Matt D

The match absolutely has great visuals and I completely buy Steaboat's visceral rage in his comeback. I'm just a stickler for details. Also, on my end, action packed isn't a huge deal since I've seen some very action packed stuff out of Portland in this same time period very recently. (And yeah, we're in the same boat with the small kid rampaging about with her giant stuffed Minnie Mouse, with the bigger kid in the midst of a 11 hour Lord of the Rings marathon which is how I got to watch the match earlier today).

I always like that you have Lars as a counterpoint since he comes from a very different sort of background as most of us, but sometimes it's funny when he says something that we'd probably have no problem with at all as a community but the parts of the internet fandom he's come across might be up in arms about and he feels like he has to make a disclaimer. I realize the show has a broader audience than JUST us, but it's still sort of funny.

I decided to take a look at this for the first time. I have some definite structural problems with it that prevent me from liking it more. Some of the issues with the selling might be more forgivable if it was tighter. Thoughts: -Egregious early selling mostly because none of it matters or escalates. i don't buy Steamboat's getting that hurt because he snaps back with too much ease. If it was an arena show maybe? -Everything gets somewhat better once Steamboat starts selling on the outside though. He's doing more consistent selling at this point and not just the immediate bump/sell. -I don't like the Steamboat chinlock. It would have worked so much better if he went back to the side headlock base again since there was an extended spot-sequence between bases earlier. We don't hit the act break until Snuka starts biting and what not so it would give the whole match a ton more coherence with such a minor change. -Given how well they recover, you can look at the botch as an extension of the missed top rope moves throughout the match. Snuka suffers for going for high risk moves when he's doing great by brawling/grinding/roughing Steamboat up. Honestly, it feels like he responds to the blown spot by going for blood, which is a very natural and organic reaction. -The transition to Steamboat's initial comeback is a little silly because what the hell was Snuka doing with that jump into the corner? I mean that's not super uncommon or anything to see someone get posted in a weird way after missing an impossible corner splash and that one might have been a normal Snuka spot I just haven't seen before but it lead to the Steamboat splash spot which was huge so it stood out as hugely contrived. Also, I don't love the splash actually hitting since the REAL comeback doesn't start until the missed diving headbutt a minute later. Steamboat missing the splash and coming back after the missed diving headbutt would have meant so much than him hitting a huge move and just getting a two count. -That said, the visual of a bloody Steamboat reading to do the splash is awesome and the timing on the missed diving headbutt was pretty great. -I would have been cool with the pile driver if Snuka had just gotten his foot up on the rope with better (as in later) timing. Steamboat is so worked up/pissed off that he basically lets Snuka recover post-piledriver (enough that he's back in the match and on his feet) because he doesn't capitalize with the wrestling he does best. He just beats him back to life. You could say that how out cold Snuka seemed during the tree of woe at the end could be a lingering effect of the pile driver. -That said, if you DON'T attribute it to that (And there's good reason not to), it's one of the shittiest looking tree of woes you'll ever see. I did buy the DQ finish as Steamboat being that pissed and Snuka gets to get his heat back post match. I don't know. i had some real problems with it but I was still expecting much worse.

Well if it's just Mania placement we're worried about, who cares? I'm drooling over the idea of weekly TV matches of Bryan/Harper vs Cody/Goldust or Bryan/Harper/Rowan vs Rey/Usos. I care about that way more than a Bryan vs Shawn or Hunter or Bryan/Cena/Orton or whatever else the "Best Possible Scenario" Mania match would have been.

I missed it. Break down why. Tim can do the counterpoint.

Ah I was curious what Parv thought. Sorry for the lack of clarity. Past Bonnema doing a great job explaining the traditional babyface control psychology, I think it's not much to write home about, but I think Parv might rate it higher than the Martel/Rose match.

Had some time today. Some of the enthusiasm in this was great. I've lived in this stuff for the last year so I'm glad you enjoyed it and it was nice to hear all the analysis. I do think Portland gains from watching in context, but then, so does everything else. It still stands up great on its own. I need to check out those Chris Colt continental matches at some point. I actually need to see more Continental in general. I am with Pete over Parv on Logic over Spots. It's sort of the difference between doing the work yourself or having them do it for you. Did you watch the Martel vs Race that they hit on the last Portland show? Frankly, I think Pete and I could be an intellectual wrestling bloc of some sort. Probably a very boring one.

