AJ Styles vs. El Generico vs. Crazy Crusher in Quebec (and other Dream Matches!)

Welcome back to more Dream Matches! This week, I’ve found a bizarre bunch of outlier matches, including a sequel of sorts to last week’s stupid indie bumpfest featuring guys who can’t work… except it’s guys who CAN mixed in! So popular indie sensations AJ Styles and El Generico (Sami Zayn) actually go to EWR in Quebec to wrestle that indie dork Crazy Crusher, and my god it is FASCINATING to watch- two guys who can absolutely work having to work around a guy who can’t, putting him over and seeing what they can make out of it.

After that, a WWF Prime Time prelude to WrestleMania VII sees The British Bulldog and the Legion of Doom vs. The Warlord and Power & Glory! Some pharmacist be gettin’ RICH tonight! Then another PT match sees an extra-lazy Smash & Crush version of Demolition take on Tito Santana & Koko B. Ware, cuz they couldn’t find any babyface tag teams willing to job to Demolition before the PPV! Then an AMAZING surprise, as I was looking up World of Sport stuff and found Baby Chris Adams vs. Baby Fit Finlay in 1981… and it RULES! Check out how nasty that little prick Finlay is and how defiant babyface Adams is against him! Then the last of “AAA in the WWF” as Hysteria, Maniaco & Abismo Negro take on Super Nova, Venum & Discovery on WWF RAW in a cold flippy match! And then it’s a WWF B-Show as Flash Funk takes on upcoming star Taka Michinoku during the Light Heavyweight Title tournament!

A.J. STYLES vs. EL GENERICO vs. CRAZY CRUSHER:
(Elite Wrestling Revolution, 09/04/2004)
* Oh yes- I have PROOF that Crazy Crusher, the indie idiot from last week’s ladder match, wrestled future superstars in the business. This is AJ Styles and Sami Zayn in their 2004, “Indie Skinny Guy” states. Both of course look 100 times as good as Crusher, who comes out in weird baggy “almost normal clothes but a close-up reveals a collar”, and holds up a sign that says “CRUSHER = RATINGS” (those “= Ratings” signs being a popular gag with ridiculous wrestlers, like WCW jobbers… and were intended to be ironic. and were a thing in 1997). El Generico is Zayn’s “Obvious Western guy pretending to be the Mexican Sensation luchadore). Born in Quebec, he can probably communicate with Crusher. Styles is then a TNA wrestler and in the X Division, so is a well-known-ish name and a good get for this podunk company, which is in the same tiny hall as the ladder match. Hilariously, the early lockup reveals that Crusher is so small that AJ STYLES of all people looks huge beside him.

The three do a fairly intricate, obviously pre-planned routinte, Crusher at least doing his part (though it contains many obvious “he’s dodging a move that’s not thrown yet” stuff) and the crowd goes BANANA for… three rollups in succession. Okay they’re hyped, lol. Styles bails to extend the match-timeI MEAN show frustration, then Generico sets up Crusher to eat an enzuigiri and does a REALLY slick routine with Styles ending in him getting his head ripped off by a spinkick. JESUS that was either a potato or they just did that dead-on. Styles fails a monkey-flip on Crusher and the crowd dies instantly in that “was that a botch?” way (I THINK Crusher had the ropes but in a trios match your attention is divided so the fans can’t see). Styles & Generico do some basics (nice kneedrop by Styles), then Crusher finally stops doing selling or calisthenics or whatever in the corner and does a REALLY shitty sequence and OMG this is AMAZING- like the difference between Styles/Zayn sequences and Styles/Crusher ones is so huge and you almost NEVER get “one can work and one can’t” shown so obviously and close together like this. You can see Styles like “hold on…” as he repositions, slows it down for Crusher’s benefit, and more, taking a great bump into the corner off a headscissors. Like once Crusher fucks up a HIPTOSS bump, Styles knows to slow it down and ease it up for him. A tilt-a-whirl headscissors looks slow but good and it’s clear Crusher has ONLY studied the “cool spots” because if you fuck up a hiptoss and can do THIS, something’s up.

