Posted June 29, 201015 yr comment_5452548 8/1/98 Ultimo Dragon vs. Saito Sick Boy vs. Julio Sanchez Kendall Windham vs. Disco Inferno** Juventud Guerrera/Psychosis vs. Villano IV/V** 8/9/98 The Gambler vs. Hugh Morrus Vincent vs. Frankie Lancaster* SUWA vs. Jerry Flynn** Sick Boy vs. Hardbody Harrison British Bulldog/Jim Neidhart vs. Steve & Scott Armstrong Man, Sick Boy was really bad. Kendall looked completely awesome in his Disco match. The lucha tag was only 4 minutes but all action. Vincent looked like an absolute monster in his squash: Huge bump, and just laces in to Lancaster. SUWA leans in to all of Flynn's kicks and they look great. Sick Boy did have a nice fistdrop in the 2nd match.
July 8, 201015 yr Author comment_5452887 1/3/98 Harlem Heat vs. La Parka/Silver King Dave Taylor/Steve Regal vs. Jim Powers/Bobby Walker** Konnan vs. Johnny Boone Mark Starr vs. Lorenzo DDP vs. Fit Finley** Go figure, DDP vs. Finley was fucking awesome. Regal was full on awesome alcoholism comedy in his match. Here's a weird thing though: Dave Taylor got a babyface hype video. It was very tasteful, he talked about his family's history in wrestling, and how excited he was to compete in America. Complete babyface. Then he and Regal come out and start instantly getting into it with fans. Regal was bloated as fuck and drunk off his ass here, but was completely hilarious and awesome. He was Tracey Smothers and he did it amazingly. Posing for the crowd, bumping goofy, just being completely awesome. Him taking a drop toe hold from Jim Powers was amazing. Full on arms flailing and it was perfect. And I had no idea there was a non-Finley Lorenzo match. He almost kills Mark Starr with a horrible northern lights suplex.
July 8, 201015 yr comment_5452899 From your description, it seems like that Regal match should be a must have on the set.
August 26, 201015 yr Author comment_5454992 1/11/98: Curt Hennig vs. Booker T Villanos/Damien vs. Lizmark Jr./Juventud Guerrera/Hector Garza* Chris Benoit vs. Konnan This was crummy. The first match was cut, and that was Bobby Eaton getting a WIN. I would've want to see this. This wasn't that good of a show, although the lucha tag was super fun as expected, just only 4 minutes long.
September 25, 201015 yr Author comment_5456265 6/13/98 Buddy Lee Parker vs. Chris Adams* SUWA/Magnum Tokyo vs. La Parka/Psychsis** Rick Fuller vs. Brett Hamner Mike Tolbert vs. Van Hammer Saturn vs. DDP 6/20/98 Glacier vs. Todd Griffiths Fidel Sierra vs. Wayne Bloom Kidman vs. Bart Sawyer Johnny Swinger vs. Evan Kourageous Bobby Eaton vs. Barry Horowitz* Barbarian vs. British Bulldog I don't remember episodes of Worldwide having this many matches! By the time I got cable WW was 40 minutes of recap with 2 matches tacked on at the end. Buddy Lee leans WAY far into Adams' superkick but the match only goes like 2 minutes. Lucharesu tag was pretty awesome although SUWA had not become my favorite in the world yet (as he would go onto become, during that period when Finlay didn't wrestler). I don't know who Brett Hamner was but jeez were WCW jobbers juiced up. Rick Fuller should've gotten pushed more. His piledriver finisher looked really good. I don't know who Mike Tolbert was but jeez were WCW jobbers juiced up. Saturn/DDP doesn't go long either. Todd Griffiths looks like Johnny Swinger (who wasn't available to job as he was getting a WIN! later in the show) and Glacier hits a nice icicle kick or whatever it's called. Wayne Bloom shows up in great shape in 1998 and completely squashes Fidel. He looked really good doing it, but Fidel got NOTHING. I don't know who Bart Sawyer was but jeez were WCW jobbers juiced. Eaton/Horowitz was looking like a sure thing, as Barry was getting legit heat in Orlando, and then Bobby started firing off beautiful right hands and hit an amazing knee drop from the top, and that was all she wrote. Only 3 minutes, but an awesome 3. British Bulldog in '98. Yep. He definitely was in a match here.
September 26, 201015 yr comment_5456292 Assuming it is "Smart" Bart Sawyer. He is tiny guy from Portland (one of many tiny Portland dudes), who was a Rock tag partner in USWA, had a run in Music City Wrestling and probably ended up in WCW as a Roddy Piper "bag carrier" for awhile. Better known for mic work and mugging than any ring work.
