All week over at Segunda Caida I'll be watching and writing about every single Berzerker match I can find. I'm starting with his WWF debut as the Viking. Props to Matt D, who could be found on this very board telling people to go watch Berzerker matches back in 2013. It took me awhile, but I'm doing it. All of them.

 

http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2017/02/73-shockingly-great-berzerker-matches_20.html

 

Please join me and comment along

AWESOME. I'll be keeping tabs on this. John Nord could've been a way bigger deal than what he was. Maybe it was the gimmick and the promos that held him back, but damn, that dude could GO in the ring.

11 more Berzerker matches, including the Valentine match which started this whole project:

 

http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2017/02/73-shockingly-great-berzerker-matches_21.html

More cool stuff: a great match against Bret, and underrated Survivor Series tag where he's the clear star, awesome 5 minute war against Barbarian

 

http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2017/02/what-happened-to-berzerker-we-cant-look.html

That Manowar comment got a good chuckle outta me. I'ma check out that Bret match this weekend.

Haha thanks! It was impossible not to notice. Here's his best Bulldog match, a really good match teaming with Shawn Michaels in SWS, Boss Man singles match, The 92 Rumble AND a Battle Royal; this review is jammed pack:

 

http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2017/02/you-wont-believe-what-doctors-dont-want.html

 

And here's a bunch more, including the infamous Undertaker match to set up a house show run, and a WAR trios with Haku, Tenryu, Ultimo Dragon and more!

 

http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2017/02/berzerker-beat-dead-man-using-this-one.html

Very entertaining read. Thanks for doing this.

I'm happy you're reading it! There's...startlingly more to come.

The Barbarian match was a pretty fun hoss battle although not as long as I would have liked. Those two would actually wrestle again on Nitro during Nord's WCW run and I remember watching that a few years ago thinking it was also a pretty fun hoss battle.

Nord can still lay claim to having the greatest bad T-shirt of all time during his WCW run.

 

Phil Schneider on Between the Sheets convinced me to check out some early Berzerker squashes and I just caught the knee-first-dive-to-the-outside for the first time. Holy shit! I have no memory of him doing that.

More Berzerker! Here's him in a fun match against Koko, a Bret match not anywhere near as good as their earlier singles match, and two fun big name tags with he and Papa Shango vs. Undertaker/Ultimate Warrior, and he and Flair vs. Savage/Undertaker.

 

 

http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2017/03/berzerker-tried-blue-apron-what.html

I remember for a brief time they were building an Undertaker feud, sometime after WM VIII. The stand-out image was his sword planted in the middle of the ring aimed at Taker before he moved. That was pretty heavy to watch at the time.

His character was always intriguing to me, I definitely need to check out some of these matches

Man, someone his size should not be able to bump the way that he does. He feels like he's coke-fueled and running about 100mph. He's definitely a lot of fun & a helluva lot more entertaining than I remember him being!

 

The first bump he takes into the turnbuckle in the Valentine match is nuts! The video quality isn't great but it looks like Valentine even cracks a smile like "wtf are you doing, you nut?" Good stuff.

FINALLY more Berzerker!!

 

http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2017/05/23-things-berzerker-should-never.html

 

We get an awesome match where he outbumps Hennig, and a wonderful newly uploaded handheld vs. Backlund. Also, a good Virgil match. Virgil recently commented on Twitter about how underrated Berzerker was. Hmmmmm...clearly he's been following the project.

The first bump he takes into the turnbuckle in the Valentine match is nuts! The video quality isn't great but it looks like Valentine even cracks a smile like "wtf are you doing, you nut?" Good stuff.

 

 

That horizontal turnbuckle bump turns up a few times, but it never looked quite as nuts as it did against Valentine. What's even better is the bump actually makes sense within his moveset, as a torpedo shoulderblock was something he broke out against bigger name opponents. It's nice when a signature bump is based off of actual offense that typically hits.

WWF MSG 10/28/1991 - Bret Hart vs The Berzerker

 

From: http://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2017/05/wwf-msg-10281991-ic-title-bret-hart-vs.html

 

Bret Hart beat The Berzerker with a crucifix pin. Man this was good. The Berzerker was just great. He bumped big and he went 100 MPH at all times. There's not a lot of other sprinty bumping big dudes but he really pulls it off here. I got a ton of laughs out of watching him and this was one of the more fun matches I've watched in a while. Bret was as good as always here. He sold for everything and slowed it down enough to get you invested. He sold really well too. They got a bunch of time too. The story of the match was Bret knocking the Berzerker out of the ring multiple times early and then the Berzerker slowing it down with various holds until Bret made his big comeback at the end. Really fun pro wrestling and this will make you want to see more Berzerker. Rating:***1/2

 

Some shots from the match:

 

This is a year removed from his Berzerker run, but I really liked Nord in this tag w/ Hansen against the Youngbloods. The whole match is a real nice 10 minute slab of classic tag wrestling:

 

http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-bad-news-berzerker-goes-to-japan_15.html

This post on Nord has motivated me to put together a little 3 or 4 disc set of some of his work, i enjoyed his work in WCW in 97 & 98, especially his team with Darsow