Superstar Sleeze

Vader vs Owen Hart - WWF One Night Only 1997 Never seen this before, it was a real humdinger of a match. Two of my all time favorites locking it up and putting a really good, old school David vs Goliath match. Owen was a heel for such a long time in WWF this goes a long way to show how great of a babyface he could have been. I don't know if this is the best WWF Vader match as I liked the Final Four and Shamrock match pretty good, but this is pretty excellent. Owen plays the pinball off Vader early. That Vader Body Attack just smokes Owen, great spot. Owen gets a frakensteiner that does knock Vader for a loop. For a second, it does look like Owen may have something going with the hit & run offense to set up the Sharpshooter (attempted twice). That dies a death when Owen goes for a crucifix pin and just gets SQUASHED. Vader kicks Owen's shit in. Splashes, punches, gnarly submissions. It is Vader on offense, it is not peak WCW stuff, but it is still great. Owen keeps going for bodyslams which perplexes me and the announcers. Vader is looking for the powerbomb, but Owen nails the Enziguiri of Doom! Vader sells this perfectly and Owen desperately applies the Sharpshooter, but Vader makes it to the ropes. BODYSLAM~! They paid it off! I marked out! Love shit like that! Missile Dropkick and OWEN IS FEELING IT!!! He goes up top again, but Vader catches with a MASSIVE Powerslam! Vader wins 1-2-3! I like the twist on the usual Vader finish, which is him taking the move for the loss, here he uses it for the win. I thought this was a great David vs Goliath match. Not in the same league as the Sting matches, but cool getting to see Owen as a babyface and Vader wrestling like he did in WCW. ****

Shawn Michaels vs Mankind - WWF RAW 8/11/97 This RAW features one of my all-time favorite Shawn promo segments where he retorts to chants of "Shawn is gay" with "Ask your sister or your momma how gay I am!". Between that, his shots at Vince & Slaughter, his brashness towards Bret and Undertaker and just being a general dick, he could do no wrong on the mic. Shawn was God in 1997 in my book. I could have sworn I seen this before, maybe they have another RAW match in September or October, BUT this was FREAKING AWESOME!!! WOW! Mark out city throughout. I was laughing at Jim Ross shilling Hardcore Heaven this Sunday on PPV featuring Lawler vs Dreamer and Vince being all uncomfortable. Shawn and Mankind just go balls to the wall here and have this sick, violent, chaotic brawl. Shawn is throwing nasty punches, over head elbows, eye gouges. This was a nasty Shawn Michaels. Mankind always is one to take a licking and here he was not afraid to dish one. Shawn had great counters for the Mandible Claw first was to go low with a ballshot, the second was to head outside and bash the back of Foley's head into the steel ring spot. There was the trash can in the beginning. That stiff right by Foley to Shawn on the baseball slide. The hotshot into the steel by Foley. Michaels insane elbow from the apron to Mankind on the uncleared announce table. Michales gets cut on the arm. Michaels rips off Foley's mask and mocks him with it. Michaels and Foley are both throwing themselves into these bumps. I think what I like most about this is how organic it feels. They tease HHH & Chyna as the insurance policy, but it is Rick Rude. Mankind gets a Double arm DDT for a nearfall before Rude SMASHES him in the head with a chair and Sweet Chin Music gives Michaels the victory. Awesome out of nowhere brawl!!! ****1/4

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Bret Hart vs Sid Vicious - WWF RAW 2/17/97 Im a huge Sid mark and I think problem was he was always presented wrong. Too often he treated just like any other wrestler tat should register and sell; give back n forth with his opponent and follow shine-heat-comeback. Sid should have been like Brock nowadays or Braun Strowman. Absolute force someone that you had to completely change your gameplan up for. I can see why people praise this match because Bret does drag a traditionally good wrestling match out of Sid, but he is still forcing Sid to work his style. He does not change up. He is doing Russian Legsweeps and backbreakers like Sid is anyone else. He works the leg well and that's where the match gets its rep from. It makes Sid feels like anyone else. The thing is Sid is clumsy and is stiff like a board. So you aren't playing to Sid's strengths. Sid legdrops a lot. The middle rope one and I was worried he was going to break his leg. What the fuck is up with Austin? For a guy obsessed with Bret Hart he keeps fucking up Sid. Bret applies Sharpshooter and Austin cracks him with the chair. POWERBOMB! SID WINS! Legwork was good and the finish advanced the story. Still not much struggle Bret was just forcing Sid to do his spots. ***

