Posted June 17, 201015 yr comment_5452111 1/5 Chavo Guerrerro Jr. v. Billy Kidman Dean Malenko v. Jerry Flynn** Steiners v. Maxx Muscle/Rick Fuller Hector Guerrero v. Super Calo** Meng v. Johnny Swinger High Voltage v. Amazing French Canadians 1/12 High Voltage v. Robbie Brookside/Doc Dean Public Enemy v. Power Company Steve Regal v. Billy Kidman** Dean Malenko v. Hack Myers** Mortis v. Mark Starr** Barbarain v. Jeff Jarrettt 1/19 Brad Armstrong v. Kenny Kendal Big Bubba v. Tony Mella Rena Jubuki v. Sonoko Kato** Cheetah Kid v. Billy Kidman* Mr. Wallstreet v. Steve Armstrong Joe Gomez/Renegade v. Harlem Heat 1/26 Eddie Guerrerro v. Rick Thames** Bobby Eaton v. Bill Payne** Kaoru v. Medusa** Juventud Guerrera v. Rey Mysterio Jr.** 2/2 Alex Wright v. Butch Long Kaoru v. Sonoko Kato** Konan v. Jerry Flynn Dean Malenko v. Rey Mysterio Jr.** 2/9 Faces of Fear v. Armstrongs Ciclope v. Miguel Perez Jr.** Chris Jericho v. Mr. JL** Eddie Guerrerro v. Psicosis** Akira Hokuto/Kaoru v. Madusa/Meiko Satomura**
June 20, 201015 yr Author comment_5452180 2/16 Jerry Flynn v. Billy Kidman* Meiko Satamura v. Malia Hosaka** Rey Mysterio Jr. v. Chavo Guerrero Jr.* Alex Wright v. Sonny Trout Faces of Fear v. Chris Benoit/Arn Anderson** 2/23 Horace Boulder v. Mr. JL* Chris Jericho v. Scott Armstrong Dale Hunter v. Psicosis Sonoko Kato/Meiko Satamura v. Akira Hokuto/Kaoru** Miguel Perez Jr. v. Steve Armstrong** Rey Mysterio Jr. v. Ciclope** 3/2 Amazing French Canadians v. Johnny Drayton/Lonnie Jay High Voltage v. Southern Posse Bunkhouse Buck v. Chavo Guerrero Jr. CUTS OFF IN MIDDLE 3/9 Hardbody Harrison v. Disco Inferno Prince Iaukea v. Doc Dean Sgt. Craig Pittman v. Alex Wright Dean Malenko v. Mr. JL* Public Enemy v. Faces of Fear**
June 23, 201015 yr Author comment_5452308 3/16 Bobby Walker v. Jerry Flynn 3/23 Steiners v. Southern Posse Eddie Guerrerro v. Chris Benoit Glacier v. Robbie Brookside Hacksaw Jim Duggan v. Max Muscle Kevin Sullivan v. Chavo Guerrerro Jr. Dean Malenko v. Ultimo Dragon*
January 3, 201114 yr comment_5461377 This show was listed on the DVD as 1/5 and 1/12. Phil reviewed them awhile back. But the shows were actually from 8/3 and 8/10. I got a little suspicious when they kept talking about Road Wild and being in the middle of summer. 8/3 Chavo Guerrero Jr. v. Billy Kidman Dean Malenko v. Jerry Flynn* Steiners v. Maxx/Rick Fuller Hector Guerrero v. Super Calo** Meng v. Johnny Swinger** High Voltage v. Amazing French Canadians Chavo/Kidman was their standard 4 minute match. Nothing really spectacular or memorable. Phil loved Malenko/Flynn but I thought it was merely OK. It came off less like brutal BattlArts and more like a couple amateurs who were fans of BattlArts. It came off as a slightly better version of Samoa Joe vs. Angle "MMA Match" that Meltzer shot a load over. There's no decent matwork transitions to be found here. Dean gets a submission, Flynn gets to the ropes. Flynn gets a submission, Malenko gets to the ropes. Minimal struggle, no danger, no story. Just a bland subs exhibition. There were some cool individual moments, a nice leg scissor takedown but as a whole was really disjointed and would be widely ridiculed if this was done by Davey Richards and Roderick Strong. I like both guys, and it's unique as nobody else was doing this on American TV in 1997, but it ages poorly 13 years later. I had higher hopes for Steiners vs. Maxx/Fuller. Rick Fuller is a guy who looks a LOT like Abyss but is a better worker in every way imaginable and can get thrown around nicely by the Steiners. Maxx was the type of juiced up choad who the Steiners eat for breakfast. But this wasn't very brutal or devastating, and wasn't a very impressive showcase for the Steiners. Hector vs. Calo was a whole bunch of rollin and tumblin and a good time. I'm not sure how much TV time Hector got (I know there was a really short Eddy match from a Nitro that was good while it lasted) but for a guy in his early 40s at this point he was real spry and agile. Meng vs. Johnny Swinger was completely great and I have no idea how Phil could not even give this one *. This rivals the Finlay/Swinger matches for best Swinger beatdown. Meng is the most vicious I've seen him so far (even more vicious than in the Meng/Finlay match!) and just brutalizes Swinger. Swinger is really great at taking a beating which is kind of a shitty attribute in a fed with Finlay, Meng, and Regal. Meng just throws him around and the highlight was easily Meng's dropkick where he gets complete horizontal and on even level with Swinger's head. I had no idea Meng could get that kind of height once he added on extra weight! Swinger more than does his part by running into it HARD face first. He gets a hilarious comeback as he throws a dropkick, Meng swats it away and screams, throws another dropkick that slightly staggers Meng, but then turns around and starts celebrating and making all these flashy Zorro arm chop movements to the crowd making fun of Meng....and of course turns RIGHT back around into the Tongan Death Grip. Meng doesn't just clamp that thing on here either, he THRUSTS his hand up into Swinger's throat and it is nasty and this was AWESOME!! High Voltage is kinda growing on me with more viewing and the French Canadians ain't bad, but this just doesn't really click. I always love Jacques' show-off kip up spot, and it gets a great reaction from the crowd here, but Oulette doesn't get much time and I don't even remember how this finishes. Just kinda there.
