Macho Man & The Undertaker vs. Ric Flair & The Berzerker (and other Dream Matches!)

Welcome back to more Dream Matches! And as a headliner I found the most AMAZING rarity from the WWE YouTube channel’s recent uploads- the one and only time “Macho Man” Randy Savage has teamed up with the Undertaker! And it’s against RIC FLAIR AND THE BERZERKER!

Following that it’s WCW greatness with Cactus Jack taking on the mighty Arachnaman (Brad Armstrong in a Temu Spider-Man get-up)! I find more matches featuring the “Rick Fuller Division” of WCW as Fuller teams up with Maxx Muscle against the Steiner Brothers on WCW Worldwide! And not one but TWO matches featuring gigantic 6’6″ Jobber Emory Hale in WCW, first as he takes on Mike “Blake Beverly” Enos and then the mighty VAN HAMMER in short D-Show matches! And finally, this week’s PWI 500 guy is Troy Stevens, indie goober from Connecticutt, as he takes on former AEW jobber Sonny Kiss! And then I found one as a rookie from 2015 against The Amazing Red where the poor kid has to be carried all match long!

“MACHO MAN” RANDY SAVAGE & THE UNDERTAKER (w/ Paul Bearer) vs. RIC FLAIR & THE BERZERKER (w/ Mr. Perfect & Mr. Fuji):
(WWF House Show, July 21st 1992)
* AMAAZZZZZZZINNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGG!!!! What a bizarre Dream Match! This features the one and only team-up of two of the biggest stars in history- Savage & Undertaker! And their opponents are an even bigger “WTF?”, combining Ric Flair and the Berzerker. Berzerker was the silliest gimmick here and the lowest-ranked guy, suggesting to me he’s either eating the pin or we’re getting a fuck finish. Savage somehow pulls off looking like a masculine bad-ass despite wearing neon green & floral print blue with pink tassels everywhere. Everyone’s wildly into character, Taker being an unfeeling zombie while Berzerker’s stomping around the ring already, cocky Flair going like “hey now…” as he’s trying to control his psychotic partner. lol ‘Zerker just grabs the ref and pulls him aside which didn’t look fun for poor Earl Hebner. Savage is the current WWF Champion.

Savage manages to pull off looks like this. This is why he’s the GOAT.

It’s a minute and a half before the Berzerker’s finally dragged back to his corner and we can start, Savage getting on the house mic and going “OOOOOOH YEAHHHHH!” before locking up with Flair. They slickly kill mountains of time with Flair teasing lockups and repeatedly going “WOO!” and Savage getting provoked by Perfect on the floor- funny bit as SAVAGE is the one to slap Flair on a rope-break, responding to a shove by slapping him in the face. Flair keeps getting provoked and now HE’s the one losing his cool while Savage keeps taunting him and gesturing to the fans. 4 minutes in, Savage wins a quick International and HERE COMES TAKER- Flair of course immediately loses his confidence and responds to Taker’s no-selling his chops with his trademark “HEY NOW I didn’t mean it…” before jabbing him in the eye, but Taker no-sells an Irish whip and PRESS SLAMS him. Huh- Taker fought so many slugs I can’t remember ever seeing him press a guy. Taker quickly does it again and Flair begs off and tags out- Berzerker immediately swarms Taker with offense but throat-thrusts and corner-choking turns the tide. Flair immediately clobbers him from behind but loses his nerve and wusses out when Taker just stares him down, haha.

Berzerker gets his boot up in the corner and big boots Taker to the floor, but he just lands on his feet and easily pulls Berzerker down by his furry boots and whups his ass out there, Nord doing more of his goofy selling (like bolting upright and vibrating in place or leaving his boots sticking into the air). Taker ducks a clothesline and slaps his hamstring to make Berzerker do the SPLITS on the sell, then holds him for Savage’s Flying Axehandle to get two. Berzerker flings him off on the kickout and headbutts him in the gut so Flair can choke him in the corner. Berzerker adds some boots (funny bit as Savage “nopes” out of an Irish whip and brings them back to the corner while still selling). Flair with a chop for two and a chinlock. Berzerker boot-chokes him so much Savage’s theatrical sell puts him through the ropes and into a Perfect kick on the floor. lmao Flair gets into it with some trailer trash at ringside and she gives him what-for, slapping her ass and flipping him off while the heels cheat- Berzerker boots Savage off the apron, then slams him on the concrete floor after pulling up the mats (Perfect has to help his dumb ass work the mechanics of it). lol at Perfect just folding the mats back over Savage after the move. But back in, Berzerker ties Savage in Andre Position and charges at him, eating boot- Savage signals Hebner to get him out of hte ropes and he crawls under Nord’s legs for the hot tag- leaping clothesline from Taker! And he immediately Tombstones the Berzerker with little other offense done, clotheslines Flair to the floor, then tags in Savage for the Flying Elbow at (13:37)- Savage & Taker dust them off.

