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8 hours ago, LoneWolf&Subs said:

That match is worth it for the finish. The huge pop basically proves them right to book it the way they booked it.

The bucket head spot was also a rib as apparently that is a nickname for Arn from Tony... so he got to call AA "Bucket Head" on live TV. 

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On 12/22/2021 at 1:58 PM, Gorman said:

Thoughts on Starrcade 94

Even though he lost to German teenager Alex Wright, Jean-Paul Levesque already looked like the finished product of a WWF wrestler with his size, aggression, and snob gimmick. It's just surprising that his WCW stay was so brief.

 

HHH & Bishoff have both talked about this. Bishoff was trying to cut costs and he didn't feel it was worth it to fly and underneath guy in from conneticuit and HHH just wanted a one year deal to get to WWF

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On 12/22/2021 at 12:27 AM, Shartnado said:

So, did I understand this correctly? Abe "Knuckleball" Schwarz character for Steve Lombardi was made for the sole purpose of making fun of Baseball strike of '94 as well as rather constant pitcher/catcher jokes by Vince? I have yet to see a single match by him, except that he was in that IC-title battle royal which had Razor and Rick Martel as the final two. I think his name was MVP, originally.

 

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Thoughts on Slamboree 95

The Nasty Boys won the WCW tag team belts and the MVP award in the opener with a win over Harlem Heat. Jerry Sags wrestled most of the match by himself after an attack by The Blue Bloods. His injured partner, Brian Knobs, just as valiantly came down to help, and they won clean with their finisher. This was also their last shot at the belts. 

Kevin Sullivan disposed of his brother at SuperBrawl and Brutus "The Man With No Name" Beefcake here, so he was free to answer the call of his FATHAH~! to form the Dungeon of Doom and attempt to destroy Hulkamania. 

Airing the legends match (Wahoo vs. Murdoch) in black-and-white was a nice touch.

Paul Orndorff had no home-field advantage in Tampa, as the fans cheered The Great Muta to victory in an IWGP title match.

Arn Anderson mercifully ended Alex Wright's winning streak with the perfect finish: faking a punch to set up the DDT. It didn't even make Wright look bad!

The laws of wrestling physics stopped working in the Meng-Hawk match. Meng piledrove Hawk? Nothing. Hawk hit a Rude Awakening? No effect. Since obviously neither man was going to lose, this was the rare match where a double-countout was a good ending. 

Before Sting's win over Big Bubba, WCW didn't actually turn the lights out for the "lights out" match. That still wasn't as bad as the DQ in the no-DQ match at Uncensored.

Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage couldn't be the Megapowers in WCW, so they had to settle for Monster Maniacs. Ric Flair was back in the ring, which made his loss at Halloween Havoc meaningless. Hogan pinned Flair, who got his heat back by attacking Angelo Poffo after the match to set up Flair-Savage for the main event of Great American Bash 95.

One more thing: Paul Wight debuted by appearing in the aisle before and during the main event. Bobby Heenan came very close to saying Wight reminded him of Andre.

Edited by Gorman
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On 12/28/2021 at 12:21 PM, zendragon said:

 

"Do you guys ever go on strike?" "No way, man! Never"

Too bad the clip ended before Macho was able to explain to the kid that "We don't have a union, so we couldn't really 'go on strike' if we wanted to!" but that's a whole another story.

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Thoughts on Great American Bash 95

Alex Wright beat Brian Pillman in a great high-flying match. WCW would eventually start many shows with a match like this to fire up the crowd. 

Dave Sullivan's arm wrestling win over DDP (to win a date with Kimberly) didn't need to be on pay-per-view. Also, if your name is Maxx Muscle, you will probably find work as a bodyguard.

Harlem Heat and The Stud Stable won matches on the pre-show, and then faced each other on the pay-per-view, even though they were all heels. The Sherri-Col. Parker relationship was getting underway. Heat also tried to help the Blue Bloods win the tag team belts from the Nasty Boys (why?) but it backfired and the Nasties retained.