Generico’s springboard bodypress is dodged but he hits Styles, causing everyone to pause for a while to sell it. He does a “technical” sequence with Crusher, sells way too long on the floor, and Crusher gets caught in AJ’s rana. Tope Con Hilo by Styles hits Generico! Crusher follows with a shooting star press to the floor that looked more like he had a seizure mid-flight. Styles leapfrogs the railing and superkicks Crusher in a great bit (ruined by Crusher’s “WOOPWOOPWOOP” arm-flailing sells. Fans chant “match of the year!” to be extra cringe while Styles & Generico trade slow stuff ending with a lightning-fast neckbreaker. Crusher finally recovers after 2 minutes and enters, but both guys take corner “Ole!” boots. Crusher gets whipped into Styles, monkey flips him into a rana and the fans chant “Five Star Match!” like dorks, Crusher eats a clothesline & good backbreaker, then Styles catches him with the Lionsault/Inverted DDT combo while catching Generico with a DDT. The fans love that, and they wisely play it up, Styles trying multiple variations for two-counts before getting into a New Japan Forearm Exchange with Generico before both guys end up on Crusher’s shoulders for the world’s weakest DVD. Crusher’s all “HUFFANPUFF” to show badassitude, but overswings on AJ’s whirling uranage and is now overdoing the “arching his back to show spinal damage” sells.

Styles runs into an Exploder into the corner from Generico, who gets two but takes a single kick that has him doing the “third guy in a 3-way” sell in the corner so Styles can eat Crusher punches and a tiger suplex. Crusher gets crotched on the top rope by AJ and they double-superplex him, fight over two-counts, chop each other, AJ gets a German & Generico gets a half-nelson suplex. He climbs, Crusher going after him but taking a HUGE bump off the “Brainbuster onto the Corner” spot that Kyle Fletcher does today. Styles & Generico sell death, Generico collapsing off of regular forearms and barely avoiding a Styles Clash, but AJ gets in on him… and Crusher springboards in from behind, smashing them with a dropkick to AJ’s back and pinning Generico to steal the win (17:23)! Not a bad ending for a three-way match! Everyone does the “Handshake of Respect” like dorks after the match, making sure to point to Crusher as the victor and get paid to return, lol.

This was INCREDIBLE from a “how wrestling actually works” perspective. Just a fascinating display of “guys who can work” vs. “guys who can’t”, as the quality of Zayn/Styles sequences are so good, so slick, and have all this great bounce and follow through, and here’s this clunky Quebecois like… stumbling through hiptoss spots and having to get Styles to hold him in place for his “good moves”, windmilling his arms around on the sells, etc. Then you add in weird shit you get with indie matches lasting forever, where guys eat very basic offense and have to sell it for unrealistically long periods of time, acting dead and floppy to put over 1-2 regular-ass moves and kill time for 1-2 minutes apiece. Oftentimes you had Crusher especially just lolling around in the corner so the actual workers could do cool shit they knew each other well enough to do, then it was time to “Ric Flair” the local boy and let him do something interesting and then go back to the good stuff. The ending was pretty good- the dropkick ASSISTS the Styles Clash and gives Crusher the win after selling a huge move for a reasonable amount of time (that bump was huge and justifies a “death sell” lasting 2 minutes). Which is of course “indie dweeb match” code for “the wrestlers booked it and they all want to look good/have an excuse for jobbing”. I wonder how many times AJ & Zayn had the same match with different indie dorks in Crusher’s spot- it felt like they’d done this before and knew how to handle a scrub.

Rating: **3/4 (lots of issues and Crusher stinks, but they handled him well and kept things going around him, did some slick bits. Too much over-selling in the early going to pad the match time but a good ending)

“THE BRITISH BULLDOG” DAVEY-BOY SMITH & THE LEGION OF DOOM (Hawk & Animal) vs. THE WARLORD & POWER AND GLORY (Hercules & Paul Roma, w/ Slick)
(WWF Prime Time, Feb. 4th 1991)
* An interesting mish-mash of guys, it puts all of Slick’s guys (midcarders all) against some of the top babyfaces of the time- the rising Bulldog and Power & Glory. Notably, all of them had feuds with one another- LOD/P&G and Bulldog/Warlord are WrestleMania feuds. And probably put some pharmacist’s kids through college.

