The SmarK DVD Rant for The Life And Times of Mr. Perfect

Once again, as with the Flair set, an assist from Charlie Reneke allows me to skip to the matches.

The Life & Times of Mr. Perfect

Review by Charlie Reneke

Despite advertising on the box, the documentary only is 1 hour 15 minutes, not 90 minutes.

We open with the “In Memory of Mr. Perfect” still from shortly after his death.

Verne Gagne trains Larry “The Ax” Hennig. When Larry would train, he would bring Curt along. Curt becomes a good allaround athlete. He met his wife in high school, they got married shortly after graduation. Not long after, Curt started training for professional wrestling with his friend Brad Rheingans. Brad didn’t have a very successful professional wrestling career, but he will go down in history as the guy who helped train Big Van Vader, John “Bradshaw” Layfield, and the Nasty Boys.

Brad trained Curt, then Greg Gagne lent a hand. His wife backed his choice to be a professional wrestler. After doing a couple shows in AWA, he did some for Vince McMahon Sr. in the World Wrestling Federation. Clips against him against Mr. Fuji in his debut match with them. And man, he looked really good for a greenhorn. Hennig stuck around long after his father and other AWA ham and eggers left.

Curt had four kids. Joe, born in 1979 will debut shortly in the WWE. His next child, Amy, born in 1981, is also training to go pro. Katie was born in 1987, Hank in 1992. Hennig seems to have been much better at staying close to family then most wrestlers were. His kids note that he rarely missed their big moments in life. You know, until he died of a drug overdose.

Curt gets booked in Oregon, and brings his father with him. They won the Northwestern Tag Team Championship together. Harley Race says that Curt actually brought new life to his father’s career. They had each others backs. We gets lots of clips of them tagging together. There was no question that Curt was better then his father ever was. Larry says his boy was a wrestling genius. Curt had to get away from his father and quit trading on his name, so he ended up paired with Scott Hall, winning some tag belts in the AWA. And everyone notes that Curt was the real star of the team. Scott Hall actually looked 10 years older in the 80s then he did in the 90s with WWE as Razor Ramon. I guess being a Cuban drug dealer is good for the complexion.

Curt and AWA Champion Nick Bockwinkle have a sixty minute draw in November 1986. Curt catches fire after this, being totally legitimized as a world title contender. This match is in the DVD set, and is in my opinion a fivestar match, but Scott might disagree. Curt won the belt the next year, turned heel, and was then inserted into a feud with Greg Gagne in attempt #42,683 of getting Greg the AWA Championship. And they ended up stinking up the joint for the most part. They even admit this in the set. Larry is too nice to admit that it was all Greg’s fault.

Of course, Greg didn’t get the belt, and Curt was heading out the door for the greener pastures of the WWE. The AWA struck a deal with Jerry Lawler/Jerry Jarrett’s USWA and this leads to Jerry Lawler beating Curt for the belt. This one got snubbed from the match set. Maybe they’re saving it for Lawler’s inevitable DVD.

Greg Gagne holds back bile as talks about Curt’s jump to WWE. He meets with Vince McMahon, who tells him to pick a name. Curt picks… Hurricane Hennig. Yeah. Or Heroic Hennig. King Curtis Hennig. Vince asks Curt what he likes to do. Curt names off every sport known to man. Vince asks which one he’s best at. Hennig says everything. And thus Mr. Perfect is born. This actually goes contrary to what is discussed by Mick Foley in the DVD extras, with Hennig’s match against Terry Taylor, who was allegedly also up for the “Mr. Perfect” gimmick.

The WWE produced the best series of vignettes in wrestling history to lead into his debut. Wade Boggs talks about his legit home run. They show him hitting half court shots and perfect bullseyes. Some nice strike shots in bowling. And then Bruce Pritchard crashes the myth. Because once the cameras were rolling, he started to mess up. And now we get the outtakes of the Mr. Perfect vignettes. Prichard solves this problem by never telling him when the cameras were on.

