Superstar Sleeze

So why do people not like this Brusier Brody fellow? I'm being facetious, but in the two matches I have sat down to really watch I thought he delivered really good performances. I wanted to watch this match before I re-watch the tag match to see if I can glean anything from this brawl to add context to a match that really blew me away on first viewing. I learned that Brody and Dory don't exactly exchange Christmas cards. Dory, much like Greg Gagne, has a lot to overcome in the way of his image, but I buy his credibility as a wrestler a little more than Greg because of his sweet European uppercuts and generally coming off as tough as nails in his match. Brody can be a little goofy at times with his mannerisms, but I thought he worked a violent championship match. You really believed he was a madman. He took Dory right into the crowd and nailed with a metal rod. OW! Posts Dory to get the crimson river flowing. He punctuates the assault with his kneedrops, but Dory keeps kicking out. When Dory rebounds off the rope to forearm Brody the crowd pops huge. You gotta love the post receipt. The snapmare is goofy. The spinning toe hold will rip a knee to shreds so I buy it. Plus with the Funks I have come to accept that no matter how much of a brawl they are in they will are going to go for the spinning toe hold. I would have marked out like crazy if I ever watched a Funk Brothers bar fight and they busted out dual spinning toe holds. Brody seemed to sell well from Dory and cut him off with an eye-rake. Brody misses the knee drop and they just start slugging it out. Brody uses the ropes to hold himself off just kick Dory off of him, which I loved. Dory suplexes Brody onto the ref to trigger the finish stretch. Brody starts to march around and he has hold of his chain. Dory wrangles a portion of it and loses his mind. He is nailing everything in sight with the chain including the ref, which triggers a DQ and Brody wins the via DQ. Brody and some gaijin double team Dory until Terry makes the saves and Brody marches off with the International Title. I am still testing waters of 80s puroresu so I am still in shock when I see this match that seems like a high-end ECW or Attitude Era brawl taking place in 1981 All Japan! It does feel abbreviated and it is missing the intangibles to put it over the top. I thought it was an energetic and violent brawl that transitioned the title to Brody and really made you want to see the Funks vs Brody & partner. And wouldn't ya know they just so happen to have such a match in December. ***1/2

HOLY FUCK! I watched this match with some stops and starts because I am working, but what an awesome friggin match. Either based on rep or personal preference, I figured a match with Brody, Snuka, and Dory would not be that good, but this match has been one of the best I have watched in a long time. This is pretty much the only Brody match I have ever watched. Based on this one match, he looks awesome. Everything he did was snug and looked great. Snuka was so friggin athletic. Dory was awesome with his euro uppercuts. Terry in his movements diving off the top and just going to toe-to-toe. I loved the streamers after the double suplex on Brody. I loved Terry diving off the top. I marked out like crazy for Hansen's lariat did not see it coming at all. I love that kind of finish and so well-done. I will have to rewatch it more critically. Great, great match.

How have I never heard of "I Am Santa Claus" that's the most bitchin' thing EVAH~!

Growing up in the Attitude Era, Angle was definitely one of my favorites. He was a great character in the love triangle and just had great comedic timing. I may be alone in this, but I thought he was awesome with AJ Styles, Karen and Christian in like 2007 or 2008. My problem with him as a wrestler is that he very rarely brings the hate. Dont get me wrong, he can be intense, but he very rarely hates someone. I thought there was a lot of disconnect in the AJ matches because these are two in the build up that were bloodying each other, but would then just wrestle a straight match. Even the announcers would be like "What the fuck, I thought we were going to get a brawl". Also he tends to do Attitude style brawling as a opposed to Southern brawling that is my least favorite type of wrestling when he is faced with a street fight. I just watched his match with Roode from this past Impact. It was a 2 out of 3 falls match and I guess it is supposed to be a pretty heated, competitive feud. It just felt like any other Angle match. Both guys wanted to prove they could beat each other twice within one match, but Angle did not seem hard pressed at all to try sell this anything different. I will say the finish to fall #1 was pitch perfect. Angle kicks his ass so Roode pushes the ref to distract and kicks him right in the balls. What a great heel finish. The 3rd fall was Angle at his worst with all finisher reversal that make his Angle lock and slam so ineffective. Roode uses the crossface now so plenty of that style of matwork. I don't want to say that style of matwork is just so perfunctory. There is no struggle. Roode rolled through an AngleLock and grabbed the bottom rope for a pinfall. I would say it was a pretty bad match. Kurt Angle, to me, is the ultimate video game wrestler. There are times where he just presses "Square" and will just break your grapple and hit a move. Whats funny is the way he breaks out of a grapple looks exactly like in a video game. He lacks a sense of struggle and urgency. In a typical Angle match, it misses the intangibles. It just goes from spot to spot. In his mind and the minds of many, if I just string a bunch of good spots together thats a good match, but we know thats not the case. When you are that much of an athletic freak, you are going to have great matches and he has plenty. He just has so many lame or lazy ones too. It is too bad his ring timing is not as good as his comedic timing.