Hawk starts with Roma, eating some punches like he’s already F’d up on something, but catches and slams him. He aims for his flying clothesline already like a dumbass, but comes back with a dropkick. Roma leads him on a chase to take the lead back, but puts his head down and eats a neckbreaker- weird that they’re having HAWK beat Roma using speed. Animal/Warlord go, and holy shit that would be drawing “MEAT!” chants today, and sure enough, they do ROIDED GUY NO-SOLD SHOULDERBLOCKS- Animal uses a gut-kick and clothesline to put Warlord down, but misses an elbowdrop thanks to Warlord’s famous agility. Herc comes in and hits three straight running moves and these guys are all moving FAST tonight- you can tell it’s WrestleMania season and they all want pushes. Animal crushes him with a clothesline, and it’s over to Bulldog, who whips Herc around but puts his head down and gets clobbered. Warlord spams elbowdrops (!), but puts HIS head down and nearly ends up Powerslammed, but Roma saves him. The heels repeatedly double-team Davey-Boy’s back as the pace finally slows after minutes of guys tearing around, and Warlord puts Bulldog in his Full Nelson submission! Goddammit you can tell Mooney & Hayes suck because they’re not calling out that Warlord doesn’t have his fingers locked- Monsoon woulda been all over that shit. Especially as Bulldog gets the big power-spot of using HORSE STEROIDS to power out, but that provokes the heels and immediate the ref calls for the bell at (7:16). AWWWW BOOOOOOOOOOO that coulda been good! You anus! Animal big boots Herc, Roma gets whipped past Warlord full-nelsoning Bulldog again and clotheslined, and Warlord just leaves Bulldog laying at the end.

Too bad- the match was REALLY hotly contested to start, everyone going out of their way to impress the agents by tearing around the ring at top speed (even WARLORD), but ultimately it slows down with heat on the Bulldog, then it’s a DDQ right away. We didn’t get a lot of really cool spots or near-falls despite the hot start.

Rating: **1/4 (starts out fun but slows down and never picks up into “real match” territory)

A bit wide on that interference from the apron. Bret Hart he is NOT.

DEMOLITION (Smash & Crush, w/ Mr. Fuji) vs. TITO SANTANA & KOKO B. WARE:
(WWF Prime Time, March 11th 1991)
* A strange one sees the JTTS Alliance take on Demolition in their Smash/Crush state. This is one of the very last Crush matches with the gimmick- shortly before WrestleMania VII’s throwaway match against Genichiro Tenryu & Fred Kitao. They spend a couple months on the house show circuit doing jobs.

Smash does some “buffoon” spots with Koko, kneeing him once but mostly missing. Tito comes off the top and bounces Smash around, but gets slugged so Crush can come in, but he misses a shot and also gets knocked over. Man, he is REALLY bad at this point- can barely sell, is slow to do it, and has a very unrealistic “wobble” when Tito takes two dropkicks to put him down. Tito does the dreaded pitlock, but thankfully it’s just a transition to Smash nailing him from the apron (Tito’s mid-rope so Smash barely tags him with a punch, haha). Crush dumps him so Fuji can lay in a cane-shot, and they lazily stay on him with choking, Crush’s backbreaker, flying axehandle, and bearhug. Man this is lazy and slow. The canned heat EXPLODES for Tito’s mini-comeback, it’s cut off, but he hits the flying forearm out of the corner for a double-down. Smash eschews the tag and ends up neckbreakered by Koko, so is Crush, and Koko fakes out Smash from the corner and hits his little-contact missile dropkick where he lands on his feet. Crush breaks the pin, then when Koko aims for the Ghostbuster (brainbuster), Crush kicks his leg out and Smash splats on him for the pin at (5:54 shown). lmao, defeating TITO AND KOKO via cheating. I mean I know they’re heels, but come on.

Demolition were on the way out at this point and are showing it, doing a lazy, resthold-filled TV match against JTTS guys and putting no effort into anything. Even Tito was pretty lazy, leaving Koko to use his speed to ask Vince not to fire him. Koko hit some good stuff but still had to eat the pin (Tito still had SOMETHING, just barely), but Crush was showing why he was one of the worst dudes in the company by that point, and Smash without Ax was just a big, bumbling boob- more of a He-Man villain than an effective heel. Crush is soon taken off TV and sent to Portland for a year to repackage him, while Smash does TV jobs as a solo act for a while until he becomes the Repo Man.

