RDT Reviews WCW Spring Stampede 1994

March 11, 2015 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

WCW Spring Stampede ‘94
April 17, 1994
Chicago, IL
Reviewed on June 7, 2014

An interesting era for WCW here. This is the last remnants of the old school NWA/WCW…as Hulkamania was only three months away. Ric Flair had come back to WCW last year and won the World Title at Starrcade, so Hogan vs. Flair was on the horizon. But first, a real throwback. Flair vs. Steamboat captivated audiences in the late 80s, with some hailing their matches as the greatest of all time. What could go wrong with a rematch?

We seem some of the last great days of some wrestlers here (Rick Rude) as the near end of some great WCW runs (Cactus Jack, Steve Austin). But for now, this is the last of the pre-Hogan era, and it is critically acclaimed. Let’s see how it looks 20 years later.

The Card

This show is apparently important enough to get an on-air National Anthem. Not sure if that means anything.

Johnny B. Badd vs. Diamond Dallas Page

Page was still a midcarder here. I think I’ve written enough about my dislike for Badd.

DDP looks a bit heavy here.

Kimberly! Woo!

DDP looks like the indy version of Diesel.

This actually hasn’t been that bad. It’s not particularly exciting, but it’s not horrid like I expected.

Johnny B. Badd pins Page in 5:55. Top rope sunset flip for the win. Not terrible, but pretty forgettable. Matched seemed like it was 3/4ths the speed it should have been.

WCW Television Championship
Steven Regal© vs. Flyin’ Brian

Pillman and Regal have some nice exchanges early.

Pillman works on the arm. A little weird as Regal has his leg bandaged and it seems like that should be the target.

There actually is some history here. Last year the Hollywood Blondes were the tag champs, but Pillman got hurt and Regal subbed in for him. Austin and Regal lost the belts.

This match has turned into Regal stretching Pillman for 10 minutes. Not sure why they went that route.

It’s being announced that 10 minutes have expired and 5 minutes are left. I feel like the finish is obvious.

Regal retains via time limit draw in 15:00. Ugh, a time limit draw. Pillman makes his last minute comeback but it doesn’t work as they go over the top rope. Regal for some reason when time was expiring went back into the ring. Horrible logic. Disappointing match considering who is involved. Regal just stretched Pillman for 12 of the 15 minutes, and it killed all the momentum. End was good until the very end. And the finish sucks.

Col. Robert Parker with Bunkhouse Bunk interview. Nothing really to note here.

Chicago Street Fight
Nasty Boys vs. Cactus Jack and Maxx Payne

Part of a huge de-push for Cactus…he was feuding with World Champ Vader last year.

Fun brawl here reminds me of some ECW ’95 stuff.

Holy shit that was a shovel shot right to Foley’s head.

Foley just gets shoved off the stage and he takes a back bump. God damn.

The Nasty Boys win when Sags pins Cactus in 8:58. Another sick shovel shot to Foley’s head while he lies on the concrete. Then the pin. Wow. This is 1994? This match is years ahead of its time and Foley takes a really sick bump on the floor at the end. Great brawl even if it seemed rather messy at times.

Badd wants a US Title Match. Woo?

WCW US Championship
Stunning Steve Austin© vs. The Great Muta

Er…I believe this is heel vs. heel. Sounds like a disaster.

There are big Muta chants, so I’m wrong about heel vs. heel.

Pretty slow to start, with Muta wearing down Austin.

They are announcing the time again. Does this have a time limit?

Austin with a creative jump off the middle of the middle rope. No typo there.

Muta uses Austin’s own move, the stun gun. Nice.

Top rope hurricanrana!

Muta kicks Parker off the apron! Crowd is hot.

Stunning Steve wins by DQ in 16:30. Ugh, Muta backdrops Austin over the top and gets DQed. That finish will never be any good. Crowd was just getting into this and it was picking up. Finish ruined it. Slow match that did build up. Just ugh.

WCW International Championship
Rick Rude© vs. Sting

The International Championship was a weird title that was a spinoff of the NWA World Title I believe. It used the Big Gold Belt though, which was smartly changed to the WCW World Title when Flair unified it by beating Sting (omg spoiler).

Harley Race comes out and says Vader wants the winner of this. Race attacks Sting and Sting blasts him.

Here we go! Sting starts off on fire!

Rude works on the back, which is ironic considering what would happen two weeks later.

No idea Rude had a victory roll in his arsenal, even if it was botched a bit.

Whoa Rude sells a backdrop by rotating all around. I’ve probably seen him do that before, but still. He doesn’t land on his feet though.

Scorpion!

It’s VADER!

Sting fights them off, but Rude retakes control.

Harley Race screws up the finish by forgetting his role, leaving Rude to just wait there!

Sting pins Rude to win the title in 12:50. Rude goes for Rude Awakening, but Race swings a chair and Sting escapes, and Rude gets nailed. Sting gets rid of Race and wins. Decent match, although it felt a little off. I’d even say it was good. Rude would injure his back in the rematch 2 weeks later, ending his active wrestling career.

Bunkhouse Match
Bunkhouse Buck vs. Dustin Rhodes

Dustin Rhodes bleeds pretty early here after a piece of wood gets broken over his head.

Brutal belt whipping from Bunk. Ouch.

This has been a good old school brawl.

Bulldog! But Dustin chases Parker away.

Bunk pins Dustin in 14:11. Brass knuckles shot for the win. I think the Bulldog would have been a fine finish, but this works too. Pretty solid brawl.

Vader and Rude go at it in the back.

The Boss vs. Vader

I must say, it took some big stones to name the Bossman the Boss and dress him up as cop. No wonder they got sued.

Man Boss is over. (CLEVER!) Vader accidentally takes out Race.

Boss just drops Vader on the railing. Serious strength there.

Vader just backdrops Boss over the top rope. I never knew the Bossman did stuff like this.

Boss one arm slams Vader off the ropes when Vader went for the Vader Bomb. Wow!

DDT off the top from Boss? What?!

Bossman comes off the top and Vader catches in midair and slams! What?!

Vader pins The Boss in 9:58. Vadersault! Wow, this was a really good match. I had no idea that the Boss could do any of this. Postmatch shows Boss beat up Vader with a nightstick, and Commissioner Nick Bockwinkel stops him…and actually takes his gimmick away. This is because they were getting sued, of course.

WCW World Championship
Ric Flair© vs. Ricky Steamboat

The joke here is that there’s no story here: they just looked for an excuse to have these two have a great match.

Mat wrestling to start, but a vicious slap wakes the crowd up by Steamboat.

A lot of the match focuses on how well each man knows the other. Good stuff.

Steamboat gets a figure four on Flair! Nice!

Steamboat with the most obvious counter to the figure four that I’d never seen, just using his hands to block Ric dropping the leg.

Flair and Steamboat wrestle to a no-contest via double pin in 32:19. Steamboat gets several near falls, then locks in a double chickenwing, the move that won him the title in 1989. Flair counters by dropping back, so he ends up on top of Steamboat still in the hold. Both men’s shoulders are down for the count. Steamboat thinks he’s won and the crowd does too, but the commish rewards the title to Flair. Look, it’s a great match, but I’m never going to buy a draw as a finish to the main event. Maybe that worked in the 80s, but this is 1994. The Saturday Night rematch should have happened 1st, then this should have been the rematch. For the record while I do think this match is great…it does feel a little forced in terms of the rematch. It feels more like a tribute to their 1989 series and doesn’t stand on its own.

What a tough PPV to judge. Positives: Several good to great matches. Innovative stuff with the Street Fight. Negatives: Every title match had a bullshit finish (Time Limit draw, over the top DQ, Race nails Rude with a chair, double pin), some matches that could have absolutely owned didn’t (Regal-Pillman).

I also don’t think Flair vs. Steamboat is revolutionary or anything that would put this PPV over the top. Just a great match.

This PPV had A+ potential, but way too much eh stuff brought it down big. If the main had a finish I’d be happier, but it didn’t so I’m not. It’s still pretty good overall though.

Final Grade: B+

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews the WWF 1994 Royal Rumble

March 11, 2015 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

1994 Royal Rumble
January 22, 1994
Providence, RI
Reviewed on May 29, 2014

Background: Hulkamania had burnt out, brother.

Vince McMahon made a mistake in 1993. Thinking that Hulk Hogan still had some juice at the time, McMahon prematurely ended the first Bret Hart World Title run and had Hogan win the title at Wrestlemania IX via Yokozuna. The Hogan reign was a shell of the previous eight years. It set the WWE back a year. If you believe Vince was trying to build Hogan vs. Hart at Summerslam 93, fine, but it sure as well didn’t seem to work out that way post Hogan.

It’s interesting in 2014 that we talk about the whole forced push (Batista) vs. the naturally over star (Daniel Bryan). We got the same thing in 1993/1994. The difference is, being the TOP guy mattered a hell of a lot more then than it does not. The top guy needed the title in 1993. Now, it depends. While Lex Luger got some good reactions in his feud with Yoko, he was the poor man’s Hogan…and was not in the popularity discussion with Hart. Worse, Luger was actually the #3 babyface popularity wise as Survivor Series 93 showed (The Undertaker).

The 1994 Royal Rumble was perhaps the most organic way a world title program for a year had ever been decided. It’s interesting how 20 years later WWE dared not to try the same thing. Interestingly enough, they tease Bret not being in the 94 Rumble.

The Card

Ted Dibiase is Vince’s commentary partner!

Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Tatanka

Tatanka still had that undefeated streak going here. (Actually, Dibiase says Tatanka has one loss, so I’m wrong there).

Match was originally Tatanka vs. Ludvig Borga. Borga left the WWF right before this.

Interestingly these two would be the members of the Million Dollar Corporation going for the Tag belts the next year.

Dibiase and McMahon mention that Tatanka and Bigelow may be running on empty in regards to stamina for the Rumble. Makes you wonder why someone would take a match before the Rumble, no?

Never would have expected a double crossbody spot between Bigelow and Tatanka.

Awesome heel spot here. Bigelow pounds on Tatanka..but Tatanka is…er…Nativing Up? Tatanka keeps no selling the forearms…so Bigelow just does a standing dropkick to the back of the head…then he mocks the Tatanka hopping or whatever he is doing. Bigelow can be awesome sometimes.

Tatanka pins Bam Bam Bigelow in 8:12. Bigelow misses the top rope moonsault…and Tatanka hits a flying crossbody off the top for the win. Decent match. I don’t really think much of Tatanka (who did really?) and I think this may be the best match I’ve ever seen of his. Not a bad opener.

Bret says 1-2-3 Keep somehow in an interview. Whatever, tag title match time.

WWF World Tag Team Title
The Quebecers© vs. The Hart Brothers

Story here: Owen and Bret collided at Survivor Series 93 in their match which resulted in Owen being the only Hart eliminated. Owen pushed Bret around a bit, blaming him. Owen challenged Bret, Bret said he’d never fight his own brother, but then they reconciled over Christmas for this tag team title match.

Gotta like Jacques trying to stir trouble between Owen and Bret early on. Quebecers were a great heel team.

Random botch from Owen early on when he puts on the brakes on a Jacques backdrop attempt.

Classic Hart Foundation Backbreaker Forearm combo from the Harts.