Demolition, WALKING DISASTER! Personally, I thought their babyface run was a walking disaster marred by gobbling up opponents, bad opponents and extended squashes. I surprisingly liked the Smash & Crush team and thought they had some good efforts against the Road Warriors and Rockers. Definitely, think Smash & Crush would have been a viable team well into the next year if they kept them together. http://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/20...aster-1989.html

He punches better. His dives are better. He sells better. He bumps better. He is a better wrestler. He works the mat better. He is a better character actor. He is better at match layouts. He is a better wrestler. Kofi can jump higher than him, I guess. Fuck, I can do worked strikes better than Kofi. AJ's swanton to the outside blows away anything Kofi has in terms of how pretty it looks. For selling from AJ vs. Joe at Turning Point 2005: "When Styles does a float-over off a Joe suplex attempt onto the apron instead of doing it fluidly he lands on the ropes to sell the exhaustion. I was in awe. Consequently instead of immediately following his forearm on the apron he sold more exhaustion before finally to trying to hit a springboard and ate a Joe powerbomb. Sublime. " You are lucky if Kofi remembers to sell the same body part through the match nevermind sell fatigue. The iconic flip bump off the Ultimate X to making Sting look like a million bucks via bumping. Could Kofi have a violent David vs. Goliath match in a cage as good as AJ? Fuck, no. Kofi does not even the work the mat. Still, AJ has proven he can go on the mat with Daniels and others at level that is at least on par with most modern American workers. I am a mark for AJ's work in the Christian Coalition & Team Angle. I like some comedy and light-heartedness in my wrestling. Kofi's character is that he moved from Jamaica to Ghana. AJ vs Daniels Final Resolution 2009 is an amazing layered match that builds on their previous matches, has hate and delivers a satisfying finish. When has Kofi ever shown any aggression ever. Kofi does not even come close to any of these matches: 1. TNA World Heavyweight Champion AJ Styles vs Christopher Daniels - Final Resolution 2009 2. AJ Styles vs Abyss - Lockdown 2005 3. X-Division Champion AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe - Turning Point 2005 4. X-Division Champion Samoa Joe vs AJ Styles vs Christopher Daniels - Against All Odds 2006 5. TNA World Heavyweight Champion AJ Styles vs Christopher Daniels vs Samoa Joe - Turning Point 2009 6 TNA World Tag Team Champions America's Most Wanted vs AJ Styles/Christopher Daniels - Slammiversary 2006 Those are just the ones I have seen that I would rate higher than 4 stars. Comparing AJ to Kofi is such an insult.

You all suck. As the lone AJ mark on the board, I should at least shill my thread for him... http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?showtopic=19786 . Give the man, some deserved love. Re-reading my own thread, I see there are other people who do like AJ including Redman, sorry for misconstruing 2013 AJ disdain with general AJ disdain. I would still be super pumped for AJ on the main WWE roster because I still liked his performances this year like against Aries 2013.

Fuck yeah. I got it at about ****1/2 and I think this is Hogan's best match. It is one of the best symmetrical, tit for tat matches ever with Backlund outpowering Hogan in the short-arm scissors spot. Finally his ego gets the best of him and he loses out due to try out-airplane spin Hogan. Just a fuckin tremendous finish to a great match. Bob Backlund is the fuckin man. If someone wants to send me Backlund/Inoki from Miami, I would be happy to arbitrate.

Thats what my money has been on ever since they announced this stipulation. If they do actually go through with unification, I am going to be bummed if they drop Big Goldy by the wayside. It is the last vestige of my beloved WCW. Thankfully, business dictates that those title belts they sell are cash cows and the match just reeks of a screwjob finish so I don't think they will actually go through with it.

