Loss

"The pain and suffering of a childhood lost. An empty swing... An empty promise. A broken dream... A broken home. It's strange how laughter looks like crying, with no sound. And rain drops taste like tears, without the pain. Tommy Dreamer, you will relive the turmoil and anguish of an uncertain youth. Quote the Raven, nevermore." Pretentious bullshit.

Public Enemy hanging out at Sea World and talking rubbish. This is mixed in with clips of their matches with a "Funky Cold Medina" beat soundalike. Suddenly, it's immediately dark outside and they're paying for limos and women with Paul E.'s credit card. I'm guessing this was supposed to have stoner appeal. I don't really get it.

First, I want to talk about Misawa. Misawa looks great in this match. In fact, in terms of variety of offense, we probably see more from him than anyone in the match. He starts out with Taue and is all flashy right away. He does a gorgeous floatover takedown into an armbar and a high crossbody to the floor in a pretty short exchange. Most of the match is Kawada and Kobashi, so aside from one extended part of the match where he's selling, for the most part, he's either on the apron, or in the match pulling out some great flying moves -- tope, senton, flying bodypress, slingshot splash and lots more stuff. Late in the match, he does a beautiful, lucha-esque dive to the floor that is tremendous and is probably the best looking highspot of the match. Next, I want to talk about Taue. I saw jdw's comment just before I watched this, but I tried not to let it influence me. That said, this proves jdw right -- Taue wasn't at his best. I don't know if that applies to the entire time period or not, but if this is what we were getting from him at this point, it's true. He's never actively bad, but there are times when he has great openings and does nothing. Until the end, each time Kawada tags him in, he is in for a few seconds and doesn't do much before tagging out. He also repeats spots too many times -- if I never see him drop someone throat first on the top rope or the guardrail again, it will be too soon. He also sits Misawa in a neck vice for a while (This is the one part of the match that has Misawa as the legal man selling and that's all Taue can think of?), and when he's tagged back in a few minutes later, he does a quick chinlock before tagging out. It's also telling that until the final stretch of the match, everyone is put in a position to sell for a long period of time except Taue. He does the same thing when Kobashi is FIP for a while. He'll tag in, do a half crab for a few minutes, then tag out a few second later. Things pick up for him toward the end of the match when Kawada is laid out and Taue is carrying the load for the team. He and Kobashi are both in a similar predicament at that point, but the story is much more pronounced from the Kobashi side of things. There are moments when he pulls out some heel stuff that the crowd eats up, but overall, I was disappointed with him. Now onto the match. Where the body of Kawada/Kobashi a few days earlier was outstanding but the last few minutes lost something, this is the opposite -- the body of the match is underwhelming, but things pick way up down the stretch. They do a great job building to some big moments, but the payoff seems anti-climatic. For example, despite all the tagging in and out early on, we see every possible combination at least twice before we finally get Misawa/Kawada. And while the heat picks up, they don't really do as much with it as you'd hope. Still, you think there's going to be something else great coming. Every time Misawa has tagged in when Kawada was in, Kawada has been laid out. For the first 20 minutes of the match, Kawada gets no offense at all on Misawa. Then, Kawada tags in and they don't really pay off the build in a very exciting way. Then, they try building heat on Taue, but Taue doesn't seem engaged, so it doesn't last long. But when they start building heat on Kobashi, the match kicks into high gear. It's really good, and at times, really great. The crowd is strongly into him from the beginning, so he's the right guy to be in this spot. And the moment when Misawa is finally able to tag in -- after taking a powerbomb on the floor from Kawada -- is great, as Kobashi has been fighting solo for his team for quite a while. It's a great moment, but it feels disconnected from the earlier build. After a few more tags in and out with everyone involved throwing out their big moves and getting some great close calls, we close out with Misawa/Kawada in an awesome final pairing. Misawa pulls off a beautiful German suplex and a frog splash that gets some amazing hang time and elevation. He's going for a tiger something-or-other when the bell rings, and we have the second 60-minute draw in five days. I'm torn. These four aren't going to have a bad match, and they definitely didn't here. There are some fabulous moments in the last 15-20 minutes. But the first 2/3 of the match -- while hardly terrible -- aren't as good as you'd expect. Without knowing anything about the 12/95 tag, I'm expecting this to be the least of the four matches they'll have this year. I'd call this very good. There is plenty to like, and it's worth watching for some strong individual performances from three of the four participants, but it's not as focused as you want it to be.

Man Mountain Rock plays the Royal Rumble theme on his electric guitar. Guy was definitely not a terrible wrestler, but neither company could ever really figure out a way to use him.