Goldust vs Bam Bam Bigelow - Survivor Series 1995 This is almost completely a blind spot for me. I had no idea that Bam Bam lasted so long into 1995, though I know he had a lead babyface run around KOTR that got quashed by the Clique or something. It's interesting how they portray him, as if he was some sort of famous Hollywood star. This was set up on Superstars with an interview with Lawler. Goldy quotes House of Wax and Lawler is pretty funny in parroting the movie name. I really love the movie quote thing. It's a shame they went away from that later on. Anyway, this is Bam Bam sort of returning the favor on his way out. It reminds me a little of him beating Bossman at Royal Rumble 1993 on his way in. As with the Jannetty and first Vega match they really make a big deal out of the entrance. JR claims that it's in his contract. I think his theme restarts three times during the entrance. It's long enough that I've had to revamp my expectations for the match. It may not seem it but there's a huge difference between a nine minute match and a thirteen minute match. They go to toe from the get go. Goldust actually outpunches Bigelow. They're selling that Bam Bam doesn't know how to deal with him which is something they really hadn't played up well in his first couple of matches. Dustin looks really smooth here, actually. He's got a real zip to him. It's fairly even until Dustin accidentally punches the pole on the outside. Weirdly enough this somehow lets Goldust take advantage, catching Bam Bam after he follows him into the ring. He clotheslines him over the top, plays to the crowd/camera, and catches Bam Bam on his way back in again. Bam Bam fights out of the corner but gets cut off quickly. After a bit of grinding, Dustin tosses him again, this time following him out and slamming him onto the stairs. Bam Bam finally grabs a foot and swings him around into a belly to back but he misses a falling headbutt and Dustin takes back over, smothering Bam Bam for a moment and then going for a seated chinlock/neckwrench. Bam Bam gets him into an electric chair out of it and falls backwards. JR cannily points out that Bam Bam has been unable to put two offensive moves together. They go back to the punches but Dustin gets the better of it and hits a flying clothesline and goes back to the grounded chinlock. Bam Bam turns it into another belly to back and starts his comeback. He hits a few nice clotheslines but misses a corner splash. Dustin hits the out of nowhere Bulldog and picks up the three count. It was worked well enough but the transition to the heat was really confusing. Dustin got the advantage after accidentally punching the pole? Regardless, this was wrestled far differently than the Jannetty match and Goldust came out of this looking like much more of a force. It wasn't a better match but it was a more useful match in getting across the character and what I think they wanted to do with him. They may not have had it so thoroughly worked out the month before. Vince/JR/Perfect wasn't a bad announce team. Goldust vs Razor Ramon - IC Title - Royal Rumble 1996 They really did rush Goldust right to the IC title, didn't they? Razor's obviously on the way out but I forget if he had told Vince about it yet or not. The set up of this everyone knows, I think. Flowers, a gift of a photo, the Razor heart "tattoo". The pretty memorable backstage brawl that ended up in the snow. The idea was that the mind games had taken Razor to the brink Marlena debuts here. I liked the usher. If they ever bring Naylor back in, he'd make an awesome usher for Goldust. Entrances/introductions are more than six minutes. Pose. Toothpick. Effeminate stalling. Razor finally grabs and arm and just wrenches Goldust around the ring before locking in an armbar and paintbrushing him. Headlock, break, consulting with Marlena. Lock-up, go behind, reversal by Goldust, fondling, scramble away. Lock up. Press into corner. Clean Break? No, fondle. Shove away. Effeminate stalling. Back to the arm meanly. Hammerlock. Reversal. Big Goldust slap. Drop toehold and more paintbrush, then a shot to the rear. Goldust likes it. Razor punch and to the outside. Goldust hides behind Marlena. And this is a pretty good opening altogether. It's very character driven but Goldust is playing the character well. Back in the ring they do some chain wrestling (a minor amount). Razor gets another shot in and Goldust rolls out and uses Marlena as a shield again. Both Dustin and Terri play this role pretty well. Goldust comes back in and stalls and now the fans are really on him. They went past the breaking point. When Razor finally gets a clothesline on him knocking him out the fans love it. And they go right back to using Marlena as a shield. This time Razor picks her up and moves her. Dustin's right there to nail him and slam his back into the top of the apron twice, followed up by a huge punch. Great transition, not because of the idea of it, which was just okay but by the execution and timing and the way Dustin made it work and Razor made it believable. They come back into the ring with a double axe handle to the spine. Razor hits the corner hard three times and Dustin follows up with the bulldog for a near fall (believable since he beat Bigelow with that at Survivor series). Dustin does a slingshot belly to back which he should use now because it looks pretty cool. He follows it up by bringing him to the bottom rope, face first, and to Marlena who blows gold dust at him. Razor fires back but drops his head and gets his face slammed into the mat. Dustin follows up with a swinging neckbreaker and then a sleeper. It's interesting just how varied his offense has been just in the two years or so that I've looked at him as Goldust. The stakes are high here and the fans are sort of getting behind Razor but I've seen a lot better sleepers, both from the top and the bottom. Finally Razor starts to fight up, pressing the ref into the corner while still in the sleeper and mulekicks his way out. Both guys selling. Goldust is up first for a two count but then Razor kicks out and starts blocking punches to start his comeback. On paper the mule kick/kick out/comeback should have worked better I think. The fans didn't pop for it even though they set it up well. Razor hits a chokeslam and fallaway slam for a two counts, but Goldust gets the eyes as they start to head towards the finish. Goldust gets into moonsault position which would be fine now, since he uses that turnaround crossbody a lot but was blatantly obvious in this match. It's the set up for the second rope belly to back. Razor catches him and hits it while Marlena comes in, distracting the ref first by getting into the ring and then twisting her ankle. While the ref is distracted distracted, the 1-2-3 Kid comes out of the crowd and hits a nasty spin kick off the top. Goldust crawls over for the pin and the belt. There was a lot to like about the match, certainly. I thought everything up to the transition to the heat segment paid off really well. There were a couple of layout issues later on though. Was the Kid in the crowd just waiting to come out when he had an opportunity? Were they in cahoots? In general I like Marlena being there because the fans were supposed to expect that the mind games were the plan all along and instead he brings her out. I guess she could have been another feint and the Kid could have been the real plan but I don't really buy that. Had Marlena planned to leap up on the apron whenever Razor started to hit the belly to back regardless? A lot of things just seemed to happen because they were supposed to, which is never a good feeling coming out of a match. I also think the mule kick transition to comeback was a little flat. Maybe they gave away too many Razor punches early on?

