Superstar Sleeze

Watched this again and I vaguely remembered Hogan & Savage in all black and cutting a promo on the beach, but I dont forgot about the psychedelic guitarist and the wicked bizarre homeless guy. So bizarre. How did Bischoff & Sullivan green light this to be shown on Nitro. Savage looked cool as fuck. Look shaving the Fu-Manchu is a big a deal, but we are at about a month since it happened. He could grow it back, it is conscious choice at this point to stay shaven. It would be cool to make it a point that it would stay shaven until he got his revenge and rid the world of the Dungeon, but classic Hogan that never comes up. I do love the whole Nitro 6 Friend or Foe booking. Savage is going to find out if Sting can be trusted.

Lex Luger & Meng vs American Males - WCW Nitro 10/30/95 Doesn’t feel like a main event but they wanted to do the Halloween Havoc footage and the Dungeon promo to close the show. The juxtaposition of Luger teaming with Sting last week in the main event against Harlem Heat is cool with his teaming against Dungeon 4 Life buddy Meng against American Males. Meng had a grueling contest with Luger the previous night and seemed kind of pissed when Sullivan didnt let him get the win over Luger especially after Meng got the upset over Luger about a month ago on Luger after Giant choke slammed him before the match. I wish they played up some friction here with Luger and Meng. Honestly I wish this was Luger and Giant but that would have been too squashy for a main event. Pretty typical condensed TV time tag match. American Males work like an 80s blowjob babyface tag attacking the Package’s arm with frequent tags. The Dungeon uses a Hart Attack to take control. Meng steam rolls Riggs. Bagwell is a house afire. He looks Ring compared to Luger here. When they were doing Buff vs Luger I feel like they were the same size. Meng gets a cheap shot and Luger racks him up. They show the entirety of Halloween Havoc ending from Jimmy Hart and Lex Luger turn to Yet-TAY humping Hogan. Only the core four of the Dungeon is out to talk Giant, Luger, Sullivan and Jimmy Hart. Meng got sent to the back and no Yeti. If it was just these four and I’d even take Meng I would say this is a kickass heel stable. Jimmy Hart with a nice nod to history that he was Sullivan’s only manager. Sullivan is so good at this Satanist, Hulkamania hating camp. Giant is green but he gets his point across. They don’t mention the whole Jimmy Hart snuck in a clause where if Giant wins by DQ he wins the title. It is weird. Why wouldn’t Bischoff be decrying Giant as a fake champion because he won the match by DQ? Giant said he was going to keep but that implies someone would try to take it away because of the DQ but no one was saying that. A weird beat to miss, After 6 weeks, WCW’s rogue gallery is rejuvenated with Dungeon at their apex and Horsemen reunited. Also no Hogan, Savage or Sting on the show. A very dark pall has been cast on the Land Where The Big Boys Play.

Eddie Guerrero vs Sgt. Craig Pittman - WCW Nitro 10/30/95 Im really becoming a Pittman guy. He seems like one of those guys they forgotten to smarten up before he went out to the Ring. I love guys like that. He also kind of reminds me of Tom Howard. If you’re going to do a military gimmick this is the way to do it. Unfortunately I am reviewing this 48 hours after the fact because work got in the way bur I remember this heading uniting good territory before it got cut short with a lame ending. Pittman was tossing Eddie around to start. Imposing his will and manhandling Eddie. Eddie throws Pittman which gets a reaction out of Pittman that leads to a speed versus arm fight. Pittman attacks the arm and Eddie uses a leg lariat and a high springboard reverse crossbody. There’s an AWESOME gut wrench powerbomb from Pittman. Then all of a sudden Eddie just rolls up Pittman with the midsection version of a victory roll, Whats that called. I enjoyed their rough dynamic. Pittman is uncooperative and it gave it a competitive feel. *** It was a strange Nitro coming off a pretty hot Halloween Havoc (three major heel turns) but they had this match then a random Shark vs Norton match (not a huge Tenta guy and always wanted to like Norton but it was decent 2 minute hoss fight that ends in a DCO. Shark threw around Norton a bit before Norton made his comeback, bodyslam of Tenta got a pop. ) before we finally get to Flair. Then Sabu/Disco (this would have gotten huge heat in Philadelphia and especially in ECW. Imagine Disco in the FBI oh my God. Disco is the Nitro clown and he has been used great. Sabu hauling off with those punches were great. They let Disco get a little offense but this is all Sabu in another 2-ish minute match. The slingshot somersault leg drop is sick. Sabu wants to put Disco through a table but ends up denting table in a sickening this. An enjoyable couple minutes) before we finally get to Luger. But when we do get to Luger it is a tag match with Meng against American Males. Which is kinda lame main event. Odd Nitro Layout.

