WCW Halloween Havoc 1992

Arn Anderson, Bobby Eaton & Michael Hayes vs Tom Zenk, Shane Douglas & Johnny Gunn

Neat little six man opener. Being in Philadelphia, the heel team get cheered on their every move whilst the faces are met with a chorus of boos. Unsurprisingly with this line-up, the match flows really well. Some neat pairings here, Douglas meshing really nicely with Eaton, hitting him with a lovely flying headscissors. Both teams use quick tags to start, with the neatest being Arn tagging himself in while Zenk has Eaton in the air for an atomic drop, allowing him to level the Z-Man with a sneaky clothesline. Eaton takes out Douglas’s leg with a big clip, and delightfully Arn is all over it. He locks in a figure four with Hayes helping with leverage from the apron. It all breaks down as the hot tag is made to Gunn, and in the melee he nails a Thesz Press on Hayes to get the win. Fun match.

Ricky Steamboat vs Brian Pillman

Really good match here, which is still short enough to leave you wanting a future rematch. Loved how this opened, Steamboat lights up Pillman with some stiff chops, which Pillman seems happy to replicate. They go into a nice sequence that ends with a skin-the-cat and Steamboat hitting a trademark armdrag. Steamboat plays up his rare power advantage, grabbing Pillman by the throat and holding him in the air. Loved how Pillman locked on his sleeper as the smaller man, just yanking Steamboat by the neck as he runs the ropes, then leaping onto his back to put all his weight onto Steamer. Pillman heels it up nicely, cowering off and luring Steamboat from the ring, which leads to a nice moment as he knees Steamboat in the face entering the ropes. Moments later this happens again, but this time Steamboat avoids the knee and leg sweeps Pillman to the mat. Loved it. We get a series of roll-ups and Steamboat manages to hold Pillman down for the win. This was some lovely stuff.

Vader vs Nikita Koloff

Vader is defending the US title on behalf of Rick Rude, and I liked how Ventura on commentary highlighted this disadvantage to Koloff, preparing for a very different opponent. Vader is all over Koloff, mauling him from the get go, but then poses giving Nikita a chance to come back, hitting a rare crossbody for two. Vader still controls the bulk of this, battering Nikita outside the ring, and hitting a chokeslam inside that sees Koloff land awkwardly. Koloff gets a little shine, hitting a shoulderblock and an impressive slam, but like an idiot he tries the Russian Sickle on the floor with Vader stood against a ringpost. Surprise – he clotheslines the steel and gets thrown back inside to eat a powerbomb for the Vader win.

Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes vs Steve Austin & Steve Williams

Austin was subbed in here to replace Terry Gordy, who was fired that same morning for a contract dispute. Yet even with the heel team being thrown together, this was really good stuff. Rhodes and Austin already have really good chemistry from their 1991 feud, and Austin and Williams seem to gel more and more as the match continues. There’s a lot to love here, really dug Dustin breaking a Williams wristlock by leaping over the top to the floor, snapping Williams’s arm over the top rope. This is pretty even stuff until Windham gets wiped out with a flying clothesline from Williams. The heat on Windham is really fun, lots of hefty blows being dished out. Loved Windham blocking a superplex and nailing a big top rope clothesline to tag in Dustin. Rhodes swiftly becomes face-in-peril after Williams clotheslines him behind the refs back. Williams then bends Rhodes in half with a nasty looking Boston Crab. Austin hits a rare powerslam on Dustin that looks great, but then the call of “5 minutes left” comes up and suddenly the pressure is on the heels to win. We get a false finish, as the heels throw Dustin out of the ring after a ref bump and pin Windham, but the original ref reverses the decision and continues the match. The match goes on two minutes and ends as a time limit draw. Really neat stuff, basically putting four 5* punchers in one match, and the result was a fun, hard-hitting half hour that flew by.

Rick Rude vs Masahiro Chono

This is for Chono’s NWA title, and it’s a direct contrast to the previous match. Whereas the tag match is 30 mins that flies by, this is 22 minutes that drags to fuck. There are two refs, Harley Race inside the ring (calling it down the middle, surprisingly) and Kensuke Sasaki on the floor. There are bits of good in here – Chono snaps Rude to the mat with a sudden back suplex, Rude hits some nice big blows early on, but there’s a lot of very dull matwork that goes nowhere. There’s no fight over it, just two guys who should do better putting on holds slowly. You can hear the crowd audibly deflate when Chono locks on a sleeper. Nice little bit of psychology with Rude hurting his back after hitting a missile dropkick, before Chono accidentally hits Race with a Yakuza Kick. Rude is thrown outside the ring onto Sasaki, meaning that no-one makes a count when he nails the Rude Awakening inside the ring. Chono locks on the STF and Sasaki recovers to call the sub, but Race reverses the decision to DQ Chono. Doesn’t matter, Rude doesn’t get the belt either way, and a screwy finish is the final nail in the coffin of the crowd giving a shit. Awful stuff.

Ron Simmons vs the Barbarian

I’m a big fan of both guys, but I’d heard this was one of the worst WCW title matches. I’d say that was a bit of hyperbole, to be honest, this isn’t that bad. They work a nice power battle early, exchanging shoulderblocks and clotheslines without a winner. Loved Simmons beating Barbarian down with a series of double sledges, hammering him in the face. Barb takes over after dropping Simmons neckfirst over the rope and clotheslining him against the ringpost. Barb misses the ropewalk elbow and Simmons shows nice energy as he hits a series of clotheslines and shoulderblocks. Barbarian gets two after hitting the top rope headbutt, looked really good as he leapt across the ring, before Simmons gets the win from nowhere with a powerslam. This was perfectly decent power wrestling from two great power wrestlers.

Sting vs Jake “the Snake” Roberts

This is a Coal Miner’s Glove match after the whole “Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal” debacle. Roberts distracts Sting to start, and tries to climb the pole quickly, but is stopped. Coy opening, with neither seeming too keen to commit, weighing their opponent up. Loved Roberts doing a cocky little pose after Sting misses a dropkick, before hitting a bunch of knees to the spine. They looked great. Roberts hurts his arm on the ringpost, and I loved that Sting zeroes in on it, using it as his focal point. Clumsy spot with Jake supposedly hitting a kneelift, but selling it like he’d missed and both guys remain down. Ventura, bless him, covers for them both by claiming Jake’s momentum went against him. Roberts hits the DDT, but with the bad arm, meaning he can’t capitalise as quickly as he should, giving Sting a feasible way to recover. Sting goes for the glove, Jake goes for his cobra, and Sting hits Jake from behind, causing him to fall face first into the snake, who bites him as Sting gets the cover. Have to admit that’s an innovative ending, even though it looks a bit shit. Not as bad a match as I’d feared, it’s all logical, some nice selling and I kinda enjoyed it.

WCW Clash of the Champions XX

Steve Austin vs Ricky Steamboat

Really dug this, and it’s a situation where a good logical bit of storytelling enhanced an already great match. This is for Austin’s TV title, and it’s no DQ with Paul Heyman held in a cage over the ring for good measure. Straight away, when I noticed Heyman taking his phone into the cage, alarm bells started ringing in my head. “That’s the match ending right there then” I thought “Heyman throws the phone to Austin, who clonks Steamboat with it for the win”. It was nice to be proved wrong. Loved Heyman spending the national anthem giving Austin last minute tips. Austin starts off by going for Steamboat’s injured ribs, the bandages giving him a big target to aim for. Austin continues his attack, hitting some backbreakers and then locking in an abdominal stretch, clawing away at Steamboat’s midsection. I liked that, even though Steamboat had to work from beneath, he didn’t spend the whole match on defence, still getting in his fair share of offence, but with the injury giving Austin a focal point to cut Steamboat off. The rib injury doesn’t mean Steamboat can’t do anything, it just means he’s a bit slower each time. The end sees the stipulations used in a clever way, as Steamboat skins the cat, only for Austin to smash him back out with an elbow to the face, not drawing a DQ thanks to the rules. Steamboat crawls under the ring and goes to the top ropes on the opposite side. Without Heyman there to warn him, Austin turns around into a top rope crossbody to give Steamboat the win and the title. Great opener.

Arn Anderson & Bobby Eaton vs Greg Valentine & Dick Slater

Interestingly, this is worked as heel vs heel, with both teams cheating and fighting dirty. Both team try two-on-one attacks early, and I loved Anderson and Eaton getting Valentine in their corner, simultaneously hammering him with punches to the face from inside the ring and punches to the back of the head from the apron. As neither team are sympathetic, they don’t bother with prolonged heat sections, so we get nice back and forth action. Eaton nails Slater with a beautiful right hand on the floor. Everything breaks down, and Valentine gets accidentally hit by manager Larry Zbyszko with a cane, allowing Eaton to hit a second rope Alabama Jam for the win.

Ron Simmons vs Cactus Jack

This is for Simmons’ world title. Fun brawl here, loved Cactus using some early misdirection on a rope run to hit Simmons with a big flying headbutt. Simmons looks great on offence, him hammering down Cactus in the corner looked really good, a full energy beatdown. Jack wears down Simmons with clotheslines, then successfully stops Simmons when he tries to make comebacks. There’s an odd spot when Cactus seemingly tries to sunset flip Simmons, and Simmons hits a quasi-Northern Lights suplex for two. Jack hits a powerslam on the floor, followed by the diving elbow, but Simmons quickly rebounds with a spinebuster and a powerslam for the win. Bit of a no-sell by Simmons at the end there.

Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes vs Butch Reed & The Barbarian

Reed is a mystery partner for Barb here. Dustin takes an insane corner bump early, flying into the post so hard that he lands 2-3 metres away from the ring. The heels wear down Dustin nicely, headbutts to the torso, backbreakers  and some big meaty Barbarian elbows. Rhodes builds nicely to the hot tag, getting a few little hope spots in the run up to tagging Windham in. Windham runs through the heels with a huge lariat and superplex on Barbarian, but he gets distracted by Reed, and Barbarian boots him in the face for the win. Could have gone a bit longer as the heat on Rhodes was slightly truncated, but I enjoyed this.

Vader, Rick Rude, Super Invader & Jake Roberts vs Sting, Nikita Koloff & the Steiner Brothers

This is an elimination match, and it’s a decent main event. The Vader/Rick Steiner face off is surprisingly fun, a battle of the big lads throwing bombs. Steiner hitting an unlikely belly-to-belly suplex was really neat. The problem is that the match may well be a bit too short, with a heat section on Scott being pretty short due to having to fit in all the eliminations. Nikita is the first to go, rolled up by Jake after colliding with Rude, then Invader quickly follows after a Sting bulldog. The Steiners continue to look great against Vader, with Rick hitting a German suplex on Vader. However, the Steiners end up looking like idiots on both their eliminations. First Scott comes off the top with an attempt at a top rope clothesline, but Rick obviously can’t hold Vader on his shoulders, so it looks crap and Scott gets DQ’d for breaking the top rope rule. Rick ends up on the floor, and eats a Rude Awakening, causing him to get counted out, and leaving Sting 3-on-1. Sting looks great as the fired up babyface, not backing down and cowering away, but instead is all fight, taking it to the heels. The end though, it’s pretty off. Sting suplexes Rude, but Vader hits a top rope splash, killing both Sting and Rude, getting himself DQ’d. Rude is as dead as Sting, so Jake drags him to the corner, tags in and hits the DDT on Sting for the final fall. Vader getting himself DQ’d and killing his partner in the same move made him look a bit dumb, but the overall match was fun.