Onto Curt’s love of killing small animals. This leads to his friendship with Wade Boggs. Among the other things they caught while fishing… I shit you not… a 10 foot long, 650lb Bull Shark. Which Curt then had mounted onto his wall at home. Dude, that’s just perfect. This leads to a very tearful story from Wade Boggs, about getting caught in a barbed wire fence while hunting with him. Boggs was mangled by the fence and had broken his collarbone and injured his leg. In no condition to walk back to the truck he told Curt to go get help. But Curt instead carried him a mile or so back to the truck. The doctors said he would have bled to death without that.

Curt makes his inring debut and lived up to his vignettes. Highlights focus on his dropkicks and the Perfectplex. Joey Styles says that the gimmick worked because people believed that against any opponent, he could have won as soon as the bell rang and only didn’t because he was cocky. Wade Boggs was fond of the gumswat. William Regal says he had natural talent, something that can be trained into you.

Hennig wins the vacant Intercontinental Championship against Tito Santana in May of 1990. Damn… long time ago. If the title reign was a person, it could buy smokes and vote. Jim Ross notes that most people understood that the IC Champ was the real most talented wrestler in the company. And we move onto his feud with Bret Hart, that produced some flat out kickass matches. Three of the ten matches of this set are against Bret Hart. Anyway, they talk about how great the match was. I personally think the Summerslam match is overrated and that their shining example is the later King of the Ring match, where Hennig was more healthy.

Onto Curt Hennig being the Perfect Prankster. Larry Hennig says that he got it from his dad, but took it to a whole new level. Shaving cream on telephones was one favorite. Hot mustard and lighter fluid was another. Harley Race says that if you get a pinch of it on your finger, you’ll swear it’s burning off. Now imagine a whole lot of that… in your crotch. Damn. He would punch holes in the top of beer cans. He made a poopy in Road Warrior Animal’s son’s training potty. Animal was proud of his son, presumably until he found out that it wasn’t actually his son producing the perfect bowel movement. He would tie people’s pants into a knot, and failing that, just cut people’s pant legs off. Alternately, he kept a bottle of this stuff called “Morning Breeze” that stunk to high heaven. Then, in a battle royal, he would spray it all over the ring. We get a few more stories.

Curt’s back was bad from mid 1991 through 1993. He became a commentator instead, and a dang fine one. He should be doing this today. Such a waste. Plus we get some clips of him managing Ric Flair. Including the promo where he ate a grape, spit it out and swatted it. That one always stuck with me. People agree that Mr. Perfect brought out the best in Vince McMahon on commentary. We get clips of Curt chairing Marc Mero to give Triple H his first IC title. Trips himself says that it legitimized him.

Curt’s contract is up and he accepts a big money offer from WCW. Eric Bischoff, looking old and haggard, claims he wanted to reinvent Curt. Arn Anderson selected him in real life and in character to take his spot in the Horsemen. It got over huge with the fans, so they book Hennig to turn on the Horsemen and join the nWo. Anderson keeps it kayfabe, saying that Curt sold them out. Wade Boggs takes credit for creating the hand gesture for the nWo Wolfpac… in fact, Wolf Pack is what he called his circle of friends. Hennig showed it to Scott Hall, who showed it to Kevin Nash, who used it in WCW. Hennig did pretty good for himself with WCW. He even held the United States Championship.

After the nWo angle fizzled, Hennig ended up forming the West Texas Rednecks, and cutting a fairly popular novelty song for their theme music. “Rap is Crap” was SUPER HOT in the South. If this had been WWE, they would have spent lots of time on their TV shows talking about how big it was. WCW responded by burying them because the angle turned the group babyface. Of course, they were four underneath guys taking on this ‘hot new act’ of Master P’s No Limit Soldiers. I don’t care what the angle is… when four guys hold their ground against 20 guys, the fans will cheer the four guys and boo the twenty.

Mr. Perfect returns to the WWE during the 2002 Royal Rumble. And holy crap, he finished third! He outlasted Steve Austin! Jericho notes that it was only going to be a one night thing, but he was looking for a job and earned one that night. Hennig wrestles Edge, which was a big moment for him. They tried to do the Vignettes again. Hennig cheats some nerd out of chess is the only one shown. It’s the only one I remember in fact. The intention was to do something with him, but there was an incident on an airplane that isn’t mentioned.