Is Justin Credible on the board? That would be just incredulous. (faked you out, didnt I)

Was your dad, Mike Rotundo?

Covering Halloween Havoc '93 through Superbrawl IV, I found Steve Austin to be very inconsistent in his performances. He is someone who clearly knew his fundamentals and had a great grasp on psychology. I don't think he really knew who "Stunning" Steve was and that inhibited from putting on transcendent performances consistently. Some nights he looked like a cant miss main event others an interchangeable midcarders. I do think he needed so more go-to spots to get heat because sometimes his heat segments would drag. Like most here, I do not think it is the number of spots or moves that did him in. Sometimes, he just did not project the confidence to garner the heat necessary especially in the two clunkers against Dustin when we know they were capable of an awesome match from Havoc '91. Definitely check out his matches with Pillman in singles and tags and his tremendous performance in Thundercage at SuperBrawl IV. http://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/20...n-wcw-1030.html

WCW International World Champion Rick Rude, "Stunning" Steve Austin & Ron Simmons w/Col. Robert Parker vs WCW World Champion Ric Flair, Sting & The Boss w/Ice Train - WCW Saturday Night 01/21/94 Austin is very inconsistent in this time period. He is never bad per se. He just ranges from bland midcard heel to main event heel week-to-week (reminds me of Del Rio). This is one of those main event performances as he is the glue that holds this match together. He bumps around for Sting like a million bucks. His interaction with Flair is a tantalizing taste of what we never got. His missed kneedrop set up the babyface knee work. After Simmons holds the top rope down causing The Boss to go tumbling to the floor, Austin rammed Boss' head into the railing. He was the one always racing to cut The Boss off from tagging his partners. In a match with Flair, Sting and Rude, he was the lynchpin, which is a huge amount of respect by those guys to let the match run through him. The beginning was fun with Rude doing all his atomic drop stooging bits. Even in his limited fashion, Rude was awesome here. We got the Austin show as mentioned above and then a Boss heat segment. I guess that is one way to showcase the Boss? Yes, in this time period he was on a hot streak, but I think his partners would have been better faces in peril. The heat segment was not up to snuff with the rest. The Austin bits were good, but Simmons just recently turned heel and did not have it down yet. Sting gets the hot tag and a melee ensues. Simmons who had deck his buddy Ice Train before the match get his comeuppance when Ice Train distracts him and Sting gets the pin. . Austin was tremendous and Rude was great in small doses, which lends more credence to my hide Rude in tag matches would have made a great post-prime career for him. Weirdest thing about this match was how subdued Flair was. Flair usually takes over every match he is in. It was nice to let him standback and let others carry the load. Also, weird was they had all this starpower, but the match was a backdrop for the Simmons/Ice Train feud. WCW was always great for stuff like this.

"Stunning" Steve Austin w/Col Robert Parker vs "Flyin'" Brian Pillman - WCW Saturday Night 01/15/94 How can you hate Parker? He elicits "Foghorn" and "KFC" chants! It is funny I am doing a concentrated Austin viewing session and coming away thinking Pillman is just friggin' awesome. That is not a slight on Austin, but just how badass Pillman is as a babyface when he cares. This match starts off more tentatively than their war at the Clash. They hype Pillman's upcoming match with Parker and the loser must wear a chicken suit and thus they have transferred the heat from Austin to Parker. I think that hurt Austin more than anything else. Austin goes for the trick knee early. Pillman is like if you want a knee injury I can give you one. He applies the one of the most beautiful drop toehold into a toehold that I have ever seen. I am a huge drop toehold mark and that was downright Bockwinkelian. Incidentally, Bock is set to become the commish of WCW soon in the storylines. Pillman wraps Austin's legs around the ringpost and adds some chops for good measure. However, his obsession with Parker gets the best of him as Austin is able to clothesline him and ram his shoulder into the post. Pillman sells the arm the rest of the match like a champ and really makes the match. Austin works various arm holds while Pillman is in his element striking vicious chops from underneath while selling the bad left arm. Eventually, Pillman regains control, but a leverage move by Austin sends him careening to the floor. However, Pillman rolls through a powerslam attempt to win. That booking certainly spits in the face in the current style of the winner of the blowoff match losing the match before. Austin is very good at the fundamentals. He works the arm well and sells for Pillman's chops well. However, he could have done more to get heat in this match. Pillman was just in another league. In the pre-Hogan world, the babyface side was so much more stacked that Pillman breaking past Flair, Sting, Steamboat, Dustin and AA just seems like too much. Austin had the easier path on the thinner heel side with Vader and a broken down Rude. However, Hogan'a arrival renders all this speculation moot.

