Today’s wrestler was one of the first words I ever said: Bam Bam Bigelow.

Nikolai Volkoff vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

Nikolai jumps Bam Bam during his entrance but there’s almost no effect. They trade shoulder blocks with Bigelow easily getting the better of it. Some headbutts stagger the Russian but he bites Bigelow’s face to escape. A nice dropkick puts Volkoff on the floor and Bam Bam fires off some headbutts back inside. Nikolai heads outside again but Bigelow is right back on him in the ring. A flying headbutt to the face is enough to pin Nikolai and fire up the crowd.

Rating: D+. The match was nothing to see but to be fair it’s a Nikolai Volkoff match so there isn’t much that Bigelow can do. This was a good way to get Bigelow over as I believe it was his first televised match. He would be much better against a more talented opponent though and that would come soon.

Bigelow would be a big deal almost immediately and join Hulk Hogan in the main event of the first Survivor Series against Andre the Giant’s team.

Team Andre the Giant vs. Team Hulk Hogan

Andre the Giant, King Kong Bundy, One Man Gang, Butch Reed, Rick Rude
Hulk Hogan, Bam Bam Bigelow, Don Muraco, Ken Patera, Paul Orndorff

After Andre’s team comes out, we go to the back for a great late 80s Hogan insane promo. He talks about how hungry all of his team is and apparently he trusts Orndorff again. Muraco is subbing for an injured Billy Graham who would never wrestle again if I remember correctly. To say the place erupts for Hogan is an understatement. Muraco and Rude get things going here. Again there aren’t many feuds going on here other than Hogan vs. Andre. Rude and Orndorff are feuding but other than that I don’t think there were any established programs already.

Rude gets knocked into the corner and quintuple teamed before it’s off to Orndorff for the tag. Paul knocks him around a bit and here’s Hogan to blow the roof off the place again. He drops a bunch of elbows on Rude and here’s Bigelow with a splash for no cover. Bigelow gorilla presses Rude and here’s Patera who never got back to where he was before his jail stint.

Off to Reed who has about as much luck as Rude had earlier. Muraco comes in and dropkicks Reed down as does Orndorff. Paul beats on him for a bit and it’s a double clothesline from Hogan and Orndorff, leading to the big leg and a 5-4 lead for Hogan and company. Andre comes in while Hogan is celebrating, but Joey Marella (Gorilla’s adopted son) says a high five to Patera counted as a tag so the teasing of the crowd continues.

Andre, the Frenchman that he is, thinks Patera is beneath him and tags out to Bundy. Patera clotheslines Bundy down but King tags in Gang to beat on Orndorff. Paul is all like BRING IT ON and punches Gang in the head, only to charge into a knee in the corner to bring him right back down. Off to Rude who gets his own head taken off by a clothesline. It’s been ALL Hulk N Pals so far.

Rude pokes Muraco in the eye and it’s off to Gang, but OMG misses a splash in the corner. Patera gets in and pounds away on Gang even more with right hands and a knee in the corner. Gang goes to the eyes which of course makes Jesse happy. Patera tries to fight back but they clothesline each other and Gang falls on top of him for the pin, making it 4-4. Hogan comes in immediately to take over but quickly brings in Bam Bam for a double big boot.

Bigelow is probably the second most popular guy in the company at this point or third at worst behind only Hogan and Savage. They hit head to head and it’s a double tag to Rude and Orndorff. Paul goes nuts on him but as he loads up the piledriver, Bundy jumps him from behind, giving Rude a quick rollup pin. That would be it for Orndorff in the WWF, at least in major spots.

Bigelow comes in and suplexes Rude down before tagging out to Hogan for a high knee (!). A powerslam from Muraco to take Rude out and it’s Gang, Bundy and Andre vs. Bigelow, Hogan and Muraco. Muraco goes after Bundy’s leg which is pretty good strategy. Granted it doesn’t work but at least it was a good idea. Gang comes in and Muraco can’t slam him because he’s really fat. The splash eliminates Muraco and it’s 3-2.

Gang vs. Bigelow now with Bigelow trying a sunset flip, only to get crushed by the power of fat. Bundy clotheslines Bigelow inside out and Jesse says Hogan is going to run if Bigelow gets eliminated. Gorilla RUNS to Hogan’s defense and Jesse freaks. Gang and Bigelow collide and Hogan looks like he’s about to cry. Andre finally comes in and Bigelow looks TINY compared to him.

Bigelow slides between Andre’s legs and FINALLY it’s Hogan vs. Andre. Hogan pounds away and blocks a headbutt and Andre is in trouble. Hogan decks Bundy and Gang before elbowing Andre in the head. Bundy pulls Hogan to the floor and Hulk has to beat up both of the other monsters. He slams both guys, but he’s outside too long and Hogan is counted out. Hogan, the great sportsman that he is, gets back in anyway and is STUNNED, yes STUNNED I SAY about getting counted out. It takes the referees saying that if Hogan doesn’t leave, his whole team is disqualified.

So it’s Bigelow vs. Andre, Bundy and Gang. Bigelow starts with Bundy and clotheslines him down for two. A shoulder block puts Bundy down again and a headbutt gets two. A dropkick staggers Bundy and the King misses a splash. Bigelow hits his slingshot splash to eliminate Bundy and make it 2-1.

Gang comes in immediately and starts pounding away, hooking something like a front facelock. Bigelow gets rammed into Andre’s boot and Gang goes up. Oh this can’t end well. Gang misses a “splash” and Bigelow pins him to get us down to one on one. Let the pain begin. Andre pounds him down, avoids a charge, fires off a bunch of shoulders to the back, and a kind of single arm butterfly suplex gets the final pin for Andre.

Rating: B-. For a main event, this was perfectly fine. More than anything else, it continues Hogan vs. Andre. They had their first match about eight months ago and something like this needed to happen to extend the feud. That’s the reason for the amount of PPVs going up: you need another place to have major feuds. Andre has now won something in direct competition over Hogan and there’s a reason for a rematch. Maybe on February 5th live on NBC?

February 5 would indeed be a huge day as Andre stole the title and handed it to DiBiase. Since there wasn’t time to make a ruling, DiBiase was the unofficial champion for a few days, including this match in Boston on February 6, 1988.

Hulk Hogan/Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Andre the Giant/Ted DiBiase

As a child of the 80s, seeing DiBiase with the WWF Title is still terrifying. The heels get the jump on Hogan and Bigelow but you know that’s not going to last. Hogan puts Andre onto the floor and Bigelow rams Ted into whatever he can find. Referee Danny Davis gets in Hogan’s face and Hulk actually listens, allowing Bigelow to beat DiBiase up even more to officially get things going.

It’s quickly off to Hogan and DiBiase begs off. Andre tries to come in but gets clotheslined as well with a second one putting him on the mat. Hogan pounds on DiBiase even more as Bigelow gets in some more shots. Andre pulls Hulk to the mat and chokes him from the floor, allowing Ted to stomp away and take over. The Giant comes in officially as the heels are in full control with Andre headbutting away. Choking with the strap ensues and it’s back to DiBiase for the fist drops.

We hit the chinlock on Hogan but he vibrates to his feet and scores a double clothesline to put both guys down. The hot tag brings in Bigelow to hammer away but Virgil trips him up from the floor. The champ (that still hurts to say) goes up but gets slammed down ala Flair and the real hot tag brings in Hogan. It doesn’t take long to clean house as a big boot and legdrop pin DiBiase in only a few moments.

Rating: C-. This was just a house show main event and there’s nothing wrong with that. The fans totally lost it when Hogan got in there to run DiBiase over and show that he’s the better man and coming after his title. It wasn’t supposed to be a great match and there’s nothing wrong with this going the way it did.

Bigelow would go down with a knee injury soon after this, putting him out for a few months. He would pop up in the NWA at Starrcade 1988, challenging Barry Windham for the US Title.

US Title: Barry Windham vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

Bigelow is a four hundred pound bald monster covered in tattoos who wrestles like he’s about a hundred and fifty pounds lighter. Windham is a Horseman and defending here. Bigelow has Oliver Humperdink with him who was a lower level manager in the 80s while Barry has JJ Dillon who I’m sure you’ve heard of by now. Feeling out process to start with neither guy doing much in the early going. Barry takes it into the corner for some big right hands but Bigelow comes back with an airplane spin of all things.

The champion bails to the floor for a timeout before coming back in to suplex Bigelow down. Bam Bam pops back up and drills Windham in the face with a clothesline to send him outside again. Back in again and Bigelow runs Barry down one more time as Windham has no idea what to do here. A HUGE gorilla press puts Windham on the floor again as this has been one sided so far.

Bam Bam pounds away in the corner and Windham falls flat on his face. A dropkick sends Windham out to the floor as the fans are going nuts. Bigelow suplexes him down for two and it’s off to a chinlock. Barry fights up and finally gets in some shots to the ribs. Bigelow is knocked to the floor and lands on his knee to really slow him up. They head back in with Bam Bam knocking Barry down from the apron and hitting a slingshot splash. Bigelow lets him up for some reason before slamming Barry down, only to miss the top rope splash.

Windham lariats him down and is all fired up now. A belly to back suplex puts Bam Bam down in an impressive display of strength. Barry pounds down right hands in the corner and launches Bigelow out to the floor. Back in and there’s Windham’s claw hold for a bit until Bigelow staggers into the corner for the break. Bigelow is slammed down but Barry misses a top rope elbow. Bam Bam starts pounding away and charges into Barry, knocking both guys over the top and out to the floor. Barry rams him into the post and Bigelow can’t make it back in before the ten count.

Rating: B-. This was a big power brawl and it worked pretty well for the most part. The ending is lame but I guess the idea was to keep Bigelow looking strong. That’s rather odd given that Bigelow was pretty much gone from the company after this. Bam Bam looked good here though and we got a good match out of these two so this was a solid effort.

Bigelow would spend time in Japan as part of a tag team called Big Bad and Dangerous with Vader. The team was a success as they won the IWGP Tag Team Titles. They would face the Steiners on June 26, 1992 in what has the potential to be AMAZING. It’s also title for title as the Steiners’ WCW World Tag Team Titles are also on the line.

IWGP Tag Team Titles/WCW World Tag Team Titles: Steiner Brothers vs. Big Bad and Dangerous

Bigelow starts with Scott as the fans are already way into this. A leg trip takes Bigelow down but he’s quickly in the ropes to stop Scott’s momentum. Another takedown goes just as well and some running clotheslines drop Bigelow to the mat. He avoids a dropkick though and drops a headbutt to a fallen Scott before taking him into the evil corner. Everything breaks down and the Steiners are sent to the floor, only to come back in with their double top rope shoulder block to send the monsters outside.

Things settle back down with Rick coming in to face Bam Bam, who is quickly dropped by a Steiner Line. Bigelow takes him into the corner though and Vader comes in for the first time, drawing a nice pop from the crowd. Vader just mauls Rick in the corner with right hands but Rick comes back with rights of his own followed by a HUGE Steiner Line to put Vader down. That’s fine with Vader as he throws Rick down with a belly to back and crushes him in the corner.

Vader charges into something like a backdrop before Rick muscles him over with a German suplex. A running clothesline sends Vader back to the floor but the fans are completely behind him. Scott comes in off the hot tag and he goes up…..only to fall down with no one touching him. Vader isn’t one to pass up a botch and gets two off a running splash. Back to Bigelow who hits some kind of jumping kick to the face. Off to the chinlock followed by a vertical suplex for two on Scott.

Back to Vader for that running clothesline as Scott is in big trouble. The powerbomb only gets two and Vader is STUNNED. He hooks a dragon sleeper of all things before shifting back to a regular chinlock. Another splash gets another two count and it’s Bam Bam coming in again for a series of headbutts. Scott tries a belly to belly but Bigelow falls on top of him for two instead. Vader comes in again but walks into the Frankensteiner out of nowhere to freak out the crowd.

Everything breaks down as Rich hammers away, only to dive into a hot shot from Bigelow. Vader has lost his mask but is able to take Rick’s head off with a pair of lariats. A powerbomb gets two on Rick and Bigelow’s running splash gets the same. The referee gets bumped as Bigelow hits another splash. Back up and Rick hits a great looking belly to belly out of nowhere for the pin and the titles.

Rating: B. Well that was awesome. This was exactly what it was supposed to be: the Steiners doing some insane throws and the monsters just destroying them all match until the end. The Steiners were basically untouchable at this point, which is why WCW screwed them up for the sake of the Miracle Violence Connection because clean wrestling and all that nonsense.

Bigelow would head back to the WWF soon after this and squash jobbers until the 1993 Royal Rumble.

Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Big Boss Man

Bigelow jumps Boss Man in the corner to start and Boss is in trouble early. He gets whipped into the corner and a Bigelow forearm knocks him to the outside. This is one of those “do one move then stand around for awhile” matches. Boss Man comes back with some clotheslines and some punches to the “face” in the corner. Another right hand and a bulldog puts Bigelow down but Boss Man’s charge is countered by a backdrop to the floor.

Off to a body vice by Bigelow which is a rather dull move as usual. A hot shot puts Boss Man down for two and some shots to his back keeps him down. We hit the body vice again but Boss Man comes back with a suplex. It hurts him more than Bigelow though, as Bam is up first. Boss Man starts his real comeback with a punch to the face and a running crotch attack to Bigelow’s back. Bigelow gets a boot up in the corner and clotheslines Boss Man down. The flying headbutt gets the pin.

Rating: D. This was pure filler and not even entertaining filler. Bigelow was on the rise at this point while Boss Man would be gone in less than two months. On top of that, the match was really dull with Bigelow laying around and working on Boss Man’s back most of the time, which doesn’t make for an interesting match at all.

Bigelow would enter the 1993 King of the Ring and make it all the way to the finals against an exhausted Bret Hart.

King of the Ring Finals: Bret Hart vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

Bret more or less is being held together by duct tape at this point. They mention we might not have enough time to show the whole match, but since this isn’t WCW in 1998 that won’t happen. Apparently the winner “has to be” the #1 contender. Not really but whatever. Bigelow throws Bret over the ropes and Bret crashes onto the floor and Bret is dead. This might as well be named the Bret Hart Appreciation Match as it’s just the announcers talking about how injured he is and how he’s so brave.

Egads even I’m sick of it already and we’re 4 minutes into this. Oh but as courageous as he is, he’s destined to lose apparently. So Bigelow more or less gets away with murder here as Bret is just completely gone. They go to the floor and after a mini Bret comeback, the power is too much and he’s left on the floor for awhile. Luna comes out with a chair and I think hits him with it.

It was more like she was waving it at him to give him a breeze as she barely swung at all. Anyway, Bigelow comes out and gets him and the headbutt…gives Bigelow the win? Yeah, he actually got the pin on Bret who looked like road kill at this point. HOWEVER, since Bret put up such a tough try, another referee picks now to have his first time ever to come out and say that there was interference.

We’ll overlook the fact that Bret was dead and the headbutt was what beat him anyway for the sake of having a story. Since the referee, Earl Hebner in this case, like Bret so darn much, he sends him back into the match to get assaulted even more. So we restart the thing. Oh Fink messed up and said the decision was reversed but of course that was waved off. The announcers say the decision should be reversed and Bret should have just won anyway so there we are.

Bobby says Bret is going to need five new limbs. Thanks Bobby. Hart’s selling here is insanely awesome here. He actually hits a belly to back suplex which looked good all things considered. Oh look: Bret is getting beaten up even worse than before. He keeps surviving even longer though, eventually managing to throw Bigelow over the ropes.

Bret, despite having had his head kicked in all night, busts out a pescado as I’m impressed. He initiates the ending sequence but Bigelow powers out of the Sharpshooter. Bret hooks a victory roll though, an amazingly gets the pin as the place goes insane. That was a cool performance.

Rating: B+. This is all Hart here. I know there’s not a lot in the summary, but that was nearly a 20 minute match. Hart was selling like a salesman out there and made Bigelow look awesome. For some reason Bigelow never did anything of note other than feud with Doink soon after this which was always odd to me. Either way, the match here was intriguing to say the least as Bret sells his head off. Granted the restart was kind of stupid and I’m not sure why they did it but it was fine either way.

We’ll skip the next eighteen months or so as Bigelow had a horrible feud with Doink the Clown before joining up with the Million Dollar Team. At the 1995 Royal Rumble, Bigelow shoved pro football star Lawrence Taylor, which set up the main event of Wrestlemania XI.

Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Lawrence Taylor

R&B group Salt N Peppa sings What A Man live for Taylor’s entrance. Pat Patterson is guest referee to make sure things go as smoothly as possible. Taylor is a legit NFL superstar so this is an actual big deal as far as celebrities go. There are a TON of reporters and photographers at ringside plus the two teams so it looks like a lumberjack match. Before the bell, Taylor SMACKS Bigelow in the face and we’re ready to go. Oh and Diesel has been training with Taylor. Remember that.

A big forearm immediately puts Bigelow down and a clothesline puts him on the floor. The crowd is losing it over this stuff as Taylor looks GREAT. Back in and a bulldog (decent one too) gets two for Taylor. There’s a hip toss and Bigelow needs a breather. In two minutes, Taylor has already showed more skill and fire than McMichael showed in two and a half years in WCW. Lawrence follows him to the floor and a big brawl almost starts between the teams.

Back in and Bigelow gets in some shots to take over including a headbutt. A falling headbutt misses so Taylor fires off a big forearm to take Bigelow down. Bam Bam pounds him right back down and puts on a Boston crab which almost immediately shifts into a half crab. It breaks down even further into Bigelow just pulling on one leg. Now he just leans on it instead of cranking on it.

Taylor fights up again and hits a suplex of all things to give himself a breather. It’s a quick breather though as Bigelow pounds away even more. There’s Bigelow’s moonsault but he “hurts” his knee in the process. Lawrence kicks out at two (ZERO reaction for the crowd for some reason) and it’s time for a comeback. Bigelow ducks his head so Taylor tries something resembling a suplex that was supposed to be a Jackknife.

Bigelow misses an enziguri but Taylor falls down anyway. The top rope headbutt gets another two and the crowd reacts a bit. Taylor gets his last gasp of energy though and pounds Bigelow in the corner before hitting a pair of big forearms. A third from the middle rope is enough for the shocking upset.

Rating: B. All things considered, this was nothing short of a miracle. Keeping in mind that Taylor had zero experience coming in there, he looked amazing. They didn’t have most of the problems that most celebrity matches have as Taylor looked like he had actual talent instead of looking like he needed someone to walk him through everything. As a regular match this wasn’t much, but all things considered this was great.

After another stint in Japan it was off to ECW, where Bigelow fit in very well. He would win the World Title in the fall, setting up a showdown with former champion Shane Douglas at November to Remember 1997.

ECW Title: Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Shane Douglas

Now, hopefully these guys have something better to offer. It certainly can’t be any worse. If it’s even wrestling, it’s better than that. I would say that previous thing is why I would say I’m ashamed to be a wrestling fan, but since that wasn’t wrestling I’m clear of any such issue. We can’t hear Joey again over the music. Remember that these two are teammates in the Triple Threat. Challenger comes out last so it’s fairly obvious that we’re getting a title change here.

Bless my soul we’re getting wrestling! I don’t like Douglas but I can go with this easily now. There’s a LOUD Cornette chant which I don’t know if I missed the reason for or not. This is actually pretty good. It’s not great or anything, but it’s holding my attention. Bigelow is controlling it here which surprises me. I guess it’s because it’s easier for him to do something with Shane than for Shane to do something with him. That makes sense at least.
Shane stays in there at least with some decent stuff here and there which always helps keep a match solid. Another reason this match is decent: there are relatively few weapons shots. I can’t get on them for using a few as just about every major company used weapons a bit in their main events. A bit of them are fine, but use them in moderation. There’s simply no need to have them all over the place and using them from the opening bell.

That’s just freaking pointless. Anyway, Bigelow is more or less dominating this whole thing. I love how the people in this company would just come and go but the main event guys for the most part stayed. I guess that’s why they were in the main event: they were the only ones that were always around.

Oddly enough these two would be gone before the company folded but whatever. Francine tries to use a crutch and that gets her nowhere but scared right back down to the floor where she was before. Ok then. Bigelow keeps wprking on the right arm, which just looks odd as all goodness. Like I’ve said, hardly anyone not named Benoit ever did that. Since Bigelow has dominated the whole match, I would bet my house on Shane winning with a quick move.

Heyman does that all the time and it’s really annoying as it’s very predictable. And holy goodness I’m right as Douglas hits a belly to belly suplex out of nowhere and we’re more or less even. Bigelow gets a chair and a table as the fans are all behind Shane. He’s the hometown guy so at least there’s a reason for Shane to get the title here. With Bigelow dominating again, Shane hits a quick belly to belly through the table for the title.

I mean one second Bigelow was dominating and the next he was getting pinned. That’s not exciting or sweet. That’s stupid. It makes the champion look weak because he can’t kick out of a simple suplex and it says that his offense sucks when after 25 minutes of pounding on Shane he is able to throw a 400lb man around. I get that it makes Shane strong, but it makes Bigelow looks way too weak and that’s just stupid. The Triple Threat celebrates to end it.

