January is usually a busy time for pro wrestling, highlighted by New Japan’s Wrestle Kingdom, NXT TakeOver: Phoenix and the Royal Rumble. NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool was added to the docket too, and those four shows drove the choices behind this month’s WWE Network Hidden Gems.
Week 1 focused on Japanese wrestlers (Inoki, Choshu, Muto, Otani, Ibushi, Nakamura) for Wrestle Kingdom. Week 2 focused on British wrestlers (Robinson, Thornton, The British Bulldogs, Dunne, Andrews) for TakeOver: BlackPool. Week 3 focused on early matches from talent on TakeOver: Phoenix (Ciampa, Hanson of War Raiders). Week 4 focused on Battle Royal’s for the Royal Rumble. Finally, Week 5 took a little detour, offering WWF Superstars dark matches from 1992 to highlight the WWE Network’s upload of a bunch of Superstars episodes from 1992. Lots of variety, lots of fun!
No star ratings for the Battle Royals, by the way – they stink.
An International Showdown – WWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight Title: Antonio Inoki [c] vs. “Pretty Boy” Larry Sharpe (Showdown at Shea 8/9/80)
Antonio Inoki wrestled infrequently for the WWF throughout the late-70s and mid-80s due to a partnership between his New Japan Pro Wrestling and Vince McMahon’s WWF, which led to a pretty wild arrangement that saw Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant travel to Japan often throughout the 80s, as well as a host of championships and tournaments created to give the guys involved something to do. During all this Inoki was awarded the WWF World Martial Arts Championship, which he defends here.
This is a match where Antonio Inoki works the mat with a guy named Pretty Boy Larry Shape in a very serious wrestling match. It is a match with guys laying on the mat and working holds, but it is done among an atmosphere that includes freshly mowed green grass as a backdrop and a purple ring mat as their canvas. Also, nearly-40 Inoki firing up like some young fresh-faced babyface is an incredible sight. As is Vince McMahon introducing both competitors using a mic that has a big time echo. Sharpe misses the clumsiest splash from the top before an enzuigiri puts him down. A neat curiosity, but not much of a match. Release the entire Showdown at Shea shows, you cowards. **
Flying High with The King – Riki Choshu & Mr. Saito vs. Jerry Lawler & Greg Gagne (AWA 5/14/88)
Masa Saito is a legend in American wrestling for his success in the WWF and AWA as well as the infamous incident where he and Ken Patera caused some trouble at a McDonald’s. He’s here with a young Riki Choshu who had already made some waves in Japan with one of the first big heel turns, attacking his pal Tatsumi Fujinami. In the early 80s Saito won the WWF World Tag Team Title with Mr. Fuji, teamed with Jesse Ventura in the AWA, went to jail in 1985, and returned to AWA in 1986, where he played heel and occasionally brought young fellas from Japan with him like Choshu here. Just a year prior to this Saito had his infamous two-hour Island Death Match with Antonio Inoki too. And a year after this he retired.
This match is very … sigh … American-style. And that style isn’t always bad, but it was here. Choshu and Saito are generic burly heels who work over the good guys, and it’s all interspersed with a whole lot of armbars. Choshu and Saito aren’t working overt heel, they’re just stoic mean men who keep Lawler from tagging out for a while. After a lukewarm Greg Gagne tag, the “Oriental Assassins” use a chair on him and are DQ’d. Choshu vs. Lawler is a wild thing on paper, but wasn’t taken advantage of here. *3/4
Muta in the Mist – NWA World TV Title: Great Muta w/ Gary Hart vs. Sting (WCW Power Hour 9/1/89)
“We’ve been waiting for it the entire Power Hour, and now it’s time! The wrestlers are ready, the announcers are ready, the fans are ready, and WE are ready – it’s time for this week’s Power Hour main event … let’s go to the arena!” God bless cheesy late-80s/early-90s wrestling announcing.
The thing about the Muta/Sting feud is that the matches aren’t all that great but they’re really colorful and fast-paced and thus very fun to watch. Keiji Muto had come to WCW as a part of his excursion from New Japan, introduced with a new face-painted gimmick by manager Gary Hart as the son of Great Kabuki, who Hart managed in World Class Championship Wrestling. Muta actually originally went to World Class on his excursion, but quickly jumped to WCW, probably when everybody realized he was pretty good. He feuded with Sting over the TV Title throughout the summer, which led to a match at the Great American Bash that ended in a double pin, vacating the title. Muta would go on to win the vacant title from Sting a couple days after this match before losing it at the start of 1990 to Arn Anderson and returning to New Japan.