January 3, 201114 yr comment_5461384 8/10 High Voltage v. Robbie Brookside/Doc Dean Public Enemy v. Power Company Steve Regal v. Billy Kidman** Dean Malenko v. Hack Myers** Mortis v. Mark Starr** Barbarian v. Jeff Jarrettt I wanted to like the opener, just because the British team was nice and goofy in it, but it was really rather short and High Voltage didn't bring much to the table here. Oh goodness. If you polled a casual viewer and asked them to guess which team is dead today, I'd have to imagine that most would guess the team that looks like they consist only of protein and pills. Power Company are just ridiculous (that's Dean and Dave Power to you, though Schiavone doesn't know that so just keeps referring to them in the plural sense when one of them does a move: Power Company with a dropkick!). One looks like Joey Maggs at his most bloated (if Maggs lifted more often), and the other looked like a bloated Davey Boy Smith a couple days post-mortem. As you can imagine this was completely awful, although the crowd shots of the yokels doing the hot steppa PE dance are always classic. Regal/Kidman was real good with it being a nice extended squash and Regal laying down a beating on Kidman. The Regal Stretch was applied extra painfully. It was always a treat to see him apply it to a smaller skinny guy, as opposed to a larger, less-flexible juicer. Malenko/Myers was a ton of fun and I didn't realize Myers worked much WCW. It makes sense with the Florida connection and all, just didn't think it happened. I think he really could have caught on in WCW as a syndie-show face. Nobody in the crowd here knew about the Shah thing, but they could've learned real easily. He has an awesome look with his big scraggly beard and hair. He and Malenko worked a real nice match here that was as good as any Hack match I've ever seen. Hack threw a great uppercut here and this was nice and random. Mortis/Starr almost has to go on the set just because I don't think Men At Work ever got a blowoff match. I mean, the match itself was real fun as Starr is a good worker who doesn't get his stuff featured a lot, and Kanyon was a generous worker who let guys get good runs in when they were jobbing. But we needed more backstory of WHY these two blue collar men at work ended up so differently just 18 months later. Was really looking forward to Barbarian/Jarrett, but the DVD cut it off right as it was beginning. Like sand through the hourglass...
January 4, 201114 yr comment_5461471 I had no clue Hack Myers worked Malenko in WCW but I really feel like I have to see it.
January 9, 201114 yr comment_5461726 4/13 La Parka vs. Super Calo* Jim Powers vs. Hardbody Harris Ernest Miller vs. Glacier Jeff Jarrett vs. Johnny Swinger Molly McShane vs. Madusa Scott & Steve Armstrong vs. Southern Posse* Amazing French Canadians vs. Faces of Fear Wow this episode was not good. Parka/Calo had its moments but was realllly sloppy and almost every move either guy did the other had to awkwardly shift into place to take. Still, the sloppiness kinda added to it and made the moves seem more dangerous and reckless. Powers/Harris (not sure why he wasn't "Harrison" yet) was about as godawful as you can imagine. Powers had to have been pushing 40 here and was as jacked as ever. This is about as fitting a coda as any for his awful career, given his sad retirement letter from a month ago. All the weak clotheslines and kneelifts you could ask for, and Harris doesn't help at all, always falling early and weakly. This was just no good in any way. I was telling my girlfriend earlier that Bischoff had the karate guys go over move sequences for hours, and one time it worked (Bash at the Beach '97) but every other time it made the matches look like the most awful choreographed exhibitions ever. And this was that. This looked like a deleted scene from Only the Strong. Just awful slo-mo karate chops and kicks and sweeps. The Cryonic Kick ending was awesome though as Miller leaned way in and Glacier blasted him right in the jaw. Ouch. JJ/Swinger was meh. Swinger is a guy who can take a hellacious beating, in a fed where there are TONS of guys who can give hellacious beatings. JJ was not really doing brutal beatings in WCW. JJ works some finesse here and Swinger matches are usually at their best when he is just getting his nose beaten in (see the Finlay and Meng matches). No idea WCW had a women's division in '97, just thought they were pushing Jacqueline as "on par with da boyz". Schiavone points out that "Madusa" stands for "Made in the USA" which I honestly had no idea about. McShane was a redhead and this was a pretty forgettable 150 second womens match. Not bad, but nothing notable. OK, this is the THIRD Armstrong Brothers match IN A ROW that I have watched, that they have won. Before this project I was convinced that they had never won a match as a tag team and now it's happened three times in a row. Their finisher is like the Hart Attack, but instead of a clothesline, it's with a missle dropkick. Pretty awesome finisher actually. We can make a whole section on "Armstrong Bros. WINS" for the DVD. FOF vs. AFC could have been awesome, but didn't get much time and had a couple mistimed spots that were ugly.
