1995 Discussion

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Arn Anderson & Vader v Stars 'n' Stripes (Saturday Night, 4/24/95)
- Talked about this in Double A of the Day #2 and thought it was a top 5 match in WCW that year. In a weak year that probably doesn't say much, because this isn't blowaway great or anything, but it *is* a really good tag match. If you're like me and will watch and vote for a ton of tags, then this is a definite "low end" nomination. It's on dailymotion. Link's in the Double A thread if anyone's interested. It's worth your time, anyway.

Chris Benoit vs Eddie Guerrero - Saturday Night (11/18/95)
The longest match of their WCW series. Both guys are so even, but each has a certain quality that gives them the edge either way. Eddie has his ability to hit the high risk move, and Benoit has a ridiculous amount of aggression. Both of those qualities play into the finish. The finishing stretch itself was really great. Don’t want to bog up my list with Eddie/Benoit matches, but if two make it, then this’ll be one of them. ***3/4

Steven Regal vs. Sting – Saturday Night 23/09/1995
Love their GAB match, which I probably should have waited to see after I watched the couple of matches they had before then (this being one of them, obviously), but I don’t think I had the Regal set at the time, so ah well.

Not often I’m actually excited to see a Sting match, but Regal is one of those guys that I can watch regardless of his opponent (well... might pass on a Regal/Chavo match...).

Regal has the better wrestling skills and technique, but it’s Sting’s strength that comes into play early on allowing the Stinger to escape from an arm hold and turn the tables on Regal by powering him around.

Awesome front flip splash thingy by Regal on the outside to Sting, always amazes me to see Regal do things like that because while he isn’t the biggest guy, he isn’t exactly known for high flying type moves.

I think I’m definitely starting to adore Regal’s forearm shots and European uppercuts in the same way I adore Vader’s punches.

Very shot match here, with Sting getting the win thanks to some help from Flair, after Bobby Eaton shows up. This was during the Flair/Anderson feud and Flair recently asked Sting to be his tag partner to face Anderson and Pillman, so unfortunately this wasn’t as special as it could have been. For the time it got though, it’s still better than the majority of Sting matches I’ve seen over the years.

Steven Regal & Bobby Eaton vs. Harlem Heat – Saturday Night 04/11/1995
HH come out... and Dusty asks someone to bring out his shotgun. The American Dream is racist??!?!?

LMFAO at the conversation about aggression between Tony and Dusty. Dusty says something about seeing Tony in action, and Tony’s like “no you haven’t...” and Dusty’s all “oh. Yes. I. Haaave”. Not a fucking clue what they are going on about, but it’s fucking funny.

In the mean time, there is a match going on. HH dominate early on, which brings up the aggression conversation because Dusty doesn’t think the Blue Bloods are aggressive enough and its costing them matches.

Also, worth noting how odd it is that the Blue Bloods lost a tag match the week before... and get a tag title shot this week lol. Something must have happened on Nitro I guess...

Blue Bloods finally gain control as they work over Booker’s arm. Eaton is more about applying a basic arm lock and keeping it in, while Regal brings the awesome strikes and unique arm holds to change things up a bit.

Booker T turns into a complete retard at one point, which is a shame because he’s done a great job so far in the match. He fires back against Regal and knocks him down with a right hand, and is right next to Stevie Ray. And he goes for a cover instead. Regal kicks out with ease, and Booker crawls over to Stevie... and just SITS THERE, right in front of Stevie and doesn’t even attempt to tag while he waits for Regal to come over lol.

More retardedness from Booker as he tags out finally... then tags back in seconds later, only to be knocked out of the ring and given a neck breaker on the outside lol. Regal locks in the Regal Stretch, and Sherri (manager of Harlem Heat) tries to hit him with her shoe but can’t reach (HH are the babyfaces, right?). Col Parker shows up and grabs the shoe... and hits Regal with it himself, allowing Booker to get the pin lol. Nice way for the BABYFACE tag champs to keep their belts.

Aside from a little stupidity towards the end, this was a real real nice tag match with a good amount of time. I’ll stick it on my “reserve list” for now as it will have a chance of making my list if I somehow don’t come up with 100 after watching everything I want to watch lol.

