It has been too fucking awesome for far too long to not be included in my intro blurbs. The Sonny Corthinos/Michael Quartermaine angle on General Hospital has been the best thing on TV since October. It is heated with tons of great twists and turns that are logical, but bring catch you off guard. I really dug the most recent twist of Michael manipulating the custody hearing judge to be his grandmother's boyfriend and then promo that Sonny cut from the witness stand was straight cash money just print it from that ATM. It is a total mystery how vapid talk shows like The View do well compared to the incredible TV General Hospital has been putting out between Sonny/Michael, the return of Helena and pretty much anything Ava Jerome touches (so the Luke storyline has been a little much, but I am still holding out hope). One thing is for sure there is no fucking way WWE is written by soap opera writers or maybe they are bottom of the barrel soap opera writers because if WWE was written by GH's writers it would actually be compelling and have continuity.
 |
| HIRE HER GH! |
Let's go back to simpler times when WCW ran by 50 different individuals at once. :)
After revisiting 1995, I got the itch to keep pressing on to watch more great WCW with the idea being to crown what I think is the greatest WCW match in history. Culling a list from the Smarkschoice poll and my favorite website ProWrestlingOnly.com, I came up with pretty much a "Usual Suspects" list. I will definitely fill in the gaps, but I just feel like watching great wrestling and even if I seen it before, I have not seen it in like two years and have not really characterized the landscape. The goal is to plow through the last half of the decade (the weaker half for match quality) and then slowly work my way through the front half.
1996 WCW was the first year of midcarders carrying the match quality workload from the main eventers, which became one facet of WCW's reputation during the Monday Night Wars. There were some good main event matches in 1996 contrary to popular belief. I don't think anyone would be a contender for greatest WCW match of all time. I really liked Hollywood Hogan vs Roddy Piper from Starrcade 1996, which is probably the greatest Hollywood Hogan singles match of all time as fun popcorn match. The 1996 Wargames of WCW vs NWO and Flair vs Savage in the Cage at SuperBrawl were both very good heated matched. It was not likely the main event was completely bereft of great matches. I am actually intrigued at the prospect of The Giant vs Flair, Sting or Luger in the front half of the year as all sound like fun matches.
While those are all entertaining affairs, 1996 belonged to one phenom, Rey Misterio Jr. Misterio took WCW and the US by storm by firing off amazing match after amazing match through 1996 and pretty much single-handedly made the Crusierweight Championship a can't miss, must see match on every PPV. I have encountered a lot of discussion about the order of matches WCW chose to debut Rey. Traditionally, Rey would debut in a new promotion (WAR, ECW) against Tijuana rival, Psicosis. The Rey/Psicosis touring match in 1995 was probably the hottest international ticket of the year as it got over in Tokyo, Philadelphia and Mexico City without issue. As I explain below in their Bash At The Beach 1996 match, Psicosis was made for Rey Misterio and Rey Misterio was made for Psicosis. They bring out the very best in each other and they accentuate each other's positives. Psicosis always knew how to make Rey shine whether with HUGE bumps or clowning. But when it came time to kick ass, he is so much bigger than Rey that when he got nasty instantaneously Rey was garnering that sympathy. Rey for his part was one of the best sellers in the world at 21 years of age with great verbal selling and believe the hype when it comes to Rey's hope spots. So with all this, you expect me to come down hard on WCW for not following template and having Rey debut against someone else not so fast. WCW was a national promotion and I think showcasing Rey against an American talent and proving that Rey could kick ass in the American style was more critical. Psicosis was his safety blanket and they took that away from him. It was sink or swim. I don't think Malenko gobbled him up. I think it set up Rey's highspots really well and it allowed him to sell for the audience and rally the, Yes, the match needed a better shine to whet the audience's appetite so that they would better understand what to expect. In turn this sets Rey up even better for Bash At The Beach. Now he is a proven commodity so the crowd will be behind him and now they get to see him against Psicosis. They can pay that eager anticipation off with a kickass match. I think there are multiple ways to skin a cat. I can see where WCW is coming from on this one and I think either order would suit Rey fine. At the end of the day, Rey was going to get over no matter what because the cream always rises to the top and Rey is the cream of the crop, BABY!
