FINALLY! I am once again officially a full-time employee BABY! This time as a chemical engineer WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Dreams do come true!
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| Buxom Lassie, now that's somebody I wanna stiff ;) |
Steven Regal is one of the greatest mid-carders of all the times with his ability to deliver entertaining and unique matches on the undercard. He had a rare talent possessed only by a few of the greats such as Greg Valentine or a Vader where he would take his opponent out of his comfort zone and creating a unique environment for this wrestler. It is one thing to coerce a wrestler to wrestle your style this can lead to style clashes or plug and play. Regal was able to adapt his style to his opponent. Every Regal match is worth watching is because you get to see Sting, Psychosis and Larry Zybszko in truly unique matches. For example, my major malfunction with Ultimo Dragon was how he would unleash his amazingly deep offensive arsenal like an exhibition of fireworks rather than a contest to win a match. Regal was able to reign in Dragon and force him to use his offense in a compelling manner. Dragon did not change his game plan; he was still using his kicks and holds to set up the Tiger Suplex, but he had to earn the offense. Regal is so versatile at selling and bumping for a wide range of wrestlers like the bruisers (Finlay), luchadors (Psychosis) and main event talent (Sting).
For all his talent, Regal was underutilized by WCW, sure he had a great run as Television Champion, but in 1995 he was relegated to WCW's fledgling tag team with Bobby Eaton. On the surface, that sounds like the stuff dreams are made of, but unfortunately their opponents were Harlem Heat and Nasty Boys. But in early 1996, WCW was making a concerted effort to truly being an all-star promotion. They had the strongest main event talent of the 80s and 90s and they had brought in American talent that had been working overseas. Soon, they would bring in the luchadors. In addition, they brought in Fit Finlay as Regal's arch -nemesis. They brought a brutality and violence that has rarely been seen before or after in the US. It was BattlArts/FUTEN levels of violence with nasty strikes to each other face and bodies. They fought through each other's offense and earned every inch. Until Regal's nose is demolished by Finlay's stiff strike, which the perfect ending even if unintentional to such a tour de force.
Check out the best of Lord Steven Regal in 1996 and hopefully, it will inspire to watch even more Steven Regal in WCW and beyond.
Lord Steven Regal vs Fit Finlay - WCW Uncensored 1996
If you are real quiet and pay attention real close, you can actually hear Regal's nose explode at the end of the match. This was Ishikawa/Ikeda levels of brutality and uncomfortability. They were just beating the absolutely fucking shit out of each other. This would not look out of place at all on BattlArts card. This is why I loved WCW in 1996, it really felt like an all-star promotion with the best of every style on the card. Finlay set the tone early by whipping Regal with his jacket and just attacking him with vicious forearms, knees and headbutts. They were just fighting through each other's offense, which is one of my favorite style of matches. To me it is not my turn, your turn because you fucking earned your turn in this war. Whether it was stiff Finlay knee to the head to break out of an armbar or Regal nearly taking Finlay's head off with a dropkick. The only defense in this match was more offense and fight fire with fire. Unlike Ishikawa/Ikeda, they had a hard time keeping the heat up throughout the match and in the holds. They worked the palm strikes and knees in the holds well, but the holds in the match while gnarly did not have the drama of a BatBat match. I loved that the chairs were attached together preventing Finlay from using the chairs at Uncensored. I always mark out when someone suplexes someone from the ring to the floor, which seems so dangerous. Dusty is hilarious totally missing Brain's point that they wrestled each other thinking he was thinking England and Ireland were the same thing, "Ireland is five miles from London. I don't think so." Apparently, this match was supposed to go 30 minutes and I think thankfully it did not. It was running out of steam and this was the perfect ending for the match. One guy hits another guy so hard that his nose is shattered and he is just a bloody mess. It was really the only proper way to end such a nasty fight.
