Bill Goldberg vs. The Giant (and other Dream Matches!)

Welcome back to more Dream Matches! This week, I have TWO subsequent Bill Goldberg vs. Giant matches for the WCW World Title to pay off last week’s fuck finish match, plus more of my look through the PWI 500!

Interestingly, though, I found one of those oddball Nitro matches that WCW was amazing at- Masahiro Chono vs. Dave Taylor! Chono was one of the biggest names in New Japan, so him coming in to take on a JTTS with the UK style is hilarious to me. Also it’s a request, as Los Villanos take on ridiculous jobbers The Southern Posse on WCW Pro in 1997!

And then we go through the PWI 500, as Duke “The Dumpster” Droese, now a confirmed deviant, is next on the list and proves he’s a complete waste in the business as he does some lazy, unmemorable jobs to Mankind and TL Hopper in 1996! And then I find a roided-up indie guy named “Bodyguard For Hire”, active in the New York scene… and he takes on TYPHOON of all people in a bloody New York Street Fight in a puny hall! Tables, blood and really shitty worked punches galore! I love wrestling!

WCW WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE:
NO DISQUALIFICATION:
BILL GOLDBERG bs. THE GIANT:
(WCW Monday Nitro, Oct. 12th 1998)
* Goldberg gets a chance for revenge against The Giant (who got DQ’d via nWo interference two months prior) via this No DQ match on Nitro! He’s also at 149-0, making this a big hallmark for him, too.

They do a big dramatic lockup to start (both guys look mighty doing that, which is important), and Giant pushes Goldberg to the corner and slaps his chest, earning only a defiant roar. The ref gets in his way for some reason, allowing Giant to catch him with a dropkick (sorta- more like he lifts one leg to touch him then hops so the other can tap him too). Giant spams knees & a clothesline, then Russian legsweeps him like last time (sarcastically chanting “GOLLLLDBERG!” before he does it. Some headbutts result in shots to the turnbuckles, but Goldberg does his “sell and twitch” selling and then stops in place (against THE GIANT) and fires back with his own as the crowd starts up a “GOLLLLDBERG!” chant. He scores a Bretslayer to Giant’s ribcage and hits a MONSTER bodyslam (the ring is mic’d so it sounds like a bomb went off). The fans go APESHIT for this as you see a sea of dudes in black t-shirts (and one old lady going more crazy than any of them in the front row). But then Stevie Ray show sup in his goofy nWo gear with a chair- Goldberg no-sells and kicks him down, but walks into the Chokeslam… but now Diamond Dallas Page is out, the crowd going nuts as he saves his Halloween Havoc opponent. Diamond Cutter for Stevie! Who of course takes a pussy bump on his knees instead of a face bump. Giant nearly Chokeslams DDP but now Goldberg recovers and hits him with the Spear in mid-lift! Giant slowly rolls to the floor as Goldberg twitches, being helped out by Stevie as they actually book a Count-Out fuck finish on a No DQ match (2:45).

Pretty much a nothing match, but the fans in attendance didn’t seem to mind- they were losing it for the heels running off like cowards and this “saves” the match yet again. Epic reactions for all the finishers- you only get 3-minute matches this hot with Goldberg.

This is such a “late 90s” wrestling image- a sea of dudebros in black t-shirts cheering on a bald guy, and one crazy old lady in the front row going BANANA.

Rating: *1/2 (kind of fun despite being essentially 2 minutes of fighting then interference)

WCW WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE:
NO DISQUALIFICATION/COUNT-OUT:
BILL GOLDBERG bs. THE GIANT:
(WCW Monday Nitro, Nov. 24th 1998)
* THIS TIME FOR SURE! They do one last match, shortly before Giant leaves for the WWF.

Giant gets a boot immediately but Goldberg hits him with a jab combination, only to be counter-whipped into the corner & clotheslined. Giant boots him down, pulls down the strap, and the Chokeslam hits already! A big one, too. But Goldberg kicks out, shocking him. Giant looks at his hand in disbelief, like “is this thing working?” but Goldberg no-sells his chops and fires up, throws some knees and whips him to the corner… SPEAR! And all these dudebros plus some old ladies in the front row go BANANA at Goldberg hits the mother of all Jackhammers on his 7-foot 450-pound opponent and wins at (1:30). Absolutely wild. Beats THE GIANT in 1:30. Bam Bam Bigelow comes in looking like a fat slob in his sweats, fights Goldberg for a second but gets dragged off, and then Kevin Nash (the opponent at Starrcade) comes out and HE fights Goldberg too, as twenty security guys at once can’t keep them apart. They’re finally pried off one another as we’re out.

