Guest Post: My Top 8

I was supposed to write an open letter to TNA, but I’m having a problem of organizing my thoughts.  Mainly because there’s so much to say due to my frustration level being so high and I want to keep the letter PG.  Since I told Kevin I’d have a blog for him, I decided to write a placeholder.  The problem was figuring out a topic. Since I couldn’t think of anything really interesting, I decided to do a top 10 list.  So without further ado,

Top 8 Matches I Saw In Person

This list was quickly thrown together.  Basically I tried to pick one match from every different promotion I’ve seen seen live.

8. Knight Eye for the Pirate Guy/Allison Danger vs. Larry Sweeney, Roarshach, Sharecropper.  Chikara: Speaking in Tongues, Reading, PA 2005

Back in 2005, I discovered Chikara when they were promoting their Tag Team World Grand Prix tournament.  I was quickly hooked on the wackiness of the promotion.  After seeing a few shows, I knew I had to witness this spectacle in person. As fate would have it, my original vacation plans got cancelled so I found myself with a week off from work at the same time Chikara was running their monthly shows. I made the 15 hour drive from Herrin, IL to Reading, PA by myself eagerly anticipating what I was going to see. Chikara had only been around for 2 or 3 years at this time and hadn’t yet built much of a fan base. I think there were maybe 25 fans in attendance.
The show was everything I hoped for. I chose this match simply because it has my favorite female wrestler, Allison Danger and the greatest wrestler of the 2000’s “Sweet and Sour” Larry Sweeney. WWE fans may remember Sweeney from his appearance on Raw portraying Nick Hogan during the buildup to the Hulk Hogan/Randy Orton match at SummerSlam. Hoping we’ll see the return of
Sweet and Sour International in two aught one one.


Deliriously good times


7. Rickey Reyes vs Delirious vs Flash Flanigan vs Shane Hagadorn, ROH: Supercard of
Honor, Chicago, IL 2006

Wrestlemania 22 was the first Geek Weekend for Kevin and me.  Part of the weekend festivities was a Ring of Honor show.  This match wasn’t anything special, and if I was being honest, the Necro Butcher/Samoa Joe brawl later in the show was more entertaining. But this match makes the list simply because of the post match beat down Delirious received from Rickey Reyes.

I am a huge Delirious mark and have a homemade Delirious mask.  Reyes was beating Delirious up screaming that Delirious didn’t belong in ROH and was nothing but a joke. Kevin and I were in the third row. I was wearing my mask and booing Reyes. Reyes continued his verbal smackdown, looked in my direction and said something along the lines of, “you’re not wanted here. No one likes you. And that &*&$#* right there doesn’t mean $#&@!”  Kevin said that was worth the price of admission alone.  

Editors note:  I had tears in my eyes from laughing at this tirade. KH

6. Ric Flair vs Harley Race. Pittsfield, IL 1983 or ‘84
This was the main event of the first ever live show I attended.  I don’t remember what organization put on the show. Don’t remember who fought on the undercard. And as you can see, don’t really remember what year it was. But I remember Ric Flair being Ric Flair and making me a fan for life. Harley Race was no slouch either.

5. AJ Styles vs Christopher Daniels vs Chris Saban vs Petey Williams, IWA:Mid-South, Autumn Armageddon, Evansville, IN 2004

Much like the Chikara show, this was my first introduction to IWA: Mid-South and there were probably only 30-40 fans in attendance.  Looking back, this entire show would be a solid PPV offering. I think only 3 or 4 of the guys who wrestled haven’t gone on to be major players on the Indy or National scene.  This match was originally a #1 contender’s match, but Champion Arik Cannon suffered a broken collarbone in the match prior so this became a title match.

4. Masato Tanaka vs Mike Awesome, ECW: Heatwave ’98, Dayton, OH

Hands down, the best show I’ve attended. It was hard to pick a match from this show because any match could be on the list.  Chose this one simply because of the beating both men delivered.  Tanaka power bombing Awesome over the top rope through a table was insane.

3. Chris Hero vs Human Tornado, PWG: Life During Wartime, Reseda, CA 2008
A wild and crazy cage match.  The Reseda Legion Hall is so small, they had the fans exit the building while the cage was set up so there would be no chance of someone getting injured.  During the match, Claudio Castagnoli and Necro Butcher did run ins. Claudio to try and help Tornado. Necro to chase Claudio out of the building. A few minutes after chasing Claudio out of the building, Necro came back in through the main door and watched the rest of the match from the crowd talking to fans about
the match. 

