Dan Maff & Samoa Joe vs Vader & Mike Awesome (JAPW, 6-5-2004)

JAPW When Worlds Collide, Rahway, NJ

A request! I’m not sure if I’ve ever watched this match or not; I knew of its existence, and I feel like I did watch it once, albeit probably a decade after it happened, but I’m not 100 percent. I do remember watching and loving the Joe vs Balls Mahoney match at the JAPW/ROH co-promoted January ’04 show.

You can watch the match on YouTube.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Sting & Ricky Steamboat vs Ric Flair & Steve Austin (WCW, 7-30-1994)

WCW Saturday Night, Atlanta, GA

A request! It’s a turbulent time in The WCW, as Hulk Hogan has come in to fucking ruin my life and the life of everyone else whose biggest reason, end of the day, for enjoying WCW was that it was not 1989-91 WWF. Not to say we all hated the WWF, but it was a balance on television. You had the one style, and then the other, and they had similarities, but there were key differences.

And then here came Hulk Hogan. Nothing could ever be the same, really. Hogan himself might not have been so bad but he was insecure about his political power so he had to bring a bunch of dead weight with him to balance the odds.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Masato Tanaka vs Matthew Justice (Circle 6, 10-15-2023)

Circle 6 Thriller, Los Angeles, CA

A request! Something that isn’t a Big Promotion! On the one hand, this has Kevin Gill commentary, not my favorite thing but also I’m not as down on him as some are; he is who he is, I can say that. He doesn’t make any bones about that. I have respect for that.

BUT! The other, more important hand, is that this match has Masato Tanaka, who still fucking rules, and Matthew Justice, who I like quite a bit, too.

You can watch the whole show free at YouTube.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Jeff Hardy vs CM Punk (WWE, 8-23-2009)

WWE SummerSlam, Los Angeles, CA

A request! It’s a TLC match for The World Heavyweight Championship, held by Jeff Hardy, who had won the belt at Extreme Rules in June, beating Edge. Then CM Punk did his Money in the Bank cash-in immediately. And THEN at Night of Champions in July, Hardy beat Punk to win the belt a second time.

So now we’re here. CM Punk is straight edge man, a rules rocker, and Jeff Hardy is ……. not.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Kurt Angle vs Chris Benoit (WWE, 1-19-2003)

WWE Royal Rumble, Boston, MA

A request! This is for Angle’s WWE title, which he’d won in December ’02 from Big Show, with some help from Brock Lesnar, whom Big Show had beaten at Survivor Series in November. All of this was a run to set up Angle vs Lesnar at WrestleMania XIX, but Angle first had to deal with one of his chief rivals, Chris Benoit.

Angle has Paul Heyman as the head of his “management team,” and Heyman has a “contingency plan” in the form of Team Angle, Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas. Benoit beat Big Show, who was also still with Heyman, to get the title shot. Also Angle has a knee issue (or not!) coming in due to a Lesnar attack.

To this point, Benoit had had several opportunities to become a big dog champ in WWE, dating back to his arrival in 2000, but had never gotten over the hump. And he and Angle were already quite familiar with one another, meeting many times and also reigning as Smackdown tag champs in late ’02. The basic thought when putting them together as opponents as you were certain to have a good match if you had nothing else for either to do at the moment.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Goldust vs Ultimate Warrior (WWF, 4-28-1996)

WWF In Your House: Good Friends, Better Enemies, Omaha, NE

A request! The Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuultimate Warrior is back in the World Wrestling Federation, where anything can happen, and here in Omaha, he’s got his sights set on the Intercontinental championship and Goldust.

Warrior had returned at WrestleMania XII with a 96-second squash win over Hunter Hearst Helmsley, and then pretty quickly it was clear that he just did not have fuck all. Anyone with a brain was taking the under on him lasting 6 months.

(It wound up being three.)

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Marty Jannetty & Razor Ramon vs Sid & 1-2-3 Kid (WWF, 12-17-1995)

WWF In Hour House: Seasons Beatings, Hershey, PA

A request! I actually watched this about seven months ago in one of the Time Travel deals, but happy to do it again, in part because it’s a different way of watching A Match, instead of me bopping through a full week of TV wrestling.

Also I like the money part of watching it again, and it’s not super long, and I do think there’s some interesting stuff in this match to look at.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Jake Roberts, Rocky Maivia, The Stalker & Marc Mero vs Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Goldust, Jerry Lawler & Crush (WWF, 11-17-1996)

WWF Survivor Series, New York, NY

A request! This is Rocky Maivia’s WWF debut, much-hyped at Madison Square Garden in a Survivor Series match.

Before the match, Sunny joins the commentary team. Jim Ross’ general disinterest in her is quite well replicated by my own at this point in time.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Roddy Piper vs Bret Hart (WWF, 4-5-1992)

WWF WrestleMania VIII, Indianapolis, IN

A request! When watching Flair vs Savage from this show recently, I realized then that I’d never rewatched this one for Blogging Purposes, so I’m very glad to do it.

Piper’s defending the Intercontinental title, the one and only WWF title he ever held before they did that goofy thing in 2006 with him and Flair beating the Spirit Squad to win tag belts.

Hart had lost the IC belt to The Mountie in January at a house show just before the Royal Rumble, with the story being that he bravely battled a 600 degree fever or whatever. The two were set to meet at the Rumble, but instead it was Mountie defending against a subbed-in Piper, who won the title.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Rey Misterio Jr vs Psicosis (ECW, 10-17-1995)

ECW Hardcore TV, Philadelphia, PA

A request! This is an Extreme Lucha Libre Rematch! It is between Psicosis and his “longtime nemesis,” Rey Misterio Jr. Rey was 20 at this point, he wasn’t eligible to be anyone’s “longtime” anything.

But this was already a storied rivalry for sure, and one that played a strong role in changing U.S. TV wrestling. This, obviously, predates WCW’s cruiserweight division by several months, and stuff like this and the Malenko-Guerrero series helped set some new standards that inspired the bigger companies to take notice and see an opening.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)