Phil Schneider

I'll post my Epic Lawler reviews from SC here too Jerry Lawler v. Harley Race CWA 12/10/77-EPIC You don't hear this match mentioned along the classics of American wrestling, but I think this maybe as good as any long Flair title defense, and is the best Harley Race match I have ever seen. Race is great here but this is a Jerry Lawler match, he looks on another level here, like he should be the guy touring with the belt. The opening part of the match was built around Lawler grounding Race with a headlock, you don't really think of either guy as a matworker, but they ran through some spectacular reversals and counters. Lawler really controls large sections of this match and it actually exposes a bit of a flaw in what Race does. Race has a big arsenal of athletic bumps, and he is backflipping and diving on all of Lawlers early punches. This is a sixty minute match, when he is twirling on a punch in minute five, it doesn't mean as much when he does it in minute fifty. Lawler in contrast is really amazing at long term selling, his bumps really are much bigger as the match goes on, and he is spectacular at digging down for one last shot. One of the things I have noticed in watching Jerry Lawler matches, is he is a master at building to a big spot in a match. Race keeps cutting Lawler off with headbutts to the belly, after four or five times, Lawler dips back and kicks Race right in the face when he tries it. It is a great big of in match strategy, and is awesome because they set it up for so long. Of course one of the great things about any Lawler matches is the punches, and they are amazing. Jabs, uppercuts, straight rights, hooks, punches on his knees, punches from the mount, diving punches, jumping punches. Lawler has more variety on his shots then anyone, ever, and they all rule. Race also has great punches, but he never goes toe to toes with Lawler, all of his shots are kind of sneaky. He also throws some amazing headbutts, just killing Lawler with a standing headbutt on a rope break, and his diving headbutts look like he crushes Lawlers orbital bones. What makes the diving headbutts so great too, is that Race misses it the first couple of times he tries it, so when he lands it, it looks even more spectacular. Your finish was a little weird for a touring champ ending. Flair would often end his draws on defense, escaping with his belt at last minute. Race is on defense at this end of this match too, but Lawler almost throws too much at him. You don't get the sense Lawler was moments away from winning the belt, it almost more like Lawler doesn't have enough in his arsenal to finish Race. ER: Lawler vs. Monster is one of the all-time classic Lawler formulas, and the monsters don't come much better than Blackwell. I actually didn't remember this match placing this high. This seems like the kind of match that I throw in my top 10 and everybody else has bottom 50 (because they don't like fatties). But fatness always seems to just make matches float to the top of my ballot. Crusher might be the fastest morbidly obese man I have ever seen. My dad was/is fat but nowhere near this fat (like 300), and one time when I was 11 we played in a father/son softball tournament and he turned a triple into a single. Not a fast man. I couldn't ever imagine him gaining 100 lb. and doing any of the stuff Blackwell does here. Right from the get-go we get Crusher hitting a great dropkick and then just sprinting across the ring for a corner splash. Dude is just crazy agile and everything he does has such awesome impact. Lawler takes a huge beating here, taking tons of splashes and suplexes and holy LORD Blackwell's punches in the corner saw him out punching Jerry! I mean, it helped that Lawler leaned chin first into all of them but fuck those punches. Also, Blackwell threw the mother of all fist drops here. I'm a man who loves even the worst fist drops, and this one was just a thing of beauty. And good lord the elbow drops!! Each one nastier than the last!! But also, Lawler. Lawler Lawler'd like only Lawler can Lawler. The punches, the selling (his missed fist drop sell off the middle rope was an all-time great Lawler sell. It felt like MY hand was fucking broken, the way he limply was holding it and just...ouch). Finish was logical and maybe Lawler took TOO much of a beating, but who cares. This was great and one of the all-time Lawler/Monster matches. I'm glad others loved it as much as I did. P.S. Lance Russell was great here too. Short version of this post could have been "Match was great and stuff looked painful". PAS: In many ways this match reminded me of the John Cena v. Brock Lesnar match earlier in the year. Local babyface comes across an impossibly athletic monster who just overwhelms him. Lawler is a notorious slow starter (which is a great Lance Russell line) and he gets blitzed by Blackwell who just looks amazing. Little by little he finds his moments though, and is able to squeak out a victory using guile and guts. Blackwell is great here allowing little breaks in his facade while still feeling like a steamroller. Really enjoyed rewatching this and it got me very excited for all of the AWA set Blackwell.