Out of context, this is a great promo. All three shine with vim and vigor. Brian Pillman definitely have watched his fair share of Double A promos, but he comes in with a ton of piss & vinegar. Mocking Sting as he is trying to tag Flair was really good. Anderson and Flair were on fire. With context, it is a little frustrating, whats the timeline here? When did Flair, AA and Pillman agree to reform? Was Sting always the mark? Or did Flair earn the respect of the Horsemen two weeks prior on 10/16 and then they concocted the plot? In classic pro wrestling, they wanted Flair heel and they wanted a big angle and they didnt give a shit how they got there. In any other medium, the producer or director would nix it, but in pro wrestling it is anything goes whether or not it makes sense. It is sad that pro wrestling doesnt get held to a higher standard.

Sting & Lex Luger vs Harlem Heat - WCW Nitro 10/23/95 Sting has grown out a beard and is wearing red & yellow just like Hogan said! Maybe Hogan was right. They were definitely trying to push the narrative that anyone can turn heel. Big spot for Harlem Heat who have not yet regained their titles. Some heelish behavior from Sting like an arm drag on Booker T over top rope to the floor which the ref rules accidental but Also an eye take later to save Luger on the heat segment. Luger takes a boring heat segment. Booker had some solid spots but nothing too exciting. He missed Harlem Hangover. Sting has a great house afire the best part of the match. Stinger Splashes for everyone. Scorpion Deathlock broken up. Stevie Ray is preoccupied with Luger and Sting hits flying clothesline on Booker T to win. Dungeon of Doom hits the Ring they try to push the Sting heel narrative but he eats the Chokeslam along with Luger. Savage is out. Hogan sans Fu-Manchu and neck brace but still rocking the Dark Side gear goes toe to toe with The Giant. I thought this one of the weaker Nitros especially since I thought the Oct 2nd and 16th were the two best. This was a really good ending going into Halloween Havoc

Eddie Guerrero & Mr. JL vs Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko - WCW Nitro 10/23/95 Apparently Alex Wright was supposed to be Eddie’s tag partner. Eddie/Benoit coming off their classic banger but this is nothing special. They get plenty of time about ten minutes but it is pretty pedestrian. Benoit/Malenko play nominal heels. They do heel miscommunication on the floor. Benoit dives on Malenko and then Eddie Alley-Oops JL on the heels. Malenko hits JL on the ropes to set up heat segment. It was a fine heat segment. Benoit and Malenko hit their usual high impact offense. The JL transition to hot tag was weak just a back elbow after a lot of good high impact moves. Eddie had a good an Arm Drag Headscissors takedown, then in a bizarre moment Alex Wright trips Malenko so JL got the Victory Roll. Weird finish takes this down a notch. Heatless and pedestrian. Pillman DDT Eddie on the ramp. Unprovoked attacks are the lamest way to set up new feuds. I assume this is the start of Loose Canon but still lame.

Randy Savage vs Kurasawa - WCW Nitro 10/23/95 No Savage last week. Savage has an injured arm which becomes a point of contention between Hogan/Bischoff and Meltzer later on. This gives the commentary an excuse to discuss the Savage/Luger feud. Kurasawa is put over as a dangerous martial arts expert that broke Hawk’s arm. We saw Hawk two weeks take on Bossman in a short match that looked like it was going to lead to a Hawk/Disco feud which actually might have been fun. Bossman looked good in that match with his right hands but with WCW going small in the midcard and the main event scene full there was no room for Bossman. Pretty standard babyface Macho Man match. He takes a ton of offense early. Kurasawa had some good kicks but eventually ran out of things to do. Kurasawa kicked the Ring post. Savage drove him throat first into the rope and Big Elbow. Nothing to see here.

Hogan sounds like Donald Trump in this promo. Paranoid, aggrieved, bitching & moaning, trying to act rough but is a total chump. I love Bischoff Matrix Booking where the Nitro Six (Hogan, Savage, Sting, Luger, Flair and Giant) are all at each others throats but this came off unprovoked which is the problem. It felt really random. Dark Side Hogan just sounds like whiny, insecure Hogan not a Bad Man.

Ok so I defended the Dungeon of Doom last week, but yeah this is pretty horrible. If they just kept it to Sullivan, Giant, Jimmy Hart and Luger it would have been a strong heel stable, but this shit is ridiculous. I forgot other people besides Tony Schiavone call him the YET-TAY, which is why I still call those Yeti cups Yet-TAYs and get weird looks from my wife. The Rare White Bengal Tiger always cracks me up. I was today years old when I realized that Rare White Bengal Tiger is Hulk Hogan. Sullivan is very good at this type of camp. Giant is fine besides the Laugh at the end.

