Lots of WCW TV matches

[Loss]

From the 10/28/96 Nitro ...

 

Steven Regal v Juventud Guerrera

 

This was about as good as an overbooked three minute match could be. You have Sean Waltman popping up in the middle of the match to talk about how great he is, you have NWO picketers in the crowd and in the ring, you basically one steady chain wrestling sequence that lasts about 2:30. It's nice the way they flow from one move to the other, but it doesn't really matter, does it? Meltzer always seems to try to paint the picture that the undercard played a part in WCW's success in the late 90s, but it didn't, and if this match doesn't explain the company's downfall in bite-size format, I don't know what does.

 

Jeff Jarrett v Ricky Morton

 

No heat, sadly, because this was a fine match. It goes a couple of minutes longer than the previous one. Morton is as fundamentally sound as he ever was, but his charisma is just not there anymore. Jarrett has it in spades here, but he is still being positioned as a guy who acts like a heel and wrestles like a heel but sides with babyfaces in feuds, and I think it confused the audience until they finally gave up hope on getting anyone to cheer him. Jarrett would top himself the next week on Nitro against Benoit, in a match I'll get to tomorrow, but this is a nice effort, with Morton determined unrelenting on Jarrett's arm, despite every counter Jarrett can think of to get out of it. Jarrett finally starts working toward building to the figure four. His first attempt comes without softening Morton up, and it almost costs him the match, as Morton gets a quick inside cradle for a 2 and 7/8 count. Like the match above, about as good as it can be given time constraints and total apathy from the audience, who is more preoccupied with playing with the new cool toy.

 

Rey Misterio Jr v Jimmy Graffiti

 

This is a nice collection of Rey's trademark spots, but that's about all it is. Graffiti can keep up if nothing else, he's a good catcher for Rey's daredevil moves, and he even busts out a couple of his own, most notably his somersault off the apron. There's too much obvious cooperation at times, which drags the match down, and again, there's not really any heat. Nothing special.

 

Chris Benoit v Eddy Guerrero

 

Man, this Nitro was the master of delivering matches that look excellent on paper and chopping them to shreds, overbooking them, or assigning weird roles for the wrestlers when they actually do work something out decent. In this case, you have wrestlers aplenty at ringside, a three-man announce crew more focused on Sting's new face paint, and two wrestlers who are selling injuries from the night before -- for Benoit, it's his shoulder; for Eddy, it's his ribs. That selling is admittedly nice and is probably the main high point of this match. They do still manage to portray intensity and desire, but it's probably the worst I've ever seen from Benoit/Guerrero, in a time period where both were still in their primes ironically enough. I don't blame them, I blame the overbooking, but the point still stands.

 

From the 11/02/96 WCW Saturday Night ...

 

Chris Benoit v Chris Jericho

 

So far, this is the best match of the bunch. Jericho takes it to Benoit like he means it for the majority of this match, and Benoit goes out of his way to put over Jericho's offense and make him look sharp. Benoit is still selling his shoulder injury from Havoc, and Jericho zooms in on it, applying a Fujiwara armbar and even shoulderblocking his shoulder, in a cool, inventive spot. Every time Benoit tries to fight back, Jericho gets the best of the exchange. He also lands a very nice dropkick. He almost gets a win off of a backslide, which is an incredibly smart move in terms of strategy, but no dice. Nick Patrick is refereeing here, and this was smack dab in the middle of his evil ref angle, so he overlooks Woman interfering and gouging Jericho's eyes, giving Benoit the opening to plant Jericho with the powerbomb and hook the tights for the win. It's almost like Benoit wanted to lose this match, because he gave Jericho every possible out that he could. Fun match that's a little too short, but they make tremendous use of the time they have.

 

Rey Misterio Jr v Dean Malenko

 

Dean is the one calling spots here, and it shows. Instead of facing Rey The Daredevil, he appears to be pushing to face Rey The Mat Wrestler, and he is on offense most of the time. To his credit, he pulls out some cool moves while doing so, such as the gutbuster, a backbreaker, a powerbomb and even the stretch plum, but Rey has to fight for whatever he gets. Toward the end of the match, Rey does get a chance to get up off of his feet and starts stringing together some nice highspots to create false finishes, even if the match has no heat whatsoever. The tide turns when he reverses Dean's electric chair into a rana, knocking Dean out so he could hit him with a nice tope. Tons of moves are here from both, but Dean made Rey wait too long to bust them all out, and despite this match being short just like all the others, it feels like it went an eternity.