I do love the Punk/Colt story about them bicycling past a guy with an ROH shirt though.

Alright, Xmas is over. There was a lot of other Portland to watch in here, including Chris Colt matches, so I had to get through those first. It's a good thing I did. I wouldn't have realized that they were claiming Kim Song was gone already due to being an illegal alien (that popped the crowd) which is why Stasiak got moved into the tag match. I love the Rose/Borne angle right now. Buddy still wants him to join the army so they can be a family. It's all head games as he says Regal's using him. He wants a match with him with three potential stips if he wins: 1.) Head Shaved or 2.) Leave the Territory or 3.) Join the army and be an family. Borne's choice. Borne comes out and flips the stips. 1.) Leave, 2.) Shave head, or 3.) Go Babyface. I think the domestic abuse is JUST about to happen though (it might have already?) which will heat things up in a big way but will also KO this element of the angle (He announces the divorce on the 21st on the Live at Noon talk show, so I actually think it could happen between the 17th and the 21st but it's probably not worth overthinking. It's interesting to watch Borne's body language, though. FWIW, Rose says the offer is still on the table there). Meanwhile, Buddy and Regal had their match thrown. Buddy won after Stasiak interfered. They'll have a rematch upcoming with the army locked in a cage at ringside. Buddy Rose/Mike Masters vs Matt Borne/Steve Regal - 2/3 Falls - 10/17/81 Stasiak, Masters and Rose are now the Army. Masters is an interesting cat. He reminds me, unsurprisingly of Chris Masters, which is not a bad thing to be reminded of. Muscleman, same sort of look (though far less tan and with unfortunate facial hair currently), full nelson, pretty good at working his gimmick in the ring from what I've seen. He also is playing up that once the full nelson is on he can't break it due to the blood in his hands or something, which means he keeps getting DQed after the match is over. Rose and Borne both have red tights on which works to the brother-in-law thing. I still feel bad for everyone involved that Regal is the still the top babyface. Rose and Borne to start. Buddy presses him against the rope with a few shots, but ends up dropkicked. Borne takes out Masters on the apron and both heels take a powder. Borne keeps winning top wristlock exchanges and Buddy, frustrated (and calling a hair pull that didn't happen), tags in Masters. After getting out finessed a bit, Masters wins a top wristlock exchange to Buddy's joy. In the next exchange though, Borne starts to win before Masters uses the hair to throw him off. They go to it again and Borne, pissed off, goes to the hair, to the fans' delight. Fun bit of storytelling to start. They ate four minutes with that and just got the fans more into things. Buddy tags in, gets tossed, gets rolled in, runs from Borne, tries to double team with Masters, but knocks him off the apron. Heels stall. Masters come back in to Borne's chagrin. More babyface finesse stuff as Borne gets Masters in his corner and tags Regal in. Another top wristlock but Regal immediately trips and starts some control armwork. They work out of an armlock with some or Regal's usual stuff. It's perfectly fine. Tag to Borne a nice flying stomp to a held down arm. Borne and Regal are doing a pretty good job with this. Masters is playing up that he's desperate for the tag and Regal, being a putz, finally lets him get it. Buddy slows things down while still stooging like a king for Regal threatening to hit him after a Regal clean break and then running when Regal threatens back. They repeat it for a Buddy clean break. The third one has him press Regal into his own corner and then the heel mauling starts. Lots of fun symmetry spots in this. Heels fully in charge for the first time, controlling the ring and using dirt tactics and a general beat down to the base of the spine. Regal takes a shot into the corner pretty well. I'll give him that. Buddy goes for the Robinson backbreaker to finish him off, but Regal floats over and hits the victory roll ("Regal Ride") for the fall. Nice, enjoyable first