Renegade used his "fake Ultimate Warrior powers" to overcome Arn Anderson for the TV title. Speaking of people who are supposed to remind us of WWF stars, Paul Wight showed up in the crowd again.

Sting almost won MVP honors by beating Meng in the US title tournament final. Even though Hulk Hogan hijacked his promotion and relegated him to US title status - and even though Meng powered out of the Scorpion Deathlock - Sting battled on and hit a top-rope splash and DDT for the win.

Randy Savage and Ric Flair played mind games with each other before their main event. Flair told Macho "I took your wife in '92," although that's not exactly what happened. Savage wished Angelo Poffo a happy Father's Day "wherever you are," only to reveal that Poffo would be his cornerman. Alas, Flair won the MVP award by ruining the Poffos' happy ending and bashing Savage with Angelo's cane to win the match.

One more thing: David Penzer replaced Gary Michael Cappetta as ring announcer. My favorite GMC announcement? "He says he's the prettiest in WCW ... Johnny B. BAAAADDDD!!!"

Edited by Gorman
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On 12/24/2021 at 1:07 PM, Shartnado said:

I appreciate it, but I think I'll live, even if I end up not seeing any of his matches. I mean it's pretty unlikely that his style is that much different from the typical Lombardi/ Brooklyn Brawler matches, right?

They uploaded some more Superstars a month or so ago.  There's a Knuckleball match on the 10/1/94 episode.  There's actually quite a few baseball spots that he adds to the match.  Jumping jacks, baseball slide, arguing with the ref and pretending to kick dirt on his feet, sliding between his opponent's legs and yelling "Safe!", doing a windup when throwing a punch and yelling "He's out!" after getting the pin.  Vince and Lawler are also pretending that he's an actual MLB player having to turn to wrestling during the strike and speculate on who he really is.

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Was Larry Zbyszko always supposed to feud with Hall, or did he basically improv his way into an angle on the 2/17/97 episode of Nitro?

Oh Lord, Mongo says the UCC so hard in Buccaneers during  this Horsemen segment that I thought he said “Fukkaneers”. Googled, and nothing shows up. That’s an easy Red Bubble cash grab from people who hate Brady if you got a store.

Edited by LoneWolf&Subs
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1 hour ago, Peck said:

"I'm not too sure.. I can't remember if he's a pitcher or a catcher" - Vince McMahon on Abe "Knuckleball" Schwartz(Steve Lombardi)  ?‍♂️

He also said to Lawler, who said Abe was a terrific pitcher, that he thought Abe was a catcher. Knowing it was Lombardi playing the role, I wondered if the whole point of the character was to make fun of the Baseball strike and get those jokes in on Lombardi.

I was glad to read that the character actually used some baseball themed stuff in his matches, although I haven't gotten that far in the Superstars batch that I would have actually seen the match, yet.

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Thoughts on Bash at the Beach 95

Eric Bischoff knocked it out of the park at Bash at the Beach for the second straight year. Even though he didn't make a dime from ticket sales, the helicopter shots of the giant crowd on the beach made WCW look like a big deal. The waves crashing on the beach in the background during the matches looked great too.

Even though this was a big homecoming for Hogan, it was the same for Sting, who retained the US title in front of his parents with a win over Meng.

Paul Orndorff losing to Renegade led to a crisis of confidence from which only a psychic could save him.

In a match that could have been dropped in from the 1987 WWF, Kamala beat Hacksaw Jim Duggan with help from Brutus Beefcake, who was on his third identity of the year (Zodiac).

WCW started a triangle match with a coin flip again, but this was just to see which tag team started on the apron. Harlem Heat won by being in the middle of a three-team sandwich pin.

Before he joined Hulk Hogan in the nWo, Dennis Rodman also had Hulk's back in the cage match against Vader. Indeed, he helped keep Kevin Sullivan and Zodiac from interfering. Hogan escaped the cage to retain the WCW title. So he and Vader feuded for more than six months, and neither man scored a pin or submission.