Very Lazybones House Show match, as they stall for minutes at a time, take it easy on the pace, do the “quick running bit then slow down for a minute”, do theatrical selling and taunting- anything to run out the clock while still not ripping off the fans. It’s kind of an art form into itself, and helps when everyone’s way into character and playing them up. Berzerker was working the hardest physically, but kind of neutralizes any particular star power when he’s bouncing around like a goof and doing silly sells. They take FOREVER with the heat segment as well, slowly ambling about and working Savage over, do two separate floor beatings, etc., but have enough distinct stuff to keep the fans into it (ie. not completely bored at how low-effort much of this is). The Berzerker looked weak in the finish just eating a trio of moves and dusting him off- you normally need a bit more than a single clothesline to set up a finishing move. It’s interesting that they filmed this but didn’t televise it- was Savage just removed as Champion too quickly? Was the match just deemed not TV-worthy? Because the cadence suggests it wasn’t meant for TV at all.

Rating: ** (skirting with less than that much of the match long, but it’s not ACTIVELY bad- just low-effort and often dull)

CACTUS JACK vs. ARACHNIMAN:
(WCW The Main Event, Jan. 5th 1992)
* WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Cactus vs. Arachnaman! With his name spelled wrong! This is of course one of many attempts to put Brad Armstrong in some kinda catchy gimmick, but it was a “Player 2” Spider-Man costume and I think ended up getting them threatened with a lawsuit, so RIP Arachnaman. Not that they were PUSHING him, of course.

I’ll say this- Brad has got some of the Spidey mannerisms down, making sure to do crouch-poses as he moves in on Cactus. The fans seem absurdly loud given how little they’re reacting on-camear- I DETECT SHENANIGANS! Arachnaman goes to the arm a couple times, but Jack blocks him down, only to get rolled up. Cactus gets a dirty break and whips Arachnaman into the corner and bearhugs him, but Arachnaman sunset flips over and dropkicks him. Back to the arm, but Jack escapes in the ropes and shrieks his head off tearing at the guy’s facemask, but gets backdropped out- he lands on his feet and drags Arachnaman to the floor, but clotheslines the post. Arachnaman charges into an elbow and Jack mauls him in the ropes and works a chinlock- he stops a comeback, but gets tossed into the post and backdropped on the floor. A punch & kneelift set up a Flying Headbutt, but he tries a shitty rolling cradle thing and Cactus has a foot in the ropes. Arachnaman thinks he’s won, but trails off and Cactus… just pushes his face into the mat from behind and calmly pins him, grabbing the ass of his tights for the pin at (6:56).

A pretty slow, ordinary match- Arachnaman kept defaulting to the basic “pithold” for lack of better offense and his silly “Spidey” pose made the match more of a joke than anything (he really didn’t bother to try and connect with the crowd or even gesture to the kids, either), but even on The Main Event Foley was good for bumping around, shaking things up (clotheslining AND running into the post) and doing some interesting things. Terrible finish, though- it wasn’t even a real facecrusher and the tights-grabbing wouldn’t have helped the pin, either.

Rating: ** (fine but mostly uninteresting)

THE STEINER BROTHERS (Rick & Scott Steiner) vs. MAXX MUSCLE & RICK FULLER:
(WCW Worldwide, 08/03/1997)
* AMAZING!!! The Steiners vs. two of the biggest jobbers in wrestling! Maxx had been given an “almost push” years before but they’d given up and dumped him into exile (I have no recollection of him and I started watching WCW in 1997). Fuller was just starting there. Both are in the “Rick Fuller Division” of giant jobbers, which seems perfect for the Steiners to throw around. But Maxx is REALLY bad, which would test even the strongest dudes. He’s both way taller than either Steiner and equally as juiced, but with horrible hair- it’s cut like a mohawk but loose and slicked back and LONG. He’s in black trunks, Fuller in his black singlet, and the Steiners are in matching white singlets.

