The long awaited follow-up to my September look at the first disc. This has more matches on, at least two of which are stone-wall classics.
Magnum TA vs. Tully Blanchard
This is for the US title and is an “I Quit” match. It’s also fucking brutal, in the best possible way. Both guys absolutely lay into each other in a vicious, hate-filled way, and it’s glorious. Tully busts open TA early doors and tries to gets a quick submission, which leads to the awesome visual of TA slowly powering his way out, rising to his feet in agony with blood pouring down his face. Soon Tully is bleeding from the arm after being thrown into the cage shoulder first, and Magnum claws away at the wound like a feral animal. It’s not a “moves” match, and it absolutely shouldn’t be, as it tells the viewer so much more when you’ve got two guys on their knees just slugging away at each other. Another highlight soon follows as Tully screams into the mic for TA to quit, only to greet Magnum’s refusal by bludgeoning his forehead with the mic and asking him again. The ending is fitting as well, with Tully smashing a wooden chair and trying to stab TA with a splinter, only for TA to get control of the splinter himself and stab Tully in the eye with it for the submission. Just an all-round brutal, violent brawl full of hate and venom that feels more brutal than anything I’ve seen in mainstream wrestling in the last few years.
Ric Flair vs. Dusty Rhodes
Sadly, with modern-day mental Flair, you forget how cool the Nature Boy looked in the 80’s, though the fact his kneepads don’t match his tights is a major fashion faux-pas. The early parts of the match are quite cautious, with Tony Schiavone selling the story that both men knows the other too well to take any chances. Big Dust stays one step ahead of Flair, until Flair takes advantage of the slightest opening and goes to work on Rhodes. At this point, about 5 minutes into the match, we have our first bit of offence based around the cage as Flair throws Dusty into the walls, and the reaction from the crowd shows it was a clever idea to hold it back. Being the Dirtiest Player In The Game, Flair is in his element at this point, grinding Rhodes face first intro the cage. Flair works over Dusty’s legs, as the commentators remind the audience about Rhodes’ broken ankle the previous year, which is the exact part of the leg that Flair works on. I adored the way Big Dust broke the eventual figure four by flip, flop and flying into a reversal. Now Dusty throws Flair into the cage for the first time, which pops the crowd impressively. The ending doesn’t quite gel as much as the earlier parts of the match, with it not seeming as well structured outside of Flair’s desperate attempts to escape a resurgent Dream. Dusty catches Flair in a small package for a slightly anticlimactic three.
The Andersons vs. the Rock’n’Roll Express
A curious choice for the set, as it’s pretty much structured as a regular tag match that just happens to be in a cage (to keep the Horsemen out, we’re told on commentary). These two teams seem perfectly matched, with the Anderson’s happy to pick one opponent to focus on and find a body part to work over, while the Express are renowned masters of selling and building sympathy. The R’n’R’s take advantage from the get-go with some high-velocity offence, but their over-exuberance comes back to haunt them as Gibson charges into a corner and whacks his knee on the cage. This gives the Anderson’s their opening, and Robert Gibson is soon playing Ricky Morton as Ole and Arn work over his knee like a flock of vultures. Of course, you can’t have Morton not playing Morton for long, and the hot-tag leads to a very brief spell of offence before the Anderson’s work over Morton’s arm (Ole even rubs his hands in glee as he prepares to leap from the top onto Morton’s arm). The heat section continues until Morton gets a two from a roll-up. Gibson and Arn both get involved, which leads to Gibson dropkicking Ole as he tries to slam Morton, allowing Morton to fall on top for the win. Fun formula tag match with a rather abrupt ending.