Randy Savage is the MVP. He gained revenge for the Father's Day debacle by pinning Ric Flair with the big elbow, and he pleased the title sponsor by throwing Slim Jims to the crowd. Dig it!

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Thoughts on Fall Brawl 95

Johnny B. Badd and Brian Pillman were supposed to wrestle with a 20-minute time limit, but for some reason they went to overtime, and Johnny won just shy of the 30-minute mark.

Sgt. Craig Pittman used a distraction from Private Prince Iaukea to perform a spectacular descent from the ceiling to sneak up on Cobra. It fit with the War Games theme, and Pittman beat his ex-comrade-in-arms Cobra in less than two minutes.

Diamond Dallas Page used help from Maxx Muscle and the Diamond Cutter to end Renegade's reign of terror as TV champion. DDP and Kimberly were doing the Savage-and-Elizabeth gimmick.

Bobby Heenan cracked up Tony Schiavone by asking him to imagine Col. Parker and Sister Sherri's future kids running around. Parker and Sherri started making out in the extra ring while The Nasty Boys attacked Dick Slater & Bunkhouse Buck to give the tag team title back to Harlem Heat.

Mean Gene compared himself running around backstage to Roger Bannister. The viewers' grandparents had to explain that Bannister had run the first sub-four-minute mile 41 years earlier.

Arn Anderson is the MVP for beating Ric Flair, even though he had help from Brian Pillman. When you're trying to step out of Flair's shadow, cheating like him is fair game. Both men talked before the match about how much they loved each other like a brother. The match even took place in Horsemen Country (Asheville, NC). This would seem to be the recipe to elevate Arn to main-event singles status, but of course that didn't happen.

The Dungeon of Doom was totally overmatched in War Games (Kamala-Shark-Zodiac-Meng vs. Hogan-Savage-Sting-Luger). It could have been worse; Vader was removed from Hogan's team in favor of Luger. Hogan enjoyed pummeling Kevin Sullivan for five minutes after the match until The Giant spoiled the party to set up Halloween Havoc.

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Thoughts on Halloween Havoc 95

Johnny B. Badd gained revenge for DDP costing Badd his US title shot against Sting. Maxx Muscle had blurted out that Badd had "four flat tires," which gave away that DDP was the culprit. Max's botched interference led to Badd recapturing the championship.

Randy Savage and Lex Luger had to beat Dungeon of Doom members in order to face each other later in the show. Savage squashed Zodiac in a match that was most notable for referee Randy Anderson subduing an invading fan. Luger had to battle Meng in a match that lasted four times longer. Savage beat Luger, who had collided with Jimmy Hart. What was he doing out there?

The Sheik was used to being the top star in Detroit, so he wasn't shy about upstaging his nephew, Sabu. Not only did Sheik pull out a sword, but he threw a fireball in Mr. J.L.'s face after the match.

Sting agreed to team with Ric Flair, but he didn't forget that Flair had kicked him out of the Horsemen five years earlier.  Sting said that he would leave Flair for dead if the Nature Boy betrayed him. Of course, Flair couldn't help himself and turned on Sting anyway.

Speaking of betrayal, Jimmy Hart stabbed Hulk Hogan in the back after saying earlier in the year that he would never do that. Hart sneaked in a contract stipulation that Hogan could lose the title by DQ. That means the poor guy who always dresses as Hogan saw his hero lose the title live for the third time (Undertaker in 91 and Yokozuna in 93). 

Savage didn't win the MVP despite beating Meng and Luger in the same night.  That honor would go to the man who ...

  • Participated in a first-ever rooftop monster-truck battle
  • Survived a five-story fall from the roof of Cobo Hall
  • Won the WCW World title in his first professional match
  • Ended Hogan's boring 15-month stranglehold on the title
  • Avenged a defeat suffered by his ersatz father eight years earlier

Yes, that last one counts because Hogan and Bobby Heenan both referred to The Giant as Andre's son. So give Paul Wight a Giant MVP award.