Scott & Maxx do the “Grapple around the ring ropes” spot, Maxx whining about a hairpull. Then he stuffs a go-behind and complains about the TIGHTS. Well this is perfectly acceptable for the D-show, haha. Naturally after doing all this bitching about cheating he immediately rakes the eyes and pounds away, but runs right into an overhead belly-to-belly. He writhes in pain and immediately tags out- Rick F. powers around Rick S. with clubbing blows and another eyerake, but gets Steinerlined and taken down amateur-style. Scott comes in with a turning belly-to-belly and they hit the Steiner Bulldog (the 6’5″ Fuller getting up wrong so Scott has to fall into the ropes to get him upright) for the win at (3:13). Super quickie match- I was more entertained by Maxx Muscle using a 3-minute squash to do heel schtick and annoy the fans before eating one move and bailing so Fuller has to do everything else.

Rating: *1/2 (solid for a TV squash- the heels got to cheat and try to push around the smaller babyfaces, but were undone by superior skill, matching power, and the finisher)

VAN HAMMER vs. EMORY HALE:
(WCW Saturday Night, Nov. 14th 1998)
* Emory Hale had JUST debuted, so of course they book him against an incompetent big guy. This is into the “Farrrrrrrr OUUUUUUTTTTTT” era of stoner hippie Van Hammer. Hammer mimes smoking weed. Hale is literally “in the ring to my left”, in a black & red Jobber Singlet. Still bald and with a goatee- I guess he always had that look. As such a big dude, Hale will be impossible for Van Hammer to overpower- his only chance will be to use his famous technical wrestling skills.

Hale immediately headlocks Van Hammer and blocks him down, doing a “who’s the man?” taunt, but Hammer does the same moves to him. Hale works him over with kicks and a boot-choke in the corner, but Hammer reverses a whip and hits a clothesline into a vertical suplex. Hale goes to the eyes and catches Hammer on another corner-whip with snake eyes, then follows with a Vader Bomb for two (nearly slipping on the ropes trying it). Side slam gets two. Hale trips him up and starts as slow beating as they’ve clearly run out of their planned stuff and are just wasting time, and he hits ANOTHER corner whip, does a clothesline, then goes up and THEY DO THE CROTCHING SPOT!! The one Hale did as “The Machine” against DDP! That’s probably a regular spot of his! At least this time Hammer gets the right set of ropes so Hale does a theatrical leap off and lands nuts-first on the top rope. The Flashback (spinebuster) gets three at (4:09), Van Hammer beating the giant rookie, who spasms a bit to sell.

A pretty weak one- Hale didn’t have any real offense and neither guy was knowledgeable to work a match without just hitting 5-6 Irish whips into the corner- like they couldn’t even do INTERNATIONALS, so they did something even easier, and defaulted to it over and over again.

Rating: 3/4* (starts off decent enough, but eventually starts meandering along without any meat to it)

MIKE ENOS vs. EMORY HALE:
(WCW Worldwide, May 22nd 1999)
* Big Emory Hale as a WCW jobber in mid-1999 is set up against MIKE ENOS of all people. You know it’s the dregs of Russo-era WCW when a giant newbie is set up against one of the lowest-ranked veterans in the entire company. Hale is a shoot 6’6″ or so and is a bald goateed guy in a black singlet with a skull & crossbones design on the stomach. Enos is in black shorts, red MMA gloves (!!) and has darker hair than I’ve ever seen, shaking up his look AGAIN- he almost never appears outside of the D-shows (though he actually fought Chris Benoit on PPV once) but actually did a handful of costume changes.

Hale pounces as soon as Enos hits the ring, bowling him over with shoulderblocks, then countering a hiptoss attempt with a lariat. Hale already knows to jaw with the fans and taunt repeatedly, but does it between EVERYTHING, which is too much. Hale gets his boot up in the corner and clotheslines Enos over the top, Enos looking like he about smashed his head against the ring apron on the way over because he REALLY went for it. Enos sells that a bunch, gets a chair and gets knocked off the apron, then gets suplexed back into the ring for two. Hale jaws with fans again and misses a legdrop, then responds to an Enos charge by LEAPING INTO RANA POSITION (!), but gets caught up top and powerbombed down. hahaha who agented him to do THAT? Enos is still hurt, but manages to get two. Enos bounces him off the corners and hits a powerslam for two, but puts his head down early and gets belly-to-belly suplexed for two. Hale calls for the finish but misses a Stinger Splash and Enos hauls him onto his shoulders and hits a big Electric Chair Drop… for the pin at (3:28)! ENOS WINS A MATCH! And it’s against a colossal rookie some of the backstage guys were high on! Though I can see the point of giving Hale some reps on the D-shows and thus hiding his jobs on shows nobody was watching, allowing them to give him a juicy new push in a year once he “got good” (Ron Howard: “He never got good”).