Match Listing:
WCW Cruiserweight Champion Dean Malenko vs Rey Misterio Jr. - WCW GAB 1996 ****1/2
One of the best aerial vs ground matches of all time. Needs a better shine to get to the next level.
Chris Benoit vs Kevin Sullivan - WCW Great American Bash 1996 ***1/2
Really fun brawl. Sullivan was vicious. "There is a woman in the men's bathroom!" is classic. Benoit needed to kick more ass.
Chris Benoit w/Woman & Miss Elizabeth vs Dean Malenko – WCW Hog Wild 1996 ***1/2
Chris Benoit w/Woman & Miss Elizabeth vs Dean Malenko – WCW Hog Wild 1996 ***1/2
Impressive offense, but feels too much like "your turn, my turn"
Rey Misterio Jr. vs Psicosis – Bash At The Beach 1996 ****1/2
Breath-taking highspots, Psicosis bumps huge and vicious. Rey is the ultimate babyface. Better transitions would take this to the next level.
J-Crown Champion Ultimo Dragon vs Rey Mysterio Jr. - World War III 1996 ***1/2
Greatest offensive exhibition of all time? Feels too much like an exhibition to rate any higher.
WCW Cruiserweight Champion Dean Malenko vs Rey Misterio Jr.
Great American Bash 1996
This match simultaneously salvaged the fledging cruiserweight division and made it into a sensation over night. This match is the best exhibition of Malenko’s chain wrestling being entertaining and working well within the confines of the layout. Malenko knows he cannot let Rey create space between them or otherwise face the damage of Rey’s vaunted aerial attack. If he can ground Rey, he eliminates that threat. That is the crux of the match Rey trying to squirm away from Malenko and Malenko trying to wrangle Rey.
From the outset, Malenko is one who is able to strike first with a cool looking Greco-Roman knucklelock arm snapping-thingy. It looked sweet trust me. He works over that arm relentlessly and convincingly with a great variety of moves. It always feels like he is trying to gain a new advantage or add a different degree of pain to Rey’s arm to keep him off-balance. My favorite moment is a flying hammerlock into a kimura that just looks so fuckin sweet. The key in this control segment is that Rey still has hope spots. This was Rey’s debut and it was critical to have these hope spots especially when he did not get an opening shine or you run the risk of jobberizing him.
As the match progresses and Dean is still struggling to put Rey away, you come to see a recurring theme with Malenko he does show emotion. Dean is not more relatable wrestler or the best seller, but he is really good at selling frustration at the inability to put an opponent away. This combined with Rey’s resilience and sympathetic underdog selling creates a very powerful story for the audience that is rooting for the underdog in this debut match against the champion.
When Dean finally does lose control, Rey unleashes that arsenal of aerial maneuvers, which both wow the fans and does a good job displaying why Dean was working so hard to ground Rey. The finish is thrilling with Rey’s quick pinfall attempts and all his quick counters. However, he finally succumbs to a massive powerbomb by Dean, who puts his feet on the ropes for three. The finish is a satisfying climax to this cat and mouse game. Rey looks like a champ with hot finish and Dean is able to retain due to one big move.
Most of what I have read has been in favor of declaring this match a classic, but it feels that many feel the need to defend it against a vocal minority that believes Dean gobbled up Rey for too long. Now, if Dean just sat in an armbar for the entirety of his lengthy heat segment, I would agree. Dean was really active with a lot of gnarly submissions and high-impact blows into pinfalls. It truly felt like he was trying to win a match and I can appreciate that. I think where these critics have a point is that Dean should not have immediately entered into a heat segment. In their subsequent Nitro match in July, Rey has a really cool babyface shine to open it. In that match, it really sets up the idea of what Dean has to fear. If Dean can not ground him, Rey will have him going in circles and Dean really sells that frustration in that match well. In this match, you don’t really get the feeling that Dean has anything to worry about in the context of the match because Rey did not open with anything. The drama in the Great American Bash would have been greatly enhanced by allowing Rey to hit a couple big moves off the bat to demonstrate how he lethal he could be. Since I brought up the Nitro match, the big problem with that match is that Malenko’s heat segment really meanders and is not really as good as this one. The Great American Bash match is a better complete match.
