Ric Flair, Arn Anderson & Stunning Steve Austin vs. Sting, Alex Wright & The Renegade (and other Dream Matches!)

Stunning Steve Austin, before finally giving up on that hairline.

Welcome back to more Dream Matches! This time, I have an incredible headliner for you- one of those “Only in this moment in time” WCW matches, featuring Ric Flair, Arn Anderson and Stunning Steve Austin vs. Sting, Alex Wright and the Renegade! Only in WCW could you see Austin shortly before he got fired at Peak Workrate take on the Renegade during his failed upper midcard push. And HOLY CRAP watch Austin with his workboots on in this otherwise-filler TV main event.

Then it’s another look into Negro Casas, as I was fascinated by how good he was in that FMW match- someone linked me a 1987 Mask vs. Hair match against his longtime opponent, El Hijo Del Santo! Then it’s more WCW goofiness as a D-show features Buff Bagwell & Konnan as a random nWo tag team against the legendary High Voltage! And finally, it’s more *1950s wrestling*, as the second big Evil Japanese wrestler, The Great Yamato, takes on Billy Darnell with Russ Davis, the epic ’50s announcer, on commentary!

STING, “DAS WUNDERKIND” ALEX WRIGHT & THE RENEGADE (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. RIC FLAIR, ARN ANDERSON & STUNNING STEVE AUSTIN:
(WCW The Main Event, June 4th 1995)
* Oh man, TREMENDOUS. Right in the midst of the temporary rocket push The Renegade got in WCW, and he’s paired up with top babyface Sting and Alex Wright when they were still trying with him. And it’s a trio of the top heels in the company, including future megastar Steve Austin when he was still kicking around in WCW. And poor Steve is still trying to hold onto his hair- increasingly stringy and only at the very apex of his head, now. Sting’s in orange, Wright red and Renegade in a purple fringed singlet with a goofy-ass “R” across his face, doing a lot of quasi-Ultimate Warrior mannerisms. You’d think that wouldn’t be THAT hard to do, but he somehow looks like a podunk indie loser while trying it.

They of course blow a few minutes on Flair/Sting schtick, Flair stalling, catching Sting from behind but being no-sold, going “NOOOOOO” and getting tossed around, etc. Arn/Renegade go next and poor Arn has to be no-sold and then fall on his ass out of bug-eyed fear- Renegade reverses a suplex and hits a Warrior running splash for only a one-count, then Arn gets battered around by the good guys and Austin comes in. He has some great flourish and gets knocked to the floor out of an International and I’m amazed at how he’s able to disguise how shitty the Renegade is just by overselling everything like dynamite- phenomenal agility and “dizzied” selling. Flair sells for Wright and flops on the floor, but Austin comes in and wrecks Das Wunderkind with some awesome stuff (a stun gun into stomps using his full body). Wright gets worked over for a few minutes until he finally Flair Tosses Ric off the top and Sting runs wild with the usual- Stinger Splash hits Ric but the heels are all in the ring and it turns into a schmozz. You can see the DQ coming as Renegade hits a Flying Splash on Arn but Austin clobbers him- Arn tosses Renegade and the ref calls for the bell at (9:56).

God damn Austin used to be SO good- before injuries took their toll, he had this amazing flourish to every move, putting his whole body into everything. He’s the team’s workhorse all match, doing the best selling and then controlling the most offense- Flair was just doing the usual schtick with Sting & Wright while Arn was doing cartoon stuff with Renegade. Austin honestly comes off like he was desperately gunning to impress someone and maintain some kind of push in the Hogan Era. So of course he got cut loose and revolutionized the business elsewhere. A pretty lazy everday match otherwise, but they disguised Wright & Renegade’s weaknesses by making one sell and the other only get short flourishes.

Rating: **1/4 (everyone in their “typical day at the office” mode save Austin’s incredible flourish on offense and selling)

MASK vs. HAIR MATCH:
EL HIJO DEL SANTO vs. NEGRO CASAS:
(Olympic Auditorium, Los Angeles, 7/18/1987)
* I wanted to get into more Negro Casas, so someone recommended this match. And it’s MASK vs. HAIR, the most critical match type in Mexico- losing your hair is humiliation, but the son of EL SANTO losing his mask? Unthinkable! So the stakes are as high as they could possibly be! Both are very undersized guys (not helped by this GIGANTIC ring) in long tights- Casas in white & Santo in grey. Both are in their mid-20s by this point.

FIRST FALL: Casas massively oversells a simple armdrag like a good heel, then takes that great twisting bump from a headscissors- ah, I see that’s a regular spot of his, then. He keeps bailing after everything and jawing with the fans, with a swagger that cries “young tough in some 1950s movie”, but manages a turning cross-body off the top, a tilt-a-whirl slam, and finishes with the Mexican MDK, La Majistral, for a quick 3 at (2:36)! Oh snap! A quick one! And now Santo’s back is to the wall and he has to win two straight just to keep his mask!