[Loss]

From the 11/04/96 Nitro ...

 

Chris Benoit v Jeff Jarrett

 

There's an interesting storyline going on here, as Benoit is on the outs with the Horsemen for spending all of his time with Woman. Meanwhile, Jeff Jarrett wants to be a Horseman and take Ric Flair's place while he's injured, but the rest of the group will have none of it. So, this is like a battle between the warring red-headed stepchildren of Ric Flair and Arn Anderson. With the US title tournament just around the corner, they're both trying to carry Flair's torch while he's out, and they're both fighting over the title he last held until he was sidelined.

 

The match starts out with some really awesome mat work. Jarrett tries an armbar and blocks every counter Benoit attempts, before Benoit finally reverses it, and Jarrett breaks. So, then we see Benoit go for a headlock, which Jarrett quickly counters into a headscissors, which sees Benoit try again, which sees Jarrett try again, which prompts a shoving match. That entire sequence is incredibly fast and spirited. Benoit challenges a test of strength and Jarrett accepts, and they each counter the other before they start kicking each other to break the momentum. Benoit wins that little war and sends Jarrett to the turnbuckle, but Jarrett moves out of the way and *steps on* Benoit to get back to the center of the ring and look him dead in the eye. No one does that to Benoit without suffering for it, as a full-fledged dogfight breaks out and they roll around on the mat exchanging some rather stiff-looking punches.

 

The dust settles after a commercial break and Jarrett is in control when Sting, who Jarrett had been openly criticizing for not standing up for WCW, comes out of the crowd and DDTs Jeff before walking out, prompting a DQ. The finish is a huge letdown, considering that they were building this match so nicely. To put it in perspective, they did all of that in about six minutes. With even 12 minutes of time allowed, at the rate this match was going, it probably would have hit **** and not looked back. As it stands, it's a promise instead of a fulfillment, and that's really unfortunate, because it deserved to be more. I'll be watching their Starrcade match soon to see if they worked it in the same style, because if they did, it's going to be great. Who knew Memphis and Stampede were a marriage made in heaven?

 

Jeff Jarrett is an enigma to me, because he's a very good worker, and I've even seen him be great at times, but for whatever reason, he's never found his opponent that he could work with on top in show-stealing matches on a regular basis. Benoit could have been that guy, and maybe he would have been in 2000 had he not jumped to the WWF.

 

Rey Misterio Jr v Ciclope

 

This is a really swank collection of some daredevil spots, but it's not much else. They provided a nice aura here, as Ultimo Dragon is at ringside watching. Dean Malenko is at the entrance looking on, and Psicosis is looking over his shoulder, giving an unspoken warning that they'll have their day at the upcoming PPV. Ciclope looks like he has the potential to be great here, but can't quite fulfill it. He does some really terrific highspots, and his working style is a nice contrast to Rey's working style, but he seems unsure of himself between moves. There's a really good stretch of him controlling the match, but Rey's comebacks are far more fun. If you're looking for tons of highspots, you won't be disappointed with this outing, and they do try to create a match, but it never all quite comes together like it should.

[Loss]

From the 11/09/96 WCW Saturday Night ...

 

Chris Benoit v Hector Guerrero

 

Hector sort of rules here, but not really. He's not doing anything particularly bad in this match, and I think a match where Hector was in 1983 form would have rocked the hizzouse, but in 1996, Chris Benoit was on a totally different level. I think he tried to wrestle Hector's match here, but it just didn't work out, because Hector does things like run the ropes in such slow fashion that Benoit had to slow down to keep things coherent. They'd top themselves on Nitro just two days later, but this wasn't their shining moment. Benoit gets the win with a beautiful powerbomb. I do love how Benoit pulled out so many finishers at that point -- unlike in current WWE, he had a series of signature spots and any one of them could spell the end of a match, unlike the current Benoit, where if he isn't using the crossface or occasionally the sharpshooter, there's no reason to think the match is over.

 

Dean Malenko v Juventud Guerrera

 

This is a case of Juventud showing that in 1996, there wasn't much he couldn't do, as Dean decides he wants to keep things grounded and Juvi responds by showing him two can play at that game. This match isn't anything special, but it's nice to see Juvi show a side of himself you don't normally see, regardless. The match is a little too "my turn, your turn", and a story never really develops. This may have been the first time they worked together (I'm sure they had other matches later), because it seems like there was a lack of cooperation, or at least they weren't approaching the match in the same way, because the chemistry was awkward and should have been better.

