KB8

Watched this fairly recently and thought it was a blast. Recall Mero doing some fun stuff with the headlock and I loved how he waited almost the whole match to pay Regal back for that slap at the start. I actually bought Regal being legit KO'd for a second. I hadn't seen a Mero match in years prior to watching this series on Will's Regal set. He's not a guy I had ever really heard much praise for as a worker before, but I came away from the matches with Regal thinking he was way better than a lot of people had given him credit for. I was probably pretty critical of him at one point as well, even though I don't remember exactly why. Also agree that Bagwell gets a ton of undeserved shit. I haven't watched any douchebag heel Bagwell in ages, but all of the stuff I've seen from the '92-'95 period has been at least solid. He was a fine, if a bit green, bitpart player in a shit load of multi-man matches on the Dangerous Alliance set. By '95 when he was teaming with Patriot I thought he was definitely a good tag wrestler. I should probably check out some weasly Bagwell at some point soon.

Watched this earlier and I'm in agreement on how good it is. It's probably my *least* favourite of the three, but I still agree with MJH in that it's one of those MOTYC level matches. That spot where Tamura manages to slip in that kick to the stomach was great, but Han going postal with a flurry of palm strikes and knees shortly after felt like a fucking awesome receipt. That final armbar was gorgeous, too. Also gotta mention Tamura refusing to let Han lock in the Kimura at the beginning so Han just flips him with a suplex.

Is this the one that just surfaced somewhat recently? I remember trying to watch everything from this feud during the Smarkschoice poll, but this one I haven't seen. I recall someone talking about one of their matches (*think* it was one from Toronto) showing up online semi-recently and interested me quite a bit. Still haven't watched it yet, though.

Can't speak for the rest of us (rovert's post being a good example of why), but for the most part I haven't been able to stomach Japanese wrestling for the last couple years. There are guys who I still make a point of watching from time to time (Kanemoto, Takayama, Ishikawa... there's probably a few others that I'm fogetting), but I really haven't been interested in watching it with any degree of regularity since about 2007 (which is about the time it started hitting the skids for me personally). Most of my interest in current wrestling sits with the lucha stuff on youtube and some WWE now and again.

Watching Will's Regal set, that match with Taylor was one of my favourites up to that point. I watched the Stemboat match from Starrcade right before it and I didn't think there was much between them. Main thing I remember from the Taylor match was them using the same bodyscissors spot Kevin Von Erich and Terry Gordy used in one of their matches on the Texas set, right down to Regal doing the same shtick Gordy was (getting free of the hold, hitting the ropes, stumbling and bumbling before falling back into it).

I'm sort of the same with lucha. Not to that extreme, but if I watch a random lucha match when I've been watching something like 80s WWF or 90s All Japan for the past couple weeks, there's a good chance I'll like it a fair bit less than I would have if I had already been on a lucha kick. If I've already seen the match and I decide to throw it on at random then that's not really a problem, but if it's something new I usually try and fit it in at a time when I've already been watching other lucha. Although I did find a lot of the IWRG stuff from last year to be really easy going no matter what I had been watching before it, so maybe I've turned the corner.

1992 Saturday Night has a shit ton of fun to great stuff. WCW in '92 is probably my favourite year any company's ever had.

How many people were talking up Butch Reed before the Mid-South set? I guess Reed might fit into both categories though, at least to an extent. I mean, no doubt people had watched his run with Doom and maybe some of his WWF run and figured he was "pretty good", but at the same time I can imagine a decent chunk of people thinking he wasn't very good at all for periods within those runs (I've come across a shit-ton of people that dismissed him as a guy that was generally pretty crappy all the way through the WWF run, which I don't think is true at all). But the Mid-South set REALLY opened my eyes to the guy. Dude came out of that as probably my second favourite wrestler of all time. Of course maybe I was just late to the party and people were already expecting a bunch of great Butch Reed matches going into the Mid-South set .

The version I have has Shawn telling some screaming woman in the crowd to "Shut up, ya fat skank." He shouts this while he's the one in a chin lock. I don't think we ever get to see whoever this screaing woman is, but Hebnar looks really uncomfortable at a few points as well IIRC.

