a match designed to build a Flair/Vader PPV, both guys look like shit.  Nice job, fellas.  Sting and Rude have a passable few minutes and then Sting pins him with a flying splash.  So disappointing.

Edited March 20 by Technico Support