Lex Luger officially joined the Dungeon of Doom after the match, putting Hogan in the Torture Rack after the YET-AY joined the Giant in an ineffective double bearhug.  YET-AY tried to do the same to the Macho Man, but Luger said, "No that's OK, let me rack him too."

This was the first PPV of a strong period for WCW. Since losing Flair one year earlier, WCW added Savage, Luger, Giant, Flair again, Benoit, Guerrero, Malenko and Sabu. 

 

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Thoughts on World War 3 -- 1995

Johnny B. Badd was on another streak of opening the show (three) as he retained the TV title over DDP. Badd also won the services of the Diamond Doll. He gallantly allowed her to decide whether she would manage him, rather than treating her like a prize that he had won.

The taped fist match between Hacksaw Jim Duggan and Big Bubba Rogers didn't have enough WWF alumni, so Mike Rotundo came down to help Bubba win. Rotundo called himself VK Wallstreet, which pulled off the 7-10 split of ripping off Vince McMahon and Ted DiBiase at the same time.

The joshi tag match had everything: power, high-flying and submissions. Bull Nakano's top-rope legdrop was the perfect finish. Most notably, this was an interpromotional battle between All-Japan Women and JWP. That would be like a WWF vs. WCW match on a big New Japan show.

Kensuke Sasaki was the leader of the New Japan squad that would challenge WCW for the World Cup of Wrestling at Starrcade. Not only did he beat Sting to win the US title in Japan, he pinned Chris Benoit on this show to retain the title.

Sting said that he would leave Ric Flair for dead, and in fact he beat Flair in the middle of the ring with the Scorpion Deathlock. He and Flair had to come right back and compete for the WCW title in the next match.

The first half of the World War 3 battle royale featured all the action compressed into three small boxes. Even when the action was down to two rings, this didn't change. When they finally went full-screen, it was great because everyone looked three times bigger.

Randy Savage is the MVP for winning the title in the 60-man battle royale. He bounced back from an arm injury and a loss to Lex Luger two matches earlier. The Macho Man achieved the goal he set when he entered WCW 11 months earlier.

Hulk Hogan was there in the spotlight again, just like when Savage won his first WWF title at WrestleMania IV. Instead of celebrating with Savage, Hulk was bellyaching that he was never thrown over the top rope. Blame WCW for only assigning one official (Randy Anderson) and putting him in the ring! It's amazing that he didn't get punched in the face a dozen times. One Man Gang was the last man eliminated, just like at the first Royal Rumble.

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Thoughts on Starrcade 95

Starrcade again veered away from "biggest show of the year' territory by leaving out Hogan and The Giant and instead focusing on a best-of-seven series between WCW and New Japan. However, most of the Japanese stars were featured on the D-show, WCW Pro, rather than on Nitro or WCW Saturday Night.

Randy Savage and Sting won their respective matches against Tenzan and Sasaki to rally WCW to win the World Cup of Wrestling. Then the focus shifted to a triangle match with Sting, Luger and Flair, with the winner getting an immediate title shot against Savage. Sting and Luger had already competed in the World Cup, but Flair had not.

Two men fought in the ring, while the third waited for a tag. So if you tagged out, you got a rest but had no chance to win. UNLESS.... both of your opponents got counted out. That's what happened to Sting and Luger, so Flair got the title shot.

Jimmy Hart had a weird night. First, he failed to stop Kevin Sullivan from interfering in Chris Benoit's match, as if Hart really cared about WCW winning the Cup. Then, he managed Luger to a win over Masahiro Chono. However, Hart was not in Luger's corner for the triangle match.