In sum, I think if you tack the babyface shine segment from the Nitro match and splice it into the Great American Bash match you have a Match of the Year Candidate for 1996. As is, it is one of three best matches from 1996 in WCW (Mysterio/Psychosis, Benoit/Sullivan), but doesn’t rank that highly in the world. This heat segment definitively proves in my mind that Dean Malenko is not boring. Can he be boring? Yes and we will see that! But he definitely can be a fuckin fantastic offensive wrestler. I think Dean’s strong suit is as a heel. Malenko is one of the few American wrestlers to always be straddling the face/heel line. I think if the booking team just went full bore with Dean as a sadistic, ground-based heel he would have had more entertaining matches consistently. This match showed how effective he could be as a yin to Mysterio’s yang. Mysterio for his part continued his campaign to be best wrestler in North America. I agree that Mysterio should have worked the majority of the match from underneath. His selling endeared him to the fans, his hope spots were well-timed to keep the audience engaged, and the match was structured to give his aerial spots time to breathe and seem more important to the audience. In the Dragon match, he will not be so lucky.
In sum, I think if you tack the babyface shine segment from the Nitro match and splice it into the Great American Bash match you have a Match of the Year Candidate for 1996. As is, it is one of three best matches from 1996 in WCW (Mysterio/Psychosis, Benoit/Sullivan), but doesn’t rank that highly in the world. This heat segment definitively proves in my mind that Dean Malenko is not boring. Can he be boring? Yes and we will see that! But he definitely can be a fuckin fantastic offensive wrestler. I think Dean’s strong suit is as a heel. Malenko is one of the few American wrestlers to always be straddling the face/heel line. I think if the booking team just went full bore with Dean as a sadistic, ground-based heel he would have had more entertaining matches consistently. This match showed how effective he could be as a yin to Mysterio’s yang. Mysterio for his part continued his campaign to be best wrestler in North America. I agree that Mysterio should have worked the majority of the match from underneath. His selling endeared him to the fans, his hope spots were well-timed to keep the audience engaged, and the match was structured to give his aerial spots time to breathe and seem more important to the audience. In the Dragon match, he will not be so lucky.
One thing I want to debunk is that at least initially the commentary team (sans the Brain) did a very good job trying to get over the cruiserweights. You could feel how excited Dusty was to watch them and how much he enjoyed their work. As time progressed, of course like with all things in the mid-card, the WCW commentary team would just ignore it and talk about the Hogan-related item of the night.