 

Steven Regal v Psicosis

 

Bring on the five-minute draws! Seriously, what kind of company books a draw to go FIVE MINUTES? What other company could, actually? They make the most of the time they're alotted though, starting out with some superb matwork. They fight over an armbar and Regal goes into some type of zone, but Psicosis joins him there because he doesn't want him to feel lonely. Psicosis kinda rocks on the mat, and he's a really good babyface, as is exemplified here. Regal is also his usual great heel self, being the first and only to cheat, thumbing Psi squarely in the eye. Never saw that side of him before. I love the subtleties of Regal's style -- the way he places his forearm when making a cover, the stepovers and twists and reversals all are so seamless and fluid. Regal's butterfly suplex gets a great nearfall, and Psicosis gets a *very* close nearfall off of La Magistral. Regal realizes he can probably neutralize Psicosis more if he can at least take away one thing he can do, so he tries to go to work on the knee not long after getting hit with a beautiful leg lariat. Psicosis sort of declines that request, and steps on Regal for fun in a criss-cross sequence. He gets the top rope legdrop just as the bell rings. Whew. All of that in five minutes. Stretch it out to 15 and these two could do anything.

[Loss]

From the 11/11/96 WCW Monday Nitro ...

 

Chris Benoit v Hector Guerrero

 

Now THIS is a good match. Hector is game for whatever Benoit decides to bring, and Benoit takes full advantage of the situation. Hector gets in too many highspots to mention and Benoit puts them all over with gusto. Benoit, still selling his shoulder injury from Havoc, sees Hector zone in on that shoulder, but Benoit breaks the momentum by hanging him out to dry on the ropes. I love that move! He targets Hector's abdomen by elevating him high in the air and dropping him flat, headbutting him in the gut, dropping him on his knee stomach first, kicking him in the gut off of an Irish whip and applying an abdominal stretch. He then stomps on Hector's hands, just because they're in his way. What a gentleman!

 

Hector makes a spirited comeback with a series of European uppercuts, but sadly, it doesn't get much heat because the audience is distracted by a drunken fight in the stands. They come around soon enough, though, and the two are smart enough to slow down the match a little until they have the crowd's full attention again. When he has them again, he decides to do a rolling cradle (the first I've seen in a US ring), which causes Woman to distract him. Hector goes after her, so Benoit schoolboys him behind and pins him with his feet on the ropes.

 

Benoit was so awesome at this time. He realized a few things about Hector in their first meeting and was able to string something together far superior the second time around, something that played up Hector's strengths. Instead of letting Hector stay in control too much, Benoit stayed on offense the majority of the match and built to a big Hector comeback and one hot nearfall, which sadly, the audience sort of neglected because of the aforementioned fight in the stands. It's also fascinating how Benoit was switching from face to heel from week to week at this time, depending on his opponent. Still, watching the difference in quality between the Saturday Night match and the Nitro match is mind-boggling, and this is just another terrific mid-90s match for Chris Benoit.

 

***

 

Juventud Guerrera v La Parka

 

This is La Parka's WCW debut! There's lots of fun, fast-paced work here, but I think they might have been better served to slow things down a little to allow the big moves to have an impact. They do a great comedy spot, with Juvi tripping La Parka while he's dancing, but they immediately go right back into the faster-faster-faster pace, acting like the guy in the truck in Boogie Nights, when had they paused for a second, they probably would have gotten a pop. What they did right, though, was allow La Parka to showcase all of his highspots, even if he didn't get to show off his natural charisma. Suicide dive! Plancha from top rope to the floor! Big powerbomb! Surfboard! Corkscrew moonsault! Juvi brings no shortage of great spots himself. My favorite was probably his top-rope Asai moonsault, since I'm not sure I've seen that before.

 

The biggest problem this match had was in the roles established. Who's the face and who's the heel? You'd think Juvi, since he's doing count-along rams into the turnbuckle. Then again, you'd think La Parka, since Juvi keeps putting him in a chinlock to rally the crowd for his comeback. There's also the issue of the guy who's been in the company about six weeks putting over the newcomer. Admittedly, they probably weren't given a clear idea of what the bookers wanted out of them, but Benoit usually wasn't either, and he just did his own thing.

[Loss]

From the 11/18/96 Nitro ...