We get a graphic saying that Hennig was released in May of 2002, then found dead on February 10, 2003 at age 44. One thing that irks me a bit about this DVD is how NOBODY talks about what a waste of life this was. It’s Perfect this, and Perfect that. How about the WWE has someone say “he pissed away his life for nothing. His children have to go without a father. He was only 44! For Christ Sakes people, don’t do drugs!!” But nothing like that. When get sad reactions from his family, ironicly sad pictures of him having good times with them… hell, nobody outright verbally admits that he died of a cocaine overdose. They do show a graphic showing it, but it’s only on screen for about two seconds. Wade Boggs wishes that he had known Curt was doing that, because he was there in the town he died and would have tried to stop him. Ric Flair and Shawn Michaels are shocked by it but don’t strike me as being sad. Shawn even says “It’s a crying shame”, a term I usually use because it’s more tactful then saying “eh.” Videos of him playing with his kids is shown, trying to get you to choke up for him. Not happening in my case… I feel bad for his family, but not for him.

Curt makes the Hall of Fame. Everyone is happy for him. Then highlights of his career. The end.

For me personally, this was another disappointment. I like DVDs when they have a bit of a biting side to them. This had none of that. I know this is made for Hennig fans who likely don’t want to be reminded of the nasty details of his death, but the pandering to him being perfect in and out of the ring borders on obnoxious. Clearly the man was not perfect, and in fact he died in a very selfish manner, leaving behind a wife and kids to deal with the emotional burden. If the WWE can dedicate a 90 minute DVD to shit all over the Ultimate Warrior’s career, surely they can at least spend five minutes here saying “Don’t do drugs, or you will ruin your life the way Mr. Perfect did.” Curt Hennig would not even be 50 yet. He should still be in the WWE, doing play by play on Smackdown or something.

The good news is his son Joe will join the WWE shortly. The buzz on him is that he is better then his father in the ring. Considering that the parents always cast a large shadow, the fact that he’s already getting high marks from many seasoned wrestlers actually has me hyped for him. And hopefully he doesn’t pull a DH Smith and get pinched for wellness after two weeks on TV.

That’s it for me, now to Scott with the matches…

Disc Two (The Matches)

If there’s extras on the first disc I’m just skipping them and moving onto the disc of matches so I can wrap this up tonight.

AWA World title: Nick Bockwinkel v. Curt Hennig

This is pretty famous. From the AWA’s TV show in November 1986. Bockwinkel gets a quick slam for two, and Hennig bails. Back in, they trade headlocks and that goes to a stalemate. Bockwinkel gets a quick rollup for two. Back to the lockup and Bockwinkel gives the clean break, then takes him down with a side headlock. He works on that on the mat, and when Curt fights up, Nick shoulderblocks him down and goes right back to it. Hennig reverses to the headscissors and cranks on that, but Bockwinkel does the classic escape and we’re back to square one. Bockwinkel goes back to the headlock, but Hennig powers out and knees him into a hiptoss. Nick slams him in return, and they trade bodyslams until Hennig takes over with a series of armdrags, into the armbar. And just that simple sequence gets the fans going.

Hennig works on that arm while Ron Trongard amazingly reels off the dates of Bockwinkel’s tag team titles in the 70s. You’d never hear today’s announcers being able to do that. Hennig switches to a hammerlock on the mat, blocking a reversal attempt by Bockwinkel, and then rolling him over with the halfnelson for two. Bockwinkel throws elbows in the corner, but misses a charge and hits his shoulder into the post, allowing Hennig to go back to that arm again. Bockwinkel gets a series of slams, but Hennig doggedly goes back to the armbar again. And with Bockwinkel on the mat, he turns it into a shortarm scissors, which the announcers do an excellent job of explaining. Bockwinkel rolls over and gets two, but Curt won’t let go. Nick pulls himself out of it and deftly maneuvers into a toehold, which is a counter I’ve never seen done. He goes into a leglock from there and the announcers throw into the break, but there’s no edit here! So this is truly the full and complete match! God bless 24/7!