Rating: C-. This is a match that looks good on paper but sucks in reality. It was long and drawn out, but that doesn’t mean it was good. That’s a big problem a lot of fans have. They think that more time instantly means better match and that’s simply not the case. The psychology here was so off that Freud couldn’t solve it. There was no flow to it at all and the ending was just contrived stupidity.

More or less it was Bigelow beating on Shane to set up a big moment for the live crowd and that just doesn’t work. They tried to make it a big moment and it kind of was, but the title change a month and a half before was to do nothing but let Shane win it here, and that’s just stupid as all get out. Shane would hold the belt for over a year, losing it in January of 99, which is so stupid I don’t have the time or the patience to get into it here.

That wouldn’t be the end of Bigelow’s success in ECW as he would challenge the unstoppable Taz for the TV Title at Living Dangerously 1998.

TV Title: Taz vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

Remember that Bigelow is the hometown boy. I love how they announce Bigelow’s weight and Joey says a different one during the match. That always amuses me for some reason. Bigelow hits a great powerbomb. He was always great at that move. Shame Diesel was using it in WWF so Bigelow couldn’t do it. This is a long brawl but there’s some wrestling in there to balance it out I guess.

They hit the crowd for awhile and actually Taz gets some solid cheers. And then Bigelow gets suplexed off the ramp and to the floor and both nearly die. Because that’s clearly the big ratings draw here right? We go back to the ring and Bigelow uses power stuff which Taz gets to suplex his way out of. See, THAT is how Taz looks good: when it’s Shane or some small guy that he’s throwing around it just gets repetitive.

The suplexes are leverage moves and now he’s getting to show what he can do with that leverage, making it seem far more important. The tables are brought in as we just have to have those because the wrestling here clearly isn’t good enough. We brawl on the floor AGAIN as I grow to hate Heyman even more. It’s ok to just wrestle in the ring guys. The fans are really restless here as they were popping like cherries for the wrestling stuff.

Case in point: Taz takes a sign to the head, fans are dead/booing. They trade punches, crowd cheers. See? It’s not hard to just have wrestling. Tazmission is locked in and Bigelow drops him through the ring. They climb out and Bigelow pulls Taz up for the easy pin. It looked cool and the fans all freaked out over it, but Bigelow couldn’t win with his shoulder piledriver to give us a standard ending? I hate that.

Rating: D+. The brawling was just too much here. This match wanted so badly to be good but the brawling and the tables and the over the top nature of it just killed the freaking thing. Paul just refused to accept the idea of two good wrestlers just getting out there and wrestling and that’s what wound up killing him off in the end. Sometimes the fans just want wrestling and while Paul tried to do that, he went too far most of the time and it killed things.

It would soon back to WCW where Bigelow wanted a piece of the undefeated Goldberg. That went badly for Bigelow so he settled for Wrath at Souled Out 1999.

Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Wrath

Oh this could be BAD. Bigelow is (kind of) fresh from ECW and few care. He was a huge deal there but here he’s a meal for Goldberg and nothing more. Wrath is more commonly known as Adam Bomb in WWF. I liked him there more than I should have I think. This is your standard power vs. power thing so while it’s ok, it’s not great. You can tell Heenan’s heart isn’t really in this that much. The problem with this whole show so far is simple: the wrestling is ok, but there is no point to it.

I mean it’s like why in the world should I care about anything I’m watching here? I have no idea why and for the most part I don’t care at all. It’s somewhat entertaining, but there’s nothing here I’m going to care about in a day or so. Wrath kicked the camera on a kickout. That’s kind of amusing. And both guys are down now. Wrath misses a charge and walks into Greetings From Asbury Park for the pin. Yeah that wasn’t interesting at all.

Rating: D+. Again, not bad but at the same time there was nothing here that I’m going to remember in a day or so. There’s just no emotion in the whole company and there is even less direction. Why are these two fighting? It’s never explained. Are either going to do anything off of this win or loss? Nope, because they’re not one of about 7 guys. No one ever had anything to gain in the company so guys like Benoit or Wrath or whoever had zero incentive to work hard. That’s not how you run a wrestling company.

Later in the year Bigelow would hook up with two other guys from New Jersey (Diamond Dallas Page and Kanyon) to form the Jersey Triad. They won the Tag Team Titles and defend them against Chris Benoit and Perry Saturn at Bash at the Beach 1999.

Tag Titles: Jersey Triad vs. Chris Benoit/Perry Saturn

This is the ONLY good thing about this entire show. Remember that the Freebird Rule is in effect but they can trade off who is in the match at any time, more or less making this a handicap match. The starters here are Bigelow and Page. As for the actual match it’s Page vs. Saturn. All three members of the Triad are on the apron even though Kanyon was announced as accompanying them.

Saturn cleans house to start us off, knocking everyone to the floor. Off to Benoit vs. Bigelow and Page is on the floor now. Bigelow hammers him down but Benoit gets a boot up in the corner. How often do you see a single clothesline drop Biegelow? The Triad hits the floor for a bit so now it’s Saturn vs. Kanyon. Kanyon was the betrayer that cost Raven and Saturn the tag titles a few weeks ago to get them on the Triad.

Saturn tries a German on Kanyon but Kanyon grabs the referee to block it. Off to Benoit now who runs over Kanyon. There’s that snap suplex and into a Liontamer. Benoit and Saturn clear the ring again and Saturn gets two on Kanyon. Benoit gets a backbreaker for two. Kanyon keeps getting beaten on as Saturn hits a top rope legdrop for two. Totally one sided so far.

Page comes back in without a tag and sends Saturn to the floor. Some heel shenanigans put Saturn down and we hit the floor for a bit. Silverman, the referee here, counts really slowly. Bigelow and Kanyon are beating on Saturn now as the fans are paying attention to something else. Bigelow hits a chinlock because the fans aren’t paying attention. That’s a veteran move there and proof of what experience can teach you.

Kanyon sits Saturn on the top rope and tries what looks like a Fameasser but crotches himself before he can hit it. Saturn hits a suplex off the top and it’s off to Benoit. He cleans house but the numbers catch up to him. Page goes insane for a bit, jumping up on the ropes to yell at the fans. He goes outside and keeps yelling, even climbing on the barrier. Weird.

DDP and Bigelow are the “legal” Triad members now. We’re told about how awesome Page is and how he’s held every title. The only other people I can think of that did that are Sting and Luger (if you count the NWA versions as title reigns which I do). Flair technically did but his TV Title reigns were in the 70s when the title was more of a regional one. Eh not that it matters but I love stuff like that.

Kanyon gets a sunset flip on Benoit for two. Bigelow beats on him for awhile as the crowd pops for something. Page gets his turn now as Benoit is getting destroyed. It’s to the point now where Saturn has to make saves. There’s the hot tag but the referee doesn’t see it. Page gets that WICKED helicopter bomb on Benoit for two. Love that move. Kanyon gets a middle rope legdrop for two.

Benoit suplexes Kanyon and Bigelow saves the tag again. Benoit is like screw it and suplexes Bigelow. The fans are distracted again as Bigelow counters a suplex into kind of a cross body. The moonsault that wouldn’t have hit even if Benoit hadn’t moved but he did move misses and there’s Saturn finally. Saturn cleans house with suplexes and kicks and Benoit is back in already.

Bigelow and Benoit are the only ones in the ring. Saturn goes up top as does Benoit. Splash by Saturn is followed by the Swan Dive but Page makes the save. Northern Lights gets two on Page. Kanyon has powder as the referee goes down. Powder to Saturn but Page messes up and hits the Cutter on Kanyon but he gets the foot on the rope. Crowd is WAY into this. The Canadian hits a German on an American for two. There’s a garbage can in the ring and the referee goes down again. Page cleans house with the can and Bigelow/Page hit a 3D on Saturn to retain.

Rating: B+. Like I said, this is the only reason to watch this show but it’s a pretty awesome tag match. The Triad would lose the titles after Flair either fired them or lost power next month. This was really fun though and it ate up over twenty minutes so it had more than enough time to develop. Very fun stuff here and it’s worth seeing.

We’ll wrap it up there as Bigelow would spend most of the rest of his time in WCW in the Hardcore division and then in the indies before retiring.

Bam Bam Bigelow was a guy that wrestled a style completely different from what you would expect from him. Almost no one could move like he could and he was consistently entertaining almost everywhere he went. He was the second most popular guy in the company in late 1987 and would have gotten a title run at any other point in history given his popularity. He’s another guy that died WAY too early as well, which unfortunately is a bad problem for people of his era.

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It hasn’t occurred to me that there are only ten days until Starrcade and it doesn’t seem like WCW knows either. There aren’t very many matches made for the show yet and one of the only matches has its only wrestler sidelined with a heart attack. It’s almost like this company isn’t thinking for the future at all and is making this up as they go. Let’s get to it.

We open with the announcers talk about Flair’s heart attack on Nitro before going to a clip of Scott Steiner offering Luger a spot in the Black and White.

Konnan vs. Kenny Kaos

I think this is non-title. Konnan comes out first for some reason. Oh my goodness I had completely forgotten Kaos was half of the Tag Team Champions at this point. Seriously, when was that last mentioned? Scott Steiner and Buff Bagwell storm the announcers’ desk and demand to know why Luger vs. Hall is happening tonight. Steiner says he’s here to keep an eye on Luger and to get Lex’s career back on track. He’ll be helping Luger beat Hall tonight. The camera is staying on the commentators for most of the match but as we cut back it’s Konnan basically squashing Kaos. Kenny comes back with something we don’t see and getting two off a middle rope legdrop. Konnan shrugs it off and wins with the Sunrise.

Here’s Kaos’ regular partner Rage with his arm still in a cast. He wants to know what’s up with Kaos teaming with someone else but Kaos says he has to make a living while Rage is out. None of this is on a microphone so the fans chant about wanting Flair.

Ric Flair’s family (minus Ric) arrives.

We see Flair having a heart attack again with the audio screwing up.

Fit Finlay vs. Mike Enos

Now the video is messing up as well. Finlay hammers away with a series of strikes in the corner, capped off by some European uppercuts. A splash gets two and Fit nails a clothesline to set up a chinlock. We head to the floor a bit so the beating can continue with Enos being sent into the barricade and down onto the cement. Back inside and we hit the sleeper on Enos before he fights out and nails a few clotheslines. The fans are bored and I can’t say I disagree. A nice shoulder breaker gets two for Mike and he follows it up with a nicer powerslam but he stops to gloat and gets rolled up for a fast pin.

Rating: D+. The match wasn’t bad but it certainly wasn’t interesting. This is the problem that comes with Thunder so often: these guys never do anything of note so why would I care to watch a just ok wrestling match between them? It’s one thing if you have Juvy and Kidman having meaningless matches that amaze the fans but seeing two power brawlers beat on each other for four minutes doesn’t cut it.

Enos beats Finlay down post match.

Bischoff wishes Flair the best in his recovery.

Here’s Hall in street clothes with something to say. He’s ready for his match with Luger tonight and knows Luger will bring his best because Luger is a world class athlete. Hall is all alone with no friends or family and now all he has is wrestling. He wants to be on top of the world and is ready to go through Luger to get there.

Tony and pals announce Kidman defending against Guerrera and Mysterio in a three way at Starrcade. We get some clips showing Kidman defending against both and dealing with the LWO.

Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Prince Iaukea

Before the match Eddie Guerrero comes out and says Prince isn’t wrestling tonight. The LWO surrounds Iaukea and the Prince is given a choice. He wisely walks to the back instead of dealing with this horrible gimmick, allowing Juventud Guerrera to replace him in the match.

Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Juventud Guerrera

Mysterio scores with a quick shot as Juvy gets in before sending him to the floor with a headscissors. Back in and both guys slip out of slams before Juvy grabs the namesake Driver out of nowhere for two. A tilt-a-whirl slam gets the same on Mysterio and they trade rollups for two each. The announcers of course ignore the match to talk about everything else. Juvy catches a charging Rey on his shoulder and drops him down for Snake Eyes. Eddie is coming to the ring and we take a break.

Back with Juvy still in control but getting caught in a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker from Mysterio for two. Mysterio misses a middle rope splash and gets caught in something resembling a bulldog for two. Juvy goes up for a dropkick but gets dropkicked out of the air in a nice counter. Not that it matters as Juvy comes back with something like a Liger Bomb. The distraction allows Eddie to sneak in with a Frog Splash to give Juvy a cheap pin.

Rating: C+. That’s pretty much the baseline for these two but this wasn’t much better than most of their stuff. The problem with the LWO angle is it’s dominating the division but there’s nothing for them to fight over as Mysterio is on the team as well, despite not wanting to be there and causing Eddie a ton of issues.

Post match Iaukea comes back out and tells the referee what happened. The referee buys it for no apparent reason and Rey wins by DQ. Iaukea and Mysterio run from the LWO before getting a bad beating.

Scott Steiner and Buff Bagwell come in to see Lex Luger (man alive did WCW love alliteration). They want to know what’s up with the main event tonight and if he’s joining the Black and White but Konnan comes in to say Lex is Wolfpack. Konnan leaves and we hear sounds of an attack. Luger goes outside and sees Scott Hall. Lex yells at Hall and checks on Konnan.

Shiima Nobunaga vs. Disco Inferno

That’s quite the random opponent. Disco comes out in a Wolfpack shirt and howls before the match. They trade armbars to start until Shiima hits a pair of dropkicks and cranks on an even better armbar. Disco fights back with an atomic drop and clothesline to send Shiima out to the floor. Shiima takes over with a Stunner across the top rope but charges into an elbow to the jaw. The middle rope ax handle from Disco sets up a chinlock before Shiima fights up and hits a quick reverse powerbomb (as in Disco’s face hits the mat) for two. A top rope cross body misses and Disco grabs the Chartbuster for the pin.

Rating: D+. What was the point of having Nobunaga in this one? I can’t imagine this show had a huge audience and it’s not like there weren’t dozens of guys that could have done this job just as well. The match wasn’t bad but we’re at the point where Disco Inferno is winning squash matches. That can’t be a good sign.

Remember the Flair Family arriving earlier? Here it is again.

Jerry Flynn vs. Norman Smiley

Great, a Jerry Flynn match. Of course he starts by firing off kicks so Norman grabs the leg to take over. Smart man that Smiley. The spinning slam puts Flynn down but he comes back with a belly to back suplex. Jerry tries a sunset flip but Norman stops to dance, allowing Flynn to pull him down for two. More kicks have Norman in trouble and Flynn puts on an ankle lock. A dropkick puts Jerry outside and it’s BIG WIGGLE time! Back in and Jerry fires off more kicks but gets caught in a sunset flip for another two count. Norman escapes a slam and puts on the chicken wing for the win.

Rating: D. I like that someone talented like Smiley is getting a push, but I had to sit through a Jerry Flynn match to get here. He’s another guy whose consistent employment boggles my mind. He was just a step above Glacier in ring work and had nothing interesting at all about him, but he kept a job for years.

We see Bischoff wishing Flair the best again. He promises to do the right thing.

Chris Jericho vs. Perry Saturn

This should be more entertaining. Jericho tries to get in a cheap shot in the corner and gets slapped upside the head for his efforts. They hit the mat for some technical stuff and Jericho gets one, meaning it’s time for an overblown celebration. The fans think Jericho sucks and Saturn eggs them on, so Jericho makes the referee cover his ears. Yep it’s better than the previous two matches already.

They fight over control again until Jericho gets tired of it and nails Saturn with a clothesline. Another celebration allows Chris to pop up and superkick him to the mat. The spinning legdrop gets two for Saturn and a swinging neckbreaker does the same. Perry goes off on Jericho in the corner but misses a charge, only to come back with a release belly to belly suplex.

A top rope forearm sends Jericho into the referee and you can smell Miller and Onoo from here. Saturn hooks the Rings and here’s Miller to break them up. He suplexes both Jericho and Miller but the numbers catch up to him, allowing Ernest to kick him in the head. Jericho puts on the Liontamer and the referee drops Saturn’s arm three times for the win.

Rating: C. The match was indeed more entertaining for multiple reasons, but the biggest is that we’ve been given a reason to care about these two. Rather than just having people who we occasionally see lose elsewhere, these are two guys who have had success in the past and it’s interesting to see them interact. Granted it was a way to push Ernest Miller even more but you can’t win them all.

Side note: Jericho’s eye got busted open off that forearm and there’s blood on the side of his eye. It looks borderline terrifying.

Bischoff again. It’s not the same promo but it’s the same idea.

The Flair Family is brought out, Ric’s wife hugs Tony, and that’s it for them tonight. So glad we spent so much time on this one.

Video on Nash vs. Goldberg.

Scott Hall vs. Lex Luger

Hall comes out with no music as has been his custom lately. Disco comes out to wish Luger luck but is ordered to the back. They fight over a lockup to start with Luger easily shoving him down and flexing. Hall grabs a headlock and here are Scott Steiner and Buff Bagwell down the aisle. Luger takes Hall down by the hair, much to Steiner’s approval.

Bagwell starts a Luger chant as Hall puts Luger down with a clothesline and puts on the double arm crank. As in Hall is grabbing Luger’s wrists and bending Luger’s arms behind his back. To really show the stupidity of this show, Luger spins it around so that Hall’s arms are behind his own back. Hall stays in the hold for several seconds instead of LETTING GO OF LUGER’S WRISTS. A low blow gets two for Hall but Lex comes back with right hands. There’s the forearm and Luger calls for the Rack, drawing in Steiner and Bagwell to attack Hall for the DQ.

Rating: F. For that arm thing alone. I can’t get over that. The match was nothing of note.

Post match Konnan comes out and says Steiner and Bagwell jumped him earlier. Wait, so he didn’t tell Luger this earlier in the hallway? Luger had like 40 minutes to get ready for his match and NEVER ASKED? How stupid are the people in this company?

Tony calls out Reid and David Flair to close the show. He’s about to talk to David but here’s Bischoff to interrupt. Eric says he doesn’t want any trouble and is so sorry for what he’s put the family through. It must have hurt David the most as the oldest son. Eric says David wants to be a wrestler and apologizes that David’s dad had such a weak heart. A shot to the back puts David down and sends Reid after Eric’s leg. This brings out Brian Adams and Barry Windham to easily hold Reid back and beat up David. Eric leaves and kisses Flair’s livid wife before WOOing to end the show.

Overall Rating: D+. There’s a lot to talk about here. First and foremost, I really question the logic of having Flair taken off television this close to Starrcade. With no Thunder next week (Christmas Eve), Monday is the go home show for the biggest show of the year and the main attraction of the second biggest match on the card isn’t on TV? Come to think of it, the second biggest name wrestling at Starrcade on the show tonight was Rey Mysterio. They’re doing a really lame job of setting up Starrcade, especially with a main event that isn’t the hottest thing in the world.

Second, this is Thunder arguably at its worst. It’s not that it’s bad wrestling as the matches certainly aren’t horrible and some of it is actually good. The problem is that most of it isn’t interesting. Of the matches tonight, three of them have people the fans would care about. We’ve seen Rey vs. Juvy a bunch of times, Hall vs. Luger was more of an angle than a match, and Jericho could have been any given wrestler against Saturn as the match was there to further another feud.

Finally, and this is a mild spoiler (for a show that aired over fifteen years ago so I think it’s ok): a lot of this stuff isn’t going to mean anything at Starrcade. Luger, Hall and Steiner won’t be wrestling on the show, making their entire story pretty worthless. You know who will be wrestling on Starrcade? Jerry Flynn, Norman Smiley, Fit Finlay and Prince Iaukea. The lack of common sense or logical wrestling booking knowledge in this company continues to astound me.

That’s it for Thunder this year as the next two weeks are Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. Overall, Thunder in 1998 was…..pretty freaking dreadful most of the time. There’s the occasional good match between the cruiserweights, but more often than not it’s a totally worthless show that adds almost nothing to WCW. Most of the guys on here are on Thunder because they’re not important enough to get on Nitro most of the time and their matches on Thunder aren’t much better. The show just doesn’t need to exist and it’s not getting any better as time goes on.

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Today is Billy Kidman. He fought Hulk Hogan a few times.

Rik Ratchet vs. Billy Kidman

There’s some trash talk before the match but I can’t understand any of it because of the bad acoustics. Kidman appears to be the face here. Ratchet chops away in the corner to start but walks into a backdrop to send him outside. Back in and Kidman kicks him in the chest for two as this is one sided so far.

Ratchet does a Flair Flip in the corner and Kidman clotheslines him out of the air on the way down for two. A slingshot legdrop gets the same and Rik wants a handshake. That earns him a crotching on the top rope for two but Ratchet’s manager trips Kidman up. Kidman goes after him but gets hit with some kind of a stick, which I guess is a DQ as the match just stops.

Rating: D+. Yeah this wasn’t much to see but Kidman was a rookie so what can you expect? The match being a glorified squash is kind of surprising but at least it was short. Ratchet didn’t show me anything either and to the best of my knowledge he didn’t go anywhere after this.

Kidman would make his Nitro debut on June 10, 1996.

Steven Regal vs. Billy Kidman

Kidman is a total rookie here. I think this is his WCW debut. Regal kills him for a bit but Kidman gets some stuff in and busts out a 450 (kind of) which misses. Regal puts on the start of a Liontamer but steps on Kidman’s head instead for the tap in less than a minute.

