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Sludge of a match. Bret was on offense for nearly the entire match, and felt like a chore to watch. Finish was sloppy with the ref having to move around the entire ring to get in position for the Diesel pull out, catching himself up in the ropes even. Nash is really great at being a prick, just dropping the finger and mockingly walking out.

Fyre is a considerably better worker than Dawn, and I think WWE knows it too. Fyre was a bit of an indy darling in the UK, she's the one who was given the longest NXT UK women's title reign, and when she was brought over to work a Wargames match for NXT, it was treated like a big deal. Being half of a spooky tag team who never did anything spooky was a poor fit for her, I'm guessing they've got different plans for her going forward (they'll probably release her now I've said all this).

RIP, he did lots of good stuff in pro wrestling, I loved his one match with Yuki Ishikawa

https://www.themat.com/news/2025/february/09/1988-greco-roman-olympian-duane-koslowski-65-has-passed-away Duane was an incredible athlete and wrestler. He had a handful of matches in pro wrestling as well, most notably against Ken Shamrock and Nobuhiko Takada. I don't think he ever had a "bad" match either. RIP.

Great work as always. All of these creative angles are interesting to follow and there's always something that makes Bluegrass one of the most interesting promotions east of the Mississippi.

Heenan with 1,500 friends? The man sure knows how to inflate his numbers. SNME will be a blast. You've set up that event quite nicely.

I'm really enjoying WCW in 1990 so far. I love the idea of a Owen and Davey tag team at this stage. They could be the next great tag team. Liger vs Muta should be awesome. Can't wait for that match

The Global Wrestling Federation (GWF) on ESPN in the '90s went through several eras in only a few short years, and one of them definitely veered toward the cartoonish and absurd: Examples: - A Bungee Match - A Moon Rock Match - Announcer David Webb thinking he was Elvis

Sounds like Heaven to me!

This was uploaded in full today. It ran about fifteen minutes and probably had fewer than ten wrestling moves, and it provides the best look we have at peak Chicana as something of a villain. One second he's taking a comedy bump outside of the ring, and the next he's smashing a bottle against the ringpost to prepare for his next attack. The rudo fans (or possibly just Chicana fans) jumped out of their seats just to raise their hero's hand in victory. Faraon isn't gonna outshine peak Chicana, but his bloody selling was fantastic, and between this and the title match with Atlantis there's a chance that the best worker in 1985 Mexico (or at least '85 EMLL) was Jose Luis Barajas. Sorry for the double post.

If its not 50, it's most likely not too far off. They have tons of folks at the PC who have either never been on TV or nothing more than Level Up type shows.

Nikita with the US title is news enough but as Luger reminded us, the Russian Nightmare now just needs to say the word and he gets a world title shot. Double A shows Pillman what happens when you get involved in Horsemen business. I would have loved to hear the crowd react when Muta got Flair with the mist. Muta may not have gotten the world title match but he's got a classic lined up with Liger. A match with Owen and Smith could make or break P&G's US tag title reign. Intrigued by the BATTLEGROUND.

I have no idea if this is true or not, but I read somewhere online today that between the new “ID” program, NIL and NXT, that WWE have over 50 women in their developmental system. It sounds like an insanely high number, but I guess it could be true. If it is true, it’s a small wonder they are starting to release some talents to make room.