 

Dean Malenko v Ultimo Dragon

 

These two typically worked very well together, and this match is no exception. Sonny Ono is a horrible manager, and Ultimo actually does a fine job establishing himself as the heel without his help, just because he's such a multi-layered badass. The story is basically that Ultimo is incredibly fast, and while Dean can keep up, he's getting terribly flustered. Him cutting off Ultimo's nonstop attack with a well-time clothesline gets the biggest pop of the match. We see most of Ultimo's best moves, and Dean mostly takes a backseat role to put him over. He's not really selling anything long term at all, but I think the goal here was to just present as much of Ultimo's offense as possible, so in that case, they succeeded. The DQ finish I could live without, but I guess it did sort of build to their match at Starrcade. Ultimo sort of acted as the stop-gap between Malenko being the top heel of the division and Eddy being the top heel of the division, and he made as much of that opportunity as he possibly could. This was Dean shifting to the light side so Ultimo could have the dark spotlight for himself. Not a great match, or even a good one, but a fun changing of the guard nonetheless.

 

Chris Benoit v Eddy Guerrero

 

This is yet another side of Benoit. It's amazing how he was wrestling such vastly different matches against everyone he faced at the time, sometimes even against the same guys! Eddy is very good here as well, but he's a major underdog. This is a Trash Talkin' Benoit, as he screams at Eddy and slaps him in the face while he has him down and even starts yelling at his own valet at ringside. Holy shit, he's channeling Randy Savage! He's also doing all sorts of really cool small things, like putting Eddy in a headlock ... while having his arm tied up ... while punching him in the face. He never lets go of that arm, no matter where the story takes him. He does a Northern Lights suplex while holding on to it and even puts his arm behind his back when he's pinning him, giving Eddy get more weight to pull up if he tries to bridge out. Not content to just destroy his arm, Benoit goes into a full upper body assault, elbowing his chest HARD, forearming his back HARD, performing an abdominal stretch and putting his arms straight behind his back while driving his knee into the center of Eddy's back. Systematically, he's destroying everything above Eddy's waistline, and Eddy's selling it like it matters. He teases a comeback, and Benoit gets mad, elevates him high, and drops him low. He then does a top-rope superplex, and at this point, Eddy knows if he doesn't fight back, he's going to die. He's really, really going to die.

 

They both come to their feet and Eddy takes him outside with a rana. He then gets Benoit in a belly-to-back suplex, but Chris seems to be luring him into a false sense of hope. The finish is a complicated sequence that only wrestlers with the timing of Benoit and Guerrero could pull off -- Eddy goes up high, misses the frog splash, rolls out of it, Benoit runs toward him, Eddy catches him in a huracanrana and Benoit reverses that into a sunset flip position for the clean pinfall. This is an amazing TV match, one of the better outings I've seen from these two. The 11/95 WCW Saturday Night match gets well-deserved praise, but this is much better, with Benoit on a mission and Eddy narrowly escaping death. Benoit is the one who shines brightest here, but he couldn't have had this match with anyone else.

 

***1/2, which means "near-perfect TV match" for those of you following along at home

[Loss]

From the 11/23/96 WCW Saturday Night ...

 

Steven Regal v Dean Malenko

 

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

[Loss]

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

[goodhelmet]

Hey Los, just curious, but what is the VQ on all of those matches?

[Loss]

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

[goodhelmet]

Steven Regal v Psicosis

 

You gave them some props for doing what they could in 5 minutes, but on paper, this looks like a clash in styles. Are there any other Regal-luchadore matches out there?

 

There's also the issue of the guy who's been in the company about six weeks putting over the newcomer. Admittedly, they probably weren't given a clear idea of what the bookers wanted out of them, but Benoit usually wasn't either, and he just did his own thing.

To be honest, the company probably didn't care. I think the attitude was "Most American fans have never seen this stuff ebfore so we'll give them something different." but that heels/faces/roles weren't a concern. They were clearly there to diversify the product and it hurt the company a little bit since some good-very good wrestlers in Mexico had little or no buildup and were used just for filler. Even I didn't care for El Dandy!

[Loss]

The problem with the use of luchadores was that they brought in too many of them. When it became clear that Rey, Juvi, Psicosis and La Parka stood out from the pack way more than everyone else, they probably should have released the others and built a division off of those four, Guerrero, Benoit, Jericho and Malenko.

 

And actually, La Parka is a heavyweight, not a lightweight, which is part of the problem. They started associating smaller guys with their ethnicity, which was stupid. Remember, Nagata was considered a cruiser in WCW as well.

 

Regal actually worked well with the luchadores from what I have been able to find, because as you know, lucha is not all highspots like we've been led to believe by WCW. Psicosis is very capable on the mat, and I have a Regal/Juvi match I'll get to eventually that was also pretty good considering the time limitations.