2. Syxx vs Eddie Guerrero, NWO: Souled Out, Cedar Rapids, IA 1997


It was either this or Rey Mysterio Jr./ Jushin Thunder Liger from Starrcade 1996.  Went with this one because the coin landed on heads.  A motivated Syxx and a rising star in Eddie Guerrero.  What more needs to be said. Probably a lot, but it’s late and I’m tired.

Shawn Michaels vs. Ric Flair

1. Ric Flair vs Shawn Michaels,  WWE: Wrestlemania 24, Orlando, FL 2008
I said earlier, Ric Flair made me a fan for life. Seeing his “retirement” match was an emotional event. While the match outcome was never in doubt, Ric and Shawn told a story through ring psychology that is often missing in most of today’s wrestling matches.  While I wish Ric would have stayed retired, I don’t think Ric is made to simply sit at home and watch wrestling on television. He has to be a part of the show. 

There you have it. The top 8 matches I came up with in 5 minutes. Now back to that letter to TNA.

Flashback Friday: Thunder (No Lightning)

The late 1990's served as a boom for the wrestling business.  In 1995, Eric Bischoff who was leading the charge for WCW started the so called Monday Night Wars when he and others within the Turner company created Monday Nitro to compete with the WWF's Monday Night Raw.

After much success with that formula and a growing talent pool, it was time to expand.  WCW would launch "Thursday Night Thunder" in January 1998.  The first episode aired on January 8th of that year.  It's live format offered fans another two hours of wrestling action each week.

Probably the biggest shocker (no pun intended) from that first episode was "Gentleman" Chris Adams pinning "Macho Man" Randy Savage.  Of course, there was interference from Lex Luger that night, and the decision was eventually reversed.

The show stayed on the air through the Monday Night Wars which also became Thursday Night Wars when WWE added Smackdown! to its schedule.  I think when the E took the upper hand in the war, WCW executives moved Thunder to Wednesday nights.  It stayed on air until WWE bought the company in 2001.

Me & the Brain circa 1998.

I wasn't a regular Thunder watcher, but I did check out the show.  About 3 weeks into the show, I actually attended a live edition in Hunstville, Alabama.  I was a young reporter at the time working in nearby Florence.  Because of my job, I was able to get a media pass and interview several of the stars of the day.

Buff Bagwell, Goldberg, Ray Traylor, and Bobby "the Brain" Heenan all joined me for a few minutes to talk.  It was a very memorable experience.  You can see the clips on My 1-2-3 Cents on YouTube.

That night was interesting, because when we arrived at the arena in Huntsville we were greeted by the WCW staff.  They were all very nice to us.  Then they brought over our first interview, Goldberg.
The interview wasn't very eventful though.  Goldberg had just started with his winning streak.  This was still about 3 months before he was red hot.

Then there was a lull in the activity.  There were 3 other TV stations there at the time, and the wrestlers were just hitting us one at a time.  So in the downtime, I decided to shoot some video of the ring as the crew was setting it up.  This turned out to be a huge mistake.  Doug Dillinger, who was WCW's security guy (sorry I don't remember his exact title), approached me and asked what I was doing.  I told him getting "b-roll" (video) to go along with the story.  He proceeded to yell at me and tell me I had no right getting shots of the ring.  Keep in mind NO ONE said getting video of the ring was off limits.  Then he demanded my tape.  I assured him that I would not use the material, and I didn't want to give him my tape because my interview with Goldberg was on there.  He insisted and took the tape and said they'd erase only the footage of the ring and "try" to save the interview.

Me & Buff Bagwell

Dillinger gave me the tape back a short time later, but the interview with Goldberg was gone.  I was disappointed by that.  The only thing I can think that set him off was the fact that the Giant (aka the Big Show) destroyed the ring that night as the Outsiders stood inside it.  My guess is that the crew was rigging it to make it collapse easier.  I didn't have a problem with being told not to shoot the ring, but the way Dillinger came at me, yelling and embarrassing me in front of everyone else indicated to me that he's a class a douche.

The rest of the night went well.  The interviews were entertaining, especially the Bagwell and Heenan ones.  I was young and nervous and trying not to mark out the whole time.

