Loss

Sorry. The qualifying matches have already been set.

He was doing a mini-program with Konnan, Rey and Juvi in spring of 2000 during the Russo era. Was the Horsemen parody something that was Nash's idea? Flair said in his book that Nash was only doing his job and that Terry Taylor booked it, but HHH oversaw that project, so I wasn't sure if that was accurate.

What was the exact deal with Terry Funk and Kevin Nash in WCW in 2000? I know Nash tried to humiliate him in a promo to get over with the locker room by breaking the script, but was Funk's potato shot that gave Nash a concussion later that night a receipt? Did Nash also stop the storyline with the Filthy Animals mid-stream? Thanks for answering these.

Torch Talk Library Kevin Nash talks about meeting Hall, working with Michaels, wrestling Bret (04-30-05) Apr 30, 2005, 04:59 AM Torch Talk with Kevin Nash, pt. 4 Originally Published: April 30, 2005 Torch Newsletter #859 Kevin Nash was one of the biggest names of the Monday Night War era whose jump with Scott Hall from the WWF to WCW helped shift the balance of power in the wrestling industry. In this, the fourth installment of a six-hour "Torch Talk" conducted on March 24, Nash talks about the formation of the famous Clique, his IC Title reign, and Bret Hart. Next week, he makes a case for why Bret Hart is better than Shawn Michaels, and why Shawn Michaels is better than Bret Hart, plus discusses the Bret-Shawn rivalry that led to the 1997 Survivor Series Swerve. As this "Torch Talk" further progresses, he marches through in great detail his entire career including his jump to WCW, the success of the NWO, the downfall of WCW, his role in that downfall, the drug culture that permeated WCW during its peak years, his ill-fated return to WWE, his philosophy on pro wrestling, his thoughts on the Bret Hart Survivor Series Swerve, and much more. Wade Keller: You immediately befriended Shawn Michaels when you got to the WWF. When did you then get close to Sean Waltman and Scott Hall? Also, were there any other people who you hung out with for a while, but didn't stick and become part of your group of friends, later dubbed The Clique? Kevin Nash: Scott and I actually hooked up in WCW. It was one of those, like, big guy things, you know. They booked me and Scott to tag together against guys like Big Josh and someone else. Josh dropped us both on our heads on the belly-to-back suplex. We rolled out of the ring and said, "Screw this," and just walked to the back (laughs). It was really funny. The first time me and Scott travelled together, we went to Macon. He said, "Let's get some beer." So we're driving, we're talking and sh--. I'm thinking he's a cool dude. He was messing with the radio knob, and then as he was screwing with the stereo, he kind of brushed his hand on my leg. I thought that was kind of weird. Then he did it a second time, but a little bit longer. I thought, oh, f---, this dude's a f--. I slowed the card down and told him, "If you touch me again, I'm going to knock you out." He laughed and said, "I was just f--ing with you." And that was like our introduction to each other. If you know Scotty, he's a rib guy. He was just ribbing with me. He was just seeing how long it would go. About 40 seconds into it, I was ready to fight. I said this isn't going to work. He said, "No, we're cool, we're cool." Kevin Nash as Diesel (photo by Jerry Wilson, PWTorch) So Scott and I were friends before we left (WCW). When he went up there, when I first saw the Razor Ramon character get over, I was so proud of him. We talked a little bit. Then when I came up there, he welcomed me to the show. He and Sean (Waltman) were travelling together. Then shortly after that, they started working together. The three of us basically travelled together with the towels over our heads as we left the buildings. That was such a period for us that was like a blank canvas and three artists. I basically went out every night and had the best position in the world. I had Shawn Michaels versus Scott Hall and I was on the apron. The thing was, Shawn said instead of doing like every other bodyguard does, when you do something, it changes the course of the match. So we did a lot of spots where Scott would roll out, and I'd stalk him, and Earl (Hebner) would slide through and stop me. So we put the ref over. Then that one time when I finally got to Scott who was behind the ref's back, the heat was immense and their psychology was precise and they knew it - but as time went on, Shawn realized, f---, he's getting all of the heat. Night in, night out, Kev gets the heat. He was fine with it because he got it residually. Fans would spit hawkers on us. Shawn realized we were starting to create money heat. We worked, the three of us, in some form or fashion for basically the whole course of the time we were there. When we travelled, it was like we'd listen to music and drink beers. You couldn't smoke pot or anything back then because of the drug policy. So you could drink booze and take pills, that's all you could do. But we would talk f---in' business from the minute we got up in the morning to the gym to the tanning bed to the building and after the building at Denny's. We were talking business, highspots, and finishes. We were refining our craft 24 hours a day. There was a love for the business. My wife would be livid because I'd be on the road for 21 days and come home and talk highspots for three days on the phone with these guys. "F---ing uncle, man, you've got to be kidding me," she'd say. But when this business grinds into your bones like that and you fall in love with it, it becomes your mistress. People ask me, Who's your mistress. I say this business is my mistress. The funny thing is just as I don't think I love it anymore, then I have this match with Jeff Jarrett. Even though it's 1,500 people, at those precise moments that we want the people to do something, and they do it, you realize it's not about anything but the fact that you can still pull people's chain when you want to pull people's chain. It's the psychology. That's the beauty of this business. I can make your forget it was fake for 30 seconds. That's the beauty of what we do. It's Copperfield making the Statue of Liberty disappear. Keller: What stood out when you first got to the WWF that made it different from WCW? Nash: The thing was, it was a wrestling company. It was a company that all they did was wrestling. It was the Yankees. That's exactly what it was. You were in a pro wrestling company. They knew how to