This isn’t some in-ring classic but it’s a pretty wild match with a lot going on: Jim Ross and Jim Cornette are on commentary, Terry Funk shows up early to back up Muta, Gary Hart is being an ass of a manager, and freakin’ Great Muta is just doing his thing. The handspring elbow in the corner was the most brilliant signature spot too – it’s so impressive and Muta makes it look like the most graceful beautiful thing in the world. Sting is a game seller, at one point taking a bump into the ring post with his abdomen at full speed.
Muta drops a moonsault but Sting gets the knees up and pounds his chest like a gorilla, then hits the Stinger Splash… and Gary Hart knocks Sting down and gets DQ’d. Good stuff with a raucous crowd, Muta in WCW was a treat and Workrate Sting is fun. ***1/4
The Iceman Cometh – WCW Cruiserweight Title: Shinjiro Otani [c] w/ Sonny Onoo vs. Dean Malenko (WCW Worldwide 5/18/96)
WCW had just re-introduced the Cruiserweight Title a couple months prior to this, and Japanese junior heavyweight legend Shinjiro Otani became the first champion when he beat Wild Pegasus (not sure who that is) on a New Japan show in a decision match during the Power Struggle tour. In what I find just amazing, New Japan had Jushin Thunder Liger successfully defend the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title against Otani just a few days before he won the WCW version. A couple months after that they decided to put the strap on a WCW guy… on Worldwide. It’s WCW so they either had no plan for all this or suddenly realized they needed to shine up Malenko – either way, here we are – it’s The Iceman against, as Tony Schiavone says, Shinzo Mitani. He corrects himself when Dusty asks him to repeat it… as Shinjo Atani. Almost.
Anyways, this is a very cool thing on paper and they do a lot of very cool wrestling but it is also like a 5-minute match. Of course, the counterpoint is that it is Shinjiro freaking Otani working at MGM Studios. These guys manage like 3 good near falls with no time to work with, and the Otani springboard spin kick is GOOD. Malenko eventually catches a missile dropkick and wins the title with the Texas Cloverleaf, birthing the era of Rey, Eddie, Ultimo, Syxx, Juvi, and all their pals. ***1/2
The Fight for Glory – Kota Ibushi vs. Bobby Roode (NXT Live Event 10/30/16)
Kota Ibushi stopped by WWE for a brief period in the summer and fall of 2016 when he wasn’t fully contracted to New Japan and was flirting with American superstardom. It resulted in an impressive Cruiserweight Classic run that included a match that might’ve gotten Cedric Alexander his job, as well as a weird little run in NXT where he was supposed to team with Hideo Itami in the Dusty Rhodes Classic but Itami got injured so he ended up teaming with TJ Perkins and lost to SAnitY in the second round.
This match is Ibushi doing his cool chain wrestling and kicking and leapfrogging against a very one-note Bobby Roode, though I’ll take one-note Bobby Roode over the zero-note Roode that exists on the main roster today. Plus, Ibushi gets a superstar reaction, HOLY SHIT chants, and does the GLORIOUS pose. The crowd is on fire too as this is just about the end of prime NXT, so they’re popping hard for every move, even Roode’s offensive stretch. A snake eyes on the guardrail? POP! A forearm smash to the back of the head off the second rope? POP! They also get a Fight Forever chant, which just seems a bit much.
After taking some heat Ibushi makes a comeback, then hits the Triangle Moonsault after teasing it earlier, and then they pull off some impressive near falls including one off an Ibushi Last Ride. A missed Phoenix Splash leads to the Glorious DDT for the 3. It’s very sanitized but this is still 15+ minutes of Ibushi working a singles match at an NXT house show. ***1/2
Three’s a Crowd – Triple Threat Match – NXT Title: Shinsuke Nakamura [c] vs. Samoa Joe vs. Eric Young (NXT Live Event 10/30/16)
This was the main event of the Ibushi/Roode show, and more than anything this is a match that tracks the transition of NXT from fun developmental company that pandered to hardcore fans to a brand that stopped telling stories and relied too much on aging talents who might not have had it anymore. It’s gotten its’ mojo back but it got a little dark for a while, even if Shinsuke Nakamura of all people was popping crowds of 500 people with kneedrops.