The match was fine for what it was- a simple big guy hitting some stuff and spamming out taunts like someone told him he needed to but he misinterpreted and did it after EVERYTHING. Enos was solid in being with him every step of the way- as a big veteran, he’s probably ideal to both take Hale’s offense and dish some out. The powerbomb spot is just funny- it kind of “fits” a guy established as a rookie to try something stupid just because he can (why go for a RANA?) and get caught for it because he’s cocky.

Rating: *1/4 (decent enough for a short match- nothing fancy and while Hale obviously had rookie tendencies, he didn’t mess anything up and Enos was able to carry things on defense and offense)

THIS WEEK’S PWI #500: TROY STEVENS (aka Lucifer Lords, Lucipher Lords):
#500 appearance: 2013

-Lucifer Lords was the PWI Rookie of the Year in 2013, which is ridiculous as he got all the way back in #500 and it was the only time he ever appeared on that list. He seems to have spent most of his career as Troy Stevens, though. He mostly wrestled first in Pro Wrestling Academy CT and then Paradise Alley Pro Wrestling, both Connecticutt indies. He debuted in 2013 and is still at it, but has only a few matches a year according to CageMatch. From scattered indie matches I flipped through, he looks terribly out of shape, like a random junkie covered in bad ink, and is in that “sorta trained but not actually GOOD” zone.

TROY STEVENS vs. SONNY KISS:
(Tetsu Pro Wrestling, Nov. 5th 2022)
* This is the only match I could find against someone I know (tragically missing the AR Fox & Amazing Red matches, lol), and it’s former AEW Jobber Sonny Kiss. Kiss is of course a big hire in AEW’s early days and got some focus on TV, but slowly and slowly did more jobs and eventually disappeared. Kiss was genderfluid for the longest time but I believe has come out as fully transgender and is now a “she”. This is before the breast implants, though! Kiss has some shiny, decent-looking gear- a white bellyshirt/trunks combination with leggings. I mean it looks like it cost MONEY, whereas Stevens looks like he bought some black tights from a discount bin in 2008. With his facial features, ponytail and physique he looks kind of like Kenny Omega with tattoos. And a tragic drug addiction. Oh, also this is a six-sided ring, but looks way tinier than the one TNA had. Oh man those ropes look awful- all crinkled up in certain places.

Kiss repeatedly bails off of lockup attempts and even hits the floor a couple times, does a bitchslap off a break in the corner and bails AGAIN, but Matrix dodges a punch and POINTS TO THE HEAD TO INDICATE INTELLIGENCE, immediately turning around and eating shit on a dropkick. Hah! Kiss dodges a corner elbow but takes a thrust kick into a German, but Kiss dropkicks his knee so he collides with the turnbuckles and starts up a sarcastic “Troy Stevens” chant. Kiss licks the hand to make a chop hurt more, but eats one in return and is like “EEK!” running around holding her chest, but in-ring manages a nice snap suplex into a “Cheerleader” legdrop, holding the leg and doing the splits down for two. Stevens fights out of a chinlock but gets hairpulled to the mat. Kiss does a boot-choke while preening and licking her lips, then ties Stevens in the tree of woe and does a cartwheel handspring elbow (… to his knees?). Stevens finally mounts some forearms into a Blue Thunder Bomb for two, leading to a double-down. Kiss catches him up top with a big enzuigiri, European uppercut & Superplex for another double-down, barely getting two. A nice somersault elbow stuns him, but Stevens responds to elbows by hitting one of those weird fake-looking indie slams into a rollup for two and SHOCKED KICKOUT FACE. Flying Elbow gets two. Stevens CUES UP THE BAND (oh come on don’t do the ENTIRE move) and Kiss is like “NOOOOOOO!” and drops to her knees, begging off, and when Stevens is finally like “too bad!” his leg is caught and he’s dragon-screwed. Kiss grabs a wrench from under the ring as theatrically as possible, but the ref sees it and pulls it away- but wait! Sonny knew that would happen! A knee to the balls of Stevens sets up the DDT for the pin at (12:06). A DDT GOT A PIN!?!? WHAT INDIE MATCH SORCERY IS THIS!?! You’re supposed to hit 3 DDts during the course of the match and hit 3-4 top-tier finishers to end it!