market it, how to shoot it. how to book it, everything. Vince used to have - we used to call it the pencil - a book that was textured like an NFL football and he'd open the book and it was like the Holy Grail. This is like June '93 and Vince was like (imitating Vince): "Well, SummerSlam '96..." (laughs). Back in the day, it was a different deal. It was such longterm planning because at that time there were four pay-per-views. My first year was when the first year King of the Ring was added to make it five. Keller: And a big main event on TV at the time was Duke Droese vs. Phineous Godwin. Nash: If you had Bret Hart working a title match on TV, it was once every eight months. It was a jobber match. All the Superstar and Challenge matches (on syndicated TV) were squashes against guys who couldn't work and you'd just beat the dog f--- out of 'em. Everything in the business was so different. And it was an hour. I remember when I was writing television for WCW, we had three hours of Nitro and two hours of Thunder. Next week's Thunder was taped on the same day as this week's Thunder was. So you had to write a Monday Nitro for three hours, you had to write four hours of Thunder, but you had write the Monday night show because it had to fit in between the two Thunders to make it work. So you had to basically write ten hours of TV in three days. Keller: I think that's the number one reason things fell apart now matter who had control of the booking. Nash: Thunder killed it. Thunder was the sh--s and when they went to three hours on Monday, it was the sh--s. Keller: It just spread everything too thin. If everything was great and there were no problems and every character stayed hot and a brand new star came along every six months, you might have been able to keep up five hours, but five hours never worked and burned everyone out. Nash: Immediately it diminished the product. But it's one of those deals (TBS) threw whatever it was, 40 million dollars at Eric (Bischoff) budget-wise and it was hard to say no. He said, "F--- it, I can sign more guys." We were friends with Eric, so once we found out more money was coming, we asked for raises. He said, "Well, I guess you can." Keller: That's where Vince (McMahon) is smart with the brand split while doing two weekly two-hour shows. Nash: Absolutely. Keller: When you won the IC Title for the first time, was that the peak of your career at that point? Did that mean a lot to you? Nash: God, it was Rochester, New York or Syracuse. They're both the same type of town in my brain. We did the limo drive out. There was a strip joint. It was Rochester. The sign used to say, "25 Good Looking Girls and 2 Ugly Ones and Warm Beer." That was the strip joint on the right hand side by the Super 8 where we were staying at. We stopped and had a couple of beers at the strip joint and went to the room. This was back when the belt went in your bag. You took the belt with you. I went back to my room and I was going to air my gear out like you do every night. I took my knee braces and knee pads and everything else out. My belt was at the bottom. I took the belt out. And I remember sitting on the bed at the sh--y hotel by myself and just looking at this belt and thinking, f--- man, I'm the WWF Intercontinental Champion. I've made it. If I get hit by a bullet, bolt of lightning, anything happens to me, as far as this business is concerned, when I got into it, this is more than I thought I would ever accomplish. Keller: And to win it and lose it from Scott made it special, too. Nash: Absolutely. And the thing was, we went in. I remember the day we laid the match out. Vince asked, "What do you guys got?" We went through that match nine-hundred times. Vince looked at us and smiled. I remember one time when we were somewhere up in Canada and Vince came in and said, "A lot of guys are saying if this Clique continues to go on, they're going to f---in' quit. I need to ask you guys one question." We're like, "Yeah?" He said, "How do I get in?" We said, "F---, you're in, you love the business." He said, "Yeah, f--- them!" That was the whole thing. Vince knew we lived, died, breathed it. The business is what we wanted at that point in our lives. I know the first time I worked Madison Square Garden in '93, the house was 86,000 dollars. The last night I worked three years later against Shawn (Michaels) in the cage in the main event, it was sold out it to with 309,000 dollars. It was the largest house we had ever had there that was non-pay-per-view. People will say throughout my career that I never drew a dime. You know what, f--- you. You know what, we put asses in the seats. And you want to give it to Shawn only, fine. You can give it to Shawn as long as he drew because some say he never drew. But somebody drew that f---ing night. You know? Keller: When did you cross paths with Bret Hart during this first WWF run, and what was your opinion of his in-ring style compared to others you had worked with. Did you respect him right away? Nash: Bret was real different. He was real quiet. Bret had his psychology, but the thing is, I had great matches with Bret Hart. Bret Hart looked at things in comic book form, he looked at things in almost a movie form, like there was a first, second, and third stage of everything he did, then there was the finish. So if you worked twenty minutes with him, you basically had five minute segments. The first time I worked with him, I dropped the belt to him in Washington D.C. at the Cap Center. When I dropped it to him that night, I didn't give a f-- (about losing the title) because I knew the match was going to be so good. We used a chair, which we hadn't used forever. I pushed him off of the apron. He went through a table, which was I think the first time anybody went through the scorer's table. Bret was really innovative and Bret's sh-- was solid. He'd hammer you out there. His psychology was good. There was never a night where I went out there with Bret that I felt we even had to talk. We could look at each other in the locker room and nod and call it in the ring. To me that's the greatest feeling out there, to go out there with a guy who can work without a net. When I came back off of my quad injury and I was put against Triple H, f---, working against Paul (Levesque) every night, ohhh! I could go out to the ring, lock up, and ask him how long are we going tonight. There's no reason to plan it out. It makes life so simple because the only time you have to think about wrestling is the 20 minutes you're out there in the ring.