fall. Rose does his usual shtick of trying to get his partner to start. Barr has nothing to do with it. Buddy gets a cheapshot to Regal's back, though and makes a quick tag to Masters, who has a bear hug for one of his usual moves and goes right to it. I like how they gave Regal a flash win at the end of the first fall but have gone right back to the heat segment. Bear hugs aren't ever super compelling and Regal's pain face is all scrunchy and terrible but Masters does a pretty good job working it and they do the hope spots well, with Buddy interfering liberally. The context helps too as does the single camera long shot that lets us see Borne and Buddy cheerleading. Hot tag is pretty well laid out with Regal having to fight around the ring to get to Borne. He's a good fiery hot tag and does a great flying elbow drop. Masters desperately tags out to Rose who's not happy to get in there and for good reason as Borne beats him around the ring. Buddy uses his girth to reverse a vertical suplex into one of his own though and Bonnema puts over how tough Buddy is to put away which is really held up by the extended booking over time and it's something a lot of people watching Portland in bits and pieces don't understand. Anyway after a struggle, Rose gets the tag to Masters who is fresher and starts in on Borne. After a minute of mauling he goes for the full nelson. Borne's great at diving out of it twice, the second time positioning him right to make a hot tag to Regal, who takes out Masters. Blind tag to Buddy, though which leads into a nice spot where Masters drops down and Regal runs right into the Robinson backbreaker right on the damaged back for the fall. Regal starts out the third fall strong after the recovery period, but ends up reversed into the corner. Buddy tags Masters right in but after a slam gets tagged in himself and overshoots on trying a press slam. Regal floats over for a quick tag. Borne comes in, knocks buddy around,and puts on the airplane spin. Masters rushes in, though, puts the full nelson on Borne. Regal comes in to even the odds. Bell rings as they throw out the match and Regal and Rose brawl while Masters won't let go of the full nelson in the middle of the ring. All the undercard guys run in to try to break the full nelson and then try to separate Regal and Rose. Sort of nothing third fall but ultimately a pretty enjoyable match. I don't know if Regal's just most tolerable as a babyface in tag matches or if Buddy's just that good (he is) but he's able to have a different partner each week and manage to get a pretty good match out of him.

I'm going to try to take a look at some of those PPV matches that I didn't get to the other day in the next week or so. Also, I'm going to try to look at some of the fancams from 95-96 of which there seem a few. Not sure if my going through things is helpful or not but it's all stuff I really haven't seen so I'm looking forward to it.

I seriously need to watch more Hansen this year too. I've seen so little of him and that's a huge whole for a wrestler people whose opinions I care about place so high.

He'd be the hogan friend to turn on him like Orndorff.

I will concede the point since I haven't seen a ton of period Backlund.

Wrestling is going to devour your soul.

Backlund is totally a dick. His little bouncy taunt? Come on.

In the 1982 era is there any babyface that doesn't come across as a dick other than the trio of Steamboat, Santana, and Martel?

I read the kindle preview and it's probably something that could have used a co-writer. Very personable but it jumps all over the place and sounds kind of like he's talking to you instead of writing a book.

This is a fun one. -Finish watching the lucha set and double back well enough that I can do a ballot. -Continue on into 1990s lucha which will all be new to me. -Continue watching Buddy Rose/Portland and ideally write 2-3 more big essays like I did for 1979 -Write some more articles in general -Start watching some WoS -Maybe guest on some podcasts. It's really tough for me to get more than an hour at a time right now and I'm not a big podcast person but I feel like the odd man out on this element of our community.

