Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Randy Starr vs. Van Hammer

Randy Starr vs. Van Hammer - WCW Saturday Night 3/28/92 - 4

This is a really overlooked squash gem.  Starr looked like the a guy you'd always see at the neighborhood connivence store wearing a faded NASCAR shirt buying chewing tobacco and Mountain Dew.  If Sid got to work a marquee match at a WrestleMania how come Van Hammer never ended up filling out a makeshift Survivor Series team?  He deserved that much.  An early clothesline nearly ripped Starr's mullet covered head off.  Hammer busts out a butterfly suplex which never ceases to amaze me (even though I've watched this match at least a dozen times the past few years).  A backdrop nearly ends Randy's days of walking.  "Hammer Rocks" suplex (a renamed version of Blanchard's famed slingshot suplex) ends this treat.  Jim Ross talks up a musical/wrestling challenge by JT Southern who is known more infamously online as the guy Kazuo Yamazaki publicly humiliated in UWFi by kicking his leg into hamburger and demoralizing him badly enough to leave the country.  This is Hammer's 8th best career match.

Monday, February 11, 2013

Cena & Hardy vs. Umaga & JBL

Umaga and John "Bradshaw" Layfield vs. John Cena and Jeff Hardy - WWE Raw 5/26/08 - 5

Cena and JBL start off for their respective teams but Bradshaw tucks tail and tags out.  Umaga is monstrous -- he looks like a Power Rangers Megaforce villain.  Umaga destroyed JC with a spinning side slam.  Hardy tried to spingboard into the ring and Umaga swatted him like a fly forcing him to splat on the floor.  Heel control segment is snug and keeps the crowd riled up.  Don't think JBL and Hardy matched up a lot in their careers but their stuff together here is top-notch with Hardy really making all of Layfield's stuff look hurty.  Cena makes it look like every time Umaga clubs him its rupturing his kidney.  JBL is able to escape the Swanton Bomb then hits a (slightly mistimed) Clothesline from Wall Street to decapitate Jeff and score the win.  This was a real fun tag sprint with the faces working hard to put the heels over as dangerous.

Other stuff I've enjoyed recently:

MVP vs. Batista - WWE SmackDown! 5/22/08
May be World Wrestling Entertainment's best answer to Misawa vs. Kawada 6/3/94.  

Sabu and  Team 3D vs. Rick Steiner, Ricky Landell, and Steve Corino - UWF-TNA All Star Night In Maryland 6/9/2007
Great moment when grumpy Steiner exhibited anomie and agitation with Sabu on the outside and angrily threw a chair in his face.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

BJ Whitmer and Dan Maff vs. Carnage Crew

BJ Whitmer and Dan Maff vs. Carnage Crew - ROH Testing the Limit - 4

To get myself prepared for journeying to Cincinnati to see Ring of Honor live next weekend I thought I'd pop in one of the random 300+ (!) full-length shows of theirs I have in my collection.  Testing the Limit is known for its 74+ min. 2 out of 3 falls classic with Aries versus Danielson but what of its undercard?  CC starts off dominant making it a brawl but its not long until Maff is doing a big boy tope causing more damage than Hurricane Sandy.  Whitmer takes a great bump into the metal security barriers followed by a competent wincing sell.  Lots of chops being dished out around ringside.  This was supposed to be a regular rules match but they're just letting them fight -- I'm not even sure I ever heard a bell.  Loc counters a Burning Hammer by Maff into a Saito Suplex in a nice sequence.  BJ's got a nice backslide.  Who knew?  Loc gets dumped on his skull by a nasty Whitmer suplex which starts a marathon strand of random suplexes and throws by all involved including Devito depositing BJ into the turnbuckles nastily.  Maff gets crotched on the top rope thanks to Allison Danger which leads to a spike piledriver by the CC for the victory.  This was a lot of a fun for a sub-10 min. tag brawl -- no real noteworthy bumps worth recording into your ledger (i.e. that crusty notebook at your bedside where you've record thoughts on WWE TV since 2003).  Next match on the DVD is a four-way feat. 2 Cold Scorpio so I'm about to go watch that and get ready for tonight's season premiere of Community.