Owen Hart vs British Bulldog - WWF RAW 3/3/97 WWF European Championship Vince is really pushing the first new championship in twenty years and this would be an excellent scientific contest, but that it could devolve into a brawl if tempers flare. Neither really happens. I think it is a great match and very entertaining nonetheless. A match is a bit hard to describe with it being heel vs heel (my least favorite type or match) even with Davey Boy playing de facto face. It was not very scientific outside the usual Stampede chain wrestling sequence at the beginning. I thought they did a good job playing up how well they knew each other with Bulldog avoiding the monkey flip with a cartwheel or Owen avoIding the delayed vertical only for Bulldog to avoid the enziguiri. Loved the flashy Owen arm wringer escape leading to Tthe powerbomb and then catapult was excellent! I remember thinking this match was amazing like match of the decade contender for the WWF. Bulldog does his front handspring and holds the ropes open for Owen. A couple minutes later Owen sends Bulldog to the floor and then he does a front handspring and holds the rope open for Bulldog. Owen feigns a knee injury to sucker Bulldog in and start attacking the knee so Bulldog gets pissed and starts shoving Owen. I thought this was going to bust the match wide open, but it just leads to the heat segment via the spinwheel kick. Owen's transition are too normal in the matches I watch. Honky saying this is not the over 40 crowd made me laugh. Owen starts going after the lower back of the Bulldog and the classic Owen Wooo gets some boos. Owen does have an affinity for the chinlock and camel clutch, which more often than not does not feel like it is adding much to the match. Bulldog takes a powder after a kneelift, gets a sunset flip, chinlock leads us to the commercial break. Back from the break, big belly to belly by Owen, Vince is saying we are giving you action as Owen applies a camel clutch. Electric chair by Bulldog, but Owen is relentless cutting Bulldog off. Loved the superplex spot where Bulldog shifts his weight in mid-air. Bulldog really throws himself into that first clothesline. Here comes Davey Boy! Wish he was more fired up! Nice Bret Bump by Owen, press slam into crotching him on top rope. Great spot! PERFECT GERMAN SUPLEX BY OWEN! That was awesome. See how he just blew off the crotching on tope rope. That's why the match just is not hitting that next level for me. I liked Owen hanging on for dear life to top rope to prevent the running powerslam and when he lets go, Bulldog falls backwards and Owen ends up on top. Great enziguiri into Sharpshooter with rope break was a good setup for Owen's big nearfall. Loved the Tombstone reversal into the Running Powerslam! Should have been the finish. Owen Victory Roll reversed into a Bulldog rollup for the win. They embrace afterwards. I really wanted to like this match as a match of decade contender because I have soft spot for both these guys. I can see the argument that this a spotfest as the match really did not have a hook or a sense of struggle. They just sort of hit moves on each other. The moves were really well done and the match never really dragged. The beginning with the symmetry and Owen feigning knee injury was interesting. Owen's heat segment did not do much for me, felt very standard. There was issues with selling throughout and the moves did not seem to have much in the way of consequence. It is a really good series of moves, but not a great match. ***3/4

