OOOLD SCHOOOOL

[The Cum Doctor]

WCW Nitro 25/03/1996

 

So this is the fallout from the Uncensored PPV. Wasn't a BAD PPV. Had it's moments to be fair to them.

 

The Belfast Bruiser vs. Randy Savage

 

It's Randy Savage. Curtain jerking. On Nitro. Well, I have to say, I'm surprised in a big way. The commentators big up Finlay as a credible man to fave Savage. He does a great job of living up to that as well, making Savage know that he was in for a fight! In the end, it was one crucial mistake that cost Finlay the match, which is acceptable, Savage being the wily veteran. This was really good fun. Savage wins with the Elbow.

 

Ric Flair is now heading for the ramp where Mean Gene is. He has a match with The Giant on this show I think, defending the title. Ric Flair doesn't seem to be intimidated by the task. He starts singing and stuff as well. Mean Gene brings up the KO from Lex Luger. Flair says that Luger is just a man who wants to be where HE is.

 

Konan © vs. Mr. JL - WCW United States Championship

 

Heenan : "What do you call a woman with two million dollars? Divorced."

 

The action is a bit slow and contrived at times which seems to be a pattern with Konan, but it became a pattern of Lynn too so who knows who it's down to? That's not to say that what's here isn't good though. Some nice counter wrestling can be found here and there isn't any botching going on. Thought the kickout of the Super DDT was a bit much, but other than that, this was pretty good. Konan retains.

 

Disco Inferno vs. The Booty Man

 

The Booty Babe seems to be the only good thing about this match as she gives Booty Man a spanking. Booty Man wins with a High Knee.

 

Lex Luger and Sting © vs. American Males, American Males, American Males, American Males... - WCW World Tag Team Championships

 

Lex Luger continues to be gold, with a massive fake smile and slapping hands when Sting watches. Bagwell gets pissed off with his antics and takes matters into his own hands, dragging him to the floor and laying a beating on him. Later in the match, Luger takes a receipt for that, beating the shit out of him in the ring. Of course, Sting and Riggs held their own in a good little match. Bagwell had the chance to break the count and didn't.

 

Sting shows sportsmanship which Lex Luger isn't willing to show.

 

Pre-match, Randy Savage tries to get his way to Ric Flair. Woman slaps Savage him during that.

 

Ric Flair © vs. The Giant - WCW World Heavyweight Championship

 

Flair shows no signs of backing off to get this match going. This match was just a long, long beating for Flair as absolutely nothing was working. But The Giant then does something absolutely desperate by going to the top rope and missing a splash. That didn't work for Flair though, but he then moved out of the way of a charge and Giant wound up on the floor. Flair uses every dirty trick he can to stay in the match. The Giant Chokeslams Sullivan because he thought he used a chair on him. Anderson takes one for shits and giggles. No contest.

 

The Giant just wanders away leaving a pile of bodies in the ring.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

EDIT: Wrong thread.

[air_raid]

My mom was greatly confused over Christmas back home when I didnt immediately watch all my new DVDs and instead watched endless old Coliseum tapes over trifle / mince pies etc.

 

Christ, it really does seem so much better than now. I was gobsmacked at how into the simple storytelling of matches like Shawn Michaels vs Virgil and Davey Boy Smith vs Warlord seemed to make me care about every talent, however nominal. Hell I even saw a decent Skinner match - ok he was wrestling Michaels so maybe I'm being generous, but the grizzled scrapper vs preening pretty boy wrestler tale was fun while it lasted.

 

I've never been higher than I am right now on the back catalogue of Ted DiBiase and the Model, and my guilty pleasures of Repo Man and Mountie never failed to make me laugh. OK, so it's not all plain sailing - I never took to the Bushwhackers and still despise Duggan - but it was great fun.

 

I also did a double take watching Invasion 1992 (having previously watched Battle of the Superstars 92) when I realized that "Needles The Taylor" also worked in a video store. Shockingly, Knobbs and Sags didn't recognize him. How rude.

[CleetusVanDamme]

I've been watching Beach Blast 92 for the first time in at least 10 years, great stuff!. I'm about halfway in, so far I've been treated to two fun little matches in Bagwell vs Valentine, and Ron Simmons vs Taylor Made Man. And two absolutely magnificent matches in Scotty Flamingo vs Brian Pillman, and Cactus Jack vs Sting, which given that they're nearly two decade old Lightweight and Hardcore style matches is incredible that they still hold up at all. Still to come is the Rude/Steamboat IronMan, the Windham/Rhodes/Koloff vs Arn/Austin/Eaton 6-man, and the fucking Steiner Brothers vs Terry Gordy and Steve fucking Williams! main event. God bless Bill Watts.

