WCWSN 1/10/98

 

El Dandy v. Juventud Guerrera**

Barry Horowitz v. Bill Goldberg

Jim Duggan v, Mark Starr

Ernest Miller v. Glacier

Fit Finlay v. Meng**

Brad Armstrong v. Joey Maggs

Renegade v. Cury Henning

Booker T v. Disco Inferno

Rick Martel v. Mark Truran

DDP v. Chris Jericho

 

WCWSN 1/17/98

 

Bobby Walker/Bobby Eaton v. Faces of Fear

Chris Adams v. Dave Taylor**

Lizmark Jr. v. John Nord

Silver King/Psicosis/La Parka v. Rey Mysterio Jr./Super Calo/Hector Garza**

Johnny Attitude v. Lenny Lane

Louie Spicolli v. Marty Jannetty*

Prince Iauekea v. Bobby Blaze

Public Enemy v. Disorderly Conduct

Rick Martel v. Hardbody Harrison

Steiners v. Scott Norton/Vincent

WCWSN 1/3/98

 

Bobby Eaton v. Meng

Evan Couragous v. Chris Jericho

Konan v. Norman Smiley

Juventud Guerrera v. Mortis*

Mondo v. Louis Spicolli

Fit Finlay v. Hard Work Bobby Walker*

Hugh Morris v. Frankie Lancaster

Disco Inferno v. Brad Armstrong

Disorderly Conduct v. Barry Darsow/John Nord

Curt Henning v. DDP

6/13

 

Perry Saturn v. Damien 666

Dean Malenko v. Evan Karagias

Booker T. v. Barry Horowitz

Chris Jericho v. Chavo Guerrero Jr

Juventud Guerrera v. Billy Kidman*

 

6/20

 

Yuji Nagata v. Hardbody Harrison

Van Hammer v. Reese

Stevie Ray v. Dale Tolbert

Diamond Dallas Page v. Eddie Guerrero*

5/2

 

Hacksaw Duggan v. Barry Darsow

Chavo Guerrerro v. Kidman**

Jim Neidhart v. Curt Hennig

Booker T v. Chris Benoit **

8/22

 

Jim Duggan vs. Brian Adams

Psychosis vs. Kidman

Tokyo Magnum vs. Juventud Guerrera*

Kanyon vs. Saturn

Chris Jericho vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.*

Scott Hall vs. Konnan

 

This episode kinda stank

4/18/98

 

Disco Inferno vs. Johnny Attitude

Jim Duggan vs. Tony Carr

Van Hammer vs. Chase Tatum

Marty Jannetty vs. Horshu

El Dandy vs. Evan Kourageous**

Chris Jericho vs. Lenny Lane*

Ray Traylor vs. Bret Hanmer

Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Trevor Blanchard**

Scott Steiner vs. Jerry Flynn**

Reese vs. Barbarian

 

Man, look at those first three matches. I did not have high hopes for this episode but it really turned around.

 

Johnny Attitude was not as bad as you remember. However, I don't remember Johnny Attitude.

 

Tony Carr is exactly like Craig Pittman, same exact gear. Red USMC shirt, camo pants, same haircut. I remember kinda liking Pittman though, and Tony Carr had the worst strikes on this episode. Worse than Chase Tatum. Worse. Than Chase Tatum.

 

El Dandy match was short but automatic nomination because it's a singles match that Dandy wins! He works the mat with Evan who looks petrified and just kinda lies there while Dandy does cool stuff to his legs. Dandy pops the crowd when he kicks a kneeling Kourageous in the face. Tenay and Hudson put over Dandy's punches the whole match, and it builds to Evan hitting the pussiest chops (like almost HBK bad) on Dandy in the corner, which Dandy sells by rolling his eyes and punching Evan in the face and winning. Dandy won with his punch. He threw his super awesome bunch, and then won with it. That is fucking awesome.

 

Jericho/Lane wasn't bad, about what you'd expect. I really love mugging heel Jericho.