The crowd is excited to see two of these three guys but it’s very much A Match, something in which moves are hit in succession in a vague attempt to win on one guy, and then another guy gets involved and does the same thing, and so on and so forth until Young goes flying off a flying knee from Nak and loses to the Kinshasa. It’s not easy to do a Triple Threat main event that pops a crowd and they did do that here, but there are also a lot better ways of going about this sort of thing. **
Colliding With The Crippler – Ray “The Crippler” Stevens vs. Billy Robinson (AWA 9/13/81)
This match is from an AWA house show and considering only a brief clip existed online beforehand it was definitely Hidden, though I am not positive it was a Gem. It’s from early 80s AWA which was an AWA that still had hope, and the show this took place on was pretty stacked, highlighted by Tito Santana beating the future Brutus Beefcake, Hogan/Gagne/Brunzell vs. Ventura/Adonis/Blackwell, and AWA Champ Nick Bockwinkel vs. Sheik Adnan Al-Kaissie. Plus Mean Gene’s on commentary!
Stevens and Robinson were both kind of on the back-end of their careers, though they were still a couple of old pros. Crippler stalls and stalls and the crowd loves counting along for a countout, at one point popping as they reached 10 even though the referee hadn’t “officially” been counting. Billy as a fired up babyface is much better than the plodding heel featured a few times during the 12 Days of Hidden Gems collection. He kind of clumsily hurts himself doing a step-over toehold and falls into the ropes which leads to Stevens getting some offense. They throw some strikes and hype the crowd up, then Robinson wins it with a backslide. Then he beats up Stevens more. They didn’t do much but I dug it and so did the crowd. ***
Britain Versus Brisco – NWA World Junior Heavyweight Title: Les Thornton [c] vs. Jerry Brisco (CWF 9/13/81)
Here’s another match that was definitely Hidden, though it’s a suspect Gem: it’s joined in progress, there’s no commentary, the video quality is crap, the sound keeps going in and out, and the crude home video camera work and editing of the CWF doesn’t help any of it.
Still though – HOLY SHIT. Cool footage. The zoom-in on a very serious Jerry Brisco ready to lockup is SO cool and gives a weird human element to the match that gets lost in a lot of TV wrestling. There’s a lot of headlocks and grappling and it’s all close-up and you can see poor Les Thornton just writhing in pain as Brisco cranks a hold. The finish is a strange one, as Thornton pins Brisco with a strike out of the corner, but another referee protests and Brisco simply rolls Thornton up for the win and title. OK!
North of the Border – Davey Boy Smith, Bruce Hart, Keith Hart & Robbie Stewart vs. Dynamite Kid, Great Gama, Duke Myers & Kerry Brown w/ JR Foley (Stampede 10/9/81)
This match is an hour-long 8-man tag, though this clip is JIP about a half hour in and cuts to the 50-minute mark about 3 minutes in. Ed Whalen’s commentary on this fact is phenomenal: “And now, we switch to the 50-minute mark of this fight.. chuckles oooh I wish you could’ve seen this whole thing, what a fight!”
The crowd heat is relatively sustained and there’s some cool stuff here and there with a talented group of guys: you know Dynamite and Davey, but witness Robbie Stewart do a very efficient elbow drop where he quickly climbs to the top and drops the elbow without ever turning around. The baddies build such heat on Robbie that the crowd bursts out in a “WE WANT A REF” chant before Stewart sneaks under Great Gama’s legs and tags Keith, which leads to a 4-on-4 fight that seems to end when Keith gets Gama in a sleeper hold. 30 seconds are announced as remaining, but manager (and real jerk) JR Foley rings the bell and Whalen is OUTRAGED.
The real money with this Hidden Gem is the post-match, as Whalen interviews JR Foley and all his boys in an empty arena. He protests when Foley says none of his boys cheat: “Right, right… you just told a lie.” Freakin’ Whalen offering a better rebuttal than most U.S. media today. Dynamite Kid then begins reading off names of his rivals: “Keith Hart, Robbie Stewart, eh… who’s the other one? Oh oh, Davey Boy Smith, sorry about that Mr. Smith.” Then Gama gets interviewed and Dynamite just starts doing push-ups in the background, followed by a handspring front flip and kip-up. It is INCREDIBLE.