Wait why is the cage match bad? I loved the hell out of it. Ric Flair & Sting vs Arn Anderson & Brian Pillman - WCW Nitro 10/16/95 This is literally an inverse of the famous Halloween Havoc match that happens two weeks later. Instead of Sting going it alone for most of the match, Flair had to go it alone most of the match to prove to the Stinger that this was on the up and up. Just like I loved the Havoc match I loved this! Too much was made of in 90s that heels had to look tough and be the equals of babyfaces. Most heels should never be equal of babyfaces. Most heels should be worse than their babyface opponents and it is that insecurity that drives them to heelish behavior such as cheating and excessive violence. The idea of a heel being a babyface’s equal for the most part is an inherently flawed idea. In this match, heels are bumping and stooging, Ric Flair is KING-SIzed! My God this was 80s Crockett in 1995! WOOOOOO! 80s Crockett the babyfaces take so much and we see that here. I fucking love babyface Flair and him just unloading on the heels here at every turn was great. Even when you think the heels had him, he kept the party going all night long. He trapped Double A in Figure-4. Then you figure Pillman would splash. Nuh Uh. Pillman misses and Flair puts him in the Figure-4. This is the fist-pumping shit missing in most wrestling today. You were cheering each and every punch and chop. You wanted your team to run up the score. You weren’t worried about Arn is looking weak or man they need to get Pillman over. You were excited because fucking Flair was cooking, damn torpedos, fire away brutha. I am not a huge sports fan and always prefer games to be close but I love all Boston sports fans that relish blow outs. I might not enjoy the game but I enjoy on their behalf seeing how happy that makes them. Flair’s babyface shine rules. Flair gets kicked in the back of the head by Pillman. They work a much shorter heat segment here as Sting comes out. Then when Sting gets the hot tag. He blows the roof off the place working one of the best Hot Tags ever. He is working King-Sized. It feels like 80s Crockett. He is slinging bodies and dropping Stinger Splashes from the sky. The only thing keeping this from Havoc level is they opt for the count out victory for the babyfaces. Sting in 1995 being the most insider wrestler always worried about swerved and shooting straight is funny. That high five was so fucking 90s and I am here for it. Tremendous piece of business. *** 3/4

Ill cover The Giant and Kevin Sullivan promo first. Everyone gets on the Dungeon of Doom who being campy and hokey but I love it. I have this shit 9 million times more believable and entertaining than Wyatt Family or anything of that ilk. I really enjoyed Sullivan's promo. There was a method to the madness. He declares victory because The Hulkster has gone to the Dark Side and this will destroy Hulkamania and Giant will end it physically. Short, sweet, menacing, logical. Hogan on the other hand was fucking all over the place. The Evil within Hulk Hogan is real, trying to reinvent himself into a Mafia Boss handling the Family Business, then shouting out Hulkster cliches about protecting training, prayers and vitamins. I think what he was trying to get at was he needed to embrace the Dark Side and become a little Evil to defeat Evil, but came out all fucked up.

Rewatched this came away enjoying this as much as I remember. It had even more psychology and logical progression than I remembered. But it was "slower" than I remember. I think what has happened is I have changed not this match. So much wrestling in the past ten years feels like it is done in "fast forward" or with "motion smoothing on" that this feels slow in comparison but in a good way. They were letting things breathe. The highspots still pop off huge like Eddie's dive to the floor and that MUTHA OF ALL POWERBOMBS! Great match!