Hennig reverses out and hammers on the arm, but Bockwinkel fires away with forearms to put him down and then hooks a facelock on the mat. Hennig reverses to the shortarm scissors again, so a frustrated Bockwinkel grabs a handful of tights and rolls him over for two. Hennig is pissed, so Bockwinkel bails to buy some time, and then heads back in. So we start again and Hennig grabs a headlock and knocks Bockwinkel down, but the old man slickly takes him down with a drop toehold and into a leglock of his own. He bridges back, so Hennig fights fire with fire and grabs the hair to break the hold, then hooks onto the arm and stomps the shit out of it. Hennig drops a knee on Bockwinkel’s arm, but hurts his own knee in the process and Bockwinkel pounces with an Indian deathlock. Hennig tries to fight up, but Nick slugs him down again. Hennig gets out, so Bockwinkel tosses him and Hennig takes a breather to shake off the knee injury.

Back in the ring, Bockwinkel whips Hennig into the corner and catches the sleeper on the rebound, but Hennig makes the ropes and everyone tumbles out, including the ref. They slug it out on the floor, and back in for a big chop from Hennig that gets two. So he’s back on the arm again, wrapping it around the post. Bockwinkel boots Hennig with his head down and tries a stepover toehold, but Hennig throws him down to counter. Nick puts him down with a right hand for two, however. Hennig ducks a clothesline and gets a bodypress for two. Back to the armbar, but Bockwinkel tosses him to break and rams him into the stairs. Hennig slugs back from the floor, and then decides to wrap Bockwinkel’s leg around the post. Back in, he starts going to work on the leg now, but Bockwinkel slams out. Another one and Hennig reverses to a small package for two, so Bockwinkel puts him down with a kneelift. Piledriver gets two, as Hennig does the dangerous foot on the ropes break. So Bockwinkel goes to work on that leg again, but Hennig pounds on the back and applies a rear chinlock until Bockwinkel makes the ropes. They fight for the advantage again, and this time Hennig takes him down and gets a boston crab.

Bockwinkel powers out of the move, but Hennig rolls him into a sunset flip for two. Hennig pounds him with shoulders in the corner and fires away with chops, then takes him down with a small package for two. He gets his own piledriver for two, but Bockwinkel is in the ropes, although barely. They slug it out and both go down, but Curt is up first and grabs a headlock, which Bockwinkel turns into a backdrop suplex. That gets two. Hennig gets a rollup for two with a burst of energy, then drops a series of elbows for two. He whips Bockwinkel into the corner and then puts him down with a perfect standing dropkick, and that gets two. Bockwinkel slugs him down for two and then follows with the abdominal stretch as only 10 minutes remain.

Hennig quickly makes the ropes, but runs into a knee, and that gets two for Bockwinkel. Hennig takes him down and starts working the leg again, but Bockwinkel shoves him into the post and if you want blood, you’ve got it. Bockwinkel sees that and starts working on the cut from the apron, and Bockwinkel just pounds on him as they head back in. He slugs Hennig down for two and unloads on the cut in the corner, getting two. However, Hennig wallops him with the Ax clothesline, and then a second one, as Hennig is wearing the proverbial crimson mask. Another Ax puts Bockwinkel down again for two and now Bockwinkel is bleeding too. He whips Bockwinkel into the corner and Axes him again, but Bockwinkel lands on his stomach and thus Hennig can’t pin him. Hennig rams Bockwinkel into the turnbuckles to put him down, and gets a suplex for two. Back elbow gets two. He hooks the figurefour with time running out and the crowd is going nuts. Hennig cranks on the hold, but Bockwinkel hangs on for the minute needed and it’s a draw at 60:00. Up until this, Hennig was the upstart son of Larry Hennig. Now he was a STAR and the guy clearly destined to be the next champion. A total classic in every sense, with great, flawless work from both guys and absolutely nothing missed. Best of all, there was no resting and no stalling everything was either leading to something else, or a submission move where they were playing chess with each other trying to counter. Do you even need to guess the rating? *****