It's more like an action movie without explosions. Sometimes you get a thriller instead? Are you even being serious with us?

Most Cesaro matches don't have a ton of wasted moves.

Dustin/Pillman vs Austin/Regal - Worldwide - 3/5/94 I actually have a rule against watching 94 WCW. I was totally out of watching wrestling as a kid and I never saw much of any of it and it's sort of thing thing I hold in reserve for a rainy day. Someday I'll buy a year comp for WCW SN and Worldwide and The Main Event and all the clashes and PPVs and it'll be at a time where I need great wrestling and it will get my back. I'm making a rare exception for this. This is a chicken suit vs title shot match. Robert Parker has the chicken suit in hand, so that's great from the get go. Regal and Bryan do a lot of fun matwork to start, mostly back and forth stuff with Pillman being the aggressor and taking the advantage as Regal stooges somewhat. Dustin tags in and does a lot of the Dusty punch/elbow stuff which I thought he had mostly stopped doing by 93 for some reason. He hits the ropes and then hits Austin's knee from the outside and that's our transition. I love the pissed off Worldwide crowd. Regal and Austin work on Dustin. There's a hope spot that's just one punch from Dustin but Regal sells it so well and then has to stumble forward and trip the leg to get back on top. Dustin finally catches Austin off the top and goes for the bulldog, but Austin either twists out of it or they flub it. The great thing about Austin is that you can't tell which because he realizes what it looks like and one way or another, he's just going to keep on Dustin because of it. His staggering selling of Dustin's punches is just as great as Regal's, as is the desperate grapevine cutoff. Maybe it's the smaller ring, but there's just a real manic energy to this comeback/hot tag. Austin misses a move in the corner and Dustin staggers over with perfect timing. Pillman dropkicks the world. The fans go nuts for the double nogging knocker. Heels get rid of Pillman and double team Dustin, but Brian's the legal man, so when Regal turns around he eats the flying body press. Pillman wins a title shot vs Regal by winning. Enjoyable little match with a fun Regal promo post match. When he starts and Heenan starts to chime in, his aristocratic flustered hand motions agreeing with the Brain are so great. Goldust vs Stephen Regal - Raw - 11/2/98 I'm expecting this to be a sad, entertaining bit of nothing. I kind of want to see Regal vs Bradshaw from this period as well. Regal's in pretty bad shape in every way possible. He demands a man to come out to face him. A man's man. A real man's man. Dustin obliges. I need to rewatch Dustin vs Venis at some point, but this is probably the only 98 Dustin I'm touching now. Regal at his worst can still stooge and bump but he can't quite take a hiptoss and some of the counterwrestling has Dustin really walking him through it (at least as far as I can tell). Maybe he shouldn't have tried for the kip up. This really isn't that bad and it's kind of a strange testament to both guys. At one point Regal redirects him out and Terri (who was just with Val but got dumped by her during the pregnancy angle) comes down as Marlena. Regal ambushes a distracted Dustin as he rolls in and I wish they just went home there. Even Blitzed Regal throws great uppercuts and forearms though. Dustin doesn't even bothering going down to his knees for the uppercut comeback. He sets up the shattered dreams but here comes Kane and for once it's sort of a mercy killing. The crowd so badly wants Kane to kill Terri, but we'll just move past that. No! Not Tony Garea! God dammit Kane. Let's just move forward a few years. Goldust & William Regal vs RVD and Edge - Raw - 2/18/02 I have no idea why this match exists. I think they brought Dustin back to stalk RVD or something, but I don't feel like tracking the No Way Out match. I actually think RVD/Edge could work fairly well as a tag team. RVD's offense is set up well for a babyface shine AND a hot tag and Edge can probably eat offense during a heat segment well enough. Apparently the Rock just got shot or something since that's all anyone wants to talk about. The crowd doesn't care. They want to chant RVD. RVD and Goldust work surprisingly well together. The shine is basically a collision and double spin wheel kick. Dustin hits the drop down uppercut and takes over. They're sprinting. This is a 5 minute match. Regal hits the knee trembler. Goldust hits the butt butt. Goldust keeps on RVD until he catches RVD's foot and RVD hits that reverse spin kick. Hot tag to Edge. He clears house. Goldust and RVD brawl outside. Edge hits the spear and hey! Educator. I love the Educator. Regal taps. Edge spears Goldust post match and that was mildly amusing. I'm so glad Regal turned it around between 99 and 02. Goldust vs Regal - Heat - 8/4/02 Amazingly horrific Regal pre-match promo with Terri where he's just terrible to her. "He's going to be crying tears as big as October cabbages!" This is going to get about four minutes too. We're so much better off now. D-Lo Brown is announcing. I always say you learn things from watching wrestlers in any situation. Here, despite the lack of time they're getting, they started with back and forth chain wrestling. Dustin got the better of it so Regal got in a cheap shot knee and started to hammer him in the corner. Dustin comes back with whip reversal and back body drop but Regal cuts him off by dropping him groin first on the top rope after catching a body block. Knee Trembler gets a two count. Goldust punches back. Regal reverses a whip but Goldust drops down for the punch. Regal forearms out of the Curtain Call but Goldust gets a lightning roll up while he's fumbling for the knuckles. Post match, Regal gets a revenge shot in. Like I said, it's interesting to see what two masters of their craft do with four minutes and how they decide to fill the time, what they put in or leave out, but it's not anything to actively seek out. We'll skip the 10/7/02 Showgirl match from Raw just saying that Regal's pretty hilarious, Goldust's punches on the interfering Lance Storm look great, and Regal's victory strutting had to be the most fun he had all year. Hurricane/Goldust vs Regal/Storm from the Survivor Series 2002 Pre-Show gets a whole three minutes but at least Regal got to hit an exploder on Hurricane. 30 seconds Hurricane shine. 1:30 heat on Hurricane with one hope rope up. fifteen seconds or less for the come back into the hot tag. Goldust clears house for about 30 seconds. and we get a 30 second "it all breaks down" period with a nice looking finish (Goldust goes for the Curtain Call, but Regal clotheslines him from behind and Storm rolls him up). We even get 15 seconds of Dreamer beating guys up with a kendo stick. Maybe I should have stuck with 1997. I think I'm done for now. I have the Bookdust vs Unamericans stuff and a lot of ECW left, but this went downhill quick. What I will say is this: Dustin gets it by 02. He really, really gets it. I need to actually look at some of the Black Reign stuff because I just can't imagine him unable to work a good match after this point. Everything he does, even in these three minute matches, is just the right thing. He may not have the time or the opportunity or even the mandate to do enough to have a great match, but the stuff that he does do really does stand out to me as almost unquestionably good. That wasn't the case at all in early 97.