WCW Great American Bash 1992

Deciding to take on so many different projects in the past year has meant that I've slacked on writing up my favourite year in wrestling history: 1992 WCW. Even more criminal when you consider that I've taken too long to get to this show - arguably this is the best PPV of all time. Seven matches, and the worst match is merely "decent". 

Jushin Liger & Brian Pillman vs Ricky Steamboat & Nikita Koloff

Really fun match, worked really evenly with momentum shifting quickly between the two teams. It’s worked really nicely though, as both teams use quick tags to justify the momentum switches, and I like little touches like Liger sprinting for his corner first chance he gets when he’s been in trouble. Really fun to see Steamboat working big against two light heavyweights. He blasts Pillman with a big clothesline, nails a string of backbreakers on Liger before planting him with a big powerslam. Some really nice offensive runs here too, at one point Liger hits Steamboat with a perfect moonsault, a tombstone and a flip senton, getting a close two off each move. The end sees Steamboat roll through a Pillman crossbody to win.

Hiroshi Hase & Shinya Hashimoto vs the Freebirds

A bit of a styles clash, but an interesting one. This feels a bit like a battle of the interesting strikes, as Hashimoto nails a lot of nasty looking kicks, Hayes nails a load of fun punches and Hase has a range of chops. Loved the gutbuster Hase hits. Hayes hits a pair of beautiful left hands to make the hot tag, but Garvin gets caught with a sneaky Hashimoto behind the ref’s back, and Hase hits the Northern Lights to win.

Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes vs Steve Austin & Rick Rude

This is such a great match. What you really have here is four guys absolutely on top of their game putting on a classic tag match, including a really great heat section. All four guys put in some really solid looking blows, but it’s not just the execution that makes them so good, but the timing. They all pick the exact right time to hit each other for maximum effect. Early on, Windham belts Austin across the face, leading to a terrific sell as Austin throws himself out of the ring. You know a match is fun when Austin and Rhodes manage to work a fun little section based around an abdominal stretch. The heat is worked on Windham, including an unlikely Rude missile dropkick. Loved how close Windham got to making the tag on multiple occasions, and when he falls back and finally makes the tag, both the crowd and Dustin just explode. Things break down and Dustin hits a massive top rope lariat on Austin to win. This was a belter.

Steve Williams & Terry Gordy vs Nikita Koloff & Ricky Steamboat

This was really neat, loved the opening stages with all four guys going to the mat, especially as Steamboat and Koloff equit themselves admirably. MVC have the advantage of having not wrestled previously this show, and they both have a power advantage over Steamboat which starts to slowly manifest. Though they match up evenly, gradually the power moves wear Steamboat down, and a running charge into the corner damages his ribs, giving a focal point for Williams to hit with a huge backbreaker. When Steamboat makes the tag to Nikita, he’s not even able to stand on the apron, and when Koloff misses a shoulderblock, you know they’re in big trouble. More heat is worked on Koloff, who gets to tag in Steamboat only for Williams to catch him from the top rope and hit an Oklahoma Stampede version of a spinebuster for the win.

Dustin Rhodes & Barry Windham vs Hiroshi Hase & Shinya Hashimoto

Another match that started with really nice matwork, it’s really neat watching guys like Dustinand Windham showing what they can do. Loved how a lot of the reversals felt natural, all stemming from shifts in body position and leverage. Rhodes becomes the face in peril, gradually getting worn down by Hashimoto kicks until you realise too late that he’s in trouble. Hase and Hashimoto work a fun heat on him until Hase misses a top rope knee drop for the hot tag. Lovely ending sees Hase lose attention of who the legal man is, and get blasted with a Windham lariat as he runs the ropes with Rhodes. Very good stuff.

Big Van Vader vs Sting

This was a great example of a champion putting over his challenger in an absolutely dominating fashion, whilst still keeping himself strong. Vader is allowed to totally dominate Sting in large sections of the match, blasting him in the corner at the start, no-selling a clothesline and a crossbody, whilst later in the match he even puts Sting in his own finisher, the Scorpion Deathlock. Loved how he applied it too, hooking up one of Sting’s legs, then grabbing the other as Sting used it to bat him away. Yet despite this, Sting is still able to look strong in defeat. His offensive flurries look great, full of energy, and he gets to show off remarkable strength. Nice suplex, big back suplex and an impressive Samoan Drop all look great, and Sting sells the exhaustion nicely each time. Even though Vader is dominant, Sting looks to have it won twice: a German suplex only gets two due to a ref bump, whilst it’s when Sting is in control that he loses it by accident. A Stinger Splash hits Vader, but Sting hits his head on the ringpost. From here, Sting is out on his feet and a powerbomb gives Vader the win. Really terrific bout.

Steve Williams & Terry Gordy vs Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes

This is the third 20-odd minute match for Windham and Rhodes on this show, and it’s to their credit that they don’t look exhausted throughout here. The opening is pretty even and they don’t show obvious signs of fatigue. The giveaway is how it gets easier and easier for Williams and Gordy to take control of whichever opponent is in the ring. This is a bout with three face-in-peril sections, yet as with the Sting/Vader match, you still feel like the faces could win the match. Loved how fired up Windham was when he makes his hot tag, hitting a lovely lariat on Gordy and a beautiful floatover suplex on Williams. It’s also worth noting how both teams make use of ring positioning to their advantages and in totally natural ways. Gordy makes a tag by flinging his arms backward whilst in a sleeper, letting Williams attack an unsuspecting Dustin unawares, whilst Rhodes later makes a hot tag by stretching his long frame when taken down with a drop toehold. Towards the end, Dustin takes the hot tag and is put in peril in mere seconds, showing the control Williams and Gordy have on the match. There’s a great nearfall as Barry dropkicks Rhodes on top of Williams during a Stampede attempt, but Williams soon turns Dustin 360 degrees with a clothesline for the win. Superb stuff.

WCW Beach Blast 1992

So, it turns out that I'm incapable of reading dates properly (blame the American date style on the WWE Network), and this event actually occurred before the Clash that I reviewed last year. (albeit only by 2 days). If you read that, just pretend you read this first...

Scotty Flamingo vs Brian Pillman

This is for Pillman’s light-heavyweight title, and is in that period where top rope moves were banned in WCW. Thus, this isn’t quite the highflying affair Pillman’s bouts with Liger or Zenk were. Instead, a lot of this is mat based, with Pillman in particular working over the arm of Flamingo. Indeed, it’s when he forgets the top rope rule that things go awry, as he goes up only to remember he can’t do anything and Flamingo throws him off. Flamingo’s control isn’t particularly flashy, and instead sees him trying to wear down Pillman. No danger of any face pops for Flamingo. Pillman seems to find it hard to make any comebacks, as Flamingo always seems able to cut him off. A snap powerslam and a handful of tights get a close nearfall for Scotty. Pillman does make a comeback, but crashes and burns as he tries a crossbody to the ramp, as Flamingo moves causing him to face plant on the walkway. This costs Pillman massively, as a shitty kneedrop catches him crawling back in and Flamingo picks up the clean title win. Bit of a shocker, but a decent bout. Going 15+ minutes was maybe a bit much for Flamingo, but they just about pulled it off.

Ron Simmons vs Taylor Made Man

Bit more of a sprint here, they cut a quick tempo from the off. A nice early sequence establishes both men’s role in the bout – Taylor throws Simmons through the ropes to the ramp by suckering him in and grabbing the tights, whilst Simmons is able to bounce back with his explosive power, press slamming Taylor back into the ring. This explosiveness does cost Simmons, however, as Taylor avoids a big charge, and Simmons flies through the ropes to the ramp. Taylor works some heat on Ron, but gets caught in a spinebuster, and from there is powerless to stop Simmons blitzing him with power moves, culminating in a powerslam for three. Quick little match, but one that told a decent story – Simmons was the explosive, stronger athlete that Taylor needed to use his cunning to beat, but when Simmons got on a roll, he was unstoppable.

Greg Valentine vs Marcus Bagwell

Nice competitive squash for Valentine, basically telling the story of grizzled veteran outsmarting and outworking the rookie. Valentine doesn’t go easy on the younger man, blocking a hiptoss with a clothesline that gives a nice thud. Bagwell gets a small flurry, but misses a kneedrop that gives Valentine a focal point for his offence. Valentine is all over the leg, setting up for the figure four. I liked the manner of Bagwell’s comeback, as rather than Valentine missing a move a Bagwell being fine, Bagwell is slow to recover and has to keep countering Valentine’s moves. However, Bagwell jars the leg on a leapfrog and Valentine locks in the figure four to win.

Cactus Jack vs Sting

Proper good brawl here, both guys go all out here with a real high tempo. Sting controls early on, but his excitable manner causes problems as he goes for a Stinger Splash too early, hitting the ropes as Jack moves. A lot of this match is fought on the floor, with a Jack neckbreaker giving a big thud and a sunset flip being a ludicrous bump. Like Jack locking in a body scissors to hurt Sting’s ribs, with the commentary highlighting how Sting had hurt his ribs fighting Vader. Sting’s comeback of a sudden back suplex on the concrete looked nasty, and it felt like a plausible desperation comeback. Jack misses a diving elbow, and Sting hits a diving clothesline to the ramp to win.

Rick Rude vs Ricky Steamboat

This is a 30 minute ironman bout, and it’s really fucking great. Steamboat hits Rude with a gutbuster from the get-go, and from that point on Rude is struggling with his ribs. Steamboat works over these ribs for the next 8 minutes, constant focus with some nice looking strikes and a really high angle Boston crab. Then, fantastically, Rude catches him with a knee to the face on a corner charge, and is able to pin him for the first fall. Just felt like a believable knockout blow and it changes the flow of the bout. Rude nails a quick Rude Awakening to go 2-0 up. Loved Rude hitting a top rope kneedrop, which earns him a DQ, but gives him an easy fall to go 3-1 ahead. Rude wisely goes to a Camel Clutch to kill off some time, the wrestling equivalent of a footballer playing the ball into the corner towards the end of a game. Rude goes for a tombstone, but Steamboat is able to reverse it and pick up a fall for 3-2. Great reversal, as Steamboat makes it look like a real struggle, forcing Rude backwards with his legs and powering into the reversal. Best I’ve seen that move look. Suddenly, Steamboat gets a backslide and evens up the falls 3-3. Both guys looks like they’re struggling at this point, every move feels like it could end the bout. A Steamboat attempt at the Rude Awakening sees Rude need to put his foot on the rope to survive. Rude locks on a sleeper, really good one as he forces Steamboat to hold his body weight for several minutes. Not a part of Rude’s body is touching the mat. Steamboat is almost gone with less than 90 seconds to go, but is able to get to his feet and we get the Hart/Piper reversal to give Steamboat the lead with less than a minute left. Rude is frantic, hitting repeat clotheslines to try and get an evener, but Steamboat survives and wins. Such a great ending, so exciting and that’s considering it’s a sleeper held for several minutes. Really terrific bout.

