Ryan's Dive into '95 - Part Ten (3/5-3/11)
Psicosis does something insane! Also, Shawn and Bulldog go at it and we get a heated return match from New Japan!
If you haven’t read it already, please check out my introductory article that explains what this series is all about. As a reminder, footage is sourced from the Goodhelmet 1995 Yearbook, unless otherwise stated.
How ya now?
This week is going to be pretty breezy for the most part, but we still have some good stuff coming up. AAA and New Japan return, we have an actual match from Monday Night RAW, plus the usual Saturday fare.
Now, PITTER PATTER.
MARCH 5th
AAA Sin Limite - Welcome back, AAA!
Rey Misterio Sr & Rey Misterio Jr & Transformer vs. Fuerza Guerrera & Juventud Guerrera & Psicosis - This is almost a rematch of a tag match from earlier this year, but with the added elements of Transformer and Psicosis. Transformer wrestled as Kendo in Gran Hamada's UWF and Michinoku Pro, and adopted other guises for other smaller promotions. Psicosis is perhaps a bit more well-known, spending time in most major North American promotions and having a much-heralded rivalry with Rey Misterio Jr. That, and he was awesome in WCW/nWo Revenge.
PRIMERA CAIDA: Things start off fast with Rey Sr. going right after Fuerza, leaving the others to pair off and brawl. The rudos double and triple-team Rey Sr. until Transformer checks in and fares poorly. Rey Jr. then comes in and HE gets beat down by the heels. Rey Jr. gets an eye poke, and Transformer (MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE) re-enters and fares better against Fuerza, doing some fun flippy stuff and blocking strikes before getting an enzuigiri. The rudos cry FOUL, leading to one of the refs ducking a strike from Juvi…then the ref starts COMBING HIS HAIR like he’s “Cool Hand” Angelo Parker.
Rey Jr. and Juvi come in and they LIGHT SHIT UP with a fast-paced sequence that ends in a rapid-fire trio of quebradoras from Rey-Rey. Rey Sr. and Psicosis have their own fun sequence that ends with a flying armdrag from the apron to the floor by Rey Sr. that sends Psicosis into the crowd! Moments later, Psicosis backdrops Rey Jr. onto Rey Sr. on the outside! Transformer is then launched onto his teammates. Psicosis then hits a floaty senton off the top rope to Transformer on the outside of the ring! SWEET JESUS!
To be fair, his name IS “Psicosis”, not “Prudent Decision Maker”. Transformer, now resembling Optimus Prime in the 1986 movie, is understandably out of commission. It looks like the rudos are DQ’d for castigo de excesivo (excessive punishment), so the technicos win the first fall! After the call, the rudos continue their abuse, hurling Rey Jr. into the ring post and beating down Transformer, who has been transformed into a quivering mass from the senton.
SEGUNDA CAIDA: The beatdown on the outside continues as Transformer is loaded up on a stretcher…and the rudos keep beating the crap out of him! Ha! The rudos continue to dominate the match, working over Rey Sr. A frog splash from Juvi, but Rey Jr. breaks up the pin and gets run into the ringpost as a result. Rey Sr. comes back with some quebradoras, but pulls Psicosis up at two? That's a bit odd considering how dominant the rudos have been thus far. Psicosis and Rey Jr. come in and do some crazy shit, but Juvi cuts Rey off when going for a dive.
Moments later, the Misterios hit a DOOMSDAY DEVICE on Juvi. Rey then hits a rana on Psicosis for the pin, eliminating Psicosis from the fall! Flipping dive from Rey Jr. onto Fuerza! Juvi goes up, but Rey Sr. catches him with a powerslam! Powerbomb, and Juvi is gone! Top rope armdrag to Fuerza, and a Northern Lights Suplex wins the second fall and the match for the technicos!
***1/2 - This was a lot of fun! I enjoyed the story of the rudos being so dominant at the start, including taking out Transformer. This resulted in the Misterios making an improbable, but not impossible, comeback. Plus, there were a lot of fun exchanges, especially with the younger participants. The pull-up spot late in the match was a bit weird, though, and Transformer's bumping was hilariously awful. The rudos were great at being complete dicks, especially when Transformer was getting medical attention. The Psicosis spot was absolutely the highlight of the match and possibly the most insane thing I've seen this year so far.
MARCH 6th
WWF Monday Night RAW - Hey, I don't think we've had a full match from RAW since The Smoking Gunns won the tag belts the night after the Royal Rumble.