 

Bossman/Hanmer was just awful. I didn't even know Traylor was still in WCW at this point, and he looked gassed real quick here. Hanmer puts him in a neverending bearhug, Bossman does some nice punches to get out of it, then goes to bite him in the face or something, but Hanmer has NO clue what Traylor is doing, and struggles to get away...while HOLDING him, and it looks EXACTLY like Traylor is trying to forcibly KISS Hanmer. Everything gets really weird. And then they fuck.

 

I had never heard of Trevor Blanchard before, but he IS related to Tully and Lee Benaka did an interview with him 20 years ago, and he looked really awesome here. Bitching about hair pulls, taking the tornado DDT right on his head, throwing some great uppercuts. I want to see more of this Blanchard.

 

Steiner threw Flynn around and looked totally gassed, and Flynn hit some boss kicks that Steiner bumped big for them (Flynn hit a nasty one right under Scott's chin). This is what I expected it to be, and it delivered.

 

OK. Barbarian/Reese was the main event. The whole episode Tenay/Hudson pushed how dangerous Reese is, how he is enormous, how they hoped the ring was fortified to handle a man as huge as Reese, what would happen if Goldberg fought Reese (how would he get him up for the Jackhammer!?)....and then Barbarian takes 70% of the match and gets the clean pin. What the hell?

4/25/98

 

Lenny Lane vs. Glacier*

Barbarian vs. Super Calo

Scott Norton vs. Rick Steiner

 

Well that was a disappointingly short episode. Lane/Glacier was really awesome, but really short. Lane took all Glacier's kicks really nicely and had some fun comeback offense including a really nice lariat. If it was one more minute it would be a sure-fire nomination, as it stands I still think it's in the "maybe" pile.

 

Barbarian/Calo was a squash. Calo's offense consisted of him jumping on Barbarian's back.

 

Norton/Steiner wasn't too bad. Steiner throws a nice elbow drop and I'm always amused by Norton. This had a ref bump and was about what you'd expect.

 

They recapped Goldberg winning the TV title on Nitro against Raven, and the match was just as much fun now as when I watched it with my buddies in high school. Raven looked really good and thew some shockingly awesome punches and flew nuttily into the guardrail a couple times. Awesome finish as the whole Flock runs in and gets demolished by Goldberg until he nails Raven with the spear/jackhammer. The crowd was going insane the whole last 2 minutes. I miss Goldberg.

12/26/98

 

Nick Dinsmore vs. Norman Smiley

Fit Finlay vs. Lizmark Jr.*

Fidel Sierra vs. Meng

Shiima Nobunaga vs. Saturn

Bobby Blaze vs. Alex Wright

Stevie Ray vs. Konnan

 

Smiley/Dinsmore was fine but nothing really special.

 

Finlay/Lizmark was by far the most offense I have ever seen from Lizmark Jr. in WCW, and I'm not really sure why that is. This was a fine Finlay performance, but when Lizmark botched a leapfrog I 100% expected the next 4 minutes to be a horrific beating of Lizmark...except he then just went on offense for awhile. I mean, Johnny Swinger blows a leapfrog, he's gonna get a wicked beating. Lorenzo blows a hip toss, he's gonna get a vicious beating...why was Lizmark spared?

 

Fidel/Meng was 8 seconds long.

 

Shiima/Saturn had some of Saturn's softest work ever (and he's a guy who could work real soft) with slo-mo superkicks and Shiima hitting a few spin kicks that kinda sorta maybe hit.

 

Blaze/Wright wasn't too bad and 80% of the match was taken by Bobby Blaze. Still, some chinlockery and 3 different times Wright stalled by "walking out" on the match.

 

Stevie Ray/Konnan might have literally been THEE WORST match I've seen since I started reviewing these matches. I mean, good lord, these two looked awful. Just...awful. So...awful.