Bobby Eaton, Steve Austin & Arn Anderson vs Nikita Koloff, Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes

Fun 6 man tag, which provides a nice change of pace between two 30 minute matches. Ole Anderson is the referee here. The faces dominate the early goings – loved Windham’s Japanese armdrag from the turnbuckles, almost looked like a proto-Spanish Fly – until Arn rams Dustin’s head into Eaton’s to take control. Loved how this also put Eaton out of commission for a moment, meaning Arn had to tag in Austin. The heat on Dustin is predictably really solid, with a few hope spots nicely interspersed, but for the main Dustin is contained to the heels corner of the ring. Loved Arn stamping on Rhodes’ head, playing off the clash with Eaton. Dug the payback spot as Dustin rams Arn’s head into Eaton, which gives him a chance to come back. Hot tag is made to Windham, and it all breaks down. Windham hits the superplex, but Arn comes off the top rope to break it up, earning a DQ.

The Steiner Brothers vs Steve Williams & Terry Gordy

This goes the full 30 minutes for the time limit draw, but takes you on quite the journey to get there. Real full on battle, with the early stages worked primarily on the mat. Jim Ross is keen to put over the collegiate background of the competitors to show why these are so closely fought. The Rick and Williams sections are nicely competitive, like watching two big bulls colliding. Rick hits a great overhead belly to belly and a lovely big clothesline. All four guys hit big suplexes, all of which looked good. Eventually, the MVC manage to isolate Scott Steiner and work over his leg (and this fits in nicely with the Clash two days later, where Scott's knee injury is really played up). Lovely little touches like Gordy holding Scott in a leglock whilst Williams keeps punching him in the knee. Even when Scott is crawling for the tag, they yank him back by the leg to further injure the leg. Rick eventually gets the hot tag, but his run of offence is brief before the MVC take over and now HE’s the FIP. The time limit is ticking closer, and with Scott out of action, it now feels like a case of seeing if Rick can survive to the time limit. With minutes remaining, Rick is able to escape the clutches of Doc and Gordy and make the tag to a recuperated Scott, who runs riot. He hits the Frankensteiner on Gordy, JUST as time expires. Really great match, built up nicely to an exciting ending.

WCW Wrestlewar 1992

The Fabulous Freebirds vs Taylor Made Man & Greg Valentine

This is a fun opener for the US tag titles that feels primarily designed to warm up the crowd. A good bulk of this match sees the Freebirds strutting and making the heel champions look like idiots. They even do some comic cheating, swapping over an armbar without tagging to the delight of the crowd. The heels aren’t able to get control until Taylor throws Garvin through the ropes for Valentine to work over on the floor. Even this is only temporary as Garvin soon reverses a suplex and gets knees up on a splash, before a clash of heads lets him make the hot tag. It breaks down and Hayes tries for the DDT, but Taylor hits him with the Fivearm for a two. The heels work heat on Hayes for a while, this time lasting a bit longer. Valentine locks in the figure four, which lasts less than 10 seconds before Garvin runs in to break it. Hot tag leads to Garvin running over both heels, and despite Valentine’s best attempts to stop it, Garvin hits the DDT on Taylor for the win.

Tracy Smothers vs Johnny B Badd
Smothers is still billed as “Young Pistol” Tracy at this point. Really fun undercard match, aided by just how into the character Badd is. Badd is still a bit green at this point, but his commitment to the role carries him through, whilst Smothers is able to carry him in ring. Smothers gets great height on a single-leg drop kick, which looks great. Smothers heels it up nicely, using the ropes to his advantage and striking Badd in the throat, before scoring with a lovely diving elbow. I also love how Smothers showboats after a leapfrog, just for a second, which results in him taking a knee to the face. Smothers misses a few wild swings (stooging nicely) and Badd nails the Kiss That Don’t Miss for the win. Enjoyed this a lot

Marcus Alexander Bagwell vs Scotty Flamingo

I appreciate the effort here of two guys trying to add some intensity to the match, as an even lock up soon leads to an exchange of slaps and punches. Bagwell looks a bit out of sorts during the match, not getting up easily for some back suplexes and looking a bit hesitant in places. This may be why Flamingo grounds him with a chinlock relatively early in the match. Bagwell hits a fisherman suplex too close to the ropes, which allows Flamingo to grab the ropes, and Scotty is able to reverse a Bagwell roll up to one of his own, with a handful of tights sealing the win.

Ron Simmons vs Mr Hughes

This is initially supposed to be a tag bout with Simmons teaming with Junkyard Dog and Hughes teaming with Cactus Jack. Instead, Jack assaults JYD from behind, and we end up with Simmons taking on Hughes in a singles bout. Watching a match like this, you can understand why Bill Watts wanted to make Simmons world champion. Simmons looks so good on offence, he’s powerful but with an explosiveness and quickness of movement that makes him exciting to watch. Hughes is another guy with good movement, but his offence never looks quite right, like it’s a little too hesitant. He wins brownie points here, though, for keeping his sunglasses on whilst wrestling. Simmons hits an impressive spinbuster and a knee chop for the victory.

Super Invader vs Todd Champion

Invader is Hercules with a pair of red tights over his head. He looks ridiculous and this squash match is very dull. I quite like Herc, but he hits a milky clothesline off the bat and the tone is set. Unconvincing karate strikes, chinlocks and chokes are the order of the day, and Champion is given very little in the way of hope spots. The crowd is utterly dead throughout. Even the transition to Champion’s comeback sucks, as Invader leaps off the top rope solely for the purpose of Champion getting his foot up. Thankfully, Champion only gets to his two piss-weak spinning elbows before Invader finishes him with a powerbomb. Dreadful.

Richard Morton vs Big Josh

This is a pretty fun deal, worked at a brisk pace by two guys who know their way around the ring. Josh’s offence looked really good here, absolutely loved his running forearm into the corner. I thought Morton trying to work the arm of Josh was a good, logical game plan, and he worked over it in interesting ways, not just resting in one hold. This really felt like two guys who knew they didn’t have much time, and were working an undercard bout, and just decided to have a good match. Loved Josh’s overhead belly-to-belly suplex, before the seated splash gave him the win.

Tom Zenk vs Brian Pillman

This is for Pillman’s lightheavyweight belt, and is face vs face. I liked how even the opening matwork was, establishing that the former partners knew each other well. It also subtly established that Pillman is slightly better on the mat and that Zenk is stronger. This strength allows him to force Pillman down with backslides and small cradles for flash pin attempts. Pillman starts working over Zenk’s leg, but misses a flip senton, hurting his previously injured back. This gives both guys a focus point for their comebacks. I loved the figure four sequence, which not only continued the work on Zenk’s leg, but also allowed both guys to show some aggression by slapping each other in the face. Zenk’s power advantage allows him to reverse the hold before catching a Pillman springboard into a powerslam. Zenk ploughs through Pillman with a top rope crossbody for two. Zenk plays possum by feigning being unable to stand, then lays out Pillman with a big boot as he comes off the top rope, only for Pillman to grab the rope on a pin attempt. Zenk misses a top rope dropkick and Pillman swiftly gets a jackknife cover for the win. Really great match

The Steiner Brothers vs Tatsumi Fujinami & Takayuki Iizuka

This match is a lot of fun, just four guys throwing it all out there. Scott sets the tone early by hitting both opponents with standing moonsault powerslams in the first few minutes, which is nuts. Iizuka is given a bit of a spotlight to shine and looks really good against Scott. Loved his flipping cannonball from the top right onto Steiner. There’s no real heat section in the match, so the momentum switches between both teams fairly regularly, but it doesn’t feel like straight up no-selling, more guys taking advantage of opportunities. Rick Steiner shows scary strength in catching Iizuka in midair, whilst sat on Fujinami’s shoulders for a Doomday Device. Fujinami has a smart gameplan and tries working over Rick’s leg, including a lovely leg stretch by diving from the second rope. The end of all this carnage comes with Rick hitting an insane overhead belly-to-belly on Iizuka from the top rope.

Sting, Nikita Koloff, Ricky Steamboat, Dustin Rhodes & Barry Windham vs Steve Austin, Rick Rude, Larry Zbyszko, Bobby Eaton & Arn Anderson

AKA Sting’s Squadron vs the Dangerous Alliance in a WarGames match. I love Paul E Dangerously action having some written plans on the outside, actually makes him look like a tactical manager. This is such a perfectly laid out match. The opening section with Windham and Austin is great, really establishing the hatred. Windham even knaws away at the forehead of Austin after cutting him open. The heels win the coin-toss, so the entry of Rick Rude leads to a big beatdown on Windham. As well as putting more heat on the heels, it means that the arrival of the next face gets a huge pop and allows them to run riot on the heels. It’s like a hot tag every few minutes. In contrast, each new heel feels like a “reducer” (to quote Ron Atkinson), coming in to cut dead the face momentum. For example, when Anderson comes in, he plants Windham with a DDT and lays out Steamboat with a spinebuster and the heels are right back in there. He doesn’t enter with an energised flurry like Rhodes or (especially) Steamboat, just goes in and does his business. It’s this contrast that cools things down ready for the next face to heat things up again, which is great. The only time this doesn’t happen is when Zbyszko comes in, and Rhodes is all over him the moment he gets in the cage, which works with the “Zbyszko is the Alliance weak link” storyline they were running. Madusa has to sneak Paul E’s cell phone into the ring to allow the Alliance to takeover ready for the next face. Just great storytelling.

Nikita Koloff’s entry allows for some more great storytelling, as there was a slight question about whether or not Sting could trust him and they eyeballed each other when Koloff got in. Koloff pushing Sting out of the way to sacrifice himself to an Alliance attack, then the two faces hugging when they’d gotten the advantage back gets a huge pop, and is such a well-written moment. This quickly leads to the end, which continues the Zbyszko storyline. The Alliance had undone one of the steel hooks holding the turnbuckles in place, and Zbyszko swung it, intending to hit Sting, who was being restrained by Eaton. Instead, Sting moved, causing the hook to crash into Eaton and allowing Sting to lock in an armbar to make Eaton give up. Just a spectacular mix of violence, story-telling, logical layout and action, it’s one of the greatest matches I’ve ever seen.

WCW SuperBrawl II 1992

Time to continue with my (slowly-moving) WCW 1992 project. This is the first time I've seen this show (WCW PPV's didn't get any UK broadcasts in the day), so I'm looking forward to this immensely. A great commentary team of Jim Ross and Jesse Ventura do a really good job here too...

 

Brian Pillman vs Jushin Thunder Liger

Really great choice of opener to pump up the crowd. They didn’t really seem aware of Liger before the bout, but this crowd soon were going nuts for the action, pretty much from the moment Liger hit a graceful moonsault press to Pillman. I loved the struggle for Liger’s surfboard, which Pillman evaded twice – really put the move over as a threat. Liger works over Pillman’s legs following a missed knee charge in the corner, with a figure four causing real damage. Pillman is thrown to the floor, with Liger hitting a great rolling cannonball from the top. If I’ve one real issue, it’s that Pillman was barely able to stand from the figure four, and this was even before getting hit with the cannonball, yet right away he comes back with a springboard clothesline, showing no ill effects from either Liger move. I do like the way that PIllman ramps up his aggressive streak from this point, suplexing Liger to the floor and hitting a big dive from the top. This builds to the finishing stretch, which sees a number of very close nearfalls, with a Liger German suplex being the most convincing. However, Liger misses a top rope headbutt, and Pillman rolls him up with a bridging pin for three.

