Bob Holly

The Brain Buster’s finish is the piledriver but Koko’s theme is Piledriver and his finisher the Brainbuster.
-YouTube comment.

Welcome back to more Dream Matches! This week, I found a very odd one-off, as it’s the Brain Busters versus the makeshift team of… High Energy? Yes, it’s OWEN HART AND KOKO B. WARE, but several years early, as Owen’s the Blue Blazer and neither is in gigantic parachute pants, and they’re taking on the NWA-styled Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard!

Then it’s over to New Japan, as the IWGP Tag Team Champions, Rick & Scott Steiner, defend against the monster squad of Scott Norton & Tony “Ludvig Borga” Halme! Come see some real Hoss Style wrestling… at least until their cardio wears out! Then it’s a classic 1994 WWF match, with The 1-2-3 Kid & Thurmann “Sparky” Plugg vs. Adam Bomb & Kwang! Sting vs. Lt. James Earl Wright in 1995 WCW! And we cap things off with a jobber squash featuring Don Muraco in 1980s Florida dismantling a green rookie Barry Windham!

THE BRAIN BUSTERS (Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard, w/ Bobby Heenan) vs. KOKO B. WARE & THE BLUE BLAZER:
* !!!!!! This was mentioned in a daily thread as a fascinating unknown match, and look at it! The Brain Busters vs. High Energy… three years early! Owen Hart at this point was a masked undercard guy in light blue gear for some reason, and Koko was on the JTTS train already. The Busters, in black trunks, are so NWA they look bizarre in late ’80s WWF, but they kinda fit because of that- two guys in regular gear with regular dad-bods like good NWA stars should look. Like, WWF was so full of weird characters that this actually STOOD OUT… and thus kind of worked? I mean the whole company was guys trying to stand out so “NWA Guys” was ironically a good fit. The jobber team is listed as 70 lbs. heavier than the Busters- that doesn’t sound right.

There is a new opening for Superstars, with “Stars & Stripes Forever” playing and Hulk Hogan posing with the WWF Championship.  On the one hand, it is good that the introduction has been updated.  On the other, it is a much weaker opening than the Ultimate Warrior shooting lasers out of his eyes.

Vince McMahon, Randy Savage, and Roddy Piper are in the booth and they are kicking off a new taping in Pensacola, Florida.  According to thehistoryofwwe.com, this taping happened on March 11.  Savage immediately makes an impression by claiming that his new goal is to be the WWF broadcasting champion.  Piper is incensed at Sensational Sherri’s attack on him at WrestleMania.

WWF KING OF THE RING 1999 (Qualifying Matches):
* Time for more King of the Ring Qualifying Match goodness! With… the infamous 1999 tournament. Okay, so this one shockingly, like 1996, looks GREAT. On paper. I mean, you have two former Kings (Viscera/Shamrock), a ton of over midcarders (Gunn, Dogg, X-Pac, Godfather, even Chyna), some legit major names (Kane, Big Show). All four subordinate members of DX, Jarrett, Test, and more! Like, ON PAPER this looks like it should be a fantastic, well-fought tournament! And the purpose here is much like in past years: Push a midcarder and hope he gets lifted up to the next level. But of course we all know what happened with THIS King of the Ring reign. Read on!

So, uh, 1999 WWF is somewhat notorious in fan circles- 1997 was the company revving up and being good, 1998 was this incredible peak of business, 2000 had a ton of great workers infusing the Attitude Era with top-level in-ring product… and 1999 is kind of that weird shit year where Vince Russo’s worst instincts were revealed and the in-ring product was mostly ass. And also Owen Hart died shortly before this. You can see weird things pop up right away when all eight Qualifying Matches take place across two back-to-back editions of Sunday Night Heat and not even the main show.

KEN SHAMROCK vs. “DOUBLE J” JEFF JARRETT (w/ Debra McMichael):
(WWF Sunday Night Heat, May 30th)
* Shamrock is the defending King of the Ring, wearing blue trunks, while Jarrett, in silver & red shorts, is now FINALLY getting the reaction bookers have dreamed about for him since he has a heat machine in his ability to deny the crowd see Debra’s “puppies”. I thought Shamrock was a Corporation guy at this point, but I guess not, because he’s hugely over (we’re in the “Union” era). Both guys are on a similar tier here, and this is one of the more competitive Qualifying matches for sure.

Beating a bunch of midcarders and you change the business forever. Wrestling is weird.

WWF KING OF THE RING QUALIFYING MATCHES (1996):
* You might have heard of this tournament before. So by this point, the tourney was kind of up in the air after Mabel’s failed Main Event push. It could have even poisoned the “King” title, in fact. Hopefully THIS year’s winner makes more of a go of it.

So the backstory here was that the crown was meant to go to the “Next Big Midcarder”, more or less- mid-tier heel Hunter Hearts-Helmsley was expected to win it. But instead, he was one of the few guys the WWF could punish for doing the infamous “Curtain Call” (the Kliq members all coming out for a group hug in the ring, “exposing the business” by confusing fans at an MSG house show). And so he had his big push taken away and they threw it on some other guy. Thus giving HHH a lifelong persecution complex and an obsessive need to look smarter and better than everyone else, covering his own ass at every opportunity. But who knows what effect THAT had on the business?

This review is comparatively massive, because I decided to put the trio of Quarterfinals in the same review instead of splitting them up. Easier to look at the tourney as a whole that way! Hopefully it’s not too long, haha.