Watched the Taylor match on Exposers rec Lord Steven Regal v. Terry Taylor WCW 1/1/94-GREAT Hell of a start to 1994 for Regal. This felt almost like a US version of a lucha maestros match. Taylor is pretty bland but can put on simple holds which Regal can find awesome ways of working counters around. First part of the match was Regal working a top wrist lock and then Taylor working a body scissors. Could be dull in other peoples hands, but Regal has a ton of nifty spots built around wrist locks and bodyscissors. There is always action in every hold. Finish got a little chippy with Regal slapping down Taylor's lock up attempts and throwing forearms. They finally finished with the fish flop counter sequence (which wasn't a cliche in 1994) which Taylor was a little awkward at. Very cool stuff though and probably a top 10 Terry Taylor match

William Regal v. CM Punk MSG 12/28/08 Truly tremendous match. The best babyface Punk match I have ever seen and one of Regal's best WWE matches as well. We start with some very nice chain wrestling, Punk went to one of the Blue Blood training camps and you could tell he was jazzed to work holds against Regal. Punk sidestepped Regal and threw him to the floor, where he followed with a big tope, which is not something you normally see at house shows, even at MSG. The momentum shifts again when Regal counters an Irish whip and just launches Punk with a half nelson suplex, Punk takes a full Misawa bump on the move, hurling him out of the ring. Regal takes over and just beats on Punk. Lots of nifty violent moments by Regal in this section, he does a go behind and blasts Punk with forearms to the back of the head, and counters the first GTS attempt with a fast and violent flurry of elbows. Regal is letting it loose a little here, stiffing Punk, throwing him with suplexes. Punk is always willing to work this style and Regal really shows his versatility by being the best possible Samoa Joe here. Finish is a great too, with Regal reversing a GTS by trying to rip Punk's nose off, and then obliterating him with the knee trembler. Awesome discovery, go watch this match.

William Regal vs. Dean Ambrose, FCW 10/13/11 - EPIC PAS: Man alive this was a corker of a match. It is worked very similarly to the other big 2011 King Bookers courtesan v. Switchblade Conspirator match. Regal cuts a great promo about how his inner villain has been reawakened and he is at his vicious best. This is probably the most violent Regal we have seen since the Benoit series. He and Ambrose just lay into each other with nasty uppercuts and forearms, and Ambrose threw some nice clotheslines. Eventually Regal takes over, trapping Ambrose's arm into a turnbuckle and smashing it up which is something I have never seen before. It is pretty great that 20+ years into his career Regal is still breaking out new tricks. Regal then delivers some nasty armwork including finger manipulation and trapping him arm in the ring steps. Ambrose does a great job of selling, basically working the comeback entirely with his other arm. He comes off as a really tough motherfucker screaming at Regal while getting beaten on, and surviving some big exploders and escaping the Regal stretch. Just great stuff, it felt like a hugely important match to both guys, and after the match Regal felt like a killer and Ambrose felt like a future star standing up to a legend. I saw Finlay v. Callihan live which really helped my appreciation of it, but on first view this was right up there with that, and anything else in the world in 2011. ER: Yeah this was great. It was a double surprise for me as I followed the link Phil sent me and thought it was going to be a fun 7 minute match...and then realized there were 7 MORE minutes waiting in the next part. This really feels like the best Regal performance of the last 2-4 years. He's had other great stuff in that time to be sure, but this was twice as long as most of those matches and really felt like he could stretch his wings (and clearly showed that he has no problem filling time in matches). It's matches like these that make me want to dive full in to FCW, but nothing else there could possibly compete with something like this. Regal was just a beast in this, playing a role I don't remember him playing in a long time. And clearly Regal is great at playing the ruthless killer. Finlay must be kicking himself for thinking of the awesome ring skirt spot, but not thinking about hooking a guy's arm through a turnbuckle. Shoot, I even bought the struggle to get Ambrose' arm out of the turnbuckle, just kicking around like a trapped animal while the ref struggled to pull his arm through. I loved how Regal sold the clothesline/hammer fist to the face. It looked like his orbital bone exploded. There wasn't really anything that DIDN'T work about this, from Regal's awesome mule kicks, all the arm work, the forearms, everything. This was really a great, great war. I would've have loved to see another Ambrose comeback spot, but still this was so awesome.