Marcus Alexander Bagwell vs Taylor Made Man

The Taylor Made Man really was a totally unsubtle Million Dollar Man rip-off, even down to the tuxedo with a gold trim he wears to the ring here. Bagwell is still played up as a rookie, but despite a few flubs on landings and reversals, he looks good here. Bagwell is mainly selling, as the veteran Taylor controls most of the bout after suckering Bagwell in and throwing him through the ropes. Loved the big gutwrench powerbomb from Taylor, and he hits a great top rope splash for two. The end sees an over-cocky Taylor getting rolled up for three, and I loved how Bagwell’s celebratory momentum sees him fired off the ropes and into a Taylor forearm for a post-match beatdown. Decent bout.

Ron Simmons vs Cactus Jack

Fun power sprint. I love the energy Simmons shows from the start, he just moves exceptionally well in the ring. Jack takes a nutty bump early, catching his neck in the ropes after diving through them. Momentum changes to Jack’s favour as he hits the double arm DDT, but it’s not a finisher yet, so he doesn’t bother pinning him. Big diving elbow to the floor by Cactus looks nasty. Simmons takes a bg bump, missing a 3-point stance and flying through the ropes onto the ramp, but he quickly rebounds to hit a vicious looking spinebuster onto the ramp. Back inside, Simmons catches Cactus from the second rope with a powerslam for three. Really enjoyed this.

Van Hammer & Tom Zenk vs Richard Morton & Vinnie Vegas

Good to see the Patron Saint of this blog, Tom Zenk, in action. Ventura gets in a few choice barbs on commentary, saying every Vinnie he knows wears bad suits, and in a jibe at the WBF, says no-one makes money on bodybuilding…”even Vinnie knows that”. The opening Vegas/Hammer section is pretty dull, Hammer looks a bit lost at times and Vegas isn’t the man to carry him. In contrast, Zenk and Morton work really well together, with a fun Zenk pescado leading to him hiptossing Morton on the floor in a heavy bump. Hammer becomes face-in-peril, and I did enjoy the heel double-teaming, with Morton directing traffic by holding Hammer in place for Vegas’ offence. The double-teams are basic, but effective. Zenk gets the hot tag, and looks great coming in, hitting a swank bodyslam on Morton for two, before pinning him with a sunset flip out of the corner. This was fine.

Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes vs Steve Austin & Larry Zbyszko

Zbyszko had famously broken Windham’s hand by slamming it with a car door at Halloween Havoc 91, giving him the “Cruncher” nickname that Ventura loves to repeat on commentary. We get a melee to start, and I loved Windham dominating Austin only to throw him to the corner to tag Larry in. Windham looks great here, nailing Zbyszko with a sweet lariat and a fucking great DDT. It takes some interference by Austin throwing Windham over the top rope to finally give Zbyszko some respite, and Windham promptly hurls himself outside again with a missed lariat. Windham making sure his fingers are tightly locked before breaking a sleeper with a chinbreaker is great attention to detail. The heels then work a fun heat section on Rhodes, with Austin managing to repeatedly cut off Rhodes with clotheslines. It’s therefore fun when Dustin is finally able to avoid one by ducking and nailing a stungun instead. Windham comes off the top with a big lariat for the win. Predictably fun tag bout.

The Steiner Brothers vs Arn Anderson & Bobby Eaton

The second of three consecutive Dangerous Alliance matches, this time for Eaton/Anderson’s tag titles. This is a match of high impact moves, not just by the Steiners, but also from Eaton and Anderson. Steiners dominate early with a lovely overhead belly-to-belly on Eaton, followed by a sick looking tilt-a-whirl slam on the entrance ramp. The Alliance basically have to withstand this barrage until Eaton hits a mid-air low blow on Rick, as he attempts the top rope bulldog. This doesn’t last too long, as Scott is soon tagged in, and I love the desperation of Arn having to sacrifice his partner by ramming Scott’s head into Eaton’s just to get a sustained control. The Alliance have some great looking offence here: Anderson nails a great DDT and, in a sweet spot, Eaton gets thrown from the top rope onto the rampway with a Rocket Launcher splash. Rick gets the hot tag, and a fantastic nearfall when he slams Eaton on a Doomsday Device attempt. After all this, it makes sense that the DA need a cheap ending to retain their titles. After Anderson blinds him with powder, Rick hits a big suplex on the referee. Scott hits a Frankensteiner on Eaton, which is counted for 3 by a replacement ref, but the original ref recovers to disqualify the Steiners and keep the titles with the Alliance. One of the rare times I’d describe a fuck-ending as great, but I thought it fit the match perfectly. Really enjoyed this.

“Ravishing” Rick Rude vs Ricky Steamboat

This is for Rude’s US title, with Paul E Dangerously and Madusa banned from ringside. Steamboat is still allowed to be accompanied by his ninja though. I reviewed this same pairing earlier this year in the Royal Rumble 88 review, but this is light-years ahead. For example, both matches feature lengthy periods of Steamboat working the arm, but this time he mixes up the offence, clanging Rude’s arm around the ringpost. He also uses the arm as a focal point for comebacks, kicking Rude there in order to escape a barrage in the corner. Rude sells it really well too, hanging limply on his offensive runs. He twice instinctively hits clotheslines with the arm, but makes sure to sell the pain, and on the third clothesline he swaps arm. Love that stuff. Rude works the neck of Steamboat with a piledriver and spinning neckbreaker, which obviously sets up the Rude Awakening. Rude’s big mistake here is making soft covers which aren’t going to get him the win. It gets a little rest-holdy towards the end, with Rude locking in a camel clutch and two chinlocks, but Steamboat makes a fun comeback, with a great diving clothesline to a seated Rude. Second cheap ending in a row is a little disappointing though, as Steamboat gets whacked in the head by his ninja, suspiciously holding a Paul E-esque mobile phone, which gives Rude the win. A post-match segment sees Missy Hyatt go to Rude’s locker room, accidentally revealing Paul E indeed being the ninja.

Sting vs Lex Luger

This is for Luger’s world title, and you can tell Ross and Ventura know Luger is leaving soon. Luger had used all the dates on his WCW contract and had barely worked in 1992, and they’re all over him, pointing out how he lacked ring fitness and how he was sweating far more than Sting. Despite this, we had a pretty high tempo opening. Loved Sting hitting the Stinger splash, but Luger rebounding out of the corner with a big clothesline. Massive German suplex by Sting, which looked great. Sting always brought great energy around this time, and I loved his high leap to get more elevation on a leaping DDT. Luger hits the piledriver, but Sting kicks out at two. Sting makes a great fired-up comeback, starting off with some dazed blows, but getting more and more worked up with each blow that connects. Sting flies over the top rope, and Harley Race goes to piledriver him on the floor. Sting reverse and backdrops Race onto the floor. Luger doesn’t know about this, and turns around straight into a Sting top rope crossbody for the win. Really fun match, good logical ending and a massive pop for the new champion. No complaints here.

WCW Clash of the Champions XVIII

Way back when I started this blog, it was designed to re-ignite my love of the pro-wrestling, to rediscover why I love it and to start watching new stuff. On this level, it's been a success. Though not updated very often, I've been watching and discovering more wrestling than ever. I've started going to live shows, I'm finally getting into things like lucha and puroresu that I'd only dabbled in before and I'm more open-minded about the world of wrestling than I was before.

Of course, the release of the WWE Network in the UK has given me access to a whole history of shows, and this gave me the idea to embark upon a little project. I'm going to rewatch the era of pro-wrestling that started my obsession with the sport, 1992 WCW. Saturday afternoons were spent, without fail, in front of the TV watching Worldwide on ITV, and I thought it would help continue my wrestling/writing journey to watch it again. I'll still be reviewing other stuff as well, but expect a lot of Dangerous Alliance-era WCW over the coming months...

Vader & Mr Hughes vs the Steiner Brothers

This was a whole heap of fun, and following a token bit of Scott Steiner using his mat skills to down Mr Hughes, a big man power-move spot fest. Scotty hits a huge overhead belly-to-belly on Hughes to get the ball rolling, and from that point on its just big hitting move after big hitting move. Rick hitting his own overhead belly-to-belly on Vader was great, as was Vader catching Rick on a dive from the ring and ramming him into the ring post. We don’t really get a face-in-peril section, as Rick soon hits a belly-to-belly on Vader off the top rope. There is a little bit of heat on Scotty until Hughes misses an avalanche and gets planted with a big backdrop. A melee ensues, with Vader accidently clotheslining his partner and Rick hitting the top rope bulldog on Hughes for the win.

Brian Pillman & Marcus Alexander Bagwell vs Tracy Smothers & the Taylor Made Man

Another tag sprint here, albeit with less emphasis on power moves. This is pretty fast paced to start, until Taylor hits a backbreaker on Pillman to stop him in his tracks. All four end up in the ring, with Pillman and Bagwell dropkicking the heels out and nailing them with pescados. Bagwell is still talked up as a rookie, and runs into a Smothers superkick following distraction from Taylor. The heat on Bagwell is brief, and in fact Pillman spends more time in peril, getting double teamed as Bagwell’s inexperience distracts the referee. Pillman takes some big bumps, getting suplex straight out of the ring and getting rammed off the apron into the railings. A hot tag to Bagwell follows almost straight away though, and the end is pretty cool. Bagwell hits a sunset flip on Smothers, but Taylor grabs his partner to stop him going over. Pillman dropkicks Taylor, which sends Smothers over for the three. Fun match. 

Richard Morton vs Johnny B Badd

The announcers play up Badd’s size advantage, so I appreciated Morton using a slightly vicious edge to take control, throwing Badd from the ring and ramming him into the ringpost. Badd is occasionally able to come back by overpowering Morton, so Morton makes his comebacks by cutting Badd off with quick blows to the midsection. The end comes rather abruptly, Badd rolling through a crossbody to win.

Diamond Dallas Page vs PN News

Very quick match. We start with DDP trying (and failing) to slam News, which seems like a terrible plan. News uses his weight well here, hitting two barrel rolls onto Page. A missed elbow gives DDP an opening, but he’s not learnt from his earlier mistake, trying another slam. This times, he gets News up, but collapses under the weight, and News wins with a belly-to-belly and a top rope splash.

Cactus Jack vs Van Hammer

This was really fun, and I’m impressed at how good the much-maligned Hammer looked. In many ways, a match like this played to his strengths, as he only needed to hit a few good looking moves, and the rest of the gaps were filled in my Cactus. Hammer was pretty agile, getting good height on a legdrop and leaping over the top rope from the ramp to hit a clothesline. They tumble outside, and Jack establishes the gimmick early with a quick pinfall attempt. Cactus hits a sunset flip to the floor, typically taking almost all the impact himself. He also lands with a horrible sounding thud when Hammer hiptosses him off the ramp. They brawl to the back and the cameras find them outside near a bullpen, which they end up fighting in. A rather large cowboy is revealed to be Abdullah The Butcher, but his attempt to hit Jack with a shovel fails and he nails Hammer instead, giving Cactus the win. Really fun, energised brawl, probably the best Hammer ever looked.
 

