Welcome back to more Dream Matches! This time I have a pretty weird assortment, including a very early William Regal vs. Bryan Danielson match from all the way back in 2001!
Then it’s a great showcase of how messed-up the WWF was in 1997, as TOMMY ROGERS vs. BOBBY FULTON makes WWF RAW, because they need a Light Heavyweight Division and when Jim Cornette is on the booking committee that means putting the past-their-prime Fantastics against each other in front of a crowd who has no idea who they are to put over the idea of a division full of young death-defying high-fliers. 1997 WWF, everybody!
Then we hit the AWA in 1986 as top star Sgt. Slaughter, just getting his G.I. Joe fame takes on a very green John “The Barbarian” Nord! Then it’s over to Smoky Mountain Wrestling for a pair of Ladder Matches- one a hilariously-weaksauce house show version where the “ladder” is just a tiny stepladder, and the other a really good one in a big show for the promotion- both involve “Discarded Toys” from other companies- Tracy Smothers vs. Chris Candido! Come see Candido take the most exaggerated sell I’ve ever seen- one that would have Jim Cornette calling for a boycott if it happened today.
WILLIAM REGAL vs. “THE AMERICAN DRAGON” BRYAN DANIELSON:
(Memphis Championship Wrestling, May 5th 2001)
* Announced as the “WWF Commissioner”, Regal takes on Danielson, whom he’d have a hand in training. Bryan is unrecognizable as this fresh-faced young kid with short hair and… are those Midnight Express tights? They’re long blue tights with stars on them. Regal gives Bryan a chance to walk away, but Bryan says “I’m not a COWARD BRITON!”, which Regal actually sells like it stunned him. Bryan would get a bit better on the mic.
Regal does some super-snug mat wrestling, but somersaults off of Dragon’s reversal and sells it with the jitters. They play up Regal’s practicality (just stepping on the arm on his way to grabbing it for an armlock) over Dragon’s flipping (he cartwheels to set up an armbar). Regal with a tight cinch on the arm and counters a headscissor attempt by just flipping him back down. Bryan finally uses the ropes to flip back and reverses the hold, Regal giving a patronizing clap. Dragon hits a running headscissors (!) into a headlock, Regal just putting his foot on the back of the leg to counter to his own, but Dragon hits a dropkick & monkey flip, using his speed. But then Regal lures him into running into the post and hitting the floor- he builds his SmackDown! meter in the ring and launches into brutal strikes when Bryan comes back in as this drops the technical stuff, and Bryan reverses a suplex with an enzuigiri for two. Regal counters a whip with a butterfly suplex for two and they trade European uppercuts like crazy until Bryan hits a flying forearm into the corner into a snap suplex and a Missile Dropkick gets the pin at (7:59). Lucha Bryan wins!
Some very good technical chain-wrestling here, though it’s funny because nowadays this’d go for WAY longer, but for an MCW show they just do 8 minutes. The indies got more and more into the “have a 20-minute match and aim for a classic” as time went on. Bryan is obviously SUPER influenced by Japan & Lucharesu-type stuff here, as he’s throwing out spinning headscissors, enzuigiris and all this speedblitz offense instead of what we’d recognize from him today (much less ending it with a missile dropkick), but he’s obviously tickled pink to be exchanging European uppercuts and that tight British-style wrestling with the master.
Rating: **1/2 (very fun technical match into a strike-war, though it never really hits the final gear given the setting and time given)
“Washed up ’80s tag team fighting each other to the sound of crickets on WWF RAW” is the most 1997 thing ever.
TOMMY ROGERS vs. BOBBY FULTON:
(WWF RAW, June 17th 1997)
* Tell me Jim Cornette is booking your shit without telling me Jim Cornette is booking your shit. Yes, THE FANTASTICS appear on WWF RAW during the early formation of the Attitude Era, as the Light Heavyweight Division is sorta being formed and so they need some tiny guys on TV to justify its existence. And that means putting two washed up former tag stars on your main TV show. Sable is the guest announcer for the match, surely the best use of her famous vocal gifts. Fulton looks like a massive dingus with his dad bod in blue tights with one leg cut off, while Rogers is a generic ’80s guy with red trunks and a brown curly mullet. At least he looks to be in shape.
Right away we learn that WCW’s Cruiserweight division is in no danger as these guys trade 1980s offense like dropkicks & slow headscissors, Rogers dominating while Jim Ross spouts off the Fantastics’ history in Mid-South and how they fought the Midnight Express & Sheepherders, and Vince must be absolutely SEETHING on commentary beside him, haha. They slug it out to silence and Fulton puts on a HEADLOCK to put over the great speed of the division, then hits a wheel kick and heels it up. He drops an elbow on the apron and hits a baseball slide- the crowd actually reacts to that but a “Boring!” chant breaks out in the upper decks, and Rogers backdrops out of a piledriver and Fulton begs off- during a replay of the baseball slide, the ref catches Fulton with his feet on the ropes and he thinks he’s won, so Rogers sneaks up and hits him with the Unprettier/Tomikaze (the double-arm spin dropping the guy’s head down) and wins at (2:48).