Those are my memories of Thunder, which entered our world 13 years ago this week.

Paul Orndorff Battling Cancer

From WWE

 Just read some disappointing news regarding the health of WWE Hall of Famer, "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff.

The legend announced today on the Busted Open radio program that he is battling cancer.  Host Reby Sky broke the news this afternoon.

There aren't a whole lot of other details right now in terms of the type of cancer Orndorff has.  I know from my experience as a health reporter, that if it's caught early enough, many times there is a high survival rate from most types of the disease.  I hope doctors have caught it in time and Mr. Wonderful has a quick recovery similar to that of his former partner "Rowdy" Roddy Piper.

Orndorff is 61 years old and best known for his time in the WWF in the mid 80's.  He was in the main event of the first Wrestlemania, having been pinned by Hulk Hogan.  Orndorff and Hogan became friends after that (Bob Orton & Piper walked out on him) and formed a tag team.  The two split about a year or so later and Orndorff gave Hogan some great matches in the months to come.

One of my favorite memories from Saturday Night's Main Event came when the two battled in a steel cage match.  Both of them escaped from different sides and virtually hit the ground at the same time.  The ref restarted the match and of course, Hogan eventually won.  Orndorff would eventually turn face again, feuding with former manager Bobby Heenan's newest charge "Ravishing" Rick Rude.   

He left the WWF and wrestled off and on for a while before joining WCW.  There he held the TV title and

the tag team titles with "Pretty" Paul Roma.  The duo was known as "Pretty Wonderful."  Get it?   Injuries forced the superstar to retire in 1995.  Ten years later, in 2005 Orndorff was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

Again, best wishes to Mr. Wonderful and his family.  Here's to hoping for a speedy recovery.

Flashback Friday: A Black December



The Black Scorpion

Turn back the clock 20 years for this week's Flashback.  It was December 16, 1990.  I was a senior in high school and ready to attend my very first wrestling pay per view.  Sure I had attended house shows before, but this was the first time I'd actually be a part of the live audience. 

Starrcade 90 was being held at the Kiel Center in downtown St. Louis.  My friend Jim and I were wrestling fans and got tickets for the show.  Since it was our first PPV, we really weren't sure what to expect.

The card was stacked.  There was an international tag team tournament in memory of former NWA Champion Pat O'Connor.  That tournament featured a Rey Mysterio, Sr. on Team Mexico.  He and Konnan lost to the Steiner Brothers in the semi finals.  The Steiners would go on to win the tourney.

The event was to feature a tag team title match Doom vs. Ric Flair and Arn Anderson in a St. Louis Street Fight.  But prior to the match, they announced Flair was hurt and wouldn't be competiting.  As soon as they said that, they pretty much revealed the identity of the Black Scorpion, the guy who had been tormenting world champ Sting for several months.  More on that later.

Barry Windham ended up replacing Flair in the tag match and going to a no contest with Doom.  How does that happen in a street fight?  I always thought there were no rules in such matches.

Lex Luger also regained the U.S. title from Stan Hansen in a less than eventful match.  It was a Texas Lariat match.  Of course it was something that would favor the heel champion, so naturally he's the one to lose.

One thing that stood out to me that night was how over Sid and Dan Spivey, the Skyscrapers were.  The crowd went nuts when they came out and destroyed the Big Cat (Mr. Hughes) and the Motor City Madman.  

Back to the main event now.  Black Scorpion has been threatening Sting and making challenges in the months leading up to this match, which was to be held in a steel cage.  If you were a fan back then, you remember the cheesy promos featuring the Scorpion as he performed different magic tricks to get Sting riled up.  He turned a fan into a tiger at one show.  He made another vanish in thin air. 

St. Louis wrestling legend Dick the Bruiser reffed the main event.  It was your basic back and forth cage match.  I think by the time we got to the match even Stevie Wonder could see that the Scorpion was Flair. 

Of course it would only take about month before Flair would regain the title, which was now the WCW World Title.  The NWA affiliation was dropped around the time of Starrcade.  I can't even remember now if it had already happened or not.  And about six months later Flair would end up in the WWF. 

On that night back in December 1990, I never imagined that would happen.  It was the first of many pay per view events I would end up attending in my life as a wrestling fan.  But it was my one and only WCW/NWA event.