Crush

You know it’s 1997 WWF when THESE two show up!

Welcome back to more Dream Matches! This week, we have a wild assortment, as I found another Bowl Match from the WWF! A sequel to the “RAW Bowl” where everyone was in football gear, this one is classic 1997, as it’s Owen Hart & British Bulldog vs. The Godwinns vs. Doug Furnas & Phil LaFon vs. Faarooq & Crush in a 4-way elimination tag match!

A weird mish-mash bout from 1993 WCW sees a young BABYFACE Steve Regal take on The Barbarian! More of Devon Storm and Ace Darling as they form “The Extremists” and hit WCW as a pair of jobbers against The Public Enemy! A palette cleanser from that as babyface Kona Crush takes on “Dream Matches” MVP, Blake Beverly! And we end things with a great example of the Dragon Gate style as CIMA, Dragon Kid & Susumu Yokosuka invade Pro Wrestling NOAH to face Naomichi Marufuji, Ricky Marvin & Ippei Ota!

BOWL MATCH (4 corners elimination tag, anyone can tag and must accept tags):
OWEN HART & “THE BRITISH BULLDOG” DAVEY-BOY SMITH vs. THE GODWINNS (Henry O. & Phineas I. Godwinn, w/ Hillbilly Jim) vs. DOUG FURNAS & PHILIP LAFON vs. THE NATION OF DOMINATION (Faarooq & Crush, w/ Clarence Mason, PG-13 & Flunkies):
(WWF Superstars, Jan. 26th 1997)
* Wait, they ran ANOTHER Bowl? All I remember was the RAW Bowl! Where they all wore football uniforms and it was actually pretty dumb! This is another from the next year, with a smattering of oddball tag teams from the era- Owen & Bulldog are the tag champs, with Furnas & LaFon (in matching blue trunks) brought in from Japan as charisma-free challengers in an attempt to combat WCW’s perception as the “workrate promotion”, probably. The Godwinns are a fading act at this point (and oddly both in matching red shirts), while the Nation are rising stars, without Savio yet, I think.

Gorilla Monsoon, Bobby Heenan, and Jim Neidhart are in the booth to conclude the tapings in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Vince McMahon and Bobby Heenan are hosting this evening’s show.

Mr. Fuji comes out and tells Heenan he has a “special Oriental present” for him.

After a few weeks on the road, Prime Time Wrestling returns to its home in Stamford, with Vince McMahon and Bobby Heenan hosting.  Heenan’s recent woes gambling and in the gym are replayed.

A corny voiceover puts over Stamford, Connecticut as a big media center relative to other places like Los Angeles and New York City.  Vince McMahon and Bobby Heenan argue backstage about getting ready and are introduced as the night’s hosts by Lord Alfred Hayes.  There is a live audience, a mix of parents and young children.  Heenan said years later that most of the audience were WWF employees.

After McMahon tells Heenan his fly is open, a replay of the tag team battle royal on Superstars airs.

The Battle Royal: in an era of jobber vs. jobber matches making up almost all TV wrestling, this iwas the only way to get to see a TON of big stars in one place!

It’s another Dream Matches column! This time I find a Battle Royal from 1992 with a very unexpected victor! A 40-man battle royal with an incredible SEVENTEEN jobbers getting paydays, and extended runs by guys like Kato and a beyond-done Texas Tornado! Read on!

I also find some disparate stuff- Crush vs. Damian Demento from a 1992 WWF Mania, as I find an incredible smorgasbord of horrible low-grade matches on that program! Essa Rios vs. Jeff Hardy from 2000, as the Hardyz push REALLY starts to get in gear and “Team Extreme” is ready to form! WCW midcard glory as Glacier faces Lash Leroux! Then it’s a request, as we see a very young MIKE AWESOME in late ’80s WCW, as he faces the “Z-Man” Tom Zenk! And finally, some throwaway lucha stuff as Juventud Guerrera & Super Calo face Silver King & El Dandy in a match that ends in a REAL mess of miscommunication!