98 Stevie Ray is a WOAT candidate

4/4/98

 

Psychosis vs. William Worthy

Kidman vs. Evan Kourageous

Rick Fuller vs. Prince Iaukea*

Chris Adams vs. Hardbody Harrison*

Brian Adams vs. British Bulldog

 

Man, I am not randomly picking discs out of the stacks very well today.

 

I'm starting to think Psychosis didn't match up very well with a lot of people. I mean, I can't fault him for a poor match with WW, but he hasn't shown me too much so far watching the B-Sides. I'm still waiting for just a GOOD Psychosis syndicated match, let alone a great one.

 

Kourageous is just terrible. Awful punches, forearms, awkwardly getting into position for everything. Just terrible. This match had him doing a quebrada when Kidman wasn't even anywhere near him, just doing one to nothing. I swear Kidman and the ref exchanged a WTF look.

 

Fuller/Iaukea was fun and if the finish built more instead of just outa NOwhere! then it would get the vaunted **. Fuller was a good hand, nice to see him get a bunch of offense.

 

Jeez did Hardbody Harrison look like a creepy guy who trafficked sex slaves. Good night nurse, he had his beard and cornrows bleached blonde and was wearing the Zach Ryder one-legged pants and just oooooozed creep. Adams looked in real good shape here and pasted Harrison with a clothesline and had a decent match with him.

 

Man Bulldog looked bad here. Adams actually looked better than I remember, hitting a beautiful snap piledriver and a sweet press slam. Bulldog sold a bearhug like a dude passed out on pills being woken up slowly. Hennig runs in and that's that.

4/11/98

 

Scott & Steve Armstrong vs. Ultimo Dragon/Kaz Hayashi**

Bobby Eaton vs. Chris Benoit**

Fit Finlay vs. Booker T**

Curt Hennig vs. Jim Neidhart

 

Yes! The wrestling gods have smiled upon me for sitting through Stevie Ray/Konnan! THIS was a fine episode of wrestling right here.

 

Kaz continues his unexpected run as B-Sides MVP, hitting a beautiful swanton into a baseball slide dropkick, then going up top to hit a huge senton. This match was only 2:45, which is a shame as it was just balls out awesome. Still, all killer no filler.

 

Eaton gets 90% of this match until Benoit locks on the Crossface and it's over. It was nice seeing Bobby get a bunch of offense.

 

Finlay/Booker was just awesome, as Finlay leans WAY into Booker's sometimes sketchy kicks, making his head whip right into the mat on the axe kick and flying across the ring for the missle dropkick. Booker takes a massive bump over the top to the floor and this is just wonderful.

 

Main was actually going alright until the inevitable Brian Adams run-in.

Jeez did Hardbody Harrison look like a creepy guy who trafficked sex slaves

My favorite part of that story was that it was built on a wrestling school scam. He lured the women in as part of a wrestling school. Then put them to work hauling lumber and whoring. His defense was that this was the wrestling school, like this was all Mr Miyagi style training and that the women were getting into better shape.

 

Someone should find his contact in prison and get him to review this season of NXT.

So I looked the story up and my memory was surprisingly accurate including his defense that the women left his program "in the best shape of their lives":

 

 

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/14663979/detail.html

 

the one detail I forgot was the 9th woman.

 

He was convicted of charges including conspiracy, witness tampering, aggravated sexual abuse, forced labor, and sex trafficking involving eight women.

 

The jury acquitted him of all charges involving a ninth woman

The secret origin of Mona's mystery partner Fantasy??

The case was handled by federal prosecutors because the suspects transported the women on interstate highways, provided them with condoms that were manufactured outside Georgia and used mobile phones.

Seriously?

 

WRT Fantasy did she ever show up again?