Your basic 3-minute RAW match, albeit with a pretty impatient crowd as these guys were total nobodies to them and just doing basic Southern Wrasslin’ stuff they’d seen a million times before. They’re selling the Light Heavyweight Division and neither of these dweebs even left the mat! I mean debuting the Tomikaze before Christian showed up is something, but c’mon.
Rating: *1/2 (perfectly acceptable 3-minute nothing bout)
AWA AMERICAN TITLE:
SGT. SLAUGHTER vs. THE BARBARIAN (w/ Adnan al-Khaissie):
(AWA, May 3rd 1986)
* More Nord the Barbarian action for y’all! With the future manager of Slaughter as his own! This one features him vs. mega-attraction Sgt. Slaughter, back when the G.I. Joe toyline had just added him to the roster, making him an even bigger name. This caused him to bail on Vince (who was like “Naw, we’re doing business with LJN” and Slaughter wisely chose the HUGE AMOUNTS OF MONEY over whatever Vince was giving him, potential damage to his career be damned. He described it later as his agent giving him good advice. Sure he had to fart around the AWA while the WWF hit its peak, but he got all that money, credibility & voice acting roles, then ended up in the WWF anyways.
When I asked G.I. Joe comic writer Larry Hama in person about including him in the book, wondering why he only showed up the once, he said “Yeah, I mean, I couldn’t think of a lot of stories for… SGT. SLAUGHTER. …at least they dropped that whole Iraq thing, though”.
Nord (just called “The Barbarian” here) quickly goes to work on Slaughter, who’s big but has a total dad-bod, especially compared to the bodybuilder physique of his younger opponent. But Slaughter fires back and sends him running- he wins another slugfest with an un-good dropkick, but another leads to Slaughter taking the Bret Bump but deflecting backwards onto his face instead of flying over it. Slaughter writhes around on the mat as Nord kicks his ass and drops a sidebreaker for two- Slaughter noticeably calls spots and he eats a huge big boot, doing a back-arching sell on the mat. That gets two, as does a powerslam, as Nord is throwing some lax-ass covers. They do a back body drop that’s too slow so you can see how it’s done (Slaughter pushing off the back with his arms to lift himself), but Slaughter reverses a whip and manages to get Nord over the top with a clothesline (after Nord botches the first attempt and fails again)- Nord takes a swing at him but Slaughter hooks the Cobra Clutch on the apron and drags him in, bringing Bruiser Brody (Nord’s “trainer”) in for the DQ at (5:24). Slaughter immediately makes a comeback on HIM, though, hitting a clothesline & the Cobra Clutch- the heels have to literally drag Brody away to save him.
Pretty basic match- Slaughter bumped like crazy and sold really well, and successfully pulled off a lot of near-comebacks and legit ones just by throwing punches and clotheslines at the right time. Nord was pretty hopeless at this time, but Slaughter carried him very well and called a good match.
Rating: **1/4 (only 5 minutes and ends on a DQ but it was solid, especially considering how green Nord was at the time)
LADDER MATCH:
“THE WILD-EYED SOUTHERN BOY” TRACY SMOTHERS vs. “THE SUICIDE BLOND” CHRIS CANDIDO:
(Smoky Mountain Wrestling, March 12th 1994)
* This is a ladder match set BEFORE WrestleMania X changed the game on those, but omg look at that adorable tiny little stepladder they’re using! It’s barely taller than ADAM COLE! They’re fighting over an envelope full of cash, here. There’s a sea of empty chairs behind the first four rows on the hard cam (… okay, it’s a fan cam), and the “guardrail” is literally a rope. God I love the indies.
Candido jumps Tracy from behind, but swiftly gets beaten up and bounced around outside as Smothers gets the 4-foot stepladder, but Candido decks him and VERRRRRY lightly places it over his back. Man, fancams are just not friendly to weapon-based wrestling brawls, lol. Another “ladder shot” and they trade punches in the ring. Candido gets choked with the guard-rope but scores a Flair Uppercut, but gets suplexed on the ladder. Tracy beats him around some more, throws 18 shots into the turnbuckles and drops the ladder on him from head-high, but they keep knocking each other off the ladder with stuff. It’s funny because they’re only 2 rungs up so they just land on their feet and then flop into the corner. Candido throws some harder shots with the ladder and chokes away with it, then drapes it across Tracy and stomps it repeatedly. Candido splashes onto the ladder, and the double-down leads to Tracy’s comeback, as he gets fired up, hits his enzuigiri so Chris faceplants into the ladder, and smashes him with it, but Candido fires back with a belt around his fist. He denies it to the ref, but Tracy grabs it and clobbers Candido with it himself, quickly climbing and getting the envelope at (11:06).
