1) Matt Riddle: There was certainly a fair amount of action this week but only one guy swept more than two matches. Matt Riddle competed three times in two days and had some great matches. First, at Evolve 64, he wrestled Roderick Strong in a bit of a dream match. The young Riddle defeated him in a match I gave **** to. The following day, he competed at Beyond Wrestling's Flesh event and won in the main event against Tommaso Ciampa. Later that day, he was at it again, taking on another big indy name, Marty Scurll at Evolve 65. Riddle won all three matches and continues to shine despite being in the business for less than two years.
2) Sexy Star: Lucha Underground's Ultima Lucha Dos three part season finale held part two earlier this week. A good chunk of the show was taken up by the Gift of the Gods Championship match. Unlike last year's big Gift of the Gods Title match, this was held under elimination rules. The final four (of seven) saw two rivalries come together. Killshot, Marty Martinez, Mariposa and Sexy Star. Killshot got eliminated, leaving Sexy Star alone against the Martinez siblings that made her life hell since the end of the inaugural Ultima Lucha. Sexy Star overcame the odds and defeated both of them to win the title, earning her a shot at the Lucha Underground Championship whenever she wants. It was a fitting bookend to the rivalry, especially since Sexy Star was kind of made after the No Mas match.
3) Seth Rollins: On Raw, Seth Rollins was part of a really funny segment called the "Rollins Report". He clipped together footage of old Roman Reigns interviews and spliced them together to create some really funny stuff. He and Dean Ambrose then had a great promo together to set up a title match this week. On Smackdown, Seth got involved in Dean's match with Kevin Owens, leading to a tag team match also involving Sami Zayn. Seth was able to defeat Sami and pick up the pinfall and win in the final Thursday night Smackdown. With the news that Stephanie McMahon is running aw and them getting the first pick, Seth is predicted by many to go number one overall.
4) Drew Galloway and Dustin: Drew Galloway pretty much owned the weekend of Evolve 64 and 65. Like Matt Riddle, he swept the weekend in his two matches. First, he attacked his rival Johnny Gargano at Evolve 64, leading to the return of Chuck Taylor, now under the name Dustin. They goaded Catch Point members Drew Gulak and Tracy Williams into giving them a shot at the Tag Team Titles and then went on to actually win them in the main event. If that wasn't enough, Galloway also headlined Evolve 65 and defeated rival Johnny Gargano, That solidified Galloway's crusade against Evolve's partnership with the WWE. With Galloway, Dustin, Ethan Carter III and the soon to arrive Cody Rhodes, their side is pretty formidable.
5) Mil Muertes: Won a Deathmatch against King Cuerno at Ultima Lucha Dos.
NJPW G1 Climax 26 Night One
July 18th, 2016 | Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center in Hokkaido, Japan
The time is finally upon us. New Japan’s annual G1 Climax tournament has begun and will run through August 14th. Like I did for the Best of the Super Juniors tournament this year, I will only be reviewing the actual tournament matches to avoid burnout because nineteen shows is a lot of damn wrestling. We start with the A Block in the same building where things began last year. I believe the B Block is far superior so we’ll see how things shake out.
I would like to point out that they hilariously kept the footage of Tanahashi’s flag breaking during last year’s G1 celebration in the intro video.