WCW Power Hour - 2/8 Gordon Solie & Paul E Dangerously bring us in with a highlight reel from the Clash. We get the announcement that Sting will not be able to compete in the WCW World Championship Match at WrestleWar. We will find out what will happen with that contest tonight on WCW! We also find out… at WrestleWar… the tag team titles… champions vs champions… Road Warriors take on the Rockers! They turn the tide to the US title gauntlet… we’ll have a new champion on Sunday night… but tonight we’ve got 4 huge matches… let’s go to the ring! US Title Tournament Nikita Koloff vs Sting was a no contest… Sting couldn’t compete… Pillman came out in his stead but was held back! It was announced that Nikita will have a match and a contender is going to be here this evening… US Title Tournament Abdullah the Butcher w/ Gary Hart defeated Kona Crush in an interesting contest. Abdullah doesn’t do much in the ring and Crush is able to sell for him and work in some offense. This ends up with a count-out victory after Abby pulls out the fork and jabs him in the throat. Crush is outside the ring before Gary Hart kicks him in the skull before the 10-count and Abdullah wins! US Title Tournament Tommy Rich defeated The Berzerker w/ Gary Hart via DQ. This wasn’t that great… Berzerker is nothing but a brawler and Tommy Rich gets the crowd involved but it just isn’t good. I am sure someone else could have been put in this spot. US Title Tournament Flyin Brian defeated Michael Rotundo in a hard fought 10-minute contest. Pillman has got a lot of fire. Rotundo does his best to keep things close. Pillman reverses a German suplex into a running crossbody for the 3-count! Pillman gets the win and he moves on! JJ Dillon comes out and announces that due to Sting’s injury, they needed a replacement for the tournament and who better than former United States Champion… Wahoo McDaniel! US Title Tournament Nikita Koloff defeated Wahoo McDaniel in a one-sided beatdown. Tatanka came out to try and help matters but it was thwarted by Ivan Koloff. In the end… Wahoo gets nailed with the Russian Sickle twice… clutches his throat and goes down… Nikita with the 3-count and he’s moving forward. We’ll find out the finals coming up tonight on WCW! World Championship Wrestling - 2/8 Tony Schiavone & Jesse Ventura welcome us in and put over the Clash. They talk about all the happenings and the big injury to Sting. Tonight… JJ Dillon will announce who will face Lex Luger. We also hear about the tag title confrontation between the Rockers and the Road Warriors at WrestleWar. We have two big matches announced for tonight… Brian Pillman vs Abdullah the Butcher and Nikita Koloff vs Tommy Rich… the winners of those matches will face off tomorrow night on the Main Event for the WCW United States Championship! We find out that Ron Garvin is out indefinitely… his injury has been deemed too serious to compete! We head to the ring for our matches… Owen Hart & Davey Boy looks pretty good as a tag team. We hear mumors of them challenging for the US tag titles soon?! The JYD and the Berzerker go to a no-contest… which brings out the Samoans and the Nasty Boys… the brawl is thwarted for the time-being. Just as JYD is looking to leave the arena area… the One Man Gang and Kevin Sullivan pop out of the back and attack him. He can’t catch a break! The Road Warriors win a simple tag team showcase… they let us know that it isn’t about titles at WrestleWar… it is about respect and they’re going to beat it out of the Rockers! We get the announcement we’ve been waiting for… JJ Dillon comes out and he addresses the crowd. Lex Luger comes out… with a limp of course… and he stands with Dillon as it is announced… at WrestleWar… Lex Luger will defend the WCW World Championship against… all of a sudden we see Paul E Dangerously walk out with Muta. They get into the ring and Paul E tries ripping a hole into Luger but JJ Dillon halts him… he tries to announce the challenger again but now we see Ric Flair come out with Arn and Ole! Flair and Muta are now face to face and you can feel the tension. Dillon separates them… and he announces that… at WrestleWar… it will be Lex Luger defending the WCW title against… Ric Flair! Flair celebrates but Muta is pissed… Muta kicks Luger in the knee…. Flair turns him around and Muta with the MYST and Flair’s face is covered! Pure chaos! US Title Tournament Flyin Brian defeated Abdullah the Butcher via DQ. This was a wild one and ended when Abby pulled out the fork again… but Pillman dropkicked him out of the ring to the floor. Abby pushes the referee to the ground but then Pillman out of nowhere off the apron with a crossbody! The crowd is 100% behind him… can Pillman win the gold? Kona Crush is out here and he gets a nice ovation from the crowd. The crushing move gets the crowd pumped. The Hillbilly Hog Farmers win a tag match… still trying to figure those guys out. The New Skyscrapers kill a couple of guys… it isn’t pretty but Sherri looks good. The Diamond Studd beats the hell out of someone… he’s got star written all over him according to Jesse Ventura! We get another promo from Luger who puts over the match with Flair. He says that this is his destiny. People have called him a paper champion but come WrestleWar… it is one on one… the world title on the line… the defining moment in both men’s careers. There can only be one World Champion and you’re looking at this! US Title Tournament A good matchup between Tommy Rich and Nikita Koloff finishes up our broadcast this week. These are two pros… Rich sells… sells… and sells some more for Nikita who looks primed for something big. Ivan is out there causing hell and ends up tripping Rich… only for him to turn around and here comes Nikita with the RUSSIAN SICKLE! Rich crumbles down… Nikita covers for the 1…2…3! It is Pillman vs Koloff tomorrow night… oh man! Just when you thought it was done… Flair is out here and he is covered in the green myst on the white shirt…. It’s stained and also his face and hair… it’s an image. Flair is on a roll saying that he is going to risk his entire career on this one match. He wants the World Title more than anything in this world. He is willing to put everything on the line and Luger is going to have to walk the aisle with the best damn wrestler in the world and the one true world champion! WCW The Main Event - 2/9 Eric Bischoff & Bob Caudle pump up the Main Event and the US title on the line tonight… it will be Flyin Brian or Nikita Koloff who walks off with the WCW United States Championship. They put over Flair vs Luger at WrestleWar. They put over the Road Warriors vs the Rockers at WrestleWar. We will find out these matches that have been announced: Tommy Rich will challenge Rick Martel for the TV title, Davey Boy and Owen challenge the Power and Glory for the US Tag titles, Jushin Liger returns to the US to take on Muta for the International Championship, plus a special contest called BATTLEGROUND? More on that contest next week! US Title Tournament Final Flyin Brian vs Nikita Koloff w/ Ivan Koloff went 20-minutes and these two left it all in the ring. We saw Ivan Koloff try to get involved but Pillman nailed him with a baseball slide dropkick! Nikita sold just enough to keep it interesting but Pillman really went to another level. Nikita continued to push the limit and Pillman kept fighting. We get some chaos that ensues when the referee gets knocked out….Pillman goes to the top rope and hits a crossbody but the referee is down and no count. Pillman is irate… what the hell is this… Arn Anderson? Double A comes out and he’s on the apron before Pillman comes over and they are jawjacking and then Pillman with a huge right hand and Anderson goes flying… Pillman turns around and RUSSIAN SICKLE! Referee crawls over for the 1…2….3!!! Nikita Koloff is the NEW United States Champion… this is outrageous… Caudle and Bichoff put this through the roof… we’ll see more on this next week on the Power Hour!