Curt Hennig v. Terry Taylor

From Wrestlefest ’88. This is the debut for both guys in the WWF, and it was omitted from the Coliseum Video release of the show for whatever reason. And since it didn’t have commentary, we’ve got Michael Cole and Mick Foley. Hennig controls with a hiptoss and an armdrag while Foley tells the story behind Taylor and Hennig being in contention for the Perfect gimmick. Taylor comes back with a hiptoss and Hennig bails. Cole talks about Hennig’s undefeated streak and they have an interesting conversation about how the WWE currently undermines new guys instead of building them up like they did with Hennig, although Cole says that Ultimate Warrior ended the unbeaten streak when it was actually Hulk Hogan. I guess if you’re talking televised, then yeah. Back in, Taylor goes for the headlock and controls on the mat with that, but Hennig pounds on the back and whips him into the corner. Taylor comes back with a backslide for two, but Hennig rams him into the corner and follows with a kneelift, then into a sleeper, but Taylor escapes and gets a bodypress for two. They slug it out as the crowd is busy with other things, and Hennig blasts him with a forearm shot for the pin at 4:51. I can see why this is a rarity, although it’s nice to have it on DVD now. 1/2*

Bret Hart v. Mr. Perfect

From MSG, April 1989. They fight for the lockup to start and Bret grabs a headlock and overpowers him, and Perfect backs off. Bret with another headlock and he eludes a drop toehold with some fancy footwork, which you don’t see much of. Bret gets a bodypress for two, but Perfect sends him out on the kick out, so Bret sunset flips back in for two. And back to the headlock. Perfect chops out of it, but Bret catches him with the crucifix for two and goes back to the headlock. Perfect tries to boot his way out of it, but Bret catches the foot and takes him down for the stomp. They do a nice series of nearfalls, which frustrates Hennig and has him running to the floor again. Back in, Perfect with a cheap knee to take over, and he dumps Bret and then knocks him into the railing as Bret works his trademark bump in again. Back in, he sends Bret into the corner for another signature bump, and that gets two. Dropkick puts Bret on the floor, and back in Perfect boots him down and then wrenches the neck. He pounds away on the neck and adds a slam for two, then adds a spinning toehold until Bret boots him into the corner. Perfect hurts the arm on the bump and Bret goes for it immediately, pounding on the arm in the corner and then hammerlocking it and ramming it into the turnbuckle. He continues with a hammerlock slam and drops a leg on the arm, then locks in a top wristlock and drops a knee on it. Perfect tries to fight back and Bret keeps going back to the arm to cut him off, but another crucifix attempt is blocked with a samoan drop. Nice callback there. And now Perfect goes back to the neck of Bret, but Bret wins a battle for an abdominal stretch. Perfect quickly hiptosses out of it, and they fight for a rollup, which gives Perfect two. Perfect hits the floor on the kickout and Bret follows wit a pescado, and back in he makes the comeback. Atomic drop and suplex gets two. Backbreaker and middle rope elbow get two, but the bell rings for the draw at 19:00. Well someone is quick on the draw at ringside. Pun intended. Another lost classic from these two, although the lack of a real finish meant they didn’t build anywhere and I thought their Toronto match that was recently on 24/7 had better heat and more convincing drama. ***3/4

WWF World title: Hulk Hogan v. Mr. Perfect

Also from MSG, January 1990. Hulk powers him into the corner off the lockup and follows with a pair of slams, which sends Perfect running to the floor. Perfect and Genius knock noggins and Genius gets slammed as well by Hulk the sportsman, but the heels doubleteam Hogan in response. Serves him right, the jerk. Back in, Hulk elbows Perfect out of the ring and continues beating the Genius up, then hammers on Perfect while he’s trapped in the ropes. And he STILL won’t leave Genius alone, ramming him into the post and then heading back in for an elbow on Perfect that has him flying over the top rope. See, this is why I could never stand Hogan, because he was a bully who always attacked the heels first beyond all perspective of what minor infractions they committed against him. So in real life if someone brags about how they’re smarter than you, the best thing to do is beat them up despite an obvious physical advantage on your part? Back in, clothesline puts Perfect down and Hogan rams him into the top turnbuckle for another acrobatic Perfect bump. Hulk finally puts his head down and Perfect clotheslines him to take over and chokes away on the ropes. He tosses Hogan and back in for a weak shot off the middle rope and an eyepoke. Hillbilly Jim notes “there ain’t no muscles in the eyes”, which is ridiculous. Of course there’s muscles in the eyes, how else would your eyes move? At least Gorilla knew his anatomy. Perfect goes to a sleeper that turns into more of a chinlock, and he outsmarts Hogan by running him into the corner when Hogan tries to break free. He makes the mistake of going up to pose, however, and Hulk crotches him and then rams his junk into the top turnbuckle a few times. What a great role model. Atomic drop and Perfect bumps all over the place, but Hulk misses an elbow and NOW YOU’RE GONNA SEE A PERFECTPLEX. Hulk up and they fight on the floor after the big boot, but Perfect misses with a chair and Hulk gets it himself. Perfect clobbers him on the way back in, which Gorilla accuses of being brass knuckles, and Hulk staggers back in again. He tries it again, but Hulk gets it for himself and uses it, which gives Perfect the DQ win at 14:00. HA! Take that, you orangeskinned cheating bastard! Perfect was just bumping all over and it was tremendous fun. ***1/4