Michael PS Hayes & Jimmy Garvin vs Brad Armstrong & Big Josh

This was pretty brief, but man it felt like the Freebirds had their working boots on here. This set off at a fair pace, and even an awkward looking Garvin crossbody felt it like kinda fit. Josh and Armstrong were a decent combo of power and speed, and I’d have liked to have seen more of them as a team without Josh’s lumberjack gimmick. That said, I thought the log roll he did on both Freebirds was a fun spot. Garvin stops Armstrong hitting a suplex and the Birds hit a double DDT behind the refs back for the victory.

Vinnie Vegas vs Thomas Rich

Squash match. Vegas cheapshots Rich to start and hits the snake eyes for the win.

Arn Anderson, Larry Zbyszko & Bobby Eaton vs Barry Windham, Dustin Rhodes & Ron Simmons

Zbyszko broke Windham’s hand back in November, and Windham is out for revenge. He’s so fired up that he no-sells an Eaton superplex before the faces lock in stereo figure fours. Simmons and Dustin are both equally as fired up, with Simmons looking great clearing the ring and Rhodes hitting a flying clothesline over the top rope to the ramp. Rhodes soon ends up as face-in-peril (albeit briefly), and a referee distraction allows Paul E Dangerously to hit him with his phone. Arn gets two after hitting Dustin with the spinebuster, and again following a nice DDT. The heat on Dustin is pretty brief, and Arn only hits boot trying an ax handle from the top. A melee ensues, during which Windham catches Eaton coming off the top rope with a big punch from his cast-clad hand, and gets the win for the face team. Fun, but felt a bit too rushed. You could easily add another ten minutes to this and have a classic.

Sting & Ricky Steamboat vs Steve Austin & Rick Rude

The decision to have a lot of the upper-card revolve around the Dangerous Alliance really helped with the match quality in this time period for WCW. I love Steamboat trying a few quick roll-ups early on to look for the quick victory. Rude wants a piece of Sting, so slaps him to lure him into the ring. Sting has a gameplan here to work over Rude’s back, and him and Steamboat trade Camel Clutches on Rude, taking a page from the Alliance playbook by pretending to tag behind the referee’s back. Commentator Jesse Ventura is livid at this. The Alliance briefly take over on Sting after a low blow by Rude, but he swiftly makes the tag to Steamboat, who is in like a house on fire. Things break down as Rude nails Steamboat whilst he pins Austin following a victory roll, but the faces are able to pick up the win, Sting nailing a crossbody from the top as Austin holds Steamboat, with both men controversially covering the future Stone Cold for the three. Another match that was too short, but was fun.

TNA Against All Odds 2009

One thing I've noticed is that I do seem to review a lot of TNA shows on this blog. This isn't a deliberate choice, more that, due to having a Lovefilm account and having Challenge TV, I get a lot of easy access to TNA shows, and I'm pretty much happy to watch any wrestling I can. This show was sent to me by Lovefilm last week, a show from the midst of the Main Event Mafia\TNA Frontline feud. The result? A mixed bag of a show that never really gets great...

Alex Shelley vs Eric Young
This was the evolution of a smarter, non-cowardly version of EY, and he looks good in the opening stages, outsmarting Shelley and hitting a big dive. Shelley is great as a smug dick here, and after EY hits the guard rail on a failed top rope dive, Shelley zones in on the ribs of his opponent, which is logical strategy on a larger guy. It also gives him an edge, in that he has an area to aim for to abruptly stop Young gaining momentum. I love the big bump EY takes, diving into, then over, the ringpost from the apron. Even when locking on a cobra clutch, Shelley holds Young over his knee to also impact the ribs. I don't think EY looks quite as crisp as he does nowadays, as he's clearly one of the elite performers in TNA today, but his selling adds to the match, with just little subtle winces as he feels the ribs hurt. EY gets to kick out of a lot here, but it feels consistent with the new confidence he's showing. This more confident side costs him however, as he gets into a row with the ref and rolled up for the win. Fun match.

Scott Steiner vs Petey Williams
Steiner rightly dominates to start, as Williams stupidly tries to match strength with him. When he uses his speed instead, Williams has more luck, but he sadly suffers from having offence that looks like it wouldn't hurt at all (or "a case of the Ziggler's" as I call it). In comparison, Steiner hurls Petey from the top rope with a swank overhead suplex like it was nothing. This is a borderline squash, as Steiner decimates Williams, then repeatedly picks him up rather than just pinning him. Petey comes back with the campest leaping forearms I've ever seen, but you just know Steiner isn't taking the Canadian Destroyer so it's simply a case of when Steiner will pick up the victory. Petey does get a great nearfall after feigning jamming his shoulder into the ringpost, which is a nice spot. Petey tries to springboard out of the ring to hit a rana, but Steiner just powerbombs him to the floor. Petey is allowed to make the ropes during the Steiner Recliner, but the fucking Steiner Screwdriver is enough to kill Wiliams off for good.

Chris Sabin vs Brutus Magnus
Losing the first name was the wisest thing Magnus could have done. Well, along with losing the stupid gladiator get up. He does some nice chaining of holds in the initial stages that he doesn't do so much nowadays. I remembered Magnus being much greener than he looks here, but he looks crisp on offence, and there is a nice little sequence from a Snake Eyes to a kneedrop that looks good. He's a little restholdy in places, but you can see the start of a good wrestler here, and it may be fair to say he should be better today than he is, based on his performance here. Sabin helps, bumping big for a powerbomb and peppering the match with highspots to keep the crowd in it. Magnus wins with his twisting Samoan drop (Tormentum) and this was perfectly ok.

ODB vs Awesome Kong
Jim Cornette comes to the ring before the match starts to make the Kongtourage (Raisha Saeed, Sojo Bolt and Rhaka Khan) leave the ringside area or Kong loses the title. It's quite fun seeing a knockouts power match, with ODB favouring impact over finesse in the opening stage, before Kong cuts her off. Things slow down a bit when Kong goes on offence, and one thing the match loses from ODB's comparative size is the fun cat-and-mouse element you get from most of Kong's TNA run. They do build up nicely to a slam spot with two failed ODB attempts meaning the successful third gets a huge pop. However, Kong swiftly hits the Implant Buster for the win. Felt like a decent TV match rather than a PPV encounter.

Shane Sewell vs Booker T
This was during Sewell's "wrestling referee" gimmick, that lasted not very long. On commentary, they put over how focused Sewell is, whilst Booker is paying him no attention, so Sewell has to pull off the upset here, right? Booker pretty much dominates to start off, so maybe he was right to be cocky, as Sewell gets nothing in. Bookend only gets 2, and Sewell starts to hulk up. Unlike the Williams comeback, Sewell looks intense enough and his offence looks effective enough to cause Booker some problems, but Sharmell grabs his leg to allow Booker to hit the Ax Kick for the win. Match was barely anything, and seemingly only existed for AJ Styles to come out at the end and beat up Booker.

Matt Morgan vs Abyss
For maybe ten seconds this seemed quite good, with a fun shoulder barge exchange, but the second Morgan throws some pathetically weak blows, it goes downhill. He punches like a giant Jenna Morasca. Abyss seems shocked when the ref wont let him bring a steel pipe into the ring, as if he'd totally forgotten the rules of wrestling. We get treated to some of the least inspired crowd brawling ever, typified by Morgan chosing to simply sit down on the stairs as his method of selling a blow to the head. They return to the ring and Abyss, like a fucking idiot, throws some weapons into the ring, then again acts shocked when Rudy Charles grabs a steel chair from his hands. IT'S NOT NO DQ, YOU STUPID TWAT. Morgan's run on offence at least involves a bit of wrestling, and I did dig his top rope cross body. I don't mind big men showing some agility if it makes sense to do so, and Morgan hurling his body weight at Abyss to down him does make sense. Morgan leaping off the top for no other reason than to get caught in a chokeslam, not so much. Ref bump leads to a big pop, as the crowd now knows weapons are getting involved, with Morgan hitting a few chair shots. Abyss hits the shittest chokeslam ever on Morgan. Two absolutely awful Black Hole Slams get the win for Abyss. This was wank, but apparently Morgan went into the match just removed from surgery, so this was maybe to be expected.

Beer Money vs Lethal Consequences
Strange to think the least interesting guy in this match is the only one to make it to WWE TV, albeit as the world's most irritating face wrestler. I'd forgotten about the Beer Money boozer cruiser, such a great addition to the act. Lethal Consequences clear the ring early using their quickness, though they aren't especially dynamic for a cruiserweight team. We get some token "gay" comedy on the heels and Beer Money are having to dumb down into "clumsy comedy" mode to keep LC looking competitive. Beer Money getting on offence makes things way more interesting, as they're the crisper, more capable team. Creed is nursing a shoulder injury, so BM wisely zero in on this, and use offence which not only works the arm, but could conceivably earn them a pinfall, which is a hard balance to strike. The hot tag comes when Lethal decides he's had enough of waiting, and clears house before rolling Creed into their corner. Feels like that shouldn't really count. Lethal gets a few closes falls on BM, but you never really feel like there is any danger of the titles changing hands, and a few minutes later, Beer Money pick up the win following a chainshot to Lethal's head. Decent tag action, but no more than that.

Sting vs Kurt Angle vs Brother Ray vs Brother Devon
This is a fatal fourway featuring 2 members of the Main Event Mafia (Sting and Angle) and 2 from the Frontline (Team 3D).This match really shows how weak the Frontline faction was, as their best hope for the world title is a tag team that no-one believes will win. The dynamic is enough to keep things interesting though, as Team 3D are a tight unit, whilst Angle is clearly quite happy to screw over Sting to take the title for himself. This leaves Sting feeling like an island out there. Amusingly, 3D don't break up each other's pin attempts and indeed, having cleared the ring of Sting and Angle, Ray lies down for Devon, before Kurt breaks up the count. Should have just put on an armbar and tapped out instead. They do start to fight properly, losing their advantage of cohesion, and get beaten down, leading to a pedestrian brawl outside the ring. The MEM members lock in a dual Scorpion Deathlock and Ankle lock on 3D, but even more fun is the dual submissions by 3D. Partly because Ray's figure four is so bad, that Tenay has to cover by calling it a "figure four variation", but also because Kurt crawls over whilst stuck in a Boston crab to try and pin Sting (still in the figure four), which is wonderfully dickheaded. This gives Angle a bit of an opening to work over Sting's leg, though this doesn't last long until all four are in the ring, exchanging finishers and power moves, before Sting isolates Ray for the match winning Scorpion Deathdrop. Match result was never in question, but this was way more fun than expected.

Jeff Jarrett: King of the Mountain (Disks 3 & 4)

It's taken me months to work through them, but here's the second half of the Jeff Jarrett King of the Mountain set. The set ends with a few bonus matches from the early days of Jarrett's career, which is a nice touch.

Jeff Jarrett vs Monty Brown
They give this a really nice build-up for a TV match. Love the way the opening moments shows Brown countering each Jarrett attempt to out-wrestle him with sheer power. Brown has injured ribs though, so JJ takes advantage of an opening to ram Brown's ribs into the guard rail on the outside. Back inside, Jarrett continues to focus his attack on these ribs. It also gives Jarrett a way to logically stop Brown's comeback attempts, jamming his shoulder into the ribs as Monty runs the ropes. Brown fires back with a nice butterfly suplex. A swank running powerslam gets two, before Brown hits a big powerbomb for two. Brown no-sells a guitar shot to a HUGE pop and a Stroke only gets two. Brown nails the Pounce on JJ, but has to battle off some Scott Hall interference (with another Pounce) which allows JJ to nail two chair shots for the win. Really good TV match, where they protected Brown and, if anything, made him look more invincible.