*bumping this because I have some questions, specifically for HTQ* Did Kevin Nash put up a stink about jobbing to Bret Hart at Survivor Series 1995? And is it true that Vince chewed Nash out after the 10/95 In Your House? Did that play a part in the decision to shift to Bret or was that planned out in advance? Did Bret Hart voice displeasure over jobbing to Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania XII? What was Jim Cornette's position toward Shawn Michaels as the top guy while he was booking? Did they ever have any major disagreements? Is it true that Bret Hart pushed for Owen and Davey Boy not to drop the tag titles to Vader and Mankind at Wrestlemania XIII? Is it true that Bret Hart had a clause in his WWF contract that Owen had to remain employed as long as he was in the company? Is it true that Randy Savage had the same deal with WCW regarding Lanny Poffo? Was Goldberg's title reign in WCW ever booked to end before it actually did end, with plans changing at the last minute? What were the circumstances that led to Ric Flair being fired as head booker in 1990 in WCW? Did Sting and Bill Watts have heat with each other when Watts was running WCW? Is it true that there were major problems between Flair/Piper and Hall/Nash? If so, what were some of the specific incidents that happened? Time frame is WCW 1997. Is it true that Chris Kanyon was in the doghouse in WCW in February of 2000 for confronting Hulk Hogan backstage about his comments directed toward Billy Kidman? Evan Karagias had a horrible rep among the wrestlers in WCW. What were some of the specific things that caused that? Is it also true that he used to follow Kevin Nash around and throw huge compliments at him the whole time? Did Austin actually refuse to job to HHH at Summerslam '99 or was Foley's book more accurate on that subject? And was there heat between Austin and HHH if that was the case? Is it true that the segment on Nitro in 1998 where Hogan and Rodman came out during a Wolfpak interview and cut the sound off on Kevin Nash's mic was unscripted, and that Nash was furious? That's probably enough for now.