For Pete’s Sake – WWE U.K. Title: Pete Dunne [c] vs. Mark Andrews (NXT Live Event 6/8/17)
These fellas had something going for a good while and this match, less than a month out from Dunne winning the UK Title in a classic with Tyler Bate, is another example of that. Andrews’ impressive flying meshes perfectly with Dunne, who will take him to down and stretch his limbs to their breaking point but also act as an incredible base for the flips. Dunne catching a backflip only to transition into taking a tornado DDT is flawless. This also has the benefit of a similar vibe to the Brisco/Thornton match, as the live event camera work creates an environment for some nifty close-ups on the pain. Their TV matches might be slightly better, but this match rocks. ***1/2
Over the Top – $100,000 20-Man Battle Royal (AWA 7/15/84)
This is a Battle Royal with an absolute MAMMOTH roster of wrestling talent that is also pretty historically significant, as it not only took place during the peak of the WWF’s efforts to rise to national prominence but also marked longtime AWA bad guy Jerry Blackwell’s big face turn. He and Ken Patera lost the AWA World Tag Team Title earlier in the year before Patera left for the WWF, and Blackwell’s influence with perennial AWA heel manager Sheik Adnan Al-Kaissie waned as Abdullah the Butcher and Bruiser Brody (known in AWA as King Kong Brody) began working with Kaissie.
All that setup led to this big match, with so many names… I mean this thing is crazy: the clip starts with the small AWA ring filled to the brink with recognizable faces like Brody and Abby and Dusty and Bockwinkel and Larry Hennig and Baron Von Raschke and then commentary will randomly mention that Curt Hennig and Blackjack Lanza are there too.
This is the full line-up of this freak show: Dusty Rhodes, Nick Bockwinkel, Larry Hennig, Curt Hennig, King Kong Brody, Abdullah the Butcher, Jerry Blackwell, Stan Lane, Steve Keirn, Blackjack Lanza, Dick the Bruiser, Larry Zbyszko, Baron Von Raschke, Scott Irwin, Steve Regal, Wilbur Snyder, Roger Kirby, and three other guys I couldn’t catch.
It’s very much a Battle Royal, and there’s not much to say about it, but following along with the star power is neat. The Battle Royal is only half of this 20-minute clip anyways, as the other half is a big angle.
Blackwell eliminates Abdullah, then ends out of the ring but not over the top while Brody remains in the ring, and they go to a commercial saying the match will conclude without explaining what’s happening. Upon the return to action, Blackwell re-enters the ring as Brody and Kaissie celebrate and ducks a Brody charge, which sends Brody over the top and wins Blackwell $100,000. Brody and Abby (a hell of a team if I ever saw one) beat Blackwell bloody to big crowd heat, and any efforts at stopping it are prevented by the bad guys. Just when all hope seems to be lost, Dusty, The Fabulous Ones, and Curt Hennig break through and make the save. Blackwell struggles up, his face covered in blood, and manages to stand on his own two feet to a big ovation.
Larry Nelson, outraged: “If King Kong Brody wrestles again in AWA ever again, it would be a great surprise!”
There is a whole lot of standing around here, both in the Battle Royal and in the post-match (Larry Nelson’s stall job during it all is astounding), but overall the clip is STACKED and worth seeing.
Before the Raid – Todd Hanson vs. Brian Black (WWE RAW Dark Match 5/2/05)
In 2005 the future War Raider Hanson, slightly smaller and with far less beard, was a Killer Kowalski trainee getting a dark match tryout against the future Palmer Cannon, who was actually on TV just a few months after this as an Authority Figure who’s legacy is The Boogeyman, a short-lived midgets (juniors!) division, and The Dicks. He was also going to feud with The Miz until he left WWE because Benoit and JBL were actual dicks.
I will always love a WWF dark match complete with Lilian Garcia hyping the crowd up and a timer on the screen, but this isn’t much at all: after some awkward stomping by Black, Hanson does a comeback that ends with an impressive spin kick that kind of gets over. After this Hanson moved around the independents until finding success in Ring of Honor as a part of War Machine almost a decade later, which led to his eventual employment with the company he tried out for so many years ago.