Jeff Jarrett vs Kevin Nash
Jarrett is banned from using the guitar here, otherwise he loses his title. Jarrett launches himself around the ring early on, bumping big for Nash and feeding himself to big shots. Jarrett wisely goes to Nash's legs to try and chop him down to size, but this doesn't last too long before Nash is beating him on the outside. They end up brawling around the Impact Zone, including Nash throwing JJ into the catering table. Nash looks pretty driven here, which is nice to see. Jarrett turns the tide and grabs a CELLO to attack Nash with. Absolute genius. JJ goes right for the knee here, as there seems to be no DQ with Jarrett closing the cello case around Nash's leg. I like the logic of JJ going to the legs, firstly to take away the height advantage of Nash, but also as Jarrett uses a figure-four as a finisher, which he locks on. Nash comes back with a few power moves, but Jarrett can regain control with one blow to the injured leg. The ref gets bumped before Nash powerbombs Jarrett onto the cello (nice touch) before Billy Gunn runs in a nails Nash with a chairshot for two. Sean Waltman comes out to destroy Jarrett with a bronco buster and the X-Factor, but this only gets two. BG James stops Gunn from hitting Nash with the title belt, but this again only gets two. Stroke gets two. As overbooked as this is, the false finishes are very effective. A low blow and another Stroke gets the win for Jarrett. Kevin Nash was motivated here, and the result was maybe his best match in years.

Jeff Jarrett vs Rhino
Crowd is hot for Rhino here. Jarrett tries to work over the arm of Rhino early, but Rhino powers out of an armbar, then hits a suprising plancha outside the ring. We gets some brawling in the crowd, which is Rhino's domain, so he dominates. Lovely overhead shot on the ramp as Rhino batters JJ with punches. This is a nice change from some of the other Jarrett matches, as Rhino is a machine he can't outfight, so he's going to have to find another way to take over. He does this by luring Rhino to a high scaffold before hitting him with a chair to send him crashing off through a table. However, he keeps trying to fight Rhino outside the ring, and Rhino is soon able to re-establish control, goring JJ through a table down the entrance ramp. Team Canada comes out to beat Rhino up, hurliing him down the entry tunnel to try and give Jarrett the countout victory. Spinebuster gets a very close two. Token ref bump as Rudy Charles gets gored leads to more Team Canada interference. JJ guitarshot only gets two. The appearance of Jackie Gayda of all people leads to Rhino hitting a gore for two. Finally, the final run in comes from Scott D'Amore, who nails Rhino with a hockey stick. This leads to JJ hitting a Stroke from the second rope onto some chairs for the win. Started brilliantly, but more overbooking lead to this becoming painfully predictable again.

Jeff Jarrett, Abyss & America's Most Wanted vs Rhino, Ron Killings & Team 3D
Shockingly, this starts with a huge brawl all over the Impact zone. Things are kept just the right side of chaotic. We finally get into the ring, with Jarrett's heel team taking over following an Abyss chokeslam on Ray. This advantage doesn't last long, as Ray and Rhino soon batter both AMW members. Gail Kim prevents a gore on Rhino, leading to Tenay rather ungallantly yelling for Rhino to "GET HER!!". Thankfully, Abyss stops Rhino piledriving her with a big boot to take control. Strange to think people thought Chris Harris would be the breakout star of AMW, as even here James Storm looks far more comfortable and polished in the ring. The heel team keep control on Rhino, albeit not in a particularly interesting manner, before miscommunication between AMW member leads t the hot tag to Killings. Killings has the most energy and explosive offence on the team, so he's a good choice for the role. Chaos ensues, with finishers, interference from Gail Kim and Jackie Gayda, Harris getting handcuffed to a turnbuckle and ref bumps, before Jarrett hits the Stroke on Truth to end a match that lagged in the middle, but was terrific by the end.

Jeff Jarrett, Scott Steiner & America's Most Wanted vs Sting, AJ Styles, Ron Killings & Rhino
I always found the TNA Lethal Lockdown matches to be a bit of a mess, so it'll be interesting to see how this goes. At least the heels won the coin toss here, which they didn't always do, stupidly. Styles and Chris Harris start, and Harris looks a lot better than he did in the singles match vs Jarrett on the earlier discs. He looks more confident and more fluid as a worker. AJ splashing Harris into the cage repeatedly is pretty fun. Ref Earl Hebner decides to count a pinfall after a Styles Clash, so Harris is forced to kick out. Storm is out next, and AJ dropkicks the cage door, missing Storm, but wiping out Gail Kim. Rhino evens the numbers up and he comes in firing on all cylinders. He's the perfect choice for two minutes of fired up offence to pop the crowd before the next heel comes out. Jarrett is next, and he gets met by Styles and Rhino outside the cage, which is smart of them as it cuts off the numbers game. However, once in the cage, it's 3-on-2 and the heels dominate. Killings is next out and we get a crazy tower of doom spot with AJ taking the highest bump from the cage top. Steiner is out last to pick up the remains in his TNA debut. It's suplexes all round for the face team. It strikes me that TNA were much smarter in their choice of debut match for Steiner than the WWE were - the last entrant in a multi-man match versus working a 20 minute main event style match. Sting enters last as the cage roof gets lowered down. Love Sting stacking up all four heels in the corner for a pair of Stinger Splashes. I like the touch that the weapons don't become available until all the men are in the match as it adds something new to the match at that point. Styles and Storm end up on top of the roof, where Styles hits a splash from the lighting rig to put Storm through a table. Great spot. In the ring, we get a string of finishers, before Harris nails Sting with some handcuffs and locks on a Scorpion Deathlock. His cockiness backfires, as Sting counters his own finisher and locks in his own for the tapout. Ok, that was a whole heap of fun.

Jeff Jarrett & Scott Steiner vs Sting & Samoa Joe
This is from the period where Joe was the most over guy in TNA, and on the verge of a face turn. Sting dominates both heels to start, looking energised and nailing a double top-rope clothesline. The air of anticipation when Joe tags in to face Steiner is palpable. Their section together is pretty great, with Joe taking Steiner's offence, but looking more angered than hurt. Jarrett gets a bit cocky after nailing a few moves on Joe, but he gets planted when attempting to charge into the corner. Sting tags in and looks so energetic, really motivated and in great shape, but gets caught by the heels double-teaming. The heat segment on Sting is pretty brief, but the Joe hot-tag is awesome, as Jarrett and Steiner both make Joe look unstoppable. A JJ lowblow allows him to hit the Stroke on Joe for two, but a top rope version is blocked by Joe, and the musclebuster gets the win. A bit brief, but a fun tag match, with the heel team putting Joe over as a killer.

Jeff Jarrett vs Christian Cage vs Sting vs Abyss vs Ron Killings
Another King of the Mountain match, with Cage the defending champion. We get some early dives, with Christian, Truth and Sting(!) all leaping to the outside. Sting takes out Jarrett with a Stinger Splash, then lets Truth pin him with a missile dropkick. They're working a story of Sting only being focused on stopping Jarrett winning. Cage soon pins Abyss with a roll up. Released from the penalty box, Jarrett goes after Cage with real abandon outside the ring, before teaming with Abyss to set up a stack of tables outside the ring. Hmm. He then takes advantage of an opening to hit the Stroke on Truth onto the guard railings to get himself a pin. With Truth in the penalty box, Sting/Abyss and Cage/Jarrett pair off to fight in the crowd. Truth gets released and, with everyone in the crowd, has to blatantly waste time when faced with an obvious opportunity to win the match. Earl Hebner gets bumped, before Abyss tires of working for Jarrett and hits a Black Hole Slam on him to send JJ back to the penalty box. However, as he cimbs the ladder, Sting pushes him off it onto the stack of tables outside the ring. Sting locks a Scorpion Deathlock on Cage, but releases it when he realises Jarrett is making an attempt to climb the ladder. Sting gives the belt to Cage, in order to stop JJ winning the match, but Larry Zybysco gives Cage a low blow. Sting hurls Larry out and nails the Scorpion Deathdrop on JJ, but with no ref to count he has to use Earl Hebner's limp hand to give himself the three count. Sting and Cage fight on top of the ladder over who gets to win the title, before Earl Hebner, of all people, turns heel and pushes the ladder over to give Jarrett the win (in a hailstorm of garbage). At the end, Jim Cornette appears to take the belt off Jarrett, which is a bit of a cliffhanger for a DVD that wont get resolved. Better than the first KotM match on the set, as the big spots were set up better and there was a better overall story.

Jeff Jarrett vs Samoa Joe
This is a "fans revenge" match, with 18 fans at ringside with straps to whip the competitors. Brilliantly, JJ comes to the ring with several layers of clothes on as protection. Joe pretty much obliterates JJ to start, but Jarrett just avoids falling to the floor for a whipping. They wisely build up to the whip spots as Jarrett keeps managing to avoid landing outside, before eventually he hits and takes a whipping. JJ throws Joe out, and hilariously no-one hits Joe. Jarrett manages to get himself a strap, which he uses to wear out Joe, which is a nice way to give him the momentum without making Joe look weak. Joe manages to fire back and takes Jarrett's tops off before sending him to the floor. You get a really great sound of leather repeatedly hitting JJ's skin. Joe ties Jarrett to the top rope, and the fans swarm in to take free shots on Jarrett. JJ goes for the guitar, but Joe ducks and locks in a Kokina Clutch. Jarrett only just makes the ropes. Ref bump leads to a Stroke onto the guitar for just 2. Top rope Stroke is blocked, and Joe nails a musclebuster for the win. Fun match.

Jeff Jarrett vs Sting
Sting has put his career on the line here, so no surprises for guessing who wins. Kurt Angle is ringside as special enforcer. Jarrett is one step ahead of Sting in the early going, which they play up on commentary as ring-rust on Sting's part. However, JJ spitting in Sting's face backfires, as it only causes Sting to get angry and wail away on him. They brawl outside the ring, though both guys act like idiots at points by ignoring their opponent to get into a face-to-face with Angle. Action back in the ring is fine, though marred by a little sloppiness by Sting. We look to be heading to a double countout after a mid-ring collision, but Angle gives Rudy Charles the Angleslam on 9, and takes over as ref to ensure a winner. Both guys are suddenly perfectly healthy after this happens, and Sting gets 2 on the Scorpion Deathdrop. Jarrett then gets 2 on the Stroke. Sting tries to splash Jarrett, but gets only knees, primarily because his torso lands nowhere near Jarrett's body. Jarrett gets an anklelock on Sting, possibly proving his MMA credentials years before he bragged about them. JJ nails Sting with a guitar, only for Sting to no-sell and lock on a Scorpion Deathlock for the win. Felt a bit too short and sloppy for a PPV main event.