Forgot I wrote this up before: WWF - 8/24/96 - Toronto - Shawn Michaels vs Goldust - Ladder Match I can see why this match is slept upon. The term "ladder match" creates a certain set of expectations, and those expectations were even more prevalent a few years ago. In this match the craziest bump has nothing to do with the ladder and there's only one real jump off of it. The first half of the match, the ladder doesn't even come into play. It's still really good though, and in some ways more structured and better than most ladder matches. Michaels' intensity in the beginning is great. I've seen very little WWF in 96, actually, so I'm not sure if he started most of his matches with that or not. He has this brutal looking chairshot early on when Goldust is going for the ladder the first time, which sort of explains why the ladder doesn't play much of a role for the first half of the match (as Dustin paid bigtime for trying to get it too early). Dustin's punches and general offense look great. Michaels bumps big for him, including one crazy no-hands catapult over the top rope. When the ladder comes into play it's mainly just a prop that Dustin uses to enhance his attack on Michaels' back and he finds smart ways to use it that aren't all that dangerous but look really good. The teases of the finishers are fun for the time. One transition where Goldust sidesteps a roll up in the corner is actually pretty neat. They do a good job at cutting off comebacks and timing everything well. I wish Shawn didn't do this floatover out of a move (twice Curtain call, once slam, once suplex) as a reversal. Three times sort of worked and led into the finish. Four times frustrated me. It's a fancam and cuts now and again towards the end but it's minimal and you can generally figure out what little bits you missed with ease (though at one point Shawn gets his foot stuck in the rope and I kind of wish what happened immediately thereafter had been retained). Also, when watching Shawn 96 Raw matches, I had a few other Shawn vs Dustin ones I'm not reawtching now. Let me C+P: Shawn vs Goldust - Raw - 9/6/96: I thought it was actually better than I've seen. It didn't have the fast action, necessarily, but it was really solid. Goldust was very aggressive in the early going and it was obviously he wanted to win the thing. Dustin's offense was both believable and smart. Exactly what the match called for. Shawn was a bit more active from the bottom; instead of just laying there in a chin lock, he'd kick his feet and what not. You really got the sense that Dustin knew this was for the title, that he had earned the shot, and he wanted to WIN it. I thought for sure the kip up was gong to come after the double clothesline but it didn't, and I would have bought the finish after the elbow-drop as into SCM but they twisted it a bit. Shawn vs Goldust - 8-9-96 house show: I'll say off the bat that the most interesting thing about Shawn in 96 is that he really changes things up. I know I said that before, but here it is again after seeing a few more matches. This didn't look all that much like the other two Goldust matches I saw. Lots of different spots and some unique spots, such as missed kick to the head by Goldust (trying to counter a back body drop set up by Shawn) followed by a missed elbow drop by Shawn. Or the beginning of the match being Goldust reversing a Shawn attempt at a piledriver on the floor. The real meat of the match storywise was Goldust grounding Shawn and hooking in a chinlock. Shawn comes back the first time with the elbows but is cut off with a kneelift to the gut. Comes back the second time in a test of strength sort of way a couple of minutes later, but is powered down, and then the third time actually powers out of the thing and tosses Goldust across the ring. It's a solid story if not an entirely compelling one. Goldust's chinlocks are pretty good though Shawn's selling isn't as interesting. The fans pop for each comeback but I think in this case, the blending of a slightly quicker pace and the story being told in the TV match worked better.