After Luger was counted out, Hart suddenly showed up in Flair's corner and encouraged him to beat Savage. Hart tied up the referee allowing all three of the other Horsemen to interfere and give Flair his 13th World title and the MVP award. Why did Jimmy Hart care whether Savage or Flair held the title when he was already managing Luger and The Giant?

In any event, this show set up WCW with Flair in his traditional position as champion, with a variety of challengers (Luger, Sting, Savage, Hogan, Giant) looking to dethrone him.

 

 

Edited by Gorman
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3 hours ago, Gorman said:

Thoughts on Starrcade 95

no MVP awarded?

this was such a weird show. the New Japan thing was played up MUCH bigger on the non-Nitro shows, so as someone who (at the time) only watched Nitro, i didn't even understand why they were feuding. I just remembered the Bobby Heenan "sold" air time to Sonny Onoo or something stupid like that. Add in that the only matches NJPW won were the undercard bouts, and it just felt like it didn't matter at all.

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As a kid that only watched the syndicated stuff and Saturday Night because I usually spent Saturdays at my grandma's, the WCW/NJPW stuff resonated more with me. After going through the old Nitros on the network a few years ago, it was odd to see that stuff barely mentioned.

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Thoughts on SuperBrawl VI

When Johnny B. Badd put his TV title and Kimberly's management on the line against DDP's control of $6.6 million, I thought I knew the finish. But no! Johnny won with the tombstone, leaving DDP with nothing.

The Road Warriors didn't wait around to see whether they would face Harlem Heat or Luger & Sting for the tag team title. They made sure they would face Luger & Sting, because they wanted revenge on Luger. The match wasn't as good as Sting & Luger's match with the Steiners, and it ended in a double-countout.

One Man Gang hit the 747 splash on Konnan and would have regained the US title, but he pulled Konnan up at the two-count. Big mistake. Of course, Konnan won.

Jimmy Hart remained confusing over whom he was managing. First, he managed Kevin Sullivan in the "respect" match against Pillman. After Pillman said, "I respect you, booker man," Hart went to get Arn Anderson to fight Sullivan. Then he went to get Ric Flair to stop the fight. At the end of the night, Hart managed The Giant in the cage match against Hogan.

Hogan beat the Giant in a cage match and fought off the Dungeon of Doom after the match.  Unlike the Flair-Savage cage match, this bout could only end in a cage escape. So Hogan didn't pin the Giant, just like he didn't pin Vader to win their cage match.

Elizabeth is the MVP for turning against Randy Savage and helping Ric Flair win his 13th World title.  Savage made a big mistake when he tried to pin Yokozuna at Royal Rumble 93, but trusting his ex-wife was an even bigger blunder. This led to the great period of Flair running around with Woman, Liz and the World title, while spending Savage's alimony money.

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On 1/24/2022 at 10:21 PM, Ramo2653 said:

The Flair period was great especially when they add Debra and Mongo.

Legit, the Dysfunctional Horsemen were incredibly entertaining. Especially the Jarrett  & Mongo stuff. I’m sure I’ll hit a wall with McMichael eventually, but even with questionable in ring ability, the man still projects so much personality, and natural goofy charisma that makes him more entertaining than your average WCW wrestler from that time period. 

I would gladly state that this incarnation of the Horsemen can rank third all-time amongst all versions of this group.

Edited by LoneWolf&Subs
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Meltzer had a throw away line in the new WON that new episodes of Table for 3 should start airing "later this month" which I have to imagine he means February and not January

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Thoughts on Uncensored 96

The fans in Tupelo were gluttons for punishment. WCW sold 4,900 tickets to Uncensored 95, which was one of the worst PPV shows ever. WCW had the gall to come back to Tupelo one year later with the same concept, and they sold 7,300 tickets!

As if to apologize to the fans, WCW started the show with two great non-gimmick matches: Konnan over Eddy and Regal over Finlay. With that out of the way, it was time for the nonsense.