Here’s a slightly more competitive match from Nitro on March 17, 1997.

Chris Benoit vs. Billy Kidman

This doesn’t even last a minute with the Crossface ending it. That hadn’t been his finisher long at all at this point.

Uh….maybe Nitro isn’t Kidman’s show. Let’s try Thunder from February 5, 1998.

Juventud Guerrera vs. Kidman

Juvy takes over with a quick headscissors but an attempt at a second is countered into a reverse sitout powerbomb. The fans yell at Lodi as Kidman stops Juvy’s speed with shots to the back. Kidman reverse supelxes Guerrera onto the apron but Juvy comes back with a springboard missile dropkick to put Kidman on the floor. A rana takes Kidman off the apron and back to the floor but Juvy might have hurt his knee in the process.

The knee is fine enough to try a springboard legdrop but Juvy only hits canvas. Kidman goes to the middle rope but gets caught by a Frankensteiner for two. A nothern light suplex gets the same for Guerrera and the Juvy Driver looks to set up the 450. Juvy has to dropkick Lodi down instead though and Kidman hits a quick bulldog and the Shooting Star for the pin.

Rating: B-. That’s probably high but given how fast paced this was in the short amount of time it’s impossible to not be impressed. Kidman was great in the ring when he had someone who could go move for move with him and Juvy certainly fits that bill. For five minutes this was some high level stuff.

That worked so let’s try another Thunder from April 9, 1998.

Kidman vs. Psychosis

This should be good. Kidman takes over with some forearms to the back to start but Psychosis slams the back of Kidman’s head into the mat for two. Psychosis sends him to the floor and hits a big dive over the top rope which almost missed badly. Back in and Kidman hits the sitout spinebuster but stops to scratch. A sunset flip gets two for Psychosis but Kidman comes back with a bulldog while climbing the corner.

Kidman loads up a superplex and here’s Chris Jericho of all people. Psychosis shoves Kidman off and hits a spinwheel kick but there’s no referee. A victory roll still gets no count for Psychosis as Jericho still has the referee. Psychosis loads up the guillotine legdrop but here’s La Parka with a weak chair shot to knock him to the mat. Kidman hits the Seven Year Itch for the pin.

Rating: C-. This didn’t have time to go anywhere and it could give Russo a run for his money with the overbooking, but Psychosis continues to look good. It’s nice to see him get a story, even one as minor as the Flock fighting for Lodi’s honor. Nice little match here but the fans didn’t care.

Now I think we can try another Nitro, like this one from September 14, 1998.

Cruiserweight Title: Kidman vs. Juventud Guerrera

Juvy is defending. The fans aren’t sure who to cheer for here as things start fast. Some chops take Kidman down and Juvy rains down right hands in the corner to take over early. A missile dropkick sends Kidman to the floor as the fans are way into this. Kidman comes back in with a slingshot headscissors followed by a powerslam for two. We hit the chinlock on the champion but he fights up and gets a headscissors of his own.

A cross body from Juvy sends both guys to the floor and we take a break. Back with Guerrera getting two off a rollup but getting crushed by a slingshot legdrop. We go back to the chinlock for a bit before a lifting powerbomb (Sky High) takes Guerrer down for two. A wheelbarrow suplex gets the same but Juvy counters a belly to back suplex into a German suplex for two.

Guerrera goes up for a not great looking hurricanrana for another near fall before the Juvy Driver is countered into a reverse suplex from Kidman. The Shooting Star is countered with another hurricanrana but Juvy dives into another powerbomb. Kidman hits the Shooting Star for the pin, the title, and a BIG pop from the crowd.

Rating: B+. Excellent match here with both guys just going nuts for about fifteen minutes and one upping each other all match long. Kidman was one of the few guys that could hang with Guerrera in a high flying match and he more than did that here. The fans were going nuts here and the match was as good as anything we’ve seen on Nitro in months.

Here’s a title defense from Halloween Havoc 1998.

Cruiserweight Title: Kidman vs. Disco Inferno

Disco is challenging and is quickly dropkicked down to the corner. A drop toehold sets up an armbar from the champion before he just stomps a mudhole on Disco. Kidman gets a bit too cocky though and gets sent throat first into the ropes, followed by a neckbreaker for two. Disco tosses him outside but Kidman climbs up the steps for a bulldog down to the floor. Back in and the champion misses a top rope splash to give Inferno a two count.

We hit the chinlock on Kidman but he quickly gets up and hits a hard clothesline. Disco avoids a charge in the corner and stomps Kidman down before talking a lot of trash. A middle rope elbow misses after Disco wastes too much time dancing. He’s able to avoid a dropkick though and hit the jumping piledriver for a delayed two count. Kidman reveres a suplex but can’t hit his bulldog out of the corner. Instead it’s Disco getting two off a gordbuster but taking too much time trying the Macarena Driver. Kidman counters with a faceplant and the Shooting Star retains the title.

Rating: B-. Not as good as the Guerrera match but it still worked quite well. Kidman was awesome at this point and could have a good match with anyone (except Scott Hall of course) as the division is really getting awesome again. Thankfully the LWO wasn’t a part of this as it just isn’t catching my interest so far.

Kidman would start feuding with the LWO, leading to a triple threat against Juventud Guerrera and Rey Mysterio Jr. at Starrcade 1998. I’ll include a bonus with this match.

Cruiserweight Title: Rey Mysterio vs. Juventud Guerrera vs. Billy Kidman

Billy, the champion coming in, is a guy who used to be a very generic cruiserweight and then started wrestling in jeans and an undershirt which somehow made him much better in the ring. Juventud is one of the best high fliers ever and has lost his mask recently, because why would WCW want a piece of merchandise like that to sell for $25? Both challengers are members of Eddie Guerrero’s Latino World Order which was a pointless story given to him by Bischoff to keep Eddie from quitting.

Kidman and Rey are friends so they double team Juvy to start with Kidman sending Juvy into Rey for a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Juvy is hit with a pair of dropkicks in the corner and there’s a Bronco Buster from Rey for good measure. Kidman loads up Juvy for a shot from Rey but Guerrera moves just in time, causing Rey to hit the champion. Everyone starts hitting everyone now and it’s Kidman taking over. Kidman puts Rey on his shoulders for a top rope cross body from Juvy, only to roll Kidman up and send Juvy crashing to the mat. Billy counters that into a wheelbarrow suplex on Rey, sending him onto Juvy for two.

Juvy gets in a shot to both guys and manages to bulldog them both down at the same time to get himself a breather. Guerrera hits some hard chops on both guys but Rey sends him into the corner. Juvy escapes a German suplex from Mysterio, only to be clotheslined down by Kidman. Everyone is down again but Juvy sends both guys to the floor for a BIG dive to take them both out. The fans don’t seem to care which is rather surprising as the dive looked great.

Back in and Juvy goes up top, only to dive into a double dropkick to put him down again. Kidman tries to slide through Rey’s legs but gets pounded in the head by Rey. Juvy comes in with a springboard rana on Rey for two, only to have Kidman climbs the corner and bulldog Juvy down while dropkicking Rey down at the same time. Kidman goes up top for a splash but hits Juvy’s feet, allowing Rey to hit a springboard moonsault of his own for two. With Juvy sitting on the top, Rey snaps off a rana to send him out to the floor, leaving Kidman alone in the ring.

Rey heads back in and gets caught in a suplex by the champion followed by a middle rope legdrop for two. Everyone is back in now and Kidman hits a sweet layout powerbomb on Juvy for two. Rey bulldogs Kidman down for two more as it’s clear everyone is getting tired. The champion throws Juvy to the floor but gets low bridged by Rey, allowing Mysterio to hit a top rope Asai Moonsault to take both guys out. Back in again and Rey hits a gorgeous springboard rana on Juvy, only to be caught in the Juvy Driver (kind of a combination slam and piledriver) for two as Kidman makes the save.

Now Kidman sits on the top rope as Juvy launches Rey over his shoulders into another hurricanrana to snap Kidman down to the mat. Billy gets two on Juvy via a lifting powerbomb before a Rey rana takes both he and Juvy to the floor. Kidman goes up top and hits a shooting star press (standing backflip) to take the challengers out, drawing boos. The booing is due to Eddie Guerrero coming to the ring, distracting the referee as Kidman has Juvy rolled up. Eddie tries to break it up and give Juvy the title but Rey breaks up that cover, allowing Kidman to roll Guerrera up to retain.

Rating: B. Very solid opener here with a lot of great high spots to fire up the crowd. For some reason the fans didn’t get all fired up from it but that can’t be blamed on the guys in the ring. Some of those dives by Rey were incredible as he’s fully rounded into the star that he was capable of being. Kidman and Juvy hung in there quite well also though, making this quite the opening match.

Eddie FREAKS over losing and yells at Juvy and Rey, calling them morons, dweebs and sissies. Since his minions screwed up already, Eddie calls out Kidman for a title shot RIGHT NOW. Kidman is more than happy to oblige.

Cruiserweight Title: Eddie Guerrero vs. Billy Kidman

Eddie, in boots and jeans, stomps Kidman down to start before hitting a powerbomb for two. A small package gets the same as Kidman is clearly tired here. Off to an abdominal stretch on the champion with Juvy helping Eddie. Rey will have none of that and breaks up the assistance, drawing Eddie to the floor to yell at him, thereby giving Kidman a breather. Back in and Kidman goes nuts, pounding Eddie down with stomps and punches to the head to stun Eddie.

A punch to Kidman’s knee slows Kidman down though and it’s off to a leg lock with the arm trapped as well. They head to the outside with Eddie being whipped into the barricade but Kidman is rammed into the post as we head inside again. A bulldog puts Guerrero down for no count as Kidman pounds away again. Kidman beats on Eddie in the corner again but Eddie pulls off his boot to blast Billy in the head to lay him out. A brainbuster puts Kidman down again but the champion gets up and superplexed Eddie down to break up the frog splash.

Eddie climbs the ropes to hit a hurricanrana on the champion for no cover. Kidman instead counters a powerbomb by driving Eddie face first into the mat and stomping away again before hitting a slingshot legdrop for two. Eddie blocks a top rope rana but Kidman shoves him down again. Eddie’s bodyguard tries to get in, allowing Juvy to crotch Kidman on the top rope. Rey will have none of that though and crotches Eddie, allowing Kidman to hit the Shooting Star to retain.

Rating: B. Another solid match here as Kidman gets to look like a star by surviving all the cheating and nearly half an hour of wrestling. Mysterio wasn’t a willing member of the team as he had been forced into their ranks due to a loss to Guerrero. The theory was to have him feud with the group for costing Eddie the title here, but Eddie would be in a bad car wreck in less than a week, putting him on the shelf for five months and ending the team for all intents and purposes.

Kidman and Mysterio would team up to win the Tag Team Titles on Nitro. Here’s a title defense from Slamboree 1999.

Tag Titles: Raven/Perry Saturn vs. Billy Kidman/Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Chris Benoit/Dean Malenko

Raven and Saturn are back together again for some reason. The Horsemen (Benoit and Malenko) are heels. Raven and Saturn are rather popular. I really like WCW’s style in these matches as three are three men in the ring at once. Oh and Rey/Kidman are the champions. Kidman, Dean and Saturn start us off. Saturn is in a skirt due to a long story with Jericho.

Malenko gets beaten down and Saturn beats up Benoit who I guess got a tag. Saturn throws Kidman over the top in a release belly to belly. That landing looked SICK. You can’t tag someone from another team in this match. BIG Horsemen Suck chant. Raven covers Benoit and avoids a slingshot leg from Rey. Benoit and Kidman drape Raven over the top and then Benoit smashes Billy.

This is a very fast paced match so it’s hard to keep up with everything. A top rope splash by Kidman misses Benoit as Raven is on the floor. He manages to break up the Crossface though and double teams Benoit with Saturn. Frog splash to Benoit gets two. In a move that literally made my jaw drop, Dean launches Rey over his shoulder and Rey LANDS ON THE BUCKLE ON HIS FEET and hits a moonsault press for two. THAT WAS AWESOME.

Saturn dives on everyone not named Benoit and Raven. Benoit hits the Swan Dive to Raven for two but Saturn saves. The Horsemen double team Rey and now they beat up Saturn. The tagging aspect has been dropped for the time being. And of course just as I say that it’s officially Benoit vs. Kidman vs. Saturn. Kidman fights back and the fans cheer. BIG superkick from Saturn takes him down though. The crowd is really into this.

Benoit hits a springboard forearm over the top (think Jericho and his dropkick to the apron) to take out Saturn. The two of them are in the ring and a northern lights suplex gets two for the Canadian. Here are the Rolling Germans but Kidman makes the save. Dean gets a tag and gets rolled up by Saturn in a reversal to the Cloverleaf. Saturn is knocked to the floor and things slow down a bit.

Dean is like screw slow and KILLS Kidman with a powerbomb for two. Dragon Suplex to Kidman gets a delayed two. Dean tries to throw Billy into the air but Kidman hits a dropkick in mid air to break it up. Russian legsweep takes Benoit down and there’s the tag to Raven for a big reaction. He hits what we would call Three Amigos to Benoit for two. Back to Saturn who is a bit spent.

Rey vs. Saturn vs. Benoit at this point. Saturn saves a pin on Rey as Malenko and Kidman come in. Saturn and Benoit are down and Kidman isn’t sure who to jump on. Dean tries another powerbomb on him but Kidman rolls into a sunset flip. Everything breaks down and the champs hit a SWEET alley-oop rana to Benoit in the corner. They try it on Saturn but he hits a top rope sitout powerbomb to Rey for two. Arn comes in and hits a spinebuster on Saturn to HUGE heel heat. Someone in a Sting mask breaks up the Shooting Star by crotching Kidman. An elevated Even Flow gives Raven/Saturn the belts. Kanyon was in the mask.

Rating: B. This is better than probably any other match I’ve seen in all of WCW so far in 1999. They were all over the place in here and beating the living tar out of each other, which is the best thing you can ask for. Also the popular team wins off a big ending with the DDT. Very good match, but now things are going to fall through the floor, which is WCW in a nutshell.

Kidman would go to war with a group called the Revolution and was supposed to face them in three matches at Souled Out 2000. A bunch of injuries and card shuffling happened though so the matches were changed. Kidman still wrestled three times in one night though.

Billy Kidman vs. Dean Malenko

Kidman is one of the Filthy Animals and Malenko is part of the Revolution which was supposed to be a youth movement stable but it was changed into a military thing or something. This is under catch-as-catch-can which means a regular match but you can’t leave the ring.

Dean takes it to the floor quickly and the fans are loudly booing. We hear about what Kidman has to do tonight and I wonder why Douglas isn’t fighting for the Revolution tonight. LOUD booing now as Malenko keeps backing up. I have no idea if the fans know the rules here or not. Big crowd tonight too at over 14,000.

Kidman hammers away and Dean rolls to the floor, ending the match. Dean starts getting back in and I think he messed up here. This is exactly what this show didn’t need at all. Way too short to grade as it might have been two minutes long but the fans cheer for Kidman winning so uh….good? This was Dean’s last WCW match as he would debut as part of the Radicalz in 15 days.

Billy Kidman vs. Perry Saturn

This is a Bunkhouse match, meaning hardcore. At least Kidman’s music is kind of catchy. Saturn is freaking stacked as far as muscles go. Perry stomps away to start and gets a clothesline to take Kidman down. Big press slam as this is a regular match so far. Kidman fights back with speed and punches in the corner. Clothesline gets two. He tries a running headlock takeover out of the corner but gets crotched on the top rope and clotheslined to the floor. That gets two on the floor.

Back in the ring and Saturn does something to Kidman’s neck but gets rolled up for two. This is painfully boring. Springboard legdrop gets two for Saturn. Kidman’s shirt is ripped off and we FINALLY get to a weapon, in this case, a table which is laid face down on the floor instead of being set up in the ring. Ah there it is. Heenan: “Tony we could make a fortune in a table company.” Mike: “Heenan if you’re involved the only thing it’ll be is under the table.” That was good. Where is this funny Mike every other show?

The table is on the floor but Saturn can’t suplex onto him. Saturn gets an elbow from the top rope for no cover so Kidman grabs a sunset flip for two. Diving powerbomb gets two as does a Sky High from Kidman. Saturn throws Kidman over the top and through the table which gets two. It looked great if nothing else. Saturn tries a powerbomb from the top but gets backdropped instead. Out of NOWHERE Saturn tries another powerbomb (does he get paid per powerbomb?) but gets dropped in a facejam for the pin. This was Saturn’s last match in WCW.

Rating: D+. I’m starting to feel bad for giving these matches such low grades. They’re not really that terrible but they’re just so painfully uninteresting. I’m flying through this show and I’ve yet to see anything worth watching in it. Every one of the six matches so far range from just kind of there to completely uninteresting. There were some cool spots here and I like Saturn so I guess you could call this the match of the night so far….somehow.

Billy Kidman vs. ???

This is in a cage called Caged Heat, which means Hell in a Cell. Shane Douglas of the Revolution comes out to talk about how awesome the Revolution is and introduces the mystery guy. And it’s the Wall, a guy that has nothing to do with the Revolution until tonight. This is when Wall was still a total killer. Kidman finds a chair under the ring and cracks him with a chair to start.

So let me make sure I have this straight. A guy is thrown into the card to face a guy that joined a stable he was feuding with and I think a one day notice and is in the Cell with him. Got it. Standard small man vs. monster here with Wall taking him down with a big boot. Kidman is rammed back first into the cage and it’s all big man. Kidman gets a sunset bomb off the middle rope for two. He goes up, jumps into a chokeslam and we’re done. Five minute match in the Cell. I give up.

Rating: F. Not only was it a bad match, it was a bad match in the Hell in a Cell cage! I mean people, why in the world would you use that? If you’re going to change one match, change the rest too. Why is that so hard? Terrible match and a terrible ending to this three match system thing.

Here’s the biggest moment of Kidman’s career, from April 10, 2000. It’s not an official match but I have to include this. There’s a story about Kidman and the New Blood wanting respect from the old guard (the Millionaires’ Club) but it’s mainly about Hogan vs. Russo.

Here’s Kidman to talk about how the New Blood has been held down for so long. There’s one man he wants more than anyone else: Hulk Hogan. Kidman may not have Hogan’s body, but he has two things Hogan will never have: heart and talent. The only reason Hogan has that orange tan of his is because Hogan has been in the spotlight way too long. He calls Hogan out right now and gets the man himself.

Hulk is tired of Kidman’s whining and says Kidman is the kind of guy that gives the young guns a bad name. Kidman says Hogan’s run is over so Hulk insults Kidman’s girlfriend Torrie Wilson. It’s on now with Kidman getting the better of it until they head outside with Hogan hammering away.

Back in and Hogan talks some more trash. This brings out Bischoff with a chair for the screwjob. Hogan does the most obvious blade job of all time, clearly running his hand over his left eye a few seconds before Bischoff blasts him in the head. Even as a kid I knew it was a blade job. Naturally the cut is RIGHT OVER THE EYE as Kidman covers for a Bischoff counted three. Not a match of course and Hogan would beat him twice on PPV, but I had to throw this in.

Kidman would join the Filthy Animals and feud with whatever heel stable WCW had at the time. Here’s one from Mayhem 2000 where WCW managed to screw up the concept of time.

Filthy Animals vs. Alex Wright/Kronik

Ok so this was supposed to be Konnan/Kidman/Rey vs. Disqo/Wright. Konnan isn’t here so it’s Rey/Kidman as the Filthy Animals vs. Wright/Kronik but Kronik is leaving after seven and a half minutes. FOR THE LOVE OF CHEESE JUST HAVE A MATCH! Tygress gets on commentary. Wright and Kidman start us off. Ok make that Kidman and Adams start us off.

Disqo points out to the announcers that he’s the wrestler on the month in WCW magazine. This is far sloppier than you would expect. Adams hits the full nelson slam to Kidman but Wright tags himself in to try to get the pin. Since the time thing is going to be the ending of course it only gets two so Rey and Clark come in. Rey has horns on his head. What is with his odd choices in costumes?

Clark has a stopwatch going so he knows how much longer he has to be here. Basic idea here: Kronik beats up the little guys and then Wright comes in like the cowardly heel to steal pin attempts. Wright vs. Rey now. Madden hits on Tygress and after six minutes and fifteen seconds or so, Kronik leaves. They couldn’t even get TIME right? Wright gets in a bit of offense after that but a modified What’s Up ends him.

Rating: D+. They messed up TIME. Do you have any idea how hard it is to mess up a time angle when they allegedly had a stopwatch there with them? The match was just barely ok either with both teams just wasting time until the stupid part of the match could come into play. In other words, the big strong guys had no problems against the small guys but just left so the small guys could win. Give me a break.

In the dying days of WCW, the company would introduce Cruiserweight Tag Team Titles. Kidman and Rey Mysterio would lose in the finals of a tournament to become first champions. They would earn a title shot on the final Nitro though and get the shot later in the night.