AJPW World Tag Team Champions Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs Danny Kroffat & Doug Furnas - AJPW 7/20/95 It is very interesting watching the Four Corners in unheralded matches against midcarders. This is a title defense that was clearly taped for TV or VHS release. So they have a reason to put in effort but at the same time this is not the Budokan, it is NOT Misawa/Kobashi, it is NOT Hansen or Doc. I was very intrigued to see how this match played out. JDW would often use the term "fall out of bed" match and this is what like it felt to me. Kawada and Taue did their normal high spots. They like Kroffat & Furnas do their shit, but they werent exactly selling or trying to make them look good. It felt tepid and just going through the motions. The other style I would liken this to is early 2000s Ring of Honor. There is a lot of short segments and a lot of action, but short on story. Early 2000s ROH is wrestled with such competitive ferocity, it is of higher quality than this. Which is just a ton of action but ton in a tepid style with not much sense of progression. All this sounds harsh. I still thought it was a good match, but for a team that literally just had the best match ever, I expected a bit more. I acknowledge that holding any wrestler to a 4 star+ standard every bout is ridiculous but it is very interesting to watch the All Japan boys in this context because it makes you realize they are human too. I guess a quick word on Kroffat (aka Phil LaFon) and Furnas I have seen some of their matches, I really need to review that Kobashi/Kikuchi match. Overall they are a fun little workrate team. They are short on charisma but long on athleticism. I have neutral feelings towards them. They clearly took the match very seriously, it was a big spot for them, but I think like many in the 90s and beyond they focused too much on the "what" (highspots, action, MOVEZ~!) and not enough on the "how" (how can do I this in a way that I stand out and people remember me). Kroffat/Furnas overwhelm Kawada/Taue early at the bell. They hit some kicks and high flying moves that force the Champions to powder. It is unclear babyface/heel dynamics. Kawada/Taue are native heels, but if they are wrestling a gaijin team do they become babyfaces? This didnt really feel like a babyface shine but it is because Kawada/Taue didnt really sell it as such I would say. Kroffat hit an early Tiger Driver. After the fast break, Kroffat grabs a hold and Kawada hits his spin kick basically shrugs it off. Kawada/Taue basically dont really sell the fast break after that and just act like the match has started. The basic story for this middle section is Kroffat or Furnas try to work a hold but Kawada or Taue use a high impact move to get out of it and get a tag. The match has a sense of progress once Kroffat starts to make in-roads on Kawada and Taue feels some desperation about this. Also interesting is that Kawada has a Triple Crown match at the Budokan in 4 days against Misawa. However, it is Taue that looks like he is batting clean-up. Kawada would get in trouble and Taue would be the momentum-changer. 1995 Taue is a whole different beast. Anyways, Kroffat misses a senton due to a Taue distraction. Taue proceeds to Randy Orton Kroffat on the outside with two wicked back suplexes on the announce table. I love that spot whether it is Taue or Orton doing it. Now we get a sense of control here with Kawada/Taue working over Kroffat, but even that doesnt last long. When Furnas does come in, they work his leg again a sense of control but again it doesnt last long. Again it comes out of desperation as Furnas was a house of fire (dropsault and Frankensteiner( and was trying to German Suplex Taue. Taue flailed out of it and then immediately went for the kneecrusher. I like those type of reactions. That keeps match decidely on the good side. I just wish the transitions to Kroffat and Furnas tagging out were more emphatic. Kawada saves Taue from a Tiger Driver with nice head kick. Kawada applies the Stretch Plum and Taue goes to the single leg crab for double submission. Taue goes for the Super Nodowa and Furnas saves. Furnas & Kroffat are hitting a lot of stuff but it has no pizzazz. Loved Kawada powerbombing Furnas on his second Frankensteiner attempt. Should have been the finish. Furnas ugly Misawa-rana out of the second Kawada Powerbomb. Taue saves Kawada from Tiger Driver to boos. Kroffat superkicks him and hits it anyways in a very 21st Century exchange. Kawada kicks out. Taue clobbers him. It is a very busy match. Taue comes in officially kicks some ass powerbombs him. We tease the Move of 1995...Nodowa off the Apron which always gets me going. Furnas saves Kroffat. Nodowa on Furnas and Dangerous Back Drop Driver on Kroffat! Kick out! Super Nodowa gets the win for Taue! For Taue fans, this is a great watch, he looks like a monster and the MVP of his team. I could see Kroffat & Furnas getting over with the internet crowd today and leading to a lot of lamentations why they dont get a bigger push. It was a big stage for them and just felt like they didnt have the charisma for the stage. A very busy match, but still good. *** 1/2

Ric Flair vs Arn Anderson - WCW 10/9/95 Steel Cage Match Best match in Nitro history thus far, all three contenders have Flair in them, go figure. #GOAT. The electricity from Flair from bell to bell is off the hook. This pumped me up. The way he was balling his fist up and just letting it fly. This was babyface Flair at his best just kicking ass and taking names. Of course Arn is the best at bumping and stooging for him. I love when Flair is just throwing fists and chops with reckless abandon and then celebrates afterwards. How can you have a bad time watching this. Arn still gets plenty of offense in using the steel cage and a spine buster. Flair is back at it with fists of fury and throwing Arn in the cage. Vertical suplex is the playing field leveling spot. Pillman tries to scale the cage and Flair springs to his feet and beats him back. Flair is awesome! He goes for the Figure-4 but gets tagged by a pair of knuckledusters in Arn’s left for Anderson to get the win. Flair goes bezerk on mic afterwards and challenges Anderson and Pillman to a handicap match next week. Hell Yeah! This kicked ass *** 3/4

The Hulkster comparing the shaving of his Fu Manchu to tagging the Washington Monument or burning the American Flag popped me and my wife. The whole Vince McMahon bit and saying he was going to Heaven to beat Gorgeous George were ludicrous. He was getting booed big time in Chicago most heat he had gotten by far. Dark Side Hogan was interesting experiment to give him some edge closer to a Stone Cold than Hollywood. I am glad we got Hollywood Hogan.