[goodhelmet]

they probably should have released the others and built a division off of those four, Guerrero, Benoit, Jericho and Malenko.

I don;t know if I would have stuck Benoit in the Cruiser division. If that would have happened, I don't think he would have ever lost the stigma of being a little guy.

 

And actually, La Parka is a heavyweight, not a lightweight, which is part of the problem. They started associating smaller guys with their ethnicity, which was stupid. Remember, Nagata was considered a cruiser in WCW as well.

I agree comletely but, I think Nagata has gained some considerable weight since 1998. Back then, I didn't think it was odd at all to see him go against Ultimo.

 

Psicosis is very capable on the mat, and I have a Regal/Juvi match I'll get to eventually that was also pretty good considering the time limitations.

I look forward to seeing it

[Loss]

they probably should have released the others and built a division off of those four, Guerrero, Benoit, Jericho and Malenko.

I don;t know if I would have stuck Benoit in the Cruiser division. If that would have happened, I don't think he would have ever lost the stigma of being a little guy.

Being small is only a bad thing because it's been presented to be. Benoit, Eddy, Malenko and Jericho all caught on to this by 1998, and all of them specifically said they no longer wanted to be in the cruiserweight division because they didn't think wrestlers should be labeled based on their size, and they thought it was hurting them. Jericho has even said he doesn't think there should be a cruiserweight division in WWE, that they should just have everyone face everyone, and that if you want a small guy to feud with a small guy, just have them feud, but don't remind everyone that they're tiny constantly. He has a point.

[goodhelmet]

OK, but cruiserweight Jericho, Cruiserweight Dean and Cruiser Eddie are all perfectly acceptable to me. The feuds that Benoit had (Meng, Sullivan, Raven,) were mostly with the Heavies anyway.

 

As for the point that WCW made it bad to be cruiser, I think they also gave a lot of small guys the opportunity to work when they owuld not have had that outlet before, save for ECW.

 

Jericho has even said he doesn't think there should be a cruiserweight division in WWE, that they should just have everyone face everyone, and that if you want a small guy to feud with a small guy, just have them feud, but don't remind everyone that they're tiny constantly. He has a point.

He has a point but, on the flipside, you have instances of Kevin Nash throwing Rey Jr. around. The small size can be exploited and you can have instances where Rey was upsetting Nash on TV or Juvi feuding with the Flock. Putting the small guys up against the giants would only reinforce the size difference anyway so you may as well emphasize how small the guy is but how he has so much heart blah blah blah. It may be a cheap way to generate heat but effective.

 

I also think the cruiser division gives many of the smaller guys an automatic storyline... chasing the title. Unless you want the Sports Entertainment BS, the title chase is the simplest, yet most effective, way of giving the cruisers a story without having to overshadow the bigger angles.

[Loss]

And then, Rey comes along and gets more over than a large portion of your heavyweights. What do you do then? Putting Misterio against Nash was bad booking, but putting him against Bret Hart and Ric Flair wouldn't have been. He could have been fairly credible against them. There may still be a limit to how far they can go because of their size, but there's no reason guys like Benoit, Jericho, Eddy, Malenko, Rey, Juvi and Psi couldn't have feuded with mid-sized heavyweights like Bret, Sting, Flair and Scott Hall.

[goodhelmet]

Um, Benoit did feud with the bigger guys.... DDP, Bret Hart, Booker T. I usually don;t associate Benoit with Eddie and the others because I don't think he has ever been pushed as a small guy like the others either.

 

And even then, if you out Rey against Flair, Bret or whoever, they are still the little guy, underdog, big heart cruiser. In that case, you play it up and have Rey win with his wits and speed. It's a pretty common theme actually.

[Loss]

Right. That's what I'm saying. It could have worked. They can stress that the opponent has the size advantage without making it seem like they're jobbers and that they're too afraid to wrestle the big dogs. Benoit feuded with bigger guys, but he was no bigger than Jericho, so I don't know why they stuck one with the smaller guys and one with the heavies.

[goodhelmet]

OK, I kept getting the vibe that you saw Benoit stuck in the cruiser division his entire WCW run. That wasn;t the case.

 

As for Jericho, even as cruiser champion, if you remember, he was bigger than the cruisers and he would always claim to be under the limit. Similar to what Disco Inferno tried to do. It was always understood that Jericho was tormenting the little guys... until Malenko feuded with him.