Lord Steven Regal v. Fit Finlay WCW 4/29/96-EPIC Well this is as great as you remembered it being. It really had the ragged, out of control feeling of a violent fight. All of the big highspots felt totally organic, nothing was set up. When Finlay put his foot through the window, it felt like a crazy fuck, wild with rage, throwing a kick too close to a window. The smashing each other with bumpers and slamming each other into doors wasn't even the most violent stuff in the match. For example Finlay is choking Regal with a seat belt, and just smacks him right in the mouth. Regal's elbow drops on the hood were also really beautiful. Regal's piledriver on the roof of a car felt like a finish, and it also felt like he was just trying to get the fuck out of there. I remember being incredibly annoyed at the time at Bischoff yelling at the cameramen to pull into a wide shot. The camera men don't pull back very far, and I think it actually adds to the sense of insanity, makes this feel like an out of control fight, as opposed to Heenan telling hack jokes. William Regal v. Tommy Dreamer WWE 11/8/09-EPIC I was on the fence, this is a 8 minute match against Tommy Dreamer, can this really be an epic. Fuck it, this was just too great and Regal was just too awesome for me not to give the full E. Dreamer took a crutch shot in a street fight the week before and the bolt penetrated his triceps, so he is coming into this match with a big white wrap on his arm. Regal is on that arm like a fat kid on the last piece of pinata candy. Really the best example of Regal as vicious WWII prison guard. He just tears and pounds on the wound, he is someone with so many ways to hurt you. Meanwhile Dreamer does a great job of selling the injury (which I am sure hurt like a broken heart) while throwing in some really exciting comebacks. I loved how he went for a DDT, only to Regal hurl him down using the arm, still Dreamer was able to catch him in a one armed spinebuster. Finish was awesome. Dreamer is rolling, finally getting the advantage, but Regal rolls to the floor, grabs the arm rings it over the cable, while Dreamer is recoiling, Regal flies into the ring and hits the running knee right on the arm. Best Tommy Dreamer match ever, and a hell of performance by Regal William Regal v. Steve Austin WWF 11/29/01-EPIC PAS: This is a strap match from Smackdown and just a hellacious brawl. Regal has the strap to start and he taunts Austin Bugs Bunny style by pulling it away from him when Austin tries to grab it, after the third time, Austin flips out and just attacks, and it goes at that pace. They brawl into the crowd with Austin viciously strapping Regal up and down the stairs. Regal takes control after backdropping Austin off the announce table, which is a nutty bump for a guy with a broken neck to be taking on TV. Vicious brawling Regal is one of my favorite of his approaches, and he just lays into Austin with forearms and strap shots when he get an opening. Austin was amazing in this too, I hadn't watched a Stone Cold match in so long, you forget what a charismatic motherfucker he really was. He stops mid brawl to toast Earl Hebner with a beer, and then smashes it on Regals head. I even liked all of the four corner spots, which is usually the problem with strap matches. Austin was awesome at the end countering all of Regal's attempts to stop the turnbuckle slapping, before the third buckle he nuts Regal, and pulls him into a stunner before the fourth. I didn't remember this match at all, and it was totally awesome. ER: Austin was my favorite wrestler in the world in 2001, and I had never ever seen this match before. This must have been right after he turned face after the year long heel turn (which I loved but you know how much it fucked everything up). The Regal C&A is going to be real fun because up until Finlay joined WWE, Regal was a guy who I don't remember having a lot of great WWE non-Benoit matches. I remember the RVD Wrestlemania match being way better than I expected, and there was a 90 second Lance Storm match where Storm botched a dropkick and Regal kicked the shit out of him...a Dick Togo match....There has to be other stuff. He's a guy who's been in WWE at total of 12 years, but I just can't think of much. You start thinking there must be all of these hidden gems, and then you "discover" a "hidden" gem of a match between him and fucking Steve Austin, the most popular wrestler in the world. It's not exactly crate digging, but it's like finding a live Television album that you didn't know existed, but had been out for apparently 10 years. This was a GREAT match, worked at a nice brisk pace, and both guys looked killer. Austin was taking some of the most insane weekly bumps on TV during this time period. While Christian and Rey Buccanero were having weekly contests to see who could bump over the top to the floor the most times during one match, Austin had a busted neck and was taking Germans and doing superplexes and taking high backdrops on all surfaces. Fucking insane. Their crowd brawling is spectacular as it never sinks to Shane Douglas "loosely grabbing a guys head and walking around" levels. Austin punches Regal through the crowd, then whips his fucking face with a belt through the crowd! Everything about this rules. Regal's chest welts up, Regal's forearms look nasty, Regal gets dumped on his head when Austin tugs the strap between his legs, neither guy does a slo-mo crawl to touch all four corners, Regal whips back HARD and makes the Stunner look amazing, crowd loudly hates Regal, all the leverage spots look legit, just awesome. It's odd to find a hidden gem featuring the most popular wrestler in the world, from free TV, from the most popular promotion in the world...but this was it and it was so damn awesome.