October 2, 201015 yr Author comment_5456540 6/27/98 Psychosis vs. Prince Iaukea Frankie Lancaster vs. The Cat Barry Houston vs. Norman Smiley** Silver King vs. Lorenzo* Ultimo Dragon vs. Booker T** Psychosis worked Iaukea's arm most of the match and the Prince got out of place for a couple things. Meh. Lancaster worked over the Cat's leg and knee for 80% of the match, but then Cat didn't care and just did his springy kicks. Houston/Smiley was completely awesome and Barry Houston might need a Complete & Accurate soon. Every match he's in he works a different style. Him and Norman do some engaging wristlocks and bridging sequences, then it breaks down into them kicking each other and Norman kicks Houston in the face while he's down, then Houston gets up and kicks Norman in the spine while HE'S down. Nice lariat by Houston, followed up with some fine liver kicks. Norman catches a kick, nastily kicks him in the knee of his base leg, and clamps on a rolling kneebar for the win. Yes, please. A THIRD Lorenzo match!! Man this guy was...simply Lorenzo. This match is notable for Silver King GETTING THE WIN! I wasn't sure where Lorenzo ranked on the B-Sides hierarchy, as he beat Mark Starr, but got demolished by Finlay. Losing clean in a competitive match to a luchador not named Rey or Juvy means you are LOW on that totem pole. Match itself was not bad at all, with some good back and forth. Ultimo/Booker was really fun and competitive and had some nice hope spots towards the end. The fans were going nuts when Ultimo reversed a backdrop into the dragon sleeper. Nice kicks by Ultimo and he was wearing his badass gold/back/red get-up. Booker throws a great missile dropkick for a big guy and this was tons of fun.
October 3, 201015 yr Author comment_5456571 7/4/98 Vincent vs. Marty Jannetty** Lenny Lane vs. Spike Moore Magnum Tokyo vs. Bobby Blaze* Villanos vs. High Voltage** John Nord vs. Goldberg Wow, what a weird fucking episode. First off, Marty fucking Jannetty (!) gets a clean pin over a member of the nWo halfway through 1998! WHAT!? Vincent looked awesome here, hitting an assortment of fistdrops and "Hitman" style elbow drops. Then Jannetty somehow gets the win. Insane. Did not see that coming. Fun match. Spike Moore I have NEVER seen before. Was wearing a pirate skull shirt and kinda looked like Droz. Match was close to getting nominated, before Lenny sold a roll up like a clothesline and then they just awkwardly cut to a finish. Moore hit his shoulderblocks really hard and looked decent. Blaze threw some fine suplexes and Tokyo grinded his crotch in Blazes face a bunch, and Larry Zybszko kept calling Magnum "The Japanese". WTF? Villanos/High Dosage was totally awesome, with Villanos looking great as always, and RAGE and KAOS hitting their fun springboard power moves and bumping shockingly well. RAGE and KAOS were a pretty damn fun team looking back. Good times. WHAT THE FUCK was Goldberg doing on WORLDWIDE in the middle of 1998!?!?!?!?!? How many months ago was this taped!? Why was John Nord wrestling in 1998!? What the hell was happening here?
October 5, 201015 yr comment_5456798 1/17 Doc Dean v. Steve Regal** Barry Horowitz v. Hardbody Harrison** Dave Taylor v. Mike Anthony Norman Smiley v. Manny Fernandez* Hard Work Bobby Walker v. Rick Fuller Giant v. Louie Spicolli 1/24 Vincent v. Giant Super Calo v. Barry Houston** Silver King v. Lizmark Jr. Yuji Nagata v. DDP John Nord v. Roadblock Chris Adams v. Randy Savage* -Regal and Dean was the most WOS I have seen those guys work, a lot of amusing Johnny Saint stuff. Regal was really fat and awesome at his point -Horowitz goes over which is just bizarre, Harrison half braids and half conk is amazing. Love Horowitz's pin combo -Taylor looked great, but Anthony was a nothing -I assume a roided dude working as a jobber with the name Manny Fernandez is a rib on the real Manny. He kind of stunk, but Smiley did a bunch of cool throws and ended with a sweet kneebar. Deserves a look -Why is Bobby Walker squashing Rick Fuller? -Calo v. Houston was an awesome trainwreck. Houston is awesome, hits a crazy asai moonsault off the weird Worldwide ramp. Two or three things were really blown, but in a fun way. -Lizmark v. Silver King was a less awesome trainwreck, Lizmark Jr. may have always sucked -Chris Adams gets in more offense then I would have guessed, but doesn't hit his superkick cleanly. I have no memory of Miss Elizabeth being this active, as the whole match was built around her interfering.