WCW United States Champion Sting vs Shark - WCW Nitro 10/9/95 I loved how short & sweet this was. Shark attacks at the bell hits a sick powerslam and a leg drop. He misses a charge. Two Stinger Splashes and a Stinger Crossbody win it. Loved it! Even though there was a Sabu match after this, I’ll write about this here. Sting wants to a hold a peace summit with Macho Man and Total Package. Macho Man accuses him of being DOD 4 Life and their back n forth. Sting’s grand plan is if Savage and Luger each win their matches at Halloween Havoc they get to face each other. That’s fucking stupid. Luger rightfully calls it dumb as shit. Stinger calls out his manhood and coerces him into taking the match. Why didn’t they just book Savage and Luger outright? Oh, WCW.

All Japan Triple Crown Champion Stan Hansen vs Mitsuharu Misawa - AJPW 5/26/95 Even though I believe these two are two of the top five of all-time, they historically dont have great chemistry with each other. Stan Hansen was a transition champion getting belt off Toshiaki Kawada and back on Misawa. We are missing the first 3.5 minutes or so. We are already knee-deep in a Hansen control segment. He seems to be targeting the mid-section. This is what wrestling commentators would call "methodical". I dont really think this match ever gets out of this first gear. I enjoyed each control segment and thought the transitions were good. No one would exactly call this match enthralling or captivating. It is just fine. Misawa wrestles out of Hansen's chinlock and yanks on the arm, which Hansen sells like a million bucks. Hansen makes this with his selling. Great wounded bear selling which is a hallmark of Hansen especially in the 90s. Hansen tries to go back to the mid-section, but Misawa targets the arm and gets the upper hand with holds and strikes to the arm. Misawa starts his preliminary offense if you have seen Misawa enough you know what I mean. Misawa loses control because he goes high risk. He misses a missile dropkick and later misses another dropkick and slingshot plancha. The story of the match is when Misawa leaves his feet he loses control. If he is able to stay planted and throw the elbow, he has a fighting chance. Unlike Misawa who abandoned the arm, Hansen stays on the back with a Boston Crab and a nice Spinebuster which you dont often see from him. Hansen fights through Misawa's comeback because as I said Misawa keeps missing these high risk moves. Great shouldertackle on the floor sends Misawa careening over the guardrail. Hansen delivers two wicked powerbombs and the Dangerous Back Drop Driver! Three sick bombs as we enter the business end of the match. Hansen is calling for the Lariat, but here comes Misawa with his elbows. He nails the Top Rope Splash. It is Elbow versus Lariat. Hansen does not get all of the Lariat. Hansen goes for another swing and miss! Back Elbow, Misawa rolls through and applies a really ugly Crucifix pin to win which I am not sure if Hansen's shoulders were even down or if he wasnt in the ropes. I think the latter part was a feature not a bug as it allowed Hansen to keep his heat. He clobbers a young boy with a lariat and smokes him with a chair to remind everyone who Stan Hansen is. Sucky finish aside, this is a perfectly fine match that hums along but no one would call it exciting. *** 1/2