Jeff Jarrett, Sting, Kurt Angle, Samoa Joe & Rhyno vs Christian Cage, Tomko, AJ Styles, Scott Steiner & Abyss
Jarrett has turned face in time for his return to enter this Lethal Lockdown match. Whoever gets the pin earns a title shot against Cage. We start with Styles and Angle. They showed the JJ return angle where he interfered in a match to give his team the entry advantage, but they explain on commentary that this had been reversed by Jim Cornette, so the heels have the edge. Styles dominates after Angle runs headfirst into the cage, but manages to pop off an Angleslam just in time for the entry of Abyss. AJ wisely lets Abyss work Angle over. Rhyno comes in to even the numbers up, and looks pretty good with bursts of power offence. Tomko is next in and he helps to bloody up Rhino. The two minute intervals don't really give enough time to build up any sense of peril for the faces, shown by Joe coming in next and just killing everyone. Joe looks terrific on offence here. Angle gives Tomko 5 German suplexes just because. Steiner takes over when he gets in, and it's getting a little predictable that we get two minutes of uninterrupted offence from each new guy, who then turns straight to defence when a new wrestler comes in. Steiner hits a top-rope Frankensteiner on Rhino, which is an awesome display. Sting comes in, two minutes of reasonable looking offence from him. They do hit a mental looking tower of doom spot, which is pretty great. Christian comes in, but he gets dominated by Sting. Even Don West picks up on Cage being the first person not to clean house. Jarrett is the last man in, with his guitar collapsing on his way to the ring. The lid comes down, and Jarrett throws weapons to his team-mates. Nice touch to show that he can be trusted after his turn. Styles and Angle climb to the roof of the cage, which doesn't bode well. There's some pretty fun brawling spots at this point, with Rhino managing to gore Tomko through the cage door being a highlight. Tacks end upin the ring, and Cage gets chokeslammed into them. At this point, Angle punches AJ off the roof of the bloody cage, landing onto men at ringside. Mental spot. Abyss fills a guitar with tacks (of course he does) but the cruel hand of irony means that Jarrett gets hold of it and nails him with it. JJ completes his face turn by beseeching Sting to cover Abyss for the win to get the title shot. Started slow, but it got spectacular by the end.

Jeff Jarrett vs Kurt Angle
This is Jarrett's first match back after taking time off due to the death of his wife. Mick Foley is the ringside enforcer. Jarrett has been of for two years at this point, so the crux of the story is seeing how Jarrett can fare after so much time off. He works over Angle on the outside, but he launches into a strut back inside the ring and gets his head taken off with a clothesline. They seem to be building this up as a match of survival for Jarrett, as Angle tries to ground Jarrett with JJ getting a few hope spots due to Angle's over-enthusiasm. An Angle corner charge meets only the steel post, but Angle comes back with a slick belly-to-belly suplex. Jarrett has to use his experience to keep in there with Angle, and a little trip leads to a figure-four for Jarrett. Angle gets his own submission locked on with the Anklelock, cruelly pulling JJ away just as he gets to the ropes. I like the use of JJ's selling here, with Angle pouncing to Angleslam him whilst Jarrett is pulling himself up to his feet. Only gets a two, and the leg injury from the figure four means he takes too long getting to the top for moonsault, which he misses. A ref bump leads to the Stroke, which only gets two with Mick Foley counting. Foley tries to stop Angle using a chair, but gets levelled with it instead, and Angle also nails JJ with it. Foley ain't too happy with that, so he gives Angle the mandible claw. Jarrett nails Angle with a guitar and Foley counts three for the feelgood win. Loved this.

Buddy Landell & Bill Dundee vs David Johnson & Jim Jamison
This is Jarrett's first TV appearance, as he's the referee for the contest. This is pretty much pure squash, with the heels even throwing Johnson into his corner to let him make a tag. Landell is particularly vicious pumelling Jamison in the corner. Dundee slams Jamison on the concrete floor just because he can. Landell picks up the win with an elbow. Landell beats up Jarrett after the match, and Jerry Jarrett gets taken out trying for the save. Jeff gets a few fired-up blows in, before another wrestler makes the save.

Jeff Jarrett vs Tony Falk
This is Jeff's debut in-ring. Falk levels the smaller JJ to start, and throws Jarrett through the ropes. This is his big mistake, as JJ comes in with a sunset flip to win. Afterwards, Landell and Dundee come back and beat the tar out of Jarrett. Jos Le Duc makes the save for Jeff.

Jeff Jarrett vs Hector Guerrero
Jarrett's hair has grown out a bit here. JJ wears Hector out with a headlock, causing him to flop to the mat. Jarrett maintains control, albeit not in a particularly exciting way. Plenty of armdrags. Hector takes over with a punch to the eye, and retains control with some cheap shots to Jarrett. Nice double-underhook suplex gets two for Hector. German suplex gets two. JJ looks good with his comeback, being a bit more fired up than his earlier offensive spell. Jarrett levels Guerrero with a 5lb bag of flower to give Guerrero the DQ win. Got pretty good by the end.

Jeff Jarrett vs Jerry Lawler
This is for the CWA title, held by Lawler. JJ shows great fire, recovering from a hiptoss to level Lawler with a clothesline. Jarrett locks a headscissors on Lawler and brilliantly stops an escape attempt by ramming Lawler's head into the mat. Great height on a Thesz press gets two for Jarrett. They hit mutual dropkicks, before a crossbody by Jarrett takes out both Lawler and the ref. This lets Dundee nail Jarrett with a loaded fist to give Jarrett the win.

Jeff Jarrett & Bill Dundee vs Gary Young & Cactus Jack
Jarrett and Dundee are now teaming up, might not have hurt to give a little pointer as to why they're now friends. Jarrett is noticably improving with each appearance, and looks great taking care of Young. A lithe Jack takes an insane bump on a missed corner charge, flying out to the floor. The heels take over on Jarrett after a Cactus knee to the back, but the heat section doesn't last long, with the tag to Dundee made moments later. It all breaks down and manager Downtown Bruno nails Dundee as he pins Young to give the faces the win. Pretty good fun.

Jeff Jarrett: King of the Mountain (Disks 1 & 2)

Lovefilm have sent me more random wrestling, this time in the form of the TNA Jeff Jarrett collection, the 4 disk "King of the Mountain" set. As the disks come through one-by-one, I thought it best to split the review over two posts, for fear of having one huge dull post of Jeff Jarrett matches. Hopefully it'll be far more palatable in two parts.

Gauntlet For The Gold
For some reason, we have to endure some country singer called Toby Keith singing some terrible flag-waving anthem before Jarrett interrupts him, making him a face in my eyes. Buff Bagwell is first out to challenge Jarrett, and he really obviously makes sure Jarrett lands on the apron on an elimination attempt. JJ soon throws him out before Lash LeRoux comes out. Jarrett beats the Hell out of him inside and out the ring, and hurls him out too. Norman Smiley fares little better. We clip to Scott Hall's entrance, and he nails Jarrett with the Razor's Edge. The country singer comes back and suplexes Jarrett and eliminates him from the gauntlet. Not really JJ's finest moment.

Jeff Jarrett vs Scott Hall
This is a stretcher match. They brawl on the outside to start. Back in the ring, Hall hits the SOS slam, before JJ escapes to the outside. This leads to more backstage brawling, including JJ knocking Jerry Lynn over in the changing rooms. It's been all Hall so far. They brawl all around the arena, but not in that "dragging your opponent round" way that I hate, but it feels like JJ just trying to escape. Hall seems preoccupied with the stretcher, which costs him as Jarrett baseball slides it into his gut. JJ uses it as a weapon to take over. The section with the two brawling with the stretcher is pretty fun, with Jarrett bumping big for Hall. Hall gets the Edge, but Ron Killings pulls the ref out and hits a scissors kick on Hall, which only gets two. Jerry Lynn now runs in and splashes JJ, paying off the backstage shove earlier. All Hell breaks loose, as AJ Styles, the Harris Brothers, the Disciples of the New Church and Monty Brown all end up fighting outside the ring until we're just left with Hall and JJ. The overbooking continues as Hall accidentally downs referee Scott Armstrong with the stretcher, JJ goes for a chair, which Ricky Steamboat prevents him using. Hall goes for the same chair, and again Steamboat tries to stop him using it, but this distraction allows JJ to hit the Stroke, which lands Hall headfirst onto the chair. Really fun at first, but my word the overbooking made this a mess at the end.

Jeff Jarrett vs Ron "The Truth" Killings
Jarrett is now face, and taking on Killings for the NWA title. Love the big-match build up they give the match with Jeremy Borash's introductions. Truth tries to provoke JJ early on, but the second he takes his eye off Jarrett, he gets planted and the veteran takes over on him. A low blow gives Truth control. Killings is loads of fun as a heel, throwing in little things like arrogantly thrusting his crotch with Jarrett on his shoulder before powerslamming him. His shit-eating grin is also fantastic. It's interesting to see the structure here, as the heel is in total control, even ducking an enzuigiri to lock on a figure-four, which is Jarrett's own move. Love West and Tenay putting over the reversal, highlighting that JJ would know best how to reverse his move. The ref takes a stray blow to the eye, and while Jarrett tends to him, Truth throws a chair into the ring. JJ is wiser than him though, so grabs the chair first and levels Truth with it for a close two. Great sequence. They trade nearfalls, with JJ getting his foot on the rope for a facefirst suplex and Truth kicking out of a Stroke. In frustration, they start brawling outside, and Jarrett gets a pretty good face of blood. Nice highspot as Truth splashes JJ through a table from the balcony. Truth just lets himself fall like a sack of spuds, which looks like it hurts more. In the ring, a ref bump is followed by both guys clashing heads and all three are down. Mr Wrestling III comes in and levels Truth with a guitar to give JJ the NWA title. Mr Wrestling unmasks, leading to possibly the greatest line of Tenay's career: "Oh shit, it's Vince Russo!"

Christopher Daniels, Low Ki, Elix Skipper & Vince Russo vs The Road Warriors, Dusty Rhodes & Jeff Jarrett
Second great Tenay line of the disk as he expresses fury at Borash announcing Russo as a former WCW champion. Fun mix of teams here. Predictably, the heels end up pinballing for the face team, and predictably, it's plenty of fun. After Jarrett, Animal is probably in the best shape for the face team, so he spends a bit of time in the ring. He hits a great sitout powerbomb on Low Ki. Hawk looks less good, falling over hitting a big boot and getting minimal air on a dropkick. Jarrett ends up as face-in-peril, largely because he's the only one who can bump much. Triple X work a fun heat section on Jarrett, with false tags and distractions to ensure that the Warriors and Dusty don't get in the ring. Eventually, JJ gets the hot tag to Dusty, who cleans house with bionic elbows. He tries to lure Russo into the ring, but as he does, Mr Wrestling IV enters and nails Rhodes with a chain. This allows Skipper to pin Dusty, before Mr Wrestling unmasks as Nikita Koloff. Wisely worked, with the healthy guys carrying the action. Not great, but fun

Jeff Jarrett vs AJ Styles
Love the start of this match, with both being pretty equal on the mat, so JJ levels Styles with a clothesline, showing the experience advantage. Styles manages to use his speed advantage to level JJ with a quick dropkick, but isn't able to retain the advantage, and Jarrett sends Styles from the ring after his own mid-ring dropkick. This is followed by a Jarrett pescado. Styles finally has control after whipping Jarrett into the ring barriers. As before, Styles gets too cocky, playing to the crowd and this allows Jarrett back into the match with a huge sitout powerbomb. Larry Z appears at ringside and begins to help Styles, grabbing JJ's leg on a top rope suplex attempt which allows Styles to hit a huge sunset flip powerbomb for two. Z nails Jarrett with brass knucks, which also gets two, but I love how Jarrett barely manages to lift his shoulder rather than a normal kickout. Z gets kicked out of ringside, but we then get a ref bump, meaning the Stroke only gets two for Jarrett. Another bump allows the Harris Brothers to hit an H-Bomb on Jarrett, but they get driven off by the unlikely pairing of Dusty Rhodes and Vader. By the time the ref returns, Styles only gets two. Styles Clash only gets two. Now fucking Sonny Siaki enters, hitting two Siakilypses's on Jarrett, but Styles attacks HIM and sends him from the ring. This distraction allows Jarrett to recover and hit a second-rope Stroke to win. Another potentially fun match that went to Hell at the end through overbooking.