Two years in a row (they make it three the following year with Page/Savage II), the Great American Bash delivers another a great brawl between two opponents that hate each other. Benoit picking up the slack for the departed Pillman challenges The Taskmaster in a falls count anywhere match. Obviously, the match is most famous for the fight in the Men's Bathroom and Dusty's hysterical call of the woman in the men's bathroom. It features some really good action from Sullivan. I loved his short right jab to Benoit's eye. He was just nasty this entire fight with eye gouges, slamming the stall door on Benoit's head and throwing Benoit down a flight of stairs. Hell, my favorite part was probably the double stomp on the bathroom floor. I think Tony's call of a cover near the commode is pretty funny too. The reason I don't think this is an all-time great brawl was a surprising one. I did not feel like Benoit's comeback or offense had a lot of fire. I think Benoit's greatest strength is that he is an awesome asskicker. I just did not feel like he is kicking much ass in this match. Sullivan was also taking bumps really gingerly so maybe he was trying to protect Sully. Loved Dusty's call of "You just gotta that plundah, right, baby" when Benoit was mounting the table in the corner. Superplex off the table gets a huge pop, which strikes me as weird because it was not any extra height, it was just extra dangerous because table wobbled. Maybe Benoit was just that over! He definitely was not with the Sturgis crowd. AA proves he is Horsemen 4 Life when he kicks The Taskmaster ass and the crowd pops mad. Very entertaining match. ***1/2
Chris Benoit vs Kevin Sullivan - WCW Great American Bash 1996
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rey Misterio Jr. vs Psicosis – Bash At The Beach 1996
Growing up, Psicosis was one of my favorite wrestlers just based on look alone. I would argue that he had even cooler costume than La Parka, but La Parka had the dance moves & chair so it was a close call. I was always disappointed that he was never featured at the same level of Rey Misterio or Juventud Guerrera. It turns out these childhood feelings have been validated by the fact that Psicosis is really fucking good. Both going back through the old footage and reading other people’s opinions that Psicosis is one of the best workers in the world in the mid-90s. Unfortunately, he was not able to sustain his greatness in the late 90s while his arch-nemesise, Rey Misterio Jr. really took off. Misterio and Psicosis have a history that dates back to Tijuana wrestling scene of the 90s. Psicosis was the clown, base and vicious heel to Rey Misterio’s undersized underdog with revolutionary high-flying. They were the perfect mix and they took their act on tour. From their home promotion of AAA (an upstart lucha libre promotion challenging CMLL think the American League or AFL), they travelled to Japan to wow the crowds there and then came to Philadelphia to the little promotion that could, ECW. In 1996, in an effort to further differentiate WCW from WWF, Eric Bischoff brought in a small army of luchadores to populate the fledging WCW cruiserweight division. So logically, the hottest match of 1995 was featured for the first time for a wide scale American audience when Rey Misterio and Psicosis locked up at Bash At The Beach 1996.
It would be so easy for Misterio and Psicosis to just hit a myriad of mind-numbing highspots to astonish and amaze a virgin audience, but what makes these two among the all-time greats is how they transition and build to those highspots for maximum sensory impact. For that reason, this match holds up as one of the best matches in the history of WCW and one of the best PPV openers in any company of all time. Psicosis is consummate heel in this match. He knows when to let Rey shine and when to get vicious to put that heat on Rey. It is a great selfless performance that makes Rey look one of the biggest stars of the world, but in doing so elevates himself and the match. It was surprising to me that first highspot went to Psicosis with a gorgeous suicide dive over the top rope. Unlike all the wussy dives through the ropes recently, this one really wipes Rey out. Psicosis is just great laying down a wicked beating on Rey. Rey is so great at verbal selling as Psicosis whips, chops and slams him. Psicosis nails him with a top rope guillotine leg drop. There is a definite sense of Psicosis attacking the neck and looking to take the wind out of the high-flying Misterio, which is a great strategy against the quick Rey Rey. Psicosis takes his first crazy, hellacious bump, which is a monkey flip on the apron that propels him into the post. WOW! Misterio hits a rana off the apron and then a springboard hurricanrana spikes Psicosis only gets two. The match never feels like an exhibition even the objective of the match is to showcase these crazy spots. The competitors still care about the win and loss. Psicosis does a great job selling his knee after a Rey dropkicks his knee. Trying to chop down the bigger man is not a bad strategy for Rey especially after getting his ass kicked for a good chunk there. Psicosis quashes the Misterio comeback with a droptoehold and locks on a nasty headscissors. I loved Rey’s screams. One of the best worked headscissors I have ever seen and a perfect use of it: a heel who needs to stop the bleeding and sap the energy from a babyface. Good stuff. Psicosis is targeting the neck again as he sends him flying into the top rope. Rey powders to catch his breath, but Psicosis is right on him dropping him neck first on the railing. Then he hits a senton from the top rope to the floor. WOW! Psicosis’ offense is breath-taking and violent, perfect. Back in the ring, Psicosis applies a camel clutch and fishhooks him. Psicosis is just fucking killing it. Misterio is like Woah, woah I am pretty fucking good too so he busts out a cartwheel into a hurricanarana and a mind-blowing top rope hurricanarana onto Psicosis that was standing on the apron. Holy shit, I think all these spots would still blow the majority of WWE’s current audience’s mind in 2015. Psicosis takes one of my favorite bumps when he gets dropkicked in the back of the head, he slides belly first onto the floor. Misterio hits a twisting corkscrew Asai Moonsault and everybody loses their shit. You can tell how much Tenay loved calling that while Dusty and Bobby were just like What the Fuck. I think while Bobby would vacillate between not giving a shit and putting over the crusierweights, The Dream seemed to be really entertained by them and in his own way put them over at every chance. Psicosis is able to catch Rey with a powerbomb and it actually looks really good. Psicosis is looking for Splash Mountain and Rey hits a crazy rana to win the match. WOW!