Rating: * (barely worth a full star- sub-par TV performance)

CHRIS ADAMS vs. FIT FINLAY:
(World of Sport, Oct. 17th 1981)
* haha, oh man. The Rollerball match I was looking for is trickier to find, and a bit long for this article, so I found THIS instead- future WCW jobber Chris Adams and midcarder Fit Finlay in World of Sport when they were both babies! Chris is a fresh-faced 26-year old kid with floofy hair and red trunks, while 23-year old Fit looks more like an evil child (like from one of those “possessed by Satan” movies) in red tights. He’s MUCH shorter and skinnier that the statuesque Adams.

The commentator admits he’s never seen Fit Finlay on television before, as he works the wrist and moves the more experienced Adams about. Adams counts a full nelson only to be snapmared, Finlay having a good handle on moving guys by their bony parts. Adams gets whipped to the corner but ducks a move and SUPERKICKS him, but Fit is up in seconds, treating it like an annoying slap more than the finisher it would become! What is this, AEW? Finlay takes him down with a kneelock and won’t let go, being this ugly li’l snakey motherfucker about it. Seeing Finlay being so quick and flexible is a sight. He deathlocks Chris’s legs and tries various combinations, but Chris rolls out and Fit LAUNCHES himself off a couple whips as the round’s over. Fit gets swung around by armdrags (GREAT quick bumps), but uses the hair to hold a headlock and the ref makes him break a sleeper. Adams needs to start getting something going, and just like that it’s a slam, Superkick and slingshot into the ropes! Fit is like “youuuu…” and locks on a nasty-ass 3/4-nelson/horsecollar thing (“Ask him, ref, ask him!”) that looks torturous to poor Adams, then just whips him face-first into the mat. He fires off a European uppercut but that puts the pretty-boy in a mood and he fires back with shots and pummels Fit onto his ass and drops an elbow on his head and Fit is arching his back off a hard backdrop suplex.

Look at this little bastard. That shit is just vicious.

Fit comes off with more European uppercuts, but they’re doing this thing where this just fires up Adams, who cracks him repeatedly- Fit has to stick to holds or else Adams will beat the hell out of him. Adams headlocks him, but Fit punches him in the ribs, saying it’s an open hand to the ref. He gets the dreaded Public Warning for putting the boots to Adams on the mat, but crumples him with another Eurocut after a brief comeback, then pins him after a Samoan Drop at (1:45 of Round 3)! Adams comes at him, favoring the back, and crumples off of every shot to it, gets blasted by more Eurocuts, but then BAM- monkey flip and a whip into a dramatic leg-trip and that’s a pin after Finlay sails to the mat at (1:05 of Round 4)! Finlay whines about his back like a good heel and they get into an exhausted slugfest, hitting their knees and grinding away at each other, but Adams counters a headlock with a kick to the head and pulls him up by the ears (!) for a big vertical suplex. He’s a bit late with a strike and is so angry he hovers too close and gets nailed for it, and Fit gets another Warning for whipping him to the floor and not letting him back in. But now FIT is too aggressive and gets caught in a sunset flip for two, and has to grapevine the legs again, twisting them around. But he hangs onto the leg too long and Adams SMOKES HIM with a giant enzuigiri and Fit goes flying to the floor! Fit can’t re-enter in time off that bump and Adams wins the match by Knock-Out at (2:40 of Round 5)! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO suck it, Finlay- you got too greedy and didn’t expect another shot from the master of kicks!

Man, that was fun as shit. I wasn’t sure what to expect (I’ve never seen Adams pre-1997), but here you have Finlay as this devious little cock-goblin, snarling and laughing as he tortures his taller, prettier opponent, locking on all sorts of nasty stuff. But as he got more aggressive, he was easier to counter- his strikes hurt, but Adams was bigger and more precise. Every time it went ot the mat it was Finlay in the lead, but Adams had things like the Superkick (or “mule kick”, here) and various other things, and could do the “monkey/sunset flip” stuff and other quick moves that Finlay would recklessly charge right into. So it was like Grappler vs. Striker/Reversal guy, with Adams fighting from behind the entire time, eating the first fall, but catching Finlay more and more as time went on, as he’d get too cocky or aggressive and Adams would catch him with those educated feet. In fact, both Adams falls were with kicks (one to the heel to send Fit flying, another with an enzuigiri). Finlay had some really impressive, nasty looking grappling, but Adams was equally good with his “exhausted comebacks”, looking equal parts defiant and beaten-down, just too angry to give up. I liked how that anger would cost him (he stands too close and gets gut-punched, nearly losing the match), but how Finlay’s over-reliance on leg-grappling cost HIM the match, as he tried it one too many times and Adams was ready for him.