BATTLE ROYAL:
(Bret Hart, The British Bulldog, Sgt. Slaughter, Rick “The Model” Martel, “Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase, I.R.S., The Nasty Boys, “El Matador” Tito Santana, “Texas Tornado” Kerry Von Erich, Virgil, High Energy, Skinner, The Beverly Brothers, The Berzerker, Kato, Jim Powers, Barry Horowitz, Jumping Jim Brunzell, Duane Gill, Joe Milano, Rick Johnson, John/Tom Star, J.K. Goodman, Chico Martinez, Bob Bradley, Bruce Mitchell, Bob Knight, Terry Davis, Joe McMullen, Al Tucker, Barry Hardy, Nick Danger, Scott Palontonio?)
(WWF Prime Time, July 6th 1992)
* Okay, so while Scott Keith HATES Battle Royals, I LOVE them. I mean, in an era where your weekly main event was like Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Koko B. Ware, seeing THIRTY GUYS in one match? That was incredible! Plus it was fun to see guys go out almost in the exact order of importance. This one’s a real mish-mash of the most “1992” acts possible, including Kato as a singles act, the Beverlies, High Energy & Skinner. I don’t recognize most of the seventeen (!) jobbers, but there’s a pudgy short guy in a red singlet who is AMAZINGLY bad-looking, and Johnson is some huge, ripped dude. Bruce & Bob look like a tag team in matching black tights & white boots. LOL some asshole fan on the right is grabbing all the babyfaces by the arm and not letting go, resulting in a bunch of dudes (Virgil, Kerry) spinning around, probably giving him an earful.

Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan are calling the action, still broadcasting from Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Gorilla Monsoon and Roddy Piper are in the booth and they are live from Hartford, Connecticut.  According to thehistoryofwwe.com, the show drew a crowd of 16,000 fans, 13,000 of whom paid to attend.  The show drew a buyrate of 3.0, with an estimated 400,000 households purchasing the event.  The buyrate was 0.3 less than the previous year, but 15,000 more homes bought the show, once again illustrating the expansion of pay-per-view into American households.

Gene Okerlund interviews the Warriors.  Animal lets the “little warriors” out there know that the team will not let them down.

Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan handle commentary, taped in Indianapolis, Indiana as part of the Superstars tapings on October 29.  The gimmick of the show is that there are singles matches featuring members of competing Survivor Series teams.

Vince McMahon and Roddy Piper are in the booth and they start a new round of tapings in Indianapolis, Indiana.  According to thehistoryofwwe.com, the taping took place on October 29.

Vince McMahon and Roddy Piper are in the booth, concluding the tapings in Springfield, Illinois.  Superstars has a new opening where WWF Champion the Ultimate Warrior is charged with electricity and shoots lasers out of his eyes toward the sky.

On All-American Wrestling there was an exclusive squash match where Tugboat (23-0) defeated Tom Stone after a splash at 1:31

Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan are doing commentary and they are taped from Cape Girardeau, Missouri.  Heenan is still trying to win over the Big Bossman by wearing his hat.  He runs away when Monsoon tells him that the Bossman will be in the opener.

Vince McMahon and Roddy Piper handle commentary, calling the action from Springfield, Illinois.  According to thehistoryofwwe.com, the taping took place on October 9.  Piper comes out with a white sheet over his head and carrying a pumpkin, lest his intentions be misconstrued from his actions at WrestleMania VI.

Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan host this evening’s show.  Heenan says he can solve the problems in the Middle East by sending the Big Bossman’s mother because it will cause Iraqi forces to flee Kuwait.  Monsoon threatens Heenan with more fines for unsavory jokes, causing Heenan to beg Monsoon not to do it because he needs the money to sponsor needy families for Christmas.

Vince McMahon and Roddy Piper do commentary for the show, which was taped from the Superstars cycle in Toledo, Ohio.  The show has an “Oktoberfest” theme.  Its television rating could not be found.

Demolition talk about all of the destruction they are going to unleash on the Ultimate Warrior and the Legion of Doom.

Make sure to vote for your nominations for the Doomies.  Nomination poll closes on Sunday at midnight.

Vince McMahon and Roddy Piper are in the booth and they are taped from Toledo, Ohio.

Hacksaw Jim Duggan’s squash of Paul Diamond from Prime Time Wrestling starts the broadcast.

Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan run the studio for tonight’s show.  Heenan says he had a horrible nightmare the previous night of rolling over and seeing the Big Bossman’s mother.

Vince McMahon and Roddy Piper are in the booth and they are still in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan are in the studio for this evening’s show.  Heenan takes down a poster of Dusty Rhodes and replaces it with Ted DiBiase’s wrestling buddy because DiBiase paid him $1,000.  Monsoon threatens to fine Heenan $5,000 for what he just did until Heenan argues he can whatever he wants to his side of the studio.

Gorilla Monsoon is back in the booth with Bobby Heenan as we start another round of television tapings in Wheeling, West Virginia.  According to thehistoryofwwe.com, the tapings drew a crowd of 8,300 and took place on August 29.