Stars 'n' Stripes vs. Vader & Arn Anderson - Saturday Night 4/15/95
[Only admins are allowed to see this link] ... rson_sport

Rabidly patriotic crowd helps this match early, making everything the babyfaces do seems extra energetic, and they're already an energetic pair of babyfaces. So you have speed and energy against Arn's intelligence and Vader's strength. Bagwell rocks Arn for a while, but then Arn taunts the Patriot and brings Vader in so he can catapult Bagwell into a chokeslam. Yes, My God. Vader stomps around and taunts and Bagwell socks him-- I like young Bagwell because he's the kind of babyface who would sock a bad guy right in the kisser-- and makes the tag before you can really call his FIP spell an FIP spell. Patriot comes in hot & American and destroys the monster to monstrous applause: it's great. Arn's brains give the bad guys control again as he lures the Patriot to the outside and sets the old Brainbuster trap where the face chases Arn around until he runs into Arn's partner. Vader kills the Patriot with his belly. Then Flair comes out and rules at ringside, strangling the Patriot whenever he gets a chance. His presence helps put it over the top. FIP spell is fine, Bagwell off the hot tag is great, and the finish is better. Not a high-end nomination, but at the moment, it's floating toward the top of a heap of ***1/2-***3/4-ish tags (Blondes stuff, Scorp/Bagwell stuff, etc) that might make my list.

Arn Anderson & Vader vs Stars & Stripes, Saturday Night 15/4/1995
Yeah I loved this and right now have it in my bottom 20. Simple STF build with a nice heat segment on the Patriot who eats some tremendous abuse from Vader in particular as well as some great Flair beatdowns behind the ref's back...Flair RULES on the floor like a crazy bastard who smoked some weed before he came out and thinks everyone is out to get him. Opening sequence had Arn doing a great tactic of complaining to the ref that his shorts were pulled after an arm drag and he was really good early on as the heel in peril eating a lot of babyface offence and struggling to find a way into the match. Both transition spots were very good: the 1st mini FIP segment comes with Arn catapulting Bagwell into a Vader chokeslam and the 2nd one has him luring the Patriot into a Vader splash. From there the FIP segment is generally good with a couple of teases of a tag and a great little burst of offence from the Patriot after Vader toys with him a little bit too much. Bagwell was great off of the hot tag and the general chaos with bodies flying eveywhere had the crowd going crazy. Finish was terrific with Vader splashing poor Bagwell behind the ref's back and Arn sneaking a pin. Top notch fun.

***1/2

Randy Savage vs. Arn Anderson - Saturday Night 1/28/95
[Only admins are allowed to see this link] ... rel-page-5

Match-up is pretty
Match itself is fine. TV Title is on the line, & they mention the time limit early, so you know where this is headed, and I kinda lost interest at that point. Somebody might enjoy it more, though. Anyway, big brawl at the end sets up:

Savage/Dustin/Sting vs. Blacktop Bully/Bunkhouse Buck/Dick Slater - Saturday Night 2/4/95
[Only admins are allowed to see this link] ... rel-page-3

Video/audio quality is distractingly bad. Even so, I thought this was a good-but-not-listworthy 6-man. They brawl early & then settle into a quality shine period. All those rednecks stooge well, particularly Buck. Then Dustin works FIP for a while, which is pretty great. It's not a pretty control segment because rednecks are in charge & they roll around and punch & scrap. Finishing stretch is raucous & great. Wish I could've heard the commentary/crowd.

Eddie/Benoit - Saturday Night 11/18/95 - Did I watch the right match? It ends in a double countout, yeah Mike? I had some wrong dates in the files in my computer. Pretty sure I sorted it out. Anyway, these two are always good together, but I won't vote for this. Didn't think it came close to the 10/16 match. Tons of nifty exchanges & quality roll-ups, but roll-ups aren't as cool when the crowd doesn't love them. Fine match, but I'm apparently not as high on it as Mike. I'll never regret watching these two work, but this felt inessential & had an inconclusive finish.

Steven Regal & Bobby Eaton vs. Johnny B Badd & Marcus Bagwell (Saturday Night 08/05/95)
The Blue Bloods were an excellent tag team who unfortunately didn't have a lot of excellent opposition to face, but for some reason I find Mero and Bagwell likeable despite being cheesy as shit. This was nothing special, but it was fun watching Regal and Eaton work.

Sting vs Lord Steven Regal -- Saturday Night, 9/23/1995
Sting demonstrates his strength by repeatedly lifting Regal into the air using only the knucklelock at the bottom of Regal's extended arm. Later he throws Regal over in what Schiavone calls a mexican arm drag -- I have not seen that move before, and it's pretty sweet. Short but solid match. It ends with run-ins, as the point of this match is clearly to further Flair's begging Sting to be his partner. (I don't know the ultimate result, but surely it's going to be Flair turning on Sting - they're pushing it too hard for it to be otherwise.) Sting continues to be one of the weaker interviews of any guy who reached his level.