SECOND FALL: Casas showboats and celebrates his win like a total asshole, and Santo sells a dropkick & single punch like devastating offense, then flat-backs off a leaping punch and Casas just starts toying with him once the fans start chanting for their hero. Santo’s spasm-based selling style is definitely not what he was doing in the ’90s, lol. He just totally gets wiped out as Casas keeps braying and doing this big movie-style haymakers to lay him out- the huge mouth of the rudo makes his shit-talking look even better, jaws flapping while he toys with Santo, whose bumping is still super-cartoonish. And then of course Casas puts his head down and goes sailing off a knee, taking wilder and wilder bumps off of every little thing like a madman. HOLY CRAP the backflip bump off the “tripping kick” spot! The aforementioned huge mouth also makes Casas’s selling tremendous, as he howls in a Romero Special (surfboard) and submits at (4:25). All tied up! Casas has the ref re-set his jaw after the fall and pouts, all pissy about losing.

THIRD FALL: IMMEDIATELY Casas gets caught with a dropkick and does the “spinning fall while holding the mouth in agony” sell over it, then eats two bulldogs and a “rock the cradle” submission before reversing and pummeling his foe again. They both get the wrong end of a charge into the corner, but Santo bumps to the floor and the beating continues- he tears at Santo’s mask to be a dick, which I think is our “resthold” spot because this goes on a WHILE, the ref ineffectually trying to pull Casas off him. Casas cuts off a brief comeback with another right hand, but eats three flash-pins in a row, saved by the ref’s slow drop-down for the counts, until he hits a “cartwheel” elbow to quell Santo’s surge. But he eats a dropkick & tope suicida for a double-down, and back in, he scores some punches but “slips off” the top rope trying to follow up, and Santo hits a rolling cannonball off the top for two! Another surfboard! But this time Casas dramatically makes the ropes with a freed hand. He charges… but eats a huge backdrop to the floor! Flying plancha! Both guys are wiped out, but back in Casas catches Santo telegraphing and goes up, but gets brought down in a huge Super Electric Chair Drop- for two! Casas has kicked out and gets to his feet… but immediately flops over dead (AMAZING) and Santo puts him in the most dramatic camel clutch ever, Casas nearly slipping out repeatedly but getting bent back so far… and he gives (8:50)! El Hijo del Santo wins! Casas shakes his head on the mat, totally wiped out, but the two shake hands and embrace- apparently no ill will here! They can’t quite get the clippers working at first, but Casas smiles as he takes his lumps, though we don’t see him bald in this clip.

haha, fantastic. The lucha style of 1987 looks even more cartoonish than the WWF of the same era, with guys taking massive theatrical bumps and overwrought lean-ins on all their strikes like old-time movies. Casas gets humiliated in the first round but pins Santo quickly, then dominates him for the second while the hero spasms around the mat on everything, looking beat. He pulls out a win, though, and it’s back-and-forth for the final fall as each guy tries dramatic stuff. Casas was awesome here, jawing with the fans and braying about everything, then getting his comeuppance and wailing manically in absolutely everything. GREAT cartoonish oversells of things, doing the “gets hit with a shot, dramatically grabs his face, spins around and flat-backs in a writhing arch” sell and all that good stuff. His rude, snide arrogance in the early going pays off as he eats the second fall in a come-from-behind win for Santo, then for much of the third fall as he’s now being bounced around. His big, dramatic punch flourishes are great, with a big step and full of this nasty, pinpoint precision to them, like he’s just leaning WAY in and walloping his opponent- it’s goofy as hell but works in the context of all the cartoonish over-selling they’re doing. It’s maybe TOO dramatic for me, but works for what it is. Casas was obviously tremendous throughout, while El Hijo del Santo was… okay, the hysterics with the bumping were kinda odd and his own moves didn’t look so great yet. He also never seemed to look in danger for the final fall, which to me wrecks some of the drama.

Rating: ***1/2 (I fear I can’t properly assess lucha at the best of times, much less older lucha, but Casas has some amazing mannerisms. Santo was much less impressive)

BUFF BAGWELL & KONNAN (w/ Vincent) vs. HIGH VOLTAGE (Rage & Kaos):
(WCW Worldwide, Feb 28th 1998)
* Here’s a weird one, putting the Power Plant Supreme Squad against two random nWo dudes. Everyone’s in black here, Konnan in his nWo shirt, Bagwell in the long pants, and Voltage have their singlets pulled down into shorts in Monster Energy Drink colors.

Buff starts with Kaos, eating a backdrop but Konnan knees him from the apron and Kaos gets dumped for a beating from Konnan & Vincent. The nWo beat Kaos down and pose, Konnan hitting his rolling clothesline while Bobby Heenan attempts to put him over as more than a “kick and punch” guy, bless him. Konnan puts on a submission like he forgot how they’re supposed to work, and the heels do a blind switch (the best part is the ref asking them if they tagged and the nWo being like “OH OF COURSE!” and the ref nodding like “oh, okay” on this honor system). This goes on WAY too long until Kaos finally gets his knees up, and Konnan bumps like ass for Rage’s “hot tag”, but Rage batters both guys around and hits an impressive “hold them up” overhead suplex on Konnan- Buff saves, then backdrops Kaos out of the ring, leading to Rage hitting a clothesline on Konnan, only to run into Buff’s. Konnan locks on the Tequila Sunrise (half-crab with the arm pinned) for the tap-out at (4:07).