Rating: ****1/4 (an amazing surprise- I was expecting “two green kids have a weaker version of the WOS style” and got this really good, interesting, nasty match)

HYSTERIA, MANIACO & ABISMO NEGRO vs. VENUM, SUPER NOVA & DISCOVERY:
(WWF RAW, March 24th 1997)
* One last AAA match on WWF television in 1997, as now it’s a Trios match. Venum’s in green, Nova’s in blue & Discovery’s in yellow. Mosco’s in black with a patchwork of colors, Maniaco’s decked out like KISS, and Maniaco’s in black with armor.

Discovery does a weak segment with Maniaco (they do the dreaded “pause cuz they forgot something”), then Nova does a big spinning armdrag on Abismo but they do the “Manami Roll but get Powerbomed” spot again. Vince gets the heels mixed up on commentary as Hysteria catches Venum backflipping off the top with a wheel kick, but takes a springboard headscissors. He gets dropkicked to the floor but Venum flips onto his feet after Hysteria dodges a dive, then Discovery & Maniaco do another clunky sequence ending in a Discovery run-up spinkick. Super Nova hits a moonsault to the floor on Abismo, neither one selling it, Discovery cannonballs Maniaco on the floor, and Venum does a Quebrada to Hysteria. Nova takes the Eddie Bump from Abismo, but ranas him out of another attempt, then finishes with a Flying Rana at (4:13). A filler throwaway match, briefly using Bret Hart for some backstage interview but just… deciding to do it later anyways. Nobody sold much so it was more of an exhibition of flippy-flop, with Discovery/Maniaco being really bad for both of their sequences, exposing the AAA guys as way worse than the guys WCW got.

Rating: * (just filler nonsense and an exhibition of spots)

TAKA MICHINOKU vs. FLASH FUNK:
(WWF New York, Nov. 29th 1997)
* From the Saturday show, right in the middle of the Light Heavyweight Title tournament, here’s Taka taking on Flash Funk! Flash is in a peach-colored outfit and has no Funkettes, and it’s babyface vs. babyface.

Flash starts with an armbar into a shoulderblock & clothesline, then tosses Taka into the Eddie Bump. Flash gets dropkicked to the floor but scouts a baseball slide and nails him again, but takes too long getting in and Taka hits a flying rana off the apron, splattering Flash on the floor. Flash sells a fair bit, still suckering Taka with a roundhouse kick and some strikes, but Jim Ross suddenly talks about how “gingerly” he’s moving and talks of the “VERY DELIBERATE PACE” and you know he’s dunking on him, haha. C’mon JR he could just be selling that move! Kevin Kelly even mentions just that, giving him the benefit of the doubt. Flash with a nifty slingshot 450 Splash for two, then a shoulderblock off Bret’s rope as he’s just gobbling up all the shit in this match. Flash hits a goddamn dragon sleeper/chickenwing that looks bitching, then a big flying splash for two. He gets careless now, eating a heel kick and rana for two, then Taka’s whipped to the corner and springs off with a moonsault, landing vertically as Flash catches him weird. Taka goes up again but gets crotched and brought down with a BIG superduperplex, but won’t cover, instead aiming for the Tumbleweed Legdrop (turning somersault guillotine) for the pin at (6:20). hahah wait he WON? Taka was fighting in the tourney and gonna win the belt and they just jobbed him out on the B-show? Super weird booking.

This felt very much like Flash was calling the match and decided “okay so I’m gonna do all my cool shit” and Taka only got a couple of things to do. Jim Ross got to dig at his “deliberate pace” thing but to be fair it was long for a TV match and that was a big bump. But it was more a showcase for Flash’s stuff, which of course went nowhere as he never got a push.

Rating: ** (fine for a TV bout showcasing Flash Funk; not good for showing off the new guy Taka)