The Harts are doing a lot of lack of chemistry spots…which I can’t tell if it’s intentional or not, but I think it is. (Example, Bret trying to tag Owen when Owen had his boot on the top rope for Bret to slam Pierre into). Match is doing a good job of making this match seem like teamwork vs. individuals.

Double stun gun to Owen!

I do think this match made Owen someone that money could be made from.

Johnny Polo (Quote the Polo, never more) pulls down the rope and Bret goes flying to the outside (which didn’t look good to be honest). Bret injures the knee, and the Quebecers pounce!

Owen puts Bret back into the ring, which I never caught as a selfish move until a lot later. I’ll get into that afterwards.

The Quebecers retain via ref stoppage in 16:48. Bret moves out of the way as Pieree crashes to the mat. Instead of tagging Owen though, Bret goes for the Sharpshooter…but his knee collapses. Ref calls it there. One of the greatest heel turns ever follow, as Owen kicks Bret’s knee down…and when Bret gets carried out we get the famous “kicked your leg out of your leg” promo.

I think the match is rather disjointed. I do think the finish itself kinda sucks, even if it works storyline wise (and to protect Bret as the blame can be placed on the referee). It doesn’t really flow…but I think that’s because of the storyline of building up tension between Bret and Owen, and how they really weren’t on the same page. And the storyline is great. The best part about it is that the fans can choose how they feel about it. Was Bret selfish about trying to win the match on his own? Was Owen right to feel this way (surely real life little brothers can relate). Or was Owen selfish in putting Bret in the ring with the blown knee (the way the WWF went about it…as Owen’s whole thing for a year was about him trying to win his first title, which he does at Mania XI 14 months later). Interestingly, you can also see a lot of parallels between this feud and Taker vs. Kane in 97-98. Right down to the temporary reunion.

Intercontinental Championship
Razor Ramon© vs. IRS

Story here doesn’t really involve IRS. Former IC Champ Shawn Michaels was suspended (legit) and was stripped of the IC title. Then they ran the former IC Champ who was never beaten (HBK) vs. current champ (Ramon). Really leaves this one in doubt, eh?

For some reason, Jim Ross and Gorilla are commenating on this match.

IRS cuts a promo. All the tax cheats showed up tonight. I do think the IRS character was great.

Creative spot with IRS coming off the top then blocking Razor’s boot.

Ref bump. Briefcase shot to IRS!

It’s HBK! Fake IC belt shot to Razor!

IRS wins the title! Wait, second ref!

Razor Ramon retains by pin in 11:30. IRS gets screwed. Second ref comes out and tells the original ref that HBK interfered. Razor’s Edge to IRS and the pin. Here’s why this finish sucks: First off, always hate the referee correcting the call finish. Just have two refs then. And also…RAZOR HIT HIM WITH THE BRIEFCASE FIRST! Jeez. Anyway, match was uneventful, and this was just HBK-Razor Mania X build.

WWF Championship: Casket Match
Yokozuna© vs. The Undertaker

Story: Undertaker was added as a member of the All-American team at Survivor Series 93. Taker survived a Banzai Drop. Set up this match…where Cornette got in the stip that this was Taker’s only title match…but Paul Bearer got in that it would be a Casket match.

This is the last of the Western Mortician Undertaker. The promo video for this is Taker building the casket and Yokozuna looking scared shitless. The only problem here is that it makes Yoko look kinda weak…but this was how mid 90s Taker was booked. It also kinda explains the shit finish we’re going to get here.

In defense of the booking, Yokozuna is afraid of the casket and NOT the Undertaker.

Yoko hilariously runs into the ringpost on his own.

Taker whacks Yokozuna with a chair! To be honest, this is a fun start.

Salt to the eyes!

Chokeslam on Yokozuna! Big DDT from the Taker!

Yoko’s in the box! Here is where it goes off the rails.

It’s Crush!

Taker takes him out.

It’s the Great Kabuki and Tenryu!

Taker takes them out!

Bam Bam Bigelow!

Mr. Fuji stole the urn. But Bearer steals it back! And here’s the Taker comeback!

Jeff Jarrett, Adam Bomb, the Headshrinkers, Diesel! It’s a 10 on 1!

POWER OF THE URN. Taker still fights back.

Yoko steals the urn…urn shot to Taker! Then we get some green smoke or something. I’m the biggest Undertaker fan of them all, but lol what the hell? Hey um…why didn’t these 10 guys just attack Paul Bearer?

Yokozuna retains the title in 14:18. They all beat up on Taker a bit more, then dump him in the casket. Bigelow jumps on it to close it. Taker does some crazy resurrection stuff with a big speech. Really, horrible stuff even for mid 90s Undertaker standards. Look, I get and even embrace the idea of the indestructible Terminator Undertaker of the mid 90s. I was a big fan. I’m all for Taker kicking out of a finish or two. But this is a bit much. If it takes 10 guys to beat the Undertaker…one of those guys being the dominant World Champ that ended Hulkamania, we’ve went a little too far here. If they wanted to run this finish, should have had maybe just Crush, Kabuki and Tenryu come in, and have Yoko drop five or six Banzai Drops. Of course, this whole idea made the King of the Ring 95 finish between Taker and Mabel look really ridiculous…and while Taker vs. Yoko was a good match later in 94 (probably because Taker practically killed him), this Taker character got wasted until Mankind showed up in 1996.

And really, the levitation and resurrection and all that stuff. Really too much. Green smoke and all. Match was pretty good until the clusterfuck. Some say it’s the worst match ever. I wouldn’t go that far, as there has been a lot of crap out there (I think Sting vs. Jarrett and six fake Stings is worse, for example), but it was pretty bad.

The Royal Rumble

Nice 20 second Royal Rumble interviews!

I think this was the first year to do 90 second intervals.

#1 is Scotty Steiner! Pre-Big Poppa Pump of course.

#2 is a Headshrinker, Samu.

#3 is Rick Steiner. Well so much for Samu.

Scott Steiner oddly shoves Samu off the apron to take him out. Weird elimination.

#4 is Kwang. Green Mist takes incapacitates Rick and evens the odds.

Scott practically kicks Kwang’s ass.

Huge heat for #5 Owen Hart. That’s how you know the angle earlier worked.

Owen dumps Rick Steiner.

#6 is Bart Gunn.

We are told there was an altercation backstage!

#7 is Diesel.

Diesel goes on an ass kicking spree. Bart Gunn is gone. Scott Steiner is gone! Owen Hart is gone to huge cheers! Kwang tries to hang on, but he’s gone too. Diesel Power has arrived!

#8 is Bob Backlund! Funny enough, these two were a WWF World Title match by November…where Diesel won the title.

Backlund almost gets rid of Diesel, but Diesel holds on…then just takes out Backlund. This is the match that got Diesel over, for the record.

#9 is Billy Gunn. And there he goes! Great reaction for Diesel. This was the first time something like this (one man owning the Rumble) had ever happened.

Kabuki and Tenryu have beat up Lex Luger in the back. They are hired to make sure Luger doesn’t win.

#10 is Virgil. Dibiase is of course going to enjoy this. Of course, Diesel takes him out. Apparently this could have been Kamala. Commentary like that is gold (Dibiase’s).

#11 is Randy Savage. This will be the end of Diesel Power for now. Diesel’s face sells it well though. Of course Dibiase doesn’t like him either.

#12 is Jeff Jarrett. Jarrett thinks he got rid of Savage..but he doesn’t…and Savage dumps him as…

#13 comes…and it’s Crush. Savage and Crush were feuding here.

Crush and Diesel prove to be too much for Savage, and as #14 comes, they get rid of him (what a waste of Randy Savage).

#14 is Doink. Comedy spots coming. Doink laughs at both Crush and Diesel. Flower water squirter to the eyes of both men. Steps on the foot! Poke in the eye. Going for the bodyslam on Diesel is Doink’s downfall.

#15 is Doink’s enemy, Bam Bam Bigelow. Bam Bam sends Doink flying out, and I believe this injured Doink legit.

#16 is Mabel. A lot of big men in there.

#17 is Thurmann Sparky Plugg. In other words, Bob Holly. This is his debut.

#18 is Shawn Michaels…and it looks like Diesel wants a piece of him! Shawn convinces him otherwise, but everyone attacks Diesel. Michaels actually does the final push, and Diesel is gone and gets a huge ovation. Also planted a really early seed in the Diesel-HBK storyline over the next year.

#19. Mo. Woo?

Greg Valentine is #20. Tatanka is #21. Time killing portion of the match now. Shawn is doing a lot of near eliminations.

#22 is Kabuki. Means we are getting Luger soon…of course…if LUGER CAN MAKE IT.

Everybody (but Mo) dumps Mabel.

#23 is Lex Luger! Good pop for him. Of course, we’ll see how that ends up.

Goodbye Kabuki. But Fuji’s other hired gun is #24…here comes Tenryu.

Vince says we’ll see Crush, Kabuki and Tenryu triple team Luger. Um…Kabuki is gone.

Tenryu with some awful looking chops. Probably why before I knew who he was I didn’t take him seriously as a threat.

#25 is no-one! Sadly, that must be Bret. What a shame.

Tenryu ups the chops on the next exchange.

#26 is Rick Martel.

Crazy Luger-Tatanka exchange.

#27 is…Bret Hart! Great fake with #25 (who Vince says was Bastion Booger, who got sick. Thank god). Huge reaction for Bret. Bret is heavily limping and everyone goes for the knee.

#28 is Fatu.

There goes Crush by Luger.

#29 is Marty Jannetty. Him and HBK just go at it! I love this stuff and you just don’t see it today. Two men who have always been enemies just going at it.

#30 is Adam Bomb. Your winner is in the ring! Despite Vince saying Bomb is going to win…I don’t see it.

There’s a 5 minute period where nothing happens.

People finally start to get dumped. Valentine was first. Adam Bomb probably has the worst #30 performance ever. Dibiase kills him for it.

Bret, Fatu, Luger and HBK are the final four. You know, one of these guys ran over the biggest star in the business six years from this point.

Luger and Bret simultaneously dump HBK and Fatu out.

Bret Hart and Lex Luger co-win the Rumble in 55:08. Luger and Bret go over at the same time (later proven that Bret hit last, but whatever). Jack Tunney comes down to make a decision. For the record, when they announce Luger as the winner, crowd cheers at first…but when Bret gets announced he gets a HUGE pop. When they keep going, the fans turn on Luger. This was the end of the Lex Luger as World Champion idea. Bret was the right choice here and for all of 1994. I think this was a pretty good Rumble, although the time after #30 was a bit slow. The finish though, sucks. Absolutely sucks. Just restart it right after the crowd reactions and let Bret win at least! I mean a draw? A draw? Come on. Hell at least run Yoko down there to lay both men out or something. What a lame ending.

What hurts this card a ton is that only one match had a clean finish: Tatanka vs. Bam Bam. Tag title match had a crap finish. IC title match had a Dusty Finish. No idea what Taker vs. Yoko was as a finish. And of course, the 2nd worst Rumble finish over (1999!).

But this card is significant historically. The rise of the Hitman. HBK and Diesel becoming stars in the Rumble. Owen Hart’s development into Summerslam main eventer. Undertaker going full terminator. A lot of these pieces would carry the WWF through 1995. And that means something.

That…and it is a well wrestled show overall. Only Taker vs. Yoko was bad, but it was pretty decent right up until the 10 on 1 green smoking urn or whatever.