WWF World Tag Team Champions Owen Hart & British Bulldog vs Shawn Michaels & Steve Austin - WWF RAW 5/26/97 Shawn Michaels was insanely good in this match. There's a bump he takes off a Bulldog shoulder tackle that is just awesome. Like if everybody took a bump off a shoulder tackle like that shoulder tackles would still be over. In his face in peril segment, he was killing it selling. His movement looked so crisp. I have noticed from other reviews this is a pretty popular opinion so I am going to add this British Bulldog also looked really good in this match. He never ceases to impress me as an athlete. He had very little psychology and was very reliant on who he was in the ring with to construct the match, but he had all the physical tools. I thought he was bumping well and his offense looked great. If we are being totally honest, Austin kinda underwhelmed here. Pop for his entrance was not huge. Michaels started the match red hot with a dive to floor kinda of a dick thing to do when you know your partner cant do it so that kinda showed Austin up. Austin started hot against Owen with lots of energy, but never really did much more. Owen used a nice eye rake on Michaels to get a tag out to Bulldog, which when the aforementioned shoulder tackle occurred. Michaels resorted to a blatant Three Stooges eye poke that I marked out for to bring Austin in. Austin was fine here and in his short ace in peril. Once Michaels tagged back in, Bulldog was bumping for him like mad I started rocking again. Bulldog does the press slam crotch on top rope, which always looks insane. Owen follows up by slamming his back into post. Running powerslam! Austin saves! Owen works a clinic with Shawn (I have watched five Shawn vs Owen matches today. They have great chemistry). They do all the tag staples like the false hot tag and constant cheating. Shawn is working hope spots like sunset flip. Taking crazy back bumps into turnbuckles. It was a short, but very effective heat segment. Owen goes for superplex, but Shawn shoves him off and hits a crossbody. Nice hope spot. Owen misses a charge in corner. HOT TAG TO STONE COLD! Crowd is rocking now! Austin opens a can, but no Stunner, Shawn hits Sweet Chin Music and Austin covers for the three, the tag titles and a nice pop! Hart Foundation attacks Shawn leaving Austin alone with an injured Bret! He almost gets a Sharpshooter before the Hart Foundation hurry to save their fallen leader. Austin and Michaels do the tag team partners who hate each other bit. Fantastic sprint tag team match. Hot shine, bit of a lull (maybe 1, 2 minutes) and then an excellent Shawn Michaels FIP and great finish. Layout was formula, but the Shawn performance was not. No nip up, no typical comeback, some really interesting stuff from him, Bulldog & Owen were on fire too. A little short and just missing that something extraordinary to push it to a MOTYC status. Shawn and Bulldog killed it on this night. ****1/4

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Shawn Michaels vs Owen Hart - WWF RAW 12/29/97 This is not a new hot take by any stretch of the imagination, but it really should have been HBK/Owen for title at Rumble even if HBK goes over. Then you could have Owen go over HBK at Summerslam. Remember no casket match means no back injury, which is really crazy to think about. Shawn Michaels in the Attitude Era proper would have changed a lot of things. Does The Rock get over or does the Kliq try to bury him? How does Austin contend with Kliq politics? How about Shawn vs all the WCW guys in that 99-01 stretch? Awesome, heated brawl. So much has changed since their 96 encounter in how RAW feels and in their characters. Owen is a great pissed off, avenging babyface. I have said before Shawn in this time period is probably my favorite heel of all time. He was on fire in and out of the ring. He took one nutty bump over the rope and stooge his ass for Owen. He made Owen look like a million bucks. Loved the Chyna trip to set up the heat segment. Then on offense don't know if Shawn has ever looked better, the punches, the piledriver, the DDT! Owen mounts his comeback outta the DDT and Owen is just rattling off his badass offense the suplexes and spinwheel kick. Sweet Chin Music vs Enziguiri, BAM Enziguiri of Death! Sharpshooter, but that damn Triple H blasts him in the head with a crutch triggering the DQ and the heel beatdown to send RAW off the air. Hot TV main event sprint, a little short would have been awesome with just five more minutes. Owen looked great here as a bayface, but I thought Shawn both bumping and on offense stole the show. Just an amazing douche heel at this point. Awesome heat! ***3/4

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Shawn Michaels vs Owen Hart - WWF RAW 8/12/96 From the RAW right before Summerslam 96 where Owen's stablemate & friend, Vader would be challenging Shawn. There are also callbacks to the Enizguiri of Death! Typically great match from these two. They mix it up with some spots never seen in this series before. Like Shawn sweeping the leg on the enziguiri attempt and the dropdown on the spin wheel kick. Liked Shawn's shine a lot, energizing, fresh and logical. Owen uses the belly to belly as his transition. Typically strong Owen offense including a nice missile dropkick and his spinwheel kick. Thought Shawn could have gotten in more hope spots. Shawn ducks on Enziguiri attempt and this starts his comeback. Liked the use of powerslam to set up the elbow drop. Vader comes out to cause some chaos. The first Sweet Chin Music is blown. Owen feeds him a second and looks a bit better. Great post-match angle where Vader decimates Shawn. Between this and his victory at International Incident they did build Vader as a monster. Does not have concussion angle of 95 match or fun factor of IYH match, but still very good. ***1/2