I have seen this match a couple times before and I am always blown away by how good it is. Matches that revolve around showcasing spots usually don’t age that well, but this match was as character-driven as it was spot-driven. Not to mention, these spots were crazy awesome and hold up totally. To me a heel is selfless, big bumping and vicious. Psicosis just had that in spades. He took two crazy bumps and hit some amazing highspots. He was always vicious with how he attacked Misterio. Misterio is just an all time great. His verbal selling was off the charts and he was great as a ragdoll for Psicosis to throw around, but when it came to blow people’s minds. He never failed. That finish run is just one incredible highspot after the other all with the purpose of winning the match. Definitely a contender for best WCW match of 90s and a testament to the greatness of the Rey Misterio/Psicosis series. ****1/2
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Chris Benoit w/Woman
& Miss Elizabeth vs Dean Malenko – WCW Hog Wild 1996
At least Miss
Elizabeth & Woman were on the hard camera, so that gives it a leg up on
modern WWE and 2000s indy wrestling. Seriously, we need more female valets to
add a bit of color and glamour to the product. Trotting out Dolph Ziggler and
Bad News Brown for a heatless spotfest would be so much better with some
extracurricular pieces at ringside. This is not just me being a shallow dude,
the most heat in this match was because Woman interfered and that’s because it
was something of consequence. I am being a little harsh because Benoit and
Malenko are just of the greatest at execution so a 30 minute spotfest by them
is better than run of the mill spotfest of the 21st century, but it
is still not great and it is not the fault of Sturgis Bikers that they did not
“get” this match because there was nothing to get.
First the match layout
is totally disconnected from the angle. The angle being presented is that
Malenko was hired to take Benoit out by Kevin Sullivan & The Dungeon of
Doom. Given the fact it was a blood feud, I don’t think Malenko proving he is
the better wrestler and earning Benoit’s respect through an intricate and very
cool rollup/bridge sequence was what The Taskmaster had in mind. The match
layout is a classic layout with two great wrestlers trying to pin each other in
a scientific and classy manner. Then they are just like fuck that layout and
fuck the angle. We are going for bombs. It was just suplexes, headbutts and
slams galore. At least, Dusty was hilarious trying to pronounce “Millennium”. The
one thing they have going for them is that they are at least making the effort
to show they are concerned about winning by going for covers often and trying
to put their opponent away. However, there is not much long-term selling and
they are just hitting moves willy-nilly. Thus we go to the first draw. In the
first overtime, at least, Benoit cheats a little by clocking Malenko from
behind while he discussing the rules with the ref. Benoit applies a Texas
Cloverleaf and just lets go. This is my least favorite thing in all of
wrestling. Such an eyeball-roll inducing spot. Benoit goes after leg with some
holds, but none as convincing as the Cloverleaf he had on! Again, we get a draw
and now the crowd is getting hot. They are pissed that this match is dragging
on forever. The last fall was actually the most interesting. Benoit hits his
finish at the time, the Dragon Suplex, which Malenko kicks out. Now Malenko
applies the Cloverleaf and as Benoit makes it to the ropes, Malenko switches to
an STF, which is genius. Woman rakes Malenko’s eyes and Benoit rolls up. What a
totally out of context finish to just a really weird match. It was entertaining
watching this from an offensive exhibition. From an offense point of view, this
was and still is state of the art blowing pretty much everything out of the
water in terms of crispness and damage level. The lack of a hook or any
consequence to the moves really hurt this. ***1/2
 |
| Thats the fuckin J-Crown. Pretty Badass |
J-Crown Champion Ultimo Dragon vs Rey Mysterio Jr.