Just to let everyone know where his head was at this point, here is the interview he did that was posted on the Observer site back in December:

Oh my God! This wasn't the way I expected to start my Friday morning. He did that really open, heartfelt interview on the Observer website a few months ago too, and I was stoked for his comeback, because he looked like he had finally cleaned up and gotten his life together. Candido was always someone I thought had potential to go really far in wrestling, but more than that, I'm happy that he at least made peace with his demons before his body moved on. RIP, Chris. My sympathies go out to Tammy and your family.

What about high-end New Japan stuff? What about high-end lucha? How can you call out bad star ratings when you don't assign them?

Riki Choshu, Akira Maeda, Tatsumi Fujinami, Kengo Kimura & Super Strong Machine v Antonio Inoki, Keiji Muto, Seji Sakaguchi, Osamu Kido & Yoshiaki Fujiwara - 08/20/87 (NJPW) This is elimination rules, and eliminations can come either by pinfall, submission or touching the floor. The touch-the-floor stipulation actually works against this match more than anything, because it seems to be a gimmick of convenience, a way Inoki, Maeda and Choshu can avoid doing jobs or putting anyone over. This is definitely the most action-packed heavyweight match I've ever seen; to put it in perspective, there were *26* tags before the first decision, which took place at about the 12-minute mark. Inoki/Maeda was obviously the showdown everyone wanted to see, as their interaction got the largest reaction of the night. The two of them tumbling over the ropes at the same time was actually the right booking in the long term, because it continues to hype to a match between them (that wouldn't happen) without either guy losing in the buildup. When a match is this full of action and it's this frenetic, the rules are basically being changed to fit the participants, which admittedly works. So, therefore, it's not the selling that's important, it's the pacing, and the pacing is off the charts. My favorite performer in this match was actually Kengo Kimura. He seems more determined, more focused and more energetic than anyone in the match, which considering the energy level of everyone involved is really saying something. The match seems to be more of a collection of altercations of those who have ongoing feuds, but there aren't really any notable payoffs. This match is more about staying the course and providing great action than settling anything. The first chance they have to really create something special is when Keiji Muto is left alone against Choshu and Fujinami. It's the young guy against two of the biggest stars in the company, and now, we'll see if he can defy the odds. The fans are desperate to buy into this, but the workers don't really play off of it at all, with Choshu and Fujinami taking turns torturing young Muto without really giving him any comebacks or hope spots to speak of. Choshu then somehow joins the ongoing fracas outside of the eliminated participants, which takes him out of the match and leaves Fujinami to quickly and anti-climatically dispose of Muto for the win. They had the opportunity to do so much more than they did here, and that's not to say the match is disappointing from an entertainment perspective, because it isn't; but it had everything it needed to be one for the ages, and didn't quite make it to that level. Normally, I don't weigh the length of a match as a major strength or detriment, unless it actively takes away from the match. If you can build a great match in five minutes, then do it. That said, sometimes, matches are far too short to be dramatic and maximize the work, no matter how great they are. 27-minute matches don't normally receive this sort of criticism, but considering everything they were doing, they could have run twice this long, or even longer, and accomplished even more. The action still put this over the top, though. ****

I probably would as well (need to watch Eddy/Rey again, others you've mentioned are up there too), but it's definitely in the upper echelon of WCW stuff.

Yes, it is. It's a strong candidate for best WCW match in history. That rating is not a typo.

I think that was in WAR on Osaka Crush Night, but no, I haven't seen it. It's something I definitely want to see, though.