Hey yo Stro, loosen up, dude. Shawn Michaels vs Owen Hart - WWF in Your House VI Love this match! Wicked fun! Reminds me of 80s Southern wrestling with the fun antics up front leading to a serious heat section. The Shawn going to high five the fans, only for Owen to do everyone booing him and Shawn hitting the reverse crossbody to the floor is one of my all time favorite sequences. Not to be outdone, love the hair pulling shit they work. The transition is Owen's belly to belly. There were times when I thought Owen was working a little slow like the camel clutch, but overall I thought his offense looked great and Shawn was selling well. The powerslam to the floor and the missile dropkick was a great one-two punch. Owen even gets the Sharpshooter. The real drama kicks in when he hits the Enziguiri of Death! Awesome, awesome sell by Shawn stumbling and collapsing through the ropes. Owen throws him back in 1-2-NO! I smell a comeback and its red hot. Loved the Enziguiri vs Sweet Chin Music duel and BANG! Shawn hits it! He is going to Mania. One of the most fun Shawn Michaels matches of the era, nice to let your hair down every once and a while and just have some fun. This was that old Southern feel with the heels looking like idiots, but then getting their heat with some classic Shawn selling with the interesting hook of Shawn's concussion history and Owen having the enziguiri in his back pocket to the great finish. This one always puts a smile on my face. ****

Shawn Michaels vs Owen Hart - WWF RAW 11/20/95 Right on the heels of the Diesel quasi-shoot promo where he outed Vince as the boss, WWF runs another huge angle with Shawn's collapse in the ring based off the Syracuse Incident. The match itself before the monster angle was really damn good. Shawn vs Owen is always a damn good time. Really liked Shawn's shine lots of movement and energy and playing to the crowd. Owen was great bumping for him. Owen catching with a clothesline over the top rope and then blasting him with a baseball slide was great. Is Owen the king of the baseball slide? Owen's heat segment on Shawn is awesome! German suplex, backbreaker, spinwheel kick among other things. Owen was in such a groove and Shawn is great at selling peppering in hope spots like a backslide. Owen goes for a superplex, but Shawn shifts his weight. Great spot! Shawn runs through his comeback in grand fashion. He really had the crowd behind him. He goes for Sweet Chin Music, but Owen hits the Enziguiri of Death and Shawn goes down in a heap. I thought that was end, but there's more. Shawn actually gets up and fights off Owen's Sharpshooter and manages to clothesline him out and skin the cat back in. So he gets a big pop for that and then gets woozy and collapses! That was an even better way to handle the angle. If they just did the enziguiri everyone would have thought it was a part of the story. By having him fight off Owen and then collapse, they really blurred the lines. Great execution from Shawn's selling to Owen, Cornette, Vince and Lawler's reactions. All time great angle that really bolsters an already very good match. ***3/4

Stumbled on this promo before the Shawn vs Owen match. Really great by Nash, lots of conviction and emotion. He sounded like Nash. Unlike some of the stilted Diesel promos where he seemed to be putting on a lower voice than he really has and tried to emote a badass vibe. Here he was a pissed off ex-champ and he rocked it. I wouldn't say this was as shooty as some thing later on. But it feels like the first of its kind in WWF. I think this is a reaction to reality-based angles in WCW and ECW. Showed WWF not only could hang with those promotions but be ahead of them in some ways by bitching about the promoter and how they were being handled by Vince. Good explanation of a heel turn but also with some shades of grey. Well-done. This seems like turning point for the WWF. Diesel title reign was rock bottom for WWF. It would take until 1997 and the Bret/Austin double turn to make WWF red hot, but this started the gradual upward trend.

Camp Cornette (Owen Hart, British Bulldog, Yokozuna) vs Diesel, Shawn Michaels, & Undertaker - WWF RAW 10/09/95 WWF 1995 Main Event scene EXPLODES! It is pretty incredible that for the last third of 1995, Jim Cornette was the leader of the number one heel stable and Bulldog was the number one heel basically. Shawn is IC champion here this right before him getting his ass handed to him by the Marines. The babyface shine is fun. Shawn and Owen have such a great dynamic with each other. Its a shame they did not get a PPV main event in 1996 or in late 97 or early 98. I liked them sending Owen & Bulldog into Yoko and then the double big boot to Yoko. Diesel/Davey Boy don't have much chemistry which is unfortunate because they are main eventing the next PPV. Undertaker and Yoko was kinda fun. Yoko threw Shawn Michaels down! Good transition to heat. The heat segment is the real treat here. Owen and Bulldog pick Shawn apart with some really great Hart offense. Davey Boy looked great with his press slam and delayed vertical suplex. Shawn was great at selling. Owen misses top rope splash. Shawn tags in Diesel and in shocking fashion, Bulldog actually gets one over on the WWF champion thanks to some assistance from Owen. Running Powerslam, Taker saves but Yoko drops the leg and gets Bulldog the win. Wow! I guess they wanted to put some heat on Bulldog. Fun match with Owen and Bulldog working great against Shawn. Good stuff. ***