Owen Hart vs. Bret Hart
I can still remember watching this match when I was 12 and going absolutely nuts for it. It’s still, for my money, the most perfectly executed cage match I’ve seen. Straight away, you can feel the hate from both guys, Owen attacking right at the bell and both seem to be working quite snugly with their punches. The match works so well because both guys do realistic things during the match- both try for the door repeatedly because it’s the smart thing to do, but both will try to climb the cage if they’re far from the door. When they try and escape through the door, both Bret and Owen are frantic in their actions, clawing desperately at the apron, the ringsteps or the cage itself in a vain bid to get out, while the other clings to their foot for dear life. When they climb over the top, it’s perfectly timed so each attempt feels like it’s going to be the one that ends the match, only for the opponent to get there JUST in the nick of time. In amongst the escape attempts, we also get some beautifully executed wrestling. In one highlight, Owen hits Bret with a missile dropkick, before kipping up and leaping for the cage in a fairly fluid movement. Owen also hits Bret with a beautiful piledriver. Bret returns the favour later by superplexing Owen from the top of the cage. Both guys also get to lock in the Sharpshooter right at the end, with Bret using the reversal 3 years before Montreal. The ending sees both guys fighting on the outside of the cage, before Owen’s legs get stuck in the bars allowing Bret to leap to victory. Owen, realistically, was never going to win this match, as he wasn’t established as a main event talent. However, this match really put him on the map in my 12 year old eyes, as he came THIS close to winning and only lost to Bret due to a freak accident. At the same time, Bret looks like he earned his victory, so the match made both guys look top drawer. You can’t ask for much more than that.
Mankind vs. Triple H
From Summerslam 97 in the classic blue-bar cage. Triple H dives for the door from the get-go, and nearly escapes. This sets the tone for the early part of the match, where Mankind is dominant in his kind of setting, with only the interference of Chyna keeping HHH in the match. Chyna climbs the cage to low-blow Mankind as he tries to escape, which allows Triple H to suplex Foley from the top of the cage. It even looks like a sloppy throws from the top, which looks realistic and painful. With this new-found advantage, HHH decides not to escape and instead punish Foley, ramming him into the cage repeatedly. Both guys take big bumps for each other, with HHH being backdropped into the cage to give Mankind control. He tries to escape, but Chyna slams the door on his head (which Foley describes in his book as being unimaginable pain). Mankind reverses a pedigree into a slingshot, firing HHH into Chyna, who was hanging off the cage. A double-arm DDT on a chair looks to have won the match for Mankind, but he decides to hit an elbow from the top of the cage instead of escaping, before narrowly winning a race to the floor as Chyna tries to pull HHH from the cage. It would be remiss of me to not mention Chyna almost blowing the ending by trying to pull HHH out before Foley hits his big elbow. Really good match, which let Mankind look good after putting HHH over at King of the Ring, with the story showing that this match style suited Foley more AND gave the fans huge bumps which made sense in the context of the match.
Shawn Michaels vs Marty Jannetty
This is a Coliseum Video match and, to be honest, it shows. Both guys look very sluggish, and it doesn't really kick off until the ending stretch of the match. In fact, the most entertaining thing about the match is the commentary by Gorilla Monsoon and Johnny Polo. Polo starts off by calling Michaels pudgy, before Gorilla starts to pop off at everyone from ref Bill Alphonso, who commits the crime of counting pins in a cage match, to the director for zooming in too close to the action. Meanwhile, Michaels puts a chinlock on Jannetty to no reaction from the crowd (described by Polo as a "stunned silence"). Eventually, things begin to heat up with the escape attempts, with a slugfest on top of the cage popping the crowd before Jannetty hurling HBK from the top to the mat below. Jannetty tries to climb out, only to be stopped by Diesel, giving Michaels the time to escape from the door for the win. Tedious match made better by the commentary.
Edge vs. Kurt Angle
Taken from Smackdown in 2002. Kurt is wearing a wig following his defeat in a hair vs. hair match to Edge. Curiously, they start with a little chain wrestling before getting down to the business of ramming each other into the cage. Edge is the first to throw Angle into the cage, but stupidly decides to spear him and predictably spears the cage instead. Angle takes control, hurling Edge into the cage, and then pulling Edge's bleeding head off the canvas by the hair in a nice visual. This is in the build-up to the superlative Smackdown 6 period, so both guys are on fire here, with Angle bumping huge to make Edge look good, especially from a top rope back suplex which sends Angle halfway across the ring. An Angle Slam from the top rope allows Kurt to escape the cage, but the ref has been bumped and Hulk Hogan comes to assault Angle and throw him back in the ring to continue the match. Angle and Edge slug it out on top of the cage, which leads to an innovative spot where Angle drops down groin-first onto the open cage door. Back inside, a top rope spear gets the win for Edge. As would become common in 2002, this was a PPV quality match given away for free on TV and as such isn't as well remembered as it should be. The Hogan interference is odd booking (the face cheating to win) but the crowd loved it so it doesn't really matter.
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