Could have been high Bs with some good finishes.

Final Grade: B-

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WCW Beash Blast ’92

March 11, 2015 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

WCW Beach Blast 92
June 20, 1992
Mobile, AL
Reviewed on March 26, 2014

Background: To be honest, I don’t know my WCW 1992 very well, but I do know of some things that were going on and how the company was struggling as a result.

WCW had lost their top two main eventers in the past year. The Jim Herd era had the NWA/WCW’s top draw leave without dropping the belt, as Ric Flair left in the middle of 1991. This led to the end of the new Lex Luger run as well…as Luger never beating Flair ended up ruining Luger’s reign, and he bolted shortly thereafter. This left Sting as the only top guy. WCW did have talent though, and we’ll see it on this show.

Herd was fired after the Flair fiasco and I believe Kip Frye took over for a while…but eventually Bill Watts was the head guy in WCW for this point. Watts was an extreme mixed bag…extremely old school…but at least his booking provided good stories and solid action. So let’s see how Beach Blast 92 shakes out.

The Card

Main event tonight is a World Tag Team Title bout: Steiners vs. Dr. Death and Terry Gordy. I guess that passes in 1992.

Bill Watts is on screen talking about tonight’s matches. He talks about hard hitting action and rules and stuff. I do think there is a way to do the old school stuff, and Watts was the way to do it. They weren’t going to beat the WWF like that though.

WCW Lightheavyweight Championship
Flyin’ Brian Pillman vs. Scotty Flamingo

I wonder how much it killed Raven to be Scotty Flamingo.

Crowd is very into Pillman. I think this is right after a series of matches with Jushin Liger.

Well wrestles match so far. Watts’ rules had no over the top rope moves…so unsurprisingly we’re getting a technical contest.

Not the best selling of the wristlock by Raven (unless you purposely flip to the canvas in a wristlock).

Most of my Brian Pillman viewing was post accident in 1997, watching him do cruiser stuff is a bit jarring (although I’ve seen it before). Pillman was really good.

Jim Ross points out that if Pillman jumped off the top rope it would have been a DQ. See, that was a bit too much for the old school stuff.

Scotty Flamingo looks like Carlito.

Getting close to the 20 minute time limit here.

Scotty Flamingo wins the title by pin in 17:29. Pillman clotheslines Raven over the top rope onto the ramp, but misses an over the top rope dive and lands on the ramp hard (both of which I thought would be DQs here. I guess I don’t understand the WCW rules at the time). Raven brings him back in and hits a knee from the 2nd rope (looked terrible though). Gets the three. Good match. Not great, but filled the 17 minutes pretty well and put over Flamingo.

Bikini Contest
Missy Hyatt vs. Madusa

Oh god Johnny B. Badd is hosting this. I actually prefer Marc Mero.

I guess it’s actually an evening gown contest first. Doesn’t really fit the Beach theme.

We’ll get back to this later apparently.

Ron Simmons vs. Taylor Made Man

Here’s another wrestling joke: Terry Taylor. At least this is better than the Red Rooster.

Horrible three point stance shoulder blocks…as Taylor practically jumps over Simmons.

Simmons presses Taylor over this head and tosses him into the ring from the ramp. Jesse Ventura says I guess that’s not a DQ because Taylor was thrown into the ring. Even the announcers were confused.

Angry Man Spinebuster wasn’t that angry yet.

Ron Simmons pinned Taylor in 7:10. Powerslam for the win. Honestly, I could see why Watts went with Simmons later. Simmons would have been a great guy for a territory to build around, and if Watts was going old school, it makes sense.

Marcus Bagwell vs. Greg Valentine

A really young Buff Bagwell here.

I can’t really tell, but I feel like Valentine is stiffing Bagwell here.

Good old school match with Valentine destroying the leg.

Greg Valentine makes Bagwell submit in 7:17. Figure four for the win. Interesting ending as Bagwell never makes a comeback, almost as if this was a “real” match. It was what it was, but good psychology with the leg I guess.

Falls Count Anywhere
Sting vs. Cactus Jack

Some story here, although I know more about the backstage stuff: Sting was beginning to be fed monsters to help put him over (I think preparing for a Sting vs. Rick Rude World Title match). As Mick Foley wrote in his first book, Cactus Jack came in to put over Sting…but Foley wanted to try some crazy stuff to put himself AND Sting over, which worried Sting at first. Mick Foley calls this his favorite match in his book. While Sting is the WCW World Champ here, it is a non-title match and it kinda makes sense as that’s not what Cactus Jack was about at this point.

In the storylines, Cactus Jack was kinda known as the king of the Falls Count Anywhere match at this point. That’s really the standard Hardcore Match. He beat Van Hammer in one where Abdullah the Butcher interfered.

Awesome backdrop sequence on the ramp! Awesome start so far.

Jack with the flying elbow off the apron. A killer move for the time.

Sunset Flip off the apron on the floor. I’d love to see someone Foley’s size do that today!

I can’t believe this match is taking place on USA national PPV in 1992. Crowd fighting. Rail bumps!

That was what was great about the Cactus Jack character. Yes he was a violent brawler…but he could wrestle too…and that only added to the danger (body scissors here).

Nice Stinger Splash on the floor where Cactus ends up dumping Sting on the railing.

Not sure if that was a botched piledriver or part of the story with Cactus’ knee. I’m actually gonna go with story here.

Sting bashes Jack in the knee with the chair. So yeah, I think the earlier spot was story. Cactus escapes the Scorpion!

Sting pins Cactus Jack in 11:24. Flying clothesline from the top to the ramp from Sting for the win. Great match! Nice brawl. Wish this was longer…and I am wondering why this didn’t main event? No wonder Sting wanted to work with Foley so much afterwards.

30 Minute Iron Man Match
Rick Rude vs. Ricky Steamboat

Oddly, another non-title match as Rude was the US Champ here.

I like how Rude’s gimmick hadn’t changed one bit since 1988, yet he was still over as hell anyway.

Before I even watch, same question about Sting vs. Jack. Why isn’t this the main event?

Steamboat brings his kid and wife Bonnie (Flair’s brings some insight there about here). He attacks Rude’s ribs and Ventura has a point about Steamboat using his kid as a way for Rude not to attack first.

Steamboat trying to win it with some submissions quickly. Interesting story they are trying to tell.

Rude gets a surprise pin after a knee to the face. Steamboat was absolutely owning before that. Pin seems a bit quick for me, but if we are going for realism a knee to the face I could see being a good finish (ain’t that right D-Bry).

Rude nails the Rude Awakening for a quick 2-0 lead now. I do like that booking a lot. Steamboat is dazed…so take advantage. Well done.

Rude comes off the top rope with a flying knee drop! That’s a DQ here! 2-1. But wait, that took out Steamboat…so Rude gets ANOTHER pin for the 3-1 lead. Awesome heel spot. HHH vs. Rock stole this idea at Judgment Day 2000.

Steamboat gets beat on for about six minutes, but nicely reverses a Tombstone and drills Rude to cut it to 3-2. I wanna see someone climb Undertaker like that.

Steamboat with an awesome bridge into a backslide for another three. 3-3! Still 10 minutes left.

Steamboat trying to take the lead with tons of pinning attempts. No dice though, Rude stops him.

Man even Rick Rude’s sleeper looks awesome.

This seriously is the best sleeper I’ve ever seen. And somehow Steamboat even sells it like a million bucks…which is crazy, again, because it’s a sleeper. Two minutes left.

Ricky Steamboat wins 4-3. Wow! Steamboat looks dead in the sleeper…but gets back to his feet and does the Bret Hart-Roddy Piper/Steve Austin Rude pins himself sequence…only the Rude’s injured ribs story makes it more effective…and he gets the pin! Rude goes batshit insane here and gets SEVEN two counts in 30 seconds to try to tie it…but no dice. Incredible finish. Match was great. I did think the first fall came too sudden but everything else worked really well. Really wondering why this wasn’t the main event especially since there was a great finish here. This was PWI’s Third Runner up for Match of the Year.

Swimsuit Competition
Missy Hyatt vs. Madusa

Oh god more Johnny B. Badd.

Um…I think Missy Hyatt wins. There’s a round three later though.

Six Man Tag Team Match: Ole Anderson is the special referee
The Dangerous Alliance (Steve Austin, Arn Anderson and Beautiful Bobby Eaton) vs. Nikita Koloff, Barry Windham and Dustin Rhodes

A young Stone Cold and Goldust in this one. Young Heyman at ringside too.

Windham and Austin start. Not sure if this is really a good comparison, but I actually see some Austin in Windham at this point.

They tease Arn Anderson coming off the top. Really pushing the new rules of WCW here.

Koloff clotheslines Arn over the rope…and Paul E. wants a DQ. He doesn’t get the call though…which it least is consistent from the Lightheavy title match.

During the match Ross and Ventura say that Madusa is beating Hyatt 51% to 49%. A lot of blind people voting I guess.

I like Ole Anderson as a referee.

Rhodes, Windham and Koloff win in 15:32 by DQ. Arn Anderson is caught coming off the top rope for the DQ. Ugh. Look, that’s fine if you want to get the new rules over, but don’t waste a PPV finish on it. This is a well wrestled match but utterly pointless due to the finish.

Paul E. tells Steamboat no more US Title shots. Then Steamboat is attacked by Cactus Jack. Good stuff.

Bikini Contest
Missy Hyatt vs. Madusa

Hyatt uses Ventura’s scarves as a bikini. Johnny B. Badd says she wins. Madusa gets mad. For the record, Hyatt’s swimsuit was more of a bikini. Whatever. How did Missy Hyatt get so unhot though? She was practically Sunny before Sunny.

WCW World Tag Team Championship
The Steiner Bros.(c) vs. The Miracle Violence Connection (Dr. Death Steve Williams and Bam Bam Terry Gordy)

I think the story here is the Steiners have destroyed everyone…but these two from Japan can match amateur wrestling and power with the Steiners.

A lot of amateur wrestling early.

Jesse Ventura with the line of the night. JR: “Rick Steiner has a degree in Education for Michigan.” Ventura: “Oh yeah right. From Kindergarten?”

Crowd is really into the Steiners, for what it’s worth about this being the main event.

All this technical wrestling leads to a Bow and Arrow lock from Scott. I like the rarer unique submissions as you can see.

Working on Scotty Steiner’s knee. Always good psychology.

Dr. Death with the Walls of Jericho!

I always wondered how people killed JBL for his Clothesline From Hell when the Steiners used Steinerlines as a finisher at times.

Time Limit Draw in 30:00. Scott Steiner gets a Frankensteiner, but it’s too late. Of course, in any era, this is a shit finish for the last match on the show. Match itself was pretty boring. Maybe it was a big deal in 1992, and it was wrestled well I guess, but I just wasn’t feeling it. This match also has another bigger issue. Throughout the show a NWA World Tag Team Title tournament was being promoted. So, why should I care about the WCW World Tag Team title?

Interesting PPV. It’s wrestled well from top to bottom, but it has some major problems. One is the match order. Having two non-finishes as the last two matches on a PPV is very unsatisfying. Especially when Steamboat-Rude was an excellent Iron Man Match and quite main event worthy…and the WCW Champ Sting could have also main evented in a great brawl with Cactus Jack. But a DQ by coming off the top and a time limit draw? Bad way to end the show in any era. I’m guessing the tag match main evented because Watts liked tough guys, and Dr. Death, Gordy and the Steiners were all as tough as they come. It’s still the wrong choice though and really messes up the card.