Lord Steven Regal v. Arn Anderson WCW 10/9/93-EPIC This is the battle of the two greatest Television champions in a classic 15 minute TV Title main event. Arn works the arm Anderson style, cranking a nasty hammerlock, while Regal breaks out some slick WOS reversals. Including the Saint full nelson counter which is one of my all time favorite British wrestling moves. Regal takes over when he chucks Arn to the floor and Sir William pops him in the ribs with the umbrella. Regal then goes after the midsection including a sweet flipping senton, and a neck crank with a knee on the stomach which looked really nasty. This builds to a classic TV title time limit run, with Arn going full bore to get the pin and Regal trying to run out the time. That is a finish which can be hard to pull off, I have seen plenty of bad versions where the guys are stalling or timing their moves and pins badly. Here we have the two masters of the TV Title match, so the final desperate face run is timed great, and we get the spinebuster at the perfect moment, with the clock running down right as the ref counts two. Excellent match, great use of the gimmick and it really got me amped to check out more of the Regal TV title stuff. Lord Steven Regal v. Arn Anderson 2/20/94-EPIC Tremendous match, pretty much a textbook TV title style match. Both guys target a body part, Arn with the arm, and Regal with the neck, and they go after them. Lesser wrestlers working this style will just go back to the same holds (even Flair pretty much just works the leg in the context of the figure four), but both Arn and Regal put on a ton of different locks and they all look great. It makes inherent sense, if you can't get a submission with a cravate try a crossface, hammerlock doesn't work use and arm stretch. Arn works a great hammerlock, bodyslamming Regal, turing him into a pin while holding it. Regal meanwhile wrenched the hell out of Arn's neck, cranking cravates, cracking him in the mouth with crossfaces. The brawling in this match was great too, Arn has a really pretty right hand and Regal was just vicious with uppercuts and headbutts. Finish run was very exciting as they worked the countdown with Arn desperately trying for the belt and Regal stalling. The crowd was super into the match at this point, chanting USA and popping huge for Arn's spinebuster. Finish was pretty surprising, as Regal gets the pin by holding onto Dundee's umbrella with 15 seconds left. It was a twist in a good way as everyone was expecting either an Arn win or a time limit draw. 1994 maybe the best in ring year in wrestling history, and this felt on the level of the other great matches of that year. If this looks like something on paper you would like, go watch it, it truly exceeds expectations.

Regal is one of my Segunda Caida Complete and Accurate guys. I will repost some of my Epic reviews Steven Regal v. Tiger Dalibar Singh South Africa 1987-EPIC What a great discovery, a hell of a match and a window into a wrestling scene I had never seen before. Despite the pleas of U2 Regal decided to play Sun City. Singh is an old World Of Sport guy and the promoter of the fed. The crowd seems to be almost entirely South Asian, which isn't what I expected from a 80's South African wrestling show. So obviously Regal is working heel against a ethnic babyface and is great at it. We start with some very WOS style mat work with Regal hanging on hard to a wrist lock while Singh flips and spins him around. Singh is a solid grappler and built like a tank. Once he gets rolling, he bumps Regal all around the ring. This is the most athletic and theatric I have ever seen Regal bump, he is really at a Curt Hennig or Ric Rude level during parts of this match. Match breaks down into some pretty nasty brawling, especially after Regal grabs a fall on a missed body press. Regal goes after Sighs stomach, and the crowd got very animated, we might have gotten another Soweto Uprising if Regal had been able to pull out the win. Lord Steven Regal v. Shinya Hashimoto NJ 4/16/95-EPIC Holy hell what a war! Regal takes it to Hashimoto and beats the shit out of him worse then anyone this side of Tenryu. Especially early he just overwhelms Hash, breaking his nose with a palm thrust and painfully wrenching his limbs. Hash fires back a little bit, but Regal has a bunch of nifty cut offs, stepping on the inside of his knee or catching him with a knuckle to his eye. There is a great moment where Hashimoto goes for a kimura and Regal breaks it by driving his forearm into Hash's broken nose, then on the way up he gives Hashimoto a short little kick to the eye. When Hash finally gets the advantage he lands huge, with a huge jumping kick and some shoulder separating chops. They go back and forth with Regal pounding at the smashed nose, and Hash unloading with kicks. Regal is a really underrated in ring bumper, he just gets spiked by Hash's DDT (after previously reversing twice), before going down to a cross armbar. Crossing the line potato shot Regal is probably my favorite iteration of Regal, and this was as violent as the nastiest moments of the Finlay feud. Just a treat.