Goldust/Savio II Four Man Battle Royal (Goldust/Savio/Sid/Austin) - Raw 8/18/96 I actually watched this after the following two matches, so I'm in a much worse mood now. I'm hoping for something here. This is for a title shot. Sid does his kneeling pose and Goldust is immediately on him. Everyone swarms Sid and get him over the top but he comes back in and chokeslams everyone as the crowd chants for him. Austin and Goldust work together against Vega right until Austin (with a really dark mustache which makes him look like Darsow) turns on Dustin. We go to commercial and come back with Dustin in charge. A double feature shows us how Goldust just barely saved himself during the break. Austin clotheslines him out of nowhere again but Dustin catches him on the top rope and superplexes him down. It was kind of a weird visual due to his height. Savio, recovers and takes over until Austin and Dustin start working together against him again. He ducks a double clothesline and starts to clear house though. We get a nice spot where Austin athletically saves himself only to end up in a Vega catapult to get eliminated. Austin rolls back in and beats on Vega before leaving. Goldust sort of casually tosses Vega around the ring until he reverses an irish whip. Vega puts his head down and I guess the drop down head smash was more of a signature counter for Dustin than I thought at this point. Anyway, Dustin goes for the Curtain Call, Vega Floats over, hits the spin wheel kick, but this is a battle royal, so he has to get him out. Dustin ducks a clothesline and tosses Vega for the win. Goldust vs Savio - Raw - 2/24/97 My first foray into 97. Savio's in the nation by this point. Miguel Perez is on commentary. I think Goldust might actually be a babyface by this point. This was somewhat JIP with Savio in control. He has a nice side slam which is a kind of weird move for a guy his size. They're woo-ing his corner chops, which is fairly early for that sort of thing. Now Dustin gets to layer in his hope spots. He has a nice little spot where he rolls out of the ring and out of the camera view. Sunny (who is with the Nation I guess?) hugs PG-13 which is astoundingly surreal. Crush walks around the ring and just haphazardly piledrives Goldust on the protective mat while Savio distracts the ref. There's definitely a chaotic element to the Nation being out there. Savio jaws with the spanish announce team as the crowd chants whatever the hell they want to and makes constant noise. Goldust gets rolled in and eventually fights out of the corner including some flowing stomp punches that he didn't do as a heel, but he's too banged up and Savio takes right back over with an eyerake. Savio works the Trap Claw. Dustin just sort of lays there, until Savio stands him up and tosses him against the ropes. Nice little hope spot with two ducked clotheslines and a big cross body before its cut off with a nice spin kick but it's all a little lifeless. I'm cool with Andre or Ming doing the trapezius hold. I'm less cool with Savio doing it for some reason. He has a nice corner elbow though. Dustin hits a few kicks and a DDT out of nowhere. Savio's up first, slams him, but then does a splash into Dustin's knees, for what I think has to be the start of the babyface comeback. Yep. Dustin hits the dropdown punch off the ropes, some clotheslines, and the ten punch. He's so much better as a babyface (as Goldust) now. He really didn't work any of his bizarre stuff in at that point. He was wrestling this match as sort of a less fiery Natural Dustin Rhodes in a weird costume. He gets up to the top and Savio gets a foot up. Dustin catches it on the way down though, but gets tripped by Crush off the ropes. Savio misses an elbow and Dustin rolls out to nail Crush only to roll in and get hit by a glancing spin wheel kick. He plays it up as blind. I'm not sure if that was intentional or not. Regardless, Savio can't keep up the offense. D-Lo gets up on the apron and Dustin swipes at him. Crush is back up, though and rolls in and the Nation swarms until Miguel Perez makes the save. It's not a great match. I do think it was sort of effective in getting over how dangerous and overwhelming the Nation was as a group. Dustin has some natural face tendencies when he's working this style that are just too good to not be there in his matches but he was pretty damn listless in this thing and all of