Owen Hart vs Davey Boy Smith - WWF RAW 06/05/95 KOTR Qualifying Match Love their 1997 RAW match, never seen this before. Just a great pro wrestling match. Love the ups and downs of the shine. They move in and out of armbar so well. Davey Boy uses that as a base, but they have a lot of motion like monkey flips, press slam and hitting the post. Owen bumps so well so add excitement to the match. Builds perfectly to the Bulldog's delayed vertical. Great climax to the shine. Before you know Owen moves to his heat with a keelift, great sense of timing. Go to ad break and come to find there is a 15 minute time limit so that telegraphs the finish. Owen's spinwheel kick and then raising his arms with a Woooo is how I remember Owen. Bulldog makes his comeback outta chinlock. Nice catapult, Fisherman suplex, upside down surdboard, cool set up into Bulldogs powerslam. Owen get his foot on ropes. Great series of nearfalls adds to the drama as Gorilla counts down the time limit. Real time time calls to audience would have helped. Nice, tight wrestling match that built well to time limit draw, both wrestlers came out looking good. ***1/2

Owen Hart vs Razor Ramon - WWF King of the Ring 1994 On paper, this seems like it would be at least a good match. But it is not. It is very meandering at the beginning. There is no rhythm. They are just throwing stuff out there. Then Owen hits a spinwheel kick and his heat segment is short and weak (rope burn and ab stretch). Then Razor starts his comeback but there is no real fire. Super back suplex wakes the crowd up. Backdrops Razor out on Razor's edge attempt. Anvil attacks Razor revealing he was on Owen's side all along. Macho Man posits that Anvil wanted Bret to retain the title so Owen could win the title from Bret. I just wanted to memorialize this somewhere, as we all know Lawler/Piper main evented this show. Gorilla Freakin Monsoon shouting out about the "New Generation being alive and well" while Roddy Frekaing Piper is making his entrance against Jerry Freakin Lawler was hilarious. The New Generation references were more annoying than Art asking how much everyone weighed.

Owen Hart vs 1-2-3 Kid - WWF King of the Ring 1994 One of my all-time favorite matches, just an incredible sprint. You see Double J hits three piledrivers on the Kid after their match. Shows the difference between 1981 Georgia (Gordy three piledrivers on DiBiase) and now Kid is out here. Owen WIPES THE KID OUT WITH BASEBALL SLIDE! Best Baseball Slide Ever! Owen's suicide dive through middle rope is outta control. They set the tone early on that they were going to kick ass. Kid gets some hope spots like reverse cross body and nice spinwheel kick. The execution is so good here. Kid's big hope spot is Northern Lights Suplex and the ref counts three, but Owen's foot hooked the rope. Awesome spot! Kid somersaults over the top rope to the floor. Great! Kid looks to pull off the upset, but Owen catches him with a Deadlift German! Sweet! Nice Belly to Belly, Kid tries to use his speed, but Owen catches him with the MUTHA OF ALL POWERBOMBS! Sharpshooter ad it is academic. Incredible sprint. Owen and Kid looked awesome here! Just nonstop action! ****

WWF World Champion Bret Hart vs Diesel -WWF King of the Ring 1994 Trying to clean up some blind spots in the WWF. All Bret/Diesel matches have the same core backbone but they get better with more fleshing out and Diesel getting better. This seems like the more natural dynamic with Diesel as heel but Bret is so good at face vs face matches that this match is the least of the three. The hook of the match was who would be in Brets corner to counteract Shawn Michaels. HBK is such a great douche in prematch promo. I love how Bret has to create openings to get his shine going with Diesel missing big boots and a knee in the corner. His shine is more heel in peril working the leg but it is over and the figure-4 is highlight. The posting gets a pop but Shawn decks him with a surprisingly hard clothesline. The Shawn/Anvil chase is a real highlight very entertaining. I like that it takes quite a bit for Diesel to earn his heat segment. Elongated transitions are the best. The missed pescado and he crashed and burn puts Diesel in drivers seat. Diesel's heat segment goes too long in my opinion. Bret does his best to throw himself into his bumps. Shawn tries to help by removing the turnbuckle pad but he who sets up the spot takes it trumps him. Bret sends him into exposed steel and FIVE MOVES OF DOOM~! Bret clobbers Shawn on apron and Shawn takes a great bump. Bret eats a huge big boot, great spot and wrinkle. Diesel is slow to capitalize and Bret trips him up into a unique Sharpshooter but Nash is too close to the ropes. At some point, I forget when, Diesel does a great job stumbling around for Bret punches. Finish is HBK clobbers Bret with title but ref is distracted. Diesel hits the Jackknife. Anvil interferes to trigger DQ. Finish was weak. The explanation I assume is that Anvil wants the title on Bret for Owen. Just a very good match nothing extraordinary. ***1/2