HENRY O. GODWINN (w/ Hillbilly Jim) vs. JUSTIN “HAWK” BRADHSAW (w/ Uncle Zebekiah):
(WWF Superstars)
* Weirdness abounds as tag wrestler Godwinn is out there with absolutely ZERO chance, taking on rising midcard guy Bradshaw, then a super-green Stan Hansen wannabe in red trunks and a ponytail managed by Zebekiah. At this point, the future JBL was nowhere near as protected as he would be even as part of the Acolytes, but he was protected enough.

–Vince McMahon narrates a video package that shows highlights of In Your House 5.

–McMahon and Jerry Lawler are doing commentary and they are live from Newark, Delaware.  This is the last RAW of 1995 since the WWF was pre-empted for Christmas.

–Vince McMahon narrates tonight’s promo video for the Razor Ramon-Dean Douglas Intercontinental title match and Sid-Marty Jannetty encounter.  Sid and Jannetty give dueling promos, with Jannetty promising to light Sid up.

–McMahon and Jerry Lawler are tonight’s commentary team and they are taped from Richmond, Virginia.

–Howard Finkel announces Mr. Perfect, who is returning to the company after a year and a half hiatus.  Perfect comes to ringside to serve as a color commentator.

–Vince McMahon, Mr. Perfect, and Jim Ross are doing commentary and they are live from Landover, Maryland.

–A great movie-style preview of Goldust opens the show with Todd Pettengill narrating.  Goldust says that he is ready for his close up and that has finally arrived on Superstars.  Pettengill also says that they will show us the shocking footage of the 1-2-3 Kid’s heel turn on RAW.

–Vince McMahon, Jerry Lawler, and Jim Ross are calling the action and they are concluding the tapings in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.

–A video package shows the outcome of the Smoking Gunns-Razor Ramon & 1-2-3 Kid match at In Your House 4 and how the Kid apologized to the Gunns later.  Razor and the Kid warn the Gunns that they are coming after them in today’s rematch.

–Vince McMahon, Jerry Lawler, and Jim Ross are today’s broadcasters and this is the third of four taped episodes from Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.

–Vince McMahon recaps parts of In Your House 4, noting how WWF Champion Diesel and Bret Hart brawled at the end of the show and how Razor Ramon became a four-time Intercontinental champion.

–Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler are doing commentary and they are live from Brandon, Manitoba, Canada.  According to thehistoryofwwe.com, the tapings drew 2,000 fans.

–Vince McMahon, Jerry Lawler, and Jim Ross are today’s commentary team and they are taped from the campus of Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Indiana.  According to thehistoryofwwe.com, the tapings drew 3,000 fans.

–Barry Horowitz is showing trying to tutor Hakushi on American politics, a segment that McMahon laughs at.

–Vince McMahon recaps how Henry Godwinn has been on a “slopping spree” in recent weeks and chronicles his battles with the Million Dollar Corporation.

–McMahon, Jerry Lawler, and Jim Ross are in the booth and concluding the tapings in Erie, Pennsylvania.

–Clips of the end of last week’s British Bulldog-Razor Ramon match are shown, along with the 1-2-3 Kid’s challenge to Razor Ramon for a match on tonight’s show.

–Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler are doing commentary and they are concluding the tapings in Canton, Ohio.  This is our last RAW before In Your House 3.

–Vince McMahon recaps the events of the Shawn Michaels-Razor Ramon ladder match at SummerSlam and how Sid looks to “tear down the Heartbreak Hotel” tonight while Ramon faces the newly turned British Bulldog.

–To kick off the “new fall season” of Monday Night RAW the company abandons the intro that RAW used for the better part of two and half years and replaces it with an introduction of wrestlers battling on the top of Titan Towers in Connecticut.  The highlight is Shawn Michaels dancing atop a platform and then diving on top of Kama.  Later footage from this opening would be used for D-Generation X’s Titantron video in 1997.

–Todd Pettengill and Jim Ross quickly recap some of the events at SummerSlam.

–Pettengill and Ross are doing commentary and they are taped from Portland, Maine.  Pettengill tells fans that The Action Zone will have a new format next week due to the WWF’s “new fall season.”

–Footage of Barry Horowitz upsetting Skip at SummerSlam is shown.

Since Monday Night RAW was pre-empted for the U.S. Open on USA Network, there were some matches that aired on the Saturday morning WWF Mania show.  Those contests were taped in Worcester, Massachusetts in mid-August.  Here were the results of those bouts:

–Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler are doing commentary and they are live from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  McMahon announces that 18,062 fans are in attendance, setting a record for the Pittsburgh Civic Arena.  According to thehistoryofwwe.com, this was the reported attendance figure with 17,000 of those fans paying to attend the show.

–Footage of the end of RAW where Razor Ramon and Shawn Michaels had an altercation after Ramon saved Michaels from a beatdown at the hands of Sid.

–Vince McMahon and Dok Hendrix are doing commentary and they are kicking off a new set of tapings in Portland, Maine.  According to the historyofwwe.com the tapings drew a crowd of 4,683 fans.

–Jim Ross and Todd Pettengill are doing commentary that are in St. Louis, Missouri.

–Irwin R. Schyster and Shawn Michaels cut dueling promos against each other for tonight’s main event, with Michaels saying that he is going to do what lots of Americans want to do in slapping around the tax man.

–Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler are doing commentary and they are concluding the tapings in Danville, Pennsylvania.