It’s funny seeing Sunny Kiss both doing silly heel schtick (like Gorgeous George mixed with a Memphis Heel) yet hitting super-precise, professional offense while sporting an athletic, muscular physique. Like the suplexes and legdrops and nice gear look ridiculously polished and “slick” for cheapo indie productions. The match was largely Heel Schtick surrounded by a few Kiss moves, with Stevens seemingly just being a tackling dummy. Once he hits his own stuff it’s very thigh-slappy indie nonsense and stuff taken from Shawn Michaels wholesale (a flying elbow AND cueing up the band for Sweet Chin Music?), but Kiss gets extra points for using every sneaky heel bullshit move in the book, jawing with the fans, stalling, begging off, going for a weapon, distracting the ref, etc. It’s delightfully old-school, which is funny because Sonny’s career could really have only happened in the modern era.

Rating: *3/4 (delightfully goofy indie match full of heel schtick and some precision offense from Kiss. Stevens was fine to go along with it, but not impressive in and of itself)

SQUARED CIRCLE TV TITLE:
THE AMAZING RED vs. TROY STEVENS:
(PWA, June 20th 2015)
* I found a TERRIBLE match, too! Troy is, to be fair, only 2 years into the business, and is more “harmless skinny guy” and not “homeless flabby guy”. And he’s wearing Macho Man trunks, complete with stars, in orange. Yeah, perfect guy a green rookie should be comparing himself too, lol. Red has a red mohawk and black & red gear.

They immediately do THE SLOWEST CHAIN-WRESTLING I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY ENTIRE LIFE, appearing like Red is agreeing to go along with whatever the kid wants to try. It’s so bad it looks like how a trainer would do it in class so the trainees knew what the motions were supposed to look like. Actual slow-motion. And you know it’s on Troy because as soon as their bodies aren’t against each other suddenly Red is way faster. They have the nerve to PAUSE FOR APPLAUSE after that, after revving it up a bit for flash-pin attempts. More slow-mo as it’s clear Troy can actually RUN fast but as soon as he has to do mat wrestling he can only work the techniques if he’s being ultra-careful. Red hits a dive, they walk around a bit, then a missile dropkick gets two. Troy catches him with a neckbreaker out of the corner but takes a rana and does an awful rope-run where Red just kinda shoves him down. Backdrop suplex gets two. RED of all people gets a delayed suplex, but he runs into a Blue Thunder Bomb, then a THIGH SLAP superkick and German (lol he was doing those that early?) and… that’s a double down? He just hit three moves in a row! They fight up and punch it out, Troy gets a pump kick but takes an enzuigiri, but Red does a massive reverse backflip sell off a lariat that misses by a foot, lol. Red enzuigiris him to avoid a Canadian Destroyer as this is going way too long, then misses a top rope move and Troy “hits” it, brutally screwing it up as he lands on his back with Red on TOP of him. AND THEN THEY REPEAT THE SPOT OH MY GOD HAHAHAHAHAH. I mean props to Red for knowing to try for a pin there and doing the Flair/Steamboat spin into another try but you’ve already exposed the business enough with the first one. Troy puts Red up top but gets tossed off, sliding fakely into position for a Frog Splash that gets two, but Red tries Code Red and stands there like an idiot for a Poison Rana into a second Destroyer and Troy WINS THE TITLE at (12:36).

AWFUL, haha. Like as soon as Troy can run the ropes or trade flash-pins and trip Red up he’s FAST, but the entire rest of it is them exposing the business because he can’t chain-wrestle or go to the mat quickly and so Red has to baby him. As soon as they’re not touching Red immediately speeds up and hits slick offense, too. So it was actually an entertaining look at a guy being hired to probably go in and make a local dweeb look like he could work, effectively bouncing off of him for a while…. except Troy WINS so that wasn’t just him being super nice to the local dweeb.

Rating: 1/2* (just a mess of blown spots and super-slow stuff for Troy’s benefit. Almost gave extra points because Red was doing a pretty good job handling the boxes and essentially fighting a tackling dummy)