The bikini stuff didn’t need three different segments.

There could have been some emphasis on the stories. While Cactus Jack got some story, I had no idea about why Steamboat-Rude wasn’t for the title and why he still can’t have a title shot. Also no idea why, as alluded to in the commentary, Vader was happy that Cactus was beating up Sting.

Those may be the only bad things, but they are major.

A lot of good stuff though. Great wrestling. A couple great matches. Some of the bikini stuff was great. Very good opener. A clear showing that they were going to go with Ron Simmons at some point. The storytelling is there…they just need to tell us.

Good outweighs the bad for sure.

Final Grade: B

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WCW Wrestlewar ’92

March 11, 2015 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

WCW Wrestlewar ‘92
May 17, 1992
Jacksonville, FL
Reviewed on May 26, 2014

We are now in a post Ric Flair, post Lex Luger and I believe a post Jim Herd WCW. With losing Luger and Flair, WCW was down to one main eventer (Sting), but a lot of potential.Rick Rude had come in and the Dangerous Alliance storyline was a big deal. As all big stable angles end up going, Wrestlewar would feature the War Games.

1992 was an interesting year for WCW as a lot of the pieces seen on this show would end up never truly making it and getting ousted in one way or another by 1995. Also, perhaps with the exceptions of Rick Rude, Ricky Steamboat and Arn Anderson, it’s clear that Sting was in a different class than everyone else in WCW at the time. WCW was still ways away from challenging the WWF to anything resembling a rivalry, but at least they had gotten past the worst of the Jim Herd era.

The Card

WCW US Tag Team Championship
The Taylor Made Man and Greg Valentine© vs. The Freebirds

Terry Taylor as the Taylor Made Man just looks awful.

I don’t think these titles had any real value at this point.

I often wonder how Greg Valentine ended up with such gimmicky teammates. Honky Tonk Man and Taylor are two examples.

The Freebirds as faces here is also a bit strange to me.

The crowd is very into the Freebirds though.

The Freebirds win the title when Jimmy Garvin pins Taylor in 16:02. Garvin sets Taylor up for the DDT and backdrops Valentine while keeping the head locked. Hayes holds Valentine back and Garvin gets the DDT and the win. Good finish to an otherwise boring tag match. Fans popped big.

Johnny B. Badd vs. Tracy Smothers

The story revolves around Johnny B. Badd’s boxing history and the use of a closed fist.

Nice twisting bodyblock from the top from Smothers, but the Badd rollover counters is botched a bit, but it’s passable. I never pictures Smothers as a high flying guy.

Nice top rope sunset flip by Badd!

Johnny B. Badd pins Tracy Smothers in 7:03. Left hook gets the win, which was predictable due to the commentary. A lot better than I expected, considering I expected nothing. Wasn’t too bad at all.

Missy Hyatt interviews the Freebirds! Obviously they are happy.

Scotty Flamingo vs. Marcus Alexander Bagwell

Raven vs. Buff Bagwell here. How strange.

Quite the bitchslapping contest here.

Pretty bad back suplex from Flamingo, although I think Bagwell didn’t go up for the move.

There’s a double over the top sequence that the commentators wonder on whose fault it was. I guess we were in the Bill Watts era? Seems too early though.

Scotty Flamingo pins Marcus Bagwell in 7:11. Bagwell rolls Flamingo over, but Flamingo counters and holds the tights for three. Nothing to say here really. Both guys were still young…and Flamingo would get better. Pretty subpar first fifth minutes to the PPV though.

Junkyard Dog and Ron Simmons vs. Mr. Hughes and Cactus Jack

Story here: Abdullah the Butcher and Cactus Jack beat up Simmons, and JYD made the save. No idea why Hughes is Jack’s partner.

Jack attacks JYD on the outside…and Jack drops the big elbow off the ramp on JYD!

Simmons takes out Jack on the ramp.

Mr. Hughes and Cactus Jack has to be up there with oddest tag teams ever.

Simmons helps JYD to the back, but then comes out and cleans house.

This is now Hughes vs. Simmons.

Ron Simmons pinned Mr. Hughes in 5:22. Big Spinebuster, then Simmons attacks the interfering Jack. Simmons hits a chop block for the win. You know what…not bad! This should have been horrible, but Hughes’ offense was okay and Simmons showed off some damn good power slamming around the 400 pound Hughes. Cactus Jack being around is a good bonus too. Probably the best Mr. Hughes match I’ve ever seen (not really saying much there). No surprise this launched a Simmons push.

Todd Champion vs. Super Invader

Super Invader is Hercules I believe. Hercules sucks, so I think that’s a bad sign for this match.

This match has sucked, but Champion does take a surprisingly good bump to the outside into the guardrail.

Champion’s offense is terrible.

Invader pins Champion in 5:26. Powerbomb wins it. Pretty bad. Champion can’t really hit clotheslines correctly. Invader’s offense is a bunch of punches and headlocks with the occasional move like a backbreaker (just like Hercules). Squash here. Funny enough, I felt like this match would have been on a 1993 RAW with Champion being the babyface Vince would push. Whatever. This didn’t belong on PPV.

Big Josh vs. Richard Morton

For some reason Ricky Morton goes by Richard here.

Of course, Big Josh is the future Doink the Clown.

The story is Josh’s power vs. Morton’s er…flying ability? Also, how disgusting Josh is. Like he’s a Godwinn before the Godwinns were a thing.

Big Josh pinned Morton in 7:33. Josh hits a flying butt drop (I like how he used the Whoopie Cushion before he was Doink) for the win. Really boring match. Sorry, but no one has ever cared about the Rock’N’Roll Express when they were in singles matches. A very basic back and forth match.

WCW Lightheavyweight Championship
Flyin Brian Pillman© vs. The Z-Man Tom Zenk

Story here: Former partners. Pillman thinks Zenk didn’t have any gratitude for Pillman helping him out recently. Zenk says Pillman is arrogant, sticking his nose into things that don’t involve him.

Zenk gets scared by his own pyro. Great start there.

This is an example of a really good back and forth match. First match with any type of psychology as well, with Pillman working the leg, and Zenk working the back.

I’ve already see two figure fours now in this match. I wonder how many were done when Flair was around.

Pretty awesome counter to the over the top rope dive by Pillman when Zenk seamlessly slammed him out of it.

Awesome selling of the crossbody from Pillman there.

Pancake from Zenk and Pillman goes sky high for it!

Brian Pillman retains by pin in 15:30. Pillman goes to the top but eats a superkick on the way down! Zenk gets two on the cover, as Pillman got his foot on the ropes. Zenk comes off the top with a dropkick but Pillman sidesteps then folds Zenk up in a jackknife pin for the win. Pretty good match here. It built up to the frantic climax and had a good ending.

#1 Contender to the IWGP Tag Team Championship
The Steiner Bros. vs. Tatsumi Fujinami and Takayuki Iizuka

Steiners are the WCW World Tag Team Champions…I wish this was just for those belts. I wonder if people back in 1992 really cared about the Japanese titles. It bothers me that the Steiners would go for other tag belts. They are the World champions! Who cares about the other belts!

Fujinami has some WCW cred though, as he had that WCW Title/NWA Title deal with Flair in 91.

Nice elbow off the top from Rick in Iizuka when Scott had him in the rack.

Rick just dropped Fujinami on his head with a German suplex. Ouch.

Fujinami has Rick in the Doomsday Device setup, but Rick actually catches Iizuka and slams him when he comes off the top. Never seen anything like that. I do think Rick’s knee landed on Iizuka’s face though.

Man Scott Steiner just no sells a legdrop when he was on his knees. Steiners have dominated and it seems obvious to me that they aren’t being professional with Fujinami and Iizuka.

Really awesome counters by Scott Steiner of a double wristlock. I really can’t explain what he did though.

The Steiners win when Rick pins Iizuki in 18:05. Belly to belly off the top for the win. Someone is going to have to convince me that the Steiners didn’t purposely bury Fujinami and Iizuki here. The Steiners had 75% of the match, won in convincing fashion and there was some no selling from both Rick and Scott, and there was definitely some stiff takedowns from both Steiners.

NOTE: I did some research, and apparently the PWTorch had an article written about his match. Spoilered for length.

PWTorch Article About Steiners vs. Fujinami and Iizuka

Fuck the Steiners. The more old stuff I watch of them the more I hate them.

War Games
Sting’s Squadron (Sting, Nikita Koloff, Dustin Rhodes, Barry Windham and Ricky Steamboat) vs. The Dangerous Alliance (Steve Austin, Arn Anderson, Rick Rude, Bobby Eaton and Larry Zbyszko)

Sometimes it’s easy to forget Paul Heyman did stuff before ECW.

Austin and Windham start. I believe Windham won the TV title from Austin recently, so there is history here.

Nice DDT from Windham to Austin.

Austin’s busted open 4 minutes in. Good opening period from Windham and Austin.

Heels win the coin toss, and they waste no time. In comes Rick Rude!

Ricky Steamboat is the Squadron’s choice! There is history between Steamboat and Rude too!

Steamboat is owning everyone.

Alliance sends in Arn Anderson. A lot of great workers in that ring right now.

Massive spinebuster to Steamboat. Wow.

Steamboat gets thrown over BOTH top ropes into the other ring. What a bump.

Dustin Rhodes is in!

Larry Z is in, and Dustin beats the hell out of him!

Madusa climbs to the top of the cage and drops the cell phone (huge at the time) into the ring for Anderson, who uses it as a weapon. Sting goes up there to chase her away!

Huge pop! Here comes Sting!

Sting kicks all kinds of ass of course.

Sting just backdrops Austin into the cage! Austin hit hard!

Austin with a great clothesline that Windham sells like a million bucks. Wow!

Bobby Eaton is the last member of the Alliance in.

Larry Z messes with the turnbuckle.

Koloff is in! Match beyond begins!

Koloff and Sting had their issues in the past, but Koloff shows his allegiance by saving Sting from an attack and then they hug!

We have a rope torn down!

Sting’s Squadron wins when Sting makes Eaton submit in 23:27. Larry Z gets a metal hook from the broken ring rope. Eaton holds Sting, but Sting moves and Larry smacks Eaton on the arm with the hook. Sting takes out Larry, then puts Eaton in an arm bar for the submission. Post match the Alliance bitches out Larry Z for the screw-up. So, wow. What a match. Nonstop action for 24 minutes. Literally. It doesn’t stop starting from Austin vs. Windham all the way until the submission. Just wow. I am blown away here. Also, I think it’s something that Paul E. sucks chants were the biggest for any heel in 1992. Heyman owns.

I was wondering what the big deal was all the way until the main event, and I got it. This is basically a two match show, unless you think the Steiners match was good (which I don’t). War Games was awesome and Pillman vs. Zenk was solid. The rest? I mean nothing was mindblowningly bad, but it all ranged from boring to average at best (except Invader vs. Champion, that sucked). It makes sense though, all the workrate was in the Lightheavyweight title match and the main.

Funny enough, this card reminds me of Great American Bash 2004. One big bloody brawl. One good lightheavyweight/cruiserweight match. And a lot of disappointing crap. I’d say this is the much better version of that though. Maybe if there was some historic stuff here I’d give it a higher grade, but the only man who really did anything of note regarding their match here was Sting. Austin would be gone in three years. Rhodes in and out. Rude retired soon. Steamboat hung around but also retired soon. Windham probably peaked here. Etc. etc.