Once more a sea of dudes are watching, and now TWO old ladies cheering on the bald dude!

haha what a war. The Giant was leaving the company at this point so there was no point in keeping him strong, so they just went all-out immediately and transferred as much heat to Goldberg as they could. Giant gets three squash wins (Scott Putski, Disco Inferno & Renegade) before doing a PPV job to Dallas Page and a TV one to Nash in January and that’s it.

Rating: * (great fun for what it is)

THIS WEEK’S PWI 500: BODYGUARD FOR HIRE:
#500 appearance: N/A (#473 in 1995) *yes this whole set is now going to be me finding total rand-os whose names interested me on the list, not just the 500s lol*
-Appearing only once in the PWI 500 is an interesting name: Bodyguard For Hire. Who when I saw him was a solitary babyface and not working for anyone in particular. He’s a MASSIVE roided guy who looks like Mike Haggar from Final Fight. Most of his matches seem to be in New York’s Universal Wrestling Superstars indie but his profile is in no way complete. People in the comments section (and even this show I see below) call him “Mike” so that’s probably his first name- I also see Mike Mayo listed on ProFightDB & WrestlingData. His son is Mike Mayo Jr., aka indie wrestler Mike Kruel. His career only seems to last from 1993-1998.

BROOKLYN STREET FIGHT:
UWS UNIFIED TITLE:
BODYGUARD FOR HIRE vs. TYPHOON (w/ some valet):
(Universal Wrestling Superstars, Dec. 28th 1995)
* Oh man this indie has a BUFFET TABLE. That is some A+ fancy shit. We’re in some small club with a fancam on the far side recording this. This is after Typhoon’s second WWF stint, as he spends the rest of his career in first WAR (late 1995) then various indies until he retires. Here he’s in a black t-shirt & jeans, befitting a Street Fight. He’s all pumping himself up with a towel around his neck, laughing off the referee and stuff, but HERE’S BODYGUARD FOR HIRE! The roided up behemoth smashes ol’ Fred with a chair for a couple of shots, sending him to the floor. BFH has a Mario mustache and black jeans & a tank top.

Typhoon slides to the floor off those shots, then takes another one, leaning over a table so BHF can elbowdrop him through it off the apron, but he misses and crashes through himself. Just can’t deal with Fred Ottman’s raw agility. BHF hits a reliable Street Fight standard, the sunset flip off the apron, but Typhoon holds the ropes and splats him, then gets some theatrical stomps and throws him to the crowd & slams him through a table. He whips BFH up on a bandstand, really using the terrain, but BFH comes back with a garbage can, battering him about the face and thankfully some kid keeps screaming “HE’S BLEEEEEEDINNNNNGGGG!” because it’s hard to see on camera. Feather-light punches by the Bodyguard, though. He shoves Typhoon on the table, which noticeably cracks just from his forearms, but the next one sends him through it- haha I love how he’s too big to do a REAL table bump so just does it from a standing position. He looks like he’s about to roll Typhoon off the platform but of course he instead just lies down and safely rolls onto his feet, lol. An axehandle off the bandstand & a chairshot bring Typhoon to ringside, where he has quite the crimson mask going, hitting the posts.

God I hope the money for this VFW Hall show was worth it cuz Fred BLADED, haha.

Elbowdrop gets two, but BFH isn’t thrown off hard enough and LAUNCHES himself next time. Typhoon’s selling is decent, if perfunctory (and probably cuz he’s legit tired) as his shirt is torn open… revealing he has his “Typhoon” gear on underneath like he’s Spider-Man or Superman. Like in case there’s an emergency and he needs to change and hit a running splash on someone. Bodyguard For Hire does the corner punches but Typhoon hauls him out for an inverted atomic drop, but is so tired he’s rolled over for two. BFH hits more and more punches & chops as I wonder how tired Fred IS, but he suddenly jolts out with a kick to fell his opponent during a “Bodyguard!” chant… then instantly remembers to sell and flops down. But just then… his valet throws in the towel! It’s over at (7:38)! We’re robbed of a finish! The very New Yawk valet reveals she only goes with “real men like Rick Mawtel” and “You’re just a fat chunk, and yoah GAWBAGE! YOAH GAWBAGE!”. Fred takes his leave and she gets into an argument with a young child, leading to Bodyguard For Hire scaring her off with a giant python. Okay I wasn’t expecting THAT. BHF parades around with it (it must be IMMENSELY drugged because it’s clearly heavy as shit but not struggling or moving much).

This was not even eight minutes but still felt like it was going too long, as the last 4-5 minutes was entirely Typhoon selling- he bled and bumped okay, but mostly just looked tired (yeah… “looked”) as Bodyguard For Hire teed off on him. BFH has some really light offense (good chairshots but awful punches), and is too juiced up and slow to the point where FRED OTTMAN was more mobile and agile. And the match kind of peaked 3-4 minutes before the end, as they do table spots and fight on that bandstand thingie before just rolling back to ringside to do “only punches” and no weapon shots.