A Block: Hiroyoshi Tenzan [2] def. Tomohiro Ishii [0] in 14:08
A lot of people bitched about Tenzan replacing Kojima since he had some poor performances last year, though that was mostly due to him dealing with injuries. I love that he got in for one final time despite being more of a Kojima fan. Tenzan and Ishii had some great interactions during multi-man tags in the BOTSJ so I was looking forward to this. As always, the crowd was way into this. They love Tenzan. Ishii took control and disrespected Tenzan by toying with him on some kicks and slaps to the face. That fired up Tenzan who even tossed the ref aside to get at Ishii. This was a war of two guys trying to hand out the most punishment. Tenzan locked in the Anaconda Vice and slammed him but only got two. Satoshi Kojima was at ringside with Tenzan and told a story with his desperate facial expressions. Ishii hit a sick headbutt and seated lariat that everyone thought would end it but Tenzan would not be denied. They got into a headbutt war that Tenzan won where he even blocked a kick by just taking it on the skull. He then used his buddy Koji’s lariat and a moonsault to pick up an emotional win. Both guys took a beating but it was the added emotional impact of Tenzan’s run, the hot crowd and Kojima at ringside that really helped send this into the next level. Amazing work from all three men that felt like a much more important match than a G1 opener. ****¼
A Block: Togi Makabe [2] def. Tama Tonga [0] in 10:36
Togi Makabe was sporting some new colors on his gear, looking like a cheap Okada knockoff. Also, someone lied to Tama Tonga and told him that his gear looked good. These two have a history with Tonga eliminating Makabe from the New Japan Cup earlier this year and being part of the team that took the IWGP Tag Team Titles from Togi and Tomoaki Honma. For a while, Tonga has been a guy that did well in multi-man tags but is finally getting a chance in 2016. It hasn’t worked out yet though, with no standout singles performances and a piss poor Tag Title run with his brother. Makabe pounced early and they started before the bell. The problem was that this had no real flow to it. Tonga just worked over Makabe for a while and nobody cared. It felt like a Yujiro Takahashi match from last year, which is bad. During his entrance and if Tonga posed at any point, you could hear a pin drop in the arena. They fought up top where Makabe nailed a spider belly to belly suplex and won with the King Kong Knee Drop. This felt way longer than it was. Not the start that Tonga was hoping for because this lacked any real interest and was very dull. This match made me want to Hangman Page myself. *½
A Block: Hirooki Goto [2] def. Bad Luck Fale [0] in 9:18
Bad Luck Fale was pissed off from the start, attacking the ring announcer. He must have spent time watching that last match. If you entrance video is supposed to be highlights, why does Hirooki Goto’s show him losing to Okada? I like him but he’s such a loser. Goto went after Fale’s arm but fell victim to Fale’s power. We got the first of what I expect to be many guardrail whips and countout teases as Goto took a beating outside. Fale pounded away and nailed the Grenade for a near fall. He went for the devastating Bad Luck Fall, which, thanks to how it has been protected, draws a reaction each time. Goto slipped free and started the big comeback. He utilized a sleeper to put Fale into a lull before scoring with the GTR. I’d say this was about as good as you could expect from this combination. Hopefully Goto has a strong tournament points wise, because I know he’ll bring it performance wise. ***
A Block: SANADA [2] def. Hiroshi Tanahashi [0] in 19:28
This is Hiroshi Tanahashi’s return after dealing with some injuries that kept him out of Dominion. SANADA returned to NJPW at Invasion Attack and joined Los Ingobernables de Japon. He had a solid match with Okada at Wrestling Dontaku and some great interactions in multi-man tags but this is easily his biggest test so far. Tanahashi wore black boots and it looked so strange. They worked a slow start until things went outside and SANADA hit a drop toe hold into the guardrail. SANADA attacked the left arm, which Tanahashi sold very well. SANADA has some insane hops, jumping way high on some leap frogs before connecting with a dropkick. SANADA ate some trademark dragon screws and had his leg worked over. They go into strikes, which SANADA has the upper hand in due to the arm work. Tanahashi survived a dragon sleeper and countered another. He went for High Fly Flow but SANADA pulled an Orton and countered with a huge ace crusher. He only got two on that and a moonsault so he hit a second moonsault and slapped the dragon sleeper back on. Tanahashi tapped out cleanly, giving SANADA the biggest win of his career. Great stuff here. They solidified SANADA’s dragon sleeper as a legit finish and played into Tanahashi’s recent injury. The match did drag a bit at some points, but it had great moments, top notch selling and an awesome final few minutes capped off by the upset win. Side note, while it was an upset, I did predict SANADA would win this. ****
A Block: Naomichi Marufuji [2] def. IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada [0] in 19:06
The ace of New Japan against the ace of Pro Wrestling NOAH. Marufuji is in the perfect block for him because I really feel like his style meshes well with the Okadas and Tanahashis of the world. Early on, it was clear they were trying to feel each other out, leading to a cool sequence of near misses. A trend of the night, Marufuji went to work on Okada’s arm, looking to take away the Rainmaker. You really got the feeling that Marufuji had Okada expertly scouted throughout. Some of the arm work Marufuji did was innovative and cool looking, which is appreciated after seeing arm work in the past two matches. They did a really good job of telling the audience how prepared Marufuji was, having Okada’s number at every turn. Okada sold the arm like death at some points, but forgot about it a bit when it was convenient for his offense. He looked overmatched and it was great. Marufuji won with Emerald Flowsion, giving us our second upset of night one. Marufuji turned back the clock and reminded me of when I saw him with ROH nearly ten years ago. The way he dominated makes me feel like he’ll get an IWGP Title shot down the line. If they did it in NOAH, it would be really cool. Not MOTY level for me like I’ve seen some say, but still really good. I could watch Okada get his ass handed to him every night.***¾
Overall: 8/10. A great start to this year’s G1 Climax. Night one has some stinkers last year but this time around, we only got one really bad match. Seriously, never watch Makabe and Tonga. Everything else delivered. Goto and Fale had pretty much the best possible match for Goto and Fale. Marufuji and Okada delivered a strong main event with an upset. I thought SANADA/Tanahashi was great and accomplished a lot of things. It was only bested by Tenzan and Ishii tearing down the house with a stiff match full of emotion. My kind of show, but again, skip the second G1 match.