I have never watched the full show (I hardly ever do), but because all the upper-midcarders are in one match it does make for some strange undercard matches. You get the absolutely badass Regal/Anderson and the prototype match for the Spring Stampede match between the Nasties & Cactus/Payne. Payne almost wrecks Knobbs' shoulder on a belly-tobelly if I remember correctly. Still, you get Jimmy Garvin in 1994, The Equalizer, a random DDP/Taylor match and friggin Thunder & Lightning, just so WCW. I have never watched the Flair/Vader match, which has a rep as a debacle so I will have to watch that one before the podcast. "Stunning" Steve Austin w/Col Robert Parker vs "Flyin'" Brian Pillman - WCW Saturday Night 01/15/94 How can you hate Parker? He elicits "Foghorn" and "KFC" chants! It is funny I am doing a concentrated Austin viewing session and coming away thinking Pillman is just friggin' awesome. That is not a slight on Austin, but just how badass Pillman is as a babyface when he cares. This match starts off more tentatively than their war at the Clash. They hype Pillman's upcoming match with Parker and the loser must wear a chicken suit and thus they have transferred the heat from Austin to Parker. I think that hurt Austin more than anything else. Austin goes for the trick knee early. Pillman is like if you want a knee injury I can give you one. He applies the one of the most beautiful drop toehold into a toehold that I have ever seen. I am a huge drop toehold mark and that was downright Bockwinkelian. Incidentally, Bock is set to become the commish of WCW soon in the storylines. Pillman wraps Austin's legs around the ringpost and adds some chops for good measure. However, his obsession with Parker gets the best of him as Austin is able to clothesline him and ram his shoulder into the post. Pillman sells the arm the rest of the match like a champ and really makes the match. Austin works various arm holds while Pillman is in his element striking vicious chops from underneath while selling the bad left arm. Eventually, Pillman regains control, but a leverage move by Austin sends him careening to the floor. However, Pillman rolls through a powerslam attempt to win. That booking certainly spits in the face in the current style of the winner of the blowoff match losing the match before. Austin is very good at the fundamentals. He works the arm well and sells for Pillman's chops well. However, he could have done more to get heat in this match. Pillman was just in another league. In the pre-Hogan world, the babyface side was so much more stacked that Pillman breaking past Flair, Sting, Steamboat, Dustin and AA just seems like too much. Austin had the easier path on the thinner heel side with Vader and a broken down Rude. However, Hogan'a arrival renders all this speculation moot. ---------------------------------------------------------- WCW International World Champion Rick Rude, "Stunning" Steve Austin & Ron Simmons w/Col. Robert Parker vs WCW World Champion Ric Flair, Sting & The Boss w/Ice Train - WCW Saturday Night 01/21/94 Austin is very inconsistent in this time period. He is never bad per se. He just ranges from bland midcard heel to main event heel week-to-week (reminds me of Del Rio). This is one of those main event performances as he is the glue that holds this match together. He bumps around for Sting like a million bucks. His interaction with Flair is a tantalizing taste of what we never got. His missed kneedrop set up the babyface knee work. After Simmons holds the top rope down causing The Boss to go tumbling to the floor, Austin rammed Boss' head into the railing. He was the one always racing to cut The Boss off from tagging his partners. In a match with Flair, Sting and Rude, he was the lynchpin, which is a huge amount of respect by those guys to let the match run through him. The beginning was fun with Rude doing all his atomic drop stooging bits. Even in his limited fashion, Rude was awesome here. We got the Austin show as mentioned above and then a Boss heat segment. I guess that is one way to showcase the Boss? Yes, in this time period he was on a hot streak, but I think his partners would have been better faces in peril. The heat segment was not up to snuff with the rest. The Austin bits were good, but Simmons just recently turned heel and did not have it down yet. Sting gets the hot tag and a melee ensues. Simmons who had deck his buddy Ice Train before the match get his comeuppance when Ice Train distracts him and Sting gets the pin. . Austin was tremendous and Rude was great in small doses, which lends more credence to my hide Rude in tag matches would have made a great post-prime career for him. Weirdest thing about this match was how subdued Flair was. Flair usually takes over every match he is in. It was nice to let him standback and let others carry the load. Also, weird was they had all this starpower, but the match was a backdrop for the Simmons/Ice Train feud. WCW was always great for stuff like this.