IWGP Heavyweight Champion Keiji Mutoh vs Hiroyoshi Tenzan - NJPW 6/14/95 Leave it to Hirata to make Tenzan look like Stone Cold in terms of charisma. This is in the Budokan, typically the domain of All Japan. Tenzan is tag team champion and Chono is out with him. Woke up in the middle of the night in the Azores and call me crazy but this is FUCKING AWESOME! Even though Mutoh looks a little taller and wider than Tenzan, they stick to script that Tenzan is big bruising goon and Mutoh needs to use speed. The match works so well because Tenzan gives Mutoh fucking NOTHING at the beginning of the match. He is this torrential force of nature. He has the Champion reeling and wrestling off his back foot. This is basically Tenzan’s rookie year on the main roster so to speak and he is showing great poise. He felt like a bull in a China shop but in a different way than Stab Hansen. Hansen is frenetic and chaotic. Tenzan is straight ahead smash mouth. Mutoh was throwing desperation kicks just to get a moment of respite from Tenzan’s suffocating offense. Mutoh would clamp down on a hold after the kick but Tenzan would keep coming. I loved Mutoh’s response to a loss In a shoulder block battle to apply drop toehold but Tenzan kept coming. When Tenzan went for a cross arm breaker it looked like Mutoh was going to wake up lest he be steamrolled. We get the Mutoh Elbow but when Mutoh went for a single leg crab Tenzan was having none of it and just fucking stuffed his attempt. That’s when I knew I watching something special. Nothing was given everything was earned. Tenzan Ramps it up here and honestly it looked like it was going to a blow out. Mongolian Chops. Headbutt rain down from the sky. We were one Tenzansault from a shocking upset. Mutoh hits a Dropkick to Tenzan’s ass who brains himself on the top of the Ring post and takes a nasty tumble to the floor. It is official this match is fucking great. Mutoh Bulldog on the floor. Mutoh has wounded the bull and needs to finish him off. Spring board Dropkick. Mutoh goes for a moonsault. TENZAN ELECTRIC CHAIR DROP! The Symmetry! The Hook! The hook is who can hit the Moonsault first. This is Marty Sleeze fucking wrestling here. They are throwing bombs trying to get this moonsault. Tenzan eats nothing but canvas. Mutoh tries his backbreaker moonsault combo twice comes up empty both times. Then the match gets even better! Tenzan in the pursuit of giving Mutoh absolutely fucking nothing plucks Mutoh out of his customary back handspring and MANHANDLES him tossing him into the floor. It is a gnarly bump. Fucking Mutoh is PISSED! He comes in fists balled and cocked. He UNLOADS on Tenzan until he bleeds! I wanted blood on the Ring post shot and we got here. Mutoh rips up the protective mat and bulldogs Tenzan on the exposed concrete. If you didn’t know already this match FUCKING RULES! Mutoh back inside working the cut with punches when Tenzan let’s out a PRIMAL ROAR! OMFG LETS FUCKING GO! Tenzan spinning wheel kick wipes out Mutoh. Tenzan FINALLY HITS THE MOONSAULT 1-2-NO! YES! Tenzan undeterred goes for his Top Rope Headbutt but no one is home and he eats a face full canvas. As you can expect it is off the to the races for Mutoh who uses his Springboard Dropkick, Top Rope Frankensteiner , backbreaker and Moonsault to finish off the very game Tenzan as a challenger. This exceeded all expectations and was the best IWGP Title Match of 1995! Fuck it! This rocked so damn hard! ****3/4

IWGP Champion Keiji Mutoh vs Junji Hirata - NJPW 9/25/95 I have definitely never seen a Hirata match and have only seen one or two Super Strong Machine matches. Mutoh is two weeks out from defending against invading Nobuhiko Takada at Tokyo Dome. This is very much wrestled as a tune-up match. Traditionally New Japan matches open with about 5 minutes of chain wrestling usually similar to NWA style championship wrestling. I thought this was more shoot-oriented to show Mutoh is preparing for Takada’s challenge and get the crowd oriented for that. We see Mutoh trying to work a double wrist lock from a side mount and working an arm bar from full guard. After the classic Mutoh elbow, it is a short arm scissors. There’s a Mutoh dragon leg screw, leg lace, scramble for the ropes. This being Mutoh, the psychology is all over the place. It is a lot of random transitions. He eats a DDT, powders and comes back in and takes over. He still sprinkles in his high spots like the Elbow, Back Handspring, the Frankensteiner and Springboard Dropkick. Hirata gets some headbutts and a German Suplex but after missed Top Rope Headbutt I thought that Mutoh would cruise to victory but they gave him two big near falls a sick sitout powerbomb and top rope Headbutt. A second powerbomb attempt but Misawa-Rama. Springboard Dropkick. Top Rope Mutoh Frankensteiner and Moonsault finishes for the Champ easily. I didn’t see anything out of Hirata that makes him special. Typical 20th Century Japanese midcarder. Mutoh was on autopilot in this match. ***