Final Grade: B-

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews the 1992 WWF Royal Rumble

March 11, 2015 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

1992 WWF Royal Rumble
January 19, 1992
Albany, NY
Reviewed on January 23, 2015

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

1991 was an interesting year for the WWF. They lost a major top star in The Ultimate Warrior, but created two others in Sid Justice and The Undertaker. They also signed the biggest non-WWF name in professional wrestling: Ric Flair.

That’s what makes this Royal Rumble so interesting. The WWF could have went in a number of directions here. Recapping This Tuesday In Texas, Hulk Hogan regained the WWF Title from The Undertaker…only there were murky circumstances regarding the finish. Jack Tunney held the WWF Title up…and made it the prize of the 1992 Royal Rumble match. There are five conceivable winners, three that were likely and two that were less likely. They each represented a different direction for the WWF. They were:

Hogan: It would be the “status quo”. Hogan winning here would have gotten a big pop, but Hulk’s star had been fading ever so slightly at this point. It would only get worse with all the steroid issues surrounding him.

Sid: Considered to be the next Hogan and had clearly been on Hogan’s side back at Summerslam where he was a ref.

Flair: Other than Savage, Flair would be the first “wrestling” WWF Champion in the Vince Jr. era. A showdown with Hogan would be assured for Mania though (of course, that’s not what happened). It would also give a huge sense of legitimacy to WCW.

And the two who had a chance, but not a great one.

Undertaker: Basically the transitional champion to lead to this situation. His gimmick was crazy over though, and he could have been the top heel at Mania. He’s already established as a main eventer (and would be forever) because of his win over Hogan for the title at Survivor Series. I’m sure there was a scenario out there that could have had Taker vs. Sid for the title five years earlier than it actually happened.

Randy Savage: The face route that isn’t Sid or Hogan, but he should be facing Jake at Mania (which he didn’t, but that would be the logic).

Let’s see which way the WWF went.

The Card

Vince’s announcement of who is in the Rumble is hilarious.

The Orient Express vs. The New Foundation

The New Foundation is Owen and Neidhart. I have no idea what the point of making them look ridiculous was. When they teamed up in 1994 they were a lot more badass since they dressed just like the original Foundation.

The Express is Pat Tanaka and Kaito…who is really Paul Diamond.

Owen was always really good. Frankensteiner was nice.

Owen becomes the face in peril. He was great at that too.

Pat Tanaka screws up an Owen bulldog by falling too quickly.

Awesome suicide dive from Owen!

The New Foundation win when Owen pinned Tanaka in 17:18. Rocket Launcher for the win. Good match that seemed a bit long, but it’s Owen, so no problem there. Anvil and Owen played the opening match babyface role well, I just don’t get why they had to wear Doink’s pajama paints.

Story about Bret Hart defending the IC title against The Mountie despite a 104 degree fever. This would be the Mania VIII set-up for Bret and Piper. Piper is Bret’s replacement here.

Amazing Piper promo. He points out that he’s here to win two titles. How crazy would have that been?

Intercontinental Championship: The Mountie© vs. Roddy Piper

There’s not much to say here, it’s a bad match but Piper as the crowd in the palm of his hand.

Roddy Piper wins the title when the Mountie passes out in 5:22. Crowd reaction here is nuts. Piper puts the Mountie to sleep and that does it. Except for a bulldog, all of Piper’s offense was punches and the sleeper. But who cares really?

The Bushwackers vs. The Beverly Brothers

I don’t know who the Bushwacker manager, Jameson is, but he sounds ridiculous and he’s eating his tie. I hear this is an infamous match, so I’m curious to see what happens here.

The Genius recites a poem about Jameson. I have a bad feeling about all of this.

A lot of wasted time early on. A lot of the Bushwackers swinging their arms and licking each other and stuff.

The Genius slapping Jameson is the highlight of the match. Jameson is insufferable as he complains to Butch.

The Beverly Brothers win when Blake pinned Butch in 14:56. Illegal double axehandle off the top for the win. It wasn’t even entertainingly horrible, it was just horrible. The match had no heat whatsoever and nothing of significance takes place at all. The finish was out of nowhere too. Jameson gets his revenge on the Genius by kicking him in the shin at the end. Just horrible everywhere.

World Tag Team Championship
The Legion of Doom© vs. The Natural Disasters

I can’t help but feel like this should have been a Wrestlemania match or something. Earthquake, Hawk and Animal were all huge names, and Typhoon was a big deal cause of Quake.

Match is mostly Hawk as the face in peril. Seems weird seeing LOD be dominated in 1992.

The Natural Disasters win by countout in 9:24. All four men end up on the outside, but Typhoon gets back into the ring. LOD just didn’t care at this point did they? Or at least Hawk didn’t. Second terrible match in a row here. Unsurprisingly, LOD dropped the belts on a house show shortly afterwards.

We get a ton of interviews. Shawn Michaels seemed surprisingly good on the mic pretty quickly. He had JUST turned on Jannetty at this point.

The 1992 Royal Rumble

The British Bulldog draws #1 and Ted Dibiase didn’t bribe anyone at this point as he draws #2. The Bulldog gets rid of Dibiase really quickly.

Bobby Heenan basically goes ballistic on the air as Ric Flair draws #3. Bulldog whips him too.

Jerry Sags is #4. Bulldog wastes to time getting rid of him too.

#5 is Haku. He sides with Flair at first, but then he turns on Flair.

“It’s not fair to Flair!”

Bulldog dumps Haku as HBK comes out as #6. Huge boos for HBK.

Flair and HBK go at it 17 years before Flair’s last WWF match.

Flair, HBK and the Bulldog is an interesting trio in there considering all the interactions HBK would have with both over the years.

El Matador is #7. He too goes after Flair.

The Barbarian is #8.

HBK was already doing the near eliminations all over the place thing.

The Texas Tornado: Kerry Von Erich is #9. Of course he goes after Flair. There is good history there.

Repo Man is #10.

Greg Valentine is #11. He was in the Rumble for 44 minutes in 1991.

#12 is Nikolai Volkoff. Crowd is growing restless…but it’ll pick up soon.

Big pop as Valentine locks Flair in the Figure Four. Repo Man takes out Volkoff.

#13 is the Bossman. Nice pop and he of course attacks Flair.

Valentine is gone thanks to the Repo Man.

Repo Man is gone due to Flair.

Flair gets rid of the British Bulldog. Von Erich also goes out due to Flair.

#14 is Hercules but the Bossman takes him out in a minute.

Hercules takes out Barbarian, and Bossman takes out Hercules. Bossman hilariously eliminates himself with a missed flying body block.

#15 is Piper, and the crowd goes nuts. Flair tries to beg off. Piper kicks Flair’s ass for the whole two minutes before #16, Jake The Snake comes in.

Jake tells Piper to continue what he’s doing, then immediately attacks him from behind. Jake was awesome.

I can’t get over Heenan’s commentary. Amazing.

Jim Duggan is #17. Huge reaction for him as he goes for Flair.

IRS is #18.

Superfly Jimmy Snuka is #19. This was near the end of the Superfly.

#20 is The Undertaker. This was actually bad luck for Taker. Tunney allowed Taker and Hogan to have a number between 20 and 30, and he drew 20.

Heenan: “Death takes a holiday!”

Snuka jobs to Taker again!

#21 is Randy Savage and he wants Jake. Undertaker cuts Savage off. Taker getting involved in Jake-Savage was weird as it seemed Jake had a hold on Taker…until Taker turned face.

Savage throws Jake, then jumps over the top rope to continue attacking. Savage gets to stay though…for some reason. He must be winning!!!

#22 is The Beserker. I feel like he never gets enough Wrestlecrap credit.

#23 is Virgil. He goes right after IRS. I miss those long standing rivalries that would surface in the Rumble.

#24 is Col. Mustafa. Always thought it was weird that the Iron Sheik would change names and all.

Monsoon randomly uses Rick Martel’s name when talking about Flair. Odd.

#25 is Martel. I assume Monsoon just got confused.

Here comes Hogan at #26! He surprisingly takes out Undertaker early. Beserker goes next.

Duggan and Virgil take one another out.

#27 is Skinner. I guess #27 wasn’t lucky yet.

Flair sets the longevity record. It would stand I believe until Benoit.

#28 is Sgt. Slaughter. All the heat died with Slaughter after the heel turn. No one would care about Slaughter again until he become commissioner in 1997.

Piper and Martel take out Skinner.

#29 is Sid. He doesn’t really do anything though, which I find odd.

#30 is the Warlord. Ah, the days where #30 wasn’t guaranteed to be a big star.

Sid sends Slaughter out. About time Sid did something.

Piper eliminates IRS by his tie. That was awesome.

Sid and Hogan dump the Warlord.

Piper, Hogan, Savage, Flair, Sid and Martel.

Sid gets rid of Piper and Martel. Lame ending for Piper.

Flair nails Sid in the back, which causes Sid to shove Savage out. Down to three.

Ric Flair wins the WWF Championship in 1:02:02. Sid dumps Hogan to HUGE cheers. Hogan grabs Sid’s arm, and Flair dumps Sid to win the title. Heenan goes nuts. This was one of the first signs of the fans turning on Hogan here. Flair leaves while Sid and Hogan argue. We get some Sid chants too…although some feint Hogan ones are audible.

Flair cuts an awesome interview as the new WWF Champion. He also takes a big shot at WCW by saying this is the only world title that matters.

Anyway this Rumble is basically an hour long Flair match. It’s the 2nd greatest Rumble of all time in my opinion. All the big stars were in there. A lot of the stories played out as well. There were great moments with Piper and Flair, and Hogan and Sid.

The opener was solid and Piper winning the IC title was a cool moment. The show went downhill fast after that. But the amazing 1992 Royal Rumble made up for it. There was a lot of history here as well. Nevermind it being Flair’s 1st WWF Title win, but also this was a big match that showed the WWF needed to get past Hulkamania. Vince wouldn’t learn for another 18 months though.

It’s the Rumble that matters, right? I just wish those tag matches weren’t so bad.

Final Grade: A-

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWF This Tuesday In Texas

March 11, 2015 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

WWF This Tuesday in Texas
December 3, 1991
San Antonio, TX
Reviewed on January 22, 2015

And you thought Taboo Tuesday was the first experiment for weekday WWF PPVs?

Just six nights after Survivor Series (held on a Thursday back then), the WWF tried a new form of revenue stream in the form of a Tuesday night PPV. It had a pretty hot main event as well, with new WWF Champion The Undertaker going up again the man he took it from, Hulk Hogan. The WWF had been on the bit of a slide business wise, although the true reason for that was that fans were tiring of the Hulkster and Vince had no one hot enough to replace him. Sid was a popular choice at the time. Vince had also acquired Ric Flair, but he was never one to really build his promotion around a heel like Flair.

Also on this card is a match regarding the big Jake Roberts vs. Randy Savage feud. So while this PPV seems pretty random and is forgotten now, you can tell the WWF tried hard with it to see if it would work. Does it? Let’s see.