Cruiserweight Tag Titles: Rey Mysterio/Billy Kidman vs. Elix Skipper/Kid Romeo

This was the final of the tournament to give us the original champions, 8 days prior. The announcers continue to insist how much WCW loves young guys. Romeo never did anything at all but Skipper wound up in TNA. Kidman and Mysterio I think you know of. Hot tags to Rey and Skipper as it’s pretty clear that this is going to be another 3 minute or so match.

Scott points out that the champions were just thrown together. Bronco Buster to Elix (really Elix?) and it turns into a huge mess. Rey with a springboard falling headbutt for two but Skipper makes the save. More near falls follow and Kidman gets out of Skipper’s Play of the Day and hits the Kid Crusher (Killswitch) for the final title reign in the history of the belts.

Rating: B-. Another 4 minute yet still entertaining match. I remember when the titles were announced that more or less no one wanted to see them but when did that stop WCW? This wasn’t anything special at all but it was pretty solid I guess. Skipper and Romeo were just thrown together and told they were the best team. The belts lasted 8 days so it’s not like they meant anything.

Kidman would jump to the WWF in the InVasion and do pretty much nothing for over a year, save for some Cruiserweight Title matches. None of them would mean anything until Survivor Series 2002. There’s no real story here but that’s often the case with this title.

Cruiserweight Title: Jamie Noble vs. Billy Kidman

Jamie is defending and has Nidia with him. Kidman grabs two very fast rollups for two and make that four in the first 30 seconds. Jamie bails to the floor but Kidman throws him right back in. Noble comes back with a neckbreaker and it’s off to a bow and arrow. Kidman gets thrown to the floor and Noble hits a suicide dive. Tazz: “I think Noble has something up his sleeve, but he’s not wearing a shirt so he has no sleeve.”

Back in and Kidman speeds things up with a back elbow and a dropkick followed by an AA into a backbreaker for two. A Falcon’s Arrow gets two for Noble so Kidman hits Tessmacher’s Tesshocker (belly to back suplex position but he slams Noble down face first instead). Kidman loads up the Shooting Star but Noble bails to the floor. That’s fine with Billy so he dives on Noble out there to take the champ down again.

Back in and Nidia distracts Kidman but gets knocked off the apron by Kidman. The BK Bomb (Low Down) gets two for Kidman as does a Tiger Bomb for Noble. They go up top and Kidman hits a sitout inverted DDT. That was pretty awesome looking but it only gets two. Noble hits Orton’s Elevated DDT for two out of the corner so Kidman hits an enziguri to take over again. Billy loads up the Shooting Star but a Nidia distraction….only delays Kidman as he hits the Shooting Star for the pin and the title.

Rating: B-. These two got going good and strong at the end which is exactly what you want from a match like this. When you can get into the area of a match where it’s one big move after another and you’re just waiting on one of them to stay down, that’s a great sign. The Shooting Star looked great too. This wasn’t a masterpiece or anything but it was solid.

We’re going to jump ahead a bit as Kidman didn’t really do much in WWE save for a meaningless Smackdown Tag Title reign. However, in 2004 he would botch a Shooting Star on Paul London and legitimately injure him. This was turned into an angle where Kidman was afraid to use it and his career was in trouble. London came back for revenge at No Mercy 2004.

Billy Kidman vs. Paul London

London sprints to the ring but Kidman runs. Paul wants answers. I’m not sure what the question is but I guess that’s up for interpretation. London controls to start and hits a leg lariat for two. A clothesline puts Kidman down and then out to the floor. London hits a sweet springboard moonsault but he might have hit the apron on the way down. Slingshot splash gets two back inside.

Kidman comes back by ramming his face into the buckle and kicking him in the face. London’s ribs are rammed into the post and Kidman goes after the ribs. All Billy at this point as he smacks London in the face. Apparently London had a broken nose recently. See, that’s something good a commentator can do: remind us of something that makes offense more vicious.

Billy stretches the ribs more and catches London in a gutbuster for two. Off to a seated abdominal stretch and London is in big trouble. Kidman gets back up and tries a tornado DDT for some reason. London blocks and hits an enziguri, but his powerbomb is blocked into an X Factor for two. Kidman tries a Low Down but London countered with a rana for two. London tries to speed things up but gets caught by a dropkick. Billy looks to the corner but walks off instead. He comes back at a count of seven and walks into a superkick. London tries a Shooting Star but it lands on knees. Kidman’s Shooting Star ends this.

Rating: C+. That was a solid heel turn match for Kidman. The rib work was great and the ending was solid too. I was liking this quite a bit with a good story the whole time, which is more than you can ask for more often than not. Kidman would be gone by June and London would get stuck in Cruiserweight Title limbo, but it was a good way to get there at least.

Kidman would leave the WWE in 2005 and wrestle several times in FCW but we’ll wrap it up now as this has gone on far too long. The problem for Kidman was he always had to deal with guys like Rey Mysterio and Juventud Guerrera who would just fly all over the place and outshine him. However, Kidman was more than capable of holding his own in there and had some excellent matches with a lot of people. He had some success outside of the Cruiserweight division, but as was often the case in WCW, he never got a huge push otherwise. It’s a shame too as the guy is very talented.

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After Monday dealt with the fallout from Extreme Rules, which was fallout from Wrestlemania, we get to deal with the fallout from the fallout here on Smackdown. The main story at the moment is Evolution laying out Shield to end the show, meaning we’re likely setting up Evolution vs. Shield II at Payback. Also Daniel Bryan has gone from a monster at Wrestlemania to Laurie Strode about a month later. Let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of the battle royal where Sheamus won the US Title, last eliminating reigning champion Dean Ambrose. This transitions into a recap of the main event where Evolution helped the Wyatts defeat Shield and beat down the Hounds of Justice post match.

US Title: Sheamus vs. Dean Ambrose

No Rollins and Reigns outside this time. Dean is favoring his ribs or arm coming in but takes Sheamus down to start. The champion counters into a headlock takeover followed by a running shoulder. Cole is already playing up Sheamus getting the title through less than fair measures, even though he won the match though totally fair and legal means. Sheamus cranks on the arm but Dean fights back with that kind of running Thesz Press of his.

They head outside with Sheamus ramming Ambrose into the announce table but getting suplexed onto the floor. Sheamus comes back with a rolling fireman’s carry as we take a break. Back with Dean fighting out of a full nelson and hammering away at Sheamus’ head. Sheamus goes shoulder first into the post and out to the floor, setting up a great looking suicide dive from Dean. Back in and we hit the Figure Four, which is some pretty lame psychology after Sheamus’ shoulder hit the post and barricade about twenty seconds ago.

The champ gets to a rope and comes back with the Irish Curse and a Cloverleaf. Another rope is grabbed and Dean heads to the apron, setting up the ten forearms to the chest. A big kick to the chest sends Dean into the ropes but he explodes out with a clothesline to put both guys down. Back up and the Brogue Kick out of nowhere sends Ambrose to the floor. Ambrose dives back in at nine, only to take a second Brogue Kick for the pin at 8:19 shown of 11:49.

Rating: C+. Again, I don’t see why this is supposed to be the start of a heel turn for Sheamus. He won the title in a match that is about everyone being in the ring at the same time where the announcers talk about how you have to watch your back. Then he beats the former champion clean with his finishing move. That sounds like one man being better than the other, not one man cheating to win. If that’s where they’re going, then hopefully Sheamus starts doing some heelish stuff instead of the turn being forced because the script says that’s what happens.

Rob Van Dam/Big E. vs. Bad News Barrett/Cesaro

Van Dam has a big black eye and Heyman is on commentary. The Bad News for the week is that climate change is coming and soon people like Big E. are going to be forgotten pieces of history. Barrett hammers on Van Dam to start but gets caught by the springboard kick to the face. Bad News puts on a chinlock as Heyman talks about Brock beating Undertaker. Another kick puts Barrett down and it’s a double tag to Big E. and Cesaro. Big E. takes over with the usual and gets two off the splash. A Rock Bottom out of the corner gets the same but Van Dam accidentally kicks Big E., setting up the Neutralizer for the pin at 2:38.

We look at stills of Bryan vs. Kane from the PPV.

Rusev vs. Kofi Kingston

Just Rusev now. We get another pro-Putin rant from Lana before the match, saying he should win the Nobel Peace Prize. Kofi fires off some kicks to start but gets crushed by a jumping kick to the face. A dropkick staggers Rusev and Kofi hammers away with right hands in the corner, only to have his sunset flip countered by a choke. The cross body gets two on Rusev but Kofi slams him down and hooks the Accolade for the win at 2:06.

The Wyatts come on screen with Bray talking about how the world must crumble because we’re all just slaves to judgment. Judgment tells him he must adapt and it is judgment that says he must bow to Cena. But where we’re going, no one ever comes back.

Bolieve!

Layla/Fandango vs. Santino Marella/Emma

Santino takes Fandango down with a headlock to start but the dancer slams him down. He takes too long dancing on the middle rope though and misses a knee drop, allowing for a double tag to the girls. There’s the Dilemma to Layla and everything breaks down. Emma loads up the pink Cobra but the guys fighting allows Layla to roll her up for the pin at 2:06.

Fandango and Layla kiss on stage.

Roman Reigns vs. Mark Henry

We get an inset interview from Henry saying this is about revenge for Shield attacking him 3-1 a few months ago. Points for continuity. Henry throws Reigns into the corner a few times before winning a slugout by going for Roman’s bad ribs. Mark talks a bunch of trash about how Reigns is by himself tonight and you can hear JBL cover up a laugh. He bends Reigns’ bad ribs around the post as this is one sided so far.

As I say that, Reigns comes back with the jumping clothesline to put Henry down for the first time. Roman tries another charge but runs into a clothesline from Mark. Henry loads up what appeared to be a Vader Bomb but Reigns lifts him onto his shoulders and plants Mark with a Samoan drop. The spear is enough for the pin at 3:45.

Rating: C-. This was a nice mini story with Reigns fighting through adversity and going into Beast Mode to win in the end. That’s the kind of win that makes Reigns look like a monster who isn’t going to be stopped and that’s exactly what he needs at this point. It’s not a masterpiece and was just a quick match but it was nice to see.

3MB vs. Los Matadores/El Torito

It’s Slater/McIntyre for 3MB here along with Horny. McIntyre clotheslines Fernando down for two to start before stomping away. Off to Slater as the big guys start tagging in and out to work over Fernando. JBL drops a Bastian Booger birthday greeting of all things as Horny comes in for some shots of his own. 3MB keeps up the tags until Fernando scores with a dropkick to put both guys down.

Horny: “TAG ME IN! I WANT TO RIP HIS FACE OFF!” Both small guys get tags and Torito starts biting, only to get punched in the jaw for his efforts. The Gore puts Horny on the floor but only seems to tick him off. Slater won’t tag in for some reason but does break up a pin attempt off a splash. Heath comes in legally but misses a charge, allowing Torito to hit a moonsault press for the pin at 4:23.

Rating: D+. The match was nothing to see but that’s become the standard for this feud. Speaking of nothing to see, did Los Matadores fall into a hole for the second half of the match? I’d assume they were fighting with the other full sized guys but the camera didn’t catch much of it if they were. This feud has run out of steam though.

Long recap of Bryan vs. Kane on Monday.

Mr. T. wishes us a Happy Mother’s Day.

Batista vs. Seth Rollins

This has potential. Rollins is banged up as well with a bad arm and misses a charge into the corner to start. Another missed charge sends Rollins to the floor and Batista ties him up in the ring skirt for a beating. The fans tell Batista he can’t wrestle before he pulls Rollins away from the ropes for a big crash to the mat. Back outside already with Seth going into the steps.

We hit the chinlock for a few moments before Batista goes after the bad arm by wrapping it around the post. Batista tries to pull Rollins out of the corner again but Seth backflips (mostly) to his feet. Big Dave misses a charge of his own and goes shoulder first into the post, allowing Rollins to hit some running forearms in the corner. A running sleeper slam from Rollins sets up the standing Sliced Bread #2 but Batista gets away.

Seth scores with an enziguri from the apron but misses the top rope knee to the head, only to run into the spinebuster. The Batista Bomb is countered and now the running knee sends Batista down to the floor. Seth goes up top for a dive, only to be sent face first into the announce table for the countout at 8:55.

Rating: C+. Give this another five minutes and it’s a far better match. This was another good sign for the Shield as Rollins can clearly hang in there with a big star in a longer match. He reminds me of a Jeff Hardy in the ring with all of the dives and it’s easy to get behind his comebacks.

Post match Batista lays Rollins out with a Batista Bomb.

Wyatt Family vs. Usos/John Cena

Cena runs over Rowan to start and scores with a quick release fisherman’s suplex. Harper comes in for one of those freaky looks of his so Cena takes him down with a bulldog. Off to Jey for some shots to the face before Jimmy comes in for some running shots in the corner. Luke comes back with a right hand of his own and it’s off to Rowan who walks into a Jimmy punch. Harper comes back in to take over on Jey with catapult into the middle rope for two.

Bray is legal for the first time and chokes even more as this isn’t the most energetic match in the world. Wyatt does the Spider Walk out of the corner but Jey kicks his arm away in a nice counter. A low bridge puts Bray on the floor but Harper breaks up a tag attempt. There’s the Gator Roll followed by a chinlock before it’s back to Erick for a headlock.

Jey shoves him into the corner and avoids a splash, finally allowing for the hot tag to Jimmy to face Bray. Cena gets in a cheap shot from the apron as Jimmy superkicks Harper down for two. Bray and Rowan double team Cena but Jimmy dives on all three of them. He goes back inside though and eats the discus lariat from Harper for the pin at 8:18.

Rating: D+. The match was fine from a technical standpoint but there was no energy to this at all. It felt like a dark match or the main event of a house show at the end of a long tour. Most of it was just punching and variations of chinlocks with no real big saves and almost nothing from Cena at all. I expected more from this one but it does advance the Family vs. Usos down the line.

Overall Rating: D+. This wasn’t much of a show as it’s really just a supplement to Raw, which wasn’t a great show in the first place. It’s cool to see the Shield wrestling on their own and they didn’t perform horribly, but the rest of the show really didn’t do anything for me at all. It’s really just a long set of matches that don’t change anything and won’t matter by the time Monday comes around.
 

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Slammiversary is looming and Eric Young doesn’t have a challenger yet. The problem with having a champion that defends every week is you quickly run out of fresh matchups, so TNA is either going to have to turn someone or bring someone up the card in a hurry. Other than that we get to see Bully want to put Dixie through a table in about 19 segments tonight. Let’s get to it.

Earlier today Bully Ray was driving to Nashville at the TNA offices to find Dixie Carter, thereby complying with MVP’s wishes to not go after her at the Impact Zone.

We recap Eric Young defending the title every week.

Speaking of Eric, here he is in street clothes to get things going. He talks about how awesome the reign has been but there’s one hiccup. Eric promised to defend the title every week but since MVP hasn’t booked him in a match, he’s going to book himself in one. We have an open challenge for tonight and here’s Bobby Roode.

Bobby goes on a LONG rant about how great he is before Eric says that Roode got a shot last week and got pinned. Roode says it wasn’t fair because he had to wrestle twice last week and goes on another rant about their history together in Team Canada. If Young gives him another shot and wins, Roode will never ask for another match. Young says ok as this segment took about eight minutes longer than it needed to.

MVP tells Young that he can’t do that and suggests Young take a few weeks off. If Young will, MVP guarantees that his opponent at Slammiversary will be someone Young has never faced before.

Madison Rayne/Brittany vs. Beautiful People

Evening Gown match under elimination rules. The Beautiful People are in black and their opponents are in white to make sure the alignment is clear. Velvet and Angelina double team Brittany in the corner to start as they’re actually treating this like a real match so far. Brittany fights up and makes the tag off to Madison who does moves that make sure her skirt flies up. Madison can’t strip Velvet’s gown though, allowing Love to trip Brittany up so Velvet can strip her for an elimination as we take a break.

Back with Madison down 2-1 and getting double teamed. It doesn’t last long though as Madison fights off both girls and is able to quickly strip Velvet to get us down to one on one. Madison has control for a bit until Velvet flashes the referee, allowing Angelina to spray her in the face and get the win at 11:00.

Rating: D+. They looked good, this was barely wrestling, next.

Dixie is in a bad mood and walks away from Spud, who is in a leopard print coat.

We recap Ethan Carter III vs. Kurt Angle.

Bram tells Magnus to become his old self again.

Kurt Angle vs. Ethan Carter III

Angle goes after the arm to start but Ethan backs off. A snap suplex sets up the Rolling Germans to Ethan but Angle falls down holding his bad knee. Angle tries to fight back with a German suplex but the knee is just gone. Ethan gets in a quick chop block and pins Angle at 3:27.

Rating: D+. This didn’t have time to go anywhere and the injury took up a good chunk of the match. I’ll give them points for keeping Ethan so strong and I kind of like not having Angle beat him with ease. It’s making Ethan look like a much bigger deal which is something TNA really needs to do.

After a break, Angle says he felt the knee pop.

Here’s MVP with something to say. He talks about how demanding this company is and how the fans are even more demanding. However, he can’t have Eric Young making his own matches because wrestlers are supposed to wrestle so TNA can abide. “And hey, the Dude abides right?” MVP says he has a major announcement about who Eric will face at Slammiversary but here’s Bobby Roode to interrupt. Roode says the same stuff he said to Eric and demands the title match tonight. MVP has the same reply that Eric did (you lost last week) and the brawl is on. The fans want to see it but referees break it up.

Bully is in Nashville but Spud says he’s not welcome here. Bully goes into her office anyway, yells at Spud for wearing green socks and sits in Dixie’s chair. He gets on the phone and tells the secretary to get the staff together for a meeting. Oh and a sandwich.

Knux and company are here. Rebel is in a rather revealing outfit and dancing with fire. A wooden crate comes up and Knux says it’s someone’s home.

Roode is ejected by security.

Tag Team Titles: Wolves vs. Bro Mans

It’s a ladder match and the challengers (Bro Mans) get a jobber entrance. Zema shoves the ladder over in the aisle to distract the champions, allowing the Bro Mans to jump them from behind with the ladder. Back inside and we get the bell but the Wolves are right there for the save. The Wolves load up the baseball slide into the ladder but the Bro Mans lift it up like a gate. The champions go back inside and set up a double suicide dive, only to hit the ladder faces first.

Jesse drops Davey chest first onto the barricade as the Bro Mans take over. They set up a ladder between the ring and some steps in the aisle but Davey escapes a suplex onto said ladder. All four climb a pair of ladders in the ring and a set of headbutts put all four back on the mat. Jesse makes a save by jumping up the ladder to stop Davey before Eddie suplexes Jesse over the top and out to the floor, only to fall out himself as well. Davey puts Robbie on the bridged ladder for the double stomp from the top as everyone is down again. The Wolves climb up, throw Zema over the top and onto the Bro Mans, and retain the belts at 7:00.

Rating: C+. There were some big spots in there but it’s another gimmick match that doesn’t really mean anything and doesn’t have the time to go anywhere because TNA flies through their shows as fast as they can. Much like the Ascension in NXT though, there aren’t many teams to challenge for the belts now and it’s going to get repetitive watching them beat up the Bro Mans over and over again.

Crazy Steve and the Freak (Rob Terry in a mask) break out of the crate.

Spud has lost Bully Ray.

Kazarian vs. Knux

The Menagerie is a carnival themed stable comprised of Knux, his good looking sister Rebel, two men on stilts, Crazy Steve (a clown) and the Freak (a masked muscle man). Kaz jumps Knux from behind to start but is easily thrown down. He does score with a top rope missile dropkick and a kick to the jaw but stops to yell at Crazy Steve. Kaz turns around and runs into the Freak, allowing Knux to throw him back into the ring. A Sky High powerbomb is enough for the pin on Kaz at 2:16.

Spud goes into the staff’s office and runs down Ray, only to turn around and see Ray behind him. Ray: “Get us a case of beer!” Spud: “It’s 11am!” Ray: “You’re right. Get us two.” Spud leaves and the staff says the new motto is Bully Fears Dixie. Ray has an idea of how to fix this.

As a result of the incidents last week, Anderson faces Storm next week.

Gunner tells Anderson that Storm is lying whenever he talks.

Dixie’s staff is now all drunk and in Bully Ray shirts. Spud panics and gets on the table to calm everything down. Ray says he’ll let Spud have the drones back if he tells Ray where Dixie is. Spud says he doesn’t know so Ray offers to leave if Spud will have one beer with him. Spud drinks it and gets powerbombed through a table. Ray steals his phone and gets Dixie’s address.

Willow talks about getting screwed over in the Dixieland match which started the evolution into what he is now. He wants revenge on Magnus.

Magnus vs. Willow

Willow gets jumped during his entrance as Bram looks on approvingly. A hard elbow drop gets two for the Brit but Willow fights up with a Whisper in the Wind and the flying forearm. The seated dropkick and mule kick put Magnus in the corner but he rolls outside. That’s fine for Willow as he kicks Magnus down and hits that sliding splash. As they head back inside though, Bram sends Willow into the steps for the DQ at 2:32.

Post match Willow is handcuffed to the ropes and attacked with a turnbuckle hook.