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Diesel vs Bret Hart - WWF Royal Rumble 1995 All hail Bret Hart, king of the babyface vs babyface match. Bret would have been an excellent understated travelling NWA World Champion. Bret is the challenger so he is ultra-aggressive but he runs into the Mack Truck that is Diesel. I really enjoy Big Sexy as a character and a shoot interview, but in the ring he underwhelms 95% of the time due to his inability to bump, stiffness (in like an awkward not flexible way), his lack of aggression. Nash is a pretty big dude, but more often than not he does not feel big. Bret made him feel big. Bret prompts a shoving war by taking him into the ropes. Then loses a battle of fists. He goes for a crossbody and gets caught thrown to the mat. Nash feels like a force. From the outset, Bret has the subtle heel touches not to heel Diesel. The first really overt one is picking the leg and dragging him to the post and wrapping it around the steel. Really solid leg work and loved the figure-4 repeatedly. It just makes sense. Nash's selling leaves a lot to be desired. LOVED Bret's dive through the ropes tackling Diesel. Awesome spot that added some spontaneity to the match. Diesel reverses a whip into the steps. Nash runs his usual corner offense, sidewalk slam. Teases jackknife and goes with Argentine Backbreaker nice hope spot from Bret, but eats Big Boot. Bret catches Diesel charging, but I love this little touch that Bret needs to go to the middle rope to get a clothesline to knock Diesel off his feet because earlier in the match the clothesline was ineffective. Here is the wrist tape spot, which would be done better at Survivor Series with the cord. This sets up the Five Moves of Doom section of the match. Love that Bret goes for another dive to the outside, but gets caught and rammed hard into the post. Bret was really good at setting up repeat spots in this match. Diesel hits the jackknife. Then I remember I have seen this match before because all of sudden it occurred to me Shawn Michaels was going to interfere, but they were not going to call DQ. Weird. Michaels attacks the bad wheel of Diesel, Bret reapplies the figure-4 and Bret goes back to work even slamming a chair over it. Still no DQ? Alright this ref is being consistent. Bret finally goes for the Sharpshooter, but now Owen interferes. Ref is adamant that there must be a winner. Owen exposes the turnbuckle pad and rams Bret into it. I watched this match last night and am doing this all on memory. At some point, in Bret's third heat segment (second on the leg), he takes a really unique Bret Bump where he charges in and Diesel moves slightly and Bret hits the pads hard and really sells well. So the exposed turnbuckle shot to the chest by Owen is an escalation based on that. Now the match turns into a knock down drag out affair with fists flying. I thought Diesel's selling was a lot better here really milking it before he finally left his feet. We get the Bret playing possum spot getting inside cradle. The O'Connor Roll takes out ref and here comes the heel locker room, HBK, Double J, Backlund and Owen to finally draw a the No Contest. It is a real testament to Bret's vision on laying out a match that I was able to wake up this morning and write this review with no notes. But when you tell a coherent story that goes from A->B-> C. It is not that hard to remember! I really want to highlight that this was very well done in regards to momentum shifts. Bret establishes he cant win a battles of fistcuffs and power with Diesel. He must take him off his feet. He has a challenger's mentality so he is very aggressive with the pescado. But on the outside he loses the advantage. He then takes to the air to get him off his feet, but he needs to use a trick to really cement his advantage. That ultra-aggressive mentality almost costs him the match when Diesel catches him rams him into the post and then hits the Powerbomb. Michaels saves re-setting up the leg work. Bret takes that really cool Bret Bump, but is able to recover to try to apply Sharpshooter and now Owen comes in. They have a heat finish, a fun Bret possum spot and schmozz. It highlights Bret Hart as a master of Realpolitik and Diesel as a force. I think Nash just adds almost zero to this match like this is a really obvious carry job. The Survivor Series match is way better, but I think this should be commended for Bret's ability to string a bunch of memorable spots along in a really logical fashion. This may sound weird, but I think I found the match I would show non-wrestling fans because the story is clear and there is no misstep to the narrative and the spots are memorable, but also not super great so they wont get false expectations and/or not a appreciate a master piece. Great entry level wrestling match and I guess when you are working with Nash that's what happens. ****