Up NeXT – WWE Velocity (12/17/05)
I can’t say binge watching Velocity would be the best use of anyone’s time, but I am so for the occasional episode popping up. This show was a blast… a bunch of ** squashes with all your favs.
Josh Matthews and Steve Romero are on commentary, Chris Benoit is in the intro, and we are on the Road to Armageddon.
1. Scotty 2 Hotty vs. William Regal w/ Paul Burchill: Seeing Regal doing his thing on the C-shows while still not yet firmly established as a WWE lifer is awesome. This is a bunch of gorgeous chain wrestling with Scotty being super over and Regal selling the hell out of everything. Scotty sets up the Worm, Not-Yet-a-Pirate Paul Burchill charges at Scotty, Scotty ducks and Burchill goes flying, but Regal hits the knee trembler to win. **
2. WWE Tag Team Title: MNM [c] w/ Melina vs. Batista & Rey Mysterio (finish only; SmackDown 12/16/05): They only show the last 5 minutes or so here but it’s a hell of a match – Rey might still be doing the awkward Eddie tribute, but he is also selling like the classic babyface he is and the finish complete with Batista hot tag is SO good. Melina and Mercury take a 619 at the same time which leads to a Batista Bomb and title victory. Seems like another MNM Classic.
3. Jamie Noble vs. Tommaso Whitney (Ciampa)Jamie BY GOD Noble, the Redneck Messiah, is back from competing in “Japan Pro Wrestling,” according to Josh Matthews. He HAD just recently came back after a brief run in Japan and ROH that kind of re-cemented him as a top-tier talent. Honestly, more should be examined about how Jamie Noble was one of the first guys to use a great indy run to get back to WWE. Anyways, this is a pure squash of the future NXT Champion but it is beautiful – chop, backdrop, gutbuster, Dragon sleeper. Nice. **
4. Paul London & Brian Kendrick vs. Scotty Charisma & Arch Kincaid: What a wonderful pair of wrestling names doing the honors here. London and Kendrick were just getting heated up as a team here and would go on to win the WWE Tag Team Titles from MNM a few months later. This is a heck of a little squash – Londrick were just beating these dudes asses. Kendrick throws a simple headbutt and it is awesome. I also really liked Romero’s review of Scotty Charisma: “Stars down his pants, name down the side – this is great!” Kincaid gets a few moves in before London impressively lands on his feet off a back body drop and tags out to setup the finish. **
5. Doug Basham vs. Todd Hanson: Babyfaced cute and chubby Hanson is a SIGHT. And he’s against THE BASHMAN. Who is wearing a sequined head towel and baggy sequined pants. This was supposed to be his life after a disappointing run with Damaja / Danny Basham as The Basham Brothers tag team, but it didn’t pan out. Regardless, Doug might not have worked in WWE but he can work in general – this is a bunch of glorious nasty arm work that ends when Hanson taps to a cross armbreaker. **
6. Funaki vs. Orlando Jordan w/ Jillian Hall: Eh. I wanted to go all two-stars but my love for Funaki cannot overcome how average Orlando Jordan was. This is a real basic squash with the occasional cool thing or two from Funaki. Jillian’s got the mole on, which I guess is worth mentioning. *1/2
The Road to NXT Gold – Tommaso Ciampa (debut) vs. Jamin Olivencia (OVW 3/10/07)
Dean Hill immediately sets the tone for this quick clip: “Like I told you earlier, it is Tommaso – not tomato.” Apparently this is Tommaso’s OVW debut, and he’s rocking the kind of white ring jacket you rock when you want to make an impression. He does an impressive deadlift catch and suplex, and they are also impressively able to work a chinlock into a 3-minute match. Jamin misses an elbow drop and Ciampa reverse DDT’s him for the win. *
Over The Top Tag Team Turmoil – 10-Team Tag Team Battle Royal (AWA 10/21/84)
AWA’s take on the Tag Team Battle Royal makes for a cool visual as the footage begins with a mass of talent surrounding the ring, being introduced, and entering team by team.
The lineup here is this: The Road Warriors, Curt Hennig & Larry Hennig, The Fabulous Ones, Nick Bockwinkel & Mr. Saito, Jerry Blackwell & Boom Boom Bundy, Billy Robinson & Larry Zbyszko, Baron Von Raschke & The Crusher, Jumpin’ Jim Brunzell & Tony Atlas, Steve Regal & Gorgeous Jimmy Garvin and Steve Olsonoski & Brad Rheingans. Hell of a roster.