Alba is a better worker, Dawn has a better look. Probably call it a draw when it comes to promo skills. Just kinda surprised they let one go and not the other. Also, Elektra Lopez was apparently cut too.

This match was from the same show as the Reslo bout above with the same Reslo markings on the ring and appears to have been filmed using the same camera positions but has German commentary with a ringside intro by a German speaking host - possibly Peter Wilhelm. Not sure what this was for - was Catch Up still going by this point? If so, did S4C ever try to get a similar deal with ITV or Channel 4 for footage to be broadcast to the rest of the UK, perhaps with Lee Bamber or even Kent Walton on commentary? (Well there was the Wrestling Madness home video to consider- perhaps it was a pilot for a Rest of the UK edition of .Reslo.) In the final seconds of the video some zReslo style title graphics appear on screen if that's a clue. Match is pretty much predictable CWA quasi American fare - the spirit of Otto's matches being carried on after the man himself retired from the ring. Michiyoshi Ohara as scowling Fuji Yamaha and local Eddie Steinblock are about the best workers here and probably deserved better than this. Unfortunately all they get to do is chop each other a bit before Yamaha gets eliminated first and Steinblock second. Kauroff here is a babyface and German old school institution that fans bring signs applauding. He goes down third, leaving us with an all North American handicap tag. Cameron, ex Stampede North American champion who died in a CWA ring a couple of years later, was a mutton dressed as lamb roid case. Mastino on the other hand had a big time American career ahead of him - as Mantaur the human cow. Here he's a cheap replacement for Leon White who is about to dethrone Sting in a couple of weeks. I've speculated on Max Crabtree sending Leon in to do a Daddy tag -maybe Mastino would have fit that bill too. Rambo, the third North American in this. is the hero of the CWA having sent Bull Power packing back across the Atlantic to replace Lex Luger in WCW. Unfortunately he just works 80s/90s WWF style. Mastino finishes him off with a splash that would have made the said Big Daddy proud, leaving himself and Cameron as survivors. Amusing moment towards the end - Mastino and Cameron both double team and elbowsmash Rambo. The commentator calls this with the Anglicism "Double Elbow" which just so happened to be the name of Big Daddy alternative backdrop finisher Referee is Didier Gapp but even he doesn't do his "comedy" routine as miserable bossy petty official a la Saulnier.