| A BLOCK | POINTS | B BLOCK | POINTS |
| Hirooki Goto | 2 (1-0) | EVIL | 0 (0-0) |
| Hiroyoshi Tenzan | 2 (1-0) | Katsuhiko Nakajima | 0 (0-0) |
| Naomichi Marufuji | 2 (1-0) | Katsuyori Shibata | 0 (0-0) |
| SANADA | 2 (1-0) | Kenny Omega | 0 (0-0) |
| Togi Makabe | 2 (1-0) | Michael Elgin | 0 (0-0) |
| Bad Luck Fale | 0 (0-1) | Tetsuya Naito | 0 (0-0) |
| Hiroshi Tanahashi | 0 (0-1) | Tomoaki Honma | 0 (0-0) |
| Kazuchika Okada | 0 (0-1) | Toru Yano | 0 (0-0) |
| Tama Tonga | 0 (0-1) | Yuji Nagata | 0 (0-0) |
| Tomohiro Ishii | 0 (0-1) | YOSHI-HASHI | 0 (0-0) |
5) Glacier: Blood runs cold. You all remember the promos and hype videos. With Mortal Kombat being a hugely popular video game, WCW tried to capitalize on that with the Glacier character. Here's the thing though. He was built up for FIVE WHOLE MONTHS with just vignettes. Then his actual debut doesn't come on Nitro, but on WCW Pro. That was behind Nitro, Saturday Night and Worldwide in terms of relevance. Not a good investment considering reports say his costume and entrance cost somewhere around $500,000. Eric Bischoff likes to brag about how his idea was to have his show grounded in "realism" while the WWE was hokey, but this was the opposite of that. The crowd didn't buy into it and for good reason.
4) Fake Diesel and Fake Razor Ramon: Honestly, there was no other way that this could have possibly gone. After Kevin Nash and Scott Hall fled to WCW for those big checks, the WWE thought they could cash in themselves using the names Diesel and Razor Ramon. This was built up for weeks as Jim Ross, playing a heel, kept bragging about them coming in. When the time finally arrived and the fans saw it wasn't Nash or Hall, they crapped on it and rightfully so. Were we supposed to take this seriously? At least it got Hall and Nash even more money because WCW somehow believed it was really them jumping ship.
3) Seven: I've always been a huge Goldust fan. The character is great and has some incredible longevity, second to only Kane and the Undertaker probably. But pretty much every other gimmick that Dustin had has been shit. Seven is at the top of the list as he seemed to be billed as a child molester. Obviously, not a good start. Things take a massive turn for the worse though as when he finally debuts he throws it all away. Whatever money they spent on the vignettes was wasted because WCW decided it should just be a work. Bad move.
2) The Yeti: WCW had just debuted their new flagship show Nitro and things were looking up for the company. They were putting on competitive matches and competing with Raw in the ratings. Re-watching this stuff on the WWE Network was fun...and then the Yeti showed up. During Hulk Hogan's feud with the Giant, which already featured some of the weirdest booking ever, Kevin Sullivan revealed an iceberg or something. From it emerged the Yeti...but he looked like a mummy. And had no business in professional wrestling. To make everything a million times worse, Tony Schiavone pronounced it as "Ye-TAY"
1) The Shockmaster: I don't think there could be another answer. Classic WCW here, as they took Fred Ottman, aka Typhoon and gave him this memorable moment. Sting introduced the Shockmaster and we were supposed to be in awe. What happened instead was a lame explosion and then the Shockmaster bursting through the wall and tripping. Not only that but his bedazzled Stormtrooper helmet, which was a god awful look, fell off. Ric Flair's reaction of "oh god" best sums this up. It even was near the top of WWE Countdown's Biggest Blunders episode.