World War III 1996
[The J-Crown was a set of 8 cruiserweight/junior heavyweight titles from around the world including incidentally enough the WWF Light Heavyweight Title. At the height of the Monday Night Wars the WWF Light Heavyweight Title was being defended on WCW television is incredible and also so WCW that they did not notice. The J-Crown always looked impressive as Dragon would walk out with his 8 titles on TV. I actually just watched the two most famous matches from the J-Crown tournament. I highly recommend the semi-final between Shinjiro Ohtani (my choice for best wrestler in the world in 1996) and Ultimo Dragon. The final between Great Sasuke and Ultimo Dragon is a fun high-flying exhibition, but the semi-final is one of the best junior heavyweight matches ever.]
Rey Mysterio had become the centerpiece of WCW’s cruiserweight division, but had dropped the title back to Malenko at Halloween Havoc, the previous month. In this match, it is Rey’s job to cement Ultimo Dragon as the top heel of the cruiserweight division. This is the match where people rightfully so complain of Rey getting gobbled up by Dragon’s offense. Whereas, the Malenko match felt like a struggle where two men were trying to win a match with natural strategies, this match felt like an exhibition of Dragon’s spots. Don’t get me wrong, Dragon has some pretty nifty spots (he busts out the Giant Swing!!!), but never feels like he is trying to win. Instead, he is just trying to show-off all his cool moves. Here is a list of the cool moves:
- Spinning Argentine Backbreaker
- Giant Swing
- Slingshot Powerbomb
- His Intricate Outside the ring sequence
- Spinning Tombstone Piledriver
- Running Ligerbomb
- Brainbuster
- Surprisingly did not do the Asai Moonsault (named after him)
This is the type of story that always falls flat with me. It is simply because there is no story. There is not a struggle. It is just an exhibition. It is fun visually, but not emotionally. In addition, Dragon did really use anything to set up his moves. Usually, he uses a ground game to weaken his opponents before he works his shit in. Instead, it just felt like pick up Rey and do his spots.
Rey be assertive. Where were your hope spots? The match was dying because of the babyface was getting totaled out there. It looked like match I had against my stuffed bear yesterday erm I mean 15 years ago. I totally mean 15 years ago.
Dusty was cracking me up throughout the match, but this quote not only makes me laugh, but is accurate portrayal of the match “This is pants-down momma spankin you whuppin!” Of course at the finish, Rey does make his comeback and hits his visually impressive spots like his somersault plancha. The finish was hot, but the how fuck would the finish not be hot when you have Dragon with his ZILLION moves and Rey flying around at a mile a minute. They had a perfect ending: Dragon is able to catch Rey Rey off the springboard and hit a fuckin Slingshot Powerbomb (BITCHIN~!) for the win.
Dusty was cracking me up throughout the match, but this quote not only makes me laugh, but is accurate portrayal of the match “This is pants-down momma spankin you whuppin!” Of course at the finish, Rey does make his comeback and hits his visually impressive spots like his somersault plancha. The finish was hot, but the how fuck would the finish not be hot when you have Dragon with his ZILLION moves and Rey flying around at a mile a minute. They had a perfect ending: Dragon is able to catch Rey Rey off the springboard and hit a fuckin Slingshot Powerbomb (BITCHIN~!) for the win.
I have watched this match a lot because I happen to love watching Ultimo Dragon’s offense, but it is not a very dramatic match and thus loses a lot of points in my book. ***1/2
 |
| Spoiler Alert: Dragon wont sell the leg |
No comments:
Post a Comment