This. If anything it's one of the most overrated "moment" in wrestling history. It was a cute "WTF" moment for smart marks only, led to absolutely nothing in term of matches, angles or payoff, and didn't draw WCW any money. What it did though, was mesmerize Vince Russo who even mentionned it in one of his "Vic Venom" columns in the Raw Magazine sometime in 97. And from there comes his fascination for shoot-angles. So yeah, in some twisted way it was important as it "inspired" the worst booker ever to do a hundred shoot-angles in WCW which all accomplished nothing in the end just like the original one did. Bingo! That's exactly what I meant. It was inconsequential from a kayfabe point of view because they never followed up on it and there was no payoff. However it did inspire Russo and TNA. It was a hugely important moment in turning the industry into it was today. I am not going to say that if it never happened we would be in idyllic bliss because somebody else was going to do. Pillman was the guy to fire salvo, which has led to monster CM Punk worked shoot of 2011 that went over huge at first before it lost its sizzle post-Summerslam. Everything in moderation and the worked shoot should be treated as a powerful weapon only used every once in a while. Russo and TNA lessened its impact with their constant use. Pillman would go overboard, but up until that time, he was still working a very effective heel style and was a great wrestling character.

It was one of the first crippling blows against kayfabe. This predates MSG Curtain Call. The Curtain Call was at a house show. This was live on TV. Pillman was sarcastically stating he respected the booker and in turn the office. I am not going to say a worked shoot had never been done before, but this was the first of the Monday Night Wars where a wrestler openly complained about his push and broke down kayfabe in a Big Two promotion. I have always thought of it as a seminal moment in wrestling history.

WCW International World Champion Rick Rude, WCW US Champion "Stunning" Steve Austin & "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff vs Sting, Brian Pillman & Dustin Rhodes - Superbrawl IV Thundercage I take everything back about what I say Austin was not a big bumping heel. He takes the first bump into the cage and then takes the bump of the match by straddling the cage. The thundercage is a rickety, bush league Hell In A Cell with steel bars as opposed to mesh. Austin was the badass of the match because he also hit the offensive move of the match when he hotshotted Pillman into the cage busting Pillman wide open. Then after almost shredding his knee he bumps all over the place for the babyfaces. Pillman gets his blowoff victory to a huge pop after Sting press slams him onto Austin. Well so much for my theory in the previous match about protecting Austin from having to job to Pillman. The crowd was hot for this match with "Paula" chants to start and they did not let up in heat. What a friggin' bitchin' match. No one is going to mistake this for a high end Wargames, but this is still a really high-end six-man tag with tons of effort for all. On the babyface side, everything was so well-executed. Sting is a such a great shine babyface, Pillman as the plucky face in peril and Dustin as the energetic hot tag. The one big misstep I thought was having Sting be the one to get the hot tag and bust Orndorff open. You see once Dustin gets tag in how much better he could have done that sequence. Plus, Dustin/Orndorff were dance partners in this match. Orndorff looked great in this match targeting Sting's arm, hitting an absolutely wicked belly to back suplex on Pillman and blading off some cage shots. Again, I think Rude in a tag team was a perfect place for him at this time. He knows how to get heat better than almost anybody else. He still had highspots like his top tope knee drop. I also dug the Dustin bulldog crotch on the top rope. I was happy that Pillman ended up being the final hot tag in the match as he just unloaded on Austin before he got the win. It was an action-packed match, where every character played their role to perfection and the execution was off the charts. If I didn't know anybody better, all the booking and in-ring work point to Austin and Pillman being pushed heavily, but both had pretty lackluster '94 after this. Well, Austin had the Steamboat feud, but still he did not have a hot angle. Those who are low on the match because it was played too much like a six-man. I would say that cage was used in the pivotal transition spots twice. Into the heat segment, it was Austin hotshot on Pillman and to the final hot tag, it was Austin taking wicked straddle bump from the apron. The cage was used effectively. I don't think it is as good as the high-end Wargames matches. I would still give this **** and say one of the better American six-man tags of all time. It is too bad WCW did not build on Pillman's win and the fact that Austin was finally breaking out.