As much as I love sheer brutality, I do like a bit more of a strategy and/or narrative to my matches. It really is another form of a spotfest, but better than what is commonly thought of as a spotfest. Because they are fighting through each other's offense, it never feels like an exhibition. Because they are hitting each other so hard, it always feels like they are trying to win. It does not have the same pitfalls as a standard spotfest, but it does lack hook from a character/angle perspective to make it truly excellent. Still, I think this is an undervalued match. It is well-known, but the usual rating seems a bit low to me. It does not reach the greatness of some of the BatBat/FUTEN stuff I saw in the past year, this is not far off. ****1/4
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Steven Regal vs Fit Finlay - WCW Saturday Night 4/13/96
Coming out of the violent Uncensored match where Regal's nose was demolished, Regal felt like the more sympathetic character and I feel like they played that up with him being more of a babyface here. He takes the match to Finlay early and it looks like he may trying to go for a nose for a nose with those nasty palm strikes. Finlay actually begs off before he gets a vicious elbow to the nose and he looks to keep grounded. He misses an elbow and Regal pounces with a double wristlock. It does not last long as Finlay gets a nasty thumb to eye and a wicked headbutt. Finlay looks to take Regal's arm off and beat him with it. The Blue Bloods come out to bail out Regal. I did not like the finish. Regal is a much better face than Finlay, but Finlay was over. I liked Regal as the fired up babyface and the finish just felt totally out of place. It even seemed the way Regal reacted that they may be teasing a face turn. Good set up for more matches. ***
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Steven Regal vs Fit Finlay - WCW Nitro 4/29/96 Parking Lot Brawl
Really cool, unique set up with these two bitter rivals surrounded by park cars. Finlay wastes no time putting his foot through a window. Finlay uses a tire and a bumper to fuck up Regal. I loved the build to the climax with all the teases of doing moves from the top of the car. You know we all wanted to see it. They delivered in spades and I will let the viewer see it for themselves because it is quite the exclamation point on a great undercard feud. Bischoff was trying to get this match over by calling for wide angles and saying this is too violent, but it just came off as more annoying. I wish we had Tony calling this match. That being Bischoff or whoever in WCW came up with this match was really smart. This is cutting edge shit that takes ECW puts a new twist on it and is applied to a feud that fit it well. It comes off as super fresh and really makes WCW seem must see. Great and entertaining match, but does not touch the sheer awesomeness of the Uncensored match. ***1/2
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Sting vs Lord Steven Regal - WCW Great American Bash 1996
One of those mildly hyped WCW matches that I have never had a chance to see, until now. I am a pretty big Regal fan because he reminds me of someone like a Valentine or a Vader that will force an opponent out of their comfort zone, but still adapt to the opponent. It is a rare talent and one not too often discussed. A little background on why Regal was getting a crack at the top when he was usually relegated to great mid-card actin. This is the PPV before Bash at the Beach and thus the entire company is in a holding pattern until the New World Order is formed. Sting needed a win and a match with Regal could serve to enhance Regal's star power. After the NWO, there did not seem to be plans for Regal and of course Regal was also battling personal demons. The set up was pretty simple as Regal showed Sting the back of his hand and Sting took offense. Tony mentions during the course of this bout that Sting's dark hair look is recent. I always prefered bleach blond and spiky, but it was a good way to freshen up Sting.
Sting actually showed some really good fire early, which has always been my problem with him. Yes, he has a ton of energy to spare, but rarely is it channeled into violence. Regal is able to come back with some technical wristlocks to subdue Sting, but Sting's energy and strength allow him to power out. Regal resets the match asking for a handshake and his facial expressions during this is priceless. Sting thrusts his Little Stinger in Lord Steven's direction. Tony calls that an Elvis move. Dusty says that is not an Elvis move that was a pelvis move! Too funny. We hit the test of strength and Sting maybe stronger, but Regal knows those little tricks that allow him to apply a cobra clutch. From there, it is all Regal and that is goal of this match to showcase Regal as a credible opponent for WCW's main eventers through his holds, vicious strikes and his cocky attitude. His little strut, which was supposed to mock Sting just struck me as a weird than as annoying or entertaining, a rare bit of character acting that Regal misfired on. Regal takes a good 80-90% of this match and wrestles a solid heat segment with vicious palm strikes to the head and interesting arm holds, but I think overall Malenko smoked him on this night. Sting's hope spots were well-timed and Regal had nice underhanded counters like an eyepoke for them. I actually kinda liked Sting powering up while in a knucklelock and Regal's selling was spot on. Sting hits his sugar high and explodes with clotheslines, but that is just a hope spot and we get a sweet butterfly suplex. The part of the match is that pisses me off more than anything else happens right here. Regal applies his Regal Stretch and then just gives it up. I can't stand when wrestlers just give up on submissions and YOUR BEST SUBMISSION that is ridiculous. The setup for the finish is great that Regal is mauling Sting in the corner and Sting won't go down so he shows him the back of the hand just like at the start of this angle and Sting wakes the fuck up for that. Sting hits some really great monster punches. Sting eats knees on the Stinger Splash, but quickly applies the Scorpion Deathlock to get out of Baltimore with the victory.
Regal looked great in this match just by being able to hang with Sting. Sting had some real flashes of violence and intensity as opposed to his more FUN energy. I thought that was a very good match, but I don't they ever really flirted with great. Regal gets to show his stuff, Sting kicks a bit of ass, but needs the flash submission to defeat Regal and build momentum towards the clash with the Outsiders. Very good match to build Regal up, but sadly nothing ever came from it. ***1/2
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WCW TV Champion Steven Regal vs Psicosis - WCW Nitro 12/16/96
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