Why is the top heel also the color guy? They should have stuck with Kid and Holly as a team. They were pretty over with the live crowd after the title win, were putting together some nice double team spots (double superplex!) and Kid seemed to raise Holly's game. The Billy/The Kid (See what I did there?) slugfest near the end is great. Not really a classic or anything, but I do like this better than the match the night before, which says a lot, because babyface vs babyface tag matches are a little limited. The Gunns got a lot of crap, but they were a perfectly fine tag team. They worked hard and had some pretty good offense.

Vince issues an apology for Bigelow's actions at the Rumble and says he has been suspended without pay. Brief, but this feels very 1970s WWWF in its presentation, and I love it.

Last few minutes. I actually like this better than many Rumbles because there's not as much downtime. But considering Shawn was booked to go the distance, this wasn't the year to do it. I love that Shawn keeps wanting to work spots with Dick Murdoch. I also really like the Shawn/Davey Boy interactions, even though I thought the finish was pretty bad. Why would Davey turn his back?

Sean Waltman is a miracle worker. Bigelow looks good, but Waltman is the one carrying the other three. The match keeps wanting to fall apart, but he won't let it. I don't love this match. There are things in it that don't make sense, but literally every single good thing about this match is the result of something the Kid did. The post-match angle with LT is hot, but not in a Wrestlemania main event type way.

He feuded with Bill Dundee over a valet named Tessa, basically copying Magnum/Tully/Baby Doll from '85. So yeah.

Is there photographic proof of this? Not just odd but so odd I can't actually believe such a thing occured. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3tmu6_le...port#rel-page-9 Can't find other stuff on YouTube at the moment, but yeah, Flair had a hair crisis that lasted a few weeks and wore a ponytail. It was really weird.

I remember watching this match in the past and thinking Bret was a hypocrite. How could he accuse Shawn of sandbagging Diesel in the Wrestlemania match when he went out of his way to overly dominate this one? He stood toe-to-toe with him and I thought didn't put over the size difference as much as he could have. Then Bret Hart's book came out. He had an explanation. He was purposely going out of his way not to sympathetically sell because he thought it would undercut Diesel as champion. So with that in mind, I was wanting to watch the match again. And Bret was right. He struck a really nice chord here -- any more aggressive and he would have heeled himself. Any less aggressive and he might have heeled Diesel. So this is not in the top handful of Bret Hart matches, but as a performance, this is a Bret Hart masterpiece. Right away, they get into a slugfest, and right away, Bret goes after Diesel's leg. Bret is pretty dominant for 90% of this. Some of the ideas thrown out here, like the possum spot before the inside cradle or Bret tying Diesel's legs together, would be fleshed out more by Survivor Series. I'm not sure how the matches will compare to each other, but I'm looking forward to watching the November match when I get to it. The heel run-ins are overdone to the point where it's comedic. Very good match, but a fantastic Bret Hart carry job.

That match was worked with sex toys, by the way. David Crockett was supposed to get belts for the match, and instead he got a bunch of cat o'nine tails(es?).

All of that will go on for sure. Let me just say sorting out the USWA Texas/Memphis stuff is the biggest challenge that will see the biggest payoff. You guys will be really excited by the stuff that ends up making the final cut that hasn't seen the light of day before.

I have always had a soft spot for this match. Jeff Jarrett wins the Intercontinental title. Before the restart, this is good, but really typical -- it's about as high-end WWF style as you can get for the time period. What I mean by that is that neither guy is a "great" worker, but they are both capable of having a good match, and it's a style that played to the in-ring strengths each guy had. Lots of rope running, lots of crowd-pleasing spots, and the timing is sharp. Not much in the way of big offense. Jarrett wins by countout after Razor injures his knee on the arena floor, but insists on a restart to which Razor agrees. Here is where the match gets really good, as Jarrett gets all Flair and goes about decimating Razor's knee. There was great heat for the figure four, and in a big surprise, he won clean with an inside cradle. For the era, and considering his opponent was a guy with pull, this is a pretty fair, strong attempt to put over Jarrett winning the title as a big deal. He beat Razor twice in the same match and got the clean pinfall in the end. At times, it feels like a house show match, but I wouldn't call that a bad thing, as Jarrett is good with stalling and heel schtick and he gets time to do plenty of both. This is a solid match -- better than you'd think and worth seeing.

Also ... so everyone dislikes this match? Who gave it the rep it has then?