WCW International World Champion Rick Rude, WCW US Champion "Stunning" Steve Austin & "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff vs Sting, Brian Pillman & Dustin Rhodes - Superbrawl IV Thundercage I take everything back about what I say Austin was not a big bumping heel. He takes the first bump into the cage and then takes the bump of the match by straddling the cage. The thundercage is a rickety, bush league Hell In A Cell with steel bars as opposed to mesh. Austin was the badass of the match because he also hit the offensive move of the match when he hotshotted Pillman into the cage busting Pillman wide open. Then after almost shredding his knee he bumps all over the place for the babyfaces. Pillman gets his blowoff victory to a huge pop after Sting press slams him onto Austin. Well so much for my theory in the previous match about protecting Austin from having to job to Pillman. The crowd was hot for this match with "Paula" chants to start and they did not let up in heat. What a friggin' bitchin' match. No one is going to mistake this for a high end Wargames, but this is still a really high-end six-man tag with tons of effort for all. On the babyface side, everything was so well-executed. Sting is a such a great shine babyface, Pillman as the plucky face in peril and Dustin as the energetic hot tag. The one big misstep I thought was having Sting be the one to get the hot tag and bust Orndorff open. You see once Dustin gets tag in how much better he could have done that sequence. Plus, Dustin/Orndorff were dance partners in this match. Orndorff looked great in this match targeting Sting's arm, hitting an absolutely wicked belly to back suplex on Pillman and blading off some cage shots. Again, I think Rude in a tag team was a perfect place for him at this time. He knows how to get heat better than almost anybody else. He still had highspots like his top tope knee drop. I also dug the Dustin bulldog crotch on the top rope. I was happy that Pillman ended up being the final hot tag in the match as he just unloaded on Austin before he got the win. It was an action-packed match, where every character played their role to perfection and the execution was off the charts. If I didn't know anybody better, all the booking and in-ring work point to Austin and Pillman being pushed heavily, but both had pretty lackluster '94 after this. Well, Austin had the Steamboat feud, but still he did not have a hot angle. Those who are low on the match because it was played too much like a six-man. I would say that cage was used in the pivotal transition spots twice. Into the heat segment, it was Austin hotshot on Pillman and to the final hot tag, it was Austin taking wicked straddle bump from the apron. The cage was used effectively. I don't think it is as good as the high-end Wargames matches. I would still give this **** and say one of the better American six-man tags of all time. It is too bad WCW did not build on Pillman's win and the fact that Austin was finally breaking out.

WCW International World Champion Rick Rude & WCW US Champion "Stunning" Steve Austin w/Col. Robert Parker vs Brian Pillman & Dustin Rhodes If only all matches were this fun. It is not going to change your life, but still it is a very entertaining ten minutes. I didn't like how they were portraying it as a Pillman/Parker feud because it makes Austin seem second to Parker. However, I think they were also doing it so Pillman could look strong against Parker, but they protect Austin, who seemed on the fast track to number two heel status. Austin & Rude make such a great team. I loved all the showboating. Austin ratcheted up the heat on his chops. Plus, he came up with a great comedy heel spot: the sloppy skin the cat. How has nobody made that a part of their arsenal! O yeah, because all heels nowadays take themselves way too friggin seriously. Pillman and Rhodes were just excellent babyfaces bringing tons of energy to this match. I liked the heat segment even though it was a bearhug and chinlocks because they broke it up nicely either a Rude taunt or Dustin struggling. Unfortunately, there is no finish to the match. Pillman brings in Parker the hard way. It is rubber pants time for Parker. The heels bail and they just go off the air. I guess that's a countout? So WCW. These four meshed so well together. Depending how much pain Rude was in, he easily could have extended his career by just stooging in a heel tag team for a couple years because this was the best I have ever seen him post-1992. Pillman & Dustin are just perfect babyfaces. Energy, energy, energy. They brought it. Austin looked at his best save for the earlier Pillman bout. I loved the sloppy skin the cat. He was in peak form with his taunting and stooging. It is too bad it had no finish because it was so fun.