MAN vs. WOMAN - Col. Parker vs. Madusa was actually a fun match, and the crowd reacted to everything. Slater helped the Colonel win in the hometown of his great-uncle's most famous client.

CAREER vs. MILLIONS & MANAGERWhen Kimberly put her money and managerial services on the line against DDP's career, I thought I knew the finish, especially with Brutus Beefcake fighting for her on his fifth WCW persona (The Booty Man) instead of Johnny B. Badd. But no! Booty Man won with the high knee (GET IT??!!?!?) leaving DDP without a career.

GIANT (tall) vs. GIANT (wide) - Loch Ness whined about coming all the way to America and not being allowed to fight Hulk Hogan. The winner got a shot at Flair one night later, and that winner was The Giant. It would have been interesting to see what Flair could do with the barely mobile Nessie.

Booker T & Sting vs. The Road Warriors was a fun brawl, but then it just wouldn't end. Booker & Sting's regular partners (Stevie Ray and Lex Luger) got involved and helped them win. This gave Harlem Heat a shot at Luger and Sting! So Sting could have lost deliberately and he and Luger wouldn't have been obligated to face anybody.

DOOMSDAY CAGE MATCH - The only good thing about this match was the impressively large three-cage structure. Hogan and Savage weren't ever at an 8-on-2 disadvantage, as they always seemed to be fighting only two guys at a time. Of course, the rules meant nothing. The Mega Force (thanks, Michael Buffer) fought Flair and Arn in the top cage. They never fought Meng and Barbarian, who just hung out in the middle cage. Brian Pillman never even showed up.

Instead they went down the side scaffolding to the ring to fight Luger and Sullivan for a while. Finally, Zeus and The Ultimate Solution dragged them back to the bottom cage, where Flair and Arn were waiting. They were supposed to have been eliminated! Luger accidentally deliberately knocked out Flair, leading to Hogan and Savage escaping the cage and then also winning by pinfall. What a mess.

If they came back to Tupelo for Uncensored 97, they would have sold 11,300 tickets.

Edited by Gorman
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Thoughts on Slamboree 96: The Lethal Lottery

WCW dusted off Battlebowl again, this time forcing the makeshift teams to win two matches to qualify for Battlebowl. So they crammed 15 matches onto this show!

WCW chose the teams in advance, so they could advertise Steiner vs. Steiner! Road Warrior vs. Road Warrior! Flair and Savage as partners! Benoit and Sullivan as partners!

PARTNERS COLLIDE - The Road Warriors opened the show, but both teams got disqualified and they never fought each other. The Steiners weren't shy about fighting each other and neither were the Faces of Fear.

PARTNERS WHO HATE EACH OTHER - Sullivan held Benoit onto a table so both members of The Public Enemy could put Benoit through it. Savage and Flair couldn't stop attacking each other. They made it through one round when Arn Anderson turned on his own partner (Eddy Guerrero), but they forfeited Round 2 when Flair, Woman and Liz threw Savage's money to the crowd and Macho Man attacked him. And let's not forget ...

PARTNERS WHO DREW EACH OTHER IN THE LOTTERY - The Public Enemy won both matches and made it to Battlebowl. Fire & Ice won one match and got a bye into Battlebowl. Lord Steven Regal & Squire David Taylor lost in the first round. 

After all of this craziness, Battlebowl featured eight midcarders, and the winner was Diamond Dallas Page. For bouncing back from joblessness and homelessness to win a valuable ring and a World title shot, DDP is your MVP. We should all have a "mysterious benefactor" to help us in the lowest points of our lives.

DDP won Battlebowl by pinning three opponents after the Diamond Cutter. Pinning people in a battle royale??!?!

Near the end of the show, Flair and Arn challenged Steve McMichael to a tag team match, and Mongo chose Kevin Greene, a current NFL player at the time. as his partner. If you thought that would finally end the year-long feud between Flair and Savage, guess again! Macho ended up coaching the football players at the Great American Bash.

Edited by Gorman
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