1/10/98

 

El Dandy vs. Juventud Guerrera**

Barry Horowitz vs. Goldberg

Jim Duggan vs. Mark Starr

Fit Finlay vs. Meng**

Joey Maggs vs. Brad Armstrong**

Curt Hennig vs. Renegade

Disco Inferno vs. Booker T**

Mark Truran vs. Rick Martel**

Chris Jericho vs. DDP**

 

OK, Phil didn't seem like he dug this episode too much, and I thought it was really awesome. But that's Phil for you, Mr. Negative.

 

Juvi/Dandy is a slam dunk as it's a Dandy match given time and he gets to throw a couple awesome punches and a stiff kick. Juvi bumps directly on his head and Dusty is on fire spouting really odd stuff at perplexing times like "Dandy has himself a full head of curly hair!"

 

Barry/Goldy was Barry patting himself on the back and getting speared while doing so. Awww.

 

Duggan/Starr could've shaped up nicely, but Duggan was doing that thing where he just walks around like a goof and no sells everything, even nice punches. Starr tries but Duggan was not game today.

 

Finlay/Meng was just about exactly what you would expect. Which is to say it was completely awesome. Both of these guys came in rocking mullets, and both of these guys stomp and elbow each other for the whole match and don't really let up. The finish is pretty spectacular, as Finlay sells the Tongan Death Grip better than any man in the history of wrestling. Once Meng locks it on, Finlay instantly starts eye gouging, punching, headbutting, kicking, etc. all while Meng is trying to force him to the ground by his throat. Usually people just get it locked on and drop, but Finlay always finds new and awesome ways to make old spots fresh. My one complaint is that Meng didn't work stiff enough. Both guys seemed a bit cautious at times. Maybe they were told to tone down certain spots in front of a family crowd?

 

Maggs/Armstrong was completely awesome, as I don't remember BA's cocky heel persona very well. He was just constantly posing and mugging, and Maggs got some surprisingly fun comebacks for a guy I've never thought looked good.

 

Hennig/Renegade actually wasn't too bad either. I didn't even realize Renegade was still around at this point.

 

Disco/Booker was one of those matches where you go "Oh yeah, Disco Inferno could be really fucking good sometimes". He was pretty flawless here and the perfect foil for Booker's offense. Booker always has a nice missle dropkick for a guy his size and Disco bumped all over for his stuff.

 

This has to be right around Martel's return to wrestling and he looked really good here, and the fans respond to him really well. But who is this glorious jobber!? Truran was AWESOME, first coming to the ring wearing a duster and carrying a boomerang (What the fuck!?!?) and then having really great punches and missing great jobber offense like a somersault leg drop. This has to go on because it might be the best one-off appearance by a jobber in WCW B-Sides. I don't think this guy turns up again and I've never heard of him before, but he ruled. Anybody?

 

Jericho/DDP was really fun and DDP could really lay in the clotheslines. Jericho bumps great for him and gets plenty of offense in, and also gets to do a lot of his awesome taunting kicks to a laying opponent. He also tears up Dave Penzer's tuxedo jacket postmatch, after just replacing it with a new one prematch. Awesme.

12/5/98

 

Glacier vs. Barry Horowitz*

Chris Adams vs. Chip Minton

Silver King vs. Disco Inferno

Tokyo Magnum vs. Barry "Hole in One" Darsow

Scott & Steve Armstrong vs. Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko**

Scott Putski vs. Bobby Blaze

Buddy Lee Parker vs. Meng**

Kaz Hayashi vs. Kanyon**

Lash LeRoux vs. Scott Steiner

Scott Hall vs. Booker T

 

Glacier/Horowitz was nice and competitive and I'm a sucker so I actually thought Horowitz might win it. He usually doesn't get comebacks so late in matches, and he did in this one. He also got a lot of offense in, including a really nice running high knee.

 

Adams/Minton (the feud over who was "World Class") could have been better, started to get real good and then Minton just won out of nowhere with a standing splash. Lame. Just Adams controlling, and then immediately getting pinned with a standing splash.

 

Silver King/Disco was disappointing, just a bunch of your move/my move with no real logic or selling thrown in.