IWGP Heavweight Champion Shinya Hashimoto vs Hiroyoshi Tenzan - NJPW 2/4/95 Woke up in the middle of night in the Azores. Wife is sleeping so I figured a 1995 IWGP Title Defense would be good. I am surprised how much Tenzan got in his first IWGP Title Challenge. This is presented as the first time heel challenger which gives it a distinctly different vibe than usual young lion challengers. I believe we are four months out from ChoTen starting. My usual Tenzan talking points hold. He is like the best Nasty Boy possible. Just a total goon. He just doesn’t have main character energy. He is a second banana enforcer, someone you beat on the way to the final boss, a roughneck in the heel stable. As Chono’s junior in a yakuza like stable is a perfect use of him. So I was surprised how much Tenzan got in this match against Hashimoto the Destroyer. He bullies Hashimoto and withstands some of Hashimoto’s best shots and come back for more. Hashimoto tried to slow down Tenzan early with some basic holds to contain the piss & vinegar. Tenzan baited him into a strike exchange. Hashimoto unloaded but Tenzan came roaring back with his standard Mongolian Chop. Tenzan in true Tenzan form kept going for the eyes which really put over his heel nature. Hashimoto missed the big rainbow spin kick but Tenzan hit it in turn. WOW! Tenzan really controlled the bulk of the match. Hashimoto let you know he was alive but this was Tenzan clubbering show. Hashimoto gets a quick uppercut thrust and SWEEPS THE LEG~! Electric! Elbow drops including a top rope one and DDT. Hash looks ready to clean up. It felt like at this point Tenzan proved he could take a lock-in’ and keep on tickin ’ and he could clobber but he didn’t have that second gear. Well he found it. Hashimoto on a charge gets scooped into a Samoan Drop. Wicked Tenryu Powerbomb nearly kills Hash. Top Rope Diving Headbutt & Moonsault. Ok this Tenzan kid has bombs too. He goes for another Samoan but Hashimoto shifts his weight and squishes him. Hashimoto bloody nose. Wipes Him Out with Rainbow Spinning Heel Kick. Brainbuster 1-2-3! Surprisingly compelling Hashimoto The Destroyer Title Defense against a Heel Young Lion. I enjoyed Tenzan here more than I thought. Tenzan here was basically fully formed. I wonder if that’s the issue. For your first title challenge wrestling as the best possible mid level goon is a great place to start. He just never evolved. *** 1/2

As someone who basically only posts in the match database, I often wonder this and the turnaround time on approval has become slower. I think I do a pretty good job using the proper title format. Maybe after a certain number of posts, people like me and OJ can just get special dispensation/access/status to make threads in there, that would be great. I will keep the proper title format.

Brock Lesnar vs Randy Orton - Summerslam 2016 The least special Brock match from both the booking and the match quality up until this point. Orton had crowd Heat with the Authority and some residual heat from Rollins feud in first half of 2015. I was struggling to think of what he did after that turns out he got injured. Guess they were banking on return heat. This feels like a stopgap measure for Goldberg right down to the fans chanting Goldberg twice at the end of the match. With Cena and Taker done and dusted, Ambrose done, it didnt make sense to throw Rollins or Roman out there. Orton is the sacrificial lamb. The whole card is weird and I’ll get more into that when I do a deep dive on 2016 WWE but everything looks so midcard. This is a pretty heatless main event. The whole Crux of the match is how much weight you put on the RKO. They built the entire match around Randy Orton having a puncher’s chance because of the RKO. The RKO near fall that whole match is built around got crickets. No one gave a fuck. No on believed Orton had a snowballs chance in hell of winning. The booking of the match as the Summerslam main event started them in a hole. The actual match is good but standard. It lacks the uniqueness of other Brock matches. It is not bad. It is just good, which is weird because Brock matches are usually special. Brock overwhelmed him early as he is wont to do. Orton fought free from the first suplex good dropkick. Goes for the RKO which makes sense because the whole match is built around it. Brock throws him off. I wish Orton made the choice to register here, scramble and continue the fight. But he goes for the BIG sell and the match really grinds from there. Lots of duplexes I appreciate Orton throwing a couple knees and elbows to make sure the crowd knows he is still alive. Also it forces Brock to varies his offense, those Brock knees were sick more of that please. The Brock biel from the barricade to the table was absolutely sick and the best spot of the match. The RKO on the table was perfectly timed you go the distinct impression Brock was playing with his food. Orton made him pay for letting him linger. RKO was his big punchers chance and Brock sold it like a millions bucks. The Orton DDT another great bump and sell by the best seller in WWE of the 21st Century, Brock Lesnar. Second RKO gets no heat but is well timed. Kick out so he goes for the Punt which is great logical progression. We get the F-5 kick out. Thankfully we are spared a bajillion F-5s and RKOs but instead we get a very Inokiist finish which WWE was wont to do for Brock. He slices Orton hard way using his elbows. The fans are chanting Goldberg as they clearly dont care that a human being has literally been cracked open with elbows. I would have no problem if that finish came at the end of a stiff, tight brawl. Think Ishikawa/Ikeda. Because it came at the end of a pedestrian WWE main event style match, it just feels shoehorned on. It doesnt feel logical. We have seen plenty of instances both before and after this match that if Brock doesnt get a win with an F-5, he goes for another or the Kimura. They just did the finish because they wanted something controversial and unique, but then you have to make the match fit the finish. The second thing is the crowd so clearly wanted Goldberg. If you couldnt deliver Goldberg, yet and they would at Survivor Series. Just bury this on the midcard. Give Brock the win with a couple F-5s. It was such a strange choice for a main event. ***