[The Cum Doctor]

Fuck me, that is one incredible top to bottom show!

[ozzfan]

Beach Blast '92 is a brilliant show, and one of the most star-studded PPVs of all time.

[The Cum Doctor]

I'm gonna give Beach Blast a watch fairly soon, but back to business.

 

WCW Nitro 01/04/1996

 

We don't even have enough time for an intro this week as The Giant is in the ring with Sting and we have a match!

 

The Giant vs. Sting

 

Sting wastes no time using speed and leg moves to get it going. Of course, it's wrestling and Sting resorts to changing the plan to punches and flying at him and bouncing off of him, because in a wrestling ring, people turn to idiots. Lex Luger hits the ring and the referee hits the ring. That was going on quite well between these two guys before Luger hit the ring.

 

We see that Jimmy Hart told Harlem Heat not to get in the ring with Sting and Giant and they ended up facing off against each other.

 

The Nasty Boys vs. The Road Warriors vs. The Steiner Brothers

 

There's a wee fued going on between these three teams I think! Great moment when Scott Steiner calmly strolls into the ring and then unleashes a massive Dropkick on Knobbs. Blind tags going on all over the place leading to the action just flowing brilliantly. No one team can gain any sort of control. The brawl winds up going to the floor and they have a big mammoth fight! The best referee in the world regains control though! It winds up going on a bit long and gets a bit repetitive. Public Enemy eventually join the fun. They throw Knobbs in and Scott gets the win. That was a lot of fun if a little long.

 

Arn Anderson and The Taskmaster vs. Hulk Hogan and The Booty Man

 

This is kinda shit. It's eventful at least but I expected much better. It was basically loads of crap offense from Hogan and Booty Man, and then a couple of minutes of Arn and Sullivan unleashing the same brand of crap. Incredibly disappointing given that there was some decent talent in there and you can always expect some goodness from them on an episode of Nitro. Interesting moment when the boos return for Hogan when he gives Big Boots to Anderson and Taskmaster and gets booed. Hogan wins with the help of the shoe of Booty Babe.

 

Arn Anderson and The Taskmaster jump the ring and attack The Booty Man before getting chased away. Post-match, Mean Gene is in the ring. Hogan: "It was a shoe in!" Hogan is sick of people getting the last laugh whether they win lose or draw. The Booty Man says that he has something up his sleeve that will let them get the last laugh, but he can't give it away. Probably because WCW told him not to.

 

Ric Flair © vs. Lex Luger - WCW World Heavyweight Championship

 

Lex Luger has a MASSIVE oppertunity to win a third title. I don't forsee a repeat of the Starrcade match of the late 80s here. Luger, who has clearly been a major influence on RVD, taunts after every move. The crowd don't seem to be sure how to take Luger here though. The crowd are mixed, but in a "do we boo or cheer? lets do neither" way rather than a "boo! yeah!" way. One hot coffee and feet on the ropes and the match is over as Ric Flair retains. That was the only offense outside of feeble chops that Flair hit.

 

Sting heads for the ring after and chases Flair away, but that doesn't do any good. We have a recap from the broadcast team and we're off the air!

[Devon Malcolm]

A few mentions of Beach Blast 92 here - anyone interested in watching it all should start here:-

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0QVTNzWAdo...feature=related

 

The previous parts are the preceding Saturday Night and all the following parts are linked. Full marks for Bischoff's shirt!

[benbobjr]

A few mentions of Beach Blast 92 here - anyone interested in watching it all should start here:-

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0QVTNzWAdo...feature=related

 

The previous parts are the preceding Saturday Night and all the following parts are linked. Full marks for Bischoff's shirt!

Thanks for the link, I have Beach Blast already, but am loving watching the preceding episodes of Saturday Night so far!

[Devon Malcolm]

Yes, just watched Scotty Flamingo v Brian Pillman, absolutely great match. And a heel winning clean!

 

I could probably have happily lived my life without seeing Taylor Made Man squashed by Ron Simmons though.

[The Cum Doctor]

WCW Nitro 15/04/1996

 

Arn Anderson and The Taskmaster vs. Hulk Hogan

 

This was supposed to be a tag match, but The Booty Man got hurt. Hogan locks in possibly the worst attempt at a Figure Four Leglock of all time during this match on Arn Anderson. Hogan gets the win with the Leg Drop in a pretty standard handicap match.