Raw History
Episode #43
December 13th, 1993 | Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, New York
Considering that Bobby Heenan was thrown out of the company last week and Randy Savage is suspended from commentary, Vince McMahon needs a new broadcast partner. Enter Jim Cornette. This should be fun.
Fatu w/ Afa vs. “Macho Man” Randy Savage
Here we see Randy Savage is out of “retirement”, which should be good since he can still go here. Fatu had a damn good match against Bret Hart earlier in the year, meaning this has potential. Savage sells great for him, falling outside on a savant kick. Savage hits Fatu but twice, he shrugs it off and kicks the former WWF Champion. Fatu mauls him with some of those SAMOAN HEADBUTTS. Savage makes the classic babyface comeback and wins with the elbow.
Winner: Randy Savage in 5:51
While this wasn’t a great match, it did its job. Randy Savage got to win in his return and Fatu was able to look like a Samoan monster. Decent stuff here. **
Todd Pettengil tries to get a petition started for Macho Man to be allowed to return to WWF Mania and host it with him. I honestly don’t remember watching Mania as a kid.
The Smoking Guns vs. Steve Smyth and Jim Massenger
Captain Lou Albano appears at ringside to scout talent. The match is pretty much all Smoking Guns and the jobbers look pretty bad throughout. Bart hits a DDT and Billy wins with a top rope bulldog.
Winners: The Smoking Guns in 2:46
Standard squash match here, made worse considering the jobbers weren’t of the best variety. ¾*
We get a recap of what went down between Razor Ramon, Shawn Michaels, Diesel and the 1-2-3 Kid last week.
IRS vs. Todd Mata
For what has to be the first time in history, we see the contents of IRS’ briefcase and he has Razor Ramon’s gold chain in there. IRS gets in all of the offense, dumping Todd Mata onto the outside. Once he struggles to get back in, IRS hits a backdrop, earning the victory.
Winner: IRS in 1:43
If I must watch IRS matches, these are the best ones. It was kept short so he couldn’t do his stupid endless chinlock. ¾*
A ridiculous video airs of Yokozuna as Santa Claus, being nice to children. He then wakes up from the nightmare. The best part about this is that we now know that he sleeps in his entrance robe.
The Undertaker w/ Paul Bearer vs. J.S. Storm
I feel like I haven’t seen the Undertaker on Raw in months. Commentary mentions that the Undertaker the upcoming Casket Match between Yokozuna and the Undertaker at the Royal Rumble. Jim Cornette says that it will be bad, which is absolutely what it was. Storm obviously gets nothing and Undertaker mows through him quickly.
Winner: The Undertaker in 1:55
I’m liking these quick squash matches tonight. It makes things much easier to enjoy. *
Our final Jeff Jarrett vignette airs, and it’s just a montage of his previous ones. He debuts next week.
A promo airs to hype next week’s marquee Raw match. Tatanka returns to avenge his first loss against Ludvig Borga.
Rick Martel vs. Tim McNeany
We have to nearing the end of Rick Martel’s run with the WWF right? He actually runs into trouble as the jobber gets two near falls with rollups. Martel gets tired of this quick and stars taking control, even doing some jumping jacks. This jobber gets more offense than I’d expect but Martel wins.
Winner: Rick Martel in 3:00
Another squash, but this one was pretty dull considering it lasted longer than the rest. ½*
On Superstars, Owen Hart was interviewed by Vince McMahon and challenged Bret Hart to a match. Things are about to get good.
Bret Hart vs. Brooklyn Brawler
This should be better than most squashes because it involves Bret. He targets the arm of the infamous jobber. He hits a cross body and goes back to the arm. Brawler rakes the eyes and thinks he’s in control but Bret is all like “nope” and goes into the FIVE MOVES OF DOOM to win.
Winner: Bret Hart in 4:14
Probably my favorite squash match of the night, but nothing about it was great. Basic stuff here again. *¼
Overall: 3.5/10. I really wasn’t feeling this episode. Granted, I appreciated that some of the matches moved by so quickly, but there were five of them and I’d only consider one to really be watchable. We are in a period where it’s a bit too far from the new PPV for anything of note to really happen though, so I kind of get that.
Raw History
Episode #44
December 20th, 1993 | Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, New York
We get clips of the attack on Tatanka last week before a promo from saying he’s getting his revenge tonight. Vince McMahon is joined by Shawn Michaels on commentary this week.
Jeff Jarrett vs. PJ Walker
Man, Jeff Jarrett’s outfit has to be a rib. He struts and poses around the ring in between his offense. He does a pretty good job of drawing heat from the fans with some trash talking. Jarrett wins with a rather ugly looking DDT.