I watched this a few months ago and really loved it. Agreed that Cornette is awesome here; I think at one point he actually says Shawn fondled her most private parts, which had me rolling. Vince being in the ring pretty much gives Lawler carte blanche to rip on Michaels and basically say whatever he pleases.

Yeah, there's an Eddy/Jericho v Faces of Fear match from the Nitro after Superbrawl '97 that is immensely fun, primarily because the cruisers are willing to be tossed around by by guys that are good at tossing you around. I watched a pretty big chunk of a "Best of the WCW Cruiserweights" comp between the time I watched the tag and now, and there wasn't a single thing on it that I thought was better than the tag match.

Emilio's look around this time was awesome. Like a lucha Bruiser Brody.

Haven't seen this one, so I don't know how long it goes, but their 2/97 match is fantastic and runs about 17 minutes, IIRC. Although I haven't seen that one in a long-ass time, either.

Going through the listings for this, these skits were things I was really looking forward to seeing again, pretty much just for the petty hilariousness of it all. I mean, it's not like I noticed there was a Billionaire Ted skit on the set and that sold me on buying it more than something like Savage/Finlay from Nitro, but still.

There's also a really good Scorp/Bagwell v Austin/Pillman match from 5/8 that I watched for the SC poll, although I don't remember which show it was on unfortunately. Thought it was a good shout for US tag of the year.

WCW TV The Cactus Jack/Paul Orndorff street fight from the 1/10 episode of the Main Event is a really stiff little brawl (think it goes about 8 minutes) with a great post-match beatdown on Foley, his face turn, and then a revenge mauling by Foley with a shovel. Whole segment is about 15 minutes and it's really, really good. Chris Benoit/Brad Armstrong from the 1/13 Clash of the Champions is a really good match that I prefer to a lot of the more highly pimped stuff from the Nitro Cruiserweight era. Probably an obvious one. FROM WILL'S REGAL SET: Windham/Regal from the 4/24 episode of the Power Hour is awesome with Windham being gritty and pissed off to shit. Definitely the best match I've seen from babyface Regal. That's probably another obvious one, though. I'm a big fan of the Regal/Steamboat feud that started in the fall. Their 8/1 match from the Main Event was a ton of fun and their rematch a week later (so 8/8), which is no DQ, was even more so. Probably not anything essential, but both are really good sub-ten minute matches. Their Fall Brawl match is the one that I'd expect to definitely make the set, but they have a match on the 9/25 episode of Saturday Night that has Steamboat going postal and bringing the hate and Regal has some brutal looking strikes right to the bridge of Steamboat's nose in it. Really liked it. Their handheld from 8/19 is also something no doubt worth looking at. I watched a few months back, but I have some stupid problem with handhelds that seems to leave me incapable of focusing on them, and thus I barely remember any of it. Regal/Arn Anderson from the 10/19 episode of Saturday Night is also really good. Goes 15 minutes and it's something a fan of those guys would probably like quite a bit. I am and I did, at least. Regal/Johnny B. Badd from the 11/10 Clash of the Champions - watched this last night and thought it was a blast. Wouldn't be surprised if I liked it way more than most, though, and I wouldn't go to bat for it as being totally essential, anyway. There's obviously a ton of other WCW TV stuff, but I haven't seen most of it in so long that I wouldn't know what to make of it at this point.

JEEZUS, that Piper segment is incredible. What a crazy motherfucker. Definitely hope you keep this up, too. Been years and years since I saw that Shinzaki/Gannosuke match, but I might have to give it a re-watch soon. Mostly remember them kicking the shit out of each other, though.