Rating: * (well neither of them shit their pants and they did SOME table stuff, but it was total filler indie nonsense)

THIS WEEK’S PWI #500: THE GARBAGE MAN (Duke “The Dumpster” Droese):
#500 appearance: 1993 (#500 in 1993, #155 in 1994, #130 in 1995, #181 in 1996, #304 in 1997, #326 in 2000)
-Ugh two weeks into this project and I already got a guy arrested for CP. WRESTLING, everyone! I couldn’t find anything for 1995’s Kevin Kirby, nor 1996’s Baby Huey, so here we go. Mike Droese debuted in 1990 and largely went nowhere, despite being a very large dude, then wrestled as “The Garbage Man” (turns out that name was truly most apt! He is a garbage man!), which netted him #500 in the PWI 500 of 1993. A story I’ve heard was that Vince McMahon decided to prove he could make ANYONE a star, and so deliberately hired the #500 for that year and push him and show everyone what a good booker he was. This is probably bullshit (McMahon was undergoing the Steroid Trials for much of that year and I can’t picture him scouring the PWI 500 at any point in his life, much less when he thought he might go to prison) but it’s hilarious and sounds like Vince would do something like that so I choose to believe it.

Duke only got a half-hearted push and few real feuds (a minor rivalry with Jerry Lawler got King in trouble for beaning him with a garbage can- too violent for TV then, lol). He was a typical Jobber To The Stars- he’d squash the Mike Sharpes of the world and beat Steven Dunn, but against pushed guys he was always looking at the lights. He left WWF in 1996, saying the touring was doing a number on him (I assume this is translated from “You’ve been here three years and haven’t gotten remotely over- time to go”) and ended up in Europe & Florida. Some 1998 dark matches in the WWF went nowhere. He was a special education teacher when he was arrested for distributing oxycodone in 2013 and recently turned himself in for using crypto to buy CP (in fact, COINBASE turned him in).

He’s so unmemorable a performer that I was all “have I reviewed any Duke Droese matches?” and in fact there were FOUR of them! All horrible! And he’s still not a worse wrestler than he was a person! Let’s all look at him and LAUGH!

MANKIND vs. DUKE “THE DUMPSTER” DROESE:
(WWF RAW, 01.07.1996)
* It’s so funny to me that an Attitude Era icon was fighting lame-ass “guys with a side job” gimmicks. Duke’s in his blue outfit and is only slightly bigger and taller than Mick, who is rather svelte at this point comparatively. I doubt Droese’s claims of 6’6″ 300+ lbs.

Mankind dominates with brawling and squealing to start while Jerry Lawler rags on Jake Roberts on commentary for being an alcoholic. Mankind counters a comeback and whips Duke into the post. Mankind follows him out, then brings him in for a weak armbar as Lawler keeps digging (“you oughta go to the blood bank and have your eyes drained!”) while Jake just puts up some weak, super quiet protests, completely devoid of energy. Mankind eyerakes out of a comeback and drills Duke with a bunch of shots, then the running knee. Mankind keeps screaming and messing with his hair, but finally runs into a spinebuster. Duke scores some punches of his own, but Mankind slams him into the corner repeatedly to break a sleeper. Duke blocks a charge and clotheslines Mankind down for two (“Jake doesn’t drink & drive no more; he’s afraid he hits a bump…and spill his drink!!”), but whips him off the ropes and picks him up… but instead of doing anything, he sits there for the Mandible Claw, which leaves him jerking around on the mat and the ref calls it at (4:16)- Mankind wins easily.

Rating: * (Duke was definitely on the job squad at this point, eating 90% of the offense before getting easily defeated. His half-assed comeback sand half-hearted selling made it pretty hard to justify anything else for him- the only thing of value he offers is being a fairly big guy that others can look tough in beating. match was pathetic and didn’t get over)

TL HOPPER vs. DUKE “THE DUMPSTER” DROESE:
(WWF Superstars, July 13th 1996)
* This is Duke’s last televised match , and he’s the first guy to job to TL HOPPER! It’s like they knew what kind of a person he was before booking his career! Hopper is flabby Southern wrestler Tony Anthony as another “guy with a job” gimmick, the slobbish plumber.

Both YouTube uploads are JIP with TL beating on Duke, hitting a backbreaker as Droese flops around in pain (GOOD). Back body drop for Hopper, but he runs into a powerslam. Duke cries out “TIME TA TAKE OUT THE TRASH!” (his in-ring set-up for his gutwrench powerslam). But TL grabs the ropes and pulls out of the Trash Compactor, hurting Duke’s back. “It’s plungin’ time!” and he hits Down the Drain (brainbuster) for a win at (2:15 shown), then plunges Duke’s mouth with the wet plunger (GOOD!).