Man, the “House Show” version of a ladder match is a hoot. This was obviously not meant for broadcast, and you can see the guys saving themselves and babying the spots, and the match construction is most “give the fans constant happiness” as it’s mostly Smothers kicking Candido’s ass vs. a televised match, which contains a lot of heat. This is all fine given the context- it won’t bring the star-ratings but if you’re at a house show you SHOULD be doing stuff like this. As silly as the tiny ladder is. And the last few minutes revved up the pace as there were harder shots and bigger bumps, too, with some real flourish to them.
Rating: ** (better than your average House Show fare- hilariously weak for a ladder match but it wasn’t stupid-long or spotty)
LADDER MATCH:
“THE WILD-EYED SOUTHERN BOY” TRACY SMOTHERS vs. “THE SUICIDE BLOND” CHRIS CANDIDO:
(Smoky Mountain Wrestling, Bluegrass Brawl ’94)
* Smothers & Candido wrestled at least four Ladder Matches, doing so even before the famous Shawn/Razor one, so other people had been doing the Stampede-invented specialty match even before that. Candido even shipped the match to Sabu, doing one with him at least once. This is apparently the best of the lot. They’re fighting over a $2,500 envelope above the ring. Candido looks like he’s aping “Stunning” Steve Austin here with the vest and gear, while Tracy’s wielding a Confederate Flag AND flag-jacket. My familiarity with him is pretty much as Freddie Joe Floyd and one Young Pistols match.
Smothers tests the crowd to see who wants his bandana, so Candido smokes him from behind, but they’re quickly brawling back & forth. Tracy smokes him with chops and a flying clothesline, baseball slides him, but flies off into the guardrail. He keeps doing little mini-comebacks to stay in it, but soon gets reversed after each one- Candido pescadoes him, but gets suplexed to the floor. Smothers climbs, but Candido rushes in and electric chair drops him off, then gears up the ladder and rams him with it. A shot to the back drops him, and I must again acknowledge that in 1994, hitting someone with a FRIGGIN’ LADDER felt like it was way harder than any move had ever been- this was the era where a steel chair was a knockout blow. A light shot to the forehead again crumbles him, but Candido takes an eternity to jaw with the fans and readjust the ladder, allowing Smothers to axehandle him off and to the floor- Smothers has an even run to the top, but Candido rushes in and nails him in the nuts to end the climb.
Candido throws the ladder on him a couple times, but misses a legdrop, only to get his knees up on a Vader bomb and Tracy’s ribs have GOT to be in pain- he’s doing a good job of selling accumulated damage, being slow to capitalize on everything. But he manages to reverse a suplex to put Candido on the ladder, but then crashes into it on a splash. They take turns knocking each other off the lower rungs, but Candido hits a Super Frankensteiner. Tracy’s dying on the mat, but Candido tries another one ON THE LADDER, but Tracy holds on and Candido crashes into it! Smothers hits a big axehandle, but Candido AGAIN reverses on him, then sets up the ladder in the corner and goes WAY up with a flying headbutt… and misses! He does the hugest cartoonish “leap to his feet and flat-backs with his legs spread” bump, and Smothers gets fired up and kicks his ass, but Candido puts the ladder in front of him when Smothers charges in and both are hurt. And then the classic spot- both guys climb to the top and slug it out… and the ladder actually COLLAPSES right under Tracy when he reels back on a punch! Shit, that probably ruined whatever they were gonna do… and referee Mark Curtis quickly improvises and holds up the broken end as Tracy sets it back up and climbs to win the check at (16:48).
Very good match here, as they do the big ladder spots, but importantly stagger them out, sell falling off and being hit like it REALLY sucks, and more. Candido had great move application and was ironically doing less MOVEZ here than he usually did in regular matches (some of his indie stuff is “all the cool finishers from Japan”), and Smothers had great selling, selling the impacts as being why he couldn’t climb the ropes or rungs quickly and being down and out for half a minute off of things like the super frankensteiner. Tracy really impressed me here, doing a good “fired-up comeback” and having a lot of spring in his step for every move. I can see why he never got a major look by the Big Two with his look and “Southern Boy” stuff, but he really brought it here. His stance reminds me a lot of Kerry Von Erich- that “wildman standing with his arms in front of him” thing and his bounce… less cocainey but energetic. Too bad about the ending (it was probably supposed to be Tracy reeling and then slugging Candido off), but they recovered well enough.
Rating: ***1/2 (very good match with a lot of effort and smooth work by both guys)