Winner: Jeff Jarrett in 3:32
A decent debut here. Jeff Jarrett quickly showed that he was going to be a solid heel. *
Men on a Mission w/ Oscar vs. Duane Gill and Barry Hardy
I’m pretty sure the jobber team are the superior workers. Oscar’s “Santa Rap” features him saying Christmas five times and then spelling the word. #Bars. Mo does his awful offense before Mabel comes in and dominates. He slams Gill onto Hardy as commentary discusses how much of a problem Mabel will be in the Royal Rumble. Instead of just ending it here, Mo comes in and applies another wristlock. We are past that point of the match. Mabel comes in and ends it.
Winner: Men on a Mission in 4:33
My goodness, Men on a Mission completely suck and, for some reason, keep getting long squash matches. DUD
Todd Pettengil takes us to the Royal Rumble Report! They hype the WWF Championship Casket Match between Yokozuna and the Undertaker as well as IRS somehow getting an Intercontinental Title shot at Razor Ramon. He then runs through the rules of the Royal Rumble and announces nine entrants including Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Mabel, Shawn Michaels, Diesel, Crush, Kamala, Doink and Scott Steiner. Poor Rick Steiner and Mo couldn’t get in before Kamala?
Ludvig Borga vs. Tatanka
To try and prove that their issues are very serious, they brawl on the outside for a bit. Once they come in, Tatanka takes control, beating up Borga worse than anyone else so far. H gets two on a cross body before just getting mauled by a Borga body block. Borga surprises me with a cross body type move in the corner. Hey, he’s somewhat athletic. Tatanka no sells it because of his NATIVE AMERICAN FIGHTING SPIRIT! Yokozuna and Mr. Fuji walk to the ring as Tatanka goes up top. Fuji hits Tatanka with the flag in the back. The referee doesn’t see it, so they could have gotten away with it, but Yokozuna just walks in the ring for the DQ anyway.
Winner via disqualification: Tatanka in 4:40
It wasn’t the worst match ever before the finish. It was actually better than I expected from the two of them, though I had very low expectations. *½
As Yokozuna and Ludvig Borga look to kill Tatanka, Lex Luger makes the save. He uses the illegal forearm and body slams Yokozuna to send them packing.
Adam Bomb w/ Harvey Wippleman vs. Mark Thomas
Mark Thomas still looks more jacked than most of the roster at this point. For some reason, Lou Albano is out at ringside. I thought he was scouting tag teams. Since Thomas has a purple and black singlet, Vince makes a Barney joke. Bomb hits a powerbomb to wrap this up quickly.
Winner: Adam Bomb in 1:42
Why couldn’t this be the length of the Men on a Mission match? I’d rather watch Adam Bomb than those two for four minutes. This was short and sweet. *
A vignette runs for Thurman “Sparky” Plugg. Who thought that was a good name?
We go back to two weeks ago on Superstars, where Owen Hart challenged Bret Hart to a match. This past weekend on Superstars, Bret Hart responded, saying he knows the match would be great and that he never backs down from a fight, but he won’t fight his brother.
Owen Hart vs. Mike Bell
Owen Hart and Mike Bell do some arm work that obviously Owen wins with a head scissors takedown. Shawn Michaels is doing a good job in playing up how Bret is the favorite of the Hart family. Owen does some nice offense like a gutwrench suplex and second rope elbow. Owen hits a sweet belly to belly suplex before finishing Bell off with the Sharpshooter.
Winner: Owen Hart in 3:11
As usual, Owen Hart produces an entertaining squash match. He always found a way to make the most of his time and he does so here again. *½
Somehow, there’s a camera at the Undertaker’s workshop. It’s like a bizarre version of MTV Cribs. Paul Bearer shows us the Kamala casket and then we see Undertaker working hard at making a double wide casket for Yokozuna.
The Headshrinkers w/ Afa vs. Phil Apollo and Jerry Seavey
As expected, the Headshrinkers control this thing. Unfortunately, it isn’t the jobber killing from them that I’ve come to love. They hit Seavey with a double leg sweep and then win with the Fatu splash.
Winners: The Headshrinkers in 2:52
Not one of the better Headshrinker squash matches. They are usually hit or miss and this one kind of missed. ¾*
Next week, we see Razor Ramon in action, Lex Luger will also be wrestling, Marty Jannetty vs. Johnny Polo and highlights from the finals of the WWF Women’s Championship Tournament!