I obviously don't have this set yet, but I did watch this match last night and rambled about it in my blog earlier today. I'm a pretty huge fan of it. Okay so I don't know the exact story between these two, but I know there was some real-life drama that had something to do with Nancy and, I think, an affair with Chris. Never really bothered to look into it so I'm not gonna bother talking about it here when it all boils down to these two HATING each other, anyway. I mean this is serious hatred. Sullivan is a guy that I've never really payed much attention to as a worker other than that appearance on the Memphis set and, of course, this feud with Benoit. But I watched two matches vs. Benoit last night and I came away thinking "Man, that guy is great at going to the eyes." Eye gouges, eye pokes, eye rakes, it all looks real nasty. It's probably because he's tossed the "working" aspect out the window and he's really trying to gouge Benoit's eye out, but still. At one point there's a close up of him sticking a thumb in his eye and there's nothing half-assed about this. Looks like he's really trying to get it in there and spoon out the eyeball. I'll choose to read this as him going the extra mile to make it look real since they in amongst the crowd and everything. I'd be wrong, but it won't be the first time. There's basically tonnes of instances of Sullivan doing shit - not limited to going for the eyes - that one could choose to read as him being an unprofessional douche. But then again Benoit is banging his wife. Is he? I don't know. Benoit goes along with it all and seems harrowingly willing to take as hideous a beating as Sullivan wants to give him, and from time to time he'll decide to give it right back. It's probably also the definitive "Dusty spazzes out on commentary" show as he is just totally hilarious at several points. Starts out with Benoit clotheslining Sullivan right in the face as Sullivan's making his way towards the ring, and then they just start punching the crap out of each other. Before long (like, a minute) they're in the crowd and heading up the steps. There's no "I'll grab your hair and walk you wherever I want to take you while you do nothing about it" bullshit like you see in Japan all the time these days; they're punching each other in the face and FIGHTING their way up the step. Then they wind up in the bathroom. Benoit really takes a horrendous beating. Sullivan eats a shot off a cubicle door and kinda gets thrown into a wall, but Benoit's taking full throttle shots to the head with a cubicle door, getting launched into walls and repeatedly having his eyes poked and gouged at. Dusty drops this corker: "Taskmaster is in his element, right here in the john, if you will, right here in Baltimore, Maryland." Six stars. Then Sullivan tries to stick Benoit's head in a urinal and we get the classic "HEAD FIRST IN THE COMMODE!" line from Schiavone. Any other time and that's bound to be the line of the night, but a few seconds later Dusty spies some woman and he completely flips. "THERE'TH A LADEH! THERE'TH A LADEH IN THE MEN'TH BATHROOM! RIGHT HERE! THERE ITH A LADEH IN THE MEN'TH JOHN RIGHT HERE IN BALTIMOW. *silence...silence* CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?! SHE DONE STOPPED AWF! SHE GOT TO GET SOME RELIEF HERE, BABEH!" A million trillion stars. Back outside the bathroom they have this incredible fist fight and Sullivan is just railing off and cracking Benoit with total barfight punches right to the eye. There was one flurry that would've made Tenryu hot under the collar. This is also where they start fighting over a garbage can and Dusty's off and running about plunder. "Dey be gettin' plunder, Toneh." We're more than half way through the match at this point and you could start an honest to goodness drinking game for every time Dusty says plunder. Back down the stairs they go and Sullivan just heaves Benoit down the steps. Twice. "Boy you tawk about bad intentions in two guys' eyeballth." First time looks nasty enough, but the second time is borderline ridiculous. I mean Sullivan clearly does not give a shit. Then he goes ahead and stomps flush on Benoit's dick, just because. Dusty - "Well, uh... might'been a little low." They've really beat the piss out of each other by the time they make it back to ringside, but what's great is that they haven't once bothered to attempt a pin. And they're still hucking chairs and crotching the other on the guard rail right up until Benoit brings a table out from under the ring. "We got sut'm comin' out right here. Goin' for plunder. There's no plunder sayfe!" And then Benoit throws his plunder at Sullivan's head. Benoit sets the table up across the top turnbuckle and Dusty's all "He's tryin'a get his plunder right, nah mean?" Finish is basically a superplex from a raised platform, but even that move looks way more nasty than usual. Post-match Benoit continues the beating and Arn Anderson hits the scene. They've been teasing Arn turning on the Horsemen and joining the Dungeon of Doom for a little while and the crowd doesn't know what to make of it when Arn grabs his stable mate and tosses him off of Sullivan. Crowd thinks he's with Sullivan and Hart... then he punts Sullivan in the ribs and the crowd POPS. "This place is gone crazeh! Somebody git mah medicine." Mine too, Dream. Mine too.