Angle has a broken bone in his leg and a torn ACL.

MVP calls out Eric for the announcement of the Slammiversary opponent. The boss asks the fans to cheer for the champ and says there’s nothing Eric can’t accomplish. He says Eric deserves the best competition there is, so here’s the opponent. Eric looks at the stage and MVP lays him out with a chain around his fist. He says he’ll see Eric at Slammiversary to end the show.

Overall Rating: C+. I liked tonight’s show for the most part but there are still problems. First of all they are setting up stuff for the future, but at the end of the day it’s still for Eric Young defending against the latest heel power figure. Actually he’s one of two current heel power figures as Ray is off in Nashville chasing after Dixie. That being said, there was some interesting stuff here and some fresh matches, so the good outweighs the bad. I just really hope the MVP stuff doesn’t dominate the show, which is about as stupid of a hope as I can have at this point.

Results
Beautiful People b. Madison Rayne/Brittany – Love ripped off Madison’s dress
Ethan Carter III b. Kurt Angle – Chop block
Wolves b. Bro Mans – Wolves pulled down the belts
Knux b. Kazarian – Sky High
Willow b. Magnus via DQ when Bram interfered
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We’re getting closer to Takeover and the big story is the lack of a challenger for NXT Champion Adrian Neville. After dispatching Brodus Clay last week, Adrian needs someone new to fight and odds are we’ll find out who that is tonight. The Women’s Title tournament will also continue tonight and since this is NXT, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Let’s get to it.

Opening sequence.

NXT Womens Title Tournament First Round: Emma vs. Charlotte

They circle each other to start until Charlotte takes him up against the ropes. A hard clothesline puts Charlotte down for one but she snaps Emma’s throat over the top rope to take over. We hit a figure four neck lock on Emma before she rams Emma’s face into the mat ala Madison Rayne. Emma fights up and nails another clothesline to put both girls down. She loads up the pink Cobra because that’s what WWE has done to her but Sasha Banks offers a distraction, allowing Charlotte to roll Emma up and bridge onto the legs (called Charlotte’s Web) for the pin at 3:50.

Rating: D+. This didn’t have time to go anywhere and the Cobra made it even worse. It’s one of the most annoying things about WWE and NXT: the people get over in NXT but then they make it to the main roster and the writers or whoever is responsible for these ideas have to change everything that worked and then blame the wrestlers when it doesn’t work.

The #1 contender to Neville’s title will be determined in a battle royal tonight.

Legionnaires vs. El Local/Kalisto

The Legionnaires are Sylvester LeFort and Marcus Louis who I believe is making his debut here. The masked men take over to start but LeFort comes back with a swinging neckbreaker on Local as things settle down. A headdbut from Louis has Local in even more trouble as the heels start some fast tagging.

Louis cranks on the neck for a bit until he runs into Local’s boot in the corner. The hot tag brings in the rather short Kalisto for some springboard cross bodies and a jump into an Edge-O-Matic for two on Louis. Everything breaks down and Kalisto kicks LeFort in the head, followed by a Tajiri handspring into another kick to the head for the pin at 4:17.

Rating: D+. This was too short for the tag team formula to work all that well but Kalisto was fun to watch with all of his dives. If nothing else this is the way to build up some opponents for the Ascension as they’ve run through all of the teams in the promotion with relative ease so far.

Adam Rose fires up one of his Rosebuds for his match.

Camacho vs. Captain Comic

Captain Comic is one of Rose’s friends dressed like a superhero. Fans: “MATCH OF THE YEAR!” Camacho destroys him with ease as we’re certainly in squash territory. We hit a quick chinlock as the dominance continues. A running Samoan drop sets up a powerslam for the pin at 2:36.

Rose comes out for the save post match.

Alicia Fox and Alexa Bliss don’t have much to say before their match but they both want the Women’s Title.

NXT Womens Title Tournament First Round: Alicia Fox vs. Alexa Bliss

This is Bliss’ debut and she’s in what Renee describes as a fairy costume. Fox is quickly taken down for a standing moonsault with the knees intentionally landing on Fox’s chest. Alicia comes back with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker for two and we’re already in the chinlock. That great looking northern lights suplex gets two for Fox and it’s off to the headlock. The beating continues for a few more seconds until Bliss grabs a small package out of nowhere for the pin at 3:10.

Rating: D+. This was just a squash with a surprise finish which is only so interesting. We didn’t get much out of Bliss here but she didn’t have the chance to show anything. Her winning is the right move but I need to see more from her to know what she can do in the ring. Fox is a decent enough test for her though.

Adrian Neville says he wants people to step up and challenge him.

Battle Royal

Aiden English, Baron Corbin, Bo Dallas, Brodus Clay, Camacho, Colin Cassady, Curt Hawkins, Danny Burch, El Local, Jason Jordan, Sami Zayn, Tyson Kidd, Tyler Breeze, Kalisto, Marcus Louis, Mason Ryan, Mojo Rawley, Oliver Grey, Sylvester Lefort, Xavier Woods, Yoshi Tatsu

Winner gets Adrian Neville at Takeover. It’s a big brawl to start until everyone gangs up on Brodus for the elimination. No one is eliminated for a good while until Ryan throws out I think English as we take an early break. Back with Kalisto avoiding elimination as we hear about Woods saving himself ala Kofi Kingston. The fans are behind Tatsu here as we’re still waiting on more eliminations. LeFort and Kalisto are gone as I type that and Sami Zayn slips back in from the apron.

Things slow down as they’re known to do in battle royals until Woods and Camacho chop it out in the middle of the ring. Woods gets a running start and eliminates himself and Camacho with a Cactus Clothesline. We have about nine left in the match. Jason throws out Mojo in an upset as Kidd gets back in over the top. Corbin throws Jordan to the apron and then kicks him out with a huge boot. Dallas knocks Corbin out with a clothesline and does the same to Yoshi a few seconds later.

We’re down to Sami, Breeze, Kidd, Ryan, Dallas and Cassady but Bo puts out Cassady and Ryan with ease. Kidd comes out of nowhere to dropkick Dallas out (fans: “THANK YOU TYSON!”) and we’re down to three. Breeze hits a Beauty Shot on Kidd and the fans are way behind the model. Sami throws Breeze to the apron but misses a kick and winds up on the apron as well. Kidd misses a charge of his own and winds up on the apron, leaving only Breeze in the ring. Both good guys pull him out but fall out at the same time for a triple elimination at 13:30.

Rating: C. The match was your usual battle royal but the ending was a nice surprise. Any of those three would be a good challenger for Adrian and that’s one of the cool things about NXT. I would assume it’s a triple threat which you would think goes to Breeze for heel vs. face but things aren’t always that basic in NXT.

Post match HHH comes out because JBL barely exists in NXT anymore and makes a triple threat for the shot next week. All three argue to end the show.

Overall Rating: C+. Here’s the difference between WWE and NXT. When something bad happens in WWE, they just keep going with the idea and expect the fans to go with it. When something bad happens in NXT, they have a show like this which fixes all of the problems. It’s no shock why I enjoy one over the other. This wasn’t about the wrestling but it set up a lot of stuff down the line, which is very important as well.

Results
Charlotte b. Emma – Charlotte’s Web
El Local/Kalisto b. Legionnaires – Spinning kick to the head to LeFort
Camacho b. Captain Comic – Running powerslam
Alexa Bliss b. Alicia Fox – Small package
Sami Zayn, Tyler Breeze and Tyson Kidd won a battle royal last eliminating each other

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Today is A-Double Austin Aries.

NWA Midwest X-Division Title: Austin Aries vs. Shawn Daivari vs. Justin Kage

This show is outside and the title seems to be vacant coming in. To really play up racial stereotypes, Daivari brings his magic carpet to the ring with him. Feeling out process to start until Shawn grabs a headlock on Kage. Aries bails to the floor to watch before charging into headscissors from Daivari at the same time that Kage is taken over by a headlock in a sloppy combo.

Aries sends both guys to the floor for a corkscrew dive before we head back inside for some more slipping. Daivari and Kage both hit moonsaults out of the corner for two each on Aries before they wind up slugging it out. Daivari loads up a fall away slam on Kage but gets German suplexed by Austin for a three man spot. One of the announcers keeps imitating Dusty Rhodes for some reason.

We get a Tower of Doom out of the corner with Kage getting dropped on the back of his head in a scary crash. Back up and Aries hits the running dropkick in the corner to Kage and a fisherman’s buster gets two. Aries tries a sunset flip but gets caught in a reverse piledriver (think Kaz’s Fade to Black) for two with Daivari making the save.

Daivari hits a top rope splash, complete with carpet, but Aries’ unnamed lackey puts his foot on the ropes. The same reverse piledriver from Kage is good for two on Daivari but with Kage goes to the floor to fight the lackey. Another lackey nails Daivari with the title, allowing Aries to hit the 450 for the pin and the title.

Rating: D+. So yeah indy wrestling like this is usually dull and this was no exception. It looked like three guys imitating stuff they had seen in ECW (thank goodness it was without the weapons) and while I’ve seen FAR FAR worse, this was nothing all that special. Aries and Daivari would obviously get better but they were still nothing great here. I don’t think Kage ever went anywhere.

Aries would soon head to ROH and would challenge the longest reigning champion in the company’s history, Samoa Joe, at Final Battle 2004.

ROH World Title: Samoa Joe vs. Austin Aries

Aries won’t shake hands to start but charges into the corner at the bell and hammers away. Joe shrugs him off and sends Aries onto the mat for a figure four neck lock. That goes nowhere so we hit a headlock takeover until Aries gets to the ropes to avoid a series of forearms to the face. Austin can’t take him down with a headlock and shoulder blocks have about the same effect. He tries another should and Joe just slaps him in the face.

Instead Aries goes after the knee and takes him down with relative ease. Off to an STF as color commentator CM Punk snaps off the history of people trying knee work on Joe to no avail. Aries dropkicks the knee to put Joe down again and we get a Flair knee crusher, only to have Joe pop up for an enziguri. Joe goes to work in the corner with a string of chops followed by the Facewash.

Aries absorbs some knees to the head but can’t pick Joe up for the brainbuster. Instead he gets sent to the floor but avoids the suicide dive, only to slide back in and have his suicide dive hit Joe’s boot. Joe hits the Ole Kick against two different barricades before asking for a fan’s chair. The third Ole Kick misses though and Joe gets caught up on the barricade. Aries comes back with a running dropkick to take Joe down and the champion is in trouble.

Back in and Aries has to fight out of a choke, only to get caught in a powerslam for two. A hurricanrana out of a powerbomb gets two for Austin but he charges into the Island Driver (kind of a reverse White Noise) for two. Aries breaks up the Muscle Buster and hits the 450 for another near fall but Joe is too big to lift for the brainbuster.

Instead it’s a sunset flip but Joe rolls through, only to get caught in a Boston crab. That goes nowhere either but the crowd is entirely behind Austin now. Another brainbuster attempt goes nowhere and Joe is getting ticked off. Aries responds by just hitting him harder but Joe gets fired up. Another kick to the knee puts the champion down though and it’s the brainbuster into the 450 to give Aries the title.

Rating: B-. The story here worked much better than I was expecting with the knee work coming back to haunt Joe later. I also dug the idea of Aries trying different offenses with the leg and the brainbuster before finally combining them to take the title. It’s not a great match but I liked it better than I expected to.

Aries would hold the title for about six months before dropping it to CM Punk. He would team up with a bunch of other young guys as Generation Next (a team he was part of when he won the title) before heading into the upper midcard. That’s where he was for an ROH vs. Dragon Gate match at Final Battle 2006.

Matt Sydal/Shingo/CIMA vs. Delirious/Austin Aries/Roderick Strong

Sydal is more commonly known as Evan Bourne as I mentioned above. Shingo is from Dragon Gate and CIMA might be as well. His name is pronounced Shima so this could lead to some misspellings. Also, I’m not capitalizing his name again. It’s the same thing despite what some would have you believe. Delirious is….yeah.

Aries is the only two time ROH World Champion so he’s something special here. Strong is a guy with something like 16 ways to hit a backbreaker. This is under Dragon Gate Rules which aren’t explained. Strong, Aries and Sydal were in a team called Generation Next together.

Apparently you don’t have to tag to switch off but you have to be on offense. Ok that makes sense. Delirious goes into a trance and goes insane once the bell rings. He’s definitely interesting if nothing else. He’s great in the ring if nothing else. He starts with Sydal who I’ll likely call Bourne at least once. This is your usual insane Japanese match and apparently the fans like Cima.

There isn’t much to talk about here other than it’s just general insanity the whole time. This is what you call a spotfest with some mild wrestling involved. It’s not bad or anything, but it’s not comparable to traditional matches. It’s weird seeing Sydal being considered a serious competitor rather than a spot monkey or jobber.

The fans like both teams. Aries is getting beaten down pretty fiercely. I think the team with the Japanese guys and Sydal are the heels even though Daniels, Sydal’s partner, was ridiculously popular. Fisherman’s suplex gets two on Aries. Strong gets the tag and comes in and he and Delirious clean house.

Cima is getting his head handed to him. With everyone brawling on the floor, Sydal goes up top and the crowd just rises to their feet. Great visual there. Delirious hits Shadows Over Hell (Splash to the back of a guy not on the mat) is followed by a 450 from Aries. This is totally insane. Cobra Stretch, Delirious’ submission, is broken up. Cima hits a package piledriver on Delirious for the pin.

Rating: B. This falls into that gray arena of entertaining but bad as far as flow or anything like that goes. Then again that’s kind of the point of the Dragon Gate promotion. This was supposed to be completely insane and it more or less was. It was fun though so I can’t complain much at all.

Aries would head to TNA for a bit as Austin Starr, where he would take part in Kevin Nash’s X-Division competition called the Paparazzi Championship Series. To this day I still have no idea what the point of this thing was but it was entertaining and got a veteran involved with the X-Division so it did its job….whatever that was. From Lockdown 2007.

Austin Starr vs. Senshi

No backstory to this, because I don’t think TNA can explain it either. Bob Backlund, a focal point of the story, is guest referee. This went on for awhile and there was something about Kevin Nash holding a tournament which turned into a talent show and the X-Division Title was involved somehow. It made no sense and I don’t think they knew what was going on with it. I say that about a lot of stories, but this was one of the stranger ones ever.

Starr is Austin Aries who is from TV Land. See what I mean by this story making no sense? Backlund tries to keep things civil and Senshi takes over with his high impact stuff. Senshi chops him a lot Starr takes over with a back rake and suplex for two. STO sets up the pendulum elbow for two. Powerbomb gets two and it’s off to a half crab. Some more back work eats up a minute or two.

Senshi comes back with kicks to take over. Starr gets backdropped into the cage and a Capo kick gets two. Austin takes over again because guys of this style don’t particularly care for selling. He hits a powerbomb kind of move out of the corner and uses the ropes for two. Backlund gets shoved into the ropes to crotch Senshi who was setting for the Warrior’s Way. 450 gets two. Starr shoves Backlund and Bob shoves him into a rollup for the pin.

Rating: C-. The match was fine, but I just don’t care about these guys. I have no idea what the point of it was and like I said, I doubt TNA did either. This was basically any match with these two in it that you would pick out of a pile. There were some decent spots, but it came and went and I don’t care. Just not my taste at all.

It was soon back to ROH, including this match against Silas Young (billed from 21 Jump Street) on April 19, 2008.

Silas Young vs. Austin Aries

Feeling out process to start as the announcers talk about Aries possibly joining the Age of the Fall. Both guys trade headscissors and takedowns until Aries knees him in the face to take over. They head outside with Aries still in control but he misses a missile dropkick to give Young an opening. Silas hammers away in the corner and counters a charging Aries with a gutbuster. Aries comes back with a series of knee strikes to the head and now the missile dropkick connects. The brainbuster is countered but Aries gets his knees up to block a splash. This time the brainbuster connects and the Last Chancery makes Young tap.

Rating: C-. Just a basic match here to open the show. Aries is a fast paced guy who can make a match like this work and Young was decent enough in his role to make the match work. At the end of the day though, there’s only so much you can do in a five minute match where the winner wasn’t really in doubt.

We’ll jump to 2009 as Aries is still a big deal in ROH and starting to gear up for another title push. He would try to get a bit closer at Eliminating the Competition in February 2009 against Sami Callihan.

Austin Aries vs. Sami Callihan

Before the match, Aries wants to know where his appreciation is. The fans should be thanking him for being here tonight because it took A-Double being added to a D level town like Danbury, Connecticut to make it a B level show. Aries makes fun of Callihan and offers a mocking handshake which Sami actually accepts. Callihan cranks on the arm to start but Aries takes over Sami’s arm to get control.

Now we go to amateur style with Sami easily riding Aries on the mat. Sami takes him down with a makeshift spinebuster before putting on what Luke Harper called the Gator Roll. Back up and Aries can’t suplex him but does knock Callihan to the floor with a knee to the back. We get a stump puller of all things from Aries followed by an STO and the Pendulum Elbow.

A Stroke gets two but Sami fights back with some kicks to the chest and a Diamond Cutter to a kneeling Aries. Back up again and Aries can’t hit the brainbuster before getting caught in a snap belly to belly suplex for two. A belly to back gets the same but Aries comes back with a running dropkick in the corner. The brainbuster connects a few seconds later for the pin on Sami.

Rating: C-. This wasn’t terrible with Sami being a guy I’ve always liked for some reason. Aries was just on fire at this point though and no one was going to have much of a chance against him. Callihan was trying out there and that’s all he needed to do in a match like this. I’m glad he eventually got into the WWE.

Aries would win the title in a few months and hold it for over half a year. One of his matches during this reign was a “dream” tag team match at Survival of the Fittest 2009.

Briscoes vs. Austin Aries/Davey Richards

So this is a dream tag team match. Richards is a tag team champion and Aries is world champion. The Briscoes are more or less tag team gods in ROH. Actually there’s no pretty much to that. Good night those are some awesomely bad sideburns. This is random but you have to remember that their TV show is taped about 6 weeks in advance in big long blocks of TV tapings.

So therefore, what’s going to happen in say early November has already been taped, so the outcomes are already known. Apparently in this taping cycle, Austin’s chant has switched from Austin Pervert to Austin censored, which he makes sure the crowd knows. That’s just funny to me for some reason.

Davey has a title shot that he can cash in but his tag partner is injured so he needed Aries to help him her. The deal is he won’t cash in tonight and he has a tag partner. Ok then. The Briscoes are named Mark and Jay mind you and Mark and Davey start us off. They spend a LONG time talking about Aries defending against Ruckus in Poland. I mean they go on for probably three minutes about it.

The announcers debate which team is better. Why would you even argue that? You have two guys that aren’t partners normally and brothers who have won more tag titles than anyone. Where’s the argument here? This is a rather slow paced match but it’s a slow build and not boring at all so I can’t complain there.

Apparently the Briscoes like to drink a lot. Good to know then. The odd thing about ROH is that in their I think 7 year existence, they’ve had one two time champion: Aries. That’s very odd when you think about it. He and Davey have a competition of throwing kicks on Jay. Not bad I guess.

And yep there’s your miscommunication as Richards misses an enziguri and Austin gets kicked in the head, allowing Jay to get the hot tag to Mark. They’re keeping it basic and there’s nothing wrong with that. With one match to go we have a match and a half left. That’s quite odd indeed.

The Briscoes crank it up by throwing off some double team stuff but the Doomsday Device doesn’t get to launch. Now we’re cranking up the speed and it’s getting better. Not that it was bad earlier but this is better. Mark and Davey do a brief strong style which works really well. I’m digging this in case you can’t tell. Aries accidently kicks Richards in the head and just walks out, allowing the Doomsday Device to connect for the pin.

Rating: B-. This was good but not great. I’ve never been a big fan of these kinds of matches but it certainly wasn’t that bad at all. The Briscoes are good but something tells me this wasn’t their best stuff. Aries and Richards seem pretty good but I didn’t get to see enough of Aries to really know. This was good but I wouldn’t call it a dream match.

Tyler Black would finally take the title from Aries at the 8th Anniversary Show. Aries would drop down the card a bit but was still a big deal. Here’s a match with him in his new role from Death Before Dishonor VIII.

Delirious vs. Austin Aries

Delirious is in his insane red tonight. Aries tried to injure Delirious and hurt his throat, setting this up. Again, simple booking can work best at times. The Express gets thrown out for the sake of a match. Mist is shot out almost immediately and Aries is in trouble. Who came up with that thing in the first place? It’s such a staple anymore that if you had trademarked it you would make a fortune.

Chokebomb by Delirious which is a rather cool move actually. Aries is still blind about 3 minutes in. Aries goes for a brainbuster on the referee, I guess just not noticing the shirt there. He gets some water in his eyes and now we’re ready to go. Out on the floor and Aries sets Delirious up for the Savage/Steamboat axe handle spot that set up their Mania 3 match and was also used to put Delirious out. This one of course misses though as we need to brawl more.