"And she was better than everyone thought." Fuckin hilarious.

False advertising is illegal. I make sure to deal the Sleeze whenever possible. I complied the Pillman matches into a new blog. His work in the early 90s clearly blows his Loose Canon work outta the water in the ring. However, in terms of heeling it up in the ring, I thought he was really fuckin' good. Meltzer said on the Austin Show he was obsessed with being a main event heel. You could see in his performances how hard he worked at being a heel. I loved his use of the slap in all his matches. It made for such a pop when the babyface got his receipt. The Badd match stands out as his last classic where he really facilitated the importation of the Japanese style to American wrestling audiences. With the right time and opponent, I think he had another masterpiece as the Loose Canon in him, but was never afforded the opportunity before the wreck. I was really impressed with the work even if there were not that many must-see matches. At the same time, it is hard to watch the act knowing behind the scenes he was literally descending into madness. http://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/20...an-pillman.html

The final piece... Brian Pillman vs Kevin Sullivan - Superbrawl VI Respect Strap Match "I respect you, bookerman" with those words Pillman immortalized the Loose Canon character and forever cemented his cult status in pro wrestling. I love his matches as a plucky babyface in the early 90s, but for better or worse Pillman is famous for the Loose Canon gimmick. Pillman sprinted to the ring and got in some pretty violent shots with the strap. Sullivan hit an absolute wicked right. At this point, Pillman grabbed the mic to utter his iconic words. Fellow Horsemen, Arn Anderson came out to give the fans their money's worth and to uphold Horsemen honor. It was actually a helluva street fight strap match. It could have been one of the all-time best strap matches if they got 10-15 minutes. It was gritty, violent with eye-gouges, low blows and violent strap shots. However, Ric Flair for the first time play Cap'n Buzzkill calling off the match. He unites Horsemen and the Dungeon of Doom in an Unholy Alliance to End Hulkamania. I love how Flair always calls Sullivan "Devil". Anderson always good for a badass line ends the segment with "In order to get Savage and Hogan, I would get into bed with the Devil himself". One of the biggest moments in pro wrestling history as kayfabe continued to be destroyed and Anderson/Sullivan put on helluva fight until it was stopped.  