Rey Misterio Jr v Ultimo Dragon - WCW World War 3 1996 A match like this is hard to talk about and still do justice. You say the action is "incredibly fast", but lots of matches have "incredibly fast" action, so what makes this stand out from the pack? You talk about Rey's selling, but Rey's selling, with few exceptions, is typically excellent. So what makes his selling here stand out more than it normally would? Sometimes, a match is greater than the sum of its parts. I consider that an achievement when it happens, because I think it's part of the goal of working. That said, it's only part of it. The other part of working is to live up to, even exceed, the expectations set, the hype that is often out of the control of the performers. In this match, Rey Misterio Jr and Ultimo Dragon succeeded in doing both. The match starts by establishing parity through a series of all-action sequences which look great and pop the crowd early on. I like the transition to Ultimo being in control here, since it's not because Rey misses a move, it's because Ultimo forced his own way. The standard transitions you often seen in American main events have the babyface going wild early on, missing a move or getting overzealous and the heel stepping in after that. There's nothing wrong with that at all, as it's very effective, but it's a nice change in pace to see a match worked in this fashion. In this case, it's just Ultimo taking what he wants and going with it. Rey takes a hellacious beating. With every amazing move Ultimo performs, and with every subsequent kickout from Rey, the crowd becomes more and more involved. This is Ultimo getting himself over as the ultimate asskicker, the high-flying assassin who knows 137 ways to kill you instantly. By proxy, this type of character is a perfect foil for Rey, because it's such a contrast to who he is. So, you also have Misterio getting over as the ultimate underdog who can withstand anything, the smallest guy in WCW who's greatest weapon would appear to be his offense. That's true, but his greatest defense is his heart. He shows here that he has it in spades. Another reason the match is excellent is because after five months in the company of outclassing everyone he faced as an aerial wrestler, he has perhaps met his match. Ultimo is the guy who holds eight junior heavyweight titles from all around the world; in fact, the WCW cruiserweight title, held by Dean Malenko, is the only one of note that he doesn't possess. He'd love nothing more than to add that title to his collection, but to do that, he has to get past Misterio, the man who is easily the most established contender to the title. Rey has small windows of hope toward the end, as he starts countering Ultimo's moves to the best of ability, but Ultimo is still clearly a step above. However, as determined as Rey is, finding anyone with enough wherewithal to kick out of a slingshot powerbomb after being destroyed for 15 minutes would be a daunting task. Ultimo is the one who goes in the record book as the winner, but really, they both achieved a major success here, and they were both able to ride the wave of momentum this match created. A rematch with Rey avenging himself was definitely in order, but it was never to be. Despite that, WCW got it right for one night at least, and Ultimo would go on to finally capture the title the next month. ****1/4

This is a strange complaint to level against Ric Flair, but I don't think he ever gave Funk enough in their feud. When I say that, I don't mean in the feud itself, which was fairly even, but in the matches, especially this one. Flair is a terrific babyface in terms of relating to the audience, but in the ring, he doesn't really sell like he should. This is actually a problem I've found with Austin and others as well -- they don't let the heel work them over for any length of time, and they don't struggle to come back and build to the finish. I love the heel version of both guys, and in that role, they both do everything right, but they both tend to take too much as babyfaces.

I'd say good to very good, leaning toward very good. It's obvious they're old tapes, but they've held up fairly well.

I also watched Rey/Ultimo from WW3 '96 and the NJ 10-man elimination from 08/19/87 tonight, but I'm going to have to wait to talk about them tomorrow so I can do them justice. I'm spent.

From the 11/23/96 WCW Saturday Night ... Steven Regal v Dean Malenko Everything here is so fluid. I know I use that word to describe Regal all the time, but it really is the best way I know to explain his style. The way he can just float from one move to another without taking his hands off of his opponent is poetry in motion. Malenko is the perfect opponent for him, because he is just as capable at wrestling this style. They only twice touch the ropes, they never at any point break contact, even for a millisecond, and it's one of the most unique dynamics I've ever seen in a WCW ring. These two have faced other times, and they've had even better matches than this, and I never understood why WCW didn't put them in a long-term feud. Where else can you see dueling full nelsons, or Regal crossing his ankles around Malenko's ears just to get out of an armbar? Fantastic, but very short match.