Hot shot gets two for Aries as he takes over. Cobra Clutch suplex gets two for Delirious as he hits it out of nowhere. He starts his comeback and lands like 5 sentons to the back of Aries. Cobra Clutch is countered and Delirious goes to the floor. Aries goes for a suicide dive and faceplants into the wall in a SICK looking bump. And here’s the Express for the CHEAP DQ! This feud is still going on today (well not today but when I wrote this it was) so you get the idea here.

Rating: C+. This was ok but the ending crippled it. Delirious is certainly different than most guys but in the ring I’ve never quite gotten the appeal of Aries. He’s good but I’ve never found him to be great at all. This was a decent match but the ending hurt it badly. The idea was supposed to be for Delirious to get his revenge and to this day he still hasn’t. I get stretching an angle out but this is a bit much.

Aries would head to TNA permanently in the summer of 2011 and immediately rise to the top of the X-Division. He would challenge for the title at No Surrender 2011.

X-Division Title: Brian Kendrick vs. Austin Aries

Kendrick is wearing a Genghis Khan head dress. I haven’t been incredibly impressed by Aries but I keep being told he’s the best in the world for some reason. They go to the mat quickly and that gets no one anything. They trade counters and Kendrick hooks a Fujiwara Armbar, making it the third match tonight where we’ve seen that submission. They speed it up a bit and Kendrick gets a headscissors to get a small advantage.

Aries is sent to the apron so he can chill a bit. Kendrick gets bored I guess and goes after him and back inside we go. Kendrick gets a kick to the head in and tries Sliced Bread but Aries heads for the outside. Brian rams him into the railing a few times and tries Sliced Bread out there which doesn’t work either. Aries gets a Russian Leg Sweep into the post to take over, getting two in the ring.

Back inside a pair of elbows gets two for Aries. There’s stump puller to really mix things up. A release STO sets up the classically stupid pendulum elbow which misses. Kendrick is sent into the corner face first but he manages to break up a running dropkick. Brian hits a bunch of dropkicks of his own to send Aries outside and we go back in again. There’s a missile dropkick for two.

Tornado DDT gets two. He tries Sliced Bread again but gets tossed over the top and out to the floor in a very nasty crash. Aries tries a suicide dive but Kendrick moves, sending Aries crashing into the barricade. They both barely beat the count back in and slug it out. Aries avoids a charge and Kendrick hits the floor AGAIN. What is that, 6 times already? Back in a running dropkick in the corner gets two.

Aries sets for the brainbuster but gets rolled up for two. Backslide gets two. Aries fires off a tornado forearm for two and an elevated DDT ala Orton for two. 450 misses but Aries rolls through. Kendrick grabs a tiger suplex for two. He tries sliced bread but the referee is in the corner. Aries kicks him in a place that isn’t nice to kick another man and the brainbuster ends this at 14:20 with a new champion.

Rating: B-. This was probably the best match of the night so far but it still was nothing to write home about, let alone half a page. They went outside so many times I lost count and the whole thing felt kind of boring. It wasn’t a bad match and was pretty good at times, but when you can bore a TNA crowd, you’re doing something special. To be fair this has been an incredibly unimpressive show so it’s not this match’s fault.

Aries would be allowed to cash in his title for a shot at the World Title, which he received at Destination X 2012.

TNA World Title: Austin Aries vs. Bobby Roode

Feeling out process to start without a lot of offense either way. After about a minute and twenty seconds they lock up and Roode grabs the arm. Aries grabs the arm to counter but gets run over. They’re still in slow mode and that’s fine. A rolling cradle gets two for Aries and he hooks an STF. They hit the mat and Roode slaps him in the back of his head a few times. Now Aries takes him down to the mat and hits a slingshot tope for two.

Roode hooks a headscissors on the mat which is quickly broken up and they head outside. Aries hits a top rope ax handle to the floor but his missile dropkick misses back inside and Roode takes over. Roode hooks a chinlock but a knee drop misses. Aries fires off with kicks and tries the Last Chancery but it doesn’t go on right. Roode goes to the floor but avoids the suicide dive, sending Aries into the barricade.

Roode hooks a bodyscissors back in the ring followed by a hard whip into the corner. He talks a lot of trash to the downed Aries and hits a combination F5/Samoan Drop for two. Off to a body vice on the mat and Aries is cut on the nose. Aries makes a comeback and fires off forearms and chops in the corner. They slug it out and a discus forearm puts Roode down. A clothesline puts Roode on the floor and there’s the suicide dive which connects this time.

This time the missile dropkick hits as well but Aries charges into a powerslam out of the corner. Aries comes back again and tries the Last Chancery again, but Roode is pretty bad at selling it. Roode counters into a Crossface but Aries counters right back into the Chancery. Aries gets in another shot to the head and goes up for the 450, but Roode moves. Aries rolls through it anyway but walks into the spinebuster for two.

The champion sends him shoulder first into the post and goes back to the Crossface. That stays on for a long time but Aries makes the rope. Roode is frustrated now so he grabs the belt, only to have it taken away by the referee. That allows the champ to hit a low blow for two. Roode argues with the referee and gets shoved into the corner, allowing Aries to hit the corner dropkick.

Aries tries the brainbuster but Roode escapes and the ref is bumped. Roode hits a belt shot for a VERY close two. The fisherman’s suplex is countered into a small package for two and Aries punts Roode in the head. He grabs the brainbuster out of nowhere for the pin and the title in a huge shocker.

Rating: B+. Another good match to close the show here, but the point of this was in the surprise. This felt like a big moment and it was the right call to pull the trigger here. This show was designed around the X-Division and having the longest reigning champion win the world title here was the right way to make the X Title look like it can be something comparable to the world title. Good match too.

Aries would hold the title for several months and was champion coming into Bound For Glory 2012 where he would defend against the winner of the Bound For Glory Series.

TNA World Title: Jeff Hardy vs. Austin Aries

The fans are pretty much split which isn’t what they were hoping for I don’t think. We start with a long feeling out process and we have roughly half an hour for this. They head to the mat and Hardy actually keeps up with the champ (Aries is defending if I didn’t mention that) until they head to the corner for the slingshot dropkick. Aries comes back and puts Hardy on the apron for a slingshot ax handle. He takes a victory lap and then one in reverse.

Back in and Hardy gets two off a suplex. They’re still in first gear here and that’s fine. Jeff knocks Aries to the floor and mocks Aries. The fans don’t seem pleased with Jeff so he jumps off the apron with an ax handle of his own. Jeff charges at Aries but Hardy crashes into the barricade and hits Aries at the same time. Back in and Aries gets two off a top rope splash. Aries charges into a boot in the corner and the crowd is probably 80% pro Aries.

A backbreaker gets two for the champ and it’s off to an abdominal stretch on the mat. Aries takes him down again and hits a corkscrew plancha for two. Hardy blocks the Last Chancery and hits something Big Show used to call the Alley Oop. He sets for a powerbomb but throws Aries backwards instead of forwards. Show’s was a bit slower but it’s the same move. Hardy makes his comeback and hits the low dropkick for two.

Whisper in the Wind gets two and the fans have quieted down a bit. Twist of Fate is countered and Aries is knocked to the floor. Hardy misses a slingshot and there’s the suicide dive to drive Jeff into the barricade. Another dive takes Hardy out again with this one getting two in the ring. Aries is busted but nowhere near what Storm was earlier. There’s the Last Chancery but Jeff escapes quickly.

They head to the ramp and Jeff can’t hit the Twist, but rather gets clotheslined into the ropes. Aries drops him on his head, sending the back of Jeff’s head into the edge of the ramp. And people wonder why he’s a drug addict. A missile dropkick sends Jeff into the corner but he comes out with the Twist for two. Jeff loads up the Swanton but gets crotched and super ranaed down from a double standing position. That looked awesome. Corner dropkick sets up the Brainbuster for two and Aries is STUNNED. Aries puts Jeff on top but gets knocked off and the Swanton gives Jeff the title at 23:04.

Rating: B+. This was a good main event but after the Aces and 8’s stuff, this came off a bit flat. Also, TNA REALLY needs to mix up their main event styles. The kicking out of finishers and then the pin soon thereafter can only take you so far and they’ve done it for years now. Watch a few TNA PPV main events and the formulas are almost always the same. Hardy winning is the right choice but it doesn’t feel like a huge moment at all for the most part. Still though, a quite good match.

After dropping the World Title, Aries would join forces with Bobby Roode to try and take over TNA. Their first goal was the Tag Team Titles, for which they challenged on February 7, 2013.

Tag Titles: Chavo Guerrero/Hernandez vs. Austin Aries/Bobby Roode

The Texans are defending and dear goodness please let the titles change tonight. Chavo and Roode start things off with the champion taking over with some headscissors to start. Aries comes in but runs into Hernandez who scares him away. SuperMex puts Aries on the top rope so Austin cartwheels away. Roode tells a posing Aries to turn around and there’s the delayed vertical, but Roode makes the save.

A double suplex with Chavo helping out puts the challengers down and there’s a slingshot hilo onto Aries. Roode pulls Chavo to the floor but the suicide dive misses, sending Bobby into the barricade. We take a break and come back with Roode breaking up a cover by Hernandez. Chavo chops away on Aries in the corner and it’s back to Hernandez. A running splash gets two for Hernandez and here’s Guerrero ago.

Roode finally cheats a bit and hits Chavo in the back so Aries can hit a discus forearm to take down Chavo and give the heels control. Tazz, now part of a team, goes on a rant about how much being in a tag team sucks before talking about how much he loves Aces and 8’s. Off to Roode again for a chinlock as Tazz talks about sitting on a boil. Ok then. A top rope double ax hits Chavo on the floor and gets two for Austin back inside.

We hit a LONG chinlock by Roode before Aries comes in with some cheating. Chavo fights up and it’s a double clothesline to put both guys down. There’s the hot tag to Hernandez who cleans house, only to have Roode pull his own partner into the slingshout shoulder from Hernandez. SuperMex destroys Roode but Aries escapes Three Amigos. The heels are rammed together and Roode walks out, only to return as Aries hits Hernandez low. The spinebuster to Chavo sets up the 450 from Aries for the pin and the titles at 17:29.

Rating: B. I don’t like the challengers but this was a very solid tag match. If nothing else these two will actually be interesting instead of just sitting around doing nothing at all. This had a long heel in peril segment which you hardly ever see anymore. Good match here and nice to see a LONG TV match that means something.

While not an important set of shows, the One Night Only series had some solid matches. Aries participated in a tournament to determine the greatest World Champion of them all.

Tournament of Champions Quarter-Finals: Kurt Angle vs. Austin Aries

Angle is very passive to start and lets Aries dance around for a bit. Aries tries basic stuff like headlocks and wristlocks but Angle just smiles and doesn’t move at all, so Aries goes and lays on the top rope. Aries even offers to get down on the mat amateur style but Angle laughs him off. Instead Austin makes the referee get down on all fours as a demonstration of what he wants Angle to do.

Aries gets down again but this time Angle kicks him in the ribs to really get things going. Angle pounds away in the corner and we get a Flair Flop from Austin. A suplex gets two for Kurt but Aries kicks him low to block a German. Angle comes back with right hands to knock Aries through the ropes but Austin’s feet hang onto the top rope to keep him off the floor. He still manages to pull Angle to the outside and drops a top rope ax handle to take over again.

Back in and Aries hits some lame forearms to the back before mocking Angle’s lowering of the straps. From his back, Angle easily kicks him through the ropes to the floor before launching him back in from the apron. Aries flips out of the German suplex and puts on the Last Chancery.

That doesn’t last long as always so it’s off to a front facelock, only to have Angle grab the ankle lock. Austin kicks away again but gets caught in the Angle Slam for two. They fight for a suplex with Aries on the apron but he snaps Kurt’s throat on the top rope to take over. Angle avoids a missile dropkick but his Angle Slam is countered into a rollup for the pin out of nowhere.

Rating: C+. Yeah Angle vs. Aries was just a C+ match. I’m a bit surprised as well, but what in the world can you expect when the match has about ten minutes and the first few are spent on comedy? This is the kind of pairing that could tear the house down with twenty five minutes but here they’re stuck in a relatively quick match because we need to spend so much time on video packages.

We’ll move on since Aries would lose to Samoa Joe in the semi-finals. Our final match will be Aries going back to his roots and challenging for the X-Division Title at Genesis 2014.

X-Division Title: Chris Sabin vs. Austin Aries

Sabin is defending and Velvet is in a small cage at ringside, complete with a bag containing the gifts. Feeling out process to start until Aries grabs a quick Last Chancery. Sabin is thrown to the floor but jumps back onto the apron to crotch Aries in the corner. Aries gets caught in the Tree of Woe for a baseball slide but avoids being thrown to the floor.

He comes back with elbows to the head and a Lionsault for two. A discus forearm sets up the running dropkick in the corner but Sabin counters the brainbuster. Sabin heads to the floor and gets the bag from Velvet but it just has the bear. Aries gets in an ax handle from the apron followed by a missile dropkick. The brainbuster gives Aries the title at 5:10.

Rating: C-. I’m having a really hard time caring about these matches when I don’t think all three have combined to go twenty minutes. These are all just meaningless title changes and the belt hasn’t grown at all as a result. I believe this puts Aries at four title reigns and it doesn’t make him a bigger star at all.

Aries is a guy that I find overrated by a lot of the fans but there’s no arguing that he’s an incredibly talented wrestler and one of the best in TNA at the moment. His surprise win over Bobby Roode at Destination X 2012 was a great surprise and something that felt completely deserved. He’s certainly grown on me and was very entertaining at the TNA show I went to last year. The problem with him is the same that has plagued so many wrestlers: what does he do now in TNA? The answer is probably not much as he just doesn’t have a lot left to accomplish.

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Today we’re looking at someone who was way ahead of their time: Brian Pillman.

Brian Pillman vs. Jason the Terrible

Jason is a BIZARRE character in a Jason Vorhees mask whose handler talked about the stars and cosmos and astrology. It was incredibly effective and the guy was one of the top heels in the territory for a nice run in the late 80s. We’re joined five minutes in with Jason in control and dropping Pillman with a hard headbutt. Brian tries to fight back but runs into a hard clothesline as the announcers talk about how a rookie like Pillman shouldn’t have lasted this long.

A falling headbutt puts Pillman in even more trouble and a jumping back elbow drops him again for two. Jason misses a top rope splash and Brian hits that perfect dropkick of his followed by a cross body for two. Another dropkick to the back of the head puts Jason on the floor and sets up a BIG plancha from Pillman. Back inside and it turns into a brawl until the referee throws it out.

Rating: C. Jason wasn’t going to be anything big long term but he could have been a great monster ala the original incarnation of Kane. The promos were FAR better than the matches but Jason getting the title would have helped him out a lot. That and the fact that this was in Stampede where things were as basic as possible a lot of the time, making this WAY out of their comfort zone.

Brian was quickly in the NWA as Flyin Brian. One of his first big matches was at Clash of the Champions VIII.

Flyin Brian vs. Norman the Lunatic

Brian Pillman comes out with the University of South Carolina cheerleaders and starts fast with a quick suplex on the nearly 400lb Norman. The springboard clothesline puts Norman down on the floor and Brian hits a nice dive off the top. Back inside and Brian goes after the keys that freak Norman out, causing Norman to jump him from behind. A middle rope splash gets two on Brian and Norman slaps his overly large stomach.

Brian rolls outside and gets crushed against the post but avoids a second charge to get a breather. Back in and a missile dropkick puts Norman on his back. Brian actually slams and backdrops Norman down, only to have his cross body get caught in a powerslam for two. Norman whips him in but Pillman comes back with a crucifix for the pin out of nowhere.

Rating: B+. This match wasn’t even four minutes long but had more action than matches four times that long. Brian looked awesome out there with his high flying and Norman looked FAR better than you would expect a guy of his size to be capable of. Absolutely awesome match with some great action.

Pillman would get a shot at the US Title at Halloween Havoc and come up just short against champion Lex Luger in an awesome match. Here’s their also awesome rematch from Clash IX.

US Title: Brian Pillman vs. Lex Luger

Lex is defending. These two had a great match at Halloween Havoc so this has a lot of potential. Ross brings up another Iron Man tournament at Starrcade consisting of Luger, Sting, Flair and Muta. Those two tournaments would be the entire card for the show. Lex is by far the stronger of the two but Brian shoves him away to show off his own power to start. They run the ropes a bit before two dropkicks send Luger to the floor for a breather.

Back in and the champion takes him into the corner before hammering away with right hands. Brian jumps over him in the corner and knocks Luger right back to the floor. Luger stalls a lot but Brian chops away and surprises Luger by skinning the cat. A spinwheel kick puts Luger down again and he has no idea what to do. Pillman gets a close two off a missile dropkick and he wraps Luger’s arm around the post. He sends it into the barricade as well before putting on a wristlock in the ring.

Luger sends him into the corner and comes back with a belly to back suplex using the good arm before easily gorilla pressing Brian down. Another gorilla press slam drops Pillman on his face and Luger sends him to the floor. Lex stays on the back with a powerslam for two and a second powerslam stops Brian’s comeback bid. Pillman gets up with pure guts and fires off chops to take over. A high cross body drops Luger but also takes the referee down, meaning there’s no count. Luger uses the distraction to blast Brian in the head with a chair for the pin to retain.

Rating: B. Another solid match here with Pillman’s speed and guts messing with Luger’s game plan and keeping him off balance. Power vs. speed is one of the few combinations that is going to work almost every single time and Pillman was as fast as anyone in wrestling at this point.

Pillman would get some gold as he and the Z-Man teamed up to win the United States Tag Team Titles. Here’s a defense from WrestleWar 1990.

US Tag Titles: Freebirds vs. Brian Pillman/Z-Man

The Birds are challenging here. They get sent to the floor immediately and the champs steal their clothes and dance around as Badstreet plays in the background. Funny moment. The crowd is all over the Birds. They weren’t much in the ring but they were heat machines. Today is Flair’s birthday according to JR. We finally get going with Brian vs. Hayes. Brian knocks him around with a clothesline and Garvin fluffs his hair.

Speaking of Garvin here he is and he gets Z-Man. Z takes him down with a headlock but misses a dropkick. Garvin, ever the Rhodes Scholar, ducks his head and gets kicked in the face. Back to Brian for another headlock. Hayes comes back in and things are going slowly to start, implying that they have a lot of time to work with. Sunset flip with a great jump gets two for Pillman.

Z-Man works on the arm and goes into a Fujiwar Armbar to Hayes. Back to Garvin who loses any advantage that Hayes had gotten on Z-Man. Pillman comes in as the fans seem a bit distracted. Hayes comes in and hooks a sleeper (sleep hold according to Ross) as JR talks about Paul Boesch, the promoter of Houston Wrestling for decades, demonstrating this hold in the second World War.

Brian escapes and sends him into the corner but charges into a great left hand to put him down. Brian rolls through a cross body for two. Back to Garvin as this is going a lot longer than I was expecting it to go. Since Garvin can’t manage to keep Brian in one place he makes the tag to Z-Man. Z-Man puts the Z Lock (sleeper) on Hayes but Garvin comes off the top for the save.

Garvin hooks a chinlock as this match has gone well over fifteen minutes so far. Now they mix things up with a Hayes chinlock. After 18 minutes, we’re told this is a rematch from the finals of the tournament where Z-Man and Pillman won the titles in the first place. Z-Man gets a small package for two. Hayes is like enough of that and goes back to the chinlock. JR thinks Hayes looks like Alice Cooper. Terry wants to know if Hayes knows who Buffalo Bill is.

Hayes goes up and kind of steps off with no significant contact being made. Back to Garvin as this needs to end really soon. Who decided to give the Birds over twenty minutes? Top rope fist gets two for Hayes after a non-tag. Bulldog gets two as Pillman breaks it up. Back to the chinlock #4 but Zenk drops him with a DDT of his own.
There’s the tag to Pillman and the fans care more than I expected them to. Pillman cleans house but Hayes brings in a title but Pillman comes off the top with a cross body as the title is being taken out to retain the titles.

Rating: D. Technically the match was fine but MY GOODNESS this ran long. It clocks in at almost twenty four minutes which is just far too long. Pillman and Zenk can easily go that long but the Birds were already through their whole set of stuff at about 10 minutes in. The solution of course? Go 14 minutes past that. WAY too long and if you cut this to like 12 minutes it’s probably an okish match.

We’ll skip Pillman’s time teaming with Sting and company to face the Horsemen and get to early 1992 and an incredible series of matches against Jushin Thunder Liger. This is considered one of the best matches ever in WCW. From SuperBrawl II.

Light Heavyweight Title: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Brian Pillman

This title is famous for two things: A guy named Scotty Flamingo holding it (he would change his name to Raven in about a year and a half) and this match. This match is considered to be right up there with Bret and Owen as the best PPV opener of all time. You have to keep in mind that the styles here were just not seen at this time. Everything was mat work and a clothesline off the top was a big time move.

If you know anything about these two, you know what’s coming. They start very fast and hot before slowing it down a bit but you can tell the fans are noticing them. They mention that K. Allen Frey is the WCW President at this time. This was his first and only PPV as he was let go because he was making good TV shows. They were far more exciting and fast paced, and since no one wants to be excited, Frey was out and Bill Watts came in.