Intercontinental title: Kerry Von Erich v. Mr. Perfect

Roddy Piper is the special ref here, which is weird because I don’t recall him feuding with Hennig at this point. Although that would have been some awesome promos. Tornado tosses Perfect into the corner to start, and then catches him with a sucker punch while Piper is holding Perfect’s arm. Oh come on now! Kerry starts working on the arm and gets a discus punch to the gut, which Perfect sells like a gunshot and bails. They brawl outside and Perfect sells like crazy, and they head back in. Kerry goes back to the arm. Perfect pulls a turnbuckle cover off, but gets rammed into it for two. Tornado goes a Boston crab, but Perfect makes the ropes. Tornado hits boot on a charge and Perfect gets his usual excellent standing dropkick, sending Kerry to the apron. Perfect grabs a sleeper, and rolls him up for two while he’s groggy. Smart man. They trade punches and collide, with Tornado falling on top for two. Normally that would have been a ref bump spot, but Piper isn’t going down from a simple collision. Tornado punch stuns Perfect and the Iron Claw follows, but Perfect falls into the ropes. Perfect tries to slam him, but Kerry claws him again and Perfect has to go to the eyes to break. A chop gets two. This is some pretty uninspired stuff. Perfect gets a backdrop suplex, but they do the stupid shoulder lift finish and Tornado retains at 11:37. Very kickypunchy. ** And just because it’s wrestling and inevitably I have to note stuff like this, Perfect actually regained the title on 11/19/90, which was five days BEFORE this show, although the title change didn’t air until a few days after this. So really, he could take solace in knowing he was already the champion.

Intercontinental title: Mr. Perfect v. Bret Hart.

From Summerslam 91, of course. Bret hiptosses him out of the ring to start, and grabs a headlock. Crucifix gets two and he maintains a headlock with some welltimed hairpulling. Crossbody gets two, as does a sunset flip, and he goes back to the headlock. Hennig tries some cheating to turn the tide, but Bret takes him down and stomps him. They trade slams in a nice counter wrestling sequence. Hennig bails off a punch and regroups, but Bret pulls him back in, ripping the tights in the process. A cheapshot puts Perfect in control, however, and a pair of kicks puts Bret on the floor. Hennig steps on his back to get back into the ring, a nice touch. Bret fights back to the apron, so Hennig snaps him into the railing for the Pillman bump. Back in, Bret rolls him up out of the corner for a onecount. Perfect pounds him down again and sends him into the corner for two. Necksnap and rollup get two. Dropkick puts Bret on the floor, and they brawl out there. They fight up to the top and Bret down first, with Perfect falling on top of him for two in a weird spot. Still not sure what happened there. Perfect hairtosses him and grabs a sleeper, but Bret fights out easily. Bret tries another crucifix, but Perfect is onto him now and counters with a samoan drop for two. He sends Bret to the corner for two. Perfectplex gets two, and Bret comes back.