Shawn Michaels vs. The British Bulldog - Michaels is on his way to a WWF title match at WrestleMania and has SID in his corner, while Bulldog is largely directionless heading into the Granddaddy of Them All, so I don't see Davey Boy pulling this off.
Fast-paced wrestling to start, as Shawn bumps huge for an inverted atomic drop and hits the Harley Race bump in the corner and over the top. After an attempt at offense, Shawn gets bumped around by Davey some more, including a BIG clothesline over the top rope. After some stallage, Bulldog works a side headlock and refuses to let go. Michaels works a short-arm scissors for a while, with Bulldog getting a couple of pin attempts while Shawn works on the hold. This continues as RAW ROLLS ON…
…and we're back, still in the short-arm scissors, but Bulldog hoists Shawn up and slams him down. After some Irish whips into the buckles that Shawn sells like death, Bulldog applies a Romero Special. After that is broken up, we get a chinlock until Bulldog backdrops Shawn out of the ring…but Sid catches him and puts him on the apron! Springboard splash gets two, but Bulldog regains the advantage. Stalling suplex gets two. Bulldog gets tossed, and Shawn finally gets a sustained advantage. After a while of Shawn wearing Davey down, Shawn gets a flying elbow for another near-fall. Sleeper on Bulldog, and Sid holds the ropes away from him!
Bulldog finally escapes the sleeper with a back suplex as THE TAPE MACHINES ARE ROLLING…
…and we're back as we hit the double-down spot. Bulldog comes back with some clotheslines for a CLOSE two. Bulldog continues battering Shawn until he misses a charge and flies out of the ring. Sid teases interference for a bit, then boots Davey Boy from behind, sending him into the post! Bulldog beats the countout, but superkick from Shawn gets three!
***1/4 - This was a good, long TV match, though the offense during Shawn's heat segment was slightly dull. Everything bookending it was really good, though, with both guys working a generally quick pace and Shawn bumping around like a pinball for Bulldog. It was also a good way to further put the superkick over as a finisher and to establish the new Shawn/Sid dynamic.
MARCH 7th
NJPW Muscle Storm, Night One - The lion roars back with a return match from February 17th. That is a hell of a tour name, by the way. We pick it up after the end of Hiro Saito vs. Junji Hirata. Saito, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, and Masahiro Chono are beating down poor Junji until Hiroshi Hase and Kensuke Sasaki come to the rescue, leading to…
Team Wolf (Masahiro Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan) vs. Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki - It’s another crazy-ass brawl all over the arena to start. Sasaki and Saito DUEL CHAIRS! Back in the ring, Hase and Sasaki double-team Chono, then Hase strangles Chono with his shirt!
We go back outside where the faces go crazy with chairs, and Hase and Tenzan brawl to the back of the arena. Scorpion deathlock on Chono, and Hase clobbers Tenzan with a table, and recklessly throws the table into the crowd! Careful, dude! Sasaki chokes Chono out with the tag rope! Hase BITES Chono and Yakuza kicks him into pudding before tagging in Sasaki. Lariat gets two! Back suplex/clothesline combo from Hase/Sasaki, but Chono halts Hase with that most scientific of moves: the eye rake.
Chono tosses Hase, and we go back onto the crowd with Hase and Tenzan. Saito and Tenzan beat him up with chairs, then Hase is tossed back in for more beatings. The heels dish out abuse as the crowd tries to will Hase back into it. STF is broken up by Sasaki, but Tenzan gets a nice spinning wheel kick for two. Hase eventually gets a Russian leg sweep, and it's HOT TAG SASAKI!
He runs wild with lariats and powerslams, then tags Hase back in for a missile dropkick on both heels. Uranages to both guys! Sasaki throws Saito into the ring, then Hase puts Saito in the GIANT SWING!
This goes for fifteen rotations, then Sasaki drags the dizzy-AF Saito to the back. This allows Team Wolf the chance to double-team Hase in the ring! Double-team powerbomb to Hase! Sasaki gets tied in the ropes, and Saito comes back in with a chair and beats on Sasaki! Yakuza kick from Chono puts Hase down for the three!
**** - This was another crazy brawl with great heat and intensity. I liked the faces beating down Chono for a good chunk of the match as they didn't get to do that enough last time, and Hase in particular did a great job displaying the hatred he had for his foes. While I normally wouldn’t be into someone interfering as freely as Saito did, it added a new wrinkle to the match and led to some fun moments. I liked it about as much as the last match. This feud is definitely worth checking out.