MASAHIRO CHONO vs. DAVE TAYLOR:
(WCW Monday Nitro, May 19th 1997)
* Yes, CHONO vs. TAYLOR. I love WCW for this shit. Bring in a dude from Japan, one of their top wrestlers, and I dunno throw him against a bottom-tier heel with no future in the company on Nitro to fill time, why not? This would be like modern AEW bringing in Tetsuya Naito and his opponent is the chubby Gates of Agony guy. Like Taylor is a good worker but that’s his level of push right now.

They do an aggressive lockup and release as the fans chant “USA!” (… TO WHOM?) and they default to the stadnard International, but Chono understands to start posing and flexing like a douchelord to annoy the fans. He does an interesting goozle-variant of an Irish whip and Taylor cartwheels out of it to dropkick him and scores some European uppercuts until he runs into an inverted atomic drop. Chono no-sells some strikes and dumps him, then there’s an interesting miscommunication bit but Taylor knows to just stand there while Chono repositions to hit a neckbreaker on him so they don’t get all twitterpated (her, discombobulated) over it. Taylor backdrops out of a piledriver but runs into a boot and Chono slaps on the Stepover Toehold Facelock and Taylor immediately gives up at (2:59).

Quick night of work. Interesting in how they geled- two very different styles but it was short and Taylor knew to just not screw around when they awkwardly bumped into each other- they went stomach-to-stomach for a bit, but Taylor let himself get spun around, then Chono changed his grip twice and then they went into a neckbreaker spot (one of the trickier ones that stymies many rookies) and what coulda been a disaster was just a short thing. The rest was SUPER simple- both were good workers but obviously this was a quickie “you do stuff, I do stuff, then you pin me” thing.

Rating: *1/4 (forgettable TV match)

You kids with your Eddie Kingstons and your Chuck Taylors. You ain’t got NO idea how ugly wrestlers could be back in the day. These dudes look like they oughta be in a museum!

LOS VILLANOS (Villano IV & V) vs. THE SOUTHERN POSSE (Sonny Trout & Rick Thames):
(WCW Pro, Nov. 2nd 1997)
* A request by XQDad44 sees the Villanos take on one of the only jobber acts in late ’90s WCW I don’t remember (and I recall MIKE TOLBERT and CHIP MINTON!). I know I’ve recapped them before though, cuz the one dude reminds me of quipping “He looks like someone constructed an entire person out of Miguel Perez’s back”. That’d be Trout. Rick Thames is less hairy but flabbier and obviously missing teeth. Thankfully he’s wearing a singlet, but we’re not so lucky in Trout’s case.

The comparatively huge Trout clubs Villano V’s back, then Thames catches him with a knee on the apron that V doesn’t sell, and they hit Demolition Decapitation. Villano IV breaks that up and V immediately comes back with a crossbody, but gets double-booted- IV again saves. V gets out via a DDT and Villano IV (who is REALLY short and skinny) comes in with a clothesline (at his size?) and there’s a funny bit where I think Thames was supposed to interfere but is too late. A legdrop from the apron works over Thames and IV hits a Northern Lights suplex for two. Trout goes to the eyes to escape and a double-shoulderblock gets two. IV jawjacks out of a chinlock and they do a double-back elbow to Thames. V hits an STF and IV comes in, ducking a heel double-back elbow and crossbodying both guys, then V dropkicks the pile over, then tries to pile on (breaking up the pin). IV & Trout have a LONG chat trying to work some Irish whip spots, sorta bumping into each other as I sense miscommunication, then everyone hits the ring- IV does a plancha to Trout, who takes the wussiest bump EVER off of it (catching him and putting him down gently and only THEN rolling to the floor), and Thames charges into a sunset flip from V for two. He gets a clothesline as Larry Zbyszko puts over how everyone is pulling out all the stops, then Thames does a backbreaker… without the backbreaker, as he drops him like a sidewalk slam, then V sorta rolls out from the cover instantly, and the ref gets distracted, allowing IV to come in with a flying knee, and switches in for the dishonorable three-count at (5:28). Yes, the Villanos CHEATED… to beat the SOUTHERN POSSE.

haha, a funny little match- lots of miscommunication and “shit, what was the plan?” stuff that might come from the language barrier or the entirely different styles at play here, and the Villanos were the babyfaces going for cheating and double-teams, but everyone actually acted like they were trying REALLY HARD to win, so the match kinda worked in spite of that. Nobody here was in any danger of becoming a star in the US, but good enough for the weekly D-show.

Rating: *1/2 (inoffensive and not great, but kinda interesting)