Andre the Giant vs. Tito Santana & Jim Powers (and other Dream Matches!)

Not only do I have one of the biggest, but some of the smallest- Rey Mysterio vs. Blitzkrieg and Andre the Giant in the same column!

Welcome back to more Dream Matches! And I have a very special one for you- for the first time since I made my obscenely expensive article header, I ACTUALLY HAVE A JIM POWERS MATCH to review! And it’s an amazing Handicap Match with Andre the Giant vs. Tito Santana & Jim Powers! Watch the lengths Andre will go to in order to prove that Jim Powers is IN NO WAY capable of hurting him, but also do his usual solid sell-job against Tito!

Next up, it’s a phenomenal WCW Nitro match between all-star high-flyers Rey Mysterio Jr. and BLITZKRIEG! And watch just how great Rey is, as he has to sell finally meeting an opponent who can match him in raw agility. Then it’s more Nitro lucha, as Psychosis takes on Lord Steven Regal for the TV Title in a long, hard-fought match! Finally, it’s Sting vs. Dangerous Dan Spivey from 1989 NWA!

HANDICAP MATCH:
ANDRE THE GIANT (w/ Bobby Heenan) vs. TITO SANTANA & JIM POWERS:
(WWF Superstars, Feb. 25th 1989)
* WOO I FOUND IT AGAIN! This had disappeared off of YouTube for a while before I could review it, but it’s a fascinating look at how Andre protected his character. So this is clearly “Featured Guy and Jobbery Guy vs. Huge Star” which sets up the lesser of the two guys to take the pin, but still makes Andre look awesome because he’s taking on TWO GUYS at once, even if one is a former Young Stallion. Jim & Tito humorously have the exact same hairstyle- that “curly rows in a mullet” look.

The team wisely surrounds Andre immediately, but he ignores their punches and knocks their noggins together, Tito doing a great “lurching” sell and getting choked. Andre hilariously doesn’t even budge as Powers attacks him to free Tito, completely ignoring every single thing he does until noticing him and bearhugging the twerp. Tito axehandles Andre and now he sells THAT, but just wraps up both guys in a double-bearhug, hahaha. They actually manage to push him to the ropes, where they just flurry punches at him, Andre selling just enough to look aggrieved and annoyed. He pushes Powers away and bonks Tito, who flails around in the ropes, at which point Andre turns his attention to the jobber with a nasty look on his face and walks through all of Jim’s offense like an unfeeling movie monster. It’s hilarious watching Andre shout with pain when Tito knees him by contrast- like he’s going out of his way to ONLY sell for the guy he respects. They repeatedly batter him, and Andre actually SELLS A POWERS DROPKICK before skooshing both guys in the corner. But as he mauls his prey, Jake the Snake’s theme comes over the P.A., Jake taunting him with “Damien and I are waiting for you…” building hype for their WrestleMania V match! Andre & Heenan are driven to distraction by this, but Andre again bearhugs the mulleted ones, but Tito sunset flips him, and Powers with the assisting clothesline for two! Andre kicks out with BOTH dudes covering him and runs Powers into Tito, putting the latter on the floor. Which means Powers is alone and thus totally screwed- he falls to the Dying Whale Elbowdrop at (3:31).

Hilarious match here, with Andre actually noticeably avoiding selling any Powers offense until he absolutely has to, as if it’s VERY IMPORTANT the fans know this jobber’s shit doesn’t hurt. Like, it actually takes MORE work to no-sell only one of your two opponents rather than just sell everything thrown at you. And only at the very end during the big double-teams and the close pin attempt does he let Powers knock him around. Ventura was right on commentary, though- they should have stuck & moved on him and worn him out, instead of taking the fight right to him. They kept getting into grabbing range and just couldn’t handle it. Andre bearhugs you and it’s like a grizzly bear is mauling your ass.

Rating: *1/2 (fun little diversion- only the most basic of stuff but Andre was hilarious in there and came off as a huge threat despite selling most of the way)

REY MYSTERIO JR. (w/ Konnan) vs. BLITZKRIEG:
(WCW Nitro, 02/08/1999)
* It happened! Blitzkrieg came in a house afire in WCW, quickly turning heads with his offense straight out of today’s wrestling, adding flips and more flips to every possible move and being one of the most flippy of flippy guys in wrestling, and WCW wisely booked him against the OTHER super-famous flipper, Rey Mysterio! This is as natural a Dream Match as any, as both fight in similar styles, though Rey is far more well-rounded and better at psychology (in that he actually uses some). Rey’s in blue & red, wearing an LWO shirt and coming down to a rap theme I don’t remember, and Konnan gets on the mic to inform Boston they are both rowdy-rowdy and bout it-bout it. Naturally, this highly-touted match is on a YouTube video only 10 minutes long with a Konnan promo in it.