The Card

We kick off with a post Survivor Series promo with Paul Bearer and The Undertaker. They are already hyping up This Tuesday in Texas. Bearer says nothing is immortal, not even Hogan. He says Hulkamania at Survivor Series…all that’s left is the funeral services. Bearer and Taker were pretty awesome characters in 1991.

WWF Intercontinental Championship
Bret Hart© vs. Skinner

Skinner actually gets the jobber entrance here. Not sure why he’s getting an IC title shot on a PPV but we’re told he’s undefeated so far, so there’s that.

Starting with Bret is a good idea though.

There’s not much to say about this match other than Bret is mega over.

Bret Hart retains when he makes Skinner submit in 13:46. Bret tosses Skinner off the top rope and makes him submit to the Sharpshooter. Went about 6 minutes too long. Match was as bare bones as you can think of. The only move I can remember Skinner doing that seemed remotely unique was his reverse DDT. Boring overall. Crowd was into it though, as Bret was as I wrote earlier, mega over.

Jake “The Snake” Roberts promo. Roberts was terrifying at this point. You really thought he’d beat the crap out of Miss Elizabeth if given the chance.

Randy Savage with a crazy nutty promo himself. Both are pretty awesome.

Jake “The Snake” Roberts vs. “Macho Man” Randy Savage

This really should have happened at Wrestlemania VIII, but I get putting it here to sell the PPV. Story here: Jake turned heel earlier in 1991, and had put a snake in Elizabeth’s wedding gifts. There was an angle later that actually used a real cobra to bite Randy Savage. Savage eventually got re-instated as he lost a retirement match to The Ultimate Warrior back at Mania VII, and got his match with Jake.

Savage attacks Jake during his entrance. I think this is his first match since Mania, but I could be wrong.

Jake quickly takes control, ramming Savage’s arm into the ring post.

Randy Savage pins Roberts in 6:25. Savage drops the big elbow on Jake for the win. It surprisingly just ends like that. While it was fun, it was too short for a feud of this caliber. I would be okay with it if it led to a Wrestlemania match…but it didn’t. Savage tries the post-match chair shot, but the ref stops him, leading to Savage getting the DDT. Jake drops Savage with a 2nd DDT for good measure.

Jake then brings out a snake, and Miss Elizabeth runs in and begs Jake to leave Savage alone. Jake drops a third DDT on Savage right in front of Elizabeth. Jake forces Liz to beg in order to save Savage. Jake then SLAPS Elizabeth, which is one of the most despicable things a heel could have done in 1991. It takes President Tunney to get Jake out of there. Nuclear heat for Jake.

Another great Jake promo. He’s sick.

The British Bulldog vs. The Warlord

A pretty good power match here. Warlord has more moves than I ever realized.

Warlord actually locks his full nelson in by using the Bulldog’s hair. Creative heel stuff.

This long full nelson is kinda killing it though. It just went too long.

The British Bulldog pins the Warlord in 12:45. Bulldog gets a crucifix to win. It was the best Warlord match I’ve ever seen and a decent match overall. The full nelson really took me out of the match though. The Bulldog and Warlord didn’t get through 1992 I don’t believe with the steroid issues the WWF would have.

Randy Savage interview. He’s furious about what happened with Jake and Elizabeth. It’s an awesome promo. How didn’t they blow this off at Mania?!

Repo Man and Ted Dibiase vs. El Madator and Virgil

Part of the Virgil-Dibiase feud…Dibiase hired Repo Man to re-obtain the Million Dollar Championship from Virgil.

Dibiase and the Repo Man dominate Virgil. Makes sense as the storyline is with him, not Tito.

Man, crowd is hot for Virgil, especially when he gets his hands on Dibiase. You just don’t see that for midcarders these days.

Ted Dibiase and Repo Man win when Dibiase pinned Virgil in 11:28. Strange finish here. Dibiase holds Virgil for Sherri to hit with her shoe, but Virgil moves and she clocks Dibiase. Virgil grabs Sherri, but gets kneed in the back by the Repo Man. Dibiase then makes the pin. What was the point of Sherri hitting Dibiase there? Anyway, this was a good match, best on the card. Virgil was over…but sadly no one really cared about him without Dibiase.

Hulk Hogan interview. Hogan really was one of the best promo men of all time.

WWF World Championship
The Undertaker© vs. Hulk Hogan

Bobby Heenan with an awesome line. Monsoon is busy praising Hogan, and Heenan responds with “quiet Monsoon, here comes the WWF…Champion.

Taker and Paul Bearer attack right away. President Jack Tunney is at ringside to prevent any shenanigans.

We get our first botch. Taker goes for his top rope hangman from the apron, but Hogan keeps punching. Well this wasn’t going to be a technical classic.

It’s pretty amazing what Undertaker was in the ring in 1991 and what he was some 16 years later. The only submission Taker knew here was the choke.

Huge botch, although it may have been the ring. Taker was going for his flying clothesline…but he gets caught in the ropes and falls.

Flair is here! Hogan smacks him with a chair and Tunney goes down as well!

Hulk Hogan regains the WWF Title by pin in 13:09. Paul Bearer tries to hit Hogan with the urn…but gets Taker! Hogan grabs the urn, pours out ashes and throws them in Taker’s face before rolling him up for the three. Flair propped Tunney up though so he saw the finish…which led to the title being vacated and being up for grabs in the ’92 Rumble. Uh…this match was terrible. All Undertaker choking with some botches in-between. Historically though this led to the ’92 Rumble, and Hogan failing to obtain a clean victory over Undertaker really helped establish him as a top guy for basically forever.

Interesting attempt at a Tuesday PPV. It was entertaining, but they had to give Bret a better opponent in the opener. I mean what was Rick Martel doing at the time. Taker vs. Hogan was what it was. Everything else wasn’t too bad. Jake slapping Elizabeth is a crazy moment.

Main event is just too bad to put this in B range though.

Final Grade: C+

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews NWA/WCW Halloween Havoc ’89

March 11, 2015 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

WCW/NWA Halloween Havoc 1989
October 28, 1989
Philadelphia, PA

We are just past the Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat classics and into the Flair vs. Terry Funk feud. Flair and Funk had a title match at the Great American match which ended with a Flair victory…and an attack from The Great Muta.

It had been about five years since the birth of Hulkamania, and it seemed that the NWA was just fine being #2 with their “real wrasslin” as opposed to the mainstream kiddie WWF. I think looking at the men in the main event of this PPV: Flair, Muta, Funk (Stingtoo, but he doesn’t really fit what I am saying) showed that this was still an old school promotion. Really, until Jim Herd showed up that would be the case.

This was also the rare time that not only was Ric Flair a face, but he was on Sting’s side. A little odd considering they would be rivals shortly again.

This is the first Halloween Havoc.

The Card

Captain Mike Rotunda vs. Tom Zenk

No entrances for the first match.

I do feel like I’ve missed something not seeing a lot of Z-Man matches.

He’s also undefeated apparently. Rotunda is the TV Champ. Don’t think this is for the title.

Near the end of the match there is a pretty nice clothesline by Rotunda. Looked crisp.

Tom Zenk pins Mike Rotunda in 13:23. Zenk rolls through a flying bodypress. Pretty boring overall to be fair. I mean, I guess it would technically be classified as good, but I just didn’t get into it. Also looks like Rotunda kicked out in time.

Bruno Sammartino is being interviews. He is the referee in the main event…a Thunderdome Cage Match. Sammartino talks about the type of match and how dangerous it is. I’m sure they had Thundercage matches in the 60s and 70s.

The Samoan Swat Team (Samu, The Samoan Savage and Fatu) vs. The Midnight Express and Dr. Death

I had no idea there were Samoans in WCW.

That’s a really young Rikishi in there as well.

This match feels designed to put Dr. Death over.

The Samoans mess up crotching Eaton on the railing. Samu and Fatu especially seem green here.

Commentary is really making it seem like the Samoans are idiots. Shrug.

Crowd is HOT for Dr. Death.

Horrible botch with a neckbreaker attempt by Lane on the Savage.

The Samoans win when the Savage pins Lane in 18:23. Jim Cornette ends up getting knocked off the apron after he knocked Oliver Humperdink off the apron, and the Samoan Savage pinned Lane. Pretty sloppy from the Samoans…all of them. Fatu and Samu weren’t ready yet.

Gary Hart and Terry Funk interview. Funk looks in monster shape.

How come there are no entrances at all? I coulda swore Starrace ’88 had them (maybe I am misremembering).

The Cuban Assassin vs. Tommy Rich

Of course Rich has an entrance to make me seem stupid.

Rich is a former NWA World Champion, crazy as that sounds.

I think that’s a Tommy Rich sucks chant. Even in 1989, Philly fans were smart.

Opening sequence was horrid. Looked like a WWF 1989 preliminary match!

The Cuban just busted out the ugliest high knee I’ve ever seen.

Timmy Rich pins The Cuban Assassin in 8:29. Thesz Press for the win. Awful match. Fans booed it and Rich right out of the building. Just a bunch of armbars and ugly looking armdrags. Terrible all around.

The Dudes: Shane Douglas and Johnny Ace, are up there for worst major tag team of all time.

Philly boos the Dudes out of the building too. No surprise. At least Douglas would become Philly famous later.

Huge boos for the Dudes, including a You Suck chant for big Johnny. They are the faces. This is 1989 no less! I didn’t know this happened in 1989!

The Freebirds win when Garvin pins Douglas in 11:28. Wow. Weird slingshot double team leads to Garvin countering and landing on Douglas for the pin. Pop is MASSIVE. One of the biggest I’ve ever heard. Quite the spectacle there just for the crowd reaction. Another bad match though. Douglas wasn’t there yet and Ace never would be. Freebirds were never the best wrestlers either.

Steiners interview. Rick sounds different.

The Steiner Bros. vs. Doom

Doom is Ron Simmons and Butch Reed.

The story here is that a fan wanted to be with Rick Steiner, but he said no, and she got him back somehow by turning into Woman. Woman manages Doom. This is Doom’s debut.

Another boring match here…and it’s not a good boring either.

Rick Steiner almost breaks Reed’s neck with a powerslam. Wow on that one.

Doom wins when Reed (or Doom #2) pins Rick in 15:28. Woman loads Reed’s mask with something and a headbutt gets the upset win. Slow and not good.

Lex Luger and Brian Pillman sadly show the sad sides of pro wrestling.

Luger seems like an amazing heel here. And he can work.

Pretty fast paced so far.

Pillman has cheerleaders in the crowd. Seems distracting.

Man Luger is killing Pillman with these clotheslines! One to the back of the head was vicious!

I thought Luger screwed up…but it was actually a brilliant dodge of the top rope dropkick!

Lex Luger pinned Brian Pillman to retain in 16:49. Hotshot for the win after the missed dropkick. Well, this match saved what was a lackluster show so far. Luger sells for Pillman like a million bucks and still looks like a bad ass. What a great big man vs. little man match where both men just go at it full blast. What happened to this Lex Luger? Jeez. Great match. Philly loved Luger.

The Road Warriors vs. The Skyscrapers

Selling won’t be a major theme here.

Interestingly the Road Warriors are announced as the Legion of Doom…I thought that was only a WWE thing.

The Skyscrapers are Dan Spivey and Sid. Two WWF ’95 staples!

Man Spivey just takes an Animal clothesline and no sells. You heard that one.

Sid with a pretty awesome spinning helicopter bomb to Hawk. Why didn’t he keep that move?