This took place on an AWA show in St. Paul, MN that featured other matches involving the guys in this Battle Royal: Blackwell vs. Brody in a Lights Out Match, The Road Warriors defending the AWA Tag Team Titles against The Fabulous Ones, Curt Hennig vs. Nick Bockwinkel, and more. Poor Tom Zenk is the only guy on the card left out of this match – not even the teacher would team up with him.
Again, there’s only so much to say about the inner workings of a Battle Royal. This one’s got some character though. First of all – Bundy and Blackwell are a team of MEAT. And them as a top babyface act is wild. The Road Warriors are over too – the crowd FLIPS when The Crusher appears to eliminate them, and a staredown with big Blackwell previews some interesting possibilities. An awesome moment sees Blackwell setup a top rope splash on Garvin, who rolls away and just escapes the entire match by leaping over the top rope.
The match comes down to The Hennig Family, Bockwinkel & Saito, and Bundy & Blackwell. Blackwell ends up on the floor but not over the top before Saito gets Curt out. Bundy then gets double teamed, and Blackwell’s “wait what? huh? oh shit!” reaction when he realizes he wasn’t eliminated and can save Bundy is worth watching this entire clip. Bundy tosses Bock out and the big boys get the win.
The last half of this Hidden Gem is awesome too, with backstage interviews by the WWF-bound Ken Resnick (still sporting a mustache), and Resnick waiting around for his cues is great content. Seeing guys like fired up babyface Jerry Blackwell, smug Nick Bockwinkel, and English-speaking Mr. Saito in the flesh gives some character to all these drab AWA matches the WWE Network keeps putting up. Also, Blackwell and Bundy in matching tight tan polo shirts is a sight to see. The Hennig Family and Road Warriors also get some screen time, and call me intrigued about the Blackwell/Bundy vs. Road Warriors match they’re building to.
New Year’s Bunkhouse Brawl – Bunkhouse Brawl Battle Royal (UWF 1/1/87)
Bill Watts’ Mid-South Wrestling had become the UWF less than a year prior to this, but I could not tell you where this match is from or why it happened. There’s no record of it existing, with the exception of it being right here on the WWE Network. It’s a weird, wild thing – everybody’s just punching away and all your favs are there wearing t-shirts and jeans. The commentary says nothing except for calling out eliminations, which is at least helpful. That silent commentary means the ring is SO loud. The camera work makes things all candid too, like you just walked in on a big brawl at a family reunion. There’s a bald guy early on who you can visibly see discussing a spot with some guy – like you don’t hear it, you visibly see him nodding and being like “alright brother, I’m ready.”
I count 23 guys here, a line-up of absolute studs: One Man Gang, Jim Duggan, Rick Steiner, Sting, Michael PS Hayes, Terry Gordy, Buddy Roberts, Terry Taylor, Ted DiBiase, Jim Duggan, Steve Williams, Ken Massey, Jack Victory, The Angel of Death, Iceman King Parsons, Eddie Gilbert, Chavo Guerrero, Jeff Raitz, Bobby Perez, Eli the Eliminator, Bad Leroy Brown, Wild Bill Irwin, and Gary Young.
The highlight might be Dr. Death and Terry Gordy punching away at each other. Otherwise, yeah – lots of punching. Ted DiBiase and Michael Hayes end up the final 2, and DiBiase beats Hayes with his own cowboy boot until he bleeds and the ref calls for the bell. There’s some references online to a First Blood Bunkhouse Battle Royal, so maybe this is it. DiBiase is a tremendous babyface but this isn’t much, though I do love Joel Watts going directly into a pitch for the next show when the bell is called.
Round Em Up – 12-Man Texas Roundup Match (USWA 5/12/91)
This match took place at the Dallas Sportatorium on a night of action more Memphis than World Class, highlighted by Jeff Jarrett & Robert Fuller vs. Eric Embry & Tom Prichard, as well as a 12-Man Texas Roundup Match, which is a Royal Rumble with 1-minute intervals.
The line-up is this: Bill Dundee, Dog of War, El Grande Coloso, Gary Young, The Boogeyman, “Nightmare” Danny Davis, Tom Prichard, Pvt. Terry Daniels, Flamboyant Eric Embry, Jeff Jarrett, El Grande Pistolero, and Robert Fuller. “Gorgeous” Gary Young is in TWO Battle Royal’s on this upload!