We start off with headlocks, Blitzkrieg doing the spinning toehold one, then backflips out of the corner only to take a wheelbarrow armdrag from Rey. Rey reverses a whip but takes a dropkick, bailing but getting caught with a cannonball off the middle rope as Blitzkrieg is using Rey’s own types of tactics against him! Rey is dizzied in the ring, but catches a flying Blitzkrieg with a powerbomb from mid-air for two! Rey with a Sabu-style slingshot moonsault for two, then nails Blitzkrieg when he lands on his feet from a backdrop suplex- but Blitzkrieg lands on his feet again going to the apron, twisting-flips OVER Rey, and then hits the lucha backbreaker! Larry Z points out that Rey’s fighting a mirror image and it has to be messing with him. The ref for some reason interprets Blitz’s kneel as a count, but he just gets up and hits his snap rolling senton/standing moonsault combo for two at lightning speed- Rey howls from some chops, and his counter just sees him charging into the post! Rey’s put on the floor again, but Blitzkrieg goes for a huge plancha and Rey greets him with the standard WCW “dropkick to a flying opponent!”. Rey can’t beat his speed, but he can outsmart him!

And now Rey just acts the brute, whipping Blitzkrieg into the guardrail and pummeling him hanging off the middle rope, then hits a springboard guillotine legdrop Psychosis-style! Blitz looks dead, but manages a kickout at two. Superplex gets two, and Rey now uses a SLEEPER of all things to wear him down, then rips Blitzkrieg’s head off with a lariat after getting sunset flipped- Rey’s now the match’s heavy! Rey gestures to the fans to pull them into the match and throws on a headscissors, actually grounding his opponent (put over by Tenay), then uses the lucha backbreaker himself to counter a charge. Blitzkrieg uses his backflip-kick charge into the corner dropkick to fell Rey, but charges into a rana and eats the Bronco Buster- Rey goes up and gets crotched. Blitzkrieg makes some kind of weird noise/gesture (uh, better workshop that, lol) and goes for Chaparrita ASARI’s Sky Twister Press, splatting on the mat, and Rey puts him up top for the Super Frankensteiner at (8:23)- Rey wins! Blitzkrieg was faster and flippier, but Rey kept countering him and finally dodged his big move, waiting him out and taking advantage of mistakes better, and that won him the day.

Man, Rey was SO good. I mean, HOT TAKE, right? But seriously, he’s facing a dude who can flip as well as he can, but isn’t great on psychology, so Rey shoulders the load by selling his ass off all match, giving up spots, letting Blitzkrieg fly around him, and even charging into the corner himself as he sells the new guy’s agility as being superior to his own. It’s very basic stuff, but remember that REY is the smaller, faster guy in basically every match he’s ever fought, and here he’s easily threaded himself into the role of “stymied slower guy”. Like, where’s he gonna pick up the experience to do that? Add to that great selling, as he just writhes and hollers in the tilt-a-whirl backbreaker or those chops, putting over even basic offense as killer because he’s so small and vulnerable. The announcers were great here (even Larry, who often says the wrong sort of stuff about this kind of wrestling), putting over how Rey was fighting a mirror image and had to be out of sorts because he’s so used to being able to run rings around his opponents- Rey ultimately has to outsmart Blitzkrieg and catch him with stuff (dropkick from the floor; rana out of the corner), brutalize him a bit, actually work HOLDS to ground him, then power him with a LARIAT of all things.

Rating: ***1/2 (tremendous psychology for a short-ish match with tons and tons of flips- Rey sold it like he was fighting uphill against a more agile opponent and kept using smarts and grounding tactics, then plain old brute force, to win)

Psychosis/Psicosis wore a lot of awesome gear in his career. And sometimes just hit “random” on the color wheel.

WCW TV TITLE:
LORD STEVEN REGAL vs. PSYCHOSIS:
(WCW Monday nWo Nitro, December 16th 1996)
* Here’s an interesting potential styles clash between disparate guys (which happened in 5-6 matches visible on YouTube alone)- Regal vs. the tallest of WCW’s luchadores. Psychosis is in the white gear, while Regal’s in the usual dark maroon.