The Road Warriors win by DQ in 11:39. LOD has it won, but Teddy Long gets involved and throws the golden key to Spivey to cause the DQ. Weak ending, but this was a bad ass power match. Technically I guess it wasn’t wrestled well, Sid especially misses some stuff, but it’s really a good power match overall.

Thunderdome Cage Match: Bruno Sammartino is the Special Referee
Ric Flair and Sting vs. The Great Muta and Terry Funk

The only way this ends is if Ole Anderson or Gary Hart throws in the towel for their teams. Eh.

There is something amazing about Terry Funk and The Great Muta as a tag team.

The cage is apparently electrified.

The top of the cage actually catches fire. Well damn. I don’t think that was supposed to happen.

Wow Muta Misted the fire! That alone owned.

For some reason this is being wrestled as a regular tag. Why? I have no idea, it’s supposed to be no DQ.

Why in WCW 2000 didn’t Russo just run Sting vs. Muta again instead of that talentless bum Vampiro?

Bruno being the ref just seems so out of place.

Muta gets shocked climbing high on the cage. Why climb at all? I don’t understand this logic. Commentary actually brings this up.

There’s a rope hanging for some Tarzan action…but it really doesn’t work.

Sting takes out Funk my leaping off the cage, which was cool.

Sting and Ric Flair win in 23:46. Flair locks Funk in the Figure Four and Sting splashes him off the top rope twice! (Ouch). Gary Hart still refuses to throw in the towel. Muta attacks Bruno, and Bruno decks him. Ole Anderson attacks Hart and the towel goes flying into the ring. The stipulations pretty much guaranteed a shit finish, so we got it. The cage gimmick is pretty disappointing overall. It was mostly used for some Tarzan stuff, and honestly the logic of anyone climbing the cage was stupid. The match was well wrestled…an old school no DQ Texas Tornado woulda been awesome between these four. If anything the cage probably hurt the match.

Pretty subpar PPV overall. Most of the card sucked. Pillman vs. Luger ruled. LOD vs. Skyscrapers served its purpose. Main event had a gimmick that didn’t fit the match. Could have been a lot better of a show, but here we are.

Historically…I guess we keep building Sting up as a main event guy…and I think this was the start of the Sid to the top run? I do think the non-finish of the main led to the I Quit match between Flair and Funk, so there is that.

Luger vs. Pillman the rest of the second half of the show helped it, but I still wouldn’t say this was good overall.

Final Grade: C+

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews NWA/WCW Starrcade ’88

March 11, 2015 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

NWA/WCW Starrcade 1988
December 26, 1988
Norfolk, VA
Reviewed on June 21, 2014

A high point for the NWA. The NWA had tons of talent and while not drawing as well as the WWF, they were arguably putting on a better quality of shows. Earlier in 1988 WCW put on a Clash of the Champions PPV that hurt the WWF’s Wrestlemania IV, headlined by a Sting vs. Ric Flair classic.

Ric Flair was truly the man at this point. Flair and the Horsemen were the main event, and Flair was doing all he could to get Lex Luger over as a top face. At the time, Luger was a pretty solid wrestler and it worked out well, leading to the main event here. Unlike the main for Starrcade 1987 (Flair vs. Ronnie Garvin) this felt like one of the biggest matches the NWA could throw out there at the time. The NWA would continue the roll they were on through 1989 with the Flair-Steamboat series.

The Card

The Fantastics are Tommy Rogers and Bobby Fulton. Williamd and Sullivan had a brighter future, even then.

Apparently the Bushwackers were supposed to be in this, but Vince signed them away.

Not sure if it’s supposed to be booked this way, but the champs are getting no offense in whatsoever.

JR is putting over Dr. Death like a million bucks…of course.

Williams and Sullivan win the title when Williams pins Fulton in 15:50. Hotshot for the win. Pretty solid hard hitting opener. Match was clear designed for Williamd and Sullivan to get over.

The Midnight Express vs. The Original Midnight Express

Jim Cornette’s Stan Lane and Bobby Eaton (the most popular version) against Paul E’s Dennis Condrey and Randy Rose.

Kinda amazing not only how long Paul Heyman has been around, but how many different things he’s done in wrestling.

The story is really a battle of managers. To be fair, this seems like the older teams comes back to take back their glory angle, but it seems quite well done here.

Referee asking the crowd if the Old Express cheated was interesting.

New Midnight Express wins when Lane pins Condrey in 17:46. After referee Teddy Long (playa!) determines the Originals used Paul E’s telephone as a weapon, the Express get the Goozie for the win. They get beat down afterwards. Pretty solid back and forth match, crowd was into it.

The Russian Assassins vs. Junkyard Dog and Ivan Koloff

If the Assassins lose their manager Paul Jones has to retire.

Pretty big downgrade from earlier.

The Assassins win when #1 pins Koloff in 6:47. Koloff has it won, but the #2 Assassin puts something in his mask and headbutts Koloff, leading to the win. A lot of whatever here. I don’t think the fans caught onto what happened in the finish.

Sullivan is locked in a cage here. This is the big blowoff to all the Varsity Club stuff.

Rick Steiner could really go at this point.

Dr. Death comes down and rings the bell, confusing everyone…

Rick Steiner wins the title by pin in 17:59. The ref, Steiner and Rotunda are confused about the bell. Even the cage comes down and Sullivan gets on the apron. Steiner shoves Rotunda into Sullivan and gets the pin. Really fun finish and a good match here too. Rick Steiner was pretty good at one time for sure. Crowd pops huge for Steiner’s win.

Bam Bam looks like a star ahead of his time here…but interestingly by 1998 he would look behind the times.

Bam Bam was just coming off his first WWF stint, which had mixed results.

Windham is a Horseman here.

What’s weird about Bam Bam is that he doesn’t look like he ages.

Always thought it was crazy how aerial Bigelow was.

Seriously Barry Windham used a clawhold?

Barry Windham retains by countout in 16:17. Both men end up on the outside, and Bigelow misses a charge and slams into the post, allowing Windham to get back in. Pretty good back and forth match, Windham seemed like a good workhorse back in the day. Disappointing ending though.

Rick Steiner interview. Very happy about winning the TV title. Of course he is.

Fans are mega into Sting here. Sting gets a dropkick to stop the Warriors from attacking early, which is smart booking.

Pretty crazy dive from Sting off the top to the outside onto Animal!

Dusty’s no selling comeback is pretty entertaining to watch.

Dusty is the face in peril.

Sting is getting a huge reaction destroying The Warriors.

Sting and Dusty win by DQ in 11:20. Sting has it won, but Paul Ellering breaks up the count for the DQ. Pretty basic match and the crowd was hot. Sting stole the show and no wonder he was the future of the company. Of course, another non-finish is pretty lame.

Flair gets a huge reaction.

Flair knew how to make strong babyfaces look great, and this match is no exception.

It’s absolutely jarring seeing Luger as this good wrestler. Leapfrogs, great agility, just a lot of stuff from Luger you didn’t remotely see seven years later.

Luger amazingly no sells the Figure Four with some flexing.

The story has been working on the leg, and there’s some great psychology here as Luger keeps going for slams and such, but always tending to, or even further hurting, the leg.

Ric Flair retains by pin at 30:59. Luger gets on fire and totally no sells a big forearm from Flair. Big powerslam and then the Torture Rack…but the leg gives way! Flair gets the pin AND the feet on the ropes, and Flair gets the three! Great match, Luger looked like a million bucks and Flair showed he was the best in the world at the time. How the NWA didn’t ride the Luger gravy train is surprising to me, but some of that sounds like it’s on Flair since he wanted to work with Steamboat. To be fair, those are some of the best matches of all time.

A very good Starrcade with a great main event. So what’s wrong with this show? Absolutely no historical significance here. This wasn’t a really important card in the development of Sting, and Luger’s career ended up with a choker label that could actually be traced to this match. I’m not sure Flair winning was a good idea…even though he was the man. Everything else? I mean Rick Steiner got development here, but nothing else really mattered in the long run. Even early on, I thought Starrcade should make of solidify stars. Despite Luger looking like a million bucks, that didn’t happen here. The first few Starrcades made Ric Flair, but Flair was already made here. Maybe I am being too hard on this aspect of the show, but does anyone really remember Starrcade 1988?

Great card match quality wise though. Can’t deny that.

Final Grade: B+

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWF Wrestlemania II

March 11, 2015 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

WWF Wrestlemania 2
April 7, 1986
Uniondale, NY
Rosemont, IL
Los Angeles, CA
Reviewed on March 15, 2014

Background: HULKAMANIA was running wild brother! In an attempt to make the 2nd Wrestlemania bigger than the 1st, Vince McMahon decided this would be the first one on PPV. Also, for attendance, this would be held in three different venues, which I’m curious to see what the thinking would be there. This had tons of celebrities as well. Weird fact as well: this was held on a Monday.

The three main events? Piper vs. Mr. T in a Boxing Match, a 20 Man Battle Royal and Hogan vs. Bundy in a Cage. That’s Piper, Andre and Hogan, so it makes sense.

The Card

Opening has a sax solo. I believe the sax was the instrument of the 80s, but I don’t really know.

Vince’s co-host is Susan St. James. No idea who that is. Ray Charles for America the Beautiful works though.

Piper interview! Pretty racist promo.

We start off in New York.

”Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff vs. “Magnificent” Muraco

Old wrestling makes me miss entrance themes.

Don’t know the whole story, but Orndorff turned face and sided with Hogan, and Muraco was on Bundy’s side. I think.

Orndorff with some good wrestling to start.

Double countout in 4:10. Muraco and Orndorff fight to a double countout. Fans chant bullshit! No idea fans had that in them in 1986! I don’t blame them, that was stupid, especially since Orndorff would have a Hogan feud later.

Mr. T promo. Speaks really quickly.

Story is simple: The Animal liked Elizabeth, Savage was jealous. Worked out well.

Animal bites Savage! St. James says “Yeah Animal, eat his leg!”

A lot of biting in this match.

Macho Man slams the Animal with a bouquet of flowers. Where’s the DQ?!

The Animal has eaten the turnbuckle! Did people really think this was real?

The Animal kicks out of the flying elbow!

Randy Savage retains by pin in 5:10. Savage takes down the Animal and gets his feet on the ropes for the pin. Match was horrible, but this was the George The Animal Steele character afterall. 2nd turnbuckle gets eaten.

Off in Chicago, NFL star Bill Fralic and Big John Studd argue.

George Wells vs. Jake Roberts

This feels like a jobber match.

Vince says Wells is Jake’s biggest challenge so far. So, easy road for Jake so far.

Jake was one of the great workers in wrestling right up until Honky Tonk Man almost crippled him.

Jake Roberts pins George Wells in 3:15. DDT out of nowhere. DAMIEN! Match was nothing.

Hogan promo! He’s with his “buddy” Jesse Ventura.

Ring announcer is Joan Rivers.

Darryl Dawkins is a judge. Bunch of other celebs I don’t care about.

Boxing Match
Mr. T vs. Roddy Piper

Oh god this can possibly go 10 rounds.

They got Joe Frazier for this.

If Mr. T is from Chicago, why didn’t they run this one for the Chicago main event?

Round 1 ends with a lot of punching. You know this is WRESTLEmania. Jeez.

I feel like the amount punches landing in round 2 doesn’t actually happen in real boxing.