One thing I will be asking people to do when I send them recommendations to go through in the future is put everything in tiers. The first tier is stuff that absolutely cannot be cut regardless. Tier 2 isn't a must, but it's a strong recommendation. Tier 3 would be nice to include if there's room. That will make things much easier at crunch time.

Wow, babyface Hulk Hogan in WCW was bad. It's a hyper promo and everything, but Hulkamania just doesn't have the magic anymore, and WCW looks silly for clinging to it. Monster Maniacs? They hype up the Clash match and touch on Flair's appearance and Vader showing up.

BRIAN PILLMAN'S HAIR. This is half really good, half really strange. Pillman talks about his history of throat operations and explains his football background, which is good. This is also about remaking Flyin' Brian as California Brian, which is strange. He talks about his guest spot on Baywatch and how he has gained strength from seeing how Californians have responded to floods, which is why he has the new name. He also talks about winning the cruiserweight title tournament. Whaaaaa? That belt didn't debut until 1996, but there was an on-screen graphic for it and everything. Someone has to explain this to me.

New Jack wants to know what's going on with Bob Armstrong reinstating the Bodies. Armstrong responds that there's not a prejudiced bone in his body. Um, that's not what New Jack asked. Anyway, New Jack points out that these two have hated each other since SMW opened, and now, Armstrong is doing favors to Cornette so they can take out the black man. Armstrong responds that he doesn't hate New Jack because he's black, he hates him because he's an asshole! Good segment, but yeah, still borders on questionable taste level.

Jim Cornette shouldn't discuss race. Ever. Even when wearing an awesome tie with Marilyn Monroe's face on it. He says some white people don't like black people, and New Jack just makes its worse. He says when an average white guy turns on the news in the evenings, he doesn't see that 9/10 black men have a job, work hard and take care of their families, and he doesn't see that their children play sports, make good grades and stay away from drugs. Instead, he sees misfits, criminals and loudmouths -- in street gangs and taking drugs. He sees sports heroes and rappers being arrested for rape, robbery and murder. He sees Al Sharpton suckering someone else into paying his salary by accusing someone of discrimination. He then has the nerve to accuse New Jack of attempting to profit from racial tension (OH BOY ...) before finally getting around to doing a wrestling promo. I, of course, take exception to this, because we learned in Beyond the Mat that New Jack would make a good friend for Denzel Washington. Anyway, yes, this is probably how most SMW fans in east Tennessee viewed these things, but why exploit it?

Cactus presents Boo with Cactus Jack tights -- the ones he wore when he had his teeth knocked out and ear torn off. He hopes Boo will have the same luck wearing those tights. Uhhh ... I wouldn't wish that on someone.

Clip from Mid South Coliseum of PG-13 laying out Scott Bowden before a match with Rich and Gilbert. Okay action, but too clipped to tell much. Disc 2, and I'm already tired of chains in USWA matches. Back in the studio, PG-13 announce that they've asked for a hospital elimination, non-title match.

Dundee is in a suit and looking quite dapper! Dundee says he has the secret to beating Sid -- everyone tries to fight him, and you can't fight him. You go the distance, tire him out and beat him. Good to know. They show a clip from Mid South Coliseum of Lawler getting DQd for having a chain hanging out of the back of his tights. I guess he was framed. Jerry Lawler is out and points out that Dundee is the one that brought the chain into the match. Dundee, in a funny moment, asks how that can be, considering that the referee found it on HIM! Dundee wants another match with Lawler, which Lawler says is fine, but not to lie about bringing the chain into the ring. He says had Dundee told him to come to fight, he would have been prepared for the chain. Lawler recaps the history of their feud and puts Dundee over. Dundee tells him they can fight when Lawler gets tired of fooling around with the Mickey Mouse organization up North. This gets the studio crowd solidly on his side. These two are gold together.

Heartbreak Hotel is the only show that can knock Home Improvement out of the #1 time slot. That doesn't even make sense. His guest is Bret Hart, and based on the graphic in the corner of the screen, I guess this was part of the Holiday Wish Tour, whatever that was. Shawn says the scuttlebutt in the WWF is that Bret has changed, and then asks Bret if he has. Bret says he had a small part in Lonesome Dove, and it was fun, but he's back to work. Shawn accuses him of spending too much time in Hollywood and not enough time focusing on his match with Diesel at the Rumble. Bret assures everyone that he's focused and that he'll be ready. The two of them get in a little shouting match back and forth, which Bret looks better in, and there we go. Okay segment. No Bix, this is not the segment where Bret's tights magically change colors halfway through.