 

Darsow/Magnum got me excited, Darsow jumped him before Magnum could sink a putt with two awesome elbow drops, then pounces on him and starts choking him out with a putter, bending and wrapping the thing around Magnum's throat!! Yes!! But then he just walks off, no match. This started out awesome, too bad.

 

Armstrongs vs. Benoit/Malenko was fucking killer. Armstrongs hit some rad armdrags that Benoit bumps great for, then Benoit stiffs the shit out of them, then Malenko plays FIP while Armstrongs hit some rad double teams that they didn't get to bust out that often, before hot tagging Benoit and then killing the Armstrongs. They hit a rad Doomsday Device variation on Steve and then Dean locks in a brutal Texas Cloverlead. This was everything you expected and more, awesome match.

 

Putski/Blaze. Golly, Putski was just about as boring a wrestler as you could be. He didn't really do anything fundamentally wrong here, but everything about him screams "fast forward". So bland.

 

I'm gonna say it, but Buddy Lee/Meng was even better than Finlay/Meng. I had mentioned that at times it seemed like Finlay/Meng were kinda holding back on each other, as if WCW higher-ups told them to not kill each other in front of housewives and small children. Well Buddy Lee and Meng just hit each other in the ears and face and chest and this is nasty. Finish is not as cool as the Meng/Finlay finish, but still really cool as Meng gets the TDG and Buddy Lee tries to arm drag out of it, but Meng rolls through on the ground and keeps it locked on. Awesome.

 

Kaz/Kanyon continues Kaz' streak, but Kanyon was real fun here too. Kaz continues to break out new offense, and Kanyon was a guy who will do some new offense. Real charismatic guy, real shame. Kanyon threw some nice punches here and found some cool ways to reverse Kaz moves into slams. Real fun stuff.

 

Steiner/Lash was fun for what it was, Steiner being hideously juiced and stiffing Lash while letting women in the crowd feel his body before locking on a REAL painful Steiner Recliner. I had blocked out "Slick" Johnson as the nWo ref. What an obnoxious human.

 

Hall/Booker wasn't too bad but ended short with a roll-up by Hall.

2/14/98

 

Dave Taylor/Doc Dean vs. British Bulldog/Jim Neidhart

Renegade vs. Sick Boy*

Len Denton vs. Jerry Flynn

Villanos vs. Disorderly Conduct**

Yuji Nagata vs. Chris Adams*

Kendall Windham vs. Meng**

Frankie Lancaster vs. Marty Jannetty

Silver King/El Dandy vs. Juventud Guerrera/Super Calo**

Rick Fuller vs. Hugh Morrus

Konnan/Vincent vs. Steiner Bros.*

 

Taylor/Doc is a fun team and Taylor got to control a bunch early here, really picking on Bulldog. Even when he was bloated and pilled up Bulldog always kinda woke up against stiffer competition. Taylor rocks him with some uppercuts here and Davey made a chinlock look really good during this period, as his face was so bloated and purple already that it really got over that he was having the life choked out of him. Of course you know who was going over here but it was a nice finishing sequence with Davey hitting the powerslam and Neidhart tagging in for the first time to hit his slingshot shoulder tackle (then running and tackling Taylor with a super stiff shoulderblock).

 

OK...something might be wrong, as I...kinda sorta liked Renegade vs. Sick Boy. Neither guy really looked good at all, but they were a couple of big guys exchanging big moves. Something about it worked for me. It was like a heavyweight X Division match, your move my move, but something about it worked. It was short and enjoyable. Renegade looked way less like Warrior at this point, and a lot like Lorenzo Lamas, TV's Renegade. Sick Boy had a bunch of stuff he usually didn't hit well, but kinda hits it well here (including a mean springboard back elbow that took Renegade's head off). Call me crazy, this wasn't bad.