The match description intrigued so I check it out. Very good stuff, and the kind of thing I wish AJ did more later in the decade. Really loved the constancy of the brawling, Kawada kept flinging wild kicks from the ground, Taue kept slipping in headbutts, not setting up spots, just digging in and fighting.

Yeah pretty sure that was just one of my talking points which no one agreed with.

You should watch the first two matches too http://board.deathvalleydriver.com/topic/6...bracket-7-v-10/

He was working Indies a couple of years ago, so No.

Yeah how could you like that terrible finish?

I don't think I have ever seen a Muraco match where he has had an above average perofrmance

Pretty sure that is a one of the outtakes from Zero Dark 30

I am trying to think about all the early ROH shows I saw. I haven't watched in a while, but Epic Encounter was really good. London v. Dragon was one of the first Danielson classics, Styles/Red v. Briscoes I remember enjoying, I always liked the Special K scrambles and the main event was fucking awesome live with Dusty, Iceberg, Boyce Le Grande brawling with random Doghouse guys in the audiance.

I just checked this out and really enjoyed it. I was an MPRO superfan back in the day, so I am surprised this slipped by me. I loved the Sasuke dive with his robe, he looked like Batman jumping on a thief. Shinzaki has a tendency to slow things down in his singles match to a snails pace, but this kept rocking pretty fast. Probably Shinzaki's career match, and one of Sasuke's better singles.

Derrick King maybe?

Yeah me too, Dundee might be the best "on a pole" wrestler in history

Totally bizarre spectacle. This is set up by a shoot angle with Snowman coming out of the audience at the TV studio and interrupting a Lawler interview. He accuses Lawler of ducking him because he is Black and they have a really frenetic pull apart. That leads to this match and it was one of the most realistic "guys aren't cooperating" matches I have ever seen. Lots of wild swinging awkward punches and cool Lawler takedowns, there are parts where both guys are going for the eyes which is kind of what you would expect in a racial tinged street fight. Crowd is totally electric, you get the sense they really got the crowd to buy into the whole angle. Reminded me of a Southern Fried version of Onita v. Aoyagi. Match is pretty short (about five minutes, although the footage maybe clipped) and that keeps this from the Epic pile, but it is definitely worth seeing, and something unique for Lawler.

Nakano was totally awesome in this match, the crowd is going apeshit chanting his name and he is cheap shotting the fuck out of Meada, hedbutting him on the break, constantly kicking and kneeing him in the back of his head, totally leaving it in the ring against the king of the mountain. But man fuck a Maeda, he completely sleepwalks through this, Nakano is working his ass off, but Maeda never really sold, never really seemed to get angry when he got cheap shotted, never seemed to worry when he was knocked down. Totally sandbagged the match, which is two shows in a row, he worked Funaki and Suzuki in the next two shows, those are going to be tough to swallow unless Maeda woke up.

It has been kind of a chore to get through these undercard UWF matches, I am hoping the Fujiwara sundae makes up for the overcooked Takada boiled chicken. Some nice kicks here and there, and some moments of fire by Anjoh, but this wasn’t good.

Not a Fujiwara classic, but match of the show for sure. This is Yamazaki’s big win, so Fujiwara worked from the top more. This also had a lot of dueling leg work, with Fujiwara really struggling and cranking for each submission. Yamazaki was landing a lot of body blows which Fujiwara sold with some of his awesome drooling sells. Still this was a match with a similar story to Nakano v. Maeda and Nakano was way more demonstrative and energetic then Yamazaki. I liked the post match show of emotion by Yamazaki, but it felt like I needed more of that in the match.