My friend just got back into wrestling in the past couple years. Asked about some all-time great WWF/WWE matches. So I put together a list of all matches ever promoted by a McMahon that I have given 4.5+ too. And Big Dave, we know only one thing is worthy of ****** and that is Maryse because Maryse is so hot. http://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/2017/01/best-wwf-wwe-matches-of-all-time.html

The problem is eventually some nearfalls are false finishes and they go one or two too far and the heat is in the false finish not the finish.

UNNECESSARY ROCK INTERFERENCE!!!! He was fucking handcuffed. Gimme a break!

Tajiri vs Steve Corino - ECW Hardcore Heaven 2000 Cyrus may be the worst character ever. So friggin annoying. Apparently, I saved the best for last. This friggin' ruled. Corino, Victory & Cyrus turned on Tajiri. Big mistake. Corino goes a racist tirade and Tajiri kicks his fucking head off. The kicks and chops were awesome. Great intensity from Tajiri. Corino is such a great cowardly heel. Great set up for Tarantula. Victory well-used to give Corino a heel hope spot. BRAINBUSTER ON THE RAMP! Corino does a five alarm blade job. Bleach hair soaked in blood. Corino has some dark, gross blood. Tajiri dropkicks a table into Corino's face. Tajiri is awesome! Corino backdrops Tajiri into a table. OH MY GOD! A GREAT TRANSITION! Corino is awesome at this old school gimmick with all the suplex variations that never get done in ECW. Hell he busted out a powerslam. I am trying to think if I have ever even seen a powerslam in ECW. Corino gets all caught up with the table. Should have stuck to the old school Finish sequence is awesome. Tajiri gets the Octopus here comes Jack Victory. GREEN MIST~! Tajiri unloads on Corino. I mean just rapid fire kicks and punches. He never lets up and the crowd just builds to a huge pop. Tajiri final kick to the face is just brutal. DOUBLE STOMP THROUGH THE TABLE!!!! Awesome match and a feel good ending! Got to be a top 5 ECW match of all time! ****1/4

This match and HHH/Cactus from Rumble are on the same level??? Transition were 8 million times better in HHH/Cactus. Tajiri vs Super Crazy - ECW Hardcore TV 1/21/00 Mexican Death Match Joey Styles and Joel Gertner do not get enough discussion about being the worst announce team ever. Brutal! JIP as Tajiri dropkicks Crazy in the head. Joey tries to make some BS that because this is a Mexican Death match the violence will be escalated, but whats stopping them from doing that in a straight ECW match. Tajiri stacks up the chairs and dropkicks them in Crazy's face. He juices. The following segment is by far the best part of the match as Tajiri is just so damn good here. First he is skipping chairs off the table trying to decapitate Crazy but they go sailing into the crowd. It is legitimately dangerous but does create an aura of sadism and insanity for Tajiri. The double stomps through the table was awesome. Love that move to begin with never seen it done through table. Tajiri mocking Super Crazy's selling is without a doubt the highlight of the match, Tajiri Is God. Biggest problem with the match has been my problem in general with Tajiri matches in ECW, transitions, transitions, transitions. Crazy just jumps on offense and hits a top rope quebrada and before we know it they have arena brawling and moonsault from bleachers through a table. We get it you're good at moonsaults. Back in the ring, he busts Tajiri open with punches! Now that's more like it. It starts to get a little my turn, your turn. Tajiri shows he can match highspots with Crazy with Asai moonsault into the crowd. Super Crazy's missile dropkick may be the best missile dropkick I have ever seen. We got some tables. Tajiri's kicks are just incredible in this match. The finish is Tajiri mists Super Crazy in the powerbomb position, but Crazy finishes the move through a table to get the win. I thought this was a great spotfest with the blood, Tajiri's insane charisma taking their usual very good match and making this feel special and great, Still without better transitions it feels too spotty to say it is in the upper echelon of great brawls or great death matches. Tajiri Rules All! ****