 

Denton/Flynn had an odd set up, as Disco came out to face Denton, and gave him a Chart Buster (which Denton sold like a fish out of water, all flopping like mad). Then Disco left, and Flynn came out to face Denton. And the match started and Denton got up and worked a match like he hadn't just been hit with a stunner. Real odd. Flynn beats him real quick though, throws some nice kicks, and Denton takes a sick DDT right on his head.

 

Villanos vs. Disorderly Conduct is pretty much a Saturday Night B-Sides dream match. It will finally answer the question of who is lower on the WCW totem pole. I'm pretty sure I've never seen either team win a match, so the answer iiiiiiisssssss........Villanos! The Villanos are above Mean Mike and Tough Tom!! I genuinely didn't know how this one would go (again, one of my favorite things about WCW syndicated programming). Villano V was just super awesome in this, really beating the shit out of MM and TT. Favorite spot was when V5 was thrown into the ropes, and Tom kneed him from the apron as he hit the ropes. V5 just turns around, punches Tom in the face, then punches a charging Mike. Awesome. For the record, the Villanos finishing move is a crossbody from the top rope, while the opponent is on one of the Villanos' shoulders. I don't know if it got used again, as I wasn't aware the Villanos ever won even one WCW match.

 

I really liked Nagata's WCW run, and he was really fun to play as in WCW vs. nWo Revenge for the 64. This match wasn't long, but they threw in a lot of spots, with both guys getting cool throws, and Glacier running in and blasting Adams with an Icicle Kick to the back of the head, allowing Nagata to get the Nagata Lock.

 

Kendall Windham is fast becoming my favorite WCW late 90s wrestler and this match ruled. There were no slams or nothing like that, it was all strikes for 4 straight minutes. Kendall throws a mean left hand Meng mixes up his shots with cool body blows. Both guys just throw punches for 4 minutes, roll to the floor and throw punches, back in the ring for more punches. Kendall dodges the Death Grip a couple times, but Meng finally just boots him in the face and locks it on. Awesome stuff.

 

On a roster that had some dated looking guys in 1998, I don't think anybody looked as dated as Marty Jannetty looked in '98 WCW. Match was pretty short with Marty looking good and Lancaster looking like the most gassed dad you've ever seen. Marty really planted him with the Rocker Dropper, too. If some dude had already sued a previous employer because of my finishing move breaking his neck, I personally would be careful doing it in the future. But that's me.

 

OK, you got a match between Juvi/Calo and Dandy/SK. Juvi has a mask vs. title match with Chris Jericho in a week or two. Who goes over in this match? If your answer was "El Dandy pinning Juvi", then you would be correct. Of course nobody in a million years would have ever guessed Dandy getting the fall in any match, let alone over the Juice, let alone over the Juice in a match a week before the biggest WCW match of the Juice's career. What's more, the ref was out of position for the pinfall and distracted, so Dandy held the Dandy Roll for over 9 seconds and it still got the 3 count. One of the odder and more unpredictable finishes I've ever seen. I love you WCW syndicated TV. Everybody looks great in this and they all get to hit pretty spots. Cool headscissors galore, and Dandy gets to nail his great punch.

 

Morrus threw a stiff clothesline and nailed his "run up the ropes, turnaround clothesline", but then overshot his moonsault. I'm a big Fuller fan but he didn't get much here.

 

Well Vincent looked AMAZING in the main, and he took a crazy beating from the Steiners. Scott almost dumped him on his head with a belly to belly, Rick gives him the fasted and most dangerously painful Oklahoma Stampede I've ever seen (running him full speed stomach first in to the buckles, with Vincent's knees whipping over the top rope. If Steiner had been offline then one of his knees would've shattered into the ringpost), powerslam off the top, etc. It gets to a point where Vincent tries to tag out and Konnan backs away, and Vincent's face is priceless. He then gets bulldogged off Scott's shoulders for the loss. Fun match I wasn't expecting much from (since Konnan may be the worst in WCW...him or Stevie Ray).