 

Hulk Hogan decides he wants Woman. Elizabeth gets into the ring now. He decides to go after Jimmy Hart. Atomic Drop on Hart. Hogan unleashes his fury on Jimmy Hart. The Giant is now heading for the ring. The Giant with the Chokeslam on Hogan. Hogan no sells that bad boy and then Slams The Giant. Hogan almost slams Mean Gene by mistake. What a lot of tripe to get this show going.

 

Right, so we have Mean Gene in the ring with Hogan. He just says he's gonna win the belt.

 

Public Enemy vs. The Nasty Boys, Hardcore Match

 

This just HAS to be better than what we just seen. Well, it certainly isn't hard, but they manage it. Given that most of the match sees the two of them using an already broken table and trashcans, this is actually a pretty brutal and chaotic brawl, so kudos to them for that. The commentators add to it by being fairly amused, in a good way, by the chaos that is unfolding. We also see a shot of the crowd looking more interested than amazed. Way to kill the buzz guys. The chaos ends with one of the Enemy crashing through a table and the Nasties win.

 

Saggs gets crashed through a table post-match. As if there was any doubts, this issue isn't over.

 

"Earl" Robert Eaton vs. Randy Savage

 

Randy Savage has another one of them matches which gets dominated by the other man. This time, Eaton is looking like a dirty bastard, and he also tries to rile Savage by copying Flair and bringing out a Horsemen t-shirt and stuff. Just generally being a right prick. Of course, this only serves to make Savage angry and he winds up laying a pretty heavy beating on Eaton. Flying Elbow and that's yer lot.

 

Savage is about to lay another beating on, and everyone comes to the ring to try and stop him. He doesn't care though and makes the jump. Savage gets handcuffed and taken away.

 

Ric Flair and The Giant vs. Sting and Lex Luger

 

The Giant repeatedly throwing Ric Flair into the ring is good fun. This causes some dissent between the two of them, but they get on with things. I've not seen many matches on Nitro that have so blatantly stuck to the tag formula, but this one did and to it's credit as well. It worked even better with the strange relationships between the members of the two teams. Luger ducks a coffee and it hits Sting and the ref rings the bell. Right, that was a good main event.

 

The Giant takes down Sting post-match with a Chokeslam. Ric Flair wants a pin after the bell. Aye, that'll work. Anyways, show over, and not a great one.

[MoistVaj]

I've just got WWF Superstars 92 set and Raw seasons 93 and 94 so hopefully I will be able to make some contributions in here next week.

Loving these reviews Haraga, keep them coming please!

[MoistVaj]

WWF Superstars 4th Jan 1992

 

 

We start off with Vince Mcmahon and Mr Perfect wishing everyone a happy new year and then it's straight into the action. First up:

 

Roddy Piper vs The Brooklyn Brawler

 

Your usual standard jobber match here, lasting a whopping minute and a half. Piper beats the Brawler with the sleeper, dropping him to the canvas and winning by pinfall.

 

British Bulldog vs Louie Spicolli

 

Christ, these poor jobbers dont get much offense in, do they? Another sub 2 minute squash here, this time the Bulldog hitting a textbook delayed vertical suplex, followed by the running powerlam for victory.

 

We're off to the event centre now to catch up with Sean Mooney who is plugging a live event at the Boston Garden for the Saturday night. Looks a good card too, Bret Hart and L.O.D vs The Mountie and Natural Disasters, Hulk Hogan vs Ric Flair and Repo Man vs Virgil. Some of the faces cut promos on the card, highlight being Virgil telling us how pissed off he is that Repo Man helped Ted Dibiase get his Million Dollar Belt back. Repo with his promo tells Virgil that he didnt steal the million dollar belt, he simply was doing his job. He was hired by the Million Dollar Man to repossess his belongings!

 

Next we're treated to highlights of the Rockers vs L.O.D from the end of the year. Michaels causes his team to lose by drop kicking Jannetty whilst he's about to be bodyslam by Animal, Animal falls frontwards with Jannetty still in his clutches and gets the 3 count. Jannetty is frustrated, and Michaels pushes him and blames him for the defeat. Jannetty is about to punch Michaels but thinks twice about it and leaves. Michaels left in the ring to soak up some of the heel heat. Interestingly Mr Perfect calls him a world class wrestler, which seemed odd with Michales still being a face. I'm sure older fans at the time would have seen the heel turn coming a lot sooner than I did at the time!

 

Anyway, back to ringside and we've got:

 

The Mountie vs Rudy Gonzalez

 

More jobber beatdowns here, this time from The Mountie, during the match Bret Hart pops up in the corner of the screen and begins to yell about how he's going to beat The Mountie at the Royal Rumble in two weeks time. Back to the action and The Mountie is about to win, with a kneedrop to the throat! Can't honestly remember him using that move as a finisher before, was this a one off or was this his usual jobber finisher? For added goodness Gonzalez is treated to the schock stick afterwards and the Mountie and Jimmy Hart leave to a chorus of boos.