Always felt like he missed a gear after the early 2010's. NJPW gave him a good boost, but then they started leaning more into the Tanahashi/Okada flashy types than Goto's more traditional heavy set work and he kinda got lost in the scuffle bar the occasional G-1 match that would get traction with the smarky Western fans, honestly couldn't tell you his highlights for some years. I can't blame him for playing it safe but I can't help thinking that he might've been better suited for a All Japan stint.

This was a good angle overall, but not much of a match apart from the first few minutes. Andre dominating the heels was fun and their heat segment on the giant was good, he bladed deeply and the selling was actually very interesting as everyone got to look good. The bout stalled a lot with the stretcher job and everything, but continuing this as a handicap match was quite a surprise and it went well for another bit. At that point Andre's return was pretty much obvious, but the crowd loved it, too bad that the non-finish was quite rushed as things seemed very promising ***

Good match overall, but a bit disappointing, considering their skills. Santana was great at selling, his whines and face expressions really put over Valentine's blows on his ribs area and then on his knee. You could tell that they had chemistry, but that this was hold back a bit, as Valentine never went too deep with his legwork and never even attempted the figure four once, which also surprised Gorilla Monsoon. Very dull finish, as the bell rang for the 20 minutes time limit at like 15 minutes, shocking the announcers and making Santana look quite bad, as he never started a comeback **3/4

Slightly clipped, as there were some cuts here and there at the beginning of the match. This was a good one anyway, the best parts were easily the ones where the heels beat down the babyfaces in a relentless way and, also, despite the usual silly tag rule. Blackwell stole the show, using the structure very well and then selling Crusher's limited comeback. The blood got heat and the crowd also helped with their support, the finish was nice to see despite Gagne not executing it too well ***1/4

This was more "fun" than "good" in a traditional way, as it was fun indeed to see Baba working on Hansen's arm and the crowd reacted to everything, in hope that this would stop the gaijin's lethal lariat. However, Baba's offense looked very bad at times and Hansen had to do all he could to sell it decently. At least they kept this short and Hansen made the match with his flawed reaction, as he only had one good arm and this helped Baba in his brawl with the champion. The non-finish made sense too, as they will wrestle again down the road **3/4

Slightly clipped. Unfortunately, the copy I saw had Matt Striker and Steamboat on commentary and they talked over the vibrant crowd, mostly speaking about everything except the match itself. The first part of the match was great, Steamboat worked on Flair's head persistently and controlled him, but Flair looked great as one of those football teams that is off the ball, but never really seems in danger. Flair takes over at like 40+ minutes in, but this is where the match failed to get to the next stage, as the Naitch's offense wasn't that great or particularly focused, he tried many things without consistency. Nice set of nearfalls over the last minute and huge drama, as Steamboat technically won the title, but it didn't count at 60:01. Excellent two thirds and good finish, but the last 15 minutes were dull ***1/2

Love the fact that "No DQ" was specified in the stipulation, like a cage match itself would still involve disqualification. This was a good match, despite easily not being everyone's cup of tea, due to the constant brawling sequences, some restholds (in a a cage match) and slower pace all around. Good drama once they started bleeding and the exhaustion selling brought to a different type of brawls, Valentine was a fiery babyface and Slater's headbutts proved he gave no ****s. The finish wasn't great either, despite being a pleasant surprise, I wished they used the cage a bit more ***

JIP, as the first round was missing. I wasn't really thrilled to see some of the comedy spots, but these two were stupidly athletic and crisp here. Between Grey's technique and Myers' karate influence, this was a very enjoyable bout and the 5 minute rounds also helped quite a lot. I liked Myers legwork at the beginning, Grey shined with his counters and his cardio somewhat made up for Myers' unorthodox style. Really fun series of nearfalls towards the end, it was so good that the non-finish was satisfactory as well. Can't rate this higher as it wasn't complete and they only teased limb working throughout the whole out ***3/4

This was another good match, extremely focused on matwork and ground action. The cleanest Joint Promotions stuff that didn't include Johnny Saint. Cullen didn't show much charisma or presence, far from it, but his legwork on Haward was outstanding, despite some selling flaws when Haward was trying to reverse the leg focus on his opponent. Too bad that his limbwork never led to a submission or got even close to getting one. The flashy pinfalls were quite good, but the non-finish was very lame, especially with 2024 eyes and with the TV cut in the middle ***1/4