Overall: 4/10. Another ho-hum episode. Jeff Jarrett had a decent but forgettable debut, Owen Hart had a fun squash and Tatanka and Borga did better than expected. Still, Men on a Mission had an abysmal and I wasn’t impressed with the whole show.
Raw History
Episode #45
December 27th, 1993 | Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, New York
It’s the final episode of Raw in the year 1993! Vince McMahon’s commentary team this week consists of the Quebecers. Pierre apparently speaks bad English.
Lex Luger vs. Barry Horowitz
Lex Luger is such a natural heel that they even book him against the face jobbers. Commentary discusses the possibility of Luger being in the Royal Rumble. He did had the clause in his contract that states he couldn’t get another shot at Yokozuna if he didn’t win the belt at SummerSlam. Horowitz is surprisingly getting in a fair amount of offense. I don’t think he would get this much offense in again until his minor push in 1995. Barry makes the mistake of patting himself on the back. That leads to the Luger SCREAMING CLOTHESLINE! He hits a powerslam and superplex to finish things.
Winner: Lex Luger in 4:24
Better than I thought it would be due to the amount of offense Barry Horowitz got in. Granted, Lex Luger shouldn’t really be struggling with him, but it made for a more entertaining bout. *
We go back to the 1-2-3 Kid/Marty Jannetty match from a few weeks ago where Johnny Polo interfered, leading to his match tonight.
Johnny Polo vs. Marty Jannetty
They work a solid back and forth start, with Johnny Polo looking rather impressive. Jannetty gets two on an interesting rollup before taking him over with an arm drag. Polo busts out a suicide dive but Marty comes back with a slingshot body press. Marty comes off the top shortly after with a cross body for two. These guys are working pretty hard, but Vince is just talking about all kinds of off-topic stuff. Pierre gets up commentary as Jannetty dropkicks Polo outside. Pierre checks on Polo but eats a baseball slide. He then dives from the top and wipes out Pierre. Marty tries a sunset flip but Pierre holds Polo and allows him to win.
Winner: Johnny Polo in 8:22
I rather liked this match. Both guys worked hard to try and get Johnny Polo over as a capable wrestler. I think Vince could have done a better job on commentary in helping the cause, but still, a solid match. **¾
Doink the Clown vs. Spike Gray
Jacques makes a joke about Doink getting a “little Dink” for Christmas. It goes right over Vince’s head. I wonder who is playing Doink here. He and Dink run a gag on the jobber before Doink quickly wins with a German suplex.
Winner: Doink in 1:01
This is how I like my Doink squashes now that the OG Doink is gone. Short. ¾*
Adam Bomb, Bigelow, Macho Man, 1-2-3 Kid, Fatu, Samu, Rick Steiner, Greg Valentine and Bob Backlund are all added to the Royal Rumble on the Royal Rumble Report. They also announce that the Quebecers will be facing Bret and Owen at the Rumble. Bret and Owen cut a promo about how they’ve solved their differences.
Next week, the Smoking Guns face Bastion Booger and Bigelow. Yuck.
Crush w/ Mr. Fuji vs. Mike Moraldo
Crush’s attire is still rather absurd. He overpowers Moraldo and uses some of his “martial arts expertise.” Crush wins with a claw hold that looks weak.
Winner: Crush in 2:24
It was short. That’s the only positive I can find in this match. ¼*
We go back to Undertaker’s workshop, where he continues to build the double wide casket.
Video clips are shown from the finals of the WWE Women’s Championship Tournament. Alundra Blayze met Heidi Lee Morgan. The footage shows that the match probably wasn’t great, but Blayze won to bring the Women’s Title back.
A vignette is shown for Kwang. It’s just him doing nonsense “martial arts” moves. Crush is probably crying gimmick infringement. Who would know that they’d be partners in a few years in the Nation of Domination?
Non-Title Match
Razor Ramon vs. Derek Domino
This is your standard Razor Ramon squash. He goes through all of his usual stuff, including the modified abdominal stretch. According to Jacques, it’s the domino stretch. Get it? Because the jobber’s name is Domino. Razor finishes with the Razor’s Edge.
Winner: Razor Ramon in 3:48
Like I said, standard Razor Ramon squash match. Nothing to write home about it, but it accomplished the job. *
Overall: 4/10. Considering the fun Polo/Jannetty match and the fact that Luger’s match was better than expected, I wanted to like this episode more. Instead, it featured Crush and Doink boring me. The year does not end with a bang, but more like a whimper.