From the 11/18/96 Nitro ... Dean Malenko v Ultimo Dragon These two typically worked very well together, and this match is no exception. Sonny Ono is a horrible manager, and Ultimo actually does a fine job establishing himself as the heel without his help, just because he's such a multi-layered badass. The story is basically that Ultimo is incredibly fast, and while Dean can keep up, he's getting terribly flustered. Him cutting off Ultimo's nonstop attack with a well-time clothesline gets the biggest pop of the match. We see most of Ultimo's best moves, and Dean mostly takes a backseat role to put him over. He's not really selling anything long term at all, but I think the goal here was to just present as much of Ultimo's offense as possible, so in that case, they succeeded. The DQ finish I could live without, but I guess it did sort of build to their match at Starrcade. Ultimo sort of acted as the stop-gap between Malenko being the top heel of the division and Eddy being the top heel of the division, and he made as much of that opportunity as he possibly could. This was Dean shifting to the light side so Ultimo could have the dark spotlight for himself. Not a great match, or even a good one, but a fun changing of the guard nonetheless. Chris Benoit v Eddy Guerrero This is yet another side of Benoit. It's amazing how he was wrestling such vastly different matches against everyone he faced at the time, sometimes even against the same guys! Eddy is very good here as well, but he's a major underdog. This is a Trash Talkin' Benoit, as he screams at Eddy and slaps him in the face while he has him down and even starts yelling at his own valet at ringside. Holy shit, he's channeling Randy Savage! He's also doing all sorts of really cool small things, like putting Eddy in a headlock ... while having his arm tied up ... while punching him in the face. He never lets go of that arm, no matter where the story takes him. He does a Northern Lights suplex while holding on to it and even puts his arm behind his back when he's pinning him, giving Eddy get more weight to pull up if he tries to bridge out. Not content to just destroy his arm, Benoit goes into a full upper body assault, elbowing his chest HARD, forearming his back HARD, performing an abdominal stretch and putting his arms straight behind his back while driving his knee into the center of Eddy's back. Systematically, he's destroying everything above Eddy's waistline, and Eddy's selling it like it matters. He teases a comeback, and Benoit gets mad, elevates him high, and drops him low. He then does a top-rope superplex, and at this point, Eddy knows if he doesn't fight back, he's going to die. He's really, really going to die. They both come to their feet and Eddy takes him outside with a rana. He then gets Benoit in a belly-to-back suplex, but Chris seems to be luring him into a false sense of hope. The finish is a complicated sequence that only wrestlers with the timing of Benoit and Guerrero could pull off -- Eddy goes up high, misses the frog splash, rolls out of it, Benoit runs toward him, Eddy catches him in a huracanrana and Benoit reverses that into a sunset flip position for the clean pinfall. This is an amazing TV match, one of the better outings I've seen from these two. The 11/95 WCW Saturday Night match gets well-deserved praise, but this is much better, with Benoit on a mission and Eddy narrowly escaping death. Benoit is the one who shines brightest here, but he couldn't have had this match with anyone else. ***1/2, which means "near-perfect TV match" for those of you following along at home

From the 11/11/96 WCW Monday Nitro ... Chris Benoit v Hector Guerrero Now THIS is a good match. Hector is game for whatever Benoit decides to bring, and Benoit takes full advantage of the situation. Hector gets in too many highspots to mention and Benoit puts them all over with gusto. Benoit, still selling his shoulder injury from Havoc, sees Hector zone in on that shoulder, but Benoit breaks the momentum by hanging him out to dry on the ropes. I love that move! He targets Hector's abdomen by elevating him high in the air and dropping him flat, headbutting him in the gut, dropping him on his knee stomach first, kicking him in the gut off of an Irish whip and applying an abdominal stretch. He then stomps on Hector's hands, just because they're in his way. What a gentleman! Hector makes a spirited comeback with a series of European uppercuts, but sadly, it doesn't get much heat because the audience is distracted by a drunken fight in the stands. They come around soon enough, though, and the two are smart enough to slow down the match a little until they have the crowd's full attention again. When he has them again, he decides to do a rolling cradle (the first I've seen in a US ring), which causes Woman to distract him. Hector goes after her, so Benoit schoolboys him behind and pins him with his feet on the ropes. Benoit was so awesome at this time. He realized a few things about Hector in their first meeting and was able to string something together far superior the second time around, something that played up Hector's strengths. Instead of letting Hector stay in control too much, Benoit stayed on offense the majority of the match and built to a big Hector comeback and one hot nearfall, which sadly, the audience sort of neglected because of the aforementioned fight in the stands. It's also fascinating how Benoit was switching from face to heel from week to week at this time, depending on his opponent. Still, watching the difference in quality between the Saturday Night match and the Nitro match is mind-boggling, and this is just another terrific mid-90s match for Chris Benoit. *** Juventud Guerrera v La Parka This is La Parka's WCW debut! There's lots of fun, fast-paced work here, but I think they might have been better served to slow things down a little to allow the big moves to have an impact. They do a great comedy spot, with Juvi tripping La Parka while he's dancing, but they immediately go right back into the faster-faster-faster pace, acting like the guy in the truck in Boogie Nights, when had they paused for a second, they probably would have gotten a pop. What they did right, though, was allow La Parka to showcase all of his highspots, even if he didn't get to show off his natural charisma. Suicide dive! Plancha from top rope to the floor! Big powerbomb! Surfboard! Corkscrew moonsault! Juvi brings no shortage of great spots himself. My favorite was probably his top-rope Asai moonsault, since I'm not sure I've seen that before. The biggest problem this match had was in the roles established. Who's the face and who's the heel? You'd think Juvi, since he's doing count-along rams into the turnbuckle. Then again, you'd think La Parka, since Juvi keeps putting him in a chinlock to rally the crowd for his comeback. There's also the issue of the guy who's been in the company about six weeks putting over the newcomer. Admittedly, they probably weren't given a clear idea of what the bookers wanted out of them, but Benoit usually wasn't either, and he just did his own thing.