 

 

The Beverly Brothers vs Scott Baizo and Ken Johnson

 

Longest match of the evening, this one taking the Beverlys nearly 4 minutes to get the job done. They actually looked pretty smooth in certain spots, including a really nice double team spot from the top rope and the match winning Shaker Heights. First match of the evening in which the jobbers have been allowed a small amount of offence. Nothing flashy though, a few chops and an attempted back body drop and then The Beverlys regained control.

 

 

It's Royal Rumble shilling time with Mean Gene as he runs through the participants for the Royal Rumble match, including a promo from Ric Flair and he guarantees everyone including Hulk Hogan and Sid Justice that he will be winning the Royal Rumble. Wooo indeed.

 

We then have Mean Gene at the interview podium in the arena and his guests this week are Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth. Randy talks about his Rumble chances and of course getting his hands on Jake the Snake. Miss Elizabeth says it would be nice for Macho to be champ again. Much like the matches, the interview segment was too short to be constructive but its Randy Savage so he can get away with it.

 

Vignette hyping Chris Chavis! I never knew he went by his real name on tv, obviously this didnt last long... Anyway, he tells us that he's sick of looking at Rivers, and now he must become the River. Not sure what on earth he's on about, but he does do his little war cry thing at the end to save the segment.

 

Main event time:

 

The Undertaker vs Richie Garvin

 

Short and sweet here from Taker, highlights being a huge flying clothesline and the mandatory Tombstone. During the match Mr Pefect came out with the following gem : '' If Richie is anything like the other Garvin's we've had around here, this shouldn't take The Undertaker long!'' Vince just responded by doing his dorky laugh. Taker stuffs Garvin into a body bag aftewards and it's time for one more trip to the event centre with Mean Gene, again plugging the live show at the Boston Garden. When we return, Vince runs down the stars appearing on next weeks show, and amongst them is Sid! Looking forward to viewing that squash match.

 

As a kid I'm sure I remember there being a least one featured match on Superstars each week, but I have a feeling I've mistaken it for Challenge or Prime Time?

 

Good fun show overall though, probably my favourite year in wrestling history so I'm a bit biased, so many great gimmicks and Flair being amazing the entire year too.

[King Pitcos]

Was a good read, that. Nice trip down memory lane. For all we complain about the shows today, they're a million miles better than the shite we watched as kids. Still, it was more magical then. I'd have been enthralled by that show when I was eight, watching Beverly Brothers squash matches and looking forward to my first Royal Rumble.

 

Did the Ultimate Warrior's storylines with Jake Roberts in '91 and Papa Shango in '92 ever reach a conclusion on TV? Dropping stuff like that with no explanation would be unforgivable now, but it seemed fairly commonplace then for there to be feuds that never went anywhere but (I assume) built matches for house shows.

 

Did Chris Chavis not have to "become" Tatanka in the run up to his debut? I remember back when he was first around, having a poster of him from a magazine that had his autograph printed on it and it was signed "Chris Chavis Tatanka" I think. They did something similar when he returned in 2005 as well.

[air_raid]

Did the Ultimate Warrior's storylines with Jake Roberts in '91 and Papa Shango in '92 ever reach a conclusion on TV?

 

Not really. Warrior's stuff with Jake was mostly just used in conjunction with promoting his feud with Undertaker, which would have continued had Vince not sacked him after SummerSlam, with Snake wrestling Sid - if Sid hadn't fucked his arm up good and proper.

 

As for Shango, all that ever happened on tv were angles and interviews, hype if you will, not much in the way of matches....

 

it seemed fairly commonplace then for there to be feuds that never went anywhere but (I assume) built matches for house shows.

 

Bingo. Up until the Raw era really kicked in, your tv existed purely as a vehicle to get people to come to the live show to see the matches between the guys programmed against each other. Other than WrestleMania (and occasionally at SummerSlam) very little was blown off on tv or even PPV.

 

Thinking about that 1991 stretch in particular, you had Warriors runs with Jake and Undertaker and prior to turning Snake's feud with Earthquake, and there are a whole slew of feuds highlighted in Survivor Series where the tv stuff was the hype - set up angles and no contests - but you had to come to the house shows to see proper matches with proper finishes. I refer to Flair/Piper, Hitman/Mountie, Boss Man/IRS etc. Hell, even Hogan vs Flair was never on telly.