January 31, 201114 yr Author comment_5463592 My buddy Charlie was down from Portland and we had picked up several 6 packs earlier in the day and had been putting them to good use all afternoon. At some point around midnight he wanted to watch wrestling, which was odd as he hadn't watched wrestling since the boom period of '98-'01. So I threw in some '98 WCW which is the greatest wrestling to watch drunk. I apparently reviewed this show way back in June of last year, but I had double copies in my spindles, as this one was mistakenly labeled 9/26 & 10/3/98, and none of it seemed familiar. Like, none of it. Also realized that I didn't give it much of a full review, as I was formatting them differently back then. So this is the retro RE-REVIEW of these shows, with new, UPDATED RATINGS!!! 8/1/98 Ultimo Dragon vs. Saito** Sick Boy vs. Julio Sanchez Kendall Windham vs. Disco Inferno******** Juventud Guerrera/Psychosis vs. Villano IV/V** 8/9/98 The Gambler vs. Hugh Morrus Vincent vs. Frankie Lancaster* SUWA vs. Jerry Flynn** Sick Boy vs. Hardbody Harrison British Bulldog/Jim Neidhart vs. Steve & Scott Armstrong* Dragon/Saito was good fun as a teacher/student match should be. Saito is now Super Shisa in DG I think, and he looked real good here eating Ultimo's offense. Saito got to do a ton of moves and the crowd was way into it. Ultimo threw a spin kick that caught Saito right under the chin and it was great. Sick Boy was not a good wrestler. And I will forever hate Sanchez since ECW used him regularly as a wrestler while employing Chris Hamrick as a manager. Travesty. These guys looked like mirror images of each other here, one in cutoff shorts, one in tights. These guys weren't great. Although Sick Boy's pedigree really plants guys painfully. He doesn't let go of the arms like HHH. This might sound like hyperbole to some, but Kendall vs. Disco might be the best WCW match I've seen since starting this project. The only ones that could compete with it are Benoit vs. Big Train Bart (Necro's trainer) from '95, Kendall/Barry vs. B.A./Swoll from '99, Hak vs. Bull Pain from '99, and Raven vs. Kaz Hayashi from '99. Kendall vs. Disco was just too completely awesome and -- no joke -- made Kendall look like one of the best in the world. Kendall's left hand is arguably the greatest punch in wrestling...EVER. Seriously. It looked like a million bucks in this match. Kendall punched Disco the whole time, stomped him in the corner, kicked him hard in the stomach, and MAN did Disco sell it all well. He sold each of Kendall's punches perfectly, whipping his head back, writhing on the ground holding his face. Disco's comebacks were peppered in perfectly as well with a great swinging neckbreaker and a piledriver that Kendall took and sold GREAT! This match was awesome and Kendall just looked like a monster, completely badass. Disco helped that out to a big degree. These guys made each other look great and this was just a killer match that gets a bunch of time, like 7-8 minutes. Villanos IV & V vs. Psychosis/Juvy was a short fun sprint with some big dives, a big springboard dropkick, Psychosis dumping himself on his own head, and good times had by all. Morrus really stinks and Gambler is a guy I've always dug but gets even better the more I see him. Morrus is always really selfish in his squash matches, taking like 90% of them with so-so offense. Gambler had a nasty back elbow and not much else. Vincent vs. Frankie Lancaster was a real nice Vince showcase and he really made the most of it. Just stiffs up Lancaster the whole match, takes a big bump for him, and ends it with one of the nastiest arm bars I've seen. He did a single-arm DDT and looked like he just posted Frankie's wrist right into the mat and then wrenched it into a great Fujiwara armbar, but working it from his back. Just awesome. SUWA match! SUWA at one point was my favorite wrestler in the world, but that was like 6 years after this match. I'm not even sure Toryumon had started at this point. Flynn's matches are always best when his opponent doesn't mind being a punching bag (erm...kicking bag). When he's in with a bigger star, usually that guy won't take any of his stiff kicks. But lower card guys and foreigners? Yeah. You're getting kicked. SUWA was not the biggest dick in wrestling as he would become a few years later, but he still was doing stuff like eyepokes and snarling at all the wide eyes in the crowd. Flynn kicks him a bunch and this was good. Sick Boy vs. Hardbody Harrison wasn't that good, to the surprise of everybody. Bulldog/Neidhart vs. Armstrongs was a good little tag, with Armstrongs getting plenty of offense and heeling it up. Bulldog has looked pretty lousy at other points in WCW, but he looked alright here. But these kinds of matches are almost always the Armstrong show, and an Armstrongs tag that gets 6+ minutes is almost always going to be good.