I don't really agree. I agree that those matches are very good to great, but I don't agree that he's working a different style. He's working one style. He carries the match with Hogan but he does it by forcing Hogan into his match. He works Patera the same way he worked Patterson, Valentine, and Inoki. He can be pushed into a bomb throwing contest (see Great Arab Hussein match), but even then he's doing it a very particular way. Backlund works on top more than just about any guy I can think of. He's more dominant in his matches than Hansen or Vader (I truly believe that). He shows less vulnerability than basically any major babyface I've ever seen. I said this on an upcoming show, but I want to say it here too: Backlund has too much struggle in him. I don't like Inoki for the same reason. It may be 20+ years' worth of being programmed to expect a certain unwritten rule of selling: if a guy is kicking another guy's ass, I expect the other guy to sell it. Backlund doesn't sell it, ever, ever. He's always struggling. Always fighting. Always doing some shit to show he's ... not getting his ass kicked. This is why the the matches with Inoki fucking suck for me, because there's Inoki doing exactly the same thing. "But Jerry, in an actual fight, that's what happens" Well I don't watch pro wrestling for its verismilitude, I'd watch UFC if I wanted that wouldn't I! Backlund is the only guy I've ever seen who will carry another guy by kicking their ass. After years and years of watching guys like Flair, it's very hard for me to adjust to that. I see it as a basic limitiation of Backlund's style. Flair can go in there with ANYONE and he makes them good look by showing ass and bumping like a muthafucker. He can work the proverbial broomstick. We've seen Backlund work broomsticks. We've seen him in there with some really shitty guys and with some more mediocre ones (e.g. Duncum). In fact, Duncum is a good case in point. Here's a guy who is taller than Backlund and heavier than Backlund and billed as a "big man". Backlund just kicks the shit out of him from bell to bell. But Duncum is not Ken Patera or Pat Patterson, so surprise surprise, he's not selling Bob's shit that well and the match sucks. This is why for as many great Backlund matches as there are, there are at least as many that are totally shit. I'd argue that Backlund simply doesn't change up his style to fit the opponent. He works the same way regardless of who it is. You could put that fucker in there with Superman himself and he still won't show you an ounce of vulnerability. Bob is in the business of getting Bob over. That's why I don't like him. In the best matches of his, the MVP for me has almost always been the opponent so far. Backlund or Valentine? Valentine Backlund or Patterson? Patterson Backlund or Patera? Patera I don't think it's a coincidence. This isn't just blind prejudice on my part -- Backlund sucks as a promo, I don't like and possibly still don't even understand his basic character -- it's a view I've built up of seeing a lot of Backlund now in different situations, against different opponents. He never changes. Flair is a heel. Backlund is a face. Backlund is supposed to look strong and he is the champion. He kicks out at one. He is constantly struggling. He makes people work for every inch. I conceded that Backlund is not going to win any awards for selling, but you make it seem as if heat sections are non-existent. I remember plenty of times, Hogan and Valentine worked on top in their respective matches with Backlund. I can think you work a ton of different styles and still be true to yourself. We all agree that a Flair match with Steamboat is different from one with Luger or one from Garvin, but Flair was still a big bumping, underhanded heel. He adjusted for his opponents, but he was still Flair. This is why I think people think there is a Flair formula, just because the spots are the same don't make it the same match. When I listen to Motley Crue, I think it is great that they vary their songs form glam rock, heavy metal, punk and ballads, but they still sound like Motley Crue. They are true to themselves. In his matches with Inoki and Valentine, he works great holds based matches. With Slaughter, Muraco and Patera, he works great brawls. With Hogan, he works one of the best power tit for tat matches ever. Yes, he is still Backlund and true to himself. The matches are a different style, but he works one style. I don't see how heel Flair works a different style in his matches. When he chops Luger or Sting it gets no-sold. When he chops Steamboat or Garvin, he ends up in a chop war. Flair is not deviating from his gameplan, but the matches are different because the opponents are different. If he could bully Kerry Von Erich like he did with Ricky Morton, he would. Backlund is out to prove he is the best in every style. Hogan is a power wrestler. I am going to out-power you. Inoki is a mat wrestler. I am going to best him on the mat. Slaughter is a brawler. Well I can do that too. That's Backlund's MO. He believes he is the best all-around wrestler. He is going to beat you at your game to prove it, but by still being Bob Backlund the scrappiest wrestler ever. Scrappy Doo sounds about right to me.

WCW US Champion Dustin Rhodes vs "Stunning" Steve Austin w/Col. Robert Parker - Starrcade 1993 2 Out Of 3 Falls "Well we certainly cant call her The Natural" - Jesse The Body Well that was anticlimactic. They gave the Nasties vs Sting & Hawk almost 30 minutes, but only let these guys have 15-ish for 2 out of 3 falls? Some of this has to be on the wrestlers as both where wrestling like they were going to go long, but then just went home. It was a really lo-fi match even by Austin's standards. I have no problem with a fundamentals-based match, but nothing seemed to connect. Austin would break Dustin's rhythm by going to the outside. Finally, Dustin said fuck it. They let loose and Dustin chucked Austin four rows deep into the stands. The crowd and I thought this where we were going to get going. Outside of some wicked sweet Dustin rights there was really not much to pop the crowd. Austin's work was real basic used ref's break or a Parker distraction to gain an advantage. Still he did not have the extra gear yet. Rhodes could always rely on his crowd to pop the crowd. Austin did not have an equivalent to garner heat. Rhodes makes his comeback punctuated by a bionic elbow. However, he chucks Austin over the top rope into Parker triggering the DQ finish. Austin blades off a post shot. It was a perfectly adequate first fall, but they seemed to be setting themselves up for some sweet stuff in the subsequent falls. Rhodes starts the second fall on fire, but he Beyonces the house lights. WCW is forced to use spotlights to light up the action. Rhodes goes for a nice series of 10 count punches in the corner when Austin double legs him in the corner to win with his feet on the ropes. WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?! It really did feel like an incomplete match. I am still shocked that was the finish. The '91 Halloween Havoc match blows that out of the water. It was really disappointing because you know what they can do on the mat and brawling, but the you get such a by the numbers match with a dogshit finish just sucks. I would say Dustin had more tools in his arsenal at this point, but Austin had more charisma.