There’s not a whole lot to this Texas Roundup Match, like the other Battle Royals released alongside it. Bill Dundee starts with Dog of War and ends up lasting to the and and winning. Babyface Jarrett is alright and Embry just waltzing in and tossing the former Private Terry Daniels cracked me up. Interesting…ish.
The Grand Royale – Grand Royale (FCW 1/16/11)
This is the second ever GRAND ROYALE, a Reverse Battle Royal that becomes a traditional Battle Royal. It’s from the precursor to NXT, Florida Championship Wrestling, and being that it’s in 2011 it features a lot of guys who very recently have done something in this biz-ness. There are a TON of guys here, some of which are Seth Rollins, Roman Leakee (Reigns), Jinder Mahal, Bo Rotundo, Xavier Woods, Brad Maddox, Titus O’Neil, Hunico, Percy Watson, Damien Sandow, Richie Steamboat, Lucky Cannon, Peter Orlov, Marcus Owens, Calvin Raines and Kenny Li. Bet you won’t guess who wins.
A buzzer rings and a ton of dudes fight to get inside the ring, as if you’re not in when the buzzer rings again you’re OUT. It’s a whole bunch of fumbling around that includes Calvin Raines eliminating Roman AND Seth en route to winning the match. As a result of this win he got a match later in the night with FCW Champ Mason Ryan, which he lost in 5 minutes.
A Hint of Machismo – Razor Ramon vs. El Matador (WWF Superstars Dark Match 6/29/92)
This was the fifth match on a classic mammoth WWF 90s taping in Glens Falls, New York, with footage captured for weeks of Superstars and Prime Time Wrestling. The night included SummerSlam 1992 hype, Ric Flair and Undertaker squashes, Ultimate Warrior vs. Papa Shango, a Warrior/Macho Man promo, The Legion of Doom, Shawn Michaels, and SO MUCH MORE!
The “right into my veins” trope might be over done, but seriously – the WWF dark match atmosphere can go RIGHT INTO THEM. This match took place a month before Ramon’s TV debut and he enters to generic music that seems like it could burst into Owen Hart’s theme at any moment. He’s wearing long purple tights with the Razor logo already prominently featured on all his attire. Razor always compared himself to Tito Santana (a popular midcard jobber to the stars, essentially), so it’s interesting to see them work each other with Razor on his way up and Tito on his way down.
The folks still like Tito, though not as much. Razor motions to Tito that he’s going to break him in half and throw him out of the ring. So Tito starts the match with a waistlock. They have a solid match, with Razor working over Tito to light TI-TO chants and showing the boys in the back how competent he is. Tito gets in a late stage Tito comeback complete with the flying forearm, but Razor gets his foot on the ropes and eventually rolls through on a crossbody for 3. **
Straight To The Moon – Relámpago (Konnan) vs. The Mercenary (WWF Superstars Dark Match 7/20/92)
A month after Razor and Tito went at it, Konnan was having himself another tryout with the WWF on another big TV taping from the Centrum in Worcester, Massachussetts. This one was highlighted by a wild tag match pitting Randy Savage & Bret Hart against Ric Flair & Shawn Michaels, as well as Razor Ramon’s TV debut. Konnan had flirted with the WWF since early 1991, and was now coming in with the infamously bulky and silly Max Moon gear but under the name “Relámpago,” meaning Flash of Lightning. He’d show up on TV a couple months later and disappear pretty quickly after that, continuing his fame in Mexico and eventually going to WCW.
His opponent The Mercenary wears a black singlet with a camo arrow pointing to his crotch, which is also covered in camo. YUP. Konnan comes out to complete darkness, making me think something was maybe supposed to light up. The Max Moon get-up is a massive concoction of a bulky helmet, shoulder pads and jacket, and as he enters the ring he already looks over this shit.
The match is crap, though I could see some mystique behind Konnan with 1992 standards. Konnan does a bunch of armdrags to catcalls of boring and nothing is performed particularly well. Mercenary powders out off an armdrag and goes CRASHING into the guardrail and a few poor fans’ knees. The crowd kind of just gives up on the match before Konnan puts it out of its misery with a shit lariat off the top. So many armdrags. Bad ones. DUD