His best idea was this: if you work hard, you get a bonus. Seriously, THAT was considered a bad idea. Everything was about cost cutting back then, as they even got rid of the mats at ringside, It also produced some of the most boring wrestling of all time, but hey, who cares that buyrates and attendance were both down? WE ARE SAVING MONEY!!!

They hit a leglock for a few seconds and then are like screw this nonsense. They pop up and Liger runs at the corner and hits a moonsault to get a big OOO from the crowd. Two months after this that would have ended the match on a DQ as top rope moves were banned. Apparently the leglock that had them chanting boring isn’t as intriguing as a moonsault followed by a dropkick. What do they know?

They’re just the people buying tickets to the shows. Liger sets for the Surfboard and the crowd reacts to it huge. For 5000 people, this crowd is awesome. We get a George Michael’s Sports Machine reference. He passed away on Christmas Eve. Without him, you likely wouldn’t have SportsCenter.

Pillman misses a knee and Liger works on the knee to give us some psychology. And note: it’s the knee he worked on earlier, giving us some continuity. He throws on a figure four to a great pop. They get into a big slap fight which is amusing. Crowd is WAY into this. Pillman goes to the floor thank to Jushin and Liger jumps to the top and puts him down with a sweet looking front flip. Pillman comes back in with a springboard clothesline after they fight over a suplex on the apron. Brian follows that up by suplexing Liger over the top to the floor. This is very high impact and fast paced. Now they’re just throwing out the high spots which works well as a contrast to the leg work. It’s turned into a high spot match and that’s fine.

Like I said, you have to remember that this kind of thing is just completely unheard of as no one has ever seen anything close to this. Pillman hits a hurricanrana and then a DDT. The pace is just ridiculous for the time. Liger misses a top rope splash after a suplex and Pillman does a weird pinning combination for the title. More or less he looked like he was going for a camel clutch but hooked his feet under Liger’s arms and rolls over so that Liger goes with him and then bridges back for the pin. He raises Liger’s hand afterwards and they share the standing ovation.

Rating: A+. EPIC match. This was just completely off the charts compared to what people were used to. These two worked their themselves to death and had a classic. After about ten minutes of this seventeen minute match, they just went completely nuts out there and were flying all over the place.

Later in the year Pillman would turn heel and not like respect that much. Who better to beat respect into him than Ricky Steamboat?

Ricky Steamboat vs. Brian Pillman

This should be awesome. Pillman is a heel here and would hook up with Steve Austin soon. The fans have no problem cheering for Steamboat so the crowd is back to normal. Steamboat chops him to start and hits a shoulder for two. Pillman throws him over the ropes but that doesn’t work on the Dragon. Steamboat plays possum and rams Pillman’s face into the mat to take over. Dragon busts out the armdrag/bar combination and takes over.

Pillman gets backdropped and slammed a few times, so he pokes Steamboat in the eyes to take over. See? Being evil does pay off. Steamboat is like screw this getting beaten up and chokes Pillman over his head. Brian blasts him in the back of the head when Steamboat has his back turned to take over. The headscissors gets two for Pillman and he chokes away a bit on the ropes. The Dragon blocks a superplex but jumps into a dropkick for two.

Pillman is getting frustrated because he can’t put Steamboat down so Ricky hits a Russian legsweep to put both guys down. There’s a sleeper and the Dragon is in trouble. Steamboat falls into the corner to ram Brian’s head into the buckle to escape. Pillman starts running but he catches Steamboat coming back in with a knee lift. A cross body off the middle rope gets two for Pillman. Steamboat goes up and hits a top rope sunset flip for two. Pillman counters but Steamboat counters the counter into a sunset flip for the pin.

Rating: B. This is what you call a fast paced wrestling match between a talented face and a talented heel. To put it short, the idea worked. They worked very well together as you would expect them too, with both guys looking crisp the whole way through and the crowd reacting well to it. Good stuff here indeed.

Pillman and Steamboat’s feud would continue, albeit with partners. From Slamboree 1993.

Tag Titles: Hollywood Blonds vs. Dos Hombres

This is in a cage. This is one of those angles that is so full of backstory it’s unreal. Ok so who in the world are Dos Hombres. Well they’re “luchadores” in masks. However, they’re introduced as Ricky Steamboat and Shane Douglas. Now one of them is Steamboat. The other however, isn’t Shane Douglas. It’s actually Tom Zenk. So in other words, we have a guy portraying Shane Douglas portraying a luchador who everyone “knows” is Shane wearing a mask.

Now that probably requires an explanation too. Steamboat and Douglas had been tag team champions and feuded with Brian Pillman/Barry Windham. Windham had to leave for some reason so they substituted in Steve Austin and made the team the Hollywood Blondes. They eventually won the titles and held them for like six months. Oh and these are UNIFIED tag titles, because the NWA thinks people still care about them because the NWA is stupid.

Anyway, the new champs beat the former champs time after time. They were scheduled to face Dos Hombres, some new team from Mexico, in what was supposed to be a squash. However, Dos Hombres started fighting like Douglas and Steamboat to the point that everyone said yeah that’s Steamboat and Douglas. They were even introduced by those names. Anyway, the thing is that Douglas had been fired and in the non-title match it was Brad Armstrong under the mask. In this match which is for the titles, it’s Tom Zenk. Got all that?

Despite this being in a cage they have to tag which gets annoying fast. Steamboat and Austin start but it’s off to Pillman very quickly. Yeah that’s Steamboat. You can tell those chops anywhere. Pillman can’t put him into the cage and there’s an armdrag. Off to “Shane” who is way too skinny to be who he’s portraying. There are two guys in suits that keep getting shown and I don’t know who they are.

Both “Shane” and Austin block head shots to the cage but Austin goes in back first just a bit. Both guys hit the ropes and Austin gets backdropped. Not much of a cage match here but a pretty good wrestling match up to this point. Austin eats cage in the first good shot into it. Back to Steamboat (I think) against Pillman who takes over. Yeah there’s an armdrag so it’s “Shane” who got tagged in.

Gorilla press puts Pillman’s back into the cage. Off to Austin who can’t do much because his back hurts from going into the cage. He gets caught in the Tree of Woe but from the top of the cage instead of the corner. The challengers do the camera thing that the Blondes are known for in a funny bit. Austin gets down and takes over again. I have no idea which Hombre is in there.

Middle rope elbow gets two for the future rattlesnake that has hair here. The Blondes have to hide the use of a towel. In a cage match? Pillman comes in and jumps into a boot to put both guys down. I think that’s “Shane” in there but I’m really not sure. They’re full body suits so you can’t tell them apart at all other than mannerisms. Austin cuts off the tag at the last second and we keep at it.

“Shane” gets a dropkick to send Austin into the cage. Oh yeah that’s a Steamboat shot from the apron. Austin blocks another tag with something like a spinebuster. Larry says that Austin can be a legend if his body holds up. Holy prognostication Larry! Rocket Launcher sends Brian into “Shane’s” ribs and they both down again. There’s the tag to Steamboat who cleans house. Austin tries to hide and there’s the Flair shot from him. You figure out what I mean by that and why the audience laughed at it.

Everything breaks down and Steamboat takes the mask off. He climbs the cage and takes out BOTH Blondes for two with a huge cross body! AWESOME! Even the bell goes off inadvertently and I can’t blame them. Steamboat DDTs Austin for two and does the same to Pillman. Stereo dropkicks get two. In a rushed but kind of sweet ending, the Hombres get the champs in opposite corners and whip them together but Pillman reverses and sends Steamboat into Austin who hits a Stun Gun to retain.

Rating: B. Good match, although I’m really not sure why it was inside a cage. Anyway, the point is that this was solid stuff as the Blondes were totally awesome throughout their entire run so this was pretty much an automatic good match. Zenk is good in the ring but he was in over his head with these guys. The backstory is a mess but it was still a breath of incredibly fresh air after watching the legends go at it for an hour.

The Blonds would defend their belts against a fairly famous combination at Clash XXIII.

Unified Tag Team Titles: Ric Flair/Arn Anderson vs. Hollywood Blonds

This was set up with the Blonds making fun of the challengers with a parody of Flair’s A Flair for the Gold interview segment called A Flair for the Old. The Blonds are defending and this is 2/3 falls. Anderson pulls Pillman down by the hair twice in a row to start before hammering him with left hands to the head. Brian tries to jump over Arn in the corner but gets dropped throat first on the top rope. Austin gets the tag and makes fun of Arn’s gut before walking into an elbow.

The fans want Flair and get what they ask for to a HUGE ovation. Ric comes back with a vengeance and hammers away on Austin in the corner before bringing Pillman in over the top and chopping him in the corner. Arn pulls Austin to the corner and wraps his leg around the post a few times. Ric rips at Austin’s nose and asks who’s the old man now. Austin bails to the floor but takes Flair down to the mat. That goes nowhere at all as Flair comes back with some hard chops in the corner.

Arn comes in again to crank on a wristlock followed by the hammerlock slam. Flair gets another tag and stays on the arm but throws in a forearm to Pillman. Back to Anderson as Ric and Brian nearly get in a fight on the apron. The distraction lets Pillman choke Arn with a towel to take over and the champions are in control. Brian rakes the eyes as well before Austin drives knees into Arn’s back. The Blonds make some quick tags to keep control as the fans want Flair again. Arn clips Austin in the jaw and scores with a DDT to put both guys down.

A double tag brings in Pillman to face Flair, but Brian clipped Arn’s knee right before the tag. Flair hits an atomic drop on Brian and knocks Austin outside with a back elbow. Arn is still down as Austin comes back in for a cheap shot on Flair. Ric doesn’t seem to mind as he sends Austin outside again and hits a quick forearm to Pillman for the pin and the first fall. Buffer messes up and says we have new champions as we go to a break.

Back with Flair going off on Brian in the corner with chops and punches. He knocks Steve off the apron with another chop but Pillman sends Flair out to the floor in a big crash. Steve suplexes him on the floor (once again covered by mats) and Brian rams him into the barricade. We get a Flair Flop on the floor butt Anderson comes over with a chair to chase Austin off. Back in again and Austin superplexes Ric down for a close two. Ric shrugs off some shoulders in the corner and comes back with chops but Austin drops him with a forearm to the back of the head.

Pillman loses a chop battle and they both go down off shoulder blocks. A double tag brings in Anderson whose knee looks fine now. He punches Austin in the ribs and kicks him in the side of the head before getting two off a spinebuster. The Blonds double team again though with Pillman clipping the knee one more time to give Austin two. They stay on the leg with some old Flair tactics but Arn comes back with some headbutts.

Flair shouts encouragement from the apron as Austin takes the leg out again and puts it in a basic hold. Arn tries to crawl to the ropes but Brian makes the save. Pillman puts on a half crab but Arn does a push up to escape. He actually hits an enziguri to take Brian down, only to have Austin drag him back to the corner. Pillman goes up but dives into a boot to the jaw, FINALLY allowing the hot tag to Ric. He comes in and cleans house by throwing Pillman to the floor (the referee was clearly looking at it but doesn’t call a DQ) and setting up the Figure Four on Austin, drawing in Barry Windham for the DQ.

Rating: A-. It’s a very solid match with an old school style to it that the Horsemen could work as well as anyone else. This feud would continue with Paul Roma being substituted for Flair so Ric could go after the World Title. The titles don’t change hands because the deciding fall was on a disqualification rather than a pin or submission.

It’s now back to singles matches as Pillman is facing his old rival Jushin Thunder Liger in the first match ever on Nitro.

Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Brian Pillman

This is a rematch of a masterpiece that opened SuperBrawl II in 1992. Liger is just coming back from a broken leg so he might be a bit rusty, meaning he’ll be better than 95% of the wrestlers in the world. Naturally, they start off hot with both guys jockeying for position. This is another one of those pairings where it’s hard to mess it up. Eric is pitching the company like no other which is fine here as it might be the first show for a lot of viewers.

Liger gets an early two off a moonsault press and it’s off to an early chinlock. Brian comes back with chops in the corner and a bad looking middle rope hurricanrana for two. We’re two minutes into the match and Mongo and Heenan are already calling each other names. This could be a really long night. We get the surfboard submission from Liger which is a move that I always mark for. Bobby has a great line: “I never go surfing. I always have people do it for me.” I love that. McMichael is trying but he’s just lost out there. For the life of me I have no idea why they thought he was a good idea.

Liger sends Pillman to the floor for a flip dive off the apron and Pillman is in trouble. Pillman comes back with a suplex to the floor and a big cross body off the top to put Jushin down again. Back in and Liger crotches Pillman on the top for a hurricanrana, good for two. These two were WAY ahead of their time out here as the Cruiserweights wouldn’t rise to prominence for over a year.

Jushin goes up again but jumps into a dropkick for two. Not that it matters as he comes back with a powerbomb for a near fall, followed by another hurricanrana for the same result. Brian comes back with a tornado DDT and counters a German suplex into a cradle for the surprise pin.

Rating: B. This is an idea that would work for WCW for years to come: take two talented smaller guys and give them about seven minutes to fly all over the place and ignite the crowd. It sets a good pace for the rest of the night and gives the fans the energy they need as we head into the more important stuff later on.

Less than two weeks later, Pillman would open Fall Brawl 1995 in a #1 contenders match for the US Title.

Brian Pillman vs. Johnny B. Badd

This is the number one contender match for the US Title. Badd was constantly opening shows, but this match is special as you’ll soon see. Those Frisbees are really stupid though. His intro takes like 3 minutes after the bell rings, just for him to throw stuff to the fans. Yeah it’s annoying as all goodness. And then Buffer talking about both guys takes even longer. Is wrestling such a hard thing to do?

Pillman gets booed actually. That’s most odd. They feel each other out to start which is a fine way to start so there we are. They start off with some solid stuff which is always a perk. This is a pretty fast paced match so far which is a good sign. Heenan cracks me up by saying that Badd is like Sting’s cocker spaniel because Sting trained him. We have a Bobby the Brain Heenan For President.

Heenan of course bashes him, but says he would appreciate a donation. Heenan is on fire tonight. They go to the mat again which is hurting things a bit. They plug Nitro tomorrow which would be the third show in history. That’s very odd indeed. We go to a wide camera shot which makes sure not to let us see the camera side, which I would bet is about 10% full.

Tony offers some insight by saying the far leg is the leg that is furthest away. Yep I love him too. Pillman goes heel here by throwing a punch. He would soon snap and go full heel but more on that later. Badd gets a weird submission hold where his feet are under Brian’s shoulders and he’s pulling back on his arms. That would hurt like heck I’d think. Brian is getting booed more and more.

See what something simple like just a straight punch can do? Brian hits the floor as this is getting good. A springboard legdrop gets two for Badd. It’s kind of sad that the fans are just wandering around when there’s a solid match going on because that’s what they’re so used to from WCW. That can’t be a good sign. With Badd on the floor we have five minutes to go. The over the top rope rule continues to be changed every show as Badd suplexes him over.

And now he jumps over the top to take Brian out as they crank it up again. Johnny goes for a double axe from the top but jumps into a dropkick with four minutes to go. Brian gets a Tombstone with 3 minutes left. Even the WCW crowd is into this so how much does that tell you about this match?

And we hit an armbar with 2 minutes to go. Ok then. And now Brian does the same. That’s kind of stupid. There’s a minute left and we’re in a rest hold. Yeah that’s brilliant. Badd gets his big punch with 20 seconds left but Brian is in the ropes. A springboard clothesline gets two for Brian and we’re out of time. The fans boo the heck out of that.

BUT WAIT!

There must be a winner, so we go to sudden death! It’s one fall to a finish so the sudden death term is kind of pointless but we get more of a good match so there you are. Heenan has never heard of this. Really? We go to the floor and it’s a slugfest. Badd uses the same dropkick counter on Brian that got used on him earlier. And that is what you call psychology.

We get a double count which is idiotic given the must be a winner idea. Heenan says no one has tried the one thing that could win: a pipe wrench. I love that. Pillman gets a sleeper which is smart after over 20 minutes of hard wrestling. We talk about the main event where Heenan seems to fantasize over someone turning on Hogan. A sunset flip off the top gets a LONG two for Badd. Crucifix is countered into a back slam.

This is a great match in case you can’t tell. Hurricanrana from the middle rope, which was an epic move at the time, gets just two for Badd. Tornado DDT, Pillman’s finisher, just gets two. We go BACK to the floor where Badd hits a somersault plancha over the top which he nearly misses and Pillman is out. He goes for a slingshot splash but Pillman gets the knees up for a block. We’re over 35 minutes into the broadcast and we’re still in the opener.

The overtime has been a solid match in its own right after a great opening 20 minutes. They get back in the ring and freaking FLY off the ropes about three times each before both go for cross bodies but Pillman lands on Badd’s knee so it’s almost like a backbreaker which is enough for the pin to blow the roof off the place. Well as much as that small of a crowd can do at least.

Rating: A. GREAT match. This is what two young guys can do when they’re given a ton of time and can show off. This is pretty easily Badd’s best match ever and it’s one of Pillman’s best. Somehow though, that’s not even Brian’s best PPV opener. That’s hard to believe. Find this match as it’s worth watching.

Pillman would head to the WWF but destroy his ankle in a car wreck. He would wrestle anyway, joining the newly formed stable the Hart Foundation as people who were very pro Canadian. This is the apex of their feud with America, from In Your House 16.

Hart Foundation vs. Goldust/Legion of Doom/Ken Shamrock/Steve Austin

Most of the Americans are booed, but Austin is treated like a bunch of ants at a picnic. The Hart Foundation’s entrance on the other hand is a sight to behold, with each member getting a louder and louder ovation until Owen’s music stops. Bret’s reception is louder than everyone else’s and that’s before his music even comes on. The Harts are a unit, all clad in leather jackets and looking like they’re ready for war.

The match starts with the only possible combination of Austin vs. Bret. They slug it out with Bret taking over and pounding Austin down into the corner to send the crowd even further into a frenzy. Austin comes back with right hands and might as well be pummeling Santa Claus. Bret hits a headbutt and clothesline before raking Steve’s eyes across the top rope. Austin kicks Bret low to slow him down and stomps on him in the corner before slapping on the Million Dollar Dream. Hart climbs the ropes for a rollup for two, which is the same way he beat Austin at Survivor Series.

Bret drags Austin to the corner for a tag off to the raw power of Jim the Anvil Neidhart. Austin takes him down with a Thesz Press and right hands before bringing in Shamrock to easily kick Neidhart down. Pillman comes in to break up an ankle lock attempt so Shamrock takes Neidhart down with ease again. Brian comes in legally now to bite Shamrock’s face and fire off chops in the corner. A backbreaker puts Shamrock down again so Pillman grabs his hand and slaps the mat, claiming a submission victory in a funny bit.

Ken comes back with a nice belly to belly suplex and it’s off to Goldust vs. Owen. Goldust scores with a backdrop but Owen comes right back with an enziguri to take over again. The fans are all over Austin here, even though it’s Hawk in to beat Owen up. A top rope splash gets two but Hawk misses a dropkick, allowing Owen to put on a Sharpshooter. Anvil makes the save, only to have Bulldog come in with the delayed vertical suplex and the powerslam but Goldust makes a save.

Bret comes back in (crowd erupts) to face Animal and gets up a knee in the corner to slow Animal down. Off to Goldust who is immediately tied up in the Tree of Woe and quintuple teamed, drawing in the rest of the Americans for the save. Owen comes in legally but misses a charge into the post, allowing for the tag off to Animal. Owen is fine with that and hits an enziguri followed by a missile dropkick to fire up the crowd even more. Animal will have none of that and counters a hurricanrana into a powerbomb.

The Doomsday Device hits Owen but Anvil makes the save, drawing in all ten guys for a huge brawl. In the melee, Austin wraps Owen’s knee around the post and hits it with a chair before beating up Bret and Owen’s brother Bruce, who is sitting with the rest of the Hart Family in the crowd. Things calm down with Anvil vs. Austin as medics come out to check on Owen. Neidhart sends Austin into the corner for a big beating and Owen is being taken to the back.

Pillman comes in but gets dragged over to the American corner and taken down by a Stunner. Bret makes the save by wrapping Austin’s leg around the post and blasting it with a fire extinguisher. He throws on the Figure Four around the post until Hawk makes the save but the damage has been done to the leg. Austin is able to tag in Hawk but Bulldog crotches Hawk on the top rope to take him down again. Austin limps to the back again, leaving us with just four guys per team in the match.

Neidhart and Animal have a test of strength with Jim taking over and driving Animal into the Hart corner for a tag off to Bret. The original Hart Foundation (Bret and Neidhart) take over on Animal to give the crowd a nostalgia pop. Shamrock comes in again and grabs Bret’s leg but just stands there, allowing Pillman to sneak in with a clothesline. Shamrock grabs the leg again but Bret gives him a stern lecture from the mat, which actually makes Ken let him up. I wish I could make that up.

Bret sends Shamrock to the floor where Pillman throws him over the French announce table. Back inside and it’s Bulldog slugging Shamrock down in the corner to send the crowd right back into a frenzy. Ken hits him low, allowing Goldust to come in with a bulldog to the Bulldog, but Pillman breaks up the Curtain Call. Goldust goes up but gets crotched, allowing Bulldog to superplex him down.