January 9, 201114 yr comment_5461727 I had no clue Hack Myers worked Malenko in WCW but I really feel like I have to see it. I had no idea either! That's one of the best things about the set. I never check match listings before watching a DVD, and just randomly pick them out of the stack, and I love all the weird match ups that get thrown at me. This was a real fun match and as someone who has likely seen a lot of Hack six mans, you would love this. I'm sure I can figure out a way to get it to you.
January 15, 201114 yr comment_5462010 4/20 Chris Benoit vs. Rick Fuller Scott Armstrong vs. Dean Malenko Kevin Sullivan vs. Johnny Swinger La Parka vs. Jeff Jarrett* Harlem Heat vs. Steiner Bros. This show looks better on paper than it actually was. Benoit/Fuller was real short with Benoit not doing too much and then kinda locking on the Crossface out of nowhere. Armstrong/Malenko was a holds exchange which could have been fun, but never really got going. Felt like the first 5 minutes of a 12 minute match. Malenko started working the arm and Scott sold it real nice, firing back with his good arm. Then Malenko just kinda powerbombs him and wins with the Cloverleaf after working the arm for 4 minutes. Sullivan/Swinger could have been a big beatdown on Swinger, but most of the match was spent showcasing Jacqueline doing basic wrestling moves to get her over as being "tough as da boyz", then the announcers toasting a load over her doing moves. Actual quote from Schiavone: "She did a snapmare! Ladies and gentleman, she just snapmared Johnny Swinger!!" Could've been a fun beatdown, but was just Swinger getting thrown to the outside the whole time. Parka/Jarrett was goofy fun, as JJ was working a southern schtick as Parka was working a lucha comedy schtick. Parka climbed to the top, JJ threw him off. JJ climbs up, Park throws him off. Park climbs back up, JJ dropkicks him to the floor. Back in, Park starts chopping JJ and slams him, then lands a super stiff senton on JJ's chest from the middle rope. Ouch. Sadly, it ends real short with JJ just locking on a figure 4. Goofy styles clash while it lasted. Steiners vs. HH is probably the longest match I've watched for this project, getting almost 14 minutes. And most of it kinda stinks. Booker looked good with some stiff forearms and his kicks landing nicely, and also letting Scott throw him around. But Rick and Stevie looked so fucking bad during this. Rick looked completely out of it on pills, so much so that Tony and Bobby spent the whole match talking about how he must be having problems with his equilibrium. His performance peaks with him taking Booker's axe kick while standing perfectly vertical. Ends predictably in a double DQ.
January 15, 201114 yr Author comment_5462066 6/8 Chris Benoit v. Dave Taylor ** Greg Valentine v. Johnny Swinger * Lizmark Jr./Psicosis/Juventud v. Villano IV/Galaxy/Ciclope Dean Malenko v. Hector Guererro** Roadblock v. Ice Train** Harlem Heat v. High Voltage -Benoit v. Taylor was as stiff and violent as that promises. Valentine lays a nice beating on Swinger and the crowd was super into Valentine whcih was cool. Lucha trios had fun Villano IV but everything else was a mess. Malenko v. Guerrerro was great, fast as fuck, and Dean was getting blown up trying to keep up with old man Hector. Roadblock v. Ice Train may have been as stiff as Benoit v. Taylor and the best Ice Train match I have seen 6/15 Prince Ieakua v. Jerry Flynn High Voltage v. Amazing French Canadians Bobby Eaton v. Johnny Swinger* Rey Mysterio Jr. v. Dave Heath* Hack Myers/Bunkhouse Buck v. Public Enemy** La Parka v. Chris Jericho* Bobby Eaton lays a nice beating on Swinger who is great at taking a beating, top rope knee was especially nasty. Gangrel v. Rey is more weird then good, but my be weird enough to put on the set. Hack Myers/Bunkhouse Buck is the most WCW as US WAR team in the world, match was perfectly fine Public Enemy 1997 match and has great Shivonie commentary trying to justify the legality of PE putting Hack through a table. Jericho v. Parka was kind of sloppy mess, but an entertaining sloppy mess including an awkward as fuck tope off the elevated stage thingy.
