Carmelo Hayes vs Ilja Dragunov (NXT, 9-30-2023)

NXT No Mercy, Bakersfield, CA

A request! I haven’t watched the show, usually can’t do Saturday nights live, but glad to be encouraged (with money!) to watch this one (and another one later!).

Hayes is defending his NXT championship against Dragunov. I’m not that familiar with Hayes because I just have not watched NXT much at all during his rise to the top, but I’ve seen him a little. Dragunov I know quite well. So that’s where we are there.

Apparently these two met at The Great American Bash two months ago! Good video package, I’m presuming, gives me the quick recap there. Dynasty and destiny! Those are important words.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Kurt Angle vs Brock Lesnar (WWE, 3-30-2003)

WWE WrestleMania XIX, Seattle, WA

A request!

Never been a match I loved. I’m not as high on first-run Lesnar as a lot of people, I’m not NEARLY as high on Angle as a lot (a lot) of people, and I didn’t think they had the captivating chemistry others saw.

But it is a new day. A new time. And I probably haven’t watched this in 15 years.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Ric Flair vs Lex Luger (NWA, 2-25-1990)

NWA WrestleWar ’90: Wild Thing, Greensboro, NC

A request!

Hey, homeboy, gather around
Some serious stuff is gonna go down
Called the WrestleWar ’90, the kings of the ring
All come together and do the wild thing
Lex Luger, the Steiners, Nature Boy, Sting
Yeah they’ll all be doin’ that wild thing
Yeah they’ll all be there, with somethin’ to prove
Brimmin’ with intentions to bust a move
It’s pay-per-view excitement from THE
For more information, call your cable company

Raps written by non-rappers always sounded the same in this period, and they’d always hit a line like “Brimmin’ with intentions to bust a move” that just sank the entire operation, but also made them timelessly, charmingly shit, relics of a world where nerdy ass adults were really trying to figure out this new thing and how to exploit and use it to relate to youths and, somehow, profit from them. Whether it’s a wrestling PPV or a Wendy’s training video, someone was going to rap terribly at you by the late 80s and early 90s, and the rap wanted something from you.

Also one homeboy cannot “gather around.” Several homeboys could, but one cannot.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Bryan Danielson vs Ricky Starks (AEW, 9-23-2023)

AEW Collision, Grand Rapids, MI

20 days after their strap match at All Out, Dan and Rick meet again in this Texas Death Match from the great home of Texas Death Matches, Grand Rapids, Michigan’s Van Andel Arena.

I am not terribly wild about last man standing-style matches in general, but it is Danielson.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Bronson Reed vs Otis (WWE, 9-25-2023)

WWE Monday Night Raw, Ontario, CA

These two had to square off. Had to. Chode Big Show and Kane can’t just exist in the same place and not bump meat. And truly, these is a case where it is bumpin’ meat, not slappin’ meat. Slappin’ got more traction, but bumpin’ was said in the same deal, and this is BUMPIN’ here. These fellas are gonna bump their meat, not slap it.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Gunther vs Chad Gable (WWE, 9-4-2023)

WWE Monday Night Raw, Charlotte, NC

A request! I did watch this live and liked it a lot, the third matchup for the two on Raw between July 31 and September 4, with Gunther’s Intercontinental title on the line, and also Gunther on the precipice of breaking Honky Tonk Man’s record as longest-reigning IC champ in company history.

To get it out of the way up front, part of me sincerely thinks it’s a mistake to break Honky’s record. Gunther is a great wrestler, without question, far better than Honk ever was in the ring, but it’s so fucking funny and weird that Honky Tonk Man, of all the goddamn people in the world, held that record so long. But records are made to be broken, too. Honky got 34 years on top, having broken the record of Pedro Morales, whose closest challenge came from Randy Savage. The only four guys to go 400 days or more as IC champ. Don Muraco at 385 is the only other one over 300, to round out the top five.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Bryan Danielson vs Ricky Starks (AEW, 9-3-2023)

AEW All Out, Chicago, IL

Wanted to watch this one back before watching the Collision rematch from last night. Watching live and without trying to Consider Greatness or whatever the fuck, I loved this.

Long story short in case you read this at a point where it’s forgotten, or you’re a future alien, Ricky Starks had recently whipped up on 70-year-old legend Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat, then challenged him to a strap match. This was obviously designed to be CM Punk fighting as Steamboat’s krantt against Starks, but after he went and got himself good and fired, they had to change course, so Danielson — still not 100 with an arm injury — stepped in.

See, because Ricky Starks had a child’s contract drawn up by an idiot, and it said “Ricky Starks vs The Dragon,” and Danielson is The American Dra—you get it. Alien already stopped reading after trying to translate “krantt.”

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Steiner Brothers vs Big Van Vader & Mr. Hughes (WCW, 1-21-1992)

WCW Clash of the Champions, Topeka, KS

Here’s one with some big physical lads. Vader and Hughes have Harley Race in their corner, with Hughes a Kansas City (Missouri) native and billed from Kansas City (Kansas), who briefly played football at Kansas State before leaving the school and going into wrestling.

Everyone here, in fact, has some claim to at least college athletics, so you KNOW the man JR is horned up and ready to see some damn sure physical wrestling. He didn’t talk like then so much on the TV.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Cash vs Jason Jett (WCW, 3-21-2001)

WCW Thunder, Gainesville, FL

A request! A match from what turned out to be the final episode ever of WCW Thunder. Two days later, it was announced that the WWF had bought WCW. Five days later, the final Nitro aired, and WCW — despite early designs from their new owners — never ran another show in any form.

This was recorded on March 19, so four days before the WWF officially bought the company, but the upcoming March 26 Nitro was already hyped as the “season finale” of the show, because they didn’t know exactly what was happening other than that was it for Nitro on TNT.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Scott Steiner vs Kevin Nash (WCW, 2-18-2001)

WCW SuperBrawl Revenge, Nashville, TN

A request! The dying days of WCW were a strange time. There really was a lot of quality on the shows, even if that quality came with its own messy lack of focus. And there was also still a lot of really shitty pro wrestling TV mixed in, too, but it was unquestionably better than the true worst days of the company’s latter years, though that didn’t take much.

Cagematch have it at a 3.09 (10 votes)! This means nothing to me, really, but it is a glimpse of the greater (10 votes) feeling.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)