those great elements that we see in all three runs of 00s babyface "Goldust" just weren't there. Goldust/Miguel Perez, Jr. vs Savio Vega/Crush - Shotgun Saturday Night - 3/1/97 Well, worst case, I have Cornette announcing. Perez and Savio have a spirited exchange while Dustin lumbers about with Crush on the outside. Dustin comes back to the apron and the faces do a little shine offense on the Savio's arm til he hits an eyepoke and tags Crush. Vince even says that Goldust isn't on his game as of late, but he does duck the clothesline well and hits the kneeling uppercut in a decent enough spot. Perez tries shine control offense on Crush's arm but he just picks him up and brings him to the heel corner. This all ends with Perez doing a somersault plancha over the top onto Savio. Early match dives bug me lately. I do like the transition a lot, which is Vega, eating a Perez corner ten count, just moving forward and dropping him down, face first, onto the top rope. And now I have to watch Crush. Eh, his Belly to Belly is pretty good and I liked his headbutt to cut off a few hope punches. He just slides Perez out on his face too. Dustin comes in like the idiot pissed off face partner and Savio takes Perez out the floor. I like Savio (on the apron) casually pushing Perez' foot off the rope a moment later during a pinfall too. Savio's corner offense is good and Dustin's playing his role on the apron alright, even if it's not very remarkable. Cornette asking Vince the difference between blatantly choking someone and not blatantly choking someone and then translating his response to "smart choking or dumb choking" is pretty funny. Crush is a little bit lumbering but he really doesn't look THAT bad here. His stomps are pretty intense following a nice sunset flip nearfall by Perez. Goldust just ran away, presumably because of Hunter and Chyna menacing Marlena backstage or something? We go to commercial and came back to another trap claw, this time by Crush. Hooray for the nation. Oh good, Goldust is back and Perez fights up and out only to end up in a middling (as in sort of crummy in execution as he fell to the side but it was enjoyably lightning quick) Crush pile driver. Dustin breaks it up but distracts the ref in the process and the heels do a blind switch. This is an okay heat segment. Crush comes in and hits a huge press slam which is exactly how Crush should be used. He lifts him up at two, though, which leads to a float over suplex reversal and a flash DDT. Dustin clears house at half speed while Cornette tries to convince us we're watching something intense. Bless him. It breaks down. The ref is distracted by Perez. Vince is pissed that the director misses it. Crush uses a chair on Goldust who is pinning Vega. Ok, I think I should go watch a Buddy Rose match or something. Dustin was totally by the numbers here. He played his role and did what should have worked but there was, again, just no life to any of it. It's night and day between this and his tag work with Booker or Cody. One last match. Goldust vs Savio - Raw - 10/13/97 Savio's with Los Boricuas now. This is right after Pillman died, with Marlena back with babyface Dustin,. Right from the get go, Goldust has more of a presence than in the last two matches. Okay, yeah, he's figured it out. He's crouching forward before the lock ups, moving with more zip, and he does the hands on the chest taunt after a winning exchange. Back and forth after that until Boricua distraction/interference leads to a Vega superkick. The ref tosses them out but Savio's in charge now. Everything's more compressed now. We get a hope spot and a cut off and then it goes straight to Savio going after Marlena and luring Goldust into another nice kick. We get the splash/knees up for the third time in 6 matches or so then a duck of the Spin Wheel Kick and the Curtain Call/Float Over counter too. This is followed by another nice kick. This is hugely back and forth and sprint-ish with Dustin hitting the kneeling punch counter and Savio hitting a spinning kick in the corner (and out of the ring). Finish is clever as Marlena tosses the cigar in, distracting the ref so that Dustin can use her purse for the KO punch. Cute solidarity stuff. This was fine but obviously slight. Dustin was considerably better than earlier in the year. Enough of Vega (and this era). I'm doing Dustin/Regal next to make myself feel better.