A very weak match, made fun for only a bit by the nWo’s disingenuous attempts at acting like they were legitimately tagging. High Voltage looked clunky and weak, in part because they were taking on Konnan’s terrible-bumping ass and Buff wasn’t in much of a mood to work, either. The puny WCW ring appeared to be hampering them a bit, too, as four decently-big dudes were having a hard time getting around each other. Plus I mean, it’s Worldwide– it’d be almost wasteful to try hard, lol.

Rating: 3/4 (very weak, overly-long squash)

THE GREAT YAMATO vs. BILLY DARNELL:
(The Chicago Ampitheatre, 08/28/1953)
* It’s more old-timey Evil Foreigner wrestling from the 1950s! This time instead of The Great Moto, it’s a successor (and future partner), The Great Yamato. “Yamato” is an ancient Japanese province and most notably to Americans was the name of the flagship of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II (which, notably, was only eight years before this match so Americans would likely DEFINITELY know that). Also when I stayed in Japan in 1998 the host family’s kitten was named Yamato, so the name still pops up, I guess! He is Toyoki Uyeda, who wrestled as Tor Yamato much of the time, and died very soon after this- in 1960, shot to death during a scuffle with his ex-wife, whom he’d divorced in secret! At least according to a contemporary newspaper. Billy Darnell is a longtime rival (and sometimes kayfabe brother) of Buddy Rogers, and is immediately my hero by dressing like Fred Flintstone, but sadly doffs that Tarzan get-up for basic trunks- he has a “beautiful build” according to Vince McMa– I mean Russ Davis, who is of course our classic announcer once more! Yamato, by contrast, is shorter, dumpier and barefoot. Davis can’t keep his name straight, calling him either “Yamato” or “Ya-MO-to”.

Yamato doesn’t do an elaborate “falderall” and tons of begging off like Moto did, but copies doing a pre-fight routine after the bell- not sumo-inspired as Moto’s, but just some goofy posing and dancing. He immediately starts getting outwrestled, and we get the entire story of the match- Darnell easily handles him in grappling, but Yamato is a Sneaky Evil Foreigner and keeps cheating. He grabs for chokes, pulls the tights, and when he maintains a headlock, gleefully pulls the hair, often in full view of the referee (who forces breaks as a result). This nearly always draws a reaction from the crowd, especially when Yamato’s doing sleight of hand and keeping the ref from observing it, as the heel ends up headlocked, hammerlocked and headscissored in succession, barely maintaining anything himself. haha when Darnell drops a knee in a hammerlock, you can hear some fan shout “Do it again, Billy! … ATTABOY!” Davis shows the era by occasionally mocking the accent (“Me want go honorable home!”), and in one of the most heated bits, Darnell gets sick of the cheating and comes in with his fists balled up, causing the cowardly heel to beg off.

The best bit is Darnell snapmaring Yamato from the apron into the ring in a big landing. One funny bit sees Billy bodyscissor him and repeatedly slam his ass on the mat. However, a “judo lick” (chop) catches Darnell and puts Yamato in the lead temporarily, and he does manage a “judo” move by touching a “pressure spot” on Darnell’s temple to make a headlock excruciating. He bashes Darnell’s head into the turnbuckles using the hair repeatedly, but Darnell whups his ass with forearms! And fists! “Aw, let me hit him!” he cries to the referee, but Yamato escapes Andre Position and moves in… but clobbers the turnbuckle instead and yells at the crowd for laughing at him! The armscissors is their resthold of choice 20 minutes in, Billy eventually doing a hilarious rolling version for two, but Yamato then chops him and hits a MOTHER of a bodyslam and holy shit did that look like it hurt. Billy definitely botched that landing. But Darnell dumps him and just throws some super-light strikes, then they trade Japanese wristlocks and Darnell works the leg (including using a proto-sharpshooter & half-crab). They alternate quick and slow bits as time ticks down, clearly wasting time, but Billy beats him up and ignores a hiptoss, using an airplane spin, tangling them up until it’s a Time Over at (30:00). yeah, saw that one coming.

1950s wrestling is so weird, lol- all these spots you still see today, mixed in with a lot more theatrics in amateur-style moves (like rolling cradles/hammerlocks or that butt-slam bodyscissors), even more begging off than you’d see in 1990s Flair stuff, and more. Yamato wasn’t as bad as Great Moto for stalling/begging but it was up there, but he had that Buddy Rogers tendency to ALWAYS go for the hair and chokes, and make sure to sleight-of-hand the ref over it, making sure he was always out of view yet utterly unsubtle about it to the fans. What’s interesting is they go thirty minutes yet there’s not a single nearfall- at no point was anyone thinking a move could be the end of it, even after that body slam botch (which they seem to rapidly stall for time and then settle it down). I still laugh at the idea of anyone thinking this could be real.

Rating: **1/4 (yeah I dunno- thirty minutes of what today would be “first five minutes” stuff but entertaining enough and with a bit more athleticism than I’ve seen in other 1950s wrestling)