Jeff Jarrett vs Raven
I'm going to cheat here, and just reuse the blurb I wrote for this match back in January

This was the bigest match in TNA history at the time. Raven goes for a pin from a shoulderblock right away, which is the kind of thing I love: just trying an unexpected lucky pin to win the title. Raven initially outwrestles Jarrett, so JJ sends him from the ring with a flurry of punches, a nice reversal of their wrestling styles. Jarrett wins the brawl outside the ring, so Alexis Laree distracts the ref to allow Julio Deniro the chance to interfere. This backfires, as he nails Raven with a chair by accident. Jarrett hits a pescado to eliminate Alexis and Julio, but this gives Raven time to recover and hit one on Jarrett. They fight in the ring as both men are busted open, and Raven manages to retain control, using a sleeper to try and take advantage of JJ's bloodloss. Jarrett manages to break and hit a desperation cutter and both get up in time for a flurry of moves in the ring. Raven nails JJ with a flash superkick for two. Raven manages to kick out of the Stroke at 2. Jarrett does the same following the Evenflow. They roll to the floor, where Jarrett is able to nail an elbow through a table. Back in the ring, we get a ref bump as both men low-blow each other. Suddenly all Hell breaks loose, as the New Church start fighting the Harris Brother outside the ring, and a squadron of ECW guys (Sandman, New Jack, Credible, Saturn) enter the ring to destroy JJ, handcuffing him and superkicking two chairs into his head with a conchairto. The lights go out, leading to Sabu being in the ring, nailing Raven with a chair and taking out all the ECW guys with a plancha. Raven manages to knock himself out by hitting the chair on the top rope when Jarrett moves, leading to a hopeful two count for JJ. Raven undoes the handcuffs and hits the Evenflow for two, but Jarrett reverses another to hit the Stroke for the win. Overbooked, but incredibly fun. It built up nicely to a chaotic conclusion, and Jarrett looked great as the face overcoming the odds.

Jeff Jarrett & Sting vs AJ Styles & Sean Waltman
This was Sting's first TNA match. Things break down early, and Sting nearly gets Styles in the Deathlock in the first few minutes. Waltman wrestles the whole match in a shellsuit and gets put in a figure-four early on by Jarrett. Love the fact he sells the Hell out of this as he works the apron. Jarrett is briefly face-in-peril before the hot tag to Sting, and the crowd goes nuts for him. A pair of Stinger Splashes down the heels, before Waltman is able to nail Sting with a bat during the Deathlock on Styles. I love the fact that Styles cockily tries his own Deathlock, which Sting is able to break after a while. As is becoming a running theme, more mental overbooking takes place, with a ref bump followed by Vince Russo nailing Jarrett with a bat, Raven and Shane Douglas interfering and eventually Jarrett hitting a second rope Stroke on Styles to win. This was decent enough.

Jeff Jarrett vs AJ Styles
Stupid as it sounds, Styles has restyled his hair which makes him look far more impressive than in the first Jarrett match. Things are heated to start, as AJ clotheslines JJ into the crowd, then dives out with an immense tope into the crowd. In the ring, however, Jarrett starts to take over, cutting off a few Styles attacks, which gets played as his experience edge on commentary. I also love TNA having various wrestlers in the crowd or on the ramp to put over how important the match is, as they scout the world title match. There is a growing feeling of one-upmanship, as neither guy is able to get a sustained advantage. Instead, their familiarity with each other means they're more aware of what to expect from their opponent. JJ has to use a ringside distraction to nail AJ with a chairshot, which only gets two. AJ also kicks out of a Stroke onto the chair (in full view of the ref now), but a belt shot gets the job done. Another good match between these two, but still short of the blockbuster you feel they could have.

Jeff Jarrett vs Jim Duggan
Duggan is defending Hulk Hogan's honour following the Jarrett/Hogan New Japan angle. I feel this may be a real test of how good JJ is. Jarrett goes on the assault from the blindside to start, but soon Duggan takes over with clotheslines and pounds him outside. Good to see him fired up. He even nails JJ with a chokeslam in the ring. The 3-point stance downs JJ again, but Don Callis (rightly) stops Duggan using his 2x4. The distraction lets Jarrett use his guitar to pick up the win. Jarrett gave Duggan loads here, and this was the best Hacksaw had looked in years. Rick Steiner attacks JJ from behind, which somehow leads to another match...

Jeff Jarrett vs Rick Steiner
They brawl pretty ferociously in the crowd, with JJ nailing some killer chair shots, before they get into the ring. Steiner nails a few big suplexes, but JJ drags the ref into the path of a top rope bulldog before nailing a guitar shot for the DQ. Not much of a match, but pretty fun.

Jeff Jarrett vs Chris Harris
They really go for an epic build to this match, even highlighting Harris' family at ringside. Crowd is hot for a Harris title win. Jarrett plays up his experience edge, and I love him slipping out of a third armdrag and yelling "he ain't ready" at the crowd. JJ goes outside and yells "he ain't ready" at everyone at ringside, and back in Harris seems to be proving him right. His offense looks a little hesitant, like he's trying to remember what to do midmove. He has a hot run on the offensive, but it feels like it's more due to JJ bumping for him. JJ takes control after Harris crashes and burns on an attempted rail dive. Jarrett locks on the figure-four, which helps rally the crowd behind Harris. Harris comes back with more low-impact offence, though a dive from the top rope to the outside over the guardrail looks great. Decent top-rope elbow by Harris gets two. Harris bizarrely spears the ref (played by the commentators as being disorientated, but it just looked odd). Some hijinks occur involving chairs, before a Catatonic only gets two. James Storm interjects to superkick JJ, but Raven pulls the ref out, giving Jarrett time to hit a guitarshot for the win. Harris was green, but willing, and Jarrett put together a match where both guys looked good.

Jeff Jarrett vs Chris Harris vs AJ Styles vs Raven vs Ron Killings
This is the first King of the Mountain match. Quick run through of rules - to win, you must climb a ladder and hang the title belt on a hook. However, you must qualify to do this by pinning someone. The pinned wrestler spends 2 minutes locked in a cage. There is carnage to start with guys brawling all over the shot, before AJ dives over the penalty box onto three of the wrestlers. Love Jarrett coming over to try and pin them all in order to be eligible to hang the belt. Also, I like the fact we aren't getting "Survivor Series" pinfalls, where guys are pinned on clotheslines and the like. Indeed, AJ gets the first pin on JJ after a Styles Clash and a few choice exchanges. Harris gets the next pin with a spear on Raven. Truth pins Harris following a scissors kick (complete with Harris telegraphing it for ages by dropping the belt and being hilariously unable to pick it up again). I do like the way that Raven and Jarrett spend their time in the cage together plotting, so when both are released, they dominate AJ and Truth. I also love Raven waiting outside the cage so he can assault Harris as soon as he's released. Harris gets pinned by Raven after again telegraphing hanging up the belt for ages before getting a facefull of powder and an Evenflow. JJ hits the Stroke on Truth off the apron onto the steel railing for the final pinfall, so now all are eligible.

AJ pins Jarrett with a roll-up, so he has to go into the cage again, which I'd not even considered, and adds a nice element to the match.Styles then takes the nuttiest bump of the match, getting pushed off the ladder onto the cage. Raven and Harris soon fall through tables, so you know the end is night. Indeed, Truth climbs the ladder, only for a released Jarrett to hit him with a guitar and hang the title to win. In a hilarious twist, the hook has fallen down, so Jarrett has to fix the hook before winning the match. Really enjoyable match, with the ridiculous stipulations actually helping the quality.

Gauntlet For The Gold Match
Hernandez (representling Jarrett's short-lived Elite Guard faction) and Ron Killings are the first two entrants. Little happens until fellow Elite Guard member Onyx enters to help overwhelm Truth. There is only a minute between entrants, so there is barely enough time for anything of consequence to happen before Jarrett comes in. For some reason, the three men don't eliminate Killings before Konnan comes in, despite them having Killings in real trouble. There is a nice legdrop by Truth to both Onyx and Hernandez before Chad Collyer is entrant #6. BG James enters and there have been no eliminations yet. Ken Shamrock enters just as Konnan is thrown out and looks great attacking the Elite Guard. He's added a lot of needed energy here. He also destroys James and Truth. Everyone realises how deadly Shamrock is and team up to eliminate him. Shamrock's mental fit at this is magnificent. In the melee, Onyx and Collyer get hurled out, before James and Hernandez get rid of each other. The resulting Truth/Jarrett match is pretty short and with the members of the Elite Guard and 3LK outside the ring, you're just waiting for the interference. The predictable melee ensues and Shamrock returns to swerve us all by leveling Truth with a guitar to gift Jarrett the win. Rather dull, bar the Shamrock section, not sure why this is included.

Jeff Jarrett vs Jeff Hardy
This was the ladder match main event of Victory Road 2004, the first 3hr TNA PPV. Man, no subtle build here, as Jarrett is getting hurled into ladders less than a minute in. I dig Hardy using the ladder as a vice to crush the ribs of Jarrett. Hardy, despite having taken no offence, does the slow, "I'm in pain" climb of the ladder three minutes in. Jarrett goes on the offensive, and I appreciate the fact that both guys so far have only used offence that hurts their opponents and not done any moves that will cause themselves pain as well. Wrestling smart. Indeed, the first move of this ilk is Hardy dropkicking Jarrett, who is climbing for the belt, to stop him grabbing the title. Of course, Hardy follows this with a Swanton onto JJ on a ladder, but he IS an idiot daredevil, so it's ok. Scott Hall comes in to give him the Edge off the ladder, but JJ is too injured to capitalize. Hardy see-saws the ladder into Jarrett's face in a killer looking spot. Hardy brings out an enormous ladder and decides to climb it from the floor, which ends with both men falling from the ladder to the ramp. No reason given for either men to be climbing up out there mind. Back in, they botch a sunset flip powerbomb off the ladder and hit a slightly better one from the apron to the floor. More Scott Hall interference leads to a rubbish Hall bump off a Twist of Fate. Jarrett is climbing for the title, when Kevin Nash comes out, apparently on Hardy's side. However, it was all another twist, as he hand's guitars to Hall and JJ, and all three nail Hardy (who is now on the ladder) with guitar shots to gift Jarrett the win. The twist would probably have worked better if Jarrett wasn't about to win before Nash arrived. There were a few decent moments buried deep in some terrible spots.