Atomic drop both ways and Bret returns the hairtoss, so Perfect takes a great sliding bump into the post. Suplex gets two. Small package gets two. Russian legsweep gets two. Backbreaker and elbow get two. A desperate Perfect rolls him up for two in a hot nearfall, but Bret kicks him out of the ring. Bret starts kicking the crap out of the leg to set up for the Sharpshooter, and Perfect is flipping around like a gymnast to sell it. Bret goes after Coach and gets crotched as a result, and Perfect starts going low in desperation. A legdrop is caught by Bret, however, and he turns it into the Sharpshooter, with Earl Hebner ringing the bell, ringing the fucking bell, very early at 18:05. ****1/4 Still holds up, except for the botched finish. This was all about Mr. Perfect bringing Bret up to his level and turning him into a legitimate star.

Intercontinental title: Shawn Michaels v. Mr. Perfect

From Summerslam 1993. Haven’t seen this one in a long while, actually. The build for this one was basically “Buy this show because they’re going to deliver a **** match and we promise”, which had people quite excited to see it. Unfortunately, the lesson here is that there’s no magic formula for predicting a great match and this proves it. They trade hammerlocks to start and Shawn grabs a headlock, and they mess up an armdrag spot off a crisscross. Perfect works the arm and they do a nice headlock reversal, which leads Shawn to back off. Shawn slugs him in the corner and Perfect fires back with chops, then catches Shawn with a clothesline out of the corner for two. He goes to the armbar and Shawn fights out in the corner, but goes up and lands in an armdrag, which gets two for Perfect. Perfect holds the armbar and Bobby and Vince are going way over the top already selling it as a match of the year. There’s selling the product and then there’s insulting your audience. Shawn tries a dropkick and Perfect catapults him over the top to counter, but he goes to chase and Shawn superkicks him and then follows with an axehandle off the apron. Back in, Shawn works on the back with a series of elbows and whips Perfect into the corner. Another trip to the corner and he follows with a backbreaker. Perfect comes back with a dropkick and backdrop, and an atomic drop gets two. Perfect lays him out with the forearm for two. You can see they’re trying too hard here and the results are sloppy spots and too many dead spots. They fight for a backdrop and we get a Perfectplex, but Diesel pulls him out to break it up. Shawn and Perfect brawl on the floor and the ref gets bumped in a weak spot, allowing Diesel to send Perfect into the post for the countout at 11:19. Yeah, not good no chemistry together, terrible finish, just a disappointing mess. How could they possibly promote this is as a classic before the fact and then book it to have a COUNTOUT finish? **1/2

Curt Hennig v. Bret Hart

From WCW Uncensored 98 this time. Really now, enough with Bret v. Perfect already. Plus there’s at least a few better matches from Hennig’s WCW run to choose from. The pair of matches with Flair on PPV in 97 and the US title match against DDP at Starrcade immediately spring to mind. Lockup to start and Bret goes to the headlock and works on that, and a hiptoss puts Hennig on the floor. Back in, Bret quickly goes for the Sharpshooter, but Rude breaks it up and Hennig starts working on the leg. Hairtoss out of the corner and Hennig slaps him around in the corner and then goes to a figurefour, which allows Rude to assist. The ref sees it and forces the break, and Hennig goes back to working on the leg. They slug it out in the corner and Hennig kicks the leg to take over again and holds a stepover toehold. He releases and goes up, but Bret brings him down and they do a weak version of the hairtoss and slide into the post spot. Small package gets two for Bret. Russian legsweep gets two. Bulldog gets two. Backbreaker and middle rope elbow gets two. Hennig whips him into the corner and now you’re gonna see a Hennigplex, but it only gets two. Bret sends him into Rude and rolls him up, reversed for two by Hennig. Bret rolls through a sunset flip and finishes with the Sharpshooter at 13:50. This was two formerly great workers who no longer gave a shit and would barely bump for each other any longer. Curt Hennig without the bumping and Bret Hart without the passion is an ugly combination. **

The Bottom Line: I like the inclusion of some rarities, but the Bret v. Perfect horse has been beaten to death and then some. Perfect v. Flair from RAW is still needing a full version on DVD and should have been included, and you can also throw Hennig v. Lawler on there because that’s nowhere to be found, or maybe Perfect’s IC title tournament matches from 1990. Library guys, you know I love you, but seriously drop me an email next time and I’ll give you a list of matches because this is pretty disappointing. Hennig v. Bockwinkel is well worth picking the DVD up for, but I’d wait until it’s in the bargain bin.

Mildly recommended.