Regal controls with arm stuff to start, Psychosis doing the occasional lucha flip out. Back from break with a sweaty Regal still working him over, but Psychosis finally armwhips him down, Regal selling it like immense shoulder pain and bailing, then gets caught with a wheel kick and a HUGE dive over the top by the suicidal luchadore, ignored completely by Bischoff & DiBiase for this “nWo Nitro” show (oh god). Flying sunset flip gets two, and the rowdy college crowd is way into getting themselves over. Psychosis with a huge Super Frankensteiner (beaning himself on the back of the head but popping right back up then having to sell death while Regal spasms on the mat). Even that only gets two, Psychosis still remembering to sell the arm, and now the Guillotine Legdrop gets the same. Regal needs some offense FAST, and thankfully manages a snap German and rolls to the ropes with his neck in agony. A wheel kick from Psychosis gets two but his arrogant counts are REALLY costing him, and Regal catches him on his belly for a crossface- Regal, finally getting his wind back (kayfabe) after this slowdown, starts firing off punches and a butterfly suplex for two. He puts Psychosis up top, but that costs him as he takes a tumble, and a huge flying splash gets two! Regal’s getting some unsually top-tier kickouts for a heel. They both try flash-pins, getting desperate, but Psychosis gets too cocky with a move off Regal’s shoulders and splats face-first, right into the Regal Stretch (STF) at (9:46 shown). Hard-fought win for Regal- Cruiserweights were always a “level below” even midcard heavyweights, but Psychosis really brought it to him.

A very simple match, but with all the good stuff from both- Regal controls with technical work on the arm, but can’t deal with Psychosis’s agility and eats move after move, including a hell of a finishing series (poor Psy has to use two top-tier moves that earn kickouts against the tertiary champion- not a great sign for his push). Weirdly though that’s only the mid-point of the match and Regal gets a snap German to put himself back in the lead, and they slow things down considerably, costing them the crowd (who was a bit into the high-flying offense and booing Regal), but it was solid psychology (a tired Regal trapping his opponent and stretching him a bit to give himself a breather). It was a style clash, but in the BEST way, with the technical stuff of Regal being befuddled by the luchadore’s high speed and having to do clever reversals and haul him to the mat to take advantage. And this got TIME, too- ten minutes of TV during the Monday Night Wars!

Rating: **3/4 (not the best and oddly laid out, but a great clash of styles with them both hitting good stuff in their respective styles and ending logically)

NWA TV TITLE:
STING vs. DANGEROUS DAN SPIVEY:
(WCW Main Event, May 6th 1989)
* I’ve had this one on the docket for a while- well, it just says “Sting vs. Spivey” and they fought a few times, but this looks like a long match from earlier in Dan’s career. I’ve seen very little of him in his prime, while Sting is still pretty green here but rapidly getting pushed. Dan’s in black and using some kind of college theme, with a simply hideous bleach-blond mullet and a dad bod, while Sting comes down to rock and/or roll and is in white tights, drawing fan squeals.

Spivey acts cocky at first, easily using his power to push Sting around, but starts ignoring him and eats a clothesline for it, bailing after a couple more shots and trying for a time out. He dominates a test of strength, aided by a kick to the gut, but Sting soon lights him up with the same and knocks him down again for two. Sting controls with a headlock as there ain’t any hurry here- an interesting bit sees Spivey do a drop-down and Sting just plops down with the headlock again. They do a weird clothesline where Spivey is falling forward so it looks awkward as hell, but Sting tries too many leaps while Spivey’s in the ropes and crotches himself. Sting gets clotheslined on the ropes and now it’s way in Spivey’s favor with clubbing blows and a side slam. Bearhug keeps it slow, and Spivey goes to the eyes and drops some elbows, then counters a sunset flip with a southpaw blow and hits a weak Boss Man Slam (Sting’s hips get hooked up on Spivey’s) with a double-wristlock pin for two. Sting gets his knees up and then counters a vertical suplex, but a Stinger Splash hits only the corner and he’s down. A simple left hand gets two and Sting has to use the ropes, but Dan tries to use the ropes on a pin himself and gets caught. He thinks he has it won, but when Sting lights him up, the ref gets his “eye poked” and misses Sting “roll him up” (ie. haul him down and just lie across him)- Sting tries a missile dropkick and just glances him (it was obviously supposed to be a miss). Spivey picks him up for a backbreaker but Sting inside cradles him and gets the three at (14:25)- Stinger pulls one out!

Very, very slack match, as neither guy was out to work too hard, and the fans were accordingly respectful yet quiet for the most part. You’d hardly think Spivey was trying to win a belt with his tests of strength and bearhugs, much as you’re supposed to wear guys down. The move execution wasn’t great, either- Spivey was no Bossman and there’s some bits where Sting or Spivey are supposed to be flush and instead just kinda lumber and lurch around. As the match is obviously called by Spivey (he’s doing 80% of the offense) and Sting’s only a 3rd-year, that’s gotta fall on Spivey. Weak finish, too, especially as both guys were probably gassed and not really doing shit smoothly.

Rating: **1/4 (just a pretty slack, dull TV match- not really actively BAD just not very interesting)