From the 11/09/96 WCW Saturday Night ... Chris Benoit v Hector Guerrero Hector sort of rules here, but not really. He's not doing anything particularly bad in this match, and I think a match where Hector was in 1983 form would have rocked the hizzouse, but in 1996, Chris Benoit was on a totally different level. I think he tried to wrestle Hector's match here, but it just didn't work out, because Hector does things like run the ropes in such slow fashion that Benoit had to slow down to keep things coherent. They'd top themselves on Nitro just two days later, but this wasn't their shining moment. Benoit gets the win with a beautiful powerbomb. I do love how Benoit pulled out so many finishers at that point -- unlike in current WWE, he had a series of signature spots and any one of them could spell the end of a match, unlike the current Benoit, where if he isn't using the crossface or occasionally the sharpshooter, there's no reason to think the match is over. Dean Malenko v Juventud Guerrera This is a case of Juventud showing that in 1996, there wasn't much he couldn't do, as Dean decides he wants to keep things grounded and Juvi responds by showing him two can play at that game. This match isn't anything special, but it's nice to see Juvi show a side of himself you don't normally see, regardless. The match is a little too "my turn, your turn", and a story never really develops. This may have been the first time they worked together (I'm sure they had other matches later), because it seems like there was a lack of cooperation, or at least they weren't approaching the match in the same way, because the chemistry was awkward and should have been better. Steven Regal v Psicosis Bring on the five-minute draws! Seriously, what kind of company books a draw to go FIVE MINUTES? What other company could, actually? They make the most of the time they're alotted though, starting out with some superb matwork. They fight over an armbar and Regal goes into some type of zone, but Psicosis joins him there because he doesn't want him to feel lonely. Psicosis kinda rocks on the mat, and he's a really good babyface, as is exemplified here. Regal is also his usual great heel self, being the first and only to cheat, thumbing Psi squarely in the eye. Never saw that side of him before. I love the subtleties of Regal's style -- the way he places his forearm when making a cover, the stepovers and twists and reversals all are so seamless and fluid. Regal's butterfly suplex gets a great nearfall, and Psicosis gets a *very* close nearfall off of La Magistral. Regal realizes he can probably neutralize Psicosis more if he can at least take away one thing he can do, so he tries to go to work on the knee not long after getting hit with a beautiful leg lariat. Psicosis sort of declines that request, and steps on Regal for fun in a criss-cross sequence. He gets the top rope legdrop just as the bell rings. Whew. All of that in five minutes. Stretch it out to 15 and these two could do anything.

Michael Hayes was the personification of cool at the time; he wasn't a wrestler, he was a rock star in the wrestling business. He lost his edge once he started teaming with Jimmy Garvin in WCW, but I loved him before that.

1 - Ric Flair 2 - Michael Hayes 3 - Eddy Guerrero 4 - Barry Windham 5 - Vader

Rob Conway getting a pinfall over either Chris Benoit or Chris Jericho in a tag match will give him cred.

Just posting the matches set up for the final 8 spots in the top 64. Marc Mero v Yoshihiro Taijiri Al Snow v Val Venis IRS/Mike Rotunda v Savio Vega Terry Funk v Rikishi Brainbusters v Killer Bees Adrian Adonis v Bad News Brown Don Muraco v Greg Valentine Honky Tonk Man v Jerry Lawler Voting will take place on all of these Saturday. Just posting this to let everyone know the matches. I'm closing this now because no one should be voting yet, and saying your picks doesn't really accomplish anything at this point anyway. Sunday, I'll set the brackets since we'll know all the contestants, and Monday, we'll start voting. The tournament will have six rounds, and it's double elimination. Think over your choices while we wait on everyone to sign up.