ECW Hardcore Television - After skipping last week, ECW returns with some promos! First, we get The Sandman and Terry Funk, both clad in those US flag Zubaz pants, along with Woman. This promo and the next promo seem to be filmed backstage at Return of the Funker. Woman LOATHES Cactus Jack! She hates his guts! Funk questions the brains of Dewey Foley because of his parents and says Foley would amount to NOTHING. Funk calls Cactus a FAT PIG and says that Shane Douglas made a big mistake aligning with Cactus. The usual fun, unhinged promo from Funk here.
We then kick it over to Cactus Jack & Shane Douglas. Shane brings up their shared training history and Mick's drive to become a wrestler. Foley explains the kindness shown by Shane in their training days. Only Foley can sound badass when quoting “The Little Engine That Could”. Foley directs threats towards Terry Funk. Another good, intense promo from The Mickster.
Our last stop in the Land of Extreme sees The Public Enemy sitting by a fire under a bridge. They are the MOST FEARED TAG TEAM in wrestling! They yell at the camera for a bit, not saying much of note.
MARCH 11th
USWA Championship Wrestling - The first stop on the Saturday schedule is Memphis. We actually get clips of an arena show match with Bill Dundee (c) vs. Jerry Lawler vs. Brian Christopher for the USWA Heavyweight Championship. This is a double-elimination Triple Threat match, but it doesn’t involve all three guys wrestling at once. Basically, it's a series of singles matches, and a competitor is out of the match when they lose twice. We start with Christopher and Lawler, and the loser wrestles Dundee.
We're clipped about 12 minutes in per the announcers. Lawler punches his son for a bit, then gets bumped into the referee. Too Sexy produces a chain (take a drink) and socks Lawler for three.
We now clip to Dundee vs. Lawler. Dundee gets distracted by Christopher, and Lawler quicky rolls him up for three.
We jump into Dundee vs. Christopher, as Brian hits Dundee with a nasty thrust kick. Legdrop misses, and Dundee pins Christopher.
We jump to Lawler vs. Christopher as Lawler punches his son again. Ref gets bumped AGAIN! Christopher gets out a chain AGAIN (take a drink AGAIN), but Lawler ducks and hits a piledriver…but the ref sees it and disqualifies Lawler! Lawler is now gone from the match.
We are down to Dundee vs. Christopher. Thrust kick again takes down Dundee AGAIN. Ref gets bumped AGAIN. That ref is taking more bumps than any of the wrestlers in the territory!
Dundee catches Brian with the handle of the bullwhip to the throat and pins him for the win! Christopher comes back and lashes at Dundee with said bullwhip. The match presumably went for a long time and even in clipped form, it felt repetitive as hell and almost seemed like a contest to see how many screwy finishes they can book in one match. However, this could be a fun type of match to resurrect today.
Smoky Mountain Wrestling - We join Jim Ross and The Gangstas. Jim asks New Jack about the mystery partner Jim Cornette is bringing in for the big six-man tag at Bluegrass Brawl. New Jack is NOT CONCERNED as the Gangstas have taken out the Rock ‘n Roll Express, the Heavenly Bodies, the Armstrongs (“Brad, Bob, Steve, Grumpy, Dopey, Goofy"). I popped for that one. The mystery partner could even be Jim Cornette's big fat mama for all he cares! He also makes a joke that I am NOT going to transcribe, but it gets quite the disgusted reaction from JR.
WCW Saturday Night - For our last stop on the Mac-son Park Express, we climb aboard The Mothership and kick it over to “Mean” Gene Okerlund and Lord Steven Regal. He’s wearing glasses, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen before.
The WCW offices were deluged with complaints about Regal's treatment of “Beautiful” Bobby Eaton last week. Regal initially appears contrite…but it was a RUSE! He couldn't care less if anyone was offended because he is BRITISH NOBILITY. He runs down Bobby and the American people in general. Eaton comes out and pitches a partnership with His Lordship. Regal naturally refuses and lifts up Bobby's mullet to see how red his neck is! Beautiful Bobby takes exception to that and tells Regal to get his ASS in the ring. The match is on for next Saturday night!
Well, that was a fairly top-heavy week with all the full matches at the beginning. We also had some fun promo work sprinkled throughout. Not much in the way of historical significance happening, but all three matches were rock-solid at worst, so check those out.
NEXT TIME: A veritable buffet of content as we have a New Japan juniors match, a trios match from AAA, an apuestos match from CMLL, a match from ECW Extreme Warfare, and we’ll get that Regal vs. Eaton match that was just set up. Plus, a new Joshi promotion makes their Dive debut!
Until next time, keep your feet on the ground, a song in your heart, and your stick on the ice.
See you again soon!