Austin stumbles back out to the ring and it’s a double tag to bring in Bret vs. Stone Cold. Bret is sent chest first into the buckle and suplexed down for two, only to come back with a DDT. A backbreaker and the middle rope elbow are good for two and it’s off to a sleeper hold. Austin jawbreaks his way to freedom but has to have Animal save him from the Sharpshooter.

Now it’s Austin putting Bret in the Sharpshooter but Owen comes back out for the save. Owen comes in legally but gets clotheslined out to the floor and stomped against the barricade. Austin goes after the other Hart Brothers at ringside but Bret makes the save and sends Austin back inside so Owen can roll him up for the pin, sending the roof into orbit.

Rating: A+. Do I really need to explain this one? Not only is it a great match with everyone working very hard, but it’s a great story and the perfect way to blow off the feud. Austin could have been in there with any four guys, but the match ended perfectly and gave Owen a big rub in the process. Excellent match and the best multi-man tag match of all time.

And now one final singles match, from In Your House 17.

Goldust vs. Brian Pillman

Goldust jumps Pillman before he gets in the ring but Brian comes back with chops in the ring. An atomic drop and clothesline put Pillman down and Goldust rains down right hands in the corner. Pillman comes back with an elbow to the face but stops to chase Marlena around, allowing Goldust to catch him in a drop toehold into the steps. Back in and they chop it out again as Jerry implies Marlena has been with half of the locker room. Pillman’s bulldog is countered by Goldust crotching him on the top rope, sending Brian up the ramp.

That’s not enough for Goldust though so he chases Pillman up the ramp and suplexes him down onto the steel. Pillman gets crotched against the post for good measure before Goldust starts going after the leg. An elbow drop gets two on Brian and Goldust rams him into the buckle. The bulldog is countered again and Lawler is thrilled for some reason. Pillman stomps away and puts on a reverse chinlock to slow things down again. Goldust fights up and drops Brian with an electric chair but both guys are down.

It’s Pillman up first but he’s crotched for the third time with this one being on the turnbuckle. Goldust knocks him off the top and into the barricade, allowing Marlena to get in a slap of her own. Back in and Pillman blocks a superplex but misses a missile dropkick. Goldust loads up the Curtain Call but the referee gets knocked out in the process. Instead of staying on Brian, Goldust goes to check on the referee and Marlena gets on the apron with her loaded purse. In an old wrestling cliché, the purse is intercepted by Pillman and he knocks out Goldust for the pin.

Rating: C-. This was just ok but the ending was never really in doubt. The story made much more sense if you put Marlena with Pillman for the thirty days and it ended if Goldust won here. Pillman was in bad shape at this point due to a horrible ankle injury but he managed to get by well enough here. More on that later though.

Brian Pillman was a guy that was incredibly ahead of his time. Had he debuted in the mid 90s cruiserweight boom, Pillman would have been right up there with Mysterio as one of the best in the world. The fact that he have as much success as he did as a tag wrestler showed that he had far more skills than just flying around. His charisma made him even better and one of the most entertaining performers of his era.

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Today is Monty Brown. Period.

Anthony Ingram vs. Monty Brown

After Brown says he wants Shamrock, the squashing commences. After a powerslam the Alpha Bomb (starts in a slam position but Brown swings him into the air and powerbombs him down) gets the pin. Brown has what sounds like Abyss’ old music.

For something a bit longer, here’s another match from the tenth PPV.

NWA World Title: Ron Killings vs. Monty Brown

Truth is defending if that’s not clear. Brown shoves him around and they slug it out a bit with Brown taking over. A bunch of shoulder blocks get two on the champ but Truth low bridges him to send Brown to the floor. Truth dives onto Brown on the ramp before sending him into the steps and stomping away.

The champ gets on the announce table but Brown fights back. The Alpha Bomb through the table is blocked and they keep slugging it out. Brown hits a release overhead belly to belly, sending Truch onto his head. FREAKING OW MAN. Back in and Brown pounds away but walks into a Downward Spiral for two. Truth hooks a chinlock but Brown fights up and hits a sunset flip for two.

Brown grabs a suplex and after some LOUD spot calling, a snap suplex puts both guys down. A powerslam puts Truth down and a splash gets two for Monty. Truth does his signature backflip into the splits into the side kick sequence but Brown ducks away, only to get caught by the ax kick. That gets two and Brown has the Alpha Bomb countered into….I think that’s supposed to be a sunset flip by Truth for the pin to retain.

Rating: D-. This was AWFUL with both guys looking completely not ready for this level at all. Brown would get better when they just turned him into a monster that ran through people with the Pounce. This match sucked though, with both guys botching a ton of stuff, with the ending being an especially big eyesore. Nothing good at all from this one.

Brown would go back to the indies for all of 2003 and come back in 2004 as a monster. He would appear at the first three hour PPV, Victory Road 2004, in the first Monster’s Ball match.

Abyss vs. Monty Brown vs. Raven

This is the original Monster’s Ball match, which originally was far different. The idea here is that the guys have been locked up without light or food for 24 hours. This aspect has since completely disappeared due to reasons of sanity and now it’s just a regular hardcore match. The announcers say that Raven has the advantage here as he’s smaller and crazier which makes sense, at least in the lack of food and light idea.

We have a table set up inside of 30 seconds. Abyss is dominating here for the most part. It’s really more of an intense triple threat rather than a hardcore match and now we have chairs coming in. Raven really is underrated in the ring. I love what Brown does by just chucking a chair at Raven’s head. That’s awesome. Naturally we have a ref bump because they’re required I suppose.

Now we move to the big spots of the match as we have Brown sitting on the top rope and Abyss busts out the tacks. Since he’s the only one wearing a shirt you know that he’s the guy that’s going to wind up going through them. Yep, Raven comes in to powerbomb him while he’s trying to suplex Brown. That wasn’t predictable at all. Not a bit. Raven gets two off of it and then we set up another stupid spot as the table is set up in the corner and Raven gets Pounced (a spear/tackle) through it. It was a mess of course.

Rating: D+. These things are going to happen and while I can’t stand them, I get that there’s a point to them. There is a market for these I guess and at least they’re keeping it shorter. There’s really no way to make these good without going too far, but this was really lackluster even for one of these.

Brown would move up the card and be in a three way for a title shot at Final Resolution 2005.

Monty Brown vs. Diamond Dallas Page vs. Kevin Nash

This is under elimination rules. Brown’s theme sounds like a cover of Down with the Sickness. Nash has some weird instrumental stuff that sounds like R&B while Page has a cover of his famous cover. At least Page has the decency to wear a shirt out there. Nash chills in the corner and lets the other two go at it. Cutter doesn’t work early but he has the fans….only about half behind him as they like Monty also.

Shoulder puts Page on the floor as we hear about Brown having a Nikita Koloff poster on his wall as a kid. That would make him one of two people to have that poster but nice name drop if nothing else. This is kind of a handicap match but not really as Brown shifts off to Nash while Page chills in the corner. Big old side slam by Nash gets two. Headlock is countered into a suplex by Brown so Nash chills for a bit.

Apparently you can be eliminated by going over the top. What kind of a stupidly pointless rule is that? You can’t do a rollup and have to go out over the top? Really? Page takes Brown down with a discus lariat for two and LOUDLY calls a bunch of spots to him. DDT gets two on Page but Big Sexy saves. They finally start working together but Nash tries to double cross Page and is sent to the floor to get us down to one on one. Ah so it was so Nash wouldn’t have to get pinned. Now it makes sense.

Diamond Cutter out of NOWHERE gets two as Nash pulls Page out because he’s a jerk. Page gets sent into the post which gets two for Brown in the ring. Page gets a rollup out of the corner for two and another lariat gets two. Brown takes over with a wide variety of clotheslines and a fallaway slam for no cover. Powerslam gets two. Page tries a Diamond Cutter out of nowhere but gets reversed into the Pounds (Period) to end this and send Brown to the main event.

Rating: C. Match was ok and FAR better with the one on one stuff. Nash was kind of a third wheel here and I pretty much fail to see why he was there. Brown vs. Page wasn’t bad though as Page always had his matches worked out so well that it was hard for him to have a bad match against anyone competent, which Brown was for the most part. Decent here, but kind of unnecessary.

The title match was later that night.

NWA World Title: Jeff Jarrett vs. Monty Brown

This is a rematch from Impact where Brown got ripped off. Security has to hold them apart so JB can do the intros. Brown is mad over. Nothing of note to start and Jarrett gets to start. Jeff gets that dropkick of his as the first big move. Time for more strutting and Jarrett makes fun of Brown a bit. Jarrett rams into him and that gets him nowhere at all.

Gorilla press plants Jeff as it’s pretty clear this isn’t going to end clean. Brown gets him in a slam position but a thumb to the eye….does next of nothing to him as he slams Jarrett for two. Clothesline misses though and Monty is on the floor. LUCHA JARRETT but he gets caught (kind of) in mid air. To the floor and it’s time for brawling of course. Into the crowd they go and Jarrett pops Monty with a chair a few times. Remember that in TNA a DQ can change a title.

Back to ringside and it’s another chair shot to the ribs of Brown before they head to the announce table. After all that a belt shot isn’t allowed for some reason. Back in the ring and Jeff puts on a sleeper to eat up some time. Monty grabs one of his own but Jarrett uses the magical powers of experience to break out of it. Figure Four doesn’t work and Monty avoids the running hip to someone in the 619 position.

They hit the ropes a few times and hit heads to send both guys down. They slug it out with Brown taking over because he has more experience punching. I mean, what else does he actually do? Alpha Bomb (slam into a powerbomb) gets two. Spinning neckbreaker (called the Circle of Life apparently) gets two. Stroke is blocked and we have a ref bump. Guitar shot puts him down after he stands around for a few seconds but it only gets two.

The referee is holding his knee still so Jarrett grabs the chair. Brown puts him in an electric chair and blocks a shot to the head before dropping backwards to put both guys down. Jeff gets two off that as I guess he didn’t block the whole thing. Pretty weak belt shot puts Monty down again but he power kicks out at two. Brown makes his comeback but the Pounce kills the referee again.

Jarrett has a second guitar but Brown counters with a chokeslam for no cover because there’s no referee. Guitar shot looks to kill Jarrett dead but there’s STILL no referee. At least it’s from a finisher and not like a punch. A second referee comes out for a two count but Jarrett gets part of the guitar in for two. Stroke hits, Brown gets up before the cover, Stroke hits, Brown gets up before the cover, low blow, Stroke, pin.

Rating: B-. This was an ok main event brawl but at the same time there wasn’t a ton of chemistry out there. It hurt that Brown can only do a few things and the idea was that he can’t be taken down by anything. The match wasn’t all that bad but after the other two matches it really paled in comparison. Good stuff though.

Brown stayed in the title hunt and would compete in King of the Mountain at Slammiversary 2005.

NWA World Title: AJ Styles vs. Raven vs. Abyss vs. Monty Brown vs. Sean Waltman

The idea here is you have to hang the belt above the ring, sort of like a reverse ladder match. However before you can do that, you have to qualify by getting a fall on someone else. Whoever is pinned/submits goes to the penalty box for two minutes. Waltman dives off the box onto Raven while Styles dives off a ladder onto Brown. Brown shrugs him off and goes inside where he Pounces Raven and pins him to qualify. Raven has to go to the box.

AJ hits a huge dive to take out Waltman and Abyss so it’s Brown/Waltman in the ring. AJ sets for the springboard forearm but Abyss breaks it up. A spinwheel kick puts Abyss down but Brown breaks up the Bronco Buster. Raven is let out ten seconds early for some reason. Alpha Bomb pins Waltman which doesn’t change anything for Brown but Waltman goes to the box. Raven has a table set up at ringside.

AJ dives off the cage to take out Abyss. The camera work is lacking a bit here as we keep missing stuff. Brown hits the Pounce on AJ but Raven pulls him to the floor for the pin to become eligible. Abyss loads up Shock Treatment on Brown but Raven beats them both up with a trashcan. Styles and Waltman are forming an alliance in the box. Waltman is now out and he grabs another trashcan to take Brown down with.

The clock ends for AJ as Abyss hits the Black Hole Slam to pin Brown. AJ and Waltman aren’t eligible yet. As I say that AJ hits the Clash on Raven but Abyss makes the save. Pele puts Abyss down and Waltman cracks the masked man with a chair. No one has used a ladder yet. Waltman puts Abyss on the table and AJ hits Spiral Tap, which is good for a pin for AJ.

Brown is released and here’s the first ladder. Raven throws Brown into the barricade and AJ is going up the ladder. He drops the title, but Waltman hands it to him. Naturally that’s a swerve and Waltman hits the X Factor off the ladder, good for a pin. There’s a table in the corner now too. Raven staples Waltman’s head and Abyss is free. Abyss and Raven both get staples between their legs but Waltman gets taken down as well.

Waltman gets up first and chokes Abyss. Does anyone know where the belt is? Waltman sets up a ladder as Styles is released. They both go up and fight on top of the ladder but Abyss shoves it over. A Pounce puts Abyss through the table but Raven DDTs Brown. He goes up the ladder and Abyss can’t stop him, giving Raven the win and the title.

Rating: B-. This was a fun match but as always with these matches, they’re wild brawls that no one can keep up with. Well ok maybe that’s a stretch but they’re still chaotic. It’s probably a little too complicated but this is TNA’s signature mess and that’s ok for the most part. Raven winning should have won the title a year or so earlier but still, this worked well and he would have a good reign.

It’s another #1 contenders match, this time at Genesis 2005.

Jeff Hardy vs. Monty Brown

Winner gets Jarrett at some point in the future. The fans are almost universally behind Hardy. Jawbreaker slows Brown down….then Hardy sticks his hands out and shouts before crawling on the ground. Brown grabs him into a fallaway slam to take over. Jeff avoids a charge and Monty goes to the floor, but Hardy’s baseball slide misses and he hits the steel. Brown throws him into the crowd and Jeff is in trouble.

Jeff walks on a barricade and dives onto Brown who was nice enough to stand there and let him. At least he’s polite. Back in and Jeff is almost immediately thrown back to the floor over the top. The fans are split but the fans are more in Hardy’s corner. Whisper in the Wind misses and Hardy is in trouble. A double clothesline hits and both guys go down. Now Whisper in the Wind works and Jeff starts his comeback. Legdrop between the legs makes Monty’s eyes bug out.

The Twist of Fate is countered into an Alpha Bomb attempt but Jeff counters into the reverse Twist of Fate, which of course West calls the same thing. Either way it only gets two. Jeff goes up for the Swanton but it only hits mat. Monty gets up and CRUSHES Jeff with the Pounce for the pin. Apparently this just moves Monty up in the rankings instead of giving him a title match. You know, because that’s SO much different than any regular match right?

Rating: D+. This wasn’t much for the most part. Jeff’s selling was great of course but Monty was pretty much just another power guy. He wasn’t bad or anything but not much aside from his finisher made him stand out or anything. Not a bad match or anything but it’s really just kind of there.

And then an actual one on one title match, from Destination X 2006.

NWA World Title: Christian Cage vs. Monty Brown

Yeah still the NWA Title here which would last about another 14 months when Christian would be stripped of the title. Brown is a big old strong guy that uses a half spear/half shoulder block as a finisher. He’s a bit more known in WWE as Marcus Cor Von. Christian was certainly over in Orlando. Christian is the hometown boy so he’s by far and away the favorite. That and he’s a face.

Dueling chants begin and here we go. Christian has bad ribs because it’s illegal to be fully healthy against a monster challenger I guess. Christian grabs a headlock but Brown gets a shot to the ribs to break it up. They trade chops and Christian gets tossed to the floor. They brawl into the crowd where the people seem, shall we say, not very interested. Back to the ring and more slugging occurs.

And never mind as we’re right back to the floor. Christian tries to come back in off the top but gets caught by a punch to the ribs. This time they slug it out on the apron for a little variety before they go to the floor again. Into the ring again for more punching to the ribs of the champion. To say this is repetitive is like saying Austin likes to drink. Brown drapes him over the ropes and sends him into the post/buckle for two.

We hit the abdominal stretch which is a perfectly logical move. We’re over ten minutes into this match and I don’t think Christian has used anything other than punches or chops. Tornado DDT is reversed for two. Cage fires off some forearms before Brown hits him in the ribs to remind us that he knows how to do that. Down goes Monty but the frog splash misses for Christian and we hit another rib hold, this one on the mat.

To the corner now with Brown hammering on the ribs again. Christian knocks him off the top and drops a backsplash for two. Unprettier is blocked into an Alpha Bomb for two (big powerbomb). Unprettier is blocked into an F5 for two. Another Alpha Bomb is blocked into the Unprettier to end this. At least it’s over.

Rating: D+. Really dull match here as Brown was trying but Christian’s offense was so one dimensional for the first 12-14 minutes that it was putting me to sleep. Brown isn’t a guy capable of going 17 minutes without boring people to tears and that’s exactly what the case was here. Bad main event that needed to be about 5 minutes shorter to make it work in any fashion.

Brown would jump to WWE as Marcus Cor Von, where he debuted on the ECW brand. Here’s one of his first matches from April 10, 2007.

Marcus Cor Von vs. Rob Van Dam

This is part of the New Breed vs. ECW Originals story. Sabu and Elijah Burke are the seconds here. Feeling out process to start with neither getting an advantage with right hands or kicks. I’ll let you figure out which tried which. Rob tries a monkey flip out of the corner but has to use a hurricanrana to counter a powerbomb.

A hard clothesline puts Van Dam down and a slam does the same as Taz calls Burke Knute Rockne. We hit the chinlock for a bit before a neckbreaker gets two for Cor Von. Rob gets two off a rollup out of the corner but walks into a belly to back suplex to put both guys down. Back to the chinlock before a HUGE release German plants Van Dam for two.

There’s a third chinlock followed by some stomps to Rob’s face for two. It’s a FOURTH chinlock as this is dragging already. Van Dam fights up again and nails a bunch of kicks including a springboard kick to the jaw. A spinning legdrop is good for two and the top rope kick drops Cor Von again. Burke jumps the injured Sabu, and the distraction allows Marcus to hit the Pounce for the pin.

Rating: D+. As I mentioned in the Christian match, Brown’s offense was rather limited and couldn’t last in a ten minute match. He needed someone to help him expand his offense with some other power moves. Yeah he was strong, but the amount of chinlocks in this match was WAY too high.

Here’s the big showdown between the two factions at Wrestlemania XXIII.

New Breed vs. ECW Originals

It’s Elijah Burke/Matt Striker/Kevin Thron/Marcus Cor Van vs. Rob Van Dam/Tommy Dreamer/Sabu/Sandman and for no reason whatsoever this is a regular eight man tag instead of the Extreme Rules match we would get on ECW a few days later. Striker starts with Sabu and Matt is in early trouble. It’s quickly off to Sandman vs. Burke but before Sandy does much he brings in Dreamer. Cor Von hits Dreamer in the back and comes in to pound away a bit.

It’s quickly back to Burke (the New Breed’s leader and more famous as D’Angelo Dinero) for the running knees to the back for two. Thorn comes in to crush Dreamer into the corner and put on a chinlock. Back up and a sitout powerbomb gets two for Thorn and here’s Cor Von again. Burke comes in as well but Dreamer takes them down with a simultaneous neckbreaker/reverse DDT combo. The hot tag brings in Van Dam and there’s the top rope kick to Thorn. Rolling Thunder lands on Striker as everything breaks down. With everyone else on the floor, Van Dam Five Stars Striker for the pin.

Rating: D+. Seriously, why wasn’t this the Extreme Rules match? The whole point of ECW is to be extreme but we got a seven minute tag match which went nowhere at all. The theory was to finally let these guys get on Wrestlemania, but Van Dam had been on it before and won a title here. Nothing to see here at all.

The New Breed would win the rematch (an extreme rules match on TV instead of here for some reason) but CM Punk would jump in to continue the feud. From May 8, 2007 on ECW on SyFy.

CM Punk vs. Marcus Cor Von

Punk scores with some quick dropkicks to send Cor Von outside but he gets pulled out for a beating. Cor Von rams his back into the apron before hammering away at the ribs back inside. We hit the bearhug followed by some knees to the back and a release belly to belly suplex for two. Punk finally comes back with a kick to the head and a springboard clothesline but the ribs slow down the cover. A tornado DDT is countered by Brown shoving him out to the floor and the ribs are in more trouble. Back in and Punk scores with some forearms, only to get caught with the Pounce for the completely clean pin.

Rating: C-. You could see the potential in Brown starting to come out here. Stuff like the knees to the back and the suplexes were a great breath of air after the chinlocks and slams to Van Dam. He wasn’t ready to main event Summerslam or anything yet, but he was already getting better in the ring.

We’ll wrap it up there as it would be downhill for the New Breed after this and Cor Von would retire due to some family issues resulting in him having to take care of some children.

While he wasn’t around all that long, Brown was definitely a guy with some potential due to how strong he was. He wasn’t going to be anything huge but he was perfect for a young company like TNA. The Pounce worked perfectly and was better than a lot of spears that you see from bigger names. Had he debuted earlier in life he could have been something very solid.

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