Tajiri & Mikey Whipwreck vs FBI (Little Guido & Tony Mamaluke) - ECW Hardcore TV 9/2/00 Tajiri & Whipwreck are insanely over! The Hammerstein Ballroom is molten for this! The match is quick short, but is so damn fun. Incredible babyface shine that has the crowd absolutely rocking. Those kicks by Tajiri goddamn! Mamaluke was awesome bumping and stooging. Mamaluke & Guido took the awesome offense of the Unholy Alliance and made it even better with their selling and bumping. Guido & Mamaluke work a short heat segment. When Mikey hits the Whippersnapper (Stunner) you would think Steve Austin just fucking hit the Stunner the crowd EXPLODED!!! Tajiri just killed it on the hot tag. Super Whippersnapper into a dropkick flush in the face wins it for Tajiri and Whipwreck. If you watch just this match, you would never know ECW was a dying promotion that would close four months later. My only complaint, too short, this was super fun. ***3/4

I did not notice any weird edits, off hand. Interesting. There was one obvious blown spot with Psicosis coming off the top and just sort of falling backwards. He did not really do anything. I think Tajiri was supposed to catch him and powerbomb him. Definitely a miscommunication.

Yoshihiro Tajiri vs Psicosis - ECW Hardcore TV 8/26/00 Psicosis was one of my childhood favorites because his badass mask and his insane bumping. So I always love hearing about a pimped Psicosis match and this one did not fail to deliver. Incredible opening stretch. Just beautiful chain wrestling and excellent lucha libre tumbling passes. The ECW crowd was red hot for this. They loved every second. Chanting E-C-DUB and Psicosis got a lucha libre chant. It was a bit too pretty and they did the standoff a lot, but hey this was actually cool submissions and armdrags so I was marking out at home sixteen years later. Great transition with some really intricate nearfalls leading to Tajiri getting a modified backslide and then headbutting Psicosis in the nuts and kicking his head off. Tajiri was awesome in this. The kicks were out of this world and just so charismatic. Psicosis takes his patented nutty turnbuckle bump out of the ring, totally out of control and nearly wipes out the chick. This is definitely a big highspotfest as the transitions are lacking, but the highspots are great as Psicosis takes control and does that insane over the top rope into the crowd dive! HOLY SHIT! Gets me everytime! Psicosis takes his ass first bump into the top turnbuckle, but this time he ends up in the Tree of Woe to set up that dropkick to head. Tajiri comes back with some kicks, but cant get the brainbuster and Psicosis goes for some cradles. Psicosis he hits his big nearfall which is his awesome guillotine legdrop. Love the transition to the finish. Psicosis goes for a flying bodyscissors probably third attempt...Tajiri kicks him in the balls. Then just MURDERS him with kicks to the fucking face. Like Holy Shit Kicks! ECW crowd is marking out huge for these kicks. Incredible high energy spotfest, Psicosis looked in prime form with his bumping and Tajiri is an offensive machine. ***3/4

Yoshihiro Tajiri vs Jerry Lynn - ECW 10/30/99 Wait! Tajiri wrestled other people in ECW besides Crazy & Guido??!?! Tajiri injured Lynn's ribs prior to this match. Great intensity from both men something that Lynn is usually sorely lacking. Lynn did a good job selling his ribs early even on things like doing his own back suplex. This really gave Tajiri a target to work on. Tajiri came to play with his chops and kicks. Dropkick to the head, which is a staple. The chair shot to the head busted Lynn open. What really put this over the top for me was Tajiri driving a wrench into the open wound and then choking Lynn with his sash. Lynn choking in turn and then the sight of him bloodied but coming back with chairshots and German suplex was great. Loved using the chair to block the Green mist. Got a little my your turn down the stretch. Loved the backbreaker out of the tombstone by Tajiri. Really liked Tajiri's performance, but could have stayed more focused on the ribs. Lynn gets cradle piledriver, which calls in Corino and the Living Legend Jack Victory that did get me to chuckle. In all the hullabaloo, Tajiri recovers RED MIST TO THE FACE and kicks his head off, BRAINBUSTAHHHHHH for the win. Best Tajiri match thus far and probably the best Lynn singles match I have ever seen. Blood and intensity carry this match. ****