WWE Universal Champion Goldberg vs Brock Lesnar - WrestleMania XXXIII Goldberg dispatched Owens pretty easily to win the Universal Championship thanks to some Jericho distraction to further Jericho/Owens feud. 2017 is a really weird year for WWE and not sure they were really prepared for it. This should have been the main event over Roman/Taker which I remember being a strange match at the time. WWE goes Inokiist! Terrific match a couple small issues take this out of the running of being the best sub-5 minute match ever. The beginning through the first Jackhammer attempt is pitch perfect. Brock is KEYED up after the embarrassing loss at Survivor Series. He comes out guns blazing with three killer duplexes MANHANDLING Goldberg like we’ve never seen before. Brock gets cocky and just like Survivor Series turns his back on Goldberg who POUNCES with a MEGA SPEAR! All time killer spear. He smokes him with another. HE DEMOLISHES BROCK THROUGH THE BARRICADE! Perfect! I didnt love how Brock just hopped out of the first Jackhammer attempt. That was too WWE-style not the Inokiist style, Brock teased his F-5 but Goldberg came back with another sick Spear and the Jackhammer kick out. The crowd loved it but it was too WWE for me. Too formula. Besides the awesome beginning, the Leapfrog and Goldberg launching himself head first into the buckle was sick. I kinda wish he just F-5 there on scramble and win the match. The 7 additional duplexes while fun for the crowd gave the finish any anti-climatic feel. I think if they did the Leapfrog after the barricade then some suplexes, hope spot for Goldberg which leads to Jackhammer kick out Brock freaks out F5 win is how you could rearrange this match into a perfect. The match we got still kicked ass and is so unique not just to WWE but the general style of 2017. I loved this! INOKI BOM BAE YE! ****

Hell Yeah Brutha! Just rewatched this for the first time since 2016 and it still rocks! I echo everything but I’ll add a couple things. Brock Lesnar vs Goldberg - Survivor Series 2016 The initial double leg drive into the corner only for Goldberg to no-sell and shove Brock to the ground was brilliant. But the lynchpin to making this match work is that Brock gives his back to Goldberg. It is the cardinal mistake in fighting. He is so cocky because Goldberg has not wrestled in 12 years that he can turn his back to his opponent. Goldberg to his credit times the spear perfectly to demolish Brock and pay for his cockiness. The rest is just Brock selling his ass off and showing why I think he is the best seller of the last decade. Second spear and Jackhammer. The way crowd comes alive for Goldberg. This is the most Inokiist thing WWE ever did and it is money! That’s what I love about Brock his performances and the matches are booked different there’s always the little pro wrestling twist. Impossible to rate. It is more of an angle than a match but holy hell what an angle!

WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins vs Brock Lesnar - WWE Battleground 2015 We are at a decade of Seth Rollins being a WWE Main Event act. Wild. Has to go down as one of the weaker main event acts in history. Classic issue the move set of a babyface and the personality of a heel. But in this match he wrestles as a great heel. One of my favorite archetypes that is underutilized in pro wrestling: walking tall badass babyface average chump scum ball heel. Rollins stole the World Title from Brock in “Heist of Century” at WrestleMania. I hate Money In The Bank but I will say that was the best use of it and they did create a memorable angle that has stood out to the rest of time. This was the first experiment with Babyface Brock and it showed it could work. I really enjoyed this match because both wrestlers stayed true to their characters and delivered a match befitting of the story. Brock came out of the gates hot looking to destroy Seth. Rollins did the stick & move. Tried to make this a cat and mouse game. When he did get caught he used the ropes to get free. Like a good heel he was trying to use those boundary conditions of the environment like the ropes and apron. He paid lip service to trying to chop Brock down at the knees but it was too early tO do that so Brock was able to get back on offense. Rollins tried running away but Brock gets to show off his insane speed hurdling to the barricade and throwing Rollins back in. We get the suplex barrage, I have to say Rollins big stand is really well done. Everything he does is either head-rocking kicks or kicking out his legs. It is the perfect smaller man performance. Brock sells it well. Rollins starts hurling his body at Brock. This is really good small man offense. Brock destroyed J&J Security and Corporate Kane before the match. I would’ve like to seen more cheating from Rollins to gain the advantage. It was a little too babyface of a comeback. Especially the defiant slap at the end right before the F5 and the non-finish. I think there was some good heel selling early of him being in over his head but down the stretch it got a little too babyface vs babyface for my liking. The Undertaker non-finish was great. F-5 would he won the belt back or not but you won’t know because of Taker is a smart psychological moment. You knew Rollins had to escape somehow so Taker randomly showing up and kicking Brock in the nads and Tombstoning his ass as good of a finish as any. Enjoyed Brock the Avenging Angel kicking Corporate Chump’s ass and Rollins has a strong individual performance. Enjoyable *** 3/4