A Moment in Time

Let’s go back to 1996 for a look at two incredible talents mixing it up in New Japan Pro Wrestling. This match took place at The Kobe World Memorial Hall in Kobe, Japan.

1996 was a difficult but successful year for Jushin “Thunder” Liger. He had successful surgery in August to remove a brain tumor, and announced his comeback to New Japan in October. For Keiji “The Great Muta” Mutoh, 1996 saw him enter the year as IWGP champion and he would subsequently lose that title at what was then called Wrestling World (today known as WrestleKingdom) to Nobuhiko Takada. He continued to compete in New Japan throughout the year, and this match happened as Muta was teaming with Rick Steiner in the Tag League competition.

There are no announcers for the video, it’s just the footage, so let’s watch some wrestling!

There’s some other PAC content on the site today from Jabroniville and APod. Please make sure to spend some time on those posts when you can.

This is the last television/Collision match that PAC had before his untimely passing. PAC wrestled Ace Austin as the main event of last week’s supershow (Dynamite/Collision in a three hour block due to All Out happening on Saturday) and I thought I’d put the singular review up of this match because it was very good, and Austin mentioned something on X about his post-match discussion with PAC saying that both of them knew that if they had more time, they could put on a classic.

Let’s go back to November 19th, 1991 WCW and a World Tag Team Championship match that took place on Clash of Champions XVII in Savannah, GA. The Enforcers, consisting of Larry Zybysko and Arn Anderson, had claimed the titles in a tournament final at the previous Clash of Champions when they defeated the interesting combo of Bill Kazmaier and Rick Steiner in a tournament final match (Scott Steiner was injured, the Steiners had forfeited the titles, and that’s how the tournament and Rick Steiner’s partner choice happened). Their first feud after claiming the titles was with Dustin Rhodes and Barry Windham, and to prove just how tough they were, the Enforcers jumped Windham at Halloween Havoc and broke his hand (in kayfabe) by smashing it in a car door. Since Rhodes and Windham had earned a title shot at Anderson and Zybsyko, Rhodes would have to pick a new partner for the title match at the Clash. Let’s watch some wrestling!

Well, you can thank our good friend Kat Bourne for this one.

This is a TLC Match between Hornswoggle and El Torito that occurred on the pre-show of Extreme Rules 2014. Now, the concept of two little people having a TLC match is something that could only happen in professional wrestling, and so here we are. Hornswoggle has had a LONG career and is somehow only 40 years old at this point. He’s currently signed to a WWE Legends contract after stints in WWE, TNA, and many many indie appearances. El Torito was a WWE-ized name given to Mascarita Dorada/Sagrada and he’s worked mainly in Mexico for both CMLL and currently for AAA. Torito has also recently made appearances as a Mini-Danhausen in several matches. Let’s relive this contest right now!

Let’s take a look back at a match that happened on WCW Saturday Night in the Summer of 1994. These are four huge wrestling stars at very different points in their careers, so let’s look at where everyone was when this match took place.

I had an idea to start doing a series focusing on single matches, not entire shows. I’m a massive fan of this particular match and consider it to be my favorite Raw match ever. If you all are fans of this type of format I’m happy to hear suggestions for what you might want to see covered here in the future. I do have something picked out for the next one but beyond that, I’m open.

Let’s talk about the background: It’s 2005. Eric Bischoff is the Raw GM, and Batista is the new World Heavyweight Champion having defeated Triple H for the title at Wrestlemania. Bischoff has an idea to run a “Gold Rush” tournament to determine Batista’s first challenger and mentions that the matchups will be drawn on the spot, so that no one can prepare for whomever might emerge from behind the curtain. There were eight superstars placed into the tournament and they were: Kane, Christian, Chris Benoit, Triple H, Edge, Chris Jericho, WWE Intercontinental Champion Shelton Benjamin, and Shawn Michaels.