Piper knocks down T and the crowd erupts.

Crowd heavily behind Piper now. He’s the heel, so that should show how well this match is doing.

Cowboy Bob Orton throws water at T.

Round 3 is all T. T even hits a shot where Piper goes flying out of the ring.

Round 4 starts with a wrestling-style slugfest. No blocking whatsoever.

Mr. T wins by DQ in 13:15. Piper slugs the ref then bodyslams T for the DQ. While it’s kinda entertaining, I still would have preferred a wrestling match at Wrestlemania, you know? I know it’s 1986, but that’s still a pretty lame show for the Uniondale crowd.

Off to the Chicago portion of the show. We have Gorilla Monsoon and Cathy Lee Crosby as your announcers!

Moolah is the Hogan of women’s wrestling, and that stretches to the backstage politic part of wrestling too.

McIntyre is owning in a fast paced match early on!

The Fabulous Moolah retains the title when she pinned McIntyre in 1:25. McIntyre misses a crossbody…and Moolah with the pin. Well that sucked. Especially since McIntyre looked like she could really go.

Flag Match
Corporal Kirchner vs. Nikolai Volkoff

Russian National Anthem! Gotta love the xenophobic fears of the WWF.

I believe the rules here is that the winner gets to wave his flag.

Kirchner is busted wide open…but that was obvious when they CLEARLY showed Volkoff cut him.

Corporal Kirchner pinned Nikolai Volkoff in 2:05. Freddie Blassie throws his cane in the ring…but Kirchner catches it and nails Volkoff for the win. It was so badly done that Monsoon thought it was a double cross. A lot of wasteful matches here.

20 Man Battle Royal: NFL vs. WWF

Some notable names: Andre, Bruno, Iron Sheik, Morales, very young Bret Hart. On the NFL side the only notable one is The Fridge. Seems like an Andre vs. Fridge finish makes the most sense, but that isn’t what happens here.

King Tonga, aka Meng is one of the first guys out.

Seeing Bruno in this makes me wonder why they didn’t ever run a Hogan vs. Bruno program.

Studd gets the last laugh eliminating Fralic.

Studd dumps Bruno too.

Bret and The Anvil oversell near eliminations from the Fridge, but then Studd takes him out.

Fridge calls for a handshake…and pulls Studd out!

Andre, NFLer Russ Francis, Bret and Neidhart.

Harts take out Francis. Harts vs. Andre.

Andre the Giant wins in 9:09, last eliminating Bret Hart. Andre kicks the Anvil and he oversells and goes flying over. Andre presses Bret over his head and tosses him onto the Anvil. According to Bret, he suggested this finish to Andre after Andre had a different idea, to the shock of the locker room (no one ever suggested changes to Andre). But, Andre went for it. Pretty bad match overall though, but again, this match really isn’t about the wrestling.

Piper interview with Vince. Piper said he was ready for a fight and that T cheated.

Ozzy Osbourne is out here as well.

Easily the best match of the night so far and we are only 3 minutes in.

Davey’s hanging vertical suplex is always impressive, but moreso back then.

Great teamwork from the Bulldogs. Unsurprisingly.

That piledriver from Valentine to Dynamite looks like it clearly hit Dynamite’s head.

The British Bulldogs win the title when Dynamite pins Valentine in 13:03. Finish comes out of nowhere. Dynamite whips Valentine into the corner but Davey was on the ropes. Davey takes a plunge to the floor, but Valentine knocked heads with Davey so goes down for the pin. Interesting thing about this match. It’s clear that the purpose was to showcase the Bulldogs. The Bulldogs dominated Valentine the whole time (because you can’t trust Beefcake to make anyone look good). It’s a good match, but nothing special or anything.

Time to head to LA.

Ventura, Lord Alfred Hayes and Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. What a cast of characters.

Hercules Hernandez vs. Ricky Steamboat

There’s a huge difference of talent here.

A lot of armdrags here.

Ricky Steamboat pins Hercules Hernandez in 7:19. Steamboat wins with a top rope bodypress. Nothing really to say about the match. Hercules controlled most and slipped on a banana peel when Steamboat got his legs up on a top rope move.

Adorable Adrian Adonis vs. Uncle Elmer

Crowd actually chants faggot at Adonis. How far we’ve come. I think.

Elmer somehow falls after throwing a punch.

Adonis is overselling everywhere.

Adrian Adonis pinned Uncle Elmer in 3:00. Elmer misses a legdrop. Adonis comes off the top with a splash for the win. Terrible, but you can tell Adonis tried with his selling.

I feel like the Adorable Adrian Adonis character is a shot at the original Gorgeous George.

Hogan promo brother!

Junkyard Dog and Tito Santana vs. Terry and Hoss Funk

For some reason Dory Funk Jr. is named Hoss Funk.

Terry Funk always does weird things in the ring…but intentionally. Like things that would happen naturally in the ring that would add legitimacy to it (like tripping on Santana’s feet and almost going over the top rope here).

Terry’s great here. Awesome save from Funk.

Really great hot tag sequence to JYD. Santana tries to get by Funk and eventually does so.

Funk takes an over the top rope backdrop. Wow.

Terry gets slammed on a table. What? This is 1986!

Terry and Hoss Funk when Terry pins JYD in 11:33. Jimmy Hart throws in the megaphone! Terry nails JYD and gets the win. Pretty fun brawl! Terry Funk was great. Another bullshit chant. Although I guess its LA’s first.

Here comes the cage.

We get 5 minutes of Hogan working out. Great.

Now we have a Bobby Heenan and King Kong Bundy interview.

Story is simple. Bundy avalanched Hogan three times, injuring his ribs. This is Hogan’s revenge.

Hogan’s ribs are taped here.

Bundy works the ribs and he rips the tape off (which Elvira calls as “he’s taking off more clothes! Oh it’s his belt”).

Another on camera blade. Not trying are we cameramen? Anyway Bundy is busted open.

Hogan survives an Avalanche!

Hulk Hogan wins in 10:11. Hogan outright no sells a second avalanche. Big slam. Legdrop. Escape for the win. Well, that’s classic Hogan for you I guess. It was pretty much a main event squash of Bundy. Hogan beats the crap out of Heenan afterwards. Seems underwhelming for a Wrestlemania main event…but that’s of course hindsight as this was only the 2nd Wrestlemania. Commentary was pretty bad there too, although hilariously so.

You know Vince didn’t like this show. That’s why he threw everything at Andre vs. Hogan for Mania III. The idea of expanding to three venues was weird. I don’t think Bundy was nearly a big enough name to headline Mania. Some finishes were lame (opening match double countout? Come on). Hogan vs. Bundy was underwhelming. Kudos to Vince for trying new things, but Wrestlemania 2 is largely forgettable. Heck I don’t remember half the show and I just watched it. No surprise that 70K less people bought this show.

The plus side: The Bulldogs match was nice, and the Funks weren’t that bad either…and I guess Hogan doing his thing was still a big deal in 1986.

Final Grade: C

Basketball

The NBA Minimum Age Limit Is Terrible.

March 9, 2015 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

This is more of an opinion piece if anything. I think the NBA age limit cheats the young players who look to play professional basketball. Recently the NBA has been looking to raise their age limit to 20 years old (or two years removed from high school). Currently the age limit is set to 19, or one year removed from high school. I was very against that decision at the time, and I’ll make those arguments why here. It should be noted the NFL has an age limit in place as well, but I am more on board with that as professional football takes a very different physical toll and there’s no track record of anyone succeeding at a younger age. This article is not intended to talk about the NFL though.

Let’s outline some of the reasons I’ve read here and there about why the NBA is considering changing the age limit…and some of the reasons I think they are changing the rules.

Reason #1: Players on average will be more mature entering the NBA at an older age.

On the surface this seems like a legitimate reason. People mature with age, right? Of course, there’s no data to really back this up which is the big problem with this argument. For all the troubled athletes that entered the NBA straight from high school I could find just as many who spent years in college and had the same issues. Would Kobe Bryant (accused of rape), J.R. Smith (vehicular manslaughter, multiple traffic citations), Leon Smith (psychological problems), Andrew Bynum (overall maturity issues), and Eddy Curry (many different issues) not have these issues if they went to college? I don’t know, I mean Gilbert Arenas (brought guns into the locker room), Allen Iverson (various), Metta World Peace (jumped into the stands and punched a fan), Zach Randolph (various) all went to college and have their issues as well. Heck, Len Bias went to college for four years and dropped dead due to a cocaine overdose 48 hours after he was drafted. There are plenty of NBA players who came straight from high school and they have their heads on straight (Tyson Chandler, Al Harrington, Kevin Garnett (mostly), LeBron James (mostly). So I don’t buy this.

Reason #2: Without a college education, a player coming out of high school who doesn’t make it would have no future.

If that’s the case, make all NBA players get a degree before joining. While there is definitely merit to this, the solution should not be “don’t let the high schoolers join”. It should be the NBA setting up a program that helps players get their degrees as well as help with financial planning. Shaquille O’Neal wrote in his book about how he signed his first contract with the Magic and immediately spent more money than he had available to him. He ended up getting a financial advisor. I get that dealing with agents and such is all tricky, but the NBA should really work on having their players educated on these issues so if they do have a career ending injury, there is back-up plan. Also, some of this is on the institutions as well. Not all academic institutions support their student athletes after the season is over. There’s no reason a NBA player still can’t get their college degree during their NBA career (like Vince Carter, for example).

Reason #3: Game quality will improve in the NBA.

This is absolute bs. Of the top 15 NBA players of all time, four of them came straight out of high school (Garnett, LeBron, Kobe and Moses Malone). They’ve won a combined nine MVP awards and have all been the focal point of NBA Championship teams. Nevermind that Jermaine O’Neal was an MVP candidate in the mid 2000s, Tyson Chandler is a former Defensive Player of the Year, Tracy McGrady, Dwight Howard and Shawn Kemp are top 100 players of all time and Amar’e Stoudemire is close. Considering the small amount of players that actually came out of high school in NBA history, this is pretty impressive and kills the whole game quality argument.

So yeah, all those reasons are pretty bad and do not offset the idea of a college player risking injury for no money because he doesn’t have the opportunity to play in the NBA. Especially for the NCAA…which is one of the worst sporting regulatory bodies period. The real reasons I believe the age limit is discussed is about money of course. The NBA owners are sneakily trying to shorten players’ careers…and as a result, the contracts they’d earn. That’s it. That’s the only reason I think the NBA wants to do this (okay, not completely true, they want to use the NCAA as a development league as well).

Just let me know when it’s okay to prevent a someone from potentially making millions while risking injury that could take all of that earning power away. Until then, let’s agree the current NBA age limit and proposed new NBA age limit are both terrible and bad for the NBA overall.

RDT World of Sport

RDT Reviews WCW Spring Stampede 1994

RDT Reviews the WWF 1994 Royal Rumble

RDT Reviews WCW Beash Blast ’92

RDT Reviews WCW Wrestlewar ’92

RDT Reviews the 1992 WWF Royal Rumble

RDT Reviews WWF This Tuesday In Texas

RDT Reviews NWA/WCW Halloween Havoc ’89

RDT Reviews NWA/WCW Starrcade ’88

RDT Reviews WWF Wrestlemania II

The NBA Minimum Age Limit Is Terrible.

And Games….And All Fun Stuff!